Weekend Recap

Someday I really will post pictures ... but it will not be today.

The past few weeks have been busy, but so good.

• I hosted a garage sale for a friend going on a missions trip this summer, and we raised over $1300. Can you believe it? That's 4 times as much as I thought we might raise. Praise the Lord!
• We attended our first life group meeting. Our church is starting a bunch of small groups, and we are excited to be involved.
• We had dinner with four other church couples on Friday night. It's a super cool idea. The church provides childcare, while all the "young adult" couples are divided into groups of 8-10. The groups meet at one of the couples' homes and share a potluck meal together. It was good to meet other people - we didn't know anyone else in our group before we got there. I think it'll make our big church feel a lot smaller. It's nice to recognize a few faces when you go to service.
• What else? Evan had a soccer game on Saturday. Corrie and I did some shopping. And the four of us joined another family for an outing to "Onionfest," an annual festival in Weslaco. Highlights of Onionfest included the bloomin' onion, the fajita nachos, Evan scaling a rock wall, and Corrie rockin' out to the live music. Our girl loves to dance.

I'm looking forward to a new week.

Welcome to Texas!

They came, they saw, they ... ate! We've been hosting visitors here on and off for the past month. My mom came from Mississippi, Emmett's good friend Eddie came down for a day, and Emmett's parents came down this week. We're not exactly sure what to show people - this isn't exactly a haven for tourists - so we've been taking everyone out to dinner.

Our favorite places:
Rudy's - I think this is a Texas-only kind of place. We LOVE the brisket and potato. BBQ goodness.
Peter Piper Pizza - This is Evan's must-have for lunch. It's the local Chuck E. Cheese, but the pizza tastes about the same.
Costa Messa - Our (Chicago) friends Chris and Kindra gave us a gift certificate to Costa Messa when we moved down here, so it's one of the first places we tried. Yum! It's a loud restaurant, too, with mariachi bands on the weekends, so the kids just blend in with all the other noises. We recommend the botana platter (something that we've only seen in the Valley) and the fajitas.
Taco Palenque - Local fast food, similar to Hawaiian plate lunch ... except with fajitas, Spanish rice and beans instead of katsu, sticky rice and mac salad.
Dai Tung - This is our favorite Valley Chinese place so far. Evan wolfs down the dumplings.

Besides the food, we've kept visits pretty low-key. We've walked around the UTPA campus, played at some local parks, and visited the International Museum of Art and Science in McAllen.

It's been a pleasure to have family and friends visit our new home. It makes life here seem more real, like we've been officially recognized as residents of the Rio Grande Valley.