Mardi Gras Break!

Hi friends,

I thought I would procrastinate from doing school work a little bit longer by blogging! The past few months have been so busy for us. I can’t believe we’re already halfway through February. It seems like I was just writing our Christmas card update. We went home to Georgia for Christmas and spent time with both families as well as friends. It was so nice.

This past week, I was out of school for Mardi Gras break. That is definitely one of the best perks of moving to New Orleans . . . a week off of work that I didn’t have before! We went to a handful of Mardi Gras parades with friends. I think Josh goes for the people-watching. I go for the throws. We even had friends in two different parades this year and got to see them ride by! I won’t launch into my whole spiel about Mardi Gras (you can look at my blog post from last year), but I will say that Mardi Gras is so much fun and not the wild and raucous party as it is stereotypically described. Of course, you can find that if you really want it, but most parades are family-friendly. The whole city comes out and the people standing next to you become your friends for the evening (until you catch the beads meant for them ... don’t do that).  There’s an open invitation every year for friends to come visit for Mardi Gras. Our couches are pretty comfy, and we have room for a blow-up mattress. We are only here two more years, so you need to take us up on it soon. :)

Endymion . . . we saw the world's longest float!

The Superdome lit up for Mardi Gras!

Zulu . . . we saw our two friends and got two coconuts!

Josh is serious about gettin' him some throws.

Speaking of making friends in the city, we are moving! Josh and I found an apartment in Midcity. We are excited about moving off seminary campus and into the city. It is closer to church and Josh’s work. We are looking forward to being within walking distance of some of our favorite restaurants and the streetcar so we can go downtown without having to drive.  Also, it will get us out of the seminary bubble and give us a chance to really be in and among the people of New Orleans. The rent is higher, and we will not have some of the conveniences we have grown accustomed to (e.g., no central heating and air-gotta invest in some window units), but we have been praying about this for months and feel like it is really what we should do.  We feel like meeting our neighbors and living for Christ in our community will be good practice for church planting after seminary. Please pray for this new ministry and adventure! We move March 2, so I’ll post pictures once we are settled!

Hope you all are doing well! Love from NOLA!