Southern Living... in the mail that is

It was a very interesting experience to open my mailbox and find my Southern Living waiting for me to read. I always look forward to getting that magazine and looking at all the pretty places and yummy recipes. My Grandmother is so sweet to give me a subscription for Christmas each year. Receiving it this time was a little different. It made me realize again I am not in the South anymore and am learning a new city with new people and a new unique culture to it.

Although we are not in the south, Philadelphia has its own sense of friendliness to it. There is a reason this northern city is called "The City of Brotherly Love". Strangers have noticed a "lost" expression on our face and offered to help. Our apartment neighbors have been quick to introduce themselves and offer any assistance (we hope to become good friends with all of them!)...People have been friendly.

Now on the roads of Philly, that is a different story!! People are so very very quick to honk. It's pretty comical. Another thing people are quick to do is call you out on using "y'all". Here is a good scenario for you: Today I was at a coffee shop and politely asked a question about their coffee selection. My question was something like this, "Do y'all have a dark roast brew today?". The nice coffee man swiftly jerked his head up and said "where are you from?"with a look that meant he probably  thought I was from mars! We then had a nice conversation in which he agreed that y'all should be more widely accepted as the plural word for you. I told him we could start the movement together!

Seriously, we are enjoying Philadelphia. The weather has been nice. We really enjoy the part of Philly that we live in. We have detoxed from central air conditioning and are enjoying our window unit, but really use our fans the majority of the time. We are enjoying meeting new people in our search for a church home. We are beginning to get settled here.

Austin starts class September 6. I am looking for a job (you can pray for that!). Other than that, I think that's the update, y'all!

Here are a few pictures from our first few weeks in Philly!

Us in NYC with our dear friends, Andrew and Olivie who are gearing up to go serve in Spain with MTW!

One of the highlights of our NYC trip...eating at a crazy Indian restaurant who thought filling their very small restaurant with lights was the greatest idea!

Austin happy about our window unit!

Austin unsure about his leather school satchel, wearing it like a man!

Excited faces post window unit arrival

Before image of dresser that I painted

After image! very pleased with Annie Sloan Chalk Paint

We have loved frequenting our Saturday's Farmer's Market

Trying my hand at rainbow swiss chard

Fun night at a street festival close to our house!

Enjoyed the night market with our buddies! Jonathan and Mary (on right) arrived this week. They are our dear friends from UGA. On left, Jena, our new friend here!

Silly boys!

Updates on our house coming soon!

-Anna Caroline-

Home Sweet Home

Although our house is empty, this is our home sweet home... We are amazed with the Lord's quick provision. We are excited to make this our cozy nest for the next year to 4 years. We are finding the fun spots around our house. Today we discovered there is a grocery store like 1/2 mile from us, which in a big city is important!! I hope many of you will come visit this little place....It is an 100 yr old apartment building, definitely has some character. We really like it and feel like it is in a great location. It seems like a lot of "young professionals" live in the building and we are excited to make some friends! Well, here it is:

Our entrance into the apartment

The shared porch in front

the porch area right in front of our apartment

Apartment 1... that's us!

Living area

More living area

GUEST ROOM (hint hint...)

long hallway leaving the living room, runs the length of the apartment pretty much. The guest room, bathroom, and master bedrooom are off of this hallway

bathroom

Master Bedroom

The hallway opens into this laarge dining room

I LOVE the windows in the house. Especially these 3 in the dining area

Kitchen Cabinets! on the left of the kitchen

Appliances and more cabinets on the right

From the kitchen into the "3rd bedroom".  It is tiny tiny. Apparently use to be for the maids/nanny back in the day

1/2 bath off of the 3rd bedroom

1st pic in our Philly Home

We're happy and excited to be here!

We are off this weekend to New York to see our dear college friends, The Terrells, who are in NY for  training before they go to Spain to do mission for 3 years. Check out their blog by clicking here! It's my first time to New York! Should be fun! Love to all. Thank you for your prayers for a place and for us! We will move in thursday.

The compass of our lives- {south, east, west, north}

July 6 until July 22, we have hit the map of the southeast to northeast pretty hard...

View Philly Bound in a larger map


  Baton Rouge>Macon, GA>Atlanta, GA> Highlands,NC> Chattanooga,TN>Nashville,TN>Chattanooga,TN> Charlottesville, VA> and Finalllly Philadelphia, PA

Along the road, we had the privilege of seeing so many dear friends and family and celebrating our 2nd anniversary!  Thank you for opening your home to us and allowing us to be nomads with you!! Here are some pics from our "roadtrip"...

 Visiting Grandmother and Paw-Paw in Mobile

 Lucas and Laura's Wedding!

 pics in Highlands after the rain

On our 2nd anniversary

Corrie and Hayes in Nashville... We missed seeing Charlie!

One of our Precious Nephews in Chattanooga on the way to the aquarium

 Trying to get a distracted Holden to look at the camera

Austin and I stayed at a Bed and Breakfast in Charlottesville for a night...it was great! Here we are enjoying dinner

 Outside the B&B

 Starr Hill Brewery

 We went to King Family Vineyard. It was overcast, but Beautiful!

 Then onward and upward from Charlottesville....

We arrived in Philadelphia Sunday July, 22 without a home. A couple here that we knew from UGA connections has graciously housed us since that point. We hard core apartment hunted Monday (drove around for 6 hours hard core). We saw an apartment late Monday, applied on tuesday, signed our lease on wednesday. God answered our prayers so quickly! We have been blown away as we have seen him be so gracious and faithful towards us through our few days here. Stay tuned tomorrow for some pictures of our "home" in Philly!!