Arrival in Merced!

It took us exactly 2 hours to get to Merced from Melinda's, just north of Sacramento. We went straight to our apartment, signed all the paperwork, got some Jamba Juice (my fave!), and headed back to get into our apartment. There wasn't too much settling to do yet without our stuff, so we headed over to Stone Ridge Christian to meet Matt's principal, Sandra Mobley. She showed us around, and invited us to her house in a few hours for dinner :). We brought Samson along; he LOVED running around in her huge yard. We had a great time getting to know Sandra and her husband and a parent of some students, who was there also. We have been told and are seeing that this school is like a big family! Everyone is very friendly, helpful, and generous.

We also got the 20 min tour of town, and are getting to know it quite well in the last couple days already. The city is the largest in the area, but still only 80,000. It has a bit of a smaller town feel than that though even... we learned that 20-30 years ago, the population was only 25,000... so the people who grew up here all know eachother still.

We have been busy getting things set up. We spent 2 and a half hours at the DMV this morning getting our Cali drivers licenses and registering the car (BOO!). We even had to take a written test that I barely passed (I need to study up on my Cali driving laws, apparently!). Then we had to go to In-N-Out, of course, after all that waiting!

Our apartment is really nice, 2 bedrooms 1 bath, with cement patios off of the living room and off of our bedroom. The biggest downside is that there is absolutely no grass (just dirt with plants) for Samson to go to the bathroom, other than the grass strip along the street just outside the complex. However, Merced College is just across the street and has a big grassy field right there that we have been taking him to a few times a day.

We are still awaiting the arrival of our moving truck with all of our stuff. It has been one huge pain in the neck to put it nicely. We are very frustrated with the company and would not reccommend them to anyone. They gave us a delivery estimate of July 27-August 4, but then said that they would narrow that down for us when they got our stuff... and we still do not know. They also said they could track the truck... but we just keep getting passed off to another person or told that they'll call us in a few hours or the next day. So PLEASE PRAY that they will giv eus more information and that we will get our stuff soon. We really want to be able to do some unpacking before Matt starts teaching!

I don't know how much I will be posting in the next couple weeks because there are only 2 guys to install comcast internet in the area and the earliest appointment was a week from Tuesday, blah. So I am at starbucks right now to get it.