Catching up...

It's easy to get out of the habit of posting to the blog. I guess it would be easier if something really interesting was happening or if we had a camera that worked.

Jeff continues to be super busy with school. Reading, writing, teaching...plus he just got called to be the Elder's Quorum President in our ward here. A lady in our ward who's also going to graduate school summed up the life of a PhD student best, "If I were to read all day, only taking a break to shower and eat, I would still never finish all the reading they assign."

I continue to look for a job. The pickins are pretty slim around here. For the time being I'll have to get something outside my field with minimum pay, but even that has proved difficult. Several people have told me that in Hattiesburg you should just be grateful to get a job--no matter what it is. The trouble I'm facing now for the few jobs that are available is that I'm overqualified. I've had to tweak my resume and cover letters considerably. I guess the key will be convincing people that they should hire me though I'm sure they'll suspect I'll leave when something better comes along.

The good news is that I've had some extra time and have made some huge break throughs in genealogy. However, I realized I was getting the job search and the search for Baptist missionary ancestors in India mixed up when Jeff found the following error on a cover letter:

Ms. X X
University of Southern Missionary

It's a good thing he caught that one!

A few highlights from the past few weeks:

Having my mom and dad visit us. Jeff had so much homework that I took them down to the Gulfport/Biloxi area (to the Gulf Coast) for a little sightseeing. Truthfully, there was not much to see but a whole lot of hurricane damage. They are still trying to rebuild from Katrina. It's amazing--entire hotels reduced to nothing. Then it happened to be stake conference weekend, but they were good sports to come to all our meetings with us. I loved having them here! Thanks Mom and Dad for going to a conference in Memphis and for driving five hours+++ to come see us!

Going to a wild animal orphanage in Collins where they adopt animals that people have taken on as pets and then realize after the fact that it wasn't such a good idea. They also take animals that state-funded zoos can no longer care for. This place was surreal. I was scared for my life. You could get within about three feet of the animal cages--lions, cougars, leopards, tigers etc. There were other animals as well, but the cats were the most unsettling. Again, we were the only ones there, and I jumped about three feet into the air when from behind us there was a raucous "HELLO!" It turned out to just be the parrots behind us, but I was sure that one of the big cats had started talking and was coming to get us. There's something unsettling about being that close to wild beasts in homemade cages. You can see every detail of their faces, know that they are looking right at you. Their menacing expressions seemed to be directed to us personally. Jeff convinced the owner to let him pet the burmese python. I opted out when she asked, "Do you have the scent of food on your hands?" and "He can sense your fear!" when the snake recoiled at Jeff's touch.

Jeff went to Houma (Home-uh), Louisiana, this weekend to help with hurricane cleanup efforts as part of a service project between Martin Luther King III and the LDS church. It didn't make the news that much, but Houma was the place when Gustav made landfall. He spent the day clearing out trees and nailing tarps to roofs.

Guess that's all for now!