HAPPY EASTER!!!!

He is risen!! We've had a great couple of days, although we've missed home a bit. Yesterday was the first time we haven't been dying eggs at Grandpa and Grandma's house! We took the girls to an egg hunt at a United Methodist Church and it was fun. We received an invitation via mail to come, they sent it out to all their neighbours. Last night we coloured eggs and the girls enjoyed hunting for them this morning.
Church today was awesome. Jeff decided that we should go to a more contemporary service because we are celebrating Easter! He picked Shades Mountain Independent Church from the internet. Although they forgot to tell the truth on their website regarding dress, "you will feel comfortable here in jeans!" I know, I know, we should have realized that Easter would be a wee bit dressier. We laughed a bit pulling in, seeing everyone in their fancy fancy, also, Gus needs a new muffler too, which only adds to the drama!!
The first song had me in tears, worship leaders sang with a huge choir, accompanied by an orchestra, and illustrated in sign language and dance by a group of girls!! It was very moving. It was definitely a more charasmatic service with lots of hallelujah's and loud AMENS!! The pastor spoke powerfully about God's strength to change everything in our lives because of the resurrection. I realized that I've had a judgmental attitude with church in the South being like a social club, over 60% of people go to church in Birmingham!! This church was pretty fancy so my attitude was a little stinky (shocking, I know!) at first. However, this church is definitely focused on God's kingdom, right here and world wide. It was encouraging. Their vision statement is, "living to love....God, your neighbor, one another. I like that.
I'll post a picture of the girls in their new sweatshirts. There is a Gap outlet here and we picked them up for under $4!! It's a good thing too because we were freezing our noses right off!! We thought it would be smokin' hot in the deep south and we have learned a couple of things. 1. EVERYTHING IS AIR CONDITIONED TO WELL BELOW FREEZING!! You really need to bundle up to go inside!!! 2. One sweatshirt is NEVER enough, even when packing in a frugal fashion. We are experiencing a "cold front" right now and can't seem to get the house warm. Ok, we've only turned the heat up once but still. We also only brought one small fleecy blanket each (it's a space issue you know!) We've started using towels at bed time.....talk about multi tasking!
Here's some pictures from the last couple of days. Ang


and the "perks" just keep rolling in....







One amigo here, missing two amigos there.....