Come Back to TEXAS!!!

Talk about a whirlwind...this last few weeks has been it! Somehow we dodged all of the rain that has flooded what we recently called home and have begun the process of making a new home in Marshall, TX. The trip wasn't exactly what you might call perfect...actually, decent, poor, and bad don't even cut it! It was definitely an adventure beginning with the packing of the truck. Twenty-six feet may seem like plenty of room to pack all of your things but for the Roddens...well, everything got here, let's leave it at that! Mr. Dave Hunteman is our favorite Richmond native for probably 5 years, maybe 8. He and Joe packed every little inch of that truck and even when we took breaks he kept working! Thanks Dave!
Lindsay's parents joined us for the long drive...Joe in the shaky, 83-year old U-Haul (NEVER rent from them by the way), Lindsay and Becky in the Jeep, and Frank in Joe's truck with a large TV and every AM radio program as his passengers. The trip took hours longer than planned as the brake system in the U-Haul continued to malfunction at several stops....poor Joe...no cruise control, the windiest day on the road you could hope not to have to drive a 26-foot truck in, and sketchy brakes that required the determination never to turn the truck off and only to put it in neutral while gassing up.
Anyway, we finally arrived in Marshall, unloaded the valuables and essentials, and took Lindsay's parents to the Hampton Inn. Chris Chavez arrived early the next morning, Whataburger in hand, to begin unpacking the truck. He and Joe had that thing unpacked within hours...conveniently, the Carrs showed up literally as the last box was being carried in...nice timing :) A quick Wal-Mart run and lunch at Sonic motivated the fastest move-in in the history of the world. Before dinner time the new apartment already looked like a new home and the clan called it quits...a trip to Jalapeno Tree wrapped up the evening (yummy). We took Lindsay's parents to Dallas to fly back to Indiana..saying "goodbye" until Thanksgiving :( Little did we know what a fiasco THAT would be. Instead of returning to Indianapolis at 7:30 that evening they had to rent a car at 11:00 pm in Chicago due to a canceled flight and made the long journey home arriving at 6:30 am. Yikes!
So, we started work on Monday and are having a great time so far. We work 4 10-hour days during the summer and love the people that we work with. We will give more details about work and update the pictures as we get some more things put away. We are definitely looking forward to the weekend where we can finally be still...at least work at our own pace and get a little more settled. It does feel like home already and we are so excited about the coming school year. We have no idea what the Lord has in store but we are excited to find out!
We will be changing our cell phones to local numbers soon and will let you know when that happens but right now we can only give our new address . You may also want to check out our school's website.

Lindsay and Joe Rodden
Box 2033
1209 N. Grove
Marshall, TX 75670

www.etbu.edu