Cleveland Rocks?

I should first let you know we're not actually in Cleveland. We're in an apartment in Mentor, Ohio, which we chose because we though it'd be close to Austin's work, and because it's furnished. It's not as close as we thought it would be since the highways here make no sense. Actually - the highways here make me appreciate Houston's a LOT more.

And, moving to Ohio, I thought we'd be in cooler weather. Well, not so much this week. You'd think we were still in Texas with heat indexes of 112 this week! I have to admit, though, prior to this week, there was nothing to complain about weather-wise, minus an unexpected (by us) storm that knocked out our power, shook the apartments, and flooded parts of the Cleveland area - it was terrifying!

The good news is, I have time to do whatever I want. I've painted two canvases the last few days, and Austin painted one too. I've never taken an art class so I'm literally just goofing around, but don't be surprised when the canvases I've painted come as Christmas presents!

This week we started looking at homes. Take this one, for example. At 1084 square feet, it isn't huge, but it has three bedrooms and two bathrooms, a charming exterior, a decent kitchen both in size and decor, and it's only $89,999. Thank you, Clarksville. With some easy fixes (putting in tile, updating appliances as need be, changing the hardware) we think we could make some money off this house in a few short years. The thing is, we know if we go headfirst into this without prayer (please pray over this with us) and without some serious research, we could have the opposite situation. We want to be good stewards of the money God has let us use, and we don't want to waste it. Now at $77,000, we're convinced something is wrong with this one - maybe it has a bad roof or a bad neighborhood. Who knows - we have a lot of options, and we're waiting to see what God has for us. We may even end up renting, but finding a place to rent when all the troops are coming home to our army-base town, or when the college kids are coming in makes it really hard to find an available place!

HOUSTON in less than three weeks! I am so grateful that Austin's best friend (and best man) is getting married on August 13th - not just because we're happy for Adam & Kathleen, but because I miss Houston so much. In Cleveland I've met some people through Gateway Church, at a women's bible study that meets every Tuesday. So far I've met some women through it, and it's been pretty encouraging so far.

Austin is struggling with his purpose at work, too. He's not doing much of anything, he says, and he doesn't have internet so he can't be productive and research things like stocks as he says he would like to do, since he seems to have extra time. This just seems to be a strange season for us - we don't understand the purpose of it exactly, but maybe God just wants us to simplify our lives.

This weekend we're heading to Canandaigua, New York, in the Finger Lakes area. It's about a five hour drive, and we're getting up at the crack of dawn to get there. We're going to tour some wineries (my favorite thing to do, ever) and stay in Rochester, New York that night. Sunday were going to sleep in, for once, and then cross the border and go to Niagra Falls! Last week we went to Amish country in Millersburg, so it's turned out to be a lot of mini vacations for us, which is one blessing about being in Ohio.

In all, it's a struggle. What are we doing here? What are we doing after we leave here? We don't have the answers, but we take it one day at a time and trust that God has a plan for all of this.

Love,

Elizabeth