Jacksonville

Chad has really enjoyed his job here in Jacksonville - Dr. Futrell is an excellent dentist and also a good guy. He's even taken Chad to a few NCState basketball games up in Raleigh (Dr. Futrell has four season tickets for football and basketball. Oh to be out of debt and have extra fun money...). They both recently agreed that the partnership was going to work long-term, so starting in April, they'll get the contracts going for us to buy into the practice. Just what we need - more debt! But, this is where we are supposed to be, and the job really is a good one. Plus, we get to be useful in the ward, which is the way the gospel is supposed to work. And houses are quite inexpensive here, so at some point in the next two years we will hopefully become homeowners.

With all that being said, there is one downside to Jacksonville. It's a Marine town. Without the Marine base, Jacksonville wouldn't exist. And other than the super-busy Walmart, tons of tattoos, babies, and cheap home prices, most of the time you can forget that the Marines play such a large role here. Except for mornings like today. Today the Marines are bombing on base. And this morning's bombs are big ones. Since we live only two miles from base, the explosions are shaking the house. I feel like I'm in some Middle Eastern country with all the bombs, three in the last fifteen seconds alone. They've been known to wake Nathan and me up from our naps. It's at times like these when I wish we lived farther from base or in Raleigh.