So weekend before last, Gary and I flew up to Indiana to look around.  We were hoping to find a house to rent while I was up there.  He introduced me to alot of the folks he'll be working with, and I got to see the area.  For an area that's been suffering from one of the worst droughts they've had in 40 years, it looked pretty good.  We stayed at a nice little bed and breakfast, where we were able to talk with the owner over a couple of delicious breakfasts.
Everyone was pleasantly nice.  Surprisingly so.  They were more blunt and less deferential than the average Southerner, but for the most part they weren't actually rude.  Some were over the top sarcastic and kinda callus (which in my opinion is incredibly rude), but they weren't intentially rude.  Everyone we ran into asked us if we would be needing a new Church home.  Often it was one of the first questions asked.  I told Gary I thought that was just a Southern thing.  The area seems to be primarily Lutheran, but we saw some Methodist and Catholics.  The lady that ran our bed and breakfast was a Church of Christ.  Of course we hope to visit some of the Primitive Baptist Churches in the area, but will mostly attend the Church in Fort Wayne.
We were offered almost as many opinions on the best school systems in the area as anything else.  There are a few really good county schools in the two counties we are looking for houses in.  So, that's always a good thing to learn.  One of the best schools in the state is in one of them.  Finding a house is proving more difficult than we imagined.  Apparently in one county the 87% of the population owns their own home, and in the other 92% of the population owns their own home.  As a result there isn't much to rent, the two apartment complexes  we saw weren't big enough for a family, and were geared more toward singles or newly married couples.  Gary has found some places in unbelievably bad shape and one really nice place that needed a ton of work (aka no central heating, exposed wiring, but a jacuzzi tub, wrap around porch, and very fancy molding).  Another place he saw earlier this week wasn't in too bad shape but the fenced in yard was smaller than the kids swingset.  Today he found one place that might work, though the rent is a little high.  There are some other places he's hoping to look at this weekend, but it's going a little slow.
He's really enjoying the new job, but more on that in a later post.  We are really missing him here.  Britt broke his toy saw the other night, and I don't think it can be repaired.  Of course he wanted it fixed right that moment to sleep with, and when I told him I couldn't do it.  He ran off to bed crying and yelled, "Daddy would fix my tools!"  We've spent several evenings with his folks, but it's pretty lonely around here without him.
In the meantime we have gotten alot of packing done.  I'm estimating that I have gotten about 1/3 of the house packed up, maybe more.  All of the office, most of the living room, everything I could get away packing in the kids room, and the china cabinet.  I've worked on mine and Gary's closet today.  Joan came by and helped me pack in the kitchen what we could go ahead and pack up.  Only 20 more days till Gary comes back to move us.