Our Little Backyard Friends

On this Halloween night that Stephen and I chose not to celebrate (well, we did have a great dinner, ice cream!, and watched a movie together), I decided t0 post about something or somethings that are very near and dear to our hearts. 

One of the things that we enjoy most about our new home in Wake Forest is the little forest and creek that are directly behind our townhouse. It's great for many reasons: it's fairly quiet, it keeps the sun out on rare Saturday mornings that we get to sleep in, AND it is also the perfect environment for a large quantity of groundhogs that come out of the woods every day to scavenge for food. Although we know not everyone loves the groundhogs as much as we do (probably because they like to feed on our neighbors potted plants), for some reason we never get tired of them. In fact, after 3 months

 of living here we still love to watch them play behind our house while we sit at our kitchen table eating dinner. I personally will sit for a long time just mesmerized. We've also become

quite the experts on groundhogs! Here are some fun facts that you probably never wanted to  know about groundhogs: 

1. Groundhogs don't always stay on the ground. In fact, often we see them sitting in the trees.

2. My dad says they are also know as "whistle pigs" which is true because one day I heard a whistle coming from outside and when I looked the groundhogs were fighting over a piece of food which I guess would be fact #3. 

3. Groundhogs fight and they are vicious! I wasn't able to get a picture because I couldn't believe this was even happening.

4. Groundhogs eventually hibernate (although

 we've discussed they may decide not too 

because of all the food they've been getting) and they get fatter by the day.

5. Groundhogs eat EVERYTHING. Here is the list of what we have personally witnessed them eat and usually caught on camera as well: frosted flakes, oatmeal, corn kernels, bread, peaches, pretzels, flower petals, peanuts, candy corn pumpkins, burnt bottoms

to buttered biscuits, and apple slices. We aren't exactly buying extra food for them but decided it would be better to feed the groundhogs our extra food then to just throw it away. 

We love the groundhogs. We live in campus housing and aren't able to have pets, so for now we enjoy marveling at these crazy little guys. Sorry to any upset neighbors that aren't as fond as we are! 

Wake Forest, Our Home

We've officially been in Wake Forest for two months today! Stephen and I have the same classes this semester which has been a lot of fun for us. We are enjoying studying together (as much as you can enjoy studying) and have not gotten too competitive about grades so far. (Stephen is saying "yes we have" as I type this.) I guess we'll save the competition for putt putt, scrabble, and yahtzee - a few of our favorite things. We are taking New Testament and Hermeneutics. Hermeneutics seemed like a very intimidating concept to me in August but we are essentially just learning how to study and interpret God's Word. It has quickly become our favorite class and we have the privilege of taking it with Dr. Akin, our president. 

We both found jobs when we arrived here two months ago and are now both beginning to transition into new, more permanent positions. Stephen just got a job with Apple and is really excited about the possibilities that he will have there. I am in the final stages of interviewing with a church to be their children's director. We are praying that the Lord would place us right where He wants us and that we would trust Him in this whole process. Please keep us in your prayers. 

We love North Carolina especially at this time of year. Fall is going to be beautiful here and we are hoping to do some apple and pumpkin picking very soon. We would love for you to visit and see it for yourselves but if you can't then we promise to take lots of pictures (especially when the leaves start the change colors)! 

Thanks for reading! We'll update you more later!