Southern Hospitality.

Well we've been in Columbia, South Carolina for about 10 weeks now and we only have about three more weeks here. But I couldn't not blog about about this place, as it was the first home of the Dallin Rosdahl family.

I was excited to get to Columbia. I loved being with mine and Dallin's families in Danville, but I was excited to see a new place and to go on our own and start our own little family.

On July 19th we flew into the Atlanta airport and met up with one of Dallin's friends' mom. We had arranged to borrow one of their family cars for the summer-- a '92 Dodge Caravan. A pretty stylin' ride, I must say. We named her Mammy. She is a lady with attitude.

That afternoon we drove up to Columbia, about a two hour drive from Atlanta. We were pleasantly surprised with our apartment. We really took a chance on it. It looked nice on the internet and got good reviews, but there's always a chance that you could get gipped. And we already signed a contract. So we were a bit nervous. But everything turned out great. The apartment was clean, well taken care of, and newly painted, and the furniture we rented was decent quality and new. The staff is extremely friendly. There is a nice pool, fitness room and tennis courts.

The first couple of weeks we were here, it was kind of rough because it was so unbelievably hot and humid. I may go ahead and say that the weather was actually worse than Cambodia. And I didn't even have to walk around in it that much. Poor Dallin often had to do his physical training and other military training outside in the insane heat. So during the first couple of weeks we were here it was a little boring because we usually just stayed inside to escape from the heat.

Recently, though it has cooled off. People said the heat during our first couple of weeks was unusual. Now we have been able to do lots of fun stuff outside. We just bought some new bikes and we have been able to go mountain biking quite a bit. Dallin is as happy as a little kid when we mountain bike. I am having fun too. I am not very good at it, but I think I am improving and having fun along the way. There are a lot of really great trails around here. The trails here are definitely a lot easier than the trails around Danville. There are less big hills around here making each incline and descent not too difficult.

So happy!

There is lots of fun stuff to do around here when it is not too hot. Over labor day weekend, Dallin and I stayed in Charleston. It was lots of fun. We walked around the cute historic district, ate yummy food, walked along the harbor, and went to Folly Beach.

Eating yummy crab cakes in Charleston.

These past months have been peaceful and relatively stress-free. Dallin's classes are very easy and we get to spend lots of time together. I love being the homemaker! I like trying new recipes and cooking and making my house spotless. I have kept myself busy with my independent study classes. They are going a little slower than I expected, but they're moving along. It's tough not having a teacher. I am basically reading the material and teaching it to myself. If I have a question it's hard because I have to email my professor and wait for a response. Sometimes it takes up to a week to get a response back. I am planning on taking a final this week for my business law class. Wish me luck!

Our ward boasts to be the friendliest ward in the world, and I think it is true. Everyone in the South is so friendly, but especially in our ward. Everyone has made us feel so welcome even though we won't be here very long. There are a lot of younger couples in the ward too, so we have been able to make some good friends.

But of course its always right after you feel settled that you have to change again. We are very excited to go to Italy but there are parts of us that wish we could stay here. Its been a nice three months at Fort Jackson. Dallin and I are leaving in about three weeks for Fort Benning, near Columbus, Georgia. Then we are planning to leave for Italy three weeks later. I am getting so excited. Whenever I get bored, I do research on Vicenza and look at pictures. It is going to be a great adventure. I just got my visa all ready to go and now we are looking at flights to Italy. It is all hitting home right now that we are actually going to be living there. We are so excited!