Settling In

So, we're finally settled in to the apartment. (For those of you who don't know, Paul performed an impressive feat by packing all of our belongings into our kitchen so that new carpet could be laid in our apartment while we were on our honeymoon.) Paul has been working 12-14 hour days everyday trying to complete his project and paper as scheduled. Poor Paul. I haven't seen much of him the past two weeks; only when I go to bring him lunch and dinner which I do pretty much everyday since it is a 3.3 mile drive to NASA from the apartment and is the only way I get to spend time with him. But this will all be over in about a week and a half, and we have the sweet reward of a Hawaii trip at the end, complements of the U.S. government and NASA which we're looking forward to. But mostly I'll just be happy to have my husband back.
Well to be fair, it hasn't been all work and no play. Sundays, we usually hang out with friends after church and one day we made it out to the beach for about an hour and a half. Two weekends ago 7/12 we left early Saturday morning and drove three hours due west to Shenandoah Valley and went camping with some of Paul and I's friends from his work and that was very fun and relaxing. Paul forged a "battle axe" out of a stick and semi-sharp, mostly blunt rock and some clothesline. He then proceeded to hack away at the limbs leaving a minor dent, while Justin used his knife saw to actually cut the wood. But the great outdoors was a welcome relief from his 60 hour work week which mostly consists of computer programming and staring at a screen all day. The next day, Sunday, we packed up camp and then drove down the road to a trail- Jones Run. A 3.5 mile hike straight down the mountain to a waterfall and trickle of a stream and then a steep and tiring climb back to the top. Shenandoah is very beautiful, with lots of old trees. We saw bears on our trek, a baby not ten feet from the trail and a mother on the other side of the trail about 40 feet into the cover of the woods. (Last fall we camped at Shenandoah and almost hit a bear on the road on our way up the mountain and then when we were leaving we saw a bear running off into the woods, we pulled over to watch- and two cubs crawled down out of the tree we were standing under and ran off into the woods! Apparently we're magnets for black bears.) The rest of the hike was uneventful- we saw Luna moths and some funky orange mushrooms growing on logs and a strenuous hike back up to the top. We then headed home, stopping in Richmond for some long awaited Chipotle and then drove to the Richmond International Airport to buy a cup of joe- since it is the only Caribou anywhere near the Poquoson/ Langley/ Hampton/ Norfolk/ Virginia Beach/ Newport News area. Needless to say it was very yummy and we were ready for another long week.
This past weekend 7/19 we went and saw the new batman movie- Dark Knight, which Paul has been wanting to see ever since he saw Batman Begins and heard they were making another one. (= Needless to say he enjoyed it.
This weekend we are planning on going to a backyard BBQ with one of Paul's colleagues from work and our church is having a picnic on Sunday.This of course is contingent on Paul's progress at work. He hopes to finish his experiment and have a draft of his paper by Friday of this week.
Please pray for Paul as he strives to complete this phase of his project and that I will be a support to him. Thank you all for your phone calls and words of encouragement and all the hard work you put into our wedding. We love you all and can't wait for the next time we get to see you. The attachment below is pictures of the wedding, honeymoon, and what we've been up to this summer. Hope you enjoy.

Love,
P&K Rothhaar


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