The holidays are here!

For Thanksgiving this year, four of us TA's went to Sarah K's home in Muskegon, Michigan, so celebrate the holiday with her family. Benjamin, Cécile, and myself all crammed into the backseat of Sar's sister, Danielle's, Jetta for the 3-hour trip over and had a great time, although we were all exhausted from the long stretch of the semester! The night we arrived, the night before Thanksgiving (Wednesday) we went out to the local bar to celebrate with some of Sar's highschool friends and had a really nice time. Nothing crazy but it was good to get out!Thanksgiving morning we all got up and started helping Sarah's mom, Mary, cook the big meal. There were 9 of us for the dinner in all so it was a good group - not too big, but not too small, either! The food was delicious, and I got to talk to Michael for almost an hour and a half that morning so that is always a plus. It's very strange to not have him here during all of these "firsts" for us...I guess that we'll just have our firsts again next year!In Chicago during the month of December, there is a German Christmas market that is called the "Christkindlmarket" and I actually went twice last week - once with one of my neighbors, Amelia, and once with the Sarah's. The second time, pictured here, it was 20 degrees and there were loads of people there - but we still had a great time!
Last week when I picked my mail up from my box outside, there was a letter from one of my best friends in it saying how thankful she was for my friendship and how much she admired me for what I was doing. She had written it on Thanksgiving Day. Little things like that that come at unexpected times are some of God's best and most beautiful work, I think. That card completely rejuvenated me after a long day during the last week of classes this first semester, and gave me the encouragement that I needed in order to stay going strong for the last couple of days. It's been a great past few weeks, but I've been struggling with feeling like I am not teaching at the same level that I was initially. I think it is due to a number of things, but I know that one of the biggest reasons is that I am just burnt out. Going straight from college into grad school, while I am really glad that I did so, is pretty exhausting and I am certainly feeling that now! Luckily, we only need to be in the office Tuesday evening and Friday afternoon, and I only have one final exam on Thursday afternoon, so I am almost there!

I'll head out for Seattle on Saturday the 12th, where Michael's family will pick me up at the airport for a few days with them until my parents arrive home from my dad's "Southwest" portion of his tour in New Mexico and Texas. I cannot wait to share some moments with both my in-laws and my parents, and look forward to having almost a month of relaxation in the place in the States that I love the most. Also, my best friend Jes is coming up for a few days and New Year's this year, so I am really looking forward to that! I will miss Michael during this time and it will indeed be strange without him, but hopefully his mom and I have sent him enough in our packages to remind him we are here thinking of him and missing him and that he is so loved this Christmas. Next year will be an amazing time and I cannot wait, but we need to live as much in the present as we can, no matter how much we want it to be a year from now!

God bless all of you; I pray that this holiday has started out full of gratitude for both the joyful and challenging moments that have touched you this year. Hallelujah - a Child is born!

French TA function fotos :-)

Several joyous ladies - these pictures were actually taken in reverse order, so infer from that statement what you will. Here are Virginie & Cecile (Cecile is a TA and Virginie her best friend visiting from France) and Sarah K and Sarah B, who I spend probably about 80% of my time with.
The "rookie" women TA's for '09-'10 - Cecile, Sarah B, Sarah K, Lorelei, and myself.
Seth, a German PhD student, Benjamin, a 2nd year French TA from Paris, and myself.
Sarah B, Ellen, a 2nd year French TA, Kyla, the girlfriend of one of the 2nd year French TA's (who is herself a brain, studying science...) and Kat, Sarah B's sister (in case you didn't catch a resemblance...).
The cheese spread.
Bread, Nutella, and many cheeses - what else could one need?
Kyla telling a story to Virginie and Marta, a German TA from Germany. (Not sure where in Germany)
Johnny, Kyla's boyfriend, Ellen, and myself - starting out the evening with heavy convo apparently!

All in all it was a fabulous time with friends and food. Thanks to Sarah B and her roommates for hosting us all!

A moment, many moments...no time at all.

Tonight I am taking a moment. It has been a long semester, a long week, and even a long day - although not a bad one by any means. It seems that many days feel like "bad" ones lately; I think it is a mix of the rollercoaster of emotions that we all feel around the holidays as well as the obvious curveball of the absence of my new husband during this all-important time in my (and our) life(ves). I have learned that any moment of solitude - and there are many lately, should be looked at in as positive of a manner as possible; as an opportunity. An opportunity to rest, an opportunity to work, an opportunity to reflect, an opportunity to catch up with old friends or family, an opportunity to catch up with...God. If only that were my first resort and not so close to last so often!
I have been blessed with a church that feels more and more like home each week, and where, even among upwards of one thousand people, I am beginning to build a small community of brothers and sisters who I look forward to seeing each Sunday. However, these "moments", the times when I arrive at "home" and just pray before walking through the door that it will indeed feel like Home, they are what I have realized must change - or what I must allow to be changed. I am alone here, but God is with me always. I may not feel His presence for days, maybe the whole week, but He is here. It's amazing how one can look back even two or three days and see where His hand has moved things. No, it is rarely easy to spot while it is happening. But afterwards, when we look back and see how drastically he changed my tears during my prayer in the morning to laughter in the TA office in the afternoon - that is when I am humbled.
Actually, I am humbled every day before I go teach; somehow each morning I awake with the renewed feeling of inadequacy, with the sense that I cannot possibly be fit to teach a foreign language to 18 American college students. And, each day, God gently pushes me through that door - whether willingly or practically kicking and screaming - and says, "Come, do what I have asked. Don't you ask - just do. Yes, your husband is half a world away, and no, it isn't easy. But I have brought you to this point and all signs point to it when you look back down the road...even when you look forward to the unknown it is clear that this is the right direction." In the prayer book I have been using for the past month and a half or so, there is a passage this week that is talking about the dinner at Emmaus, when Christ has returned and the two do not yet realize that it is Him. As the passage describes the amazement and bewilderment at how different things are playing out, and how unbelievable, it explains how Jesus says to them, "Don't you see that it had to be like that? Was it not written?...Don't you understand that the Christ had to suffer and so enter into his glory? Don't you understand that it can't be otherwise for you? You have to jettison your small plans, because the Father's plans for you are unthinkably greater and more wonderful. You have to leap into [God's] hands, say an unconditional "Yes" and be born anew. [God's] love exceeds all that you deserve or even desire." (by Maria Boulding) My parents and I were in the Chicago Art Institute several weeks ago while they were visiting, and an oil painting of this very story was on display - "The Supper at Emmaus". The expressions on the men's faces is such a mix of pure joy and pure shock, two emotions which together are what I believe should live in each moment that we are here on earth living in God's grace. That passage, those words, remind me that temper tantrums do nothing. God cannot magically make me feel like I am not living alone, because I am. I am still faced with the realities of keeping up my studio and figuring out the ways in which I must motivate myself or seek God's help to motivate me in order to, at the very least, be calm...still. It is not an easy thing. I cry usually once or twice each day and it is exhausting and frustrating. Lately it circles most often around phone conversations with my husband; we are both at a loss as to exactly what we should talk about, for after about 5 or 10 minutes each, we are pretty much done with our daily updates. Personally, I have felt completely responsible for Michael's struggle with staying positive, even though I know that is not even possible! It is heartbreaking to know that the one person you love more than anything on the earth is struggling, is lonely, is feeling worthless...and not be able to do anything about it but invent anecdotes to try somehow to relate to them. And visa versa, I think - of course I am not in Iraq and I do get to sleep and I have internet that works when I want it to - but Michael does not understand all that I have been dealing with the way that my fellow TA's do. To know that my best friend no longer can know all of my thoughts and whereabouts and daily details literally breaks my heart. To not be able to go for a run with him along the lake on an absolutely stunning day that is perfectly crisp, to not be able to put up Christmas decorations and start listening to holiday music the day after Halloween, to not share my meals with him - it is positively dismal! And so, I walk on. I get up each day and try to remind myself through times of talking with God, of reading and studying His word, that I have indeed been put here for a reason, and that this time will be far from "in vain". Michael and I feel we have already hit a wall in our conversations - and yet we both know in the back of our minds that there is a much greater purpose at work here. It is only that we cannot see or understand it yet. We may never. But we most certainly can't change it, so there is no point in harping upon it more than is necessary.
I have been learning and being reminded these past few weeks of my dismal humanity - of my pettiness and of what should be worthlessness. The book of Ephesians in the Bible is a powerful one. At Willow Creek the pastoral team started with Chapter 1 and have gotten so far through Chapter 5. The amount of encouragement, the amount of good news...and also the amount of warnings and lessons in this book are simply phenomenal. So. I should be worthless. But the Bible tells me that Jesus died upon that cross that I may be worthy even for Him to call me friend. I cannot even begin to comprehend or grasp this, and I realize full well that this is the way that it is meant to be. I can continue to grow closer in my relationship with God and Jesus and the Holy Spirit...but there will always be more to learn, another facet or angle to see things from.
This week is the "last push", in my opinion. Of course, we still have two more weeks of class after, I have an 8-10 pg. paper that has yet to have a word of it typed, and then...finals week and my first semester-grades for a college course. Those promise, also, to be fun-filled, joyous moments. However, this week is really the last week that I am concerned about being "present" for. My choir concert (I'm in the UIC Women's Chorus and it is fabulous) is on Friday, and my final voice-recording assignment for my French grammar class is also due that evening. Thursday, I have my 2nd observation during my French 103 class - on a review day, to boot - and then a presentation in one of the most pointless courses that I have yet taken. Tuesday, my last paper for my French grammar class will be due. Tomorrow, I have time to read and prep for this week, along with doing laundry in the creepy downstairs basement. Need I say more to reveal how I am feeling about the next six days? Probably not. Only that God will get me through, that the paper is actually written already, that the observation - even should it go badly - will not get me fired and that the presentation - once I finish the reading - is really nothing to write many long run-on sentences about.
I will post a second post immediately following this one with some pictures of a get-together several of us had with the French TA's and several other friends/loved ones/etc. It was great fun, I just don't feel like copying and pasting them back & forth in all of these words! May God bless and keep you wherever you are.

November already!

I'm in the office at UIC and probably should be working on something more productive than blogging, but I've been meaning to do it for a couple of weeks now and am finished with all that I need to have done for today! Of course, there's "always something" one could be doing when he or she is a grad student, but sometimes you just have to set it aside for a minute.

Michael has been gone for almost a month now, and the time is really flying! Of course it is hard, and some days are very challenging emotionally - coming home to the empty apartment is getting easier. Grad classes are definitely wrapping up and the class that I teach is doing the same - just 4 weeks and a day left (not that I'm counting!) and things are quite busy. Well, actually, my students are busy is what I should say! We will be busy the last week of classes and finals week calculating final grades, but until then the lesson planning is pretty basic, even if the grammar is a bit confusing for them!

Chicago weather hasn't hit too badly yet, but I've been told that it really gets bad starting in January...good, so I have something to look forward to! Ha.

My parents came to visit two weekends ago, and we had a great time. We visited the Art Institute, the Field Museum and the John Hancock Tower. They came to visit my church, Willow Creek, who happened to be having a huge worship event with Jaci Velasquez and Salvador that Sunday. They also got to visit two of my favorite French restaurants during their stay, La Creperie and Bistro Zinc.

Outside the Art Institute, by a beautiful fountain...Dad & me.
Mom & me...
At the Creperie with my parents.
With two of my good friends who are also TA's, Sarah and...Sarah!

At the top of the John Hancock Tower, with the view of Chicago. It was cloudy, but still a perfect day and you could see for miles!
I hope that this finds you all well. I'm sorry, there isn't much else to say as far as update from my end. Michael is able to call 2-4 times a week, and we're trying to get into some kind of routine. He's actually doing really well, getting lots of time to exercise and settle in to their base. Hopefully they'll actually start working soon! Ha.

Here is a picture that we took last weekend before Erik and Deborah headed out to the house they are staying at for the conference they attend each year in Thomaston, GA.

As I sat in a church sanctuary packed with over 10,000 people tonight out at Willow Creek's South Barrington campus, Michael was getting ready to get on a bus for Iraq. I cannot describe how deeply I was moved as we lifted up our voices together and as I prayed for all of the soldiers heading out from their families - even though I was praying a silent, possibly single prayer, the act of doing it in that room full of believers and fellow brothers and sisters of faith touched me in a way I cannot quite put my finger on. I was telling my dad how close I came to not going to this event (Willow Creek's 34-year anniversary celebration, which brought together its 5 campuses all around "Chicagoland"), and how ironic it always is when one has that moment and perseveres through it to do the thing he or she isn't necessarily feeling so enthused about! Sometimes one is still not enthused, but more often than not in my experiences it is quite the opposite and no matter what the thing is it "makes your day" and turns your mood around.

On the shuttle bus ride back into Chicago (that's how many people are at each campus - they had to charter busses for this event, and the downtown campus had around ten to its campus alone!) Michael called me to say goodbye one last time before boarding the bus. Erik and Deborah were there to see him off, so he wasn't alone amidst all of the families and for that I am so grateful. Also, if he had been alone, he might not have been able to call me since his cell was shut off this afternoon and so he called from Deb's. We have certainly learned to be thankful for each detail in our life together!

Sitting here with a glass of wine, I reflect upon the past month or so and the journey of emotions that Michael and I have traversed. The incessant coming and going of traveling physically to and from Georgia - while I was more than happy to do it, and thankful for the resources to be able to do so - was even more exhausting mentally. Trying to juggle lesson planning (and a little bit of homework, for good measure!), airports, sleep, class (oh, and eating!) seemed on many days impossible. However, even on the days that were almost unbearable there was always a sliver of hope, and often coming from apparently nowhere. Whether it was from the simple satisfaction and accomplishment of a single lesson plan or finishing a chapter in a book, it was always just enough to get me through. Michael and I have an incredible year ahead - separately, granted, but no less incredible. I have said this in a variety of ways many times on this blog, but it's the thing that is getting us through. It is what has gotten us through to this point, and it will get us through from now on throughout this year also. A sense of relief washed over me as the emotion of that final goodbye ebbed, second by second, away this evening. We have successfully (and, I think, quite admirably and not without learning about a thousand lessons we didn't count on along the way!) "completed" another step in our journey on this earth, and we should be proud. We can also look with great anticipation, excitement, and hope towards the days ahead as well as next year when Michael will once again be on this side of the world.

We plan to take Michael's R&R ("Rest & Relaxation" for those of you not-as-familiar with Army lingo - I didn't know what it was until I asked for about the third time...) partly in England and partly in France this coming May. Hopefully, my parents will be able to meet us in England and I look forward, during Michael's and my "honeymoon" in France, to hear how much he has gleaned from 7 months of hard Rosetta-Stone-French learning! He has a few goals of things he wants to work on during his free time in Iraq: French, guitar, harmonica, and going to the gym regularly. I am excited for him also to be able to actually get a chance to fix things again - for the past few weeks (if not longer!) they have barely touched a wrench, since most of the vehicles have been in transit to Kuwait/Iraq for about a month and a half!

The apartment is finally feeling like home. I made a Target run yesterday after receiving my winter clothes shipment from my fabulous parents (it's currently around 35 degrees outside, winter has arrived early and with some vengeance!) in order to not have random coats, scarves, gloves and hats strewn around the few chairs and dresser top that I have! I purchased a small, 8-"cube" standing organizer (in lieu of another dresser, as this unit is narrower and can hold books/DVDs as well), a free-standing coat rack and a shoe rack for the closet. I finally got it all assembled (it's been maybe forever since I've had to build anything myself, and the cube unit required more than a light fitting-together...) this afternoon. I also bought another floor-lamp in order to add more light to my near-windowless apartment.

The Chicago marathon is tomorrow morning, so I am looking forward to heading out for a little stroll sometime after I get up with some tea or coffee. It's apparently one of the biggest (if not the biggest) marathons in the world, so I know there will be about a million people milling about town, literally! I hope you all are having a fabulous weekend, and my prayers are with you. God bless.

2nd to last time.

I’m typing this on a plane back to Chicago – this was Michael’s and my 2^nd to last weekend together before he heads out for Iraq. What an emotional rollercoaster! Of course that has been quite a common subject in my blog the past few times, I am aware, but luckily the “good” moments are still coming...and they even sometimes feel like they are coming more often even as we get closer to the goodbye for 6 months. I think one of the main reasons for this for me is the fact that starting this week I have three very busy weeks in the class that I teach, and after that we are into mid-term time so it will presumably continue through the end of the semester. Because of this, the fact that next weekend is the last one that I will be traveling and trying to work simultaneously AND deal with all of the emotional ups and downs being with Michael before his deployment brings is rather a relief. I mentioned this in my last entry I believe, but it is becoming more and more strong as a feeling.

We had a fabulous time this weekend. I flew in on Friday morning to Atlanta, and we hung at the hotel for a few hours before heading to dinner at an “Irish” pub – not bad food, but nothing to really write home about, either. We didn’t have much to choose from being just north of the airport unless we wanted to go into downtown, which wasn’t really something we wanted to do. Saturday morning I got some work done while Michael watched a movie and we headed into Atlanta after lunch. Michael had bought tickets to see his favorite band, Chevelle, about a month before, and so since it was a weekend I had planned to come down to see him we decided to just go ahead and stay in town for those 2 nights. Unfortunately, as soon as we got into town, the rains started again! We had planned to go to the park where Michael proposed to me to hang out, but ended up spending the majority of the time in the Lincoln either just waiting for the rain to stop and chatting or finishing a movie I was watching that I was going to be showing to my class this week! Luckily it did let off a bit eventually, so we got in about a 30 min promenade before the skies opened up again – but not before we got pretty soaked (even with our well-prepared umbrella!) on the way back to the car! We met up with one of his good friends, Chaz, and his girlfriend Vanezza and his stepmom Jackie, at the Melting Pot for dinner. It was fine, but again, not something we would do again. As Michael put it, he wouldn’t go back “unless I literally had nothing else to do”. So there you have it! Then the guys and me headed to the concert and Nezza and Jackie headed to see the play The Color Purple which was also playing in town that night. By this time the rain had stopped, which was good since concerts get sweaty enough without everyone’s clothes already being soaked! The concert, while not the type of music I normally choose to listen to, wasn’t bad. We managed to escape being in the VERY middle of the mosh pit (although Chaz ended up in it!) but I was concerned about my ears and the napkin that I had stuffed in them in lieu of earplugs, which I had forgotten to purchase beforehand! Anyway, I was glad to be able to go with Michael; he’s missed their past two or three tours out of the country, so this was great for him. He was glad I was able to be there with him, and also said to me afterwards that I can “drag him to any ballet, play, etc.” that I want! Ha. Maybe a Sarah McLachlan concert somewhere down the road.

After the concert we headed back to the hotel and yesterday drove back to Columbus for a night before driving BACK up to the airport. I’ll fly back again on Thursday through Monday, so I have a short but busy week – and I’m not even attending either one of my graduate classes! It is crazy. Thank you for your prayers and please continue to pray for us during this time. I would love to hear from any of you about how things are going in your lives, too – it’s nice to not always be thinking about what Michael is doing at work or what the other TA’s are up to, since it’s pretty much what I do, too :-) God bless.

Gin & tonics...

...sometimes are the only solution to a problem! Stress, lesson planning, homework, being away from Michael...each has taken it's turn in the spotlight of impossibility over the past few weeks. However, it is true that sometimes a little lime and a little gin help to at least put things back into a realistic perspective! Thus the reason I sip one as I type this and take a break from a rather unproductive but otherwise relaxing Saturday at my studio here in Chicago.

Michael found out that their departure date for Iraq is October 10th-16th, so our last weekend together in GA will be Oct. 1st-5th. I have been fortunate enough to take two days off in order to spend a couple extra days down there, but the coming-and-going has certainly taken its toll, not to mention the emotional stress of the leading-up-to him leaving. Many days it feels completely "doable" and reasonable...like for some reason I've done this kind of thing before? Ha. But the days when it feels impossible, though not as common, are exhausting and often debilitating. God has blessed us so much and led us to this amazing place, but those days I find myself having a hard time being grateful. I know that, once Michael has finally left for the deployment and after the first week or two have passed, it will be fine. It will actually be the first time I am able to work an actual routine into my life since our wedding day! Strange. There has been SO much constant movement that I don't know that I know how to sit still anymore.

The Teacher's Assistantship has been a huge challenge, but I have also begun to have many moments of satisfaction after days when my students are responding positively (and giving the correct answers!), which is a nice feeling. Lesson planning doesn't take me 3 hours per lesson anymore, so now I am finally working in some actual grad class studying! Sometimes the irony of that thought is nothing short of laughable. The other TA's at UIC are absolutely fabulous, each and every one - there are 12 of us total. There are 4 French TA's who are all amazing resources and the rest of us are a great mix, coming from many backgrounds, universities, and ages. It's an awesome collaborative atmosphere, and slowly but surely, I think that most of the 1st-yr TA's are realizing that we aren't the only ones stumbling through on certain days! The more we teach and the more we compare notes with one another and other teachers, TA's and professors, the more it becomes evident that there is NO perfect teacher. Never will one know each student of each class so well that they can give a lesson that will "work" for all of them and their learning styles. At the end of the day, the best you can hope for is to have reached a few students, and that the rest will care enough to read the rules and come ask questions. One thing that our advisor told us in orientation will forever remain with me: "You really can't teach your students anything. They are the ones who have to choose to learn, and most of that is going to happen outside of the classroom." This epiphany was at the same time liberating and terrifying, given the fact that then we must obviously give them the right tools to be able to do the learning...but yeah, mostly liberating!

I love being able to speak French again everyday, and I love Chicago. Public transportation can still be nerve-wracking for all sorts of reasons, but it's nice to not worry about a car.

Please keep me and Michael in your prayers, and Michael especially after the 10th. It's going to be a great, challenging, exhilerating, impossible year full of lessons from God. We are both anxious and excited, and pretty much just ready to "start checking off the days"...while we realize that we need to enjoy the time apart for what it will be worth to us as individuals. Please pray that we will be able to do what we need to, and that we will meet people who will be support to us during times of need. You are all in my prayers and I hope very much that you are all doing well. May God bless you and keep you in your days, in your lying down and standing up, in your coming and going, and in your interaction with all of those around you. May His peace be in your heart always!

Teaching and starting grad school

Hello all! Well, it's been a challenging week, but I have learned a lot. Not least importantly, I've learned that no two teachers, whether they have been teaching for two semesters, two days, or twenty years, are alike. I've also realized that - surprisingly - attaining perfection in one's first week as a Teacher's Assistant/Instructor and graduate student is pretty much not possible. On one hand, that lesson is liberating...on the other, it's depressing! Ha.

Michael left Chicago Friday the 21st of August, which was extremely rough. I haven't lived alone really ever, and after having finally gotten used to being married and together all the time, to have him go right before I started my first week of teaching was pretty brutal. I've gotten slowly used to it, but it is still so hard to come home to an empty apartment. The apartment, however, is really darling and the perfect size for one, so it isn't like I am squished :-) It's very close to Oak St. beach, which is one of the coolest places in town and where the Chicago Air & Water Show happens each year. This year, we happened to have just gotten into town that week, so we were able to enjoy that.

The biggest challenge, when I'm honest, has been organizing my time...and managing to concentrate. There is a constant feeling that I should be doing something - and, not surprisingly there is always something that I could be doing! So I've found that I really need to tell myself to rest every once in a while. However, I am trying to workworkwork through this coming Thursday night, as Michael is arriving at 8:30am to O'Hare on Friday and I don't want to be overly-distracted the entire weekend he is here! Pray for good weather...today is absolutely stunning, but I want to be able to do the farmer's market at the end of my street while he is here and it won't be nearly as fun in the rain!

Like I said in the last entry, please refer to my Facebook for some pictures - unfortunately I haven't gotten many of the school/other TA's...strange, there aren't many photo-ops when you are all completely stressed over learning how to lesson-plan!

God bless all of you, and I continue to ask for your prayers for strength, calm, and coherence.

Temporarily on hold from blogging!

A) Sorry for the long silence...unfortunately it is usually the pattern when I start blogs, but this time it was mostly due to absence of internet access!

B) The absence of internet access is still a pretty consistent reality here in Chicago, so while I am on the internet much more regularly than the past 2 weeks while Michael and I were moving into my new apartment in Chicago, it will mostly be for school emails for the next few weeks at least. I will blog if I can, but most photos will be uploaded to my Facebook account, since the uploading tool there is much quicker than on Blogger!

C) Love to all, and please keep Michael and me in your prayers as we begin this time of intermittent separation before he leaves for Iraq in 2 months, as well as I begin to teach - yikes! - French 103 at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Negative productivity and a crazy cat.

The time away from Michael is certainly not getting any easier, but we've still been able to talk several times a week even since he's gone further out into the field for training. For me, one of the most challenging things about him being relatively unaccessible on a moment's notice by phone is the organization of any and all logistical details - since, now that we are married, my logistics are often going to be his, too! Even while I am in Chicago and he is still here, it is going to be important for us to always be on the same page so that we can stay on top of tickets between Atlanta and Chicago, and obviously for me to find a balance in work/school and my time with Michael. Anyway, while he's in the field, he obviously isn't able to help me even with the smallest details, so I've just been trying to juggle what few things I've had to take care of :-) He is very good at expressing his gratitude for that and saying that he wishes he could be helping with everything, so that makes it all worthwhile.

The past week and a half or so, I've really been at a complete standstill, as far as productivity. You might wonder what I need to be producing. Well, before I left in May I wasn't able to finish all of my packing of my winter clothes and several miscellaneous items leftover from my dorm room, most of which I will be wanting/needing desperately in Chicago! That is the main thing I am trying to wrap up - luckily my parents aren't looking over my shoulder trying to take over my entire closet...just my room. Although my mom has already made a very nice little office for herself in there, even with my bed still intact! So that is for my last week, as we are taking off for Orcas Island this coming Tuesday for five and a half days.

It has been really great to be home; I haven't seen as many people as I had hoped, but that seems to happen "everytime", no matter how long one has. I've managed to get quite a bit of downtime and good running and reading in, so for me that is alright for now. My thank-you pile still stares me daily in the face, but those I'm planning on bringing next week, so hopefully finish them then!

Michael has been doing a lot of driving out in the Mojave Desert the past couple of weeks. His Sgt. Jon Pratt had two incidences of heat exhaustion in just 3 days last week, however, which meant Michael took a couple of missions he wouldn't necessarily have otherwise. Jon is doing better, but the Sgt. above him who had him go back into "action" after just a night's rest following his first bout is getting demoted and moved to a different section. They had one day a couple days ago when they had some real "Iraq" fighting and action, so I'm glad about that, since it's really the reason they are out there - not just to run ammo back and forth between the camps. (At least, I thought...?) So they have a week or so left in the actual field and then will go back to the "staging ground", which is actually a Marine base in Yermo, CA, to get all of the vehicles back onto the trains to head back to Georgia.

My dad and I took a two-day trip up to North Vancouver, Canada, this week; he had a couple services/performances at Regent College and I visited several friends in the area. Such a great time. Here are a few pictures of the dinner I had with my "group".

Thursday night my dad had a concert at Regent, and we went out to dinner with Brian Moss (our friend who is the music and arts director at Regent), Heather Pasman and Jamie, the saxophone player who was also doing the concert. We ate at a great little bistro called Burgoo. They had "the best grilled cheese sandwich [Brian] had ever had in [his] life"...and it was pretty good! My dad was really excited about it, so I snapped a shot of him & Brian.

Meanwhile, today when my mom and I were baking all morning in our kitchen, the cat, Taffy, was begging incessantly. He started when I was making my salad for lunch, continued as we blanched peaches and cut them up for a pie, and was finally rewarded with some cooked chicken. (Although not before we made fun of him for begging for fruit...) Here he is, perched on my leg begging for who knows what...

All's well that ends well...

I found an apartment! Thank the Lord for finding a small but cute studio in a fab neighborhood just a block away from the metro!

Sight-unseen apartment hunting - not recommended!

The past three days, my dad & I (mostly my dad, who seems to have an amazing endurance for looking at hundreds of apartment ads, luckily for me!) have been sifting through hundreds of listings on Craigslist Chicago in order to try to find an apartment. We have finally narrowed it down at least to a general area/neighborhood - Lincoln Park - but now just need to narrow it a bit more (there are still hundreds in that single neighborhood!) so that I can either have someone I know in Chicago go take a look and meet the landlord or go there myself. It's fun to just browse through apartments, when one has little to no intention of living in them or needing to find a place in the next couple of weeks...but actually choosing is nearly impossible, especially sight-unseen. I know that I pretty much just need to choose a few to five, call the landlords, and make appointments and go, but then I'll be using a free ticket my dad has, since it would cost me $700 roundtrip to Chicago pretty much anytime this month! Whew. So my shoulders are sore and my head hurts, but we are truckin' on.

The thing that has been frustrating is that Michael is slaving away in the desert heat in CA and not very able to even see many of these listings, let alone come up with an opinion on them. This is solely due to the fact that the internet browser he's using is on his phone, so it's limited even though he can surf as much as he wants. Basically I will just take this opportunity to recommend that if you are looking for an internet-capable phone for actual internet surfing, get an iPhone, because BlackBerries, to my current experience, have somewhat debilitated browsers as far as formatting goes...

Anyway, all of that is boring and I'm sure will be inconsequential in a matter of days, so onto a more concise update. I arrived back on Camano on July 4th in time for an afternoon & evening of visiting with my parents, my godmother, some of their longtime friends and my brother- and sister-in-law. It was a blast. The weather was perfect (although I missed the AC I've gotten so used to!), the company was fabulous and the show was spectacular. We didn't even have to worry about lighting ourselves on fire - just sat on the deck and took in the show coming from the beach & our neighbor's parties!

So it's good to be back, but there are so many odds & ends that need to be tied up! Michael's & my bills, the rest of the wedding thank-you's, cleaning out the rest of my stuff leftover from before we moved... the list goes on! Having said that, though, I do have three and a half more weeks, so it isn't like I'm needing to worry myself sick about it :-)

Start of NTC and wine tasting in Napa...

Michael has arrived in California, so we are back in the same time zone! We've certainly learned to appreciate every little joy when it comes to the ease of our communication. They arrived Monday afternoon and have been working their tushes off since. Apparently their company's food & water supply has yet to arrive, though, so thus far they have had to buy all of it! Michael was telling me how yesterday morning they were called out to fix a truck at 9am and were there until 12pm...without any water. I found that pretty unbelievable. Well, I find that they have to buy all of their food & water unbelievable, but Michael says they've told them they will be reimbursed. Not to be the skeptic, but I will believe that when I see it! When I spoke with him last night, him and Jon Pratt, his Sergeant, were starting from opposite ends of a long line of trucks and making sure they all started - many of them didn't. They are all supposed to leave this morning, so I asked him what they would have to do with all of those ones. "We'll have to fix them." Oh, right. Just a minute, let me go fix these fifteen trucks while you have a cup of coffee...ha. "We're good, babe!" Anyway, I know they are good, but still...and when I said that to him, his reply was, "We just stay up all night if we need to." There we go...while that isn't cool, it makes more sense! So he is already up to his neck in work, but I think that that is a pretty positive thing, since before I was always feeling bad that he was alone at our apartment :-( Hour-long conversations are few and far-between again, but we've dealt with lots and lots of times like these before, so it's just a matter of readjusting again.

We've had unbelievable weather. Sunday we ended up going wine tasting in Napa Valley, which is about an hour away from her house, and it got to 108 degrees! We had a great time anyway. Here we are in front of one of our favorite wineries, Folie à deux, who make a fabulous wine called Ménage à Trois that everyone should try once!

We also went on a tour of Sterling Winery, which is built in Greek-style architecture and beautiful. Their wines are expensive but not really worth it - but we really enjoyed seeing the wine process in a big winery...which, much to Michael's chagrin, no longer involves the smashing of the grapes by human feet! Here we are on the tram up to the winery from the office at the bottom of the valley. We're also sporting some pretty fab faces.

So we had a great time even though we went through about 6 bottles of water each in the short car rides inbetween wineries! Jes' dad, Rich, was nice enough to drive us out there since he knew the way better.

Monday we went out to Jes' sister's apartment to babysit her month-old nephew, Dominic. I'm still afraid of breaking every baby I hold under 2 years old, but I did get him for about 40 minutes while we were there and he survived, so I guess I'm okay! Yesterday was pretty relaxed; we've been walking down to get tea/coffee the last couple mornings and it's starting to cool off so that is nice. I'm looking forward to going home, but it is really fun to just relax and hang with Jes here. We had a fun game of Trivial Pursuit (which I'd never played before) on Monday night, which I barely won...and only because I'd landed on easy questions for each qualifying one!

I've been getting up each morning and sitting outside on their back patio with my tea to enjoy the fresh air, read and pray. I love that time of day when you know the only people up are the ones who go in to work each day - and when you don't have to be one of them! I know that in a month and a half, I will be, so for now I'm enjoying vacation while I can.

Morning encouragement.

Do two walk together

unless they have agreed to do so?

Surely the Sovereign LORD does nothing

without revealing his plan

to his servants the prophets.

Amos 3:3 & 7

On vacation!

It is terribly hard to be away from Michael, but it's been so great to be in California with Jes. I'm pretty sure that I got the short end of the being-apart-stick, since he's stuck at our home where we've been together for the past month and a half and I'm in a place he's never been! I thought I would be less "together" than I have been since getting here - don't get me wrong, saying goodbye at the airport sucked and we both cried (sorry Babe, it's okay if people know you care!) but I haven't been in hysterics constantly since, so I guess that is a good thing, since it would impede me having a good time here.

We haven't done a whole lot yet here, but I've had a chance to get some much-needed rest. Yesterday we went to one of Jes' friend's grad party which was crazy-attended. The family had just finished a renovation of their massive backyard...which included a putting green with light-up holes! Pretty cool, but I wouldn't want to be the one to maintain it... So that was interesting. I just enjoy seeing where my friends live and do their everyday things and spending time with them, so I am happy to do whatever. Jes is taking the GRE in about a week and a half, so she needs to study pretty regularly,which gives me time to work on wedding thank-you's or selecting the wedding pictures I want to have printed! We were supposed to go into San Francisco today with her dad, but it turns out that the Gay Pride parade is going on this weekend, so it is basically one of THE worst days to go downtown or even bypass the city all year! We haven't decided on an alternative yet, so I'm just updating my thoughts on here.

Here's a picture of Auntie Jes and her cute little nephew, Dominic...who is just over 3 weeks old. Such a doll.

Here we are yesterday, roasting in 101 degrees - in the shade! I almost passed out from the heat :-/

And, just for good measure, Michael & I waiting to get our table outside the Texas Roadhouse last weekend. It was hot, but we had a fun date-night. The love of my life!!!

Packing.

It's that time again - the long-distance was hungry and Michael & I are always "on board" (as they say in Nascar) for the next chance to satisfy it! That sounds a bit dire, but we are just in a season in our life together when, even though in heart and spirit we are together, physically we must be apart somewhat regularly. We've learned that this time has been given to us as a gift to strengthen our relationship and our marriage, these lessons are building our individual identities (but also expanding our joint identity, too) in what we do and how we are going to use it. There are still hundreds of unknowns, but the unknowns have a way of bursting open in your lap at the most unexpected (and sometimes - no, often - "inconvenient") times, providing a sudden clarity one never even dreamed to attain. Those revealed unknowns are replaced with new ones, and the cycle repeats itself, bringing us closer together and closer to God in the process.

All of this is so easily deduced by looking back at our lives, but it is quite another thing to wake up each morning believing & practicing it. In theory, the process in itself should make that easier to do, but often it drives people further from God and further from one another in their frustration and confusion of what the future holds. It is no small wonder that God has asked us to take only today for now, to not meditate on the worries or stress of tomorrow...because we all know Today is going to come up with more than enough of that on its own! Michael and I both have to work hard and remind one another to keep this attitude, especially during this upcoming time of coming and going in our times together.

Like I alluded to in my first words of this entry, and have mentioned briefly in others, I leave for over a month this coming Thursday. I will start packing today, as it is literally one of my least favorite chores on the face of the earth. (What do I really need? What will the weather be like? Am I going to have time to go running? What if I've forgotten something?) I will also be doing a bit of cooking for Michael - he is home through Monday morning, so I want him to have some good food leftover, even though I know he wouldn't starve on his own. After all, he's been living for 24 years that way...but I don't see any reason not to make him some casseroles if I have the time.

Here's a pic of Michael & I from a couple of weeks ago when we went out with some of the guys and their wives in downtown Columbus - it's one of our best, really.

Our first home.

Here are the long-awaited photos of the apartment, complete with art courtesy of Kathy Hastings, Haley Krueger, and Kris Meldrum! The first is our dining room/kitchen, the second is the living room/office/sun room, and the last obviously the bedroom. We love the space that we have here...if only we were staying longer than a few months.

The weather is still quite stifling, but I am headed to the pool shortly anyway! Lots of water & sunscreen is the ticket.

Sticky weather and errands!

It is sticky outside today! Michael and I were up at 4am so that I could drop him off to his Sgt.'s house to carpool and have the car for the day, and even when we went outside around 4:30, you could feel the air and it was 75 degrees. I told Michael and it smelled like the reptile room in zoos...strange. I'll try not to dwell on that now that I've said it, since snakes aren't exactly one of my favorite things in the world!

Today it is off to the post office and the grocery store - seemingly mundane tasks for some, but for me: excitement! Ha. Actually I really do enjoy doing the simple things, especially when I'm not rushed. I'm even planning on going to Starbucks - gasp! That is just surprising because, as you may have gathered, I am still a bit sketchy on making my way around the roads between our apartment and...well, basically everywhere else! Fortunately, Sbucks is just about a mile off of the main highway that I'm most familiar with, so it is all good. And we still have a giftcard there, so I won't even be spending my "own" money. The little joys in life.

In just over a week, I'll be heading out to San Ramon to visit my dear, dear friend Jes for a week and a half and then up to Seattle to go home for a month. Michael has training in the desert of California for Iraq, so I didn't see much point in staying down here in the stickyness if you see what I mean. I have met some great women down here, though. I'm so looking forward to seeing Jes and my parents and finishing packing my room. I will miss Michael very much, but it will make the couple weeks we have back home in August that much more precious to us. 

I know that I said this in the first post a couple days ago, but I'm planning on getting some updated pictures of the apartment up here in the next few days. 

Pour cette raison même, faite tous vos efforts pour ajouter à votre foi la force de caractère, à la force de caractère la connaissance, à la connaissance la maîtrise de soi, à la maîtrise de soi l'endurance à l'épreuve, à l'endurance l'attachement à Dieu, à cet attachement l'affection fraternelle, et à l'affection fraternelle l'amour. Car si vous possedez ces qualités, et si elles grandissent sans cesse en vous, elles vous rendront actifs et vous permettront de connaître toujour mieux votre Seigneur Jésus-Christ.     

2 Pierre 1.5 à 8              

For I am with you to save you; declares the Lord...of you I will not make a full end.

This morning, the sun is shining and it is going to be another beautiful day. Our fish, Steve, a 5 inch-long piranha, is hitting his thermometer against the wall of his tank in weak protest that it is too small for him. (It is. Unfortunately, in order to get a tank big enough for him at this point, it would cost $150 and the tank would barely fit anywhere in the apartment, since it would be four feet long!) I miss Michael while he is at work, but today I am looking forward to being able to just write thank-you’s, work out, reply to emails and relax. Most likely I will call some people, too, but with the time difference, that activity usually has to wait until the afternoon so as I’m sure to avoid waking anyone up on the west coast! When in doubt about not hearing from me, it might be best to just give me a quick call; I’m usually up by 5:30am Pacific Time, so go crazy!

Last night I was awoken by the faint noises (we always have two fans on while we sleep; our bedroom is always the warmest in the apartment) of a pretty windy storm outside. At first I was a bit alarmed, especially when I saw the lightning flashes and how big they must be. So I decided to get up for a minute and see what all the fuss was about. We get windstorms back home, but not as much thunder and lightning as they do down here, let alone of the same size. As I stood at our living room windows, watching the trees get blown about like grass and hearing the thunder booming like drums, the first lightning strike came—and it was absolutely stunning. To see the kind of lightning that is depicted in those ridiculous airplane-magazine framed motivational art pieces (“Perservere: It will pay off” or whatever else they say) was truly breathtaking. It was terrifying, too, because it was obvious that the strikes were relatively close to us. However, after a few of them I realized that there was no point whatsoever in minding about that—if weather is going to be the death of us then there isn’t any point “guetting” it (a French word which means to await expactantly, often with anxiety). Moments after I said a quiet prayer to God asking for one last great one before I returned to bed, the whole sky was illuminated by veins of light, and my face by a smile. His Creation is truly stunning and I am thankful for moments of shock and awe to remind me.

The verse in the title is one that I read upon opening up the Bible this morning after my alarm had gone off. It’s been a great week, but Michael and I have been working through a lot of issues couples run into living together for the first time, so it’s been mentally and spiritually tiring. My worrisome side has also been jumping ahead to August and my move to Chicago, wondering how it’s going to go, if my class is going to like me. I’m not worried at all about graduate classes, though...which is slightly ironic, since that is what I’m going there to do. All of that to say that the verse was encouraging in a very simple way and I am thankful for it to start my day off.

Starting out

Well, here we are in Georgia...and it is HOT! This week it's been in the mid-90's almost everyday, so the AC has been a nice feature! The pool is also great, but when it's that hot it's hard to stand being outside for long when you aren't used to it! I'm enjoying the sunshine, though, even if I can't be out in it as long as I'd like to be. Also, when it rains here, it POURS! Just this afternoon there was about 20 minutes of rain and thunder that was pretty serious. I just pray I'm not walking to or from anywhere when a storm hits...

Michael and I are settling in to married life pretty well--we're learning a ton about one another, and while we know there is some time apart coming up, it is nice to be with each other basically 24/7. I'm beginning to get my bearings as far as the roads around here, but it's taken me a long time. It's been a while since I've had to learn my way around a new town. Anyway, we love having our own place to decorate (we got our shipment of art that we'd received as gifts this week!) and our own kitchen to use and experiment with recipes in. Of course, we still only have one pan to cook pasta or boil vegetables in, but it's a minor detail since we were able to get most everything else we needed regarding kitchen utensils, thanks to the generosity of our guests at the wedding last month. Target never saw us comin'! (Or Bed, Bath & Beyond, ha.) 

I'm going to try to keep this blog up-to-date...but that hasn't exactly worked when I've tried to do so with my own personal blogs in the past, so bear with me. Maybe Michael will want to write some, too...unfortunately he'll be heading out to California for training for the month of July, and deploying to Iraq for his second tour in October. Please pray for us, as the time is short and we want to be able to make the most of every moment. I'll head up to Chicago to start my master's degree in mid-August, so we'll have two months of "commuting" a few times each month before he leaves, which will be tough. Luckily, we have been blessed with the funds to do so and thanks to cell phones, we'll be able to be in touch constantly next month.

We hope and pray that you are all well, and do keep in touch. I will keep our address updated on my Facebook account, and if you don't have Facebook, just email me at strbckscffcp@hotmail.com to get it. I am planning on uploading a few pictures soon of the apartment, so stay tuned!