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!