Study break

If you're looking for a laugh... click here. This is me, my bro, and Ned.

Snow

It's snowing outside! - again! Last weekend it snowed all weekend and then this morning we woke up to another snowy day. There's just something about snow that is so peaceful, and so playful. This morning I think I stood at the window and watched at it gracefully falling down for about 10 minutes. I could have easily stood there all day. I have noticed that snow seems to bring out the playful side in people. Having grown up in a place where it snows ALL the time, I know that it is not necessarily always so- but even there- at the first snow of the year, everyone was giddy. Something about it just brings out a sense of awe and wonder. It is so beautiful, and it is so silly! Little fluffy flakes falling gently out of the sky, and melting on your nose. I love it! If it snowed here instead of rained all winter, I could definitely handle living in this place. Here's some pics taken from our windows.

Cinnamon & Snow

It's snowing outside! This is a treat here in Seattle, where "it never snows." I put that statement in quotation marks, because that's what everyone from around here says, but last winter we had quite a few snowstorms. So I'm not totally convinced. Although I do have to say that they are better prepared to deal with snow in North and South Carolina than they are here. I find that quite ridiculous, but that is another subject entirely. In the spirit of snow and coziness, I decided to slice up an apple and sprinkle some cinnamon on it. This was all going very nicely until the spice bottle dumped a mound of cinnamon onto my apple slices. I ate them anyway. So I am hoping that there are no ill effects from eating too much cinnamon. These things happen on snowy nights when one is putting off writing one's papers.

Um...

This is the billboard you see approaching the Canadian/American border en route from Vancouver to Seattle.

Three weeks, 6 papers, and 1 final exam to go. (Yes, we only have a final exam in one of my classes. Papers seem to be preferred by the profs here). As of tomorrow, it will only be 5 papers left to go. For the paper that I am working on right now, we have to pick a tragedy in our life, write a two page description of the event (written in an engaging manner- like fiction) and then spend 4-5 pages analyzing its effects on our lives. Last week I had to write a Bible study on the book of Job. As you can imagine, this has been a very uplifting several weeks for me.

In other news Ned is tearing out the ceiling in our kitchen today.

Meltdown

7 (big) papers left to write this semester. Today I'm not so sure if I'm going to make it.

Our Kitchen

Can you see why this would be stressful?

Death of a Church

As you might or might not know, when Ned & I moved here we began attending a church plant in a coffee shop. (I think I might have blogged about it once). It was less than a year old when we started going and had less than 15 attendees (which included us). Since the church was so small, it quickly became family, and in a way we felt like we were involved in a church planting team. Ned helped lead worship and I once preached a sermon. Although it wasn't perfect, it was definitely home, and before we moved here we had specifically talked about wanting to be involved in a coffee house church plant- and voila!

This May, the pastor announced that we would be having a meeting immediately after the service. He sat the less than 10 of us down and announced that we would have 1 more service, and then the church would be closing down. He said he had spoken and prayed with many people about this, and that is what he believed God was telling him to do. This came as an absolute shock, but at the same time, once he announced it, Ned & I felt like "yes, this is right". That does not mean we were happy about it, it just meant we had a peace about it, and knew it was the right thing. But it still really sucked. Less than 2 years after this church opened its doors, it closed them for the last time.

Now, six months later it seems to be sucking much more than it did that Sunday it was announced. Finding a new church has been a struggle. We have found one that we have been going to, and we enjoy the services, but we know virtually no-one there, and it has been hard to make connections. It has not become home. Yes, they offer small groups, but they always happen to be meeting when I have classes. We try to keep in touch with our friends from the old church, but with everyone being so busy, this is hard to do. It has become lonely.

This past week the new church we've been attending celebrated their 2 year anniversary. This was especially difficult. While I am happy for this new church and celebrate what God has accomplished, I can't help but think about our old church, how it never made it to its second birthday. How this new church averages 100+people every Sunday and how our old one on its most crowded day barely passed 25. And I just don't understand why. Wasn't our old church also faithful? Don't get me wrong, I'm not jealous of the success of this new church, I am genuinely happy about it! It is doing great things in the community and impacting many lives, and I praise God for it. But why couldn't they both succeed? Why does God seem to bless some ministries so much and let other ministries fizzle out and die? It just doesn't make sense to me.

Thoughts on a Tuesday

Not sure who all reads this anymore. I have been a less than prolific blogger, so I only blame myself. This week is "reading week", which means I have no classes. This is a beautiful thing, however I'm finding that this one week is not nearly enough to catch up on everything I need to do. I need a reading month. Unfortunately, this is not allotted to us MHGS students. I had the momentary urge to drop out of school earlier today. Mostly this stemmed from the two papers I have looming over my head which are due next week. There was a time in my life after I graduated from my undergrad where I missed writing papers. What on earth was I thinking???

Our house is in complete disaster mode right now. We have no kitchen, which makes life infinitely more stressful. We have to do dishes in the bathtub. It is very difficult to cook, which means we eat out more often that we ought, which is wreaking havoc on our already struggling budget. I am feeling very overwhelmed with everything right now.

Some "After" pics

Well we tore up the carpet and refinished the wood floors underneath, and gave the room a coat of paint. Now the kitchen's all torn apart... still a lot to do. Much more has transpired in the last 6 months since I've made a post, but that's all I have time for now :)

Flip This House

This is our first flip. Ned & I bought this house last month. We want to flip it and sell it, but in the meantime, it's our home. We've managed to replace all of the plumbing and re-do the entire bathroom - I mean, taking out all the walls, the toilet, the floor, EVERYTHING. It has been quite the job... and that's only the first room! (Although bathrooms and kitchens are supposedly the hardest- the kitchen's next).

In other news, I am fighting off a nasty cold. Seems the only chances I've had to update my blog are when I've been home sick! Well, that's all for now, hopefully I will be healthy when I write my next post, and hopefully it will be sooner.

For those of you who may have been wondering, yes, I am still alive! This post is about 5 months overdue, but oh well. Between working full-time, going to grad school at night, being married and attempting to have some sort of a social life, blogging just hasn't hit the top of the priority list. I am home sick today, I have been fighting off the stomach flu for the past few days. That's all for now, hopefully there will be more to come sooner rather than later.