Thesis writting

Ugggghhh! Back to the thesis writting. I'm about halfway done with my proposal, which will also be the first chapter. Bad news is I hava a long way to go... Good news is I'm getting my drive back to get it done. I wrote quite a bit this morning and will write some more this afternoon. The sun is shinning, the snow is melting, the grass is almost green, and spring is on its way. Yippeeeeee! OK, so I haven't been outside yet, I know it's still cold, but it sure looks good from inside. Okie dokie... back to work.

Home Sweet Home

Well, I had my first attempt at bread making this morning. It went OK, but the bread was a little too heavy. I think I need to kneed it more and bake it a little longer. I'll try again another time. I think I was too impatient this time. You can't beat the taste of fresh bread.

Anyway... for those of you who haven't seen the parsonage. Allow me to give you a tour. Here is the kitchen where the bread making adventure took place. Next to the fridge is the door into the dining room and I'm standing in another door. It's just to the right of the little bakers rack in this small picture. Believe it or not, but this ceiling was green before we moved in.

Here is a picture of our living room. It has a great picture window that looks over at the park. The park has a shelter, playground, 2 baseball diamonds, a tennis court, basketball court, volleyball court, and a half mile walking path. We love it. Can't wait for spring to get here.

This next picture is of our reading chairs. We sit here in the morning and watch the sun rise out our picture window. The door to the left leads to our front door and James' office; the door on the right leads to the three bedrooms and bathroom.

This is our dining room. The door on the left goes into the kitchen.

This is James office. I painted it a couple of weeks ago. It was all paneling. James felt like he was in a wooden box.

That's all for now. Just thought I'd share a few pics.

Good Day

Today was a good day. Yesterday was not such a good day. Things just did not go the way they were planned. You know... you have those days when you're just focused on yourself and the whole day is crap... it was one of those days. Today I woke up with a fresh wind under my wings. We had a good day. James read 2 books, I got ready for Bible Study, and we visited with some wonderful people from the church this afternoon. We had a great Bible Study tonight. James and I watched a movie and now it's bedtime. Miss you all. Will write more later.

Making Noodles

Somedays I forget just about everything. Today I have already made 3 trips to Clinton and I have to go again in half an hour. Trip #1: I went to Clinton this morning to learn how to make noodles. In the process I took both sets of car keys and the church van. I used the van because James had to go to school at noon and I didn't know when I would get home. When I got to Wilma's house I realized I had both sets of keys and had to go back home. Trip #2: Then I came back to Clinton and Wilma Jackson taught me how to make noodles. We had lunch, we talked, and had a great time. I then went to the store to get some groceries. When I reached into my pocket for my debit card to pay, my life flashed before my eyes and I saw my debit card on the nightstand at home. So, home I came to get the card. Trip #3: Back to the store I went to pay for my groceries and home again I came. It's been a crazy day. Trip #4 will involve going and picking up the kids for our after school program. Oh well... James will be home by then.

Wilma Jackson has to be one of the coolest old ladies I've ever met. She's done just about everything. She is 89, a great cook, a wonderful encourager, and good for a swift kick in the pants if you need one (I haven't needed that yet, but it's only a matter of time). She and her husband live in Clinton and are a wonderful asset to the church here in Wapella.

It's been a good day, but a dizzy day. Such is life in the fish bowl.

8 Months

Wow... can you believe we've been married for almost 8 months. Life has been absolutely nuts. Shortly after getting married James took a full time preaching ministry and we moved to Wapella, Il. Who would have imagined there would have been so many changes over the course of a year. God sure does have amazing things in store for us. James and I are both pretty strong-willed, so we've had an interesting first 8 months of marriage. I've only got one month of menopause left and that aweful medicine will be working its way out of my system. Hot flashes really suck. Though I must say that I have not missed my monthly visitor and neither has James. I'm pretty sure he's morning its return. The doctor has advised us to try and have kids right away. I've got to be honest... that prospect doesn't thrill me at this point. Some days I can't wait to have kids, other days I just want to run the other way. I think I'm morning my loss of freedom. I know that new joys enter the picture with children, but so does great responsibility. God knows what's best for us and for our future, so we leave it in His hands. James is so excited to have babies, he's gonna be a fun dad. He'll be done with all of his college classes in December. He'll do his internship in the spring and graduate May '09. We're both looking foward to that. He goes to Lincoln 5 days a week and that get's a little old. Especially when he has to come home and put in a full day's work here.

James and I are pretty busy with the church. Sunday's make for very long days. James and I both teach Sunday School. I teach the 3-5th graders and James teaches the Adults. Fortunately James only has to preach once. After church we usually have a couple over for lunch or go out with someone. In the afternoon we take communion to the nursing home and get ready for youth group. We spend from 6-8pm with the youth group (we teach them too). After that we crash on the couch. On monday's we have Women's Bible Study. I have about 10-15 ladies who come over to the parsonage on Monday nights. We're studying various women of the Bible who made an impact. Tonight we're talking about Deborah and Jael: two very amazing women from the book of Judges. On Wednesday's we have Beacon Kids (like kids club) right after school. We pick them up in the church van and bring them all back to the church until 5pm. After that's all done we get ready for the next week's activities.

I've pretty much given up on the whole job thing. We picked up the youth ministry and some extra pay, so we don't need the extra job right now. My thesis has been coming along at the pace of a snail and is about to go into turbo speed. I promised James it would be done by December. We'll see how that goes...

Oh well... I guess that's all for now. I miss everybody in Lincoln... Wapella can be lonely at times.