Finished

Well, I finally finished the third chapter of my thesis. I turned it in on Wednesday. I took a break yesterday and worked on other things I had been putting off...like preparing for Bible Study. I enjoy Bible Study night. We always have good conversation and a good time. Wednesday night was no exception, though I couldn't get the names in the Bible straight and kept confusing the poor women I was trying to communicate with. It was quite frustrating, but also comical. Considering the days prior all I could do was laugh at myself along with them. Oh well. So goes life as the "humble" preachers wife.

Skye (the girl I'm helping take care of) has come to Beacon Kidz the last couple of weeks and came over last night for her first extended visit in our home. She's a very outgoing little girl and incredible easy to take care of and get along with. She has swimming 2x/week in bloomington at ISU. Last night we went to Bloomington for her hour and a half long swim session. I forgot how much I hate bleachers, though it really made me want to jump in the pool, I love swimming. It caused me to think back to my own days on swim teams and lessons. As much fun as that was I think I'll be using that time to go to the store or go to a coffee shop. :)

On the way home last night...in the middle of a massive thunderstorm...one of my windshield wiper broke. Unfortunately it was the one I needed to work in order to be able to see, fortunately I was just outside of Wapella when that happened. James isn't too happy about having to fixing it. I need to go to the Gym today and am all ready to go, but the rain froze on the winshield and the wipers are stuck in place. We love our new car, but the wipers don't mix well with ice. We've replaced them a few times already this year, so I'm just gonna let James mess with them later. That's the man's job anyway, right!?! :) At least it is in this house.

James wants you all to know that he went for a ride in the firetruck and is now an official firefighter... even though they didn't let him go in the house that was on fire... :)
He is super excited about that.

Time to get to work... talk to you all later.

Complete Chaos

Hi Everybody,

I thought I'd take a moment to give you all a picture of what my life looks like at the moment. Are you ready for this...

Complete Chaos characterizes my life at the moment. I have five weeks to finish this awful thesis. In the far chair are the books that have been used for the first half of the third chapter (which is done for the time being), the pile of papers on the table is only one pile of many spread throughout the house of notes and articles and writing. This particular pile is for the second half of the third chapter (the chapter from hell). There is a book under that stack entitled You Just Don't Understand... it's about the communication differences between men and women. It not only relates to my thesis, but my marriage...but that's another matter for another time. The 2 stacks of books are waiting for my eager (not so much) hands to search through them for chapters 4 and 5 as is the stack of papers and books on first chair. the chair I sit in is padded nicely cause I spend so much time in front of the slowest laptop on earth and my butt gets incredibly sore, not to mention my back. I haven't even gotten to the vast amount of articles and word documents on my computer. Fortunately Chapter 3 is almost done, I hope it's good enough. There have been whole books written about the amount of information I'm trying to fit into this chapter and I've read many of them. There is my never ending glass of water that is usually a cup of caffeinated tea. There is also my mp3 player cause James and I try to go to the gym 3x/week. my phone and the church phone for other business at hand. and lets not forget the never ending flow of mail on the other side of the table.

I just got home from the library at ISU. That was an adventure in and of itself that caused a slight breakdown. I didn't realize you had to pay to park at the library and I had no cash on me. So I went to the gas station only to buy gas and a drink and realize they wouldn't give me cash back so the tears that flooded only a few hours earlier came back and I drove to another gas station and pulled myself together enough to go in and ask for change back...and had to buy a candy bar to do it... so all in all a free trip to the library cost me $10 in gas, 1.50 in pop, a candy bar and 2.50 in parking... not so free, but at least it was productive.

I think the life changes and challenges of the last few months have come to a head and I think my stress level hit the roof about 5 o'clock yesterday when I got home from the library in Lincoln yesterday and my poor husband got the brunt of it, when he only deserved a little of the hostility radiating from my body and lungs. Oh well, I have at least one major breakdown in the writing process of every paper. I just hope this one has run its course for the week.

I really needed to get all that out. Thanks for listening...if you are still with me there's a few things you can pray for if you would like: diligence, clarity of thought, focus, endurance, understanding and sanity are just a few of the things this household needs for the remainder of this thesis. :)

Ski Trip

I don't have too much to update and I don't have any new pictures so not much is new. We're doing well. My thesis is coming along. I'm halfway done with it. I'm working on it this morning and then I have to get ready for Bible Study this afternoon. We've started working through the minor prophets. Tonight we wrap up Hosea. What an incredible little book. The wrath, pain, and sorrow of God over the sins of His people really penetrate that story. I can't imagine living back then, but then again, our culture is so similar in so many ways to that culture.

We just got back from our annual ski trip with the youth group. I wish I had pictures, but I forgot to take them. We were so preoccupied with having fun, that I forgot. We had a great time. There were 22 of us. 18 kids and 4 adults. We borrowed a bus from 1st Christian in Clinton so that we could all be together and headed up to Cascade Mountain. We hung out at the hotel on Sunday and went skiing all day Monday. I don't know how I did it but I bruised my left heel and it hurts like crazy. It should be fine in a couple days. This year we knew the kids a lot better than we did last year, so it was a lot easier to hang out with them. James loves skiing straight downhill on the blue hills. He likes to go downhill fast. I like the green hills... they're the ones that are fast, but less of an angle downhill...I hate hate hate going downhill fast. Big drops are not my thing, so I hung out with some of the slower skiers. We had a blast. I did absolutely nothing yesterday, I felt sick and couldn't move. I was going to go to the Gym this morning, but can't stand too well on my bruised heel... i know, i'm a sissy...and i have many excuses.

I'm also going to start watching a girl named Skye part time while her mom works. Skye is 7 and in first grade. Her dad died in December. She's a sweet little girl, we're gonna have lots of fun together. It's a good thing I don't like to talk all the time, cause she does. I'll post some pics when I get some. She and her mom live on a farm outside of town about 8 miles. They raise sheep and have lots of babies right now. I can't wait for them to take me to see them. I've never seen a real lamb before. Oh well, I think that's all for now. Time to get back to the thesis...

First Call

James got to go on his first call with the fire department today. I saw him drive by the house riding shotgun in the ambulance. It was a medical call, a little old lady was having trouble breathing. The clinton ambulance took her to the hospital. James was out the door and the first one to the fire station. He's still looking foward to his first real call to a fire where he gets to put on all his gear and ride in the fire truck. He's like a little kid in a candy store. Give James a call if you want more details. :)

It looks like I may be taking a job as a part time Nanny in the near future. There is a lady whose husband just died and needs help with her 7 yr old daughter. I've talked with her over the phone a couple times and am going to meet her and her daughter on Thursday. She seems really nice. It'll be a good oportunity to get out of the house, help someone out, minister to a hurting family, and make some extra cash all at the same time. I'm looking foward to meeting them.

I always look foward to Game Night here at the church. One of the gal's is turning 50 this week so we're gonna party tonight. It should be lots of fun. Talk to you all later, B

going to the gym

I don't know what it is about going to the gym... maybe i haven't been at it long enough, but James comes home feeling like a million bucks and i come home wanting to die. There's a machine at the gym that this one lady come in and goes to town on for about an hour. It's like an eliptical machine, but a little different. you have to go somewhat fast on it or not do it at all. I jumped on it for five minutes today and couldn't walk straight for a while. I'm determined to conquer it... i don't want to go an hour, but maybe 20 min or so. I think i might be out of shape... :) We're trying to go for an hour 3x/week. We'll see how that goes.

a volunteer what?!?!

Well. James is officially a volunteer fireman here in podunk. He went to the station today to pick up his pager that I'm told can wake the dead and to get his gear in order. He's not had any training yet, they just told him that when the pager goes off he's supposed get to the fire house, put his gear on, and wait to get told what to do. I can't wait to get a picture of this on here for all to see. He's really excited about it, but doesn't like not knowing what to do. He'll get training, but I guess when its volunteer training is not a must. Oh well. I told him he can't run into any burning buildings... fortunately for us... we don't have too many of those. This will be a great way for him to get to know some of the men in town. It seems like everybody our age is on the fire department and doesn't go to church. When all you've got is Casey's, the Post Office, and 3 bars it's kinda hard to meet people. How you supposed to reach out when you never cross paths.

He's preaching on prayer this Sunday. He spent all of yesterday afternoon typing up a list of everybody in town so that he can start praying for them. He's really getting a fire going for this town and that's good to see. If I could get one going that would be good, I've been kinda ho-hum lately. He's been reading 12 pages a day in his Bible. He's trying to get the whole thing read in under 100 days. I've fallen a little behind since I don't read as much as he does. He's into Deuteronomy and I'm still in Exodus. I'll catch up... in a few months.

We've started a study in 3 of the minor prophets for ladies Bible study so that's where my reading has been. James is going to try a men's bible study as well next month. Hopefully he'll have a good turn out for that. Evidently they haven't tried a men's bible study before. I love the fact that he doesn't have to drive to lincoln every day for class this semester. His stress level has been way down which has been super nice and we've had more time to do other things. The youth group is finally warming up to us and relaxing around us and starting to open up to us. That's also super nice. Sometimes we wonder what we're supposed to be doing, but it seems like we're doing well for the time being. God IS Good!