Date Night: Pig Out in the Park

Spokane has a lot of community events. One of those is Pig Out In the Park, held the week before Labor Day and ending that weekend. Riverfront Park downtown is filled with booths from local restaurants and caterers offering food.

It's free to walk around, but the food isn't free, and of course with all sorts of yummy smells, the wallet eventually comes out. 

So we went for date night the Thursday before Labor Day.

A huge truck in the parking lot (we live so close to the park that we just walked over)

Carson's first Gyro... so good!

Enjoying.

After the gyro, we enjoyed a lemon-lime Sno-Cone.

[and then an Elephant Ear... but you didn't need to know that]

[yum.]

News

 Carson's doing well, if you're wondering. Studying like crazy, working at Super Supplements part time and several weekly hours as a TA. He took a Psychology CLEP test a couple of weeks ago and aced it (of course!) so he's prepping for more CLEP tests. We're both cleaning the church a total of ten hours a week for our rent.

Anyway, I wanted to let you know that I finally have a job! It's a huge relief to be free from the hunt. I haven't actually started; my first day is Tuesday, but the job is mine. It's at White House Black Market. Retail was the last thing I wanted to do, but not too many places are hiring so I'm glad to get this! It's a smaller environment than the last retail job I worked so I think I'll like it better.
Note: Forgive the name; it's a clothing store. That's why the link is included. I'm not involving myself in criminal anything :)

And the second piece of news... I applied for a Pell Grant! Financial aid, that is. And I have been given a pretty decent sum so if things keep going the way they're going, it looks like I will join Carson in going back to school as early as January! Though I'd really thought about getting my associate's degree in Biblical Studies, I've discovered that I really do enjoy school, and since I'm only three semesters from graduating, I really want that Bachelor's degree (it's in Intercultural Ministry). I'm hoping to finish everything by next Spring, so I'll really only be a year behind my original graduation date.

joy: for a reason.

[Okay, if you know anything about me at all, it's that I love re-reading old journals. Honestly, and not pridefully at all, I'm encouraged and reminded of God's truths when I do read what I've penned before. With that in mind, I thought I'd share something from this past March.

Obviously the last couple of paragraphs are dated, but I included them as I typed this out because I thought it was important to have that illustration. Because I know I need to be reminded of this ALL the time. I probably even struggled with it today.]

The more I've considered it, the more I've realized that we are where we are for a reason. We came to Washington for a year, semester, bachelor's degree, marriage certificate (...). But the thing is, God has us here. Something in our lives made us apply, got us here and got us through the semester. Whatever we did before and whatever will happen when we leave isn't the point.  The point is, I am in Washington.

I came up with a cheesy but workable illustration of a book. Let's go ahead and call God the Author (and perfecter!) of the this story. Anyway, it's organized into chapters. there are seasons. There's childhood, initial faith in Christ, first steps in following Him, high school, different towns and homes - things we've done for a portion or chunk  of our lives - small eras to reminisce about. Far too many of us are trying to read the previous chapter and the current one at the same time. We want to re-read that - but the story goes on. The character in a book does new things, "Finds herself", makes amazing friends at school not better than but just as great as those at home, and actually LIVES her life. 


God has us where we are without accident. He's not even a little bit shocked about it, and has brought us here.  To live vicariously through chapter one when chapter four is going on doesn't work. It doesn't allow God to work the same way. It's selfish.

I'm writing this down partly because we talked through this last night, and partly because it came to mind today. It's March 10th, I'm getting married May 22nd, and I really want it to come. But that's a little over 2 months. And I'm not married right now. I'm in Olympia with Carson's parents, engaged. I am HERE without accident. I know this. 

Knowledge is power. I want to use that power with excellence, wisely. Since I know I'm here on purpose, I ned to live AND think that way. I can prepare for marriage without neglecting my time here. As far as chapters go, this is a short one. I really see God using the short length to test my patience shorter-term and refine my contentedness in Him.
Not that I speak from want, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am. I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity; in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and of going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.
Philippians 4:11-13

old friends, new places (in life)

You remember this friend, don't you? 

First roommate in Spokane, one of my best friends out here...

Molly!

Why, yes, we do see each other occasionally.

We went out to lunch last week, I showed her the new apartment, and we talked all things wedding. 

Because she's getting married in January! 

So fun "catching up" with old friends... who aren't even really old friends. 

It's just that so much has happened in the TWO years we've known each other that it seems like a very long time. 

Bible Study Methods

I've realized that this blog has been remarkably silent on the "What we're learning" front. That ought not to be!

Since we've been married, we read a Proverb a day to correspond with the date. So many things that stick out each time we read that even though we're reading the same verses month by month, we're constantly noticing new things.

We're also reading through the Old Testament, slowly (we're in Numbers).

BUT, we've been feeling a little dis-unified in our devotion times together. We both want to benefit, but to be honest, just reading alone was a little dry for us. We prayed about it, and Carson came up with this idea: Applications.

In Old Testament Survey (the class he's the TA for), the students are required to do "applications". They're 1 page papers that basically compile the basics from a study on a passage. There's an interpretive summary of the passage, a very clear, concise "big idea", and an application based on that.

So we've been doing that for the past two days. We read a passage of Scripture (we're going to start with Numbers, chapter-by-chapter for the OT and 2 Corinthians, passage-by-passage for the NT) and then discuss it, pray about it, understand what it's saying, write a summary, big idea, and personal application.

We've only done this two days so far but it's been really great. I recommend it.

What do you do for Bible study, personally or as a family?

House Pictures!

The chaos... the day we moved in. Boxes, stuff everywhere... kinda junky.

And now for pictures of what the place looks like, tidy, unpacked and mostly organized 

(I think it looks pretty decent - we did move here only 2 days ago!) We had friends over for dinner last night or else it would probably be messy still. 

The hallway, from our apartment door.

The front door itself, from the inside. Carson hung up our bulletin board for keys and things and his old roomie gave us this shoe rack. The baseball bat is there for protection purposes (it was in our house this summer too... don't worry, we'll probably never use it)

The living room. It's seriously about the same size as our house this summer. That's really not saying a lot because if you recall, that place wasn't so big. 

But this big empty room will hopefully be (Goodwill) furnished soon. The chairs were Carson's from way back, and the lamp was in one of our houses before we were married. We bought a bookshelf yesterday to hold some (not even close to ALL) of our books. Carson was studying for Greek here. He probably didn't even know I took a picture. 

I will post pictures of the view outside those windows. We get a great sunset and have a pretty neat view of South Spokane.

The kitchen. Love the kitchen. I already covered the fridge in pictures. It's a happy kitchen now.

The other side of the kitchen - lots of cupboards for storing things! And a stove with a sticker reminding us to stop animal cruelty. And tile counters. And things you'll recognize from our old house.

Our room - with a mattress that is NOT sitting on the floor and is SO comfy. And more cabinets. The folding door goes into the bathroom.

The closet. A real, true closet that is not one rod and one shelf. Bliss. It's small too, but I seriously can't complain.

The bathroom! We're going to put actual stuff on the shelf below the sink (which I proudly assembled myself...) because storage is limited in there. It's on the small side but I still love it. And although I was very happy that we had so many shelves in the bathroom in our last place, I'm glad that this bathroom is being used as ONLY a bathroom, not a place for extra storage.

So, that's our home! The outside is ugly, run down and a little scary looking so unless you're dying to see it, I wasn't planning on including a picture. It's honestly not in the best part of town (not the worst either, fyi) so I guess it will never be pretty. But we don't live on the outside so who cares?

We keep laughing because this apartment is quite tiny, as far as housing goes. But because our house this summer was VERY small, the apartment feels very large. It's really great to have a living room to keep the books and things in and not have to hang out in the bedroom or kitchen all the time. We call it our mansion sometimes. Realistically, I think it's the smallest of the apartments I've lived in. 

Perspective - a great thing :)

Different Stages

I had two conversations recently that were such a contrast that they made me laugh. One was with a recently married friend (all my married friends are in that category so it could be anyone) and a friend I used to live with:

Conversation with married friend: furniture, decorating, babies, prices of things, menus, our weddings, men (husbands)

Conversation with unmarried friend: school, summer, reminisce a bit, future plans, boys, things we should do this semester, roommates

It's funny to me how we talk as we go through different stages of life. I still have so many things in common with people who aren't married, but I associate with people who are on a common level now too. I remember my mom talking about things with her friends that I thought were way boring (furniture set-up? Who cared?) and now I find myself doing the same with my friends. I had an actual exciting conversation about Crock-Pots the other day.

It's kind of fun... I love that I'm not "past" that stage of life but that I can totally appreciate the newly married side of life and the not-married side.

ps- Carson bought our first piece of real furniture yesterday. And yes, I'm much more excited than I would have been a few months ago!