Grad School

Decisions, decisions -- that's the story of the past few weeks.

There are several big things in our life right now. The biggest one that consumes a great deal of our thinking is grad school. Carson applied to fifteen schools for the fall. FIFTEEN.

In the past week, we've been receiving responses. For the sake of keeping you updated, here are the schools that have said "Yes!":
Trinity Western University (Langley, BC, Canada)
George Fox Divinity School (Portland, OR)
Wheaton College (Wheaton, IL)
Marquette University (Milwaukee, WI)
St. Louis University (St. Louis, MO)
Candler Divinity School (the Divinity School of Emory University: Decatur, GA)
Duke (Durham, NC)

And the no:
University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill, NC)
Brandeis University (Boston, MA)
Catholic University of America (Washington DC)
Notre Dame (South Bend, IN)

And there are a couple of others that we don't know about yet but they're not really important ones.

The number one choice was Notre Dame. Carson could tell you all about why. He was so passionate about that school and the program they had. He was super excited about the possibility of going there and as he got acceptances from other good schools, he was encouraged and thought that maybe he'd get in. Chances were slim (almost 200 applicants and only 10 get in) but if God wanted him there, then he'd get in.
It's on the "No" list so you know what happened there. He found out the day before my birthday. It was the very last school to contact him.

The list of schools we'll actually go to is smaller than the list of acceptances. We can't really afford just any school, so if an assistantship position was not offered or a stipend was not given, the schools won't really be considered. We're waiting to find out which schools want to offer money right now.

But one of the reasons I'm sharing this is because so much of the family and friends we'd like to keep informed is forever away. So this is for you.

And by the way, we're excited for the possibility of being closer to the east coast. Every place we get accepted I look at the driving distance between that place and Beaufort. 16 hour drive? Woohoo! 11 hours? Yes! 5 hours? Please! So I guess this is also teaching us perspective :)

Please pray about these schools with us.
Pray that if we should take out a loan to go to a certain school, that it would be clear.
Pray for our finances (moving this summer, finding a place, rent in a new city, renting a moving truck)
Pray for logistics (moving, housing, etc)
Pray for peace and continued trust in the Lord (Philippians 4:6-7)
Pray that if we're supposed to take a totally different path, that it would also be abundantly clear.

Thank you dear friends for coming on this journey with us. It's been so neat to see God working through this application process. I know so many were praying and fasting with us each week in light of this school thing. So neat to see the body of Christ work in that way even though it's all over the country/world. Keep us in your prayers!

Scott's Birthday

 Today, my little brother is seventeen. 

This seems ridiculous to me, because I definitely remember when he looked like this: 

And now he looks more like this: 

(except this picture was taken in December 2010 so he looks even older!)

With my sister and Mom last summer:

Scott, we love you and can't wait to see you (in MAY!)

Hope your 17th birthday is spectacular! Cannot believe that you are so incredibly old now!

Miss you! Happy Birthday!!!

Green.

Happy St. Patrick's Day! 

In honor of this holiday, our apartment has become covered with shamrocks. They're on mirrors, windows, lamps... I cut them out of various sheets of green cardstock I had sitting around and let me tell you - that is NOT an easy shape to freehand. 

And the other thing we did to "celebrate" this holiday is to buy a Shamrock Shake at McDonald's.

 Yum! 

Green nails ("Mint" from Forever 21)

Lucky Charms... purchased especially for this holiday

Maybe this green headband I got for Valentine's Day (it's pretty ruffly so I don't know)

And of course wearing green. No pinches for us! :)

I'll be thinking of other ways to incorporate green into our day today. I think I have some green jello in the cabinet and I'm pretty sure green salad would make a lovely green dinner :)

flower power

I pinned this pillow recently. I liked the cluster of flowers against the linen background. 

It seemed so springy and happy and pretty and I wanted to make it. 

But I didn't have any linen and since we're hoping to move soon, spending money on linen isn't in the budget. 

Bummer. 

And then I remembered the disaster pillow from six months ago

(click here for a reminder)

So I went digging for it (it was with linens that aren't being used... we don't have a linen closet so I keep them in a bag under the bed... whatever works, right?) and pulled it out. 

Not the biggest fan of the fabric all by itself because I prefer more of a pattern but I wasn't being too picky. 

So I pulled it out and started sewing flowers on. 

The flowers were really easy to make. They'd be a fun thing to do during a movie (which is what I did) because they're simple and keep your hands busy. That's when I do most projects... otherwise I'd sit in front of a movie and eat or read a magazine article or paint my nails. I don't like to watch a movie and do nothing at all.

 For most of them I cut three concentric circles and held the edges near a candle flame to burn them and made them curl (too close and yes, they catch on fire). Then I just sewed them onto the pillow. 

The other flowers (the ones that look more like roses) are a bit more difficult to get the hang of, but they're quicker to make (no burning or cutting!). I did find a tutorial online, just by googling, but the process is similar to this, just with ribbon or a thin strip of fabric instead of paper.

So, yeah. That's all. Just wanted to share how I turned my own crummy project into something a little more beautiful :) 

A Family Wedding

As you know by now, we attended Savannah and Jordan's wedding this past Saturday. It was a full weekend, very busy with lots of last-minute things to do, but I think that makes a wedding more fun. The busyness adds to it, somehow. 

Now for pictures.

On Friday night, Carson and I attended the rehearsal dinner. Carson was the officiant for the wedding, so we attended not so much as family but as wedding party. Everyone wore name tags. Ours said "Pastor" and "Wife of Pastor Carson" respectively. They made us laugh because everyone just assumed that he was the pastor of a church. 

This is Savannah, the lovely bride, and me. This was on my birthday... don't I look so much older? ;)

On Saturday, I headed up to Seattle bright and early with Carson's aunt and uncle (the parents of the bride) to help set up for the wedding. I didn't set up one thing, but I did take pictures of the getting ready process...  the bridal party getting ready, chairs and lights being put in exactly the right spot, the rehearsal (the wedding was an hour north of where everyone lives so they did a day-of rehearsal)...

This was the venue: The EM Fine Arts Gallery. It was small but really perfect. An elegant and modern setting for their evening wedding. 

The gorgeous dress

The gorgeous bride

The cake! I walked past the kitchen and someone was just piping away in there... I'm not sure if they were a professional or not, but doesn't it look amazing? The rose petals are sugar.

Last-minute adjustments...

Pretty sure Carson should just buy his very own tux and wear it all the time... don't you agree?

Carson with his aunt Shannon (mother of the bride). Her dress looked very "Jane Austen"

A terrible picture of Savannah's bridal party... loved the mismatched dresses...various shades of gray, with silver shoes.

Jordan and Matthew, the ring bearer

Just before she became a Mrs!

As said before, Carson officiated the wedding. I'd heard his message earlier in the week, but it was even better hearing it during the ceremony. He presented the gospel clearly and it was a very God-honoring ceremony.

Signing the marriage license...

The Bay family at the reception... minus Erin and the girls

First dance

The wedding didn't start till 7:30pm so we left well before the bride and groom to make the hour drive back to Olympia. I know they left with sparklers and I'm sure it was gorgeous. The food was tasty, the cake equally so, and the dancing was fun to watch. We enjoyed the wedding and hope that they are enjoying their first week as husband and wife!

birthday celebrations

I turned 23 this past Friday. We were in Olympia for Carson's cousin's wedding so it was overshadowed (in a good way) by that event :) 

On Thursday, we spent the day in Seattle with Carson's brother and then the family came over that evening for cupcakes. Carson made Stuffed Shells for my birthday dinner.  

Later that evening, I blew out 23 candles (incredibly difficult on a cupcake stand... my wish won't come true now) 

On my birthday, 

I saved most of the gifts that I got in the mail to open on my actual birthday (except Brooke's... I opened that while Carson was cooking the night before), so that was fun. I'd saved my gifts from Nana and Grandmamma and Granddaddy for that day. I didn't take a picture :(

The rest of the day was not very birthdayish but very fun. I went shopping and ran last minute wedding errands with Savannah (the bride). We went all over and even got our nails done. 

That night, Carson and I attended the rehearsal dinner. 

From Brooke :)

This is skipping the rest of the weekend, but when we got home from Olympia on Sunday night, I opened the three huge packages from Amazon sent by my parents.  Lots of baking things! 

All in all, a pretty great birthday!

Just Sweet

I help out for the Sunday School hour nursery every week at church. Carson and I are in there together sometimes. He and I love it and the babies love us... but mostly him. Right before I took this picture, there were four or five of them climbing on or around him.

All I wanted was to share this one :)