Up to Our Eyeballs?

Today at church, we got asked to do things this afternoon by three different groups of people: "Wanna hang out at John's tonight? We'll have pizza". "Hey, we're having people over after church - you should come!" "So we're going to start playing volleyball after the service at our church. Y'all should join!"

As it turns out though, we're making an effort to not make plans on Sundays.

The reason is because we want a day that's focused. A day to be able to say no and not feel bad about it. A day to spend in reading and quiet things. A day to refresh before the week hits full force. So we're spending it that way. With studying for class (Carson's landed himself some pretty reading-heavy profs), studying the Bible, talking, hanging out. Spending time together, with God, and with books.

So far, we've gone to Costco (Moody has all sorts of discounted memberships to things so we joined for 1/2 price... and yes, Becca, I got the hummus) to explore, get samples, get some lunch stuff for the week, and to enjoy the cheap food. Then we returned to the house where Carson is currently reading some Theology and Greek and I'm looking for furniture on Craigslist, new recipes, and blogging. Later, we're considering a walk and we'll read some Bible.

I'm looking forward to days like this, where we're not up to our eyeballs in commitments and we can just sort of decompress from the week's schedule.

Breathe.

Also, in case you didn't notice - the picture above (from our last moving trip) is the illustration for the "busy" thing. Get it? 

a little paint

We're moving into our new apartment this weekend, so we have no pictures of that establishment.  

Until then, remember this? 

(our first day in Naches, June 2)

Well, since the summer has progressed, it's improved in appearance. 

This is what it looks like now.

(our last day in Naches, August 22)

So much more like home. Who would have thought a little paint could go so far?!

baby

This is one of my very favorite pictures. 

Abishai was 12 days old at the time - 4th of July weekend.

Carson held him a lot. It surprised me a little bit. 

I love the contrast of the big strong arms holding up the little helpless baby. 

And the way they're both studying one another.

good to be back.

We sat in a crowded church sanctuary this morning, surrounded by 400+ others, worshiping and singing and being exhorted by a message from Dr. Lewis. Today is the first day of the 2010-2011 school year for Moody-Spokane. And what a year it seems like it's going to be!

Dr. Lewis talked about the importance of not just learning at this place, but actually growing, being changed, progressing... running the race that is set before us, well. I so appreciate that this place isn't about learning a lot of stuff. It's about our hearts. It's about growing and being changed by a living God. It would be great to do that and have a 4.0 but it is most important to let the things learned in this place to sink into our hearts. Yes! That's exactly it!

We'll be living in an apartment with most of the people we're doing youth ministry with this fall (not in the same apartment, but a couple doors down) which we are greatly excited about. Got to hang out and talk with them last night and we are EXCITED! It's going to be great. We can't wait to share exactly how it's great, and to experience that ourselves.

Fall is one of my favorite seasons. It's full of change - leaves change, weather changes; everything feels crisp and fresh and just pumps you up for what's coming next. And we are excited. Excited to be in Spokane, excited to be back at Moody (I plan on doing as much Moody-related things as possible), excited to do ministry, excited to see friends and meet so many new students, excited to rejoin our church.

We're on the brink of "anything could happen" and that's so very neat. Full of imagining and what-ifs. We're excited to move just past that brink and experience this fall and life back in Spokane. Dreaming and thinking is great, but we really can't wait to get our hands dirty. Looking back will hopefully be even more wonderful than thinking about the possibilities.

It's good to be back.

busy weekend

So here's the car from our first trip. Just so you know, it usually rides a lot (well, for such a low car) higher. We loaded it down. I think it was one of the boxes of books that made it so heavy. Can't wait to see what the box of all our dishes will do. Pots and pans and ceramic dishes... not fun!

And here's all that stuff in the basement of the place we're going to live. It didn't look like so much then. But that's half our stuff. 

And here's the list of things I need to do today and tomorrow. 

The "pizza" up there is because we haven't bought any food, having a goal of not taking every morsel with us to Spokane. We're down to pasta with no sauce, popcorn, tortillas and salad dressing. I have a good imagination, but not good enough to make something out of those things. So we're breaking down and getting a take-and-bake pizza for dinner. We apparently haven't eaten pizza since we've been married because we also need to buy a pizza cutter.  

Lots to do in the next two days! We head over on Sunday afternoon.

And for good measure, we'll add a picture of the pie I made last week. It tasted better than it looks (Carson likes the criss-cross top) and I'm proud because I made the crust without a recipe... a big deal for me!

New Address

We're in the process of moving! We moved a carload to Spokane yesterday and we'll be squeezing everything else into the Civic on Sunday for the real move! I meant to bring the camera cord along to show you what half of our possessions look like stuffed in a Civic (it's funny - bikes on top and everything) but I forgot the cord. I WILL share though.

Meanwhile, our house looks strange, missing things. Our dinners for the week are also strange - we're eating as much of the food in our kitchen as we can so that we don't have to bring it. Bizarre combinations.

AND, (this is only exciting to me) Carson got a haircut while we were in Spokane. He looks more like the picture below once again. No more shaggy hair!

So it's our last week in Naches. Sad but also exciting. We LOVE Spokane and look forward to going back to Moody and back to our friends and church and all the things we love there. Plus, our apartment will have internet. This will make communication more frequent :)

Here's our new address for all those interested (click on it to make it bigger):

Happiest Returns of the Day

Oh my, it's that time again. Time to wish another lovely person a happy birthday! 

Emily is a dear, dear friend. We became friends over a broken spatula in writing class, which is a story in itself, and have remained friends and grown closer over the years. I've known this wonderful lady since we were quite small, but it wasn't until high school that I actually had the privilege of becoming close to her. 

She's off to Colorado next month, and I'm over in Washington, so we're thankful for cell phone service, Skype and a host of other modes of communication. 

Happiest returns of the day, my dear!