Seminary Wife Reporting for Duty

Adrian has officially started seminary. And since it's seminary, it took about 3 seconds to have massive amounts of homework and reading assigned. Somehow, that little fact didn't quiiite compute in my mind last week, so when Adrian came home from his first day of classes, I was excited to celebrate, talk about them, hang out, and he was freaked out and ready to study all night. Needless to say, that night didn't go so well.

But now, Adrian is at his fourth day of classes, and I've got a couple things I've realized I need to figure out for the these next couple of years. 1) How to entertain myself, and 2) How to get Adrian to remember his lunch.

Starting with number 2 first: I opened the fridge this morning and for the third time, found Adrian lunch sitting in the fridge exactly where I put it after packing it the night before. I find this somewhat hilarious, since Adrian has been packing and taking his lunch for months to work, but somehow the switch to a school has made him like food is unnecessary. This is a very interesting situation, folks, and I'm quite confuzzled by it.

Back to number 1: I work from home, so my days have already been spent almost entirely by myself. I wake up, I walk, I read, I work, I take care of the house, run errands, make dinner, wait for my husband to come home. But now, while we get some time together when he comes home, he then needs to study for a while and I don't have much interest in spending more time alone. So... I'm trying to figure that situation out. So far, someone has kindly suggested I use that time in the evenings to talk to people on the phone and catch up on correspondence, which I somehow had not thought of and was a welcome idea. Any more? I feel like I'm going to have a lot of time to myself these days... of course, you're always welcome to keep me company :)

Balloon above our driveway yesterday morning.

The Hunt

Our car struggled to make it's way to the top of hill, i.e. incredibly steep driveway. We still couldn't see the house, just as we hadn't been able to spot it on our drive-bys. As the front of the Honda crested the driveway, we stopped. There before us sat what one might term shacks. They looked wooden. They looked...tilted. They looked hilarious. "We have to go back," Adrian decided. "Too late," I said, pointing to what we assumed was the owner standing at the top of the driveway, waving.

Struggling not to be consumed by laughter, we drove slowly towards the man, wondering how we could seriously do this. Turns out it was a bit difficult. We climbed the rickety stairs (the hand railing moved in my hand), up to the apartment above the garage. It was large, something several of the places we had seen had not been. But it was not much of anything else.

We quickly looked through the bedroom and bathroom, as I evaluated things in my mind. It could work, I thought, with some help. It needed paint, new blinds, new light fixtures, (new stairs)...I walked into the kitchen and noticed the stove was duct taped (duct taped!). I worked to keep a straight face as I asked, "Does the stove work?" "On and off," was the the reply. "But I just bought this new microwave grill," he said as he pulled it out to show me. Much to my surprise it literally was a microwave and a grill. "But does the oven work?" "Well...there's this grill...And let me show you the storage area!"

We followed him down those stairs once more and looked for some sort of storage unit. "It's right there, hold on," we were told. Waiting, laughter was struggling not to explode from my lips. It couldn't wait much longer once I turned around and the man was holding a cordless drill, going to town on the screws holding up large pieces of plywood on the side of the garage. Turn out they concealed the "storage unit" and he could even "lock it back up" for us, by re-screwing the plywood I assumed. This, friends, is what you get for going to look at places listed on Craig's List as "rustic."

Thankfully, our story has a happy ending. But it set us up to be a bit cynical. We had been praying for a little place we could live that would be affordable, would have a place I could garden and have a piano, would have enough room and storage for all our things, would have places for us to go on walks, and would let us have people over to our house. We had seen several places off Craig's List that were fine, but not quite right either in terms of price or size or location. We had also looked at apartments, which seemed like they would work.

And then one night we went to look at yet another random Craig's List posting that couldn't send us pictures, but wasn't too far from us. We drove up and, again, Adrian said, let's turn back. The driveway was beat up, the house looked like a mobile home. It wouldn't be what we wanted. But it was. It turns out, even though the house is older, it's clean and kept up (necessary repairs are made and things have been replaced!), it's got a good amount of storage (cupboards, shelves, laundry room storage, bathroom cabinets), it's on two and half acres (there's a place for me to garden, there's fruit trees and animals), and most of all, the lady who owns it is extremely kind -- and a Christian!

We're quite excited as we have picked out paint and are going to paint the place next week and move in at the end of the month. We have no idea what it will be like to live there, but we know God has kindly heard our prayers and we look forward to seeing what he has in store for us here. Thankfully, the hunt is over.

P.S. Feel free to come help us paint or move if you have some extra energy! :)

Anniversary Celebration

So thankful for one year of marriage! To celebrate, we headed up to Big Bear Thursday evening after work, hung out all day Friday, and came back Saturday afternoon. It was perfect. We had a cute little cabin equipped with a kitchen, so we could cook all our own food, went for a night walk by the lake and stood looking at the soft-moving reflections of the setting sun, went kayaking on in the late morning sun, hiked an "easy" trail (made difficult only by altitude), watched Casablanca (Adrian for the first time!), and read, read, and read some more. Loveliness. God has been so good to us.

Kayaking on Big Bear Lake

Wonderful day!

Our little cabin

Adrian grilling our anniversary steaks.

On our actual anniversary, we headed to Petco Park for a Padre's game (my first!) with the Reilly family. (We didn't purposefully plan to go on our anniversary, it was just the only day that worked for all of us :)

Petco Park

Some of the Reillys...some of whom are looking at the camera.

Happy to be sitting under a warm blanket on a cold night, watching baseball.

Oh, one wonderful part of this weekend that I haven't added yet is that I discovered a lovely new cd that I love! "Jenny and Tyler" are a husband and wife duo who sing fantastic music -- check 'em out!

Summer Days

In case you hadn't heard from us, we're spending this summer on a vineyard. Housesitting, more or less, for just three months. Most of us our stuff is in storage and we're looking for a place to move come August.

But for three lovely months, we're living across from hills, running in the cool morning air, and watching the sunset.

The move was kind of (totally) crazy. I was really stubborn and didn't want to start packing up all of our stuff until I had to (wanting to enjoy every last possible moment in our first little home), but I kind of underestimated how soon "had to" kicked in. After Adrian being out of town for a week, Jana's graduation, sickness, and three days in Mexico, I sort of stumbled my way through packing for three days before the big move.

But we made it, thanks mainly to the help of the sisters-in-law (Jana and Lauren, who helped save me from my mess).

And now we're stumbling our way through someone else's stuff, and hoping lots of people come visit us out here this summer.

Across the Sea

It was pretty spontaneous. I said, "We should go somewhere!" And Adrian said, "Where?" On a whim we looked up ticket prices. We were surprised how small the numbers were. We said, "Maybe we really should go somewhere." So we did.

A few short weeks later, we were on our way to Ireland. An Adventure. A Gift.
The funny thing is that somehow in the midst of packing, and last minute hotel-booking, and my incessant need for research, I think I forgot a couple of things. 1) It was a gift, 2) It wouldn't fulfill me.

It sounds simple. But the first couple of days were really hard for me. I had said I would be carefree and adventurous, but when I insisted on walking until finding the pub I had my list that e needed to visit, or when I walked up and down the street fearful of missing our bus, or when we actually did miss our bus the next day, or when we were standing in the rain being smashed by people trying to get a picture of who-knows-what parade float, I did not remember it was a gift. I remembered that I couldn't let things get out of control. That I had a plan. That my plan had a plan (probably). And then God totally blinded me with breathless beauty and tore me apart.



I've been thinking about this trip today, because it seems to be the story of my life (the controlling planning anyway). Today I'm remembering the good gifts of our trip to Ireland.

• A bed and breakfast in Dublin with lots of character (squeaky floors, small silver tea pots, long hallways, a bright blue door)
• Wandering around Trinity College at night
• Touring the Guinness Storehouse and learning all about the process of making beer
• Eating fresh fish and chips on the wall outside of Christ's Church
• A beautiful wooden pub with walls of old, colored beer bottles
• Getting madly lost in the streets on Dublin
• Eating traditional Irish stew (lamb stew to die for)
• Hiking the national park - coming around the mountain bend and seeing the lakes laid out before us
• Eating many, many Cliff Bars
• A bus driver who gave us our own personal ride to where we wanted to go, since we had missed the only bus that day
• Standing cramped inside an ancient building, seeing the way the light was made to penetrate the darkness
• Long conversations on the bus, driving through the rain
• Walking along narrow roads besides pastures
• Morning light through glass doors
• Hearing the Gospel proclaimed
• Stopping to buy a picnic-worth of food
• Driving through the sunshine, coming around the corner to see green hills laid out in splendor
• A breath-taking walk, discovering a path along the lake, rainbows, sunsets over mountains
• A long pub dinner and live Irish music
• Fresh scones right out of the oven with jam and cream
• Seascape - cliffs and jagged rocks, small ocean-side towns, running breathless in the rain around a deserted castle
• A morning walk
• Castle exploration
• A hill-hike fulfillment, chasing sheep
• (See all pictures on facebook)
  

I saw and felt how little all of this did to fulfill me. I realized that if I would just take time to be thankful, I would see the graces of God around me, even in California. But I am thankful for this trip. I am thankful for our adventures. For our conversations. For the people we met. For the beauty. For the beer. For the pictures. I will hold this trip dear in my heart.