I am enjoying the long weekend. Yay for Columbus Day! We didn't have kids at school on Friday, so it was a short day with only CPR and First Aid training. I also enjoy having Mondays off, because it means that the next week is only a four day week. This week will be extra short, because we are taking the whole school (when your school only has 40 kids, it is not that big of a feat) on a field trip to a "zoo" and a nature center for the whole day. Then, next Friday, Pete and I are going to take a much needed mini vacation. We have season passes to Six Flags but have barely been this year because it is further away now that we have moved. So, we are going to go on Friday, spend the night, and go on back to the park Saturday. I am very much looking forward to our mini getaway!

Popeye, Shrek, and the Rep

Things have been quite busy since my last post. The weekend of September 10-12 was the Popeye Picnic in town. I don't think we will ever spend that much time at this particular festival ever again. (I wound up spending almost 15 hours there over the weekend, and Pete pulled in a good 17.) One of the highlights of the weekend was the 5K run/competitive walk. We didn't think we were quite in shape enought to do the run, so we did the walk. We both ended up coming in second in our age group (although I had more people in my age group to compete against than Pete did). It was good exercise and a good motivation to be ready to do the run next year. (Oh, and we got trophies, too! My students thought it was great.)
Last Friday we went up to St. Louis to go see Shrek the Musical. They changed it quite a bit from the Broadway show, and it was abit of a disappointment. But, it was nice to be able to eat dinner at a Bread Co. (Panera) and do a little shoe shopping in a place that actually has multiple good eateries and stores to shop in. (Boy, I never thought that I would consider St. Louis the fun place to be!) This Friday we will be back in St. Louis to go to the St. Louis Repratory Theater's production of You Can't Take It With You. We plan on getting sushi for dinner (something you definately cannot get here), and hopefully spending time with some friends.
As a side note, the senior pastor at our church declined the call he had received, so there are no major changes there for now.

Moving at Light Speed

Life has been running a million miles an hour, and I'm not quite sure when it will stop. School has started, which means I am busy teaching 1st and 2nd graders all day long, while trying to meet the often very diverse needs I am finding in my classroom. For Pete, the start of school means the start of confirmation class every morning, on top of everything else. Oh, and should I mention that the senior pastor received and is considering a call to another congregation? The boxes still aren't unpacked, although we do have a workable guest bedroom. (Now we just need to get the boxes from the guest bedroom unpacked instead of simply moved to another room.) I've already gotten a little more of the cabinet harware for our kitchen cabinets installed today, and hope to get that at least close to finished. Oh, did I mention we will have company coming into town both next weekend and the weekend after? So, there is some pressure to get the house looking more presentable.
In the midst of all of this chaos, my confirmation verse has been sticking out in my head - "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want." (Psalm 23:1) I need to trust in God and his guidance, even when life is crazy.

When It Rains, It Pours

Things have been crazy since Pete's ordination. The realities of life have hit us with full force. First, our oven broke. We were making dinner before last Saturday evening's service, and it came out a bit burnt. I figured that the oven just ran a bit hot. About half an hour after dinner was over, we realized that the oven was still running, even though I had turned it off. It simply wouldn't turn off and got hotter and hotter until we turned off the breaker. When we turned the breaker back on, the oven automatically started heating up again. So, we are not able to use our oven. Hopefully our new oven will arrive this weekend so that we can do normal cooking again instead of having to use the microwave.
The check engine light in my car has been for about 2 weeks. Then, on Sunday, the check oil light kept going on and off, even though I had had an oil change less than 2 months ago. So, before we wasted the money titling the car in our new state and putting even more money into my car, we decided that we needed to buy a new one, especially since I have a pretty long commute and need to drive to Cincinnati this weekend for a wedding. So, today we spent about 5 hours car shopping, and I wound up with a new car. So, in the past month, we've bought a house, a fridge, a stove, and a car. I hope the big purchases stop there.

It finally happened

Around 4 o'clock yesterday, I became a pastor's wife. It is official.

Trying to move in

We have all of the boxes inside of our new house (except for a couple my mother-in-law is bringing this weekend). However, very few of them are unpacked. Our cabinet doors and kitchen walls are still being painted (the walls by a professional painter in the congregation). We do have TV service, phone, and internet, even though we don't have any doors on our cabinets. We are having family and a few friends over on Saturday evening, so I really hope that we can get at least enough unpacked so that people can have a place to sit and walk around!
People are coming into town because Pete's ordination is on Sunday! We are both very excited. It's also kind of fun to have people start referring to my husband as "Pastor." However, this is a small town, and the rumor mill about us has already started. When new neighbors who are not members of the church have heard the untrue gossip, you know that it's bad. For the other pastor's wives out there, how do you handle the gossip?

Exercising My Signing Muscles

Yesterday we bought paint and cabinet hardware. Today we are packing the car with the painting supplies, an air mattress, and food that doesn't need any refrigeration, and tomorrow morning we head down to go close on our very first house. I will also open a new bank account and head down to my new school to pick up my curriculum and (hopefully) my keys. Life is changing drastically, and tomorrow seems to be an important event in that change.

Leaving on a Jet Plane

Pete and I believe that family vacation time is very important. It is important to both take a break and have dedicated family time, and also to explore the world. This year we decided to take a big trip, as it could be a few years before we will be able to take a trip of this magnitude or length again. So, two weeks ago we headed off to Great Britain. After a delayed and changed flight, we finally made it into London. We were able to spend 5 days/4 nights there and see at least some of the wonderful sights, including the Tower of London, the Royal Observatory at Greenwich, the New Globe Theater, Westminster Abbey, St. Paul's Cathedral, and the British Museum, as well as other sights. We also got to see a performance of Billy Elliot in the West End. From there we rented a car and headed to Stratford-upon-Avon to see the Shakespeare sights and saw a performance of Antony and Cleopatra by the Royal Shakespeare Company. We spent the next day at Warwick Castle before heading up to York. In York we saw Yorkminster Cathedral (which was extra fun as I had gotten to sing a Vespers service there while I was in high school), the Jorvik Viking Center, and the National Railway Museum. We then headed up to Edinburghm stopping at a Roman Fort and Hadrian's Wall. In Edinburgh we got to see the Palace of the Holyrood House, St. Giles Cathedral (which I also sang at in high school), Edinburgh Castle, Craigmillar Castle, the Scottish Museum, as well as many other places. We also got to see a military dress rehearsal for the installation of a new Governor of Edinburgh Castle, complete with pipes, drums, and military band. It was very cool.
As much fun as we had, a major theme of our vacation was getting lost. We had reserved the rental car with a GPS, however, they didn't have any GPS available. It was then a scramble to find directions (without any cell phones or internet access). After getting lost in Oxford and missing our planned upon sightseeing and dinner, we finally bought an atlas. However, it still didn't have big enough detailed maps of some of the places we needed to drive. We really learned the geography of the parts of England and Scotland we drove through! It really made me appreciate the technology we have now, and realize the need for streets to actually have street signs in visible locations. I bet there is another lesson in this experience as well...

For what it's worth, it was worth all the while

Yesterday was my husband's graduation from seminary. It has been a long, four year journey for both of us. When my husband started seminary, we were newlyweds. We lived in a small one-bedroom apartment near campus. I was afraid about making friends, as I knew no one in St. Louis. However, four years later, I am sad that the friends I have made will be moving far away and that I will be moving. Don't worry, I will not miss our current rental and am excited about the house that we are purchasing, but I will miss the convieneces of the city and the closeness of friends. I work with one of my best friends, but her last day will be on Monday, since she and her husband will also be moving to accept a call into the pastoral ministry. My godson and his wonderful parents will be moving ten hours away. Coming into seminary, we always knew that having to leave was part of God's plan. I could not have imagined, however, the friendships God has blessed me with and how hard it would be to move away from them. To all of my friends, both from seminary and from further in the past, know how much I treasure your friendship.

I Hope You Like Spinach!

I only eat my spinach raw, not out of a can, so I hope that I fit in okay. Why does this matter? My husband received his first call to be an assistant pastor in Chester, IL, the home of Popeye. Yes, the main this Chester is known for is that the Popeye cartoonist lived there. They have a Popeye festival every year, in fact. So, in a couple of months, we will be loading up a moving van and heading about 70 miles south to Chester.
While I am excited about the call, I am also nervous. Chester is different from any place I have ever lived. I am a city girl. We won't be super far from St. Louis, but the fact that I'll need to drive 45 minutes to find a Target is a bit frightening.
One of the hymns the choir sang at the call service keeps running through my head.
"Christ be my leader by night as by day,
Safe through the darkness for He is the way.
Gladly I follow my future His care.
Darkness is daylight when Jesus is there.'
Written by Christopger Dudley-Smith