One degree down, one to go! Looks like PSU was just a little backed up with transcript corrections and my English major is finally all good to go. Yaaaay PSU got something right!

Reading and Reflecting

Remaining in Christ requires us to focus on... our need to spend time being with God in silence and solitude. That may include a weekend away at a retreat center, but it need not. Our inner world can become a monastery where we sit with God in the middle of a busy life.

-Larry Crab, The Papa Prayer p 60-1

Habits (Thanks to All Who Support Us)

Being "young and in love" (Josh's parents little term for "crazy and a bit broke" I think) has its perks, but sometimes it's a little odd. We end up with lots of leftovers (not necessarily our own) in our fridge. We harass our upstairs neighbors for cooking supplies. We spend a lot of time at the library (I am putting a hold on this book). We don't wash our cars (and frequent the particular gas stations most likely to wash our windows). We drink a lot of tea (it comes in bulk at WinCo!). We spend a lot of time on the "free" section of Craig's list wishing they weren't such a long drive away or that we had a big enough house for whatever is free on any given day.
We have plenty of entertainment, though I have one complaint: not enough snowboarding. With 95 inches of snow at Timberline, snow in town and a Jeep, it's pretty tragic. At least we do have snow in town this year so we can at least see a little of it. Oh, and on the subject of snow - I'm proud to announce that Sister Maria did fine driving to church today in the inch or so of snow that we had on our street! Granted, the rest of the roads were just wet, but I'm pleased that her first experience with snow (besides being utterly buried in it) went well.

Sad

I had my 6 month ring inspection a couple of days ago (all these new things married people have to do, goodness). It was uneventful.
Yesterday, as I was squirting shampoo into my hand I discovered a crack all the way through one of the bands on my ring. Sad! Now they have taken it away for 10 days and my hand is naked. Sigh.

Ex Libris

Our "currently reading" shelf is getting a little big for its britches these days. It might look more ambitious than it actually is due to its co-function of holding library books, though. Right now we've got:
The Annotated Alice, Carroll, Gardener
Northanger Abby, Austin
The Baron in the Trees, Calvino
Coyote Frontier, Steele
Representing Women, Nochlin
Printmaking for Beginners, Stobart
Prints: Art and Techniques, Lambert
An Architectural Guidebook to Portland, King
Art in Theory: 1815-1900
Read the Bible for a Change, Lubeck
The Reason for God, Keller
The Well of Lost Plots, Fforde
and whatever it is Josh is laying on the floor reading.

Recent Revelations

So I've discovered I have an almost unhealthy love of apple cider and cornbread. It could be worse.
I have also recently discovered a ridiculous part of town called Forest Heights. If you want some entertainment, go for a drive down Cornell, take a right on Miller, and get ready for some giant houses, wild hills, and absurd sub-gated communities with weird, quasi-European themes (at least I think that's what they were going for).
This week I discovered that Portlanders, while they will keep cycling and running in fluorescent jackets, will not come out in the cold for First Thursday, and that the only way to get in to a hip martini bar where the menu is as entertaining as the beverages themselves, is to go before nine pm. ("Are we cool enough to go in there?" "Um, Yes - did you not see that old lady in there? Maybe she's rich, but we are definitely as cool.")
I also discovered in the recent past, that -with bookshelves- the more the merrier. This week we had to drive over to our storage unit (aka Emily's basement) and pick up one of ours that was lying in wait for a bigger house. Its services were needed sooner than we anticipated. Now our storage closet has shelves and our "currently reading" books have a new home - with beautifully carved details.

Readings

Josh's Sunday school class started last week.

[The goal of this class is to provide historical context (both geographical and cultural) and narrative context while following the Godʼs plan of redemption through the entire Bible. Like a giant connect-the-dots picture we will read the Bible and follow Godʼs revealed plan step-by-step. Not for the faint of heart, this series will include a syllabus, homework, further reading suggestions, and even a quiz or test (gasp). Bring a Bible, notebook, pen, and a folder for handouts.]

And, as it is not for the fainthearted, delivered, and were given homework.

For Sunday:
John 20-21
James
Ruth
Habakkuk
Daniel 9:20-27
Philippians 2:6-11
Psalm 121

Psalm 121
I lift up my eyes to the hills-
where does my help come from?
My help comes from the LORD,
the maker of heaven and earth.
He will not let your foot slip-
he who watches over you will not slumber;
indeed, he who watches over Israel
will neither slumber nor sleep.
The LORD watches over you-
the LORD is your shade at your right
hand;
the sun will not harm you by day,
nr the moon by night.
The LORD will keep you from all harm-
he will watch over your life;
the LORD will watch over your coming
and going
both now and forevermore.

Oh, and By the Way

At the end of the quarter I usually make some comment regarding my grades. I sort of got caught up in other things this year and forgot to mention it. Not that it actaully needs to or even should be said, but I suppose I'm rather vain and would like my hard work to be rewarded with little pats on the back. These were my last undergraduate grades I will ever recieve, though they do not represent the last time I will be at PSU. Actually, as a matter of fact, I'm headed there even today to continue the extended "project", if you will, of getting my transcript straightened out so I can graduate. I just discovered YET ANOTHER problem that has appeared, so I'm sure I'll be there more than once this month. But back to the matter at hand: grades. My final grades were two A's, two A-'s, and one B+. Better than I expected, to be sure!
A happy ending to a tough quarter.

Happy New Year

Bye bye! Bye bye!

Usually I don't feel obligated to write some sort of End of the Year Blog, but I think 2008 deserves it. It's been quite a year.Last New Year's we were in Portland, but just visiting. This year we're in Columbia, visiting. That's how this year started - flying back to Columbia to finish school. Then things just kept happening:
Josh graduated.
We road tripped to Portland.
Josh got a job.
We got a living situation.
We got married.
I graduated.
We came out to Columbia.
And that's just what happened directly to us - not to mention all the stuff that happened to our family and friends! Emily (both Emilys) graduated, Pamela went to Nicaragua, Alyssa moved to Oman, Nick and Liana got married... last night at Twigs and Kandace's, Twigs prayed and thanked God that we could get together and hear what God has been doing for us all in the last few months. That's pretty much all we can think of in regards to this year. It's pretty crazy. And a good thing, too, because we've got another year full of decsisions and changes.
Mmm... it has been a good year. We are celebrating by sitting on the couch together, Christmas tree on, laptops out, watching football and waiting for friends to arrive.
Happy New Year.

Snow Day

Josh is addicted to Craig's list (he protests over my shoulder). Not surprisingly, so are a lot of other people, and the cold weather keeping everyone home has resulted in TONS of adds put up today. We've checked the site a couple of times today and found that more than 100 adds have been placed in furniture since the last time we checked. Weird, too, that tons of those people seem to be in our immediate part of town. Anyway.
Though we like looking for great deals and treastures, we really just enjoy the adds. Some adds are impossible not to click on no matter what you are looking for. Beyond the really bad grammar, spelling and other weird things people do to get their add noticed, some things are just werid. Or somehow ended up with ridiculous titles.
These are some of our favorites from today:

Immaclulate Sofa - $195

Get your Tiki On with These Great Accessories - $12

**Danish Made** NOT Ikea- Glass Cabinet. Solid Cherry/Glass. STUNNING! - $550

Beautiful ANTIQUE Primitive Stepback Cupboard OLD WAVY GLASS Storage - $495

____Mushroom automan - $15

Solid Brass/Bronze Eagle - $50

cabinet hideaway foldup bed - $50 -

The Long Sad Saga of Bertha the Blue Wingback Recliner

(and just because it gets Josh everytime...):
Free Dirt -

Happy Sweater Season!

Learning R

"Ah-wer is for Wooster!"
-Lizzy

Sightings

Yesterday, while waiting for the bus, I saw two of my professors. I never see professors at the bus stop at 3:45pm. And these two professors, in particular, I have never seen outside the classroom. One, my Mark Twain prof from 3 years ago has grown his hair and beard out to be quite curly and bushy. He hopped on the 12. Then I saw Janet Cowell the awesome linguistics prof! I think she got off a bus. And busted out her industrial sized razor scooter thing and rode off toward the center of campus. It was quite entertaining.

Christmas Time!

I'm not terribly concerned about Christmas commercialism (for myself personally, as a Christian).
To take a break from paper writing yesterday, Josh and I ran out to Big Lots to buy some cheap decorations (my little gold ribbon tree!), wrapping paper, and the like. I had planned to not go out on Black Friday, but it was 5pm and I needed a break, and the craziness is mostly over by then, anyway. We got home with all our treasures and dug through the storage room for the Christmas things we had from before. We put up our beautiful new Nativity set from my parents, more candles, shiny things, and our little fake tree. Not to mention made a Christmas mix on itunes and drank hot chocolate with candy canes!
This does not bother me because we did not stress over the purchasing or putting up of the decorations. We just had fun. Christmas joy comes from Jesus, yes, but putting in a little effort to make the holiday sparkle - adding a little magic, if you will - helps me to spend a month thinking about Christmas, rather than two days, which is probably what it would be for me, if there was no big build up.
Josh is out helping to decorate at church (and yes, I am writing papers - right now!), which I'm sure is so much fun. God likes us to get together and have fun! We still have a few more presents to buy, a bunch to make, and some socks, towels and toothpaste to buy for the gifts for the homeless thing at church, and I'm excited about it. I'm also excited to sing songs about Baby Jesus with Lizzy, have time to hang out with people, and be generally exited about life.
Yay Christmas!

Shhhh... Husband Sleeping

Josh falls asleep reading Harry Potter 2

He distracts me from my homework even when he's sleeping

Winding Down

Well, I have only one more full week of classes as an undergrad. Wow. Finally. 9 papers and 2 exams to go... thank goodness for Thanksgiving break and an extra full day to write. As my poor husband will attest, I spend a lot of time sitting on the couch writing papers - and playing with these two little girls (thank goodness for technology and how it amuses all ages):

our angry faces (Bella doesn't really get it)

we all made it into the frame - amazing.

I spend most of my time with this one - she loves Photobooth (woo!), paper dolls and Pixar.

Happy Birthday, Magritte.

And thanks, Google, for the nice reminder of a great Surrealist painter's birthday (who knew how educational the internet could be).

Update

So I just realized I haven't been blogging very much recently. That probably has something to do with the fact that I write so many papers every week that I'm rather sick of writing anything at all. I've actually started writing blog posts and then remembered something else I had to write and left the blog for whatever the assignment was.
I may post a couple of my writing assignments (the shorter and more interesting ones) sometime, if I feel like it.
But for the time being, here is a little update in pictures:

I finally used my crock pot! Chicken veggie soup. Mmm. I finally ordered my Party Lite candles from MaryBeth! (The cool ones on the ends are from her) They are fantastic. You should get some.We drove to Spokane for the weekend to attend my Great Great Aunt Ethel's memorial. And to drive some of her stuff back to P-town.And I got some new glasses!

Mid-Terms

"This is the single scariest collection in Mesopotamian art. They're staring at you and it's personal. I mean, how many cups of coffee are we talking about?!"
-George Armantrout in Ancient Art, on the Statuettes of Worshipers at the Square Temple of Abu in Tell Asmar, Iraq.