Out and About

Life is exciting sometimes. Every now and then, all of the excitement piles up on top of itself and happens nearly all at once. Kind of like a banana split...all of the good stuff in one bowl. :) We're leaving on Saturday for a few days in Colorado. Or, as Everett says, Codorado-where-Auntie-Kirstie-lives. Ethan has a job interview for a position in a group in Fort Collins. It's an exciting time for him...starting out on a (as he puts it) "real job". (So...what he's been doing is fake??) :) But this is sort of the end of the road for school for him for a while. Something new and adventurous...and a little scary, too. We'll be there until Wednesday...and we're hoping to see my family and his family too. Then we'll be home for a week and a half...

...and we're off to Dallas! Andy and Shelley...if you're reading this, we got your message, and we totally miss you guys...and someday...we might be neighbors!! Ethan has an interview in Plano as well as a few other places in Texas. I'm not *sure* which ones yet, but I think Baylor, Ft Worth, Arlington, San Antonio and maybe Kerrville. So...definitely a time ripe with possibility and hope for what is to come. And it won't be long, either. July isn't all that far away!!

And, I thought I'd add this for your viewing pleasure:

A thought for a friend

Sometimes, I wish I knew who was reading this blog!! :) I have a friend who I hope reads this quote. You'll know who you are.

"We need never shout across the spaces to an absent God. He is nearer than our own soul and closer than our most secret thoughts." --A.W. Tozer

Maybe I'm writing that for my own good!! :) This was in our Church bulletin last week, and I just read it last night. It made me think of a friend who had asked me to pray for them since they weren't so sure God was going to hear them. I feel that way a lot. Sometimes I wonder if my prayers hit the ceiling and no one hears. Yes, I feel like Orual now and then. But, the truth isn't always what is obvious or right in front of us, or even what we feel.

Yeah, this might be more for me!! :)

Unanswered Questions

So, this morning, Ethan and I were lazy and went to the class closest to where we were standing. OK, not really; we'd talked about going to the Westminster Confession class before, but were going to the Romans class. We decided to give the Confession class a chance...just to see if we should change. Of course, this was the week on predestination. Neither of us are really great Calvinists, so we had a lot to talk about. And, of course, there are never ANY answers. I keep going back to what Orual says in Till We Have Faces..."And now I know why you don't give any answers. You yourself are the answer. Everything else is words going out against other words..." Yes, I'm paraphrasing, but I DO think that most of these things are unanswerable until we see His face. Until then, we have to hold on to our faith in HIM. How we got it doesn't matter as much as the fact that we HAVE it. Anyway, so I thought about all sorts of unanswered questions I have:

How is Matt over there in Iraq? When will he REALLY be home?
How's Rachel? How are her folks and how is their time together?
What's up with Jonathan? How's he doing...especially recently, and what happened?
How's David? I never hear from him...I hope he knows how much I love him!!
How is Lisa?? I hope their house held together with IKE, and I hope their kids are OK.
When will Ethan know about a job? Where will we go? When will our house sell?
When do kids grow out of the terrible twos? He IS three and a half now...
How much will I miss C'Ville when we go?
What if we DO move to Colorado?
How are David and Sarah and Ryan?
Do our friends know how much we miss them?
I wonder what Ryan would say if he knew Ev says, "I want to see Ryan soon, OK?" just about every other day?
I wonder what the McCavits would say when Ev asks for them and Miles all of the time?
Grandmas would be surprised to know that Ev asks for them on a daily basis.
Grandpa and Papa, too.
I wonder what ever became of some of my old friends? I wonder what I'd say if I saw them?
I wonder...
I wonder...
And some questions will be answered, and some won't. That's OK...I'm learning to live with unanswered questions.

Band-aids

Bandaids come in all shapes and sizes, I've decided. After our rough day on Friday, we decided to have a low key day at home on Saturday. It was raining, anyway, so it was probably best that way, anyway. We watched Saturday morning cartoons (ok, we watched Caillou and Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood...) and played out front. I took the boys with me to the gym and I took a tough yoga class...Ethan stayed home and made a lot of calls and made contacts for jobs. Then we decided to go apple picking.

There's an orchard about 10 minutes drive from our house, right next to Monticello. Yes, THE Monticello. It's on top of a beautiful mountain and we could see just about everywhere. It was nice to get outside. Everett LOVED picking the apples, and actually ate 2 for dinner. I think he may have had a bite of spaghetti, but the apples were the main dish. They were absolutely delicious and at 99 cents a pound, a great deal! I can't wait to go back and get a whole bunch and make apple butter...my favorite.

On our way up to Carter Mountain Orchard, the Ft. Collins contact Ethan had, called! He said they might add another position and would Ethan still interview? Of course, he said he was still interested, so that's back on. Whew. But the good thing that came out of it is that Ethan now has made contacts in lots of other places, too, so that he'll have options. :)

So, my boo-boo's are better thanks to the band-aids of a low-key day, a great yoga class, apple picking with my boys, the call from Ft Collins...well, and I guess God may have had a hand in all of that to begin with. :)

Let's be blunt: Some days are horrible.

And I'd rather move to Australia. It's been a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.

First, the boys were up very early. Ethan had to go in to work early and so we were all up. And we were all grumpy. And no one wanted to obey or pay attention or be calm or sweet. Even Tate tried to break our lamp and pull it over on to the TV and thought it was SO funny. Blah.

Then, I get a call from our realtor. She's worked SO hard to sell our house and we had had a contingent offer on it. Along came a better offer, so we dropped the contingent one and took the new one. The new guys had their inspection yesterday and terminated today. They had a structural engineer come over and he thinks that the house needs significant work. Why, after 60 years, it needs it is unknown to me, but I don't know much. Anyway, that sank my heart. I knew it'd be so hard for Ethan, too.

Then the boys didn't nap well, Tate's been screaming bloody murder due to his teething and...well, you get the idea.

Ethan just called....the interview and possible position at Ft. Collins (much desired by him) is probably out. A co-fellow of his is likely to take the job, since he's been in contact with them for many years. His wife dropped out of her fellowship here and that means he needs a job for next year...and they only have one opening for the position. So...there's that, too.

And...to top it off, I'm out of gin.

Edited to add: I DO realize that this isn't the end of the world and that there are many out there with significantly worse things to deal with than I have ever faced or will ever face...it's just that this is hard for me at this moment. I'm sure there will come a day when it will even be comical, but that day is not this day just yet.

Is this hamburger music??

Yesterday was Labor Day, and in honor, we decided to make hamburgers on the grill with Everett. He's in love with the grill (thank you, David!) and loves to help Ethan out with all of that big boy stuff. So, we had all of the windows and doors open, we're eating our delicious dinner and Ethan puts on some good music to help celebrate. Ok, Dad, don't roll your eyes, but it wasn't classical music. :) It was good old mix of stuff like Van Morrison, Aaron Neville, CCR...that sort of stuff. So, Everett gets up to dance to the music (with hamburger in hand) and promptly asks, "Is this hamburger music??" Very astute, if I may say so. Yes, it IS hamburger/Labor Day/all of the windows open on a gorgeous day/we're tired because we had so much fun sort of music.

Today my little smarty-pants went to preschool!! I took a little picture of him as we were leaving for school. He doesn't have his way cool backpack yet, since it's still being shipped out here, so I'll take another when it comes. Anyway, we're walking up to preschool and all of his friends are having pictures taken with their parents and whatnot....So I ask him if I can take another picture of him by his school or with one of his teachers. "NO, Mommy! I'm a big boy now. No more pictures." ACK! He can't be THAT big. :) Needless to say, I'll take more as I can. It's fun to see him grow and put things together. New ideas and new thoughts and relationships. I asked him on the way to school this morning, what the letter C said. He made the "ssss" sound and said, "But the C makes two sounds, Mommy. It says 'ssss' and it says 'k' too." Then he thought for a minute and said, "The letter S makes the 'ssss' sound, too. It's a little confusing." :) Yes, it is. And you're bright for putting it all together, Ev.

Time really flies...and I'm glad for hamburger music to listen to as it goes...