118 days until our wedding day!

Week one of fourteen down for the spring semester.

So many crazy things are happening.

Eric did a shopping spree with gift cards at Pearl Art Store where they had a storewide 75% off closing sale. Usually a frugal art major, Eric enjoyed being able to grab oil paints, markers, tape, frames, brushes, even an easle. He kindly bought me an art kit so I could dabble this summer which made me very pleased. Besides the crowd and a 90-minute line to check-out, it was a great once-in-our-lifetime experience.

For being an overcommitted couple, we're holding in there pretty well. We try to see each other every night and often work on wedding plans. It's probably the worst time we could have chosen to work multiple jobs/internships/classes while planning a wedding, but we're already dreaming about gaining freedom this summer.

Last Day of Break

I'm back in the races again tomorrow. I'm sure you don't want to read my To Do List so I'll try to avoid sharing it. While I'm sad to see personal time disappear for a few months, I'm looking forward to learning, growing and developing more appropriate ministerial responses. Hopefully I can use my time wisely, eat healthy, exercise and see Eric this semester. Yeah, those are my general goals. :-)

H

I haven't been able to write recently because of so many thoughts about Haiti. This semester, I'm going to be focused on the topics of loss, grief and dying as I work as a hospital chaplain, research abortion/reproductive health and take two classes about pastoral care for the grieving and dying. At this moment before I study these topics, I'm confused about God's role in Haiti's natural disaster and how to rationalize it theologically. Even from a distance, I'm grieving the traumatic loss that the Haitians are experiencing as they grieve the death of family members and friends, the pain that the wounded are enduring, the fear of the another seemingly random quake, the dislocation of families and the lack of basic necessities. Part of me wants to angerly accuse God of hurting those we knew were most in need on this side of the world because I can't seem to blame an earthquake on a person. Why am I wanting to blame? Perhaps if we had done a better job of caring for Haiti before the quake, the buildings wouldn't have fallen so easily and clean water would have been more readily accessible. One of my dreams is to help run an orphanage but I can't even imagine the pain of lacking formula for two hundred babies, a story that I heard on the news this morning. I don't understand why I'm comfortable and so many aren't. If anyone's reading this and thinking, "Girl, stop thinking and get up and do something!" I've done what I can from where I am. I hope that as Haiti is rebuilt this spring while I'm learning about death theologically and practically, I can have better responses to these questions.

Another great moment, not perfect though

After a productive day of running errands and babysitting for a great little guy (our ringbearer!), I'm wrapping up the day with a couple online responsibilities, Eric's painting the design for our invitations at his easel and we're listening to jazz music. I even exercised today so I'm feeling the good burn. Life could only be better if all people were also warm, fed, safe and loved.

This is it

In exactly five months as of today, I will be marrying Eric Valosin (God, please be willing!). After enjoying Christmas at home with my family with lots of chocolate, exotic food and wine, it's time to get serious about getting in the best health of my life in preparation to walk down the aisle. Now technically, I think it's a better idea to gain weight so that I can have years of pleasure recognizing how much better I look compared to my wedding photos... but I'll jump on board the bride bandwagon of health freaks and exercising gurus mostly because there's a goal: May 29th, 2010.

On a brides' website, I think I found the ideal "diet": eat 3 meals and 3 snacks from the 12 food groups every day and cheat once a week. I didn't even know there were 12 food groups! Even though I did a pretty good job exercising this past semester with three dance classes a week, I consistently ate only 2 food groups: pasta and nachos. Scrambled egg wraps with bacon were my Saturday morning treat. So you can imagine that I had some shopping to do if I was going to diversify my diet to include nuts, dairy, berries, lean meats, protein, whole wheat, peanut butter, olive oil, greens, beans, instant oatmeal (now I don't know what the 12th group is).

After spending 90 minutes stocking up on every discounted whole wheat cracker, frozen fruit and yogart, I'm starting this hot diet (do I really have to call it that if I'm actually encouraged to eat more food?) with a homemade smoothie. Little green specks of spinach intrigue me as I gulp the raspberry-vanilla goodness. Hopefully this enthusism will continue after I start a rigorous class and work schedule in late January. :-)

P.S. I found a wedding dress over the weekend! Now I know what exactly needs to be toned...

P.P.S. Praise God-- I don't have cancer! My doctor's been testing me for it since August and finally a specialist said I was fine.

it never stops!

I keep wanting to relax into Christmas without commitments, but at my last doctor's appointment this morning before the holiday, Dr. recommended I go see a specialist in order to get a second opinion. Ugh! So I have one more appointment. I keep trying to remember that the doctors probably don't want to be there anymore than I do. And I keep praying that my health is actually as good as I think it is.

4/7

I'm done with my fourth semester of seminary! This week I took finals, finished teaching the after-school aviation and drama classes, was accepted into CPE after my interview, got an oil change and found out my timing belt was right on the verge of snapping, just got the belt changed this morning, got next semester's books out of the library to read over break, bought and wrapped some presents and tried to enjoy this last week with Eric before I go home for a week. After finally getting eight hours of sleep and getting my car back from the shop with a lower bill than I had expected, I'm feeling more relaxed than I have in months. So thankful for this breath of fresh air.

Over break, I just have to read and plan a wedding because in five weeks, I'm back to 50+hr weeks. ;-)