Dan is now in his second (middler) year at PTS.   He’s taking Exegesis of Matthew, Missional Theology, and Pastor as Person (introduction to pastoral care/counseling).  He is also doing his field education at our church, First Presybterian Church of Ambler (aka South Ridge), and working at the library.  On top of all that, he has been working on his ordination requirements and will be going before his Committee for the Preparation for Ministry this week and before the presbytery the following week in order to become a Candidate for ordination in the PC(USA).  Whew.  It’s all Greek to me.  He’s busy, to say the least!

I‘m still working as an HR Assistant at Integra, and things are great there.  We are keeping super busy in our department, and I love the work that I’m doing.   I feel grateful everyday for a job that I enjoy that supports us throught this season.

We have been keeping busy when we’re not working or schooling with traveling, having visitors, spending time with friends, and playing football.  We started off the fall with a lovely visit from my sweet mama:

We had a blast with her visiting Winterthur Gardens, making tarts and muffins, raspberry picking at Terhune, watching 5 hours of Pride and Prejudice (well Dan didn’t really partake in the 5 hours of P&P).  We also hosted a group of college kids in the Poconos for their Intervarsity chapter retreat, played some intramural football on Saturday mornings, visited our buddy Mike in NYC, celebrated Dan’s 25th BIRTHDAY, and spent a weekend in Washington DC with Devon and Dustin Frank (my bff growing up and her hubs!).

Busy, to say the least.  But we are still finding plenty of time to relax and bask in God’s goodness, our marriage relationship, and in our community.  And still a little bit more time for House, Glee, and Bones, our TV shows of choice. O:-)

So that was most of our fall in the nutshell.  I think winter is just around the corner.  And, for the first time in 6 years, I am NOT dreading winter!!!  It’s a Christmas miracle.  I’m not exactly jumping for joy, but there is a noticeable lack of dread.  On that note, I will leave you with my favorite picture from our fall:

We stayed at the Fitzpatrick Manhatten Hotel at Lexington and 57th in the Lower East Site (about 4 blocks from Central Park)

We stumbled upon Grand Central Station on our way to lunch.

We went to a microbrew in the Theater District for lunch, and Dan sampled the flight (big surprise!).  He decided it was good beer, and ok food.

I sampled their summer apricot beer.  Check out that little beer stein.  Perfect Leslie size.

Next up, we cruised the Hudson on the Staten Island Ferry.  I had never seen the Statue of Liberty, and seeing it for free was a lovely treat.  You can’t see them in this picture, but there are about 4 helicopters flying over her at the same time as all these boats go sailing by…

After people watching in Battery Park, we got gussied up for our anniversary dinner.  We ate at a little hole in the wall Italian restaurant near our hotel.

When we walked out of hotel on Sunday morning, lo and behold there was a street fair for about a mile down Lexington Avenue!  Nothing really grabbed our interest, so we walked a few blocks over to 5th Avenue to window shop.

We ended our afternoon with some time wandering around Central Park.  Beautiful.

Other several interesting things from our trip – our hotel was an Irish upscale hotel with everything from Irish magazines in our room to a large portrait of Ireland’s president in the lobby.  Also, when we first arrived at Penn Station and were heading to our subway connection to the hotel, a woman stopped us in the street and offered us 2 unlimited subway passes that didn’t expire until Sunday afternoon.  Happy anniversary to us!  We saved a nice chunk of change by not paying for subway fares all weekend.

All in all, a fabulous weekend to celebrate 2 years.  Geared up and ready for year 3!

Dan studies Greek vocab on the couch

Tempe looks annoyed because we won’t play fetch with her – she loves that dirty old mouse toy

I bum around on my laptop, dreaming up blog posts

Because I know you were dying to find out what we look like when we do nothing at all.

For your reading pleasure, some interesting facts about cherries:

• 95% of cherries consumed in the US are grown here, making them one of the most locally available fruits
• The only other country that produces more cherries than the US is Turkey
• February is “National Cherry Month” (even though they are only in season in July & August)
• Cherries are rich in Vitamin C and fiber and are considered “superfood” for joints because some studies have shown that cherry consumption alleviates arthritic pain and inflammation
• 1 cup of sweet cherries is 97 calories

Go get some cherries while they’re in season!  And try not to eat a pound of cherries in 24 hours…

Lukewarm people tend to choose what is popular over what is right when they are in conflict. They desire to fit in both at church and outside of church; they care more about what people think of their actions (like church attendance and giving) than what God thinks of their hearts and lives.

Lukewarm people love God, but they do not love Him with all their heart, soul, and strength. They would be quick to assure you that they try to love God that much, but that sort of total devotion isn’t really possible for the average person; it’s only for pastors and missionaries and radicals.

Lukewarm people love others but do not seek to love others as much as they love themselves. Their love of others is typically focused on those who love them in return, like family, friends, and other people they know and connect with. There is little love left over for those who cannot love them back, much less more those who intentionally slight them, whose kids are better athletes than theirs, or with whom conversations are awkward or uncomfortable. Their love is highly conditional and very selective, and generally comes with strings attached.

Lukewarm people think about life on earth much more often than eternity in heaven. Daily life is mostly focused on today’s to-do list, this week’s schedule, and next month’s vacation. Rarely, if ever, do they intently consider the life to come.

Lukewarm people are thankful for their luxuries and comforts, and rarely consider trying to give as much as possible to the poor. They are quick to point out, “Jesus never said money is the root of all evil, only that the love of money is.” Untold numbers of lukewarm people feel “called” to minister to the rich; very few feel “called” to minister to the poor.

Lukewarm people do whatever is necessary to keep themselves from feeling too guilty. They want to do the bare minimum, to be “good enough” without it requiring too much of them.

Lukewarm people do not live by faith; their lives are structured so they never have to. They don’t have to trust God if something unexpected happens – they have their savings account. They don’t need God to help them – they have their retirement plan in place. They don’t genuinely seek out what life God would have them live – they have life figured and mapped out. They don’t depend on God on a daily basis – their refrigerators are full and, for the most part, they are in good health. The truth is, their lives wouldn’t look much different if they suddenly stopped believing in God.

For the full list, Google it – a lot of people have put the passage on their blogs as well!  It was too powerful not to share.  What do you think?

We spent Saturday through Monday down at the Jersey shore – in Sea Isle City, which is pretty far south on the New Jersey shore line.  Traffic was pretty bad getting down there, but surprisingly much better than Virginia Beach and Outer Banks traffic.  We had a great time with Dan’s extended family, including his 2 cousins who were the ring bearer and flower girl in our wedding (and who we haven’t seen in 2 years!).

It was perfect, beautiful weather while we were there.  Unfortunately though, we decided to take pictures on the beach during the 1 hour of cloudy weather.  Oh well.  Dan completely avoided sunburn, while I, alas, did not.  I also did not avoid eating it on the boogie board and getting a GINORMOUS bruise on my thigh.  It’s ugly.  Anyways, on to pretty pictures!

On our balcony

My fave pic of the summer!

Tempe is still our favorite entertainment, and clearly the only thing we take pictures of.  Some others that I found:

In yo face!

Curled up on the couch.

This is how Temple lets us know she thinks it’s time for us to go to bed (this is right by our bedroom door).

Dan and I actually took pictures of people and pretty thangs other than Tempe this past weekend while we were down at the Jersey shore.  Stay tuned…

Hopefully all these changes will lead to more consistent updates for our family and friends.  We love you!

The reason my Saturday is free is because I quit Starbucks (last Saturday was my last day), and I was offered a permanent position at Integra, where I had been temping since October. I feel like finally, all the pieces are falling into place and we’re settled. I finally feel ready to sink my teeth in to Princeton living – investing in my community, my career, my church, etc.

It’s amazing how this new-found stability makes me feel like I can breathe deeply and relax a bit. The coming of spring helps too! I’m off to enjoy my Saturday! Enjoy your weekend too!

Um, I wrote it like 2 weeks ago. Doh! So, the Sixers game is not what is holding up the blog like I thought. I have noticed that I’m not on top of my game lately. The fact that I already did our taxes is clearly a miracle from the Lord.

Last week, I forgot to go to a mandatory meeting for Starbucks. I went to Marshall’s and bought some cute (and cheap!) shoes for work instead. That is TOTALLY not like me! I spent the rest of the week feeling puzzled and kind of embarrassed that I could make such a slip.

This season of my life has taught me a couple things: how to be WAY more laid back about life, how little control I really have over anything, and to live one day at a time because I just can’t keep track of anything beyond today (and sometimes not even that). I think these are all good things for me to learn now – they’ll probably be harder to learn later. Let’s just hope these lessons stick!