Days 13 & 14

Days 13 & 14

So I didn't write last night, and now I have two days to make up for. I have a good excuse, though (besides cast boy). Grandie & Pop were in town!

Yesterday, Day 13.
It was a big day for husband Jared. To become a minister in the Presbyterian Church in America, you have to take a licensure exam (about 6 hours long!) and then an oral exam in front of the leaders of our region of churches (called the presbytery). So Jared passed the six hour exam and then took his final oral exam yesterday and also delievered a sermon in front of the same group... drumroll please... he passed!!! He now just has to finish 3 classes he is currently taking and then will graduate with his Masters in Divinity, which is a 106 credit hour program compared to most master's programs of 60 hours. Needless to say this is a huge deal for him and us and I'm so thankful that we are approaching completion of this goal.

Now to starfish. As Jared traveled to Atlanta for the presbytery meeting, Grandie, Pop, starfish, and I were in Athens. Ethan had a great time with his grandparents, and I'm sure they loved watching Clifford the Movie 3 times. Ethan has his toys set up on the dining room table and Grandie made him "stations" (train station, book station, car and truck station, etc.) Ethan still hasn't submitted to the station concept, and prefers rather to grunt at a toy and point, wanting the station to come to him. During part of the day I went to my friend's house and organized her closets (side note: I used to organize people's homes and have gotten back into doing it to help our finances; I posted a picture of my latest closet:). We enjoyed chinese food for dinner and Ethan had his first peice of General Tso's Chicken. He ate one peice, then shivered like he had the 'willys' and wasn't sure if it was chicken or cat. We will never know.

Starfish has been sleeping better. Or maybe I'm just sleeping better. He only wakes up a few times and cries, but falls back asleep pretty quickly. This tuesday it will be only 3 weeks until he gets his cast off! We will start a count down on Tuesday.

Today I went to church for the first time in a few weeks. It was so good for me and I really enjoyed being back. Alice (our friend from church) organized meals for us so different families from the church have been bringing us food throughout the week. I was thinking about the church today and as much as people have had negative experiences with people in the church for centuries, people have also had really positive experiences with the church, and probably a bit of both. Always sinners and saints at the same time. Right now I'm just really thankful for the love and support our local church has provided to us and really lived out what the love of God looks like, meeting the needs and wants of our family. Its a great picture of the values of Jesus being lived out in a community, like generosity & a commitment to love your neighbor even when it doesn't bring you any personal gain. My stomach and soul are satisfied.

So Jared's parents left this afternoon and we realized that it was once again just starfish family. Ethan didn't take a nap, so we just walked around the house some more wondering what else to do. More Clifford.

Tomorrow is Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday, so we can't wait to sleep in, lay around all day, and then go out on a date. No wait, Ethan doesn't know it's a holiday. So looks like we will probably do just about the same thing we normally do. We did talk about a house cleaning party, which definitely could be fun. I think in honor of Dr. King who lived a life of service, we will serve starfish by carrying him around all day and changing his diaper.

THANKFUL for:
the television my parent's bought me in college that we still use (none of this fancy flat screen stuff... the tube is where it's at) on which Clifford is perpetually played; super helpful in-laws; a church community that loves us well.