Moving On...

It is official. For my birthday my husband told his wonderful parents to buy me a .mac subscription, which allows me to keep my other blog. So, I will no longer be using blogger.

From this point forward, if you want to know about us, you should go to OUR .MAC ACCOUNT

New Posting

See the ".Mac Account" blog link to the right under "Blogs We Read"

Problem with Link

I'm not sure what was wrong with the links posted below. I believe they should be working now. If not, leave me a comment and I will work on it again!

Long List of Frustrations

I put a new blog posting on our other blog. You Should Go Here.

Spring Break

I'm sorry that I have not yet updated everyone on the productiveness (or lack there of) from my spring break. But, I will tell you that I did go home to Mascoutah (St. Louis) to surprise my parents for a day. That was a lot of fun. One of the perks was that my dad loaded the most recent version of the Mac operating system onto my computer. Along with it came and free 60-day trial to .Mac, which allows you to do lots of fun things, one of which is create your own website. At the bottom of this blog entry you will find the link for the other version of Eric and Kerri's blog (which has some other entries, and some pictures).

In building this simple .Mac website, my desire for a new camera has been re-kindled. My in-laws were very kind in giving Eric and I a digital camera for Christmas right before our wedding. That camera has since bitten the dust. I guess I shouldn't say that. It still works, provided that you always want to zoom in completely onto whatever it is you're taking a picture of. For close up shots, therefore, it doesn't work too well.

So, I think I may have decided that I want a new camera for my birthday. I'd really like to have something small, something that could fit into my pocket. But, I also would like it to take clear pictures. If I'm lucky, I'll be able to purchase a .Mac subscription, so that I can keep the blog linked below (because I'm really starting to like it). And the nice thing is that it is really easy to load pictures and videos onto. So, if anyone knows of a good camera I might want to have, send me some specs on it so I can check it out. And I'll be looking as well.

Well, it is time for me to retire to bed for today. Go check out the new blog. Nothing spectacular, but I think it's worth looking at :)

THE NEW ANKENMAN BLOG

Spring Break

Well, this week I actually get to sleep in. I love it. Even though I don't have school work to do, I still have IKEA work on Tuesday and every day this weekend. And, I'm going to try to get a lot done. Below you will find my to do list, or at least as it is right now. Although this changes on an almost hourly basis.

SPRING BREAK THINGS TO DO

Create OAT practice tests for each grade (4 for each)
Back Up Computer info
Make back-up cds
Take dog to get nails clipped
Bathe dog
Start packing up books, etc.
Update Blog
Fix Blazer
Apply for Jobs
Write parent letters
Clean refrigerator
Clean bedroom
Do all laundry
Get hair cut

I'll let you know on Sunday how I did.

Stuck on the Toilet

Just when I think I've heard it all, I find someone has a phobia of leaving the toilet. Really? I've heard of some strange things, but that's one I definitely thought I never thought I'd hear. This woman sat on the toilet/didn't leave the bathroom for 2 years. If you wanna read about it, follow THIS LINK

Eric and I start out IKEA jobs tomorrow evening. He works 4-11, I work 4-10. I'm a little nervous just because I still don't feel completely prepared, but hopefully I can wing my way through it :)

48 more school days until summer. I can do this :)

Bully: Scholarship Edition

No, the title is not referring to a new contact sport in middle school, or even a skill taught in P.E. Rather, this is my latest XBOX 360 addiction. During the Blizzard of '08, Eric and I decided we wanted to rent a video game to play while snowed in the rest of the weekend. After much searching, prayer, and contemplation we chose to rent "Bully: Scholarship Edition." Eric spent a great deal of time this weekend (while I was doing absolutely nothing other than watching him play--see previous blog entries) playing. I did not pick it up for the first time until yesterday. And I was absolutely hooked. So much so, I really want to buy this game. Alas, it costs $50, which would probably be better used on other things. But eventually I will get to the place where I really NNNNEEEEEEEEEDDDDDD the game, and then we'll break down and buy it.

In other news, IKEA opens tomorrow. Thankfully I do not have to work tomorrow, or Thursday. But I do have to work Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, which I'm sure will be rough. But, that's what I get for signing up to work there.

And, I have to give props to the great author of the blog Seldom Wrong, Never In Doubt, one Dr. Jon Weatherly (one of our favorite CCU professors), for turning out attention to this hysterical Onion articles. Keep in mind, for anyone who may not know what the Onion is, these are all spoof news articles. That disclaimer stated, you've got to read this article about the Shroud of Turin.

Please keep my Grandpa in your prayers (my Mom's Dad). I'd really appreciate it!

The Epitome of Laziness

The following sum up my activities for this weekend: sleeping, playing video games, surfing the internet, and eating.

I should have worked on Saturday afternoon at IKEA, but the blizzard of '08 forced it to shut down. Nevermind the fact that Eric and I called about 5 times Saturday morning to see if it was closed, and they always reported that they were staying open. But, after Eric dug out our car, cleaned it off, and we braved the weather to get out to IKEA, we found a total of 2 cars in the lot, both covered in snow. We called again, and this time it had closed. We weren't bitter or anything...

So we came home. Eventually we ended up going back out that evening to get some Steak 'n Shake (we both had a craving), and to go to Blockbuster to get a video game. This morning, they canceled church, so we slept in. And we've played video games.

I'm amazed at my laziness sometimes.

No news on houses. We haven't really found any that we LOVED, but I think there's a couple we may try to look at some time. We'll see. But we have to figure it out by May 3rd, because that's when we have to be out of this apartment. Like I said before, one of our friends has very graciously told us we could move in with them until we find a place if we need to. So, we'll see.

The Blizzard of '08

I've been in school in one fashion or another (as a student or teacher) for 20 years now. And I never remember getting out of school early for snow. Sure, we had snow delays and snow days, but we never got out early.

I guess there's a first for everything.

They're expecting somewhere between 2 and 10 inches of snow today. Quite a wide range if you ask me, but since our weathermen can't ever seem to get snow predictions right, I suppose they need a window that wide. So, we were let out of school today at 12:20. It was great.

Now I'm wondering what will happen tomorrow. We're supposed to have family and friends day at IKEA. But it's not supposed to stop snowing until Sunday. I'd be amazed if they canceled it, but it might be a little dangerous out there on the roads. So, we'll see.

What a week

Sorry it's been a while guys. It was a very busy week. Not really anything exciting to write about, just busy. I worked on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday nights at IKEA. Eric officially started his job at IKEA this last weekend as well (he's doing cold prep in the restaurant). So we both worked on Friday night. Eric also worked on Saturday.

Met with the realtor on Thursday. She just kind of informed us a little more on how the process of buying a house works. Haven't started going out to look at houses, but have ruled a lot of them out online. Still not sure where we'll be in 2 months, but we know it won't be here since we're giving out 60 days notice today.

House sat for some friends this weekend. It helped me determine that I have no desire to live in Hamilton, or at least not anywhere except the eastern outskirts of Hamilton. Downtown is a mess to drive through. But, it made me want a house. It was so nice to not have to take Sadie out, but to just be able to let her out in the back yard. And it was cute to see her playing with the other two dogs. If we buy, I think we'll get a second dog very quickly to give her someone to play with.

So yeah, that's about all I got...

Ugh...

I need a better attitude about my job. I just keep hoping that when I get my own classroom, and a history teaching job, I will look forward to going to school. In truth, there is a part of me that looks forward to work. I do enjoy working with students. But man this job is hard. Very hard.

I know it will get better. It has to.

The Mortality of Life

About two and a half years ago, my grandmother died. When that happened, I realized that I had gotten to the point where having a grandparent die was not out of the ordinary. In other words, I was getting older, which meant everyone else was too, and the truth of the matter was (and is) that the older people get, the more likely it is that they could die. Being in my 20's then, unfortunately meant my grandparents are at least in their 60's if not their 70's...

And, then about a year ago, one of my closest friends from growing up lost his mother. She had battled illnesses since we were younger, but this once finally was too much for her to overcome. Once again, I had one of those moments where I realized that I was getting older. It could have been one of my parents or Eric's parents. In truth, over the last few years I have been very concerned about my own dad. I worried about whether he was taking care of himself. I wasn't the only one worrying about him. Thankfully, he has gotten better about taking care of himself, but I do still worry about him. I want him to be healthy, and I want him to be around for a long time.

Unfortunately, unless God comes back first, everyone will die.

And this week, I've really been struck with my own mortality. One of my good friends has been sick for about a week, and in the hospital since Monday night. He'd been having stomach pains, went in to the doctor, who then told him to go to the ER, and he's been there ever since. And despite the tests they've run, they have no idea what's wrong with him. Now, that I'm aware of, no one is really worried about this being a fatal thing. It's not a question of if he will get out of the hospital, but one of when he will. Obviously they won't let him leave until they can figure out what's wrong with him (and I don't know that he would want to leave the pain medications behind until then either). But, despite CAT scans, chest x-rays, colonoscopy, biopsy, antibiotics, etc., they cannot figure it out.

He is the same age Eric is. Which is only 3 years older than me. Our bodies will start to have problems. Stupid Adam and Eve. This was not supposed to happen to us, but now it does. And I'm not so young anymore :(

Life is so fragile. Doctors don't always have all the answers. And we can't fix old...

One Day of Work this Week

So, we had Monday off for President's Day, Tuesday off for conference compensation day, Wednesday off for a snow day, and now they've canceled classes for tomorrow too. So, I worked a grand total of 1 day this week at school. But man was it a doozy.

I don't know how many details I should put on this blog, but I'll just put it this way. One of my students stole my cell phone from my bag today in class, and he had to suffer the consequences. Legal consequences. If you wanna hear the whole story call me, and I fill in the gaps.

Eric is going to a retreat this weekend with other Ohio campus ministries. So I'll be alone this weekend. I hate it when he goes away. My dad always used to say that he didn't sleep as well when mom was gone. I never really understood that. I do now...it's weird when he's gone. Oh well. It's two nights...I can make it :)

I actually got to work with the cash registers tonight at IKEA training. That's much better than than all the paperwork I have been doing. I assume it's gonna start getting kinda hectic at work there with opening only a couple of weeks away.

That's about it for now. :)

Professional Wedding Pictures

Ok, after 4 hours of uploading pictures, I finally have all of our professional wedding pictures loaded onto photo bucket (well, not all of them, but a lot of them...I did some weeding out of pics).

If you want to see them, go HERE

Enjoy!

It's About Freakin' Time!

We finally have the digital proofs of our wedding pictures, which means that in theory we should be able to get our own prints of them soon. Very long story behind this (since we've been married 2 years and still don't have pictures).

But, I'm working on putting them in photobucket so people can see them if you'd like. I'll post a link up here when that's done!

In other news...I'm excited about the 2-hr delay today (especially since we had Monday and Tuesday off). I'm seriously not sure I'm gonna be able to get out of my parking lot, so I may have to call in a personal day. I think we must have gotten more snow here than they did in Colerain.

Have a great Wednesday (or whatever day you're reading this on).

So begins the long, arduous process...

We officially have a meeting with a realtor next Thursday. And, we've been pre-qualified for a mortgage. But, we're still not sure that buying a house is what we should do.

We have a lot more debt than we would like to have. Most of that debt is in student loans. Unavoidable, yes. Beneficial, yes. But still debt. And we don't want to have it. We want to get rid of all of it so that we can be generous. So we can have savings. So we can have nothing but a house payment--and really if we're being honest, I'd love to not even have a house payment.

So we're faced with a difficult decision. Do we significantly reduce the size of our living space (i.e., down to a one bedroom apartment), so that we can reduce our rent to $500-$600 a month, and dedicate the majority of our income to paying down debts. Or, do we buy a $80,000-$100,000 house, and continue paying off debt the way we have been. We just can't decide. I suppose it might come down to whether or not we can find a house that we really like, or even an apartment that we really like or can live with.

Eric is at this moment is interviewing for a part time job at IKEA. If he gets it, then both of us would have 2 jobs--one full time and one part time. I just wish this decision was easier to make. We both stress about it. We just don't know what to do.

If anyone has any advice, please feel free to share it. We would greatly appreciate it...

Soooo Tired of Moving

I had all day training on Saturday for IKEA. The morning part was ok (even though it started at 8...ugh), but after lunch it just tanked. It was amazingly boring. I felt like I was in high school again--sitting there listening to a series of lecturers talk at you, repeating things way too many times, about things that you just really feel like you'll ever use or need to know. But, that's the life of a new employee. I don't work again until next Tuesday (the 19th).

We started a new series at church on Sunday. One of the bigger churches here in the area--Crossroads--(which incidentally is where Andrea works) every year puts together a 7 week all church journey. Every single part of their church shuts down (in the sense that it abandons all of their own topics/programs) so that the entire church talks about or focuses on the exact same thing. This includes all the kids stuff, college age stuff, etc. Along with that they demand (or ask very forcefully I guess) that every single adult in their church join a small group only for those 7 weeks. After that they can quit.

At any rate, Crossroads also provides their materials to any of the local churches that would like to do the same thing in their church. So, LifePoint is doing so. The series is called Consumed and it revolves around money. Thankfully, it's not one of those "sell all your possessions so you can give it all to charity and live the life of utter simplicity." Instead, it focuses on the fact that God desires for us to be blessed and to have nice things (although not necessarily everyone with the same amount unfortunately). What that means is that the goal is to learn to enjoy the blessings you have rather than being consumed by them. Learning to be free of the bondage of money and finances so that we can truly enjoy them and enjoy life.
As a part of that, we decided to host one of the small groups. But, we must have cooties because only 2 other people signed up--Chris and Dawn Owens, our worship minister and his wife. We are actually really enjoying getting to know them.

(Small side note--on the topic of cooties, everyone must view THIS VIDEO)

And finally, as the title of this blog suggests, Eric and I have decided to move once again--although thankfully not far this time. We had been contemplating moving this summer to be a little closer to Oxford (to cut down Eric's drive time). But we decided for sure it was time to move when our apartment complex decided to raise our rent. Unfortunately, that means we need to find a new place to live and be moved out of here by the beginning of May. We'd like to find a house to rent or something like that. And, on a couple of different occasions the topic of buying a house has been brought up. That thought scares the crap out of me. On the other hand, we're having a very hard time finding a place to live with cheaper rent that will allow us to keep out dog.

So...if you think about it, please be praying for us. That we find a nice place to live--be it renting or buying--and that we make wise decisions...

It's Official!

Well, I am now officially an IKEA employee. I went in today and took my drug test. It was the most interesting thing. When I think of drug tests, I think of peeing in a cup or having blood drawn. Instead, I scraped the inside of my cheek with what looked like a small piece of white cardboard, then put it between my cheek and my gums for 3 minutes. It was weird.

Then, I got the tour. That place is like a small city. It's not completely built finished yet. The exterior is completely built, but there are some parts of the inside that they are still putting the finishing touches on. Most of the walls haven't been painted, and there's still a lot of display stuff that needs to be built, arranged, priced, etc. I think that's a lot of what I will be doing over the next month besides training to do my actual job (cashier).

I'm actually really looking forward to it. I'm not necessarily excited about working, and having to choose carefully my time off. But, I'm excited about the extra income, and I'm excited to work at IKEA.

In other news, Eric and I are really starting to take a larger role in our church. We're on a couple of creative teams, we're both on the set up/tear down team, as well as a couple of other teams. It kind of feels like life is about to get very busy and interesting. We'll see...

Be praying for us. I swear we get more grown up all the time!!!

Sorry...

Felt very tired and lethargic lately....haven't felt like posting. Will do this weekend. Over and out :)

Job #2

Well, I may have finally successfully gotten a second job. I've been wanting to get a part time job so that we could be a little bit more financially secure. We could make it on just what Eric and I make right now, but it's nice to have a little breathing room/extra money to put toward debt.

I seriously considered Starbucks for a couple of major perks: benefits and coffee :). Eric and I desperately need some health insurance. We've been without it for the entire time we've been married, which is scary at best. So, the thought of having health insurance that someone else helps pay for is very nice. And, getting a free pound of coffee a week was a nice perk too. I drink coffee every morning (the teacher's drug of choice), and ever since our good friend Andrea started giving us coffee while she worked there, we've gotten quite spoiled on the good coffee. Folger's just doesn't do it for us anymore.

BUT...the thought of having to get up even earlier in the morning (aka...at work at 5:30) on the mornings that are supposed to be my days off (like Saturdays) really didn't appeal to me...

SO...when Andrea told me that she had a friend who is a manager at the new IKEA here in Cincinnati, I decided to give her a call. Turns out they too have benefits for part time employees, and there won't be any 5:30 starts working there. I had an interview today, and Tara (the manager) said that unless something in my background check sends up red flags, I should have a part time cashier job there starting in mid-February when training starts (the store doesn't actually open until March 12).

They have some pretty cool stuff at IKEA, which is a Swedish furniture/home decor store. If you'd like to check out their stuff, you can go their website.

Just thought I'd share that bit of exciting news in our lives. Other than that, life is still pretty boring :)

I Love My Husband :)

I have to admit that there are times when I wish my husband was slightly more romantic, planning dates and surprise outings, flowers, etc. But, those times when he does plan things remind me of exactly how good I've got it.

Last year for our anniversary, Eric surprised me with a trip to Gatlinburg, TN, which was about an hour and a half or two hours from where we were living at the time. I told him then that he'd set the bar pretty high for himself. This year, while I know he really wanted to do something like that, financially it was not a wise move. But, he still made sure to plan a good date night/couple of days. We're getting ready to go see the Sweeney Todd movie (which I know doesn't sound romantic, but given how much I want to see it, it's very romantic for me :)), and then he's taking me to this Italian Restaurant down in Kenwood called Maggianno's Little Italy. My family first discovered this restaurant in Chicago 5 or 6 years ago, and ever since then when we would go back to Chicago we always made a point to go. This summer we found out there is one in Cincinnati. I'm super excited. And tomorrow, we're going to use some gift cards my parents gave us to go to Red Lobster for lunch. I'm going to be so full for the next day and a half but it's totally worth it because I love those two restaurants.

My husband is so good to me. I love it when he plans things for us to do. Happy Anniversary to us! (and yay for 3-day weekends in which to celebrate)

P.S. In case anyone wanted to know, unloading a trailer at 7 in the morning to set up church when it's 3 degrees outside is not fun. Way too cold for my tastes...

Go Patriots and Packers!!!!

3-day weekends...

Let me start off by saying that I absolutely love what I do for a living. No, maybe I should say that I love the idea of what I WILL do for a living once I get an actual teaching job. But it can really take a lot out of you. I already know that I am going to live for the weekends. If you ever hear anyone say that teaching must be an easy job...laugh at them. Then tell them you know someone who is a teacher and that you know the truth. Teachers deserve all the breaks they get. But, that's a soapbox and I will now step down.

All that is to say that I am so thankful that this is a three day weekend. I think this semester is gonna be a little more tiring than last semester. The students we will be having seem like easier students to deal with, but there's more of them. Last semester, our average class was around 7 (which I realize sounds low, but think of the hardest, most down and out kids you know and combine them with very stubborn, "tough" kids, and that's the 7 kids we have...it can get quite frustrating). This semester our average is around 10 or 11.

But there is a light at the end of the tunnel. I can see it. And in the mean time, I'm going to enjoy my three day weekend :)

Wishes for a "specle" birthday!

This card is a birthday card from me to my mom in 1990 (think 8 year old Kerri...who apparently couldn't spell the word special). "Specle" has been one of those inside jokes for our family ever since then. And today is her birthday again, so I just wanted to say happy birthday to my mom. I say it all the time, and I know it's cliche and corny, but my mom really is my hero. All that she's been through, all that she does every day, and yet she still stays sane (well, mostly...). Our family would not be what it is, nor do I think we would have survived without killing one another had she not been there to be the mediator. She gives me hope to be a better wife and a good mom. If I do marriage and children nearly half as well as she has, I will be content.

But anyway, I just wanted to tell her that I love her and I hope she had a fabulous birthday!

Memories

Do you ever have one of those moments where even while you're in it, you realize you'll probably remember it forever? I had one of those yesterday. And, it wasn't a particularly out of the ordinary moment, or even one that I think anyone else would think was funny, but it was just one of those times for me.

I have a student...we'll call him "D." Let me paint a picture for you. D is a 6th grader. He seriously can't be more than 4 ft. tall, and he's gotta be one of the shortest students in the school. He's a little black kid, and I tell you this because he's very fair skinned but has all of these freckles, kind of like Morgan Freeman (only lighter skinned). His voice is this crackly, scratchy sound but still he has that cute little kid sound to his voice. And he's seriously one of the funniest kids I've ever met. He's so easy going and light-hearted, constantly cracking jokes, etc.

So for the last month or so, I have been meeting with his class (4 kids total...very nice) down in the teacher's lounge. In the lounge is a vending machine. I think the top couple of rows are chips and pretzels and things like that. The next couple are candy bars, followed by a couple of rows of gum, poptarts, granola bars, etc. I made the mistake the first day I took them down there to buy a thing of starbursts to share with them, so every day after that, they wanted to know if they could buy stuff out of the machine.

Yesterday, a couple of minutes before the class ended, D proceeds to stand in front of the vending machine and nonchalantly rate his "favorites" out of the machine, first by food type (i.e., candy bars, chips/pretzel type stuff, snack stuff, etc.), then determining his top 4 favorites out of the entire machine (which realistically only has 15 or so different things in it). What made it so funny was how enthusiastic he was in describing his favorites and why they were his favorites. I know that this description probably doesn't make it sound funny, but I was dying. I laughed so hard.

Tomorrow is my last day with D's class. I think I might have D again next semester (which starts on Tuesday), but the rest of them are done. Some of the kids that I've had this semester I think I'm going to miss. Unfortunately, on the whole, I can't say that about most of them. I think in part it is my own fault in not having the right attitude about this job, but I also think it's by virtue of the type of student I have. This job can be very rough sometimes...I just keep hoping it will lead to a teaching job next year. We'll see...

Another year of marriage...

Eric and I celebrated our 2nd anniversary last night. I wish I could say that we celebrated in style, but unfortunately that was not the case. This is not to say that it wasn't a fantastic anniversary, just not the romantic getaway my husband surprised me with last year (the trip to Gatlinburg...). But we don't really have the money for that right now anyway, and we went to Florida for the weekend instead.

I had flown back from Florida on Sunday (quite late at night I might add), but Eric didn't leave until Monday morning. So, as soon as I got off from work, I drove to Dayton to pick him up from the airport. We then went to pick Sadie up from the kennel, and she was SOOOO excited to see us. She was more hyper than I've seen her in a while. But almost as soon as we got back to the apartment we had to turn around a go to a creative team meeting for church. It did kind of suck to have a meeting on our anniversary, but I have to say that if I had to go to a meeting this would be the one. The people we volunteer with at Lifepoint are fantastic. And the meetings genuinely are fun to go to.

But, my parents sent us gift certificates to Red Lobster, so one evening this week we will most certainly be celebrating. Well, either that or we will use them later this month when I have a three day weekend and we actually celebrate our anniversary. Who knows.

It's kind of strange to think that we've been married for 2 years. Sometimes it feels like there's no way it's been that long, and other times it feels like it's been longer than that. Eric really makes it easy to be married. Everyone always says your first year of marriage is the hardest, but really I don't feel like this has been hard at all. Yes, there are times when I want to strangle him (and I KNOW there are times when he would like to do the same), but it's never really been "hard." I think we had a lot of things working in our favor long before we ever got married. We both came from strong, Godly families, and our parents had strong marriages we learned from. We always talk about how thankful we are for our respective in-laws and the people they taught us to be. And, we were friends first, which sounds cliche, but I really think it helped. We had excellent pre-marital counseling, and we made it a point to talk about all the hard issues before we said "I do."

All of that is to say, I really love being married to Eric. And I'm excited for another year. Thank you so much to all of you guys for your prayers and encouragement. I know it has helped us immeasurably, and it really means a lot to us.

Florida was awesome. It's really encouraging to spend quality time with other individuals and couples who are doing the same kind of ministry. I cannot put a value on what we learned and shared this weekend. We met this couple from Munich, Germany, that we'd really like to get out to see sometime. The wife, Bethany, is from Arnold, MO, which is only an hour or so from where I grew up. So we talked about Cardinals baseball :). The husband is from Northern Ireland, and he could really not be any more of the stereotypical Irishman. Speaks his mind, very outpoken, THICK Irish accent, and absolutely hysterical. He gives 100% to everything it does. Another of the couples actually had a baby this Sunday, so it was awesome to get to hang out with them right before their baby was born.

And, speaking of babies, I want to wish a very special happy 1st birthday to Finley Roberson, who we had the honor to hold the day she was born. If you'd like to see pictures of her from day one until now, you can check out her blog We do miss her and her parents soooo much!!!!

Ok, that's all I got for now. Night!

Sunny and 72 Degrees

I love Florida. I don't get down here very often, but when I do, I absolutely love it. Eric and I are down here for a campus ministry retreat with Impact Ministries. We flew in on Thursday evening/Friday Morning (supposed to get in around 10:30 on a flight from Dayton through Cincinnati, but one was delayed so we ended up going through Atlanta and getting in after midnight...gotta love the airports). It is beautiful down here, and much better than the 42 degrees and rainy it would be in Cincinnati right now.

Eric and I are trying to come up with our year-long goals for this year...not resolutions just goals. I recently saw a church sign that said "I hope your troubles last as long as your New Year's Resolutions." Made me laugh. Probably the best church sign I've seen in a long time. Haven't solidified them yet, but perhaps when we do I'll throw them on here so you guys can pray for us, encourage us, and keep us accountable in them.

I've met some pretty cool people here. One couple lives/ministers at a University in Munich. She's from Arnold, MO, he's from Northern Ireland. Pretty interesting couple. VERY passionate about what they do. Then again, everyone here is passionate about what they do. It really is encouraging to be around these people. Definitely something I should do at least once a year. It's hard to sit here and not be fired up about doing campus ministry. But that's it's desired effect so I'd say it's working.

I'll fly back to Cincinnati tomorrow to resume my daily grind of tutoring kids in math. I shouldn't be counting down the days until the end of the semester, but I definitely am. It's not that I'm not appreciative of this job, I just can't wait for my own classroom. But I think I've said that before.

Anyway, just wanted to give you guys a brief update. We had the best Christmas ever this year, and maybe when I get home I can put pictures and stuff up to document the amazing time we had.

I know it's a little late, but happy new year!