Eden and Providence

Eden is incredible...  It was fun to watch Greg hold her and fall in love with her.  He'll be a great daddy whenever that day comes.  Until then, we're happy to love on baby Eden and soon-to-come baby Ezekiel!

Greg and I are off to Providence for the rest of the week.  I'll be at a work conference, and Greg will be studying studying studying Hebrew.  We'll TRY to take some pictures in Providence.

Passing on the news!

Exciting news on Katie T's blog! :-)

Passing time

I finally uploaded some pictures from the past month or so. I am completely unmotivated to do anything productive right now, so I figured this would take up a little time.

Most random and oldest picture first. This is what I did while Greg wrote papers. I never knew how long it would take to make 6 dozen deviled eggs...and I think it's safe to say I'll never make that many again on my own. My thumb was actually bleeding by the end! BUT I made them for a friend's baby shower, so it was a worthy sacrifice.

The next couple pictures are from our perfect day. Our condo building puts a tremendous amount of effort into the landscaping, so I took a couple pictures of flowers that day. They're not as novel now, but they had just started to bloom that day.

The next four pictures are from Memorial Day. We went to one of our favorite reserves to hike and then ended up at the ocean lawn for a picnic. When we first moved to Mass, we lived really close to both of these reservations.

And I took this picture in the Public Garden yesterday. For the second weekend in a row, we hopped on the T with books and blanket and went into the city to enjoy the beauty of nature, the sounds of happy children, and the delicious taste of The Upper Crust pizza.

After graduation?

So Greg and I have been talking and praying a lot more this last week about what to do come May 2009.  It's really exciting to dream together and seek the Lord together about life AFTER the MDiv!  Does it really exist?!  I admit that I had begun to doubt.

In other news, I played barber again this weekend.  I've got Greg's style down.  I'm just not so sure the outcome for me was so great, but it was free and I still have hair.  That counts for something, right?

Oh and speaking of free!  We might have stumbled upon a free loveseat futon this past week!  That means we have more places for visitors to sleep!  (hint, hint)

Boston is at its peak of loveliness!  Greg and I spent almost an hour watching little kids feed ducks in the Public Garden this afternoon.  My favorite was an adorable girl (maybe 4?) with the cutest twirly-skirt sundress, and she was so excited about the ducks that she couldn't help but skip when she would run back and forth between her parents and the pond.  Too cute...

And finally, last week I decided to see if our cat might like the outdoors better at our current apartment.  We have a patio in the back that's quiet and peaceful, so I thought maybe she wouldn't freak out so much.  No luck.  She went absolutely beserk (which dictionary.com accurately defines as violently or destructively frenzied; wild; crazed; deranged--I had no idea how to spell that word) when we put her down.  I seriously couldn't believe it was our cat!  So we have concluded that Ayse will forever be an indoor snobby cat.  Oh well.

Why do I care so much?

I broke my favorite glass pitcher.  If anyone else had broken it, I would've immediately said, "Oh don't worry about it.  It's okay.  It happens to everyone.  It's just a material object."  But when I broke it, those words just didn't seem to console me.  (Believe me, I tried to say them to myself.)  I think I would've preferred to drop it on the floor and see it shattered into a million pieces.  But no, I barely tapped it against our crockpot, and less than an inch long triangle chipped from the top.  It was just a glass pitcher.  But it was the most "me" glass pitcher I have ever seen.  Why do I even care?  *sigh*  I made Greg take it out of my hands and walk it to the rubbish bin.  I couldn't even throw it away myself.  What a strange culture we live in that I mourn the loss of a glass pitcher...  And I have the gall to think I'm making headway with not holding tightly to things of this world!

A Perfect Day

I had today off.  (I worked Tufts' Commencement last Sunday.  Incredible weather, fyi.)  Here's how I spent the day.  It really was perfect...

1. It began with a lazy morning of not getting out of bed for almost an hour.  (I TRY to do that when I have to work, and it doesn't always mesh well with getting to work on time or being alert.)
   
2. Greg and I had breakfast together at the Broken Yolk, an amazing hole-in-the-wall breakfast place we'd been meaning to visit for two years.  We used one of those random coupons you get in the mail in a packet of 50 other useless coupons.  I guess it was worth the few minutes it took me to sort through all the trash this time.
   
3. We took a brief saunter in the park across the street and sat on the ground leaning up against some historic tower to have our morning devotions.  God led us through some great discussions about taking rest from our work and how to build more intentional time for resting and being together into our lives.  My husband is so amazing...
   
4. Next on the agenda, we aired up our bikes and took a 12 mile ride from our place to Arlington Center and then along the Minuteman Trail.  We could not have asked for better weather!  It was such an incredible ride.  And we discovered that we're both enough out of shape that neither was bothered by our slow pace on the inclines.  My legs are a little achy tonight.
   
5. Back at Arlington Center, we grabbed a nice little lunch of yummy Thai food at Sweet Chili.  I must admit I was quite the site with my bike helmet hair and mud splattered all over my backside!  Then back to good ol' Medford we rode.
   
6. After crashing on some deck chairs for a few minutes after we got home, we determined it necessary to end our little adventure with some ice cream from Colleen's, an ice cream parlor a couple blocks from our home.  (Dangerous!  I know!  I have to walk by it twice every day!)  Greg laughed as I enjoyed my rainbow sherbert and reminisced to days of ice cream cone men at Baskin Robbin's with sis, Julie & Jenn.
   
7. Next came reading time, and Greg fell asleep while I read to him from Lewis' The Horse and His Boy.  We're really liking reading this book together.  I admit that I read an entire chapter after he fell asleep.  I just had to know what happened!
   
8. Finally, we ended the day with some great guy and girl time.  I joined Amy (and baby Audrey), Ann, Megan, and Katie on a dinner date to On the Border.  And Greg is yet to return from his poker night with the guys.  I think we girls talked about babies practically the entire night!
   

Now you tell me.  Does it get any better than that?

Has it really almost been a month since I've posted anything?  Wow, that's crazy.  Highlights I can remember off the top of my head:

• Greg finished another semester of grad school.  Only three, no four more to go - summer, fall, spring, summer.  Quick story from his last day - we went out to Outback to celebrate after he turned in his papers.  As soon as we sat down, he said, "Guess what?  I have something to show you." And then he proceeded to pull out a huge Hebrew textbook from his bag with a silly excited look on his face.  He had bought it at the bookstore on campus when he turned in his papers.  I sighed, laughed, and then thanked God that I have no doubt he's in the right program.  On to learning Hebrew this summer!
• Carrie and Drew set a date to visit Boston!  Wahoo!  They'll come at the end of July, so that gives me about two months to make big plans for our time and find the right futon.
• Some good friends let us know they're leaving Boston in a few weeks.  We will miss them dearly!
• I got to help throw an amazing baby shower for two other friends!  (Thanks Kelli and Megan for letting me help a little!)  It was so much fun to celebrate little Eden with Bryan and Katie.  And we're so excited to meet her in a few weeks!
• Andrew & Angie left for New Zealand, and these have been the longest couple weeks ever!  We miss them so much and are hoping they don't pull an "Andrew" and not come back to Boston!
• Related to Andrew & Angie leaving, I borrowed their Season One set of Gilmore Girls...too cute!  I'm halfway through Season Two now, and I've noticed that I may be talking a little faster and making wittier and more random comments than before.  Unfortunately, they do not own Season Three!  Ah!
• Economic stimulus deposit occurred - will almost cover next month's rent!
• On the work front, I've been drowning in end-of-year stats.  But I think I may have closed out some really big reports today, so that is somewhat of a relief.  One of my favorite student assistants graduates on Sunday, and it's going to be sad to see her go.  I was requesting vacation days for when Drew & Carrie visit in July, and it hit me how fast this summer is going to fly at work with all of the conferences and random meetings scattered throughout.  Before I know it, the fall semester will be staring me in the face!

Enough random musing for one night.  See why I haven't blogged in a while?  Now can you tell me that you were anxious to read any of that?!  Well, have a marvelous evening/morning/day!