Ahhh the joys of apartment laundry.....

...when the dryer doesn't work, but you didn't know it and already put your money in.....

On the Subject of Pregnancy and Seminary

I have decided that there are at least two hazards to being pregnant and a seminary student at the same time.

First, it is nearly impossible to stay awake reading theology. Novels are OK; I read The Host, by Stephanie Meyer (800+ pages) in one day three weekends ago--never had a nap all day! But put anything in front of me that requires keeping a train of thought and I'm out in no time at all. It's become terribly frustrating to wake up an hour later and realize I've done it again!

Second, there are certain times I have to eat, in class or not. Our Covenant Theology class is at 11am. Its taught by several formal and very intelligent professors, including a Dr. Williams who is the last person you want to eat in front of while he's giving a lecture.

So, the other day I couldn't wait any longer and surreptitiously pulled out my apples and peanut butter. ('d brought them along in case of such an emergency.) Jonathan and I were sitting on the side of the class room, so I thought I could get away without Dr. Williams noticing. But no such luck.
Wouldn't you know it, just as I was about to put a big slice covered with peanut butter in my mouth, he looks right at me...and stopped talking...lost his train of thought....had to walk back to his notes to see where he was...It was embarrassing, and so funny! (AND, I'm really glad he didn't yell at me!)

Curtains

I'm so excited to have actually done something besides reading, writing, sleeping and eating!
Today, in absolute rebellion from the pressure of all the class work hanging over me, I dusted off the ol' sewing machine and put it to work.

It took longer than I thought it would (as always), but I have a fun colorful curtain for the kitchen...

and some longer ones for the living room.

Horray for another step to having a home!

Maggots

Yuech, yuck, YUCK!

There were maggots crawling around the bottom of the kitchen garbage can when I pulled the bag out this morning. They were everywhere, under the rug and all over the floor...I tried calling for Jonathan and gagged instead.

Since I had to keep running outside for fresh air, Jonathan ended up doing most of the cleaning and exterminating. I have never in my adult life experienced maggots, and I'm sure I don't know my mother survived three pregnancies in the tropics; there are much stronger smells in the Philippines!

The moral of this story is: If you live in St. Louis, change your trash often and look forward to the first freeze. (The tales of winter weather here are starting to sound more and more appealing!)

P.S. I'm assuming you don't really want a picture, so I'm not including any.

Just to make it official.....

Yep, pregnant and barefoot in the kitchen!

I'm 18 weeks now. We're due in the middle of February, don't plan to know if it's a boy or girl, and are very excited when we forget how crazy we are to move, start seminary and have a baby all within 6 months of each other!

Life in seminary is settling into a quiet rhythm of reading, writing, eating and sleeping. It is really a different pace of life. We have both been very encouraged by the quality of teaching and the synthesis between faith and concepts that our professors demonstrate. Jonathan is up to 60 something vocab words in Greek, and I am beginning my first research paper in over 13 years. It's fun to think about our little one getting a theological education in the womb!

Love to all our dear friends!

Joy = first week of seminary down, with 128 more to go!

We have now finished our first week of classes. Grueling is not exactly the word to use to describe a two-day week in which professors mostly go over their syllabus and hand out reading assignments. Still, Jonathan and I have a LOT of reading to do. We've spent this long weekend studying and trying not to be too distracted by other things.

Some examples of the distractions are as follows:
a) Putting books on our bookshelves.

b) Piling all our boxes and packing material in the storage unit. Horay!

c) Hanging out with our friends Michael and Leslie who were visiting St. Louis from Seattle! It was so nice to see familiar faces.

d) Swimming in the complex pool. They have an indoor one too, which is going to become my primary means of exercise this winter!

e) This morning Jonathan and I found a Target and Home Depot. We acquired one wooden dowel, two waste baskets, a halogen light bulb, some drywall screw mounts and chocolate milk. (Like our good friend Cole in Seattle, we're suckers for chocolate milk) Oh, and we also got three curtain rods, since I've decided to sew and put up curtains in the kitchen and living room. I think I will use the fabric we bought in the Philippines two summers ago, since we have plenty of it =)

f) That led to me trying to drape different fabrics over the curtain rods to see what it would look like, while Jonathan used the drywall screw anchors to put up a shelf above our couch....It now holds the projector, so we can watch movies from his laptop, without setting up the projector every time we want to see a movie. Of course we will probably need to watch something on it tonight since we need to make sure it works!

g) This afternoon I made banana bread, because I imagined I smelled someone in our building making it while I was taking a little afternoon nap. I was aided by three nicely fermenting bananas. I also made chicken Terriyaki and rice for lunch....yum!

So you might be wondering, with good reason, if we have done any reading or studying today. I know I have gotten quite a bit of Educational Theory reading done in between things. I don't know about Jonathan's total accomplishments for the day. However I do know Greek has featured, since he burst out of the office two minutes ago, wildly gesticulating, while making a noise somewhere between "hurra" and a cat coughing up a hairball. Apparently it means "joy" in Greek!

There is Joy in this house!