yay! i am posting again!

april is flying by! it seems that i have been a day behind most days of this month. if it was the 12th, i was thinking/writing the 11th all day! i just cannot seem to keep up... haha!

we had a unique youth group tonight. since it is palm sunday, we set up the stations of the cross, 14 of them, with scripture passages and pictures all around the youth room. i always love quiet nights with prayer/reflection stations because it seems that time almost stands still. even though the suffering of jesus is a difficult topic to meditate on, it was peaceful and restorative as well. it was truly a sabbath day for me!

saturday was quite a busy day! the wild wall paper that was in our bathroom fell off the wall! check out the pics on facebook if you have not seen it. the wall paper must have been a quick fix-up before the previous home owners put the house up for sale. after a few months of showering, we noticed some of the corner pieces were starting to peel off the wall. slowly, the steam from our showering just melted the paper off and cut our bathroom make-over job in half. we borrowed a wall sander from a friend at church. i let jon tackle that job. i am better with a paint brush. we used the paint color from our bedroom, soft rabbit brown.

last week jon was in new orleans with our church for the yearly RHINO (restoring hope in new orleans) trip. the trip was family oriented to encourage whole families to do mission trips together. they did construction work with habitat for humanity -- exterior painting and siding, toured the city and of course ate at cafe du mon!

while jon was gone, sierra and i had some great bonding time. we had date nights -- running together and then a car ride for some errands and drive-thru dinner at chik-fil-a! i was also adopted into the dunbar family and introduced to rockaways hamburgers... thanks catherine and lisa!

hopefully i can catch up with the date for the rest of the month! maybe i'm on track now!

e l i z a b e t h :)

what are we doing????

doggie obedience training

vacuuming the couch so it does not drowned under sierra's shedding hair

kayaking

yard cleaning

doggie obedience training

kayaking

doggie obedience training

more kayaking and doggie obedience training

kite flying or kite crashing is more like it... with lots of laughing

running with sierra... she did not make a appearance at the st. pat's race because we were uncertain if the race was dog friendly.

enjoying spring weather (since the beginning of february!)

rocking climbing (just inside for now, at strongholds gym)

devouring taro tart yogurt at yumilicious (serve yourself set ups are the best!)

doggie obedience training

small groups with our senior high school buddies every monday night (jon with the boys and me with the girls)

working too (preaching, teaching, evaluating, exercising)

enduring the pollen plague that covers columbia in a haze (it is quite amazing actually)

cooking (new favorite cookbook is the earthbound cook, the enchiladas are delicious!)

reading (blue like jazz - reread, crazy love and forgotten God)

a little brief... sorry... maybe i can use this as a jumping off point to blog a bit more frequently!

e l i z a b e t h

rain, rain, and more rain

sierra slept in on saturday morning! we were soooo excited. we did not think we would be sleeping in until 9:00 ever again. we are hoping for the same routine next weekend! we had a big night out with sierra on friday even with all the rain. as soon as we got home from work, we began our date night with sierra... we started out for a hike at sesqui and decided to stop by pet smart, or is it pet's mart?, since it was raining. a new harness and a yard stake with a 30 foot lead later we checked out of the pet store. still raining, so we watched jon through the window of hibbett and ate a couple of dried worms on the side walk (seirra was on her own for the latter). still raining, so jon and i took turns going in lowes to pick out gardening gloves. the rain was not going away so we went home. we managed to keep sierra up until almost midnight, so she was worn out when we finally put her in the bed.

we were able to break in the new yard stake and gardening gloves for a few hours saturday morning and then the rain came again. yardwork is a pretty good workout. everyone was exhausted after a few hours of laboring in the SC heat. we still have a couple of weekends of clearing out before we will begin the landscaping. we are still excited about our yardwork days. i hope the excitement continues!

it is thundering as i type. more rain! sierra is missing a few walks. she is unsure of the rain. luckily we have a covered patio, and she will potty somewhat outside.

on a random note, i have watched some tv tonight since it is raining. i am not sure what channel i was watching, but the cosby show just came on! we do not have cable, so i was really surprised to find such a treasure! took me back to when nick at night was playing my favorites! i am expecting a lot from this station!

sierra needs a walk. she is going nuts on the couch!

E L I Z A B E T H :)

updates, updates, updates

hello from columbia, sc!

we are settling in to our new home and jobs. the big news... we decided to add to our family. we are the proud owners of a german short-haired pointer, sierra! she is keeping us busy and is a lot of fun.

now that we have a little furry alarm clock, no more sleeping in... even on saturday! since we were up early, we ventured out to the local farmer's market on saturday morning. it was a little smaller than i expected, but it was fun with some quality vendors. for breakfast, we had piping hot apple cider donuts right off the donut conveyer belt, and we took some home for later. sierra got lots of attention and loved sniffing the fish juice trail left by one of the vendor's leaky coolers.

we've started 2-a-days... sierra loves her morning and evening walk/sprint/run/jog/sniff time. she really enjoys being outside, and we enjoy sleeping through the night!

we will be home for labor day weekend and are super excited to have so many of our dear friends planning to come to jon's ordination service. it should be an interesting trip since it will be our first car trip with sierra. at the rate she is growing, she won't fit the co-pilots lap anymore!

next on the to do list... yard work and landscaping. anyone know any good shrubs or ground cover? my expertise starts and ends with monkey grass.

E L I Z A B E T H :)

HELLOOOOOOO!!!

Hello blogging world -- is anyone out there? This blog officially fell off the face of the blogoshpere!

So... to start 2010 we are job hunting. Who knows where! If your town needs a minister and a physical therapist sign us up. This will be interesting to coordinate... and fun too!

We've had tons and tons of snow, but it has all melted away in the past few days since we basically had what pittsburghers call a "heat wave" blow into town (with 30 - 40 degree temps!).

Jon is gearing up for a two week trip to Nepal at the end of February. Maybe he will do some blogging to keep us (me included!) updated. We are not certain of how primitive the communication will be while he is there... I am hoping for more than email!

I am working at the children's hospital for another 3 1/2 months, and then I graduate! There is always a good surprise coming to the hospital to cheer up the kiddies (Elmo, Sidney Crosby, puppies, the nutcracker ballet... usually something every week!) I now enjoy working with the inpatient and outpatient kids, so I am hoping to do both after I graduate.

This could be the start to a new year of blogging...

E L I Z A B E T H

questioning culture...

in a recent online discussion with someone, i found myself having to fight against common cultural understandings, which are entirely non-biblical, just to get to the point that we were discussing.  as i thought about this, i, myself, have bought into many of these cultural misunderstandings.  unfortunately, we are shaped by the things we are exposed to the most, and i know that i spend far more time in culture (since i can't escape it) than i do in God's word.  this is a shame.  being christian, though, i believe that there is a far greater Truth than the "truths" that culture creates.  remember, Jesus calls us to be in this world but not of it.

for this reason, i have decided to create a series of posts that will question culture.  these will include subjects ranging from privacy to money to inclusivity. these are intentionally provocative.  i hope they will challenge you as much as they have challenged me as i have thought about them.  feel free to post comments arguing against my points.  in doing this, perhaps we will come a little closer to the way things should be.

cheers,

jw <><

the flyover...

i am not sure you all heard about this, but air force one did a little fly over in lower manhattan the other day to get pictures of the plane next to parts of the city, like the statue of liberty.  not only did it cause panic and chaos (hum, i wonder why people were panicking about a low flying boeing 747 in nyc???), but it also cost us (the taxpayers) $328,835.  it is good to know the geniuses running this country are making wise decisions and using our hard-earned money well. 

apparently, the new tech-savvy white house has never heard of photoshop!?!? here is a little hint: you don't have to have two objects in the same vicinity to get a picture of them together.

speaking of good decisions, get ready to be voted out of office arlen specter.

cheers,

jw <><