Summer Break at Last!

Last week was a busy, draining one, but I have finally made it to summer break! Today is my first day of not having to go to work, and it is lovely. This morning Bill and I were laying in bed and he grinned and said, "You better get ready for work". Oh how nice to be able to laugh at that statement and roll over and sleep more! I think it is going to take me a little while to wind down from the semester, but I already have lots of ideas on what I'd like to do this summer. I think my first on the list is going to be a nap...... :

Camelot

Last Sunday night Bill and I went to see "Camelot", here for part of the summer season of Dallas Summer Musicals. The theatre was in the art deco style, and wasn't that pretty, but I really enjoyed the play. I never realized how pretty some of the music was. Growing up seeing all the musical movies, somehow I missed seeing this one. Bill enjoyed it too, but he had some trouble understanding what the actors were saying/singing. Still, it made for a fun night, as we always love going to the theatre!

Thank You, John Piper

I just finished reading When I Don't Desire God: How to Fight for Joy and decided that I just had to write about it. Or rather, John Piper in general. As I finished reading that book this week, I have found myself feeling genuine gratitude toward this man for his help in my walk toward, as he would say, "passionately pursuing Christ". I really may write him a letter even though he probably gets tons of mail and may never see it. He has really had such a tremendous impact on my life and I so respect and admire his life and ministry. Now, before you take me the wrong way, let me say it clearly: I do not worship this man, or think that he has some sort of superhuman powers; I am not a Piper "groupie". He is a normal man. BUT, his radical pursuit of the Lord, his drop everything else but a focus on Christ, his passionate pulsating faith is NOT normal - and it is that that I admire and want so desperately to be said of my life as well. This fella is extreme, and everything about his life points to the all-surpassing worth of Christ. How that stands out in a world of lukewarm faith - and how it challenges me. I first met Piper when I was a sophomore in college and he was speaking at a Passion Conference in Texas. He spoke on suffering, and his words were so challenging that I actually debated on whether I would even write them down or not! (I did, finally). Then, at Moody I had a missions class and read Let the Nations Be Glad, where his heart for world missions and the need for it fell upon my heart like never before. (As an aside, during this time one of Piper's sons attended MBI, and I did my best to meet him; I determined I was going to marry him and then move in with his parents! I didn't do that.) After that came Desiring God and then Don't Waste Your Life. That book was a life-changer. It has almost given me a fear of EVER picking up seashells - and if you read that book you know what I'm talking about! And now, just finishing When I Don't Desire God: How to Fight for Joy. His practical points to fight to keep joy - the kind of deep, fulfilling, Christ-exalting kind of joy - are worth studying. I believe that it is most of those disciplines that he shares that have been the fuel behind his passionate faith. So, if you haven't, I encourage you to pick up one of his books. He is a prolific writer/speaker and you can visit his website: www.desiringgod.org to find out more. Now, my challenge is to apply what I've learned to my life. Next time you see me, ask me how I'm doing with it.

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the tradewinds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."

~Mark Twain~

He is Risen; He is Risen Indeed!

Happy Easter (a week late)! I meant to post this last Sunday, but I am just now getting to it. These are the tulips we planted in the front flowerbeds; they bloomed in time for Easter and looked so pretty when I put the cross in the middle of them. We had a nice Easter. Friday we went to a Tenebrae ("Darkness") service to commemorate the crucifixion and burial of Christ. Easter morning we went to church and celebrated the Resurrection. In our ABF (Sunday school class), Bill took a break from his usual lesson in Romans and we focused on the resurrection and what it means. We all read Scriptures relating to the Past, Present and Future promises of the Resurrection, read an Easter creed, and prayed and sang together. It was a meaningful time. Later that evening we had several couples over for Easter dinner. Before they came, I had boiled and colored eggs, and so we all sat around the table and smashed our eggs (like at Pappy & Christina's), which was fun.

Spring Planting

Spring has come here in Dallas, despite the weird cold weather we have been having lately. On nice days, I've been able to get outside and do some planting and potting. I planted 35 Caladium bulbs in the front beds. I haven't done a lot with the backyard yet, but I do have a basket of 2 kinds of oregano, and several pots of basil, mints and rosemary. My Azalea has more blooms this year (as you can see in the picture), and my lemon tree already has many baby lemons on it. In the kitchen I have started 3 different kinds of tomatoes, and as soon as they get a little bigger, I will plant them outside. I am hoping to get a good crop of fresh tomatoes this summer! Come join me for a salad :)

Rain, Rain, Go Away!

We have had a deluge this past week! SO much rain! And if it is not raining, it is still overcast outside and looks like it will. I'm sure it is helping to make everything green and growing, so I probably shouldn't complain too much. But I miss the sun. I am a sun - person. I suppose I inherit that naturally from my Mom who is practically a lizzard and could comfortably bask in the sun on a hundred-degree day! I'm not quite there, but I do love the sun. It makes me happy. So I am excited this morning b/c there is a glimmer of sun peeking out and it may be a lovely day.

Bill is working today, which is always a bummer. Half of the fun of having a weekend is spending it together. Thankfully, this is not the norm, but I still wish he were here right now. It will give me some time to myself, though and I will try to get done some of the things that are harder to do when he is around. I have been meaning to plant tomatoes for weeks now, so that is one thing I can work on. I am hoping to have three different kinds this summer.

Bill was able to go to a church-planting conference this past Thursday, and he came back so excited about it. He said the speakers were great, and it is something he is really interested in possibly doing. I love it when he talks about things relating to our future plans :) Please pray with us as we seek the Lord's will on what He wants us to do and where He wants us to go. We are praying the He will give us a real passion for a specific calling.

As we move into the Easter week, I want to spend time meditating on the depth and richness of what the resurrection means in my life. Hope you do too :)

Getting a Little "Ride" in Sausalito

I Know Paris is the City of Love, But if You are With the Right Fella....

In the Wine Caves

This winery was called Benziger. The tour was great, and the especially neat thing about it is that it is an all-natural, organic winery. An example of this is the wine caves, which are built right into the sides of hills, and stay cool naturally.

In Front of the Golden Gate Bridge

Bill at the Helm of the Balclutha

The Balclutha was an old Windjammer Ship that sailed from England all over the world, collecting spices, etc. She was later bought and sailed from San Francisco to Alaska to carry Salmon. Such a romantic ship - and what a handsome captain! :)

Touring SF in a Double-Decker Bus

Me in Front of the Jellyfish at Monerey Bay Aquarium

Sunset at the Beach in Carmel

I Left My Heart In San Francisco

And what a lovely city it is! Bill and I had a great Spring Break in San Francisco and the surrounding area. It was our first big vacation since our honeymoon, and we loved it. We spent the first two nights near Monterey Bay, and Carmel. The beaches there were gorgeous and the scenery breathtaking! Everything was so green and flowers and fruit were blooming. Our favorite event was driving the 17 Mile Scenic Tour, in which we drove along the rocky coast, saw Pebble Beach, etc. That is some of the prettiest country I have ever seen! We walked along in the sunshine and I picked up shells. We even saw a large group of fat harbor seals sleeping on the beach! Carmel was my favorite city. It was so quaint and picturesque; I tried to talk Bill into buying one of the seaside cottages, but he said we couldn't yet :) After that, we drove to San Francisco, where we spent the rest of the trip with the Luciano's. They are graduating soon and moving to NYC, so it was nice to get to have "one last fling" with them. We saw Alcatraz, the Muir woods, drove down Lombard - the crookedest street in the world -, visited the Wharf, and walked all over that hilly city. It is a beautiful city; I love that it is so outdoorsy. We spent one day visiting Napa Valley and Sonoma Wine Country, which is another lovely area. We toured some wineries and did some wine-tasting; we are now wine - connisuers :) Ok, not really, but it was fun! Our last day we visited a quaint city across the bay from San Francisco called Sausalito. It is lovely how the mountains stretch right to the ocean, and the houses are built right onto the sides of the hills. It had such a laid-back atmosphere, and Bill and I actually took a nap right in the park square of the city. I asked Bill if we could buy one of those cottages, and again he said that we couldn't. But I haven't given up hope :) We both did say that it was somewhere that we could see ourselves living one day - we really liked that area. One of the biggest blessings was the weather; seriously, I felt like that was just an extra gift from the Lord. It was unseasonally warm and sunshiney that whole week, and the day we left it became cloudy and cooler, and I kind of think the Lord just gave us that lovley weather to enjoy. Every good and perfect thing....

It was a little hard to come back to work and the normal routine after that, but we have adjusted back slowly. I do like our time here in Dallas, but going somewhere else made me look forward to the time when Bill graduates and we move on to a new adventure in a new setting. It was a good vacation, though, and we are thankful that we had the opportunity to get away. It was a good time for us to reconnect and just enjoy being together all the time. I've included many pics from our trip, so enjoy!

A New Year

And so we begin another year. I can hardly believe how quickly the time has gone! It is so amazing to look back over the past year and see all that the Lord has done, all that He has brought us through and blessed us with. I came across this verse at Thanksgiving, and feel that it very well sums up this past year: "O Lord, my God, You have accomplished many things; You have done amazing things and carried out Your purposes for us. No one can thwart You! I want to declare them and talk about them, but they are too numerous to recount!" (Ps. 40:5).

On the Way Up

Bill and I in a pod going up to the top of the St. Louis Arch.

Getting What You Want

It is very interesting when you finally get something that you want - especially if it is something that you have been wanting for a long time. Sometimes it is everything you thought it would be and it is thrilling. Sometimes, it is even more than you imagined (Heaven will be like that). But other times, and very often, it is not quite all that you thought it would be. (As an aside, I think marriage falls into all three of those categories!) Let's just say that I am experiencing the latter option with my new teaching position. Teaching is not something that you "ease into". I don't mean to imply that you don't prepare - you do! A great deal between your education classes, certification, training, room preparation, lesson planning. But the actual teaching - the position of having a classroom and being responsible for its students, is immediate. One day you don't have students in your classroom, and the next day, you do. There they sit at 8:40 A.M on the first day, new school supplies in their hands and eager expectation on their faces. And you have them all day for the next nine months (kind of like gestation). And you have to at least appear like you know what you are doing, that you are in control, and that you are happy to be at school (It is a toss-up as to which of those is most difficult!). But it actually isn't the teaching/lesson planning part that has proven the most challenging. It is the........discipline. Oh yes. What happens when little Johnny (or in my case, Juan) doesn't want to listen? He would rather sing a song, draw a picture, kick the person sitting next to him, flirt with the girl across the room, play a game, talk about a game, or make obscene gestures to the student in the next desk. And you, poor, idealistic, new teacher, you don't want to discipline. You don't want to go through the three steps to a detention, move the student to another seat, rearrange seats, call parents, or CONSTANTLY reprimand the student. You just want to teach about continents and read "The Hungry Caterpillar" to them. And hopefully have an "Anne of Green Gables" moment. (I will be sure to blog if such ever happens to me!) In short, words that describe these last three- going- on -four weeks are: overwhelming, exhausting, frustrating, challenging, draining, consuming. Please pray with me that I would have the wisdom to handle classroom management, strength and refreshment, a joy in my work, and the ability to "have a life" outside teaching as well. Don't read me wrong, I do have enjoyable times and like my students. It is just.....a lot. And on that note, I say goodnight :)

Yea for Italy!!

Woo-hoo! Italy wins the World Cup! They played their hearts out; it was a great game. I have never been so "into" a game before. It was thrilling :) Toni and Grusso and Buffon are my favorites. Oh, and Pirlo. And several others, but I don't know their names. ( I am a very new fan). Anyway, yea Azzurri!!