A News Blitz

Yikes. Where does the time go? I keep waiting until I have pictures to post and am beginning to think that may never happen. For some reason my mind can't seem to comprehend taking pictures of special events. Matthew has posted tons of pictures from his trip to the Netherlands on his facebook page. I tried to get him to do a blog post and ... well, that didn't go to well.

News from our neck of the woods:

* Matthew is home! Yay!!! After four weeks of solo dog duty as well as just plain missing him, Henry and I were thrilled to have him back. He had a GREAT trip. He can say many dutch words now, and is currently working toward taking his dutch exam on Sept. 25 at Fuller to cross that requirement off of his PhD list. I learned one thing ... and I have no idea how this is spelled ... "ich hot von yay!" which means "I love you!". Awww ... isn't that precious.

* We have no life right now. Really. Matt is hard at work preparing for his dutch exam, as well as attempting to plow through some more books since he is also technically in a PhD seminar over summer quarter with Dr. Mouw. He's a busy boy trying to get everything wrapped up by the end of the month. I have finished my summer classes (technically) but still have a couple big papers due that I'm frantically trying to finish (hence the decision to do the blog post NOW ... I just need a break!). AND ... the church is up and going in full swing ...

* The church, the church! Goodness, where to start. Quick summary. I started leading in worship a few weeks ago to get the congregation used to me, but our big fall kick-off Sunday is this week! This means the introduction of a new praise band (as well as some contemporary music!) to the worship service, and the chancel choir will be back as well. So it is a BIG day. Please pray for me. I'm scared. Overall the church has been super welcoming to me, the Pastor wonderful and incredibly supportive, but there are changes coming for the congregation as well as just a lot of balls up in the air that I attempt to coordinate each week. Overall I am LOVING it! It's been a great learning experience already, but goodness gracious ... it's not easy! So much work, planning, prep, communication, phone calls, emails, budget meetings, etc. And I keep saying ... are you SURE this is a part time job???

* Fire, fire everywhere has been the Pasadena mantra the last couple of weeks. The fires around here were quite intense. We were never in any danger or risk or anything other than breathing in smoke for several weeks. But goodness, it was quite a sight, as you can see from the picture below. The hills are maybe a little over a mile from our house, so we've had quite a view. God bless those fire fighters! They've been working hard. The air is finally starting to clear and we are LOVING being able to have our windows open again (as is our power bill).



Well ... I think for now that's pretty much it! Fall classes don't start up until the end of the month so it looks like we may actually get a week to just chill once we turn in all our summer papers. And oh how very very very nice that will be.

Oh, and by the way ... it's my birthday month. I just feel like that should be mentioned somewhere :).