furry little friends

i saw the angel in the marble and carved until i set him free. -michaelangelo

my first day as a graduate student was not too bad. after only 3 hours of class, i can tell i'm really going to like it. it just feels right! my class is introduction to christian formation and training/mentoring. the class is very personal, there are only 6 students and 2 teachers...and has very much the feel of some of my sebc classes. we have to read two books for the class, one of which is written by one of my professors. it's called soul keeping by howard baker and it is very, very good. i started on it this weekend and am thoroughly enjoying it. i'll hold off my highest recommendations on the book until i actually finish it, but so far so good.

we went out for a little walk yesterday to capture some pictures of what i have officially named furry little guys, or more affectionately, at times, my furry little friends. they are all over the place out here-only not in our yard because of the sod (we think). the press is still out on exactly what they are..let me know if you know! we captured some really great pictures with our new sweet zoom lense!

notice the little baby's head! SO cute!!


i just thought this picture turned out really well..you won't find any furry friends in it, but i wanted to share it all the same...

and this last picture is for magen-notice the platter!

i have an interview tomorrow afternoon, so be praying if you think about it. it's not the job i was hoping for, but it could be even better..more to come on that.

until next time..

wonderful weather

it is 47 degrees outside this morning, on the lovely 9th of June!!!

church

finding a church home might not be as easy as i was hoping. i was hoping that we would, within our first couple of sundays, "happen" upon just the church the Lord has for us...but it hasn't happened just yet. we actually ended up leaving a church service this morning. for all who know ryan and i, you would likely agree with me when i say i make many a decision based on my feelings, while ryan usually tends to make his decisions by thinking things through. as the service began this morning, an feeling of uneasiness came over me, but i thought that since we were already there, we should give the church a try. but, after two songs (familiar songs, i might add..songs that i actually like-though the pace was WAY fast..but still, songs i like), ryan leaned over and said he had a weird feeling about the place...that he was just uneasy. i quickly agreed and a few moments later, he asked if i wanted to leave. i was very surprised, but thought since we both had a weird feeling about the place-maybe we should. and, so, we whispered about it a minute more and ended up leaving. that was a first for both of us...in the past, we've always just stuck it out at odd churches. and i have been to some strange places before. we decided, as we were walking back to our house (the church was SUPER close), to go try a small baptist church we had noticed down the road. so, we hopped in the car and headed down there, thinking we could be just like 10 minutes late, but unfortunately, the baptist church started before the one we had left, so we would have been like 40 minutes late... so, we drove around and looked at some other churches, but the time was not right for any of them. we actually thought at one point that we had found a place-but it turned out to be morman-interestingly enough, right across the street from it was a unitarian universalist church. and the morman church had no big sign with it's name on it, just a little sign by the door that my super-vision husband noticed. so that's how they get people to come?? anyway, ryan looked up some churches on the internet and we are all set with places to visit over the next few weeks, thankfully. =) but all that to say, we both really missed southcrest once again this morning...we missed hearing geunine people share their faith, being encouraged in the Word, and worshipping with fellow believers. :\

finally!

we got our internet up and running..well, kind of. the cable guy came today and got our modem all set up. we had purchased a wireless router a few days ago and ryan spent much of the afternoon trying to get it set up....to no avail! it was very frustrating because neither of us really knows all that much about computers! :\ needless to say, we ended up giving up and it still isn't working. so so sad!!
i made my first ever crockpot dish today. for those of you who don't know, my mom is the crockpot queen! she can make anything and everything in the crockpot, and most of it-she actually has. she makes the best chicken ever...and some pretty delicious roast! she's also been known to try some other things, none quite as infamous as the crockpot oatmeal. i mean, it sounded like a good idea-letting the oatmeal cook all through the night and spread it's delicious aroma throughout the house. and then, when you wake up the next morning, breakfast is already ready! all you have to do is scoop some out and enjoy! well, while i didn't have the privilege (i can never spell that word for some reason) of having some myself, i have heard enough to be thankful that i wasn't there! let me just say one sister said she had the runs for days... t.m.i., i know! ANYWAY, back to my chicken-i called my mom and got one of her crockpot recipes and went at it...i don't know the actual name for it, but it was a lemon chicken with potatoes and croutons. it turned out pretty yummy for my first ever! i was going to take a picture to show all my fans out there (lol), but ryan was hacking away at it before i had a chance (in all fairness, i actually forgot that i intended to take a picture and asked him to find me some white meat to eat!). so, you'll just have to imagine what it looked like...
until next time...

another year older

these beautiful things were delivered to our doorstep yesterday morning from my sweet mom and family... tulips are my FAVORITE and these are some of the prettiest i've ever seen! i love all the colors!!!

we had a wonderful day celebrating my birthday yesterday, though it didn't start out too great! we spent much of the morning crying together, sad that we weren't at home. i missed my sweet family more yesterday than i have before...but, ryan was a trooper and we enjoyed the rest of our day. he made me a delicious breakfast-eggs, toast, and egg in toast with some of my mimi's yummy spiced tea. then, later on in the day, we got to ride to Ltrain for the first time here in Littleton and it was a GREAT experience! it was a super easy and convienient way to get downtown denver.


once we got downtown, we went and had a late lunch/early dinner at my favorite place--the cheesecake factory! ryan got the biggest burrito i've ever seen...and almost finished it!!


(it's kind of a bummer picture-wise that it was just the two of us, because we could only get shots of each other, and then, of course, those silly shots with ryan sticking his arm way out holding the camera and shooting us-not so great for seeing the scenery...though for all of those out there who like only one of us, you can enjoy these pictures! ;)

i really loved the part of downtown that we were in. it's called the 16th street mall, but it's not a mall like the galleria or the summit. it's just a street that goes on for blocks and blocks with different shops and restaurants. the middle of the street is kept up really nicely with benches and everything. the only traffic allowed on this particular street are buses that will take you up and down the blocks for free! it's really a very nice place. i think maybe for the first time since we've gotten here, i thought, "i really, really love this place!" it's definitely my favorite so far! so, we had lunch and then we kind of meandered.. i got a few pictures.







we did something VERY exciting! we have this FABULOUS camera that takes amazing pictures that sometimes come out looking like we are professionals...we have been looking at getting a new zoom lense for it (we have been jealously eyeing my brothers for months now). the price on it has been great, but we just haven't really had the extra money. well, my grandmother sent me a birthday card this past week and inside was not only some money for me, but also some for ryan (because she missed his birthday)...and it was enough for us to buy the lense for OUR birthdays!!! so, we finally got it! =) i'll have to post some pictures that we take with it soon. it's a pretty sweet dealio!

after this, we hopped back on the Ltrain (i don't think that's actually the name of it, i just like to call it that...) and headed back to littleton. it was a much more crowded ride (being later in the afternoon), but so much better than fighting traffic! after getting back home, we hung out for a while, then went to the library for a few and then went to see prince caspian. can i just say i was terribly disappointed. i mean, i actually dis-enjoyed it so much that i wanted to leave in the middle of the movie. it's been a few years since i've read the book, but certainly it wasn't ALL fighting, was it? i mean, i felt like i was watching braveheart or lord of the rings. terrible, terrible, terrible... but, we did get student tickets, since we are in seminary (the lady was like, "well, i guess you have to study there like anywhere else.."), so it didn't cost us an arm and a leg to get in (just an arm!).
so, my first birthday as a married woman was not too bad. i loved being with ryan and celebrating with him-he is absolutely the BEST husband in the world...he even made me a birthday cake because i couldn't find one i liked at the store. it's been a very, very long time since i've had a homemade birthday cake, and it was my absolute favorite in the whole world-party cake (the funfetti kind). it was even better than the cheesecake! (we had the birthday cake on wednesday night, since we knew we'd have cheesecake at the CF).

(we got the honey bee kind because for every carton you buy, money is donated to the research on why the honey bees are disappearing. did you know that 1/3 of the honeybees in america died in 2007-that's an ALARMING number..and no one knows why! so, buy some honey bee ice cream and do what you can to help this cause...)
(notice ryan's new doo)

the hunt is on!

i hate job-hunting! it's just not fun at all... ryan and i have been at it, though not extremely seriously, since we got here. neither of us really know what we want to do, but we need to do something...and we want to do something we will enjoy. we don't want to be stuck doing something that makes us miserable (umm been there, done that, got the t-shirt!). there's some balance, though...between needing a job and finding something we'd enjoy. i mentioned the other day that there's a really great prospect for me, but i haven't heard anything yet. one of our friends told us that they tend to be slow in getting back with people...which is kind of a bummer. i really would LOVE this job, but i need to go ahead and get started at something kind of soon. ryan is looking at a few different places, but hasn't really found anything GREAT, you know? so...pray for us when you think about it. that God would lead us to the PERFECT jobs.
i actually am going to take a class this summer, after all. i got to looking at the schedule on monday and found a class that i needed. i hadn't really considered taking one, because i figured i'd be working a lot...but alas! i'm free still! it's just a one week class, but i can go ahead and get a little "under my belt." ryan is doing well in his class...he is studying a WHOLE lot! i'm so proud of him...Hebrew is NOT easy, but he's working hard! and he's doing well... he has to memorize 40 vocab words for each class time-that's 120 words a week!! that's pretty stinking crazy!!!!
oh well...until next time!

caught

the clouds have been rolling in all morning. as ryan and i finished our delicious lunch, i decided that we should run to the mailbox really quick to drop some things off and see if we had anything. note: our mailbox is not far from our house...maybe like a city block (even though we live in a neighborhood, not a city!). we got about five steps off our porch and noticed some really large raindrops falling, kind of sporatically. all of a sudden, it got a little bit harder and we realized those drops were actually hitting us pretty hard...turns out-hail! i took off running for our mail box and ryan just laughed at me...then, as it started hailing harder, he started sprinting, too. we got to our little covered mailbox area and got our mail...and looked out to see the hail coming down even bigger and harder...we had no choice, but to run to our house, so off we went.. i put our mail on my head for a little protection, but unfortunately, we both got pelted all the way home!! we aren't talking little hail either... like softball size, i'm sure!! okay, actually more like nickel size, but chunks of ice falling hard from the sky sting a little regardless the size! and wouldn't you know, not 5 minutes after we got back into our safe little house, the storm ended! anyway, just thought i'd share... it's actually supposed to start cooling off here, which is awesome! it's already cooler after the storm...




ps i can tell i'm not quite used to the thin air (and that i haven't ran in a while), my lungs were hurting terribly after our little run!

also, i know i posted pictures of our townhouse before we actually moved all of our stuff in. as we get things unpacked and set up, i thought i'd share some pictures. these are from our kitchen (the flowers are the ones from glenn and carol, that apparently didn't upload last time!).



and one last picture.. the clouds near our house looked INCREDIBLE last night..we tried to get a good picture, but ended up with only decent ones...