We were going to write a blog about politics, but I'm thinking that some people might want to know what we've been up to for the last six weeks. Perhaps we'll get on track again and chat about politics next week.
CPE finally ended for me on August 17. We had a lovely lunch at a local restaurant to celebrate our "graduation," and then Wes, our friend Jon, and I headed to Ohio. That's right. We made the 8-hour drive to Mansfield, Ohio on Friday afternoon/evening/night. The men were wonderful and insisted that I stretch out across the back and rest, rather than doing any of the driving. So I was able to be somewhat comfortable for the trip over. On Saturday morning and afternoon, we attended my candidacy retreat, which was interesting. We had some good discussions with other candidates and some members of the candidacy committee, had some synod time together, participated in a worship service, learned a little about family life and ministry, and talked about the candidacy process. Then it was back in the car for the drive home so Wes would be ready to preach on Sunday morning. After that exhausting trip, we basically just sat around on Monday and Tuesday, but we had a wonderful visit with Jon and were so grateful that he was able to come out to see us.
The week between CPE and school starting for me is basically a blur. I know I worked on some homework and apparently attempted to rest, but then Wes and I both got a stomach bug and spent Friday and Saturday watching TV and trying to eat something. I was pretty worried about the baby, but he seems to have done pretty well. In fact, when we went in this week, the midwife told me that he's measuring two weeks big! I guess he's a pretty resilient guy.
I started my field ed on Sunday August 26, and started school the next day. If you want to know about field ed, you'll have to read my blog, which you can do here. School has been going swimmingly so far. The only drawback to the whole process is Hebrew. Now, I'm a language person. I love learning new languages, and I pick them up really easily. I honestly can't remember getting anything less than a 90% on Spanish homework--or Greek, for that matter. Yet Hebrew is evading me. I really think I just don't have enough time to devote to learning it, but there's not much I can do about that. I'm taking it pass/fail, so I don't really NEED to work that hard, but if you know me, you know I can't just slack off.
The rest of my classes have been fun. I'm taking Old Testament online, which has brought nothing surprising yet, but once we get through the first five books, I know I'll learn a lot more. I'm also taking History of Christianity online, which has been way more interesting than I expected. I can't tell you how much I love being able to "go to class" while sitting on my couch in my pajamas. These classes are a pregnant woman's dream. At school, I'm also taking Christian Education, which has been fun so far. I love the books we're reading for the class, and we have an online forum that we post on each week, which has also led to some great discussions. Finally, I'm taking Homiletics, which is by far my favorite course. I have been waiting impatiently to take another class with this professor since last fall. She's awesome, fun, and...Methodist, which Wes loves. Plus, this is one of those times where I can immediately see the application of my course work. We're writing sermons and then preaching them at our field ed sites.
Babysitting Dan is the usual. He's gotten pretty good about letting me rest or do homework or whatever, and he's really grown up a lot even in the last few months. He's almost as busy as I am with travel soccer this fall, but he loves it, so that's great. And he's super excited about the baby, but who's not? We're at the point where we're going to be going to the doctor every two weeks, and sometime between Thanksgiving and Christmas, our little bundle of joy is going to make his way screaming into the world! We're pretty set for the moment and very excited to see where life takes us next.
Wes: So my life hasn't been near as jam-packed as my lovely wife's has been, but I do have a couple things worth reporting to our adoring fans.
First, I had my final degree audit yesterday at Princeton. I am officially good to go to finish my stuff up this December and to graduate this coming May. I went into the registrar's office this last Friday to check in with him and to make sure that I was on top of everything, and he pulled up my stuff and told me that I am actually better off at this point than many of the seniors who put off checking in with him until the last minute. Only one of my classes this semester is a required course, and I actually only needed six hours to complete my MDiv.
I'm pretty paranoid about stuff like degree plans. I feel like I am not very good at staying on top of all of my responsibilities, and when it comes to things like paperwork and planning out courses in advance, it's really easy for me to let things fall to the wayside. It's nice to know that this did not, and that I'll be finally done with school (for a while at least).
I am excited about having the Spring semester off from school and still only be working half-time. It'll be a nice break from running pell-mell in ten different directions at once, and it'll give me plenty of time to spend with the baby once it's born.
It's still really throwing me that I'm about to be a daddy. Freaking ridiculous.
Which brings me to the next bit of news worth sharing. My district superintendent asked me this past week to share with my churches that as of May, Jess and I will be moving back to Texas for good. It was a bittersweet announcement to make, for even though both of us are very excited to be back around family and friends and to have the chance to raise Baby Cain up in that community, it was hard telling the churches of our plans. I feel like I am saying goodbye to them way too early, and that the process will be stretched out much longer than I would have liked. I don't want every Sunday to be a reminder to myself and to everyone in the congregation that we are one Sunday closer to leaving, and I definitely don't want anyone to feel like we are abandoning them by making this decision to continue on in both our vocations and our family plans.
It will be great to be back home in a few months, but it will be hard to say goodbye.
Well, that's a quick update on us. We'll get back into a rhythm with this blog soon, so stay with us.
You stay classy, World Wide Web!
jess and wes
