Fall break, y'all!

These lovely ladies and I headed down to Arkansas for fall break this last week. Amy, standing to the right of me, is from Hope, AR so we stayed at her house as well as experiencing Shephard of the Ozarks, a Christian retreat center. So, we drove all night long the first night (to avoid paying for a place to stay...definitely a group of college students!). The first day we went horseback riding (of which I don't currently have pictures, but will soon) and hiking and just hung out and enjoyed life without a pile of reading or papers to write.


In addition to a buffalo named Buford (yes, that is correct), a donkey, horses, a sheep, a goat and a deer that we saw there, I also stumbled across this critter in the picture above that was crossing the road in front of me. Can you find the walking stick in this picture?! I geeked out because I've never seen one and it just appeared in front of me! So cool.


After our adventures in the Ozarks we drove to Amy's family farm and enjoyed a great evening prepared by her dad. We went fishing in the pond, had a fish fry picnic and took a hay ride. It was a gorgeous night and lots of fun to meet Amy's family and receive some of that Southern hospitality I've heard so much about. In the picture above a hay fight ensued shortly after leaving me quite itchy.


And for those of you who don't know, Hope, Arkansas was where Bill Clinton spent his first 6 years of life. We got to see his house and his old kindergarden. You gotta love being a tourist!

So, I'm back at school beginning the second half of the semester. I finished three classes: Theological Foundations, Evangelism and Church Planting, and Spiritual Conflict. I'm beginning Historical Foundations (of Missions) and decided to audit "Issues and Trends in Missions" since I couldn't fit it into my schedule elsewhere. I will be sending out an email newsletter to those on my email list sometime in the next week.

And I'm still looking for a car and a job. I've applied at a ton of places but haven't gotten any takers yet. My job experience outside of ministry is pretty limited but if people only knew, I have mad skills. Oh well, I'll keep looking. Pray that I'd finalize something on a car because I really need one. Wheaton is very suburban and not a whole lot is within walking distance, and that mainly includes job opportunities.

dimes

I've been finding a lot of coins the last month or so. It makes me smile and almost cry every time. At the memorial service for James at his high school, his band teacher shared a story about when she noticed James' excitement whenever he found a penny on the ground. He would see it and exclaim, "whoa! A penny!" and every time he'd bend down and pick it up when others had passed by it either not noticing or thinking, "ah, it's just a penny." Well, his band teacher noticed this and started deliberately leaving coins on the ground, not just pennies but nickels or even dimes as well.

So, of course, that story and the love of my brother flows over me when I see coins on the ground and as I used to pass over the pennies, I now stop, smile and pick it up. A few weeks ago I found a stack of 3 dimes, neatly piled up at school. Another day I found two more dimes outside my house and just today I found a dime sitting on the ground outside the bookstore on campus. No pennies, just dimes. I know everyone has their various ideas about the nearness of people after they die but every time I find a dime I almost feel James standing in the distance, smiling as I pick up that dime. And so I return the smile, cuz the tears come so often that smiling seems more fitting in those circumstances.

November 1 is approaching too quickly. I can't believe that almost a whole year has passed without James. I can't believe that I will never hear him come inside, flop down on the couch and sigh and say, "so, yeah" and wait for him to share whatever is on his mind. I miss his crazy cowlicks in his hair. I miss him eating like a horse. I his newly deepened voice. I miss the short jokes from my "little" brother. I miss him like crazy.

flippin' creepy spiders

So, I've been around my fair share of creepy things...snakes, scorpions, an abundance of wolf spiders at camp, mice, rats (that was gross though...they were on the trains in India; you'd see them flash by and just hoped they wouldn't run across your feet!). But I've had two very intimidating encounters with spiders in the last week and I'm wondering if they are in conspiracy against me. You decide....

First encounter. I am lying on my bed, piano music lilting in the background, scented candles burning (and yes I was alone...but I'm a big fan of atmosphere and ambiance, even if, SIGH, there's no one to share it with), sipping a cup of "Sleepytime" tea and reading before bed. Then...(cue horror movie music), the biggest, ugliest, fatest spider I've seen in a while quickly repels from the closet door right next to me and I swear he was staring at me with his mass of eyes. Sick. So I jumped up, nearly upsetting my tea which wasn't doing a great job of relaxing me any more and I grabbed a newspaper and ended the creepy little things life with no remorse. I checked the closet door and corners for any signs of "big, ugly, fat spider webness" but it was clear. Then I tried to resume with my peaceful bedtime rituals, with a random shiver of disgust every now and then.

Second encounter. This morning I headed over to campus to get some homework done before a lunch meeting with the head of the Muslim ministries department. I had chucked my computer into its protective case which had been on the floor under my desk and took it and the contents of my backpack to school. I decided to work on one of my papers and took out my computer all nicely zipped up in its case. I pulled back the zippers, zzzzzzzzpppppp. (and here add scary horror movie music of sudden surpise...usually that sharp, abrupt loud kind of stuff when the guy in the shadows suddenly jumps out) And nearly jumped and screamed in the middle of the commons area as a similar looking ugly, fat spider was sitting right where I had first pulled the zipper from, on the inside of the case either waiting patiently for escape or in my opinion, waiting to freak me out so I'd wet myself in reaction. We had a similar stare down with my heart pounding so loud I could barely hear the din of students around me. I took my pen, flicked him onto the ground and with my shoe gave him the same fate as the last one.

So, now I'm waiting for a spider behind everything in my room and I swear I can feel them crawling on me. I haven't seen any before this but maybe it's with the cooler weather coming that they are making their way into my warm, sweetly scented room. ugh.....