First Day of School!

Today is Jimmy's first day of class at Covenant. I'm a tiny bit (OK, fine, exceedingly) jealous of him! The thought of going back to school and soaking in all of that theology and church history sounds really wonderful to me right now. Of course, that's because I've had five years to look back at college and only remember the fun parts and the good lectures...and forget all of the hard work! I also feel like I'm not using my brain anymore in the way I want to. Child rearing is difficult and challenging, but not in an academic way. I feel somewhat guilty that it frustrates me, but then I remind myself that there are all kinds of parts to my personality and interests and academics is one--and one that is seriously lacking at the moment. I will be auditing a class with Jimmy this semester called Spiritual and Ministry Formation, so that will be fun. I will have Isaac with me at least until he turns 6 months old and can go into the childcare offered, but even so it will be fun to be in a class again! I am really interested in taking as many classes as I can, since they're free. In fact, I could get an entire degree for free since Jimmy is a paying full-time student. There are a lot of classes I'm interested in and the thought of getting a Master's of Arts in Theological Studies has definitely crossed my mind several times. That's basically the Master's of Divinity (what Jimmy's getting) minus the preaching classes and Greek and Hebrew. The church history and theology! It seems like, though, with two full-time students childcare would be difficult and making enough money to live on even more so. I'm actually hoping that auditing this class with Jimmy will make me realize that I don't want to take class for credit because while I'm interested in going to lectures and learning a lot, I don't necessarily want to have to do all of the reading and assignments.

Anyway, it being Jimmy's first day of class means it's my first day since June with the boys by myself. And Jimmy's starting with a bang--three classes for a total of 5.5 hours of class! He won't be gone as long as when he was teaching in LA but it will be longer than I've been alone with the boys in a long time. Thankfully we have a wonderful community here and so we'll probably be spending a lot of time outside playing today! Wish us both luck with our endeavours!

Back from vacation

Well, we're beginning to get settled into St. Louis. So far, it's really great minus missing all of the people we love in California and Virginia. Though there's no way to replace our children's grandparents or the Iowans, I think we will make great friends here. The only problem is that people will be moving in and out all of the time when they finish degrees! Hopefully we can make some good friends with people who will be here a while. There are loads of toddlers in our strip of Gulf Drive and every time we go outside there are more little ones for Nathan to play with. It's a very communist setup with the sharing of toys and space outside, so that's nice.

This summer was absolutely wonderful. We spent the first part of the summer in Buckingham with my parents the second part with Jimmy's parents in Falls Church and then a few more days in Buckingham before heading out for St. Louis. Here are a few highlights from our time in Virginia:

Buckingham:
*Nathan watering plans every morning with GranGran (my mother)
*Visiting with Aunt Laura and Uncle Matt
*Playing with the cats, Gilbert and Leon
*Seeing cows on Grandpa's farm
*Nathan driving the truck on Grandpa's farm (in Grandpa's lap while mommy held Isaac in the back seat...not something you can do on the streets of Long Beach!)
*Going to Virginia Beach for a few days with GranGran, Aunt Laura, and Uncle Matt
*Seeing relatives at Nathan's birthday/Isaac's welcoming/Independence Day Party

Falls Church:
*Going to the pool with Brock GranGran and Papa
*Playing with Samuel (Nathan's cousin) at Papa/Brock GranGran's house and at Samuel's birthday party
*Going to the Baltimore and National Zoos
*Saying "Papa come" and Papa comes or "Papa play" and Papa plays (You can insert "Brock GranGran" or "GranGran" or "Aunt Laura" in for "Papa" and get the same result...if you're Nathan, that is.)
*Going to Luray on vacation for a few days with Papa, Brock GranGran, and Great Grandma
*Riding Great Grandma's chair up and down the stairs
*Playing with Aunt Sally and Ryan

There are probably lots of other things that we did that I'm forgetting, so please forgive me and at the same time remind me of what they are! Pictures will come shortly. Right now we don't have the best internet connection (borrowed wireless from a neighbor) but once we get ours set up it shouldn't take as long to upload them.

In St. Louis news, we have visited New City Fellowship again (the church we visited at Easter) and we still love it. This week we sang two songs in Swahili. Pretty cool. Our neighbors are all so nice and it's really refreshing to be in a place where we know our neighbors and they don't just avert their eyes when they see us, like our neighbors in Long Beach did. Not quite sure why they did...maybe we smell and we don't realize it. We definitely love our deck here. Much smaller than the one in Long Beach but it has stairs down to where we have to keep our big trash cans (not all of them do...some people have to walk all the way around the building to get down there). It's big enough for a grill and faces southeast so there's plenty of sun for flowers and herbs! That's really exciting to me. Maybe something will live here. :) We have acquired two couches and a recliner thanks to my Craigslist addiction and Jimmy's willingness to haul furniture. We have bought a washer and dryer and are planning to get a portable dishwasher. I'm really excited to have my own major appliances. :) The boys are sharing a bedroom, and last night was the first night we tried it. It went really well! We bought a baby monitor so that Isaac will wake us up before he has to get loud enough to also wake up Nathan. I had no idea how sensitive to sound those monitors are so we hear him even when he begins to stir. He woke up twice during the night, which is pretty standard now, and Nathan didn't wake up either time. We are looking forward to being completely set up. Jimmy's classes start next Thursday so hopefully by that time things will be looking better! He will also be looking for part-time work, as will I, and hopefully it will be so that we don't have to pay for any daycare and that we can also see each other occasionally. I mean, we do like each other. :)

I will update soon with pictures...as soon as I need a break from unpacking!