The last month has been quite the roller coaster ride.  After months and months of not feeling well, I finally went to the doctor.  The doctor had two ideas as to what it could be - neither of which are life-threatening.  The good doctor sent me to get blood taken and after six vials of blood and tests for loads and loads of things, I got my diagnosis.  I don't really want to share about it here.  Not because my life is in danger or anything but because it is something I'm dealing with as privately as possible.  I'm on medication now and I'm feeling great, praise the Lord.  But please be praying for me because it's not just dealing with the side effects of the medication (which were really bad for the first few weeks but are practically gone now) but also just processing what my diagnosis means and the emotions that come along with that.  If you want to know, I might tell you if you message me, but please don't be offended if I don't tell you all the details.  Please pray though, it would be greatly appreciated.

Yesterday, Kenny and I took a much needed but rather spontaneous date night.  We went to this great little Mexican place in town that we absolutely love (the food is delicious and we both ate for under $15!).  Then we went to see the new Pixar movie, Up.  What a wonderful movie!  I wouldn't say it's my favorite Pixar movie (I don't know if I could pick one) but it was wonderful.  What I love most about Pixar movies is that they really try to say something with their movies.  This beautiful story, about a man finally going on the adventure he and his late wife always dreamed of, shows that the real adventure in life is just that - life.  And it is said beautifully.  If you haven't seen it yet, you need to.  It's funny, touching, goofy, and yes, a little sad too.  I cried, sometimes out of sadness but mostly just from the beauty of it all. Fantastic. 

Ah....the glories of Spring Break.  Kenny has just finished his quarter at grad school and now we have a glorious week to ourselves - no homework, no labs to teach, no tests to study for.  Just us and our house.  Yes I am very excited.  My hubby has to bring work home with him practically every day during the quarter which leaves his attention divided. Now we have time for just us which is greatly welcomed.  At this very moment though, he is enjoying a morning of sleeping in.

The other night Kenny and I were sitting in bed talking and we just started talking about science.  I started posing questions and he answered, I rebutted or agreed and led us down a different line of thought, and he would challenge my mind along the way.  We talked about creation vs. evolution and everything.  How much both are faith-based considering what makes science what it is.  We talked about the Flood, the Big Bang, the universe, Newton's Laws of Thermodynamics.  It was great.  I enjoy these times because we sit and stretch each other, we teach each other and learn from each other.  People wonder how our relationship works - you know, the whole scientist vs. theatre person aspect.  But I think that, besides the fact that we think very similarly about our fields, we both love to LEARN.  We love to learn something new.  That is great!

I miss educational theatre greatly.  I enjoyed the dynamic so much my last year.  There I was, I was one of the seniors and I had been around the block several times.  I enjoyed helping people do their jobs.  When I was crew heading I enjoyed helping my crew figure out how to do their project.  As a stage manager, I enjoyed being part of the support structure.  I miss those dynamics so much.  I'm a teacher at  heart.  I've known this for a long time.  I just wish there was some way I could get back into educational theatre right now.  But I know it's not God's time for that yet.  But someday I'm going to get back into it, because I enjoy far too much the feeling of helping people become better artists and then vanishing into the background and remaining unseen.

I'm directing a show right now at church and I feel wholly inadequate.  I can't figure out how to break a few of my actors out of their shells.  I worry that I am not making things interesting enough for the audience to remain rapt in attention.  But I realized something, I need to let go of all these anxieities.  I feel inadequate but in my inadequacies, God is completely beyond adequate.  This is a reminder that it is not me doing this on my own, the only way all of this will get done and done well is through God's strength and guidance.

I guess I had a lot on my mind. :)

So I've decided after last week's chaos with the ice storm and everything that I am ready for spring.  I'm sick of the snow and the cold.  Some sunshine and warmth would be awesome.  But I can wait...only because I have to. :-p

I'm the drama coordinator at my church now.  I'm so excited because they actually want to do great work.  They've had a big program in the past but it needs rebuilding and I'm the one that's working on it.  We're starting work on the Easter program and I'm a little nervous because I'm having trouble rounding up the actors I need.  However, I know that if God wants this show to go on He'll give me the people I need to make this work.  It's exciting to be involved in some form of theatre again.  I miss it a lot.  And I get to feed all my favorite parts of it with this ministry because, as coordinator, I am director, designer, stage manager, etc.    But I do miss theatre so much.  Educational theatre especially. 

Speaking of educational theatre, guess where I'm going to be this weekend.  Kenny and I are going back to good old Cedarville to take in the winter musical.  We'll be going to the Saturday matinee.  I look forward to seeing so many of my former classmates' work.  Plus, I get to see and catch up with so many dear friends.  It's going to be a good day.

If you could pray for my hubby, I would be greatly appreciative.  He's really discouraged with grad school.  He's got some really tough classes this quarter and he really hates not being able to spend quality time with me.  You know, he's home but he's not really "home" because he has work to do for school.  Pray that God will give him strength and clarity of thought to do well in his classes.  Thanks!

I was enjoying the winter storm.  Thoroughly enjoying it.  My husband didn't have to spend the day at grad school.  We spent the whole day together.  Went out for a walk in the fresh snow.  It was wonderful.  The landscape was absolutely gorgeous. And then, at 6pm yesterday, the power went out.  Sixteen hours later, we still don't have power and even better we're not supposed to get power again till Saturday night.  This is a definite first for me.  So hopefully we'll be able to get a heater that doesn't require electricity to run so we don't freeze our tails off at home.  I must say I am a little overwhelmed.  We never got storms like this in Jersey...the ocean always kept things too warm.  I am untested in this and it's unnerving and my house is freaking cold.  My husband however, is so calm and collected, which is kind of nice.  He keeps his wits about him while I get stressed out about how all the food in the fridge is going bad (granted, not as quickly as it would in the summer) and everything. 

I know I'm probably overreacting.  I'm doing better now though, huddled in my husband's office on campus in the warmth and the light able to vent my anxieties to all you out in Xanga world. 

The funny thing is that people around here are so calm and nonchalant about it....I sure hope this doesn't happen all the time...

I know it's been a while but I feel like we've been running nonstop since Thanksgiving.  After spending a wonderful Thanksgiving with my husband's family in TN and then spending a fantastic Christmas in Jersey visiting my family and friends, we are now home and are staying home for who knows how long.  Our Christmas was such a blessing.  We got to see some of my oldest friends.  On Christmas Day, my grandfather was allowed to come home from the rehabilitation center he is staying at while he goes through chemo.  It was such a great day.  He was so thrilled to be home and the visit went really well which is great because it was a test of when he can go home.  It was so good to see him so happy to be surrounded by each of his children and grandchildren.  Such a blessing.  Keep on praying for him.  His counts are going down more than the doctor expected, which means the chemo is working great!  God  is good my xanga friends, really really good.

Kenny's family is coming up for New Years.  We'll get to see the older brother and his family, the parents, and the younger brother.  We're very excited but we still have so much work to do.  But it'll be nice to see them all, especially the younger brother considering he has been out of the country since August studying abroad.

God works in mysterious ways.  I never cease to marvel at how He's brought me to where I am.  I could never have planned this course for my life.  But His ways are higher than ours.  He is opening up doors for ministry for both me and Kenny.  He's giving us opportunities to share our faith and the love of God with people from school.  I'm going to be heading up the drama ministry at church in the new year which means building the ministry from the ground up.  It's a very exciting time.  I'm still not quite sure what the future holds, but after recalling all that God has led me to and through, I have no fears or worries because whatever it is, He's known it from the beginning.

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas celebrating the birth of our Lord and Savior.  Have a very Happy New Year!!!