Back in the Saddle Again...maybe

My sister-in-law Kara is always giving me a hard time about not posting. She likes to point out how other people, people with kids even, find time to blog, so why can't I? She especially likes to emphasize bloggers of multiples. (Thanks, Lindsey).

And the thing is, she's right. Why don't I blog? I could have time if I really wanted to. I think the old saying, "You have time to do whatever you want to" is a true, though often irritating, statement. I guess I feel that I don't have much incentive to keep this thing alive (or the other 2 blogs I started once upon a time). Since I don't have any kids (and normal people don't care about weekly puppy photos), I don't have the pressure to post current pictures. It's not impossible, but also not very likely for my mom to call saying, "Lindsay. You haven't posted in 2 weeks. I have no idea what you and Kyle look like or what new things you are up to these days."

It just doesn't happen a lot.

But even though I don't post much, I do love to read other people's blogs. I don't comment a lot (often because I'm stuffing my face when I'm at the computer...yikes), but sometimes reading someone else's goofy moment or seeing their kids' sweet smile is the very thing that brightens up my day. So press on, bloggers!

Do as I say, not as I do.

For you, Mom, just in case.

What Would You Do?

A couple weeks ago, Kyle and I went home to Houston for my mom's birthday. Sitting at the dinner table, my family wanted to hear all about my new job, which prompted my sister to say, "Oh yeah, so now that you are employed, you and Kyle are DINKs: dual income, no kids." She failed, however to provide an equally charming nickname for herself and Charlton. (SIOKs?)

It got me thinking about all the stereotypes and assumptions that are often associated with people without children. I won't name them, mostly because they are incredibly unflattering, and I certainly hope that they aren't true of Kyle and I. But one thing I have found from being a DINK, and a SINK for that matter, is that you have to be very, very careful about the comments and suggestions you make to people with kids, and especially to the kids themselves.

Not that this rule is strictly exclusive to people without children. I've seen several uncomfortable situations between sets of parents where 1 set is trying to offer the other "helpful" advice. It's not pretty, people. Not only is advice ruled out, but giving someone else's child instruction, even among Christians, is sometimes a touchy subject.

So I try not to make too many comments or give opinions unless directly asked. As an opinionated person, I don't always succeed, but at least I have goals. (We DINKs are known for our ambitious goals, after all).

However, yesterday presented a perfect example of a time where I did not want to be involved in correcting someone's child, but felt thrown into it in order to not have a $800 phone bill.

I was sitting in the doctor's waiting room yesterday, peacefully reading my newspaper with my purse on the end table next to me. There was a little boy around 2 or 3 playing, with his (very young) mom sitting in a chair nearby. Suddenly, Billy* spotted my purse, and came over and starting touching it, eyes all aglow, trying to look inside.

My response was to simply laugh. I really thought it was pretty funny, and I didn't feel at all responsible or concerned because I knew his mom had to be watching. And although she was watching, she didn't really say anything. Honestly, I think she was curious what he was going to do next. Finally she corrected him and he skipped off to something else.

About 5 minutes later, he came back and started feeling into my purse again. This time I was a little more taken aback. The mom still just looked on without saying anything. After another long pause of Billy coveting my belongings, she started walking over to my chair.

"Billy stop. You'd think I'd taught him to be a pick-pocket."

At this point, it's just awkward.

"Um, well, there's not any money in there! "

I go back to reading my newspaper quietly. And then guess what? Billy comes back a third time. He had apparently gained some confidence, because this time he took my phone out of my purse.

I couldn't take it anymore.

"No...let's not take my phone out of my purse, please." After which, I carefully removed my phone from his mischievous little hands and put it in my purse.

I wasn't quite sure what would happen next. I didn't know if the mom was going to yell at me. "What right do you have to correct my child?! I raise my child to make his own decisions! You have to be tolerant of others' choices!"

You just can't really tell these days. So instead of waiting for her to starting throwing blows, I went to the Ladies' room and returned to the waiting room- this time in a different section than Billy and his mom.

*Names have been changed to protect the identity of those involved.

The Best 6.5 Pounds I've Ever Gained

Introducing Augustus (Gus) Newcomer

Employment: Check

I got a job! Thursday night, an old RUF friend of mine, Hannah, called and told me that there was an opening in her department at A&M, and would I be interested. Of course I would! I went in the next morning and met with her boss, and was offered the job. Very exciting!

My official title is "Senior office associate." I'm not exactly sure what I'll be doing, but it will include helping maintain the database, customer service, and some business/technical writing. Hannah is being promoted to a new position, so since both of us are starting at the same time, the positions are being somewhat restructured to better fit Hannah and I specifically. I'm especially excited that I will be able to do some kind of writing- they mentioned that they've always wanted to have an office newsletter, but haven't really had anyone to do it, so I might get to start that as well.

Tuesday is going to be my first day, which seems CRAZY since I spent all of last week looking for jobs, thinking that no one was ever going to interview me, let alone hire me. I feel so blessed, and am so excited to see what's in store. Thanks everyone for your prayers and encouragement!

The Best Laid Plans

So I had planned to make a Christmas post with all my merry pictures, but now that Christmas is officially over, here's a recap of the past 3 weeks for the Newcomers.

Christmas: We spent Christmas Eve with my family, and Christmas Day with the Newcomers. It was really fun to watch Steven play with all his presents and wrapping paper. During the afternoon he spilled water all over himself, so my mom gave him the freebie shirt she received from the hospital when I was first born. Cool, huh? It was a little snug, but that's beside the point.

This year Christmas Day was a little unique in that we spent it with both of our parents. Since Kyle's brother is still studying abroad, and most of his aunt and uncles couldn't make it down to Houston this year, and with my sister was spending the day with her in-laws, we decided to combine families. It was really fun, and was neat to have everyone in the same room.

Post Christmas: We got a 6 month old German Shepherd puppy right before Christmas, but right after Christmas, we ended up having to take him back to the breeder. He was a very sweet dog, but had severe separation anxiety and was also deathly afraid of children. We were really worried that if we kept him, he would hurt himself and our duplex, as well as possibly start biting children. That was more of a chance than we wanted to take, so we returned him. We were really, really sad to take him back, but we feel like it was the best thing to do. We are probably going to get a puppy soon, which hopefully will be easier to train, since we'll be getting him (or her) as a "baby" puppy.

New Year's: We spent New Year's Eve with our good friends the Ackermans, but New Year's Day was not so much fun. I have been breaking out in hives for the past several months, and over the past few weeks, they have gotten a lot worse. I made an appointment with an allergist for this past week, but in order to get an allergy test, I had to get off any and all anti-histamines for 5 days. 5 very long days.

Tuesday was the last day without the anti-histamines, and I was in a lot of pain from all the hives and swelling. We checked into the ER that night, as my eyes were pretty much swollen shut. The staff took great care of me, and we went home after only a couple hours.

It turns out that I'm allergic to dust mites and grass, which is good, since that's so rare, right? Looking back, I think I got so much worse these past few weeks from the increase in dust from all of our moving boxes. But the last few days have been great. I'm on new, stronger anti-histamines, and tomorrow I start the beginning of what's called a "rush cluster," ie, allergy shots.

Post New Year's: Things are feeling a little bit more normal now. Our duplex is completely unpacked, which is a great feeling. Now that the holidays are over, I'm picking my job search up again, so please keep me in your prayers.

Drama, drama, drama. Here's hoping that the rest of 2008 will be more carefree!

Company Christmas Party

Saturday night was Kyle's company Christmas party. It was the same day as graduation, so it made for a very busy day (especially since it was in Conroe), but we had a great time. It's always nice to put names with faces of people Kyle works with.

Kyle made a rookie mistake by asking a male co-worker to take our picture, and I made a rookie mistake by not specifically asking Kyle to get one of his female co-workers to take the picture. You can't see much of my skirt, but it was shiny and a little poofy (my 2 favorite things).

Now that graduation is over(I'll post pictures after my family sends them to me, hint hint)and we've moved into our new duplex and been able to pull out a few Christmas decorations, it's starting to feel more like Christmas. And even more so after getting our present to each other last night.

So close it hurts

I am now in the home stretch- only 9 days until graduation!!!!! I am so excited to be graduating, and I can't believe how fast this semester has gone by. I expected it to drag along, but these past few months especially have really flown.

I only have 2 finals, and I can't imagine having more. Even with only having 2, I'm finding it hard to get motivated to study. I also started looking for jobs this week. I know, I know, I said a while back I was going to sub for a semester, and that's not completely out of the realm of possibility (especially if no one else wants to hire me, ha), but I at least want to try to find something else.

What kind of job? Well, that's the interesting part. I'm not really sure. I'd like to do something where I'm working with people, and/or writing and editing. So I'm kind of looking for stuff in the marketing/HR/PR/writing/editing field. Does that narrow it down?

With such a cloudy idea of what I want to do, it's been confusing to even know where to begin. I've been hoping that I'll just know it when I see it. I went to the A&M Career Center yesterday, and I was really impressed with their office. The lady I talked to, who works specifically with Liberal Arts majors, gave me some good ideas of where to look, as well as some tips on my resume.

She also gave me a handout called, "What kinds of jobs can I get with an English major?" Some of the suggestions were painfully obvious like "teacher" and "freelance writer," but there were several that were more, shall we say, "non-traditional." Here are some of my favorites:

• Church Youth Program Director
• FBI Agent
• Peace Corps Administrator or Trainer
• Radio & TV Broadcaster
• U.S. Military Officer

I had no idea I was qualified for such adventurous tasks. Better go work on my push-ups.

What's in a Name?

It happened again.

The other day I called a realtor about a duplex for rent, and after getting some basic detail about the place, he asked for my name and number to call me back to set up an appointment. It went something like this:

"What's your name?"
"Lindsay."
"Last name?"
"Newcomer."
"Um, well, uh, ok, but what's your last name?"
"Newcomer."
(He seems to need some help).
"My last name IS Newcomer."
"Oh! Well, ha! That's funny! I thought you meant you were a newcomer to the community or something! Haha!"
(fake chuckles)."Yes, many people make that mistake."

It doesn't really annoy me when people do this, but I just don't really understand the confusion. I of course am aware that newcomer is an actual word, but do new people really ever introduce themselves as newcomer right after saying their first name? I moved around a fair amount growing up, and as a Thurman, I never introduced myself as "Hi, I'm Lindsay. Newcomer." Maybe at the most my parents said something like, "We're the Thurmans, and we're newcomers to Houston."

Am I crazy? Has anyone ever introduced themselves at a new place with "newcomer" directly following their name? If you have, please stop. It's my name, not yours. Just kidding.

23

I turned the big 2-3 yesterday. What happens when you're 23, you may ask. Well, no one seems to be sure, but Kyle pointed out that it is a prime number, which I think makes it edgy. It can only mean that good things are in store for this year.

One of the highlights of my birthday was having my sister-in-law, Kara, come visit this past weekend. We'd been promising her a good time if she would just come see us, and she finally gave in, making her our first overnight guest.

Kara, I know you're going to hate me for putting this picture up, but it's too representative of our weekend together not to. Look how pretty my present from Kyle is! He got it gift wrapped and everything! So you can understand our excitement.

A jewelry box!

Thanks, Honey! I had mentioned awhile back that I would like a new jewelry box, because the one I had was a fake one (the box that bath salts came in several Christmases ago). Guess he was paying attention!

As a point of reference, this is my former jewelry box. =(

Sunday night Kyle took me out to Luigi's, a new cute little restaurant in town, and this weekend the celebration is going to continue with a few of our good friends. I originally thought having a birthday on Monday would be a drag, but it just makes for a good excuse to celebrate TWO weekends!

Thanks to everyone for all the presents, phone calls, emails, and Facebook messages. I felt very loved!

"When the Dixie Train comes down the track, everyone gets off."

That's what Flannery O'Connor said about William Faulkner. After reading several short stories and 1 of Faulkner's novels (Light in August), I must agree. Light in August was actually a pretty good story, but my beef(s) with Faulkner are 1)he gives his characters all similar sounding names, and 2) he should reduce the novel/short stories by about a fourth. There was a Burden, Byron Bunch, Burch, and a Brown all in the same novel, as well as 2 Joes. Yikes. Burch and Bunch were supposed to sound alike to fit into the plot of the story, but come on, dude, give us a break. I had to keep flipping back and forth to remember which B word fit each person. Faulkner also likes to include lots and lots of side stories within other side stories, which ultimately fit into the main story. Or do they? I keep finding myself asking, did we really need to know about this SIDE CHARACTER's lineage? I give it 3.5 stars.

After taking our midterm on Faulkner, my next assignment for lit class was to read All the King's Men, by Robert Penn Warren. I was really excited to read this one because I'm originally from Louisiana (the novel is about a corrupt politician in LA and his assistant), and because I really liked the movie version that came out in 2006.

I actually just finished the book today, and I must say that it is the best thing I have read in a really long time (it's up there with To Kill a Mockingbird). When Kyle and I saw the movie last year, we didn't know that it was originally a book, and now I kinda wish I could've read the book first. I haven't seen the movie in a while, so I can't give too many comments on how they differ, but our friend Haley wrote a review that gives a great outline of the plot and characters, as well as movie info.

I agree with her that the movie did a pretty good job of relaying the book, but the movie ending is really incomplete. There is a lot in the end of the book that the movie doesn't tell you, and ironically, it's (in my opinion) possibly the best part of the book. I feel like you can walk away from the book feeling a little lighter about the story, although I definitely wouldn't call it a feel-good. Certainly thought provoking though. I give it 5 stars, and highly recommend it to anyone, especially people interested in law and politics. I say that loosely because I'm not really that interested in law or politics, but I still found the book really entertaining. It is also an interesting time to read this book because one of the main campaign platforms of Willie Stark is providing universal health care (for LA), and even though this book is set in the 1930's, it looks like that same issue may drive the 2008 election...

Happy (Belated) Birthday, Kyle

I was reading Lindsey's blog yesterday, and it reminded me that I never blogged about Kyle's birthday, and everyone knows that if you don't blog about an event, then it OBVIOUSLY wasn't really that important to you, right? =)

Kyle's birthday is October 8, and today is October 19. I'm a bit late, but I have a good reason. I was enduring the Columbus Day Massacre on Kyle's actual birthday. I woke him up at 2:30 am not to wish him a happy birthday, but to tell him that I was in the worst pain of my life. I then proceeded to vomit and do ungirly things for the next 48 hours, nothing short of a trip to the ER at from 4:00-7:30am on, you guessed it, his birthday.

There's nothing like having your spouse take care of you when you're (REALLY) sick to remind you how wonderful marriage really is, and what unconditional love really looks like. Kyle only got a couple hours sleep that night, not because he was sick, but because he was sitting beside me, trying to comfort me the best he could in my agony (this was by far the worst kind of sick I have ever been). He took the day off work to be able to go to the pharmacy and make sure that I was staying hydrated and didn't get dizzy. He even skipped his softball game that night, which is a BIG sacrifice, as he loves his softball team very much.

October 8th was supposed to be a day all about him, and it ended up being a day all about me. I am always amazed by how gentle and gracious Kyle is, and he is the least selfish person I have ever met. After our 2 years of being together, I still stop during the day in awe that such a wonderful man would have chosen to marry me (of all people!)

Happy Birthday, Baby. I love you so much, and I will try really, really hard not to ever get sick on your birthday again. =)

An Intern No More

Today was my last day as the writing intern for Mays Business School. Hooray! It is a student worker position, so I knew I would be leaving in December when I graduated (or they would kick me out), so after thinking about it, I decided to push up my resignation time by a couple months.

Some of you know that I have Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (think mono), and for some reason, the fall seems to be the worst time of year for it. I don't really know why- I think it could be because summers are usually more low key, so school is always an unpleasant surprise. But anyway, I've been feeling more worn out lately, and since I can't get rid of school and I don't want to get rid of my friends, I decided work was the thing to go. =)

This whole fall-tiredness thing usually gets better in November, so I thought of staying with my job until graduation, but then I realized that this may be the last time in my life where I have the option of slowing down- whether it be because I have a job in the "real world," or I have kiddos to chase around. So, I thought I should enjoy it. =)

My boss threw me a little party today, which I thought was really sweet. The head boss even got me balloons! I was a little tickled because the balloons and card had "Graduation" on them, so it was like a pre-graduation party. (I guess they don't have sorry-that-you're-quitting ballons). I'm really glad that I had this opportunity to broaden my writing skills, and I'm reallyreally glad to now have a little more free time.

Dallas Weekend

I was so busy with school last week that I never got to write about our fun weekend in Dallas.

We saw my RUF friend Caleb Bell marry Laura Cherry.

Caleb caught the garter last year at our wedding, so we felt that we were perhaps the most important guests there... without us, the wedding would not have existed. I'm mostly kidding of course, BUT Caleb and Laura weren't yet dating (at least officially) when he caught our garter. We reminded him of this at his wedding, and he told us that catching our garter made him think, "Hey, I REALLY want to get married!" after which, he returned to Seattle and stepped it up a notch with Laura. The rest is history.

Our good friends Sarah and Jeremy Mollenkopf had their baby girl Abagail Grace September 15, which worked out great for us, because we were already planning a trip to Dallas. Thanks for saving us some gas money, Abagail. =)

She is so sweet and beautiful, looking a lot like her mama. It seems impossible for a then 1 week old to have smiled at us, but I promise she did!

It was such a good weekend to catch up with old friends! This weekend we are enjoying a quiet evening at home, rejoicing that the Aggies BTHO Baylor. Whoop! (whew).

Bling Bling

Last Friday I got my Aggie Ring! It felt like I would NEVER get it! I feel like a real Aggie now, and somehow more of an adult, but not sure why. =)

I got up early Friday morning to go get my ring ticket. I got there at 7:15 when the doors opened, but I wasn't the first one there. People had camped out the night before all around the Association of Former Students building! So, I think it's only fair that they got their ring an hour sooner.

I went to class and work, and then Kyle met me on campus around 2:00 for all the festivities. We had yell practice and free snow cones and sausage on a stick (only the classiest for us Aggies). Then at 4:00, the magic happened.

The ring lady had Kyle present me my ring.

Behold the power of an Aggie ring.

The Search is Over

This morning we officially joined... First Baptist Bryan! We are very excited to have ended our church hunt and to start getting plugged in to a new church home. When we were "presented" to the congregation, Pastor Tim, or Brother Tim (I am officially Baptist now) said, "This is Kyle and Lindsay Newcomer," and everyone started chuckling. We are newcomers to the church. Our name is Newcomer. This joke doesn't bother me in the slightest, but I also have only had to hear it for 1 year, as opposed to 27 for poor Kyle. Maybe I'll be a "true" Newcomer when I get tired of the joke. But for now, I see it as a nice icebreaker. =)

It feels pretty strange to be joining such a big church, but we feel like it is the best place for us. Every week we go there, I feel kind of intimidated to walk into such a big place. I think, "What are we doing here? We aren't 'big church people.'" But every week I am humbled and refreshed to learn that although the music and order of worship is very different, the Gospel is just as sweet and just as true as it has been since the beginning of time. I really like Pastor Tim, both as a person and a preacher, and whenever he starts his sermon, I feel back at home and reminded that these people are not so different from me.

A funny thing about going to a church with 2,000 people is that while there are tons of people you don't know, there are also lots of people that you do know, often from really random places. I think we've been to FBC 5 times now, and I've seen 3 high school friends, 3 former classmates, the salesman that always waits on me from the Honda dealership, Kyle's great aunt, my sweetmate from freshman year, a teacher I used to tutor for, and a couple from a church we visited last summer. Weird, huh? I can't wait to see who else we run into!

We're not sure how exactly we're going to be involved in the church yet. All of the community groups in the church are going to be studying 40 Days of Community, which will be held in different people's homes. We met a really sweet couple at church last week who is hosting a group, so we signed up to be with them. We're a little bummed because it turns out that the Bible study is on the same night as Kyle's softball games, but the community group doesn't start until October, so we'll at least catch the first few games. We haven't settled on a Sunday school class, but we'll probably join the young married's class. And I'm sure that we'll volunteer for the nursery, but I think we have to do some sort of "class" before we can start that. We could be weirdos after all.

Please pray for us as we try to find ways to become involved in our new church. Thanks to all of you who have been praying for our church hunt!

Baby Steven's Birthday

Yesterday my nephew turned 1! I can't believe how fast he is growing up! He has changed so much, especially in the last 2 or 3 months. He's started walking, hugging people, giving "five," and he even reached for me to hold him once or twice this weekend-a MAJOR highlight for an aunt! =)

We came in to Houston Friday night and had a great time with Laura and Charlton, and then Saturday we played with Steven and got ready for his cowboy-themed birthday party. I'll only put up a few pictures, but check Laura's blog over the next couple days for the full shebang.

His crown said, "Baby's 1st Birthday."

I was thinking after the party about how rare it is to go to a birthday party where you actually remember the person's birth, but I remember Steven's so clearly! It's hard to believe that at the same time of his party LAST year, we were anxiously waiting in the hospital room, wondering how much he would weigh, how long he would be, how much hair...

Happy Birthday, Stevie! We love you!

The Beginning of the End

Monday marked my last first day of school. Very exciting! It is really hard to believe that this is my last semester of college. Today I found myself thinking how next semester I'll order my books ahead of time (I HATE the textbook-buying process), and I have to remind myself that there will be no next semester!

All of my classes look like they are going to be pretty interesting. I'm taking interpersonal communication, where I will learn how to be everyone's favorite person; history of western dress, where I will learn how and why people dressed the way they did in olden days; and life and literature of the American South, where my love for the South will continue to blossom.

I can already tell that southern lit will be my favorite. The prof, Dr. Clarke, came to class yesterday dressed in a blue and white pinstriped suit. He has a very deep laugh, and made several references to how Jack Daniels has changed his life. He reminds me of Dustin Hoffman in Stranger than Fiction, but a little older and friendlier. Kyle is pretty sure that he had Dr. Clarke when he was at A&M, and he remembers Dr. Clarke telling the class that he was giving whiskey up for lent, which seems to fit his present Jack Daniels comments. Ah, it's nice to meet a consistent person.

We are going to read a pretty wide range of authors, kicking the semester off with Faulkner, which will be nice to get out of the way, as he is nobody's favorite. Then on to Robert Penn Warren, Tennessee Williams, Walker Percy, and various short stories by writers such as Flannery O' Connor and Eudora Welty. I have a pretty good feeling that I will be blogging about lots of happenings and discussions from this class, but for today, I will leave you with Dr. Clarke's reasoning for why there are no dates on our syllabus:

"Northerners live by the clock; Southerners live by the rhythm of the season."

Here's to a good semester.

Car Switcharoo

Yesterday marked an important day: I got a new car. Kyle and I decided to switch cars, so it's not new per se, but it is to me. Kyle's new job is a little farther than his old one, and since they encourage workers to take a lunch break instead of working through like Kyle used to (we're not sure why), he's been coming home for lunch, meaning that he's been using a lot more gas lately. Kyle's car only takes premium gas (it's a bit snobby), so we decided that he should start driving my 2002 Honda Civic since it gets GREAT gas mileage. I grabbed my parking pass, sunglasses, and CDs and started life with my "new" 2002 Volkswagen Jetta.

This is a little sad for me, as my Honda was my first and only car. My grandma bought it for me when I was 17, and it holds lots of good memories. But the Jetta isn't without its memories as well. Driving around in it today, I was thinking about when Kyle and I first started dating and how we drove all around Houston in it. I say the first part of our relationship because once we were more serious, we started taking my car- I'm telling you, Hondas get reallyreally good gas mileage, and Houston is a big city. And maybe I'm crazy, but it has a "Kyle" smell.

And for those of you who aren't sentimentally inclined, the Jetta has a few more perks.
1) My Honda was a 2-door, and switching to a 4-door somehow makes me feel more distinguished and mature.

2) The gas cap is attached to the tank by a wire, ensuring that one can never lose it. This may not seem like much to the untrained eye, but shortly after I got my Honda, I lost the gas cap. I was getting gas and forgot to put the cap back on. I drove away and quickly realized this, and went back and got it, but someone must have run over it (or I could have run over it) and it wouldn't stay back on. My very wise mother told me I had to buy myself a new one because I would be less likely to forget than if she bought me one. This is just one example of how insightful my mom is because that $22 for a stupid gas cap has kept me aware at the pump the rest of my driving life.

3) The interior is black. I'm not sure why this is a perk, especially since it may make it hotter, but it looks "sleeker." My Honda's interior is beige, and it shows dirt and spots really easily.

We're having a hard time figuring out how to refer to our cars. I used to say "my car" for the Honda, and "your car" for the Jetta, and Kyle would do the same, but now that system just isn't efficient. "Do you mean your former car, or my former car?" "The Honda?" So we have resulted to using the generic terms of "Honda" and "Jetta." You may call it boring, but we call it smart.

Filling the Pages

Sometimes it's hard to think of something to write about. This week, I am writing a final paper for my internship class. When I took my job as a writing intern last March, my boss told me that the last intern was able to get class credit for for the job, so I should check with my adviser. This has been such a blessing because I was able to count my job as a 3-hour credit internship, which saved me from having to take an another "fun" elective this summer. I say "fun" mockingly because I often find electives harder and more boring than core classes. I wish they would just let me take more English classes.

So this summer I registered for a 10-week internship class where I had to write 15 journals about my daily experiences, and then a final 8-10 page paper about my overall experience and how it relates to what I've learned in college. I have finished all the journals, and I'm now on page 4 of the final paper. So now what am I doing? Procrastinating by writing a blog. I guess there is some irony in avoiding writing by turning to another form of writing, but sometimes you just get desperate for a "productive" distraction.

It always amuses me when I have a hard time writing for my classes because I am paid to be a writer for my job. It seems like if writing is your job, and in my case my most marketable skill as an English major, you would think it would come somewhat naturally, and even be fun. Not always the case, my friends.

No matter how much time I spend writing, I still find myself having lots of writer's block, lack of new "strategies," and the same haunting grammar and spelling mistakes. It's hard to switch from my writing style at work to writing for school. Writing for work is all about news writing: concise, attention catching, and informative. Writing for school seems to call for more commentary and opinion, and guiding the teacher into understanding my thoughts. The most practical difference of course is the length. My news briefs are supposed to be 200-500 words, depending on the importance of the story, whereas school assignments are several pages long. You don't have time to explain your reasoning to news readers.

I almost always interview someone for my articles at work, so it's like getting lots of little facts and then piecing them altogether in (hopefully) an interesting way. With this paper, it's all about my experience and thoughts. It feels like it should be so easy since there are very few guidelines, but I guess I'm someone who needs lots of direction. It makes me think of Anne of Green Gables when Marilla tells Anne that she should continue go to college.

"Marilla, I feel like someone has handed me the moon, and I don't know what to do with it."

I know this paper should be so, so easy, especially compared to some of the other assignments I've had to tackle, but I guess it has me stumped a little. I'll stop complaining and get back to writing.

The Plan

Several people have been asking what our plans are after I graduate in December. After a lot of thinking and praying, we have decided to stay in College Station for a while longer. I guess the best way to explain our decision is to explain what we had originally hoped to do.

Our plan when we got married was to stay in College Station until I finished school and then look for a Baptist church for Kyle to pastor. We started looking for open churches back in the spring, but there weren't any Reformed Baptist churches needing a senior pastor, and most are too small to need an associate or assistant pastor. Southern Baptist churches were kinda out of question because they are "scared" of Kyle because he went to a Presbyterian seminary, and we are both members of a Presbyterian church.

About a month ago, we were having lunch with our friend Chris Peterson from church who knew of a drafting job opening up at an engineering company and encouraged Kyle to apply. Kyle applied for the job, was interviewed and hired, and started his first day this past Monday at Bleyl & Associates in Bryan.

We were kinda disappointing that there were no pastoring jobs, but it seems as though God has closed the door to the pastorate for the time being as there are no open churches. Bleyl offers a better salary and great benefits, so although it wasn't exactly what we were praying for, it is still very exciting, and a great answer to prayer. Our lease is up in December, so our tentative plan is to sign a 9 month lease in January at an apartment/duplex, putting us here until September 2008 (doesn't that seem like a long time off?!)

Another major decision we've made in the last month is to change churches. During our college years Kyle and I both were/are members of Westminster Presbyterian in Bryan, but at the end of our engagement, we decided that maybe we should look for a Baptist church to join since 1) we are Baptist, and 2) Kyle wants to pastor a Baptist church someday. So last summer we looked around at several Baptist churches (and one non-denominational church), but felt like we had too many differences. So we ended up back at Westminster PCA.

We had such a wonderful year at Westminster, and have felt so blessed by the leadership and the people there. It is where we have made some of our very best friends, so it is really hard to leave, but we feel like it is the right thing to do.

It's hard to explain to people why we are leaving because when it comes down to it, we don't really want to leave. But over the past couple months, we have started feeling called to join/minister to a Baptist church. I'm not really one to use the phrase "God's calling me to..." very often- mostly because I'm always worried that it's just something that I've made up on my own and am attaching God's name to it so people will leave me alone about my decision, but that is really the only way I know to describe our decision to change churches.

Last summer, we chose Westminster because we felt it was the strongest, most sound, and most Biblical church in the BCS area. That feeling hasn't changed.

We're not leaving because we've found something wrong with the church, or been offended by something that happened, but rather because we feel called to help encourage healthy growth at another church.

Westminster is already set up with a strong session of deacons, elders, and pastors, who are very dedicated to following God's word and leading the flock, even when times and pressures are very hard. Although no church is ever "too full" of leaders and teachers, we feel that Kyle's teaching gifts might be needed more somewhere else.

Kyle and I briefly threw around the idea of planting a Reformed Baptist church in CS. We were talking to our good friend Jeremy Mollenkopf about that, and he said (very politely), "College Station doesn't need anymore baptist churches. They just need people to help the ones they've already got."

This was several months ago, but I've come back to that statement over and over again. It's really helped me think about the fact that God doesn't draw us to corporate worship only to be ministered to ourselves, but also in order to minister to others. And at this point, Kyle and I feel like our ministry is in a Baptist church in BCS.

We haven't picked a church yet, though between this summer and last summer we've attended about 10 different churches. Please pray for us as it's very hard to go to a church that is not your church family.

As far as my career plans after graduation, I'm not really sure. Honestly, I thought we would be moving to a different city in January, so I wasn't really anticipating having to look for a job until after the move. I like my part time job that I'm at now, but they like to keep it as a student worker position, so I won't be able to stay there. I've gotten interested in teaching (yes, again), but I'm expecting it to be rather difficult to find a teaching job in January, especially since I'm not certified (meaning I can only teach in private schools). So, I'm planning on taking the job hunting slow, and most likely substitute teaching in the spring. This doesn't really excite me, but since when is work exciting?