I hope everyone had a good Christmas! Ours was pretty good. We spent the afternoon with a family from church and ate lunch with them and played pool and card games. Then that night we went to see the movie The Tourist with Johnny Depp, and it was pretty good. Tim said it was predictable but I didn't figure out the twist until the very end.
Last week Fox was premiering a new show that starts in January called Million Dollar Money Drop. It was really interesting! They had a couple on and gave them 1 million dollars in cash, in $20,000 bundles. It's literally sitting in a pile right in front of them. All they have to do is answer 7 multiple choice questions to keep it, and they have to risk all of the money on each question. Once they are given the question, they have a certain amount of time to place the money on the platform of the answer they think is correct, and they can spread out the money and place it on more than one answer if they're not sure but they have to leave one answer choice blank. Then the platforms of the wrong answers drop and they lose whatever money they put on those platforms. Tim thinks we would do well on that show, so we looked up how to be cast for it, and we emailed our info. They are finished casting for the first season, but if they get picked up for a second season, then they'll look at the entries. The website said you have to live within driving distance of Los Angeles, but Tim told them how we drove cross-continent to move, and that we would be willing to drive to L.A. if necessary to be on the show! :-) Maybe if the show is popular, by the second season they'll allow people from all over the country. :-)
Today was a very productive day. I got my fingerprints and clearances for the school district. I saw on the website for the Reading School District (which is different from the district I had an interview with a couple of weeks ago) they are looking for part time and full time instructional assistants. After winter break I'm going to call and ask if their assistants get benefits and apply if they do. We shall see.
Tim met with Shelley this morning and was told his official installation Sunday will be January 23rd, and Tim will be preaching. A while ago Tim was ordained as a Christian minister by a general company he found on the Internet, but he told Shelley he would really like to be ordained by an actual church, so I think they are going to ordain him on that day as well.
I'm excited about New Year's Eve this year because we are in the Eastern Time Zone, so I get to see the big ball in New York drop LIVE!!! One year I missed it completely because I was confused about the time change.
I have registered and will be taking the 7 - 12 Math Content Knowledge test for the Praxis II on March 12. I will really need to study hard for this one because it has Calculus, Trig, Discrete Math, and Matrix Algebra on it, all of which I have not seen or used in a really long time. Tim says he can help me...hopefully I'll pass! And then I can get my teacher certification in Pennsylvania and maybe getting a teaching job for next year.
Well, time to start dinner...yes, I'm cooking dinner!!! Just spaghetti and meatballs...nothing special. :-)
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
Merry Christmas!
Well, lots has been happening, including both Tim and I getting some sort of stomach bug/flu thing last weekend, which was a blast! ;-) Our place is slowly getting closer to looking like a livable space. I took pictures of the decorations I put up but won't take pictures again until everything is done and presentable!
Tim has been going to lots of meetings and is getting started to plan things for the church. The two of us met with Angie, who is working with the youth group right now, to discuss the future of the youth group. She is really good at coming up with creative ways to make application points to the lessons, so she and Tim are going to work together with Tim giving the lesson and Angie coming up with a fun way for the kids to apply and discuss the lesson. Youth group will be every Sunday night from 6:30 to 8:30 and we're also going to have youth praise band practice twice a month with them possibly performing for a monthly youth worship night.
I am still looking for a job. One of the ladies of the church said she needs someone to take care of her elderly parents from 5pm to 1am Wednesday through Saturday, and I let her know today that I could do that except on Fridays because of a young adult small group that happens on Friday nights. At least it would be something for now. I also applied to Petco today, which I think could be fun. So we'll see what happens.
I LOVE this website, JibJab, and the videos you can make, so I've made a couple and here are the links. You'll have to copy and paste the first one into the URL bar, and you can just click on the second one:
http://sendables.jibjab.com/view/zQnvLMkGxggzBxw8
http://sendables.jibjab.com/
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Home Sweet Home
Well, Tim and I finally made it to Sinking Spring! Our trailer of stuff should arrive this morning, which is a day earlier than we were expecting which is great! (It will be nice to have a bed and something to sit on!!) We've been busy using our Christmas money to get things for our new place, including paint! We painted our kitchen and bathroom yesterday and still have the bedroom and living room to do. Pictures will be up on Facebook soon. Max is adjusting well, I think. Once we get all his stuff here and set up, hopefully he'll feel more at home.
Yesterday morning Tim met with the preacher, Shelley, to discuss his job description, which still isn't set in stone yet because they want him to get a feel of what goes on at the church at first before he really jumps in. Eventually he will be teaching and preaching probably about once every 6 weeks. It's nice that he is giving Tim this opportunity to just be an observer right now, but at the same time Tim feels weird that they're paying him to not really do much right now. He will be meeting with different people in the next few weeks to talk to them about what their vision is for the future and how to get things going. He's also going to become involved in worship.
We have a busy several days ahead of us for this week: move our stuff in this morning, youth group tonight, young adult Bible study on Friday night, and I have a job interview on Friday afternoon! They just called me this morning, it's for a special education aide at a high school.
So everything is going really well. Moving is very overwhelming at first with all the things you have to do but we are very excited to be here and to get to know everyone at the church.
Yesterday morning Tim met with the preacher, Shelley, to discuss his job description, which still isn't set in stone yet because they want him to get a feel of what goes on at the church at first before he really jumps in. Eventually he will be teaching and preaching probably about once every 6 weeks. It's nice that he is giving Tim this opportunity to just be an observer right now, but at the same time Tim feels weird that they're paying him to not really do much right now. He will be meeting with different people in the next few weeks to talk to them about what their vision is for the future and how to get things going. He's also going to become involved in worship.
We have a busy several days ahead of us for this week: move our stuff in this morning, youth group tonight, young adult Bible study on Friday night, and I have a job interview on Friday afternoon! They just called me this morning, it's for a special education aide at a high school.
So everything is going really well. Moving is very overwhelming at first with all the things you have to do but we are very excited to be here and to get to know everyone at the church.
Friday, November 26, 2010
It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas!
Yesterday we had Thanksgiving dinner with a family from church. There were 31 people there, with their extended family and another family from the church. It was fun. It was the first time I had actually seen a whole turkey cooked with stuffing. With my family, the turkey always arrived at our house already carved. I also have never had a semi-formal sit down Thanksgiving dinner. We always had it for lunch and it was an informal, paper plate using, football watching event. :-) I'm not saying I prefer one over the other, it was just different. :-)
It also snowed ALL day yesterday, which was beautiful and inspired a couple of Christmas songs from me during our drive to our friends' house. :-) Not that it's great fun to drive in the snow, but it is easier than driving on ice, which our street has been covered in for a while now. Tonight we're going out to dinner with some friends to a Japanese steak house, which should be fun.
Bring on the Christmas season! This is one of my favorite times of year, and I'm excited to be in our new home in a few weeks with two tubs of Christmas decorations we received as a wedding gift to deck out our place with!
God bless!
It also snowed ALL day yesterday, which was beautiful and inspired a couple of Christmas songs from me during our drive to our friends' house. :-) Not that it's great fun to drive in the snow, but it is easier than driving on ice, which our street has been covered in for a while now. Tonight we're going out to dinner with some friends to a Japanese steak house, which should be fun.
Bring on the Christmas season! This is one of my favorite times of year, and I'm excited to be in our new home in a few weeks with two tubs of Christmas decorations we received as a wedding gift to deck out our place with!
God bless!
Monday, November 22, 2010
I Should Not Be Awake Right Now
Well, after a little less than 3 hours of sleep, Tim and I got up at 2 this morning to catch our 6 AM flight in Philadelphia to head back to Anchorage. And with nothing else to do in the airport, and free internet access, why not blog!
We had an amazing time meeting the people from Hillside and really enjoyed spending time with them and getting to know them. It was a little nerve racking though, until they finally voted us in yesterday because from talking to the preacher before we came, we were under the impression that it was pretty much a done deal, and when we got down there everyone was saying things like, "If you come...", "If you get the job..." and we were thinking, "If we don't, we'll be homeless and jobless!!" But I guess they like us because the vote was 100% in our favor. This is a great group of people with lots of potential for growth and just seems like a really good place to be.
We found a townhouse that we are really excited about. It has an unfinished basement with a washer and dryer, the main level has a living room and eat-in kitchen, with a garbage disposal, which I am super excited about! I haven't had one of those in over a year, and I will never take that for granted again! I hate dumping the food out of the sink, and Tim hates the many times that I leave it in the sink for him to deal with. :-) Then upstairs there's a bathroom and two bedrooms. Another great thing about this place is that we get one of the few units with all white walls (the other places have pretty ugly wall paper) and we get to paint and decorate however we want without having to redo it whenever we move out. They charge extra up front to cover the repainting fee. My two biggest issues with renting is not always having a washer/dryer and not being able to paint the walls, and we get both!
Maybe Max will like the basement and choose to live down there...I'll probably have no such luck, but one can always hope. ;-)
So, now we get to pack up all our things and make the lovely trek down the Alaska Highway and across the U.S.
We're about to board our plane, thanks for stopping by!
God bless. :-)
We had an amazing time meeting the people from Hillside and really enjoyed spending time with them and getting to know them. It was a little nerve racking though, until they finally voted us in yesterday because from talking to the preacher before we came, we were under the impression that it was pretty much a done deal, and when we got down there everyone was saying things like, "If you come...", "If you get the job..." and we were thinking, "If we don't, we'll be homeless and jobless!!" But I guess they like us because the vote was 100% in our favor. This is a great group of people with lots of potential for growth and just seems like a really good place to be.
We found a townhouse that we are really excited about. It has an unfinished basement with a washer and dryer, the main level has a living room and eat-in kitchen, with a garbage disposal, which I am super excited about! I haven't had one of those in over a year, and I will never take that for granted again! I hate dumping the food out of the sink, and Tim hates the many times that I leave it in the sink for him to deal with. :-) Then upstairs there's a bathroom and two bedrooms. Another great thing about this place is that we get one of the few units with all white walls (the other places have pretty ugly wall paper) and we get to paint and decorate however we want without having to redo it whenever we move out. They charge extra up front to cover the repainting fee. My two biggest issues with renting is not always having a washer/dryer and not being able to paint the walls, and we get both!
Maybe Max will like the basement and choose to live down there...I'll probably have no such luck, but one can always hope. ;-)
So, now we get to pack up all our things and make the lovely trek down the Alaska Highway and across the U.S.
We're about to board our plane, thanks for stopping by!
God bless. :-)
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Let the Blogging Begin!
Ok, so I started this blog a couple of months ago, and nothing too exciting has really happened until now. Tim got a new job as the Associate Minister at Hillside Christian Church in Reinholds, Pennsylvania. This is a step of faith for us and the church because they only have about 120-ish members, and financially it will be a stretch for them. Therefore, we are going in faith that God will bless this ministry, grow the church and allow them to comfortably support us. I will need to find a full-time job with benefits because the church cannot provide health insurance for us at this time.
The physical address of the church building is Reinholds, which is a very small town, which is next to a slightly bigger small town called Sinking Spring, which is where we are going to be looking for a place to live. Sinking Spring is about 20 minutes from Reading, which is a decent size place that has all the necessities: Walmart, Chili's, Kohl's, Chick-Fil-A, etc. :-)
Tim and I have quite a hectic schedule from now until we leave:
We fly out late tonight (actually early tomorrow morning) to go visit the congregation, look for places to live, and Tim is going to preach on Sunday and they will vote us in. Saturday night they are having a time for the youth group to put Tim on the spot and ask him questions, and we're going to just hang out and play games and get to know them. We come back to Anchorage on Monday afternoon, the moving truck comes Tuesday and we are loading up all our belongings, and the company is driving off with our stuff on Wednesday morning. Our last day here is November 28th, with Tim preaching that day, then we leave early on the morning of the 29th. So yes, that means we will be without our bed, dishes, appliances (besides the fridge) for 4 days. (And then at least a week once we get to Pennsylvania because the moving company takes a while to get there).
So on the 29th, Tim, Evil Cat Max, and I will load up and make our way down the Alaska highway. (Maybe another road trip video opportunity??? ;-P) Nicole and Jerry were kind enough to offer to drive Tim's car for us, so they are flying up this weekend to get his car and drive it back down. We've already made hotel reservations along the way because we used our reward points from our credit card to get them all for free. Hopefully we can stay on schedule and won't run into any bad weather...the roads are supposed to be clear and plowed but who knows if we'll have snow storms or anything that could hinder our travel. We're going to be driving really long days in order to get where we want to be on time. We're taking a couple of side trips on our way to Pennsylvania. First we're going to Texas to visit my family for a few days. Jason and Melody are coming up to Carrollton the weekend we're there, so that will be a lot of fun. It will be the first time the four of us will be together as married couples! :-)
After a few days in Texas, we're heading up to Tennessee to visit John and Melissa and baby Rachel, who we haven't had the chance to meet yet, so that will be fun too!
We are sad to leave the people here in Anchorage because we've made some good friends, and will miss everyone, but we are excited that God has called us to this church, and think it will be a good place to settle in for a while.
I don't know how much internet access and time I'll have on our trip, but I will try to update this blog as much as I can while we're driving.
On a totally unrelated note, for our young adult small group that we've been hosting, we are about to finish a book called Crazy Love by Francis Chan. I HIGHLY recommend it! It is very convicting, challenging, and inspiring! You should read it!
The physical address of the church building is Reinholds, which is a very small town, which is next to a slightly bigger small town called Sinking Spring, which is where we are going to be looking for a place to live. Sinking Spring is about 20 minutes from Reading, which is a decent size place that has all the necessities: Walmart, Chili's, Kohl's, Chick-Fil-A, etc. :-)
Tim and I have quite a hectic schedule from now until we leave:
We fly out late tonight (actually early tomorrow morning) to go visit the congregation, look for places to live, and Tim is going to preach on Sunday and they will vote us in. Saturday night they are having a time for the youth group to put Tim on the spot and ask him questions, and we're going to just hang out and play games and get to know them. We come back to Anchorage on Monday afternoon, the moving truck comes Tuesday and we are loading up all our belongings, and the company is driving off with our stuff on Wednesday morning. Our last day here is November 28th, with Tim preaching that day, then we leave early on the morning of the 29th. So yes, that means we will be without our bed, dishes, appliances (besides the fridge) for 4 days. (And then at least a week once we get to Pennsylvania because the moving company takes a while to get there).
So on the 29th, Tim, Evil Cat Max, and I will load up and make our way down the Alaska highway. (Maybe another road trip video opportunity??? ;-P) Nicole and Jerry were kind enough to offer to drive Tim's car for us, so they are flying up this weekend to get his car and drive it back down. We've already made hotel reservations along the way because we used our reward points from our credit card to get them all for free. Hopefully we can stay on schedule and won't run into any bad weather...the roads are supposed to be clear and plowed but who knows if we'll have snow storms or anything that could hinder our travel. We're going to be driving really long days in order to get where we want to be on time. We're taking a couple of side trips on our way to Pennsylvania. First we're going to Texas to visit my family for a few days. Jason and Melody are coming up to Carrollton the weekend we're there, so that will be a lot of fun. It will be the first time the four of us will be together as married couples! :-)
After a few days in Texas, we're heading up to Tennessee to visit John and Melissa and baby Rachel, who we haven't had the chance to meet yet, so that will be fun too!
We are sad to leave the people here in Anchorage because we've made some good friends, and will miss everyone, but we are excited that God has called us to this church, and think it will be a good place to settle in for a while.
I don't know how much internet access and time I'll have on our trip, but I will try to update this blog as much as I can while we're driving.
On a totally unrelated note, for our young adult small group that we've been hosting, we are about to finish a book called Crazy Love by Francis Chan. I HIGHLY recommend it! It is very convicting, challenging, and inspiring! You should read it!
Sunday, September 12, 2010
Marriage Milestone!
Welcome to our blog!! I (Amy) thought it would be fun to keep our friends and family updated on our lives together! Hopefully Tim will get excited and want to contribute to it as well. And hopefully it will last longer than my last blog, but I must say that I wrote a lot more than I thought I would. :-)
Last Monday, September 6th, Tim and I reached our 6th month mark! It's hard to believe we've been married for half a year! It sure doesn't feel that long. They have been a wonderful 6 months and I am so lucky to be married to the most wonderful man in the world. :-) I am looking forward to what the next months and years hold for us! I love you Honey!! :-)
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