First Snow

Just thought I'd write to say that we had our first snow last night.  It wasn't much, but it did cover the ground in white and make us feel like we really live in the Midwest now.  Also we discovered that it's possible to slip on ice even in mid November--I came really close to losing a whole cup of coffee in a parking lost last night!  It apparently dropped to 20 degrees last night, but our house stayed warm even though we didn't turn on the heat at all.  This is further evidence that we are placed right about the furnace room--I hate to think about what it's going to feel like once they turn the heat on "overdrive" to keep the pipes from freezing this winter!  We have several friends who have mentioned they keep their windows open at night, which sounds crazy until you realize that its possible to be hot even with your apartment's heat turned off . . .

Anyways, that's about all I have to say now.  I'm procrastinating on my Greek homework.  We leave a week from today to go to Boise for Thanksgiving--yippee!  Bye for now . . .

Pass the Hot Chocolate

Well, Alright. It is the 9th of November and until now it's been all talk of Indian Summers, the beautiful leaves, apples,  and long walks in snugly sweaters. But we have a new song to sing around here.  One to the tune of "WHOOOOO BOY!....Where's my parka, my mittens, and my wool body suit because I think an icicle just hit my bones".   We're considering giving up our apple and granola diet for more substantial choices.....like caribou:) Just kidding.

But really, the biting cold weather has hit. Just like that.  Sweaters one day, and dreams of layering downy puffy coats the next. And the funny thing is that Mom and Dad Reider were here with us to enjoy our first punch of cold weather.  We have had the most beautiful 5 days with them. It's funny we invited the tallest preacher in Idaho to fold into the smallest guest room in Chicago but he and Mom Reider were the most gracious of visitors (as usual). Nothing but the most intentional conversations, the best coffee, and the loveliest hugs.  Not to mention the best entertainment. We went to see Amanda (Daniel's sister, a senior at Wheaton) perform in "A Midsummer Night's Dream".  She was stunning and we were thoroughly awed by the original design and brilliant acting... oh and we laughed (or honked) heartily.  Shakespeare was such a funny guy.  Today we enjoyed a meal after church with our good friends from upstairs, Dave & Libby, and Nate & Debra (with adorable little Annabelle). We are so grateful for our friends here and were refreshed with the meeting of two very important pieces of our lives. Now if we could only get all of our dear ones from California to come for Sunday lunch:)....

Daniel is studying as we speak for D.A. Carson's quiz in the morning. Looking over his posts I'm sorely disappointed in the disclosure of his smarts. He's doing so well in classes. Truly...so brilliantly well. Coming to terms with what it means to be a student has been the bigger hurdle. I think we are both struggling in our own ways to commit to roles that feel very narrow. I know we look forward to times when "Bible scholar" and "speech therapist" go hand-in-hand with broader acknowledgments of what we love. In the meantime, we hope our role in church and community continue to grow as we seek what God has for us and grow deeper in love with Him.

We miss feeling known like our friends in California know us. We miss not needing small talk to get to the good stuff. But regardless, I'm so excited it's November... whether it means going head-to-head with Jack Frost or not:) It means we've been here for a while now. We've seen it change. We've seen kids in our apartment courtyard go from bathing suits to snow suits.  We've gone from fans and popsicles to soup and socks.  It smells of longevity and of growing roots.  Better yet...it's starting to smell like Boise and Thanksgiving. I can't wait:)

Love you all. 

 

Finally another update!

Due to popular demand Molly and I have decided to finally update our blog--sorry it's been so long!  We know you must all be crying into your computers every time you check to see if we've written and nothing new is here.  And since I know you all check multiple times per day, that means a lot of tears!  Gosh, I'm starting to feel guilty just thinking about it.  We have a responsibility to keep you all happy--we'll try to update more often in the future :)

Here are some pictures of our life the last few weeks (you'll see pictures from a local apple festival, Milwaukee, and a walk in a local forest preserve, in that order)

Well, life has been very busy here lately.  We took a trip down to Indiana for a few days at the beginning of October and had a great time hanging out with the Greens.  They loaded us up with bikes and cross country skis, which we are excited about using in the beautiful forest preserves around here.  While we were there we also got to check out an Indiana University football game.  Let's just say we're glad their basketball team is pretty good--watching the football team was kind of like purgatory--you couldn't wait to get onto something better!

Last weekend we took a trip up to Milwaukee for a day.  That was really fun--we really enjoyed just walking around, exploring the architecture, and viewing the local industry (i.e. the Miller brewery).  Molly and I have also been down to Chicago a couple times just to go to some fun coffee houses.  It only takes a little over a half hour to get there, so it's nice to be able to run down there after work sometimes and go on a little adventure.  We have realized that most of our good conversations occur when we're off doing something new, so we try to go exploring often.

My schoolwork is going pretty well.  I've finished one class and am doing fairly well in the other classes.  I'm still not quite adjusted to studying all day, but it's becoming a little bit more routine as the weeks go by.  Molly is excelling in her job--she just earned the fastest promotion her boss has ever given!  I couldn't be prouder of her :)  It's still a struggle for her to adjust to all the new requirements of this job, but she is passing all her challenges with flying colors--and she looks cute while doing it!

We are enjoying our new church, Evangelical Free Church of Libetertyville.  I just went to the Men's retreat, which was quite an adventure given that I didn't know anybody going into it.  I had a good time, although all the conversations with new faces got a little tiring.  We're hoping to find a Bible study to be a part of in the near future.  So far the people we have met have been very friendly and encouraging--we look forward to deepening relationships there.  We miss our old church though--we just got the worship album they put out and all the old songs are making us a bit nostalgic for all the relationships and worship times from back in CA.

Well that's about all for now.  A few things come to mind that you can pray for us about:

1) that Molly will make some deeper relationships with women out here.

2) that Molly and I will continue to know how to care for each other well in this new place.

3) that Daniel will begin to see what God might be leading him to do in ministry after Seminary.

Thanks for reading--we appreciate all your support!  Write us back!