Heading South

Hi there--be sure to check out the new album to the right, but here's a couple pictures of our recent trip South.

It's been a while since I (Daniel) have written, so I guess it's my turn to give a little update.  Last week was my spring break, and Molly and I were able to get away for about four days on a quick trip down to New Orleans and Florida, to visit Molly's grandparents.  It was a really fun trip, and it felt like a good getaway even though we didn't have a ton of time.  We got up on Thursday morning at 4:30, and then got up at 4:00 on the next Monday morning to fly back to Chicago.  Given that we had work and class respectively on that Monday, we were pretty exhausted by the end of the day.  But the rest of our week after that was fairly restful, so we're doing pretty well these days.

I'll let the pictures speak for themselves about the trip, but suffice it to say that it was a blast!  In other news, we are amazed at how fast the spring is going.  And it does feel like spring here.  We are pretty much past any snow, and we even had a 70 degree day this week.  We think that Chicago winters are not as bad as everyone makes them out to be, or maybe we're just that tough!  Our February flew by, with visits from friends and family, and somehow our March has been just as fast.  We took a day a few weeks ago to drive three hours north and stay a night at an indoor water park in Wisconsin, which was amazing.  It was pretty hilarious to hang out with all the other pasty-white midwesterners and run around in our bathing suits in the middle of winter.  

My schoolwork is going fine.  I've definitely adjusted to being in school mode, and this semester has gone by so fast that I feel I must have just been on autopilot the whole time.  I'm through midterms, and don't have a ton of work left before finals come up.  I can't believe I'm almost done with my first year.  

Molly is doing well at work, and feels like she's made some breakthroughs lately in her approach to therapy, which has been very encouraging.  What has not been encouraging is the state of Illinois-ing, which has delayed her full licensing until next October (she thought it would be complete in February).  The other speech therapist is leaving the company in a month, so you can be praying for her as she takes over a lot of new clients and her already busy schedule gets even busier.

Our home bible study is going pretty well--we've added a few new members and are enjoying our times with them.  It's been a bit tough to get into a groove with it because we only meet every other week.  Our lives are so busy that it feels an eternity passes between every meeting.  But we are encouraged by our times together, and it's been really good experience for me as I try to be a good leader to people twice my age.

I need to run and help Molly clean the house--we're hosting the bible study on Saturday and our house is, um, not spit-spot at the moment.  Is there a point in a marriage where you both start enjoying house cleaning?  Anyone have any motivational tips for us?  

Thanks for reading, and we hope you all are doing well.  Feel free to drop us an email or a phone call--we miss all our friends and family living far away.  We'll give another update soon, once we've taken a new adventure :)