It's Week 3 in Portland! - August 10, 2009

No great pictures to post today, kids. Today marks our 3rd week here. Strange. Time seems to have flown, yet feels like it's going very slowly. Scott started his 2nd of 3 wks of Greek I. Last night I quizzed him on 35 vocabulary words for his test this morning. We probably spent at least 1.5 hrs doing that, without any break. Again, I'm learning some of this stuff through osmosis and through hammering away with him on these vocab words! Thankfully Scott has other study partners too, and they're all working together so hard...did we mention that his Greek II class starts in 2 wks as a regular semester class? After all this, it may seem like a cake walk...

It also dawned on me today that since I started working a full time job as soon as I graduated high school, this is the longest I've ever been without a job. You can do the math 39 minus 18 equals ? Ha! I confess that I feel like I have to keep busy, despite my job searching each day, that is until today. I actually went to the library and picked up 2 books that I intend to read. As a kid, teenager, and young adult, I loved to read and would devour books. When did life become so complicated that I did not MAKE time to read for pleasure or for my own growth? So, in the quiet of the afternoon (along with a nice 10 min cat nap) I simply forged through 6 chapters without realizing it. Simple pleasures.

So, my job interview in downtown Portland this past Friday with the employment agency was interesting. The Lord continues to show His care, concern, and sense of humor for me. Thursday evening, I was sharing the wealth of some free cherries with our neighbors, when one of them offered me the use of their GPS for the following morning to get to my interview. For those of you that may not know this, I have somewhat of a photographic memory, so once I've been somewhere, I can generally find it easily the next time. It's the challenge of a new city, understanding the road systems, and reading a map that really throw me a curve ball! I had a bit of an adventure, and was very nervous that I would get lost, that the GPS saved my hide!! Sorry JoAnne, Garmin WAS right this time.

The initial job I applied for through this agency was for a lawyer's office. Unfortunately, they found someone with law office experience, but may use me for as a fill-in while this person's on vacation. If not this job, we're confident there is something out there for me, and Scott too. He has applied for a Security Job on campus. It would be a grave shift, since he would be low man on the totem pole. Midnight to 8am. Still waiting to hear about that.

Scott's meeting with the Dean of the Seminary this afternoon to determine how many classes he WON'T need to take because of his previous undergraduate degree (theology) and his 8+ yrs of ministry experience. This info will then help him to actually register for his Fall semester classes. This will also help me to determine which class I would like to audit with him. I'm excited about that.

We visited another church yesterday called Imago Dei. They meet in an old school not far from home. It's the 3rd church we've visited, and honestly, it's very difficult to evaluate each place without letting our great experience at the Vineyard interfere. All we can say is that Vineyard is SO "ahead of the curve," and they've obviously worked out many of the growing pains that most churches haven't even discovered that they're in the midst of yet! It's not meant to be a slam, it is just an observation. Church "shopping" ranks right up there with going to the doctor or doing taxes....ugghh.

I'm beginning to think about what fun thing I can make for dinner tonight. I'm having fun being able to cook again (now that I have more time), and we're eating better, at least on our limited budget :-). Wow, I'm really rambling here. Didn't mean to. Enough for today I guess.

You will all soon be getting an e-mail that our Juno e-mail acct will soon be going away...we'll give you the new info.

Have a great week!