Monday Blues

I was told that it was time for an update. I am not sure that I have to much to say. I do know that this weekend has gone by way to fast. I always have the Monday blues on Sunday night. I know that I have five more days of work before I get a break again. When I was in Jr. High we did a musical and sang a song that went "It's monday all over again and it feels like the week is never going to end. It hits me every seven days without warning, it keeps me praying for saturday morning..." WOW I cannot believe that I remember so many words to that song. But I do know that I have to work so that we can survive! This last month has been a challange for our family. I do not want to complain because the Lord has taken care of us. It just is hard when there always seems like something. The latest thing is that our Bank from Kansas is charging us a $6 fee for not using the bank account enough. I know that is our fault we should have just closed it out. We just forgot that they would charge us. The thing is that there is not $6 in the account, so now we have to mess with that. I know $6 is not much but it is more than we have right now. Our bills are higher the first couple of months as we are hooking things up here. We have a much lower income than we did in Olathe. We are adjusting to things being a bit more expensive around here. We are praying that we get back on our feet soon. I am really looking forward to the day when Brandon is out of school and we actually have a decent income. But in the mean time I will praise the Lord for building our faith. When you are not sure when or how you will be able to pay bills and then the Lord provides you really learn to trust him. Well, I need to go and put my dear sweet baby to bed. We have to get up early and be at the daycare. I am so thankful for Daniel. He brings so much joy to our lives. He really makes you notice the little things. He gets excited about the smallest things like, elevators, and Mac and cheese! Children truly are a blessing from God!

Long Week...

This week has been a long week. I am so glad that it is Friday. I think that my body has finally adjusted to working 40 hours a week again. I have also gotten used to getting up at 6 am. I am not so sure that Daniel has though. He is such a grump in the mornings. We have pushed his bedtime back to 7:00 to try to help him not be so tired. It seems to work a little bit. Once he is awake, Daniel really loves going to school everyday. He has a lot of friends and his teachers say that he is such a good boy. I was worried about how he would adjust. He is in a class with kids who are all older than him. I did that on purpose because I felt that they could teach him how to talk and potty and things like that. The kids in the other class are bewtween 15-22 months old. I felt that he would do better in the older class.

I have been fighting off a cold all week. That has made this week long. I am looking forward to a night of nothingness and a morning of sleeping in. Tonight Daniel is sleeping in his twin bed for the first time. He is so excited about it. I have not heard a peep from him since we put him down. He is getting to be such a big boy.

Well I am rambling on about nothingness. I just have not updated this in a couple of days and thought that I would write a little about my week.

Pictures of our apartment and the campus.

I have been meaning to send everyone pictures of our apartment. Here is a picture of our living room, standing in the dining room. The big curtain is our glass doors that go our to a balcony.








This is a picture of what we see when we sit on our balcony.













This is a shot of my kitchen.

















Here is the other side of the Kitchen. I love the size of this kitchen. The only thing that it is missing is a dishwasher!













Here is our dining room. This shot was taken from the living room. The door to the left (that you can barely see over by the metal shelves) is the door that leads into the kitchen.












This is Daniel's room. It is small, but big enough for him.



















This is one shot of our living room. Our living room is huge and so we put Brandon's work station behind the couch. We can fit five bookshelves in here! I am standing in the Dining room taking this picture.












This is our bedroom, not much to see. There are two closets which is really nice.













Here is another shot of Daniel's room and his toddler bed that he has been sleeping in.














This is our really ugly bathroom. I wanted to make sure that you could see the nasty floor!

















This is what our apartment looks like from the outside. Our apartment is the balcony to the left on the second floor.













This is Brandon's "carrel" ( I call it an office) in the library. He shares this which one other guy. The other side of the "carrel" looks like Brandon's but the desk and shelves are full of books. I am sure that is what Brandon's will look like in a couple of years.













This is a shot of the campus. This is on our side of the street. Most of the campus is across a major road that they call the Belt Line. This is the walkway that you take to get to the other side of the road.











This is the crosswalk that you have to use to get across the road. Traffic hardly ever stops on this road, so this is the best way to go.













Another shot of Brandon's "carrel".

Just a few thoughts....

Being the wife of a seminarian is something that is so hard to explain. For those of you who are married to life time students will understand what I mean without any further explinations. I love my husband and I am very happily married. However, if I was told five years ago my future I probably would not have believed it.

This past year has been one that is so hard to explain. My family and I lived in the town of Olathe in Kansas. We moved there because we had no where else to go. My husband finished his program at TEDS in Deerfield IL, but was not accepted into a PHD program. We really wondered for a long time if pursuing a PHD was what he needed to do. The year that we lived in Olathe was one filled with many tears and prayers. I remember praying more this past year than in my whole life. I would pray while cooking, while in the shower, while changing diapers, while driving around. I definitely learned the meaning of pray without ceasing. What was I praying for? God's will! It is a very difficult thing to get into a PHD program. Something I know that I personally would never be able to do. We spent so much money on application fees sending out applications to five diffrent schools. I remember when March came around it was about time to start hearing from the schools. One after another, NO, NO, NO, NO. I remember laying on the floor crying out to God "is this really what you have for us?" It is so hard sometimes to just sit still, trust God and wait. I truly believe that the Lord streached my faith further than it has ever been streached before. He wanted to make sure he was the one to get the glory if Brandon was to get into a PHD program. When we got word that Brandon was accepted to Calvin, I remember falling on the floor face down crying and the only thing that could come out of my mouth was "Praise God Praise God Praise God." I knew this was God will.

This was not the only time the Lord streached my faith. When we moved to Deerfield for his THM our lives were thrown into a whirlwind. I had just had Daniel. I was learning how to be a mom, and my husband was gone most of the time. He worked two jobs, one at UPS starting at 3 in the morning. He was in class, on the computer, reading books, at work, or in bed. I never thought that I could be so lonely even though my husband was in the house with me. Don't get me wrong Brandon did the best he could. I am suprised he kept up with all that he did. It was just hard to get used to the idea that he needed to divide his attention between his family, work and school. These programs demand so much attention. I had no friends to turn to in Deerfield. I tried to make some friends. I just did not fit in. Most of the wives worked so that thier husbands could be in school. I was one of the only stay at home mom's I knew. I was lonely for some companionship. Of course whenever you are in a downtime in your life you can count on the great deceiver to be right there trying to convince you of things that were not true. I struggled with thoughts of wishing I had never married a student, with thinking that if only Brandon loved me more he would put down that stupid book and tell me I was beautiful. I was hurt by the fact that his school was more important than me. I was hurt that he would drag me to a new place and then ignore me. I had to fight so many diffrent feelings that Satan was putting into my head. I remember one Sunday at church the Lord got a hold of my heart and for the first time I saw the big picture. I saw the reason why Brandon had such a passion for schooling. I saw that he desired to teach the word of God and in order to fulfill this high calling he wanted to make sure he was ready. The Lord took hold my heart and comforted me, and at the same time made me feel so horrible for having so many awful selfish thoughts. I realized that after all of this schooling, Brandon will be ready to train people to go out and preach the gospel. That is what this is all about. Not books, and papers... the gospel if Jesus Christ. He will be training men who will then go out and train others, and they will train others, and so on and so on and so on. The word of the Lord will be spread all over, and the Lord is just wanting to use our family as part of his work. What a privillege not a burdon. That day I cried in my room for a long time. I felt so ashamed that I was complaining about being used by God. I begged God for forgivness and asked the Lord to help me to never lose focus again. Praise the Lord for never giving up on his children. For always molding them and shaping them. For streaching thier faith so that they can become more life himself. This is what the Lord has done in my life over the last three years. This is what I hope he continues to do for the rest of my life. This is why I am proud to say I am married to a "lifetime student"... I am a proud seminary wife.

A day at the lake

Daniel at the playground.












A huge boat that we saw.














Daniel in the playground tunnel.














My little thug.













A playgound with a lakeside view.













Daniel running to play in the water.
















This boy if fearless. This was the tallest slide there was, and it was the first one we went down.













Daniel trying to get daddy to go deeper in the water.

Blogging

I started this blog so after reading my husband's and my sister's blogs. I decided to start writing things on here so that I can express my thoughts and feelings over the next four years as my husband finishes up his school work at seminary. I also wanted to have a place to let my family know how we are doing, and be able to see the updates of the family. I hope to do a good job of updating this blog, but I know that I am very bad at journaling, so we will see. But for now I am going to go so that I can watch a movie with my husband.