Student life

Here's what my week has looked like, sitting at my desk delving deep into my research paper on the integration of Evangelical theology and classical liberal economics between 1800-1830.

Fascinating stuff. Good thing Grammie and Poppie Jenkins were here to occupy the little one, giving me plenty of time to hit the books. Notice the large cup of coffee in the picture. It never ran dry.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

From Whistler...

New Glasses

Cora is now in possession of the trendiest fashion: completely bendable, red-rimmed glasses. Wednesday's (three hour!) opthamologist appointment which was primarily to check for effects of Tuberous Sclerosis fortunately found no results of the disorder, but did find a partial cataract and astigmatism in her left eye. Right eye is perfect, but since it's dominating, the left is deviating. So, poor Cora also has to wear a patch for 3 hours a day to force her to use her left eye, exercising it and hopefully correctly aligning it. This afternoon we picked up the glasses at the optometrist, and she wore them throughout a play date with her friend Lucas and the evening at home. A little before bed time she pulled them off, and when I tried to put them back on, she grabbed them and threw them on the floor. So, a little at a time. But she did great for her first day. Tomorrow we'll try some patch time, which may be more difficult.

The musical maestro. Doesn't she look studious?

Forgot some important details.

I was admonished once again by David for leaving out THE most important thing of the semester in my last post: he is now "Captain Dave." The past month, he has gone to several classes and spent three days out sailing on the water in order to attain licensed sea-captain status. He is also joining the sailing club so this summer there'll be a lot of sailing going on.

Photo: yesterday's outing for fish and chips at the harbor and a walk on the beach.

Also, last weekend I had an awesome girls' weekend away. I went with three other girlfriends to the Beth Moore Conference: her very first international conference was here in Vancouver. We all spent the night together and had an amazing time. She's coming to Atlanta at the end of June. Don't miss it! There's a video recap of the conference at: http://livingproofministries.blogspot.com/2008/03/vancouver-recap-video.html

Oh, and we're alive too.

David just complained that "it's finally happened." "What?" "We're those people who only have pictures of their baby on their blog." "Oh."

So here's an update on US, since some of you, okay, a lot of you, have been asking us WHAT'S GOING ON? We're busy. Surprise, surprise. This semester, David is taking Preaching and Worship, Biblical Exegesis, and Christian Thought and Culture, all three very demanding courses. I am taking Church History 2, and Christian Counselling Lab. If that in itself wasn't enough to fill our days, add in a precocious and giggly toddler, some babysitting to earn a little income, a dog needing a good run every day, great bike trails calling Dave's name, my Pilates on Wednesday nights, community meals twice a week, church functions, a "Mommy and Me" playgroup for which I volunteer at our church on Wednesday mornings, Regent chapel and soup lunch on Tuesdays, and a few close friendships that we spend a good amount of time with, including those in our community house. The semester is busy, but rich. We are learning, as we have said every semester, a ridiculous amount. We feel bombarded so that we can't begin to process it all. But God is making use of our feeble efforts to transform us. There's no other word. We were just talking today about how we feel like different people.

So, with all that, you can imagine we don't get out for a date alone too much. However, there have been two very memorable dates this semester. One, to the Culinary Art School for a special dinner where we were presented a three-course meal of pure art. And two, a Valentine's babysitting extravaganza planned by our church. The Saturday after Valentine's, we dropped Cora off at church for about 5 hours and rode our bikes around the justly famous Stanley Park seawall, had a Starbucks coffee while sitting outside to watch the sunset, andwent to dinner at some friends'. Below is finally a picture of us without Cora, well, me anyway, to pacify David. Also, some others from the ride. Warning: some material may be inappropriate for children.

Gorgeous Weather

Whereas last winter, we didn't the see the sun pretty much from January through April, this winter has been unbelievable. The sunny days have far outnumbered the rainy, and the temperatures have stayed quite mild. For months everyone has said pessimistically, "Well, soon it will start and not stop until summer." But it still hasn't happened. The flowers are budding and beginning to bloom. I keep fearing a freeze will kill them off, but meanwhile anyway, we are outdoors every moment we can. There is an offleash dog park about 15 blocks away that we walk to a lot. Boardwalks line the marshy waters of the river, where Cora climbs and Cacao swims.