Crazy weather

Vancouver weather is ever surprising. We have had our fair share of gorgeous spring days filled with glorious flower scents, wet and windy rain days, and...snow days. This past week, a stressful finals week for us, was an example. On Thursday night, after I'd already taken my history final, edited, printed, and turned in my 23 page (single space) counseling project, taken our friends flying home to England to the airport, made a Costco run with my housemate Melissa to get stuff for a baby shower I threw yesterday, and made and eaten dinner, I took a leisurely walk with my other housemate Alesha and Cora and Cao down to the library to return books and to Starbucks for a post-finals treat (Dave was at church worship practice and wasn't finished yet anyway, so wasn't quite ready to celebrate.) We strolled down and it was so pleasant we sat outside coatless and drinking frappuchinos. The next evening, Friday night, as Dave and I curled up with pizza and a movie, snow began swirling around outside, and by the time we went to bed everything was white. We woke up Saturday morning to a couple inches accumulation, which Cora stomped about in while still in her pajamas, and which was mostly gone in the warm sun of the afternoon. Sunday, we didn't even need coats for church, and we left the french doors leading to our back deck wide open during the baby shower. Yet this morning, as I sat in the living room for some early morning quiet time before the household woke up, snow started flurrying about outside again, although no accumulation this time. It is wild and unpredictable. I love it.

So, Dave and I are finished...well, almost. David is in the final editing process of his 16-page Biblical exegesis paper on Jesus' baptism account in Luke. He has already finished a final on Thursday afternoon (after I'd taken my final in the morning) in Christian Thought and Culture involving topics on creation care, science and Christianity, globalization, those sorts of things. Friday he finished a paper on worship for his preaching and worship course. And then the weekend has been consumed by this massive exegesis project. Who new so much could be drawn from a couple verses in Luke? In my history exam, I wrote essays on the questions "How did German Pietism influence 17th and early 18th century Evangelicalism?", "How did the Enlightenment influence 18th and 19th century Christian thought and culture?", "What was the relationship between liberalism and fundamentalism?", and "How did the Protestant and Catholic churches in Germany support the Nazi regime?" These were smatterings of the course topics, a course which surveyed church history since the Reformation and was life-changing in its emphasis and understanding of history and the evolution of ideas to the postmodern culture we belong to today.

Here is a video of Cora wrinkling her nose and saying "nyo" for snow. Under that is photos of her before church yesterday in her new green dress looking so cute.

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.