Time to play in the leaves

Getting off work at 3pm with a few hours of sunlight left is a dream come true for me, especially on such a gorgeous day. I couldn't help but get my husband, my scarf & our frisbee and head to the lake as fast as possible, to savor the last bits of the day. We ran around in the leaves, played some frisbee, found a swingset (it's hard for me to resist a swing) & watched the sun set over the water (while fighting off the nagging mosquitoes). I can't think of a better way to spend the afternoon before thanksgiving. As a wise boss once said, my heart is full. So much to be thankful for.

Visit from Brett

Brett came out to Dallas to visit us over the Veteran's Day weekend. It was great to see her & spend some time showing her around Dallas. We took her to our farmers market, where she helped us pick out a plant for our apartment. Disc golfing was definitely on the list of things to do, but between the water obstacles from all the rain we had in October & the bugs, we didn't quite make it through a whole round. We watched movies, played games (Brett & I beat David at trivial pursuit - almost twice!), made rice crispie treats and ate good BBQ food.

We also finally made it out to Fort Worth for an afternoon & learned that a cattle drive is basically ten longhorns walking leisurely down the street - but they were cute =) After spending some time in the historic Stockyards & a drive through downtown, we spent the rest of the afternoon at the Nature Center, where we saw a town of prairie dogs, a buffalo, took some pictures and just enjoyed the gorgeous day outside.

All in all, we had a great time with our sister & were reminded how much we love & miss our family. Thanks for taking the time to come & see us Brett!

Halloween

So I (David) volunteered to write the next blog entry. In case you haven't noticed, I haven't been contributing much so far. About a week later, I'm finally getting around to it (while watching the Phillies try to survive game 6)

Carving Pumpkins:

I don't remember ever carving pumpkins before. It's possible that we did and I just don't remember. But I'm going to go ahead and call this my first time. Lindsay, on the other hand, is a seasoned pro.


The first step (I learned) was getting a pumpkin. Now, getting a pumpkin from a pumpkin patch maximizes the pumpkin picking experience. A close second is the farmers market. Last on the list is the supermarket a block from your apartment. The cost of the actual pumpkins, of course, is inversely proportional to the experience absorbed on the trip. We went the route of going to farmers market, looking around at pumpkins, buying non-pumpkin produce, returning to the supermarket, and buying pumpkins at half the price. I think our way was best.

Prior to this experience, I was under the impression that carving pumpkins works the same way that I envision sculptures being created, namely, hacking away at it until you step back and voila! a masterpiece, or for someone with my artistic ability, a mutilated mess. But we used an easier method: searching the internet for pumpkin templates, printing one out, taping said template onto pumpkin, and using that to carve the image. I think they turned out pretty well actually. I'll let you judge for yourself though. If not, at least we had fun doing it.

Kudos to the first person who can guess what the pumpkins are supposed to be.


Trunk-or-Treat:

On halloween night we went to Trunk or Treat, Grace's halloween alternative where kids can get candy from people's decorated car trunks, play games, get balloon animals, faces painted, etc. You get the idea. It's just like the fall festival/harvest festival/whatever-it-was-called you grew up with. Linds and I had volunteered to help out wherever. We got assigned tug-of-war. Despite being located at the far end of the event and needing equal teams to be fun, our game was actually more popular than I thought it would be (thanks to some of our regulars). All in all, we had a good time hosting, and I think people had a good time getting dragged (drug?) through the grass.

And in case you're interested, I went as a tennis pro and Lindsay looked cute in her fall colors. (She would have done a costume, but I had been saying all along that I didn't want to dress up and only changed my mind 5 minutes before we left, which did not give her enough time to come up with something. My fault.)

Summary:


Halloween is much better when you get to spend it with the woman you love. =)

ps - I (Lindsay) made pumpkin seeds for the first time and they were delicious! Firsts for both of us I guess.

Dallas Farmers Market

We ventured out to our farmers market for the first time this afternoon & will probably be back every Saturday from here on out! Apparently it is open 8 to 6, 362 days a year; I had no idea. Besides being beautiful, the market has produce that is very inexpensive & as fresh as it comes - we can certainly attest to this, as free samples were plentiful. Literally they are standing there with a whole pineapple cutting off slices as you walk by - pineapples, papaya, grapefruit, tomatoes, watermelon, yum...get all your produce needs just walking around. Needless to say, we found a treasure in downtown Dallas - yay for new things.

And something about fresh (affordable!) produce just makes me VERY happy =)

somewhat familiar faces

Other than the somewhat alarming facial hair of the one pictured above on the left, we were happy to house two familiar faces passing through Texas this past weekend. David & Dan are on the last leg of their US road trip that, so far, has lasted about a month. We took them around downtown a bit and got to overlook the city from the top of the Sheraton, but it was a quiet, rainy Sunday night, so not a ton to see. They rested up on Monday (even though I urged them to get some fried butter at the Texas State Fair!!) while we were at work, before heading out early Tuesday morning, but a trip to Dallas, in our book at least, is only complete with a trip to Pokey O's for ice cream sandwiches, yum. Good to see familiar faces in a city I am still learning to call home =)

Fall is upon us...

If I were writing this 2 weeks ago,it would probably have sounded something like this:

Fall is finally upon us & we are thrilled! I (Lindsay), at least, have been looking forward to fall almost since we got here, definitely since summer. Not because our first 6 months (6 months!) weren't great, because they were - setting up our apartment, taking care of marriage business, getting to spend so much time together before school started - but because fall meant the starting up of Bible studies we could get involved in, a cooling off from the summer heat, a routine that toward the end of summer we have been yearning for, and a return to classes, which David has really been looking forward to. The changing colors of the trees, the rain, pumpkins...i just love fall =)

But here we are, almost a solid 2 weeks into the season & we are already beginning to feel the weight of David's workload (or the promise of an increased workload at least). We have not gotten into an exercise routine (i had hope, but i honestly can't say I'm too surprised). Our budget is finally starting to become a reality, for me at least.

But here we are, two weeks into fall, 31 weeks into marriage =)

I joined a women's Bible study for seminary wives through an organization called "SWIM" on the DTS campus. I have only been to one meeting so far, but I am really excited about it. It meets every other week, on Tuesday nights, and there are 6 women total, including our leader. We are going through a study on the Beatitudes, which has a daily 'homework' assignment, and I have already learned a lot. The first night we had great discussion & bonded really well. One of the girls in the group has only been here one month, all the other girls are getting ready to leave. Three of the women have children, one is a foster mom. We are all in different places, yet in the same place - it is really neat to be able to connect with them, if only every other week for a semester.

David & I also joined a Bible study ("Grace group" not to be confused with "Growth Group") at the church we are attending here - Grace Bible. There are a total of 6 couples, all but one are married. We are going through a study on spiritual disciplines that has already proved to be challenging for me & I am really looking forward to the study. We had our first meeting last Sunday night & will hopefully try to meet every Sunday. We are hoping to build some solid friendships at our church through this & are excited to get to do this together. David is still helping out with the slides & lights every other Sunday at church & I am praying about where to get involved.

David started classes August 26 and is well into the semester now. He is taking:

- Advanced Greek Grammar
- Hebrew 1
- Angelology, Anthropology, and Hamartiology (Angels, Man & Sin)
- Trinitarianism
- Spirtual Formation (David is the leader of his group)

He is enjoying his classes (especially Greek) & is doing a great job. I have been helping him study his Hebrew vocabulary in the evenings, which is about as much as I can do! The professor he is taking for Greek has done a bunch of Textual Criticism research & wrote the textbook they are using. The topic David picked for his research paper is on some part of grammar that his professor doesn't have any knowledge of & often he includes the work of his students in his publications, so it's possible that David's work could get published! This professor, Dr. Wallace, is also who David is thinking of interning under, so it is exciting that he will be getting to know him this semester.

I am still enjoying my job, although it is definitely stressful at times. Last week I had my 90 day review, which was definitely good, but I couldn't help getting hung up on the few things they wanted to see improvement in. The days following the review, the expectations seemed to have been raised, and I was getting discouraged and making more mistakes. Thankfully David has been a great source of encouragement & in my despair I was driven to the Lord in prayer. He calmed fears of inadequacy pretty quickly & this past week was much better.

I have a few projects going at home (still working on those pillowcases!) that are keeping me busy, I am finding out how much I love reading again, playing the piano here & there, learning how to manage our budget and certainly keeping busy with laundry, cleaning & cooking! I don't enjoy cooking as much as I wish I did, but when I take the time to get a meal plan going, it is not too bad =)

We recently went to the Dallas Symphony Orchestra for a performance of Tchaikovsky (so good!). DTS often gets group tickets so that students can go for free! We also got some discounted tickets through DTS to see Julius Caesar @ this cute little outdoor theater, Shakespeare in the Park. We brought our blanket & dinner & met some friends who saved us a great spot right up front. It was great fun & a gorgeous night (i got to wear pants & a sweater!!); very glad we got a pre-show tip to bring bug spray though! We were very impressed with the production and I'm pretty sure we will be going back again!

We are looking forward to "Trunk or Treat," a Halloween alternative at our church. They have lots of candy, food, games, a bounce house and most importantly, kids in costume! We are excited to help out & get to see all the little trick-or-treaters!! We are also really excited about Brett (my sister-in-law!) coming to visit us in November for a long weekend!!

We are praising the Lord for his faithfulness & provision and know that our Jehovah-jireh will continue to provide for all of our needs. Thank you for your continued prayers for us as we are living life day by day in Dallas as a married couple & continually coming to a deeper understanding of what it means to abide in Christ & trust him for all things.

We love you!

Happy fall =)