Quick update on life

My January term class ended last Thursday and all I can say is that I wish all my classes had been taught like that! (Well, not ALL of them…) The two weeks were lovely and I am confident my grade will reflect the hard work that I put into my papers. For my final project I wrote my own pre-marital counseling curriculum and evaluated it. All told, it was about 15 pages of work and required me to really examine the most important aspects of marriage preparation. Craming everything in to just 6 pre-wedding and 2 post-wedding sessions was difficult. I was creative in my approach and was fairly confident in my work. This resulted in not only an A, but a request to use my paper as a model “A” paper. Obviously I’m thrilled as school has never been my strongest suit. I’m also hoping that this will secure my A for the class, raising my cumulative GPA. I’m really hoping to graduate with honors. Who ever knew that would be possible.

After I finished the class, I headed to Louisiana to visit with Jarrod. It was a lovely time. We spent time with his pastors and did some wedding discussing. I also have a potential job opportunity, which excites me for a variety of reasons. I returned home the day before classes began. We start class on a Thursday at SMU so I only had one class before the weekend began. It was Spiritual Formation and the Church and I think it will be interesting. I am teaching for an hour on Wesley next Thursday and have a 3-4 page reflection due on my Enneagram due this Thursday. In addition to these two assignments, I have to interview 20+ teenagers. It’s similar to a project I did for Youth Ministry (and the same professor) last semester. Should be interesting, given my affection toward ministry with young people. I’ll be calling on you all to circulate what I hope will be a relatively short online evaluation for 12-19 year old youth to fill out in the next week or so.

This coming week I will have my other classes. I am most looking forward to Evangelism, which meets on Tuesday evenings. Not only are there friends in my class, but it is with one of my favorite professors. I’ve already completed our first book (which we will read in three parts over the first three weeks of the semester) and highlighted the heck out of it. My professor wrote the book and it is absolutely incredible. I’ve already thought of several people who need to read it. (Jason, take note!) It is about evangelism in light of early Christian mystics and monasticism. It incorporates the emergent church, Phoebe Palmer, and eco-evangelism. Incredibly powerful thoughts on how to be the church to meet the needs of everyone. I highly recommend the book.

This weekend is not even half over. 🙂 I spent this afternoon with Jarrod’s family for his nephew’s first birthday. Pictures to come. I took 142 of them. This evening I’m babysitting 5:30-1:30am (which is why I am up now!). Tomorrow I’m joining Jarrod’s aunts (Sue and Cindy) at the Dallas Bridal Show. Honestly, I’m in it for the great company and the cake. 🙂 I really like Sue and Cindy and am excited to see them do their thing. And help tell brides how flipping amazing their flowers are. When I get home tomorrow night you can bet that I’ll be snuggling up with a glass of wine and A Very Duggar Wedding (I’m obsessed and I know that’s a serious character flaw!) and Desperate Housewives. They are on at the same time. Praise God for DVR!

That’s all I got tonight. Watch for pictures of my soon to be precious nephews destroying their cake. Also, Rachel Logan published the gallery from her shot with my sweet friends. The photos are amazing!!! I thought the proofs she put on the blog were awesome, but that was only the tip of the ice burg! I cannot wait to see those beautiful photos hanging around their house. 🙂

I’ve also finished addressing envelopes for invitations to the best of my ability and I’ve begun printing the invitations. I’ll be working more over Valentine’s weekend when I’m back in Louisiana sticking the invites on the mats. I hope they look good! I’ll be glad when it’s complete and they can start going out!