This past month our life has consisted of the weekly and daily regular activities.  We have been busy with the normality of life, hence the reason for lack in posts.  Here is what we have been up to the last month…

DEREK:

-Persevering through his 11 units of seminary work and loving every minute of it.

- Doing 2-3 jobs a week cleaning windows along with estimates and paperwork

- Working 3 shifts a week at California Pizza Kitchen

-Director of our Sunday School class which  included a last minute, unexpected teaching opportunity

-Serving in our church’s Men’s Ministry which included running the annual bonfire (also a last minute, unexpected responsibility)

-Last week he played drums in the worship band on Sunday night, which he loved.

AMY:

-Substitute teaching 3 days per week

-Taking a Seminary Wives Institute class at the seminary on Thursday nights

-Playing volleyball in a local women’s league on Monday nights

-Singing in the church choir

- Doing all my “wifie” activities of meal planning, cleaning, cooking, laundry, etc.

TOGETHER:

- We work in the one-year olds room in the nursery at church every Wednesday night

-About once a month, we visit a man in our church who is homebound and will turn 95 in December.

-We enjoy our Friday night pizza tradition and sometimes a movie along with it or we have friends over instead.

-We never miss watching “The Biggest Loser” each week, although sometimes we have to tape it and watch it later.

-We also enjoy our Sunday night tradition of making nachos when we get home from church and watching “The Amazing Race”

With my parents outside the front door of the house where we stayed

We just returned from spending 5 days in southern New England with my parents.  They had planned a trip to Rhode Island and invited us to join them over Derek’s fall break.  Our home base was in Portsmouth, Rhode Island.  We did a lot of driving to see as much as we could see in the short time we were there: Connecticut, Boston, Cape Cod, Newport, Concord, Lexington, and Block Island.  As always we wish we could have had more time there, but we are thankful we were able to spend the time that we did.

Click here to see the web album of our trip.

This week marks the half-way point of Derek’s most challenging and busiest semester yet.  Derek is taking 11 graduate units at the seminary while also working two part time jobs.  He is involved in four regular ministries at our church, two of which he is in leadership.  He has definitely earned his Fall Break this week!

The following picture is of the books he has been assigned to read this semester.  He has already read 11 of them and has 8 more to go.  Not to mention all the tests and papers he has in addition to this unbelievable amount of reading.    He is still loving seminary and enjoys all of his reading; it is hard to believe he will be finished with his MDiv degree this coming May.

The following are some pictures from the BBQ Derek organized for our Church Fellowship Class this past Sunday afternoon:

Derek (the class' director) and Russ (the class' teacher)

16 families were able to come for the event

We were thankful for the beautiful Fall weather so we could BBQ outside at the park

This past summer I had the opportunity to put on a volleyball camp for a local private school who was just starting a volleyball program for their middle schoolers.  The volleyball camp turned into my first official coaching position!  I have always wanted to coach volleyball ever since I finished college, but never had the time.  The season just finished and it was a lot of fun.  We did not get many wins, but the girls improved much over the season and all of the parents were very supportive.  I co-coached two 5th/6th grade teams and one 7th/8th grade team.  I enjoyed coaching even more than I thought I would.  I hope to have more opportunities to coach volleyball in the future.

Here are some pictures of the teams:

5th/6th grade Gold Team

5th/6th grade Blue Team

7th/8th grade team

We recently returned from an extended weekend in Billings.  Our nephew Braden got married!  It was a joy to make the trip and partake in all the festivities.  Derek was one of the best men and he had a blast on the bachelor overnight camping trip.  We always have a wonderful time with our family in Montana, but there was a special sweetness to this trip which made it more difficult to return home this time around.  We are looking forward to seeing everyone again over Christmas!

Check out our web album!

I (Amy) have my Masters of Science degree in Education from Walden University!

my hood, my cap, and my diploma

September 2007: I am accepted and begin my program in Elementary Reading and Literacy

April 2009: I finished my last class

May 2009: I submited my program portfolio

June 2009: I officially graduated because my program portfolio passed

August 2009: My diploma arrived in the mail

A diploma closeup

Here are some pictures in the whole “graduate uniform” taken when were in California in June.  I did not go to my graduation ceremony because it was an online school, so we took pictures to pretend.

With Derek and Megan

With my mom and dad

Whenever Derek is in charge of the camera, we usually end up with some silly selfies

Monday was my birthday! We anticipated Derek would be scheduled to work Monday night, so we celebrated in little spurts throughout the weekend.

Friday night: Dinner and Pazookie at BJ’s, then off to the movies to see Julie and Julia (my choice, of course)

Saturday: I coached my first three volleyball matches and had a blast!  Then out with Derek to try a new gelateria.  It was yummy and very authentic!  We plan to go back!

Sunday: After church we went over to our friends, the Roy’s, house for lunch.  My friend Liz surprised me by baking a birthday suprise cake accompanied by cookies and cream ice cream.

At the Roy's

With my friends Meghan and Liz

Monday: Cards, phone calls, and gifts in the mail.  Yay!

Thank you for everyone who helped make my birthday special!  The Lord has been so good to bless me with friends and family like you!

We just returned home from spending the weekend with my Grandpa Cole and his wife Ruth in Middleton, Wisconsin.  We drove the eight hours up on Thursday and came back South on Sunday.  It was Derek’s first visit to this state!  We enjoyed seeing all the beautiful farmland and spending time over meals with our family.  Grandpa had lots of stories to share and it was a blessing to learn things about my family I had not heard before.  Grandpa also generously offered Derek his pastoral library, so Derek loved going through all the boxes of theology books to choose ones he wanted to keep.   We got to spend time with my half-uncle Matthew and travel to Milwaukee on Saturday to see his band perform in concert.  You can see highlights from our trip in our web album.

Yesterday was the wettest August day Louisville has seen since 1879 and the 11th wettest day ever!  We had two torrential thunderstorms roll through and cause flash flooding.  We were fine at our apartment and in our part of the city.  Here are some pictures I took of Mallard Creek next to our apartment building.

The swollen creek

One view of the creek

The same view but earlier this year in May

The ducks didn’t mind.  They were still out and about and as happy as can be. 

On July 23rd we celebrated four years of marriage!  It has gone by so quickly and the Lord has been gracious to give us so many treasured memories together and opportunities for growth.  We love being married now even more than we did last year, and the year before that, and the year before that. It just keeps getting better!

This year our anniversary fell on a Thursday in the midst of one of our busiest weeks of the summer, yet we were able to carve out time in the evening to enjoy a dinner out together where we could linger and talk.  We chose a fondue restaurant called The Melting Pot where we would have a guaranteed two hours to enjoy our food and each other.

Course #3: Meat

The “dippers” for course #4: Chocolate