So with all the things going on with AJ I forgot to post about the fun memorial weekend events!

My parents took their time getting down here and arrived Friday afternoon! I made a yummy and healthy dinner of shrimp and bean packets and then we went for a walk around Wilmore, ending up at Cluckers for ice cream! yum! On the way back to the apartment we saw a couple taking a picture beside the Francis Asbury statue and my dad offered to take the picture so they could both be in it. We found on the next day that it was Scott Rassmussen and his wife - Scott Rassmussen of Rassmussen reports! (He was also the speaker at graduation!) :) So that was cool.

Saturday was a full and busy day - Charles's graduation! We went to the worship service, which was really great (Charles played the drums!), then enjoyed the graduation picnic with my parents and Kate and Robert. We sat with a really funny couple who talked all about their farm and had us in stitches!

After lunch we had to RUSH (and I mean rush) to the Luce Center so Charles could get his picture with the graduating Wesleyans... but we missed the official one. Oh well - he's not going to be Wesleyan much longer anyway and I don't know how they expected people to get there so early. That part of the day was rushed and frustrating but it ended up fine. We got there, got seats, and Charles graduated! I was so proud of him - he has worked so, so hard!
After graduation my parents took us and Jason to our favorite Indian Restaurant - Masala!! yum! We definitely ate our fill of Tikka Masala, Lamb Curry, Naan bread... it was soooo delicious.

My parents had stayed up pretty late the night before so they went to bed early and Charles and I helped Robert and Kate move in upstairs! It will be so fun having them live right above us!

Sunday we went to the Louisville Zoo! It was a pretty good zoo and we had a lot of fun. My favorites were the tiger, the baby elephant (sooo cute) and the Bongo! I had never seen a bongo before... Louisville is one of the few zoos that has one - it's like a cross between an elk and a zebra. Super weird but awesome! God has quite the imagination!
We ate our packed lunch in the parking lot then headed home. We threw together all the leftovers we had in the fridge for dinner and had quite the smorgasboard - pork and saurkraut, salad, garlic couscous, perogies... etc. My cousin in N. Ireland calls it "Fridge on the Table", and that's sure what it felt like!
After dinner we did a couple geocaches around Wilmore (I found them both - that never happens!!) and then went home to eat ice cream and go to bed.

Monday we slept in a bit then went with my parents and Kate and Robert to the Reds-Astos game in Cincinnatti. We had a lot of fun and had great seats but at the bottom of the 4th inning it started raining and they delayed the game. We waited an hour and a half and finally decided to leave. The game started back up about 20 minutes after we left - go figure. But the Astros lost so Charles didn't care too much that we didn't see the whole game.

We said goodbye to my parents at that point, which was sad. But I will see them again in July and that is not so far away. The rest of us went and spent the rest of the day at IKEA. Oh. My. Goodness. I had never been there before and it was AWESOME! The top floor was a bit overwhelming for me -- too much stuff to look at and too much stuff I would love that I can't afford. The bottom floor was a little better! Charles and I got a chair for the living room, bamboo placemats and a paper lantern to go over the kitchen table, a holder for our salt and pepper shakers, a plant, and I can't remember what else - but it all came to less than $100! And we had a great dinner there (the business model they have is a brilliant one - make people tired from walking around and then offer them a delicious meal for a great price!). I could move to West Chester just to be near that store! With the new upgrades and the little bit of rearranging we have done (as well as a new pair of red curtains that I just picked up) our apartment is starting to look more like a home and less like a mish-mash of free furniture that we have picked up from anyone who might be giving it away. I'd say it's about time - we've been in that apartment for almost 2 years now (hard to believe).
We made a quick stop at the nearest Tim Hortons before heading home.

Overall it was an exhausting but oh so fun weekend! And the best part is, with Monday off, I only had to work a 4 day week this week and that is super awesome! Tomorrow is Friday and I'm looking forward to another great weekend!

AJ was a part of our family for 10 years and my parents had to put him down unexpectedly yesterday. Although I'm not usually a super emotional person (at least as far as sadness goes), I have been a wreck. It's especially hard to be away from home at times like this . I didn't get my chance to say good-bye, I just have to grieve from a distance.

I will never forget the day we brought AJ home. I actually was not there to pick him out. I came home from somewhere (I was 16 so I was probably with friends or at work) and around the corner of the kitchen runs this super cute, skinny, BIG puppy (he was 6 mo. but already huge!). He was so happy and friendly and I loved him right away! At that point we still had Sam and it was fun to watch AJ (who was so young) try to play with Sam (who was so old).

AJ certainly had his quirks. Digging holes, for instance. He thought he was a gopher or something. We ended up having to tie him out by the cherry tree so he didn't dig up the whole yard, which at first made me so sad because he loved to run around and it seemed silly to have to tie him when he had so much room to roam - but it didn't take long to realize that he liked being out there. Even when he wasn't tied up he'd go lay out there in the shade.
He was terrified of thunderstorms. If he was outside during a storm he would destroy the garage door trying to get in.
He loved our cats - I'll never forget AJ and Mittens and how they used to play hide and seek in the field. Or how you'd come into the garage at night and find him snuggled with Pumpkin.
And he wouldn't fetch for anything. He knew what he was supposed to do, but he just didn't care enough to do it. If you had a treat he might bring it back to you twice, at most. But usually you'd throw the ball and he'd look at you like "well, you were dumb enough to throw it, go get it yourself" and walk away in the other direction.
And lastly, he wouldn't bark. We have big dogs to be guard dogs and it's a good thing AJ was big and looked intimidating because he couldn't have kept a fly out of the house. I swear if someone was trying to break it he'd sit by and wag his tail. Usually you hear people yelling at their dogs to stop barking - we had to give AJ a treat every time he DID bark to encourage him to do it some more!

AJ could be pretty protective. If I was outside sitting on the ground and Charles came up behind me, AJ would get between us and chase him around the yard - not in a mean way, ever. But in a clearly protective way.
Mom would tell him when I was coming home and he would perk up his ears and get excited and wait for me. When I'd leave, he'd start moping as soon as he saw the suitcases.

And my favorite thing was that he was always the first to greet me when I came home - whether it be from school, work, college, Australia, KY... he'd hear the car coming and be there to greet me as soon as I opened the car door. It's weird to think that there will be no furry mass to trip over with my suitcase the next time I go home.

I just can't believe he's gone. No one saw it coming - a week ago he was fine. He had injured his leg right before my parents came to visit this past weekend, but they took him to the vet, put him on meds and he seemed to be doing better when they left. But the first day there were here my grandparents called and said his whole back half was paralyzed. He was himself - happy, and eating and seemed really normal but he couldn't move his back legs or his tail. So when my parents got home yesterday and found out that the X-rays showed nothing and the only option was an MRI, possibly surgery and after thousands of dollars still no guarantee that he'd be able to walk again, the only other option was to put him to sleep.

I don't know how my parents did it. I would have been a mess. They went to see him at the vet (where he'd been staying) and he was so excited to see them - not having a clue that it would be the last time... that he wasn't going home. I was thinking last night that it's too bad the vet couldn't come to our house to do the deed... just so that he could be home. But it's good to know that it was quick and painless and he was with people he loved and who loved him.

I'm sure going to miss my sweet puppy. But he will always be close by. My parents are going to bury him in his favorite spot - underneath the cherry tree.

I start with the random thoughts. Worst new first.

Random Thought #1: The job I was really hoping for for Charles fell through. Huge bummer and a big pain in the butt, to be honest. I'm working hard at optimism and not being bitter. So we are somewhat back to square one in our plans for next year. He will look for some other jobs in the Lexington area and if nothing pans out then we will look elsewhere and move to wherever we can get 2 jobs with decent incomes. The plus to staying in KY is that we live in a super affordable place and Kate and Rob are here and with another income we could save a lot of money, I think. The plus side to moving would be the fun of another adventure, getting away from KY drivers, getting some new experiences... but we run the risk of moving somewhere more expensive, needing another car and not putting much money away - which is the #1 goal for right now since we are still hoping Durham will work out in the long run.

Random Thought #2: Yesterday was the last chapel for the 0809 year. It was the best sermon I've ever heard on the Ascension. I must admit that I was proud be "Anglican" (I'm not officially Anglican but I'm moving that direction) when JD talked about how many churches pass over Ascension day and preach on something else that day. Not our church! All our readings and the sermon will focus on the importance of Ascension day! There is something to be said for going to a church that pays attention to the church calender!
Anyhow, it was a really powerful sermon (you can listen to it online if you're interested - it would be at www.asburyseminary.edu/chapel and then just find the mp3 for the chapel on 5/20/09) about how Jesus flew (this was a big thing for JD - and it really is awesome to think about!) and what his ascension means for us. And he said something that I found brilliant. He said that the gravity of earth is "what goes up must come down." (And not just in physics, but in nature as well - pride comes before a fall.) But the gravity of heaven lifts us up! (In Jesus's case and in our case someday, it is literal - He ascended and someday we will meet him in the air! But there is also the spiritual sense - Humble yourself in the sight of the Lord and He will lift you up!) So awesome! And he talked about the shape of the cross and how it fits with the gravity of heaven. "Jesus, being in very nature God did not consider equality with God something to be grasped but came in the form of a man, a servant and made himself obedient to death, even death on a cross (that is the down - the humbling)... therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above everyname... (and that is the up - the exalting!). As Christians, our lives should follow the same pattern! I wish I knew how to draw things on here so I could give you the visual. But it was awesome, nevertheless, and the sermon is worth listening to online if you have a few spare moments.

That leads me to my funny story.

Our workstudy here in Financial Aid is leaving us this week so we all planned to go out to lunch together. They wanted to leave around 11:45 but I had to play in chapel. I told them that if it got too late to go ahead without me and I'd meet them there. So chapel, although really great, went really long and I didn't finish up until after noon. I came back down and everyone had their lights off and doors locked so I figured they'd left. I hopped in my car and drove to the restaurant as quickly as I could (getting stuck behind people who have not yet realized that their cars can go over 45 mph Go KY.) Anyhow, I get to the restaurant and no one was there. So I thought maybe I had the wrong place. So I went to call them and realized that I left my phone back in my office. So no phone, no friends. Great. I thought maybe they decided to go somewhere else so I drove to a couple of the near-by restaurants but no go. I knew that by the time I got back to my office to get my phone that it would be too late to meet up with them. So I went to Wal-Mart and picked up a few groceries, got a sub at subway and went back to work.

Turns out, they had waited for me until 12:10. But they had locked up and were waiting in the little room in the back (that I never thought to check) and then had gone to the restaurant but I had already left. And they tried to call but, of course, I didn't have my phone.

So that is my funny, albeit sad story of how I missed Rob's goodbye lunch.

The past week or so has been full of a lot of emotion for me. I will start with the most difficult.

2 international students here at the Seminary were killed in a car accident on Friday. One was a friend of mine who worked with me in Financial Aid last year as our student worker. He was the sweetest man with the biggest, brightest smile who made the best Indian food I have ever had. Laura (the other consultant) and I used to have a lot of fun talking to him about food, Indian culture, etc. I remember when he came in and told us that he was getting married - he was so exited. It was the sweetest thing ever.

He would have been married for 1 year next month. I don't know very many people that have died unexpectedly - and very few people that were young that I know fairly well. So this death has brought up a lot of thoughts about life and death. And I just ache for his wife - being away from family (although she is American, so her family is not so far away), being married for less than a year, and losing her husband. They were one of the cutest couples I have ever seen - very much in love and always so sweet to each other. He was coming home from an outing with his friends and was on his way to visit her at work when the accident happened. I just keep thinking about what it must be like to one day wake up with a husband and go to bed without one.

I hope she (and the husband of the other man who was killed) can find some peace in knowing that her husband loved her and, first and foremost, loved God. Charles's last facebook update before he died was "Now thanks be to God, who always leads us in triump..."

In happier news, Charles graduates (well, walks) on Saturday! So much happiness! And my parents will be here to celebrate the momentus occasion! There will be joy and laughter and good food had by all! Our time together will include a baseball game in Cinci, graduation events, perhaps Kings Island or possibly the Louisville Zoo and Slugger Museum or even hiking! I am really looking forward to it all!

But on top of all the excitement of graduation comes the nerves and stress of figuring out what's next. Funding for Durham fell through so we know we will be in the states for another year. We would like to stay in KY but it will all depend on whether or not Charles can get a job here. I have ideas of what seems more than perfect and I'm trying not to get my hopes up too much. I know God has a plan for us and I'm trying not to tell Him what that plan is :) but rather, just trust Him to take care of us and provide for our needs. I know I've posted 100 times about how hard that is for me. And he has never, ever failed us. But prayers for our future would be most appreciated.

And so, it is will joy and sadness that I enter this last week of the semester. It's a weird feeling - living in limbo, so to speak. But I suppose living in uncertainly promotes living in faith.

Ok, granted, I usually dream weirdness, but I have found that since I've had shingles, the times I feel the absolute worst and catch little bits of sleep to escape the pain are the times that my dreams are just out of control whacked. Like this morning. Let me share with you how I spent my morning.