Thirtysomething

Well, it’s been an eventful few weeks.  Dee and I traveled to Georgia the weekend of the 16th in order to preach the homecoming service at Cornerstone church.  My mom and grandmother were able to join us in service, which is always a tremendous blessing.  The message, The Cruciform Life, was from Ps 19 and 1 Cor 6.  It just so happened that I injured my neck the day before service.  Wouldn’t you know it?  A neck injury to bring in the 30th birthday!  Thankfully, our chiropractor is anointed to deal with such issues.  Yet, it still was a bitter reminder that life is on the move.  :blink:

I was blessed by my family with a very helpful birthday gift.  They gave me the German edition of Rosetta Stone, which I’ve been considering for a while now.  After working through several lessons with the program, it seems to be an excellent resource for introducing one to the language.  From what a RS representative told Dee, one could have “conversational fluency” after several months utilizing the program (of course, that’s studying for an hour  a day, at the least).  So, we’ll see how things go.

This past Saturday, several friends from our local church surprised me with a “you’re over the hill-now-you’re-30!” birthday party.  It was hilarious.  They put up signs in our neighborhood (thanks Carrie and Brandy!), grilled out (thanks Brett and Ken), and, all in all, helped Saturday to be a blast for us (kudos to all!).  [a special shout out to Sonny for the bookstore-breakfast distraction!  It worked like a charm... :biggrin: ].  I’m grateful for their friendship.  At the core of being in the faith family is doing life together.  And what better way of doing life together than partying your socks off?  :w00t:

As many of you know, D’s been swamped writing a computer program with a “research language” (Python) that is required for her comprehensive exams (in order to become an official PhD candidate).  Good news.  Yesterday, she completed the program (thanks Clinton for all the help!) and is submitting it for approval this morning.  As of right now, she will be graduating (Lord willing) next August.

Well, that’s an abridged update.  We hope everyone is doing well and look forward to hearing from you soon.

Blessings