Too Long

You know that it's been too long since you have blogged when you almost forget what your user name and password is for the site.

Well a lot has happened since my last post in July. I went to San Antonio, TX for the ELCA National Youth Gathering with 9 youth from my internship congregation. I wrapped up my internship with a great final Sunday with a fun brunch and a bit of hilarity when my supervisor debuted the three songs that she wrote/modified to honor me. With the help of my Dad and then future in-laws, and Tim I packed up the house in Connecticut and moved back to Philadelphia and the seminary. It was the biggest move that I have done since I acquired some furniture and more stuff in general in the last year. Oh, and it was the hottest week of the summer with temps in the 100s for the two days that it took to move back to Philly so that just made the process that much more fun.

We had no sooner moved my stuff into the apartment that we were throttled into full on wedding mode. The two and a half weeks that we had between the move from CT and the wedding FLEW by so quickly! We squeezed two bridal showers, a dress fitting, made the programs, entertained various guests, and endured the general chaos that ensues before a wedding in about 17 days - it was nuts. But, the stress and organization that we kept in the planning process paid off when it was time to relax and enjoy the wedding from start to finish. From the rehearsal on Friday to the brunch on Sunday everything was absolutely wonderful! Tim and I were really quite relaxed for the whole wedding day and I believe that it was our easy going attitude about the whole thing that contributed to the day going as well as it did. If you would like to see pictures you can go to http://perfectday.smugmug.com/weddings and look for the Annemarie and Tim wedding - we absolutely love the pictures and were amazed at the candids that the photographers caught.

After the wedding we headed off to Punta Cana, Dominican Republic for our honeymoon. We had mixed opinions about the whole experience. I think that the DR (Dominican Republic) is still struggling with the tourism that has really picked up in the last 5 years or so. At the resort we encountered a mixed reception from the staff - about 1/3 were happy to see and help us and the other 2/3 were not as willing to act like they were enjoying their job. In the end the goal of the trip, to relax and enjoy time away from the real world, was most certainly acheived as we enjoyed afternoons by the pool with drinks that flowed like water. We would not, however, travel back to the DR in the near future and would like to try some other Caribbean islands like Jamaica or the Bahamas on our next trip.

So now we are successfully moved into our apartment with just a few more things to find a place for - like the microwave and toaster oven. We are really enjoying married life and finally getting to live together after 20 months of being engaged. Tim has been having some fun with the food processor and making his own hummus and salsa. His next project will be some homemade pesto sauce and so far he has done a great job with cooking. I am looking forward to trying to bake some pies and finding new ways to help us develop healthy eating habits together.

Life is not slowing down now that we are married. We have just started classes at the seminary and we will both be working hard as we finish our studies. Tim will be looking to finish his thesis for his Master of Sacred Theology degree and I will have 5 classes this semester as I continue to make progress towards the goal of ordination. We should know where we will be living next year by mid-February so for now we are just hanging out and enjoying the student life.

Hopefully this update will spur me to write more in the near future. Being back in classes with a new group of folks on campus might just be the inspiration I needed to write more here. Although, being a senior at seminary also means that you no longer care about anyone else but the friends that you already have - we dont know most people on campus because we were in internship when they started or they are brand new to campus and its just too much effort to make new friends that we will probably not see for a while again. Oh well, they will just think that we are just stuck up seniors like we thought other seniors were - so continues the circle of life at seminary.