There Will Be More Posts

...starting January 6th or so, when Bobby gets a computer for work and I have my laptop around, and we will have wifi at our new place. Woo-hoo. More thoughts and musings there - all the ones I have pent up! Thoughts on:

• DC bookstores
• Recommended books
• The escalators at Metro Stations (and how they look like Disney's 1960s take on the future...)
• The Inaguration craziness and how all DC residents will have to stock up because the city will be clogged for a week or two with an extra 3 million people or so...
• and more...

Snow!

We had our first snowfall on Saturday! It didn't stick around long, but at least there was a nice dusting. There is more in the forecast for this weekend.

thanks but no thanks, USPS.

I wanted to buy 20 Nutcracker stamps for the Christmas cards I just ordered. Instead of waiting in the very long line at the local post office, I did it online.

So, my whole order is $9.40. Great. After I click submit, they tell me my debit card was denied. Weird. Enter it again, thinking I got it wrong. And twice more (it should work). Now I'm frustrated - I have to go the post office.

Log on to my BofA account to see what's up, and lo and behold, my order went through! Four times! Log back on to the USPS site. No record of order.

Now, do I want to be on the phone with the USPS or my bank? Bank wins, and in five minutes all charges are reversed.

Yay bank. Boo post office.

Dog People

As a dog walker in a swanky place like Capitol Hill, I regularly come into contact with "dog people." I love dogs and can't wait to get one when Bobby and I have the space - but when we do get the pet, it will be a pet. Not an cornerstone of our life.

My clients pay an exorbitant amount to get their pets walked during the day (and sometimes at night, too). There are special instructions and leashes, organic treats, and sometimes sweaters to put on the dogs before their walk (and rain coats too...). It's not that I mind these somewhat over-zealous pet owners, but it means that they have sort of weird dogs. Case in point:

Kiki, the six-pound Italian Greyhound: shivers with fear over anything, needs both sweater and raincoat before allowed to go outside.
Jackson, 130 pound Bernese Mountain Dog: Likes to stop and sniff. Likes to stop and roll on his back (at which point I clear all smaller dogs and children out of the way). Will walk approximately half of a block in 15 minutes if left to his own devices. Oh, and he has a back problem - so I'm not allowed to tug him.
Mortimer, an older Shih-Tzu: Recovering from cancer and pampered. Will stop walking if he decides I'm not letting him sniff enough. Won't walk up stairs (has to be carried).
Lacy and Page, 11 year old King Charles Spaniels: Both 'shriek' uncontrollably when putting on their harnesses (even if they aren't really being hurt).

There are many more but those are the biggest characters. My favorite is Pounce, a exceedingly well-trained (not spoiled!) Jack Russell terrier whose yawn sounds like a small T-Rex. He's awesome.

When I get them all home, I have to write a note about what they did. I'm supposed to include information that shows the owners I "get" their dog, but I'm not supposed to say stuff like, "Today I had to resist the urge to karate chop your dog." Generally I say banal things about the weather and watching squirrels (except on Pounce's notes. I generally am happy to write those!)

New Job

Sadly, my internship at CHBC is quickly drawing to a close. This week we're finishing up some of the books we've been reading all semester. We're attending our last elders' meeting on Thursday night. We've got our second-to-last intern discussion on Thursday morning. We have our goodbye lunch on the twelfth. We're out of the office on the 15th.

All of this is more than a little sad. It would be a lot more sad, however, if not for the work God has granted me to do starting January 5th: writing for 9Marks.

For those of you who don't know, 9Marks is a ministry that runs out of our church whose mission is to help other local churches grow more biblically healthy and so reflect the glory of God. They put out a bi-monthly e-journal, interviews with church leaders, and are working on a series of books. They also do regional workshops for church leaders and host a weekend-long pastors' conference at CHBC three times a year. But what I will be doing is helping to develop content for their new website, which they intend to make into an online pastor training center. Basically I'll be working under Jonathan Leeman, their director of communications, to take material they already have and try to fit it into a more compact, user-friendly, how-to format.

I'm grateful to God for the opportunity to work with men I deeply respect who are doing something I deeply believe in. Please pray that I would be a good steward of this opportunity and that God would use me to help further 9Marks' mission in the few months I have with them, to the glory of God.

Helpful Advice from Martyn Lloyd-Jones

Have you realized that most of your unhappiness in life is due to the fact that you are listening to yourself instead of talking to yourself? Take those thoughts that come to you the moment you wake up in the morning. You have not originated them, but they start talking to you, they bring back the problems of yesterday, etc. Somebody is talking. Who is talking to you? Your self is talking to you. Now this man's treatment was this; instead of allowing this self to talk to him, he starts talking to himself. 'Why art thou cast down, O my soul?' [Psalm 42] he asks. His soul had been depressing him, crushing him. So he stands up and says: 'Self, listen for a moment, I will speak to you'. Do you know what I mean? If you do not, you have had but little experience.
The main art in the matter of spiritual living is to know how to handle yourself. You have to take yourself in hand, you have to address yourself, preach to yourself, question yourself. You must say to you soul: 'Why are thou cast down' - what business have you to be disquieted? You must turn on yourself, upbraid yourself, condemn yourself, exhort yourself, and say to yourself: 'Hope thou in God' - instead of muttering in this depressed, unhappy way. And then you must go on to remind yourself of God, Who God is, and what God is and what God has done, and what God has pledged Himself to do. Then having done that, end on this great note: defy yourself, and defy other people, and defy the devil and the whole world, and say with this man: 'I shall yet praise Him for the help of His countenance, who is also the health of my countenance and my God.

- Dr. D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Spiritual Depression, pgs. 20-21

Thanksgiving

Bobby and I are really enjoying this four day weekend. On Thursday and Friday we were in Annapolis with Bobby's Aunt JoAnn and Uncle Jim. Their kids are grown and live far away (Colorado and Alaska) and as we are way out here away from our California roots, it was a great time to get together with family.

On Thursday we walked along the Chesapeake Bay shore, on land owned by the US Naval Academy but not developed. It is such a different body of water than the Pacific in so many obvious ways, but it was beautiful none the less. The rest of the day was spent in feasting and in a couple rousing games of Quibbler.

On Friday we walked around Annapolis and did a brief tour of the Naval Academy. The weather, for those of you who can relate, was like Santa Cruz in the winter - not too cold, but brisk enough; cloudy, with the sun shining through. Bobby bought me some beautiful earrings in a little shop and Jim and Joanna treated us to a lunch right next to the harbor - crab cakes and oysters, mmm.

They drove us home in the early evening Friday, and Bobby and I walked to Union Station and watched Austrailia. I either love movies or find them so-so, and I loved this one. It is definitely a pastiche of different genres, with some campiness thrown in - but the director/screenwriter is Baz Luhrman, so that is to be expected. The cinematography is beautiful, the story engaging, and Luhrman does not hesitate to display in all its awful reality the country's Aborigine re-education program, which took Aborigine and half-caste children away from their mothers to re-educate them to be 'fit' for white society (see Rabbit-Proof Fence for more on this). Austrailia is an epic romance/ cultural history/war movie/commentary on the director's own native country, and I highly recommend it.

In other news, we have secured our next home! Bobby is going to post soon detailing more of the work he will be doing, but for now a brief summary - for the next six months Bobby will be working as a writer for a non-profit that is run alongside our church called 9Marks. At the end of that time (July) he will (most likely) be coming on church staff as a pastoral assistant, a one-two year position. This would probably include housing, so from the time we move out of our church-supplied place until then, we will be renting a basement unit from another church member. It's a great little place and the rent is really reasonable. It's a bit farther away from the church but still on the Hill and close to a metro. It's a very kind provision of God and we're excited to move in (excited too because the reasonable rent means we can buy the furniture that we need - good thing, as we left all of ours in CA and have been using church-basement finds : ).

So, life is good. This weekend has been extremely restful and there is still a day and a half left. May all of you enjoy your time off as well!

Curb Shopping

Something I love about living on Capitol Hill is all the amazing stuff people leave on the curb on trash day. Now, being a dog walker I am out before most people get a chance to sniff out the good stuff. So, here is a list of the stuff I have scored since being in DC:

• Lightly used Ann Taylor brown leather boots (original price, according to the box $130.00)
• Nine sturdy plastic rectangular storage boxes with lids
• Small bookshelf
• Small end-table
• Drying rack
• Shelf with Hooks for the front hallway
• Working vacuum, with tools
• Kitchen cart, with three pull out drawers and a chop block top
• Cashmere sweater

Good things, good things.

*EDIT

I forgot the great wicker hamper with linen liner, and this Wednesday I found a five shelf narrow pine bookcase...woo.

Somewhat Scattered Thoughts From The Transplant

First, the purpose of the blog is to keep you updated, which doesn’t work if we don’t post for three weeks. So today, a long post…with thoughts AND pictures!

Bobby went hiking at beautiful Shenandoah National Park with some guys from church:

Four blocks away:

Goofy shadows taken outside the American Indian Smithsonian Museum.

Great Falls National Park, Virginia side:

In other news...
On Tuesday it was cold enough to briefly snow “flurry.” I was out walking dogs, and my first thought was “ASH!” I looked to the sky, wondering about fire, and in the same split second realizing, duh, these people have brick buildings, basements, and snow – not earthquakes and uncontrollable wildfires. It was hard to be convinced though, mostly because I was just wearing Target-brand Under Armor, jeans and a fleece and wasn’t that cold. Didn’t everyone tell me that the cold would get into my bones? It was about thirty-three degrees, with wind chill twenty-six. It feels like Northern California in the morning.
_
Produce is pretty sad on this coast. I didn’t realize until we moved here how fully California supplies the rest of the country with fruit and veggies. Everything is from California (I learned about this in fourth grade, but within state I never thought about it). In California, I would never buy produce at Trader Joe’s because it was prepackaged and I could get better stuff at Ralph’s, a Grower’s Direct, or the Korean market. It’s the best out here, so I always load up. TJ’s is my California fix – it’s a little bit of something normal in the almost foreign country of the District of Columbia.
_
When Bobby and I commented on how driven and workaholic a lot of people seem in DC, a guy from church told us that likely the most caffeinated, driven person in California would probably seem somewhat laid back compared to a Hill staffer. We both agree.
_
Maybe some of you would feel differently about this, but we had a choice to tour the West Wing or go to small group. I chose small group, and Bobby said that was fine with him, too. Apparently, this is weird to some people.
_
I also miss the boho fresh cafes that so liberally populate Southern California. I have started to make almost all breakfasts and coffee at our place, because it saves money, and the cafes here don’t seem to have the same choices as say, Alta or Gypsy Den or Urth Café (imagine that). It’s little bit more “hungry man” than say, homemade yogurt with fresh berries and fair-trade coffee. Haha.

That's it for today...expect more soon.

Things I Am Currently Enjoying About Life

Lists are good...so here goes.

1) Struggling to wake up at 6:00 so I can have a quiet time before the day begins. Somewhat achieved it this morning (6:30) and reading through Psalms and 2 Kings and some prayers from Valley of Vision was worth it. Going for the 6:00 again tomorrow.

2) Hospitality. We've been having lots of new friends over for dinner, and we had Jason here from CA last weekend. I always thought I am an introvert but time (and my husband) insist that I am not.

3) Leaves changing color like I've never experienced. It's so beautiful - golds, reds, and oranges. I'm going to take pictures and post them.

4 ) I take the metro to do most of my errands. No car, no car! Public transportation!

5) I walk a couple miles every day for my job. Today I started with a new client: a beagle/lab puppy. Yes!

6) Fall food. We've been eating lots of soup and home-made bread...because soup fits in the fall when the fall isn't 75 degrees and balmy (O, Southern California!)

7) There is a Happy Land. Our church sings hymns the way churches in old movies do...a piano and everyone's voices. In 2003 they recorded the congregation singing hymns for four hours, the result of which is the "There is a Happy Land" cd recording, which Bobby and I listen to frequently.

8) Being married. My husband rocks.

9) We can walk to our church.

10) Wool socks I bought at Costco today. I've never needed them before and they are very nice.

It's the simple things. : )

Nine Monthiversary

Typical goofy.

Overexposed but still neat-o.

First Dance as Husband and Wife.

The Lord has blessed us with a sweet beginning to our life together, for which we are exceedingly grateful.

"Oh, magnify the Lord with me,
and let us exult his name together!"
Psalm 34:3

Tennessee and Georgia with the Mark Dever entourage

Hello friendly readers. Welcome to my first blog post ever.

Last week I had the privilege of traveling to Lookout Mountain, GA, Chatanooga, TN, and Atlanta GA with all of my fellow interns, four Pastoral Assistants from Capitol Hill Baptist Church, Michael Lawrence, Mark Dever, and Matt Schmucker. Mark preached three chapel messages and gave one lecture at Covenant College in Lookout Mountain, GA on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. On Friday and Saturday 9Marks put on a workshop for pastors at Concord Baptist Church just down the road (and the hill) from Lookout Mountain in Chatanooga, TN. The workshop was very well attended as some very humble pastors soaked up the teaching from Mark, Michael, Matt, and Greg Gilbert. We lowly interns had the privilege of helping with registration, etc. while getting the chance to speak with attendees during breaks, lunch, and other free time. After we finished the workshop the whole entourage drove two hours down to Atlanta for the installation of Aaron Menikoff (former staff at CHBC) as the senior pastor of Mount Vernon Baptist Church.

In all, the trip was full of fellowship with the brothers from CHBC, some great time listening to Mark and the other men preach, lots of good conversations with hospitable southern folk, and eating way too much barbecue.

Some highlights:

Playing basketball three days in a row with my fellow interns and PA's. I was giving them all a run for their money for the honor of "worst guy on the court," but I had a great time.

Watching the sun rise each morning from the top of Lookout Mountain. Beautiful country.

Seeing six states (on a clear day it's seven) from the tower at Covenant College. If I recall correctly: Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama, Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina.

Practicing my newly improved southern accent.

Getting to enjoy all kinds of extended time with really dear brothers from CHBC.

Seeing a church (Mount Vernon Baptist Church) that evidently loves and respects their brand-new senior pastor. Their gratitude for his ministry and eagerness to grow through his preaching and leadership was palpable.

Shai Linne and 'Holy Hip-Hop'

Shai Linne:

1) Solid theology
2) Awesome Artist

Check out his albums The Atonement and The Solus Christus Project.

Listening to his lyrics helps sharpen my grasp of theology. I highly recommed him.

Biblical Counseling

Here John Piper works toward a definition of biblical counseling: "God-centered, Christ-exalting, cross-cherishing, Spirit-dependent, Bible-saturated, emotionally-in-touch, culturally-informed use of language to help people become God-centered, Christ-exalting, joyfully self-forgetting lovers of people who spread a passion for the supremacy of God in all things for the joy of all peoples." Whew.

At Capitol Hill Baptist Church they are serious about equipping the congregation to minister to itself - training laity to care and serve each other effectively, in this case in the realm of biblical counseling, to the glory of God.

One of the ways I am benefiting from this is a small group I am in on Tuesdays. We are learning introductory material in the "Transformation Series." This semester we're completing a workbook entitled "How People Change: How Christ Changes Us by His Grace." The coursework is offered through the Christian Counseling and Educational Foundation (CCEF for short), and is based on both a book and a full course taught at the CCEF center, both of the same name as the workbook. For those of you familiar with CCEF, the workbook is written by Paul David Tripp, Timothy S. Lane, and David Powlison contributes. The course is geared towards helping both the lay counselor-in-training (me) pursue growth in godliness as well as help others toward the same end.

To get a better idea of what that looks like, this is what they write in the introduction to the workbook:

Many people in our culture would call How People Change a self-help course because it leads people through steps of self-examination and change. However, the Bible would use two words for this material. The first word would be gospel. This course is a study of what God has done in Christ to transform us from idolatry-enslaved sinners to people who are like him, zealous to do what he says is good in a world that is terribly broken. This course celebrates the truth that Jesus came to save us because we are unable to save ourselves. His work addresses the deepest and most personal issues of the human experience. This course calls people to know their world, to know themselves, and to know the Lord and his grace. The second word the Bible would use for this course is discipleship. Discipleship is walking with someone as he or she learns to walk more faithfully with the Lord. Rather than helping themselves through this course, people are being discipled by the Lord as they are discipled by you...Our ultimate goal is to encourage people to: 1) Look at themselves in the mirror of God's word, 2) Know and rely on Christ's grace and 3) Step out into life with renewed faith and courage.

The course thus far has been teaching me a lot about God's promises and my own heart's reactions as well as equipping me to ask better questions of people as I talk with them about their own spiritual walk.

I have a lot of great resources that I have gleaned from the classes, so expect more posts in this topic.

Apples!

My plan to have pictures of my first apple picking failed when I realized the camera batteries I thought I had charged were dead. Sad day.

However, we still had a great time. It was a beautiful sunny fall day. We drove to Maryland and picked apples in an orchard that had about ten different varieties. I appreciate knowing where my food comes from, and it was great fun choosing exactly which kind and which apple we wanted.

Together Bobby and I picked about twenty pounds of Red Delicious, Rome, Pink Ladies, Jonathons, and so on. The only thing I've made so far is an apple crisp - if anyone has any good apple recipes, email them to me or leave them in the comments for all to enjoy. We also picked up some butternut squash, a couple sugar pumpkins for baking, and lots of homemade jam.

We enjoyed great fellowship with our brothers and sisters in the faith: Sunshine and Dan, Lindsey and Josh, and Geoff and Stephanie. They are encouraging and open people, and so its been fun sharing both joys and stuggles of marriage and getting to know them more. Our small group rotation is two years, so we will be able to all grow together as our marriages progress.

Finally, this week Bobby is headed off with Mark, other church staff, and the rest of the interns for a week-long trip to Georgia and Tennessee. Please pray for their safe travel and that the trip would be fruitful (Mark is preaching the chapels at Covenant College, they are doing a 9 Marks talk, and Mark is preaching at an installation of a former CHBC member). Also pray for me - this is our longest time apart since we got married. I'll be staying with a family from the church, so I'll be occupied, but still.

Starting dog walking tomorrow. Updates soon.

And two things: Shai Linne at Crossroads? Incognito or did he perform? Haha. And - leave comments! If just to say hi - Bobby and I appreciate it.

C.D.W.

Well folks, for those of you who know that I've been searching for a new job for two and a half months now, I am pleased to announce my new career: dog walker.

There is a company that owns the dog walking market on Capitol Hill, and one day when I was burned out on looking for office positions on dcjobs.com and washingtonpost.com, I went to the "etc." column of craigslist, and there it was. The company needed new walkers. Preferably those who live on Capitol Hill and are flexible. Perfect! So, two "trial" dog walks with current employees and a full hour interview later, I am now, as Connie Dever says, a "certified dog walker."

The perks? I work 11AM - 3PM every week day, walking around 12-15 dogs in that time. My salary makes it feasible to work part-time, and I have no commute, get to walk around outside for four hours a day, and get to play with dogs...for my job. Sweet.

Also, there are other options like boarding, pet sitting and taking morning and evening walks. It leaves me enough flexibility to take care of necessary house stuff, hang out with cool ladies that live in my neighborhood, and pursue some volunteer interests.

Even though the search was at times discouraging, God is utterly faithful to supply Bobby and I with all we need, in a job that is better than I was expecting.



In other news: tomorrow we're going apple pickin' in Maryland with our "newly-marrieds" small group. How East Coast is that?! Expect pictures soon...

Blog?

Bobby and I have thrown around the idea of having a blog since before we left California. Two and a half months after moving, I realize that actually having a blog will be a great way to keep friends in California updated on life here. We don't get to talk to everyone as much as we would like, and so I hope this will allow me (and Bobby sometimes) to let our friends and family know what we're doing, thinking about, enjoying and finding difficult about life on the East Coast.

Expect a couple posts a week, and please comment and email in response.