1 down... 7000 bajillion to go.

Today I finished my first academic book of the semester... actually I finished it last week but I wrote a paper on it for class today... This one was reallly interesting. It divides Christian Ethics into three forms teleological (goals), deontological (rules), and areteological (virtues). We must make plans to achieve our goals, we must follow rules to carry out our plans, and out of those rules and achieved goals comes virtue... One of the chapters that particularly sparked my interest was his categorizing of churches... Ecumenical, missional, and confessional. Ecumenical is full of diversity.... whether it's spiritual or generational or cultural, the church represents a wide variety. A missional church is growth oriented... not so much for themselves but to further the kindgom. And a confessional church would be considered rigid doctrine followers. Essentially, they stick to their guns. Obviously all churches have a bent towards one of these, but I would be excited by a church that encompasses all of them in well-balanced fashion. Anyways... it held my attention, which is rare for classroom texts... Next we get to read Kierkegaard... He seems fun.

Here We go Again...

So I registered for my next half marathon today. I've run the Indianapolis Mini Marathon twice and have one last shot at it (since this may be my last year in Indiana). I am going to run it with my future husband, his best man, and his best man's girlfriend. They are all serious athletes so I have a lot to do, but it will be a great challenge. I'm excited to push myself... We'll see how long that lasts...

Family Weekend...

This past Friday, my parents decided to take a spontaneous trip to Anderson. We had a lot of fun. I didn't get to see them until Saturday morning... We went out to breakfast, fixed my scooter, ate skyline for lunch, and then last night we went to the Anderson Speedway... such a funny experience.... Anderson at its finest for sure... This morning I got to lead worship at The Bridge for the first time since I've been back at school. They now have three services on Sunday mornings and it was NUTS! But really good. My friends Rob and Rachel also stopped by for the 9 a.m. service with their kids. It was great to see them for a few minutes and my parents headed back to St. Louis after that service as well.... It was wonderful spending time with them... but way too short.

Oh the future of a Westminster Grad...

So apparently yesterday, a kid from my high school was on jeopardy! I've recorded all the jeopardies for the past week and have yet to find him... but he's on the website... which is exciting. His name is Andrew Hoekzema... you can watch him say Hi to all of St. Louis by clicking here and scrolling down to his name...

Honeymoon...

So Nate and I are working diligently on planning our honeymoon. (I know it's the groom's job, but why would I let him do the fun part by himself?) We're having lots of fun, but it's going to be a tough decision. We know we definitely want an all inclusive and probably a beach... Thoughts? Where did you go on your honeymoon? Where would you go? Help, please :)

We Did It!

Today was the pinnacle of my past 12 weeks of training. Race day. I LOVE race day. (since I've experienced all of four)... But seriously. So fun, so hard core, everyone is in the same boat, we all need to hydrate, we all have a story or an injury or a deep found reason to kick ourselves in the butt to finish 13 miles... and in today's case, we were all sopping wet within seconds of stepping out of our cars. On the first six miles, the rain felt more like hail and HURT. The wind was so intense, sometimes I hardly had to move my legs to run, other times I felt like I was sprinting just to take one step forward. I ran with my dear friend, Emily. It was her first one, which made it that much more exciting. We had actually pushed ourselves pretty hard (I think we just wanted to finish and get out of the rain), but on the 8th mile, I was informed that we would all be stopping after 10 miles. It was a little sad, but we were ecstatic, nonetheless. It was a very fulfilling day... I ran my personal best ten miles and Emily got her first medal for a half marathon! So exciting...

In other news, my parents are going to need some new trees... poor Mr. Tree...

BORED....

So, I decided to take a little trip to see Nate tonight since I was out of town last weekend and will be this weekend and next so we haven't gotten to spend much time together... We ate dinner together and then Nate informed that he was going to the library for an hour or so... whatever, I'm fine, I have homework so I went. Anywho, somehow we ended at their science building... and I'm just waiting and blogging and facebook stalking and browsing wedding dresses... you know the us. (that's the abrev. for usual).

Walking around on Nate's campus though, I wonder what it would be like to go to school together. Maybe take a class together for fun or eat dinner together in the cafeteria. Some days I wish we could do the college thing together (which we kind of are), but all that just makes me more excited for our future. Picking our house or apartment, fighting over paint colors, me begging him for a puppy every five minutes... It will be great. I'm sure I can wait a little longer to get to see him every single day. So exciting!

An Idealist...

In my financial planning class, we were asked to take a career personality test. If I answered all the questions honestly (some of them are weird, so I did my best), I am an idealist. I think it fits.

10 months from today....

I will be getting married!

Labor Day Fun...

I had a weekend packed with fun and excitement! On Friday, my roommates and I took a short trip to Chicago (well I may or may not have driven us 100 miles the wrong way to Ohio first) to check out the home furnishings at Ikea. We got in around 1:30 a.m. Chicago time (2:30 Indiana time) and giggled ourselves to sleep. On Saturday, we found some great things at Ikea as well as made it to the second half of Nate's soccer game. They lost and Nate got a yellow card, but I was ecstatic to get to watch him play again. After the game, we headed back to Anderson and made it back three hours faster than it took to get there...

The fun picked up again last night, when we decided to take a break from cleaning, painting, buying, and building to enjoy a non-labor holiday. My roommates and I all had our boyfriends over last night for milkshakes and s'mores in the backyard and then had a "camp out" (everyone went to their own beds when the movie was over) in the living room since all the camp sites were booked (I know, who knew camping was in such high demand?) So early this morning, the boys met us at our house and we set off on a little canoe trip down the white river! It was a good day of sunshine and friends. I also feel like Nate and I had our first premarital counseling session after I let him steer us five miles down a river.

It was a wonderful weekend. Good for my soul. Necessary for my homesickness.