2010: A Summary

What a year... Whew... I'm happily exhausted just thinking about it. Let's review, shall we?

January 
Daryl flies back to Nashville to resume coursework. This marks our 5th month of living apart since September.  Boo.

I fly back to New Jersey to start my final semester of classes at Princeton Seminary.

I start rehearsals for "A Caucasian Chalk Circle," the spring seminary play where I am cast as (yay!) Grusha, the resourceful peasant mother. One of my best friends is cast as Natella, the evil villainess, and we enjoy verbal sparring on our rides to and from practice.

February
I watch my friend Jinelle skate to Olympic silver with the U.S. Women's Hockey Team. Since the seminary doesn't get the channel, we watch from a nearby Mexican restaurant...

Daryl and I celebrate Valentine's Day apart by cooking the same meal and having a Skype dinner date. Not the real in-person thing, but still pretty good.

After noticing that there are few church jobs in the Nashville area, I apply to the Nashville CPE (Clinical Pastoral Education) partnership as a chaplain. I anxiously await word back.

March
We welcomed our new niece, Sophia Joy, into the family! She was, and still remains, the cutest baby EVER. (Besides our other niece, Aleah, of course!)

I have my final review at the Presbytery of Chicago where they officially certify me as ready for ordination in the PC(USA)!

Daryl and I travel (together!) to California for spring break where we visit his family and lots of friends. We also eat at In n' Out Burger about nine times. In one week. Yum.

I hear back that the Nashville CPE partnership would like to interview me. I interview, and a couple of weeks later in...

April
...I hear back that I've been accepted as a chaplain resident at Alive Hospice in Nashville. Daryl and I both breathe a sigh of vocational and financial relief.

I performed in "A Caucasian Chalk Circle" at the seminary. After performance #1 I lost my voice for several anxious hours. Lots of tea with lemon (prescribed by the director), lots of prayer (my addition), and it came back by showtime the following night. Phew.

May
Daryl and I slogged through finals and were rewarded at the end... with one another. The long-distance marriage was over! Hooray!

My parents treated us to a cruise to Mexico. All the gluten free food I could eat, delicious sun, and lots of napping. It was A-MAZ-ING.

We returned to Princeton for my graduation! All done, seminary!

We packed up all of our belongings, and with the help of my parents, loaded them into a storage POD that was sent to await our arrival in Nashville.

June
We headed north to Wisconsin to spend much of the summer with my family resting, reading, and relaxing. A wonderful  reward after nine months living apart from one another, three years of seminary, three part-time jobs, and a whole lot else...

July
We trekked to Nashville to pick out a new home and found the townhouse of our dreams. Less than two miles from Vanderbilt for Daryl, less than two miles from the hospital where I'd be working, and within our price range. We signed the lease the very next day.

August
We travel to Michigan for a week-long family reunion with my dad's side of the family. There are games. There is food. It is awesome.

We move in  to our new home in Nashville, after waving goodbye to our wonderful family in Wisconsin. After hauling in box after box in 105 degree heat, we both agree: this is the LAST move we are ever doing ourselves. Next time (which we think will be years and years down the road), we're hiring movers.

I begin work at Alive Hospice on my birthday, August 30th. Lots of orientation, lots of preparation, lots of great people.

September
Daryl begins his second and final year of coursework at Vanderbilt.

We travel to Asheville, NC with some dear friends to visit Posana's Cafe, an all-gluten free restaurant. It is worth every mile.

We head back to Wisconsin to watch two other dear friends tie the knot in an outdoor ceremony on a beautiful lake. Then we dance all night.

Daryl travels to Oxford to deliver a paper at a conference. He visits all of our old haunts, even eating one of "Ben's Cookies" for me at the covered market.

I receive a semi-cryptic email from a church in Wisconsin asking me if I'd be willing to move to Wisconsin... I respond in the affirmative... They interview me over Skype and we immediately hit it off.

October
The church flies me up for a weekend interview. It goes wonderfully, and at the end of the weekend they extend the call to me! Daryl and I take a week to pray about it and feel nothing but confirmation. I call them back with the news - it's official (though not yet Facebook-public, as I still need to be examined by the Presbytery)!

Daryl's dad and step-mom visit, and we hit up the Frist Museum and the best Predator's game of the year.

My mom and dad visit and we visit an outdoor Chihuly exhibit and explore Nashville and Dad teaches me to make the best gluten free cookies ever.

November
I meet with the PC(USA)'s Company of New Pastors at their conference in Nashville. We spend hours talking and learning about prayer and how to incorporate Scripture into worship in different ways.

We eat the world's best Thanksgiving dinner with some dear (and gluten free!) friends in Nashville. I can still taste that cornbread stuffing.

Friends from Michigan come to visit us and we play board games for hours and hours.

I finish my final day of CPE and say goodbye to some wonderful patients, staff, and fellow chaplains.

Daryl surprises me with tickets to a Ben Folds concert after my last day of work. I sit, enraptured, listening to one of my favorites perform.

I fly up to the Wisconsin for the congregational vote and Presbytery examination. Both go well and now it is officially official - in January I will start my tenure as pastor of 1st Presbyterian!

December
Daryl finishes his coursework after a grueling two weeks of final exams. Cough drops, coffee, and meals I cook and set in front of him get him through.

Back to Eagle River, Wisconsin for a white Christmas at home with my family. Restful, fun, and full of delicious food.

Down to Nashville to pack up a few suitcases and await the arrival of movers who will take all of our worldly goods north to Wisconsin where we will move into the church's historic and very beautiful manse (parsonage).

Which brings us to New Year's Eve, where we'll say goodbye to Nashville and ring in the new year with some dear friends and a pile of gluten free goodies.

Whew... What a 2010! What will 2011 bring? I can hardly wait to find out... New Year's plans coming soon!

My Sister, the Photographer

My little sister is ridiculously talented. She makes wedding cakes that look like they're straight out of TLC's Cake Boss (see an example here). She gave us a framed abstract block print for Christmas that is so gorgeous I cannot wait to hang it in my office ("Is that Mondrian?" "No, it's an authentic Caroline!"). And the girl takes amazing photos.

As part of our Christmas present she gave Daryl and I a photo shoot and then touched up the pictures, adding color, changing the effects, and just generally making us look way better than we do in real life. Knowing that we'll be apart (again! baahhh....) for the next several months, she wanted each of us to have a picture to put on our desks.

The really crazy thing? This photo shoot took maybe twenty minutes. We bundled up, drove half a mile from my parents' house to a frozen lake, and she shot away. The result? Awesomeness. I wish I had one iota of her artistic skill, but I'm happy to just have her in the family. What a Christmas present!

 

She's one January-term course away from being a college grad, so if you need some photos, you know who to call... I'm sure I can get you a discount. ;)

Update

It has been too long.

I'm sorry, friends. This past month has been an absolute whirlwind, and there were things I couldn't post about on here until they were sure things, which now they are.

I'll write more in depth later, and post some great photos, but for now, the summary is this:

I've accepted a call as a Presbyterian minister at a church in southern Wisconsin! I start January 9th, and my ordination service will be January 30th.

Daryl and I will be moving our belongings from Nashville next week, and he will return here to finish his coursework for the final semester of his PhD. He'll join me up north in May.

Wonderful blessings. I'm moving back to Wisconsin, my home state, to a beautiful, vibrant church. I'll be close to family once again. I'll live in a landscape that feeds my soul, full of trees and prairies and snow and summer grasses. I'll have the chance to pursue the vocation I've been training for over the past several years, and the one I've felt called to since college. I'll be close to dozens of friends and family in Illinois, Minnesota, Michigan, Iowa, and Wisconsin.

All changes come with a tinge of sadness too, of course. This means more time away from Daryl. It meant I had to end my CPE program early. It means leaving Nashville--a city I love--and my Nashville friends who have become like family.

More to come about the job, Christmas, the death-flu that my whole family came down with over the holidays (eeesh...), our favorite new holiday board game, the best book I've read in quite awhile, and just general Christmas joy.

I'm back. Updates to come.

I Loved this Summer: Part 2

Part two of a wonderful summer begins in July. We celebrated Daryl's birthday in Wisconsin with gf German chocolate cake... Yum, yum, yum... I'm thankful to have a husband who was more than willing to let me bake him a gf cake so that I could share in the gluttony. He proclaimed it, "Just as good as a glutenous cake, and maybe even better. The frosting was definitely better!"

I discovered that making German chocolate cake frosting from scratch is pretty easy, but it's a bit horrifying what is in it. It is not good for you. But, birthdays are birthdays, and it was well worth all the butter and egg yolks for the amazing taste.

Aleah helped me do P90X. She was pretty awesome at it. She actually figured out the yoga positions and would do downward dog and upward dog before the fitness guy told her to do them. She's going to be quite the athlete!

Caitlyn was convinced that the water reserve tray for Daryl's coffee-maker birthday present was actually a giant remote control...

Daryl decided that we are probably not ready to have kids for awhile... (This is my favorite photo of the whole summer. You just can't beat these two facial expressions and matching outfits!)

We went to St. Joseph, Michigan, to visit our wonderful friends, and rode a bicycle surrey with a fringe on top. During our visit, Daniel (backseat) proposed to Megan (pink shirt) and she said YES! It's the first proposal I've ever been a part of (besides saying yes when Daryl asked, of course), and it was a wonderful and joyful day.

We had a great family reunion in Michigan (notice how many girls are in our family!). People came from as far as Pennsylvania for the annual event.

Sophie discovered her feet.

Aleah curled her... eyelashes?

We played about eight hundred games of mafia with the cousin crew (and I actually won one!)...

We saw the Cubs lose to the Cardinals on one of the windiest, hottest, rainiest days of the year. My knee-length skirt kept blowing up around my waist, so I actually had to change into some shorts I had in my backpack from staying at a friends' house the night before... I was never so grateful to have a backpack full of trip stuff. Came in verrrry handy.

We moved in to Nashville! This is a perfect picture of how randomly we packed some of the boxes. On top of those two boxes are the following: a three-hole punch, lavender soap from Trader Joe's, a makeup bag, one white heeled sandal, a small box of checkers, a handmade table runner (thanks, Caitlyn!), and six Christmas candle holders. What do these things have in common? Absolutely nothing.

And dear Eliot helped us unpack.

It was a good, good summer indeed. I'm sad to see it go!

I Loved this Summer: Part 1

Well, the new academic year is upon us. Daryl heads back to school on Monday. I start work the following Monday. I'm grieving the end of an incredible summer. Does it really have to end? Below are some of the promised pictures from a really wonderful and blessed time with family and friends in states across the country. I wish it never had to end...

We hung out at my parents' lake in Wisconsin and swam, swam, swam.

We visited Bayfield, Wisconsin, on wild Lake Superior with all its natural beauty.

We celebrated our friends Daniel and Emily's wedding with a post-wedding reception in northern Wisconsin. This is a photo of our old homeschooled group of friends. Sigh... Everyone's so grown up now!

I read books to my four-month old (and ridiculously adorable) niece, Sophie.

The girls had days out on the town.

My niece Aleah helped me put on some makeup for date night.

Sophie bonded with her great-grandpa.

Aleah wanted more brownies...

We visited the soon-to-be-married Mike and Tonia up in Duluth.

We saw Split Rock lighthouse on Lake Superior.

I wore my Chacos pretty much every day (and now have a rockin' sandal tan).

Daryl and Dad grilled in a downpour. That's dedication!

Mom and I did some great flea market shopping.

The rest? To be continued (including my very favorite photo of the whole summer!)...

Bring your Asbestos Suit

You forget, when you live in a big city (or even a big-ish town like Princeton, NJ) that small-towns don't follow the same rules as cities. Take safety, for example.

On July 3 we trekked up to Land O' Lakes to see the annual fireworks. These are a northwoods institution. People come from hundreds of miles around to watch the biggest fireworks show in the north every year. Walking around the parking lot, Daryl and I counted license plates from as far away as Texas and Arizona, not to mention many from Michigan, Minnesota, Illinois, and Iowa.

This is a show.

And I'm not just talking about the fireworks.

Between the school bus full of exceedingly drunk people (hey, at least they aren't driving! wait... aren't those my parents' tax dollars at work?) that arrives by bouncing across the airport runways (did I mention that this takes place at the airport and that we all get to DRIVE on the runways?) to the tailgating to the gangsta rock playing out of several sketchy pickup trucks, this was an experience to be remembered.

We gathered with some great family friends to eat and laugh as dusk fell. Then, the show began.

Several people had commented that it was really windy. As in: REALLY. WINDY.

Someone else commented offhandedly that the wind was blowing toward us from where the fireworks would be set off. Hmmm. Interesting.

As the first firework set off in the sky, I was laying on a picnic blanket with my husband, my youngest sister, and my good friend Tonia.

"Ooooh!" we said.

"Aaaah!" we said.

"OUCH!" we said.

"OH MY GOSH, IT'S RAINING FIRE!" we said.

And then we sprinted to the car and watched the show from the trunk while my dad screamed, "Incoming!"

People sat out on their picnic blankets watching the rain of fire and swatting lazily at pieces of flaming cardboard as it rained down in sheets. It burned holes in our camping chairs. It burned people's blankets. It went on and on and on and no one else was even fazed by the fire from the sky. People put their children up on their shoulders to see better.

In the end the fire department only had to put out one medium-sized fire near the woods. Everyone else survived with just minor shrapnel damage...

"This," said Daryl, "is why I live in the city. We have rules."

It was a pretty awesome show, though. I'm not gonna lie...

Happy July, everyone!

Gratitude

I'm back! As promised! Welcome to June, friends.

I have lots of updates to... update. Taking finals, vacation, moving, driving across the country, graduation, saying goodbye, starting a new chapter of life, leaving NJ (!), moving back in with my husband permanently, heading to Wisconsin for the summer. Before I get into all that (which I will, soon!), I wanted to begin with what has been at the forefront of my mind for the past month: gratitude.

This has been a crazy-difficult season of life. From being apart from Daryl to finishing my degree in Princeton to working to moving, Daryl and I have both been quite exhausted. During our most recent long drive (24 hours from Princeton to Eagle River, WI), we talked about what has gotten us through this season. People. Our dear, dear family and friends who have sacrificed, loved on us, cared for us, and blessed us. Without them, we would have probably fallen to pieces at some juncture along this long, long road. What am I grateful for at the end of this month of May?

1. A family who loves me and often knows what Daryl and I need before we ask. My parents took us on the most restful vacation of my life (a cruise! to Mexico! with special gf food!), and then came back to Princeton where my Dad and Daryl proceeded to carry every heavy thing from our apartment into the moving POD. And then they filled up our fridge. And then they let us come to WI for a couple of months to have a real summer of lake-swimming, grilling out, and craft projects. Does life get better? I submit that it does not!

2. Friends who sheltered Daryl for the past nine months. How do you thank people who you'd never even met before this August who invite your husband into their home for the year? And cook him dinner when he's losing his mind during final exams? And become dear friends? You can't... There's no language of thanks big enough for that.

3. A friend who loaned us her car for the year. Her fun, practical, cool, sunroof-equipped car. We didn't have to buy or rent a second car (read: crazy expensive for cash-strapped graduate students!). Again, how do you begin to thank someone for this?

4. Friends from Princeton. Saying goodbye was hard. These friends have brought us food and smoothies, provided incredible and insightful conversation partners, challenged us to live out our faith, and helped us with the little finishing touches of moving (Daryl carried out our last three heavy pieces of furniture assisted by three different friends, all of whom dropped everything the moment they heard we needed a bit of heavy lifting help).

5. Friends from home. It feels so good to be headed toward a summer surrounded by friends (and family!) from home. We never have enough time to visit, catch up, celebrate, and hang out. And perhaps this summer we will. Or at least, we'll have a little bit more.

6. Friends and family from CA. When we were in town we stayed with some dear, dear friends and their cute little chinchilla, Rudy. We made it to the Mother's Day celebration brunch for Daryl's dear grandma and saw almost all of the rest of his family. We had a great dinner with his mom. We visited some other dear friends, even though we were only in town for a short while. We went to Disneyland for free. You really can't beat that.

6. The little things. My final trip to the dentist in NY yielded no cavities. (If you know me well you know that's actually more of a BIG thing than a little thing). Disneyland makes gluten-free EVERYTHING for the same price as the normal stuff. I won an unexpected award at Princeton that led to a surprising check from the seminary that helped us a great deal with our move. I finally got around to getting a Princeton Public Library card and loaded up with books on tape for our long drive. Iron Man 2 was better than expected. The cats stayed healthy. There happened to be a yard sale the same day I realized we had left my old bike out of our POD (and the POD was picked up!), so I sold it for $30 in less than an hour. The little things have been so wonderful.

7. Our great God. I've said this before, but in one of her books Anne Lamott comments that her two most often-used prayers are "Help me, help me, help me" and "Thank you, thank you, thank you." I have said both of these many, many, MANY times in the past month. And Jesus is always there. And when I don't have an ounce left of strength, he provides. And when I'm at the end of my rope, he helps me hang on. And when finals threaten to make me go crazy or the distance from Daryl threatened to make me fall apart, he cared for me. The toughest seasons are often the ones of closest fellowship with the Father, and I've felt that this season. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

More to come (including LOTS of photos)! Thanks for your patience with me this May. There is lots of blogging to come this summer.

Happy June 1. Happy summer. Happy end to a season of running, running, running. As I write this the breeze off of Yellow Birch Lake is coming in my window, ruffling my hair. The cats are sitting on the window ledge watching the trees. Daryl is upstairs eating cereal and I am just about to head to breakfast. It's 10am.

Summer rocks.

Sabbatical

I hate it when blogs go dormant with no warning. Those I read I read regularly, and when I am greeted by the same post for weeks on end I get a bit annoyed. Where are the posts I go there to read? Where is the love, friends?

So I'm informing you all of my brief sabbatical. For the month of May, Autumn All Year will be dormant. This is for about a dozen reasons:

As of now I am less than 48 hours (less than 2 DAYS!!!) away from a permanent reunion with Daryl. I cannot WAIT. We have a lot of catching up/snuggling/laughing/hugging/kissing/talking/sharing/brainstorming to do.

Following that, Daryl and I will be driving across the country to return the car we borrowed from a dear friend. She's currently residing in Monterey, California. A 39-hour drive. I have lots of books on tape. Woot.

Following that, we'll head out on a week-long vacation with my parents (thanks, Mom and Dad!). We will do nothing but eat, sleep, and lie in the sun, recharging our ba'tries.

Following that, we'll return to Princeton where I will 1) graduate, 2) pack up our apartment, 3) drive back across the country to Wisconsin with two cats in the backseat. A 28-hour drive. Double woot.  I'm sure I'll have some stories about that one...

In between all of these things I have to turn in my final grades at Rider, send a slew of thank-you notes, clean up this apartment, pack, find boxes, pack some more, say goodbye to some incredible, incredible friends, and drive a whole heckuvalot. I am exhausted from a long year (see previous posts...) and just doing my best to put one foot in front of the other. It has been a long, hard year. It's ending, and I've made it, but just barely.

So rather than leave sporadic, unthinking posts whenever I make it near a computer, which won't be often, I've decided instead to sign off for the month of May.

I'll see you all the first week of June. Sooner, if I can. Take care of the blogosphere. I'll miss it, and you.

Cheerio, friends.

P.S. In the meantime, if you're new, these posts help explain why it's been a long year and what it's been like to live in (and survive!) a long-distance marriage: Long Distance introduction and parts 1, 2, 3, and 4.

Countdown to Leaving Seminary... Top Ten Favorite Memories: 3

8. The Christmas tree.

Our first year of seminary, Daryl and I decided not to decorate for Christmas. It was our first married Christmas, so we didn't have any decorations yet, much less any money to buy any. We were madly writing papers (and this was before Princeton changed its curriculum so that finals were before Christmas!), Daryl was taking an overload of credits, I was teaching two classes, and we were just too busy. Besides, we would be leaving on December 21 to travel home to Wisconsin, where we'd visit my family who would have decorated the house like crazy.

After we had mutually decided this, I was inwardly really sad. We didn't have the money for a tree or decorations, really, and it was the wise decision, but I LOVE Christmas. I listen to Christmas music year-round, I love it so much. Still, I was determined to keep a stiff upper lip and not let on that I was sad. After all, we were on a budget. We really didn't have time. Seminary meant sacrifice, and I could do without ornaments or wreaths for a year or two (or three).

One night, a week or so later, Daryl went out to buy groceries. About half an hour later, there was a knock at the door. Odd, since I wasn't expecting anyone. I went to the door and found Daryl, who asked, "Can you help me with this?"

Behind him was an enormous, six-foot tall Christmas tree.

I've hardly ever felt so loved.

Pressing On

I like to be comfortable. We all do, don't we? Comfortable is safe and familiar, warm and fuzzy. Even if we don't like what we're comfortable with very much (this same road construction delay, again?) there's still comfort in its familiarity, its sameness.

This Sunday our pastor preached a sermon on John 20 - Jesus' resurrection. Mary comes to the tomb to visit her Lord and finds him gone. Angels announce this to her, but she is so distraught that she doesn't even seem to notice that they are angels. Jesus is gone. Someone must have stolen his body! They must have taken him away! Hadn't they done enough when they hung him on a cross, mocked him, and let him die?

Then Jesus shows up. Not a dead-and-decaying Jesus. The risen Jesus Christ shows up and speaks to her. In the flesh. And she is, understandably, a bit confused.

Aside from the fact that Mary things Jesus is the gardener (a great illustration to how blinded we can all be to the truth by our own expectations, assumptions, or even our tears), the most interesting part of this passage to me is Jesus' response to her. Mary is scared, relieved, excited, and confused all at once. She cries out to him, "Rabboni!" (Rabbi, Teacher).

Then, instead of responding with the usual Jesus-love that we have come to expect (he did, after all, heal the blind and lame and take time out of his busy days to hang out with the poor, the leprous, and the unlovable), he responds simply: "Do not hold onto me, for I have not yet returned to the Father."

Huh? Jesus, Mary is scared and upset. She needs a hug or an explanation, not an order. And yet, this seems to be an order. What's going on?

Our pastor, Rev. Jonathan Miller, had a great insight. Christ isn't being rude or callous. He is responding to Mary's name for him: Rabboni. This is what Jesus was--he was their teacher and guide, leading his band of disciples and the crowds that followed him to the truth of God. But now things are a little different. He is pressing forward. He tells her, "Go instead to my brothers and tell them, 'I am returning to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God." After completing his earthly mission, Christ has a new mission. He is to return to the Father, to prepare a place for us, to send the Holy Spirit to us as counselor and comforter. Things, they are a-changin'.

Christ's response to Mary is one of newness. She cannot hold onto him because he has a new mission, and so does she. In a first-century world where women were looked down upon (to say the least), Christ gives her the mission of proclaiming the good news of Christ's resurrection to his brothers. Mary must press on.

Mary rises to this challenge, this mission. She tells the disciples, "I have seen the Lord!" Because her Lord, you see, is risen. And because he lives, she may also live. And because he is pressing on, so can she.

This passage gives me great courage as I head into the unknown. In just over a month I'll be a seminary graduate. Earlier today I sat in on a student loan repayment seminar. On the forms we all had to fill out there were spaces for "permanent address" and "employer." Um, rub it in, why don't you? The majority of us in the room knew neither of those things. It's difficult to work so hard for years and then come to a big blank slate. Will I find a calling that fits my gifts and my heart for the church? Will I have to wait a long, long time? How will the bills get paid in the meantime? Where will we live? What now?

I like to be comfortable. School was hard at times; working two or three jobs to help pay the bills was exhausting at times. Yet, it became comfortable. I know Princeton now. I know my fellow students, my professors, my church. I can find my way to Philadelphia and NYC without much trouble. I certainly know the way to the airport... My apartment, for all its troubles (and they are legion), has become a home. Yet I'm only weeks away from moving on and I'm not to what I am moving.

Yet Christ has called me. Christ has called Daryl. He has called us each and called us both, and he will not abandon us. In this season, I am learning to learn from Mary as she followed after Jesus. Like her, I press on.