Moving On…and on…and on…

It’s crazy to think that I haven’t posted a new blog since May 3rd…MAY 3RD! That’s just too long, and I apologize. If your only contact with me has been through my blog, then we have a lot of catching up to do! Buckle up…

Graduation

Matt graduated with his Masters Degree in Divinity from Asbury Theological Seminary on Saturday, May 19th. It was a great day. We had lots of friends and family there, and we had a great party to celebrate Matt. The one bad thing about that day? Matt didn’t have a job lined up for after graduation. Most of April and May was pretty tense at our house. We had a church we were talking to, but it seemed to take forever for them to make their decision! And then…

The Church

At the end of May, we FINALLY heard an answer from the church. Matt is now the Associate Pastor of Youth and Discipleship at Emmanuel United Methodist Church in Noblesville, Indiana (http://www.emmanuelumc.org/). This was exactly what we wanted! Our good friends and mentors, Jeff & Julie Buck, are in ministry there, and we have always thought it would be awesome to work with them. A few years ago, after a visit with the Bucks, we left the church, and I said something like this, “Wouldn’t it be awesome to work with them? Ohmygosh…it would be even better if the missionaries in parsonage moved out, and they let us live there!” Well…

The House

We now live in a parsonage! It’s our first parsonage ever, and I’m really happy with it. It has four bedrooms, two full bathrooms, a huge living room, a sitting room, a big kitchen, a nice dining room and a two car garage. It was definitely neat to move all our stuff from a one bedroom basement apartment to a four bedroom house! The church let us paint inside too, so it’s pretty much exactly how we want it. We moved in on June 23rd.

The Space in Between

We left Wilmore on June 1st. We moved to the parsonage on June 23rd. Where did we stay in between? My sister and her hubby are amazing…Kelly and Brandon opened their home to us, and let us live in their spare bedroom (rent free!) for the month of June. I am so thankful for them! They really are great hosts, and we felt right at home. I think Kelly was happy to have someone cook for them. I was happy to get to spend so much time with my sister, who I had missed terribly for the past 5 years! Plus, getting to play with Kamryn nearly every day was a complete bonus. Thanks Alyeas!

My Job

I started my job as the Administrative Assistant to the Indianapolis East District Superintendent of the United Methodist Church on June 4th. It has definitely been an adjustment from working in Admissions at Asbury. I’m WAY younger than everyone in the office (by at least 25 years or so), and it’s definitely less fun than Admissions was. I have been completely spoiled by working for Janelle! My new boss is great though, and he has made this transition much easier than I thought it would be. The other two Administrative Assistants in the office have been here 30 and 21 years, so they have been really helpful also. So far, my favorite tasks have been to send out the weekly e-newsletter to everyone in the Indianapolis East and Indianapolis West districts and to create and edit the bi-monthly newsletter for the area. I have spent a lot of time getting my stuff organized too. The person who worked here before me had a very different filing system than I could ever want! This is turning out to be a great job though. I like it more all the time.

The Cars

When we left Wilmore, we had one car: our little, gold Mitsubishi Galant. It’s a great car, but now that we live in Noblesville, and I work in Indianapolis (a 17 mile commute every day), we need a second car! The day we pulled into town from Wilmore, we went to our Honda dealership in Indy, and bought a green Honda CR-V. I love it! It’s exactly what I wanted (except for the color – I would have rather had red…oh well). The payment is quite a bit more than our little Galant payment was, but it’s working out just fine.

Emmanuel

We love our new church! Everyone there has been so fantastic. The kids in our youth group are fun and generally well-behaved (which is a huge change from the youth group we were a part of in high school!). Matt and Jeff are working really well together, and Matt is doing a great job with all his responsibilities. He has said numerous times that it doesn’t even feel like a job! I am waiting a bit before I get too involved, although I am going to start going to a bible study with some other women in the church tonight. I’m looking forward to getting to know some people my age. Don’t get me wrong – the kids in youth group are awesome and fun, but I do think I need some older friends too.

Buster Bluth

Since we are finally living somewhere that will let us have pets, we got a kitty our first week in Noblesville. We went to the Hamilton County Humane Society with every intention of bringing home a kitten, but when we got there and saw all the adult cats that hadn’t been adopted, my heart just broke! I wanted to bring them ALL home! Matt wouldn’t let me (thankfully), so we looked and looked and looked until we found the one we thought was perfect. He’s a two-year old, orange tabby cat with big golden/orange eyes who we named Buster Bluth. Buster’s name was inspired by one of the characters from Arrested Development, our new favorite TV series. (Side note: if you have never seen Arrested Development, go out right now and rent it, buy it, or borrow it. It’s three seasons of the most hilarious TV you will ever watch!) He’s a great cat! He loved to cuddle and have his tummy rubbed, and he really loves chasing lights from our laser pointer and hunting his toys. He will lay in bed with us every night, and usually likes to be touching both of us while he’s laying there. He’ll place himself right between us and meow in protest if we ever move and squish him. He’s too much fun…

I think that’s about it. Family is good. Friends are good. Life is GOOD! I hope to be updating this blog more frequently now. I have been putting it off knowing that I would have the huge task of updating our past 3 months. Now that it’s done, I can move on! Peace out.