Heckled and Humbled

Today is the 1 year anniversary of the day I (Kim) started my job. Although the rose colored glasses I wore when I began were smashed a long time ago, I have to say that I really truly love my job. And, despite it's difficulties, it's been a really good year. Although, recently I experienced something that left me a little wounded and very humbled. One of the perks of my job is that, in general, my residents adore me. They all think I'm an beautiful, sweet, helpful little girl. I'm often complimented on my clothes and my teeth (in a society where most people have dentures, teeth are highly valued). I've grown accustomed to this type of treatment, which was why I was completely crushed last week in one of my activities. I was just beginning my current events group when one of our new residents wandered in. I was thrilled to have her join us, but my jubilation quickly died. I was one sentence into the first article when she held her hand up to stop me and cried out with a grimace, "Oh, your voice is so high and nasally! I can't stand it! You have to do something!" I wasn't sure how to respond since I always talk as low and loud as possible (it's easier for those who are hard of hearing to pick up low sounds so I've trained myself to talk as low as I can). I explained to her that this was my voice and there wasn't anything I could do. She responded by saying, "Oh, but it's awful! I can't stand to listen to it. You have to do something." I was mortified. I told her the only thing I could think of, which was, "I'm sorry, but there's nothing I can do. If you can't stand to listen to my voice, maybe you should leave the room." She didn't want to leave and sat back in her chair, but the activity was definitively ruined. All of the other residents weren't quite sure how to handle the exchange, and it was obvious they felt a little awkward. I was suddenly very self-conscious about my voice which only worsened during the activity as she felt a need to criticize something about every article I read ("You need to check your sources. I don't believe that's true." or "The article doesn't tell you anything more? I find that hard to believe. You should know these things." or "This is ridiculous. You're wasting their time telling them this.") It was one of the longest half hours I have ever endured. Fortunately, I have recovered...for the most part. I still am extremely aware of my voice whenever I talk, and I have slight panic attacks whenever I see this woman coming down the hall, but I appreciate it even more when I hear one resident whisper to another, "isn't she such a nice girl? And she has beautiful teeth!"

Staying Cool

Dad, thanks for the comment with the blog to my high school class reunion page. Can't believe its been almost 10 years. Well at least I'm not turning 30 like someone I know who will be doing that this month! I was president of my class but have dropped the ball as far as reunion stuff goes. Its a good thing that responsible girls from my class are around. Nothing much to report on around here. With our down time we have been trying to be more social by having people over and playing games and having BBQ's. Please be praying for us as we are beginning to search out where God would have Kim and I after graduation next May. So many opportunities out there, but we trust that God will provide for us. Got an A on my Mark paper and was very excited about the nice comments left by my professor. We are finally out of the heat as it has been in the 90's and 100's of late. I will try to entice Kim into posting on here as her stories are better than mine. That's all for now.

Summer Sluggishness

This recent slump has been the worst slump so far. Almost a month with no updates! I feel like my friend William Gray. While I have plenty of excuses for the first half of July, I have none for the last 2 weeks. Beginning of July was devoted to work (54 hrs in one week at the bookstore) and finishing my Exegesis paper on Mark 11:15-19 (The Temple Cleansing). The weekend after that we took off for our trip to New Hampshire with our neighbors, Kim and Josh, and their friends Mark and Corrie and their baby daughter Lily. We had such a relaxing weekend. And I know that it was relaxing b/c of 2 things 1) Meals were thoroughly enjoyed, no rushing at all, we would be around the table for an hour or two, and 2) I was able to read "The Power and The Glory" by Graham Greene in a leisurely fashion. Unlike, last year (see http://mindyourmillers.blogspot.com/2005/08/fish-story.html) Josh and I provided fish through some evening "jug-fishing." Josh had tied fishing line and a hook around the neck of about 20 2-liter pop bottles. He baited them and then we went out and placed all of them in the water and then waited for the bottles to start going nuts (a sure indication of a fish). Once we saw this, we had to chase the bottle with our canoe and then bring the catfish in (they were all catfish). It was such a great time. The water was the perfect temperature for swimming and we had access to a bunch of blow-up rafts. Kim and I had a few "raft-wars" and I will just assume you know who won those.
In other news: we got the car back and it looks better than it did before we came in! I am in the midst of my third summer course, Systematic Theology III. Good stuff to study: Salvation, Holy Spirit, The Church, and End Times are the major area covered. After I finish this course (hopefully mid-August) Kim and I will begin to investigate the plethora of possible options concerning the "What's next" question after seminary ends for me next May. We covet your prayers as we try to discern what is God's calling next for us. The other big news for me is that I, with my wife's approval, purchased a guitar. It is a Takamine G Series Acoustic/Electric Guitar. I took the course, Beginning Guitar, my senior year at Hillsdale thanks to Tony allowing me to borrow one of his many guitars. But, because I did not have my own, I quickly lost everything I learned. So now I have made it a priority to learn it for good by finding my old instructional notebook and daily setting aside at least 30 minutes to practice. We hope to be more consistent in the future on the blog so that the posts are not this long. Thanks for all the encouragement for the new post. Enjoy.

Past Week

Kim and I had a great time with her parents when they visited last week. We spent an afternoon at the New England Aquarium and saw "Deep Sea in 3-D" at the IMAX theater. Another afternoon we poked around downtown Portsmouth, NH visiting several little giftshops before purchasing a bunch of chocolate from an old German-Irish woman with attitude. Kim and I felt like royalty as her parents took us out to eat a lot, which was fun, but we are paying the price for it this week in the gym. The bad news was that the first afternoon her parents were here we got into an accident. I was rear-ended which caused me to hit the car in front of me. The car is currently in the shop and since MA does not have a no-fault law, the insurance company of the guy who rear-ended me will be paying for everything. Our friends in the building have graciously loaned us their car until ours is back, hopefully at the end of this week. I am currently deep into my intensive 2 week study on Mark and am working on an exegesis paper on the passage where Jesus overturns the tables and chairs in the temple because of the moneychangers and dove sellers who are gouging the poor. Should be very interesting to write on. I am flying to MI this weekend to be an usher in my high school friend's (Eric Clancy)wedding. I am very much looking forward to the celebration. Goodbye for now.

Fishing Trip

As you can tell, I had a great time on our fishing trip (the one I mentioned two posts ago). I caught the biggest fish of the day, a 42", 27 lb striper (striped bass). Josh told me that this fish alone will easily provide eight servings. We are going to grill it on Monday while Kim's parents are here. Everybody on the trip caught one striper. The boys can fight. It took me about ten minutes to reel mine in and my arms are feeling it today. But, what a great experience and a fun time we had yesterday. We were out there from 6:30 am until 2 pm. I believe that Josh and I did a much better job than our fishing adventure last year when our wives outfished us with Huck Finn poles (http://mindyourmillers.blogspot.com/2005/08/fish-story.html) Here are some other pictures of the trip below.

2 Anniversaries

Yesterday Kim and I celebrated our second wedding anniversary and our first anniversary of our move here to MA. We went out to eat at the Beverly Depot, which is a converted train station. What is really neat about the place is that the commuter train stain has a stop right at the depot. So we were watching the trains come in and out as we ate. I had the Beff Wellington and it was terrific. Kim went with the Chicken Florentine, which she enjoyed last night and hopefully today at lunch as well. Everything is kinda quiet right now. I am trying to get ahead on my reading for my two week Mark course that begins on Monday. All for now.

Lazy Bums

I know we have greatly slacked off as far as our Blog is concerned. No real excuse either. I have been busy finishing up my Systematic Theology II course this month. Just finished an interesting paper critiquing C.S. Lewis' view of God and Time in Mere Christianity. Lots of rain this past month. Many records set apparently. We have been disciplining ourselves over the past 3 weeks by waking up at 6 am and going to the gym to work out every weekday morning. This gives us enough time to read a couple passages and pray together after breakfast. This has been very good for us. We are excited that we have lasted for 3 weeks. Kim has been feeling better because of the exercise, I think, as far as her joints as concerned, which were bothering her for a long time. We hosted a Memorial day picnic for our apartment building and eight couples showed up. We played Monster Volleyball, which is volleyball with an oversize ball. We have more free time on our hands, now that "24" and American Idol are over. By the way, I was rooting for Taylor Hicks since his audition. That makes me 3 for 4 over the past 4 American Idols in picking the winner from the auditions; I picked Reuben, Carrie and Taylor. Did not pick Fantasia, never liked her voice- too whinny. Kim's parents are visiting us in a week, so we are excited about that. I am going on a fishing trip next Thursday. It was a present for my next door neighbor Josh. He got this great chartered fishing trip and was able to have some buddies go along. Should be fun. I'll try not to get sunburned like I did last week when we went fishing (caught 7 or 8 Croppies that day). we'll try to be better about updating. I guess it just gets to a point where you haven't done it for a while and then you kinda forget about. We will try to be more observant in the future. Thanks for the kick in the butt Joel.