Tasty breakfasts that are bad for you on your first day of school and always

Yesterday was the first day of Aaron's classes at Trinity--and we both woke up to an infiltrating scent of bacon. BACON.

Unfortunately it wasn't coming from my kitchen, but if our hunches are correct, our apartment-neighbor below us had a very pleasant morning.

We haven't had bacon since our honeymoon in June, which, well, is probably for the best. Though we more than made up for it by eating one of these yesterday morning:

Homemade, non-aesthetically pleasing buttermilk cinnamon rolls! Take THAT, neighbor-bacon!

Oh, and here's a lovely picture of Aaron being happy for his second day of school. And terrified of his first day of Greek class. ;D

<"

There's singing in the mail room, crowds of people crossing the street too slowly...

The campus is alive with the sound of students!


What a weekend! Aaron attended his orientation events, and I tagged along for a few of them, especially the ones that promised food...! Though I had already been at peace for the most part about uprooting ourselves from the familiar and our move to an unknown place, the speakers from yesterday (who included representatives from campus life to Dr. Williford, president of the university) further put my feelings about being here at ease. The constant, perhaps even overwhelming, theme--more than policy, achievement, or even academics--was community. Community, community, community.

I'm all about awesome, edifying community. My friends are what I remember about Grove City College, not how well I performed in certain classes. Similarly, no job would've made my experience in Pittsburgh very enjoyable. The people who surrounded me, on the other hand--they made my two years there incredible. I could go on and on, but suffice it to say that I totally got behind what was being said. And that was basically this: surrounding yourself with people you care about at Trinity will not only make your time here better; it will help you to survive it. 

Ah, but community-forming is a process for me. I remember writing in my journal when I first started at GCC about how I longed for people on campus to become familiar, you know, at least who I could say hi to on a regular basis at least. And perhaps after that, if I was lucky, I could find some people to regularly go to the cafeteria with, or talk to late at night just for fun at the student union. I'm shy, but eventually it happened--and later in my college years, surrounded by some of the best friends I've ever had in my life, I forgot what it felt like to be that unsure of future community attainment.


Here I am again! Some of those timid, uncertain feelings have returned. Large orientation events aren't really my scene, you know? But this time I am much more confident in the way God works to bring people together. I'm not expecting to be a part of any crew/posse/what have you tomorrow, the next day, the next week... But I am looking forward to being surrounded by great people, and being able to surround them. And it's nice to be living on a campus that understands just how important that really is.


<"

Time to buy a ton of bananas...

...because this YouTube video has inspired me to raise a few prickly friends of my own. Just don't tell Trinity's Housing Department. ;) Enjoy!

<"

Catching up with procrastination

You guys, I have a lot of half-finished and not-even-started projects I need to work on. Five immediately come to mind, but I'm sure I'll discover more in the very near future. I've been distracted by having Aaron around pretty much all the time (I've been way too spoiled this summer) except when either he or I have work, so naturally I blame my lack of project completion on him. I present to you an abridged example scenario:


Me: *thinking* I should really start compiling everything that I want to put into our honeymoon scrapbook.
Aaron: Hey there awesome-est wife in the world, want to watch your new most favorite show of all time Burn Notice with me? 
Me: Resist. Reeeeessssiiiisssssttttt. Sure, why not?!?
Aaron: Sweet! Did I mention how awesome you are?


You get the idea. But TODAY, Aaron is at work until tonight and I am determined to finish a project I've so very much been meaning to work on. Our wedding guestbook/photo album! 
We got a photo/scrapbook-type album and had each guest sign next to one photo slot:

Then we asked our guests to get their picture taken (courtesy of our great friends Megan and Josh Sateia who did such an amazing job!!!) in front of our groovy floral backdrop:

And now it's up to me to print these pictures out and place them next to their respective name in the book, which is what I'm currently working on. Such an attractive bunch!

Ah, it's so nice to revisit wedding photos and do productive things with them. In other news, I'm super-excited about this!! 

Happy Sunday!


<"

R.I.P. Name Tag

(2010-2010)

"The discount was nice, but the workload too heavy"

My time there was very short, without question. But I did learn a few things:

1. I love consistency much more than I love other things, like folding clothes or showing people where the jeans are.
2. You know that Don Pardo, the voice of the Saturday Night Live opening credits among many other things, is technically retired, living in Arizona, and 92 years old? Nevertheless, he flies to New York City every week during the SNL season to introduce the show. All this to say, maybe if Target and I could work out a deal, I would be willing to go in every night and announce over the intercom that Target will be closing in 15/10/5 minutes. I'll be waiting for that call.
3. This ("this" not necessarily meaning Target, but probably large retail chains in general) just wasn't my cup of tea. This is.

<"

Reflecting Time!

Lately I've been thinking about how awesome it has been to live on a college campus again. I wanted to look back on the last month or so we've been here and point out some things I've enjoyed about Trinity so far:

• I love how many young families are all around us. I love seeing dads and moms not much older than myself chasing after their toddler when he's going too fast in his toy car and seeing small tricycles alongside the adult-sized bikes at the bike racks.

• The staff I've met and have had conversations with have been so welcoming and friendly. I've probably talked to more Trinity staff members in my one month here than Grove City staff in 4 years.
• We're near everything. Stores, Six Flags, nature preserves, public transit, Chicago, my dear friend Megan Janecko..!!

• I really appreciate the administration's intentional attitude in allowing residents to be good stewards of the campus. We had that Campus Beautification Day as well as an upcoming residence life picnic-table/sandbox building event of sorts!
• Before we moved out here, I had no idea how big of a deal Trinity Evangelical Divinity School was. When Aaron and I were getting our books on the shelves, he pointed out to me each theology book he owned that was written by a Trinity faculty member. There were many. 

• So far it's been easier than it should be to get to know people, especially during summer vacation. Weeks ago at a Trinity Wives get-together, I got to know a group of girls who all obviously knew each other well, yet they took the time to include me in their conversations. That was such a blessing to me. And Aaron was immediately welcomed by a group of guys, some of whom he was able to play frisbee with later that week.
• Ninja-commando squirrel!!!! I'd show you a picture, but we've never been able to take one. He is a ninja, after all.

Don't you love that God puts us right where we need to be? 

<"

I am Hostess, Explorer of Chicagoland!

I love being a hostess. I do, I do. I'm excited for the school year to start so that more people will be on campus after this summer vacation business so that I can plan a fondue party, movie night, or something of the sort in our tiny apartment. Yesterday and this morning we hosted our first* post-moving-and-getting-everything-in-order-time guests: Aaron's parents! 


We had to make the table look awesome:

(Sweet-looking glasses are from Mexico, courtesy of Aaron's sister Bethany who is a missionary there. Thanks, Beth!!!)

Then make an equally awesome-looking dessert.

Of course we forgot to take a picture of the actual Sunday dinner, but at least I got this picture of a dog beach!

The four of us explored the nearby parks that are right along Lake Michigan. Aaron and I have been at work and in the apartment so much that I never even realized how close we were. 

Dad Dean, Aaron, and Mom Dean! No friend, Aaron isn't a part of the Ministry of Silly Walks. He's skipping stones! You're crazy. 

Look, there's some feet! One guess as to which pair belong to yours truly! Not that I'll give you a prize or anything.

The final portion of our escapade brought us to Lincolnshire where we played what they call "putt-putt" at Par-King Skill Golf--the [self-proclaimed] World's Most Unusual Miniature Golf [Course]. I'm usually skeptical of these bold declarations, but, well, would it be too much to say that I left a better person? 'haps. So I'll just say that it kinda blew my mind. Check it.

I ended up in 2nd place, bruising Aaron's 4th place pride. :) Such a great day!

I just got a call from a dear college friend of mine who might be visiting for dinner!! Yippee! How appropriate--it's as if she's in the room, reading over what I type. She's not, though. Time to prepare some baked mac and cheese! 


<"


*First guest award goes to Aaron's brother Ben, who valiantly braved (redundant? Most likely.) a visit to our place two days after we moved in and helped us assemble furniture, though that wasn't his original intention, I'm sure! (THANK YOU AGAIN!!!)