Weekly recap: Leaving Stillwater

This week has been filled with 3 major activities on my part:
1. Working on minor details on my graduate project (That should be finished now that I've graduated, right?  Wrong.)
2. Writing "Thank you!" cards.  I'm determined to finish them before moving.  I've now completed the Stillwater and Arkansas showers, plus some extra gifts that were sent in the mail.
3. Packing!  We leave Stillwater this coming Friday!  T-minus one week and counting backwards.

Davis has been writing this week!  He's been working on one short story.  He won't tell me much beyond that, though.  He's what you call a shy writer.  All I know is:  what I have seen of his work is GREAT.

Davis and I went to see The Dark Knight Rises in theaters today, with several of the other young married couples from church.  On my part, and in my own head, it was hard to enjoy it knowing what happened to so many people in Aurora, Colorado.  It made me a bit sick at the sight of 'bad guys' firing guns at people in the movie.  I pray that God comforts and heals the people affected by that tragedy.

I also finished reading Wild Swans this week.  I learned a lot about China through this book, both good and bad, but mostly it helped me to understand it better.  I know this one book doesn't contain everything there is to know, but it was a good summation and I plan to read more books to gain more understanding.

The Mr.'s Thoughts on Marriage So Far

Marriage has been one of the greatest things in my life so far. Hopefully everyone that has ever been married says those words, especially during the first few months. But marriage really has exceeded my expectations of happiness in simple, daily life. The key to doing that though is to not have expectations.

Living together has been relatively easy. I already had my computer at Courtney’s apartment before we got married, and I really spent most every waking hour with her before we even got engaged. I slept at my house, and occasionally would hang out with my roommates at home, but most of my time was spent with the love of my life. My time spent with her has only increased since marriage. I don’t have to drive home every night; I don’t have to get entirely ready for the day wondering in the back of my mind if she has even decided to wake up yet.  My goodbyes have changed to goodnights.

Moving all of my belongings has not been a burden either. Since we are leaving for China so soon after our marriage, most of my things get to stay in boxes in our new apartment. It’s really the only way all of my books fit into the apartment anyway, and aside from books and clothes I don’t have a lot of material possessions. Most everything I had fit into the apartment easily and didn’t take up too much more of our apartment’s space. Having an extra room has been a big blessing in that we can just shove anything we’re not going to use in the next few months in that room and not worry about it cluttering up our living space.

One of the hardest parts of marriage has been simply accepting the responsibility of the place I’m living at now. Having Courtney live there for an entire year beforehand, and not knowing that I would eventually call this apartment my own, has lead me to still see it as her space. Yes, I essentially spent every waking moment there when we were not married anyway, but I still was not responsible for paying the bills, vacuuming the floors, or (Courtney would argue differently) doing the dishes. Now that I do reside within these walls, but my belongings have hardly changed the character of the apartment, and now I have to take care of everything. And honestly, living in a bachelor pad for the last 5 years has not heightened my sense of the hygienic.

Honestly the most difficult aspect of being married is remembering to truly spend time alone with God. Even when Courtney and I were only dating, I loved to spend as much time as I could with her. And of course through the engagement and now into marriage, every moment I could be in her presence, whether in the same room or on the phone, was greedily grabbed up anytime the opportunity reared its head. But I still had time alone. When we were not married, I could go home and read my bible in the quiet of the house, when my roommates were asleep and TVs were off. Now that I spend literally every moment with her some days, I forget that there is someone else who loves me even more than she does. I do get to know God better through Courtney, and marrying her has strengthened my knowledge of what God does to love me, but I find myself neglecting simple spiritual disciplines, like praying or reading the Bible, to spend time with her. In fact, spending so much time with Courtney, directing my most creative and energetic moments to showing how much I love her and cherish her, has diminished my quiet time with God.

I am still struggling with this in marriage. Don’t get the wrong idea; I do get to see God work through her to show his love for me, but Courtney is still a human being. I love getting help from her, having her listen to my struggles and emotions, but she will never compare to the glory of getting to know God. It’s funny how, no matter where you are in life, reading God’s word and praying are two things that are so easily trivialized, and yet so essential to our very being.

Burn Ban

Davis and I just got back from a week of visiting my family in Arkansas.  We left last Friday to celebrate my birthday (cough.. 26th) on Saturday, and stayed until the 4th of July.  On the way home last night, we stopped in Tulsa to visit some friends and have dinner with them.  Davis and the husband of the couple have been friends since they were "in the womb".  It's always fun to see them interact.

While at my parents' house, we did many things.  Let me get out my bullet points:

• Watched Duck Dynasty (yes, I had to add that)
• Got up bright and early for the Farmer's Market on Saturday (and then went back to bed for a couple hours)
• Had a birthday dinner and presents to open (pictures below)
• Went to church Sunday morning and took a walk across the street that night, where we encountered a black mink walking across the road one direction, and a skunk immediately following the other direction.  Wowza!
• Walked the Devil's Den Trail in Devil's Den State Park.
• Went to see 2 movies in the movie theater within 24 hours: Hunger Games and Moonrise Kingdom.  Davis and I are big fans of Wes Anderson films, so we had to see Moonrise Kingdom when we found out it was playing in Fayetteville.  Score!  (yes, it was good)
• Spent all day Tuesday in Fayetteville.  I found and bought 2 really cute dresses at Kohl's since they were having their 60-80% off sale!  I needed to find more dresses for teaching in China.  We also went to Barnes & Noble, I went to Petco, Hobby Lobby, Hastings, and had dinner at Kobe Hibachi and Grill.
• Took family pictures on the evening of July 4th at the Fayetteville Square.  
• Mom, Jay, Hunter, Davis and I sat out on the patio in the backyard to watch for fireworks.  Now, since there was a burn ban all over Northwest Arkansas, supposedly only places like the Naturals baseball stadium and the mall were able to shoot off fireworks.  So, we sat for about 30 minutes waiting until the fireworks went off.... nothing.  We waited until about 10 p.m., until we decided to pack up our chairs and leave. :(  
• Bought travel medical insurance for our trip to China!  
• I watched a couple episodes of Chinese language lessons from China's infamous television channel, CCTV.  The lessons are online, so I can access them anytime.  What I learned:  Bukeqi! (Don't mention it, or You're welcome)  and Mei shi!  (No problem)  and the already known: Xiexie (Thank you), Laoshi (teacher), Ni hao! (Hello)

Here are some birthday presents from last weekend:

The sign-in quilt from our wedding!

Passport case

Hunter painted us a picture on canvas!

Record book for teaching in China!

Jay typed up our wedding vows and mom framed them!  We need a picture to go in the middle, now.

Last, but not least, some pictures from Devil's Den: