Royal Wedding

Ahh, the royal wedding! It's funny. I hadn't paid any attention to the royal wedding up until yesterday. I was aware that they had gotten engaged and were getting married soon, but that was it. I certainly wasn't planning to watch all the hoopla or anything. But yesterday came and everyone was writing about it on Facebook and I felt a little pang in my heart that I wasn't going to be able to "share" in this huge event with the world. What was I going to say when years later my female friends and relatives talked about that day in history and I had nothing to contribute? No memory of that day. Nothing to share with my future children. I know many people remember Princess Diana's wedding and still talk about it. I know it's not THAT big of a deal, which is why I was completely happy to sub all day with my cute little preschoolers and then watch the rebroadcast online. Who doesn't love a good wedding?
I was most interested in her dress. I was really expecting something that would make me want to hurl. I knew it would have to have sleeves and all that because of the church, so I guess it was making me think of Princess Di's dress. Drowning in fabric. However, I have to remind myself that was in the 80s... Just about every bride's dress from then was hideous. Anyways, even though I never would have worn Kate's dress at my own wedding, I thought it was absolutely beautiful! I really loved the neckline. Of course, she is gorgeous, so she could wear anything and look fabulous. But it was just perfect. Appropriate, yet stylish.
And her reception dress was super cute! I especially loved her little angora sweater!

Please tell me you all heard or read the sermon during the ceremony. I gushed to Nathan about it over the phone last night but of course, it didn't sound as great with me trying to summarize while using my own vocabulary, which was completely insufficient. I guess I loved it so much because I wasn't expecting to hear something so... right/challenging/completely applicable. Something that would make me say, "Now that's what marriage is about!"

" 'Be who God meant you to be and you will set the world on fire.' So said St. Catherine of Siena whose festival day it is today. Marriage is intended to be a way in which man and woman help each other to become what God meant each one to be, their deepest and truest selves.
Many are full of fear for the future of the prospects of our world but the message of the celebrations in this country and far beyond its shores is the right one – this is a joyful day! It is good that people in every continent are able to share in these celebrations because this is, as every wedding day should be, a day of hope.
William and Catherine, you have chosen to be married in the sight of a generous God who so loved the world that he gave himself to us in the person of Jesus Christ. And in the Spirit of this generous God, husband and wife are to give themselves to each another. A spiritual life grows as love finds its centre beyond ourselves. Faithful and committed relationships offer a door into the mystery of spiritual life in which we discover this; the more we give of self, the richer we become in soul; the more we go beyond ourselves in love, the more we become our true selves and our spiritual beauty is more fully revealed. In marriage we are seeking to bring one another into fuller life.
It is of course very hard to wean ourselves away from self-centredness. And people can dream of doing such a thing but the hope should be fulfilled it is necessary a solemn decision that, whatever the difficulties, we are committed to the way of generous love. You have both made your decision today – “I will” – and by making this new relationship, you have aligned yourselves with what we believe is the way in which life is spiritually evolving, and which will lead to a creative future for the human race.
We stand looking forward to a century which is full of promise and full of peril. Human beings are confronting the question of how to use wisely a power that has been given to us through the discoveries of the last century. We shall not be converted to the promise of the future by more knowledge, but rather by an increase of loving wisdom and reverence, for life, for the earth and for one another.
Marriage should transform, as husband and wife make one another their work of art. It is possible to transform as long as we do not harbour ambitions to reform our partner. There must be no coercion if the Spirit is to flow; each must give the other space and freedom. Chaucer, the London poet, sums it up in a pithy phrase:
As the reality of God has faded from so many lives in the West, there has been a corresponding inflation of expectations that personal relations alone will supply meaning and happiness in life. This is to load our partner with too great a burden. We are all incomplete: we all need the love which is secure, rather than oppressive, we need mutual forgiveness, to thrive.
As we move towards our partner in love, following the example of Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit is quickened within us and can increasingly fill our lives with light. This leads to a family life which offers the best conditions in which the next generation can practise and exchange those gifts which can overcome fear and division and incubate the coming world of the Spirit, whose fruits are love and joy and peace.
I pray that all of us present and the many millions watching this ceremony and sharing in your joy today, will do everything in our power to support and uphold you in your new life. And I pray that God will bless you in the way of life that you have chosen, that way which is expressed in the prayer that you have composed together in preparation for this day:
God our Father, we thank you for our families; for the love that we share and for the joy of our marriage.
In the busyness of each day keep our eyes fixed on what is real and important in life and help us to be generous with our time and love and energy.
Strengthened by our union help us to serve and comfort those who suffer. We ask this in the Spirit of Jesus Christ. Amen."

Life Lately

It's definitely time for an update, so here's a bunch of random happenings...

--Too many things have been going kaput. It's really annoying. First our router. We can't get wireless Internet around here to save our lives. We returned the one we bought from our provider. Bought a new one at the local electronics store. Couldn't get it to work with our Macs even though it said it was compatible. Returned it. Nathan ordered an Apple one. Got it to work with the laptop but can't get it working on the iMac. Really frustrating. Then our printer. It just started printing random blocks in shades of gray across anything we printed. Took that back to the store. They sent it in to get checked out and just called us a few days ago to come pick up a new one. Then the fuse to our bedroom and bathroom blew out. That was the night after Nathan got back from the States/before he left for another week in the field. (FYI We practically live exclusively in those two rooms.) Our landlord had an electrician come and replace the fuses two days later. Thankfully it wasn't our fault. The fuses were from the 1960s. Then the dryer. It decided it had had enough and started flashing all of its lights and wouldn't start for anything. We had some crunchy air-dried clothes strewn across the living room for a few days. Nathan called in a work order, the guy showed up, said it was old and needed to just be replaced altogether. So a new one was delivered a few days later. The guys left and we put in a load. More flashing lights and lots of beeping. A few more days sans dryer. Finally a guy came to fix it (remove water near the heating element that had spilled when the dryer was carried up our stairs) and we were good to go. Then one of our bathroom lights that is installed behind the mirror started flickering. It was a lot of fun showering and putting on makeup with that thing going on and off, on and off. Had to have our landlord and his son come fix that one. So... now I am eyeing the washing machine and dishwasher. I think that's all that's left around here!--Warning! Do not get too excited about the sentence immediately following. Nathan's deployment to Iraq in November was cancelled due to the drawing down of troops there. This means one of two things. He can do nothing, which would mean he would likely get called up in the middle of the night to be deployed the next day, or he can put in a request to get reassigned to Afghanistan. Awesome, yeah? Hardly. We are praying about what to do. God will take care of us either way. That I am sure of.

--Nathan finally got an MRI on his knee about two weeks ago and met with the doctor about the results last week. He won't need surgery, thank goodness! He sprained one of the ligaments in his knee. (I think his LCL, but right now all the letters sound about the same. I know it's not his ACL though. Whichever one is on the outside.) Since the initial injury back in September and the secondary one when we first got here, he has apparently continuously irritated/re-injured it. So he is on profile right now and can't do any long distance or fast running. Plus he ices it down every other day and any time he has worked it a bit. He also has some exercises he can do at home to keep it healthy. Nathan's really relieved (as am I) to finally know what's wrong with his knee and how to fix it. It's just going to take a lot of self-discipline and rest on his part over the next few months.

--I got a temporary part-time job filling in for the chapel's assistant for a week and a half. It was great to be back in a job similar to my one at BBC. Except reduce the job tasks by about 300. All I had to do was answer the phone, reply to emails, help anyone who wandered in, and type/print the bulletin for Sunday mornings. I read pretty much the whole time I was there. I had to make a copy the first day and it made me tear up, missing my Ministry Assistant position/working for Herb/everyone back in that beloved building.

--I have officially taken over teaching the kids on Wednesday nights. It's a lot of fun, but there is a minor difficulty in planning crafts each week. There isn't a Hobby Lobby or a Wal-Mart around to get supplies at, so everything has to be things I can buy at the commissary (like paper bags/plates) or with just crayons/markers/scissors/glue. Old school I guess you could say. I was just a little bummed that I couldn't find fake feathers anywhere for the bird puppets the kids made week before last. You know, the kind that are brightly colored and end up everywhere when given to little ones : ) Not a big deal. We just colored them on instead. But some wiggly eyes and themed stickers would certainly go a long way. However, maybe there's a store I haven't stumbled upon yet. I'm pretty creative and able to adapt a lot of stuff, but my brain can only go so far and little kids get bored f.a.s.t!

--We finally planned and booked our trip to Portugal. We fly out on June 1st and come back June 10th. We'll see Porto, Lisbon, and Lagos - the beach! Right now, the highlights of the trip are the Portugal v. Norway game in Lisbon, our "luxury bed and breakfast" in Lagos, and a 4x4 tour near Lagos. We'll be throwing in museums, walking tours, and Roman ruins too!

--We went to Stuttgart the weekend before last to visit Katie, Nathan's friend from college, and her husband Nick and baby girl Sydney. We had such a great time with them! We came in on Friday night and just ate dinner and hung out with them. Then on Saturday we went to the Zoo and Botanical Garden for a few hours. It was so pretty! Then we ate lunch and took a nap on the grass in a park (with a ton of other people; not our original plan which was to see the castle) so I guess that makes us hippies. We tried to get tickets to the Stuttgart game but it was completely sold out. We were a little bummed but ended up at a little bar instead that had the game on. It was a very interesting hour and a half in there. We made a few German friends who got into a bit of a fight at the end, right before we decided to leave. The next day, Katie and Nick got us hooked on Dexter. Which is the next blurb...

(Ok... This is the only picture it let me load. Dumb. The rest are on Facebook.)

--So yeah... We are Dexter fans now! In a week we have watched Season 1 and most of Season 2. It is really interesting. A little too creepy for me, but I just can't help but watch. There is too much they make you want to find out about. Sometimes I have to have Nathan come with me if I leave our bedroom after we have watched it at night...