So, May Term has come and gone. It was a good time of sleeping, hanging out, playing Frisbee, and going to class (occasionally). I took Fine Arts and it was pretty much a breeze. I ended up with a B in the class because I forgot to turn in my final assignment worth 25% of my grade. I hadn't missed any points up until then. I even had the paper done. I just forgot to submit it.
My dating relationship continued to grow in a healthy manner. Emily and I went down to see her grandmother, mother, and her oldest younger sister in St. Louis, Missouri. It was fun going back there and recognizing places from Spring Break. I met her family and they're great. I had met her sister once before and had been emailing her mother for a few weeks at this point so we knew of each other, but it was good to get to spend a few days in the same house observing them. I learn a lot more about people by watching them interact with others than I do by talking to them. It was fun seeing how Emily's family interacts and how much they all love each other. Emily and her mother are very similar and so the weekend was a great insight into Emily's background and explained a lot about why she acts the way she does.
Emily and her sister, on the other hand, are very opposite. It was interesting seeing them that week. Her sister has/had been dealing with some things and so Emily was unsure how the weekend would go. When we got there, we were pleased to see Leah was doing much better and the days passed without any major incidents. It was a relaxing weekend and I was able to bond with Emily and her family more. I liked it a lot.
Then we drove to my house for my little sister's graduation. That was a treat... We left IWU at 3:30 p.m on Friday. We got to my house at 5 a.m on Saturday (that's with a two hour time change so it felt like 7). We were awakened at 7:30 a.m to the sound of three of my six nieces and nephews running around the house. My dad's two sisters were down along with grandma, and my eldest cousin who has four young kids. My older brother came over later with his kids which made the house all of my immediate family + the inlaws + two of three aunts on my dads side + grandma + Emily and I. It was interesting.
Graduation was at 2 p.m. We stayed for the reception and Emily got to meet four of my closest friends from back home. She tried to get some dirt on me from them but failed miserably. :-) We left the reception at 6 p.m on Saturday, got back to Marion at 4 p.m on Sunday, showered, changed, and got to a wedding by 5:30 p.m. It was a good weekend and a lot of growth took place, but it was exhausting. Emily got to see me with my family and she fit in well, despite the craziness, overwhelming number of relatives, and little amount of sleep. My parents came up and visited last week, but more on the in a later post.
Since then, life's been mostly work. I'm not the most excited about my job, but I don't hate it either. If I picked a job on campus to do for fun, I would definitely work grounds. However, Matthew needs money and Conference Services pays better.... I do get to spend time life guarding which I enjoy a lot, but some days I'm stressed by work. It's not that it's hard work, quite the opposite. It seems our coordinators are always scatterbrained. This is partially because of their personalities, but also just the nature of the job. Whatever the reason, this unpreparedness makes it hard to have a full work schedule prepared at the beginning of the day. This means we spend a lot of time sitting around waiting for a new assignment.
I don't like sitting around. Especially when I'm being paid to do it. When I'm at work, I'm in work mode. I want to be working. Sitting around throws off my "plan" and that makes me stressed and frustrated. I know why things are the way the are, but I wish they could change. It's something I'm still working through.
Emily and I are still dating and that makes me happy. It's been good continuing to grow and experience a relationship with her. I got to meet more of her family last night, an aunt and an uncle. It's great seeing how she interacts with them and how much they care about her. We only got to have dinner together (Applebee's :-) ) but I really like them. Her uncle is a football coach and played Rugby for a few years. We got along great. He's also got a nice sense of humor which doesn't hurt.
Emily and I are also serving at church. We both go to the River and we decided to help with the children this summer. It's been a lot of fun, I really like the kids, but I feel something is missing. I definitely miss worshiping in the main room and getting to hear a sermon every week. I try to listen to something recorded during the week, but it's just not the same. The material is also strange. I think it is good and the kids definitely have fun, but I don't think it's as deeply rooted in Scripture as they need right now. Maybe it's just me comparing it to my upbringing, but I come out of there every week feeling a little.... un-contented I think would be the word.... with the day. Not quite sure how to address this yet. Still working on it.
Hmm... I think that catches up the summer nicely. There will be more posts, but I'm happy with this for now.
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