I used to think being married to a man with a master's degree would be the coolest thing ever. I could say "I am married to a master!" Only a Jedi-Master would be cooler.... okay, not really. But now, I'm thinking that being married to a doctor would be greatest! Not a medical doctor. No, sir. A doctor of science in earth and mineral engineering.

Stop.
Be Amazed.
My husband is a genius.
I hope you're laughing. Actually, I am not really talking about how amazing my husband is (although I tell him that all the time, because I am his wife and his biggest fan and best friend and my love compels me to be honest and tell him all those wonderful words). I am really writing this blog entry to talk about how awesome God is and how He is working in our lives.

Our plans took a major shift in the last two weeks. We arrived home resigned to the idea that we would have one more year of college (technically, only eight months) and then a piece of paper stating that Brandon had his bachelor's & master's degrees in petroleum & natural gas engineering. And then we would go out into the wide world of the oil industry. And Brandon would pursue his Ph.D. in his spare time wherever we were living.

Then our anticipated job was not happening.
But within 48 hours of one particular job not happening, Brandon had a random conversation with his advisor about research topics for his master's thesis that just happened to open the door for him doing some serious post-doctorate level research... and here's the amazing part: GETTING PAID FOR IT. I believe the words used about this opportunity were "extremely rare." I have heard several times over the last few years that getting an assistantship (i.e. being paid to do your research for master's degree) is nigh impossible in that department. There were just too many coincidences to be coincidences... In looking back over our four year marriage, we often say that "God hasn't failed us yet" and it is so true. God has always been faithful to lead us through the winding path of life, while providing for our needs in truly unique ways.

In this provision of an assistantship -- that starts right now, not even next year when Brandon technically begins Phd work, our minds are blown.

So we have been busy adjusting. Walking around our Victorian town and adjusting.. adjusting our minds to at least three (maybe five to seven) years in education for doctorate and post-doctorate research. Adjusting our budget to living on an assistantship income (think: very, very, very, very frugal). Adjusting our time expectations to be able to build our life together as a family, and to live well in this season.

This is craziness, but we are so thankful.
PS - We are also super-happy to be back in our own little house. One does not appreciate a tiny three-bedroom OLD house until one lives in a one bedroom condo for three months. Now I am thankful every time I turn around. I love our front porch! I love that we don't have neighbors in our walls! I love my kitchen! I love my backyard! I love everything!

And I love Pennsylvania. Even though Texas was really great, too. ;)

We were back on the road again on Day 4 of our Baby-on-a-Business-Trip travel extravaganza and I can hardly believe that it went so well. Days 1 and 2, and Day 3 were pretty exhausting, but so glad that we continued because this was my favorite day thus far!



I got smart this time and used the "avoidance" feature on my GPS to avoid highways. It took about 15 minutes longer to get to our destination, but the trek through foggy Pennsylvania backroads and misty green mountains was so worth the extra travel time.



Also, it should be noted that these last few photos were taken on the drive home... when I was not driving (because hey folks, don't text and drive AND don't take photos and drive! Technology ain't worth your life).



I was headed out to meet my sis and the nieces, my sis-and-law and the nephew, and my mom at Ricketts Glen State Park for swimming, picnicking and delicious wonderful summery-esque cousin fun!

Aaaaaand our day turned out TOTALLY different than we expected, for these reasons.

1. Continual drip-dropping rain. The weather man said that the rain would only be happening at 10:00 am. The weather man was wrong. Both my sis and I worked for a weather company years ago, so we know that they are only interested in being "better than the competition," but seriously... nobody else gets it wrong so often and still has a job at the end of the day.

2. Temperatures that hovered around 60 degrees. None of us packed clothes to deal with cool weather. It had been bright and sunny and super-hot the day before (check out my red face pic from our park playdate as proof) and so we were expecting the same.

3. Drained lake and closed beach. The weather really didn't matter too much because there was NO WATER IN THE LAKE. In our defense of visiting a state park under construction, two of us checked the park's website and didn't see the warning about that (it was not on the main page, even though that fact was like, super-important).

4. Being out in the middle of nowhere with no other options. We would have to drive and drive and drive to even get to a McDonald's and even then, no guarantee that there would be a playplace for little ones to plaaaaaaay.



Sooooo.... we decided to make the best of it! If nothing else, we made some fun muddy, cold and interesting family memories!



We found the most dry picnic tables in the middle of the pavilion, spread out some extra tablecloths for play areas and let the littles gallivant.

I loved Guardian's little monkey towel!

Everybody else found blankets and extra towels to stay warm under.... and of course, little girlies turned them into flying capes and costumes and adventuresome accessories.


Wildlife sighting!


After our lunching, we headed over to the visitor center and found a big ol' room perfect for reading, crawling, talking and eating many, many chocolate chip cookies together. There were wildlife and nature exhibits for discovering things, and it was like a summer field trip!


Devereaux discovered a turtle.

And then he totally zoned out, because naptime.


His boy-twin cousin (five months apart!) had decidedly more mobile fun!


The little girlies disappeared behind books in the corner.


Unplanned memories are the best! Before long, it was time to head back towards our hotel. My mom was coming with us so she could take us to the airport the next morning, and so we had a fun afternoon swim in the hotel pool and then she babysat Devereaux so Brandon and I could have a mini-date! It was only about 100 feet away from Grandma's hotel room... we went over to swim in the pool and soak in the hot tub, but the uninterrupted conversation was delightful! It had been a long business trip week for us and there was so much to catch up on.

Then, it was dinnertime and we all enjoyed Moe's Southwest Grill. Yes, it was slightly ironic that we came to PA to eat TexMex, but we really wanted to try it. Moe's didn't disappoint.... TexMex that was similar in style to Chipotle, but with free chips and the COOLEST soda option machines I have ever seen! Devereaux enjoyed many spoonfuls of avocados from Grandma's guacamole.



The Day 5 adventures began with Hampton Inn coffee.

Side note about brand loyalty: My parents are extraordinarily loyal to the Hampton Inn brand. They have stayed in Hampton Inns for years and years, and loooooove them. Brandon and I have become converts to the brand, after trying a few other hotel chains on our trip down south and being wholly unimpressed. We love the cleanliness, friendliness and really...the Hampton Inn's daily breakfast and 24/7 coffee and warm evening chocolate chip cookies are pretty great, too. :D



That's our plane!! Devereaux and I flew on a different plane than Brandon on the way home, and so we did the ticket check-in, security checkpoint and waiting at the gate all by ourselves. Considering Devereaux went through three outfits by the time we actually got on the plane, I was hoping for an uneventful flight.

We sat by a mom and her three sons. I had chosen my seat carefully... last row, right by the restrooms, on the aisle. Ease of movement and less people to worry about. Things were going great, Devereaux was almost nursing to sleeep.... and then, someone walked by and bonked him in the head. Darn it! I spent about 45 minutes going into the bathroom, swaying in the aisle (I waited til the flight attendants went to do drink service and so didn't need to get back my way) and hoping for sleep. Not for me, for the baby! Eventually, he did sleep (praise the Lord!!), but we were sooooo happy to finally arrive and see Daddy.

It was an action-packed, fun-filled, exhausting five days, but we were happy to be back at our summer "home." And Devereaux learned how to do this! BOOYAH!

August has been quite an interesting month for us. We spent the majority of it on the road, travelling from Arkansas to Wisconsin to Arkansas to Texas to Louisiana to Arkansas to Virginia to West Virginia to Texas. We have seen extended family and friends and done a bit of a work/pleasure travelling besides. It’s not a stretch to say that I am SO OVER restaurant food. It doesn’t even sound appealing to me anymore (though that might be also related to the fact that the baby is taking over most of my belly and so I get full a lot faster and most food doesn’t seem appealing… until an hour later, when I’m hungry again).

We finally arrived at our Pennsylvania home late-late-late one evening last week. The little old lady neighbors welcomed us with waves and neighborhood news. We stumbled into our little home absolutely exhausted and noted the evidences of partying-spiders throughout. Falling into our own bed was wonderful…. until I was too excited about being home to sleep! Eventually sleep came and in the morning, the real work began.

Four full days of intense cleaning. I scrubbed and washed and dusted and vacuumed and mopped every single room in our house. Who knew that inactivity could yield such dirt? My inner angry thoughts included; This disproves evolution! and also, next time I’m doing the British thing and draping everything in old sheets!

There were lots of notable discoveries in my cleaning extravaganza.
1. That funny little red-and-black snake that hurried away while I was hanging towels on the clothesline (yay for my clothesline!).

2. The obnoxious wasp nest outside our back door. The presence of said wasps was discovered Friday, but not truly experienced until Saturday when one wasp decided to take up residence inside my shirt. And sting me. #andsobeganamostpainfulfewdaysofmylife

3. House guests (of the human variety) are the best motivation in cleaning. We had folks coming in the first weekend after we were home and so I couldn’t NOT clean. What probably would have taken me weeks to do had to be done in a few days. It was the perfect scenario because Brandon had a few days of part-time work before classes began (this week) and so he helped as much as possible --- moving furniture, carrying the vacuum cleaner upstairs and downstairs, throwing away clutter, giving me hugs when I cried (from tiredness + pregnancy) and “making dinner” for me on the last night of the cleaning extravaganza. He makes dinner by buying me pizza…. and it was awesome! :D

4. I guess food is good motivation (or reward) for me these days. Like this amazing homemade chocolate coconut frappucino. Ingredients include: milk, coconut oil, cocoa, sugar, vanilla, dark chocolate and ice. Blend and drink immediately – especially when you’re hot and sweaty and tired from cleaning. It tastes like heaven in a glass!



I guess to sum up: I am very, very, VERY glad to be home. I’m also very glad to be truly at-home, being a homemaker, for the first time in my life. Our time in Arkansas felt a bit like an extended vacation to me. I did cleaning and reading and walking and some computer work, but always felt a little out of place. Now I’m having revelations of homemaker-life every single day. Like when I realize that I need to make a call about some utility bill and I can take care of it right then instead of doing it on my lunch break and getting a voicemail and having to play phone tag a million times. Or when I open a cupboard and see disorganized pans and realize that I can reorganize them soon, instead of waiting for an evening that will never come because I’m too busy working at my job to really put time into taking care of the extra home tasks that pile up.

Life is different now… really different… and I love it.


Note: Caspian-the-kitty is really glad to be home, too… though he’s not sure what is happening with my lap these days. ;)

 
We are nearing the end of our Arkansas sojourn. While it’s been fun (fun = interesting, busy, and definitely an adventure), we are both wanting to come home. We have one more stop on our travel extravaganza --- our third anniversary to New Orleans --- yay! so excited about eating good food! And then it’s a little more work for Brandon’s internship, a little packing-up, a few stops along the way…. and HOME SWEET HOME.

So here are a couple things that I miss from our Pennsylvania home:

Mountains on the horizon.


My mom’s salsa. Because of COURSE, I didn’t pack jars of salsa to trek them across the country for summer consumption. But perhaps I should have!

Strawberry Picking (it's a June family tradition)

Joking with the worship team on Sunday mornings / Also singing worship songs in a normal key. I never realized how spoiled I was by being able to basically pick what key we’re singing worship songs in. For some reason, no matter what church we go to, there’s usually a man leading worship and the keys are completely WACK. No offense intended though – I usually love the songs; it’s just so hard to sing them!

Caspianthekitty 's snuggling. Yup, we miss our kitty. He’s a nice kitty.



Not having to GPS everywhere I wanna go. Going places here in Arkansas takes time and thought and googling addresses… getting lost (a little bit) and planning ahead (a lot). That being said --- our new GPS is pretty awesome. Our old one was like five years old, maybe, and half of the time, we assumed that it was wrong because it didn’t know about new roads and new places!

Knowing everybody at church. It’s nice. It’s comfortable. A word about introverts (which I am, but rarely exhibit introvert-ey qualities at our home church because I have been there for *gasp* nearly 17 years + am very comfortable). In general, I dislike going to new churches. It’s hard. And even though we’ve been at our new/temporary summer home church for two months-ish, I still fight the urge to hide in the bathroom during ‘greeting’ time. It’s just: so many people, so many handshakes, so much smalltalk. SO exhausting.

My pretty china - I just wanna have a tea party.

The view outside my kitchen window. Also, my kitchen!


Sheetz. Sheetz is iconically Pennsylvanian. Sheetz is the best possible convenience store/gas station ever. Everywhere else, gas stations make me cringe. They’re weird, a little creepy, dirty and THEY DON’T HAVE SHEETZ FOOD. The idea of ordering custom food without actually talking to someone (I’m looking at you, Subway) is perfect. Sheetz needs to take over the world, or I’m never leaving Pennsylvania again. Thank you, all.

Little children’s conversations. Children make me laugh and smile and ‘awwwww.’ I miss talking to children, because one cannot talk to random children that one does not know. At home, there are children everywhere. Friends’ children, children in the church nursery, conversations with little nieces (and let’s not forget the NEW NEPHEW THAT WE HAVEN’T MET YET). I miss listening to little voices.
And this, my friends, is why I have a baby in my belly… so I can have my own little ones to ramble on in their cute little voices, with their grubby little kid fingers, without having to borrow other folks’ kids. Borrowing is just so darn inconvenient!

Canyon Pizza. It’s a little bit sketchy-looking, but ya can’t beat the two pieces of pizza + breadsticks and soda for $4. It’s our normal Friday night tradition… makes me hungry just thinking about it.

The beautiful summer months when Penn State campus is blissfully empty and we spend date nights wandering around and ending up with Creamery ice cream without the 1-hour-long wait. College students are so annoying. ;)


Pennsylvania, we will see you soon!