Saying Goodbye to the Rental House

Last night was the last night of my parents' visit and with all we've been through the past 3 weeks Maic and I decided to go out to eat on our own and leave the babes with Gramma and Grampa.  We went out for pizza at Roadhouse, a local pizza restaurant.  We were both so tired and felt so weird being out alone that we probably looked like we were on the saddest date in history.  I was drinking a margarita without makeup and without a wedding ring (lost it between swollen fingers and moving; it will turn up). Any unknowing passerby might have thought it looks like that relationship isn't going anywhere....  

Afterwards we went over to the rental house to do some final cleaning before the carpet cleaners arrived this morning.  Our stuff is all moved out, save a couple of things in the basement which we'll get this evening or tomorrow morning.  We only lived there for a year, yet I sobbed while I washed Evelyn's fingerprints off the mirrors and windows.  I've done the chore dozens of times before, but it was different this time.  I felt such a huge rush of emotions standing in her empty room, thinking about the little part of her life that took place there.  I choked up standing in our bedroom, remembering pillow-talk and arguments, thinking of all the decisions we've made together.  I thought of moving here to Ripon, and how we thought we might try to buy that house because we loved it so much.  I remembered the people who have visited and all those who have supported us and cheered us on in my first year of ministry, in Evelyn's second year of life, in anticipation of Amos.

Time is going so fast now.  Evelyn's first year wasn't the whirlwind many new parents describe.  I wasn't that mom who said, "I can't believe she's already X months old" every month.  If I did say that, I didn't mean it.  The year felt slow, because it was so full and uncertain and confusing.  Now, there is some certainty in our lives.  We know we're here, in Ripon.  We know we love this place and we have good friends and we have a home that belongs to us.  Life isn't so confusing (well, life is confusing because that's the nature of it, but what we're doing with our lives is not so confusing).  This all feels right.  And so I guess that this year, as opposed to the first, has flown by.  When I see the pictures of Evelyn sitting on the floor in our rental house with her short, straight hair, still not quite certain how to get from one place to the next, I feel like she learned to walk and talk and reason overnight.  I wonder if I've paid enough attention to her, if I've soaked up every moment with her, if I'll look back when she's grown and regret anything.   

I guess being in that empty house made me think of all this.  I'm certain postpartum hormones make the  emotional deluge stronger.  But moving is emotional no matter what.  A house is never just a house; it's the place where life happens in the most intimate ways.  As excited as I am for the future of this new house (our house), there's something about that place where we spent our first year in Ripon that is so hard to say goodbye to.  I am hopeful that soon I'll love this house that much, and I know that if good times happened there, then surely they'll happen here.  

Welcome Amos! An update and a birth story

Ladies and Gentlemen:

Amos Rainer D'Agostino

September 11, 2013 at 2:51 a.m. 

6 lbs 15 oz, 19 inches long

Amos's birth was absolutely beautiful.  Mercy Medical Center has a water birthing tub, which was part of the reason I chose that hospital.  So Baby Amos was born into the water, and my own hands were the first to touch him.  I went into labor at about 9:00 on Tuesday night, just after lying down for the night after moving into the new house.  I had been exhausted the whole day and practically no help to the movers.  As soon as I laid down, I felt my first painful contraction and in about two hours we were on our way to the hospital.  I knew my labor would go fast, so I wasn't going to wait.   

When I arrived at the hospital, the nurse put me on monitoring and Amos's heartbeat was too low for her liking.  I tried to tell her that he has always had a low heart rate (clocking in regularly at 122 throughout his appointments) but she didn't seem to care, so she kept me on the monitoring for an hour and a half.  I was getting very frustrated, having to endure contractions (every 2-3 minutes) while lying on my back in the hospital bed, which for me is the most painful way to have a contraction.  

Finally she allowed me off the monitor (around 1:00) and at about 1:15 I said I wanted to be in the birthing tub.  It was immediate relief.  At one point, I had to get out of the tub to use the restroom, and had a contraction and I could not believe the difference.  The buoyancy of the water makes contractions so much more bearable.  I labored in the tub for about an hour and the nurse told me I was 8 cm dilated.  I told her she needed to call the doctor.  She said, "He wants me to call him when you are fully dilated," to which I replied (okay, I'm a know-it-all), "Well then he's gonna miss it."  She did go ahead and call him then, and about 15 minutes later my water broke and that very second, in walked the doctor.  As soon as my water broke I was fully dilated, and the very next contraction, Amos was crowning.  He was born in three pushes-- head, shoulders, and the rest of 'im.  My doctor just let me be, watching closely but not interfering, and as soon as he was out he just said, "Joanna, pull your baby up to you!" so I did!  The doctor literally did not touch me until after the I got out of the birthing tub.  

I held Amos there in the tub for about 5-10 minutes before Maic cut his cord.  He didn't cry much.  He still hasn't.  He's a super-chill little guy, crying pretty much only when he's being changed.   

About 30 minutes old

As quick and as beautiful as it was, this birth was harder for me than Evelyn's was.  I was so exhausted going into it that it was hard for me to find the energy to make it through.  I kept thinking about how badly I wanted to go to sleep.  Maic was also extremely tired, so I felt like neither of us was as fully present as we were for Evelyn's birth.  I'll tell you this: I plan to never buy a house and have a baby in the same week again.  

We were released from the hospital after 24 hours.  Amos is doing really well.  He eats well and sleeps a lot.  He is slightly jaundiced, but not enough to worry.  We go back to the pediatrician on Monday to make sure his jaundice levels have gone down.  

Evelyn is having a hard time with the transitions, but definitely more with the house than with the baby.  This was her face for the first half hour of seeing Amos:

She likes him now, for the most part.  Though I have to say that in the process of writing this blog entry, she did throw her stuffed cat "New Kitty" at him while he was sleeping.  Her favorite thing to do is brush his hair. 

The harder part is the house.  She keeps saying she wants to "go home" which is pretty heartbreaking.  The worst part is that I kind of feel the same way.  This house doesn't feel like home yet.  It just feels like a lot of work.  I spent Evelyn's naptime cleaning the living room (see below) so that at least I wasn't tripping on boxes.  That has helped with some of the non-homey feelings, and I am feeling much better than I felt this morning.  The other rooms, however...and the rental house...well, we have a lot of work ahead of us.  

But we also have a lot of this ahead of us:

So life is good. 

Thanks for all of your love and support, congratulations and prayers.  We have been so blessed.  

An Accepted Offer; a Timeline

Hi Friends, 

Over a week ago we received an accepted offer on a house here in Ripon.  It's an adorable home-- barn red with a sweet, fairly private but not-yet-fenced-in backyard and a living room full of real wood paneling and a fireplace.  It looks like a little cabin.  There's work to be done, but it's the fun kind of work: painting and sanding and redecorating instead of the hard, super expensive kind of work like roofing and replacing major appliances.  Eventually it will need some of that, but we're hopeful that we can do a big project each year and bring the house up in adorableness and value. 

I dream about it all the time, but I do so with a small bit of caution.  Nothing is certain until the closing day, and the mortgage loan we're getting is a strict one-- one that requires proper working order for most if not all aspects of the house because as first time buyers with a small down payment we are at a high risk for default; they don't want anything expensive to pop up right after we buy it.  So we are waiting for the appraiser to come and tell us (and the seller) to fix some outlets and some drips and some paint and bring everything up to code.  Any 1936 house has flaws. 

I don't want to post many pictures of it until it's *ours,* but I promise that I will someday, especially after the shag carpeting has gracefully wandered out to the curb.  I confess, we will be getting rid of the Packers mailbox.  It's not that I don't like the Packers.  It's just, well... I like plain mailboxes.  

"So, Joanna, I noticed you were 34 weeks pregnant.  Does that have any effect on you purchasing and moving into a house in a month?"

Why, what an interesting question.  Actually, I've been amazed by the amount of people who have told me lately that they bought their first home/a home while pregnant.  Even our good friends Ann and Ben moved several states over in the last month of pregnancy.  I think we can do this.  And we have a TON of offers for help (all of them will be accepted!) from church members and community members and family members to the extent that they can from so many miles away.  

Here's the timeline:

Now: here I am, just waiting.  

The next few weeks: Packing, sorting, taking stuff to the thrift store, cleaning

August 20th: Evelyn turns two! 

August 27th: Our baby nephew is coming earth-side! (This has nothing to do with our move... but we can't wait!) 

September  4th: Closing date. 

As soon as we close: Ripping up carpet, sanding floors.  Hoping to find a couple helpers for this. 

September 14th: Baby is due

October 1st: Lease is up on our rental house, must be fully moved in to new house.  

There is this weird thing happening in my mind where I almost want the baby to come late (not so late that I need medical intervention, but just...not early).  I never thought I'd have that wish.  But he will come when he comes, and I am certain that everything will fall into place.  

Lately...

First let me say that we love our house, we love our church, and we love Wisconsin.

 People have been so kind to us.  We will be walking down the street and someone will stop us and say, "I haven't met you yet!"  The other day, actually, we went to this little diner called Christina's just to have a simple cup of coffee, and afterwards someone stopped us and said, "Welcome to Ripon!  Did you know there are other coffee shops in town?"  

And then for the house-- having space is AMAZING.  I can't even say that enough.  I used to have this recurring dream that I would open a door and discover a new room in our apartment that I didn't know about.  Now, it's like that's come true.  There are TWO rooms that we're not even really using right now (a spare bedroom and an office) that I forget about all the time.  And then I'm like, "hmm where can I put this random object that I don't want in the middle of my living room?  Ah hah!  In the office!"  It's great.  

But really, on the downside, we just don't have enough furniture to fill the rooms.  I'd love to use the office for sewing and to keep the computer in, but we need more furniture and that's expensive.  Also, we hope to have the spare room up and running by October when my mom and Grandma do the Great Gramma Tour to visit Allen and Charis, us, and my Uncle Bob and Aunt Vickie.  This morning we went to a bunch of antique stores looking for some furniture and we found six chairs for our dining room table (we'll probably only use 4 in there and then put the other two somewhere else).  They need some work, but they work just fine for now!

There are two with arms and four without.  

We also found this little model church at the antique store.
I kind of want Evelyn to have a  Dollchurch instead of a Dollhouse.
But really...I'm kidding.  I'm a good mom.  

The real church is...overwhelming to say the least, but I really do feel like I'm handling it well.  Nobody expects me to figure everything out right away, and I just have to remind myself that over and over again (like by writing it in my blog).  My main goals for the first year or so is to just listen to the congregation and to preach well.  I'll be doing other things, like leading the Confirmation and beginning a Bible study with an afternoon session and an evening session, but I'm not going to overdo myself.  The Bible study will be based on the scripture for the coming Sunday, so in a way it will be killing two birds with one stone-- studying something with a group that I would be studying by myself anyway.  

I do have my office set up, but it's still a work in progress.  I'll post photos sometime next week.  

Not being home as often is weird for me.  Sometimes I will get to the end of the evening and realize I haven't changed a diaper all day.  That blows my mind.  And Evelyn is having a bit of a hard time with me being gone,  but mostly I think she just doesn't like change.  I think she's also mad because I decided that now that she's one, I'm not going out of my way to nurse her during the day.   She doesn't like that idea, and the days that I'm home she still nurses 4 or 5 times.  I just don't have the heart to tell her no.  Maic is doing a wonderful job staying home with her.  She's not a piece of cake anymore (she never was, but it's different now).  She's doing toddler-y things, like pulling all of the wipes out of the package, throwing herself on the ground and crying when she doesn't get what she wants, and sitting on Nos's head.  

Speaking of Nos, Evelyn thinks he is the cream of the crop.  She also thinks that she is Nos's sole caregiver and therefore believes that he doesn't eat unless she feeds him.  She has even-- I kid you not-- learned how to throw his toys for him.  She throws them like 8 inches.  Nos is the most poorly adjusted to Ripon of the four of us.  He's not doing great.  He barks while we are gone, and he had a really bad interaction with another dog.  We are really trying to get him onto a schedule and give him a lot of exercise, but of course it's difficult when we're all trying to figure out what "schedule" even means.  

Well, there's the novel on our lives.  We're doing great.  Sometime here in the future I'll be doing another blog overhaul, this time with a name change.  I'm still up in the air, trying to decide between a simple change like "Being Pastor Mom" or "Life as Pastor Mom" or if I want to do something more clever (I have zero clever ideas, however, so probably I won't do that.)  I'm up for suggestions all around-- from the title, to layout, to subject matter.  

Peace be with you all!

Ordination

My ordination service was absolutely wonderful.  My brother and sister-in-law and their daughter Zoey, and my Uncle Bob came into town to celebrate with us, and I had planned it so that it would be on a weekend when my former pastor and one of my most important mentors, Martha, was in town.  I wanted to have a relatively short (for an ordination) service so that Evelyn and Zoey (and, to be honest, many of my friends who aren't used to church) could be there to celebrate and not be too bored.  I think the service was just over an hour.  

Martha delivered a beautiful sermon about self-care, among other things, and even though I totally botched my "Response," which I had written down but then ended up too teary-eyed to read, I think it was heart-felt and people appreciated it.  

My family in the front pew-- Mom and Dad, Gramma and Aunt Norma,
Allen, Charis, and Zoey, and Uncle Bob.  My In-Laws were there to celebrate too. 

Every time I see these two I love them more.  

Evelyn was a little angel, as always.
Except that she pulled my hair during the Laying on of Hands. 

There were several WRA clergy and lay-leader representatives 

Maic played his Ukulele for many of the songs,
and Adam sung a beautiful solo of "Take, Lord, Receive."

This was at the beginning of the Laying on of Hands

So many beautiful people!

My parents presented me with my stole.

I've already got quite a collection.  The first stole was purchased by my
Grandma Smyres for my graduation, the second one was woven by my Grandpa's sister,
and the third one was purchased for this occasion by Berea UCC.
It is one of my favorite Bible stories-- the woman at the well.  The first Chalice is a gift from
Rev. Tom Dipko upon his retirement, and the second one is from Allen and Charis. 

And at the end of it all, all I wanted to do was hold my sweet baby and take a nap.
But alas, the next morning was moving day!  

Well everyone, as several people have reminded me, I've Become Pastor Mom... So, what should I change my blog title to?  I'm up for suggestions.  

Sincerely, 

The Reverend Joanna D'Agostino

That's a Year, Folks.

Today we are having a little get-together for Evelyn's first birthday with family and a few close friends.  Calling it a "party" is stretching it, but there will be cupcakes and presents.  Every day people tell me to soak up every moment and not take it for granted, so I am taking a break from packing today to celebrate her first year.  I'll post some photos later of her kitty cupcakes. :) Well, it's still actually a couple days short of Evelyn's first birthday, but I'm afraid the boxes and the moving van will overshadow my opportunity to write a sappy, cliche entry about what my first year as a mother was like.  So I decided to write the entry now, and I decided that this is my blog, so you can put up with my sappy cliches.

Let's start with the obvious.  I can't believe Evelyn has been alive for a whole year.  In so many ways, this year has seemed like eternity for us.  We've moved [almost] twice, I got my Master's degree, I lost my Grampa and my good friend Ryan, and I got called to my first pastorate.  It's not every year that all of that stuff happens.  But when I look at Evelyn, watch her trying to figure out how to walk on her own, and listen to her laugh and see her personality develop and grow, I feel like it's impossible that in 366 days (it was a leap year!) she went from the little baby that came out of my body to the practically-toddler she is today.

I was born to take care of people, and therefore fell into the role of mother pretty easily.  It feels as natural to me as breathing.  There are moments when I feel like my only option is to love her so deeply and so purely that she's the only thing in the whole world that ever mattered, and there are moments when I need to get away from her; when she annoys the pants off of me.  But the magical feeling of being someone's mother far outweighs any bad moment.

There is an empowerment that comes with being a mother.  For me, a lot of it is about this realization that she was created inside of me, I grew so that I could carry her in there, I gave birth to her, and I nourished her through breastfeeding.  That is all so important to me, but when it comes down to it, none of that makes a mother (which is exactly why you are no less a mother when you adopt or have medical problems in birth or can't/don't breastfeed).  What makes a mother is this superpower that comes when you have a child-- this love that defies all rationality, that makes you do crazy stuff, that makes you constantly reevaluate your life.  Keeping another human being alive through nurture is perhaps the most empowering task we are entrusted with.

I'm not a morning person, and I hate waking up early with an intense passion, but every single morning when I see her little face at 7:30 a.m. I can feel myself glowing with excitement that I get to be her mom for another day (then I pull the laptop out from under the bed and pull up Sesame Street on Netflix and pretend to watch it with her in bed, but really I always fall back to sleep).  I'm also not someone who is generally content with the way I look, and I am always able to find flaws in myself.  But being a mother (especially to a girl) is helping me to realize how important it is to love myself.  I don't want her to be down on herself, so I need to have the confidence that I want her to have.

I now understand why every parent thinks their child is the best one (I fear I'm going to be that PTA mom).  So, because Evelyn is the best, I also want to use this entry share with you some of my favorite things about her.  She has an artistic soul.  She will stare at a piece of art for as long as her attention span lasts.  She has done that since was was opening her eyes.  She's also a caring soul.  She knows when we are upset and she tries to sooth us with kisses, and often will even offer her pacifier if we are sad or sleepy.  She likes to take care of our dog Nos by petting him and giving him her food.  One of her favorite things to do is watch Nos eat.  She loves cats like every little girl should.  She will be laying under the kitchen table pretending she's a cat like her mommy used to do in no-time.  She is full of expressions, so you always know what's going on in her mind.  She doesn't hide anything.  She lets herself be vulnerable so you'll hold her and pay attention to her and she lets you know when she'd rather just play by herself.  Maybe every baby does, but I think it's a baby virtue.  She loves books.   She knows how to turn the pages by herself.  She likes everything her daddy likes.  They share favorite foods-- blueberries, watermelon, tofu, milk, and they both love Mommy. They also have the same face.

Overall, this has been an immensely successful and amazing year.  Every day I am more crazy-in-love with my husband, I am more certain about my call to ministry, and I am more excited about our life together as a family.  Taking the day off to celebrate this year is exactly what we should be doing.  Then Maic and I are off to Ripon with the moving van while Evelyn stays back with the G-parents from Tuesday to Friday.  Looking forward to a couple of full nights' sleep, but knowing full well (another thing I learned this year) that I'll probably be up all night worrying about her.

Lately...

Life has been something else lately.  I can't imagine many people get the opportunity to stay at home all day every day with their whole family for a couple months at a time.  We're having a blast, remembering that we will never get this opportunity again (God-willing; it's fun but unemployment isn't something we hope will happen again anytime soon).  We're moving to Ripon on August 27th, and my first Sunday will be September 2nd.  

I can't believe how quickly the days go by, still.  I've found myself several times almost in tears thinking about  how hard it will be for me to switch from staying home to full-time employment.  If the days go fast now, what will happen when I'm gone for most of the day?  At the same time, I am giddy-excited about starting my job.  I'm trying to come up with ideas that will make full-time employment and motherhood more balanced.  For example, I'm going to try to arrange for my workday to start later in the morning so that I can spend the mornings with Evelyn, and I want to lead a weekly afternoon Bible study in our home. 

We've been filling our days up pretty well, spending time with family and friends a lot and getting some stuff done that we might not have time for later like sorting books and repainting furniture.  We've also spent some time painting and clearing out the house we're living in so that my in-laws can rent it out when we move out.  We were clearing out the basement, and found this on one of the floor beams:  

It's a Catholic tradition-- the Blessing of the House, from the first year they lived there.  On the Feast of Epiphany each year, they use blessed chalk to write the first two numbers of the year, then the initials of each of the three kings-- Caspar, Melchior, and Balthasar-- then the last two numbers of the year, then they say a prayer to bless the house for the year to come.  

We've also been preparing for Evelyn's first birthday.  We aren't having a big party-- just a few friends and family.  Below is her gift from us.  Don't tell her, but the big one is a bike seat so she can ride with us on our bikes and the top one is some cat pajamas.  She's obsessed with cats right now.  Incidentally, the last week for Evelyn has been full of milestones.  I think she is quite the talker for her age, but I don't really know what's normal.  She already says daddy (di-deeeeee), Nos (na), and mommy (which comes out, "Bob-Bob."  I kid you not), plus she meows at cats and says "Muh!" when she kisses, "Ummmmmm" when she eats, and "Oo!" when she plays peek-a-boo.  She isn't walking yet, but she will be any day now.  She just needs to realize she can let go.  

The past couple of days, the main thing that has been taking up my time is that I'm making curtains and some other things for our house in Wisconsin.  We never got the chance to set up Evelyn's nursery because at first she didn't have her own room and then when we moved to Ohio it was so uncertain, we didn't do anything special with her room.  So yesterday we went and picked out fabric for curtains, a crib sheet, and a pillow to go on the glider.  I finished it all much more quickly than I expected, so now I have to figure out which room to work on next.  

She sat on my lap while I sewed for far longer than I expected.  She's seriously the most patient baby that ever existed.  

You can kind of see in this photo that she has a little bruise under her right eye.  The story either goes that she got in a fight with a 15 month old ninja, or that she fell on a laundry basket.  You choose.  

Here is the finished crib sheet and one of the sets of cafe curtains.  We didn't have a curtain rod for this photo, so yes, they're on the Swiffer.  I'm really pleased with myself for this crib sheet.  I actually used this online tutorial.  If you are crafty at all, this is a great project.  It took me less than an hour.  

Well, just wanted to catch you all up.  Life is fun, and we're so excited for what's to come!  

Some Catching Up

It’s clear to me that I’m a product of an internet generation.  We moved to Oberlin slightly less than a week ago, and won’t have internet access in our home until this coming Tuesday.  I’m amazed at the anxiety that comes out of not checking my e-mail for a whole day.  Surely there’s a part of the anxiety that comes from being in the midst of a job search in which most of the communication is via e-mail, but the part of it that exposes me as inept at communicating with people/getting from one place to another/finding out information/listening to music is kind of embarrassing.  In desperation, I contacted the pastor of Oberlin UCC to see if I could use the church’s internet instead of having to pay for coffee every time I wanted to check my e-mail at a café.  Pastor David is so kind that he’s even issuing me a key to the church so that I can use it as a place to do my Skype interviews without a dog barking and a baby crying in the background (or incessantly screaming her version of “yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay”—totally my fault for egging on a cute new vocal discovery). 

Speaking of dogs barking, our dog Nos is living with us once again.  We had to send him on vacation to Gramma and Grampa’s house for a few months back in October because this Mama could only handle so much.  It is awesome having him back.   He’s so good to Evelyn and she is just totally enamored with him.  Until you see a nine-month old “throw” a tennis ball for her dog, you’ve not seen cute (this is kind of where the incessant “yay” started). 

Having a house is just amazing.  Evelyn has her own bedroom, there’s a window in our kitchen, and we have a washer and dryer in our house.  With both of us temporarily out of work, we are having the best time just being a family.  We take walks every morning and sit out on the porch and talk or read.  We take family naps sometimes.  Life is so good, and I think when the time comes, I’ll be ready to go back to work. 

The search and call process is encouraging.  I think the UCC has a great set-up that allows for prayerful and intentional placements.  In the meantime, with the exception of this coming Sunday and the week I'm in Arizona, I'm preaching every Sunday for the next month and a half--making some money, doing what I love, getting to know other congregations.  

On Tuesday I'll be able to update more often.  I'll post some photos of the inside of our house and I'll get a list up of the churches I'll be preaching at this summer so that if you're interested and nearby, you can come worship with us.  

Graduation Photobomb!

It has been one chaotic week.  Packing and loading the moving truck, graduation parties and other events, my parents were in town, I preached Sunday, had some search-and-call stuff ;-), and Evelyn is becoming quite the busy-body.  

This photo doesn't even begin to touch on
the true chaos of packing ...
I can't believe how much stuff we have!

So, my voice is completely gone and I am beat.  Evelyn and I are chilling today at our friend Stacy's house.  We're staying here most of the time for the next couple weeks before we move into the house in Oberlin.  I'm not one to use the TV as a babysitter, but days like this are meant for PBS, a box of toys, and some cheerios.  Of course, every time Evelyn gets a glimpse of one of Stacy's cats, she's off like a racehorse.  

Well, as long as we've got Sesame Street going on here, I'd love to fill you in on the graduation events.  On Monday night, Evelyn received her certificate for being a child of a graduate at an ice cream social.  They do this each year to recognize that this is a transition for the children of students too, most of them having lived for the past three years in Eden housing.  This year, only 5 children "graduated," but some years there are as many as 15.  

Well, her last name isn't actually Smith, but no harm done. 

She didn't seem to interested, but I must say she totally deserved it.

On Wednesday night, Maic and I left Evelyn with her grandparents who had come to town, and we went to the banquet held by professors for the graduating students.  My sweet husband had contacted his cousin Janelle who is a wonderful clothing designer, and asked her to make a dress for me.  It came just in time for me to wear it to the banquet, and she also sent a beautiful necklace that she made for me to wear with it.  I wish I'd taken better pictures, so you could see the necklace and the belt closer up.  

Well, the banquet was a blast.  The faculty sang a song together, Dr. Robertson told a hilarious story about the faculty as X-Men, and President Greenhaw delivered a brief sermon/speech.  We had a great time.  

On Friday morning, we had a worship service and Dr. Walter Brueggeman, one of the leading Old Testament scholars of our time, delivered the sermon.  It was a wonderful message.  

Evelyn was on the edge of her seat. 

Here is my whole graduating class-- 34 people. 

And Friday night was the real deal!  The commencement ceremony!  With a speech from Dr. Bracke, who retired this year.  I don't have a photo from the actual ceremony at this moment, but here are a couple at the reception afterwards. 

Okay guys, I'm almost done.  Are you starting to understand why Evelyn and I are doing nothing but watching PBS all day?  

On Saturday, a church member and friend, Pat, hosted a small open house for my graduation.  It was really fun-- I have some great friends!  My mom and dad bought me this t-shirt for graduation, remembering my post here. Unfortunately, my mom woke up with the flu on Saturday morning, so she was unable to come.  We felt horribly for her.  She ended up getting a motel room and crashing for 24 hours, and she is doing much better now and was even able to come here me preach on Sunday morning. 

  

Pat, the host of the reception and Evelyn and I.   That's Grandpa Grace behind us.  

Catherine and Evelyn thought the party was a bore...

...except when the dogs were around.
She loved chasing those dogs! 

A church member brought me this beautiful magnolia blossom.
 It smelled so good!

Finally, on Sunday morning I did my farewell sermon for First Congregational Church of Webster Groves.  They have been so good to me.  The church bought me my first preaching alb, which they presented to me during the children's sermon.

They also had a cake for me in the shape of a Bible! 

Plus, a while back the staff presented me with this gorgeous photograph taken by the office manager,
 Kristi , to whom I had mentioned in passing that I wanted to go up and take a picture of it.  Clearly this photo doesn't do it justice, but it is truly stunning. 

Sunday night, the three of us made our way over to Stacy's house and we just CRASHED.  I was just utterly exhausted.  I went to bed at 9:00.  I really feel like I've been running since the semester began, and now that graduation is over I get a break.  I'm looking forward to a summer of just being with my family, a couple of trips, preaching a few times in June and July, and being prayerful about my search and call process, which is, so far, going exceedingly well.