Saturday, March 17, 2007

Happy St. Pat's!

Happy St. Patrick's Day, everyone! Hope you remembered your green!

It's been a while since our last post, and lots has happened! We've been trying to recover from the brutal temperatures...we had a week of negative temps, but we've since had a few glimpses of spring peeking through, and we can't wait for it to stick around.

We are happy to announce that Zach was accepted to a CPE site in Berwyn, IL for this summer. He will be serving full-time in a chaplain position at a hospital as part of his degree. It will be a difficult, but hopefully very educational experience.

For Valentine's we celebrated by going to the Art Institute, because it had free admission that weekend. I fell in love with it, so we will definitely be going back, especially since I just got a library card with which you can get free or reduced admission to most Chicago museums...yay!

That same weekend, we were happy to meet up with Dave, an old friend from Clemson who was in Chicago with the Invisible Children tour. And my cousin Elizabeth also came down to visit us in Hyde Park; she is a student at Northwestern in Evanston, IL. We love getting to see friends and family!

Recently we helped plan a Chocolat party for the Seminary Sampler weekend, when prospective students come to visit. We ended up with 23 lbs of chocolate, and a chocolate fountain, which was the hit of the party. Zach thoughtfully posted a sign at the party stating that 23 lbs of chocolate includes 5 lbs of fat and 45,000 calories. We had a fun time, but couldn't look at chocolate for at least a week.

The Spring "Presidential Shoe" game has come and gone. It is the biannual basketball game between the students and the faculty/staff. The students played hard, but unfortunately their losing streak continues...the staff won again.

This past weekend was my birthday, and my wonderful friend Kerri surprised me by flying up to Chicago. We had a great time sight-seeing, shopping, visiting, and shopping some more! I only wish she could have stayed longer. She left Monday night, and our friends Patrick and Lauryn from UNC flew in on Tuesday for their Spring Break. Unfortunately, Zach and I had school and work, so we weren't able to join them in their adventures, but they quickly became pros at using the "el", and we definitely enjoyed having them here. Mr. Wilson loved being spoiled by all of them...I think he was sad to see them go. We are tired, but happy after a full week of having company, and we are looking forward to some of Zach's family visiting next month.

Zach just got a new cell phone plan and number. He is now using Verizon, so he's finally 'IN' with all of you that use that that network. His new phone number is 773-358-8750.

We thank you for your continued thoughts and prayers, and we always love to hear from you all!