Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes

As promised here is a link to some pictures from our latest adventures. Sorry that I don't have much time for a longer post with pictures right now, but we are crazy hectic around here.
Despite what Zach said in the previous post, our internship/grad school situation is back up in the air, so we'll keep you updated on where we will actually be when we find out. In the meantime, we are still packing & moving at the end of May...we just don't know where! Prayers are welcome!

What in the world is going on?

With the semester and school year winding down it seems that life is moving at warp speed. So I thought I'd give you a list of what all is going on:

• I am finishing up a paper for two classes (Theology of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Ethics and Politics in the African American Community). It's a research paper connecting the anthropology of King and Adam Clayton Powell, Jr using Reinhold Niebuhr's Christian Realism.
• Hannah has turned in her resignation at work and will finish up there on May 9th.
  
• We are excitedly preparing to work at Caroline Furnace Camp in Fort Valley, VA for the summer.
• I just finished a paper for my Israel's Prophets class on Ezekiel 34, its Ezekiel using the metaphor of the good shepherd.
• I just finished up my ministry-in-context project where I led a class introducing folks to Islam. It culminated in having an excellent Muslim guest from Northwestern.
• I am preparing to preach on May 4th on the ascension. [So I'll take suggestions on handling God going up in the comments section.]
• Hannah has committed to attending to the University of South Carolina in the fall, so we'll be in the Columbialand are next year. I'll be doing internship somewhere there. Maybe we'll find out soon.
• Hannah has fiddle class graduation tonight, it should be awesome, its at a bar called the Hungry Brain.
• The band I'm playing in (!TeamMusic!) will play our first show on Tuesday night at Jimmy's.
• Also, I am considering how to move our stuff halfway across the country in a few weeks.

So that's whats up. I think Hannah will have a picture post soon.
Peace, Zach

Sweet Sixteen pics

Go here to see the rest of the Sweet 16 basketball pictures! Thanks to Erin and JT for the use of their camera since Zach had ours in Germany.

Back in the "Spring" of things...

It looks like Spring may finally be here (knocking on wood now...) after what seemed like the longest, coldest winter of my life. But the weather isn't what I'm here to report on; let's get ya'll caught up with us!

Zach just got back from Germany, and he had a wonderful trip (see zachparris.blogspot.com for details and pics). I was glad he got the opportunity to go, but I wish I could have gone with him, and I was really happy when he came home! With Spring Break over he's jet-lagged but getting back into classes and work. He's still having fun playing his banjo, and now that the weather's a bit sunnier, he'll be getting outside to play and watch some baseball. In fact, he went today up to Wrigley Field with Matt (a Cubs fan) and Adam (a Brewers fan) to watch that game...of course, a true fan, he wore his White Sox hat :)

I have been busy, too. I'm still working at the library, but I've also been in the throws of applying to grad schools (for library science). Thankfully I was accepted to all 3 schools to which I applied, but now we are working with the seminary to get placed at an internship site next year nearby to one of my schools. The whole process has been stressful, but exciting, and I'm so looking forward to grad school!

To relieve the aforementioned stress I've taken up some new hobbies. For my birthday, Zach got me 8 weeks of fiddle lessons at the Old Town School of Folk Music. I've already had 4 lessons, and made vast improvements, especially for never having picked up a fiddle in my life. So far I can play "Boil 'em cabbage down" and "Angeline the baker", and I've been picking out basic tunes like "Twinkle twinkle little star". It's a lot of fun! My friend, Erin, and I have also been learning to crochet, and we've picked it up fairly quickly and are already making several styles and sizes of hats, scarves, and flowers!

Another thing that I've started doing is entering radio contests...now I know you are probably thinking that sounds a little ridiculous, but one day I was in the mood to win something so I looked up Chicago-area radio stations online and entered various contests. Two days later, I got a phone call that I won some movie tickets. I've also won some concert tickets. But the biggest prize I won was from ESPN radio: I won two tickets to the Midwest Regional Sweet 16 games in Detroit and two 6th-row Bulls tickets (plus parking pass). So those are pretty good prizes, and so I'm going to keep entering contests! My friend, Chris, and I drove to Detroit last Friday, stopping to outlet shop on the way, and got to see Davidson and Kansas win their games! It was so awesome! Zach was pretty jealous (but he was in Germany, so he can't really complain, right?) Zach does get to enjoy some up close and personal Bulls action this Saturday, though.

Sorry for such a long post; I'm just trying to bring you back up to speed! Hope you've enjoyed!