C-L-E-M-S-O-N!

Yesterday was a great day. We were in Clemson and saw our Tigers win against NC State. This was the first win we've seen in person since we graduated...we lost all the other games when we've gone back, so I guess we finally broke the curse! We went down Friday night after work and got to hang out with some friends. Saturday we tailgated at the church with a lot of folks, some we knew and some we didn't, but it was awesome to be back in that community that was so formative for us. After the game we drove back to Knoxville, picked up Mr. Wilson from his doggie hotel, and it was showers and bed almost as soon as we got home. We are both still tired and sunburned, but content, and grateful for our opportunities to be a part of so many communities that we love.

Rainy days

It's been raining, on and off, for the past day or so, and they say we'll probably be seeing scattered showers and storms for the next week or so. I know that for some people, rain means destruction, for others, new life. For me, I love a good thunderstorm and a break from the heat. Somehow storms make me feel better, like I'm able to release some of my stress into them and watch it rush down the windows in rivulets. Now, if the storm knocks out power or fries my computer so that I can't do my work...But for now, I am glad for the rain and the clouds.

I have been pretty overwhelmed with school and work lately (or since I started them). I am, however, working to manage my time more effectively so that I can get my work done and still have some time for other things that make me happy. Already I'm feeling much more efficient and less stressed. Yesterday, for example, I tied on my apron and made a really great pasta dish with portobello mushroom caps, edamame "pesto", whole edamame, the baby eggplants (from previous post), fresh tomato slices, parsley, thyme, and topped off with grated parmesan, and served with an organic red leaf salad on the side....so good.


And as a surprise for me a few days ago, Zach brought home these lovely orange and white flowers (for Clemson, of course). That man makes me happy!

I hope that this week brings you all happiness, in whatever form it may take.

Fresh is the best...

...at least when it comes to yummy fruits and veggies! JujyFruits, on the other hand, are much better stale (am I right, Daddy?) Anyway, I was pretty excited to peruse the bounty at our local farmer's market the other day and pick out some ultra-fresh, locally grown produce. Unfortunately, I didn't get there right when it started, so I missed out on some stuff I was looking for, but I supplemented with a trip to Earth Fare, which I just found out is relatively close to the house! Double yay! These beauties will be going into a few different healthy recipes I'll be trying this week. I'm particularly interested to see how the tiny eggplants work. (Yep, those cute striped ones are an eggplant variety!) In Chicago I always had fresh produce, thanks to Hyde Park Produce, which is in the top 3 things that I miss the most about Chicago. It was ridiculously easy and inexpensive to walk a few blocks to HPP and pick up the week's produce. The farmer's market here is in Market Square, which is one of our favorite parts of Knoxville (it's in an area being revitalized), but it's on the other side of Knoxville from us. I think it's worth it, though, to get fresher, healthier, and more inexpensive food...and we get to support local growers! Can't wait to go back!

Labor Day Weekend

This Labor Day weekend was a really great one for us. Our good friend Stuart came up from Atlanta to see us and have a couple of adventures. Aside from the game (and seriously, let's just not say anymore about that), we couldn't have asked for a better time.


We grilled out on the new grill. (we have a fabulous back porch) We also took a trip to the Sunsphere, one of the main attractions at the World's Fair Park.







The Sunsphere offers a great view of Knoxville, and the park is beautiful, with lots of fountains and grass. Also, with gas prices the way they are lately, Zach and I thought it might be time to downsize the car...so Zach's taking this one for a test drive...

In addition to the park and "car shopping", we tried out some good restaurants in Market Square, experienced Boomsday with a huge fireworks display on the river, went to church and heard Zach's first sermon here (he did a great job, of course).

Stuart, thanks for visiting us...we loved having you here! And please, the rest of you should plan a trip, too (just maybe not all at once...)

Happy Birthday

It is my beautiful sister's 26th birthday today! Happy Birthday, Katie....I hope it's as special as you are, and that your boys spoil you!!

Settling in to Knoxville

Hello again, everyone! Sorry for the delay in posting; after our FABULOUS beach trip with my family, we went back for one final week at camp. We were very sad to leave all our new friends and our cozy Cabin 7. It was an amazing summer, and we feel so blessed to have been a part of the Caroline Furnace family.

After leaving camp, we were immediately plunged into our new life in Knoxville, TN! We're finally settled into our amazing townhouse, and we're started to feel like this is really home. Zach started his internship at Messiah Lutheran and campus ministry at the Tyson House only three days after moving here, and I started grad school orientation that same week, too.

Everyone here at both of Zach's ministry sites have been so welcoming to us; this is definitely a strong and loving community, and we know that this year will be wonderful. I started my grad classes last week, and I also began my work as a grad assistant; at the moment, I'm aiding a professor with research and analysis, but my duties will change depending on the semester and what he's working on. So far I'm keeping very busy with school and work--it's a big adjustment to get back into "school mode" after working full time for two years, but I'm really glad to be back!

Last weekend we traveled over to NC for Matthew and Jessica's beautiful wedding. Congratulations to you! We were so happy to see everyone and to be a part of the wedding.

The Greatest Upset in the History of Sport

Move out of the way Miracle on Ice, Chaminade over UVa and Ralph Sampson, Buster Douglass over Tyson, and App State over Michigan. Last night at the Emerald Forest Putt-Putt Course at Emerald Isle the greatest upset of all time occured. Hannah defeated me at putt-putt by two strokes. In a dramatic finish, Hannah carried a one shot lead into the final hole and proceeded to score a hole-in-one on 18, eliminating all my hopes for a possible comeback and winning a free game.

Cabin 7

In around the middle of May I took an amazing road trip with Adam and Matt to move all of our stuff from Chicago to a storage unit in Knoxville, Tennessee. We then headed over the mountain into North Carolina and spent some time with Hannah's parents and mine. After Adam and Matt departed I headed north into the Shenandoah Valley and from there into the Massanutten Valley to camp. In the valley within the valley there is no cell phone service and limited internet so that has been part of the reason for our lack of posting. At camp we moved into cabin 7.
And I moved into my office at camp.
Here are some pictures from a hike to Duncan's Knob featuring our friends Dan and Janelle.
God's Peace,
Zach & Hannah

Its been a long time, been a long time, Been a long lonely, lonely, lonely, lonely, lonely time.

It has been a while since our last posting, and as you might have guessed from the new title of the blog the Parris' are no longer in Hyde Park and we are definitely not in France. We are living somewhere between the two. For the past 9 weeks we have been living near Fort Valley, Virginia at Caroline Furnace Lutheran Camp. Hannah has been working on the support staff building stuff like bridges and boat docks, cleaning stuff like bathrooms, learning how to work with power tools, and mowing acres and acres of grass. She has also been building campfires, preparing supplies and equipment for groups leaving camp, and picking up and dropping off groups in the woods and at the river. She also drives a half-ton pick-up truck all over camp regularly.

On the other hand, I have been doing pastoral care.

Well, I have been doing a little bit more than that. I lead morning and evening worship, meet with each staff member once a week for a little bit of spiritual direction/friend stuff, and I homilize about once a week. Also, Hannah occasionally ropes me into some of her duties, most often its the cleaning the bathroom duties.

Here is a picture of Hannah's handiwork:

This time tomorrow where will we be?

So, we are a day or two away from moving. Instead of writing a sermon I thought I'd share some pictures. They are from my band's show, a Chicago Fire game, and Hannah's fiddle graduation. Enjoy!

Also, the Kinks have taken over my brain and I scored Cornell West's Democracy Matters from the local Powell's bookstore for 7 bucks.

The Band

So, in the midst of the busyness of the semester, I started playing some banjo with some other folks at the seminary. We are kind of a band and we played at the local bar for a fundraiser for the LSTC Senior Class Gift, solar panels for the seminary. Here are a couple of video clips from the show: (Ps, I do some singing on the weight. Its nasally, but its just cause I've had the bird flu.)
Wagon Wheel:

Crazy:

The Weight:

California Stars:


Enjoy the music, in the mean time Hannah and I are still being "in process" for next year, Zach

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!

Prize Winners!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

1st Prize goes to Kat!!!! with the entry "Parris is not in France"
2nd Prize goes to Joel Krohn who had an amazingly alliterative entry.

I have settled on "Parris is not in France: Travels through the land of Luther, Lager, and Leder-hosen"

Be sure to check out and bookmark the new site @ www.zachparris.blogspot.com

And check out Kat's blog so that her google rating will soar.

BTW (by the way) I've got just about one more week of class before I head to Germany. Class can't seem to go any slower.

Peace, Zach

How Oprah Stole Valentine’s Day

Hopefully, y'all were able to catch Hannah and our friend Erin on Oprah. You had to be good a recognizing the back of their heads, I guess we can use it as a judge of who our true friends are. So, if you want to be our friends then you better know the back of our heads. In addition to getting to appear on Oprah, Hannah also got tickets to be in the audience at another show. And if you promise not to let on to Hannah, this year for Valentine's I didn't have anything much planned. But the show that Hannah got tickets for turned out to be the Valentine's Day show. I was thrilled; I figured Oprah would come in and save Valentine's. I imagined that by going to the show we would get all kinds of free Valentine's goodies and Valentine's Day reservations at Oprah's favorite restaurant in Chicago. Well, I had class on the day of the taping of the show. So once again Hannah and Erin headed to Harpo Studios with a truck to put all of our free stuff in. I was at work at the lab school when I received the fateful phone call from Hannah. She was on her way home from the taping, with nothing. I was certain that we would receive a great bounty from Oprah, but instead we got nothing. Oprah had stolen Valentine's, and I was left to my own devices to assemble adequate Valentine's plans. My first idea was to wait for Oprah's heart to grow three sizes too big and return Valentine's Day to us down in Whoville. But it quickly became apparent that Oprah's heart was not doing any growing, and I just had to do it myself. We ended up having a nice dinner at the local Mediterranean restaurant with a bottle of Chilean Christmas wine, and all ended well in Whoville.

I also have some exciting news. I will be heading to Germany and Lutherland (I hear they have really fantastic roller coasters there) during Reading Week/Spring Break (March 20^th – March 30^th) with Pastor Chris and folks from University Lutheran in Clemson. I'm really excited and I am all set to go. I've got a plane ticket and the United States government has given me permission to leave for a while. Taking inspiration from my friend in the real world and the blogosphere, Matt Keadle, I will be blogging my trip to Germany. I hope to get the blog mentioned in the Chicago Tribune in order to trump Matt's Nebraska Rural Immersion Blog's mention in the Chicago Sun-Times. The blog will also serve as a great way to stay connected to my Ministry-in-Context site in Evanston while I am gone. But in order for my blog to be a great success I need a particularly clever and/or humorous name for the blog. In order to come up with the best name possible, I would like to announce the first ever Parris in Hyde Park Blog Contest. I challenge you to come up with the best name possible for the blog about my trip to Lutherland in Germany. Post your suggestions/entries in the comments segment for this post. I will announce the winner sometime in the next two weeks. If you win, you'll win my admiration and respect, as well as mention on the blog.

Also, any help making the Tribune will be greatly appreciated.

Good luck, Zach

Oprah's Bubble People

Yesterday I woke up at 3:30am in order to leave Hyde Park with Erin by 4:15. We had to be at Harpo Studios to check in by 5:00am. Despite the storm the night before, the roads weren't in terrible shape, so we made it to the West Loop and found FREE parking! As show participants, instead of audience members, we had to enter the building through a side garage door. Then we checked in, showing our IDs and going through the metal detectors. After checking our coats we went down the hall to a warehouse-style room directly behind the stage. The staff had chairs set up along with a big breakfast spread for the 100 of us "Bubble People", as we were called.

We signed our lives away on several forms, which mostly just stated that all footage of us while in the building was property of Harpo...FOREVER (seriously, it said that in all-caps on the form). About 6:30am we lined up to go to rehearsal. For those of you who watched the show, you saw that it wasn't just one huge bubble around all of us. Instead, there were island platforms set into a shallow pool of bubble solution. There was a big island in the center and several four-person island surrounding it. Erin and I were at the back edge of the main island. Unfortunately that meant that we didn't get much face time on camera. I managed to stand on my tiptoes twice to peek over the shoulder of the person in front of me in order to get my face on camera for a millisecond (but it was still there!). However, in a more positive light, Erin and I were on camera at least four times...just not the fronts of us. To capture the whole group, they used a camera that was above and slightly behind us. That means that you could see the backs of us and the tops of our heads quite clearly. And we were part of a world record!!

After our segment, we were led offstage (but not before seeing Oprah a few feet away getting her nose re-powdered), and taken back to the area behind the stage to watch the rest of the show from a big-screen TV. Erin and I only made it through the next segment before we decided we were too tired, and that we should go home and just watch the show later on when it aired again. I know for most of you it aired at 4:00pm local, but for us Chicagoans, it airs at 9:00am and again at 11:05pm. On our way out of the studio, we were surprised by receiving copies of two Oprah Book Club books. Ken Follett's The Pillars of the Earth was the book they were discussing on the second half of yesterday's show, and Eckhart Tolle's A New Earth is the book that they are just starting.

Even though I'm still exhausted, I'm so glad that Erin and I got to be on Oprah. It's so much fun to say that I helped break a world record by being in a bubble with 99 other people on live television on Oprah! And we got free books, and we get to go back to a taping next week that will air later! It was definitely a crazy and memorable experience. I'm sorry that I have no pictures to post from it, but cameras and cell phones aren't allowed into Harpo Studios, so I didn't bother taking mine. Thanks, everybody, for sharing in my excitement over being on Oprah!

Jimmy Rhine!!

Last night we had the good fortune to see the wonderful Mr. Jimmy Rhine. To make it even better, we got to see him at the Old Town School of Folk Music, where Zach takes banjo classes. Jimmy's touring with the Carolina Chocolate Drops, one of our favorite groups. They were in town for a music festival at the Old Town School, so we went up with Matt and Chris (Matt takes guitar classes there, too). We went early and walked around Lincoln Square for some shopping during Zach's lesson, then we had a great dinner before heading back to the concert. It was amazing; all three bands were awesome, and a good time was had by all.Today we headed up to church in Evanston like usual, and Zach was the assisting minister. Afterward we stuck around for lunch and the church's annual congregational meeting. When we got home we watched Ratatouille, which was cute, and then we ran over to the gym. We joined the University of Chicago gym a few weeks ago so we have a place to workout while it's too cold outside. We can't wait for it to warm up so we can run and bike along the lake again!

That's all for now, but rest assured there will be more soon, after I appear on the Oprah Winfrey Show this Wednesday, January 30. I'll be on stage with 99 other people while a man attempts to break a world record by creating a soap bubble around 100 people. Look for me!

Coffee

I feel that this post is appropriate now that baseball's Mitchell Report has been made public, naming players who have taken performance enhancing drugs. Almost a year and a half ago I began seminary firm in my commitment to avoid performance enhancing substances. But now just over 18 months into seminary I find myself addicted to one a performance enhancing substance, coffee. And I have really needed it with all that we have been up to since our last post. So we'll dust off the Wayback Machine and I'll give you a quick review of all we've been up to over the last month or so.

Fortunately, we were able to take a break from the snow and the cold up here in Chicago, and we got down to North Carolina for Christmas. We were able to see lots and lots of family and folks that we hadn't seen in a while. I snuck in some banjo. And I was able to assist at St James in Newton and at Trinity in Vale on Christmas Eve. I also did a little bit of preaching at Holy Cross in Lincolnton. It was busy, but great getting around and helping out at all the different churches. We also found time to get to a Bobcats game and hang out with James Li. Here are some great pictures:

Once we got back to Chicago Hannah got back to work and I got back to class. For my January term class I took a class on Urban Ministry. For two weeks we travelled around Chicago and visited lots of different sites that are addressing issues in the city. We were able to see and hang out with Harry Belafonte, Jeremiah Wright at Trinity UCC, Michael Pfleger at St Sabinas. I just finished up the class last friday, and I now have two weeks before spring classes get started back. And with these two weeks I'll have plenty of time to blog, hold me to it.