Where We've Been

I have a bit of catching up to do on this blog, so in a rather long nutshell, here's how we've been spending our time the last few weeks:
A couple of weekends ago, we caught the very end of an event called "Balluminaria" at a local park. They had some hot air balloons set up around a pond so that when it got dark, the balloons lit up and reflected off the water. We got there just as they were beginning to deflate the balloons, but it was still amazingly beautiful.

We accidentally parked a little bit too far away from the park (thus the lateness to the event), but it wasn't all bad because the views from the path we took to the park were amazing.  It overlooked the river and we could see the lights of downtown Cincinnati and Kentucky.

We also were amazed to find that phone booths do still exist.  I think my weird face in this picture was due to the icky germyness of phone booths.

The Sunday before Thanksgiving, we checked out our 5th church in Cincinnati.  How is it possible that we have lived here that many weeks already?!  We have found ourselves in quite a wide range of church experiences since moving here.  Week 1, we visited the Nazarene church that is within walking distance of our house.  We worried when we walked in that church had been cancelled since we were right on time and no one was in the sanctuary.  We learned that they are more casual on their starting times and that the flu had wiped out a chuck of their congregation that week.  The people were very friendly, but attendance was no more than 15 or 20 people.  We were glad we came to help fill in the pews!  The next Sunday, we had a polar opposite experience when we visited a megachurch.  The service we went to (which is one of 3 or 4) had probably 2000 people in attendance!  We walked out feeling slightly over-stimulated by all the lights and sounds... it was a very theatrical service.  They had the entire place decorated like a garden and even had garden dancers whose dresses changed color when the rain fell on them from the ceiling.  Wow.  It was a fun experience, but maybe not exactly what we were hoping for in a long-term church home.  Week 3, we headed to the neighborhood Methodist church, partly because they have a neat church building that we wanted to see the inside of.  Again, the people were very welcoming and friendly.  However, it didn't take long to realize we have very different views on the Bible, homosexuality, the path to salvation, and even who God is.  So that was an educational experience, but we probably won't be going back.  Week 4, we found an American Baptist church that is a bit of a drive, but was more of what we're used to.  And week 5 was to the only BGC church in the Cincinnati area.  We were overwhelmed (in a good way) by the friendliness at that church.  We weren't 5 minutes in the door when the pastor had already learned that we are Bethel grads and informed us that they have other Bethel people at their church along with a few others from Minnesota.  By the time we sat down in the sanctuary, word had somehow spread of who we were and people were almost lined up to say hello.  There was no slipping in quietly at that church!  We had a good time, though, and felt right at home.  All this church shopping has made us realize how much we miss our GracePoint Church family!  Hopefully we can get settled in a new church soon.

Anyway, Baxter loves the weekends because he gets to hang out with his buddy Scott rather than only having me to annoy all day.

In my unpacking, I found the nose warmer that Betsy and I had made when we were living in our first apartment and it got so cold in the winter.  I put in on and Baxter decided he hated it and tried to attack my nose.

Last weekend was Thanksgiving, of course. We made our first road trip back since moving here and traveled the 500 miles to meet up with my family in Mauston, WI. It took an excruciating 10 hours because we went through Chicago and got stuck in the normal Chicago + holiday traffic. Yuck. The way back only took a little over 9 hours because we were smart and went through Bloomington instead. Thanksgiving day, we traveled another 150 miles deeper into the Wisconsin interior to celebrate Thanksgiving at Grandma and Grandpa's farm. It was fun to see everyone and we even had a guest appearance by a bunch of the Alaska relatives. It was a memorable Thanksgiving along with a fun dinner at the Golden Corral for the grandparent's 60th anniversary. Baxter must have had a good time because he slept for two days straight when we got home!

So much holiday car riding!

Now that we are home again, we've started to get ready for Christmas.  The fake baby Christmas tree is up and half lit.  We've been having some lighting difficulties with the Christmas lights.  Good thing we have an unlimited supply left over from the wedding!  Christmas shopping is underway and I've even had time to work making a few new Christmas decorations.  Cookies are next.

Scott is down to his last day of class for his first semester at Xavier.  He has his big paper due on Monday, so I'm not expecting to see him much this weekend (aside from the House of Heroes concert we're going to tonight).  I have had two meetings with Xavier people myself in the last week and am registered to take a few classes starting in January.  I got in to the two classes that have been holding me back from applying to almost any grad school program I've been interested in, so I'm very excited to get those done so that I can move on with my life.  We'll see if I still remember how to be a college student :-)