a little Fall fun--and a not-so-fun-fall!

I was thinking the other day that I haven't really done anything photo-worthy in quite awhile, not since Sophie was in town and we went bowling. Life as a student has resumed it's normal routine--emails, errands and some class in the morning, homework and/or meetings in the afternoons, dinner with Chuck (or friends) and usually homework, small group, or just hanging out with my fiance in the evenings. I was convinced this weekend would lend itself to photo-ops, what with Halloween and all, but, well, I was a bit mistaken.

On Friday I got a call from the social worker at Huntington Hospital saying my fiance had been brought in after a bike accident and they needed me to come. I understand that they need to use the term "trauma patient" when something like this happens, but let me just say that those are the worst words to have to hear about someone you love! She was quick to reassure me that he was awake, coherent, talking, just getting xrays and CT scans done but was asking for me. So I raced over there and found him just finishing up with his tests. Thankfully, he is fine--incredibly sore, pretty banged up with bruises and big "raspberries" on his shoulder and neck from where he hit the pavement, but he's just fine. He was jumping a curb on his bike and in mid air the front wheel flew off! How in the world that happens is beyond us. So he remembers being in mid air and then woke up to paramedics. He stayed at my place Fri. night so I could wake him up every few hours to check on his clarity of thinking (something my dad, who is an ER nurse, made me do) but otherwise we've just been putting neosporin on his wounds every few hours. Thankfully, he'll be just fine. But, because of our 4 hours in the ER we definitely didn't go to the Harvest Party we were supposed to help with! So no fun Halloween pictures for us.

Saturday night though he was feeling much better and so I left him for a few hours to go to a reunion of my Company of New Pastor's group from the past year, which was awesome! This is a small group chosen by the faculty to journey together through one's last year of seminary, providing space for worship, prayer, sharing, and theological reflection on specific questions. We met once a month for about a year and haven't all been together since our last official meeting in May. So we put together a reunion last night which was SO wonderful! We made homemade pizzas (everyone bringing a topping), had a time of music, and then of sharing what has been going on in our lives, the ups and downs, from the last few months. It was a great time of praying for one another and encouraging one another. For the first time we invited spouses to join us (poor Chuck wasn't quite up to it!) so it was great having the addition of Alethia, Kristi, and Steve! I did take a few photos of that...

Bob in charge of the sauceDave and Christina ready with the cheese and the pineapple!Steve, Christina, and Dave continue the "decorating"Peter and Dave look like they are enjoying their meal!Ryan, Alethia, Bob, Kristi, PeterDave leading us in music

In other fun "fall" news, I passed all my ordination exams that I took back in August, which I am very thankful for. They were incredibly subjective tests, so the graders really could have gone either way...in a few weeks I'll get the actual tests back to see the comments that were made, but for now, I'm just thankful to have passed.

I think that's about it for this weekend! Here's to hoping next week is a little less eventful--or at least involves one less ambulance ride!