This fast-paced blogging world is TOO fast-paced right now. I mean, I think I'm getting ahead by blogging a whopping 6 times in April and then here I am in the middle of May with nothin’. Reality check, though: There are FAR more important things in life than the vain pursuit of you knowing about my life. But with that being said, I’d love to tell you about my life… hehe.
May is consistently one of my favorite months of the year. It’s just solid. From the beginning of wedding season to birthdays galore, to celebrating moms and graduates antsy for their diploma, it’s just gold. I love being born in March- I kind of have March pride, but I’m pretty sure you May people know that you got it goin’ on. Here is a pretty unexhaustive list of some highlights of May so far:
Staff Retreat: The retreat officially started in April, but since it ended on May 1, it gets May status. We trekked down to Oxnard for the 2-day Pacific Southwest Regional Retreat. It was a real blessing. I would describe it as: fun, refreshing, relaxing, encouraging, reflective, and necessary. I am lucky enough to have some really close friends also work for Campus Crusade, and thus, this retreat and others like it are the PERFECT excuse to chat for hours sans husbands (though we love them, re-living the girl power status of college days is so fun). On top of old friends, the new just add to the fun. We love our team here in San Francisco, and all around we work with such a high caliber of people that we respect, enjoy, and learn from. It’s seriously such a perk.
Birthdays! Though we’ve celebrated others from a distance (hey, birthday boy Mark St. Pierre!), we have gotten to part-ay with a few friends for their birthdays in person. Both Erin Cox and Eva Van Horn turned 24 this month and it’s always so fun to celebrate your peeps. Erin’s parent's house is quite possibly the coziest and most welcoming home you’ll ever enter and so any excuse to go hang out there is welcome. Add that to celebrating the birth of dear Erin and it makes for a great Saturday, May 7. We are so blessed to have close friends from college live in the Bay Area. We celebrated Eva on Monday and had a girl’s night of Indian food, cake, and gifts. Her adoring husband was MIA for the week, so we took care of the birthday girl in his absence. We are equally as blessed to have new friends to celebrate and spend time with.
SLO! En route to Oxnard, we got to stop and spend a night in the “promised land”…good ol’ San Luis Obispo. Now, while (most days) I don’t want to live in SLO anymore (kinda), I LOVE visiting. I got to visit with my dear friend Kellye and hear all about her life, which is so much of what my time is SLO was even about- chatting over coffee at the Nautical Bean! We visited Tammy at Upper Crust and just feel so loved that we still matter to her and that it is still a place that feels like home. We ate at Firestone and Pizza Solo and had Yogurt Creations. We got an Old West cinnamon roll in Pismo. (Don’t judge me for how much we ate.) It was lovely. Matt and I are going to be really annoying to our kids when we take them to visit someday…”We used to walk on that sidewalk!” and “I love that gas station!” I would love to re-live college. But I know I can’t and so I’m thankful that what I have instead is a whole lot of great memories, a great place to vacation that feels like home, and some quality friends that will last a lifetime.
The end of the school year. I’m not happy it’s over in the sense that I won’t miss our students or that I don’t like doing ministry. Moreso, it was just a great last two weeks of ministry, and an encouraging and full and emotional and celebratory ending to the year. More on this another time, but we have had so many moments of being overwhelmed as we are taking this time to look back on all the amazing things God had done, and his graciousness in allowing us a glimpse into it. We were so busy last week wrapping everything up with students, but it was so worth it. I cried a lot. But in a good way. In thanks and celebration.
(Disclaimer: Please don’t think my life is awesome, perfect, or better than yours, by the way. I don't think it is. I think that’s the worst thing about blog world. I want to share good and fun and exciting things in my life with you, but I fear you’ll think that I think my life is somehow better or cooler. I assure you it’s not, though I’m really thankful for a lot of things. Every once in awhile I need that reminder about other people’s lives, so hope that helps any who are like me!)
Loved this update. And I adore you. We will be living near each other in oh about... 3 weeks. And I am oh so excited!
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