Portland Head (above the 'Shire's Shoulders)

Sarah and I spent the day in Maine today. It was kind of a birthday day trip, but not really. We hung out with Heather, ate some good food, and hung out at the ocean for awhile. A good deal of time was spent walking around the shore at the Portland Head lighthouse. The weather was beautiful - clear skies, lots of sunshine, and temperatures in the low 50's. Not bad for mid-March, eh?

Anyway, we took some pictures. Enjoy.









Good times were had by all. Heather let me walk her dog, Moxie, which was sort of a treat for me. I'm very much a dog person and look forward to the day when I am not restricted from having pets so that I can get one. I'll settle for a child in the mean time, though.

As I sort of mentioned before, today was also Sarah's birthday. Nothing that we did was too celebratory or formally focused on the fact of her birth, but I did make her a cake. If you'll remember our posting from my birthday, Sarah went out of her way to make me probably the fanciest cake ever. I didn't try to top the cake she made me, but I think she enjoyed the cake I made her.



For the most part, life is good for us right now.

Stay Gold,

MMK

possible tattoo plans.

Marshall's wedding ring has been lost.

Gasp, you say? I know, the whole ordeal is rather discomforting and just plain sad. Marshall first noticed the ring was gone Tuesday night. By the time he noticed the ring was missing, we had eaten dinner in the MUB, gone to our Prepared Childbirth Class, and had been home for about a half hour. (I should insert here that I said some rather disrespectful words on the car ride home from baby class during a little tif. I believe my words came out in something along the lines of "I don't like you, not one bit". I should also mention, I feel the lost wedding ring is revenge or a consequence of my brat behavior. BIG SIGH.) After Marshall convinced me he wasn't playing a horrible trick on me, we started searching the apartment, retracing some of our steps, and calling the hospital and dinning center to see if a ring had been found.

Despite all our efforts, the ring is still MIA. Grr. I realize the ring is only a symbol of our marriage - but I guess it just had a bit more sentimental meaning than I had previously realized. I put that ring on Marshall's finger the day we committed our lives to each other.

Shrug. So now we've begun discussing next steps. Marshall is under the impression the best way to move forward is to get a traditional diamond tattoo on his wedding ring finger. I'm not altogether opposed, I actually kind of like the idea...but I haven't moved on from wanting his original ring back. Meh, so we'll see what happens. I even selfishly prayed the ring would miraculously reappear, but I'm not sure I have a lot of faith that will happen.

SLK

The Collapse of Christianity

I've read a couple of articles recently which have detailed the current and future collapse of faith in our Christian Father.

America is Becoming Less Christian and The Coming Evangelical Collapse

I have some thoughts on the ideas discussed in these articles, but no time to share them right now. I'll come back to it, though. Read 'em in the mean time and let me know what you think.

Stay Gold,

MMK

You're Wrong

NOFX - You're Wrong


Not everyone will agree with everything this song is about. I don't, that's for sure.

But it's a great song and it's got some truth in it, so enjoy.

Wednesday Afternoon

I was just looking at our past posts here and realized that the last couple weeks of February had very few posts compared to the final weeks of months in the past. This speaks to how busy we've been around here lately. It's one of the busier times of the year for me. I have a part to play in the recruitment and selection of both RAs and new Hall Directors within our department for next year, and both of these processes are currently running as we speak. I've been spending a lot of time teaching and evaluating RA candidates for the past three weeks. I spent four days at the end of February in OshKosh, Wisconsin interviewing Hall Director candidates. As much as I love the recruiting and hiring process in Res Life, I'll be happy to be done in the next couple of weeks.

We've been going to a Prepared Childbirth class on Tuesday nights since the middle of February. While we were thoroughly impressed with and enjoyed the Hypnobirthing class we took in January, we've found this latest class to be rather redundant and depressing. Redundant in the sense that we already know a lot of the material being presented by the "teacher," but also depressing for that same reason. And don't even get us started on the other people in the class. It's a depressing thing to think that some of these people are going to have the same amount of responsibilty as we will in the near future. I guess I'm assuming that I'm not going to mess up my kid when I say that about the other people in our class, but I could be wrong. Maybe we're all going to be equally terrible or awesome.

Only eight weeks until we find out which it's going to be.

I'm trying to think of parenting in the same capacity I considered marriage before our wedding. It's something I am terribly excited for, but for which I'll also never be fully prepared. It's also not something to be too predetermined, but which I think is most meaningful and beneficial when it is flexible and adaptable. That's not to say that we won't parent according to certain key principles or values, but rather that we won't approach parenting with the idea that we're going to shape our kid into one certain thing or another. I think it's best to raise a kid with some unbending values, but to also allow for the kid to be self-determined.

Of course, I could read these words again twenty years from now and laugh my ass off at the idealism of pre-parenthood. We'll see, I guess.

Sarah and I are going to put most of our federal tax refund towards paying off our car loan. I can't wait until we're out from under that debt. It might take us another year yet, but we're pretty set on paying it off as quickly as is possible and responsible.

Speaking of financial responsibility, Sarah said that I could put the money I make while working over Spring Break towards my next tattoo. I can't wait.

That's it for today. I should probably get back to work. There are students to develop and papers to be filed. It never ends.

Stay Gold. Maybe I'll be better about writing this month.

MMK