MHGS Year Two

I am a second year at Mars Hill Graduate School. In some ways, I never thought I would get here and, in others, I feel like I've waited forever. To see first year students walking around, going to the classes that I feel like I was just in, is a surreal experience. I want to be with them and walk with them in familiarity, encouragement, and comfort. But within my own experience, I have a new year, a part two. I'm in between being a first-year and being a last-year. One year out of the newness and one year away from my internship. The second year is known to be not only the most academically rigorous year, but Fall term of the second year is supposedly the most rigorous term out of the three year program at MHGS. I can totally see where they're coming from. I'm so looking forward to what these classes hold, but just praying I can actually survive them.

Constructing the Theological Mosaic: God, Humanity, Christ: This course is the first of a two-part exploration in tracing, 'constructing,' confessing and affirming anew the central doctrinal vision of the Christian faith. On the one hand, we refer to this as the theological mosaic, because in essence, this is not a monochrome belief system but a rich tapestry of different historical, cultural, and biblical insights that show us how to integrate text, soul, and culture. On the other hand, we are not constructing this on our own terms; it is a dialogue. It is a living, long, enduring and meaning-filled relationship and conversation that we have been invited into the the Triune God. Only here can we know God, know ourselves and know the story we all are in. In this way, we hope to appropriate the great traditions of the Christian church and articulate a faith that is equally meaningful and resourceful to Christian vocation, ministry and discipleship in our contemporary global contexts.

Human Growth and Development: This course covers human development theories from and interpersonal perspective, which includes biological, psychological, sociological, cognitive, and faith development across the life span. Particular emphasis is placed on the existential design such as suffering, loss, meaning, and finitude as it relates to development and is lived out in the human narrative.

Psychopathology I: This course provides a survey for theoretical foundation for understanding clinical psychopathology. This class addresses developmental and biological categories of mental disorders and theological underpinnings of development. The student will explore theoretical material regarding clinical disorders and disorders of the self. The class address diagnostic categories of psychopathology, understanding, and the use of the current Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.*

*The DSM is the psychological Bible. It's about twice the size of the Bible. It's full of names and numbers of psychological disorders. We have to read through the entire thing. I get a little lightheaded at the very thought.

Sexual Disorders: This class addresses the physical, relational, ethical and theological issues most often encountered in out-patient private practice and the local church that relate to clients struggling with their sexuality and addictive issues in general. The focus will be on understanding the symptoms in light of gender theory, addiction, and idolatry. The student will be better equipped to understand and treat a number of paraphilias, gender identity disorders, and normal sexual dysfunctions.

Let's jump in!

(Married) Life Updates!

So much has gone on. We have gone forever without internet and, in this day and age, that is just plain unacceptable. But, in all truthfulness, it has made getting ready for school (for me) and applying for jobs (for T) pretty tough. We have literally been going out on street corners with my laptop, sitting on benches outside of restaurants, just to mooch off of their wifi. (For those of you more... "seasoned" readers, "wifi" refers to wireless internet access).

We celebrated T's first birthday both as a married man and a Seattlite by going to a greasy diner called Beth's for breakfast and then going to a swanky Mexican place with the House of Love (my old roomies, plus one other new husband) around 10:30 that night.

First couple of days - apartment hell.

Hell: 800 square feet and too much stuff.

Hell: not being able to take one step without stepping OVER.

First home cooked meal!

Very excited about our new appliances and gadgets. Salad spinner: get one.

Beautiful first meal! Even if our table was the only thing

that was cleared, it felt so great.

In addition to getting our apartment together, I have been working A LOT and T has been job-hunting. Thankfully, he got one TODAY! He'll be a full-time instructional assistant at the Children's Institute on Mercer Island ((http://www.childrensinstitute.com/)). He first heard about the school through our mutual friend John Huddleston (the same John that was in the San Juan post) who has the same job. They interviewed T only for a part-time substitute position, but after meeting with him, they offered for him to come on full-time! What a charmer he is.

As of today, this is what our apartment looks like. Only semi-chaotic.

T fixed a delicious dinner to celebrate his new job, and on the table are

the lovely flowers that I got him from the Pike Market. I am so proud :)

Our dining room chairs, if you couldn't tell yet, are INCREDIBLE.

Funny story: my dear friend, Natalie, was staying in our apartment

while T and I were away since the House of Love lease ended and

she had no where to go. I had bought several old burlap coffee sacks

in hopes of recovering some chairs when we got back to Seattle. When

T and I got home, we found the chairs from the House of Love, distressed

and recovered Anthropologie-style. My sugar-dumplin of a friend,

Natalie, made these for us for our wedding present. I couldn't

love anything more.

We still have no idea how the crap to arrange our furniture.

Oh, don't worry, there's already been a handful of

spouse-on-spouse abuse over this one.

See that flat-screen TV? Another story, and this one funnier

than the last. We find our queen bed on craigslist and go to

pick it up on T's birthday. We get up to this rand-o house, the door

opens to a giant. A giant. Actually, just a basketball player from

the University of Washington. So he's moving out because he

just graduated. Not only is he trying to get rid of the queen bed,

but everything else he owns. Come in, TV. Apparently he wasn't

really planning on selling it. But after T's pawn-shop style negotiations,

we walk out of this guy's house with a mattress, box spring, bed frame,

flat screen TV, surround sound system, 2 bamboo plants, 2 lamps for

just under $450.

To add to the grandiosity of the situation, this good fellow, who went

by the surname, Woody, was enjoying a bowl of his favorite herb if

you knowwhat I mean. We assumed this made the negotiating process

that much easier for us.

...and we still have a dang double bed in our hallway. But at least it's

because we finally have a queen bed in the bedroom. We're holding

out for my friend Abby to come get the double.

She was pretty excited when we offered it to her.

Oahu, Final Installment

We're back in Seattle! We have internet! I'm just going to post a few photos from our last full day in Hawaii. Sunday, we visited the Pearl Harbor Memorial - it was beautiful, moving, and difficult to swallow.

Won't explain the photos, but just wanted you to get a glimpse of what we saw.

Friday Harbor, San Juan Islands

The first Sunday that T and I were back in Washington, we took a trip with one of my best friends and former roommate, Natalie, to meet up with some OTHER friends in the San Juan Islands.

These three stooges - Jen, Matt, and John respectively - had taken off work for several days and were staying at a friend's house in Friday Harbor. I know them through Natalie, and have so loved getting to know some Seattlites outside of Mars Hill Grad School. So the three of us (Nat, T, and I) drove up, and ferried up, to spend time with them for the day.

Natalie and I's faithful chauffeur.

Gas station granola: surprisingly delicious.

View from inside the ferry, which left at 7am. Even the birdies were still tired.

Coffee in hand, ready for that caffeine to kick in.

Still in pj's - of course.

Accidental, yet gorgeous shot of Nat.

Friday Harbor!

John's homemade biscuits. He's from Alabama, so naturally, it's his grandma's recipe.

Several attempts to get all four of us in a photo - tiny car and tiny camera lens!

Pretty good one of John, Nat, (T), and I

So we ventured to Lime Kiln State Park - where you get the chance to see

the Orcas (which we sadly didn't), see a beautiful lighthouse,

and check out the old lime kiln. It was so peaceful and beautiful!

The trees were so big and great for climbing :)

Rocky shores aren't something we get too much of in NC.

We stumbled upon some "bull kelp" which are basically

GIANT seaweeds. They get their name from the fact that they

kind of resemble bull whips. They were really heavy, slimy,

and smelly. We discovered all three of these things after launching

them at one another. Thank goodness for that hand sanitizer.

Here is the lime kiln! Jen and I almost climbed to the top before

Matt convinced us it would collapse.

My buddy and I at the lighthouse - she's "the one that counts."

"The married's" as we were deemed :)

Unfortunately, we don't have pictures of the rest of the day. It consisted of a picnic lunch and beers on the rocks by the water, long conversations, and naps in the sun. We drove back to the house for a rousing game of Catch Phrase - one of the most entertaining times I've played that game EVER. Combining a little alcohol with Catch Phrase really does wonders for it.

On the ferry ride back, we were exhausted and a little snarky; a little achy and

a little sun burned. But, man, what a great day.

Oahu, Part Deux

[Keep an eye out for all of the videos in this post!]

Sitting at our little hotel room desk, with my mug of Hawaiian Paradise coffee, I can't believe we're leaving Hawaii tomorrow. Back to Seattle, back to the real world. I think we're both pretty excited to face it, actually. Vacation is great, but there is something about going back to the place where things belong to you, where you have a place in the world, that is really comforting. But I wanted to share what's been shakin' around these parts for the past couple of days.

First: Johnny Depp. Yes, in case you haven't seen my Facebook in the past couple days, we realized that the filming for "Pirates of the Caribbean 4" is taking place right outside our hotel. We've been scouring for Johnny and Keira like crazy. Read about it here.

The 'Black Pearl.' Notice the gigantic camera on the

front of that helicopter. Yes! It's real!

A beautiful sunset to film during.

So, funny story. The first day we got to the resort, we talked with a woman at Guest Services who told us about the resort's incentives to take a tour of their timeshares. If we signed up to go on an hour-and-a-half tour, like going out with a realtor, we would get a sweet gift. They included things such as a spa visit, "Marriott dollars," even a snorkeling trip. What did we have our eyes set on? Dinner at one of the nicest restaurants around: Roy's. To me, it sounded like a little shack that fried up some some fish and served it with tartar sauce and hushpuppies. But we kept hearing about this place, so we decided to go for it. Plus, we had been eating on the cheap for most of our time here, so we really wanted a nice meal. And nice we got.

Our only payment was a semi-excruciating tour with the folks of Marriott Beach Club. Minimum qualification: that we make $85,000 a year combined. Oh, how I laugh. But it's not like they check our W-2's, so who were they to know? So, we got up and dressed fairly nice for our 9am appointment to make sure that we actually looked the part; i.e. that we could afford to buy a timeshare. We were escorted to this fancy-shmance 14th floor lobby where we were given free refreshments and then met with horror himself: Jason Taro. He was an obviously flamboyant gay man that had the kind of smile and laugh that you knew could explode your ears drums. His laser eyes could zap your brain from the outside, without making a mess. He was the friendliest, chattiest fellow for the first half hour while he asked us about our lives together, where we could see ourselves traveling over the next 10-50 years, and what all the timeshares in Oahu offered. Then, we came out with it: we would probably need time "to think it over once we got back to Seattle before committing to something." In other words, we weren't giving him his commission. And evil was birthed in that man. Once he found out we weren't buying that day, he was livid. He took us to see one little apartment, didn't make eye contact with us, and certainly didn't waste his breath detailing the unit. He leaned on the kitchenette counter, played with his Blackberry, while we discussed (with excess volume) if we thought the Marriott Beach Club would be an acceptable locale to dock our boat. He didn't care. It was terrifying.

But, we got one of the best meals of our lives!

We tried to look up the menu online but it's one of those places that doesn't list a menu because it's sort of up to the chef what he wants to cook that night. So all we knew was that we had a $70 credit, plus a free appetizer and free dessert. Heaven.

Spicy edamame, some type of potsticker, Hibachi salmon, cucumber and carrot salad, Hawaiian marinated pork ribs, grilled shrimp, scalloped potatoes, chocolate and raspberry soufflé, Macadamia nut tart.

Rich, decadent, tender, flaky, melt-in-your-mouth, crisp...and other adjectives that only the angels of Heaven know. It was an out of this world meal.

Yesterday was an adventure among adventures...sort of. With a total of approximately 5 hours on a bus, T's rockin' ear infection, extreme heat and extreme cold, we spent most of the day at the Polynesian Cultural Center.

And if I get to try an instrument, you know I'm in heaven...

Which is why I was pissed when this dude said that only the men get to play the drums. (Note my soliloquy towards the end of this video). Because my hand was going to shoot up when he asked for volunteers. "Women get to sit back and relax" my butt. I want to play!

Spear tossing.

Fake tattoos.

Men climbing trees.

Kids playing with fire.

Gigantic Hawaiian luau and buffet.

Crazy-delicious Hawaiian food. The purple is Okinawan salad:

Hawaiian sweet potatoes that originated from Japan.

This is one of the Hawaiian staples, used also to make

bread, which is the purple roll that you see.

DELICIOUS. Hard to adjust to the color

though - I couldn't believe it was natural!

After dinner with our beautiful leis!