Whirlwind Weekend
As of tonight's General and Pastoral Epistles class, it's officially Finals Week. Thank the Maker.
Whether in college or in seminary, I've always loved Finals Week, not because I'm a particularly good test-taker (I'd say I'm average), but because there's freedom to really read and study with the majority of assignments done (or almost so). I've only got a 5-page paper to write, ten pages of Greek translations to do (some of which I'm going to knock out this evening), and two finals to prepare for and take between now and the 19th. Glory, hallelujah.
However, before I get started on all that, I wanted to update you on one of the more social weekends we've had in a long time. Wildwood's annual Christmas concert was last Thursday night and was musically amazing (though no pic to show for it).
Friday night was the One Night Under the Star Christmas Banquet I helped produce. Here I am - in 1956 sepia tone - with buddy and budding Vegas star, Tom Rubino, who stole the show with his performance of "The Rubino Man" a la Billy Joel's "The Piano Man", which we re-wrote as a tribute to/roast of our Covenant professors. (For something completely different, click here for the Student Council version of the Ocean's 11 soundtrack that I edited together for a dessert-serving background - it's 7:30 minutes long and 8.6 MB. The script and voices are Covenant Seminary's Dean of Students, Mark Dalbey, and Student Council President, Ryan Anderson.)
Saturday afternoon saw my folks come down from the farm in Illinois for the St. Louis Children's Choir concert and my two oldest daughters' debut at Powell Symphony Hall.
They (along with 500 other kids) put on a very well-done 2 1/2-hour concert, ending with one of my all-time favorite Christmas songs, "All Is Well" by Michael W. Smith).
Sunday morning was church and Sunday evening was Vespers at Memorial (sorry, no pics).
In the midst of all this running around, I studied a little bit, slept a little less, and signed a one-year lease on the house we're going to start renting at the end of the month. Needless to say, Megan has big plans for my life in between study sessions as she's a packing mama. Our landlord has graciously allowed us the entire month to move in before officially starting the lease on January 1. Thus, in addition to the books, I'll be lifting a lot of these in the near future:
Despite the lack of classes, it's going to be another full week. Oh, and our tenth anniversary is Thursday, so I've got something special planned for Megan (and miraculously, she hasn't coaxed it out of me yet). I'll post details (and probably a picture or two) later this week. In the meantime, I'll happily entertain your guesses as to what it is, as well as any suggestions as to what else I can do to show my appreciation for her staying married to me for ten years.