Not much went on today. Louie decided we could only watch The Office if we did 1 hour of something productive for each episode we watched. I cleaned up my half done puzzle from winter break so we could have some room at the kitchen table. The living room is probably less than 1/2 of the square footage of this apartment but naturally we find ourselves glued here. Gets old...

Now we're hanging out watching the Grammy's which I'm okay with doing because my first class tomorrow is CANCELLED!! Usually I'd be upsetting Louie's computer/entertainment time around 10 because I want to go to bed. I have vowed not to be like my parents in that I go to bed at 9 while he stays up until 1 or 2 in the morning watching TV in an other room and going to sleep on the couch. Not that they don't have a good relationship from what I can see but bedtime should be reserved for snuggling and talking about our day, duh. I intend to make that a family rule and he's getting used to it. Since he was a teenager, he stayed up until all hours of the night playing video games and watching TV so clearly he was on the path to being a typical man.

Lazy day

Today (like most days) was a lazy day. We're working on our motivation but living in a tiny apartment and without much to do around the Charlottesville area without leaving our dearly treasured parking spaces it's difficult to want to move. But today it was okay because 1) it's Saturday and 2) it snowed A LOT. We have been watching The Office Seasons 3 and 4 this weekend and they have served their purpose as snowy weekend entertainment. Good thing too, because church is cancelled tomorrow so it'll basically be another Saturday. Louie decided a twist in the plans would be to go get pizza on the Corner for lunch at Mellow Mushroom. Yay for bringing back boots from Richmond so we can get around.

We did get out today and the images bear witness to the fact that we did not sit around the entire day. Because winter time and cold weather is my absolute favorite, I cannot wait to have kids to play with in the snow and cozy up with. In the mean time....

I have also decided that tomorrow will be sugar cookie baking/decorating day since I never got around to it at Christmas holidays since we went home for a few weeks. Christmas cookies are good no matter when you make them so with snow on the ground it seems like the most fun thing to do. Louie has promised to help but I never hope for too much or I'll be disappointed. Of course, he will most definitely agree to eat them!

Where we're going

We've been thinking a lot about where we'll be this time next year. We're 99% sure we'll be going to Louisville, KY late this summer so Louie can go to Southern. We went in October during my fall break for a preview conference and nothing is more beautiful than that campus! Surprisingly, the campus was designed by the same guy who designed UVa but it'll be even better because there isn't construction EVERYWHERE like there has been here for just about the entire four years I've been attending. It'll be good to walk around somewhere similar but more peaceful and less metallic and cement truck-y.

Louie sat down today and completed the application and had recommendation forms sent to a few kind friends and mentors. We look forward to getting an acceptance letter in the next few months. That's not being overconfident but from what I've heard, it's not too difficult to get in since people aren't necessarily busting down the doors to get in. That being said, it is nothing less than theologically rock solid. The best part for me will be the Seminary Wives Institute (provided I don't get the evening shift at whatever hospital I work at). I can actually get a diploma from completing a certain amount of hours in classes that will be taught by professors at the school or their wives. How awesome is that! That way, I'll be able to study what Louie is studying and we'll have plenty to talk about and work on together. The SWI offers elective courses in topics such as hospitality, parenting and public speaking for pastors' wives (pretty sure I won't be choosing this one but who knows, maybe God will challenge me). We'll also be living on campus in a very new and cute apartment (cheaper than where we are in now!.......and with parking!). Another perk--rent will include cable which we decided to do without this year to save a little money since it wasn't included in rent. It's the only family housing on campus that allows pets and well, we've got Cedric in all his cuteness. He'll probably be happy to have a little more room to run around and it'll be fun to see him in a different environment where he'll find other things to get into.

I've also been researching my options for work in the Louisville area. There are plenty of options but it seems that many of them want me to wait until around March to apply as a New Graduate. I didn't really listen and I've been applying anyway so we'll see what happens. Our plan is to work at least a year and then think about a family. I can't wait to get to Louisville. Better yet, my newlywed cousin and her husband live in Louisville and her mom and dad come up every few months or so, so we'll at least be able to see some family!

In other news, it's Friday night after a long week of classes/psychiatric clinical (you WILL hear stories about this clinical every so often) and it's supposed to start snowing late tonight and all day tomorrow! Peace.

Who I come from

Within the past few years I have absorbed myself in researching my ancestry. I started off a couple of years ago knowing very little about either side of my family but my grandfather provided me with some information about the Stoschs. I treasure my maiden name because it's all I was for 21 1/2 years. Plus, Stosch is a blessing of a surname to have when your first name belongs to about 103 million other girls around the globe. For this very reason I vow to give my children as unique of names as possible but that's another topic, another day. So, I have decided that, with my only living grandparents on my daddy's side, that I would conduct interviews of as much as they can remember from their lives. We'll also go to as many grave sites as possible and take some pictures with them. I know, I know...that sounds weird and creepy but I want to be able to show as much as I can to my kids and grandkids. Sadly, I may be the only one in my family to ever care about any of this.

I'm not sure what has sparked such a deep desire to know my family when I can't even meet them. I hate that I can't know them but researching and digging kind of indulges and satisfies that. Related side note: I am directly related to Charlemagne (that's right, Holy Roman Emperor), Louis the Pious, and some English Henrys. As cool as that is, there are probably too many people out in the world who are descended from them so I tend to feel more love toward the people who are only 3 to 4 generations back. Over winter break I completed as much of my family tree as I could muster (sitting on the couch and looking at a computer screen without moving for 9 hours gets old quickly).

At the end of it all, I realized that knowing all of the people I directly descend from brings my soul so close to God. The only way I could be here today is because God ordained me to be. There are too many people who I descend from who may have not been born, may have died prematurely, may have never met their spouses/mates and may have conceived their children at a different time (thus resulting in different children). If any of these things had happened to ONE single person in my tree......then I would not be typing this lame blog post! To sum this up in a more organized fashion: God is Sovereign!

For the love of Walmart

It has come to my attention that Walmart is a poor, married college student's best friend--especially a brand spankin' new Super Walmart right off I-64 down the road from our church! For reasons unbeknownst to me, both the Walmart (by the way, not a Super) and Target in Charlottesville are about 20 minutes up US-29, AWAY from UVa. Who would do such a thing to college students?! It is SO convenient to be able to drop by the Walmart when we're leaving church a couple of evenings a week to make the drive home. Their prices are so much cheaper it almost seems wrong. Apparently, people are nicer in the country because the greeters flash the biggest smile when we walk in--not so much around the Short Pump area...

Beginnings

So, here it goes. My first blog entry. (Warning, I am not creative or witty so what you read is what you get.). I know the first few entries may be novel-like but I have a horrible memory and I hope to use what I write to extract childhood memories and preserve new ones.

I guess an introduction including the basics is in order. I've recently turned 22 and I just got married to my best friend on May 30, 2009. I know that sounds really cliche and all, but for real, he's my best friend. We met in middle school at church and grew up together from there. Long story short: he was obsessed with me, I thought he was nerdy (thus, I was NOT obsessed with him), I broke his heart a few times, I realized he wasn't going away (and he's wonderful), we got married.

Here we are almost 8 months later and we're happy; to make things even better, he's absolutely hilarious. We have an apartment that is way overpriced and has horribly unpredictable street parking but we've made it a home that we love coming back to. We have a cat--Cedric--lovingly adopted a couple of weeks post-wedding.

He's a youth minister at a church near UVa and we adore the new friends and families we have met. We are thrilled that the church has voted to ordain him and nothing makes us warmer inside than to know our first church as a little married family has agreed to ordain him. We are planning to move this summer to Louisville, Kentucky where he'll be getting an M.Div at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. The move will be bittersweet as we'll be leaving the youth at the church as well as both of our families in Richmond.

Our immediate future looks fuzzy as we don't really know what's we'll do once we get to Louisville in late summer. I'll graduate in May from nursing school. My deepest worldly desire is to be a stay at home mommy but I look forward to seeing how God uses my nursing education after graduation. Right now we're just looking at it as a means of income while Louie gets started at Southern.

Obviously, I have no theme or organization to what I'll be writing. More another day...