I have an amazing story to share...God's been working like mad. Be looking forward to a post on His faithfulness and goodness on our journey of obedience to Spring! We will be moving Friday. I will explain the big story soon. I hope you are on the edge of your seat with anticipation :)
Do you ever have so much to say that you can't say much?
Here is the low down- the best I can do for now...
1. Tim is now a youth pastor in Spring!
2. We are looking for a place to live.
3. I am looking for a job...I had an interview today but I'm not sure how to feel about it.
4. We will be trying to square things away this weekend so we can move ASAP.
I'm really glad God wants us to give him our burdens...I felt like exploding earlier..but I gave it to God and I feel like I can peacefully breathe. As I was reading and praying, I felt guilty asking God to take my burdens...Jesus already did that, why ask Him to carry more?? But, our God is good and He gives peace along with a light and comfortable yoke.
Here is a list of a few things I may never understand about my husband...some cute, some quirky, some annoying. I love Tim and he makes me laugh. SO, here goes the Oddities de la Tim:
1. How do you get in the shower? Most people run the water to get it to the right temperature and turn on the shower. Then, they get in. We all know cold water comes out of the shower head before the warm...so water first, then enter. Tim stands in the bathtub and gets the water to the right temperature while standing in it. Then,(This part makes me laugh)he splashes water onto his shins to check the temperature. He then turns on the shower and gets sprayed immediately...brrr!
2. Which way do you face when you shower? I think (because I don't watch people showering lol) that most people face away from the water and tilt their head back to shower. Not my Tim...he faces forward, lol.
3. Do you spread condiments with a knife or a spoon? I have explained to Tim that butter knives are called so because you are supposed to spread things like butter with it. Well, Tim always uses a spoon...then he licks the condiment off. This isn't too bizzare, but when he licks off the butter or the mayonaise I almost throw up. Also, it wastes the condiment that gets stuck in the groove of the spoon for non spoon lickers.
4. When licking fingers...he HAS to make a loud sucking sound on each finger...ew.
5. After making chocolate milk, do you leave the spoon in the cup? I'm sure this one isn't as odd as I think...but I think the spoon knocking into your mouth while your trying to drink is annoying. Tim likes the keep the spoon in the cup and so when he's done the cup falls over all the time!
6. Does your husband like girl bands? My husband likes to listen to Taylor Swift, Katy Perry, and Regina Spector. Haha, he won't admit this to you...but look at his iPod.
7. Tim is not a taste tester...he will add the seasonings without tasting it between...we have had many salty meals that were not edible.
8. Nails. Tim's nails grow like a woman's. He lets them stay long...so his nails are longer than mine! In order to fix this, I am the one who clips his fingernails and toenails...haha. I also pluck his eyebrows.
9. This one is an old one...Tim used to wear girl pants. I HATED them. They got stolen once...I was SO sad let me tell you...But, girl pants don't look good on anyone but girls. Sorry boys.
10. Meat poisoning. When we have steaks...my husband literally makes himself sick everytime. He tells me after he's done to never let him to that again...but it is inevitable, haha.
11. Snot Rockets. GROSSSSSSSSSSSS. He doens't believe in kleen-ex outisde or in the shower...it's so gross!
11 seems like a good number to stop at. Now, I'm not saying that I am perfect by ANY means...his list of things he won't ever understand will far exceed my list for him. I just thought I'd share because I'm pretty sure some of these things are guy things that my friends can sympathize with. Love you, Mr. Darst...your manliness exceeds all.
Beach Countdown: 6 days!
This is mostly for my own mental wellness...I'm breaking down our eventful next two weeks:
July 22 (Today!): Go to Arlington to see my parents and borrow some boogie boards and chairs for the beach!
July 23: Hang out with the fam, go to the Ranger game (story on that later).
July 24: Visit the in-laws
July 25-26: Get ahead on homework for when we go on vacation/class on Tuesday night
July 27-28: Last days of work at ETBU admissions/church Wednesday night/Class Thursday night
July 29: Finish homework before leaving for Houston/drive to The Woodlands
July 30: meeting with the personnel committee, lunch with church staff, meet and greet youth and parents and Q&A session, dinner
July 31: Lead Sunday School with worship and hanging out to get to know us, meet the congregation during the service, get put on the spot for questions, get voted in or out in the evening
August 1: Drive to Port Aransas!
August 2-4: Be a beach bum...hopefully get an interview soon after!
August 5: Hear this precious prune's heartbeat (it will be lime-sized by then!)
BUSY but EXCITING/RELAXING next few weeks!
Okay...so about the Ranger game story. I give campus tours at ETBU in this oh, so wonderful heat! I love ETBU, so I love giving tours. I had a family come in to tour with a girl, her friend, and her parents. When I walked in the room to meet them, I saw the dad wearing a rangers polo shirt. I was like awesome, a Rangers fan! I love to find things to chit chat about between buildings we go into. The Rangers are a good talking point. I proceeded to look down at his hand and lo and behold there was a world series ring on it! I couldn't help myself but blurt,"So, that's a world series ring!" He told us how he worked for the Rangers as the VP of Information Technology. That opened the door to talk about how I was from Arlington and how Tim and I love the Rangers and my family did, too (run-on sentence). So, we pile on the golfcart like sardines and have a lovely tour...like 2 hours...longest one I have done. It was two hours because they were LOVING it! They loved to stop and talk about EVERYTHING at ETBU and it was fun! I love tours where people ask questions and are excited! After the tour, the girl and her friend are super excited and they are wanting to come (the friend had to intention of coming to ETBU). So, as I am walking back to my office the dad pulls out a card and says, "Here's my card, if y'all ever come to Arlington, give me a call!" In which I reply, "We're actually going there this weekend!" He said, "Saturday at 7:05 okay?" I say, "Uh, yessir!" He replies, "Your tickets will be waiting at will call" and he writes our names down. AWESOME! So, it was already a great tour, but now we get to go to the game for FREE! I'm excited...yay for Admissions!
Beach countdown: 9 days
...began celebrating school being and realized summer is gone, haha! Lame. I've been working in ETBU admissions and doing grad school which has pretty much sucked out all that is good about summer and left the heat...gross. East Texas summers are HOT. The humidty here leaves us swimming through the air daily.
BUT, onto bigger news...
Tim and I have some big decisions coming. Today we leave for Spring, Texas to interview with the personnel committee at Memorial Baptist Church. They are paying for our gas, meals, and hotel stay...so it's kind of minivaca! I'm excited...but nervous. This is the church where the associate pastor showed up to our house in Longview a month ago to chat...odd...but sure, why not? The next day, the pastor called us to meet him in Lufkin the following Friday to have an interview over dinner with his wife. After feeling like we had blown that chance and walked out thinking, "at least we met nice people and got some free food," we got a call back asking for out testimonies and philosophy of youth ministry. 1 week later, we get another call saying that the personnel committee had fallen in love with us based on our testimonies...we are paying your way down here to interview...what? Hm...okay. Pray for us as we interview and seek guidance on our decision making.
After this happens, Tim gets a call from a church in Teague, TX informing him he is in their top 5. They had him make a video answering questions and doing a mini-lesson. They meet Sunday to watch the videos...pray for this one, too!
Two days later, a guy from San Antonio called. He runs a ministry through the schools and they contacted Tim for interest in him being the junior high pastor. The guy has since Skyped with Tim and has been in close contact wanting to get him out there ASAP. It's not ministry through an actual church...but an organization through the schools. I'm not clear in what the job entails, but the guy has been pursuing Tim eagerly.
All of this to say...there will be no teaching jobs in any of the big cities. That is totally nerve racking. We are open to God moving us wherever...but me not having a job is kind of a big deal...I need health insurance. No job=no insurance. Our pastor preached on being called out of easy decisions and living the American dream...we were convicted. We had been starting to doubt all of these doors that were opening. BUT, we are open...we just need clarity.
SO, please pray for us especially in the next few weeks...we have some BIG decisions to make!
I accidentally let about a month slip by with no posts, bad....
My two biggest pieces of news:
First of all- I am officially an ETBU Tiger AGAIN! I started graduate school and I'm working towards my masters in education for instruction and curriculum. Don't ask me what I want to do with that, because I'm not sure. But, I am two weeks in and almost done with my first two classes! The program is a 13 month program where I take six classes this summer, one in the fall, two in the spring, and one next May and I will be walking across the stage! WOOHOO! So, this time next year, I will be recieving my diploma once more. Sorry ETBU, you just thought you'd got rid of me. Also, sorry bank account...you just thought we were done hurting you!
Second item- I got a new car! Well, it's an SUV. It's a 2007 Jeep Patriot, black. Unfortunately, it's a standard and I have not quite got the hang of it yet...but atleast it's nice! The Focus was trouble from day 1 and after the alternator died for the third time in six months, we decided it was time. We still have CarCar, my hyundai...but hooray for JeepJeep! 
