Unemployed

I am no longer an employee of Liberty Christian School.  I do get paid through the rest of the summer, but my contract with LCS has expired.  Friday was my last day and it was a weird feeling.  Teaching at LCS was my first "real" job.  It was the thing that determined where Amy and I would live after we got married.  I said my goodbyes on Friday, gathered my last few belongings from my "cloffice," and drove out of the gates on Friday afternoon.

Now, I'm excited, nervous, and anxious about my first seminary class tomorrow.  I'm also anticipating a great summer of being the youth ministries intern at our church.

Speaking of that, it's time I got back to reading and studying.

A plethora of . . . stuff

Last night, my Aunt Tracy gently reminded Amy and I that we hadn't updated our blog since May 20.  Of course, I knew that, since I think about blogging everyday, I just never do it!  So let me give a few updates:

Today is the last day of school at Liberty Christian School.  Tomorrow and Friday are clean-up, wrap-up days and then it's officially summer.  Friday will also be my last day as an employee at Liberty.  I have worked at Liberty for the last two years, teaching PE, Bible, doing recess duty, lunch duty, coaching basketball for two years and volleyball for one and loving what I do.  There have been a few rough spots, but I can truly say that I have enjoyed working and serving and coaching at Liberty.  I am very appreciative to the principal, Thom Doney, for giving me this job and giving me much leeway in how I developed and taught PE.  I have learned so much here.

The main reason that I will not be returning next year is because of my plans for seminary and becoming a pastor eventually.  I am enrolled at Talbot School of Theology at Biola University and will begin full-time in the fall.  Because Amy and I decided that I should enroll full-time and try to complete seminary in a timely manner we also decided that I should only work part-time, at least at first.  We both know my strengths and my weaknesses, and so we came to the conclusion that I would be a lousy husband, Christian, employee, church member, sleeper, etc., if I tried to work full-time, go to school full-time, be involved at church in the youth group and other ministries, and be a good and loving husband to my wife.

At first, I tried to investigate working part-time at Liberty, but due to several factors, and after much discussion, prayer and mulling over scenarios, we thought it best to try to find part-time work for me elsewhere.

Last Friday, June 6, Amy and I celebrated her 25th birthday with a spaghetti dinner (disastrously planned, orchestrated and partially cooked by yours truly!) and then a stop at Coldstone Creamery after my softball game.  On Saturday, we drove over to Seal Beach, ate lunch at In-N-Out, and walked around Main St. and the pier for a few hours.  It was a fun, relaxing time together that we have rarely had in the past few busy months.  We browsed in some antique stores, noticed the many Irish pubs and bars, and walked out to the end of the loooonnnnnnggggg pier.

That night, we enjoyed being treated to Olive Garden with our good friends, Brian and Becca.  We went home after that and chatted with them for a few hours, which was really fun.  They were also the first people to sign our hospitality cloth on our new (used) kitchen table!  Amy found a solid wood table on craigslist and borrowed a truck and picked up the table two weeks ago.  It has six chairs and a leaf to extend the length and we really love it.  Maybe now we'll begin to practice hospitality a little more.

This summer I have an internship at our church and I'm also taking a summer class (Patristic and Medieval Theology, woo hoo!) at Talbot starting on Monday.  That's all for now.  Keep checking the blog for more updates.

Incredulous

In case you don't know what the word "incredulous" means, read this article. I'm unbelievably shocked and disgusted by this ridiculous anti-human ideas! God save us. Also, yesterday's Albert Mohler program was all about this issue in the field of biomedical ethics.

Ouch!

Happy Mother's Day!

Yes, we're still here, still alive, still kicking, still in love. I'm sitting at our kitchen table typing on my laptop with the whirring of the overhead fan, the soft "on" static of my paused iPod speakers, and the muted sounds of people playing at the park surrounding me. Amy is asleep in bed, recovering from wisdom teeth surgery on Friday.

We both didn't go to work Friday, slept in a bit, and drove to the oral surgeon's office in Huntington Beach a little before 8:00am. Amy was a bit nervous about having her first surgery, but it was over in barely half an hour. I sat with her for awhile as she groggily woke up from the anesthesia, and then we went home less than two hours later than we left. I went to CVS and filled the vicodin and penicillin prescriptions and tried to help Amy out. We watched two movies on Friday (Shrek 3 and August Rush) and just generally took it easy. I doubt anyone would be surprised to learn that I did a lot of reading!

Saturday was more of the same: laundry, reading, soft foods (yogurt, cottage cheese, applesauce, etc.), and the Indiana Jones Trilogy on USA. This morning, Amy didn't take the vicodin so she could stay awake at church. She has been a real trooper and is ready to head back to work

Also, we have neglected to announce that we got a new used car! Several Saturdays ago (April 26), Amy and I headed over to the Angel Stadium parking lot for the semi-annual Enterprise Car Sale. Enterprise teamed with several local credit unions to sell '06, '07, and '08 cars. We went armed with our Consumer Reports magazine, wanting but not needing to buy. After driving the V6 and four-cylinder editions of the Hyundai Sonata, we decided to see how much it would cost with the number-crunchers. It was too much, and so we headed back out on the lot and ended up driving a 2007 ruby red Kia Optima. Amy liked it better than the Hyundais and so we decided to go back to the numbers game and see what kind of deal we could get. After much discussion with each other, looking through the magazine and calling my dad, we decided to do it! Amy really loves "her" car and I now get "my" car back.

Last weekend, we took the new car up to Santa Clarita because Amy was helping host Heather's bridal shower at my parents' house. On Friday night, we went on a fun quadruple date with Nick and Christie, Brian and Becca, and Travis and Katy to Black Angus. We got to catch up on a lot of things, eat (too much!) good food, and laugh a lot. The next day, my dad and I helped the ladies set up for the shindig, and then jetted out of there so as to flee the girliness! That night, we celebrated Trevor's 17th birthday at Chili's before heading home.

A lot more has happened and will happen, but (do I always say this?) we will try to keep you better informed and perhaps offer some thought-provoking links as well. I leave you with a picture of a (not our) 2007 ruby red Kia Optima:

What's Going On?

Well, a lot has been going on down here in our little corner of Orange County. Here's a peek into all of it.

• On the morning of Thursday, April 3, Amy and I headed out for a four-day camping trip to the Grand Canyon in Arizona (for those of you that were wondering). We rented a Saturn Aura from Avis for $1.07! We decided to use some of our credit card points to get $200 in gift certificates to Avis. So we crammed all our stuff into the sizable back seat and enormous trunk and started out on a 500-mile trip around 10:30am. Here are all the freeways/highways that we ended up taking: 22, 57, 60, 15, 40 and 64! We arrived at Mather Campground at the Grand Canyon just as the last light of day was disappearing. We caught a brief, darkened glimpse of the canyon as we drove to the campsight. One first for me was setting up camp by the headlights of the car. That was fun! Oh yeah, it was freezing while we were there, literally! Well, to make a long story short, we had a great time sleeping, cooking, eating, hiking, taking pictures, making and enjoying fires and having the great privilege of acknowledging our God for his creation of such a wonderful place. We're both so glad we went and Amy actually added a state to her list of states visited!

• On April 12, we drove to Studio City for the wedding of a classmate, Micah Panama. Micah and I were classmates from first grade until we graduated from Santa Clarita Christian School. The ceremony was held in a beautiful Presbyterian church and the reception was at a very nice restaurant in Hollywood, with a view of the Hollywood sign from the street (which we forgot to take a picture of!). At the reception, I was able to see several high school friends that I hadn't seen for some time, and Amy got to finally meet them.

• This past Friday we drove up to Santa Clarita right after school got out and beat most of the traffic to attend my lifelong friend Matt Dixon's wedding. Matt and Sarah had a beautiful wedding at the Hyatt in Valencia, and again, we were able to see many friends.

• After congratulating the couple, the six of us (my family and Amy and I) piled in my parents' van and drove up to Santa Maria for the 22nd Annual Easter Egg Hunt at Grandma's! Amy and I stayed at Aunt Kathy's and Uncle Mel's due to the catlessness of that grand establishment. Saturday morning meant a typical big Parker breakfast and the usual Easter Egg Hunt festivities at Grandma's. I'm proud to say that I finally won an Easter Egg Hunt by finding all five of my eggs first! I don't think that's happened in a decade, at least. Unfortunately, Alex and Tyler and Chris were unable to make the trip and my cousin and THE best man, Mike, was on duty, protecting Santa Maria from various and sundry criminals. We made the best of it, had a good time talking and laughing and eating and watching the Spurs beat the Suns in double overtime. The ladies went shopping and soon after returning, we again piled in the van and headed to Santa Clarita. After a quick pizza dinner, Amy and I headed for home.

• Amy continues to enjoy her job as Accounting Assistant at Pan-Pacific Plumbing and is learning more and more about the different projects and duties it requires. She has also enjoyed having a fellow member of Village Bible Church and good friend, Emily, join the ranks at Pan-Pacific.

• We are in the process of looking for another car, so that Amy will have her first car and so transportation to and from Talbot will be easier on us this summer and in the fall. Lord-willing, we'd like to buy a used Toyota Camry in the next two months or so.

For pictures from the past several months and including the Grand Canyon and the weddings, you can click here to see the web albums that we've recently added. Hopefully, some of the videos will be there too, including the one of me making scrambled eggs at our campsite!

It's been busy and will continue that way, as we have several more weddings this summer. It's exciting to see God-honoring couples commit to each other for life.

Soli deo Gloria

Spring Break

We're leaving for the Grand Canyon tomorrow morning! Pictures and stories to follow!

Overpopulation?

Justin Taylor provides a link to a chapter about the population of Europe and its future. Very interesting.

Why is Easter when Easter is?

Here's some help from anonymous source in an e-mail my mom sent to me about the date of Easter:

Easter this year is Sunday March 23 2008. Easter is always the 1st Sunday after the 1st full moon after the Spring Equinox (which is March 20). This dating of Easter is based on the lunar calendar that Hebrew people used to identify passover. This is why it moves around on our Roman calendar. Based on the above Easter can only be one day earlier (March 22) than it will be this year, and falling on March 22 is pretty rare. This year Easter is the earliest any of us will ever see for the rest of our lives! and only the most elderly of our population have ever seen it this early (95 years old or above) and none of us have ever of will ever see it a day earlier! Here are the facts: The next time Easter will be this early (March 23) will be in the year 2228 (220 years from now). The last time it was this early was in 1913. The next time it will be a day earlier (March 22) will be in the year 2285 (277 years from now). The last time it was on March 22 was in 1818.

Homeschooling in California

This article strikes closer to home for us now because of our involvement in our church's youth group. Many (most?) of the kids are homeschooled and this could strike quite a blow. Note especially the last quote that Dr. Mohler includes.

What's Right or What's Cool?

Justin Taylor posts an excerpt from Douglas Groothuis, pleading for Christians to wake up. Read it here.