FY10Q1 part deux

So, February. Well, I can barely remember back that far but I know we went to the quaint little town of Ambridge, Pennsylvania where we will soon be moving! For more on that, please see our joint blog at: pfeiferpfiles.blogspot.com Your news for all things Pfeifer especially as we adventure through seminary. It also has some things like ways to be lifting us up and ways you can help.

Oh, first off, we decided to show off our Pittsburgh "pride" by cheering on the Steelers at the Fairfield Annual Super Bowl party. I know it looks like I'm flipping off the camera but I'm pretty sure I was just throwing a different gangsta sign. You know how it is.

Then, we attended Trinity School for Ministry's "Be A Seminarian" for a day program. But, check this out, one of my roommates from college lives IN Ambridge (the town is seriously like 2000 people and she and her hubby and 2 girls are 4 of them!). So, our other roommate flew down from NH to hang with us. I'm sure everyone is glad that I couldn't find a picture of the dynamic trio from the college days. Maybe later :) And I just have to include this next one because, you see, in college, I was actually known for the ridiculous length of my tongue which people knew because I was so much less mature than and would often use that as my crude gesture of choice when crossed. And look, here's my roommate's daughter, a perfect protege!Heeheehee. :P Isn't she the cutest? In case you can't tell, her tongue is also out. In fact, I think there's a whole sequence of us with out tongues out :)

So, our "Seminarian for a Day" time began with a little Valentine's bowling party with the church of our kind hosts. Hooray for Ambridge's 8-lane alley!

And here's the school:



Yup, that's the whole school. One block!
Pretty sweet, eh?
But it was really nice to go and check it out, even if there was two feet of snow on the ground. We felt there was great confirmation for us to be there especially because the community is phenomenal. So, that'll be the next piece of our adventure and like I said for more on that, check out our blog.
See ya for March, I gotta go cheer for the Blackhawks!

FY10Q1 part 1

So I'm sittin' here sipping my Bailey's and VIA (Instant Ready Brew-Decaf) coffee just chillin'. Already posted the most ridiculous profile picture up on facebook, already soaked my feet in the bathtub, already sat around my A and watched Bones. I was going to continue to work on my table which I think I began around the same time that I posted my last blog on this thing :P. Sorry, dear friends, but here I was and I thought, "Oh hell yes, I am going to finally write that blog that I've said since January that I'm going to write." Okay, well, it's not the same one I was going to write in January because a lot's happened since then and who are we kidding? My memory's just not that good. But, without further ado, here's our first quarter-ish of 2010 in pics.

First off, my dear dear friend, Mink, moved in with us. She needed a cheap home, we could use a little money off our rent since trying to save for Grad School and are blessed with a big 2-bedroom apartment. We also know a thing or two about how to live together after 6 years of friendship so it's all worked out great. Here's our family photo taken a month or so ago. You'll see pictured: I, the loving matriarch, tenderly but firmly urging lovely, innocent Mink and tough guy Greg to just get along. Okay, that's not at all how it is: in fact, Greg and Mink get along like two schnitzels on a platz. That is funny, I'll explain why; Greg and Mink are food lovers...meaning she appreciates all manner of encased meat and will gladly consume it with my husband while I sit very far away and try not to gag. So, it's just win-win-win for everyone.

As has become our custom now, we headed to Baltimore for "Christmas" with Greg's side of the fam. This always brings many types of merriment, which this year included, but was not limited to:

A Ravens game

with high school friends

Doggie Time

Game Time

Grandparent Time

TAT time!So, it's real late now and I've only just finished January but will get Part II up this weekend. Hope you've enjoyed the update thus far.
Peace out, homies.

Archives' online exhibit!

We've been working on this for a while now and I did the sound editing (believe me, it actually was way worse than what you hear now!) for it. It's our newest online exhibit featuring Billy Graham and we'll be adding a new talk everyday just as events unfolded at his 1949 crusade.

http://www.wheaton.edu/bgc/archives/la49.html

proverbs blizzog

So, instead of blogging on our own sites, we blogged on our fellowship's!
I'm not even sure K can reach this by proxy anymore so I won't bother CGifying the things we wrote for posting here just yet. But, K, if you need me to, I will.

Anyway, our fellowship has decided to do a sort of outreach event for 4 weeks. We busted out the big guns the first Sunday with animal balloons and hot dogs and celtic dancers and an art show and root beer kegs. I've also noticed the singing of fairly common hymns with our own brand of flair of course. The choir's also back in gear and Lisa did a cool set-up of banners. Also making a wooden sign post that goes with the talk's series that we're on which is "Stop and Get Direction". As funny as I might think it is to be trying seeker-sensitive models now (like a few years past when it was "cool"), we are supporting our fellowship in the ways we know how. Oh, if I didn't mention, everyone was thinking about who they would invite to this event, etc and were supposed to bring someone out of fellowship with the Father.

So, there were these booklets handed out that are basically a devotional guide for the next 4 weeks. It is based on proverbs and are loosely based on a theme. The staff asked different people to share their thoughts on the blog so a different person is taking each day. Greg wrote on Integrity and I just did Pride and Humility. So click on those to find our thoughts and click around our congregation's blog to find other peoples thoughts as well.

jig for a gig

So, I've got my first "gig" this weekend. Gig meaning the first time I'll ever be paid to take pictures of other people. It randomly happened upon me by one of my co-workers. I'm very nervous and also excited. Namely, I'm excited because a friend of mine just notified me that she is also a Canon user and has compatible lenses! Sometimes having the right equipment is all you need to feel confident. (I'm talking about photography here...get your mind out of the gutter!)

So, if you happen to think of me on Saturday or any other time really, I could use your thoughts as I embark on this. I think it will be really fun and I have 2 hours on my way up to Wisconsin to troubleshoot anything that could possibly go wrong. Ha! I never really feel very confident doing new things...or just things! So, I'm trying very hard and I'll have my loyal sidekick with me and that will help, but the nerves are still there (probably always will be). But I'm hoping it's fun and fruitful and that I just capture the Ericksens family and their parents anniversary well. I was told yesterday that I can "be as directive as I want"...at least I'm good at that :) I also, I think, convinced them out of white t-shirts and denim pants.

Anyway, so that's going on this weekend and I'm excited for the opportunity to get to help them out so that they don't have to set a timer, hit a button and run into position to get some nice family photos.

Oh, also, for sh*** and giggles, a friend had up a link to this site and it's pretty much my favorite these days, enjoy! The Sacred Sandwich

Blessings, all! I was going to post about our first anniversary weekend but this came up instead. So, will do that later.

still thinking...and then some

I promised KB that I would give her something to look forward to in the morning which, let's be honest, is a pretty bold calling in the first place. However, I'm going to do my best to live up to this lofty ideal--like I usually do.

So, I'm sitting here at work today with not enough to do to put off yet another month without posting at all! :) I'm also trying to decide whether or not to take some tylenol for what I believe to be a mild dehydration/over-caffeination headache or to continue my routine of drinking a bit-peeing a bit for the whole afternoon. Lucky you. I pretty much didn't think anyone was reading anymore but in case you are, here ya go.

A) is for Amy. Thank you, Amy, for still reading this on the rare occasion that I post. And since you called my bluff, I'm going to do my best to remember the article(s) and tell you my response. I am resisting the urge to just copy and paste my comments that I made on CT's site. But a lot of those were in response to fellow responders to the articles anyway, so not much help.
So...I felt that the main article started out well because I think it's true that perhaps the church does not do a great job of preparing people for marriage. And I suppose he might even be correct that because of the whole "no ding ding without the wedding ring" thing, perhaps churches should be more prepared to need to discuss marriage with younger aged people. (The above was a quote from one of my favorite theological movies, Robin Hood: Men in Tights). I also am a firm believer that people should get married at the point at which the Father tells them to do so and not earlier (or later). So, in that sense, I'm a supporter of "early marriage". However, I disagree with the validity of getting married because it's hard to stay chaste and think that in far too many instances, many folks in the fellowship put too much stock in sex as a motivator. I'm not saying we need to be gnostic and pretend it doesn't exist or that it doesn't matter what you do with your body. I'm just saying that perhaps it's-in a lot of ways-not supposed to be as big a factor in our decision-making as we tend to perceive it to be. Though, one of my friends mentioned that they liked the author's take because they found it to be more earthy...that he just sorta said, ya know, if you love somebody and you know they're the one, marry 'em. And I found that interesting. And if in that instance, those people are 20, then yes, c'mon ch....urch, help them understand how to do it well. But I feel like that for people who are 40 also. So, those were some of my main thoughts about it.
I did not appreciate 2 of the articles that appeared along with this one in the CT magazine that came out. One mentioned that parents need to be prepared to help their children who want to get married young with their financial burdens (paying for school, etc). This seemed kinda out of touch with reality (at least my family's reality) and to lack an understanding of building responsibility in your children, young or adult. The other was an article about the older days when females who were physiologically mature were married and began to reproduce much earlier than women today. His concern is that he sees many women who are terribly saddened by being unable to bear children or who bore children with health problems, etc because of their older age. That is a good pastoral concern, I just think that in answering it, he might have made the problem worse. I mostly think this because he stated that those who follow the Son's primary role is to raise a family. I think that's a) incorrect--some people are called to celibacy, some to marriage without children and some to marriage with and are called to minister no matter which of these is the case and b) very hurtful to folks who want to bear children and can't and tells women that they are "deficient" or in some way, less of a woman if they can't bear children and this is not the case. One woman wrote an article and her concern was for openness to any of the options that the Father might call you to...like celibacy being valid, etc. And also giving a warning to not overly emphasize marriage amongst youngsters because there might be some not called to be married at all and also because it causes a pastoral situation in that those who do not get married feel, once again, like there is something wrong with them because they're not getting married young.
Okay, so, sorry, I feel like I went on and on. But those are the thoughts I remember having and what I remember about the articles I read. So, Amy, what are your thoughts? :) And anyone else can feel free to share theirs as well. Anyway, I found it all very interesting and good to think about theologically and also in a sense as to how we can be helping people do marriage well.

B) I'm trying to think of what else to write now. I always want to include something funny but I can't think of anything...might be because of the high pitched whining of the reel-to-reel recorder near my desk. This isn't really funny but it is kinda light-ish. It's about movies. We rented The Spirit (Frank Miller) and Twilight. I had told Greg earlier that night that I was possible up for watching a romantic movie and/or one that I didn't have to think about. But, see, I only am in a romantic movie-watching mood about 4 times a year, if that. So, he had to jump on his chance. And so the "jumping" wound up with us watching Twilight and us not thinking that it was as bad as we had thought maybe it would be. That's not to say it's getting an Oscar, but it wasn't bad. And, it made me curious about the books, which I had already considered reading but had not yet picked up. I really do have a soft spot for vampires, though. I was most intrigued by Edward's family and their stories so I'm really hoping there's something in the book that goes into them more. I'll let you know whenever I get around to reading the series. As we all know, like with the unfortunate 6th film in the Harry Potter series, the books are usually much better and I'm starting to think that when I can, I will see the movie first. An unfortunate circumstance where I can not reverse what is done is in the case of the Sherlock Holmes movie due to doom theaters this Winter. Don't get me started on that :) Oh, the Spirit was fun, too. We were REALLY glad that it was not really like Sin City...it was like a parody of it. And so was rather enjoyable. No good moral or anything but a really fun action flick...though we are still not sure why the Octopus was called "the Octopus" minus one vague reference to 8 arms at the end.
Anyway, there ya go.

C) I am listening to Pandora right now and there's some Jack Johnson song on and one of the phrases I just caught was "She's one tough enchilada filled up with nada". Awesome.

D) We're not up to much new which is why I haven't said much lately. We just said good-bye to our friend, MJ, who just left to go back to Korea. We will miss him very much, but I guess we all know what that's like, eh? We're hoping that maybe MJ and KB can go travel around together since they both like it so much and love taking pics so much. And because sometimes it's lonely being in another country where the majority of folks don't get Americans. :)

E) We will get pictures up of 2009 adventures soon...our laptop just died which means we have to both get the photos off the hard drive (provided it's not fried) and then we also need to get an external hard drive to hold the photos...and we thought we got one from ebay but long story short, I think we were conned. Bummer. So, in any case, pictures pending.

F) I'm also forgot I should continue to be CG...so I just went up and CGified what I could find, sorry if I missed anything. But changes are you can't get here except by proxy anyway ;)

G) I hope you feel sufficiently like it was worth waking up this morning, katherine. But I'm pooped so I'm signing off now.

H) The End.

got me thinking...

A CT article came across the Archives' doorstep the other day...called the Case for Early Marriage. It also had enclosed 3 responses. I'm just posting it because it really interested me...and caused my inner pastor to flare up.

So I guess I just wanna know what any of you who still read this (6 months after my last post) might think about it? Let me know!