What does Mr. Turkey Say?

... gobble, gobble, gobble. :-)

I made my first Thanksgiving meal all by myself this year! (Well, I did make Hal clean out the turkey, but I cooked everything!) I'm quite impressed with my mad skills. Hal drove up and we got to spend 4 whole days doing homework together. Much work was accomplished and I am in pretty good shape to finish up the semester. I will definitely need to catch up with some reading and learning over the Christmas break.

I have my second pulled muscle from coughing. It is painful to breathe and I am ready to be better! Prayers for health would be much appreciated. I worked out for the first time since getting sick today. I am proud of what I did, but I need my lungs back if I am going to really be able to go all out.

Hal and I did take a break from work for a few hours on Friday to go to the zoo. I loved the pandas! But the animals made me a little sad too. I wanted them to be running around free; seeing them in cages really pointed out how much control we assert over creation. I have no profound insights into where to go with these feelings, but I am glad that I was aware of them.

Today while I was on the phone with my grandma and she told me that my home church was on the news! Today the people at St. Paul's in Natick helped to move the Natick Service Council with a human chain from the church to the new pantry location a few blocks away. It made me super proud and super homesick all at once. I can't wait for a couple weeks at home for Christmas.

Oh come, oh come, Emmanuel.

With Love,
Audrey

Woooo PIG SOOIE!

No, I'm not actually calling the Hogs (love ya Razerbacks, but for serious) I am actually on quarantine until Sunday with the much advertised swine flu. Monday and Tuesday are primarily a blur. My fever was very high and I spent most of my days sleeping. But now that I am starting to feel better I am struggling to remind myself to rest. I haven't cracked a book in almost a week due to diomass convention followed by getting sick. It will be key to balance my recovery and my work so I don't get more sick.

Diocese convention was actually pretty fun! (Who would have thunk it, right!?!?) It was nice to see the camaraderie amongst the clergy and lay leaders of the church and the respect in dealing with difficult issues. Bishop Bud wrote a song to commemorate Bishop Tom's 15th anniversary as bishop of Massachusetts... 'Sweet Bishop Tom' to the tune of Sweet Caroline. It was very cute and Bishop Tom was clearly moved. There are some awesome people in my diocese and I am proud to be sponsored by the Diocese of Massachusetts. I was so happy to get to see some of my St. Paul's and Crossing people. We were very busy so there wasn't a lot of time, but it was good nonetheless. I also got to see my family for a few hours. My dad came to stay at my grandparents house with me for the night. My sister stopped by with my nieces on Sunday before I headed to the airport. It was a whirlwind, but it was nice to be home.

My grand, sad irony of the weekend was that Halcott was selected by his school to represent Sewanee at the ERD seminarian network conference to discuss the MDGs. The conference was at VTS this past weekend. That's right, Hal was at VTS the same weekend that I flew home for convention. God is a funny, funny guy. We saw each other for about 15 minutes before I had to leave for the airport. But Hal had a good weekend at my school and got to meet some of my classmates.

I am preparing to register for sping semester classes and it is pointing out how close we are getting to December! It is time to put my head down and plow forward!