Spring Flowers

These hyacinths just starting coming out of the ground a week ago and now they're in full-bloom. It is so beautiful to see daffodils all over our neighborhood.

Mom says it doesn't get cold enough in Texas to have spring bulb flowers. People put their bulbs in the freezer for the winter!

New Job

Ryan got a new job today! He's the track coach at Troy (Ohio) Christian Middle School. He started today! There are 25 kids on the team, and they're all his! He doesn't have any assistants, just a volunteer high jump coach. Although due to pregnancy I'll only be able to describe moves, not demonstrate them!

He's also going to TX the weekend of April 14. He needs to pass the TeXes test in Social Studies. Yes, that's TeXes, not Texas. Additionally, he begins a Politial Sci class at Sinclair Community College on Monday. He'll be busy! Oh, God gave us a cool gift with Ryan's ticket to Texas. We had tried to use frequent flier miles for the trip a couple days ago but no flights were available. Tonight we tried again and were able to get one that fits into his schedule well. We purchased it. Right after that, we checked to see if the flight was still available, and it was gone! I guess that God was saving that seat for Ryan!

I'm on Spring Break this week. Next Tuesday I start my spring quarter classes. One of them is a lecture class that has 80 students enrolled right now! Yikes! The secretary of the department said that enrollment could go over 100! I've never done anything like that before! Pray for me!

Two Teams Out

The Spartans have a hard time on St. Patty's day. Last year they lost to George Mason, and tonight North Carolina wore them down. Ok, so nobody expected them to do anything, but Wright State lost this week. It was just really exciting that they made the tournament. It was only the second time since they became a D1 team.

Baby is getting bigger. I feel him/her pressing against my organs when I bend over. I heard the heartbeat at the doctor's again Tuesday. It is now 147 bpm. The date for the big ultrasound is 4/9/07. We're hoping to see if baby is a boy or girl. Ryan still thinks it's a girl! On Thursday I will be beginning my 5th month of pregnancy. It sounds so far along. I know that I still have a LONG way to go, but it seems weird to almost be in the middle of my 2nd trimester.

Physics, Math, and Taxes

Tina, my awesome physics TA, made this for the baby. She had planned to make me a physics t-shirt, but when she heard I was pregnant, made a baby version instead. Ryan says that it is the first "nerd" gift.

Austin was just over here for some tutoring. We were doing long division. So, kids really do learn how to do math without a calculator. I wonder how many high school students can still do long division.

I've completed our federal taxes for 2006 three times! I used Turbotax, TaxCut, and the EmilyKelly paper and pencil version and got three different refunds/amounts due! I feel the most confident about the EmilyKelly version because I think TaxCut didn't take into account the self-employment tax that Ryan owes for working with AIA. Besides, the EmilyKelly version is the only one that has us owing tax, and I'm afraid that is the case. Now, my next task is to do the taxes married filing separately and see if this makes a difference.

Oh, good news! Ryan was accepted to his program at Weatherford College. He's applied to about 10 districts already. Please pray for a job soon! We'd love to know where to look for a place to live. It would be great if we could live within walking distance to the school. Ryan would love to walk or bike to school. He'd like to coach, too. I think he'd be able to coach anything in middle school except maybe cheerleading... I'd like to see him demonstrating the cheers though!

Yeah!

Ryan passed his math, reading, and writing tests needed to teach in TX! He worked really hard to prepare, and it paid off! Tomorrow morning he has an interview to get into the teacher preparation program. Please pray that he'll get in and be able to find a job soon!

House Church

I went to house church tonight. We always meet at someone's house and eat a meal together. We then have a discussion about God's word, pray, and take communion together. Our purpose is to live as children of Christ in community.

We try to do the following each week:
Bless several people inside and outside of our group by encouraging or helping
Eat together with people inside and outside of our group
Listen to God for an hour of silence every week.
Learn something new to share with the group.
Share the message of Christ with someone.

This list is not about being legalistic, but about changing our belief system by establishing a set of behaviors. I'm being blessed by our group this week! Ben and Adam just stopped by to scoop Kit Kat's poop! I'm not allowed to, and Ryan is out of town. Gail is having me over for dinner so that I don't have to eat alone! Thanks for being a blessing to me! It is very hard for me to ask for help, but I'm learning.