the Wiles

Friday, July 1, 2011

what tomorrow will bring

When I start to think about what our life will look like in 1, 5, 10 years from now, my chest gets tight. There are so many things that I worry about; ideal jobs, salaries, kids, a house, and location. I find myself plotting and planning on things that we can do now to ensure that we will obtain all of these things that I wrongly feel entitled to. While being wise about the future is important, it is so good for me to remember that He will provide for and lovingly take care of us, giving us everything that we need. This verse is a good reminder:

Come now, you who say, "today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit"- yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, "if the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that." As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. James 4:13-16

Monday, June 27, 2011

summer love

We are deep in the throes of summer and loving every minute of it; road trips, boats, pools, beaches, grilling, ice cream (ok, not really seasonal in my life), fresh fruit, and a glorious stack of books waiting to be read.

I am officially done with grad school and have a month and a half beautifully stretched out ahead of me before I start my new job in August. To kick off the summer, Nate and I took a trip to the South.

We started off in dreamy Savannah...

: tree-lined squares dripping with gauzy spanish moss

: amazing old houses

: delicious confections

: the riverfront

: one of the many beautiful squares in the historic district

Next, we hopped into the Honda and drove to Jekyll Island....

: driftwood beach

: i love reading at the beach

: nate loves climbing dead trees

: tide coming in = warm ocean water. in i go for another dip.

Then, we were off to Tennessee.

: whitewater rafting

: hiking in the smokies

The last leg of our trip was a stop in Kentucky to visit our 3 sweet nephews. A adventurous, fun, and much-needed vacation!

Sunday, May 22, 2011

spring semester to-do list:

study every available minute possible for PRAXIS and COMPS: check

pass the PRAXIS: done

pass COMPS: yes (eventually)

finish internship at the school: oh yes i did

graduate: walking in the ceremony counts

finish internship at the hospital: only 3 weeks left!

find a job: I am calling on Tuesday to (probably) accept an offer

: he was so great through all the craziness of grad school

: you are so cute

: trip to Allerton, the very place where Nate so sweetly proposed

Things are moving quickly, and as far as I'm concerned, I'm done with grad school. I am reeeally looking forward to summer. We have a few trips planned, and will get to meet our new nephew in a few weeks.

So bring on the lemonade, lightning bugs, and long sunny days. I am ready!

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Blizzard!

Tonight we are bundled up in our apartment, surrounded by 3-foot drifts of snow outside.

The blowing snow began yesterday. I had a snow day and Nate left work a few hours early. I have stayed tucked under covers on the couch for the majority of these two days because of a nasty cold, but I couldn’t have gone anywhere today even if I wanted to.

Even Howie, who usually enjoys his romps in the snow, did not want to be outside in the blustery blizzard. Either that, or, he is making that face to manipulate my emotions to get something that he wants… But you know I would give in. He is just that cute.

Neither one of us when into work today; Nate worked from home and I slept and studied for COMPS. Today, most businesses were shut down, all schools were closed, and the weathermen on TV looked so cold!

All this snow makes me want to go skiing. Maybe someday I will live in a place where I can do that.

The good news is the groundhog predicted an early spring this year. Yes please!

Now it’s time to make dinner and paint my nails. But first I will paint my nails

Thursday, January 27, 2011

crazy talk

Nate had surgery yesterday to stretch his esophagus to help him swallow. The surgery went well, and hopefully he won't have any swallowing difficulty anytime soon.

After the surgery, they brought me to Nate to be with him while he recovered from the anesthesia. He was pretty out of it for a while, and our conversation went in circles.

J: How are you feeling?

N: Good. How long have you been here?

J: Maybe 5 minutes. Why don't you drink some water?

N: Ok. How long have you been here?

J: A little while.

N: Did you talk to the doctor?

J: Yep, he said everything went well and he will see you Monday.

N: How long have you been here?

J: Probably 10 minutes now.

N: Did you talk to the doctor?

He has been feeling fine since, and we are thankful that it went as well as it did!

This is the end of the 3rd week of my internship. It's going well, but I can't wait for the day that I will be able to blog about my long-awaited graduation!

here I am!

It is going to be harder to keep this blog updated than I thought!

Things have been busy though. I started my school internship last week and am enjoying it. My supervisor is great, the kids are really cute, and the speech room is sunny with blue walls and smells like cinnamon. Not bad at all. I have only observed so far, so I'm sure I will have more to say once I begin therapy.

Nathan had his swallow study done last week (he was having some difficultly swallowing). We are relieved to know there is nothing abnormal, and will hear more about the results tomorrow.

We had a ~~freezing cold~~ fun weekend sledding and going to dinner with friends. We also went to see Nate's sweet grandma, and Nate held onto her hand as she watched him.

I recently finished reading "The Hiding Place" by Corrie ten Boom and was amazed. It would have been a very depressing book were it not for the bright faith that Corrie and her family held onto during circumstances so horrific that they were difficult to imagine. About her time spent in a concentration camp with her sister, Corrie writes:

"It grew harder and harder. Even within these four walls there was too much misery, too much seemingly pointless suffering. Every day something else failed to make sense, something else grew too heavy. 'Will You carry this too, Lord Jesus?'

"But as the rest of the world grew stranger, one thing became increasingly clear. And that was the reason the two of us were here. Why others should suffer we were not shown. As for us, from morning until lights-out, whenever we were not in ranks for roll call, our Bible was the center of an ever-widening circle of help and hope. The blacker the night grew, the brighter and truer and more beautiful burned the word of God... Life in Ravensbruck took place on two separate levels, mutually impossible. One, the observable, external life, grew every day more horrible. The other, the life we lived with God, grew daily better, truth upon truth, glory upon glory."

Theirs is such a powerful story, and makes me strive to see God working in my own circumstances and to praise Him regardless. Such a moving book, I highly recommend it.

This week will be another cold and busy one. It is so good for us to be reminded to enjoy just living where God has us right now.

And now it's time to start dinner for my handsome and hard-workin man!

a year in review

What I like about blogging is that we are able to look back and be reminded of it all. In theory, scrap-booking would be fabulous. But blogging is much better because it's so much more accessible. And since I just started this blog, I will have to look back at pictures to be reminded of the events from the past year.

So 2010 in review, blogging style:

(January)