In A World...

Our lives are so much more adventurous than we let on...

So life is good...

Yes, what else can I really say? Sure, there are a number of challenges in life right at the moment - but if you really step back and look at it: life is good. The weather's been rather nice around here as well, although today was almost a little warm inside the apartment. My lovely wife and I are about six degrees off - so when she's quite comfortable, I'm hot. When I'm comfortable, she's freezing. Ah well, such is life. Who's to say my thermostat is the right one?

Teri and I are in full swing with the semester down here. I have found teaching to be quite a new challenge - but one that I dearly enjoy. I'm starting to gravitate more and more toward the idea of spending more of my working time teaching - and toying with thoughts of even taking the long course of life more in that direction. Of course, God knows what He wants, and we shall see what the future holds. All in all, however, I have found my students to bring quite a bit of joy to my life. They've also brought quite a few gray hairs and induced the production of more than a few stress hormones - but that's just the nature of the beast, I suppose. For a first semester, it has gone rather well. Students are funny creatures. They decide they want to advance their lives with further education (or their parents decide for them), they come to college, sign up for classes, bring their smiling faces to class, and then complain in an offended tone when you give them their first assignment. Practice? Speeches? Oh, thou loathsome teacher, you hate us all... But, there's always the other side of it. It's extremely rewarding to see them try, put out effort, commit to a speech, utilize your suggestions. And I love getting hellos and greetings from them around campus. They're not a bad sort, really...

God bless, --Nick

A Tour of the Pad

Yes, for all those of you who have been wondering what our home looks like - now you can see it! We had a couple of friends over for dinner a while back, and we thought we'd host our own "Home Tour" while we were at it. No, it's not the finest example of my most professional work - but it serves the purpose.

--Nick

Out of the vault

I was going through old mini dv tapes last night, and I found the source footage for one of the group projects I was involved with way back in one of my college video classes. We were doing claymation/animation; I cleaned it up a bit and added some sound effects. No, it's not earth-shaking, it's just for fun.

--Nick

*Gasp*

Gasp. That's a fitting word for life. "Gasp! What time is it?" (I did this yesterday, thinking I had missed my work shift.) "Gasp! Wednesday is coming!" (My thoughts on the coming semester - I'll be teaching this year.) "Gasp! I haven't rehearsed enough!" (My feelings two nights ago while performing in a repertoire.) "Gasp! It's cold!" (Our feelings every time we step out of our cozy little home and into the frigid Pensacola winter air.) It really has been cold here lately. This morning I believe it was somewhere around 20 degrees down here. I observed ice on the side of the road as I walked to church/work this morning, and the grass had a particularly crunchy feel to it. I know it's nothing for you weather-hardened northerners and westerners out there, but this is Florida! We're supposed to be driving around in our convertibles with the tops down and our radios up while the rest of the U.S. grows jealous. Ah well. I really don't mind the cold weather once I get a bit used to it, but if you're all set for a warm-weather day, a bit of bone-soaking cold can be rather debilitating. (I would like to take a small moment here to remind everyone who lives everywhere else that Pensacola is a very humid place, and our cold is wet and chilling. Think of that before you sneer at our shivering bodies.)

I feel like so much has happened since our last post, but as usual when I sit down to chronicle my thoughts, I don't feel like I can remember anything.

Teri and I had a wonderful Christmas vacation. We took off on the Friday before Christmas, jetting our way up to Kansas City, Missouri (via Houston, TX); and arriving rather late due to various delays. We arrived and picked up our rental car by about midnight, and then proceeded to beat it up to Omaha, Nebraska; home, of course, to Teri's family. It was quite a switch, living in comparatively balmy Florida conditions and then walking across an Antarctic parking lot looking for our rental car. We survived the trip and arrived safe and sound at around four or five in the morning. Then followed our luxurious stay with the fam. We spent most of our time kicking back at the house, although on Christmas day itself we actually all drove up into Iowa and Minnesota to visit with extended family. The Thursday following Christmas found us driving back down to Kansas City and turning in our rental car and staying with the Strattons, old friends of mine now residing in Ottawa, Kansas. Mom Stratton was my high-school principal for the private-school years of my life, and I became good friends with the boys (and Stephanie) during those footloose and fancy-free years of high school. Of course, the kids are grown up and scattered around the globe now, but everyone was gathered back under one roof for the Christmas holiday, along with the addition of wives and children. It was so much fun to hang out with everyone again and introduce them to Teri. Good friends are those with whom you feel comfortable even though you haven't seem them in four or five years.

Well, after a brief stay in Ottawa we trundled back out to the airport, and hitched a ride over to Colorado Springs, CO; grabbed a rental car and popped up to Denver. There we visited with our Natropath, Brenda, and reviewed our present dietary condition. For the three or four months prior to Christmas we had been on a pretty strict diet in our order to improve our health (no wheat, dairy, sugars). Brenda confirmed that we had made good progress, and our bodies were building themselves back up. With this progress comes the privilege of widening our diets out a little and not being as strict about things, although we are retaining a lot of the "lifestyle changes" that we've made (i.e. avoiding lots of dairy, wheat, and sugar). Independent confirmation from Brenda aside, we really do feel healthier the way we're eating now and don't feel burdened and constrained. Teri, for one thing, has been able to shed a majority of the headaches she used to get every few days growing up - a pleasant side effect of eating healthy. Basically, the nutshell principle of everything is: less processed and preserved = good; more processed and preserved = bad.

After our good news, we ran back down to Colorado Springs where we stayed with the LeFevers (old friends) until Monday morning. We got to visit with more old friends that I hadn't seen in forever, and of course it was a blast introducing Teri to all of them. After a delightful (albeit short) stay, we hit the airport again and flew back down to Pensacola. Tuesday we laid around the house recovering from all the rapid traveling, and Wednesday it was back to work.

Speaking of work, I'm still slated for teaching this Spring. I've been given three Speech 101 classes, as well as a Broadcasting lab. I look forward very much to getting to know my students during the semester journey. Yes, I'm nervous - how could I not be? But I'm excited, very excited.

Lately I've been thinking about how extremely blessed we are. Sure, we have our problems; but we have so much! We live in a palace! Ok, so it's just an apartment, but we've got heat and air-conditioning at our fingertips, hot water, food in the fridge, furniture, carpet, a soft bed. If I get a toothache I go to the dentist; if I get low on food I go to the store. I've got a great job - using both of my majors (how often does that happen?), working with great people, in a place that seeks to honor the Lord! I'm not bragging; and sure, the stuff we have isn't perfect - but we are so blessed with what we have! Compared to the way millions of people on this earth have lived, and are living, we live like kings!

God help us not to take these things for granted.
--Nick

Check soon for post!

Post coming soon! Check soon for post! Soon there will be a post! Uh... posting! will... will be... will be coming soon! Yes! That's it! Soon posting will be!

(Interpretation: The blog is still alive)

--Nick

'Tis the Season...

Yes, 'tis the season indeed. I've managed to evade most of the bacteria and viruses out there, but alas, it is all to no avail. Sooner or later they get you. They watch you, they study you, they learn your patterns, they look to see which doorknob you regularly use, they lie in wait for you on that doorknob and then -BLAM!- they make you their terrified victim! Sigh. Oh well, such is life. Things have actually been going pretty well in the health department this semester - oh there's always good days and bad days, but in general Teri's and my health has been improving due to our dietary changes instituted earlier this semester (see earlier post about the Colorado trip). We've had to make a few sacrifices for a while, breaking ourselves into a healthier lifestyle with a kind-of-strict 3-month introduction diet (avoid dairy, wheat gluten, and sugars) but we've both felt the benefits as our bodies have had opportunities to heal themselves with less junk in the works. I, however, have managed to come down with something akin to the flu - however not as simple as that. I've got a doctor's appointment tomorrow morning, so we'll see what's behind that door...

In other news, life has changed! Ok, maybe not drastically, but it's direction has changed a little bit, as well as my day-to-day interaction with it. What does this mean, you ask? It means that, starting next semester, our house will be a house of teachers. Teachers, that's plural, as in Teri AND me. That's right folks, yours truly has been given an opportunity to teach in the Speech department at the college. I've thought about teaching before, and it's something I would enjoy doing, but nothing ever really came of these thoughts. However, the tides have changed, and I'll be teaching Freshman Speech part time starting next semester. I'll still be spending about 3/4 of my time at my current job, video editing/sound reinforcement, but I'm content to start off with a reasonable number of classes. I'm very excited about this new switch of direction, and am looking forward very much to the experiences of martyrdo-- excuse me, teacherdom. I have to admit, the whole thing seems a tiny bit intimidating, but with God's grace and my wife's help (she's a veteran teacher now), I should be able to get through this. I'm interested to see if I love it or hate it.

God bless you all,
--Nick