Happy Birthday Marilyn!

Today is Marilyn's birthday, and I wanted to take a moment to tell her how much I love her! I LOVE YOU MARILYN! (feel like I need to break into the 'Nellie Song' at this point)

[Actually, I realize that it's utterly pathetic if you have to post a blog in order to tell your wife you love her - so fear not!, I have already lavished my affections upon her personally and will continue to do so faithfully (after all, it's Mother's Day tomorrow! :-) All that to say this post is for you more than her!]

So anyway, today was a great day in that:

• a) we both slept in past 8 AM (Ahhhhh...)
  
• b) I really did intend to make breakfast for her, but dang, I was groggy this morning... so she and Rebekah had already started on the eggs and sausage by the time I staggered downstairs (but I DID help once I got there). And it was delicicious, especially with the fresh roasted Ethiopian Harrar (one GREAT cup of coffee, by the way!)
• c) we actually had time to sit and talk for a bit this morning (I love doing this - she says something meaningful, I tell her how much I love her, she says something profound, I tell her how beautiful she is, she says...ok, ok, I'm just kidding. Well mostly. We had a great time just talking. I'm looking forward to a lot more of this come summer)
• d) next up, Marilyn's parents drove down from Milton to bring birthday presents and have lunch with us -it was really great to see them before we head back out to Montana this summer
• e) then it was off to baseball games! Rebekah swung the bat and hit a single! Woo Hoo! And Micah had a couple of really nice hits that were caught (but he did drive in an RBI). All told, it was a beautiful day for baseball. And I even got some studying in at the same time...
• f) we came home and took a NAP! Gentle breeze blowing through the window, blue sky and golden sunlight filtering through the trees... ah! bliss!
• g) and now, evan as I write, Marilyn is off pursing her lovely lips and breathing sweetly into that French Horn of hers - she has her last symphony concert of the season tonight, and I must confess that I am really proud of how well she has improved this year. She sounds good! Plus her horn teacher tells her she's beginning to play with 'attitude' (and yes, that's quite a compliment).

So that was the day, and it was a fine one at that. Here in Philly we are wrapping up for the school year. Classes are finished, I am studying furiously for finals, and 11 days from now we should be on our way back to Montana for the summer! Can't wait to see Malachi, who by the sounds of it is having a killer baseball season back in Big Sky Country. Of course we're also looking forward to seeing the rest of you too!

One final note: from May 22 - 26 we will be attending the PCA Church Planting Assessment Center in Atlanta, GA. This is a significant 'next step in the process' as we look towards future church planting work in Missoula, MT in the Summer of 2006. For those of you who pray, we would definitely appreciate your prayers regarding this: pray that God would help us to be real (yeah, I know what you're thinking... pray that he helps us be wise too); pray also that he would give those evaluating us great insight and wisdom into our own character, so that we can know ourselves better, both our strengths and weaknesses. Pray that this process goes well, as the outcome will significantly affect what happens after graduation. Did I mention that we need you to pray? :-)

That pretty much does it for now! You probably won't hear much from us again until early June, but we will be thinking of you and hope you will do the same for us!

See you in Montana!

(p.s. - Micah's birthday is right around the corner on May 15th! He will be 12!!!!)