So much to write about, but not sure where to start…

First off – I have lost a little bit of weight! Praise Jesus! I’m down five whole pounds from my peak last fall, and last week I wore a skirt I haven’t been able to fit into for much too long. Of course, I had to wear it a bit higher on my waist that normal, but it zipped, and it didn’t look obscenely tight on my hiney, so I’m calling it a win. This morning I hit a number I haven’t seen since last spring. What a wonderful feeling. It only took eight weeks of half marathon training to finally see a difference. Maybe now that the ball is rolling, the rest will melt off. Right? A girl can dream…

Speaking of half marathon training… we’ve hit that point where we do long runs on the weekends. As in, I have to run eight miles on Saturday. Nine miles next Saturday (but that’s about 900 calories). Gulp. It’s totally doable, I just listen to books on tape and try to distract myself from the monotony. We run five miles, twice a week, on weeknights. That takes me a full episode of the Kardashians AND E-News with Ryan Seacrest. I know way more celebrity gossip than I ever thought possible because it’s the only thing showing at the gym, and it keeps me from losing my mind from boredom on that treadmill. Oh how I wish for the day I can get Hulu on my iPhone and catch up on all my favorite tv shows… maybe then I can do a marathon. Maybe.

Mr. Right and I became ESL certified this weekend. We’ve done our training a bit out of order, accidentally taking an advanced two-day course last summer, leaving us utterly confused. But now we finally know the basics of lesson planning, choosing curriculum, how to structure our class. And I realized that everything I did last semester was completely wrong. My bad. Through God’s grace my students learned English anyway, and loved coming to class, and they still learned about Jesus, so I’m calling that a win (like my too-high skirt that finally fit).

Speaking of ESL, I’ve been praying a lot about our new semester, which launches in a few short weeks. I desperately miss my students, and I’m feeling a huge burden for internationals right now. Like, my heart aches to help them. We had our dear friend Timothy from Nigeria spend the night at our place Saturday night (he lives in the seminary dorm, so we try to have him over occasionally to give him a change of scenery and a home cooked meal). He has turned into a wonderful friend, and I have learned some wonderful things about his home country. Someday I’ll have to share some of the misconceptions he says he had about Americans. It’s fun because we have some of the same misconceptions about Africans. If you’re a praying person, please pray for his country, which is suffering from some major violence toward Christians right now.

Oh, and speaking of internationals… Mr. Right is going on a last minute international mission trip in February. For TWELVE DAYS. I was home alone for just two nights in December while he visited a friend in Oklahoma, and the house was a wreck, the dishes were dirty, and I was wearing his old t-shirts around the house as I moved from craft project to craft project. So please start praying now for both of us as we’re apart for such an extended period of time. I do so love his company. But I’m also wildly excited for this opportunity for him. All of my girlfriends can expect dinner invitations during those two weeks, and it’ll be a great opportunity to finish a few quilts (and start one for my nephew). And read a book or two.

I should start a list…