the three year mark

pictures from our trip to california are to come, but i wanted to take a chance to tell myself, happy anniversary and show off some cute photos. Jon and I have been married three years today. hooray! i just watched our wedding video a couple days ago and it was so fun to see the family and friends who made the trek to portland to celebrate with us. thanks. now we're looking forward to celebrating becca and dan's, andy and anne's and tim and rebecca's weddings this spring and summer.

Christmas Duck

Jon and I are sitting around the house, waiting to leave for the airport. It has been snowing since last night, so we're hoping our flight is not canceled. After a week of snow and more forecasted for next week, we're ready to get out of here, even if it is raining in Santa Cruz. While I'm waiting around the house, I thought I'd take a second to show off the gift I got in a white elephant exchange on Thursday. We had a party for our home community, a small group from church, and I scored this awesome duck pitcher. Someone's embarrassing birthday gift was my treasure. I tried using it to water the plants today without much success, but I'll keep it around as a conversation piece and as a new part of my kitschy kitchen.

If we make it to California, I'll post some photos of the goings on. We're looking forward to seeing family and having some time off.

fact. checked!

hello. the weather in portland has left things in a tentative mood. each day something is canceled. tonight there was meant to be a party for the teachers i work with in early childhood at church. they have become dear friends and i am really bummed that the threat of freezing rain, or rain freezing, has kept me home. the next two nights we have christmas parties planned, but i'm still waiting to see what the weather will do. jon has had three straight days of no school, a welcome break from all the work this first year of teaching is proving to be. i have been working downtown at Portland Monthly, waiting in the snow and cold wind, riding the bus. it's ironic that when jon gets a suprise break, I take a hiatus from housewifing. next week is our planned vacation and if we make it out of portland, we'll be in california Saturday evening with Jon's family.

so, today I fact-checked my first piece. i'm not sure what i can say, because i signed a confidentiality agreement. to be vague, it was for the pour department. i learned about a certain type of beer that i didn't know existed. i showed jon my notes and he seemed impressed. and so far, i'm excited for this internship. a little apprehensive for its newness, but glad for its potential, though potential always feels so tentative.

has it been seven months? sheesh!

Oh the weather outside is frightful.

But the fire is so delightful...

First, I offer my sincerest apologies. After graduation I started thinking, I'll post again when the next big thing happens. So, when I got a great job or found out I was pregnant, I would blab it all over this little blog of mine and let the world know. Neither of which have happened so this blog has been left fallow, for a long time. Again, sorry. Though, I'm not convinced you've been hurt by this. I more so got bored seeing the same pictures of the coast each time I tried to visit your blogs using my links. So, here's what has been happening:

This summer Jon and I both worked chump jobs. When I graduated from seminary, working at Starbucks got a whole lot more frustrating and annoying. I would spend the first hour or two when I opened muttering to myself about how much I hated that place. It's really easy to hate everything at 4:15am. In July we went down to California to see family and to meet our new nephew Elias and niece Leelah. And I celebrated my birthday and turned 25. In August we went out to the MidWest to see family and friends. It was lovely. While we were there Jon had a phone interview with the North Clackamas School District and got hired to teach 8th grade Social Studies while we were parked in a Goodwill parking lot in Kenosha, Wisconsin. I don't think we bought anything there, but we left with a real job. As soon as we got back to Portland, Jon started working and has been working pretty constantly ever since. I, on the other hand, quit my job at Starbucks and became a housewife. I've been cooking dinner and doing dishes ever since.

Except for today. Today Jon has been sitting pretty because it was a snow day and school has been called off for tomorrow, too. Last winter we didn't get much inclement weather. This year, we've got nearly a week of promised snow. For those not in Portland, Portland can't handle the snow or ice. The city shuts down. At least most of it. The odd thing is, now that Jon has a couple of surprise days off, I'm off working. I've been interning at our church, Imago Dei, in the children's ministry department since this summer. It's been a good yet hard learning process for me to balance being faithful in the ministry opportunity I have now without much certainty about what will come out of it. A couple weeks ago I scored a second unpaid internship at Portland Monthly magazine. It's a grunt work, fact checking internship and I'm giddy with excitement. Most of my college magazine friends paid their internship dues to Meredith publishing and are off being editors. I retreated to seminary after graduation and will be paying my dues now for three months. We were shown a tracking sheet for articles today and I got excited, remembering my Drake Mag days. Hooray for being back in the magazine world. So, today I had an orientation at Portland Monthly while Jon was at home snow daying it up.

Next, I'm planning to apply for an internship with the Zissou Society. I'll let you know how it goes. And hopefully I'll start posting again. In the past few months as I've been looking to get back into writing and editing, when I had a chance to write, even cover letters for jobs, it was (to sound New Age) a renewing and energizing process. When I don't write, I forget that at least part of me is a writer and at least part of the time I should be doing it.

Thanks for being forgiving and for reading. Hopefully there will be more to come.

coast!

my family is in town. we went to the coast yesterday for what was the clearest day i've ever seen on the oregon coast. we also toured the art museum and japanese gardens the day before, but i forgot the camera. oh well. i'm graduating today, which means a lot of pomp and circumstance for me, sitting for my family and shopping and eating in between.

let's play..."What's Lynette Researching Now?"

I can't tell if you all are sick of hearing about my research or are so deeply intrigued by it that you neglect to post, as the prophet Ezekiel could only sit in silence for seven days having seen the Lord (although the comparison is thin). Either way I'd like to dig my head out of a few primary resources and bring to the surface a little gem I'm going to call Theological Bedtime Stories. Travis, you'll like this one.

Right now I'm researching for my very last academic paper. From here on out I'm only accepting cash and publication rites for my papers rather than grades. The title is something like "the development of the veneration of the saints in the 3rd and 4th centuries," although the real title will be properly capitalized and contain at least one pun. So for the past few days I've been following some suggested primary resources and reading the likes of Origen, Tertullian and Augustine. It's been a balance of both gratingly boring and somewhat intriguing. One intriguing aspect was reading firsthand a story my theology professor would tell us in class, over and over again. I can see him very vividly, though in my mind there is a bit of a theological fog around the room, waving his hand in the air and saying "Away with the Atheists." You see, a long time ago in a land a far way from here there lived a man named Polycarp. He was highly esteemed in the Christian community in Smyrna and equally highly loathed by those who were not Christians. He was also a very old man. Now persecutions broke out in the early church and people were tortured and subsequently martyred for confessing themselves as Christians. Polycarp had tried to hide out in several farms outside the city and there prayed fervently and received a vision of how he would die. His pillow was in flames marking his own end. When he was caught and brought into the stadium he was told to renounce Christ by saying to the believers, "Away with the Atheists." Now at that time Christians were persecuted because they would not sacrifice to the emperor who was believed to be a god, and the god of the empire. Because they would not sacrifice they were called Atheists. When called to commit this act Polycarp turned instead to those in the stadium cheering his death, held up his hand and shouted, "Away with the Atheists." And now without properly citing I'll quote a bit verbatim from "The Martyrdom of Polycarp."

"But when the magistrate persisted and said, 'Swear the oath, and I will release you; revile Christ, ' Polycarp replied, 'For eighty-six years I have been his servant, and he has done me no wrong. How can I blaspheme my King who saved me?'"

In my mind I'm trying to combine my last paper with this current one and figure out how to tell these stories if not to the kiddos at church at least to my children when the day comes. This morning I taught our 3-year-olds at church to point to themselves and say, "I am the church." I'd also like them to know who else is part of the church and what they did. People like Polycarp of Symrna.

Alright, enough rambling. Back to work.

Nintendo Wife, Nintendo Strife

Every Sunday I call my parents who live in Wisconsin. Every Sunday my Mom answers and pretends to be surprised that I am on the other end. Both my Mom and my Dad, on a typical day will proceed to talk my ear off for upwards of 2 hours. I enjoy hearing what their weekend activities and how the dog or grandson is so cute and how I have to see it or him. I'm partly to blame for the unbalanced conversation because when they ask how things are for me and what I've been up to I never seem to have a long or interesting answer. This past week I had class and work on Monday, worked Tuesday and then was writing a paper for the rest of the week. Nothing to call home about. Jon on the other hand has been busy. Mostly he's at school, teaching punk students about the New Deal(s). But when he's home and near craigslist.org he's wheeling and dealing. Today he bought two NES consoles. This week he's sold and spent games and consoles equally upwards of hundreds of dollars. I'm a little proud of him. It's got to be one of his spiritual gifts. I'm also a bit mystified by it all. So, I decided to you in on what the Sanchez: Portland Division family has been up to. Jon's collecting and selling all things Nintendo. I'm shooting him confused looks and starting to look at the Nintendo franchise forming in our home with a hint of jealousy. What did you do this week?