Chris and Caroline

Pup... as promised.

2011-06-30T21:39:00.000-04:00

Our Dog, Abby, gets herself in lots of trouble, is full of attitude and is lots of fun.

She never stops "talking," making little "roo roo" sounds.

All in all, I'd say she fits in pretty well around here!

She's certainly been a great addition to our family.

"Snuggle Puppy" laying in my lap.

Last year on Labor Day, when we brought her home (14 weeks old).

Aren't we a cute bunch!

"Who, Me?" (6 mos.)

"Nothin' cuter than a boy and his pup!"

p.s.- can you tell who is Abby's best buddy?

This was taken about a month ago, just after her first birthday.

Abby laughing at one of Chris' jokes this evening.

Deck

2011-06-30T21:15:00.000-04:00

This is our deck, finished!

We're so excited.

Check out our fantastic vacation location this year :)

I know it's dark outside, but you can still see the table, chairs and plants-

Abby

2011-05-17T13:14:00.003-04:00

Abingdon("Abby" for short) is our fabulous dog. She's about to be a year old. She's a field bred Enghish Setter. She was named for the street that I grew up on, which is also where our wedding reception was- today is our 3rd Anniversary and so I though it suitable to mention the 3rd member of our family...

(Photos to follow- something's messed up on our uploading.)

Deck

2011-05-09T17:25:00.003-04:00

We're building a deck. Well, really what we're doing is paying someone to build a deck. It's turned out to be a much longer process than we'd planned. After months of talking about it, a month of confusion, and a month of working with a contractor, we were all ready to go. The deck building began!!

We had concrete steps in the grass going up the side hill, as well as a small concrete path and steps to the house. To save money, we decided to do the demolition ourselves, with the help of our neighbors' sledgehammer and jack hammer.

Here's the hill where the steps were in the grass. The steps into the back door were actually covering the original steps, which we had to leave for the contractor to pull out.

You would think that this picture was taken just a few days later. It wasn't...we hit a bump in the road. Apparently the City of Greenville has a 7-14 (business!) day waiting period from when you apply for the building permit to when it is issued. So the project was put on hold for over 2 weeks. We had hoped to have the deck completed by Caroline's birthday, but that didn't happen. I took this picture today. Fortunately the building permit has been issued and the contractor returns tomorrow!

Since I tore up the steps, we had no way to get in and out of the back door, so the contractor made some temporary steps for us. Not the safest set of steps in the world, but they've held up better than we thought they would. Also...notice the nice new window box? Complements of Catherine and Christopher Austin and installed by Jerry East. At least something on the back of the house looks good!

Its been a while...

2011-05-02T21:39:00.002-04:00

We've been in our house for just over a year now and its been just about a year since our last post. Goes to show that I'm really bad at this whole blog thing. But after some encouraging words from my friend Ellen, I'm going to give it another shot. We'll see what happens.

Gettin' Settled

2010-05-19T21:10:00.004-04:00

So we've been in our new house for about a month and a half. It's starting to feel like home now that most of the boxes are unpacked. Some rooms look exactly like we want them to, but most of the house is a work in progress. So far we've:

had 2 rooms painted
tilled part of the front yard
tilled one side of the backyard
planted 6 trees
planted a whole bunch of shrubs
planted veggies

That's some of the bigger stuff. Caroline's parents came down for a day to help us with a lot of it and we have them to thank for the tiller (which wreaked havoc on my shoulders and arms). Lot of folks brought us plants: Caroline's parents, my mom, neighbors, and a few folks from Caroline's congregation. Here are a few pictures to give you an visual of what's happened:

Obligatory Picture with For Sale sign (nobody likes to put "sold" on homes anymore...sad)

The slow unpacking process

Making progress downstairs

My first attempt at tilling...there's a Dogwood tree there now

The beginning of the backyard tilling

Progress in the backyard

One more of the backyard

She's Official!

2010-03-22T16:28:00.003-04:00

That's right -- on March 7th, Caroline was ordained to the Ministry of the Word and Sacrament. It was a beautiful service at her home church, and a whole bunch of folks showed up to support her; friends and family came from out of town - as far as NYC. Her ordination commission was made up of 4 ministers and 4 elders from Charlotte Presbytery --- all people who have played an important roll in Caroline's life and call to ministry. The choir sang, the elders processed in and sat together - Covenant Presbyterian definitely knows how to do an ordination service!

Here are some pictures from after the service:

Proud Parents

Proud Husband

The Reverend Caroline East Berardi

Caroline will be installed as the Associate Pastor at First Presbyterian Anderson on April 11th at the 11:00 service. Somehow the Sr. Minister talked me into preaching at the service. By then we should be moved into our new home. Lots to look forward to in the next few weeks!

Birthday

2010-03-04T10:12:00.004-05:00

My birthday is today. I'm 27, which to me is the beginning of my late twenties. That doesn't mean that I look that old though. I still get comments of "You're too young to be a minister!" quite often. I'm not sure if there's anything significant about 27 other than it's the beginning of your late twenties. The next mile marker, in my opinion, is 30. I've still got three good years left of being in my twenties.

Anyway, we don't have much planned for today. One of my church members is taking me to lunch, and Caroline and I will probably go out for dinner, and then I will do laundry for hours in preparation for going out of town for Caroline's ordination (see the last 2 posts). Thursdays also means that Burn Notice is on, and while I find it a bit cheesy, it's somehow addicting.

We have intentionally kept my birthday low-key this year. And for a good reason: we bought a house. Yes, a lovely two story brick house with a huge fenced-in backyard. I'd show y'all pictures of the inside, but the homeowners are still there so its their stuff in the house and not ours. Those pictures will come soon (if I keep up with my blogging). We close March 31, which is a terrible idea. Why would two ministers close on a house in the middle of Holy Week?

As a teaser, here's a picture of the front of the house:

More Big News

2010-02-17T16:42:00.002-05:00

Ok, so I just plain suck at blogging. So much for weekly, or even monthly, updates. For some reason I have this crazy idea that every time I blog I need to include a picture. While that would be nice, there is no reason why a picture would be necessary. Nice, but not needed. Anyway, moving on to important matters, yesterday Caroline (and our friend Lydia as well) was examined by the Foothills Presbytery and was approved for ordination! We weren't expecting them to vote no, but it's still a stressful moment. Three years of seminary and lots of time and effort are hanging in the balance.

Caroline is going to be ordained at her home church by the Presbytery of Charlotte on March 7th. We're pretty excited, of course!

Big News!

2009-12-06T13:19:00.003-05:00

It has been in the works for a while, but I had to keep quiet until today. It is now official. I have been called as the associate pastor at First Presbyterian Church of Anderson, SC. I will start on Jan 1st. I'm very excited! It is a general associate position which will include preaching, teaching, and pastoral care, but will lean heavily towards increasing mission, and new membership. I won't be ordained until probably March because this presbytery only meets quarterly. That said, I've been examined by the Committee on Ministry and am just biding my time, working in an unordained capacity until the early spring. Pretty Exciting! (And nice to get to start after the madness of Christmas.)

Vacation and Thanksgiving

2009-11-29T15:32:00.005-05:00

Sadly, Advent and Christmas are not vacation-friendly periods for clergy. I had a few days of vacation left for the year and decided to use to to head down to Georgia to see family and take Caroline to her first Georgia football game. Unfortunately, we both have a bad habit of forgetting that we own a camera, and took very few pictures.

I had debated taking Caroline to the Auburn game or to the Kentucky game, but opted for the latter, as the tickets were cheaper and I figured we'd beat Kentucky and lose to Auburn. That probably means I jinxed the Bulldogs. My bad.

We spent Thanksgiving in Charlotte with Caroline's family and stayed with her sister and brother-in-law and their twins in their new home. Again, no pictures of that since we didn't think to take any. However, we did take a few pictures Thanksgiving morning. We took the girls downtown to see the parade and see Santa.

Waiting for Santa

All in all it's been a fun few weeks. Tomorrow I'm heading back up to Charlotte with members of my church to work at the Operation Christmas Child Processing Center. Should be a fun day.

Ordination

2009-10-03T16:52:00.004-04:00

Chris was ordained on the 20th of September! He is now officially a Minister of Word and Sacrament in the Presbyterian Church (USA). This is certainly something to be proud of... and I am content to be a Minister's wife (for the short term- until I get a call and can be ordained myself. Well, I guess I'll always be a Minister's wife, I just would rather be his ordained Minister wife!) The service took place at his home church: The Madison Presbyterian Church in Madison, GA. They have been so good to him, supporting him as he went through school and went above and beyond with their hospitality this weekend. A call finally fulfilled is a beautiful thing.

Right after the service, I helped him adjust
his stole- which he put on for the first time.
It is one I brought back for this occasion from
the Holy Land. It was embroidered by
Palestinian Christian women with Jerusalem
crosses.

Here he is in the front of the sanctuary.
Precious.

Here he is with his proud parents. So many friends
came from near and far to be present and support
Chris as he took his vows and we'll never be able to
tell them how special it was to share this
event with them.

Three Months Later...

2009-08-30T19:22:00.003-04:00

It's been a long three months. At this point our move to Greenville, SC shouldn't be a surprise. I'm settling into my position at Grace Covenant Presbyterian Church in Mauldin, and am set to be ordained on September 20th. My official title is Associate Pastor for Generational Ministry, but basically it is a general associate position with a few areas that I focus in. Two weeks ago I had my final examination before the Presbytery. I preached during the worship service, then came back out to be examined and to have the Presbytery vote on my terms of call (salary and such).

Caroline has finished her CPE internship, and has moved down here, though as I type this she is actually in Charlotte. We spend the past week at Litchfield Beach, where Caroline's parents own a condo (shameless plug - if you go to Litchfield Beach and want a condo, rent Bridgewater 524). Before that, we were in Charlotte for our friend Jennifer's wedding. I had to come back yesterday so I could be at church today, and Caroline stayed one more day there with her parents. Catherine and the twins came for a couple days as well, which was a lot of fun, since the last time I was at the beach with them was two years ago.

The plan for the next few weeks is to get ready for my ordination down in Madison, then my installation here, and also to start finding Caroline a job. There are a couple of school chaplaincy positions that we've heard about that we'll be looking into.

One of these days I'll get better about regular blog postings. In the meantime, here are some pictures:

Me on my first Sunday at GCPC, standing in my very sparse study

The view from the balcony at Litchfield

Yes, this is a lazy river, and it was fantastic

Caroline cooking crab crakes. They were delicious.

Graduation

2009-05-31T10:54:00.003-04:00

Two Saturdays ago (May 23), Caroline and I completed our Seminary education and graduated from PTS (you've probably already noticed that we've changed our profile picture). It was quite a crazy weekend (especially for Caroline who came back from Israel on the 21st and left on the 26th for Charlotte to start CPE (Clinical Pastoral Education, which oversimplified could be called Chaplaincy internship). Sadly, the two of us did not take any pictures of our own, so we are relying on family to supply us with photos. We've received some already so here's what we've got:

The graduates and Moms

The Graduates and Dads

Caroline, Chip, and Catherine

All-in-all we had a fun weekend with friends and family. As I already mentioned, Caroline is down in Charlotte. I'm working a couple days a week and tying up loose ends here, which includes looking for a moving company to move us down South. I have been offered a position at as an Associate Pastor and will be starting sometime in the next month or so. I can't mention where yet, as there are still folks who must sign off on it. Basically, I have to meet with the Presbytery's (the governing body of a small area of churches) Committee on Ministry, who makes sure I'm a good fit for the congregation and the congregation is a good fit for me. Then the congregation votes on my "terms of call" which is my entire compensation package. Once that happens, I can start. Right now the plan is to have both the meeting and the voting done by the 22nd of June.

In the meantime, I'm gonna try to get some golf in up here...

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!

2009-05-17T19:51:00.004-04:00

Today marks one year of marriage for Caroline and me. So how did we spend this special day? I actually spent the morning with her parents attending the church where we had the ceremony, Covenant Presbyterian. I have been on some job interviews down there (more on that in the next week or two), and stayed with the East's during that time. Caroline, on the other hand, spend our anniversary in Jerusalem on a class trip that had been postponed. I'm sad that we're not together today, but I know she's thinking of me as I think of her, and I know she's having a great time over there while I sit here in our apartment. But you know, peace and quiet is a pretty nice anniversary gift ; )

[UPDATE: Caroline called me this morning - 5 AM here, Noon her time, to talk, which was a fantastic anniversary present, minus the being woken up at 5 AM part. We got to talk for about 20 minutes. She's in Nazareth today. How cool is that!]

The Reception in the East's Garden

Birthday Number 2

2009-05-04T15:45:00.005-04:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CAROLINE!

Caroline turned 26 yesterday. Caroline's brother, Chip, and her sister-in-law, Allissa, and her brother-in-law, Christopher were all in town on Saturday to celebrate. Christopher was actually here for the entire weekend, which was a lot of fun [Catherine - Way to "hold down the fort" in Charlotte. We missed you]. Caroline, Christopher, and I went with some friends to see the new X-Men movie Saturday morning before Chip and Allissa came down. We played bocce ball, grilled burgers for dinner and then had cake (chocolate cheesecake that Caroline made -- she doubted my baking skills, and rightly so) and opened presents. Here are some pictures from the weekend:

The really, really tasty Birthday cake

Me showing Christopher my turnout gear (and the trucks)

Caroline opening presents with Chip and Allissa looking on.

I had been hiding this present (it's a birdhouse) since September. It'll go in our yard (where that yard will be is yet to be determined -- gotta find a job first!)

Can't believe it is finally SPRING!!

2009-04-06T09:57:00.003-04:00

Once again, I accidently did my pictures backwards. This is why Chris is supposed to be in charge of the blog... Oh well. We've had a busy end of winter/ beginning of spring and haven't posted in so long that things out of order won't be too big of a deal.

So one of our biggest things was that Chris preached at the Seminary chapel service (an honor reserved for seniors). I took this as he was practicing before hand. Isn't he cute and also professional looking!? He did a great job and the transcript of the service has been sent out to churches looking to hire him to show them how good he is. Here's hoping for a call pretty soon. All this waiting is driving my insane. Patience may be a virtue, but I don't have any.

This is what we've enjoyed being up to for the last few weeks. Studying and watching basketball. Way to multi-task. By the way, Chris' ESPN March Madness bracket has been amazingly accurate. He had the championship game teams right, and is in the 99.4 percentile. I just have to say Go Tarheels! After all, "I'm a Tarheel born and a Tarheel bred, and when I die, I'm a Tarheel dead. So Rah Rah Carolina-lina..."

The most fun we had this spring was Chris' sister Alex coming for a visit. She came up and we did as much of Princeton and NYC as we could in a weekend. It was great. My brother and sister-in-law are the best local tour guides. In one day we went to Dylan's Candy Bar (see below), FAO, 5th Ave, ate real NY pizza, and strolled through SoHo. We also made cake and celebrated Chris turning 26. We were so sad that she had to leave after only 2 days that we weren't even the least bit upset that her flight was delayed more then 24 hours because of snow in both ATL and Philly.

And now, spring has finally sprung. We are glad to be shaking off a long, stressful winter and excited about the prospects to come. In the next few months we'll finish at Princeton Theological Seminary (you can then call us Masters of Divinity all you want), get new jobs, move out of NJ to somewhere (fingers crossed that it'll be in the South!) and start an entirely new adventure. So much to anticipate!

So Happy Holy Week to all and Happy Spring!

2009-02-10T22:23:00.001-05:00

My weekend activity.

Russ and Karl

2009-02-09T19:29:00.005-05:00

Karl Barth has had a huge impact on me as a seminarian/future pastor/theologian, which is not surprising since Princeton Seminary houses the Center for Barth Studies. One of our good friends here, Russ, has a blog where he summarizes Barth's Church Dogmatics. Some months he's good at updating it, others not, but what he's got up is great stuff. Check it out.

Images of Home

2009-01-11T19:39:00.006-05:00

Ok, so here are pictures as promised... one problem- they

loaded backwards. Here's our Christmas vacation in reverse.

Happy New Year! This is my Mom, Sis and her little girls

(the same lions that'd had lollipops this fall) getting 'clean

and sweet' and checking themselves out in their pig

jammies in the mirror. We stopped through Charlotte on

our way back up to Princeton.

... Before that, we were in Atlanta. Here's Chris with Sparky,

the newest member of his Mom's family.

He's named for the two firefighters in the fam. For

some reason, I had a hard time not calling him

'Flamer' which isn't exactly the same.

Night outside the aquarium in downtown ATL.

Inside the Atlanta Aquarium- the largest aquarium in the

world and home to beluga whales and whale sharks to name a few.

Chris' sister, Alex displaying the Philly themed

art at their uncle's new cheesesteak shop outside ATL.

Roy's Cheesesteaks was neat to see and had amazing food!!

Chris in his conductor's hat that his nephew now

borrows reading 'that train book' a.k.a. The Polar

Express. Dang that's cute.

...Before that we were at my house. These are our stockings

hung by the chimney with care. My mom made them. Chris' is

new and mine was 'updated' replacing a teddy with an angel.

Zoomed out, here's the den, anticipating Santa

(Rudolph had come already as you can see).

This is us at Jesus' Birthday Party at the church on

Christmas Eve morning. There was a pageant done by

the kindergarten, cake and favors and even a manger petting

zoo. Here's us with Clopper the Christmas Donkey.

These are the before and after pictures of our Christmas party

in Princeton before we left. We made about a million

cookies (seriously, the filled table above wasn't even all of them)

and then had our friends over to decorate and take them home.

It was lots of fun and a great break during exams.

So there you have it. Our backwards Christmas. (Ha!)

We had such a good time and were spoiled rotten while we

were gone. It was tough getting back here where we aren't

showered with gifts and nobody makes dinner for us each night.

Back Home

2009-01-03T20:05:00.002-05:00

Caroline and I arrived back in Princeton yesterday night, after an 11 1/2 hour car ride, 1 1/2 hours of which was spent sitting in traffic just outside of Charlotte. We had a great time with our families and with friends, and were sad to leave; but I have to admit it was nice sleeping in my own bed again. We'll post pictures soon, though most of them are from the last couple of days, since neither of us seem to remember to take pictures.

On a sadder note, we found out today that Caroline's trip to Israel for her class has been canceled due to the activity in Gaza. We're hopeful the trip will be rescheduled for the May term, though there are no guarantees.

As for me, I start class on Monday. We have a short January term that lasts 3 weeks (hence Caroline's class that was supposed to go to Israel for a few weeks) and I am taking a class in Missional Theology with Dr. Darrell Guder. I'm also joining with others at Princeton Seminary and around the world in celebrating the 500th anniversary of John Calvin's birth by reading through his Institutes in a year.

We'll try to get some pictures from the break on here in the next couple of days once we've completely unpacked and settled in.

We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and New Year!

Gettin' Colder

2008-11-29T10:56:00.005-05:00

The temperature is finally dropping here in Princeton. Our last two weeks of flag football have had near freezing temperatures, and we've already had a couple days of light snowfall, though hardly anything has stuck.

For Thanksgiving, we hijacked a friend's apartment and set up a bunch of tables for 18 of us at PTS to share a meal together. Everyone cooked something different, and we were in charge of a cran-apple casserole and green bean casserole. We had a great time together. We took a few pictures during dinner, so here they are (along with a few flag football pictures):

Lots and Lots of food

Our friends Boone and Laura co-chaired the ambiance committee

More Cowbell's last flag football game (that's me at quarterback since our starter was out of town...no fumbles this time)

Star offensive lineman/receiver Caroline

The day after Thanksgiving, we went out to find our Christmas tree. Since we'll be gone for the last 2 weeks of December, we wanted to get the most out of our tree, and now we'll have a good 3 to 4 weeks of tree enjoyment here. In the interest of saving money, we went for a nice 5 1/2 footer. The big debate for us was how to decorate the tree. My family has always used colored lights, while Caroline grew up with white lights on the tree. Luckily, my mom gave us a pack of 400 colored lights last Christmas, and we just couldn't let those go to waste. We're currently in negotiations for future Christmas tree lighting plans, but for at least this year, the colored lights have won out. I'm very satisfied with the tree, but I have this sneaking suspicion that my colored lights might mysteriously stop working after this year. As far as ornaments go, we had more than enough to cover our modest tree. Many of the ornaments are gifts we received at our Holiday Engagement party held last Christmas, while others are ornaments are ones that we had on our family trees for years.

Caroline organizing the ornaments

Our decorated tree

Our Advent Candles decorated with trimmings from the tree
(notice also the plethora of books in the background...I've been meaning to start reading those for a week)

Caroline brought a few of her nativity scenes up to Princeton

Boo! Boo Who? Why're you Cryin'!? It's just a Joke

2008-11-04T08:43:00.004-05:00

Halloween was fantastic. I am proud to announce that we had 12 trick-or-treaters! (Pretty good for the kid-free section at CRW.) Friends had a fantastic party. Everyone came dressed. THe most creative/amusing attendees? "Peace and Quiet" (Only Ben and Cindy could pull that off- imagine a hippie and a mime), Jinks 1 and Jinks 2 (think Thing 1 and 2, complete with blue hair), and Charlie Brown with Snoopy. See our costumes below...

Can you guess who we were?

You don't have to tell us that we're dorks... we know. That said, you've gotta admit (except for the flash which apparently made my sweater see-through) we're a pretty cute Harry Potter and Ginny Weasley.

After the kids had come and gone our neighbor chose to let his pumpkin get out of control. Spooky! (Or as my nieces would say, "spoosky!") Speaking of the cutest (unbiased of course) little girls in the whole world... they were a few things this Halloween, one of which has been a lion. And so I present to you, "Lions with Lollypops."

If that doesn't make you smile, nothing will.

Happy Election Day!

Another Day (see previous blog)

2008-10-28T17:33:00.004-04:00

Ords. Ordination Exams. They're terrible things (unless you're from my Presbytery, and then I think they're wonderful, and absolutely essential for the ordination process...). Needless to say they're important. Don't pass them, don't get ordained (at least not right away). Caroline and I were both hoping to pass 3 out of 4 (which is actually pretty good), and planning on retaking the one we failed in late January. Monday was the day of judgment for those of use who took our Ords in August. Here are the results for both of us (note: P = previously passed, S = Satisfactory, U = Unsatisfactory):

That's right...we both passed them all! We're pretty excited about it. No more exams and no more forking over massive amounts of money to pay for them.

This is a huge load off our shoulders. Now we just have to make sure we graduate...

Finally...

2008-10-13T11:18:00.005-04:00

...an update. I apologize for the long delay. Things have been quite busy here the last few months. Caroline was finishing up Summer Greek, and we both had Ordination Exams to study for and sit for, but that's a whole different conversation for another day. Fall classes started in mid-September and we have been off and running. Thanks to a change in curriculum, Caroline is only taking 9 hours of credit and I am only taking 10. 3 of those hours for each of us will be taken in a January term, so right now, we each have only 2 classes (I have a third, one-hour class, but that hardly counts).

Still, we've managed to stay busy with work and travel and hosting visitors. My cousin Jennifer came up to visit in August and we had a blast. In September, Caroline's parents came up for a few days. Our friends from Seminary, Ben and Cindy were married at Cindy's home in Virginia, and we went down there with some friends to take part in their celebration. Caroline's brother-in-law, Christopher, made a surprise visit for a day this past weekend, and finally, we attending the wedding of our seminary friend Ryan, which was held at the seminary chapel. Next week is Reading Week, and Caroline is going back to Charlotte for a meeting with her presbytery and to visit her family. I'll be staying up here to get some work done for school.

Now that we've gotten into a rhythm for the semester, things are starting to settle down, and now I have no excuse for not updating the blog, so I figured I should sit down and take care of that. I will try to do a better job of keeping this thing updated.

Caroline and Jennifer having fun in the kitchen. I thought I had other pictures from Jennifer's visit, but I guess they're on the other camera. If I find them, I'll post a couple more.

Me, Patrick, and Kate watching the Georgia game online while we smoke some pork shoulder

Yeah, it was really, really tasty

Both of Caroline's parents have degrees from UNC, so while they were up here, we went to the Rutgers-UNC game. We had a blast watching UNC dominate.

Cindy and Ben's wedding was in the side yard of Cindy's parents' house in Virginia. The view was incredible.

Number 1

2008-08-02T18:09:00.003-04:00

No pressure or anything:

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=3514501

Home Tour

2008-07-27T17:39:00.011-04:00

Here is mid-moving. No one likes to move, and now I know why. This was my first official move (not counting dorms), having lived on Abingdon Road since before I was born. I have to admit that I am totally over unpacking, but we are finally done! And here it is:

Ladies and Gentleman, please don your paper slippers and enter our apartment- Better Homes and Gardens tour style. Here is the front door of the lovely 107 Farber Road 4-A.

Upon entering, and to your right you see the hallway and a glimpse of the kitchen. Please don't mind the kitchen help- although do check out the Sewanee pinnate above the door.

To your left is the bathroom. For all you CRW-ians (or former ones) we are happy to announce that we only have 3 colors of pink tile. The 1950's and 60's style makes me smile... one of the shades is the same color as my bathroom at home.

Coming out of the bathroom you enter the master bedroom. Note the spaciousness and the lovely view of the back parking lot.

This is the living room from 2 different angles. Pretty snazzy, huh?! Please notice the detailing such as the flowers in the Waterford vase and the UGA-ly (sorry, I had to!) coasters.

Moving on, we come to the dining room. Looks like something glamorous and yummy must be about to be served! Lets move on...

From the dining room we cut back through the kitchen into the hall and out the door.

Before you go, however, look at the fantastic porch and the huge window box. Yes, that is a champion cucumber vine growing on the railing (and lots of weeds other than that).

This is the front of the building where we live. Gorgeous, no?

I've gotta admit that the move to CRW has been pretty nice. I like knowing my neighbors before I move in. While chatting, I would particularly like to thank a few people. My parents and Grandfather, first, for donating about 90% of what is in our home. Our friends keep saying that our place is so put together and adult-like. Yes it is. Thanks Mom!!!! Finally, a special shout out to the Rigoulots for their desk, shelves, and drawers. It was a team effort, for sure and has been a huge success. I hope that this tiny tour has been good enough for the inquiring minds that want to know. If you wanna see more, well, come and visit!

Love, Caroline

The Jersey Shore

2008-07-13T11:28:00.008-04:00

Yesterday, Caroline and I drove to Point Pleasant, NJ, for a day trip to the beach, or as folks up here call it (and as I grew up calling it), the Jersey Shore (pronounced sho-aw among locals). My boss at the seminary mail room recommended Point Pleasant, since he grew up going there. I've never been to a beach in Central New Jersey, so I thought we'd give it a try (plus its an hour closer to us than Ocean City, where I grew up going to the beach). Caroline had never been to the shore before, I hadn't been in a couple of years. There were a number of things that Caroline was not used to in a beach:

Since the water is rougher up here, there are lifeguards. The water was particularly rough yesterday and after a couple of hours, the lifeguards put out the red flags, which mean that nobody can get in the water.

Since there are lifeguards, and for a few other reasons, you have to pay to get onto the beach. This was also foreign to Caroline, and to be honest, I don't remember if my family ever paid to get on the beach when I was younger and we came here. Here's a picture of Caroline with a wristbands on her right arm, showing she paid:

You can't really tell from the picture, but the sand slopes down at a steep angle about 10 feet past where Caroline is standing. Apparently this is a feature of Central NJ beaches (we're not fans of the steep slope).

Caroline had never seen a boardwalk at the beach either, and we spent a couple hours in the late afternoon walking up and down the boardwalk. After this, we went looking for a good seafood restaurant to eat dinner. We found a place called Co-Op Seafood, where the fishing boats were literally pulling right up to the building.

After checking out the menu, we gave it a shot, and loved it! We both had shrimp, and I had a cup of lobster bisque, which was incredible, and probably my favorite part of the meal.

The only bad part of the day was that Caroline didn't put on as much sunscreen as she thought she did, and her abs got a bit burned.

All in all, it was a wonderful one-day vacation, and we came home exhausted, but very happy.

Look Out Ancient World...

2008-07-08T13:07:00.003-04:00

'Cause Here I Come!
Well, I'm officially a 'summer language' student. I started Biblical Greek yesterday. There is going to be a lot to memorize and a lot to learn, but I've got high hopes. (Most imporantly knowing enough to pass the Exegesis Ord.) I have 1/2 day class and then the afternoon to study. There is a quiz every morning on the day before's chapter and a text every Friday. I am afraid that my years of academic anxiety and over-achieveiness may lead to a high stress level for the next 8 weeks. And did I mention Ords coming? No? Aah, well ORDS ARE COMING whether I am ready or not.
On a much nicer note, I am very excited about learning enough to read the New Testament in the original. Today we went through the Lord's prayer and the beginning of John, and I'll have to admit- I had a great time.
Good 'ole Chris will keep slaving away in the mail room and at the bookstore. Doesn't sound like the most stimulating summer, but it pays the bills (a little bit). Way to keep me in the lifestyle to which I've become accustomed, bud!

Summer School

2008-07-06T12:00:00.001-04:00

This past week, Caroline and I took a 4 day crash-course in Presbyterian Polity as preparation for our ordination exams. In 4 days, we cover the entire rule book of the Presbyterian Church. It doesn't sound like the most entertaining class, but I (and most in the class) enjoyed most every minute of it. The professor was a Presbyterian minister who has decades of experience working with the General Assembly (national governing body), Presbytery (local governing body), and individual churches. He had many stories to tell and was excellent at giving us examples of times certain rules would apply. The book itself was quite interesting as well. In many parts, it reads more like a theology book than a rule book.

Last week also kicks off 2 months of studying before Caroline and I take our 4 Ordination exams. Hopefully we'll find some motivation in the next couple days to keep us going now that Polity class is over.

Inspection: PFD

2008-06-20T21:36:00.003-04:00

There is an old law on the books in Princeton that says that the fire department must present themselves and their apparatus' to the mayor annually for inspection. It has turned into a bit of a community affair. The department (including Chris and his Station 62- Princeton Hook and Ladder Co.) parades from one of the stations to town hall and does their presentation. Pretty Cute, although I'm sure that's not how the guys would describe it.

In front of the apartment

Tower 62 (That's the ladder truck in normal language)

This isn't the best shot, but there were 3 guys with flags at the front of the marching firefighters, as you can see, Chris was one of the members of the color guard.

More Weddings

2008-06-09T20:32:00.003-04:00

On Saturday, Caroline and I attended the wedding of our friends Patrick and Kate. Patrick is in our class at PTS and lived on my hall the last two years. I had the honor of being one of Patrick's groomsmen, and we all had a wonderful time in Atlanta for their wedding.

The same day, a few hours later, and a good many hours away, our friends Russ and Jessica married as well. Russ is also in our class at PTS and lived on my hall for the last year and a half (after defecting from 2 floors below). Sadly, since I was in Patrick's wedding, I could not attend Russ'.

Here are some pictures from Patrick and Kate's wedding. Unfortunately, I don't have any good ones of Patrick and Kate together:

Our Friends Deepak and Nicole

Patrick and Me

Caroline, Me, and bunny ears (I think the hand belongs to our friend Kristy)

2008-06-07T11:34:00.001-04:00

Just in case you were still curious, here's the link to our wedding announcement in the Charlotte Observer: http://www.legacy.com/charlotte/Celebrations.asp?Page=Announcement&PersonID=109822902

2008-06-01T19:51:00.001-04:00

BTW, Here's a link to the blog of the photographer who did our wedding. There are some great pics of us on it...
http://christopherrecord.blogspot.com/

Wedding

2008-06-01T15:01:00.004-04:00

Just a few pictures to hold you over...

At the Reception

The Reception: The East Family Garden (aka Caroline's Family's backyard)

New Beginnings

2008-05-31T22:36:00.003-04:00

Upon the urging of some friends, we decided to start our own blog as we begin our life together as husband and wife. So much has happened since May 17th that it would take far too long to write it all in a blog. We have gotten married, gone on a honeymoon to Lake Lure, NC, packed up, and moved most of our worldly belongings up to Princeton. Over the past couple of days we have begun to settle in to the apartment we are subleasing. We've made at least 5 trips to the store in the last 4 days.

In the midst of all this, we have begun to become accustomed to living with each other. I have to admit, it's quite nice to say goodnight to Caroline and just close my eyes, rather than walk back to my dorm.

That's all for now...we'll post some wedding pictures in the next couple of days.