A Long While and Now School has Begun.

(The Crew in Mexico)

Greetings to anyone who may still be checking our blog. I apologize for being so long in writing, but I thought I'd write about what we've been doing since last you heard from us...

1. Mexico: was amazing! God was totally amazing in the ways that He ministered to the community through our small group of 12, not to mention the way He spoke to all of us. It is so easy to paint a picture of life from the set of colors we have available in the US alone and forget the fact that God includes so much more variety in his own. Amazing! After worshipping with both the Mexican congregation we stayed with and a group of Tarahumara Indians, I came back with a new appreciation for the fact that those who believe in Christ are brothers and sisters in the same family!

2. Our new house: is slowly becoming home. We're getting furniture in place and someday, maybe, we'll empty our final boxes and that will be a joyous day. I got a new corner desk for my office and it's working out so well! It was an AMAZING deal too. Only $70 at Staples! Sure it's not solid Maple with gold inlays and all that, but for what I need it does a great job. We finally met some of our neighbors too, they're an interesting young family about our age and they have a daughter named Emma who is 11 months old. We had them over for a cookout and it was really great to get to know someone who lives around us. We're looking forward to becoming more and more a part of the neighborhood.

3. School started yesterday. It's exciting (and overwhelming) to get back into it after so much time off. As the syllabi pile up and I look at all the work for the classes I have it's easy to get overwhelmed, but I keep reminding myself that this is no different than the beginning of last year's semesters and I made it out alive then too. Of course it would figure though that I had little to no significant design work all summer and now I have one major project that will take the next 2 months, a follow-up project for a previous client, and a lead on a potentially large relationship as a freelance artist for Warner Press right as school started. It's a blessing though and I'm grateful for all that is on the horizon.

So I hope all is well and perhaps I will not be so busy that I can't update this every once in a while. (I'll have to start getting Gwynne to update it too!)

Take care all and cheer on our Buckeyes this weekend as the football season kicks off! Go Bucks!

Joe