This is our Christmas Card.

Well, after wishing, hoping, thinking we’d send out a Christmas card this year . . . it just didn’t happen. I’m sorry. You are now allowed to fill that little space on your refrigerator where I’m sure you where saving space for the card that never came. ;) Last year, we felt like such “real adults” sending out a card. Does that mean we’re regressing this year? (We are no longer adults?!) Or maybe just too busy . . . which is sadly very adult-ish. So anyways, this is it – our Christmas card. Enjoy!

Year in Review: 2013 for the Cooks

Happy New Year! It’s hard to believe it’s 2014. This has been a very busy but good year for us. It brought with it a little more consistency than previous years - more things have stayed the same than changed - at least since we got married.

Josh is still is seminary (2.5 years down, 1.5 years to go), still serving coffee at Village Coffee, and still feeling called to church plant after he graduates. (We are still not sure where, so please be praying for us in that area.) I am still teaching 4^th grade at the same school, still staying up late grading papers (haha!), and still enjoying time with all of friends here.

Here is a brief overview of last year for us:

January: We came back from Christmas in GA and quickly restarted our normal routines. Carnival Season started. I ate a lot of King Cake – yum! You know, the usual. :)

 

February: We enjoyed our 2nd Mardi Gras. After some friends (the wonderful Josh and Christy Link) visited towards the end of the month, we packed up our seminary campus apartment.

March: We moved off seminary campus and into the big city! The Cooks, Josh’s family, came to help us. We are now living in one side of a typical New Orleans style shotgun double in Midcity. It is a lot of fun! We love our little neighborhood and live two blocks from the streetcar line. Our goal was to get to know our neighbors and truly be a part of the wonderful city we live in. Read more about it here. 

April: My mom came to visit over my Spring Break and helped us finish getting settled in our new place.

May: Josh finished his second year of seminary – halfway through, woohoo! I finished my third year of teaching (first year teaching 4^th grade).

• Josh and I bought bikes. Yes, we became THOSE urban hipster people. I don't really deserve the title. Josh, however, bikes to work now, so that’s good.
• Also, after much blood, sweat, and tears (figuratively and seemingly literally), I finally learned how to drive stick. Josh bought a manual a year ago, so I guess it was finally time. We drove his car to Georgia.

June: We spent two weeks in GA celebrating my brother Matt’s graduation from Auburn University (War Eagle!) and Josh’s brother, Jeremiah, and my brother, Philip’s graduation from high school. It is always great to spend time with family and friends.

July: I nannied for two families over the summer. Josh worked additional hours at the coffee shop. Additionally, Josh joined the staff at our church (Vintage Church) working with the children’s ministry. Ingleside friends, I guess he just missed Xtreme Kids too much. :) He is now over vKids - organizing volunteers, getting curriculum ready, etc.

August: Josh started his third year of seminary. I started my second year teaching 4^th grade. This is the first time I’m teaching the same grade, at the same school, in the same classroom! So that’s made it a little easier, despite all of the changes from Common Core. (But we won’t get into that. Haha!)

My co-teachers, carpool buddies, and wonderful friends, Katie and Christi!

September: We made it through hurricane season without any major storms. For that, we were very grateful! We continue to lead a Community Group that meets weekly to share a meal and discussion about the Bible. 

October: We went to south Georgia for some college friends’ wedding. It was great to see so many college friends in one place! We even got to spend a day in Macon and see all of the changes that have been made to Mercer, including the new football field! Congrats to the Mercer Bears for the winningest first football season in NCAA Division I history! We may be little, but we are fierce. :)

November: We spent Thanksgiving in GA with family. We snuck into town early for a surprise 50th birthday party for Josh's mom, Deenie!

December: I got to fly back to GA for a quick weekend visit to surprise my brother Michael and be there for his graduation from Kennesaw State University. (There have been many gradations in our families this year!) We have also spent two weeks in GA for Christmas and New Years and are about to head back to NOLA.

For those of you we did not get to see this year, we miss you and hope to catch up soon! We hope that all of you had a wonderful 2013, and we wish you a safe and happy 2014!

“For the Lord is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations.” Psalm 100:5

With love,

Sarah & Josh

Our Southern Comfort Zone

"I miss my Tennessee home/And I've been away way too long/
I can't see this world unless I go/Outside my Southern Comfort Zone."
-Brad Paisley

When I hear this song, I think he must have written it for me, except that he put Tennessee instead of Georgia. I love New Orleans, which, while geographically located in both, should not be confused with the South or the Bible Belt. By my definitions, New Orleans is not in my Southern Comfort Zone. Yet I have experienced so much, seen more of "the world," and become a better person living here, so I know it's the right place to be.

The seminary is located in Gentilly (orange). We moved to Mid-City (purple).

The past few months have been super busy for us, but I am FINALLY getting around to posting pics of our new abode!! On March 1st we said goodbye to seminary campus (the "bubble," if you will) and moved out into The Big Easy fo' real - notice title of blog. The Cook family came to help us move mid-semester, and we could not have done it without them! We moved to an area known as Midcity, which the Atlantan in me constantly called Midtown when we moved here. In the same way, Midcity is also kinda the artsy/hipstery part of town. Not as nice as Uptown (think Buckhead), but not as hippie as the Marigny (think Little Five Points).

We got this at a festival. Presh.

Our neighborhood is very diverse. We have Caucasians, African-Americans, Latinos, young, old, students, and even some feral raccoons (what? yes!) living around us. Mona's Cafe, one of our favorite Greek restaurants, Finn McCool's Irish Pub, and Angelo Brocato's Italian Ice Cream Parlor are all within walking distance. Needless to say, it's a fun place to live. Josh and I just bought bikes, which Josh plans on riding to work and school. (I say wait until it is COOLER!) It's a good level of urban for me . . . walk to ice cream, take the streetcar to the Quarter, and get in my car to go to work. We like it.

My mom took this picture of us when she came
over my Spring Break to help us get settled. Thank you, Joy! 

We moved into a double Shotgun. Shotguns are the most popular style of housing in NOLA. Never heard of it? Here is Wikipedia's definition: A "shotgun house" is a narrow rectangular domestic residence, usually no more than 12 feet wide, with rooms arranged one behind the other and doors at each end of the house. It was the most popular style of house in the Southern United States from the end of the American Civil War (1861–65), through the 1920s. 




From the outside, the "double" set up of this house kinda reminds me of our little Macon lovenest where we lived when we first got married (*sigh*), but the inside is quite different.

When you first enter, here is what you see . . .

 This is the living room from a different angle.

Then, we move right along to the dining room/office. This is supposed to be a 2nd bedroom, but I just don't see how that works unless you are SUPER close to your roomie and want anyone who comes over to visit to just hang out in your room. Oh wait, I think I just described a college dorm. But no one voluntarily chooses to live that way, right?!

Set up for Easter lunch, as noted by the fancy cloth napkins.

Just a normal day

Josh's "office" . . . formerly a room, now a wall.

Notice the lovely AC window unit. All I will say about that is that I am eternally grateful to whoever thought of Central AC and will never take it for granted again. ;) Ok, I'm being slightly sarcastic, it's really not that bad, and it's cheaper too! But it is strange to me that more houses don't have Central AC when you live in a place with an average heat index of 100 degrees in the summer. Guess that's what we get for living in a city where many of the houses are 100 years old.

Then, we enter the little hallway. To the left, a bathroom.

Some fun hanging lights we found at the World Market.
They were supposed to help light up the shower area but are really more for decoration. :) 

Then we move on into the bedroom. At first I was weirded out by the thought of people walking through my room. And as you know, it's not so much because of the neatness factor (as I am a liiiitle OCD about cleanliness), but more from the privacy aspect. (See how a roommate would have to walk through your room just to get a glass of water?) But that's just normal around here, so we've gotten used to it. I still haven't decided if it makes Josh neater or it just makes me straighten up more often. :)

Entering the bedroom from the hallway

A different angle, pre-redoing the dressers

After redoing the dressers

We painted these dressers that we've had since we got married. 
I think Josh had them in his room as a kid! We used chalk paint, and they turned out really well. 
I felt like I was on that old show "Trading Spaces."  BEFORE . . .

And AFTER!

Finally, we arrive at the kitchen. We searched for a place with a kitchen that was not in the back, but they are hard to come by period, but especially in our price range. We were excited about more room space, but quickly realized we had no counter space. So we created some.

Josh built this himself! Cheaper than buying and island, and we can always use the shelving later on.
Marrying a handyman was a good idea! :)

We originally painted it with chalkboard paint. The one project in my life I felt could be Pinterest-worthy.

It was super cutesie, but just not practical, as we would use the space to cook and then wipe all the writing off when we cleaned up. So it became red!

And now you've arrived at the back of our house. We have a small area behind the house with a shed and grassy patches. It looks like a tropical jungle now that we are in the "rainy season" in southern LA. I would like to make a garden at some point, so we'll wait to post pics of the backyard whenever I get around to that. 

So that's it. If all goes as planned, this is our little casa for the next two years. And we have a couch that is great for sleeping on for when y'all decide to come visit us!! :)

Post-Birthday Ponderings . . . Youth is Wasted on the Young

As I sit and write this, I have been 25 years old for almost one whole month now. I was rather dreading this birthday, mostly because of what Josh refers to as my “Peter Pan Complex.” Basically . . . I don’t want to grow up. He says it is because of this that I still enjoy child-like things . . . for example, going to elementary school every day, hanging out with nine year olds, painting my nails crazy colors, and eating Goldfish and Life cereal. (Apparently, these are not adult foods.)

Beautiful birthday flowers from two of my students!

The past six months or so, whenever I would think about my birthday/turning 25/being a quarter of a century old, the John Mayer song “Stop This Train” would automatically pop into my head. (This is also the singer who penned the phrase “quarter-life crisis,” which is what I thought I would probably go through.) Here are a few of the lines:

Stop this train
I want to get off and go home again
I can't take the speed it's moving in
I know I can't

But honestly won't someone stop this train

The train of life keeps moving. In fact, it just keeps getting faster. Yet even John Mayer eventually figures out that you can’t stop the train, and that’s not a bad thing. I, too, know this. I want all of the adult things in life (marriage, children, a house), but I just don’t want to grow up. I want the wisdom and experience of an adult without the age. 

Josh made me a delicious and definitely not nutritious birthday dinner - Fettuccine Alfredo (my fav!). Yum!

I started thinking about that scene in “It’s a Wonderful Life,” (Josh’s favorite movie of all time . . . everyone should watch it) where George and Mary are walking down the street together after having just re-met and fallen into the pool and all of that. They are singing “Buffalo Gals” and stop at the old house to throw a rock and break a window to make a wish. The old man who is watching them yells out, “Why don’t you kiss her ‘stead of talking her to death?” and when George seems confused by this he adds, “Ahh, youth is wasted on the wrong people.”

I got to Google Hangout chat with almost my entire family at once! (We missed you, Matt.) Technology is so wonderful.

As one who spends all working days with youth, I feel this is true . . . youth IS wasted on the young. They think they have it so hard. "Fourth grade is the hardest. Homework is the hardest. Baseball practice is the hardest. Not having the newest iPhone is the hardest." (Yes, I hear this.) The older you get, the easier and nicer those "hard" things of the past seem. When they’re even younger, little kids don’t want to take naps. I would LOVE to be able to take a nap every day! And so the cycle continues. One day, we'll look back on these "hard seminary days" with longing.

This is my last week with those young, silly 4^th grade kiddos. They have been such a great class. They revived my love for teaching. And this year has flown by! The more years that pass, the faster they go. My mom has explained this phenomenon to me like this: When you’re four years old, waiting for Christmas is torture. It seems to take so long. As it should, because you have to wait a quarter of the length of your life to be repeated. Now, Christmas comes after 1/25 of the amount of my life. And one day, I will only have to repeat 1/80 of my life before Santa returns. (I’m sure I did not explain the math correctly on that, but you get what I’m saying.)

A chilly birthday celebration weekend in Destin, FL. Yes, as if tanning was not difficult enough for me in the heat, this weekend confirmed it is impossible with goose bumps.

I don’t really know where I’m going with this. As I stated in the title, these are my post-birthday ponderings. Just musings about life. Interspersed with some fun birthday pics. And while Josh is still a youngin’ who doesn’t understand, he will in a few days when he joins me at the ripe old age of 25. (May 31^st to be exact . . . you should give him a hard time.)  :)

Mardi Gras Break!

Hi friends,

I thought I would procrastinate from doing school work a little bit longer by blogging! The past few months have been so busy for us. I can’t believe we’re already halfway through February. It seems like I was just writing our Christmas card update. We went home to Georgia for Christmas and spent time with both families as well as friends. It was so nice.

This past week, I was out of school for Mardi Gras break. That is definitely one of the best perks of moving to New Orleans . . . a week off of work that I didn’t have before! We went to a handful of Mardi Gras parades with friends. I think Josh goes for the people-watching. I go for the throws. We even had friends in two different parades this year and got to see them ride by! I won’t launch into my whole spiel about Mardi Gras (you can look at my blog post from last year), but I will say that Mardi Gras is so much fun and not the wild and raucous party as it is stereotypically described. Of course, you can find that if you really want it, but most parades are family-friendly. The whole city comes out and the people standing next to you become your friends for the evening (until you catch the beads meant for them ... don’t do that).  There’s an open invitation every year for friends to come visit for Mardi Gras. Our couches are pretty comfy, and we have room for a blow-up mattress. We are only here two more years, so you need to take us up on it soon. :)

Endymion . . . we saw the world's longest float!

The Superdome lit up for Mardi Gras!

Zulu . . . we saw our two friends and got two coconuts!

Josh is serious about gettin' him some throws.

Speaking of making friends in the city, we are moving! Josh and I found an apartment in Midcity. We are excited about moving off seminary campus and into the city. It is closer to church and Josh’s work. We are looking forward to being within walking distance of some of our favorite restaurants and the streetcar so we can go downtown without having to drive.  Also, it will get us out of the seminary bubble and give us a chance to really be in and among the people of New Orleans. The rent is higher, and we will not have some of the conveniences we have grown accustomed to (e.g., no central heating and air-gotta invest in some window units), but we have been praying about this for months and feel like it is really what we should do.  We feel like meeting our neighbors and living for Christ in our community will be good practice for church planting after seminary. Please pray for this new ministry and adventure! We move March 2, so I’ll post pictures once we are settled!

Hope you all are doing well! Love from NOLA!