Baptisms are my favorite.

I absolutely adore baptisms. Not only because I have a ridiculous love of children (which I admittedly do), but because of just everything a baptism signifies. It's a new beginning, a chance to reaffirm your place in your church life and community, as well as the simplest, most accessible form of stating your beliefs. Families come together for baptisms in a way only matched by weddings, which is just awesome to see. It's also just weird to think that in a few years, Handsome and I will be doing that ourselves. We'll be choosing the Godparents and dude, we'll have had a kid! Being Shepadoodle parents is definitely enough for now, though. Between grad school and the puppy, we're definitely busy enough! It'll be a new chapter in our lives, though, so we're looking forward to it as a far-in-the-future thing.

Speaking of new chapters...

For those who don't know (which is almost everyone, as we kept it pretty close to the vest for once in my life), Handsome was laid off at the beginning of the month and had to begin job hunting again, adding stress to the finals I was already freaking out about. He was about to start job hunting anyways, as the job was not as advertised, and we spent almost the same amount apart as we had when he was still up in DC. On the plus side, he was able to come on vacation with me and Rosie this past week! He actually went through the interview process and was hired while we were up in Norfolk, then had the meet and greet yesterday and is now working on getting the clearance stuff done! He'll be supporting the Navy, and thus indirectly supporting Tweedle Dee! I'm super proud of him for getting a job that he will love.

We had a wonderful vacation in Norfolk. We celebrated my parent's 31st wedding anniversary! (And my little cousin-in-law and OT-inspiration's birthday from afar.) I love that my parents been able to have such a wonderful, long union, as have Handsome's parents. :-) It's a wonderful example, one that Handsome and I definitely hope to emulate in the future. We also got to see my cousin and his fiance, whose wedding we won't be able to make, unfortunately. Handsome has no vacation time for the first six months of his employment, so we'll actually be spending our Christmas and Thanksgiving down here, too! I'm kind of excited to do the Charleston Christmas thing. We'll be visiting the Biltmore for sure at Christmas time, and hopefully we'll be able to go to see Savannah, too. I think Rosie will be super excited to not travel-- she is NOT a traveling puppy if she can help it.

Classes start again on this Wednesday, and I'm super excited that I got into an elective I really wanted to take! I can't wait for the opportunity to combine learning and service. :-)

Cheers,
Woozel