Date Night

So last week as we were looking forward to the weekend and contemplating what we would do on Friday night, Jeremy gave me two options - we could hang out with some friends that live close by, or we could have a date night. I love our friends, but I had to pick date night. At times we have talked about having a regular, weekly date night, but it never seems to happen. He said he would plan the date for Friday and it would be a surprise. Can I tell you how excited I was? Very excited! I told my cube-mate at work that my honey was planning a surprise date for us. And when we left the house that night for the date, I felt like we had gone back in time to before we were married. I think that is so cool! That we could be married for over two years and I can still feel that way about going on a date with him. So we went to dinner at Macaroni Grill in Edina (yummy!) and then he wanted us to go ice skating at Centennial Lakes. He had even taken our skates to get sharpened that morning, and he bought us blade guards because we didn't have any. He bought me pink sparkly ones! Well we went to Centennial Lakes, but the warming house wasn't open for the season yet, plus it was so cold that night, so we walked on the ice with our shoes for a few minutes and then we went home and watched National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. It was a great night and I love my honey!

So I haven't posted in a month. I feel like I've been really busy, but I'm trying to think what we've been doing. Jeremy was very busy with school for the last few weeks of the quarter. He had several papers to write, which meant I didn't get much computer time. We also visited his family in Manitowoc, WI over Thanksgiving. We had a great, long visit and got to see almost everyone. That was our Thanksgiving and Christmas celebration with them since we are staying in MN for Christmas this year. Work has been keeping us both busy, as well as Christmas parties, bible study, Christmas shopping, baking, writing Christmas cards, and watching football. Yes, I am actually beginning to get into football. I'm not a fanatic by any stretch of the word, but I'm getting into it. I ask Jeremy lots of questions, and occasionally he gets a tad annoyed with me, but mostly he's very patient and will answer the same question 10 games in a row without complaining. :) This Saturday is the big "Elgard family Christmas celebration." It will be an all-day affair with waffles for brunch and a soup buffet for dinner. We're supposed to get snow that day too. It should be fun!

Treasuring God in Our Traditions

Another book review - Treasuring God in Our Traditions, by Noel Piper. I highly recommend it. Noel talks about everyday traditions (such as family devotions) and special traditions (such as things we do for birthdays, Christmas, etc.). It's very easy, enjoyable reading, but at the same time it is filled with great ideas of things to do with your children to teach them about God. It made me really excited to have children someday. My mom also picked it up one day, read it all morning, and then told me she wished she had read it when we were little.

The Heavenly Man

So I finished the book The Heavenly Man shortly before our trip to Philadelphia, and I thought for sure I had posted something about it, but I just looked and it's not there so I must have imagined that.

Well I read the book because I wanted to learn more about China. The Heavenly Man is about a man who became a christian in China during a time of great persecution. It's his story of bold faith and incredible trust in God in the midst of intense physical persecution. He was imprisoned multiple times, beaten to near death many times, seperated from his family, and still for the most part was filled with joy and peace and continued to spread the good news of Christ.

I felt the book was a little slow to suck me in, but I kept reading it and pretty soon I couldn't put it down. The things that encouraged me the most were the stories of incredible protection and provision that he told. God cared for him in amazing ways, like once allowing him to literally walk right out of a prison, past several guards, and evidently not be seen by them. We serve an amazing God!

Trip to Philly

So two weeks ago Jeremy and I were packing for a long weekend in Philadelphia. We went out there to attend the CCEF (Christian Counseling and Educational Foundation) annual conference. Each year they pick a topic to focus on and this year it was about fear and anxiety. There were several general sessions, and about 16 elective sessions to pick from. We learned about all sorts of things - from obsessive compulsive disorder, to fear of death and aging, to helping fearful children, to responding when the terrible things we fear actually come true. It was a lot of information to take in! When we first got back everyone was asking us about the conference and what the highlights were, and so on. I wasn't sure how to sum it up then, and I'm still not, but now I know what has stood out to me the most. Ever since we got back I just keeping thinking about the fact that God gives us grace FOR THE MOMENT. We all have things we fear or tend to feel anxious about, but until those things actually come true for us we will not receive the grace to handle them. I know this to be true, from my own life and from hearing about other people's experiences, but I think I still tend to forget it. So it has been so helpful for me to dwell on that the past two weeks. There's no sense worrying about something that might happen in the future, because God isn't going to give me the grace to handle those things until they actually happen. If He gave us the grace now, we wouldn't realize our need for Him. Am I making sense? I think they said it much more eloquently at the conference.

So, we enjoyed the conference and we even had some free time to go exploring. We saw a few historic places in Philadelphia and we spent a great afternoon in Valley Forge National Park. That's where the pictures were taken.

Baking w/Suri

Suri is my friend that I met through Kinship. We've been hanging out every week or two for almost three years now! She's a sweet girl and we like to cook, read, craft and enjoy nature together. Two weeks ago we spent the afternoon making fruit salsa and cinnamon chips. Yummy!

Anniversary

Monday was our 2nd anniversary! We celebrated with a 4-course dinner at The Melting Pot downtown. We found out that four courses of fondue takes a long time - we were there for four hours! And it was a LOT of food. We actually didn't quite finish everything, which was very disturbing to Jeremy. I think the next time we go we'll do maybe an entree and dessert only.

Sometimes it seems like the few days of the year that you really want to be special, end up not being special or fun at all because someone is crabby or sick, etc. But our anniversary was really a good day. We enjoyed the meal and had fun reflecting on the past year and looking forward to the year to come. I'm so thankful to God for my sweet husband!

Emelia and Auntie go to Wood Lake

My nieces, Emelia and Hannah, stayed with us last weekend. On Saturday morning, Emelia and I went to Wood Lake Nature Center while Jeremy and Hannah went to the library. We all had a great time! Emelia pretty much talked the whole time we were walking, and she had us stop at every bench to have a snack/water break. We talked about school (she started kindergarten this year) and nature and God and cancer. It was really a sweet time together.

Felicity

Am I the world's worst blogger? I created this site and I haven't posted a thing for the past month! Actually I've been debating whether to continue with this site or create a Facebook account, but I've decided I like blogspot because it's simple and pretty and I just like it.

Well we have had a few blog-worthy experiences lately, but I probably only have time to write about one today. I promise I'll share the others at a later date. This past Wednesday our church held a funeral for a baby girl named Felicity. She died in the womb just a few days before her due date and she was delivered Saturday night. When things like this happen it brings my emotions about our miscarriage right up to the surface again, so I just didn't feel like I could handle going to the funeral, but Jeremy went and he said it was pretty amazing. I heard someone say that Felicity's parents were with their family on Sunday night singing the hymn "It is well." That is just spectacular to me! I'm sure they were singing through tears, but still... they were singing praise to God only 24 hours after delivering their lifeless baby! I pray that the Lord continues to support and encourage them through songs and words and people and scripture as they heal from this loss. And Lord, strengthen them to use this experience to point others to You.

So some of you may be wondering what the current happenings with the Hermann's are these days? Well, it feels like a lot has changed for us in 2007. In January, we moved in with my parents to take advantage of a rent-free living arrangement. In January, Jeremy also started a new job at our church. He works part-time as an assistant to the Pastor for Worship and Vision at the newest campus of our church. This has been a great change for him and we are very thankful that the Lord has blessed him with this great opportunity! In July, I also started a job at our church. I am working full-time at the main office downtown, as an assistant to the woman who oversees the nurseries for two of the three locations. I am LOVING my new job! It seems to be a great fit for me all around. We have also gotten involved in a small group at our church, which is a blessing. It is an inter-generational group, and I believe we are the youngest adults there. We look forward to getting to know these people better over the next year. Jeremy has only one year of school left, and we are both very much looking forward to him graduating. He has been in school so long, I'm not sure he'll know what to do with himself come next summer! We are praying that as he finishes his last year, the Lord will guide him to a full-time ministry position.

Those are the biggest changes that have come our way this year. This summer we have had the opportunity to travel to Manitowoc, WI twice to visit Jeremy's family, and we had a great weekend camping trip with our dear friends the Finseth's. I can hardly believe this weekend is Labor Day already! We'll have to do something fun and picture-worthy soon because I realized I don't have many recent pictures to post on here. Until then...

Welcome!

Welcome to The Hermann Family blog! I should clear one thing up right from the start, by naming this "The Hermann Family" blog I am not making any sort of baby announcement. Jeremy and I can be a family without having children, can't we? And I wanted something versatile, in the hope that someday Lord willing we do have children. I hope you all enjoy!