Feelin' Hot Hot Hot! & Yankee Stadium

We are officially out of the clear for the cold weather and have moved right into humid, hot New Jersey heat! All of the trees have their leaves back, everyone's crankin' up their air conditioners, and there are refrigerators currently being filled with ice cream & popsicles. Ah yes, summer is here! In this young summer we have already experienced new wildlife (a black bear siting, muskrats, geese, & turtles) and had a tornado warning. Crazy Garden State goodness. But, we're thankful for all of the adventures and lessons we're learning.

Carly's job at Jersey Central Physical Therapy & Fitness is going great and she's now been there for a little over a month! She's loving her job and really enjoys her coworkers. AWESOME! She currently treats patients of all ages who have been prescribed physical therapy rehab for all orthopedic cases. Her clinic also is a full weight room gym, so she likes to go in early to get a good workout in before seeing her patients. Her job is a Godsend. Thank you for all of your prayers and support. Throughout the summer, Carly will be working full time and taking a few continuing education classes that are required for all licensed physical therapists. She is looking forward to advancing her training and receiving new certifications for treatment.

Chris has completed his first year of grad school at Princeton Theological Seminary! YES! He wrapped up his final May short term course of "Philippians & Philemon Greek Exegesis" on May 17th. If you're interested, here's a website that he and some of his group mates worked on as a final project for the course. Here's the link: (http://ptsphilippians.wordpress.com/). This ended up being his favorite class he has taken so far and he really enjoyed the material that was covered along with working closely with the Greek language. Earlier Chris was able to read Rob Bell's controversial "Love Wins" book and he currently is re-reading through C.S. Lewis' "Mere Christianity" and eyeing N.T. Wright's "Surprised By Hope" books. Chris finished his year strong in all of his course work and next ahead is a summer language course of Hebrew.

Currently, life has slowed down for both of us and we are looking forward to a visit from long time friends Brandon, Stacy & Tabitha O'Brien on June 9th-12th. And then Chris will be heading to California to visit family and friends June 13th-20th. Carly will be flying out a bit later to join in on the fun. During that time Chris will be watching some of the High School seniors graduate who he worked with at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church. And when Carly flies in, we will be heading to a U2 & Lenny Kravitz concert at Angels Stadium (June 17th)! That week will also be Father's Day weekend. Both of us are excited to getaway for a while and see family and close friends!

Also, Carly's entire family (Jim, LuAnn, Kate & Corinne) is coming out to Princeton for a visit on July 1st-6th to celebrate Independence Day. And Chris' Dad & Stepmom (Bruce & Debbie) are visiting July 8th-10th just before Chris begins his summer course.

We made another trip into New York recently and was able to catch the Yankees vs. Red Sox game in the Bronx at the new Yankee Stadium for Chris' 29th birthday. It was incredible! Here are some pics of the stadium.

As a lifelong, committed Angels fan, I (Chris) hate both the Yankees and the Red Sox so it made it difficult to know who to root for. But, the garlic cheese fries were delicious and the baseball nostalgia was unlike anything either of us have experienced as fans. We took the subway all the way in to the stadium from the Staten Island Ferry. The subway was filled with rats but there were some incredible street performers down in the tunnels (some serious talent!!!). It was a great birthday present.

As usual, there's lots going on with us. We'll try to keep you posted as much as possible as we continue to have new adventures. Feel free to email, write, call, text or however it is that you communicate. We'd love to hear from you and we love sharing our stories. Continue to cover us in prayer as we continue to journey and grow together as a couple & individuals. We miss you all tons!

Spring Fever

Oops! It has been awhile since the blog has been updated. We are so sorry for the delay and the long hiatus. Thank you all so much for your prayers, support, letters, encouragement and love. We miss you all so much and are so thankful for the ways we are supported and loved while being far away in this sending. We hope that this update helps give you a glimpse into what we've been experiencing. The blog has been updated with long overdue photos and stories of how we survived the winter and are now appreciating spring. So, if you keep scrolling down, you'll see alot of new stories.

As I (Carly) write, spring is finally showing it's beautiful face. April showers are bringing the May flowers and some trees have shown some incredible blooms. With Easter nearing and the weather changing, it seems appropriate that our lives have many new changes as well. We have much to celebrate as milestone of life. We just celebrated our 2 year wedding anniversary on April 3rd! What an adventure life together has been. We are so loving the journey!!

First, Chris is finishing his first year of graduate school this month at Princeton Theological Seminary. His course load this year has been challenging at both the intellectual and spiritual level but he's thriving. Specifically, he is loving being here and has been part of some incredible case study work with professors. In fact, he has received a formal invitation from Drs. Richard Osmer, Kenda Dean, John Bowlin, & Darrel Guder to participate in a concentration group on missional theology that has been funded with a Lilly grant. The group is exploring ways in which Princeton might support students in integrating their academic learning and their spiritual lives while in seminary. Also, he has accepted an invitation to serve as the pastoral intern at Prince of Peace Lutheran Church in Princeton Hightstown, NJ, for the next academic year. There are alot of great things moving and shaking...He's so excited by all of the amazing things coming his way!

I (Carly) passed my boards and am now a licensed physical therapist. WOO!!! With much deliberation and patient waiting I found the perfect job at Jersey Central Physical Therapy and Fitness that is located in Edison, NJ. It is a private outpatient orthopedic clinic. The therapists are wonderful and are going to be wonderful mentors. We have been so take care of and blessed. We are both in agreement that we believe the "transition" period is finally over. We are now finally settling in. Below you can read my notification of passing my licensing exams (upside down, sorry!), along with how I studied from day in and day out on our large white board.

My Acceptance Letter

No More Study Boards

Our lovely kitchen dressed for spring

Philly Part 2

On a wonderful sunny Saturday we decided to go visit Philadelphia again. This time it was to try the rival Geno’s Cheesesteaks as we had Pat’s Philly Cheesesteaks in our last visit. Thanks Tokanaga Family for the Geno's gift cards!! Awesome idea!! So, our verdict……

Pat’s meat was better but Geno’s bread was amazing. The conclusion is that now we need try out another cheesesteak rival... Jim’s Cheesesteaks. Why Jim’s? Because both places have been so incredible and we want to see if Jim's is any different.

After our steak sandwich feast we decided to go site seeing in the city. The only problem was we had no idea where we were going. Fortunately as we were aimlessly driving through the city we saw a man approaching our car waving his arms furiously. We stopped only to find that the ecstatic man was our friend Alex Turpin from Princeton Theological Seminary. He had just been dropped off in the city to go to a BBQ but had two hours to kill. He ended up being our tour guide and we could not have asked for a better one. We saw the Rocky Balboa steps; the “Love” statue, city hall (with Ben Franklin at the top), the Masonic Temple, the hipster South Street, the art district, and he Alex showed us where Jim’s Philly Cheesesteaks was. Awesome day and can't wait to go back. It's only 40 minutes from our apartment...so fun!

New York, New York

Chris describes walking around in New York as feeling like a very small mouse scampering around. Everything is huge. We took the Staten Island Ferry into Manhattan and were amazed by the massiveness of the city.


As ignorant tourist we believed that it would be wise to walk from the ferry to Central Park. We made it to Times Square 2 hours later and realized that conquering the city is quite a feat. We will definitely be visiting the Big Apple again soon.

The Empire State Building

Ground Zero

Wall StreetTimes SquareProject Runway

Washington DC

My former roommate and good friend Liz was in DC visiting some friends for a week. I (Carly) was able to take a few days off to go check out the city. We were able to take some time to go to some of the Smithsonian museums. We HAD to go see all of the jewels, and look Chris I found a necklace that matches my ring.

























I also made Liz take me to see the dinosaurs. When I was young my mom taught second grade and would take her students to see the dinosaur exhibit every year in San Francisco. She would bring me with her and it was so special because I got to go with the “big kids” on the field trip.

Slow Dinner

Since our move here we have made some very good friends. Chris has a small group of guys he meets with each week and the men have decided to try to include the wives in more activities. So, Chris decided to invite everyone over for a “slow dinner”.


The dinner consisted of food that required a long time to cook (a.k.a. a turkey). It gave the group plenty of time to socialize while the food finished perfecting.

We can see light!

We have survived! After months of hibernating in our home to escape the snow we have emerged because we have seen the light. We took the liberty of documenting our winter survival skills and give our friends back home a glimpse of what it looks like to live where the sun don’t shine. Chris' mom, Nancy came for a visit and got to enjoy our lovely winter wonderland.

Light shining in from the Rotunda

Images from inside the chapel