JUNO!!

Last night, Marcus and I braved the cold wind to see Juno. Partly to celebrate five years being together and partly due to a lost bet. If you haven't heard of Juno, it's about a teenage girl who ends up pregnant and decides to put it up for adoption as opposed to an abortion. Now it was hilarious, but even more touching. How many movies about teenagers involve real situations that they may face and portray it so honestly?

Those of you who may not know, my sister had a baby 17. I could see her in Juno, especially the scene where she is walking down the hall that divides for her as everyone stares. Her nickname as the cautionary whale. My sister was not the only teenage girl having sex. Something like 80% of teenagers have sex before they leave high school, but the unlucky few that have a physical representation of their "dirty deed" are ostracized. As Juno said, "What is the male word for slut?" Jason Bateman "They haven't come up with one yet."

As I step down from my soap box, go see Juno. It was sooo funny with many quotes to add to my repertoire like: "You're the cheese to my macaroni" and "That ain't no etch-a-sketch. This is one doodle that can't be un-did, homeskillet" -Dwight referring to a home pregnancy test.


As a side note, my sister kept her child. Ethan. Who is now 3 and a half and the light of all of our lives. Having a child at 17 changed her entire life including her personality, work ethic, and her worldview. She works full time and goes to school full time to support her and Ethan. She is my hero. Whenever I'm stressed, I think how I could have a child and a full time job and then I shutup. Sometimes.

First Snow

Today when I awoke, I looked out my window and saw snow! My first snow in NY (except for the one spring break it snowed!). It's the end of the night and the snow is gone, but I made some good memories today to share.

First this morning on the way to church a kid threw a snowball at me. I was on the bus and the window was open partly. Him and his buddy were throwing snow balls at passing taxis. We made eye contact and I glared, warning him with my eyes that he should not do what he was thinking about doing. He pulled his arm back anyways and let loose. It hit the window by my head. Luckily, for him, it didn't get on me. I shook my fist at him and he ran off. Lucky boy.

Then tonight the six of us Shiloh people went to the Park Ave Tree Lighting. We joined about 500 New Yorkers sing Christmas Carols in front of the Brick Church. It was amazing! Afterwards, we went back to Kiersten and Alison's drank cider, ate apple pie, and watched a White Christmas. It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas!

Please excuse the delay...

Life has been crazy to say the least. I have four weeks left of my second semester at Columbia. Marcus has been working for Harlem Children's Zone for a month or so now. Both families have come to visit (and we had so much fun!). I went home for Thanksgiving (without Marcus because he had to work). Life in New York is starting to resemble something like a pattern, which for those who don't know me, I crave. A part of my life has never followed a pattern, my family. The past couple weeks have reminded me of this fact.
My family consists of my mom, brother (22), and sister (20). Without going into too much detail, my siblings and I had a difficult family environment because of our father. All three of us have handled it differently. I dove straight into counseling, God, and friends which all helped me overcome. My sister rebelled as a teenager, but now is an amazing mother to a three year old boy, works full time, and goes to school full time. My brother has been in a constant state of anger and guilt for the past six years. Neither one of them have a faith in God to which I attribute my peace, hope, and happiness.
When I think of them, it's easy to blame myself for not being there for them and their healing process. When I'm around them, I can see the chains of the past holding them back from realizing their full potential and joy. I'm also at a loss of how to help. Please be praying for my family and I as we, along with God's help, try to heal the wounds of the past.

Old School Reunion

It finally happened! I've been living here four months now and I've been waiting. Last night we finally have a Shiloh reunion of sorts at Cilantro's. A Mexican restaurant that we frequent because of their half price margaritas and good food.





There 12 of us from Shiloh. It was good seeing everyone and catching up. It was surreal all of us to be in the city, eating together as "grown-ups". I can remember being together on off nights during the summer dreaming of living in the city one day and having nights like last night.



God has done and is doing great things in all our lives. Some through Shiloh and others through completely new areas of their lives. Each person has changed, but our conversations and our friendships haven't.

THE smell

The moment we returned to our apartment after being out of town for a week there was an awful smell in the kitchen. Marcus became obsessed with finding where the smell came from. The first time he pulled the stove away from the wall we didn't find anything. So he started pulling the drawers out. You will never guess what we found.




Lots and lots of Zoloft that expired in 1999. Very strange and eerie.



The second time we pulled the stove away from the wall there was our little mouse (the white stuff is baking soda that Marcus dumped to try to stop the smell). It had crawled into the stove somewhere and died. The smell almost made both of us vomit. It took forever to get the mouse out and then Marcus ran outside to the trash. Thank God I'm married and had Marcus to do the "dirty work".

My first visit home

This was the first time I've visited Cincinnati from living in another city. College didn't count b/c a dorm room doesn't feel like home. It was weird, but so much fun. My granny and the twins met us at the airport. Instead of making welcome signs they just wrote "Welcome home Adrienne and Marcus. Yipee!" So creative. We got skyline on the way home!


Sara and Kim were as much fun as ever. They threw me a birthday party, we went school shopping, they spent the night, and we watched High School Musical 2. Ethan watched it with us too! He kept saying "I hate high school musical", but ended up dancing by the end of the movie. I loved it. I had never seen the first one, but I may be obsessed now. Maybe.



He was so cute and talkative! He is three years old now. It seems like it was yesterday he was born. He kept saying "I love you Adrienne and Marcus." I didn't want to leave him. He loved the girls (Jenna, Sara, and Kim). They spent the night the same night as him. Kim was the only name he could remember though and called Jenna, Jeffrey once.




Jenna didn't want us to leave. Isn't she cute? I didn't want to leave either. Then when we did get back to New York, we realized we had left both sets of keys in Ohio. Luckily, I have the world's greatest granny that overnighted them to us. FedEx got the keys to Kristi's apartment by 9:00 am the next morning. But we did have to spend the night at Kristi's. Trust me, we'll never forget them again! Now it's back to reality. Marcus is job searching and I start my second semester in a week and a half. Wish us luck!

Columbia University

This is the beautiful ivy league school I attend. But below is the actual campus I go to everyday, about 60 blocks north of the nice campus. Such is my luck. I only have a week and a half left of summer classes till I get a month break. Then I'm going to Shiloh for a week and then home for a week!