It is finished...I hope.

So I took the GRE last Friday and many of you have been asking about how it went.  As I looked at the entire application process I thought that I needed to score around 650+ verbal if I were going to have a great shot at entrance at Vandi.  Anything more would be wonderful, and anything less would be thinning the ice I was standing on.  I felt the test went fairly well.  The overall journey was arduous and had me near tears more than once.  The last sample test I took made the outlook bleak, but I was going to go in with confidence and give it my best shot.  I went in with fear and trembling and walked out with a moderate level of confidence about my admissions possibilities.  I ended up with a 630 verbal score and a 650 quantitative score.  Life is never easy or straightforward.  I will be competing with at least 60 other applicants for 2 measly spots in the Vanderbilt Graduate Department of Religion and know that God will put me right where I need to be, when I need to be there.  Thank you all for the love and support that you have shown through this process and I will keep you posted.  You inquiries and encouragment mean a great deal to me.  This Thanksgiving I am thankful for the connection that our family has been able to work on over the past year.  I know it has been over a year now since grandma left us all, but her spirit is alive and well in each of us.  She has to be elated at our amount of communication between her family as the result of her passing.  It would be fantastic to see people post what they are thankful for as we all prepare to indulge in some feast or another in the next seven days.

Christmas pet photos

This past weekend Jen and I volunteered our commercial showroom space to host the local humane society Christmas pet picture fundraiser. It was a lot of fun to see a number of people from all walks of life come together because they support the work of the human society. Jen and I as most of you know have 3 dogs. 2 yorkiepoos (marley-black one, nilla-white one) and a lab retriever mix (Jazzie). You can see their funny little pics attached. We will all be waiting for Big Willies picture with little willie. He or Julie can explain that one.

Have a wonderful Christmas wherever you spend it. Enjoy the company you are around and take some time to reflect back on how many things we as Americans can be thankful for (even when the media makes it sound like everything is going to implode on itself!). Oh yeah, since I'm in business can I get some of the govt. bailout money too?? LOL!!

Andy & Jen Holst

Each morning since we've arrived in Costa Rica I sit in my rocking chair in the 1st floor living room and look out at Lake Arenal. Several of those mornings have been cloudy, the sun coming out later in the day. But two days ago the morning dawned clear and I could see the volcano Arenal at the east end of the lake sending up a plume of blue smoke that drifted across the deepening pink of the morning sky.
I love the early mornings here; the air is filled with the sound of bird songs and monkeys' howling, all around me is the lush green of the tropics. It's peaceful and I feel incredibly grateful to be at home here. But not all is idyllic. We arrived to find that the front door we'd installed just before leaving last year had swelled so much with the rains that it could no longer be closed. And a broken pipe in the (concrete) wall was causing water to pool in what will be the master bathroom on the main floor.
Plus neither of our vehicles would start...the Trooper just needed a new battery, but Richard is still trying to figure out what's wrong with the little Ford pickup. So our first week was spent working on the presenting problems, next week we hope to get to work on the actual construction that's required to finish the house.
The whole main (second) floor has yet to be done: interior walls need to be constructed, the bathroom and kitchen put in, the ceiling installed, etc. etc. There's no lack of work. Unfortunately I injured my back somehow in our first days here (it might have been lugging the suitcases that were crammed with the various things I can't get down here - including a kitchen sink!) So my abilities are fairly restricted at the moment. However I have great faith in my body's ability to heal itself. I'm a bit better each day and trust that I will soon be back to working on the many projects that await me.
I look forward to getting the main floor finished so that we will be able to entertain guests. We will have lovely guest accommodations in the quarters we're currently inhabiting. I'll keep you all posted on our progress - and will take booking reservations at any time!

Mattie's 4th Birthday

I have been wanting to write this post for a few weeks now, but just have not had the chance.  Now it is a crisp Friday morning with snow falling ever so elegantly outside of my window, and I have a chance to type.  Matigan's birthday was on the 25th of October, however, I had to be in a wedding that day.  The solution to our dilemma was to celebrate her birthday before we left for the wedding, so we had three other little girls come over for a Fancy Nancy Princess extravaganza!  As some of you may know, I had a major paper that was sandwiched between the princess party and leaving for Fremont, NE.  While Wyatt and I decorated Mattie's cake I had a chance to reflect on how much has happened over the last four years.  

Four years ago I had absolutely no idea what is was to be a dad, or how phenomenal it would be to have a child.  Each day is a new adventure full of joys and frustration.  A guy I coached with in Belle Fourche once said, "Being a bad parent is pretty easy, but being a good parent sure must take a lot of work."  This has been a profound statement for me, especially coming from an unmarried man without kids.  The milestone of four seems to be one of those ages where you realize that your baby is really growing up.  She no longer needs our help to change her clothes, pour her cereal or wipe her bottom, but she will always need our love, support, and parental investment in her life!  Sometimes the humor of our Lord results in terrific blessings.

Also, I thought I would throw a few Halloween pictures in for you to look at.  It was quite the event.

Clara's Many Faces

Can I tell you how much I love being an aunt? I hope that some day my niece and nephew (and the others still to come) have as many good memories of me as I do of living across the street from my Aunt Mary and around the corner from my Aunt Sharon. My aunts always seemed SO much cooler than my mom (especially Aunt Mary--I couldn't believe she was related to my mom). I don't know if I'll ever seem cooler than Elizabeth and Amanda, but I love being an aunt at least as much as I loved hanging out at my aunt's houses when I was a kid. Check out how many different faces Clara can make...clicking on any of the pictures should take you to my album from the trip.


Clara is amazing; she's almost walking, almost talking, almost feeding herself and getting frustrated every time she wants to do something that she can only almost do. It reminded me a lot of life with a tween. Both Clara and Alina want to do things that people just a little bit older than them can do easily (in Clara's case it is walk and feed herself, in Alina's it is to be in charge of her social life and be alone with boys). In both cases, when things don't work the way they want them to, the girls get frustrated (in Clara's case she cries, in Alina's she slams her bedroom door and turns the music up really loud). It was helpful to me to see the parallels between these two life stages and it made me hopeful for both of them. I've yet to meet a toddler who didn't eventually learn to walk or feed herself...

Where's Bill & Julie?

Haven't heard from Bill or Julie since the Maine trip. Where are you? How was it? What's up??