On Monday, we got some papers from Southwestern Minnesota Synod saying that they want Jon to come up for new pastor orientation. Jon called and politely asked how he would be getting up there. It turns out that they’re willing to give us some churches to interview at while we’re up there.

I asked my boss for the time off. She OK’ed it but told me that she’d have to talk to the board about it. Well… she called today and told me that since I’m leaving in the next 6-8 weeks, the board wants my last day to be Friday because in addition to travelling for a week, I also can’t guarantee that I’ll be here for the holidays and they need to find and train someone who can be. To her credit, she told me that she wanted to meet with me in person first but since I had an emergency dental appointment today, I couldn’t do this. I’m not exactly happy since we could use the income. (We’re starving seminary students — we can *ALWAYS* use the income.) However, I’m leaving on a somewhat positive note (I hope). Things would not be this good if I had informed them in November that I was leaving and they had to hurriedly recruit and train someone. I also have my paychecks earmarked for certain things like vet visits for the cats and for Jon’s insurance premium, so those things are taken care of.

Another lovely thing that happened today: I got the news that I need a root canal on one of my teeth. I broke it last month and decided to wait until I got to Minnesota. It started throbbing while I was eating lunch yesterday, so I called a local dentist and asked for an appointment. They took x-rays and evaluated it and gave me the news. The only reason that I’m not jumping on this is… I don’t have dental insurance and I’m not in a great place to finance a procedure like this. My tooth isn’t giving me problems and I’m being super careful to not aggravate it. God willing, it can wait until I get up to Minnesota…

The good news today is that the synod is going to cover *all* of our Minnesota travel costs. I made plane and car reservations this afternoon and had a great time. (It’s always fun when I’m spending someone else’s money. :)) We’ll go up from October 23-30 and hopefully Jon will receive a call from one of those interviews.

OK… hopefully the bad stuff will cease and the good stuff will continue..