One of our small treats to ourselves in February was a trip to our first Ice Hockey game, where our local team (the Sheffield Steelers) played a team from nearby Nottingham. Some friends who are huge ice hockey fans told us that UK ice hockey teams are mainly comprised of players who didn't quite make it in the US and Canadian tournaments (often because they are slightly smaller in build) so the game was really first-class (at least on the Steelers' part--they more or less trounced their opponents [5-2], which was great fun for us and everyone else in the Sheffield sections of the stands). Here's my handsome husband rooting for the Steelers (and delighted to be rooting for a sports team with orange colours).
I learned a few days ago that my last big application for something in the UK has fallen through, so it seems likely that I. and I will be returning to the States permanently at the end of this semester (hopefully with some sort of employment, although things are completely uncertain at the moment). We are living in a state of quiet anxiety and trying to relish each moment of this life that we have. God has been good to us thus far, and I don't want to waste the rest of this wonderful year in Sheffield panicking about a future I can't yet see.
So here we end the story of quiet February, which has dwindled away in the blink of an eye: a month of classes and teaching and grading and meetings, in a beautiful country and in a town I am beginning to enjoy more and more with each passing day.
