Happy Birthday Mom!!!

Today is my (Daniel) mom's birthday!!!

Sadly she has to work today but hopefully she is finding some way to celebrate anyway. Mom is wonderful (but most likely you already know that if you read our blog) So what might you NOT know about Debbie Monroe....hmm.....



1. She is a really fast walker. Kirsten used to complain about how fast I walked and I had to explain that if I hadn't learned to walk fast mom would have just walked off and left me. I mean considering one step for me is like 3.5 for her think about how fast her legs have to move to walk as fast as she does. It's really amazing when you think about it.

2. She is scared of snakes. Ok, most of you probably know that, but I'm not really sure that I can fully explain the magnitude of this phobia. She probably got nervous just reading the word snakes. Honestly. It's bad. So if you're looking for last minute gift ideas a rubber snake would be a TERRIBLE idea.

3. She has volunteered more hours than you have worked. I can't even tell you all of the full time jobs that mom has had that didn't involve any money. Church, PTA, Band Stuff, the list goes on and on.

4. She probably knows more about basketball than you. Simply through osmosis mostly. I think secretly she kinda likes it.

5. Her southern accent comes out when she's on the phone and when she curses. Really. If you don't believe me give her a call and ask her to say the "s" word. Funny Stuff!

Mom is wonderful! Matt and I couldn't have asked for better parents. My favorite thing about mom is watching her love people. She is relentless in the way she serves and loves the people around her. She truly an example of Christ for me in that way.


Happy birthday mom from all 4 of your kids in Portland! We miss you and love you!

Happy Birthday, Ben!

Today is our cousin's son's birthday. (I always forget what that is and Daniel always remembers...second cousin? I'm not sure...) Regardless, Ben is some sort of a cousin to us.

Today Ben turns five, which I'm sure we all know is a huge year. Ben had a space-themed birthday party on Saturday (during which it looks like he got a lot of awesome gifts, had two really cool-looking cakes, and sent his guests home with super-creative rocket ship good "bags"), but he also rang the bell to commence the service at church on Sunday, and just recently returned from a Disney cruise.


Ben's an awesome big brother to Megan, rock climbs, plays tennis, holds a regular book club and loves riding his bike—a lot for a just-turned five year old!



Plus, he's super cute.



HAPPY BIRTHDAY BEN!! Hope it's great!

ps. to follow all of the adventures of Ben and the rest of his family, check them out at theframefamily.blogspot.com/

we're official!

look! oregon licenses! this is the first time for both of us to have licenses other than georgia ones...

don't even bother moving

so the weather this winter really hasn't been that bad. not nearly as bad as some have described it. so it has become our running joke that there's a conspiracy to keep people out of portland by talking about how dreadfully miserable the rain is so that no one will want to move here...i'll probably even be arrested for writing this and letting the secret out. but seriously, it seems like portlanders just want to keep it to themselves and so they act like it's awful.

then daniel heard this on the radio tonight:

"so if you're in town for the ncaa tournament, welcome. enjoy your time in portland. but know that it rains here all day every day all year. so if you're thinking about moving here, just enjoy your visit and head on home—because it rains all the time here."

seriously. it was gorgeous and 60 yesterday and really didn't rain much today (even in comparison to georgia)...so now you've been let in on the secret.

what jury duty?

this morning i had jury duty. i got up at 6:00 (whine), showered, put on a suit (yea...i have this suit from doing internships in high school, and i never get to wear it. i figured, no one i see today will know me, so why not? i wore a tshirt with it, but it was still fun), got on the max (public transportation), and made my way over to the courthouse.

i got there, checked in, sat down in a big room with all sorts of people and pulled out my computer to continue working while i waited. about 15 minutes later, a circuit judge came in, introduced herself, explained how important what we were doing is (did you know that serving jury duty is the only requirement the government makes on female US citizens? well, i assume following the law would be a requirement. yeah, i probably got the wording wrong, but you get what i mean. for men it's jury duty and registering for the selective service.), and then...

told us we could all go home. apparently, the courts were closed on friday because of funding or something and then because of scheduling conflicts, there are no trials today...

and the best part is that because of this morning it is now as if i served, so i won't get another paper telling me i have to serve for two years! so i don't see what the problem is with jury duty.

meanwhile, daniel and his brother matt are at the first round of the national championship tournament (i wonder if i phrased that correctly?) my bracket has only one loss so far...

Hawaii

Well, we'll stop making promises to blog while we're away. We end up just feeling guilty every night that we haven't blogged yet. And we never made a promise that we'd blog the day we got home...

So here we are two days after we've returned and ready to blog. Mostly. We're tired. We didn't sleep but like 3 hours Saturday night (I just found out this afternoon that apparently I was hallucinating at church on Sunday, the morning we returned... I was really tired), we've been staying up until 1 or 2 a.m. and getting up at 7, and taking naps in the afternoon (hence the 1 or 2 a.m.). Very tired. I had no idea we'd feel this much jet lag...we didn't feel any going over there.

But alas, you aren't here to hear about our sleeping patterns. I'll go through day by day. So here we go...

Saturday: we got to Honolulu around 5pm, the Vinsons picked us up at the airport and we headed out for some authentic Hawaiian fare. "Plate lunches" are apparently a big thing on the islands, which as far as I can gather is basically a meat or sandwich or something with two scoops of rice and a scoop of macaroni salad. Yep, that's it. And it's good. I think all we did the rest of the night was sleep.

Sunday: we got up and went to church with the Vinsons. So when they lived on Oahu, the Vinsons went to this church that has since moved to "the other side of the mountains." Apparently Oahu is split right down the middle by a mountain range. To get from Honolulu to where the Vinsons used to live (and to where the church now is) it takes about 30 minutes. Anyway, we pull up to the church and we're at the bottom of this valley—right at the bottom of these mountains...


Crazy. The mountains on Oahu are absolutely stunning. They look like they have a lush, gorgeous blanket covering them. It's amazing.

Anyway, after church we went drove around part of the island. We saw several gorgeous beaches, surfers and a whale off in the distance. As you can tell, it was a bit overcast on this side of the island (apparently the sides of the island can have completely different weather) and thus we didn't stay on any of the beaches we passed.


After that, we went to the Dole Platation.



Look at these tiny little pineapples! We learned that pineapples take 18 months from seed to first fruit, and each plant only gets two plants in its lifetime.

Daniel and I and another pineapple.


And there's Mary and Braxton, too.


Oh! and we got this amazing stuff called Dole whip that had real pineapple pieces on it, too. It was super, super yummy. (Daniel's making a really weird face. And there's Braxton in the background...)


The we got back to the hotel and Daniel and I went to the beach.



This is the first time we got a good look at Diamond Head, an apparently pretty famous mountain (no, make that volcanic crater) on Oahu that I knew nothing about until our trip.




My dad was on Oahu in 1971 during Vietnam and got this picture of him on Waikiki beach with Diamond Head in the background:


This is Daniel and I trying to recreate it and obviously not doing a great job (we hadn't seen the picture yet)...but honestly I'm not sure how dad was on this beach with it so empty. This is an incredibly famous beach that is covered with people in 2009. So this was our best picture of me and Diamond Head, but regardless, its the same volcanic crater that we're standing in front of. And maybe next time we'll get a better picture :)


Sunday night the Vinsons had a dinner to go to at a persons house so Daniel and I were alone for the evening. We walked over to Waikiki—which is incredibly ritzy by the way—ate dinner and walked on the beach. It was really dark, so this is the only picture we got, and this time I get the award for creepy face...



Monday: We spent the day Monday back on the beach. Daniel, Braxton and Ken went out on boogie boards while I read and looked out at the ocean.



Oh, and I also watched a set being built. We thought it could be some movie or television show.


But it was just Germany's next top model winner walking a runway. She walked up and down the runway and did this pose over and over and over.


Oh and lots of weddings. Lots of weddings in Hawaii...


Monday night Braxton, Daniel and I walked back to Waikiki, ate dinner, and walked around. We saw our first hula dancers...but in a mall. Still, pretty neat.



Tuesday: Tuesday morning Braxton, Ken, Daniel and I drove around another part of the island and saw some more gorgeous views...




And then we climbed a mountain...

Afterward, we continued driving to a beach. There are surfers in the water here, but you can't really tell.

Once we got to the other side of the mountain we climbed, you could look back and see the lighthouse.


The beach we ended up on was absolutely gorgeous...



After the beach, we continued driving around and seeing the sights. (We also had shaved ice—another hugely popular thing in Hawaii—at a place that Obama and his daughters were this past December. Every place we went to that Obama had been in had pictures of him there...pretty funny.)



Including a drive up on top of a high mountain overlooking half of the island.


Wednesday: Wednesday Daniel and I went snorkeling at Hanauma Bay, which is apparently the best on the island (and got ourselves familiar with the island's bus system, which was an adventure). We had an underwater camera, but unfortunately we haven't developed the pictures yet, so you don't get to see them just yet. We were back at the beach that afternoon and out to dinner that night...no pictures. But I did get this picture off our balcony...it's the best I could do without a tripod, but the moon's amazing.



Thursday: Daniel and I got back on the buses and headed out to Pearl Harbor. Daniel had seen this before when he came here when he was young, but I never had. There's a museum and overlooks explaning the events of that day, and then you watch a movie and take a boat out to the memorial, which is actually over the sunken ship.



That afternoon we spent our last day on the beach, and then ate dinner with the Vinsons. Again, no pictures, but this is at sunset from our balcony...



Thursday night, Friday and Saturday were the days of the conference. We don't have any pictures from it, so there's not much to show, but the conference itself was amazing. Lots of really good speakers and great moments and we both learned a lot. However, it's late and I'm determined to go to bed at a reasonable hour tonight, so I'll stop here...that was Hawaii!!

Happy Birthday Dan!!!

today is our very good friend dan's birthday. dan doesn't want a birthday post, though, so we have to make this quick. dan is our biggest opponent of the birthday posts. but he's just too special not to. and really, there's SO much to say about day, but we'll save it for a non-birthday post. dan's awesome. really. we love you!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!