dear ipad...

Dear iPad,

Can you ever forgive me? I've been so wrong. I've called you names. Worthless. Pointless. Just a really big iPhone.

Or worse, iTouch.

But that was before. I was so naive. Ignorant. I chose not to see everything you could offer.

That was before I knew about Moodboards, about all the drawing and sketching apps, all the web design apps. And before I knew I could make my own fonts.

I know others had tried to tell me. Convince me. But I didn't listen, and now I regret it.

Now I want you. I think I need you. I can't live without you. Oh, the horror!

Can't we just forget it all and move on? Make amends and live happily with one another?

Or will you really make me pay, make me suffer...

make me wait 2-3 weeks until shipment???

Yours,
Kirsten

p.s. Reed, you're entirely to blame.

why i hate microsoft...

apparently that cool thing that i never would have gotten anyway is canceled. they're just giving mac a chance to do it better anyway...

gagety

so if you know me (kirsten) you probably know i'm fiercely loyal to mac. everything about macs is amazing and i want nothing to do with microsoft. the last time i really spent anytime on a pc was in high school, and then in computer labs in college when i was forced to, and now when i want to get online on daniel's laptop. and i'm so far removed by now and i can barely find the internet on his computer.

and secretly...i think the ipad is really cool. i know it's basically pointless, especially for someone like me, because my main reasons for it would be to be able to read in bed without the traditional annoyances (how...to...hold...the...book...), or watch movies on planes (for the twice a year that i'm on a plane).

but then. have you seen this thing? this thing is cool. amazing. i would use this all. the. time. but i can't. it's microsoft. eek. butlookhowcoolitis...



(good thing both these items are/will be wayyyyyy out of my price range...)

well...

my mom emailed me today to let me know that it's been one month since we've posted. hmmmmm.......well, no fear. i have lots of amazing things planned for this blog. mostly, blogging more often. but for now, I'll leave you with this link as a summary of our life: click here for awesomeness.

(i should warn you, all our faithful work-readers, it's loud.)

Haiti

Our church has a partnership with a community in Swaziland through World Vision—we sponsor children there and help the area with things like wells, gardens, hospitals, schools and community centers and over the past year and a half, Daniel and I have really come to trust and respect World Vision for what they do.

Several weeks ago we collected a special donation for Haiti, right after the earthquake, and recently World Vision made this video showing some of the stuff they're able to do for the people there because of the donations. Anyway, it's just neat to see.



And while we're on the topic of plugs for Haiti relief, my mom's cousin Dave Vanderpool is a doctor in Tennessee and has a nonprofit called Mobile Medical Disaster Relief. He and his team went to Haiti right after the earthquake, and while he's back in the states now, he plans to return with more medicine and medical supplies. His website is here, with an article he wrote and a little news spot about him.

I'm not sure anyone who reads our blog would be lacking in places to give for Haiti relief, but just in case you are, know you can do a lot through both of these organizations. plug over.

Catching up

So you already know that we're now again adless, which is certainly disappointing. And you had heard that we were hot. But I thought you might want to know what else we've been up to. 

We had lots of guests, and then that ended. 

Then it was hot, like really hot. For basically an entire week we took a huge fan, set it down in front of Nickel, and then went to anywhere where we could find air conditioning. The mall, Ikea, all sorts of spending time inside. I (kirsten) kept teetering between whether I had altogether become a wimp or if one really shouldn't have four days of "triple digit temperatures" without AC. But Reed researched and found out there were something like 21 days of 100+ temperatures in the last 20 years before last week...so that was pretty unusual...

So once it cooled down we finally got outside and took Nickel to the park. 

and cupcakes accompanied

we collected the bounty from our garden

See that round thing there on the right that looks like a lime? that's a cucumber...yeah. but we braved it and cut it up and let me tell you, it was the best darn cucumber i've ever eaten...

and this week we've been recuperating. cooling down and catching up on sleep.

So that's it! it's that exciting!!! That's all!!

So up next: my parents!!!

random

It's supposed to be more than 90 degrees today...I (Kirsten) have been working at a coffee shop this morning and each couple or group that would sit down beside me would start talking about it at some point. I know that it's been basically 100 in Georgia for a week or two now—something I can't even begin to remember.

So I made a smoothie, and I thought I'd share (well, the recipe at least. I can't share the actual smoothie over the internet, even though I think we're getting closer and closer to that.)

So here's what I did:
1/4 bag frozen strawberries
spash of LimeAid
Strawberry yogurt cup

All into a blender until smooth. We drink LimeAid regularly, so we have it in the fridge, but when I made this several weeks ago Daniel's first comment is that it's "tart." I looove it, but I think I might like tart things. I know that my mother in law uses OJ, so that may take some of the tartness out, but we don't regularly keep OJ around.

Anyway, just a small remedy for hot days...and I think 90% of our readers have a hot day today.

ps...I can't wait to have a backyard to enjoy this in...

Here we are

So summer has officially begun, and I'm officially calling off our "spring break" from blogging. Not that we had ever officially called on our spring break, we really just slipped into it. but it requires an official calling off.

So here are a few things from our life recently:

We went to two very different high school graduations...possibly the two main schools that (right now) attend the youth group—


Corbett High School, whose graduating class was just over 40


And Barlow High School, with a graduating class of somewhere around 500.

Nickel got a new bed.

She's still trying to figure it out.

And last night we had a Sunday night off again, which ended up meaning order-in Chinese and Taken, which was pretty good.


So that's what you get when you don't get birthday posts. Maybe we all know why we haven't been posting as much. But what would a blog be without this stuff, right?

aloha!

we leave for hawaii tomorrow.

what? you didn't know we were going to hawaii? don't worry, we really didn't either.

okay, not so much true, but it really snuck up on us.

its a bit of a long story, but the family daniel lived with in D.C. has generously offered us a chance to go to a Christian conference they put on each year in Honolulu. plus we get the 4 or so days before the conference just to be in hawaii. we're super excited...and it's slowly sunk in that it's actually happening. it will be my (kirsten's) first time to hawaii and daniel's second. we've got reed's camera, reed's sister cindy's snorkeling gear, and (finally...sooo last minute) peaople all lined up for nickel.

and we've been hula dancing around the house for a couple of days now in preparation...

we'll try to keep you updated while we're there, mostly just to make you insanely jealous. we're hoping for lots and lots of beautiful, warm sun, sand and water. yayyy!! and it's supposed to nearly snow here in portland...



and just as a sidenote, since my mother-in-law will probably want to see (and maybe others?), i had decided a few months ago that i really like these: vera bradley toiletries things.


but they're pretty darn expensive and i'm not obsessed with any "patterns." plus, i feel like i gave vera enough money while i was in high school, but i know what i paid was a tiny fraction compared to many...

anyway, i decided i could make my own. i thought about the dimensions for a bit and what i would do, and then when debbie and ron were here like a month or so ago, debbie had one and so i took a good hard look at hers.

and this is what i came up with...


i'm actually super happy with how this turned out. and it was one of the first things in a while that i've made without a specific pattern, which makes one think in a different way and is really fun. so here it is, my new toiletries bag. thanks for watching :)

Look! Not a Birthday Post!

The birthday posts have gotten out of control, haven't they? Well, fear not, because I feel refreshed when it comes to posting. Maybe I just had to take January off for the most part...who knows.

It's been nice weather here, cold definitely, and not sunny per se, but certainly not the constant rain that we had been expecting. So yesterday we decided to get some fresh air and go on a hike.
We went to a trail sort of close by that a friend here took me this summer, but that Daniel had never been to (I feel like our readers are always guessing as to who's writing until one or the other of us drops the other's name like I just did and then you think "ah, okay." We just like to keep you guessing...).
So anyway, this trail was completely different in the winter than it was in the summer. We walked along a creek/small river the entire time and seriously, we could not believe how clear the water was. I guess with all the snow here, as it turns to water it's incredibly clear.
And there are some really cool parts to this trail, like this waterfall down a rock, and water streaming down from the top of a cliff, in little droplets like constant rain, and all the moss...And Nickel got her head under water for what, I'm pretty sure, was the first time. We haven't ever been to a place with her where, for instance, we could push her off a dock and force her to swim. So she's been in water, but only to the point where she can't walk anymore and then she gets scared. But yesterday Daniel threw a stick into the river and she went chasing after it and first stepped on a rock and then suddenly, as she was going forward, the rock wasn't there. She went completely under and was shocked, but then I think she realized she actually can swim and we couldn't pull her away from the water...And this picture is amazing. I have no idea why Daniel is doing that with his hand. He looks like he's trying to be Gob (for any Arrested Development fans)...

for your listening pleasure

kirsten

there are some things that obviously change when you move. the weather, for one. radio stations, for another. today we will be letting you in on some of the stations we've found here in portland. there's nothing revolutionary, none of them are out of this world and there actually are some worth listening to, but here are the ones we've chosen.

101.9 kink fm. this one's a bit like dave (dan, we think of you), but there's no mara (daniel says thank goodness), no radio free lunch, etc. but they do have a lot of local portland music and some of the more underground stuff. and then like bagpipes on sunday nights. strange.

97.1 charlie. okay, seriously, the tagline for this station is "we play everything." not kidding. and neither are they. r kelley is followed up by the beach boys. and it can be hit or miss, but definitely provides for some entertainment.

104.1 the fish. no really. they were .6 digits off. and they're tagline is seriously "safe for the whole family." i mean, people, we're across the country, how does that happen? but we like 88.3, the other christian station, better—even though it doesn't get as good of reception (okay, we're not sure if 88.3 is right...)

99.5 wolf. this one's country. just like every other country station. but they don't play the braves games. 

that's about it. we have others in our presets (some good r&b and such) but we rarely listen to them. so now you know what we're hearing when we drive down the street. and the picture is totally unrelated—just us saying hi!

my atlanta sports fix

ok...let me just vent for a little bit. if you are here for a fun update about our portland lives, i apologize and encourage you to re-read one of the old posts.

first of all the braves are terrible. what happened? and let me tell you the ONLY thing worse than your team being horrible is them being horrible and you not being able to see a single game. when you live in atlanta you get spoiled something fierce with sports sou

th and fsn south. the first brave i see in portland will be chipper limping around in the all star game.

and speaking of my misery...the university of georgia basketball team is forever cursed. we hired jim harrick. ok, not the smartest move, but it's not like we're the only ones. ask indiana about hiring a coach they knew was a cheater before he even got there. but will indiana be forever punished for their moment of indiscretion? not likely. georgia on the other hand. "but daniel" you start to chime in at your computer. well don't "but daniel" me. i know we made the tournament last year after what can only be called the most improbably sec tourney run and the greatest moments of my sporting life at atlanta's largest mcdonalds. well that's all well and good, but once again...prosperity doesn't become us. jeremy jacobs, our best freshman in last

 years recruiting class that only played a few games and thus attained a medical redshirt, giving us 4 full years to watch the most athletic and talented player on our roster grow, just announced he would be transferring. transferring. awesome. 

it's no good friends. no good at all. not only will we not losing jeremy, but also big dave bliss who you can see laboring up the court in the background. the question is who is going to step up and commit 4-5 hard fouls per 8-10 minutes of back-pain filled minutes. 

if the hawks don't resign josh smith i'm buying a greg oden jersey...that's all there is to it. 

ok i take it back.