happy birthday daddy/mike!

well, although it's technically not my dad's birthday anymore here on the east coast (it's 1:22 a.m. on the 22nd), it still is in Portland (10:23 p.m. on the 21st), so I don't mind using the time change to my advantage.

Today is my dad's birthday, and I won't tell you how old he is, but I will say that he looks and acts younger than anyone his age I've ever heard of. 

So, in honor of his day, I'll tell you a few things you probably already know about my father:

1. he'll talk to anyone. Carry on a conversation with a brick wall. And probably keep it relatively interested. And truthfully, he is incredibly easy to talk to and I never have to worry about putting him in a room with strangers, which is nice.

2. he's extremely helpful and the nicest man ever—really, just like his father. Once I was with my grandfather, and as we were pulling out of a grocery store parking lot, he saw some carts that we're freely roaming in the lot, so he turned around, got out of the car and took maybe 20 minutes collecting all of them so cars wouldn't get scratched. dad's just like that. and I think he would think that's one of the highest honors possible. and he's always the self-designated dish-washer at events and gatherings, which, as everyone knows, is the least-favored task.

3. he keeps everything. i mean everything. from receipts to maps to broken toasters to ancient computer monitors to clothes I haven't worn in 15 years—and not because they're sentimental necessarily, but just in case someone might need them someday. but it does come in extremely handy when you need that one obscure thing that you're sure no one would have saved. 

So i really do have some more amazing (non-wedding) pictures of my dad, but unfortunately they're in Portland and I'm not right now, so they'll have to wait. But that just extends dad's birthday even further, right? And it's still only 10:37 pacific time, so I'm completely in the clear.

Happy Birthday, daddy! we love you!

oh library, how we love thee

kirsten

so this time we're not kidding around. 

we fly back to atlanta monday morning to pack and see friends and family for about a week before we leave again for trip #2 across the country. this time with a budget truck packed to the max with our life's possessions and a honda element with our dog.

so we got a library card. and 11 audio books. 93 CDs. 111.75 hours of being read to. i think that should cover the drive. 

so now I'm working on importing them to our computer so that we can load them to ipods. there's probably not going to be a cd player in the rental truck, so the ipod FM transmitter will have to do. plus, flying home with all these wouldn't be ideal. 

any of these you've read?

Oneonta Gorge

Friday I got to tag along with a couple of adults and two middle school students from Columbia Ridge on a hike through Oneonta Gorge, which is now one of my favorite places in the world.

It is really an incredible place. For most of the hike you are between ankle and waist deep in water with massive vertical cliffs on both sides. Then at the back there is a waterfall with a pool that's perfect for swimming (if you don't mind 40 degree water fresh from the glaciers of mount hood).

This is Hannah, Daniel and Bo (from left to right ignoring the old man). Congratulations to them for being the first Columbia Ridge students to make the blog!

a portrait of the husband

Daniel asked me to send him some pictures of himself yesterday. He was at work and I was working at home with our computer and all of our pictures. And he needed to spend valuable work time refining his Facebook and MySpace pages (just incase you were wondering what Daniel did all day) to further "fake community" he calls it—and quickly make friends with people and kids here so he can invite them to things, start making contact, etc. before he actually genuinely gets to know them. 

It was super fun going through all of the pictures over the many years, but especially the massive amount of them over the year and a half that we've been married. And then to filter out the ones of just him...

So many of these make me laugh, and maybe you don't care to see picture after picture of Daniel as much as I do, but I think you'll enjoy these—tell us your favorite!

look what we found!

a plastic horse on the curb? you say...yes, we say. a plastic horse on the curb. the story goes like this...

silly? weird? yes. but i was SO excited to find one!

disaster

well, I missed one. I've been meaning, and then forgetting, to get a list of birthdays of my (I guess by that I mean my parents') family together, and in fact finally emailed them this morning.

and then I was sitting here just now (which inevitably is lying down, by the way, because we have an air mattress, and I don't know if you've ever tried, but every time you go to sit on an air mattress you fall over...anyway...) with Daniel after he just got home and was thinking about our "cousin" (actually our cousins' daughter, so I guess our second cousin) and thought, "wait, I think Megan was born in August..." and yes, in fact she was. unfortunately, she was not born after the 11th. She was born the 5th. And if you've done the math, that means I'm late. 

So Megan, I'm so, so sorry! I missed your first birthday! How terrible!!! So here is your official (late) birthday post, and I'm sure you won't be the only late post (in fact, I'll be fortunate if I haven't already missed other members of my family...I need that list!!!)

Happy Birthday, Megan!!

Let's see...Megan is my (kirsten) mom's older sister's daugther's daughter (I could make it more confusing, trust me). Actually, truth be told, I've never met Megan, which is terribly sad to me. I hate it that my family grows up (and I guess I do too) and I don't get to watch every moment, movement and step. 

Speaking of steps, it looks like Megan's pretty close to taking her first. It's pretty obvious (not from just this picture, but now that I mention it...) that she loves pink (or it could be that at this age, she inevitably loves pink). And she also has a super cool older brother, Ben who, it's also very obvious, loves his little sister very, very much. She's beautiful and adorable and every time I see pictures I can't believe how much she looks like both of her parents at the same time. 

And because every one year old needs her newborn picture posted, here's sweet Megan just one year ago...

all pictures courtesy of the Frame family's blog...which incidentally I wish I had checked a week or so ago...

Happy Birthday to Susan!

Today is our aunt Susan's birthday—she's Daniel's mom's sister. 

Susan has three daughters, (better known as the Cobb girls,) two of which are in college (scary to say!) and one who is just entering high school (did I mess that up? I'm pretty sure that's right, Emily...) She's also married to Mark!

Susan is so sweet and kind—she's often soft and quiet in her ways and best as I can tell has a servant's heart (I guess you have to with three girls)—and she's a great listener. When she asks you a question she really, truly wants to know the answer. 

We tried to think of a hilarious story to tell about Susan, but couldn't come up with one...Amanda? I'm sure you're good for a funny story about your mom, feel free to share!!

in other news...

if it seems quiet around here, it's because we were at this today and then again tomorrow. It was really great today, plus it was super fun just being with and getting to know Daniel's coworkers and our new church! (Plus, I have to say that because I know that our pastor, Reed, sees our blog... Just kidding, Reed!) 

and, in the "we suddenly have tons of friends with big news" category...if you happen to know Sarah Cherry (Rice), you should know that this is her brand new baby girl, Charlotte Ann!

Woah, isn't she perfect looking? Adorable. I'm SO excited to meet her one day soon!!! (I hope Sarah and Teddy don't mind me putting their daughter all over the internet...)

Anyway, I'll leave you with her to swoon over! 

engaged!

forgive me if someone who shouldn't be hearing it first from me is, in fact, hearing it from me first, but I just can't contain myself...

One of my dearest friends (and one whom I don't talk to nearly enough) is engaged!!!!! His name is Steve and I've met him once and he's great. g.r.e.a.t. and perfect for her. 

Here he is (I stole these off her facebook profile...which I had to get to through LB's, because, well, I hate facebook)...

ohmygosh I'm sosososososo happy for her...it's cliche to say, but I can't think of a single person that deserves this happiness more than her. Leslie is SO wonderful and this is just perfect. perfect. can you tell I'm happy for her??

Congrats, Leslie!!! If you know her (or even if you don't) you can leave her a comment here—I'll make sure she sees them!!!

p.s. the pictures of Leslie at our wedding are coveted. Honestly, I've been waiting for a chance to use them and her birthday is too far out (actually, now that I think about it...farther out than her wedding is!!!) ...our photographer and Leslie had a little crush on each other...

our new home!!

a lot of big things are happening in our lives these days as i'm sure our avid readers have noticed and today we've got another bombshell!

we have an apartment! that's right. we moved out of our last home in the middle of march and now, in august we finally have a place of our own again.

we are officially moving in on Tuesday but we got to go in this monday afternoon and get some pictures so we can give you a sneak peak.

it's a historic apartment building (10-12 units) in southeast portland. so it's on the east side of the river very near the coolest park in portland (with a dog park - yay for nickel!) and lots of cool restaurants in what's called the belmont/hawthorne district. it's going to be about 20 minutes from columbia ridge (our new church/job) and about 35 minutes from matt and kim in hillsboro. 

so without further adieu...let's start the tour. kirsten will be your tour guide. so here's our door. we are apartment #1 which is kinda neat. it's actually a basement apartment which means we are the only ones on our floor which is really nice but as you'll see there are lots of windows which is also nice. 

so here's our foyer/entryway/hallway. notice the new hardwoods. 

here is our living room. we aren't exactly sure how the rooms will be divided just yet but this will likely be the living room and dining room. it's by far the biggest room in the house and has two walls of windows and a ceiling fan!

this is the other side of that same room. notice the closet, which is huge and will be used for extra clothes/storage. also notice the oldest heater in the world. 

now on to the bedroom/kirsten's office. it's big and has an even bigger closet which is nice. again...not sure how it will all be laid out but we'll figure it out.

this is...you guessed it. it's small. there's really no way around that. but again, we aren't worried. 

there's no good way really to photo the kitchen, but here are a couple of angles. we were worried when we first saw it that it would be way too small but yesterday after being in it we feel confident that it will be more than fine. there is a ton of cabinet space which is awesome and a cool black and white floor. 

and here is YOUR room!!!!! yes our guest bedroom. it will be big enough for a double bed and your suitcase. that might be it, but what else do you need? it's not super cute now but wait til my wife gets done with it. 

so that's the quick tour. we'll keep you updated with pictures once we get our stuff. but now we have a place of our own...all we're missing is a visit from you!

camping!!!

we finally did it! it took us a little over a month of being in the beautiful northwest but we finally took our first camping trip. all five of us (including ben) loaded up and headed for the wilderness. we ended up at Beacon Rock State Park which is in Washington right on the border of the Columbia River. So actually this was Kirsten and I's first ever trip to Washington which is kind of a fun side-note!

We made it to the campsite around 1:30 and quickly got things set up and started adventuring (what else do you do when you're camping?) it didn't take us long to find a trail that led to the summit of Hamilton Mountain and past a couple waterfalls. it ended up being about a 10 mile round trip hike and as you can imagine from the word "summit" it was significantly up hill for the first half. but it was beautiful and it didn't hurt that it was probably about 65 degrees outside (this is August 2nd at 3pm). 

we got lots of great pictures along the way...look at the rest on our flickr page. there's a link in the top right hand corner of our blog!

by the time we made it back to camp it was close to 6 oclock and we were tired and hungry. it was spaghetti for dinner (one of my specialties on the fire) and then smores and rook (kirsten and I won in thrilling fashion). and then after a little bit of laying in the hammock and looking at the stars it was off to bed (off to ground is more accurate but whatever).

the next morning before we left we went for one more hike, this one to the top of beacon rock (which is apparently the largest monolith in the northern hemisphere or something). it's basically the lava part of a volcano that cooled and then the outside of the volcano eroded away leaving this giant rock sticking our of the water. 

it was definitely uphill, but compared to the day before it was nothing. 

it was a great first trip in our new home! the first of many...

Happy Birthday, Grandmother!!!

That's right, another big birthday post. this time it's Grandmother Wheeler!! don't even think for one second that i'm going to tell you how old she is... but today is her birthday!

I know from talking to her earlier that she celebrated with church, lunch and some ice cream with the family this evening (which kirsten and i are especially sad to miss).

grandmother loves chicken tenders, family gatherings, and especially mountain dew. she is best known by her grandkids for her chocolate rolls, her purse-full of gum and lifesavers and being an amazing grandmother.

so happy birthday grandmother! we love you so much and wish we could be there to celebrate (and eat ice cream).

THE BIG ONE!!!

well guys...this is it. this is the one you've been waiting for. on the off chance that my mom hasn't already called you to let you know, I GOT A JOB!

Columbia Ridge Community Church. It's in a town called Troutdale which is about 15 minutes east of Portland. we couldn't be more excited. they have already begun to love us and welcome us (i've only been hired for 24 hours) and we can't wait to really get to know our new church family.

the youth group is maybe 10-12 high schoolers and 15 or so middle schoolers which is a great foundation with which to grow. i have met several of them and obviously they are great.

honestly we can't even express how much we have been blessed in this process. the Lord has been so obviously and consistently caring for and leading us along the way that we have rarely ever felt more than a little anxious. He has provided in every way imaginable every step of the way and now He has given us a job and a church that seems to exceed all our expectations. we really feel humbled by the way He has not only provided, but given to us an abundance.

Before we moved were committed to believing Deuteronomy 7:9. today it is more clear than ever. "know therefore that the Lord your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commands."
Praise God!