Bend

Well a couple of weekends ago (oops) we went to Bend for a few days—and it was awesome.

We stayed in this wonderful bed and breakfast that gave us all sorts of free stuff, left cookies and hot chocolate outside our door every night, and brought us breakfast in bed each morning. it was by far the most attentive and thought-out bed and breakfast we've ever stayed at (it was also just our second time staying at a b&b...at least together...so...)



(i look like i have a fire extinguisher coming out of my head...)

we had never been to the bend/sister area before—there are several awesome mountains and a big river there and it's gorgeous. bend is super outdoorsy but it was surprisingly small. we had heard about it, i feel like even before we moved out here, in the same way you hear about boulder, co maybe, but the city itself is actually really small. and the area is so interesting to me—it's in central oregon- south and a bit west of us, about 3 hours away, and while there are like 7 or 8 peaks, and the cascades running through the area, the rest of the land is very much desert. just "high desert," i guess, because it snows there a lot. but it's completely flat—just like texas—except for all of these mountains. weird. and really neat.





we ended up walking around bend a good bit, checking out the downtown area and eating yummy dinners and the like. the main day we were there, we went out to mt. bachelor and went snowboarding and i got off the lift without falling for the first time! woohoo! getting off the lift in skis is SO much easier!









everything was really pretty and we had a ton of fun. and best of all it was SUPER relaxing. so, so nice to get away. and just to sit and enjoy. plus, now after living here for almost two years, we've seen our third major oregon city!

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.

winter blues

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you probably know that for a third of the year it looks like this in portland. i must admit, it wears on me. it's really hard to get up in the morning (it doesn't get light until like 8:30), it feels like 11pm at 7pm, and it can just be depressing. but i'm usually fine until about half way through january, and then i'm just ready for it to be over.

but for the past week or two, we've actually been having some sunlight...



it's amazing, our house fills with light and it feels like spring. i know it's just a teaser, but it's SO nice all the same. ahhhhhh...

during some of the rainy days, we've been getting a bit done, though. for instance, we organized the garage:







and in what is probably (very sadly) the most exciting news of our life right now, we've taken up running. i think we were probably inspired by my cousins over thanksgiving who did a triathlon, coupled with the fact that daniel kept saying he was in the worst shape of his life...so we're doing the "couch to 5k" an interval running program that takes 9 weeks to get you up to 3 miles of running, or 5k.

and let me tell you, i have never wanted to promote something so much. it's working! if you have ever had a conversation with me about running, i've probably told you that i hate it. hate it and always will. not a runner. can do step classes and cycling classes and anything else, but running toward or from nothing gives me no hope and i can run for literally probably 30 seconds and then have to stop.

not anymore! we're 4.5 weeks (half way through it), we run mondays wednesdays and fridays, and this week we've been running 3 minutes, walking 90 seconds, running 5 minutes, walking 2 minutes—twice. and...i don't want to jinx myself...but it's okay. it's hard, but it's okay. and we're kind of having fun. i mean, we're not having fun at all during it, but afterward we feel good and we feel accomplished (bear in mind that daniel could run a mile fairly easily before this)...anyway, we're getting somewhere. and i have no idea how in 4.5 weeks i'll be able to run straight for 30 minutes (approx. 3 miles) but last week i had no idea how in the world i was going to run for 5 minutes and i do pretty easily.

plus, there's an elementary school at the back of our neighborhood that has some trails, so it's super close, and nickel gets to run off the leash with us and loves it.

so if you're looking to get into running i strongly suggest it: couch to 5k, but i also STRONGLY suggest these podcasts, where this guy tells you when to run and when to walk and "good job" and "you can do it" all to funky, new agey music. awesome.

but the best part is that we've been doing all this in sometimes pouring rain, sometimes freezing temperatures, sometimes fierce winds, and sometimes all three. actually, we quit one day after uncontrollably running sideways and getting pelted with hail in our faces. it was miserable.

so here we are, looking pretty hot. no. wet.



and nickel, too. i don't know if you can tell that she's wet, but she is.



yep, folks. that's about as exciting as it gets around here. but hey, our sweet, amazing, wonderful church is sending us on a getaway to bend this weekend, so we'll have plenty of pictures from that!!

what we laugh at

a glimpse into our daily life...

last night we had youth group, and both of these comments were from one ninth grader:



(when trying to decide what time he would come over today)

daniel: "what about noon?"

ninth grader: "wait, what time is that?"

daniel: "?"

ninth grader: "i've never been sure. i've never known if that's 12 or one."






(while playing catchphrase)

ninth grader: "the opposite of fraternity!"

everyone: "sorority!"

ninth grader: "no, for moms"

everyone: ...

(the word was maternity)

We've got weapons...

Sorry for the second consecutive NCAA Basketball post, but I saw this video and couldn't resist.



This is Tennessee's coach Bruce Pearl talking about his upcoming game with Charlotte and how his team will compete given the fact that 4 of his players are out because of arrests on weapons charges. It's so fun to laugh at Tennessee. Enjoy!

It feels good...

For a team that wasn't supposed to even be able to compete in scrimmages, our second quality win for the season already feels pretty good. Not to mention who we beat...

Christmas recap

So we haven't even gotten to Thanksgiving yet, so this was going to be a "holiday recap" and include thanksgiving, but see, some of the pictures are missing (between a camera, two iphones, and two users on the same computer, we oftentimes get confused...) so i'm just making it easy on myself so that you all get a post already, and constraining it just to christmas. but trust me, thanksgiving will be coming soon.

it probably goes without saying, but christmas was fantastic. hurried and crazy and all, but fantastic.

one of the first events was a "formal" dinner with a small group of high schoolers we have over every wednesday night for a bible study.

here they are, in picture one with daniel looking incredibly awkward and i love it:



and in picture two with myself



...interesting how braden (on the right) never stopped closing his mouth. weird.

but the main event for christmas before returning to georgia was the annual monroe family christmas.

for three years now, daniel and i have had our christmas day before we return home. even though it's not in georgia, it has still become one of our favorite things about christmas.



we treat it exactly like we would any christmas day. we creep downstairs in to find that santa has come, quickly fill each other's stockings, take pictures of nickel and ourselves in front of the tree and then start opening gifts!





...we're really ridiculous.



...and here we are in our christmas eve onesies. like i said. ridiculous.

we gave nickel a bone to open, just like we did last year, but honestly it's not worth showing. apparently she's getting old and boring, because she kind of tried to open it, then just looked up at us.



after we open gifts, we make an incredible breakfast, complete with mimosas and this year homemade mochas (thanks to a stove-top espresso maker that was a gift to me!)



we spend the rest of the day like most people spend christmas day, sitting around lazily playing with our gifts :) it's amazing. around 5 we dropped nickel off at the boarding place and then started packing!

being home was fabulous. we hadn't been to georgia in a year, and so it was crazy seeing all the ga license plates, hearing all the accents, and such...plus, of course, seeing SO MANY people. going to Daniel's childhood church is always wonderful, just spending time with our parents, being with extended family, and seeing a few precious friends. sadly, it's always a bit bittersweet because we know it's soon to come to an end, but regardless, we treasure that time SO MUCH.

and this christmas we stole a day to go to athens, where we went to college and met and thus share SO MANY memories. best we can figure we hadn't been there in at least two years...

we had two meals there and if you know athens at all you know that that means we had a really hard time deciding where to eat.

there's last resort grill (yummmm),


farm (of course, ugh),


5 star day,

clocked,


and doc cheys,


just to name a few. but honestly, those last two don't even make the list. even though they're SO GOOD.

we ended up lunching at the grit







a smelt. gosh.

had cheese dip at mexicalli (best white cheese dip in the world...the one on the west side is closed!!!!),





and ate dinner at taco stand (can you tell the last two were daniel's choices. and the first one—the vegetarian hippie restaurant—was mine?)







and we spent the day walking around downtown, shopping and seeing north campus and the new student center (huge and amazing).

















(the burned georgia theatre :( and the 40 watt...)

and we took a picture in front of the building where we first met :)



and that night we were some of the few people at the georgia basketball game. one of daniel's favorite things ever.






and my favorite thing about athens christmas— the lights in the trees



(although, portland does this, too :) )

the only pictures we took of actual Christmas were at grandmother monroes—where, probably because of all the small children, cameras and videocameras are the norm.







but even though we only have pictures from that "event," all of christmas was so amazing, and while we missed our house and were glad to be coming home, it's always so hard to leave.

we flew all day on the 29th, leaving that morning, two layovers both with delays, and getting into portland at 12:30 at night. but we came into a snowy portland! apparently, snow completely surprised everyone, including the weathermen who didn't see it coming at all. about 3-4 inches, and it was beautiful! unfortunately, we didn't get a picture of our house in it's first snow :(

and we took a video of nickel coming home just like we did last year, expecting great entertainment, but like i said earlier, she's getting old and boring, and barely noticed us when we came to pick her up. once she got home, she just passed out, exhausted. i suppose she had a good christmas, too.