Happy Birthday Randy!

I know you all did not anticipate us coming back from the holidays with a birthday post (at least I hope you didn't...) but we've been crazy here at the Monroe household and so the Georgia-recap post is still to come. And thus we begin the year with a birthday post!

Today, January one, is my (Kirsten) uncle Randy's birthday! Randy is fun, loud and really tall. He really likes Star Wars (or Star Trek? or both???) and is the ultimate handyman — he and his family built their cabin in the woods completely from the ground up, and he helped my grandfather with the family lake house years ago. Plus, he cooks up a mean bbq-ed rack of ribs.


And even more, Randy's wonderfully caring, nice, and an excellent father of 3 nearly-grown children. (this one's not his. it's his nephew's.) And did I mention that he's tall?

Happy Birthday, Randy! And happy new year, too!!!

Our Portland Christmas!

Well it is a Monroe family tradition (2 years running) to celebrate our family Christmas on the last day before we leave to go home for the holidays. This year that day was today (Wedensday), but we got an early start by going to see A Christmas Carol last night on our Christmas Eve! It was a great play, we both really enjoyed it, and it was a fun way to spend our night before Christmas.

Then we came home, huddled under our electric blanket(it is freezing here), and waited for Santa!

So this morning we got up, made a Christmas breakfast, and got started with the day! We all opened some great stuff, including Nickel. Watch... and either turn the sound off or get ready for our awkward running commentary...

So we had a great day of laying around, finishing our Christmas cards, opening presents, reading The Christmas Story, and watching A Christmas Story! What more can you ask for! It was a fantastic family Christmas.

So we're all packed up and ready for Georgia where the weather will surely be better that here...

We get in town Thursday night so all you ATLiens give us a call. We're excited to see you all!

waaayy too much for one post...

...so we'll make it two.
first up. leslie's wedding. we were in colorado last weekend to see leslie and steve get married and it was wonderful. we have a pathetic number of pictures so let's begin by apologizing for that...

but the trip was sure an adventure. we left friday morning and met up with laura belle at the airport, who flew in from seattle...the three of us rented a car (daniel and i's first car rental), saw the first snow of the winter, and drove the three beautiful hours to buena vista.

leslie and i were on the same young life team while i was in college (and she was a fresh graduate of clemson) and we lived together my senior year. then about a year and a half ago leslie felt drawn to colorado and settled in at the tiny town of "bv."

buena vista is adorable and tiny and has some great restaurants and shops. lb, d and i got to stay at leslie's house (now les and steve's house) and take care of their puppies. we settled in and relaxed and family members and the bridal party and les and steve were running in and out all day. we walked around a bit and then headed over to the rehearsal and then the rehearsal dinner—yummy, yummy breakfast.

saturday lb and i went to a super-fun pajama brunch for leslie and then shopped with our friend victoria. then daniel, lb and i went to a cute bistro called mother's to eat lunch and play board games. (i know, all of these would have been great photo opportunities in hindsight...)

we showed up for the wedding saturday night and everything was gorgeous...lots of green and white and christmas lights and candles and absolutly beautiful. it was a stunning wedding and an amazing reception...

...and then the trip took a turn for the worse. there was much talk about how bad the weather was gonna get that night and how it would be a disaster in the morning and so we decided, with our friends bart and victoria, to drive back to denver after the reception, while the snow hadn't had time to harden and freeze and turn to ice, while there were still several cars on the road, and while the snow plows and salt trucks were still on the roads—rather than leaving at 4 am.

but it got worse earlier than we expected and so we left the reception early and got on the roads early, with bart and victoria following. a grueling 5 hour drive later, we arrived at our friend's drew and natalie's and stayed up for a couple of more hours talking with them. then we woke up super early to more bad roads, drove everyone incredibly slowly to the airport, and arrived in what we thought was just on time to catch our flight. little did we know.

first, the guy at the check in couldn't find our flight. not our tickets on the flight, but the flight itself. then once he found it we realized we were about 20 minutes early, so maybe the one good thing the entire trip. we made it to our gate and waited. the plane was delayed. it was coming in from salt lake city, which is where we were going, and was delayed...so we waited.


once we got on the plane, we realized we were going to make it into salt lake city about 5 minutes after our connecting plane left. super. well, we had to gate-check our carryon rolling bags because they were too big for the tiny plane we were on. when we arrived in salt lake, our connection plane, while all the way across the terminal, was still there. but, apparently a little pink tag that daniel attached to his carryon had fallen off, and while we fought the attendant, he wouldn't let us take the bag. after another 5 minutes, assuring a missed plane, he told us that he would have to put the bag on the connecting plane for us...the plane we would surely not catch. super.

so we ran to our connecting plane's gate anyway, and of course missed the flight. we then waited in several lines for a while before being told that we were confirmed on a flight 10 hours from that time, but high on the waiting lists for two flights between.

we got some lunch and settled in. didn't get on the first flight, but by some miracle got on the second. a mere 8 or 9 hours in the salt lake city airport. horray.


however, in denver we had decided we had to cancel a youth group christmas party for that night...not because of our flight disaster but because of weather in portland. super. but at least the party didn't go on without us...

oh. and did i say that the temperature in denver the morning we left was -5 and the jetway in salt lake city was like -20. at least we were inside all day. so that's something...

and we got home safe! several, several hours late but with lots of snow on the ground in portland :)
(our street the next morning...and you can't tell, but the road is essentially ice.)

Happy Birthday Grandmother Monroe!!!

Well Monroe Doctrine readers, today's birthday honoree needs no introduction to any of you. That's because if you've ever read our blog you know she is our most frequent commenter. 53 comments, to be specific (as best I can count) I'm pretty sure the second place finisher has something like 7.

So today is Grandmother's birthday! I'm pretty sure she's 39, but can't be positive. But age isn't important. She's a GREAT grandmother (in both senses of the word).


Seriously Grandmother is the best. She is one of the most amazing women you will ever meet. My memories of Grandmother will always be about Sunday afternoon games of croquet and birthday shopping. She is a fantastic cook (obviously) and probably the most generous person you could ever meet. There are so many things to love about Grandmother, including the fact that she gave me my first taste of Georgia Football and fat back (two of the best things in the world) and she taught me to carefully inspect my Christmas gifts for tennis rackets.


So happy birthday Grandmother. We love you so much and cannot wait to see you soon!

Happy Birthday Reed!

Ok, let's just start by getting one thing out of the way...to all of our new Columbia Ridge friends, we love you all, even those of you who have already had birthdays come and go, and those of you that will without a famous cyber-shout-out from The Doctrine. Maybe by the end of 2009 we will have compiled an exhaustive list of all your birthdays so we can be sure we don't leave anyone out...

That being said, Happy Birthday Reed! My boss, Reed Mueller turns 39 today. And he actually does turn 39 today, not like the "39" my mom turned like 5 years in a row at one point. He is actually 39. Kirsten and I actually thought he was our age when we first came to Columbia Ridge, then we found out he had a PhD and had been a pastor for 10 years. So he is 39. An old man. In his thirties, just like Matt.

So since we don't have too many great pictures of Reed, I figured I would just pull some off the internet! So here are a few of my favorite pictures that come up in google images when you type in Reed Mueller. It'll be like a game! See if you can guess which one is our pastor!

Ok well as much as I wish it were this last guy... it's that smallish fuzzy picture in the middle. He looks every bit of 19 huh?

Reed is really an answered prayer. He is a great boss, a fantastic pastor and someone I have already learned a lot from. He really is one of the things that makes living out here so great. So happy birthday buddy! Enjoy those thirties!

christmas listening part 2

well, well, well who thought that by moving to portland we'd obtain our own christmas musical gem?

that's right, more songs than you know exist about christmas, and some are even regional-specific. and thus, while listening to the radio around here we've often heard the unique and magical "Christmas in the Northwest."

Aside from being musically ingenious, "Christmas in the Northwest" has some pretty solid lyrics, too. Check them out:

It may not be white
Might be a rainy night
But there's nothing like sharing
The sounds and the sights of ...

Christmas in the Northwest
Is a gift that we can share
Christmas in the Northwest
Is a child's answered prayer

Take away the presents
And they still will have a dream
For Christmas in the Northwest
Is a gift God wrapped in green

amazing. you can get a taste for just how it sounds here by listening to two elementary schoolers sing it out, which is actually really cute. but you can kind of hear how bad the song it. it's bad. but it was written in the 80's so maybe it has an excuse...


i managed to get a place to board nickel (that's actually on our block — amazing) and put a hold on our mail amongst cleaning, wrapping, working and youth group stuff in these past couple of days. so ready or not, we'll be in georgia the 18th — it's official (as if it weren't before...)!

edit :: i found this version of christmas in the northwest, which, while sans the cute kids, might give you a better idea of the song. just in case you're interested.

christmas listening

i (kirsten) get asked multiple times every day what my favorite christmas album is (yeah, that's a joke. and if i don't say that now i might get some strange phone calls. joke.) but if i did, i would say, everytime, hands down, this album:sufjan stevens, songs for christmas. it may not be entirely fair to call this my favorite christmas album when in fact it is five albums in a box set, but i'm not too picky.

now don't get me wrong, james taylor's voice on his cd last year is amazing, and i love the charlie brown christmas cd. and of course there are individual songs, including classics and versions from movies that are so, so good. but for every season that i've owned this (which is a mere two, but still), it's been the only christmas cd(s) that i can play continuously on repeat without getting annoyed. and that says a lot — christmas songs can get old. it's so very good. there are newly written crazy and fun songs, serious songs, genious takes on familiar songs, and an incredible version of come thou fount, which i'm aware isn't a christmas song, but still.

if you do take my sound advice and decide to invest in this box set, you have to hear this: do not buy it from itunes. there's nothing wrong with itunes and everything is certainly cheaper there, but the hard copy of the cd contains a wealth of greatness, including stickers, handdrawn illustrations, stories, and all sorts of other things from sufjan himself (that's right, sufjan stevens is a name.) and you'll be able to see firsthand how smart (or weird if you choose to look at it that way) this guy is. it's amazing. so there's my christmas recommendation.

3-0...can it really be?

It is hard to believe, but our favorite and only brother, fellow Portlander, and resident doctor that can't make you well is now thirty. That's right. There's no more "turning" thirty. It's here.

Well for those of you that don't know Matt and his wife Kim are both graduates of Georgia Tech and the University of Florida, and yet somehow they both have adequate social skills and own no jean shorts between the two of them. They got married a year and a few months ago and moved to Hillsboro (a suburb of Portland) when Matt took a job at Intel. That was definitly the best decision they ever made since it opened the door for us to eventually move out here and now gives us some friendly faces whenever we want. 

Matt is a great older (not bigger) brother and Kirsten and I have really enjoyed getting to know he and Kim in a new way being with them out here so far away from home. 

So to celebrate Kim surprised Matt with four friends from college who flew out here to spend the weekend with him on his birthday which is really fun. It is an absurd story of what happened (which shouldn't surprise you if you know Matt's friends) but I'll let him tell it.

So a few quick things you may not know...1. he is actually a pretty good cook 2. you don't want to play us in Taboo 3. he is the slowest eater you will ever see and 4. he has an uncanny ability to wake up really early on Christmas morning.

Happy Birthday Matt. It's hard to believe. But I hear 30 is the new 28...so you've still got a little time before you fall apart!

december

well, we're back from another texas thanksgiving. it was super rushed, but really great. so good to spend time with family that we rarely see. but just not enough time with everyone, as always. i'm (kirsten) really enjoying "getting to know" my cousins as we get older. getting to know isn't right, but just being able to talk and hang out with them. but sadly there was family that we only saw for three or four hours, which we hate. plus, there was enough food to feed a small country and less sleep than i've ever had (both are exagerrations, but there's some truth there).

and before i move onto christmas — to give thanksgiving it's due credit — i should say that i didn't get any good pictures, so i'll point you to mat and beth's blog and flickr page (link for the flickr page there — pretty much everything i was involved in is at the end of page one and page 2, but my cousins (really second cousins) are really cute, so look through all of it.)

and i intended to blog AS SOON AS we got back, but travelling takes a lot out of me and of course we had to decorate immediately as it was already December 1st.

We have some generous friends at the church who grow Christmas trees and then let friends come and cut them down for free. So nice. But it doesn't save us the $70 that we expected it to — trees only cost like $20-$30 out here. Apparently evergreens grow everywhere... (you can't really see, but our friend tyson is to the left of the tree above. he's holding a chain saw and you can kind of see his face, but a rain drop fell right in front of his face. that's rain — definitely not snow yet. oh, and it was like 4:45 pm. that's how dark it gets. ridiculous.)


And then pulling it all out and setting everything up.

And watching some classics as we do.

Still no good pictures of the tree, so sorry all of these are blurry.

And by the third day of the month, we've already gone through 3 of our 7 Christmas movies (Christmas Story, Christmas Vacation, Elf, Grinch (Jim Carey), Grinch (original, pictured), A Charlie Brown Christmas and Home Alone). Great movies.

And by the way Mat, Beth, Steve and Elizabeth — Elf definitely has to be added to the list of funniest movies in the past five years. I know it gets sappy at the end and it's really season-specific, but it's hilarious.

Happy Thanksgiving

Kirsten and I have so much to be thankful this year. We will miss sitting around on Grandmother Wheeler's floor and sharing our list with everyone, but this will have to do.

We are thankful for each other... because let's be honest, were awesome!

We are thankful for our families. we miss you guys terribly and we can't wait to see you all!

We are thankful for the way that our God has provided for us this year. Honestly how can we even begin to recount the ways. He has guided us through a long and sometimes difficult and confusing process of job-searching and moving. He has provided exactly what we've needed every step of the way. We will always look back on this year and remember God's amazing provision.

We are thankful for our new church and all the new friends that have come along with it. It couldn't be a better fit. We love it. Another way God has provided even more than we could have imagined.

We are thankful for Intel. It's really nice to have some family so close by.

And finally we are thankful to you...the faithful Monroe Doctrine reader! 

Happy Thanksgiving everybody!

Happy Birthday Drew Barrett!

Today is Drew Barrett's very first birthday!!! I personally can't believe it. I asked Kirsten how old he was, expecting to hear 3, maybe 4 only to be reminded that last Christmas he was a tiny newborn. But no longer. Now he's all grown up! An entire year old. So what is there to say about your one year old second cousin? Simple. He's a family man. Clearly he's got his priorities in order and spends most of his time with family.

Here he is with Grandpa, Granddaddy, Gramps, Pops, The Old Man (I can't remember what they call him, sorry uncle Steve)

Here he is with mom and big sis Grace (you all remember the now famous gymnast post)
Here he is with his grandmother, who I'm sure will be the best commenter on his blog one day!

...and dear old dad. I had a hard time telling which is which the first time I saw this picture. The kid's getting big! and Drew is too!

Happy Birthday Drew! We're sad we can't make it to the big party this weekend, but Christmas Eve is right around the corner!

a sweet visit and more

two weekends ago lb and lizzie came down for the weekend to help celebrate my birthday! it was super fun (can't you tell...)

no it really was. we got to just hang out and talk, take a walk, eat some really, really yummy food and just play.
seriously i had no idea it would be so good. this place certainly isn't unfamiliar to me still, but for whatever reason these two girls are so familiar to me that it's just comfortable being able to be with them. i'm not explaining that well, but it was so nice. and so fun. and our first overnight guests, which was neat.
plus, we took this picture and i have no idea how it happened. crazy. in other news we're a little swamped here at the monroe household. we're going out of town for essentially all of next week — with a staff retreat and then thanksgiving. and then tomorrow and saturday 8 middle and high school girls are sleeping here and we're going to a conference in town. so there's wrapping up work before all that for me, cleaning to prepare for the girls, presents, which we exchange at thanksgiving and which i'm making all of (which i really like, don't let me make you think it's a burden...it's just time consuming), plus packing and planning and all.

and of course getting ready for the c-word. if you know daniel well (or possibly at all) you probably know that he's obsessed with christmas. it's a big time for us. but we're not allowed to mention it before thanksgiving, so we're waiting in excitement and anticipation...

oh! and guess what just happened?!?! so we have a credit card that earns us points for flying, right? super smart because as it turns out you fly a lot when you live on the other side of the country from your family. well, our card has been pretty lame. there aren't blackout dates or anything, but it's been way slower than we had expected. and then we have friends here who have the same card but talk about having enough points for several flights and we've been pretty confused. but then yesterday daniel probed and found out that if we just have the card with an annual fee we get like 12 billion more benefits. it's a $75 fee, and the benefits will allow us easily double the number of flights we get, plus all sorts of other stuff we haven't been getting! it's crazy! including the fact that if you buy one ticket within the U.S. over $299 and pay for it with the card, you get one ticket for the same flight free! WHAT?! yeah. that's huge for us. um, we're flying twice in the next four weeks and both of those flights would have qualified for this. grrr.... but at least we have it now. so, if you're in the market email us and we'll let you know about it !

Catch Up

Ok, So we're really far behind here. It's been a while since Bobbie's birthday and quite a bit has happened. So we're going to try to catch you all up with some multiple event posts in the next few days.

So first things first, Happy Birthday to US!

Kirsten and I bought each other kayaks for our big birthday gift this year. We had been wanting some for a while, and since we just moved to the great northwest we thought what better time? It actually worked out well because since our birthdays are in the fall (the end of the kayak season) we got a really great deal!

But we weren't content to wait until next spring to test out our new toys...so last weekend it was off to the mighty Sandy river for us! It was probably about 50 degrees and drizzling. Oh, and the water was cold. Really. It was cold. Trust me. Don't ask me how I know that. Just know that the water was cold. 

But other than that it was INCREDIBLE. I wish we had some pictures, but it's kinda hard to pack a camera for a day out on the water. But I really love kayaking. It's like hiking, only there is no trail, just a river. So it really feels like you are right there in the middle of nature. No signs that any other person has ever been there. I felt a little bit like I was in the middle of a Planet Earth episode. Plus we saw two bald eagles! Yea, I know! Bald eagles. Who knew they actually existed in the wild, but sure enough. 

In other news, We now have sweet tea at both Wendy's and McDonald's now! I'm telling you, we are making an impact on this place. Soon there will be queso and sweet tea flowing in the streets.

More tomorrow! 

Happy Birthday Bobbie!!

Today is our/my grandmother's birthday! (Kirsten's dad's mom...)

I call my grandmother by her first name, and I don't really know why; but again, I'm sure it has to do with my cousin, who's older.

Bobbie has the unique privilege of having her birthday so closely follow mine and so she really never gets her card on time (including this year...). But, since we get to see this part of the family only once a year, at Thanksgiving, she also has the unique privilege of seeing me (and a few other important people) just after her birthday!!
My grandmother is absolutely wonderful. There are barely words. She's classy and timeless and yet still very "country" and comforting. She's beautiful in every way. Plus, she makes an incredible Thanksgiving meal that I start craving around July.

Bobbie's a true socialite — she makes friends with everyone, including Daniel's entire family during our wedding — and a true servant. I'm not sure anyone anywhere has put in more hours cooking for her church.

Some famous stories include me being two and my parents going to Europe for like a month while my grandparents came and took care of me. And when we went to go greet my parents at the airport when they came back, the first thing I said (or something) was that I wanted french fries — a food group my grandparents had introduced me to. Also, when my cousin Aaron and I were a lot younger, I used to spend summers with them and Bobbie would tell us to go play in "yonder" when we would start getting in the way. If you're not from Texas you might not know that "yonder" is actually Texan for "over there," but Aaron and I were convinced that it was the name of the room (like go play in the "kitchen") and started calling that room the yonder room...
And I love this picture. I think it's gorgeous. Bobbie doesn't so much — something about "old hands," but think I will cherish it forever :)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BOBBIE!
We love you and will see you soon!

Happy Birthday Grace!!!

Today is our cousin's daughter's birthday (Daniel's cousin on his dad's side...ahhh whatever...).

Sweet Grace is four today and has had a huge year this past year. She started off her year by becoming a big sister, she's lived in California for a baseball season, and she met Shaun Johnson!

The olympics spurred on a huge love of gymnastics for her, and with the way athleticism runs in her parents, we're probably looking at two gold medalists above...Gracie and her brother Drew with grandmother (the famous commenter...) on HalloweenAnd all of our cousins children on that side: Grace and Malia and Drew and Jaxon.

Grace is so wonderful and to me embodies what children should be: passionate, imaginative and carefree. When she was younger (and attending several showers between my sister-in-law and myself), she was consistently caught dancing, singing to herself, and twirling around in her dresses, which, we were assured, she did often.
doing a gymnastics routine on the beach...which, Stephanie says, went on for an hour and Grace would continue holding the pose until people clapped for her...how amazing!!!

I know she's an amazing big sister, she's a great cousin, she beats her daddy in croquet and I hear she used to be able to tell you every Cubs player just by their number, and then would proceed to tell you about their wives and kids, too.


HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRACE!!!! and way to cheer for the right team, even in the face of a devastating loss!!

all of these pictures are Stephanie's, stolen from the pictures she regularly and so wonderfully sends us...