The Real King of Starbucks

One of Tim's employees, Loris, came over for dinner last night and to watch the Princess Bride, since he's never seen it and he loves Andre the Giant. Loris is one of the sweetest, most innocent people we've met and always speaks purely and truthfully about things. Loris had a brain aneurysm when he was 12, and although this has greatly affected his life, he is always the first to encourage customers and partners at the store and serve them.

He also loves to write poems and today he presented Tim with a special poem. Everyday it seems he comes into work with encouragement cards and poems for everyone on the team. This guy is for real! Check it out:

He loves Michael Jackson and TuPac and anything rap. He's also Dominican and took us to eat some mean Dominican food last year in Boston. We think Loris is the REAL King of Starbucks! We hope if you visit you can meet him.

He is a reminder of to us:
"Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." Matthew 5:8

New Song By The Eyes

We have handcrafted another little tune from our tiny, tiny apartment in Boston. We are glad to share the result of a couple of cold nights, some warm cups of tea, and two happy voices singing into our faithful Apple laptop.

I originally wrote this song for Abby 5 years ago. This seems to be my big idea from back then: Love frees us from worries about what to do and so we are able to freely act. Love frees us from the need for explanations and so we are able to simply be. You'll be happy to find out those aren't the song lyrics, but I think that's what is behind the song. I feel quiet and content in Abby's love. Her love is a beautiful picture of something entirely Divine.

Click here to listen to Colorado's Princess. Or click on the tab to the right "Listen to our music".

Monadnock

Thanks to my friend Denise, I had a great day snowshoeing in New Hampshire today on freshly fallen snow. It was a much needed refresher trip to a nice little mountain. Apparently, the most climbed in the world?? Just behind Fuji? curious. But delightful.

It was very windy at the top, but the sun came out as we started and everything had started slushing and melting by the time we were down. Perfect timing.

Last week I started my last two classes: Program evaluation and Nutrition in Developing Countries. I have 3 months of class and then that's all, folks! Hard to believe. But still 3 months to go. I'm still working in the emergency department talking to teens about alcohol use and dating violence, still working on certain aspects of gang violence prevention for a community in Massachusetts, and still a part of organizing pieces of a dental study helping female victims of partner violence. Tim is kicking booty at his store, everything is running great, and we are enjoying great fellowship with some amazing people out here, all while missing those further away.

We are thankful for this season and are hanging on until the end with thanksgiving. God is good. In the midst of suffering, uncertainty, hardship, and blessing, He is good.

see ya, 2009!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

2009 was a great year and gave us tons to celebrate: a full year in Boston, solidifying friendships, favor with jobs and school, trip home to see friends and family in Washington, and other fun adventures. 2010 is only going to get better.

This week we arrived in Naples, FL to spend the end of it with our family. Movies, manatees, dolphins, sunsets, good food, and a little bit of skimboarding (on baby waves) have kept us busy so far.

We got good use out of our 2010 Times Square New Years glasses we got in NYC. Here's to the tenacious tens!

It was even snowing (i.e. soaping) in Florida

More to come!

Merry Christmas!

Our Christmas card this year includes another Carol, "Lo! How a Rose E'er Blooming." Have a peaceful day, and Happy New Year!





















at this time of year
we gather words like tinsel and bows
and carefully hang them
on the blank spaces of greeting cards

we want to share
our cranberry garlands
the smell of chili on the stove
the shouts of neighbors beneath our window

we want to wrap the whole year
like a package
and slip it under your tree

we want you to laugh
at all our blunders
to sing along with the pub band
to walk home under the stars, in the swirling snow

we want our joy to appear as clearly as
breath exhaled in the cold, crisp air

nutivity set!

We have already been blessed today with great gifts, and Christmas isn't even here yet!

Our friend Cristen sent this beautiful nativity set made from nuts/seeds - WOW. What a gift. We don't have a nativity set and this one's a major keeper! Thanks Cristen, this is amazing! Thanks for such a great reminder of the true meaning of our celebration.

We had a yummy dinner with cranberry chicken and quinoa and sparkling wine and attended Christmas Eve service with glow sticks as candles during Silent Night. Can't wait for what tomorrow brings!

national isaacson's Christmas vacation

We got what we wished for (and more): a wintry Christmas (stuck) in New York! Tim and I planned to celebrate Christmas a little early in New York for our last East Coast winter and we saw all the Christmas sights:

Macy's was a first stop. Tim even wrote a letter to Santa. (He wants N to get better). Good thing we went on Saturday because on Sunday Macy's caught on fire and had to evacuate the mass of shoppers. There were at 15 firetrucks surrounding the world's largest Macy's store and it was MADNESS trying to get past.

Then we hit Rockefeller Center for the first (of many) visits. Conveniently located next door is Anthropologie, so we had to spend some time there. Their window display made it into our collection of favorites (see slideshow).

Finally we wandered to Broadway to catch our Mary Poppins matinee. We were caught up in the magic. It was supercalifragilisticexpialidotious!

When we got out, it was snowing! We checked in to our secret Republican women's club banquet hall hotel across from Rock Center! The room was nice but drafty. Some snow accumulated INSIDE our window. We stayed on the Lincoln floor. We tried crashing the three weddings that were going on, but kept blowing our entrance. "Oh, this isn't the pool, honey...."

Sunday we awoke to clear skies and a beautiful white blanket covering the city. We actually ventured off the island of Manhattan into Brooklyn. The neighborhood around Carroll Street was sooo cute. We attended St Paul's Episcopal Church where Sufjan goes in hopes of finding him (and of course in honoring Christ in a worship service!!). It was VERY liturgical and fun to be in Brooklyn with a few faithful families on a snowy, sunny Sunday morning before Christmas.

We wandered through Soho for lunch and window shopping (boo compared to other areas) and then up to Central Park for the real highlight of the day. Windows with cool Alice in Wonderland themes, FAO Schwartz chaos, and a sunny park stroll for with local sledding frenzy. We wrapped up our walk at an artists market with hot cider and fresh, 'local' gingerbread cookies.

We grabbed some food to go on our way down to the bus station for our 5:30 evening departure. Weather report was good all day and roads were clear....right? Wrong. ALL BUS SERVICES CANCELLED until Monday. Huh? We didn't have internet access the whole time and didn't think to check since the forecast was so much better. Plus it had stopped snowing in Boston that afternoon....

So Tim kept his cool and we called a friend to have him check my email to confirm that yes, our bus had been canceled with no rescheduling. We checked Penn station for train service to Boston, which was running, but running at $220 a person!!!! Yikes!! So we walked up to Port Authority to buy the next Greyhound tickets out of town, which were for Monday morning. What to do in the meantime? We didn't know any friends in NY but we did know that secretive Republican women's club from the night before. They don't advertise on the internet and even with 20 dinky rooms they had room for us. Downtown Manhattan on the night after the storm, all transportation cancelled and everyone in the city looking for lodging. They had rooms! God knew our need. On our way back, we stopped once more in Times Square to soak it all in...pretty cool but also kind of ridiculous and materialistic. We are so thankful we have each other!

We dined in style with cold Chipotle burritos and water in our room, watching remnants of Pixar movies and National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, and reminisced over a classic Manhattan at a nearby bar. It could definitely have been worse. I even made it to my Monday night final (which means 3 weeks off of school, and only 2 more classes to go until I graduate!!!).

God has truly blessed us, even in storms and uncertainty He provides and delights us with the greatest gifts. This season we are so thankful for the gift of His Son in this world.

"Anything can happen if you let it!"

cooooooookies and games

On Sunday we busted out Zooloretto and some powdered icing to frost cookies with our friends Megan and Eamonn.

Trying to be creative....

Ugly Christmas sweater dude

"Santa"

hotlips and eyeballs

and.....? (guesses, anyone?)

Ended up a little weird and shiny! oh well, they didn't last long. Happy baking!

FINALLY, WINTER!

Well the snow has arrived, at least a couple of inches are expected by morning. It was a perfect night to go get a Christmas tree (we took the bus to a parking lot), decorate it and string cranberries, and take a jaunt in the nighttime falling snow afterward.

(what a nice looking tree skirt!)

Tomorrow our friend dances in a Christmas church production, Dinah joins us for Messiah at the BSO, and our square celebrates its tree lighting. More in the daylight!

Thankful

We have so much to be thankful for this year. A full year in Boston together; living so close to our jobs and school and not needing a car; favor in our jobs; a great church and small group; fun friends near and far; good health; families that love Jesus - even this gerbera daisy plant that Tim gave me in May that I think I've killed 3 times at least, and just decided to bloom fully this week!

We decided to host Thanksgiving in Boston this year for friends who had no place to go and to celebrate Dinah's joining us in New England for a year! We ate and drank and were merry with games and conversation and warmth (literally, it was about 500 degrees in the apartment).

Dinah, Shiela, Tim, Paul, Amy, Kathryn, Abby

We drank water with cranberry ice cubes and made a pumpkin pie all from scratch.

We also contributed a smaller turkey than the last time,when we hosted the Isaacson's in Tacoma. It still needed more time but was good in the end.Everyone else brought a great spread!

Before we had the meal we headed to the Gobble Gobble Gobble 4 mi Turkey Trot. Kathryn and I raced it and placed 460th and 560th, respectively (with about a minute difference). I decorated my Boston AIDS run t-shirt with a turkey on the front and rear - Love, Hope, Courage, Gobble Gobble! I also tripped a guy in the first minute - out of my way old man! jk. I'm not an expert racer at all - there are a river of people to navigate through! Tim and Dinah cheered us on.
Then Kathryn invited us to this awesome cabin in the Dartmouth woods (New Hampshire) for Friday night. Her friend Greg was already there, and the five us did a repeat of Thursday: food, drinks, games, sleep. It was very relaxing and fun to get away.

There was a cool huge loft above.

The wood burning stove kept us nice and toasty and it rained the entire time (where is the SNOW this late November up north??).

We hiked anyway to the brook, which had some really cool natural deep pools to swim in if it had been warmer!

We pulled and boiled water from the well - Dinah was a bit disgusted at first:)

And we used the outhouse. This was after one of the boys finished.
(Just kidding, we had to put some of the embers outside and pour water on them before we left, so we chose the rock and dirt-lined pit in the outhouse).

We passed through North Woodstock on the way home.

Another adventure to be thankful for! God continues to bless us and we praise Him for His goodness, faithfulness and provision. Thanks for being a part of our lives!