easter weekend

We had to start Easter with the dying of eggs, and that means hours of pondering the optimal designs followed by a couple hours of trying to pull off those designs.  This year, Nathan got ambitious, and while the eggs didn't turn out quite right, he gained valuable experience for next year.  (Kristin here: actually, his eggs were awesome...and yes, he did work for several hours.)

Here Nathan is cutting a design out of masking tape rings on his main egg.  While time consuming, this method has potential for small areas so long as the tape does not bunch up anywhere.  The places where the tape bunches will allow dye through.  Also, cutting requires carefully cutting with the knife tip as the long edge requires enough pressure to crack the shell.

In the spirit of Easter, Nathan hid the few eggs we had around the apartment for Kristin to find.

 The M&M egg found a nice ride with some friends.

One of the green eggs thought it might blend in nestled into the camo Snuggie, but something about the shades of green just weren't working for it.

The puzzle egg got devious and hid amongst some puzzle pieces.

The yellow egg didn't really fit in anywhere.  It tried hiding under a wedding bell, but that just meant Kristin had an audible hint since he's no silent ninja.

The second green egg hid in a candle stick.  It wasn't a great hiding spot, but it was high enough to be decent.

The final egg hid out under the coffee table with a movie the Easter Bunny left for Kristin.

While the colors came out much more dulled than intended, the general design came out alright.  For one thing, when dying yellow over darker colors, the yellow should be mixed a little light on the vinegar.

Through a mishap with the dye, some of my yellow areas came out as light blue, but you can still see the crisscross pattern.  Next year should be better.

The puzzle egg ended up with a nice blue to green fade, but the ink outlining the pieces smeared, even an hour after the pieces were drawn.  And, as mentioned above, the dye ran through where the tape bunched up.

Changing the subject...Kristin decided that it would be only appropriate to pick her first carrot for Easter dinner. 

It was a tad small...

...but it looked great on the salad! 

And speaking of food, here's what we ate.

Kristin made some of the most amazing cinnamon rolls!  Seriously...they were amazing.

For dinner, we ate some squash casserole...

...Nathan's famous deviled eggs...

...a delicious blueberry, bacon, blue cheese, and caramelized pecan salad...

...homemade rolls...

...and of course, Easter ham.

 

The recipes for just about all of that will be going up on Kristin's blog soon.  It made some enjoyable leftovers!

april happenings

by Kristin

This month, my garden really started to grow.  We grew enough salad greens to supply us for several meals...it actually tasted good!

Nathan also worked a bit more on my jewelry organizer.  It's still a bunch of wooden rods stuck together, but it's coming along.  Maybe he'll finish it one of these days.

Nathan came home one day all excited.  I was about to cook dinner, when he instead whisked me to the car and drove us to the Farmer's Market.  It was a fun surprise.  Unfortunately, the Hotdogger wasn't making corn dogs that night because there was a chance of rain. :(  Instead, we shared some Indian food while we discussed the theme of the date - my need for spiritual intimacy.

We talked a lot about the different ministries we are each involved in and how we can support one another.  We also discussed our goals for ministry together.  Someday we'd like to be premarital counselors and work in marriage ministry.  It's a nice goal.

When we left the Farmer's Market, we decided to be totally spontaneous and go to the Nugget supermarket for dessert.  Their desserts are so beautiful, and we've often drooled at the dessert counter, but we've never actually bought one. 

While there, we also mocked the few inferior desserts on display.  We've been really enjoying a blog called Cake Wrecks lately that features cakes that are either inappropriate, silly, or just plain stupid.  We took a few pictures of the "sillier" cakes and submitted them to Cake Wrecks...who knows, maybe we'll see them featured!

This is an upside-down heart turned bunny...I think they way overcharged for this one.

Check out the cupcake in the middle...the dolphin is jumping out of the sand!

This was the cake we ended up getting for ourselves.  According to Nathan, it weighed more than a squirrel (I'm not sure how he knows that).  It took us three days to eat, but it was sure delicious!

 

by Nathan

I love my wife!

a trip to the california auto museum

Kristin speaking:
For Nathan's April date, I focused on his need for friendship...best friendship.  As his wife, I am supposed to be his best friend - not like his guy friends, but even more close, more intimate, and more vulnerable.  I wanted to take him on a date that would allow me to learn more about him so that we could grow in our friendship.

One of Nathan's favorite interests since I've known him has been cars.  He used to always send me drawings of cars with the "love letters" he wrote me in high school and college.  Unfortunately, he happened to marry a girl who knows absolutely nothing about cars.  I decided to change that.

I found out that the California Automobile Museum is in Sacramento, so that's where we went!  It was a complete surprise to him...he didn't find out where we were going until we got there.  They happened to be having a Mustang show outside of the museum that day, so there was even more to look at than I had originally intended.  Nathan's face lit up as he told me all about the cars we were looking at (what was cool, what wasn't, etc.).  I can't say that I am as knowledgeable about cars now as he is, but I did learn a few things:

• Original Shelby Cobra's are cool and rare...so it's awesome that we got to see one.
• Pierce Arrow cars are my cup of tea - loved every one we saw.
• My husband is a car genius.

After the car museum, we went for lunch at Fuddruckers.  Over our hamburgers and chocolate chip cookies, we talked about our friendship - what makes it unique, what we like about it, how we can make it grow.  It was a great day learning more about what makes Nathan the amazing individual that he is.

Nathan speaking:

Kristin's surprise date was pretty exciting, and I was giggly almost all day.  It was a lot of fun to share with her all the little details and tidbits I saw on various cars, and I'm glad they had the Mustang show that day.  There were many cars that weren't Mustangs, so that made it all the better.

This late-sixties Mustang was a fine work of customization.  The doors swing upward, the side mirrors are built into the windshield posts, all of the upholstery was custom formed (even with a relief image of a Pegasus on the trunk lid), and the body piece behind the headrests is custom fitted and shaped.

It is a beautiful car!  Not horribly practical, but beautiful.

This is a meticulous Dodge Coronet.  We really liked the red and white two-toned paint scheme.

This was Linda Rondstadt's car...that apparently meant something to Kristin.

This brightly colored Dodge Super Bee looked pretty snazzy.  It looks almost identical to a Plymouth Road Runner.

Kristin wants this Pierce Arrow.  It was massive car... so massive that I said it could haul nine people...and a sheep.  It had seats that fold down from the sides in the back of the car.

Kristin enjoyed posing in pretty much any and every display we were allowed to touch.  She even started to get down behind one of those panels you stick your face through even though it was clearly intended for small children most likely under the age of ten.  But, at least she was having fun.

We were impressed by the snow skids and tracks on this old car.

I know nothing about this tow truck, but I really liked it.

I don't know what this car is, but the grill is fancy.  This car's got "bling".

This is the snazzy Pierce Arrow hood ornament.

This Pierce Arrow is HUGE.  It is taller than us, and there is at least eight feet between the front window and the front bumper.  I can't imagine trying to learn where the front ends when driving.  It would be kind of like driving a bus from a middle seat.

Kristin liked the color of blue on this Chevrolet.  I liked the slotted turn signal between the front fender and the grill.

Check out the wrap-around grill with coordinated hood trim.

This old Rolls Royce has an open front seat.  The rich folks apparently didn't care if their chauffeurs were seated in the rain.

Who knows what this silly gold, car is...

I really enjoy old race cars like this, although, you'd have to be half crazy to race one.  The drivers often got hit in the face by rocks kicked up by their own front tires.

This is one of those rare and amazing aluminum-block 427, all-aluminum body Shelby Cobras.  Aluminum was used in the body to shave weight, but it is much weaker than the usual body panels, so it damages very easily.

Here is the rare and slightly odd 1954 Corvette with wire mesh over the headlights, and the blue car behind it is the competition of the day, the Thunderbird.  I could be wrong, but I believe the Corvette was one of the first cars to be built from fiberglass and use fuel injection.

This oddity is a Studebaker Avanti.  It has a distinct look, and several other companies have built their own version in the years since Studebaker went under.  As a side note, Studebaker started out making wheelbarrows in the gold rush.

I saw gears and had to spin them....

Yep, it was a great day of bonding over old cars.  What can be better than looking at old American cars with the woman I love?  Maybe if she was packing heat... but that would just be too good to be true.

march dating

This has been a great month!  For one thing, we've actually gotten rain here.  In fact, we've gotten more than rain.  We got hail twice in one week!  It's pretty rare out here, so it was fun to watch.

Remnants of a hail storm.

We lost power right before one of the hail storms, but the whole thing made us laugh.  It wasn't rainy or windy yet, and there was still sunshine.  Then, we hear one crack of thunder, and the power goes out.  Apparently it doesn't take much.

Steak Out - by Kristin
We enjoyed going on our dates this past month.  I planned a "Steak Out" for Nathan - we went "out" and ate "steak"!  We went to Logan's Roadhouse to eat a full steak dinner.

Nathan's massive meal.

My not-so-massive meal.

The food was good, but the conversation was even better.  The theme for the date was "encouragement," so we had a great discussion about how I can best encourage Nathan.  We talked about where he recognized my encouragement, where he felt I was being critical, and what areas of his life he needed most encouraging in.  The conversation was really affirming for both of us, and I think that the biggest thing I got out of it was learning what types of encouragement mean the most to him.  I'm more confident about putting on my "cheerleading outfit" now.  I love my husband!

Indoor Picnic - by Nathan

As usual, my plans can never seem to come together quite right.  I planned this date for a day when Kristin would be getting home late from class so that I would have plenty of time to make dinner and get the living room set up for a picnic.  Then the week before our date, I realized that Kristin's class was ending, and I'd planned our date during her spring break, so she would be home all day.  In the end, I just had to send her away for a couple hours.  She went to Starbucks and read about the Holocaust... so romantic to get a date started off....

For the dinner, I made my first attempt at fried mushrooms.  For a first attempt, and for frying them in a skillet in bacon grease, they were pretty good.  They really need to be deep fried, though, because in a skillet, the first batch comes out great, and the rest end up tasting a bit like the blackened flour the first batch left in the bottom of the skillet.

Then I made some paninis that were messy, but excellent, if I do say so myself.  I mixed pesto and mayo (2 parts pesto, 1 part mayo) for the spread and threw in chicken breast, bacon, and mozzarella cheese on some ciabatta bread, coated the outside with olive oil, and grilled them on the George Foreman grill.  I was in a hurry and completely forgot that I also had spinach, onion, and roasted red peppers to put on them, but I think they were messy enough without those extra toppings, and I really didn't miss them.

We ate this feast on a blanket spread out on the living room floor as a picnic.  Throw in a candle that crackles like a much larger fire and some cheap, but good, dessert wine, and I pulled it off despite some planning mishaps.

We finished dinner off with some pretty generic cherry pie.  I didn't have time to get fancy with that, so it was alright, but nothing special.

Oh, and there was also talking... you know, discussing encouragement and whatnot.  That was the whole reason for the date.  So this was almost a reverse of the discussion from Kristin's date.  I was asking about how to encourage her and that sort of thing, so now I should, in theory, be better equipped for encouraging her in her work, in her ministry, and at home.  I have an amazing wife.

In other news...

We've been enjoying good food and the company of good friends.  We had a couple over last night who we've really enjoyed getting to know over the past few months.  While Ed plays video games with Nathan, Monica enjoys cooking with Kristin.  They made homemade gnocchi with kickin' pasta sauce for dinner.  Kristin had made some vanilla bean ice cream for dessert, but they felt it needed some bittersweet hot fudge sauce to go with it.  So, Kristin and Monica decided to "experiment"...the results were fabulous!

patio garden

by Kristin

We have a garden! 

Our patio isn't huge, but it's big enough for a small container garden.  I still don't know what I'm doing, really, but so far the plants have survived. 

In this large container are beets and carrots.  I wish there was a way to tell how big they were getting.  Nathan is my radar...he tells me to just keep waiting.

In these little pots we have some salad greens.

These have probably gotten big enough that we can start picking leaves off for salads.  We haven't tried it yet, but we will soon.

what we've been up to...

 Nathan:

• Has been growing out a beard (sorry, we haven't taken a photo yet).  Apparently he looks old enough to vote now.
• Got a promotion!  He's now officially a "Product Development Engineer" and is taking the lead on a new project involving vitamin E enriched plastics.  
• Is tired of working on taxes.

Kristin:

• Is about to turn in chapter 2 of the dissertation...whoohoo!
• Heard from her advisor that the latest draft of chapter 1 is the best writing she's ever done (he called it a "breakthrough").
• Decided to give up makeup for Lent.  That was a tough decision, especially considering that she's teaching right now!  But, she's decided that she needs to be comfortable with who God made her to be...He doesn't mess up!
• Is almost through TAing for European history (last week) and is ready to enjoy Spring Break next week.  After that, she'll be TAing a class on gender and the family in early America.  As of right now, she only has 11 students registered for her discussion sections.  Should be an easy quarter.

Together we're working on building Kristin a jewelry organizer.  As of right now, her jewelry is all piled up and tangled together in her top drawer...not ideal.  She pitched Nathan some ideas, he drew up some plans on his fancy software at work, and we've gotten started.

 The only problem is that we haven't gotten very far.  We tried cutting our wood using a miter saw, but we ended up cutting through the miter block!

Nathan wasn't very happy about it.

Someday we'll have full pictures to show of the finished product (if we ever finish!).  Until then, that's what we're up to. :-)