singing in the rain

by Kristin

Nathan's September date for me was SO FUN!  He kept it a secret...just told me to dress comfortably since we would be outside.  I woke up that morning to cold and rainy weather, so I asked if the date was still on.  The answer was "yep!"

We all got in the car, and Nathan drove to a dentist's office. :)  Apparently, the trunk wasn't closed completely, but he didn't fill me in on that.  For a minute, I actually thought he took me for a date to the dentist!

We ended up at a restaurant in an area of town I've always wanted to explore.  The place is called Twisted Root - they have great burgers, shakes, homemade root beer, and a pickle bar!  Nathan had told me about it (he had been before with his coworkers), so I was really excited to try it out.  It definitely lived up to the hype.  My burger was so good that I didn't even need condiments.  Apparently, the place has been featured on Diners, Drive Ins, and Dives!

Rebekah really enjoyed herself, too.  I think she entertained all of the other tables around us with her big grins.

And, she learned to "high five" while we were there!



We tried walking around after lunch, but it was pouring rain.  So instead, Rebekah drove us to our next location.

Nathan's surprise for me - a nature walk through the Arbor Hills Nature Preserve in Plano!  It was wet, but really fun.

Fortunately, the path we took was paved, so we were able to pack Rebekah in the stroller and let her nap while we talked.

The trail had signs telling you about all of the wildlife you might be able to see.  We were fortunate enough to be able to view some of that "wildlife".  Here's what we saw...

Seriously, though, some of the paths were really, really beautiful.  It was impressive, considering that the preserve is in the middle of Plano.

During lunch, Nathan gave me a small notebook and had me make two lists: 1) my top ten financial priorities, and 2) my top ten life priorities.  While we walked, we compared notes and discussed our priorities.  This was great and much needed.  Last year was a big year for us, having moved across the country, had a baby, and bought a house.  Things are completely different for us, so our priorities have changed quite a bit.  It was nice to get on the same page and really hear what was important to each other.  We are really blessed that we agreed with each other's top three and ended up coming to a compromise consensus on how we should order all the others.

The walk wasn't without frivolity!  Nathan got super excited to see a bridge going to a lookout. :)

When she awoke from her nap, Rebekah was a happy camper as well.  We'll have to go back sometime...maybe in the rain!

coffee, cars, and books, oh my!

In September, we re-instituted our creative dates!  Each of us designed a date with the other one in mind, using the book 40 Unforgettable Dates with Your Mate as a guide.  The book encourages you to create a date that meets one of your spouse's needs - like spiritual intimacy, physical intimacy, friendship, etc.  Kristin went first, designing a date for Nathan to meet his need for friendship.

The date took us to Denton, TX where the first stop was an eclectic coffee house that friends had told us to check out. 

Then, we roamed around the courthouse square where (surprise!) a classic car show was going on!  Denton has one of the coolest courthouses we've ever seen, and the square is full of fun restaurants and antique stores.  We didn't actually get to any of the eating or shopping...there were too many classic (and some new) cars to see.

Part of the point of a "friendship" date is to learn about what interests your spouse.  Here's what Kristin learned...

Nathan thinks these Jaguars are a bit ugly, but he thought the engine and sleek engine compartment were worth admiring.

Wind-up cars are cute!!!  (Okay, so Nathan didn't tell her this...she figured it out on her own.)

Nathan thought that while the color combo was a bit odd on this Willys, the details were immaculate.  Notice the recessed headlights, single-piece fender and side panels, and the paint scheme that carries over into the engine compartment.  The Willys had very odd suicide doors that looked more like small hatches - that would be really impractical.

We both liked the following car.  Obamacare EMS... very clever. :)

Kristin liked the pink '32 Ford truck.

Rebekah learned a lot, too!  She really enjoyed her daddy-daughter time with some old cars.

This truck had an extremely elaborate paint job.  They had painted each rivet and the windswept staining with such detail that even up close, it looked almost real.

While walking around, we discussed friendship...ours as well as Nathan's need for friendships outside our marriage.  That's been an issue for both of us since moving to Texas and having Rebekah.  It's just not easy to make friends anymore.  Fortunately, we've gotten connected with an adult fellowship at church and have started going individually to Bible studies in the evenings, so we're working on it.  But it was good to talk through some of our friendship desires and encourage one another in that.  It also really helped us to know how we could support one another in making friends, whether that be Nathan taking Rebekah for an evening or Kristin being willing to host X-box parties at our house.

We ended the date by hitting up an awesome used bookstore called Recycled Books.  It's actually an old opera house turned into a book store.  The store is unassumingly large, and it's got some great finds.  We spent as much time as we could before Rebekah had a melt down (that's what happens when we skip nap time to look at cars).

five...cinco...yay!

Yeah....I'm way behind.  We celebrated our fifth anniversary in August, and I'm just now writing about it.  The reason I'm so behind is that we've been a little busy going on dates!  Life has been crazy recently with a crawling baby, a dissertation to edit, and a new project for Nathan at work, but we managed to re-institute our creative dating this past month.  We look forward to sharing them with you over the next few weeks.

The fifth anniversary is the wood anniversary, or the silverware anniversary according to modern gift charts.  We've always tried to be as creative as possible with our gifts, and this year was no exception.  Nathan had a brilliant idea - he couldn't take me to the woods, so he thought he would help me look like the woods (i.e. camo pajamas).  He ended up not being able to find what he wanted, so he scrapped that idea.  I thought it was hilarious, though, so I made sure that at least one person in the family was in camo for our big day.

We went for breakfast at a restaurant that I'd been wanting to go to for some time - Bread Winners in Plano.  The idea was to get eggs benedict, just like we'd enjoyed on our trip to New Zealand.  We got the southwestern eggs benedict, which we unfortunately regretted later.  The hollandaise sauce had Tobasco in it, which neither of us cared for.  We're still on the search for a good eggs benedict in this hemisphere.  The best part of the meal was the Mexican hot chocolate...yum!

We ran various errands after breakfast (after all, it was a Saturday morning), and then stopped by a cupcake place on the way home.  Once we got Rebekah down for her nap, the gift giving began!  Nathan went first.  He set up the massage table in the living room and gave me an hour long massage...the first since I got pregnant over a year ago.  Once I was good and relaxed, he walked me to the master bathroom where he had prepared a warm bubble bath.  The even bigger surprise was what was sitting on the window sill above the bathtub...

He got me a candle holder made out of a wine barrel!  I was so excited.  You see, I had told him how much I wanted to get a candle piece for that windowsill to give our bathroom more of a "spa" feel.  But, it's not a necessity - it's really not a necessity.  I had decided that I would treat myself to one as a reward when I reached one of my post-pregnancy weight loss goals, but when that time came, I decided to give that money to something a bit more important.  Nathan remembered and even took the trouble to look up one of my favorite stores in Napa Valley to find the one made out of a wine barrel (another thing I've always eyed).  It was so, so thoughtful, and I couldn't have been more surprised.

I got to enjoy my new candles while taking a bubble bath and eating cupcakes.  It was divine!

My gift to him wasn't exactly fancy, but it did get a big smile out of him.  We are both huge fans of Everybody Loves Raymond, and one of our favorite episodes is called "Baggage".  In that episode, Raymond and his wife have a lengthy standoff over who should put away the luggage from their recent vacation.  In an attempt to get his wife to finally take care of it, Raymond sticks some stinky cheese in the luggage before leaving for a business trip.  The cheese stinks up the whole house, and his wife is incensed when she figures out what he did.

At this point, Raymond's mother steps in.  She tells Raymond's wife about how she received a giant fork and spoon for her wedding (the kind that go on the wall), and she and her husband had a similar standoff over who should take them back to the store and return them.  She came home one afternoon, and rather than taking the big wooden fork and spoon back to the store, her husband had nailed them to the wall.  Forty years later, they were still there.  The episode concluded with one of the best pieces of marital advice that we'd ever heard..."Don't let a suitcase filled with cheese be your big fork and spoon."

In honor of that advice, I decided to combine the traditional gift of wood with the modern gift of silverware...no, not by getting Nathan a giant fork and spoon.  Instead, I got him this...

I bought a cheeseboard and custom wood burned the quote into it!  Now, whenever we have gatherings and bust this out, we have an instant conversation piece and a reminder than standoffs never do a marriage any good. :)

We concluded our celebrations by making our anniversary dinner together.  We typically would go out to dinner, but that didn't work as well this year with Rebekah.  We made a delicious meal of steak strips, bacon-infused risotto, marinated vegetable salad, and strawberry shortcake for dessert.

All in all, this anniversary was wonderful - looking forward to the next one!

halloween photo contest

Hey friends!  We've entered a photo contest!  PLEASE VOTE (voting opens Oct. 16)! (see here for link to voting)

Okay, so now I'll explain.  As you know, we love being married and doing "couples" things.  This started early on.  Five years ago, on our first Halloween as a married couple, we needed a costume for a Couples in Christ Halloween party.  We hemmed and hawed about it...couldn't make a decision...days went by...and before we knew it, the day of the party had arrived and we were without anything to wear.

We put our newly married heads together and came up with the best couples costume ever - we became the American Gothic couple!  Nathan drew a recreation of the painting while I colored it and painted glasses on his face with eyeliner.  We won the costume contest that night and ended up giving our "painting" to a little girl at the party who thought it was the coolest thing she'd ever seen.

To this date, we have yet to come up with anything quite so awesome, but we're working on it!

I've been recently following a blog called the Dating Divas to give me even more ideas for ways to show my love to Nathan, and they just announced this Halloween photo contest.  Anyone can vote, and the top three winners get some awesome prizes all designed to build up marriages.  How could I not enter?

Voting opens October 16 here.  We've love it if you helped us out!

five years ago today...

where to look in the bible

 I've been going through my old scrapbooks recently and found this on an old bookmark glued to one of the pages.  I thought it was a pretty cool guide!

Where to Look in the Bible

For the Ten Commandments

Exodus 20: 2-17

For the Sermon on the Mount

Matthew 5: 1-12

For an example of doing good to others

Luke 10: 25-37

If you feel all alone and neglected

Psalm 139

Christ at Passover with His disciples

John 13-17

If you feel lost and afraid

Psalm 23

For an example of loyalty to family and God

The Book of Ruth

For a definition of human and divine love

1 Corinthians 13

If God doesn't seem important anymore

Psalm 90

For the Bible in a nutshell

John 3:16

If you feel a need to spread the gospel

Isaiah 40

Before starting a big undertaking

Joshua 1

six months and solid foods

Can you believe it?  Our little girl has turned six months old!

She just gets cuter and cuter, doesn't she?  On the morning of her sixth month birthday, Kristin dressed her up and took her into the living room for this "photo shoot".  She was an excellent sport about the whole thing, giving us cute smiles along with other, more "natural" poses.

For instance, here she is sucking on her "safety fingers".  This is what she does when she's tired, overwhelmed, frightened, or just plain bored.

And then there's this one - showing Mommy how big her mouth is!

After such a sleep-deprived first few months, we're glad we now have a happy baby with such a fun personality.

She's been attempting to crawl but hasn't quite managed it yet.  We describe what she does do as "the inchworm."

First, she sees what she wants...

...then she excitedly waves all limbs in the air (we think this might actually be an official pilates move...it's pretty impressive!)...

...then she does upward dog (a yoga term)...

...and then she plants her face into the floor and starts to move her knees underneath her.

She eventually ends up in downward dog (another yoga term)...

...and then she finally falls over.

In all of the pilates and yoga moves, she actually does manage to scoot herself forward to grab whatever it is that she wants.  Fortunately for us, she's still incredibly slow about it.  It's only a matter of time, though...

We also just started sitting her at the table with us for meal times!  We've given her a sippy cup with water, but she's still not quite sure what to do with it yet.

Today, we fed her solids for the first time!  Nathan decided that her first food should be sweet potato, so we bought a few sweet potatoes, cooked them, and blended them up.  She was excited. :)

Rather than letting Kristin put the spoon in her mouth, Rebekah had to help things along a bit.  She would grab the spoon, mash her fingers into the sweet potato, and then put the whole mess into her mouth by herself.

But, we think she liked what she tasted.

Food is fun!

By the time we were done, she had started reaching for the spoon (not sure if she wanted more sweet potatoes or just wanted to play with her silverware).  We also had a very messy table, and an even messier baby.