Anniversary

3 Precious, unforgettable, redeeming, adventurous, growing, fun, passionate years with my beloved.

For our anniversary on September 17th, Mike planned a day of fun surprises. First, we went to breakfast at a very unique portland venue: Jace Gace. Part restaurant, part rotating art gallery, the place serves waffles--sweet and savory, beer and coffee--and that's it. It was fantastic! I'd never done the whole 'morgen bier' thing before and oddly, it works well. Somehow the icey cold beer works well with coffee and gravy-slathered waffles.

Then, he'd planned for us to visit Benton Lane vineyard which ranked on the top 100 wines of the world! Even crazier, when there we got a personal tour from the owner himself. AWESOME.

...then after a tour and tasting, my beloved had planned a scrumptious picnic for us in a nearby State Park. 

Meanwhile, Audrey was having a blast with her babysitter, Kara (who we met as a nursery worker at Imago.)

Beeeeeeeeeeeep

This is a test of the emergency broadcast system.

I hereby interrupt this catching up from many months of happenings to address a request (?) received from Mike's cousin, Matt Braden. 

Are you requesting an Obama rant or is something circulating in the family scuttlebutt?

More catching...

These pictures are in reverse order but I simply cannot be bothered to upload them again. This is one of things impeding my desire to blog as well: uploading pics is a pain in the butt and has only gotten more difficult after they changed how the pics get dumped into the bottom of the screen. Can anyone explain what's up with that?

Back to the subject at hand...

Summer was filled with too many happy days to catch but a few more highlights include...a trip to Seattle. The Lindbergs (from Denmark) were on a family vacation around the U.S. and we met up for dinner at Salty's--so fun to see them again.

Cecilie and Audrey got on just fine

Jesper (Lindberg) has grown to be quite the charmer, but Audrey was most taken with Tina

Michael and Michael talked non-stop about what's going on in their businesses

We also had a great time hanging with friends we hadn't seen in a few months--the Holt family. (You may recall that Lone, Eric and their two girls Danica and Maddie moved back to the U.S. a year and a half ago from Aarhus. They bought a house in Snohomish, close to Eric's family, about 40 minutes outside of Seattle.)

In typical Lone style, she has decided to paint their fireplace/chimney post-box red. Not merlot red, R-E-D. And it looked cool. She's got crazy ideas and always pulls them off. Amazing girl!

Lone prepping some food....

Notice that Maddie and Audrey are raiding the fridge in the background.

More catching up from summer....

Off for another bike ride...downtown for a free Oregon Symphony concert at the waterfront--a tradition to open the season.

Permit a proud moment: those of you who know me well, know that I don't always make things as easy as possible for myself. An example: in this situation, I would have normally packed some sort of elaborate picnic dinner blah blah. On this occasion we got burgers to-go from one of our favorite spots- VQ (Veritable Quandry.) If you haven't been there, you must go.

Then later that evening our beloved Matt and Denise came in for a Labor Day visit! We have dismally few pictures to commemorate the event (none of Matt, except for his feet--the white socks crossed at ankles, pictured below.)

Nene crocheted diligently while Audrey ate a popsicle.

It was a lovely visit--very relaxing and hyggelig. We miss them and wish they lived here too....

How Summer Ended

There's so much to catch up on that it would be impossible to do, so I won't even try. As mentioned earlier we have been so busy living & enjoying life to the fullest here in Portland that we haven't had time to keep up with it. 

The Summer lasted much longer than anyone expected, transitioning into Indian Summer...

Scarfing down the last of the tomatoes and other veggies in the yard...

Audrey's an Oregon fan (doesn't she look like a 'big girl' here?)

After Marian and Peter's visit, Jeanie, Jay and Meika left Topanga to come hang with us. It was a grand time; among other things we took them to the Columbia River Gorge & Falls and a Jack Johnson concert in Mt. Helens. Gosh we love these guys and even though they're technically family, they're also very good friends.

Happy Happy Happy

Birthday to our dear, sweet friend, Denise (aka D, Dean, Spacelady)!

It would be impossible to say how much you mean to us.

In honor of your birth, I cannot decide which to make you:

Mental Raspberry Grand Trifle 

or...

Mental Croquembouche

or may be...

Mental Carmel Pear Terrine

Hope your birthday's as sweet as you and everything you deserve.

Is that spaghetti from scratch, or what?

xoxoxo

I am so sad

It's been a while--not only since I've blogged, but since I've spent more than 30 seconds checking out ANYONE's blogs. So imagine my surprise when I visit one of my absolute faves, 'Simply Breakfast' only to discover that Jen is shutting it down at the end of this year. As in tomorrow. Boo hoo..... I'm bummed. Seriously, when I look at her simple, nourishing breakfasts served beautifully, with a simple cloth napkin on that smooth, rustic wooden table, I take a deep sigh and resolve to start my own day that same way. In peace and quiet. (Only in my world I have someone saying ' hey mommy: I want another banana. hey mommy: can I have more milk? hey mommy: can we watch a video? hey mommy: where's daddy? hey mommy: you drinkin'  your coffee?--and seriously, she says all of this within one minute.)

Back to simply breakfast:

She even takes her coffee the same color as me. :(

Boo hoo. I might have to buy her books.

Long, Long Time -- No See.

Sorry everyone, I know that it's been a very long time since I last blogged.

Right now we are in Denmark for the wedding of our friends, Marian and Peter, and it's been grand.

FYI: I have decided to make this blog private, which means that you can no longer read it unless I add you to my list of 'permitted'  people. If you want to be added, send me your email address.

Other favorite Summer memories...







What's not to love about living in Oregon?

Burritos in the garden



This is one of my favorite memories from this Summer.
While Marian and Peter were here visiting, we sat outside as much as humanly possible. This evening was one of several where we actually laid blankets on the grass on ate picnic style in our own yard. It was taken at about 9 in the evening.
Europeans just know how to enjoy the little things in life. They did not think this was weird in the slightest.

How We Became The United States of France

You just have to read this intriguing and insightful article in Time about how we are WAY more like France than we'd like to think. Only without all the perks.

Click here to visit the article 'How we became the United States of France.'

Questions.

In lieu of going private at this point in time, I have decided, in solidarity with my good friend Denise, to stand up for some things during this political season. As far as I know, I still have the rights to think my own thoughts and even to express them and I think--technically at least, there's still a constitutional separation between church and state.

To start with, I have a few questions:

-When did political zeal become a 'Christian' value?

- When did we as a nation become so dumb? I mean it. Really and truly. I'd like to know. Can anyone please tell me how our collective intelligence, attention-span, and critical thinking skills have degraded to imbecilic levels?

To be honest, I can see why many non-believers blame it all on evangelical Christianity. Yes, I certainly can.

If only they knew : Jesus never did this.


Thanks.

Seen on a Portland Bumper Sticker Today:

"Doom is the new hope."

Hilarious...and so true.

Speaking of which, in the interest of actually finding blogging interesting again, I am seriously considering making ours private in the near future.

Happy Anniversary To Us!

We've had 3 wonderful married years and are hoping that God will give us at least 60 more together. What a great day...planned by my honey. More on that soon....hopefully.

I love you, darling husband.

Separating the crap from the crap.



If you're having a hard time figuring out which political claims, ads, etc. etc. are true and which are not, check out Politifact.com

It's one of several fact-checking sites that investigates claims, attacks, ads, and even chain emails, getting to the bottom of whether or not they're actually true.

The 'Truth-O-Meter' indicates 'True,' 'Mostly True', 'Half True,' 'Barely True', 'False', or 'Pants on Fire!' Quite Handy.

Ode to Paula



Can I just interrupt my 'catching up streak' to say that Paula Deen kicks absolute culinary butt?!

I mean, come on. Pretention, vegetarianism and health-consciousness aside: the woman loves butter almost as much as Audrey and me. She wraps just about every freaking thing she makes in bacon and then usually also coats it with batter or cheese. As if this wasn't enough, even her 'healthier' sweets--such as trail mix, contain sweetened condensed milk. Seriously, people. Pontificate on the virtues of haute cuisine; truth be told, if you were stranded on a deserted island and could choose only one person to cook for you for the rest of your forsaken life, no reasonable person in this universe would choose anyone but Paula.
I was reminded of this because I borrowed a DVD of her Food Network series from the library.

Though Jesus is building His church on Peter, I am 100% certain that He gave Paula the keys to the culinary kingdom and that she will be standing next to old Saint Pete at the pearly gates refusing admittance to all of the people who use light sprays of PAM and profess to love salad without dressing. So don't bother complaining to the management when you get turned away; Jesus has already said, in so many words, that He will say to you, 'I was hungry and you gave me Wasa. Paula, on the other hand, gave me deep-fried, bacon-wrapped macaroni balls. An act of love equal to pouring oil on my feet. Away from me you anorexic, culinary Pharisee! I know you not!'

God bless Paula Deen's bacon-wrapped heart.

August 9, 2008--A.M.

Wake up and help mommy frost 60 cupcakes.



Have breakfast at Fat Alberts (MM pancake!)



Head to Shady Dell Train Park. (We lucked out this year because this event was arranged by our Sellwood Playgroup months ago) It's a miniature train park where the kids ride real, running trains--over bridges and through tunnels too! They were in absolute kid-heaven.


At the train station...all aboard!


Here the come round the bend!


Audrey's buddies Julia, Aram and Gideon, pictured with their (grand) parents...


Gideon is one of Audrey's favorite friends in the neighborhood (and we like his parents alot too). Gid is the pensive and sensitive type. Collects flowers and such. Yes, his folks know he's sporting a mullet. They can't bare to cut his hair and hearing them wax poetic about the extra inches blowing in the breeze when he does this and that, can almost make you pee your pants. A grouchy old man even confronted them on it recently. The codger said something like, 'that's quite the hair-do he's got there.' To which Cheyenne, his mom replied with a laugh, 'yeah, we think it's cute.' To which codger replied, 'well that's certainly a matter of opinion.' People can be so rude.

It was a lovely and merry celebration with friends...and cupcakes too.
Pistachio, cherry-chip, chocolate, chocolate marshmallow, spice, bacon and muffins for the nutritional lightweights.



The cupcake you see below, next to blueberry oat muffins, is an idea shanghaid from Kelly's Voodoo donut experience. It is a spice cupcake with cream-cheese maple icing and crispy bacon. Amazingly, it worked. One parent at the park said it was better than the donut. Hurrah! (Note--for those who might try this at home: you will not achieve a 'mapley' enough icing using maple syrup. You must resort to imitation maple extract. Unfortunately, the taste we have become accustomed to on maple bars cannot be achieved through natural means. Nature is just not that mapley. Oh--and on my test run the day before, the icing was too thick and overwhelmed the flavor combo. So keep it modest.)

Very bad blogger

Sorry, I have become a very bad blogger. Always erratic in this sphere, my posts have become increasingly rare since moving to PDX. I think it's a good sign though- we're too busy living life to write about it. That's my excuse and I'm stickin' to it. At the same time, it is an excellent way of keeping in touch with the lives of those in our extended community, so I'm sorry for not doing my part.

There is so much to catch up on that I think I have to work backwards. Starting with today, going to A's bd, and then to our fun-filled visit with Marian and Peter.

This morning, I noticed that Audrey has created tactile art in our kitchen:



I have these little Chinese tea cups on a shelf in our kitchen. A loves to play with them, but today I saw that she is stashing these in case of emergency (since she's really only supposed to have them when she sleeps.)

Happy Birthday Punkin'



To our amazing, sweet and funny little girl...we are so lucky to have you in our lives these two years (+9 months).
Precious beyond all words in the entire universe.