David & Nicole

A Swing and a Miss

2012-01-26T10:29:00.000-08:00

Today's last-year post is especially funny to me, since I have really missed Africa for the past few days. Isn't it funny how the grass is always greener on the other side....of the world?

Jan. 26, 2011:
Today has really been the first day that I’ve been homesick since we left in September. I miss the familiarity of everything about America – I miss knowing where to find everything I need and the convenience of having things of decent quality and a variety. Maybe I just miss the developed world but the more David and I have talked about the places we want to go and things we want to do when we get back, the more I just want to be home. I’m tired of living out of a suitcase and not having anything permanent, but the reality is that we may not have that for awhile. I know for sure that I’m sick of Tabankulu though. I’m tired of third-world dogs and the third-world stench and tjust the feeling of total hopelessness here as people sit around selling the same bruised bananas and rotten cabbages.

I had a productive morning and did laundry, which really makes me miss development. I can live without a dishwasher but doing laundry by hand is literally a pain in the neck. The sun actually came out today, so everything dried but it’s stiff and I miss tumble dryers. I also sucked it up and took a bath last night, but I think it was pretty pointless – even though it has rained for 4 days, I couldn’t get any water. Really?

Today someone was blaring “O Holy Night” outside, and we saw a man selling sticks. TIA.

A Year Ago...

2012-01-25T14:11:00.000-08:00

As we settle back into life in America, it is hard to believe that we've been back since March. And even harder to believe that only a year ago, we were trekking around South Africa. The difference in living styles is literally a world apart and I am shocked by how quickly we were able to jump back into the routine of normal, American life.

One of the best decisions we made while traveling last year was to keep journals. We tried to keep our blog updated when we had internet access, but it was spotty (at best) in Souoth Africa and having real, pen-and-paper journals proved to be a great way to record all the ridiculousness of life there, as well as random thoughts and feelings. I've been flipping through our journals lately, and really enjoyed comparing the current date with whatever we were doing exactly a year ago. How far we've come!

So, I thought it'd be fun to share with the rest of the cyber-world. Here is my journal entry from January 25, 2011.

This whole trip has become even more ridiculous. I thought we were leaving our crazy current situation (living in a thatched-roof hut with a loony Canadian grandma in an African village without electricity/plumbing or running water) for a little bit of normalcy. But, as I sit in an armchair with a TV tray (complete with doily) and watch “Street Lawyer” on a really fuzzy TV while listening to roosters crow, mosquitoes buzz and random American rap music blare from trucks outside, I realize that “normal” doesn’t really exist anymore.

We haven’t seen the sun since we got here on Friday – literally. It has rained and rained and rained and we’ve been stuck in this crazy house acting like old people. Cabin fever got the best of us a few times so yesterday we ventured out to the library in search of free internet. Fail. Today, we scoped out all the shops and were not surprised to find out that they all carry the exact same things. Various crème-filled cookies, canned meat, pilchards in chili sauce, corn snacks, soya mince, Robertsons’ spices, Aromat, pap, samp, flour, Jungle Oats, candles/matches, various strange-flavored candies, room temperature yogurt, milk-based “fruit” drinks, and the same fruits/veggies: cucumbers, tomatoes, onions, pears, cabbage, apples, plumbs and butternut squash. And sometimes beets.

Even though there’s not a lot going on here, it is good to get away. Ironically, I still haven’t done any laundry and I’ve only bathed once, so I’m wearing all my stinky clothes from Godeka until it stops raining or I get myself into the tub. I think that fact that I’ve been shuffling around in Yvonne’s slippers and David is wearing her pants for the 2nd day in a row really sums up our time here. TIA.

I'm Bringin' Bloggin' Back....

2012-01-02T15:43:00.000-08:00

It's 2012, and that means I've abandoned this blog for...well, far too long. It's a new year though, and I am hoping that we'll have lots of exciting things going on this year to share with our friends and family. Here's to wishful thinking, right?

Merry Christmas, and welcome to 2012!

Labors of Love

2011-09-05T09:26:00.000-07:00

Better post to come soon, but I realized that we have been updating our other blogs a lot more routinely than this one.

Anyways, if you're curious about what we've been up to, the answer is probably cooking and/or eating, so follow us as we stuff our faces! I've been posting kitchen adventures at 7ate9 and David regularly reviews restaurants (and dabbles in sports and other fun stuff) at From the Ballpark to BBQ

Happy Labor Day!

Loco for Local

2011-08-18T11:22:00.000-07:00

I haven't really joined the organic craze yet - it's expensive, I'm poor, and after taking an Organic Gardening class in college, I'm just not fully convinced that organic products are worth the price - especially since most of it is still shipped across the country or even the world.

That said, after growing some cute little peppers, basil, tomatoes and squash in our garden this summer, I'm pretty into supporting local business and trying to eat local produce. Roanoke has a really great farmers market every. single. day. downtown that features local businesses and it's always fun to stroll through.

If you're into buying local stuff too, there are a couple great chances today!

The first is a huge assortment of adorable accessories from Katydid Designs. Kate, the owner/designer, and her husband Jeremy went to church with us when we lived in Palm Beach and we were fortunate enough to get to know them. They are truly awesome people and Kate is an incredibly creative designer and sew-er (seamstress?).

I'm not the only one who thinks so, though! Tiger Woods' daughter, Samantha, was spotted yesterday wearing a Katydid headband and belt on Extra TV. I know that Tiger has made a few....debatable decisions....but apparently he (or his ex-wife) has good fashion sense! Check out the Katydid Facebook page for more info about her new products and a giveaway.

Another fun opportunity to buy local right now, is on Wine Woot. If you haven't used Woot before, you're missing out. Today is extra-special, though, because the Wine Woot isn't wine - it's 1,000 Faces Coffee. Which is based and brewed in Athens! The deal is for 4 16-oz bags of coffee and is a great chance to try out something a little different than your typical Folgers while supporting an Athens-based business.

Birthdays Galore!

2011-07-30T12:36:00.000-07:00

Apparently July is birthday month, but since we have lived so many places over the past few years, most of the honorees aren't even in the same state...so we don't get to do much celebrating.

One birthday girl, however, lives right next door. So...Happy Birthday, Mema!

We celebrated her big day by going to dinner last Thursday night at Red Lobster - there is nothing I love more in the world (after David, of course...maybe...) than crab legs, so I think I was more excited about her birthday than anyone else.

It was also a great excuse to bake a new cake. Mema loves coconut cake, but we have that for her every year, so after much research, I went with Pioneer Woman's Italian Cream Cake. This thing got rave reviews from a lot of different, well-respected food blogs that I follow, so I figured it had to be good. And it was! The cake was moist with a hint of coconut, and the icing was like German Chocolate icing collided with lots of butter and cream cheese. But best of all, it was a layer cake, which is my absolute favorite - what could be better than a cake with icing? Lots of cakes, stuffed with icing and stacked together. YUM.

**After picking at leftovers of cake for the past week, we finally discovered the one thing that could make this cake even more magical - a little blast in the microwave. The icing turns into a glaze and it all tastes like a huge, fresh Krispy Kreme donut.**

Italian Cream Cake (Adapted from Pioneer Woman)

For the Cake:
1 stick butter
1 cup oil (I used canola)
1 cup sugar
5 whole eggs (separated)
3 teaspoons vanilla
1 cup coconut (I used half sweet, half unsweet)
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup buttermilk (I used whole milk with a splash of white vinegar)

For the Frosting:
2 packages (8 oz.) cream cheese
1 stick butter
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 package (2 lb.) powdered sugar
1 cup chopped nuts (I used pecans)
1 cup sweetened, flaked coconut (I used half sweet and half unsweet again)
a tiny splash of lemon juice (to bring out the cream cheese flavor, a la Dorie Greenspan)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour three 9-inch round cake pans (I used 8.5").

Beat egg whites until stiff. Set aside.

Cake:

In a large bowl, cream together butter, oil, and sugar until light and fluffy. Mix in the egg yolks, vanilla, and coconut.
In a separate bowl, mix flour, baking soda, and baking powder.

Alternate adding buttermilk and dry ingredients to wet ingredients. Mix until just combined, then fold in egg whites.

Pour evenly into the three prepared pans, then sprinkle the top of each pan with 1 (at least) tablespoon sugar.

Bake in preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean. Remove from oven and allow to cool for 15 minutes, then turn the cakes out onto cooling racks and allow to cool completely.

Frosting:

In a medium bowl, combine cream cheese, butter, vanilla, and powdered sugar. Beat until light and fluffy. Stir in chopped walnuts, lemon juice and flaked coconut. Spread between layers and outside of cake. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

More Balti, Please

2011-07-25T08:09:00.000-07:00

Note: Please excuse the bizarre formatting. I have re-written this dumb blog about 6 times now because Blogger seems to hate pictures and likes to erase everything and then auto-save. Grrrr....

I have lots of blog posts/ideas sitting on the back burner but between our internet and my camera (which bit the dust by landing face-first in a coolwhip-topped "better than sex" cake - what a way to go!), we've had a little problem getting images online. I also got a new computer (hooray!), so I'm in the (slow) process of moving pictures, documents and music over from my crusty old PC to my sparkly new MacBook (tough life, huh?).

I finally have the pictures from our latest trip to Maryland, though! David's younger brother, Brent, is attending the Naval Academy this fall, and had to be in Annapolis at the beginning of July for what is affectionately known as Plebe Summer. To those of us with absolutely no self-control or life aspirations, it is known as 6 weeks of physical anguish and mental torture for incoming freshmen. The worst part of all of it is that after after Plebe Summer, the poor kids begin 4 years of incredibly tough college classes and military training and then commit to serve in the Navy. The toughest parts of my college career were choosing which dessert(s) to eat every day at Bolton, and whether I should go to Statistics class...or skip it and watch Selena with Meredith....so all of this is overwhelming to me, and I have a newfound appreciation for Brent, other smart kids, and everyone who serves in the military.

Regardless, since David and I are total bums right now, we went along to support Brent. If nothing else, I think we were inspirational to him because he knows that getting through Plebe Summer is the first step in not ending up back in his parents' basement.

I-Day is the official start of Plebe Summer - you can google it for a lot more information, but it is basically the opposite of the way I started college. I spent weeks and tons of money at Target making sure that my 10x10 ~~cell~~ dorm room was color-coordinated and stocked with the latest and greatest in electronics (just ask Mere about my amazing alarm clock/sound machine that woke us up to the sound of ~~being attacked by Al Queda~~ waterfalls every morning) and then leisurely spent moving day arranging it all between trips to Bolton (for the aforementioned desserts) and movie marathons on the UGA housing TV channel. By contrast, Brent was allowed to take absolutely nothing. No bed-in-a-bag, no new TV or amazing alarm clock...not even his fabulous new iPhone (and I'm pretty sure USNA doesn't have an on-campus, 24 hour movie channel). In fact, when he checked in, they took the clothes he was wearing and gave him a fabulous new white uniform (and hat!), shaved his head, and began screaming at him. My RA screamed at me a few times throughout my freshman year, but I'm pretty sure I deserved it.

Once we got Brent dropped off on Friday morning, he was gone for the day until his official swearing in ceremony that afternoon. David's parents and grandparents went to a picnic sponsored by the Alumni Association, so David and I spent the afternoon exploring Annapolis. Annapolis is beautiful and a really fun little New England town. It's right on the water (duh, Navy...) and it was a gorgeous day, so there were a lot of people out on boats or just wandering around. After our little jaunt around the world, we have become awesome at walking and walking and walking around cities, so we did what we do best and found a lot of cute little stores and cafes. Being the foodies that we are, we searched and searched for the best little local lunch place and ended up at....Moe's! Don't be disappointed in our selection - the closest Moe's to Roanoke is in Blacksburg, so we don't get to go very often and this particular location had one of those magical, touch-screen Coke machines (officially the Coca-Cola Freestyle). As a new carbonated drink drinker, this thing blew my mind and I'm pretty sure I had Sprite Zero with every flavor combination imaginable. I digress.

After our amazing Mexican lunch, we caught up with the rest of the fam and headed off to the initiation ceremony. People had been saving seats all day, so we got to see a few fights go down between disgruntled parents, and a woman next to us was completely trashed and spent the entire ceremony yelling for her daughter, crying, and trying to balance while she stood on her chair. It was a touching ceremony, and the people-watching wasn't too bad either.

Post-ceremony, we got to see Brent again for the first time since he was whisked away that morning, and say our official goodbyes. We'll see him again in August for Parents' weekend but otherwise can only hear from him in official letters or weekly phone calls. We are allowed to send all the encouraging letters and care packages we want, though, so if you are interested in sending a box of goodies or note to him, let us know and we can give you his address.

After saying goodbye to Brent, the rest of us decided to console ourselves with dinner (in Brent's honor, of course) at none other than the Cheesecake Factory. Nothing says "support our troops" like a giant chunk of cheesecake, so we were just doing our civil duty. We all fell into a sugar-induced food coma back at the hotel and then everyone got up and headed back to Roanoke in the morning - except David and I. We hopped in the car and headed to Baltimore for a few days of exploring.

The drive to Baltimore from Annapolis was super easy, and we got there with plenty of time to spend the evening exploring. Baltimore is a really cute city with lots to do and a very....diverse....population. We walked all over the John Hopkins campus, spent some time down at the waterfront, explored Little Italy, spent a hot afternoon at the (free!) art museum, saw the Orioles' stadium, took the boat taxi to Fells Point, and, of course, had lots of good eats! We also stayed at a hostel, which was a fun experience.

As always, pictures speak louder than words (and this is already way. too. long.) so check out some of our little trip:

The Baltimore Art Museum and lots of signs featuring the best 4-letter word in the English language.

These people were so excited about free art that they ran into the car in front of them.

The real "welcome" to Little Italy is the amazing smell of fresh bread and basil. But if your sniffer happens to be out of order, there's a sign, too.

Little Italy

Nothing says "Italian" like little old men playing Bocce.

Dinner at our favorite restaurant ever. Do you recognize those little cheesy balls of goodness? No? Shame on you. Here's a hint:

We loooooove Fogo!

Call me cynical, but I think the graffiti here is much better than any of the "art" we saw in the museums. Here's an example of something that made it into the museum:

Really? What the heck is that?

The "World Famous Lexington Market" is quite the colorful place. It has some of the best fruit I've ever tasted served by some of the creepiest people I've ever seen. If you are looking for fried chicken for breakfast (a la South Africa), this is your place.

Hello, Orioles

David loves B.J. Surhoff from his days of playing Ken Griffy Jr. on Super Nintendo. If you think those day are over, you're wrong.

Baltimore from the water taxi (which isn't free on the weekends, apparently. They don't tell you this until they have already taken off, and if you don't pay they kick you off at the next stop. We learned this the hard way and ended up at....)

Fell's Point

Meatball sandwich from Isabella's Brick Oven in Little Italy. Crusty, saucy, amazing.

And for dessert....a Napoleon from the famous Vaccaro's Italian Pastry Shop. We tried the canollis and a giant, chocolate-covered cream puff too, but they disappeared before we could take a picture. Oops.

If there was a competition for the world's cutest Barnes & Noble store, this would definitely win.

The Future Mrs. Kilch

2011-07-15T11:42:00.000-07:00

There are a lot of milestones in life to look forward to - and I feel like I've already hit most of the ones I'm interested in right now (getting a dog was next on the list, but after this week, it's being postponed) - I did the college thing, got married to my very favorite person, moved around the world, ~~got a full-time, big girl job, bought a house~~, and am currently mooching off my in-laws. Anyways...until the next big thing comes my way, I'm living vicariously through other people and hoping that exciting things are happening to them.

So, here's a big THANK YOU to Kyle for finally proposing to my sweet friend, Katie, last night. I have been waiting for this FOREVER - she was a huge help in planning my wedding, and I can't wait to start thinking about flowers and dresses and menus and all sorts of wedding goodness with her again!

Katie and I met in high school when we were both new to the area, and bonded in our technology class, where we played "Go Big Girl" way too much. We lived in the same dorm in college and she is a part of most of crazy college memories. We have had so much fun together and I'm so happy for and Kyle - he's a lucky guy!

To the future-Kilches. Here, here!

This Chocolate's Not for Eating

2011-07-13T13:27:00.000-07:00

This week, David and I have been puppysitting for friends who are on vacation. I have had MAJOR puppy fever, so I was worried that spending so much time with Fenway, a 12-week old Chocolate Lab, would REALLY make me want a dog. Somehow, it has had the opposite effect - this boy is SO MUCH WORK.

He was incredibly hyper this morning and chewing everything he could find, so I took him for a short run around the 'hood. He hasn't mastered walking on a least yet, so running was a mess (his collar kept slipping off and he spent the first half mile trying to bite my heels) but when we came back he drank some water and has spent the rest of the afternoon sleeping. Mission accomplished!

Since we're watching Fen, we've been staying at his house, which is always an adjustment. Moving around the world over the past few years has taught me that kitchens are always the biggest variable between houses, and this was no exception. In fact, for some reason the oven here would not heat up past 100 degress...which is no good when you are trying to bake bread!

So I had to bake it in the toaster oven.

Not ideal, but it worked, and I ended up with a (super delicious) loaf of dark Rye.

Here's the recipe I used (without the caraway seeds). I highly recommend it to any other carb addicts out there- it's slightly sweet with a little of that rye tang. Delicious!

Lights, Camera, Action!

2011-06-26T11:10:00.000-07:00

Have you ever met a famous athlete? Movie star? Local TV icon? If you know us, then you can claim the latter! Our lives seem to be full of random surprises, but I wasn't planning on adding "actress" to my resume anytime soon. Nonetheless, we have been in Roanoke for a few months and have already made the news more than a few times. Check out our 15 minutes of fame!

Our first little run-in with the media was for the grand opening of Chipotle. Roanoke is suffering from a severe lack of quality burrito restaurants (I miss you, Barberitos!) so we always made sure to hit up Chipotle for a little "crack rice" when we visited Blacksburg or Annapolis. When we saw a "coming soon" sign for Chipotle going up in Roanoke, our excitement mounted and we decided to go all out and "camp out" for the grand opening. David's mom and brother and a bunch of friends came out and we set up tents, had some snacks (thank you, God, for pretzel m&ms!), and played endless games of cornhole while we waited to get our hands on the cilantro-lime goodness that defines Chipotle.

However, apparently the only thing Roanoke is lacking more of than a quality burrito is a good news story, because the local media ate us up (ha ha ha). We made it on 2 different local evening news programs and had a pretty good article in the paper. We also roused some passionate comments from fellow Roanokers that thought we should have spent the evening (from 8pm to 11am) volunteering our time...? Who knew that anyone would be so passionate about us wasting time?!

Newspaper: http://www.roanoke.com/business/wb/289093

Newspaper comments: http://blogs.roanoke.com/fridgemagnet/2011/06/chipotle-opens-today/

WDBJ 7 Video: http://www.wdbj7.com/videobeta/?watchId=f3ca8ad6-a414-4855-8f19-fc84de5d0342

My favorite video (WSLS):

Then, last week David and I were strolling along downtown before he had to head to work (and I was craving Frogurt after Body Pump) when a man approached us with a news camera, and some pretty disgusting pictures. David put on his thespian (no, not lesbian) hat and had an eloquent little chat with the camera while I tried to hide my sweaty self from the camera. No such luck on my part, but David did great and got us on the 7:00 news. Again.

If you promise not to judge how disgusting I look, you can see David do his thing here: http://www.wdbj7.com/videobeta/?watchId=832f5a98-4a59-4a67-8538-460c2291e85b

Better go ahead and get our autographs now - we're just one bout with rehab away from becoming Hollywood's next "it" couple!

Who's Your Daddy?

2011-06-22T15:05:00.000-07:00

Appropriately, I haven't written anything at all since Mother's Day. And now Father's Day has come and gone. I'll let you think that I did this on purpose, so we could sandwich all of our parents into back-to-back posts.

So here's a little shout-out to our amazing Dads. Thanks for everything you do - we love you! Check out these handsome fellas we are lucky to call our fathers.

Call Your Mother

2011-05-08T21:22:00.000-07:00

David and I have had a crazy past year and are blessed beyond belief to have supportive families who have stood behind us as we have made all kinds of wild decisions and traveled all over the world. They may have been (okay, definitely were) a little skeptical of some of our wild ideas, but have encouraged anything and everything we could have dreamed of.

In particular, we are so thankful to have such wonderful moms! It would be impossible to list all of the thankless things they have done for us over the past 20+ years....or even just the past months. As we have adjusted to life back in the US and have been figuring out our next steps, our moms have been invaluable in taking care of our every whim. If nothing else, I don't know how I'd get through my 30 minute drive home from work without having my mom to call, or who I would stay up to judge the trash on Teen Mom with if David's mom weren't around :)

Traveling this year has given us the opportunity to see a lot of different families and family structures, and while we have been able to pick up a few pointers about what we do and don't want to do with our own future family, it has also made us so much more appreciative for our relatively normal families, and for everything our moms have done to get us where we are today.*

So, all you moms out there (and especially ours), thanks for all you do and know that it doesn't go unnoticed.

Oh and in honor of mothers day (and because we went to Sephora at the Mall of Georgia today), I'm wearing OPI's matte "Call Your Mother" on my fingernails. I think I'm a fan.

*Okay, we live in David's parents' basement, which is the epitome of loserdom but we're working on it...

RSVP

2011-05-01T13:59:00.000-07:00

The past year has been quite the adventure for us. We felt called to Africa, and after a lot of researching, decided to apply to the US Peace Corps, seeing it as an opportunity to serve without raising support and with the safety of the government in case anything crazy happened.

We had lots of interviews. We went to Jacksonville to meet with our recruiter, and we were nominated to teach English in Eastern Europe, and later Asia (which we were convinced was Mongolia). To prepare, we had countless medical and dental exams, had a lot of shots and blood drawn, and volunteered at El Sol teaching English to Guatemalans in Jupiter.

Then, we made a big decision to hook up with YWAM and spend 6 months in Switzerland and Africa learning about how to share our faith and live in extreme conditions. DTS wasn't exactly what we were expecting and ended in quite a strange way, but we did it. It wasn't always fun but we experienced the life that much of the world encounters every day - life without electricity or running water, and we learned a lot about ourselves, our marriage, and each other. Our faith was stretched and our relationship was tested. We read a lot of books, ate a lot of questionable food, lived with a wild collection of various people, and had our fair share of outhouse incidents.

So now, after a year of waiting and planning, the D-Day of Peace Corps applicants has come. It's a day that we have been waiting for with anticipation. The day we receive our official invitation and learn our location and jobs.

This big day came last week, and David waited for me to get home from work to open the envelope. Our location is [drum roll, please]....

Rwanda. With a departure date in September.

We thought we'd be headed to Asia, so this is quite different. We have a week to accept or decline, and there is a lot that we are considering in making our final decision: the location, our prior experience in Africa, the situation in Rwanda, our current job situations, the time commitment.....the list goes on and on.

So, we are researching, thinking, discussing and praying over the decision. It's a big one and we'd love to have your thoughts and prayers as well, as we try to figure out where we are meant to spend the next 2.5 years.

What's Baking? April

2011-04-26T19:53:00.000-07:00

This month's "What's Baking" challenge was hosted by Leanne at Food, Fun and Love and the theme was Spring. Of course, I waited until the last minute, but when I saw a recipe online mentioning lavender, I knew that it would be my "secret" ingredient. There are a lot of different recipes with lavender out there, but I wanted something that would actually be eaten, so I went with Lavender Honey Shortbread Cookies.

They're definitely a departure from other cookies I love (which usually involve lots of chocolate and/or peanut butter) but I was really impressed with the springy, floral flavor and buttery consistency. They're not too sweet and would be great for breakfast with a cup of coffee or chai tea. Give these little guys a try!

Lavender Honey Shortbread Cookies

2 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking powder

1 tbsp lavender

6 oz. butter (1 1/2 sticks)

2 tbsp honey

1/2 cup powdered sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla

Combine flour, salt, baking powder and lavender in bowl and stir to combine.

In an electric mixer, cream together butter, honey, powdered sugar and vanilla. Add dry ingredients and mix until combined.

Pour the mixture onto parchment paper, roll into a log, and place in the refrigerator to chill until set (about an hour). When you're ready to bake, just slice off the cookies you want, sprinkle with sugar, and bake in a 400 degree oven for 15 minutes, or until golden brown.

Holidays and Holy Days

2011-04-25T21:42:00.000-07:00

Saying that the last few weeks have been busy would be a huge understatement. Between starting a new job, David's birthday, Easter and our anniversary, we have had a lot on our plates. On top of all that, we have been cooking up a storm and took a weekend trip to visit David's dad's hometown of Wilmington, NC for the annual Azalea festival.

Most recently (today!) we celebrated our 2nd wedding anniversary. It is really amazing to me that we have been married for two years, especially when you consider all that we've done and everywhere we've been. The past year was so much fun and I am honored to have been able to spend it with my very best friend, who also happens to be an incredible husband. In honor of....something (I'm going to pretend like it was the sweet last year we've had together...or what a sweet wife I am), he made homemade ice cream sandwiches today. Actually, I think he was just bored but they look (and taste) deeeelicious.

AND...speaking of incredible husbands, yesterday was his 24th birthday! Hooray! I love a good birthday, so we went out to dinner at Local Roots on Saturday night to celebrate. The restaurant came highly recommended and we have passed it a few times, so we were excited to try it out. Unfortunately, it was a huge disappointment. The actual restaurant is adorable and the menu is descriptive but the food was overpriced and under-flavored. I'm not opposed to spending good money for good food, especially when it's local, but there was nothing good about our experience. Our waitress was rude, and most of David's food was inedible. We brought his leftovers home to give to the dogs and were given a free dessert, but it was unimpressive as well.

We had big plans to go out for lunch after church on Sunday but were so turned off by restaurants after Saturday night's fiasco that we just decided to make lunch at home. David's dad grilled bbq chicken and we made roasted vegetables, grilled asparagus, salads, and Pioneer Woman's macaroni and cheese. After a mid-afternoon walk, we had an old standby-favorite for dessert: Vintage Victual's strawberry shortcake. This stuff is easy and never disappoints as an amazing dessert. Luckily, our Easter lunch was a million times better than dinner at Local Roots and a fraction of the price. And the best part? We still have a ton of leftovers :)

Yesterday was also, of course, Easter. I think it may be my favorite holiday - I love celebrating the cornerstone of my faith, and I love that it is almost always a beautiful springy day and that kids wear the most adorable outfits to church. We went to the church that David grew up going to (and where his parents were married!) for one of the most angry Easter sermons I've ever heard, but a poorly delivered sermon doesn't change the principle of the day. Jesus rose from the grave, and I can't help but be excited when I think about what that really means. As a Christian, that makes death totally meaningless, and is a wonderful reminder that life here on earth is fleeting in light of the eternity that we are promised. Hooray!

On a lighter note, work is still going well (and sometimes feels like eternity. Ha!) - I love the people I work with, and am starting to get a better understanding of what exactly I'm doing there. It has also made me a lot more excited about running and I've learned a ton about feet and running and hydration and pronation and suppination and arches and bunions and all kinds of things I never thought I'd care about.

Having a full time job has kicked my butt - going from 0 hours of work a week to 40 (and sometimes more) has been a big adjustment. We took a break from my first week to take a vacation to Wilmington with David's dad, where he grew up, and meet some of his family. The weekend also happened to be the North Carolina Azalea Festival, which was quite the people-watching adventure. I think festivals really bring out the best (...) in people, so we captured a few of these people. If you are one of the people in these pictures, I'd apologize but I think you should be apologizing to me, the great state of North Carolina, and yourself.

We participated in a little gluttony of our own at the Trolly Stop . I'm not a huge hotdog fan usually, but this place screamed local so we couldn't resist. Plus, all the bloomin' onions and funnel cakes had us craving junk food.

So that's pretty much all that we've been celebrating....and eating. David is on spring break this week and I have the day off work tomorrow, so I am looking forward to spending the day with him and actually getting to celebrate our anniversary. Hoppy Easter to all!

Big Days Call for Bakin'

2011-04-04T19:29:00.000-07:00

~~Today started out like any other~~. Scratch that, David got called in to work, so he was up at the crack of dawn and I was too. After a long night of discussing life and our plans, we were both operating on minimal sleep, so I just got up with him. I usually help him make his lunch but this morning I got fancy with a can of Pilsbury biscuits that I found in the fridge.

I made donuts.

David's family has a deep fryer that they never use, so I got it out and put it to work. The dough was pretty old, so it probably didn't hold together as well as it could have, but overall I'm pretty pleased with the results. There are a lot of options for topping them (we tried one with cinnamon/sugar), but everyone knows that plain glazed donuts are the best.

Once I got the whole family off to work/school, I got down to business: I got my first big girl, full-time job!

The quick backstory is that I was looking for a part-time job to get out of the house while we waited on the Peace Corps to give us the where/when of our assignment. David's dad, Don, got an email about a part time job at Fleet Feet Roanoke and thought it would be a good fit for me, so I went in last week to talk about it with them. To make a long story short, I'll be working full-time and doing their marketing and couldn't be more excited. The owners are great and the concept of the store is great. I'm jumping right in this week with one of their biggest events of the year, Diva Night. Hooray!

The weather was also finally halfway decent (okay, it was hot) today, so David took the opportunity to grill out hamburgers. I was feeling adventurous, so I offered to make the buns. Oy vei. We used the bread machine to mix up the dough (because I'm over kneading) and tried both a cookie cutter and a (drinking) glass to cut out the circles. David's burgers were pretty enormous so we used the bigger buns and just ate the smaller ones.

I had no idea what to do with the leftover dough (because it doesn't really mold back together like cookie dough) so I tried to make more buns and pretzels. Since it had been re-kneaded and rolled a few times, it was pretty dense and ended with more of a biscuit-like texture. Definitely still edible but I need some better ideas for the extra dough. Any thoughts?

Yeasted Meringue Coffee Cake

2011-04-04T04:45:00.000-07:00

I've been a part of the Daring Bakers for a while now, but since we've been bouncing around the world, I haven't had a chance to participate...yet. The March 2011 Daring Bakers' Challenge was hosted by Ria of Ria's Collection and Jamie of Life's a Feast. Ria and Jamie challenged the Daring Bakers to bake a yeasted Meringue Coffee Cake. I am obviously really late posting this but enjoyed making the cake. I was worried about how it would turn out, since it was pretty technical but we were all very pleased with the results and had our fair share before sending it to school with David's mom to share with the other teachers.

It didn't turn out as pretty as some of the others I've seen but that's not too important - the whole point is to eat it anyways!

The recipe was definitely worth the effort and could be adjusted to use just about any ingredients or flavors you want. I used Jamie's version (below) but would like to try a savory filling next time - maybe with pizza-like ingredients and Italian seasoning in the dough.

The recipe below makes 2 round coffee cakes, each approximately 10 inches in diameter. I havlved it to make1 cake, but if you are doing all the work, you may as well make 2!

Filled Meringue Coffee Cake

For the Dough:

4 cups flour

1/4 cup sugar

3/4 tsp salt

1 package active dried yeast

3/4 cup whole milk *I used 2% without any problems

1/4 cup water

1/2 cup butter, at room temperature

2 large eggs, at room temperature

For the Meringue:

3 large egg whites, at room temperature

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp vanilla

1/2 cup sugar

For the Filling:

1 cup chopped pecans or walnuts

2 tbsp granulated sugar

1/4 tsp ground cinnamon

1 cup semisweet chocolate chips or coarsely chopped chocolate

In a large mixing bowl, combine 1 1/2 cups of the flour, the sugar, salt and yeast.

In a saucepan, combine the milk, water and butter and heat over medium until warm.

With an electric mixer on low speed, gradually add the warm liquid to the flour/yeast mixture, beating until just blended. Increase mixer speed to medium and beat 2 minutes. Add the eggs and 1 cup flour and beat for 2 more minutes.

Using a wooden spoon, stir in enough of the remaining flour to make a dough that holds together. Turn out onto a floured surface and knead the dough for 8-10 minutes, or until it is soft, smooth and elastic, keeping the work surface floured and adding extra flour as needed.

Place the dough in a lightly greased bowl, turning to coat all sides. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and a kitchen towl and let rise until doubled in bulk, 45-60 minutes.

Prepare the filling. In a smal bowl, combine the cinnamon and sugar.

Once the dough has doubled, make the meringue:

In a clean mixing bowl (ideally plastic or metal), beat the egg whites with the salt, first on low speed for 30 seconds, then increase to high and continue beating until foamy and opaque. Add the vanilla then start adding the 1/2 cup of sugar, 1 tbsp at a time, until very stiff, glossy peaks form.

Assemble the coffee cakes:

Line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper.

Punch down the dough and divide in half. On a lightly floured surface, working one piece of the dough at a time, roll out into a 20 x 10-inch rectangle. Spread half of the meringue evenly over the rectangle. Sprinkle half of the filling over the dough.

Roll the dough jellyroll-style, from the long side. Pinch the seam closed to seal. Very carefully transfer the filled log to one of the lined cookie sheets, seam-side down. Bring the ends of the log around and seal the ends together, forming a ring, tucking one end into the other and pinching to seal.

Use kitchen shears or a sharp knife, make cuts along the outside edge at 1-inch intervals. Repeat with the remaining dough, meringue and fillings.

Cover the 2 coffee cakes with plastic wrap and allow them to rise again for 45-60 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 350.

Brush the tops of the coffee cakes with the egg wash. Bake in the preheated oven for 25-30 minutes, until risen and golden brown. The dough should sound hollow when tapped.

Remove from the oven and slide the parchment paper off the cookie sheets onto the table. Very gently loosen the coffee cakes from the paper with a large spatula and carefully slide the cakes off onto cooling racks. Allow to cool.

Just before serving, dust the tops of the coffee cakes with confectioner's sugar and cocoa powder, if desired.

Eat!

Snowballs

2011-04-03T17:50:00.000-07:00

Pretty much every day I think about writing a blog. And sometimes I even start. But then I realize that there is just too much to try to write about since the last post. So I stop.

The problem with that is that every day that I don't write, more exciting things happen. But I can't write about them because I'm already behind. So it snowballs.

Anyways, I'm done with that. Just know that a LOT has happened in the past few weeks. We visited my parents in Athens and spent a few days with the Mitchells in Atlanta. One of the best things about Athens was seeing Meredith, who drove up from Albany just to play with us. It was so great to reconnect with her again - it's easy to forget how fun your friends are when life gets busy, but refreshing to realize that some relationships survive the distance and pick right back up where you left them.

We left Athens and drove to Virginia to spend some time with David's family while we wait on the final word from the Peace Corps. We are eagerly anticipating their invitation (and location!) and then will make a decision on our next steps. Originally, they mentioned Asia, so if you want to get some karma points today, say a little prayer that we are asked to go somewhere warm :)

Speaking of warm - Virginia is not. It has snowed and hailed and rained here but is finally supposed to hit 80 tomorrow. I've been baking up a storm (stay tuned for food posts!) and we spent last weekend in Annapolis while David's brother spent a weekend at the Naval Academy.

There's lots more fun to be had, and lots more blogs to write as we play in the V-A!

Waka Waka

2011-03-03T00:07:00.000-08:00

Long time, no update - but it isn't for a lack of activity, we've just been busy wrapping up our time in Africa!

After spending some amazing, much-needed time in Kokstad readjusting to life in civilization, we headed to Worcester for the weekend via a 30 hour bus ride. It was well worth it though - the city is in the heart of wine country, nestled in gorgeous mountains and full of history. True to fashion, we met some more amazing, incredibly hospitable people and genuinely enjoyed our time there. We were able to visit some local museums, learn a lot about the wine and brandy making processes, and even saw a couple movies. Ironically, David and I had never been to a movie in a theater together until we came to Africa.

The final leg to our South African adventure has been the Cape Town area. Through a lot of crazy connections that only God has the creativity and sense of humor to come up with, we met up with "Small Paul" and his family and have been staying with them in Muizenberg for our last week here. To say that they have been generous and welcoming and amazing in every way would be a huge understatement and we are so thankful for people like them who have made our time here so great. Paul and his wife, Vicki, are Americans living in Muizenberg where they have a chalk art ministry called Drawing Others to Christ. This concept was new to me but we went to watch him "preach" at a church on Sunday night and were blown away by his talent and stage presence - he is so creative and has such an artistic gift. You can read more about his family and ministry at their website, see some of his art, or watch videos of his "chalk talks" here.

We've been total tourists in Cape Town, complete with fanny pack (thanks Sarah, Paddy Patagonia has been a lifesaver!) and have pretty much seen and done it all. We've been to Table Mountain, the District Six Museum, the Slave Church Museum, [window]shopped at the Waterfront, learned about Nelson Mandela and apartheid, seen seals and African Penguins in Simon's Town, watched surfers in Muizenberg and fishermen in St. James. We've also had our fill of the local flava' and tried everything from bokkom (salted, dried fish) fresh from the Indian Ocean to wild game (alligator, ostrich, kudu, springbok, warthog, etc.) to legit Middle Eastern food (shwarmas, naan, masala dosa and tandoori chicken) and Romany Cream milkshakes.

It has been a crazy trip, and I can't believe that we are flying out of South Africa this afternoon. After being gone from the US since September, there is a lot that I am looking forward to seeing and doing again but our time here has been amazing and this is a trip I will definitely never forget.

So "sala kakuhle", "totsiens" and "goodbye" South Africa. See you again soon!

From Outhouse to Penthouse

2011-02-14T01:47:00.000-08:00

And we're back!

The mountain village is not a very forgiving place. We had a productive 2 weeks there, but it was also 2 weeks of really struggling physically. I have a cold that is moving into my chest and David's intestines are still struggling from life in the "bush." Being in a 3rd world village is difficult when you're at your best, and ~~really tough~~ miserable when you are sick. However, we really enjoyed seeing all our kiddies again, finishing up our work in the garden, and getting some progress made at the Technology Center. Every day was an adventure and we can't wait to tell you all the stories when we get home. We also have an entire village of kids who walk around constantly singing "bambelela," which is beyond adorable.

Anyways, we had a great 2nd trip to Godeka but our time here in South Africa is quickly coming to a close, and we were itching to see the rest of the country, so we took 1 last (painful) bakkie ride down from the mountains, planning to spend some time in Tabankulu while we figured out our next steps.

Of course, things never go as planned and when we got to the house we stay at in Tabankulu, there were already people there. We have learned that flexibility is the name of the game, so we headed to Kokstad to use the internet and try again. We kicked off the day at Woolworth's and ate an entire chocolate cream cake (2 layers of moist chocolately cake covered in ganahce and filled with cream - AMAZING) for breakfast and then began wandering around the city in search of a place to stay.

To make a long story short, we ended up calling the number on a sign we saw and getting in touch with someone who offered to take us by his bed & breakfast because they had a pool and we were without a car. It turns out that he was with YWAM almost 20 years ago, and after giving us a tour of the amazing resort, he offered to give us 2 free nights of accomodation. He dropped us back off at the internet cafe and then proceeded to give us all the cash in his wallet and told us to be blessed. We still don't really know how to explain the shock and gratitude we have. God is good (...all the time).

So, we have gone from the outhouse to the penthouse. Literally.

Staying at Imbali has been incredible - check out the website for pictures, if you don't believe me. The hotel is run by a really great family, who has been incredibly generous to us, letting us eat meals with them, catering to our every need and even taking us to church with them (and introducing us as their "American friends") on Sunday. We love them so much that we are going to spend a few extra days here, celebrating Valentine's Day in style!

We still don't know our exact plans for the rest of our time in South Africa yet, but will be heading towards Cape Town later this week to hook up with some contacts that we have in the area before leaving on March 3rd. After a whirlwind few days of travel (through J-Burg, Geneva, Burtigny, Zurich, Istanbul, and Philadelphia) , we will end up in Atlanta on the 5th just in time for dinner. Our first meal back in the States is still being hotly debated :)

Pictures from Godeka are being uploaded to Snapfish as we speak, I think there is a link on the left hand side of the blog, so check them out. Happy Valentines Day!

David & Nicole

The Big Update

2011-01-28T03:21:00.001-08:00

“Mola” from South Africa!

In case you couldn’t tell, our life is far from ordinary. Our latest adventure has been the “bush” of Gudeka, which is a tiny Xhosa village in the mountains, helping with a school and living like a native. We’ve been here since Jan. 7 and plan to stay until the last week of February. Every day is literally an adventure – there are some moments that I can’t imagine anything more rewarding and want to stay forever…and some when I am ready to walk out and head back to the comforts of America.

On the way up 2 weeks ago, we swore that we wouldn’t take another ride in a “bakkie” (def: a tiny 1975 pickup truck with absolutely no suspension whatsoever. You are crammed in the back [which has a top and no windows that can be opened, of course] and share a wooden “bench” with a million other people. On the way to Gudeka the first time, we had 23 people, 2 kids, a ton of groceries, and a live chicken) until it was to leave the mountains for good. The trucks are horrible enough but the roads are beyond awful, so you get to bump around for an hour with all your sweaty, closest friends and spend the next week nursing your butt back to life. But we were desperate for some civilization and craving ice cream, so we broke our promise and came down to the closest town, Ntabankulu.

That was an adventure in and of itself. The day was rainy and gross, so we had a lazy morning and after lunch we packed up our backpacks, put on comfy traveling clothes (read: flip flops), and walked up to the main road to wait for the dreaded bakkie. You can see for miles and we didn’t see one coming our direction, so we decided to just start walking a little bit. Nothing came, so we just kept walking…and walking…and walking…. Eventually we met a new friend, Momosa, who said that he was walking to Ntabankulu too. David got up the nerve to ask how long the trek would take and we blamed Momosa’s answer on his poor English – 10 hours. To make a long story short(er), we left Gudeka at 1 and walked without seeing a single bakkie until 4. Finally a random family in a truck drove by and offered us a ride. It wasn’t a comfortable ride at all but we bounced in the back for a good 45 minutes and finally got to Ntabankulu in time to grab some groceries for dinner, take baths for the first time in 2 weeks and sleep in a real bed. Hallelujah!

There isn’t much in Ntabankulu (at all), but we can take a taxi into Kokstad and use the internet, go to a real grocery store, and eat fast food. This time we really won’t take another bakkie ride until we are leaving for good!

Gudeka has been awesome, though. We are living with a woman named Sharon MacDonald, who we met when we were fleeing from Jeffrey’s Bay. She is a 68-year old from Canada and has dreamed up the “Hinterland Learner’s Center.” It is still a work in progress, but it is basically a school and library with a TON of toys and books (and everything in-between). Her vision is that the whole community would use the center to learn about everything from raising cattle to sewing, from gardening to playing the violin. She is also building a “Technology Center” where she eventually hopes to have classes for adults and a solar-powered kitchen. Right now it is basically a small building with a big deck and hammock and an awesome view of the sunset every night. When we get back to the States, we want to help her design a webpage and get the word out about her goals to get some more visitors from the US and Canada up to help.

We are living in a rondeval owned by our next-door neighbor. We have our own little tent inside (to keep critters out!) with cots and there is a propane kitchen, which makes us by far the most technologically-savvy house in town. We have to boil all our water (which is rainwater collected in cisterns around town) and we have been eating a lot of non-perishable foods but there is also a “store” in town that carries the basics and a lot of the families have gardens, so we can buy some fruits and vegetables. We don’t have any electricity, so we live by flashlight and candlelight at night, and we don’t have plumbing but the government put in pretty decent outhouses and we keep chamber pots in the rondeval for nighttime emergencies J. Gudeka (and all of the cities up in the mountains) is a farming town so there are animals everywhere – goats, pigs, chickens, cattle, horses, dogs, etc. I don’t know who started the idea that roosters crow in the morning but they were wrong….they crow ALL THE TIME.

Anyways, school started last Wednesday (Jan. 19), so that has been where we have been spending most of our time lately. Before that, we organized the library (and became entirely too familiar with the Dewey Decimal System) and did some manual labor at the Technology Center painting lacquer on the deck and digging out “classrooms” underneath it. School has been really fun, the kids are adorable and it is amazing how much English they know. Xhosa is their first language, which is a “click” language and really fun to listen to.

We’ve also started to tackle the garden at the Learner’s Center. It was planted by someone who apparently knew what they were doing, but has since become a weedy mess. Many of the kids come to school with nothing to eat and are obviously hungry, and we think it would be awesome if we could actually get the garden functioning again to provide lunch, but there is a lot of work to be done. It’s so weedy and overrun that we’re still not exactly sure of everything in it, but when we walked through we saw: corn, spinach, green beans, cabbage, green peppers, potatoes, and tomatoes.

There have been so many “highlights” of the trip – the kids are great (usually), the scenery is incredible, and we are learning a lot about teaching and gardening. We’ve also been reading a TON since the library is so convenient – it has been a good excuse to read some of the classics and try some new stuff too. We’ve also attended a local church a few times, which is quite an experience. Tell 60 people to get dressed up in multiple layers, pile them into a tiny room with no air circulation or light, cook something over hot coals in the corner of the room and have them all sing random Xhosa songs and share whenever they feel led, and you’ve got the church we’ve been attending! Oh, and don’t forget to ask the two white people to share brief sermons with no preparation whatsoever.

There are some drawbacks too, though. Not having plumbing or electricity is tough sometimes, all our food pretty much comes from a can of some sort, and the woman we are living with is a little looney (but she is living alone in the mountains of Africa – she has to be kind of crazy). It’s also hard not being able to check our email or keep up with the rest of the world and there are moments that are just plain boring. The sun comes up at about 5am but it goes down early too, and there’s only so much you can do by candlelight at night. There’s also times where we’d just love to be able to talk to people in English. Still, there’s an exciting adventure and new experience that awaits us each day and we are savoring our time here in this amazing country. We’ll have another update when we make our way back down from the mountains again in a few weeks!

We're Alive!

2011-01-22T02:15:00.000-08:00

Just wanted to let you know that we are safe & sound. We've been up in the "bush" for a little over 2 weeks, staying in a roundaval with a crazy 68-year-old Canadian librarian. Life is crazy, ya know? The kids are awesome though and started school this week so we have enjoyed spending time with them and getting to know a little Xhosa, which is a click language and very funny to hear spoken.

Came to Kokstad this weekend to do some interneting and use a real bed/toilet/electricity/sink - it's amazing! I think we will stay here until at least Monday or Tuesday and then go back up into the mountains for awhile. Very safe and there is so much to do there.
We will try to write a good update while we're not on internet "time" and send it out with a big update of everything we have been up to lately (and maybe even pictures!) soon.

We're Headed for the Bush!

2011-01-06T04:03:00.000-08:00

While in the midst of a coffee crisis at Wimpy yesterday, David and I met a woman, Sharon Macdonald, who works with an organization called the Hinterland Learners' Resource Network. The group works with native children doing early childhood education, and native families teaching life skills, community development, etc. She is from Canada and is based in a village outside of Ntabankulu, which is outside of Kokstad.

So...we're headed for the bush! We are going to meet up with Sharon tomorrow and spend some time working with her in her village. We don't know how long we will stay there and haven't made any commitments, but we won't have access to internet (or electricity/running water - yikes!) while we are there. There are internet cafes in Ntabankulu, so we should be able to check it intermittently but just not constantly after tomorrow afternoon.

All that to say, don't worry about us if you don't hear from us for a little while. Think of us when you use your indoor plumbing or electricity, and please keep us and the people we will be working with in your thoughts and prayers!

Nicole & David

PS Pictures from the past few weeks are up on Snapfish - check them out!

Bye 2010!

2010-12-31T04:26:00.001-08:00

Happy New Years!

Christmas in Africa was awesome - It’s strange not to spend it with our families but we had an awesome host family that made us feel right at home, let us eat dinner with them, and even gave us gifts. Sharon, our host mom, is an awesome chef and we definitely did our American duty by stuffing ourselves silly.

We survived a very “African” bus ride from Mossel Bay to Jeffrey’s Bay and will be here for a couple more weeks. Jeffrey’s Bay is famous for its surfing, so it’s been fun to see a totally different type of beach here, and watch the surfers rough the cold water to ride the waves. Since it’s still “holiday season,” the town is packed with tourists but it’s nice that we’re not the only ones asking for directions and looking lost all the time. I’m looking forward to seeing all the NYE celebrations tonight and am hoping for major fireworks on the beach!

We haven’t had a chance to “do” much yet, but David and I spent some time talking with a really cool old man during lunch at the base yesterday. Dennis was in prison at some point, and then his wife left him earlier this year and he was homeless and sleeping on the beach. He came by the base to ask for food one day, started talking with them, and has since become the base gardener – talking with him was really encouraging and he is evidence of the possibilities for life change going on in this city, which has been really divided since apartheid. We also had a short devotional with the city police this morning, so there is lots to be done here and we’re looking forward to jumping in and being a part of everything going on here.

Please keep our team, Dennis, and the city of Jeffrey’s Bay in your prayers, especially tonight as we’ve heard NYE is crazy here! Happy 2011!

"...Down by the Bay..."

2010-12-24T01:18:00.000-08:00

There are no watermelons growing here, but we are definitely "down by the bay." It is hard to upload pictures here because of the internet but the view is gorgeous and it is great to be back at the beach again. I stole these pictures from Google Images but they are all views I've actually seen, so I think they're legit enough.

We've been staying with host families for the past few days, which has been a great experience. David and I have been with a super sweet family who has adorable little boys (3 and 5), so we've had fun playing with them and getting to know the family.

We celebrated Billy's birthday with a "potjiekos," which are pots filled with chicken and vegetables slow-cooked over a fire and served with rice, which was delicious. Seriously, I think we each had like 3 plates full but we've been doing a ton of walking and there are a lot of hills around here. Plus, it's Christmas-time and I think it is our duty, as Americans, to gain insane amounts of weight during the holidays, regardless of where we are in the world!

Our host mom, Sharon, recommended that we spend an afternoon at Jukani, and we happened to get there at 3:45, not knowing that they would be feeding all of the animals dinner at 4. We got some awesome pictures of the animals and learned some interesting facts. Everything was in cages, and the animals seemed pretty tame (for wild animals) but we're in Africa, so we couldn't pass up the opportunity to see lions and tigers!

We also took a boat out to Seal Island (not the famous one but same idea), where I saw my first wild seals. Again, this picture is from Google but it is exactly what the island looked like - covered in seals. You can go cage diving out here with Great White Sharks (because they come feed on the seals when they get in the water) but it is only a couple miles from a public beach, so they are limiting it right now, since it's summer and the beach is so crowded.

Last night, we went back to the Pentecostal church that we visited last Sunday and led a fun service. Billy did a great job singing, Florence gave her testimony (with Melissa translating), Sam gave a little talk about YWAM, I was the emcee and David did an awesome job as the "preacher," with a message about perseverance. We're all really proud of him, and the church loved it.

We will be attending the Christmas Eve service at the Anglican church tonight (it's Christmas Eve! I'm wearing a sundress and flip flops. Love it!) and moving back into another house as a team. We've had lots of invitations for Christmas dinner tomorrow and all the food here has been wonderful, so we're planning to wear pants with elastic, and get our Christmas on, African-style. Sharon and I even made eggnog yesterday - I'm a little embarrassed to bring one of America's worst recipes/traditions to Africa but I tried to warn her :)

So do something especially American for us, and we'll have some meat, Mrs. Ball's chutney and a glass of African eggnog for you. Merry Christmas and Geseënde Kersfees (Afrikaans) to you and yours, from halfway around the world.

Love,

David and Nicole

The Motherland

2010-12-19T04:38:00.000-08:00

Internet here in the Motherland is tricky, but we have officially made it to South Africa! We are staying in Mossel Bay until the 28th, and then heading to Jeffrey's Bay.

The country is beautiful, the people have incredible accents, everyone has been extremely friendly and we're enjoying the warm weather!

The culture here is also really fun. So far, we've had a traditional South African braai, sampled ostrich billtong, covered everything in Mrs. Ball's chutney, and watched lots of cricket. We also attended a traditional local church service this morning and were given giant rams' horns as gifts.

This is Africa.

The Base-ics

2010-12-10T14:58:00.000-08:00

As our time staying at YWAM Burtigny is coming to a close, we thought it might be a good idea to give you a tour of where we've been living for the past three months. Living at a YWAM base is certainly interesting - the good news is there is always something going on; the bad news is...there is ALWAYS something going on. It's been an adjustment for us to live with so many people and share so much of the space, but it's also been fun and taken us back to what it was like to live in a dorm.

The Base - We're pretty sure it's the biggest property in Burtigny and our base is half the town's population.

The Garden - Many people do a great job of making sure there are beautiful flowers in front of the base and they also have a delicious vegetable garden across the street.

Reception - This is what you see when you walk in the front door of the base. Quite stylish and welcoming - especially for YWAM.

Our Classroom - This is the classroom we've used for our lectures over the past 3 months. The giant world map seems to be a requirement for all YWAM classrooms and the projection screen in the corner has been great for watching college football on Saturday nights.

The Dining Room - People don't play about food here. If you're late and you didn't ask someone to save you some food, tough luck.

The Sunroom/Movie Room - This room can be a good hideout to do some reading, journaling, or other reflective activities. It's also a popular spot to watch movies or sports on the weekend. And it's one of the best spots to watch the snow fall.

The Pool Room/Lounge - Where issues are settled. You can almost always find people playing pool, and some of us get quite serious. There's not much to do in town so many hours are spent at the pool table. Aside from our room, we probably spend more time hanging out in this room than anywhere else.

Our Room - Home Sweet Home. It's tiny, messy, and quite toasty. It's been an adjustment to share a room like this, but it's helped us keep things pretty simple. We've tried to give it some life by putting up pictures and we have a plant growing in the window. It's weird that we've started to feel like we're settling in, and now it's time to pack everything up and move out.

Our Team - There are nine students and six staff. We have people from the U.S., England, South Africa, Belgium, India, & Switzerland. A very international experience!

Not Just Another Day

2010-12-01T09:28:00.000-08:00

Today is World AIDS Day, and as we prepare to leave for South Africa on the 15th (happy birthday to me!), the issue of HIV/AIDS has become increasingly important to us. The nation of South Africa has the highest rate of HIV/AIDS in the world, with over 6,600,000 currently infected and 1,400,000 children orphaned by the disease. Worldwide, there are over 36,000,000 people infected, with a new infection occurring every every 12 seconds.

Please support the fight against HIV/AIDS and its ravaging impact on the world by spreading the word and learning how you can get involved.

For more information, check out the AIDS Clock or World AIDS Day Website

You can also join us in committing to pray for the nation of South Africa, those who have been effected by HIV/AIDS and the time we will spend there.

Thanks for your support!

A Very Merry Christmas

2010-11-29T13:31:00.000-08:00

How much cuter would this card be with
me and David's faces? :)

Although Skype, e-mail and googletalk have all been invaluable in helping us to stay in touch with friends and family while we've been hopping around the world, there is nothing quite like getting a real card in the mail. Even when we were just down the road from our friends and family, Christmas was always a time I looked forward to because of the sheer abundance of snail mail. In fact, I'm pretty sure I like getting Christmas cards more than presents.

Since we'll be leaving for South Africa before Christmas, we are working hard to get our cards out early this year (and you should send them early to us too...hint, hint), which is great because Shutterfly is giving away 50 free Christmas cards to bloggers! Shutterfly has a huge selection of photo Christmas cards (my favorite!) and we have a ton of great pictures from all our travels this year so this is going to be a major decision! If you're not into photo Christmas cards, they also have a huge selection of holiday invitations and even fun gifts, like photo calendars or photo coffee mugs.

If you are looking for a great way to share your cute mug on a mug and support a worthy cause, pair up a Shutterfly photo coffee mug with a bag of Veronica's Cup Coffee. The coffee is a certified Fair-Trade Peruvian blend and proceeds go to support Veronica's House, an immediate safehouse in Peru that provides shelter, food, clothing, counseling and healthcare referrals for women and children at risk of being forced into sex or drug trafficking.

If you are on top of things and already have your Christmas cards done for the year, check out Shutterfly's fun selection of photo birthday cards. I think this one is adorable (probably not with this random kid's face though) and would be cute with any of the great products from the Not For Sale store, like this fun bracelet (which I have and love) handmade by women in Ugandan refugee camps.

So go order your Christmas cards and send them to us soon! Or save them and celebrate in the United States with us when we have our very own Christmas in March!

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow

2010-11-27T16:34:00.000-08:00

This was Friday but we're up to a solid 7 inches today and it's still coming down!

Thanks a Lot!

2010-11-25T14:07:00.000-08:00

Although we're spending the day in a country where people don't celebrate Thanksgiving, we're still going to celebrate today! There are so many things in our lives we are thankful for, but here are just a few:
Technology: Thank you to Skype, Facebook, Blogger, Twitter, etc. Because of technology, we're able to keep in touch with our friends and family back home and keep up with exciting things that are happening.
Health: We take this for granted way too often. Neither of us have ever had any major medical issues and we continue to be blessed with good health.

Alps: We live in Switzerland and have some of the most amazing views in the world. It's impossible to describe the beauty of standing on top of a hill and looking out over Lake Geneva at the foot of the French Alps.
Nicole: I realize what a blessing she is more and more each day. She's my best friend and I'm so thankful I'm able to share my life with her.
Knowledge: We're so thankful we come from families where education and knowledge are important and we have always been given opportunities to learn and experience things.
Supporters: We could not be where we are right now without our supporters. Whether it's been through financial or prayer support - you make it possible for us to be here. Your encouragement and partnership means so much to us and we can't thank you enough.
Georgia: It's always on our mind and in many ways, it's home. It's where we met each other, where we graduated, where we got married, and where Nicole's family lives. Go Dawgs!
Improvement: We can't help but laugh at how different we are now than we were two years ago. We have grown in so many areas and learned so much about the world, and we've learned there is so much we don't know. We're thankful for the areas where we've improved and excited about the ways we can still grow.
Virginia: When the leaves are changing colors in the Fall, that's enough to be thankful for the beauty of Virginia. I'm also thankful for many great friends and family that live in Virginia.
Indoor Plumbing: When you go to a place where this isn't available, you really learn how thankful you are for it. There are so many blessings we have in our life that we take for granted all the time and most of the world would consider it an enormous luxury.

Nations: There are so many wonderful and exciting things about the world and people from around the world. We have had the opportunity to get to know people from many different nations over the past two months, and it's been incredible to hear their stories and perspectives about how they view the world. See the world and hang out with people from other cultures.
God: He's our creator, our provider, and so much more. He formed us. He brought us together. He brought us here. And he has a plan for our future.

I see London, I see France...

2010-11-23T07:59:00.000-08:00

One of the many things we wanted to try to do while in Europe was travel and Annecy, France came highly recommended to us by a few people before we even got to Switzerland. Lucky for us, it is just over the French border and is known for having one of the best street markets in France, so we took a little Sunday trip to check it out. We got up and took the train from Gland to Geneva where we found out (surprise!) that we had to take the bus to Annecy - oops. It was only a 90 minute trip (through the gorgeous Alps) and well worth it for the incredible day we had. If we can squeeze in another day before we head to Africa, we'll definitely be back!

Our first European train ride. Big day!

The market

This taffy stuff was incredible and they had every single flavor you could ever image. I think I ate my weight in free samples...

Olives and tapenade. I love you, Europe.

Some man offered me a free oyster. I watched him open it and kill it. And then I ate it.

Donkey sausage - of course we had to try it...

Affordable sushi! ....because we needed a mid-morning snack...?

GIANT meringues in a billion flavors

I got chocolate :)

David went with the baguette

Hello Alps

Pizza for lunch

The couple next to us left and didn't eat all of their dessert....so I took it, and David took a picture. It was delicious and he thanked me later.

The old prison

Lac d'Annecy

Pont des Amours

We obviously hadn't eaten enough at this point, so we had to try real "chestnuts roasted on an open fire." So Christmasy!

The city from the other side of the lake

And we finished off the evening with a "gaufre" (French for giant, amazing, delicious waffle covered in powdered sugar) and hot, fresh crepes - we had one Nutella and Grand Marnier crepe. And then went back for another Nutella.

Sunday really may have been the best day I've had since we've been here. Our weeks are full of class, deep discussions and lots of community time, so it was great to be able to get away and relax by ourselves for the day. And France uses the Euro, so everything is so much cheaper than in Switzerland!

You've Got Mail

2010-11-19T03:10:00.000-08:00

We are feeling the love! This week we got not one, but two packages full of goodies! It is seriously amazing to get stuff in the mail and remember that there are other people in the universe thinking about us, even when we feel so isolated halfway around the world.

The first package we got was from my friend, Nikki. We met when we worked at Disney during our Summer Project in 2006 and have bonded recently over being expats in random countries. She took a huge leap of faith and moved to Korea alone to teach English - you can (and should) follow her inspirational and hilarious blog here.

She sent us a bunch of random Korean foods, which is awesome! I haven't tried anything yet but I am pretty excited about the mushroom-shaped chocolate, the Beatles-themed skittles, and the "Smile Nuts," which say "Always Flesh" on the back. The socks have already gotten a lot of wear though, they are warm and fuzzy and perfect for Switzerland!

The other package came from my parents and, of course, Colby. Thanksgiving isn't celebrated here but they wanted us to celebrate the American way. I'm excited about decorating our room and sharing the American Thanksgiving love with everyone here. They also sent two of my most favorite things - Splenda and more warm socks! These socks have little rubber nubs on the bottom, so I can bum around the base in them and not worry about cracking my head open on the tile floors.

Thanks to everyone who has sent us packages, letters, postcards, blog comments, or facebook messages!

Finder's Keeper's

2010-11-18T11:07:00.000-08:00

I have been trying to find the perfect granola bar for months now. I tried a few versions of no-bake chocolate peanut butter protein cookies, but honestly I just wasn't feeling the cold oatmeal. Then I tried a different chocolate hazelnut bar that was better (and decent dipped in coffee) but still not even close to what I really wanted - something both chewy (but not like a NutriGrain bar) and crunchy (but not quite Nature Valley), something I don't have to refrigerate and that feels like substantial food, not a little wedge of undercooked oatmeal. I was also shooting for relatively healthy, without a ton of added sugar and maybe even some fruit and nuts.

Last night I hit the jackpot. After scouring the web and various recipes for weeks, I had an idea of what I wanted and how to make it, so I based my recipe off of this Playgroup Granola Bar recipe. I liked that it had both oats and flour in it, so it'd be more dense than the plain oatmeal-based bars, and it has a simple base.

Ladies and gentlemen, these things are fantastic. I made quite a few modifications to the original recipe but the result is EXACTLY what I was looking for. They are crunchy on the tops and sides but still a little chewy in the middle, and are full of healthy deliciousness. Without further ado, here is the secret recipe to the world's most perfect granola bar. I love the spicy apple flavor of mine - it's perfect for fall - but feel free to swap out anything that you like more.

The Perfect Granola Bar
Ingredients:
2 cups rolled oats
1/4 cup brown sugar (the original recipe called for 3/4 cup but these are plenty sweet)
1/2 cup wheat bran (original called for wheat germ but we didn't have it)
Spices, to taste - I used cinnamon, cardamom, nutmeg and a tiny bit of chili powder
3/4 cup whole wheat flour (original used all-purpose but in the name of health, use whole wheat)
dried fruit, to taste (I used dried apples but anything would work)
1/4 cup yogurt (I used Greek - actually quark, to replace the oil from the original recipe)
1 tsp salt
1 egg white
1 tbsp almond meal
1/2 tbsp coconut oil
2 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup honey
1 tbsp vanilla protein powder (I'd leave this out next time, it's not worth it)

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 (or 176.5). Spray pan or line with parchment paper
2. In a large bowl, mix together the oats, brown sugar, wheat bran, spices, flour, dried fruit and salt. Make a well in the center, and pour in the honey, egg, oil, yogurt and vanilla. Mix well with your hats and pat evening into the prepared pan. The batter is thick, so it will stay where you put it. *Note - I had to add a lot of water to get it to a mixable consistency.
3. Bake for 30-35 minutes, until the bars become golden around the edges. Cool for 5 minutes and cut into bars while still warm. Do not allow them to cool completely before cutting or they will become too hard to cut.

I got 12 "bars" from mine, with the following nutrition information.

Nutrition Facts Spicy Apple Cinnamon Granola Bars
Serving Size: 1 serving
Report incorrect nutrition info


Amount Per Serving

Calories		112.9

Total Fat		1.8 g

	Saturated Fat	0.8 g

	Polyunsaturated Fat	0.1 g

	Monounsaturated Fat	0.1 g

	Trans Fat	0.0 g

Cholesterol		0.0 mg

Sodium		210.7 mg

Potassium		62.4 mg

Total Carbohydrate		23.6 g

	Dietary Fiber	2.9 g

	Sugars	11.3 g

Protein		3.6 g


Vitamin A	0.0 %

Vitamin B-12	0.0 %

Vitamin B-6	1.8 %

Vitamin C	0.9 %

Vitamin D	0.0 %

Vitamin E	0.3 %

Calcium	0.9 %

Copper	1.9 %

Folate	0.6 %

Iron	2.6 %

Magnesium	4.1 %

Manganese	18.5 %

Niacin	1.8 %

Pantothenic Acid	0.6 %

Phosphorus	2.6 %

Riboflavin	1.1 %

Selenium	2.9 %

Thiamin	0.9 %

Zinc	1.4 %

Serving...the City, Cake and Lo-Mein

2010-11-15T05:10:00.000-08:00

This weekend was busy. And full of serving all sorts of things! On Saturday, we teamed up with some other organizations in the area to participate in "Serve the City Geneva". I tried to capture some of the day but you can see the official, high-resolution pictures from a real photographer here.

Our team split up to do a lot of different things, so David and I started off in the kitchen, making soup for homeless people.

I had to cut the middle out of the inside of garlic cloves. I had no idea that this was an important thing to do. Did you? Do you cut the middle out of your garlic?

Then we set off on our own to find some more of the city to serve. We started off at a chocolate store, and let a nice man serve delicate Swiss chocolate to us. Check out their fabulous website here.

After a spin around the city, picking up trash and doing other service-y things, we met back up for lunch and to get ready for the last part of the day: Free hugs!

A lot of people on the street were creeped out by the idea of free hugs, but we didn't take no for an answer and hugged everyone and their brother. You're welcome, citizens of Geneva.

Back at the base, the baby cows were in the barn and just begging to be played with. Okay, no, they were scared of us but eventually they came around and one even put my whole hand in his mouth. Milking a cow is on my checklist of things to do in Switzerland, and this was kind of close.

Our friend, Carolyn, turned the big 2-4 on Saturday but Geneva wiped everyone out, so we had a little party for her on Sunday. Her husband, Dad, suggested oatmeal raisin cookies so I gave Paula Deen's Loaded Oatmeal Cookie recipe a try.

I omitted all of the nuts, and used all butter instead of shortening (which I don't think exists here...), but otherwise stuck to the recipe, and I think they were pretty good. A lot more "spicy" than your typical oatmeal raisin cookie but hey, it's fall and nothing says "fall" like a plethora of spices.

I was a little hesitant about the brown butter icing, especially after it burnt in the pan. The recipe calls for a couple tablespoons of water to thin it out, but I'm pretty sure I used at least half a cup. I had no idea if it would dry hard or soft and a taste test revealed that the icing was super sweet so I just drizzled the cookies, but I think next time I'd put a more generous layer on. And for the record, the icing hardens up when dry.

Carolyn's family makes the same Betty Crocker yellow cake (with pudding!) with chocolate icing for every single birthday, so Elaine went out to the American store just to buy the mix and make the cake. Sinking my teeth into the magical combination of yellow cake and chocolate frosting gave me a serious longing for America. And major sugar-belly.

We finished off the weekend with a 3 hour dinner at Mekong in Nyon with Filo, Sarah and Deborah. We were craving Chinese food and a trip out of the base and Mekong delivered. Sort of. Food here is just really expensive, and the service was mediocre. The company was awesome though, and I'm pretty sure that soy sauce is the answer to most of life's problems.

Hope your weekend was as eventful as ours!

“When words become unclear, I shall focus with photographs....

2010-11-09T10:36:00.000-08:00

...When images become inadequate, I shall be content with silence." - Ansel Adams
Things have been happening too fast for me to keep this thing up-to-date so I'm going to do my best to share the crazy past few weeks - through pictures.

First things first, though: We found out our outreach location! We will leave in mid-December for...

South Africa!

Our team will meet over the next few months to get ready for the trip, so please keep us in your prayers as we start thinking about what we want to do there and how we want to focus our time.

In other big news, our little village had the first big snow of the season yesterday. We've been able to see snow on the mountaintops for a while but millions of giant fluffy flakes fell here yesterday afternoon. It turned into rain after dinner, so there's no real evidence today but I'm pretty sure there it won't be the last time we see snow.

I obviously don't have a lot of experience taking pictures of snow, but here are some attempts

We've also had a lot of parties lately....which means lots of baking! Cooking here is such a challenge, since everything is in French and uses the metric system (and I'm trying to use an out-of-date industrial kitchen) but I think that is part of what makes it so much fun.

Last night we celebrated Deborah's 20th birthday, so I made raspberry-filled vanilla cupcakes with a raspberry buttercream and "The Best Chocolate Sheet Cake. Ever." by Pioneer Woman. I've never made cupcakes, filling or buttercream from scratch but I think it turned out okay for my first attempt. The icing tip I used probably wasn't the best choice but we were late getting it out. Michelle, I know you are probably embaressed by my cake-decorating skills but don't judge - there is no Michael's here :) We were in a huge time crunch to get it all done after dinner while trying to keep Deborah in the dark, so I didn't get nearly as many pictures as I wanted.

I (basically) used the Vanilla Cupcake and Buttercream recipes from the Joy of Baking, and made the filling in a saucepan out of frozen raspberries, some kind of fruit preserve I found in the refrigerator (I think it was raspberry and maybe cherry?) and cornstarch until I had a gooey consistency. I left the lemon zest out of the cupcakes and substituted part of the regular white sugar with vanilla sugar. I think I may have used margarine instead of butter for the buttercream, and I mixed some of the filling into the buttercream to make it pink and fruity. Using the convection oven made my cupcake tops a weird shape, so I cut them flat and used the "cone method" to fill them - you can see some of the filling leaking out in the picture - oops!

The local English-speaking church had a meeting last week and needed help with snacks for their intermission, so David and I helped out with our friends Dan and Carolyn to bake and serve/clean up desserts. We had amazing no-bake lemon cheesecake, apple cobbler, triple chocolate brownies, and peach/raspberry tarts.

Our DTS class got together a few weeks ago to bond and watch a movie, Bienvenu chez les Ch'tis (a French comedy with subtitles - you can read Time Magazine's summary/review of it here) so I made "Dad's Favorite Chocolate Chip Cookies" from Vintage Victuals. This is hands-down my new favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe - they're big thick cookies and the dough isn't too sweet (the batter would be AWESOME in ice cream). The only change I made was to add more chocolate chips - we are in Switzerland, so there is no such thing as too much chocolate.

Since Halloween isn't really celebrated in Europe the same way it is in America, the entire base got together for a week of fun and ended it with "Burtigny's Got Talent" on Friday night. We had different "theme" days all week - one day we dressed up like someone else from the base, one was mustache day, and one was superhero day.

Melissa and me on Superhero Day- she is Cat Woman and I'm Super Mario

Everyone on Dress-Like-Someone-Else Day. David is dressed like Melissa (I think the picture speaks for itself - he even made hoop earrings) and I'm Nena, who is infamous for wearing shorts/leggings/socks/sandals together.

For Burtigny's Got Talent, David, Carolyn and I supplied the snacks. We made homemade pretzels and buckeyes. I've never made pretzels before and we couldn't figure out how big to make them (or how much they would grow in the oven), so we went with sticks but probably should have made them smaller - we underestimated the amount of people in attendance and they went pretty fast. We covered half of them in salt and the other half in cinnamon/sugar. I promise that they tasted better than they look in the picture.

And buckeyes never fail. Apparently news of their amazingness hadn't reached Europe yet, so we had a lot of first-timers but everyone loves chocolate and peanut butter.

Besides baking, we've been doing a lot of exploring and walking - we are trying to get it all in before the major cold hits and we've had some beautiful days lately.

We also went to Geneva a long time ago to see Jet d'Eau, which is one of the largest fountains in the world. On a clear day, you can see it from the hill in Burtigny, even though Geneva is a good 30 minutes away by car. The fountain pumps 132 gallons of water 459 ft in the air per second.

If you don't feel like you are completely up-to-date with our lives after that, you're just going to have to come visit us :)

It's Officially...Still Unofficial

2010-11-03T16:04:00.000-07:00

Today was a big day in the world of our Discipleship Training School. We have been waiting a long, long time to find out where we will be headed on outreach, and finally had the "big meeting" this morning.

Except we still don't really know anything.

When David and I began looking at locations for our DTS, one of the draws to the Burtigny base was the Africa outreach. We both had a heart for the continent (and sweet Thomas, our Compassion kid) and had previously looked at other mission opportunities there. Last fall, we set a goal to be in Africa by January of 2011, not having a clue how we'd get there. Through multiple trips to Haiti, we learned about YWAM and the Discipleship Training Schools, and before we knew it, we were accepted to Burtigny with the possibility of going to 4 different African countries for our outreach, which will be Dec. - March. The 4 original possibilities were Mali, Madagascar, S. Africa or Rwanda.

Today, the "official" announcement we got was that 3 of the 4 original locations are still on the table. Our 9-person DTS class (+ 4 staff) will be split among Madagascar, S. Africa and Rwanda, so the next step is to individually think and pray about where we want to spend the 3 month outreach portion of our class.

There are a ton of opportunities and challenges to each location, and any of them would be amazing but we need to let our school leaders know by this Friday where we are feeling led to go. Please keep us in your thoughts and join in praying with us this week as we try to determine where we should be!

Cinnamon Sugar Biscotti

2010-10-26T07:42:00.000-07:00

It's starting to get way too cold to exercise here (the high for the past couple days has been in the 30s) so I've done a 180 in my new favorite way to pass the time - baking! Every Tuesday and Thursday, our coffee break features a baked goodie, so last night I jumped in the kitchen and tried out this incredible Cinnamon Sugar Biscotti recipe from Annie Eats (who got it from Joy the Baker). The cinnamon/sugar combination seemed just right for the cool fall weather and they were perfect dunked in coffee.

I started out with a major problem. The hand mixer doesn't work. Which means I had to mix by hand...and by the way, is that stuff butter? I have no idea but it's close enough.

Pretty sure Tony Horton (founder of P90x) would be proud of the arm workout I got from creaming and beating everything together. Voila - uncooked "logs"

After a whirl in the oven:

Annnddd a second time. "Biscotti" means twice-baked, of course!

I didn't get a chance to take a picture of them in all their serving-tray-glory but they looked adorable and tasted fabulous. Thanks Annie!

Annie's Cinnamon Sugar Biscotti
Yields: 20-24 cookies
Ingredients:
For the dough:
2 cups all-purpose flour (I think I used cake flour but it was all we had and I don't know French)
1 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1 cup sugar
6 tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 large egg, plus 1 large egg yolk
1 tsp. vanilla extract

For the topping:
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp. ground cinnamon (I may have used a little more. I LOVE cinnamon)
1 large egg, lightly beaten

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 325 F (165 C but I guestimated - our oven is not that exact). Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat. In a medium bowl, combine the flour, cinnamon, baking powder and salt; whisk to blend and set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer (...or just another bowl...), cream together the butter and sugar on medium-high speed (or give your arm a workout) until light and fluffy, 3-4 minutes, scraping down the bowl as needed. Blend in the egg and then the egg yolk, beating well (pain is beauty, baby, stir that thang!) after each addition. Blend in the vanilla until incorporated. With the mixer on low speed (trust me, your arm will be on LOW speed by this point), blend in the dry ingredients just until incorporated and a dough is formed.

Divide the dough into two halves. Shape each half into a log 9 inches long by 1 1/2 inches wide on the prepared baking sheet, spacing the logs at least 3-4 inches apart. In a small bowl, combine the sugar and cinnamon for the topping and stir to blend well. Lightly brush the tops of the logs with the beaten egg, and sprinkle generously with some of the cinnamon sugar mixture.

Bake for 40-45 minutes, rotating halfway through baking, until the tops are golden brown and slightly firm to the touch. remove the pan from the oven but maintain the oven temperature. Once the logs are cool enough to handle, slice on the diagonal (this is easier said than done) into 1 1/2-inch slices (about 10-14 per log). Place biscotti cut side-down on the baking sheet and sprinkle with more of the cinnamon sugar mixture. Bake an additional 10-15 minutes, until crisp and golden.

There's More to Switzerland than Chocolate....Right?

2010-10-23T04:40:00.000-07:00

They say that there is more to Switzerland than watches, chocolate and the lucrative banking industry but I'm not so sure. While we haven't really been buying any watches (and I admit I already own a Swiss watch) or putting our savings into secret accounts, we have been taking full advantage of all the chocolately goodness that this great country has to offer.

Last week we took a "date day" just go to play and ended up at my favorite spot on earth - IKEA! If you think that it is overwhelming and confusing in America, you need to try it in a country where you can speak about 3 words of the local language. I have a gift card I need to use but had no idea how to ask anyone about it. We managed to make it home empty-handed, except for....

Chocolate! They have these fabulous ice cream machines that will load your cone with the perfect mix of vanilla ice cream and chocolately syrup. Amazing.

But then, we went to Nyon, and discovered Rapp. Holy Cow. The website is in French, but it is worth taking a peek at just for the incredible pictures (choose "Galerie" or just click here). Our pictures don't do justice to the experience of being completely surrounded by chocolate but here's an idea of just how incredible Rapp is (and I think you can click our pictures to make them bigger).

They even had marzipan fruit and veggies!

We limited ourselves to 1 thing and ended up with this chocolate mousse thing. It actually tasted a lot like ~~heaven~~ a rich chocolate cheesecake with a chocolate crust and white chocolate shavings on top.

In other chocolate news, David has been buying and trying a different chocolate bar every week (which is about how often we make it to a grocery store). It's relatively cheap (all food here is expensive) and fun - there are a million different brands and flavor combinations. Here's his most recent sampling:

Last night, part of our school came home from a camping trip, so we welcomed them back with a big sign and....dark chocolate brownies! I used this recipe for Dark Cocoa Brownies from Vintage Victuals and they turned out pretty well, especially for my first real attempt at navigating metric conversions and an industrial-sized oven. The powdered sugar helped to cut the richness of the cocoa powder and they went great with hot French press coffee.

We have a few guys here from South Africa too, so I went out on a [major] limb and tried to tackle a traditional melktert. Our friend, Mandy, made one for us while we were living in WPB but she wasn't around to help us. She did send us the recipe though, and we ended up with this:

It took a few tries to get the custard right (and we made scrambled eggs once....oops) but I think it turned out okay for our first try. If you need a little South African flair in your life, here's Mandy's recipe:

Crust:

250ml cake flour

5ml baking powder

1ml salt

80 ml sugar

100 grams butter

1 egg, beaten

Filling:

750ml milk

80 grams flour

1ml cake flour

1ml salt

4 eggs, seperated

100ml sugar

5ml vanilla extract

Ground cinnamon, to taste

For crust:

1. Sift flour, baking powder, and salt.

2. Add sugar and cream with butter.

3. Add beaten egg and mix well.

4. Press into 2 greased pie dishes (we used 1 big springform pan).

For filling:

1. Heat milk and butter in a heavy saucepan.

2. Sift flour and salt and mix to combine with egg yolks. Beat well.

3. Slowly add some of the hot milk to the egg mixture. Stir until well combined, and then add back to the saucepan. Let simmer for a few minutes, until thick, stirring constantly.

4. Remove from heat and add vanilla extract.

5. Beat egg whites until soft peaks form. Fold lightly into the cooked milk mixture.

6. Pour filling into pan(s) and sprinkle with ground cinnamon. Bake in a preheated oven at 180 degrees Celcius (about 350 F) for 20 minutes.

While I was baking it up yesterday, I also ventured into the world of muesli. This stuff is all the rage in Europe and now I know why - it's delicious and you can really customize it to whatever you like. We make enormous batches of it at the base because it is so great with yogurt for breakfast, so I made some with and without dried fruit (raisins and apricots).

Since we make so much of it, there isn't really a real recipe but here's the gist of it.

Ingredients:

corn flakes

oats

unsweetened coconut

honey

sliced almonds

dried fruit

Directions:

1.In individual pans, toast coconut (10 min), oats (25 min) and almonds (15 min).

2. Dump into a big bowl and mix with unsweetened corn flakes.

3. Throw in whatever dried fruit you have lying around. Or chocolate chips - whatever your heart desires

4. Heat honey so it's nice and soft.

5. Drizzle over mixture and stir well. You want it kind of clumpy.

6. Let cool before storing

I think it'd be awesome with dried apples and cranberries and pumpkin pie spice. Or yogurt-covered raisins.

Picture This

2010-10-15T16:16:00.001-07:00

Ah! I'm terrible at posting - I think of things I want to share with the blogger world (all 3 of you out there) but then stuff comes up and my total lack of attention span takes over. So, instead of a witty, deep, or even informative post about how great our time has been here or how much we have been learning, I'll just let the pictures do the talking.

1. Camping - As promised, here are some camping pictures. It was cold and primitive but beautiful and we really had fun with the kids - especially since they all spoke English. It's amazing how much I have come to appreciate the English language after struggling to understand French everywhere we go.

Making s'mores - the marshmallows here are weird and pretty much melted in the fire....and we didn't have any chocolate or graham crackers, so they weren't exactly s'mores but...close enough.

Home sweet home: 1 cabin (with 1 bathroom) and 3 giant tents

Park entrance

This sign is probably very informative. If you speak French. I don't.

Early morning jam session

Playing with fire. Literally.

2. Mont Blanc - For some reason, it is almost impossible to capture this in a picture but our view (when "the mountains are out") is incredible. At 15,782 feet, Mont Blanc is the highest mountain in the Alps and is popular for snow sports. You can read more about it on Wikipedia here if that kind of thing spins your shorts. You can click on the pictures to make them bigger but it's still just not the same as seeing it in person....hint, hint....

3. Nyon - Nyon (pronounced NEE-OWN - now you know as much French as us!) is the town closest to us that actually has stuff to do. It's on Lake Geneva and beautiful when the sun is out. We've been a few times, and a bus from the base goes every Saturday, so expect lots of Nyon pictures. They have an adorable farmer's market every Saturday too. Love, love, love.

Please take note of the ENORMOUS selection of gelato flavors. I love you, Europe!

All the Swiss girls from our class...and me. Since we can't communicate, we take pictures. Ice cream is a universal language.

Rotisserie chicken at the farmer's market! America could learn a thing or two from these people...

Obviously there is Asian (?) street food too....?

A few ridiculously expensive vegetables (insight: Switzerland makes the BEST tomatoes ever. They are incredible!)

And lots and lots (and lots) of meat! "No refrigerator?!" you ask? Don't worry, it's that cold outside.

So European. Props to David for all the good pictures.

The castle. You can walk around inside and read about it...if you can read French.

4. Vineyards! - There are a TON of vineyards around us and the grapes here are awesome. Last week we took a field trip down to learn about how wine is made in this area, and see some of the process. We watched them dump grapes from the field into a giant press and then had incredibly fresh grape juice and wine. Of course, our cameras were dead but our fabulous friend Carolyn snapped our picture in front of one of the oak barrels that they ferment the wine in.

Annddd that basically brings you up to speed with our life here in Burtigny! Happy Friday!

PS This is only a tiny sample of the pictures we've taken - if you want to see the rest, you can check out our Snapfish Album here!

A New Obsession & Town Tour

2010-10-03T10:36:00.000-07:00

This weekend we went camping with a local (English speaking) church's youth group. It was cold, fun, encouraging....lots of fabulous things. But most of all, it was enlightening....because I discovered the single greatest thing about Europe:

This picture just doesn't do it justice. They are little chocolate cereal things filled with soft chocolately, nutella-like goodness in the middle and they make my heart sing. Since it was so cold, I conveniently pretended like I don't understand European nutrition facts (or that "sucre" means sugar....) and ate about half a box of this stuff. It is especially amazing around a campfire.

Here are some pictures we took last week from all around the town of Burtigny:

David and Toffee. Her family just moved here from South Africa and they are all incredibly awesome. Toffee is just like Colby except shorter and she actually listens.

Fields

The only restaurant in town

A family in our DTS is staying in the top 2 levels of this building but the bottom is the weight room, for those of us who are obsessed with working out. Hooray!

One of the many town fountains.

The town clock

I have no idea what this place is, but it looks nice, right?

Sunflowers

The city church, some horses and a few mountains.

The road into Burtigny

If you look really close (or click on the picture - it gets bigger), you can see the mountain tops. This is heading out of Burtigny and looking towards lake Geneva and the mountains are the French Alps.

The YWAM base

Crazy cows on the way to the camping trip

There are a lot of camping pictures from this weekend, too but they'll have to wait for another day. The suspense is rough, I know...

Fondue and Chocolate

2010-09-29T12:48:00.000-07:00

It's hard to believe that we have been here for 5 days already...but it's almost equally hard to believe that we have only been here for 5 days. Besides the temperature and jet lag, we have adjusted pretty quickly, and are finally getting into something that resembles a routine.

On Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, our DTS class went to see the 50th Anniversary Celebration of YWAM in Lausanne. The founders of YWAM, Loren and Darlene Cunningham, are hosting 40 of these Celebrations at various spots all over the world so we joined up with bases/leaders/students from all over Europe to listen to Loren and Darlene and various other speakers talk about what has been going on with YWAM over the past 50 years and what will be happening in the future. The first night was outside at the Lausanne base and incredibly cold but the next 2 days were at La Ligue (and indoors!).

I tried to take some pictures of the Celebration and of the drive to/from Lausanne and La Ligue but they're pretty blurry, so here are the others:

La Ligue - it was too cold to take any decent pictures at Lausanne. My fingers weren't working.

Loren speaking

On the last day, they rolled out a huge world map and had everyone walk around on it and choose a place to commit to praying for or eventually going to. Since we think we will be sent to Mongolia for the Peace Corps, we chose it. Everyone else headed for warmer parts of the map :)

Yesterday evening, we thought we could catch a brilliant sunset across the street at the base's garden, so we bundled up and walked over. Since the sun sets behind the mountains, it isn't quite as intense as it was in Jupiter, but we were a little spoiled there. Either way, we got some great lighting to practice some photography and show off our awesome views.

We think that these are Dahlias. For some reason, even though it is cold here, the plants are incredibly vibrant.

Sunset over the mountains from the garden.

Apple trees. I looooove apples and they are tiny and crispy and amazing here.

Houses next to the garden

David's accidental awesome picture

More dahlias.

The weather was beautiful out today before lunch, so we walked through the village and took a lot more pictures but they still need to be uploaded.

Everything else is going well. I think the weather is supposed to warm up a little bit this weekend and people at the other class here are arriving, so we've finally got next-door neighbors. We also have some free time at night, so get on Skype so we can talk to you face-to-face and in English!

A Few Pictures

2010-09-26T06:25:00.000-07:00

We have a temporary converter and therefore, temporary internet on my computer, which means I can post the few pictures we've taken over the past few days. Enjoy!

Chicago from the Sky

Quick stop for dinner with Diana and Brandon

Copenhagen Airport

Switzerland

Home sweet home for the next 3 months

View from our window. It's hard to see in the picture but the dark outline in the back is the Alps.

We went on a tour of the town this morning and there are a LOT of great photo ops up here. I didn't take my camera and am too cold to venture out now but we'll definitely take a lot of pictures here. If I leave Switzerland with nothing else, it will be a billion pictures.

Bonjour!

2010-09-26T05:12:00.000-07:00

I stole this picture from Google Images and its not exactly our view but it is definitely pretty similar. It is amazing how vibrant all the grass and plants are here!

We made it! It's still a little crazy to believe that we are actually in Switzerland but we are and really, the whole process was pretty uneventful. We had a minor (which sure felt major at the time) snafu at the Atlanta airport and I seriously doubted whether or not we'd make our flight but alas, all is well. We got to see our friends Diana, Brandon, Katie and Mike in Chicago, and played a rousing game of "gay or European" in the Chicago, Copenhagen (which is more like a mall that planes sometimes fly into) and Geneva airports.

We were also pleasantly surprised to be picked up by our new YWAM friends in Geneva, which means we haven't had to tackle the train...yet.

We are still trying to figure out power adapters/converters and wireless access so I can't upload any pictures yet (and I'm trying to type on a French keyboard...) but it is absolutely beautiful here. We're tucked up in the mountains and surrounded by fields and big cows and precious little houses. So stereotypical European! It's also a lot colder than I was ready for - last week in Athens, it was in the 90s. Today the high here is 54. So between that and the crazy time changes (I had "dinner" [salmon!] on the plane in Chicago at like 11pm and then "lunch" [a sandwich] at like 3am our time...), I'm doing some major acclimating. Thankfully, we have a giant bottle of Tylenol PM and I'm doing my best to get on local time.

We're also really excited about getting started with our classes. There are only 9 people in our DTS class - 4 speak English, 4 speak French and one is bilingual, so everything is being translated. I'm hoping this will be a great opportunity to learn some major French, but so far I can only count to 10, so it's doubtful :) This year is also the 50th anniversary of YWAM and the founders, Loren and Darlene Cunningham, are going all around the world having celebrations. This week, they are in Lausanne, which is just down the road from us, so we are kicking off our time here with them learning about and celebrating the impact YWAM has had in Switzerland, and the world, over the past 50 years.

More pictures (that actually belong to us) and updates to come!

Skipping Towns!

2010-09-21T15:35:00.001-07:00

Friday is almost here! After months of planning, praying, and packing, we leave for our Discipleship Training School on Friday afternoon.

We'll drive here:

Atlanta, GA

We'll leave from here:

Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport

We'll fly to here:

Short layover in Chicago, IL

Then, we'll fly to here:

Another short layover in Copenhagen, Denmark

And then we'll fly over these:

The Alps

As we enter into:

Switzerland

And land here:

Geneva, Switzerland

Then, we'll take a train along this:

Switzerland's Lake Geneva

And eventually stop here:

Burtigny, Switzerland

Where we'll live here:

YWAM Burtigny - Home!

Leeaavvvvinnngg on a Jet Plane

2010-09-17T11:29:00.000-07:00

At this time next week, we'll be sitting in Atlanta waiting to board our plane to cross the big pond! The mailman must have known that today is monumental, because he brought my new headlamp. Nothing says "winter in the Swiss Alps" like hibiscus flowers, right?

Switzerland, here we come!

Living Out of a Suitcase: Week 2

2010-09-12T19:32:00.000-07:00

So long, Virginia! We rolled into Athens today after 2 weeks with David's family in Virginia and a little mini "vacation" with David's dad in downtown Atlanta last night. It is crazy to me that we won't see his family again until we are back from DTS, and it definitely hasn't hit me yet that in 2 weeks from now, we'll be wrapping up our first full day in Switzerland. I'm predicting that I will have eaten my weight in fondue and chocolate 24 hours into the trip.

Anyways, the rest of our time in Virginia was fabulous. We did a little sightseeing, drove up to Blacksburg to walk around the Virginia Tech campus, and of course, ate, ate, ate.

Easily my favorite picture from the Donut Dash.

The donuts we actually ate. Even Brent managed to find room for these incredible creations from Blue Collar Joe's.

Uh have I mentioned that I love, love, love farmer's markets? I do. Especially this one in Blacksburg.

Final Farewell Virginia dinner at The Homeplace. Confession: I stole this picture from somewhere in cyberspace. Thanks to whoever took it.

The back of The Homeplace after dinner. Not stolen.

View from our room at the Westin Peacetree. Amaaaazing.

...and from the SunDial restaurant. So good to be back in good 'ol Jawja!

Dough Boy

2010-09-07T10:26:00.000-07:00

Yesterday morning, there was a race in downtown Roanoke where contestants would run 1.5 miles, eat 12 Krispy Kreme Glazed Doughnuts, and then run another 1.5 miles. This gluttonous insanity is known as The Donut Dash. You're probably thinking the Aldridges are not crazy enough to participate in something like that, and you're right...kinda'. My younger brother, Brent, decided to take the challenge.

We volunteered at the event and served as doughnut counters, which meant we counted to make sure people ate all 12 doughnuts before they could continue on with the race. It was a hilarious and rather disgusting scene, and I never thought I would see so many people successfully eat 12 doughnuts and run 3 miles. Brent did the Aldridge family proud as he led for half the race (the doughnuts slowed him down) and finished 4th overall. Here are some highlight shots.

Setting up the boxes for the challenge contestants. Each box held a dozen glazed Krispy Kreme Doughnuts.

Doughnut Judges! We were responsible for giving stickers to the people who were able to actually finish all their doughnuts.

Brent decided to wear his cross country uniform for aero-dynamic purposes and to add to the insanity of this entire process. Notice his strategy of pressing six doughnuts together and trying to eat them all at once.

It didn't take long for Brent to regret his six-at-a-time strategy.

Congrats on a great finish, Brent!

Living Out of a Suitcase: Week 1

2010-09-05T16:20:00.000-07:00

Today marks the end of our first week away from West Palm Beach. We're living out of our suitcases for the next 3 weeks but the big adventure ahead of us makes it all totally worth it. The weather here in Virginia has been amazing and we've enjoyed ~~eating everything in sight~~ spending quality time with David's family. Here are some picture highlights of our first week as nomads (pretty much all taken on the same day. Oops):

What are these things? Oh yeah, mountains. Being here has made me realize how FLAT Florida is!

Our new favorite "restaurant" is Pop's! Even though their menu is limited to grilled cheese sandwiches and Homestead Creamery ice cream creations, we managed to go 3 days in a row.

David's rocky road sundae. Incredible.

Brunch at the Millstone Tea Room. So quaint, so cute.

Unfortunately, this is not our dog...

...and not our picnic. But I pretended like I was creative enough to bring along a little snack to eat in the sun. And one day I'll have that giant dog!

Remember, Remember the First of September

2010-09-01T15:48:00.000-07:00

We are having a great time hanging out in Roanoke. It's been fun to see my family, enjoy being in the country, play with my family's dogs, spend time in downtown Roanoke, and relax a little bit. The beginning of fall is a great time to be here as the weather is starting to get cooler (but not freezing), farmers markets are full of fresh produce, and the leaves will be changing colors soon. I enjoy being able to show Nicole places that were part of my childhood and do some of the things my family typically enjoys in this area. We are excited about being able to spend the next week and a half here before we head back to Athens.

It's crazy to me that today is the 1st day of September! Where did the summer go? I guess I could look back at previous blog posts and see that the summer went to Haiti, Georgia, Orlando, and to the beach. Summer is over and by the end of this month, we'll be in Switzerland! At this time two years ago, I had just finished school at the University of Georgia and I was interviewing for jobs and trying to figure out where I could make the most money. Entering the mission field was one of the farthest things from my mind and raising financial support might have been the absolute farthest thing from my mind. Fast forward two years and now we can't wait to leave and it's been an incredible blessing to see people sacrifice and commit to partnering with us financially. Now, let's see what life looks like when September 2012 rolls around!

-David

On the Road Again

2010-08-29T17:59:00.000-07:00

We made it through the first part of our big trip! After 10 hours and covering 573 miles on the road, we arrived to Nicole's house in Athens, GA. We were able to get everything we needed in both our cars and we even had enough room to see out all our mirrors and windows! Other than a portion of I-95 being closed, Nicole's phone being dead, random country Georgia roads, and driving in and out of rain, it was a rather uneventful trip.

It was funny to see the change in geography as we left south Florida and made our way up to Athens. We left the flat terrain and palm trees of Jupiter and made our way to the hills, tall pines, and sleepy old towns of Georgia. As we made it farther into Georgia, it felt like we were driving back in time through the quaint communities where the courthouses sit in the center of town. While ten hour drives are never much fun, it was cool to see the difference of culture and the style of living in rural Georgia compared to what we became used to in West Palm Beach.

As we spend the next few weeks with our families, the south Florida chapter of our journey has come to an end. It was an exciting final week of packing and seeing everyone we could and soaking up the time we were able to spend with great friends. There were many late nights and early mornings but it was completely worth it to get in a last few laughs with some amazing people who have been so supportive of us through this process and we look forward to when we'll be able to see them again.

1 Month

2010-08-25T15:54:00.000-07:00

...'till we land in Geneva, Switzerland! Thankfully, we have a red-eye flight so I am planning to pop some Tylenol PM in Chicago and hopefully not wake up until stale airplane food hits my little fold-down table somewhere around Copenhagen. Cheers to one last month in the good 'ol US of A. Here here!

Dear Clothes, Please Pack Yourselves.

2010-08-25T09:11:00.000-07:00

I hate packing. And poor David has moved with me enough times to learn that not only am I lousy at it, but I am great at annoying and distracting anyone else who is actually good at it. This week, I'm babysitting while he is at home packing, which is great because it keeps me out of his hair while he loads up everything we are going to need for the next 3 years.

But that's the problem. How in the heck am I supposed to figure out what I want for 3 years? I know that I am going to Switzerland in September (and that I will freeze there) and that our outreach is in Africa (in the middle of their summer. Awesome.) but I don't know where in Africa, and I have no clue where the Peace Corps will decide to send us. Plus, we will be spending almost a month in America before we leave and I don't want to tote all my DTS stuff around with me - the logistics of this are driving me absolutely crazy. Can you tell?

Most of this anxiety comes from a real life experience that happened just days after the best day of my life. We were headed off to Antigua for our honeymoon, and when we got to our hotel in Atlanta before an early morning flight, I realized that I left almost all of the cute clothes (that I bought specifically for the honeymoon) in Athens. I had a total. meltdown. (which immediately made David second-guess his decision to marry me) and vowed never to let that happen again.

So, I'm making lots of lists about what clothes are where, but mostly I am giving a lot away. Yesterday, I found boxes full of clothes that I brought down from Orlando and haven't worn in the YEAR that we have been here. I have brand new clothes in my closet that I have no intention of ever wearing, and shoes that I have no idea what I was thinking when I bought.

I'm totally guilty of emotional and impulse buying (especially since most of what I'm giving away was something I thought I got a great "deal" on) but moving has made it painfully obvious that I have way too much stuff. I think today will be someone's lucky day at Goodwill...

Ready. Set. GO!

2010-08-23T18:06:00.000-07:00

It's hard to believe, but our time at Christ Fellowship and The Ascent has come to an end. Yesterday was our last Sunday attending The Ascent services and it has started to hit us how much we are going to miss our church family here. We have had some amazing opportunities that have been provided through our church over the past year and we have built relationships with some wonderful people.

We have had the opportunity to help people grow and be discipled through connecting them with small groups. We delivered Thanksgiving meals to those in our community who wouldn't have otherwise had food. We went to Haiti! Twice! We celebrated Christmas by spending less on gifts for each other and giving more to help build clean water wells for people in India. We helped host a Super Bowl Party for the homeless in West Palm Beach. We have been led by a pastor who has challenged us about what it means to sacrifice for the sake of the gospel and who has encouraged us in every step of our journey over the past year. While those are a few of the highlights, the list of great experiences we've had at The Ascent could go on and on.

For us, leaving our friends from CityPlace is bittersweet. We hate to go because we see God working and transforming lives and God has put amazing people here that we will dearly miss. But, we are excited to go out into the world with the support of our church family. We will look to them as Paul looked to the Church of Philippi - thankful to them for keeping us in their prayers and encouraging them to press on in the faith.

"I thank my God everytime I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on the completion until the day of Christ Jesus."

Philippians 1:3-6

Time is Tickin'...

2010-08-20T15:11:00.001-07:00

It's crazy to think that we only have one week left here in West Palm Beach! I finished my internship at church this week and we are trying to do everything we can and see as many people as possible before we head out on our big adventure. We are soaking up our last few days at the beach, enjoying the beautiful sunsets, and snorkeling every chance we get. We have also started the painful process of PACKING.

To be honest, I usually don't have much trouble with packing. I've moved a number of times over the past few years and I figure out ways to get everything in suitcases and boxes and fit it all where it needs to go. But this seems to be new challenge that can be a bit overwhelming. We are packing things that will be going to three different locations (the LaHaie house in Georgia, the Aldridge house in Virginia, and things going to Europe & Africa with us) and we have to fit it all in our two cars! Fitting everything in our cars could be rather tricky since we made multiple trips to get it here and we rented a van the first time while I'll be driving a Honda Accord for this trip. I'm no expert on cars but I think there is a space issue when comparing an accord to a mini-van and I'm thinking our local Goodwill store could be receiving a large donation from us this week.

It's sad, but even when we try to become more simple with our lifestyle and move away from materialism, moving reminds us of how much stuff we have. Stuff we don't need. Stuff we don't use. Stuff we don't even want. Or as one of the ways the dictionary defines stuff: worthless things or matter. While the experience of packing everything and moving over the next week will be time consuming and frustrating, I'm hoping it continues to be part of the process of us not letting our STUFF have control over us anymore.

A Week's Gone By...

2010-08-10T18:40:00.000-07:00

And I'm still covered in bruises and scabs and rashes from Haiti. I love it though because I won't be back for a while and I feel like I left it all there on this last trip. It has been a little easier to process everything and readjust back to the US again this time, since we'd done it before but being in Walmart still freaks me out a little bit, and when I woke up to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night the other day, it hit me how much easier even something as simple as that is in America - I didn't have to crawl out from under my mosquito net, find a flashlight, take toilet paper with me, or reapply horrendous amounts of Deet. I didn't have to live by the "if it's yellow, let it mellow" law (hooray for flushing!) and I could wash my hands with warm, clean water and soap. And then hop back into my giant, amazing king-sized bed.

Anyways, here are some highlights from the trip (in no particular order):

1. We (and by "we" I mean people that can do construction. Not me.) built 12 bunk beds for the base we stayed at in Gonaives. Hopefully other teams will come down now that they won't have to sleep on the floor.

2. I saw a goat be slaughtered in the backyard. And then I saw every part of him served for dinner. I'm a pretty adventurous eater but I was also once a vegetarian, so I went without meat for the week.

3. We had to walk through a waist-deep river to deliver Bibles to a mountainside community. The family we talked to was pretty intense too - they said they don't practice Vodou but they also said that they like the idea of Jesus but are scared of him because they have made a pact with the Devil. V-O-D-O-U. They let us pray for them though, and we're continuing to do so now.

This amazingly fat, awesome chunk of a baby was at the clinic we set up in the mountains. He has got to be the fattest baby in Haiti and I wanted to stuff every ounce of him into my suitcase to bring home.

4. I hiked to the top of a mountain....twice. The first time was awesome - people were standing on the sides of the mountain singing and praying. The second time those same awesome people laughed at me when I fell and landed hard on my buttbone.

5. We got to hang out with the kids from the same orphanage we visited in May. We gave each one of them a new pair of shoes and prayed for them. They are the sweetest, most thoughtful, appreciate kids I've ever seen.

6. We had Vacation Bible School for the neighborhood kids. There were a few sweet ones but most of them were the exact opposite of the orphanage kids. They can sing a mean "Papa Abraham" in Creole though.

7. Baptized Hector at the beach! Hector was one of our translators on the May trip and while we were there, he said he wanted to accept Christ. There was no time to baptize him last time, so John and Maula decided to do it the Sunday we were there. Maula packed his whole church into tap-taps and took everyone down to watch.

8. Went back to the same Vodou compound (Souvenance) we visited in May. This time, though, the head hauncho (?) wasn't there, so someone let us walk around. They weren't cool with us taking pictures there and kicked us out when we tried to discreetly pray. I stole a rock. If you're interested in learning more about Souvenance and the annual festival held there, check out this website. The pictures are awesome.

These "punishment trees" are in the compound so people can roll around on the roots to punish themselves.

Main vodou sanctuary.

9. Gave new shoes to some of the neighborhood kids.

Jessica, Ricardo & Sabrina with their new kicks.

Cristupher's new shoes. He sat on my bed and farted in my face one morning.

10. Rode on the top of a school bus again! Actually, unless someone puts cushioned seats up there, it may have been my last time riding on the top of a school bus.

All in all, it was an awesome trip. Thanks to everyone who kept us in their thoughts and prayers while we were gone. Next adventure: Switzerland!

Save The Date(s)!

2010-08-09T08:56:00.000-07:00

Time is quickly winding down, so we've set some dates for where we'll be for the next month and a half. We want to see everybody before we leave for Europe though, so here are our plans:

Aug. 28 - Leave WPB!

Aug. 29 - Sept. 10 - Virginia

Sept. 10-23 - Georgia

Sept. 24 - Fly out of ATL!