Blog? What blog?

We are still on our e-vacation from the blog. There seems to be something about the summer sun that just clears your mind of blogging. Apologies to our 7 followers, and the additional 4-5 readers who haven't subscribed. We'll be back in another month (when Anna finishes her freelance projects and Jesse emerges from funding cuts and fundraisers) with an inundation of blog posts.

Building a Mystery

Jesse went out to get the mail today and returned with a package addressed to both of us. He opened it and found two t-shirts inside but no packing slip. The t-shirts are perfect for us: perfect size, favorite color, camera for me, bike for Jesse. The sender used our current address (we just moved) so clearly it must be somebody we know. However, there's no way to tell who it could be.

So here's your chance, silent sender: fess up! We love the shirts! Thanks!

(The pic is meant to capture the "we love them, yet we are so confused" emotion. How'd we do?)

UPDATE:
I posted a message on facebook asking who was responsible for the wonderful t-shirts, and our friend Sam replied, "you are welcome. boom roasted." Immediately, I fabricated a partial memory in which I was 70% certain I had seen Sam and (his wife) Lindsey wearing said shirts and I commented on how much I liked them (I knew the shirts looked familiar, but I couldn't piece it together). I thought the case was closed.

However, the plot thickened. I ran into Sam and Lindsey on Main Street (it's a small town...) and Sam fessed up that he stole the credit from someone else! I won't be too hard on him, other than smearing his name on the internet, because I fell for it hook, line, and sinker. Anyway, I have now reconstructed my 70% certain memory to a 90% certain memory that I saw two of our other friends, Matt and Kelli wearing the shirts. I will post again when the mystery is solved.

We love the t-shirts, but the mystery makes them even better.

UPDATE:

Mystery solved! The shirts are from Kristin making her a two-time secret gift-giver after my beautiful mysterious birthday present! Thanks Kristin!

It's Spring!

The title is my excuse for having neglected the blog.

Anna and I are loving the outdoors

*I'm sorry, I need to interrupt my blog post here to recount what just happened in our home.

Anna and I are finally getting to the dentist, so we have forms that I brought home for us to fill out. Anna's parents just left from having dinner together and Anna was filling out her forms. Having finished my paperwork, I powered up the computer and turned my attention to a new blog post. I get the above amount typed out before Anna walks through the doorway and says, "What are you doing, writing a blog post?"

She reads what I've already typed out, "Anna and are are loving the outdoors"with that air of judgment that people with English degrees relish.

"Just! I'll edit my own blog post thank you!" I respond, deleting the additional "are."

"Well, I'm bored."

"Grrr...you need to get your life together. How long since you finished filling out that paperwork?"

"I don't know, like 5 minutes" she responds coyly.

"No! You just finished not even a minute ago and you're already bored!"

"Well, I just want to go on a walk or something. 'Anna and are loving the outdoors?'"

"Just give me a minute okay?!" I say without even a hint of patience.

"I'm going to go play the guitar, but only for a little bit and then I want to go for a walk, okay?"

"Sure."

Like I've worked so hard to say, Anna and I are loving the outdoors.

P.S. I love listening to her strum the guitar and sing, it really is beautiful.

Normal Nostalgia

This weekend Anna and I joined most of the rest of my family to support and celebrate the achievement of this wonderful woman in Champaign, IL. Yes, Molly (my sister) completed her first marathon and let me tell you, we were exhausted. I never knew watching a marathon was such work. Regardless of our fatigue, we are SO proud of Molly.

After shaking off our spectator's exhaustion we continued west to Normal, IL. I cannot really explain the significance of Normal to those of you who may not be familiar with the town or why it is important to me. In fact, I've been thinking about this blog post for a couple of days now and I still can't seem to articulate what happened there that means so much to me.

I spent 8 years in Normal (age 5-13) which was essentially the bulk of my childhood, and I had not visited in over 10 years. So I've been gone from the place just as long as I lived there. For a couple weeks preceding our visit I was consistently having dreams about Normal and was really excited to visit again.

Once we hit the city limits it was as if I had entered a heavy fog of nostalgia, memories fading in and out of sight. My face pressed to the window I could feel my heart expand with love and comfort and exhale a warm sigh of relief. Home.

I am incredibly grateful for my childhood. It was safe. It treasured my innocence. It encouraged my growth. I was loved. Sure it was not without its challenges, but really I cannot complain.

Normal seems to represent the cherished childhood within my heart and for that I am so thankful.

A Tribute to a few things Normal:

Life Update: We're Moving! And...Staying...

A wise woman once said, "If you don't know where you're going, stay where you are." Actually, I don't know if a wise woman once said it, but I just made it up three seconds ago. Let me try again: Lewis Carroll once wrote:

One day Alice came to a fork in the road and saw a Cheshire cat in a tree. "Which road do I take?" she asked.
"Where do you want to go?" was his response.
"I don't know," Alice answered.
"Then," said the cat, "it doesn't matter.

Too much philosophizing? Ok...third time's the charm: Jesse and I have gone back and forth and back again over an outrageous amount of options for our future, only to decide after none of them felt right, that we ought to stay where we are. And we're almost following our own advice, believe it or not. We're staying in Bowling Green for another academic year (oh yeah, I'm still framing my life based on the academic calendar. It's only a matter of time before I step back into that world) but we're moving out of our current rental situation and into another - two whole blocks away!

Just for entertainment's sake, here's a sampling of the future projects Jesse and I have considered over the past several months followed by the primary cause(s) for abandoning each pursuit:

-Move to Denmark: unrealistic, too expensive.
-Gain Irish citizenship through a loophole, then move to Europe and find jobs: paperwork didn't pan out, of course.
-Get certified to teach English as a second language and move to Europe: less unrealistic, still too expensive.
-Move to France and get paid by the French government to teach English as a second language: I don't speak French and the French government makes you sign a waiver of dependants - i.e. they won't help you have a spouse in the country.
-Stay in the States but move somewhere else: couldn't find anywhere to go and I didn't want to leave my bunnies behind.
-Stay in Bowling Green: denial.
-Go to Graduate School: I haven't taken the GRE yet...
-Move to Manhattan and do Mennonite Voluntary Service: I didn't want to leave my bunnies, and it didn't feel right.

Now, this isn't to say that we're "settling" for Bowling Green (although I admit, it really seems that way now that I made that list, doesn't it?). We actually like it here. Jesse is loving his job and we've made a number of 20-something friends in town, dispelling the myth that Bowling Green only has students, parents, and professors. We love the atmosphere, enjoy going on long walks at night, and feel pretty much at home. Why leave those things when nothing else feels right?

So, between April 1 and April 15, we're moving out of our current place and into a new one two blocks away. The rent's cheaper, and the place has been kept up much better. If you need our new address, shoot us an email.

Off to sewing new drapes! Not really... First I have to finish reading Harry Potter 7 again.

Great Gifts!

A week ago today was my birthday and I turned the ripe age of 27. I'm not sure I'm old enough to be 27 and I imagine that I'm probably going to feel that way for the next number of years until my body really starts to tell me that I'm older than mid-20s. Anyway, last week I received some pretty cool gifts. The coolest by far was a joint gift from mothers and fathers and one that I absolutely love, but its not the subject of this post.

I have a problem. The orchid above was one of the presents from my beautiful bride and co-author of this blog and I have swiftly sabotaged the gift. You see, as of late I've been entertaining a mild obsession with plants. Our house is quickly being overgrown with pot after pot of plants. Now some are borrowed (and will soon be returned) and others are starts that I have successfully maintained. This latest fact has convinced me that I am finally of houseplant caliber to not only own, but nourish a delicate orchid into healthy and vibrant life. So, I asked Anna for an orchid for my birthday and she graciously complied with a beautiful and blossoming flower. And this is the thanks she gets...Within a week the petals are wilting and soon will be gone. Now, I did ask for an inexpensive orchid because it would be my first and I didn't want the guilt of killing an expensive plant. However, I did not expect my skills to be a touch of death to the plant.

Thankfully (?) I do not feel alone in my plight. I was recently visiting with a friend whose house and garden I respect, hm...covet and was admiring her orchid, blossoms bursting with brilliant color. I asked for advice to which she replied, "Listen to the plant." It was as if I had embarked on a pilgrimage to hear that simple phrase from the mouth of a mountaintop sage. Then I asked, "How long have you had this orchid?" I expected to hear 15 years or some ridiculous amount of time.

"Oh, about a week or two. I don't seem to have any luck keeping them alive."

What relief! So there is hope for me yet. Hope that looks like this!

What Day is It?

In the "Anna's so clueless" file, today is apparently Valentine's Day. This is a fact I was unaware of for a few reasons:

1.) I thought this past Thursday was my work anniversary, Feb. 19. It was not. It was Feb. 12.

2.) I did not pack up any leftovers for lunch on the aforementioned Thursday of Confusion because I thought it was the day my department was going out to lunch for a coworker's birthday. It was not.

3.) I'm not really a Valentine's Day person.

So imagine my surprise when I awoke this morning to "Happy Valentine's Day!" and a collection of cute origami hearts (pictured above) arranged on the coffee table downstairs (on top of our current coffee table puzzle - a winter scene in Amish country, go figure).  Now, before everyone freaks out and calls Dr. James Dobson on me, Jesse and I actually talked about not buying into Valentine's Day. He's just cute, so he made me origami hearts regardless.

If you buy into it, Happy Valentine's Day. If you don't, go read this rant I wrote in undergrad and forgive the (literally) sophomoric writing.

Addendum: I am not as angry of a person as I was my sophomore year in college. Also, I thoroughly enjoyed the cuteness of the origami hearts.