Backward??

It is the end of March. Not only the end of March, but a cold, blustery, stormy lion of an end to the month of March! That's not what has me so confused. What is so confusing is all of the talk of Oregon being such a wonderfully temperate place to live. So what's with Wisconsin getting 80F weather and Salem sitting at a chilly 54f?!? You lucky ducks!

Bedtime Stories

Not your typical bedtime story. Since I've felt so nauseous, I've spent a lot of time resting in bed and feeling really bored at times. Books have been primetime entertainment around here lately. Who says it needs to be night time for a bedtime story?? These are the books I've been reading lately:

Digging up buried treasure in the form of family legacies and secrets...
Steve may have a great-great-great grandpa named Dolphin!

My mom has created our very own chapter-a-day with this riveting true story about a missionary couple abducted by Islamic terrorists in 2001, prior to the 9-11 terrorist attacks on the US. It's a first-hand account by the wife, Gracia Burnham.

Steve and I have been working our way through book 1 "Redwall" of the Redwall Series. It's very fun and slightly reminiscent of the Chronicles of Narnia with its many distinct animal characters.

Prayer Request

I wasn't planning to blog since we haven't been feeling well, but I feel we need some more specific prayer.

Steve is in probably the toughest part of his sickness and working his way back to feeling healthy. He's been taking some medicine that's helping, but since it's a virus he has to wait for it to run its course. Always a difficult thing to do.

I, on the other hand, have been fighting nausea again. It seems to come and go, and appears mostly in the morning accompanied by anxiety. I slept almost all day yesterday, and then didn't sleep well at all last night, awakened around 6am by fire engine lights flashing through the curtains. I still don't know what that was about, but they were only there for about 15 minutes.

Anyway! Your prayers for Steve to recover and be able to get back to work on Tuesday would be great! Prayer for me to be patient through the bouts of nausea and anxiety and to get a little more energy as well as rely on the Lord are also most appreciated.

Thanks guys.

We love you!

Saturday Night Fun

I can tell we're not college students anymore. ;) We spend the majority of our Saturday nights at our friends' house (Jon & Kari) with their kids Jonny (4) and Lily (3). Sometimes their little niece is there as well. We brought Jack last time. The kids loved him!

While they loved Jack and had a lot of fun playing outside, Steve is still one of their favorite toys!

Dinner in the African Sahara

Steve and I decided to create a dinner from the African Sahara. It was interesting to research the foods and regions. We decided to draw mostly from Egypt and Algeria.

Our dinner consisted of (starting from top left, clockwise) greek yogurt, koshary (a dish made with lentils, macaroni, and rice with a spicy tomato sauce), pine nut couscous, and African-style peanut chicken.

We also had finger foods consisting of peanuts (in the Sahara it's common to find them boiled), dried fruits, and pumpkin seeds. I doubt pumpkin seeds are native to the Sahara, but I'm too cheap to buy pistachios. =)

This last dish is called Salep or Sahlab, and can be made as either a warm drink or a pudding, popular in Egypt. Its consistency depends on how much thickener (cornstarch or rice flour) you use. Drinking it cold reminds me of eggnog. It's made primarily of milk, cornstarch, vanilla, sugar, and cinnamon.

I'm thinking we're going to have a Thai night soon. Yum!

Lost & Found

It's only 8am. This little guy completely personifies my current state. It's shaping up to be an interesting day. I was supposed to go to an appraisal at Fred Meyer Jeweler's this morning, only to find that I can't find the appraisal pieces anywhere. Last night we tore the house apart looking for them. I had put them in one of those proverbial "safe places" that's safe from even me and my memory, the one who put it there! Now I have to cancel the appointment. It's frustrating since I've been waiting for this for weeks! Grr!

I have to go back to Shopko after having just been there yesterday. Steve was goofing around and grabbed me by the shirt collar, not realizing he also grabbed my brand-new, 5-hour old necklace. It broke, of course. It can be fixed. One of the knots just came undone. I figure we can chalk it up to cheap construction and exchange it. If not, Steve has pledged to fix it. So, lost is the necklace, for now.

Then, last night, I proceeded to forget my purse at Subway on the way to bible study. We got to church and had to drive right back to the restaurant. Steve decided to make a show of it. I was waiting in the car since I was the driver (and it would take longer for me to get it than for Steve - he disagreed). He decided to play a little joke. He grabbed the purse off the back of the chair and came out to the car, which was parked directly in front of the large glass windows. Everyone was watching him since we had just been there. He lifted my purse up over his head in a victory motion. People started laughing and smiling. Then he got in the car and made me kiss him while everyone was watching so they would know he's my hero. Totally embarrassing, but I have to admit I laughed too.

So, that is the lost portion of this post, not to exclude my mind. I'm sure it's out there somewhere. I just can't find it.

This morning we woke up around 6:30am. We found we both weren't feeling the greatest, but got up and got going anyway. I was planning to walk to work with Steve, but he preferred a ride since he wasn't feeling good. We got out to the car and discovered it was covered with a wintery frost. What?!? It wasn't supposed to frost! My poor primroses were outside all night! Steve went digging in the trunk for an ice scraper. Being a Wisconsin-native and having too much experience with scraping windows, I decided to go with an old stand-by: my laminated library card. It still works great!

Steve got to work only to realize he forgot his phone at home. I ran home to retrieve his phone and brought it back to him. I sure hope the rest of the day isn't so yo-yo-ish. I'm tired of the back and forth and digging for things and it's only 8am!

Here's to a simpler day and a wonderful walk in the afternoon with Kari and Jack, the dog-in-law.

Seed-Starter Pots!

I just finished making these pots from old newspaper, thanks to Robert & Cathy.