Easter Earthquake

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After enjoying a nice game of Bananagrams last night with Claire and Mark, we woke up to a beautiful Easter morning.  I have really been looking forward to Easter this year, mostly due to one of the last books we read in our reading group by N.T. Wright.  Although he has some odd theological views overall, this book focused on our views of the resurrection and heaven.  It also was very challenging about how we should celebrate Easter more than any other Christian holiday.  It should be met with great exuberance and joy.  This has really spurred me to dwell on the grandiose nature of the Resurrection.  It really is a beautiful and truly life-giving time.  After a great service we had some friends over for lunch.  Beth made a great spread of turkey, green beans, steamed broccoli, pasta, and some mixed fruit.  Ben and Lis brought a freshly picked salad, David brought some flowers from his yard (see below) and Karissa brought an awesome angel food/berries/whipped cream dessert.

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The oddest part of the day came about 3:30ish.  While we were all sitting around the couches, I noticed that the hanging light we have over our dining room table was swinging.  I asked whether anyone had bumped it, but it seemed that no one had gotten up in the past 20 minutes or so.  After some jokes about our house being haunted, we just wrote it off as odd.  Then, on our way out to Bret and Val’s for bible study, Micheal Eiting called and told me that there was an earthquake in Baja California, Mexico at 3:40 and that it had registered all the way in Tucson.  Although hard to believe, I took him at his word until I was able to get home and check it out.  Apparently there was a magnitude 7.2 earthquake followed by two 5 point aftershocks.  Beth then remembered that our friends are down in Rocky Point, Mexico for the weekend and that they probably got a really good shaking there.  We look forward to hearing some stories from them when they return.  It was an exciting evening and we can now say we survived our first earthquake.

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Hiking Picacho

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I know it’s been a while since I’ve posted and I have a lot to catch up on, but I’ll work my way back to that.  For now we’ll just live in the present…

Mark and Claire came to visit us for Easter and after an early night last night we decided to go hike Picacho Peak just north of Tucson.  It’s a pretty sad situation, as with the Arizona budget cuts, it and many other state parks are going to close on June 3rd.

Picacho peak is an outstanding short hike.  It is only 2 miles (~1400 vertical feet) to the summit.  The first half of the hike is just straight uphill, but after the saddle the hike gets really good.  There are many spots that feature some technical climbing (as shown later) and there are awesome views from this true Arizona “sky island.”

Beth and I have both done this hike previously.  This is most likely what gave us the confidence to bring Walcott with us.  He really enjoyed the hike and got a nice ride on my pack on the difficult parts.

Walcott takes a ride

With all this work, Walcott joined what I expect is a VERY exclusive club of dogs that have made it to the summit.  We got many comments along the way, as well as many pictures and “Hey look at that guy carrying the dog”.

Beth and Walcott at the Summit

We also got back in time to catch Butler winning their Final Four game.  I’m looking forward to a nice night of recovering and watching the other Final Four game of Duke and West Virginia (I know we’ll have at least one big Duke fan in the house).

San Diego Day 2

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It was a great day in San Diego, the nice, cool weather is a great break from Tucson’s heat this time of year.  The morning was very relaxing.  We walked along La Jolla to see the seals and just enjoy the scenery, like the cool  hibiscus flowers.

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We then went to Bread and Cie, a famous bakery in San Diego.  We went last time we came at the suggestions of Ben and Kara.  This time I was actually able to try the Brie, bacon and honey sandwich Kara said would change your life.  It was awesome!

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We then drove over to Coronado to show Mary the Hotel Coronado and go to a dog beach we read about.  Walcott had a great time at the beach.  I didn’t think he was ever going to run out of energy.  It was great to see him so fearless about jumping into the waves after he was so timid the first time he went to the ocean in San Carlos.  I think if we lived in San Diego that Beth and I could actually get a tan, because we’d spend half our time out there.

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It’s really sad that we will be leaving tomorrow, but this was a great (much needed) break.

San Diego Night 1

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Beth, Mary and I decided to make an impromptu trip to San Diego this weekend to visit one of Mary’s friends and just to relax a bit.  We got out of town a little late and after missing the exit for Int 8 we didn’t get in quite as early as we had hoped.  We did have a good ride and Walcott really seemed to enjoy it.

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We did make it in just in time for dinner, so Mary went to meet up with her friend and Beth, Walcott and I headed down to La Jolla Point to enjoy some chicken salad sandwiches and a nice sunset.  It was awesome.

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Walcott really enjoyed it when we went to play in the waves, however the tide was coming in quickly and we soon ran out of beach.  So we abandoned the beach and walked a ways to Froglander’s and enjoyed an excellent banana split with Reece’s peanut butter yogurt.

IKEA and Jackfruit

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Beth’s Mom came to visit this weekend and it was pretty packed, which is why I’m just now writing about it.  It’s always really great to have family come visit and get to see a little of what our life is like out here in Arizona.  Beth and I really enjoy it (especially when free breakfast is in the deal).

After she arrived on Thursday, we had dinner and then when to BTO (which is quickly becoming a staple in our life).  Beth, her mom and Mary Frances all went to the Grant Stone Market, which is an oriental market near our house and got all sorts of interesting foods, including the jackfruit pictured below.  I had never heard of one before, but the fruit is actually very good, although it requires a decent bit of work to extract.  It tasted like a mix of peach and mango.

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On Friday, she and Beth hung out and I  joined them at her hotel’s pool after work.  We then quickly got ready and went to Lis’ birthday party at the Saxton’s.  It was a lot of fun and I’m glad she got a chance to meet so many of the people that we are with regularly.  I don’t know when exactly the picture below was taken but there must have been something funny going on, because I could only find 1 out of 8 that didn’t have someone with a weird facial expression or closed eyes due to laughter.

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Saturday morning we went to Phoenix to pick up a washer and dryer we found on Craigslist.  We also took a detour to IKEA to allow Beth’s mom and Mary Frances to get a taste of the craziness that is IKEA.  I’m convinced you could essentially build your house from IKEA.  Anyway, after a few hours perusing the showroom, studying layouts of kitchens, and eating Sweedish meatballs, I think we were all ready for a quick nap.  However, Beth and Mary must have just gotten too comfortable in the bedroom section and crashed out on this nice round bed (that Beth keeps bugging me to get for the new house).

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We capped off the weekend with a Sunday afternoon trip to the Trout’s house for some lunch, swimming and ping pong.  I really enjoyed playing Beth’s mom at ping pong (she’s a pro) , but I think that Walcott takes the cake with his swimming pool antics.

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It really was a great weekend and I know Beth and I are sad to see life get back to “normal”.  Hopefully we’ll be able to spend some time with our family again soon.

Honduran Dinner

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Tonight was the Honduran dinner we planned as a fundraiser for our upcoming Honduras Mission Trip.  The dinner was a great success and everyone seemed to love the Honduran food we prepared.  The entire team (Ross, Christina, Donna, Mary Frances, Beth and Myself) all worked very hard and we definitely appreciated the abundant help from Debbie Ferg and Susie Blankley.  I know Beth and I had a lot of fun in the kitchen preparing all the food.  The night also raised a good bit more money than I had originally expected (God is good!) and we are now approaching being fully funded.

Beth, Mary and Christina preparing the chicken

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Paintball

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Today Mary and I went to play paintball this morning with the youth.  Beth came and brought Walcott.  It was a lot of fun albeit really hot.  Mary got a pretty nice welt on her neck, but I still think she had a good time for her first paintballing trip.  I had a pretty good day and managed not to get hit.

Paintballing Trip

We just got back from cutting vegetables and preparing some food for our fundraiser dinner tomorrow night.  Things are really ratcheting up on our Honduras Mission trip which is only a few weeks away now.  Here is a little video from the Missionaries showing the children’s camp we will probably be helping with.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HiPRwKfdKO4

BTO

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Beth, Mary and I decided to go to BTO (By the Ounce) Frozen Yogurt tonight after dinner.  They just opened a new one near our house and considering Beth’s obsession  (and maybe mine as well) we really needed to check it out.  It sounded especially good after my 2 hour long soccer game this evening.  Beth, Mary and Walcott came to watch and let Walcott run around a bit.  BTO was pretty good (and a cool concept that I might copy one day).    The yogurt was delicious and they had probably 20 flavors and (as evidenced by the second picture) ESPN.

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Beth’s Birthday

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Since today was Beth’s birthday she came and met me at the University to eat lunch.  She also brought Reece and Harper along for the trip.  It was a lot of fun to get to meet the kids that Beth has been spending so much time with.  We saw a couple of my fellow grad students and all were quite confused by me pushing a stroller and Beth following close behind with a 3 year old.

Mary, Beth’s sister, also arrived today to stay with us for a while before joining us on our mission trip to Honduras.  It’s exciting to have family come stay and spend some time with us since we don’t get back to Mississippi too often.

The end of the night was spent at the Jankowski’s for our weekly Spanish lessons with Yunuen.  We had an intense conversation over the personal “a” and definite/indefinite objects.

Spanish Lessons 7/15/09Also, Walcott decided to dig in the mud puddle Ryan left in the back yard.  Since he was dirty we had to tie him up outside where he proceeded to chew through his leash.

Walcott Digging

New Blog

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Beth and I decided that we needed to start a blog to allow friends and family to keep up with what we’re doing out here in Tucson.  I’ll probably be posting most often, with Beth throwing some in every so often.  We’ll be improving it as we go, so keep coming back.