Yellie's 23rd b-day

We celebrated at the posh Chuck E. Cheeses with three Somalian children, several hip friends, one sister from afar, and two pooped parents.

Too much fun!

Adventures in Alaska

So far, we've spotted 15 moose,

a gazillion eagles

walked in the snow

eaten halibut and salmon

hung out with old friends and made new

Wish y'all were here!

details.

well, many of you have indicated that you want to know the particulars about my status . . . and i'm sorry that i haven't gotten to talk to many of you personally! but here are the details:
two weeks ago, as we were casually hanging out, krispin announced that he had been doing some thinking. "there are two things," he said. "one, i think we should be in a band together." i agreed. "and two, i think we should get married. in december." i agreed to that as well. it was all very low-key and danielle and krispin-like. the next day he asked my parents, and they were thrilled to the bone.
now, both krispin and i are the epitome of poor bible college students, and i have never been a traditionalist. i absolutely did not want krispin breaking his back to get me a diamond ring that i would most likely lose on the mission field. and so, we talked to my mom and she produced my great-grandmother's engagement ring, a beautifully simple gold band with single pearl.
then, all krispin had to do was figure out a way to surprise me.
last week was extremely busy for both krispin and i, in fact, i hardly saw him. on saturday, we had made plans to hang out after i got off of work. krispin had told me that his friend jacob was coming in from out of town, and that we were going to go hang out in downtown portland with him. i was a little bummed that my one afternoon with krispin was going to be shared with jacob, but i was excited about seeing him regardless.
after i got off work and drove home, i noticed a note taped to the back door that showed a boy holding hands with a girl who had a house for a head. i was extremely confused. the only person who wrote me strange little notes was krispin, and i was supposed to pick him up at multnomah in an hour. i walked inside my house to find a table set with ornate chinese place settings, complete with a heart made out of red chili peppers. krispin was in the process of cooking a gourmet chinese meal (from scratch, using authentic ingredients from the local asian grocery store). as soon as he saw me, he proposed. he was extremely nervous, which i thought was cute.
basically, he explained the note like this:
"i've lived in a lot of places, and i'm going to live in a lot more places, but you are home to me."
and, if you can't already tell, i said yes.
who would have thought that i would be the first to go?

The first to go . . .

Adventures Down Unda!!

Hey fam!!
Sooo i think I finally figured out this whole blog thing, but not completely yet. How do I put pictures up for you all to see?? I think I tried but it kept telling me that I couldnt so I got tired and just gave up.
But I am havin a blast here in Oz, as you can probably imagine. The weather is a beautiful 30-35 degrees, whatever that means in farenheit I think its like 85-90 and the water temp is warm enough to bathe in. Im in the Gold Coast right on the coast of Queensland and my school is right outside of Surfer's Paradise. Nuff said. Although I have only been surfing once seeing as I have yet to purchase a board over here, but it was amazing and I cant wait to get out there again. So far we have made lots of aussie friends with really cool accents and also friends from all over the world, germany, south africa, canada, oregon.
We have gone to lots of fun places like this place called Byron Bay which is gorgeous and the most easterly point in Australia, so the closest I can get to home! I have yet to see a kangaroo, but my eyes have been peeled since the minute I landed, and supposedly theyre all over the side of the road in the outback :(. But my school is about 5 Ks from the beach which I think is like 3 miles so its within running distance which I do often on my days off (I only have class mon-wed :):)).
My school is surrounded by rivers and waterways which are all over australia and apparently shark infested which I am reminded of by the dozens of fishermen that line the bridges. There are signs everywhere to never swim in the rivers eek! I also have yet to see a python or killer snake, although I did see a tyranasauros rex of a spider the other day and almost had a heart attack!! well, I will keep you all updated with my adventures and will figure out how to post these pics asap, I have some really cool ones. I love you all and miss you!

Kids, don't try this at home . . .

Well, I got out the Food Saver and gave it a go last night. It worked great on the mounds of ground beef I got at Costco. Then I got cocky and told Danielle I would vacuum seal her peanut butter and jelly sandwich for her lunch today. Greg and Yellie watched breathlessly as I cut my bag, inserted sandwich and let 'er rip . . .

only to have the machine suck the very life out of the sandwich and leave it looking like Sponge Bob with a bad case of acne! (The picture doesn't do it justice!)

We were laughing so hard we couldn't even speak for a bit. Who knew that the Food Saver not only preserves food--it entertains!

Happy 21st Birthday, Candyce!