One and Two

Hello friends,

Daniel here, putting out a long overdue post for those still alive and following us out there in the cybersphere. My post title reminds me of a customer who comes into my Starbucks (yes I'm working at Starbucks--I've officially sold out to the Man) and orders a "four and two" every day. This refers to four shots of normal espresso and two shots of decaf espresso, in a short cup, with a dollop of foam on top. Today I didn't make the foam very well and he was quite disappointed in me. The customers who come into our store are a little bit crazy sometimes.

Anyways, the "one and two" is a reference to two very significant things in our lives today. First, we officially have been out of California for one year--we moved out on July 27th one year ago. I remember sleeping on the bare floor of our apartment (good ol' Stoneridge!), waking up at the crack of dawn, and driving through Nevada cracking ridiculous puns on the walkie-talkies in the desert. I can hardly believe that it's been a whole year. Time has certainly flown by. The second important event we remember today is our Two-year anniversary! That's right, two years ago today we were blistering in Boise and having the best day of our lives. It truly seems like just yesterday that we were chomping down on apple pie and beginning on this amazing journey together. I am so proud to be married to my best friend--the past two years have been terrific, and I can't wait to see where God takes us together in the many years ahead!

Since we last wrote we've been up to a lot. First of all, my sister Amanda graduated--although as you can tell from the picture Jonathan and I are a little bit skeptical of her education :)

We had a great time with family in town, although it was a bit challenging since my finals started the day after the graduation festivities. I made it through with God's grace though, and I have now officially finished a year of graduate school. We had enough time to go the city with my family, where we took silly pictures:

I took a one-week intensive summer class (Systematic Theology 3), which finished up right about the time we took a four-day trip out to California. There we went to Molly's good friend Karen's wedding as well as attending the Reider family reunion. It was an amazing time, and we loved seeing all of our friends and family members in California. While there we got to go to Disneyland, which brought back a ton of great memories from when we had season passes. It was a bit strange to feel like "tourists" and not locals. I guess that's what happens when you move away. Nevertheless, our time in California reminded us of how much we loved living there for seven years, and we definitely feel like it will always be an integral part of who we are.

Upon our return we immediately both got sick (probably because of the late-night flights both directions). We recovered enough to go to a local event just North of us, where pre-1980 cars drove around a loop in downtown Waukegan. We had a fun time but came back to our car to discover our back-bumper had been whacked by another car. Rats! Nevertheless we still had a fun and goofy time (see below). Yay for summer grapes!

Tomorrow we leave for another short trip to California--this time for our good friend Karisa's wedding, which Molly is a bridesmaid for. We're looking forward to it and are soooo excited that our friend finally gets to tie the knot. Speaking of weddings, Molly's sister Megan is getting married on August 15th, so we will be traveling down to Indiana for that soon after our return from California. And just like that, we'll be right on the edge of a new school year.

I'm sure there's a lot more I could update you on, but hopefully this gives you a bit of an idea of our lives lately. We thank God for the past year, and the past two years. Although our lives have been busy and we're still settling in here, we know that He continues to lead and direct us, and we are never far from Him. Life is indeed good!