Car trouble

steve and i both have a vehicle.  he was blessed with a car that hasn't given us any problems thus far.  i however brought to our marriage... a work in progress.  when do you call it quits and get a different vehicle?  i feel like so much work has been put into this jeep.  we had more work done on it before our trip last weekend to make sure we could make it to our destination with no problems.  before these repairs the headlights were all askew.  if you were driving at night and there was a tree on the side of the road, one headlight would shine upward toward the top of the tree... which is great for... birdwatching?  i don't even know where the other light would shine.  but that is fixed now among other things.  two more main things to fix and we're good.  

        it's nice how it worked out though.  we ended up receiving a sum of money through an insurance company due to damage from flooding to something in storage that wasn't sentimental or anything important to us, and we were able to use the money to almost completely cover the cost of work on the jeep.  God worked it out for good...

        ah life...

Spring Break 08

denver seminary's mwok's (married w/out kids) went to Utah, et.c. for spring break... it was a blast!  i ended up wearing all my layers everyday... leaving no clean clothes.  we did some awesome mountain biking at slickrock in Moab.  it's famous for it's great mountain biking.  i'll hopefully put our pics in a slideshow on here soon.  there two links you can click on the left for now.  this is me showing everyone how to do the "cupid shuffle".

among other things like awesome views, sweating hard, my life flashing before my eyes... we (the women) had some really wonderful conversations about life and marriage.  i felt stretched... but mostly blessed by the trip.  that's the longest i've gone without a shower for a long, long time!  we're really looking forward to spending time with new friends and hopefully seeing more national parks this summer!

Laird Duby

well, jodi bought me a rather creative birthday present.  since we've talked seriously about me doing my doctorate in scotland, she got me a sort of memento for that dream.  one of the castles in scotland, dunans castle, allows people to buy a small chunk of the castle, making a buyer either a laird (lord) or lady of dunans castle.  jodi got me a one foot by one foot portion of the castle (and they planted a tree in my name), so she made me a laird of dunans castle!  assuming things work out and we do move there for a season of life, we'll get to spend time there; it looks beautiful.  the whole operation included a sign for our door ("here lives laird duby of dunans castle"), a mug with the title written on it, and an official document that details everything!   

steve, guest blogger 

Duby Duby Duby for me Duby Hubby is now 23!

sunday, march 2, 2008
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO STEVE!!

church. katie kostal kame =) with us to church again today... she's come the last 3 sundays since she is in town with americorps. she leaves for texas tomorrow morning. it's been really fun having her only 12 minutes down the road.

this evening we had a progressive dinner (4 courses, each course at a different apartment- on campus) with the people (and spouses) from steve's spiritual formation group. we had all kinds of good food and fellowship. we played a game and got to hear an embarrassing moment from each person. we were assigned desert so i was able to surprise steve with a cake and everyone sang happy birthday to him. charlie had his first show tonight (charlie is our aquatic african dwarf frog).

i also served another desert that a few people asked for the recipe... for.

so here's the recipe:

FROZEN MOCHA CHEESECAKE LOAF

2 cups finely crushed oreos (or similar cookie)

3 T. butter melted

1 8oz. package cream cheese, softened

1 14oz sweetened condensed milk (NOT evap. Milk)

1 T. vanilla ext.

2 cups whipping cream, whipped

2 T. instant coffee disolved in 1 T. hot water

1/2 c. choc. flavored syrup

line 9x5 inch loaf pan with aluminum foil, extending foil above sides of pan.

combine crumbs and butter: press firmly on bottom and 1/2 way up sides of prepared pan.

in large mixing bowl beat cheese until fluffy.

gradually beat in sweetened condensed milk until smooth; add vanilla.

fold in whipped cream.

remove 1/2 mixture, place in medium bowl; fold in coffee liquid and choc. syrup.

spoon 1/2 choc. mixture into prepared pan then 1/2 the vanilla mixture.

repeat.

with table knife cut through cream mixture to marble.

cover; freeze six hours or until firm.

to serve: remove from pan, remove foil, garnish as desired, slice to serve, freeze leftovers.

NOTE: i sprinkle with extra oreo crumbs and add 10 oreos placed in the middle where the 10 slices of the loaf would be before freezing... i think it works better personally.

i hope you all had a very wonderful steve's birthday.

it was also 3 years ago today that my dear hubby proposed. i had spent weeks working on a music video for him and when it came time to surprise him on his birthday and play it on the big screen at church... he seemed SO uninterested... distracted. well... long story short, he proposed that night, on his birthday. i'm including the main part of the video i had made for him with 2 of my then high school students-now college age peers, Erin and Beth. i hope you enjoy!

my family is also thinking a lot about my grandpa. he had a stroke yesterday. it's caused some damage that has changed the way that he will live and eat. please pray for him and my grandma, and their kids. i really love my grandma and grandpa a lot, so this is a bit difficult for me too, even though i'm thankful he's still with us.