weekly gratitude

thank you bathmat for protecting my toes against the freezing cold tile

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Confession:

My dinner Saturday night consisted of a glass (cough, two, cough) of 2010 Quail Run Pinot Blanc, a few slices of smoked turkey breast, rosemary crackers and and entire wedge of Willamette Valley Cheese's Perrydale. 

I apologize for nothing. 

(on a sidenote though, if anyone finds my shame please see that I get it back)

After Jodi and I went cheese and wine tasting last Thursday (hey, the things you gotta do for work, I tell ya...), we each ended up with a small paper sack filled with dairy treats (and a couple bottles of wine as well because hey, have you been to Coehlo? You'll want a bottle of their marechal foch too!).

It may not look entirely like springtime here just yet, but when you've lived here long enough you that you can still enjoy some classic Oregon activites, which in this case was eating and drinking, because both wine and cheese tasting are indoor sports. 

And Jodi and I are Olympic-bound at this point. 

Yeah. We are that good. 

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1. Thank you for the homecoming of Sunday Love! It wasn't brought up at church yesterday (though John Mark's oldest son, Jude, did represent the family by leading prayer - John Mark was quick to point out that at six years old his son was already better dressed and infinitely more charming than he... I about died trying to suppress a giggle). All through the weekend I kept seeing tweets from an excited father as he put his new daughter to bed for the first time (and entertained the thought of a two year old with jetlag after travelling all the way from Uganda), or took her to her first family Portland brunch - Tasty N Sons ("hell yeah!" said Jared). Everything about the incredible love that goes into adopting and welcoming a child into your family is just amazing. And defintiely something to be thankful for. 

photo JM tweeted Saturday

2. Thank you for long conversations with friends. After weeks of a rousing game of phone tag, I finally got the chance to talk to my Ashley and catch up with life. When we met nearly four years ago at the restaurant where we used to work, I couldn't have imagined she would come to be one of my dearest friends. And even now that life has caught us both up in its whirl, when we slow ourselves down enough we are able to pick right back up and fill an hour or two with all that we've missed out on in each other's lives. I could say the same thing for my Maria, another coworker turned sister along with Ashley, who is impossible to nail down half the time (the other half of time it's me who can't be harnessed - what a pair we make!) but who I ended up lounging about with Sunday night after E.V.'s big day. Which allows me the perfect segue to...

3. Thank you for Eleanora! This baby girl just turned ONE whole year old (was this really just a year ago?) and the Martin clan celebrated in style! This little girl is so sweet, so funny and so loved - I honestly don't know what more I can say. When you've only been on the planet one year and nearly thirty people come out to celebrate you, that's a pretty special thing (I know I didn't have that many people at my birthday!). I can't wait to get all the pictures (ok, not all the pictures) up here and show off how dang cute she is. Love to ALL the Martins - you guys are amazing. 

4. Thank you for house church! More on this to come, but in short I went to a house church last night and it was completely amazing. The instant I got there, all the anxiety I felt about being the "new kid" vanished. Everyone treated me like family and welcomed me without hesitation. Like I said, I plan on doing a whole post on this but for now I'll just say I am incredibly thankful for the new community I've found.

5. Thank you for Gary getting home safely! Known to the world as Garrett Clayton (I get to call him Gary because I'm cool like that and because I feel the intense desire to shorten names on occasion), he's been down in Puerto Rico filming a new Disney movie (yeah, I know, effing cool) for about the last two months and I'm happy to know he's back home! On that note, mark your calendars for 2013: the movie Teen Beach Musical is set to bust High School Musical out of the water! 

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So now I find it's Tuesday night.

(You were wondering, I know)

Dinner tonight consists of sushi and a grapefruit mimosa while I clean, watch more 30 Rock and make some goodies for "Shaun of the Breakfast" tomorrow morning with some of the Camaraderie! 

(you don't know about "SotB"? Stay tuned!)