Photographic Evidence

As discussed in the post from two days ago, here are some photos from our trip to Iowa.

We took a bus from Durham to the train station in Boston.


Then we ate pretzels while we waited for our train to leave from Boston.

Mmm. Delicious.

Then we rode the train for 28 hours in a row. It snowed most of the way.


Then we sat in the train station in Chicago for two hours waiting for my Mom.


And now we're home and it's great. More pictures to come later as the vacation progresses. I hope everyone is having a good time on vacation or doing whatever it is that you all are doing.

Stay Gold,

MMK

The Motherland

It's now the eve of the 24th and the clock will soon tick over into the morning of the 25th. We've been in Iowa for just about 48 hours now and we're finally settled down a bit and enjoying our vacation. The journey here was less than ideal and certainly could have soured the mood of the trip as a whole if we had let it. Here are the details:

Our train left Boston at Noon on Sunday (the 21st). We were supposed to get into Chicago at roughly 10am on Monday the 22nd. Once there, we were to take a bus from Chicago to Iowa City where Sarah's parents would pick us up and take us to her home in Knoxville. We ended up getting into Chicago six hours past our scheduled time. We missed out bus and would have had to spend the night in Chicago had my mother not volunteered to drive the five hours each way to come get us and bring us home to Denver. Sarah was sick on the train and had a wicked stomach ache most of the way, so that certainly didn't help anything. By the time all was said and done, we had spent nearly 28 hours on the train itself and a grand total of 41 hours traveling. We're optimistic that the train ride back to New England will be less taxing on our sanity.

Because of the mix up in traveling plans, we're spending the first half of the trip in Denver and the second half in Knoxville (when we had originally planned it the other way around). This has thrown a wrench on some of the plans we'd made, but it just had to happen this way. Sorry to anyone that this switch impacts. We'll try to make it up to you sometime in the future...

Iowa is still as wonderful and glorious as ever, in case you were wondering. God's country never sours. I do look forward to moving back here one day, though I'm not necessarily ready to quit my job just yet. For as great as it feels to be home, there's something to be said about the life we have in New Hampshire.

We've been taking some pictures along the way on our vacation, though I think we forgot to bring our camera cable to be able to share them with you all before we get home. I'll check and upload some if we remember to pack the cable, otherwise you're just going to have to wait.

Happy birthday, Jesus. Thanks for seeing something in this mess of humanity.

I read this and it sort of sums up why our God is such a wonderful being.

"To think that our gentle king chose the lowly path, that Jesus came not riding dignified on a mighty horse but on a silly little donkey, came not to be served but to serve, not to overpower but to be overpowered, not to judge but to be judged, not to be lifted up in praise but to be lifted up on a cross in humiliation and rejection and failure - I understand nothing about this holy season ... but I am grateful for the kind and backwards foolish wisdom of our God."
- Aaron Weiss, mewithoutYou

I see that it's now officially Christmas morning. Neat.

Enjoy the time with your families and loved ones, eh? Goodwill for all of you.

Stay Gold!

MMK

new england winter

finally!
we have witnessed our first real snowfall in new hampshire! i would estimate our area has about 6-8" of snow on the ground. everything is white and beautiful!

on top of that good news - we leave tomorrow for IOWA! WEEEE! i was able to watch a bit of the news this morning and saw many flights have been canceled or delayed. good thing we decided a few months ago to travel by train! as long as we can make it to the train station, and iowa doesn't get hammered with snow on Monday, we should be good to go!

other news: don't ask me to eat chinese food in the next year or so. my office ordered takeout yesterday, so of course, i couldn't resist either. about an hour after i had finished my meal my stomach was in knots, and i could barely sit still. let's just say my head was in the toilet repeatedly last night, and i was almost convinced i would have to travel out in the blizzard to go to the hospital. thankfully, my husband took extra good care of me, and i was able to get about 12 or so hours of sleep. i am still feeling a little weak today, but i am definitely feeling WAY better! just don't mention chinese food, just those two words make my stomach churn.

marshall and i went to our routine baby checkup yesterday and spread the word - i have gained 6 lbs since our last routine baby checkup! hooray! this is very good news. the midwife also went over the ultrasound results and said everything looks normal! hang in there little baby kole, only 4 months or so to go!

i came home yesterday to a small box placed neatly underneath our christmas tree. inside the box was a ruby ring i have been wanting for quite some time!!! i had been convinced i would not get such thing this year for christmas, since we really shouldn't be spending money on frivolous items. but mk loves me and knows just how to make me smile. pictures coming soon.

love you all...and i am excited to be seeing some of you!
blessings ... stay warm!

All About Beards

This is the greatest and best website in the world:



"Since I forswore beardlessness two years ago I have received on all sides and from both sexes such an astonishing increase of courtesy and respect that I have become convinced of the propriety of beards. Shakespeare has, I think, much to say about "beardless boys," and it may be observed that, in his day, when beards were much cultivated and cherished, men were of a frank, courageous, and imaginative sort. Women of to-day, working often side by side with men, profess to dislike beards. I can tell them (for they can give no reason for this) that this is because they fear the authority that goes with a beard; secretly (and naturally, of course) they have a greater respect for the bearded male." - Anonymous, 1935

I am currently sporting a somewhat patchy full beard that has been carried over from my participation in this year's annual celebration of No-Shave November. I have kept the beard this long in brotherly bearded solidarity as Justin is also currently growing a beard. I may shave it off and go back to the goatee after Christmas, but I may decide to keep what I've got. We'll see, I suppose.

Stay Gold! And bearded.

MMK

Creepy

I participated in two Yankee Swap/White Elephant gift exchanges today. One was this morning and the other was just a few hours ago this evening. Both involved the same gift. Here's a picture of the thing:

WHAT THE F IS THAT THING?!

Apparently it's a wire frame face with braided yarn for hair. You're supposed to hang it in a little girl's room for her to be able to put her hair ties and things on it for storage. Let me ask you, though, who would do that to their child?

So, I got this thing in the first gift exchange and was initially appalled. Then I thought maybe it would be a good conversation starter in my office, so I hung it up on my bulletin board. I couldn't make it through even one day with it hanging there. Every time I looked up, I would feel its wire eyes peering down into my soul. It was terrible and creepy. So, being the benevolent guy that I am, I re-gifted the wire-framed abomination earlier this evening. Good riddance, I say.

Alright, back to work for me...

Stay Gold!

MMK

Psalm 127:3

Amazing.

"Hey everybody, come see how good I look..."

We had a friend take some pictures of us recently because she got a new camera and wanted to try it out. Here are a few of those pictures. Things to look for include, but are not limited to: my beard, a bit of a baby bump, the New England flora, how good-looking we are.



In other news, we go to the doctor tomorrow and should be finding out the sex of our current fetus/future child. We're still not going to tell anyone what we find out, but you can be excited for us anyway.

We'll be leaving for Iowa a week from today. We'll get on the train next Sunday morning and spend the next two weeks after that back home enjoying the company of the state and the people we adore. I can't wait.

I broke a ceramic snowman that Sarah had out as a Christmas decoration today. Oops.

We were supposed to have a few people over today to watch football and relax before the last week of school/work, but only one of them decided to come. So it goes. People are busy, I know, but I made dip and now we have a good deal of dip left. Oh well, we had fun watching the games by ourselves regardless.

I played Call of Duty 4 for the first time tonight with a few of my residents. It was fun, but I don't know any of the maps so I didn't do as well as I probably could with more familiarity. I'm looking forward to playing more at home with Justin over the break.

The youth group at church had a Christmas party today. We had the kids do a number of activities (most of which we're decently entertaining). There was a time where the kids decorated Christmas cookies and then I read them a Christmas story. I sat in a rocking chair and everything. I felt pretty old, but it was fun none-the-less.

It's supposed to be in the fifties tomorrow so hopefully the work crews about the state will be able to get a good deal of work done towards restoring power to the thousands of people who are still going without in this state. We're pretty blessed, really, to have only been without power and heat for 8 hours or so on Friday.

I want more tattoos so bad lately. I'm trying to get Sarah to let me get one while we're home over break, but we'll see (i.e. probably not). Please, dear?

Okay, that's all. I'm out of things to ramble about.

Stay Gold, everyone! Looking forward to seeing some of you in just over a week...

MMK

the big game

UNI played Richmond tonight in the semi-final game.
overall the game was pretty decent...
sadly, UNI lost by one point.
sigh.
oh well...i'll always and forever be a Panther fan!

SLK

Ice-tastic

So, the state of New Hampshire has been iced over in the past couple of days and a lot of people are still without power/heat throughout the state. It's pretty intense. I'm glad to report, though, that we're doing well and were only without power for a short time yesterday morning/afternoon. A tree snapped in twain because of the ice and fell on of the car parked two spots down from ours, but our car escaped any harm. That's our exciting ice storm news.

In other news, not a lot of anything is going on. The kids have finals this week, so it will hopefully be pretty quiet in the building here. I have quite a bit to do before we leave for Iowa in eight days, so this coming week will be busy. So it goes.

I hope you're all doing well. Wish I had more to report, but I don't... So...

Stay Gold!

MMK

For Joseph

Preliminary Iowa tattoo sketch for my broseph Joseph.
The corn will probably be replaced by a better version of the gold finch seen at the bottom of the drawing. I'll work on the font within the banner, too.



Now it's late, so I'm going to bed.

Prop 8 - The Musical

This is good. Watch it.

Boston

We went to Boston this past Saturday. There's no big story beyond that, really. We spent some time walking around on the Freedom Trail and seeing the sights. Then we ate some dinner. Then we hung out in a giant Border's bookstore while we waited for a friend to finish her dinner date with a kid she knows. Then we came home. I had been in downtown Boston before and walked through most of the Freedom Trail, but Sarah had not. I got to play tour guide and explain a bunch of stuff that isn't actually all that interesting if you're not a nerd for history like I am. Oh well, it was nice to get out of Durham for a day, anyway.

Check it out... The Boston skyline from just outside the North End:


A big Christmas tree in Quincy Market:

We're adorable, I know.

Also, did you know that the gravestone of Mr. John Hancock looks like a twenty foot tall penis? True story. Feel free to insert your own joke about Hancock having such a large phallus that it could be seen by the King all the way from England, or about his last name being fitting for his gravestone, etc etc etc. I wasn't thinking about any of those things, though, because I was too busy focusing on history and how awesome freedom and America are. Grow up, people.


Anyway, back to the grind tomorrow. Gross. Have a good week, everybody.

Stay Gold,

MMK