This week, we were both filled with anticipation as we anxiously await Dec. 17 when we will be flying home. It was also a wonderful week of celebrating the Christmas season.
This week at school, the other tutors and I were asked to help chaperone a field trip with the whole 7th grade. They seemed pretty desperate, so we agreed to go to Finance Park that Wednesday. On Tuesday, I called out to a girl that I knew as I was leaving school, "What grade are you in?" She replied, "6th grade, why?" So I said, "Oh, I thought you might be going on the 7th grade field trip tomorrow." Amazed, the boy next to her exclaimed, "You're in 7th grade!?!?" Kayle seemed to think I should share that story, though I have no shortage of incidents that reveal how I look younger than I actually am. Most of my students are incredulous when I tell them I'm married.
Anyway, the actual field trip was both insane and educational. It was insane because the buses were at capacity with 59 people and we fit 65 (counting kids and adults) in each of two buses for a 40 minute bus-ride each way! Not only that, but I was the ONLY chaperone on the way there to sit farther back than the first two seats (I sat in the middle), so I was mostly on my own in enforcing rules and general order. Thankfully, Allison (another Americorps) sat with me on the way back to school. Finance Park was an awesome concept! The kids were given little "debit cards" with a gross income, family size, age, and tax amounts on it. From that, they had to calculate their take home pay (given taxes) and make financial choices in 25 different areas, paying the bills on time for each one and making sure to save and have a positive balance at the end of the month. I had a lot of good conversations with kids about deciding how quickly to pay off a credit card balance, figuring out the insurance rates for the cars and houses they chose, and what to cut back if they went over budget. The kids were even assigned 5 stocks to follow as the prices changed 3 times throughout the day. The people who ran the program did a good job making the kids think hard about how the choices they make now might affect them financially in the future. They pointed out the lifetime difference in income between a college and high school graduate and even mentioned how their grades now (and in high school) might affect how much money they'll have to pay for college. Most of the kids stayed busy with the assignments the whole day, and it kind of made me wish we had had something similar in middle school, high school, or, even, college. I think it definitely helped kids put into perspective how to budget in needs and wants as well as live according to your means to stay out of debt. Some of the kids said it was "boring," but, regardless, it would have been hard for them to leave without having learned something valuable. (I talked all day to kids about how valuable that information would be later and how much of the math and decision-making I personally use in my finances.)
This week was pretty good for tutoring as well. I'm really proud of one of my ESL students who is making noticeable progress in reading and sounding out words. His mom is anxious to help out at home, so I sent her an extensive letter describing my work with him and giving practical suggestions for helping him progress in reading, writing, and math. I've already seen him come back with "homework" he's done, and he tells me he's already learned the next two lists of sight words beyond what we've practiced at school.
I slso have a trio of 8th graders that are really tough, but we made a new agreement this week. They each signed a behavior contract with me and will be able to come to a pizza party at lunch if they do well for 20 out of 26 school days (until the end of January). So far, the day I didn't have them for tutoring, all three got kicked out of class for disrupting, so we'll see if any progress is made. I think all three passed their test on Lewis and Clark though, so that's a start!
My 6th graders that I have for 2 hours each day alternate between rambunctious and super productive. On Thursday, the class had a sub, so I helped out in the classroom instead of pulling out students to work in a smaller group. The class that day was out of control with talking and moving around and not working. I helped as many kids as I could with the assignments, but a good portion of the kids saw the day as a free-for-all and the sub had little respect. I wrote the teacher a long note with all the students who did well, and it sounds like the rest will be copying a good size paragraph about respecting substitute teachers on Monday.
Finally, it sounds like our next literacy event will be piggy-backing off an 8th grade parent night. We went to a meeting after school with the 8th grade teachers to ask to help out with their parent night and do activities with the students while the parents are discussing the possible school closure and how to prepare their kids for high school. We have to do 4 literacy events according to our Americorps grant for our school, so we'll be pretty busy planning most of those next semester.
Kayle's team at work is working hard at debugging before leaving for the holidays. He's been really busy lately and the general stress level of his co-workers is up right now. I asked Kayle if he was stressed, and he said, "Nope. I don't have enough responsibility yet." A typical, laid-back, Kayle response... In other news, Kayle loves programming so much that he's creating a pinochle game in Visual Basic. This is to "practice" the programming language and, hopefully, create something we can use to play pinochle online.
On Friday night, we had a wonderful evening. We were invited to a formal dinner for leaders of the church youth group and their spouses. It was organized by 6-8 mothers of kids in the youth group, and they did a phenomenol job of "appreciating" us. We got all dressed up (Kayle in a suit, Angie in a long black velvet dress) and ate a 5-course Italian meal. The table was decorated even fancier than a wedding banquet with candles and fresh flowers in the centerpieces. We ate appetizers in the living room before sitting at our placecard at the table and enjoying homemade soup, fresh french bread (with dipping oil), caesar salad, asparagus, chicken parmesan, and pasta. The meal ended in the living room again with a chocolate-raspberry dessert with ice cream and drinks from an espresso machine. The ladies were so sweet in serving all the food and drinks. It was very special. Then, to top it all off, they sent us home with some extra soup, some jars holiday cookie mix, and 2 $20 Starbucks gift cards (one for each of us). We were so touched by their generosity, especially since I haven't been helping there that long yet. It was a fun time, and Kayle got to meet some of the other leaders. One, Abby, is flying out to Chicago on the flight just before ours on the same airline.
On Saturday, we picked up about 40 books that were being donated by someone in Kirkland and ran a few errands in the morning. At night, we went to the biggest white elephant gift exchange I've ever seen since the days of Peace Youth Group. Brenda and her roommates had about 40-50 people over to their house for some Christmas cheer. We knew about half the room from church or through other friends, so it was a good time of hanging out and laughing at the many goofy presents. Among the best were a calendar of "extreme ironing" photos, a pregnancy test (opened by a very embarrassed girl), a single Magi statue, a TV (dragged across the room by a very small boy who, despite mom's protests, was determined to open the biggest present), and a large box of wedding bubbles (that still had the tags with the couples' names). We laughed a lot and ended up taking home a cribbage board (Kayle is so lucky...) and a Japanese-style lamp. Then, as we left, we were excited to see it snowing!! It snows here only a few times each year because of the proximity to the ocean. There were a lot of radio rumors about it possibly snowing this weekend, and it made it officially feel like the Christmas season to have about an inch of snow on the trees and grass. Until now, it really didn't seem like the middle of December to us yet, because, though most of the leaves have fallen, it usually stays about 40-50 degrees outside with snow only visible on the distant mountains. At this point, I'm all in favor of trading rain for snow!
Today, Sunday, is our official 6 month anniversary or, as Kayle puts it, our "half-anniversary." We enjoyed going to church and hearing about 2 Corinthians 8 regarding generosity in these troubled economic times. I guess the Today Show taped the sermon and is interviewing our pastor this afternoon. I'm not sure when that show will be aired, but the sermon was good and is online at www.marshillchurch.org. The rest of the day was spent relaxing, playing some cribbage, doing laundry, and planning for our trip back home. We wanted to come home to a clean house after break, so we are working on eating all our perishable food (essential for cleaning) and scrubbing/vacuuming/dusting. For dinner, we made our first frozen pizza at our new home...and it was a disaster! Kayle didn't read the instructions on the box and thus did not bake the pizza in the little browning tray it came with. I guess the crust can't support itself well when placed directly on the oven rack, because, about half-way through cooking, Kayle ran upstairs and dragged me back downstairs to see the pizza. There was a ring of crust on the second rack and a big pile of all the toppings blackening on the floor of the oven. I guess they don't make frozen pizzas like they used to!
Well, only 3 days left before we arrive in good ol' Grand Rapids. We can't wait to see family (especially meet Kayle's new sisters), high school friends, and significant snow! You are all in our thoughts and prayers...
With loving anticipation,
Angie and Kayle
Sunday, December 14, 2008
Saturday, December 13, 2008
PICTURES FROM WASHINGTON!!
Here are some pictures of Washington... The weather has turned into the wintry, cold rain and hazy, grey skies, so there are only a few pictures outside from a random day when the weather was nice. There are pictures of our furnished (mostly) condo and a few of our friends here. Enjoy!
http://picasaweb.google.com/Angie.Hinkle/PicturesFromWashington#
Angie and Kayle
http://picasaweb.google.com/Angie.Hinkle/PicturesFromWashington#
Angie and Kayle
Sunday, December 7, 2008
The Exploding Pot Roast
This week was a great week and a difficult week at the same time. We both enjoyed our jobs this week, but, after 4 days of sleeping in over Thanksgiving, waking up at 6 am was almost torture! I, especially, was tired this week, but we made it through nevertheless...
On Wednesday was the long-anticipated Book Giveaway at school during lunch. It was so fun to see the excitement on the faces of the 6th-7th graders at the chance to spin a prize wheel and win 2-3 books of their choice. It was chaotic, but I think they loved it. The 8th graders weren't quite as enthusiastic but still about 30 of them decided to get some books. It's nice to see the books showing up around school as the kids read them for another small prize (if they can tell us what their book is about). We even had a few girls who came by the next day having already finished their books! I'd say our first literacy event was a success, and we're gearing up for an even bigger one with students and parents next semester...
Wednesday night, Kayle and I decided to prepare a pot roast to go into the crock pot the next day. Kayle was in charge of braising the meat, and I was in charge of chopping everything else. Well, our meat started frozen, and, while it was thawing in the microwave, Kayle put some vegetable oil in a pan and started heating it up. It started splattering a little, so he turned down the heat until the meat could go in. Still partially frozen, when Kayle put the meat in the pan, the oil started popping all over with loud sounds punctuated by my surprised screaming and Kayle's laughter. I guess, as the water dripped off the meat into the oil, it sank and then rapidly evaporated (since, Kayle informs me, oils boils hotter than water). Don't worry, we were far enough away that there was no danger to us. However, our kitchen had some nice oil splatters in one whole corner! I suppose I won't entrust Kayle with braising the pot roast in the future...
On Friday, my team meeting was cancelled, so I didn't have anything to do for work. I dropped Kayle off at Building 41 (where his office is) and came back home. As soon as I walked in the door, I couldn't help but think, "Hmm...what to do now? Only 8 more hours until Kayle gets home!" I suddenly remembered why I was previously so anxious to find a job. So I sat around, reading "A Wrinkle in Time" (Kayle has been bugging me to read it for YEARS now), watching some TV, and doing laundry. I also ran some errands and went to Great Clips for a haircut. I asked for shoulder-length hair with some long layers, but my haircut ended up being shoulder-length in the front and several inches longer in the back. It didn't look too bad until I got home and finished drying it, finding out (to my dismay) that this particular combination makes my hair curl inward in the front and stick straight out (horizontally) in the back! Really quite terrible! So, I picked up Kayle at work and begged him to take me back to get it fixed, which he gracefully did(no teasing or anything). As the same lady fixed my 'do, it kept getting shorter and shorter. Now, my hair is, more or less, one length and falls to about 1 inch below my chin. As Kayle says, "it's growing on me" (pun intended). I think it's not much different than some of my other summer haircuts, so I'm much happier than before...
After the hair fiasco was resolved, Kayle and I had a lovely date in Redmond Town Center, which is set up much like a two story outlet mall but with the charm of a small town feel and Christmas lights. We wandered around, ate dinner at the restaurant we went with Joe when we came out for Kayle's interview, and checked out a store or two. It was very nice and we laughed a lot.
On Saturday, there was a big theology conference hosted at our church with Dr. D.A. Carson. He's a big deal in theology circles, having written/editted more than 50 well-acclaimed books and memorized the whole Bible in Greek/Hebrew and English. Supposedly the guy knows about 6 languages fluently as well. Anyway, I was very excited to hear him speak in 4 lectures about what he thinks are the most important passages about Christ's death and resurrection. He talked about Romans 3, Revelation 12 (woman and dragon), John 11 (raising of Lazarus), and John 20 (doubting Thomas). I've never read a book by him, but both Kayle and I (and some friends who went too) came away impressed and feeling like we learned a lot. Since it was an all-day thing, we went out for lunch with our friends and had burgers at a little pub. When we walked in, a waitress told me that there were "no kids allowed." I think I stared at her blankly for a minute before I realized that she was implying that I (and another younger-looking girl named Kat) were "kids." I laughed and told her we were all over-21. The place was additionally fun because it featured two skeeball machines which provided much joy and entertainment as we waited for our meals. Maybe we are "kids" after all!
At night, Kayle was tired and stayed at home while I went to a Christmas caroling thing. It was awesome. The event was sponsored by a cruise line and is apparently a long-standing tradition in the Puget Sound, running every night for several weeks around Christmas. Each evening, they host a different choir on a large boat all bedecked with Christmas lights and stop at several beaches for a 20 minute sing-a-long Christmas concert. Not only that, but the cruise line has several other large yachts plus private boats join in on the fun by following the "Christmas ship" around, also fully decorated. It was awesome to stand on a beach for a evening concert and have 25-30 colorfully lit boats circling in Lake Washington. Brenda, one of our friends here, always knows about cool random things like this to go to! Apparently, Bellevue also hosts something called "Snowflake Street" where the main road shuts down for a large drum-line dressed as tin soldiers and artificial snow to fall on the spectators. Might have to check that out as well!
On Sunday (today), we went to church where Dr. Don was preaching for the service. He spoke about the four ironies in Matthew's account of the crucifixion of Jesus. Then, we headed home for a nap and a late lunch of homemade pizza. Kayle's video game night from last week was postponed until today, so he'll be gone later on this evening.
We're really looking forward to being home in just over a week!
With lots of love,
Angie and Kayle
On Wednesday was the long-anticipated Book Giveaway at school during lunch. It was so fun to see the excitement on the faces of the 6th-7th graders at the chance to spin a prize wheel and win 2-3 books of their choice. It was chaotic, but I think they loved it. The 8th graders weren't quite as enthusiastic but still about 30 of them decided to get some books. It's nice to see the books showing up around school as the kids read them for another small prize (if they can tell us what their book is about). We even had a few girls who came by the next day having already finished their books! I'd say our first literacy event was a success, and we're gearing up for an even bigger one with students and parents next semester...
Wednesday night, Kayle and I decided to prepare a pot roast to go into the crock pot the next day. Kayle was in charge of braising the meat, and I was in charge of chopping everything else. Well, our meat started frozen, and, while it was thawing in the microwave, Kayle put some vegetable oil in a pan and started heating it up. It started splattering a little, so he turned down the heat until the meat could go in. Still partially frozen, when Kayle put the meat in the pan, the oil started popping all over with loud sounds punctuated by my surprised screaming and Kayle's laughter. I guess, as the water dripped off the meat into the oil, it sank and then rapidly evaporated (since, Kayle informs me, oils boils hotter than water). Don't worry, we were far enough away that there was no danger to us. However, our kitchen had some nice oil splatters in one whole corner! I suppose I won't entrust Kayle with braising the pot roast in the future...
On Friday, my team meeting was cancelled, so I didn't have anything to do for work. I dropped Kayle off at Building 41 (where his office is) and came back home. As soon as I walked in the door, I couldn't help but think, "Hmm...what to do now? Only 8 more hours until Kayle gets home!" I suddenly remembered why I was previously so anxious to find a job. So I sat around, reading "A Wrinkle in Time" (Kayle has been bugging me to read it for YEARS now), watching some TV, and doing laundry. I also ran some errands and went to Great Clips for a haircut. I asked for shoulder-length hair with some long layers, but my haircut ended up being shoulder-length in the front and several inches longer in the back. It didn't look too bad until I got home and finished drying it, finding out (to my dismay) that this particular combination makes my hair curl inward in the front and stick straight out (horizontally) in the back! Really quite terrible! So, I picked up Kayle at work and begged him to take me back to get it fixed, which he gracefully did(no teasing or anything). As the same lady fixed my 'do, it kept getting shorter and shorter. Now, my hair is, more or less, one length and falls to about 1 inch below my chin. As Kayle says, "it's growing on me" (pun intended). I think it's not much different than some of my other summer haircuts, so I'm much happier than before...
After the hair fiasco was resolved, Kayle and I had a lovely date in Redmond Town Center, which is set up much like a two story outlet mall but with the charm of a small town feel and Christmas lights. We wandered around, ate dinner at the restaurant we went with Joe when we came out for Kayle's interview, and checked out a store or two. It was very nice and we laughed a lot.
On Saturday, there was a big theology conference hosted at our church with Dr. D.A. Carson. He's a big deal in theology circles, having written/editted more than 50 well-acclaimed books and memorized the whole Bible in Greek/Hebrew and English. Supposedly the guy knows about 6 languages fluently as well. Anyway, I was very excited to hear him speak in 4 lectures about what he thinks are the most important passages about Christ's death and resurrection. He talked about Romans 3, Revelation 12 (woman and dragon), John 11 (raising of Lazarus), and John 20 (doubting Thomas). I've never read a book by him, but both Kayle and I (and some friends who went too) came away impressed and feeling like we learned a lot. Since it was an all-day thing, we went out for lunch with our friends and had burgers at a little pub. When we walked in, a waitress told me that there were "no kids allowed." I think I stared at her blankly for a minute before I realized that she was implying that I (and another younger-looking girl named Kat) were "kids." I laughed and told her we were all over-21. The place was additionally fun because it featured two skeeball machines which provided much joy and entertainment as we waited for our meals. Maybe we are "kids" after all!
At night, Kayle was tired and stayed at home while I went to a Christmas caroling thing. It was awesome. The event was sponsored by a cruise line and is apparently a long-standing tradition in the Puget Sound, running every night for several weeks around Christmas. Each evening, they host a different choir on a large boat all bedecked with Christmas lights and stop at several beaches for a 20 minute sing-a-long Christmas concert. Not only that, but the cruise line has several other large yachts plus private boats join in on the fun by following the "Christmas ship" around, also fully decorated. It was awesome to stand on a beach for a evening concert and have 25-30 colorfully lit boats circling in Lake Washington. Brenda, one of our friends here, always knows about cool random things like this to go to! Apparently, Bellevue also hosts something called "Snowflake Street" where the main road shuts down for a large drum-line dressed as tin soldiers and artificial snow to fall on the spectators. Might have to check that out as well!
On Sunday (today), we went to church where Dr. Don was preaching for the service. He spoke about the four ironies in Matthew's account of the crucifixion of Jesus. Then, we headed home for a nap and a late lunch of homemade pizza. Kayle's video game night from last week was postponed until today, so he'll be gone later on this evening.
We're really looking forward to being home in just over a week!
With lots of love,
Angie and Kayle
Saturday, November 29, 2008
Happy Thanksgiving!
This week, we both enjoyed the short week of work and long weekend with friends. I was busy at work Monday-Wednesday, helping kids with homework, preparing for our literacy event next week, and running the after-school tutoring 2 out of 3 days. Our literacy event is a book giveaway and, while I'm still waiting to pick up the donation from one bookstore, I have over 600 books in our living room ready to find a good home with a middle-schooler. We're planning to have a little game to "earn" the books and have them divided into genres so each kid can pick a book they'll like.
The other news from work is rather sad. We found out this week that, due to under-capacity in the Seattle School District, Meany Middle School will probably be shut down next year and the kids sent to other area schools. A bilingual school and an alternative school will move into the building instead. With the state-wide $5 billion deficit, it looks like Americorps programs like the Washington Reading Corps (the program I tutor with) might also be cut for next year. So, my current job, in more ways than one, probably won't exist in the fall. I'll get to finish out my 10.5 month term, so there's no real danger of being suddenly out of a job, but I'm just concerned about the kids I work with and whether they'll make it at a brand-new school with no tutors to help them catch up to grade level...
On Thursday, we went to Caleb and Laura's house for Thanksgiving. They go to our community group, have been married about a year longer than us, and have a very cute 3-month-old baby girl. Before leaving, Kayle and I made twice-baked potatoes with bacon. They turned out well, but we forgot to factor in the time to mash the potatoes with a hand-masher and were, consequently, about 20 min. late to dinner. Fortunately, we weren't the last ones there and, with all the amateur chefs, dinner wasn't on the table for another 45 min. after we arrived. We also brought fresh pineapple and corn. There eight of us there (plus baby Grace): Kayle, Angie, Caleb, Laura, Joe (from Dutch House), Henry (now lives with Joe), and a new couple (Amy and Tim). The meal was so nice and featured turkey, stuffing casserole, gravy, mashed carrots with rutabaga, jello salad, pumpkin pie, and ice cream pie in addition to our potatoes, pineapple, and corn. We talked for a long time after dinner and, randomly, ended up singing hymns out of some hymnbooks they had with Kayle accompanying on a keyboard. We missed our family but ended up having a very satisfying Thanksgiving...
On Friday, we went to Paula and Jeff Irwin's house for a game night. We brought fresh-baked chocolate chip cookies (but ran out of chocolate chips and only put about 1/3 of the normal amount from the Hinkle recipe- as a result, they tasted kind of like plain cookie dough at the end) and milk. There were lots of cookies, leftover pumpkin pies, and other snacks too. To Kayle's dismay, we played Progressive Charades again (or, as they called it, "the Hippie-Pirate-Ninja game" for no explicable reason). This time we played with only people/characters instead of any random noun, and it was funny to see multiple Captain Jack Sparrows, Edgar Allen Poes, Obamas, Bill Gates, and Wall-Es (and I thought I was creative!!). I had a good time since it was fun to get to know and meet the other 12 people there (most were familiar faces, including Joe, Caleb, Laura, Henry, James, etc.). Kayle perfected his charades strategy of avoiding all embarrassment by simply pointing at objects and people in the room- it is surprisingly effective for him. After the game, we watched Wall-E and I almost cried when Wall-E didn't recognize Eva at the end...it's amazing how emotionally invested one can get in a cartoon...
Today, we mostly just lounged around, finishing our laundry and grocery shopping. We caught up on e-mail, did some checking around on the computer, and read. A four-day weekend seems rather long, but I guess we've been pretty busy too... Tomorrow, Kayle and I are going to church in the morning, and Kayle is planning to go to a all-male video-game night in the evening. I'll probably finish sorting, labeling, and boxing up all those 600 books while he's gone!
Only 2.5 weeks before we board the plane for Michigan! And only about 2 weeks before we've been married 6 months...how time flies!
Until next week (and with love),
Angie and Kayle
The other news from work is rather sad. We found out this week that, due to under-capacity in the Seattle School District, Meany Middle School will probably be shut down next year and the kids sent to other area schools. A bilingual school and an alternative school will move into the building instead. With the state-wide $5 billion deficit, it looks like Americorps programs like the Washington Reading Corps (the program I tutor with) might also be cut for next year. So, my current job, in more ways than one, probably won't exist in the fall. I'll get to finish out my 10.5 month term, so there's no real danger of being suddenly out of a job, but I'm just concerned about the kids I work with and whether they'll make it at a brand-new school with no tutors to help them catch up to grade level...
On Thursday, we went to Caleb and Laura's house for Thanksgiving. They go to our community group, have been married about a year longer than us, and have a very cute 3-month-old baby girl. Before leaving, Kayle and I made twice-baked potatoes with bacon. They turned out well, but we forgot to factor in the time to mash the potatoes with a hand-masher and were, consequently, about 20 min. late to dinner. Fortunately, we weren't the last ones there and, with all the amateur chefs, dinner wasn't on the table for another 45 min. after we arrived. We also brought fresh pineapple and corn. There eight of us there (plus baby Grace): Kayle, Angie, Caleb, Laura, Joe (from Dutch House), Henry (now lives with Joe), and a new couple (Amy and Tim). The meal was so nice and featured turkey, stuffing casserole, gravy, mashed carrots with rutabaga, jello salad, pumpkin pie, and ice cream pie in addition to our potatoes, pineapple, and corn. We talked for a long time after dinner and, randomly, ended up singing hymns out of some hymnbooks they had with Kayle accompanying on a keyboard. We missed our family but ended up having a very satisfying Thanksgiving...
On Friday, we went to Paula and Jeff Irwin's house for a game night. We brought fresh-baked chocolate chip cookies (but ran out of chocolate chips and only put about 1/3 of the normal amount from the Hinkle recipe- as a result, they tasted kind of like plain cookie dough at the end) and milk. There were lots of cookies, leftover pumpkin pies, and other snacks too. To Kayle's dismay, we played Progressive Charades again (or, as they called it, "the Hippie-Pirate-Ninja game" for no explicable reason). This time we played with only people/characters instead of any random noun, and it was funny to see multiple Captain Jack Sparrows, Edgar Allen Poes, Obamas, Bill Gates, and Wall-Es (and I thought I was creative!!). I had a good time since it was fun to get to know and meet the other 12 people there (most were familiar faces, including Joe, Caleb, Laura, Henry, James, etc.). Kayle perfected his charades strategy of avoiding all embarrassment by simply pointing at objects and people in the room- it is surprisingly effective for him. After the game, we watched Wall-E and I almost cried when Wall-E didn't recognize Eva at the end...it's amazing how emotionally invested one can get in a cartoon...
Today, we mostly just lounged around, finishing our laundry and grocery shopping. We caught up on e-mail, did some checking around on the computer, and read. A four-day weekend seems rather long, but I guess we've been pretty busy too... Tomorrow, Kayle and I are going to church in the morning, and Kayle is planning to go to a all-male video-game night in the evening. I'll probably finish sorting, labeling, and boxing up all those 600 books while he's gone!
Only 2.5 weeks before we board the plane for Michigan! And only about 2 weeks before we've been married 6 months...how time flies!
Until next week (and with love),
Angie and Kayle
Sunday, November 23, 2008
Food, Friends, and Fun
This week seemed much busier than most, but we enjoyed ourselves and were pretty social overall. It's nice to be getting to know people more...
Last Sunday, we went to the 11:15 service at church and out to lunch at a nice, family-owned Mexican place afterward. We relaxed the rest of the day with the "Sunday nap" and talking to Michiganders on the phone. It seems like the only time to call home is the weekend...
Monday, it is always hard to get out of bed in the morning. We wake up at 6:15-6:30, eat waffles or pancakes for breakfast, and head off to my bus-stop near Kayle's work. We do this every morning, but it seems particularly difficult on Mondays. Mondays are also my toughest day at work, since I run the after-school tutoring that day and the kids who come are both numerous and particularly troublesome. (It seems even middle-schoolers are anxious to get home on a Monday.) Usually, Kayle and I enjoy a quiet night at home to gear up for the rest of the week. However, tomorrow (also a Monday), we're planning to go on a nice date night to Outback Steakhouse. Yay!
On Tuesday, we had community group at night (with Milano cookies as the snack!). We talked about the sermon which was about taking "marriage Sabbaths", basically spending time out of our busy lives with each other whether it be on regular dates, short weekend getaways, or longer vacations. We talked about how to cater those nights to our husband's/wive's tastes to create good memories for both and really cherish each other. It was good for us to think about setting time aside for dates and maybe going somewhere for a weekend in the near future (maybe at a ski resort...). My "homework" is to plan a getaway for Kayle that he will particularly enjoy...so far, I'm pretty stumped...
On Wednesday, I went to Proxy youth group at night. We played dodge-roll. Yes, you read that correctly...dodge-ball with dinner rolls. It was pretty fun, and I rocked the first round with my team. Our team ("Team Jonah", after the smallest kid who was unanimously elected our mascot) unfortunately came in second for the dodge-roll tournament and is 2nd/4 teams for the overall "Turkey Olympics". Boy, youth groups are notorious for coming up with strange and slightly disgusting games... For the lesson, the middle schoolers went through the part of Mark 3 about the "unforgiveable sin." I did not envy Jonathan, who taught the lesson, one bit. But he did a good job explaining the Scripture and reading up on the topic beforehand, so it was a solid lesson. If you can't tell, the middle school group is going through the Gospel of Mark...there's some tough stuff in there to try to explain to 6th-7th graders!
On Thursday, I came home a bit early from work, and Kayle and I drove up to Cedar Valley Elementary for another Americorps group's literacy night. It was a pirate-themed event (Literacy Island) complete with a hired professional pirate who walked around all night and eyepatches/earrings for the volunteers to wear. The games were fishing, letter tic-tac-toe, and an entire room of crafts. Kayle and I worked at the storyteller station, reading picture books to groups of kids. With 350 parents and kids in attendence, plenty of food, and a big raffle at the end, I'd say the night was a huge success. The experience gave my group some ideas for our own school's literacy night, which will take place next semester. It was also nice for Kayle to be able to meet some of the people from my work. The next day, they said he was "very nice."
On Friday, I went to the training day at the Federal Building downtown. The topic was "rascism in education," and it was one of the more interesting trainings so far. After, we drew our "avatars," which our leader described as the divine god-version of ourselves (from Hinduism). That was kinda strange, but mostly people just drew superheroes. Mine was Geeky Girl. Kayle thinks it's funny that I periodically come home from work with elaborate pictures I've drawn during an official training. And I made fun earlier in the year of his perks at work!
On Saturday, we had our most social day yet in Seattle. We went to the Brinton's house in the morning for a work party. The wife has been in the hospital for quite some time trying to keep a very premature infant inside despite early labor. Meanwhile, there was a lot of stuff to be done around the house before the baby arrived. A bunch of other people from church decided to come over to help complete their long list of chores. Kayle and I helped hang new curtain rods and curtains in the living room and I played with their two little boys, Micah and Asher. The baby has since been born (Zephaniah Isaac- a mouthful!), and, at a little over 3 lbs, is remarkably healthy and should be home soon. Yay!
Next, we came home and made pasties (again). We bought all the ingredients last weekend but never got around to making them. This is probably the last time we'll have them for a while, since, with left-overs, it seems like I've eaten way too many pasties this season (and I thought that wasn't possible). But at least we'll have something yummy to bring for lunch at work this week. After a short rest and a big lunch, we headed to an engagement party/open house for a couple from our bible study, Brian and Vicki. They are getting married in the spring of next year. Their proposal story was so cute with a beautiful mountain hike during which Brian surprised Vicki with a picnic lunch, a rose, some hot chocolate, and (finally) a ring, all of which fit covertly inside the giant hiking backpack he usually carried for the additional weight as exercise. The open house was fun, because we got to meet Vicki's parents and some of her childhood friends as well as visit with some of the guys in our bible study.
After, we headed to yet another party, this one a fondue open house at the home of Sara and Gary Burns (a couple from our community group). We met several new people from church and got into an interesting discussion that lasted for 3 hours. Kayle and I didn't leave until close to 9:30. It was a long day, and we promptly fell asleep.
Finally, today, we had church in the morning. We were talking about making good memories in marriage and about recalling our first date (among other things). Kayle and I remember several of our dates, but we have no clue what our first official "date" was. Probably a dance or something...anyone have any idea? We went to the 9:00 service this week, because we had our membership interview schedule with Gary Burns after church. We met in a coffee house, and it was nice to have him get to know us a bit more before pronouncing us official members of Mars Hill Church. He's also going to help Kayle get involved in the production crew (lights, powerpoint, sound, video), since that's where Kayle is most interested in serving. In the afternoon, we went on a bike ride, called home, picked up some books from the library, and went grocery shopping. All in all, it was a good day!
My dad suggested that Kayle and I take some pictures of our friends here, our condo, and even the town of Redmond. On our bike ride today, the camera ran out of batteries, but I'll try to remember to post some photos of our life here soon. We're still a bit embarrassed by the emptiness of our front room, and it might take a while for us to get another clear day to see the mountains in the background.
Random other news: my friend from college, Karis, has had a rough time healthwise lately. Her body has been rejecting the organs implanted in her about 2 years ago, and she's having all kinds of side effects to the medications. She's had health problems off and on for a while now, and she's not doing too well. However, last I heard, her body had stopped rejecting the organs and her risk of infection is slowly going back down. Anyway, keep her in your prayers. I invited her and her sister (Valerie) to our wedding and went to ISI (youth group in college) with them both.
On a lighter note, I saw a bald eagle in the wild for the first time. I was riding on the bus to work and saw it perched on an art sculpture that is in Lake Washington. So cool!
We can't wait to see everyone at Christmas. Less than a month now! We're sad to be unable to spend Thanksgiving with family but happy to be invited over to a friend's home to share the meal with a big group of friends from CG and bible study. We both have Thursday and Friday off from work, and we're looking forward to the long weekend. I'm trying hard to get ahead on my hours for work too, so I'm not behind when I get home from Christmas break (I need to get 1700 hours of service by the end of 10.5 months, which works out to about 40 hours/week, not including time off for breaks).
Anyway, we miss and love all of you! See you soon!
Angie and Kayle
Last Sunday, we went to the 11:15 service at church and out to lunch at a nice, family-owned Mexican place afterward. We relaxed the rest of the day with the "Sunday nap" and talking to Michiganders on the phone. It seems like the only time to call home is the weekend...
Monday, it is always hard to get out of bed in the morning. We wake up at 6:15-6:30, eat waffles or pancakes for breakfast, and head off to my bus-stop near Kayle's work. We do this every morning, but it seems particularly difficult on Mondays. Mondays are also my toughest day at work, since I run the after-school tutoring that day and the kids who come are both numerous and particularly troublesome. (It seems even middle-schoolers are anxious to get home on a Monday.) Usually, Kayle and I enjoy a quiet night at home to gear up for the rest of the week. However, tomorrow (also a Monday), we're planning to go on a nice date night to Outback Steakhouse. Yay!
On Tuesday, we had community group at night (with Milano cookies as the snack!). We talked about the sermon which was about taking "marriage Sabbaths", basically spending time out of our busy lives with each other whether it be on regular dates, short weekend getaways, or longer vacations. We talked about how to cater those nights to our husband's/wive's tastes to create good memories for both and really cherish each other. It was good for us to think about setting time aside for dates and maybe going somewhere for a weekend in the near future (maybe at a ski resort...). My "homework" is to plan a getaway for Kayle that he will particularly enjoy...so far, I'm pretty stumped...
On Wednesday, I went to Proxy youth group at night. We played dodge-roll. Yes, you read that correctly...dodge-ball with dinner rolls. It was pretty fun, and I rocked the first round with my team. Our team ("Team Jonah", after the smallest kid who was unanimously elected our mascot) unfortunately came in second for the dodge-roll tournament and is 2nd/4 teams for the overall "Turkey Olympics". Boy, youth groups are notorious for coming up with strange and slightly disgusting games... For the lesson, the middle schoolers went through the part of Mark 3 about the "unforgiveable sin." I did not envy Jonathan, who taught the lesson, one bit. But he did a good job explaining the Scripture and reading up on the topic beforehand, so it was a solid lesson. If you can't tell, the middle school group is going through the Gospel of Mark...there's some tough stuff in there to try to explain to 6th-7th graders!
On Thursday, I came home a bit early from work, and Kayle and I drove up to Cedar Valley Elementary for another Americorps group's literacy night. It was a pirate-themed event (Literacy Island) complete with a hired professional pirate who walked around all night and eyepatches/earrings for the volunteers to wear. The games were fishing, letter tic-tac-toe, and an entire room of crafts. Kayle and I worked at the storyteller station, reading picture books to groups of kids. With 350 parents and kids in attendence, plenty of food, and a big raffle at the end, I'd say the night was a huge success. The experience gave my group some ideas for our own school's literacy night, which will take place next semester. It was also nice for Kayle to be able to meet some of the people from my work. The next day, they said he was "very nice."
On Friday, I went to the training day at the Federal Building downtown. The topic was "rascism in education," and it was one of the more interesting trainings so far. After, we drew our "avatars," which our leader described as the divine god-version of ourselves (from Hinduism). That was kinda strange, but mostly people just drew superheroes. Mine was Geeky Girl. Kayle thinks it's funny that I periodically come home from work with elaborate pictures I've drawn during an official training. And I made fun earlier in the year of his perks at work!
On Saturday, we had our most social day yet in Seattle. We went to the Brinton's house in the morning for a work party. The wife has been in the hospital for quite some time trying to keep a very premature infant inside despite early labor. Meanwhile, there was a lot of stuff to be done around the house before the baby arrived. A bunch of other people from church decided to come over to help complete their long list of chores. Kayle and I helped hang new curtain rods and curtains in the living room and I played with their two little boys, Micah and Asher. The baby has since been born (Zephaniah Isaac- a mouthful!), and, at a little over 3 lbs, is remarkably healthy and should be home soon. Yay!
Next, we came home and made pasties (again). We bought all the ingredients last weekend but never got around to making them. This is probably the last time we'll have them for a while, since, with left-overs, it seems like I've eaten way too many pasties this season (and I thought that wasn't possible). But at least we'll have something yummy to bring for lunch at work this week. After a short rest and a big lunch, we headed to an engagement party/open house for a couple from our bible study, Brian and Vicki. They are getting married in the spring of next year. Their proposal story was so cute with a beautiful mountain hike during which Brian surprised Vicki with a picnic lunch, a rose, some hot chocolate, and (finally) a ring, all of which fit covertly inside the giant hiking backpack he usually carried for the additional weight as exercise. The open house was fun, because we got to meet Vicki's parents and some of her childhood friends as well as visit with some of the guys in our bible study.
After, we headed to yet another party, this one a fondue open house at the home of Sara and Gary Burns (a couple from our community group). We met several new people from church and got into an interesting discussion that lasted for 3 hours. Kayle and I didn't leave until close to 9:30. It was a long day, and we promptly fell asleep.
Finally, today, we had church in the morning. We were talking about making good memories in marriage and about recalling our first date (among other things). Kayle and I remember several of our dates, but we have no clue what our first official "date" was. Probably a dance or something...anyone have any idea? We went to the 9:00 service this week, because we had our membership interview schedule with Gary Burns after church. We met in a coffee house, and it was nice to have him get to know us a bit more before pronouncing us official members of Mars Hill Church. He's also going to help Kayle get involved in the production crew (lights, powerpoint, sound, video), since that's where Kayle is most interested in serving. In the afternoon, we went on a bike ride, called home, picked up some books from the library, and went grocery shopping. All in all, it was a good day!
My dad suggested that Kayle and I take some pictures of our friends here, our condo, and even the town of Redmond. On our bike ride today, the camera ran out of batteries, but I'll try to remember to post some photos of our life here soon. We're still a bit embarrassed by the emptiness of our front room, and it might take a while for us to get another clear day to see the mountains in the background.
Random other news: my friend from college, Karis, has had a rough time healthwise lately. Her body has been rejecting the organs implanted in her about 2 years ago, and she's having all kinds of side effects to the medications. She's had health problems off and on for a while now, and she's not doing too well. However, last I heard, her body had stopped rejecting the organs and her risk of infection is slowly going back down. Anyway, keep her in your prayers. I invited her and her sister (Valerie) to our wedding and went to ISI (youth group in college) with them both.
On a lighter note, I saw a bald eagle in the wild for the first time. I was riding on the bus to work and saw it perched on an art sculpture that is in Lake Washington. So cool!
We can't wait to see everyone at Christmas. Less than a month now! We're sad to be unable to spend Thanksgiving with family but happy to be invited over to a friend's home to share the meal with a big group of friends from CG and bible study. We both have Thursday and Friday off from work, and we're looking forward to the long weekend. I'm trying hard to get ahead on my hours for work too, so I'm not behind when I get home from Christmas break (I need to get 1700 hours of service by the end of 10.5 months, which works out to about 40 hours/week, not including time off for breaks).
Anyway, we miss and love all of you! See you soon!
Angie and Kayle
Saturday, November 15, 2008
Another Typical Week
This week didn't have anything too special going on, but sometimes those weeks are the ones that help you rest up! Next week is pretty busy, since I'm helping out at another school's literacy night on Thursday night. We also have two parties next Saturday (an engagement party for a friend here and a fondue party with some people from our community group from church) and our membership interview for church on Sunday.
School was great but tiring this week. I had off for Veteran's Day, and I spent the extra time calling to get books donated for our literacy event book giveaway. Since a lot of the kids don't have books of their own at home, we thought letting them pick one out to keep might encourage some of them to read more outside of school. I got 161 books donated from a used bookstore in Redmond and another 50-100 pledged by Goodwill. Another store asked for an official letter before deciding how much to donate and another said they were ordering books just for us (but didn't say how many). The cutest was one store owner who bought us one book herself and set it aside for me. All in all, we hoped to get about 300-400 books, and it looks like that might be quite possible. These are just the stores on the Eastside of Lake Washington where I live. Another girl who works with me is in charge of contacting bookstores nearer to our school in Seattle. Yay!
Another funny story is that I missed my bus stop on Thursday and had to ride an extra 40 minutes on the bus (all the way into downtown and back) to get to school. Oops! Good thing I asked not to be scheduled to tutor any kids until 9:30, so I didn't miss anything except some prep time...
Kayle is doing well at work. He fixed a bunch of bugs this week and felt pretty productive overall. If you want to know more about what Kayle is working on, there is a video from the developer's conference about Visual Studio 2010. Go to: http://www.microsoft.com/emea/teched2008/developer and search for "Jason Zander", picking the 2nd video (the Keynote, not the news one). The video starts with a 15-16 minute introduction, so you have to scroll ahead to start with the demos right away...hope that made sense! (WARNING: THIS VIDEO IS SUPER GEEKY!!) :)
On Tuesday, we went to CG and enjoyed seeing everyone for a discussion of this week's sermon. On Wednesday, I went to Proxy (youth group) where we played a trash can basketball game with a raw turkey (gross...yes, you read that right...yes, we made all the kids wash their hands WELL) and discussed the Gospel of Mark with the junior high. On Thursday, Kayle and I provided the meal for our bible study. We made spaghetti with Hinkle meat sauce for about 10-12 people and baked some garlic bread. Nothing too extravagant, but it was our first time cooking for a large group! Bible study went well, and we looked at Psalm 146. Finally, on Friday, I had my team meeting for Americorps where we made "life maps", basically a time line of our life and how we got to where we are today. It was interesting to hear everyone share about their life but also a bit heart-breaking. A lot of my teammates are coming to this year with a lot of baggage from their past...
Today, we're just running some errands and maybe going to a huge craft sale held by the Christian school where our chruch meets every Sunday. We might help clean-up or something... We're still looking for furniture and piano with no luck so far. We also have grocery shopping, library, laundry, and the bank.
We miss you and love you! We hope to hear from everyone soon!
Angie and Kayle
School was great but tiring this week. I had off for Veteran's Day, and I spent the extra time calling to get books donated for our literacy event book giveaway. Since a lot of the kids don't have books of their own at home, we thought letting them pick one out to keep might encourage some of them to read more outside of school. I got 161 books donated from a used bookstore in Redmond and another 50-100 pledged by Goodwill. Another store asked for an official letter before deciding how much to donate and another said they were ordering books just for us (but didn't say how many). The cutest was one store owner who bought us one book herself and set it aside for me. All in all, we hoped to get about 300-400 books, and it looks like that might be quite possible. These are just the stores on the Eastside of Lake Washington where I live. Another girl who works with me is in charge of contacting bookstores nearer to our school in Seattle. Yay!
Another funny story is that I missed my bus stop on Thursday and had to ride an extra 40 minutes on the bus (all the way into downtown and back) to get to school. Oops! Good thing I asked not to be scheduled to tutor any kids until 9:30, so I didn't miss anything except some prep time...
Kayle is doing well at work. He fixed a bunch of bugs this week and felt pretty productive overall. If you want to know more about what Kayle is working on, there is a video from the developer's conference about Visual Studio 2010. Go to: http://www.microsoft.com/emea/teched2008/developer and search for "Jason Zander", picking the 2nd video (the Keynote, not the news one). The video starts with a 15-16 minute introduction, so you have to scroll ahead to start with the demos right away...hope that made sense! (WARNING: THIS VIDEO IS SUPER GEEKY!!) :)
On Tuesday, we went to CG and enjoyed seeing everyone for a discussion of this week's sermon. On Wednesday, I went to Proxy (youth group) where we played a trash can basketball game with a raw turkey (gross...yes, you read that right...yes, we made all the kids wash their hands WELL) and discussed the Gospel of Mark with the junior high. On Thursday, Kayle and I provided the meal for our bible study. We made spaghetti with Hinkle meat sauce for about 10-12 people and baked some garlic bread. Nothing too extravagant, but it was our first time cooking for a large group! Bible study went well, and we looked at Psalm 146. Finally, on Friday, I had my team meeting for Americorps where we made "life maps", basically a time line of our life and how we got to where we are today. It was interesting to hear everyone share about their life but also a bit heart-breaking. A lot of my teammates are coming to this year with a lot of baggage from their past...
Today, we're just running some errands and maybe going to a huge craft sale held by the Christian school where our chruch meets every Sunday. We might help clean-up or something... We're still looking for furniture and piano with no luck so far. We also have grocery shopping, library, laundry, and the bank.
We miss you and love you! We hope to hear from everyone soon!
Angie and Kayle
Sunday, November 9, 2008
Game Night!
This week was a typical week for our household. I went to work at the middle school all week and enjoyed helping the kids with their reading and writing. Some of them seem really motivated to catch up in school and start getting good grades. I'm trying to encourage them as much as I can! Kayle's work is going well too.
On Tuesday, we went to community group and talked about grace and our motivations for coming to Christ. We still love getting to know the people in our CG, and it's fun to see some babies (3 total plus a toddler) once/week. Kayle and I might take the babysitting shift at some point. Not sure which is better...adult conversation or playing with the lil' ones...
On Wednesday, I had Proxy youth group at church. I've been playing a little Rock Band but discovered that drums is even harder than guitar for me...guess Aaron will have to help me practice! We had our "4th week feed" in which we eat a meal together and hang out for the full duration of the night instead of our usual teaching, games, and small groups. This month was pizza and some Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the "live" version from when I was a kid. I never remembered how lame that movie was until we sat and made fun of it with a bunch of middle/high schoolers... I used to think that movie was so cool!
On Thursday, we went to 20:CF, the Microsoft bible study, together. We studied psalm 2 this week. Unfortunately, I was the only girl there, so I was inundated with "computer talk" the whole hang out time. What can I expect with 6-8 Microsofties in one room plus me?
On Friday, I had my weekly training meeting and we learned all about teaching kids to read (very useful). Since it was held at the Federal Building, I went to Pike's Place Market and ate a genuine gyro for lunch and bought some fresh produce from the fruit stands: a pomegranate, strawberries, raspberries (the best I've had in a LONG time), asparagus, and a pear. Later, Kayle and I played in a poker tournament at church to benefit the youth group. All the buy-in money is going towards the upcoming winter retreat, to help with the cost/student a bit. Winners had some cool donated prizes. Too bad we both got out within the first hour! My full house got beat out by a four-of-a-kind and I guess Kayle went all-in on the first hand he played and lost. Guess neither of us will get hooked on gambling any time soon! It was "for the children" anyway...
On Saturday, we ran a bunch of errands, went to a few garage sales, and picked up some groceries. We also made pasties (again), and they turned out very yummy. At night, we were invited to a game night with some friends from college/church. We played progressive charades, Hilarium, and Apples to Apples. It was a blast, and we laughed hard all night, especially when Kayle played the "Celine Dion" card and admitted he didn't know who she was! We are very fond of that group of friends...
Finally, today (Sunday), we slept in and went to the 11:15 service. This week was a "hot week" sermon from the Song of Songs (our whole recent sermon series is from that book). After, we went to lunch with some friends at a Mexican restaurant and came back home for a nice, Sunday nap. (I love my Sunday nap!~) Kayle went to a men's video game night to play some Halo and hang out with the guys from 20:CF. Since he's gone, I've been cleaning the house, doing laundry, and writing this post...
We miss you all more than ever and are counting down the days until December 17! Say "Happy Birthday" to Siang, Dani, and Aaron this week!! We think of you all a lot and keep you in our prayers! Remember us in yours as well...
Lots of love!
Angie and Kayle
On Tuesday, we went to community group and talked about grace and our motivations for coming to Christ. We still love getting to know the people in our CG, and it's fun to see some babies (3 total plus a toddler) once/week. Kayle and I might take the babysitting shift at some point. Not sure which is better...adult conversation or playing with the lil' ones...
On Wednesday, I had Proxy youth group at church. I've been playing a little Rock Band but discovered that drums is even harder than guitar for me...guess Aaron will have to help me practice! We had our "4th week feed" in which we eat a meal together and hang out for the full duration of the night instead of our usual teaching, games, and small groups. This month was pizza and some Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the "live" version from when I was a kid. I never remembered how lame that movie was until we sat and made fun of it with a bunch of middle/high schoolers... I used to think that movie was so cool!
On Thursday, we went to 20:CF, the Microsoft bible study, together. We studied psalm 2 this week. Unfortunately, I was the only girl there, so I was inundated with "computer talk" the whole hang out time. What can I expect with 6-8 Microsofties in one room plus me?
On Friday, I had my weekly training meeting and we learned all about teaching kids to read (very useful). Since it was held at the Federal Building, I went to Pike's Place Market and ate a genuine gyro for lunch and bought some fresh produce from the fruit stands: a pomegranate, strawberries, raspberries (the best I've had in a LONG time), asparagus, and a pear. Later, Kayle and I played in a poker tournament at church to benefit the youth group. All the buy-in money is going towards the upcoming winter retreat, to help with the cost/student a bit. Winners had some cool donated prizes. Too bad we both got out within the first hour! My full house got beat out by a four-of-a-kind and I guess Kayle went all-in on the first hand he played and lost. Guess neither of us will get hooked on gambling any time soon! It was "for the children" anyway...
On Saturday, we ran a bunch of errands, went to a few garage sales, and picked up some groceries. We also made pasties (again), and they turned out very yummy. At night, we were invited to a game night with some friends from college/church. We played progressive charades, Hilarium, and Apples to Apples. It was a blast, and we laughed hard all night, especially when Kayle played the "Celine Dion" card and admitted he didn't know who she was! We are very fond of that group of friends...
Finally, today (Sunday), we slept in and went to the 11:15 service. This week was a "hot week" sermon from the Song of Songs (our whole recent sermon series is from that book). After, we went to lunch with some friends at a Mexican restaurant and came back home for a nice, Sunday nap. (I love my Sunday nap!~) Kayle went to a men's video game night to play some Halo and hang out with the guys from 20:CF. Since he's gone, I've been cleaning the house, doing laundry, and writing this post...
We miss you all more than ever and are counting down the days until December 17! Say "Happy Birthday" to Siang, Dani, and Aaron this week!! We think of you all a lot and keep you in our prayers! Remember us in yours as well...
Lots of love!
Angie and Kayle
Saturday, November 1, 2008
Americorps SERVES Institute
So, the title of this post is the name of the three-day, two-night conference I went to for work this past week. The event was held in Wanatchee, WA, a small town about 3 hours east of Seattle (just across the mountains) known as the "apple capital of the world." It kind of felt like good ol' Michigan with all its apple orchards. The conference itself basically consisted of a series of seminars during which I could pick which topics to learn about. I chose to go to lectures on everything from improving reading comprehension to reaching "hard-to-reach" kids and dealing with bullies to using the Americorps education award. Honestly, only 2/5 of the seminars were engaging for the full hour and half, so it mostly felt like I was stuck in overly long lectures all day. I also felt sick on the second night of our stay, so I went to bed at 6:30 pm and slept through the night. I had hoped that SERVES would be more fun and informative, but, to be fair, it had it's good moments...like the food (the food was pretty yummy, especially the apple crisp!).
Our training session yesterday was a surprise potluck. I say "surprise" because our supervisors forgot to tell us about our responsibility to bring food until the afternoon the day before. So, I copped out and just brought a bag of chips from our pantry. So much for my new cooking!!
Kayle survived decently well without me for a few days, if you consider eating rosemary chicken quesadillas every day a balanced diet! I think he missed me a lot, but not much seemed to get done around the house while I was gone... Actually, he went to our community group one night and worked on some membership stuff the other night. So, I shouldn't tease him too much! Nonetheless, we were happy to be reunited on Thursday night and rest after a long week (all those lectures and miles of riding in the car wore me out!).
For Halloween, Kayle and I went to a spooky movie night with a large group of friends from church and bible study. We watched "Signs", which, though I've seen it 2-3 times before, hasn't gotten any less scary. I think we all jumped/screamed several times during the movie. Overall, it was incredibly fun to get together to eat candy, talk, and freak out over a scary film. It was a happy Halloween for us...oh yeah...and I wore a 50's poodle skirt costume all day too. Kayle dressed as a Microsoft employee...
Kayle's work: still going well. For those computer geeks out there, he also likes watching the new Microsoft product demos on microsoftpdc.com.
Anyway, that's all for now. We'll work on calling everyone as soon as we can, but feel free to call us too when you have free time. We love and miss you all!
Angie and Kayle
Our training session yesterday was a surprise potluck. I say "surprise" because our supervisors forgot to tell us about our responsibility to bring food until the afternoon the day before. So, I copped out and just brought a bag of chips from our pantry. So much for my new cooking!!
Kayle survived decently well without me for a few days, if you consider eating rosemary chicken quesadillas every day a balanced diet! I think he missed me a lot, but not much seemed to get done around the house while I was gone... Actually, he went to our community group one night and worked on some membership stuff the other night. So, I shouldn't tease him too much! Nonetheless, we were happy to be reunited on Thursday night and rest after a long week (all those lectures and miles of riding in the car wore me out!).
For Halloween, Kayle and I went to a spooky movie night with a large group of friends from church and bible study. We watched "Signs", which, though I've seen it 2-3 times before, hasn't gotten any less scary. I think we all jumped/screamed several times during the movie. Overall, it was incredibly fun to get together to eat candy, talk, and freak out over a scary film. It was a happy Halloween for us...oh yeah...and I wore a 50's poodle skirt costume all day too. Kayle dressed as a Microsoft employee...
Kayle's work: still going well. For those computer geeks out there, he also likes watching the new Microsoft product demos on microsoftpdc.com.
Anyway, that's all for now. We'll work on calling everyone as soon as we can, but feel free to call us too when you have free time. We love and miss you all!
Angie and Kayle
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Looking forward to Christmas....
Hello again everyone!
I should start off with the most important information of the last few weeks: how our first pasty-making experience turned out... For those who don't know, pasties (pronounced pah-stees by the Maxeys) are steak, potatoes, rutabaga, and onion wrapped in pie crusts. They are a Maxey family favorite and my mom spent years perfecting her recipe and tailoring them to every family member's tastes. I made them this week and they turned out pretty well...not QUITE as good as the finely-tuned original but still yummy. Now, for those of you who do not think this is big news, just consider that EVERY SINGLE person in my family except Dani (who didn't know I was making them) specifically made a point to ask how my pasties were. Seriously, Aaron, Dad, Mom, and even Grandma were anxious to hear all about it...lol. I love my family!
Now on to much less significant news...
My work is going well. I'm very excited by the hard work most of the students I'm tutoring at school are putting into catching up and improving their grades. A few volunteer tutors and I started working with 4 students in reading/writing for the last two hours of the day. All of them were failing or close to failing every subject. But with our help, they all have made a plan to get all their missing assignments in, go to some after-school tutoring to work on math/science, and are working extra hard with us to catch up in reading/writing. They are so busy that they finish all the in-class work for the day plus 2-3 of their missing assignments during the 2 hours with us. They also seem enthusiastic about trying to get good grades and mostly are responding well to our belief that they can catch up and start doing better in school. I'm so proud!
I also have a 6th grader reading at about a 1st grade level. He's also trying his best and even practicing his sight words and spelling at home. I've been reading some African folk tales with him (he's from Kenya), and he was so excited about them that he checked out his own book of folk tales from the school library. Already, I've started to see some improvement with building the number of words he can recognize right away and just generally with his confidence in learning to read.
The after-school programs are going well too. I love sign language and am learning all kinds of new signs. I'm more of a student in the class than a teacher, but I help out as much as I can. The after-school tutoring just received an influx of new volunteer tutors, so the kids who come pretty much have one-on-one tutoring if they need it. Now that I have more hands to help, I can focus more on teaching the kids who come rather than monitering behavior and trying to keep them on task. We also started something called "Math Mondays" where most of the volunteers have a special interest in math. We hope the kids struggling in that subject will be even more motivated to come after-school for help if they know math will be the focus that day.
Also, we had a big Americorps kick-off this week Friday with speeches and an award presented to the former governor (Locke) who devised the Washington Reading Corps program and signed it into law about 10 years ago. They gave a statistic that WRC (my program) has helped about 140,000 kids in Washington improve significantly in reading/writing since its inception. Wow! There were about 900 other Americorps members from the Seattle area at the event in the Seattle Center (by the Space Needle). Pretty powerful to see so many people from around the country committing a year to national service...
After the morning presentation, we had a disaster preparedness training. Apparently, Washington state experiences/has the risk of more kinds of large-scale disasters than any other state (even volcanoes). Umm...cool, I guess? But, don't worry! They gave us a starter kit of supplies for our home (water, emergency blanket, first aid stuff, etc) for use in case of an emergency and told us all about what to do in situations like fires and earthquakes (drop, cover, hold...now you know!). The presenter was knowledgable and really funny, so it actually kept my attention for several hours. Hmm...I'm still thinking the moms might get more worry than relief from this paragraph...sorry!
Finally, my work has a three-day, two-night training conference this week from Tuesday to Thursday in Wenatchee, WA (which is apparently a small town east of here known for their apple-growing...sound like Michigan to anyone?). I get to stay in a hotel with a really nice girl (Melissa) from my Reading Corps team who is also married. I'm excited to get to know my teammates more, and I hope some of the trainings will provide useful information for me to put into practice at my school. On Friday, we'll be back in Seattle for another team training with just my group, so I'm a bit sad that I won't be at school for most of the week... Pray that Kayle will survive for a few days on his own!! :)
Kayle's work is also going well. He finished adding a new feature and is working on adding another, more complicated one now. I guess I'm not really allowed to say anything exact about what he's doing (confidentality and all that) so you'll have to ask him personally if you're itching to know more. I hope it suffices to say that "he likes his job."
Another big event from this weekend was a party to celebrate a friend's return from Japan. We played Wii, ate Mochi balls (an ice cream dessert), saw some pictures of his trip, and had a blast playing Cranium. It was a fun night and Kayle especially enjoyed beating everyone at Kirby's Avalanche. I loved being on a Cranium team with Kayle and winning the game (I guess Kayle and I know each other well enough to guess effectively). The party was at Joe's house (it was for one of his roommates, Jordan). About 10-12 of us were there.
I also went to the Notre Dame-Washington game in Husky Stadium on Saturday. Kayle gave his ticket to my friend, Sarah Jenkins (from ND), so I went with her. We had a lot of fun catching up on each other's lives, going to a huge ND tailgate put on by the alumni club, watching ND crush Washington (even though our team did not play all that well), and hearing from another avid ND fan all about our team this year and his predictions for the next few years. It was a bit nostalgic to cheer on the Irish in person again, and both of us missed ND stadium and the thrills of the student section. Hopefully, I'll make it back to South Bend for a game at some point...
Other random news:
-Kayle has been working on his chess game all week, taking online tutorials and solving chess problems. If he asks you to play over Christmas, beware!
-I lost my backpack by leaving it on the bus this week, but thankfully got it back the next day by visiting the downtown Metro bus office. I guess I shouldn't read "Little Women" while I get off the bus anymore! Still Gretel...
-Our church community group assigned "homework" last week along the theme of Song of Songs: write a letter explaining to your spouse reasons why you love them. It was fun exchanging those letters last weekend (I got two whole pages...woo hoo!).
-We're still waiting to get my insurance card for Americorps to coordinate our health insurance with Microsoft. I've been waiting to go back to the chiropractor until we get this figured out, but my back is starting to get really sore again. I hope that gets figured out soon! I also have a small bill from the doctor that we have to contest...blah...
-The rain isn't completely back yet. The last few days have been pretty warm and sunny. I think the nice weather will last a couple days before the cold drizzle starts up again. Bus stops are not nearly as pleasant when chilly and wet.
AND LASTLY,
-We bought our plane tickets to come home for Christmas!!! Yay! We're flying in on December 17th and leaving the morning of the 30th. We saved about $500 by flying on those days, but I have to miss the last Friday training session for work. My boss is not too happy about that, but I need to prioritize my family. I think I escaped this time with only a short lecture! :-/
Well, that's all I can think of for now! We love and miss you all! Thanks for hanging in there for another LONG post...
~Angie and Kayle
I should start off with the most important information of the last few weeks: how our first pasty-making experience turned out... For those who don't know, pasties (pronounced pah-stees by the Maxeys) are steak, potatoes, rutabaga, and onion wrapped in pie crusts. They are a Maxey family favorite and my mom spent years perfecting her recipe and tailoring them to every family member's tastes. I made them this week and they turned out pretty well...not QUITE as good as the finely-tuned original but still yummy. Now, for those of you who do not think this is big news, just consider that EVERY SINGLE person in my family except Dani (who didn't know I was making them) specifically made a point to ask how my pasties were. Seriously, Aaron, Dad, Mom, and even Grandma were anxious to hear all about it...lol. I love my family!
Now on to much less significant news...
My work is going well. I'm very excited by the hard work most of the students I'm tutoring at school are putting into catching up and improving their grades. A few volunteer tutors and I started working with 4 students in reading/writing for the last two hours of the day. All of them were failing or close to failing every subject. But with our help, they all have made a plan to get all their missing assignments in, go to some after-school tutoring to work on math/science, and are working extra hard with us to catch up in reading/writing. They are so busy that they finish all the in-class work for the day plus 2-3 of their missing assignments during the 2 hours with us. They also seem enthusiastic about trying to get good grades and mostly are responding well to our belief that they can catch up and start doing better in school. I'm so proud!
I also have a 6th grader reading at about a 1st grade level. He's also trying his best and even practicing his sight words and spelling at home. I've been reading some African folk tales with him (he's from Kenya), and he was so excited about them that he checked out his own book of folk tales from the school library. Already, I've started to see some improvement with building the number of words he can recognize right away and just generally with his confidence in learning to read.
The after-school programs are going well too. I love sign language and am learning all kinds of new signs. I'm more of a student in the class than a teacher, but I help out as much as I can. The after-school tutoring just received an influx of new volunteer tutors, so the kids who come pretty much have one-on-one tutoring if they need it. Now that I have more hands to help, I can focus more on teaching the kids who come rather than monitering behavior and trying to keep them on task. We also started something called "Math Mondays" where most of the volunteers have a special interest in math. We hope the kids struggling in that subject will be even more motivated to come after-school for help if they know math will be the focus that day.
Also, we had a big Americorps kick-off this week Friday with speeches and an award presented to the former governor (Locke) who devised the Washington Reading Corps program and signed it into law about 10 years ago. They gave a statistic that WRC (my program) has helped about 140,000 kids in Washington improve significantly in reading/writing since its inception. Wow! There were about 900 other Americorps members from the Seattle area at the event in the Seattle Center (by the Space Needle). Pretty powerful to see so many people from around the country committing a year to national service...
After the morning presentation, we had a disaster preparedness training. Apparently, Washington state experiences/has the risk of more kinds of large-scale disasters than any other state (even volcanoes). Umm...cool, I guess? But, don't worry! They gave us a starter kit of supplies for our home (water, emergency blanket, first aid stuff, etc) for use in case of an emergency and told us all about what to do in situations like fires and earthquakes (drop, cover, hold...now you know!). The presenter was knowledgable and really funny, so it actually kept my attention for several hours. Hmm...I'm still thinking the moms might get more worry than relief from this paragraph...sorry!
Finally, my work has a three-day, two-night training conference this week from Tuesday to Thursday in Wenatchee, WA (which is apparently a small town east of here known for their apple-growing...sound like Michigan to anyone?). I get to stay in a hotel with a really nice girl (Melissa) from my Reading Corps team who is also married. I'm excited to get to know my teammates more, and I hope some of the trainings will provide useful information for me to put into practice at my school. On Friday, we'll be back in Seattle for another team training with just my group, so I'm a bit sad that I won't be at school for most of the week... Pray that Kayle will survive for a few days on his own!! :)
Kayle's work is also going well. He finished adding a new feature and is working on adding another, more complicated one now. I guess I'm not really allowed to say anything exact about what he's doing (confidentality and all that) so you'll have to ask him personally if you're itching to know more. I hope it suffices to say that "he likes his job."
Another big event from this weekend was a party to celebrate a friend's return from Japan. We played Wii, ate Mochi balls (an ice cream dessert), saw some pictures of his trip, and had a blast playing Cranium. It was a fun night and Kayle especially enjoyed beating everyone at Kirby's Avalanche. I loved being on a Cranium team with Kayle and winning the game (I guess Kayle and I know each other well enough to guess effectively). The party was at Joe's house (it was for one of his roommates, Jordan). About 10-12 of us were there.
I also went to the Notre Dame-Washington game in Husky Stadium on Saturday. Kayle gave his ticket to my friend, Sarah Jenkins (from ND), so I went with her. We had a lot of fun catching up on each other's lives, going to a huge ND tailgate put on by the alumni club, watching ND crush Washington (even though our team did not play all that well), and hearing from another avid ND fan all about our team this year and his predictions for the next few years. It was a bit nostalgic to cheer on the Irish in person again, and both of us missed ND stadium and the thrills of the student section. Hopefully, I'll make it back to South Bend for a game at some point...
Other random news:
-Kayle has been working on his chess game all week, taking online tutorials and solving chess problems. If he asks you to play over Christmas, beware!
-I lost my backpack by leaving it on the bus this week, but thankfully got it back the next day by visiting the downtown Metro bus office. I guess I shouldn't read "Little Women" while I get off the bus anymore! Still Gretel...
-Our church community group assigned "homework" last week along the theme of Song of Songs: write a letter explaining to your spouse reasons why you love them. It was fun exchanging those letters last weekend (I got two whole pages...woo hoo!).
-We're still waiting to get my insurance card for Americorps to coordinate our health insurance with Microsoft. I've been waiting to go back to the chiropractor until we get this figured out, but my back is starting to get really sore again. I hope that gets figured out soon! I also have a small bill from the doctor that we have to contest...blah...
-The rain isn't completely back yet. The last few days have been pretty warm and sunny. I think the nice weather will last a couple days before the cold drizzle starts up again. Bus stops are not nearly as pleasant when chilly and wet.
AND LASTLY,
-We bought our plane tickets to come home for Christmas!!! Yay! We're flying in on December 17th and leaving the morning of the 30th. We saved about $500 by flying on those days, but I have to miss the last Friday training session for work. My boss is not too happy about that, but I need to prioritize my family. I think I escaped this time with only a short lecture! :-/
Well, that's all I can think of for now! We love and miss you all! Thanks for hanging in there for another LONG post...
~Angie and Kayle
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Phew...New Job Coming Along...
Yeah...I know it's been a while since I've last updated. So, I thought I'd get you all up to speed on the Seattle Hinkle household.
During my last post, I had just interviewed at Meany Middle School and accepted the job with Americorps. Now, I've been working for about a month and getting into a nice routine with work and home and rest. The first week at work was all orientation, starting with a 4.5 hour paperwork session on Monday (Sept 15)- we work for the Washington State and Federal governments as well as an organization called Solid Ground, not to mention our individual sites (the schools). So, it's all very seeped in bureacracy which equals paperwork all the time! The first week of training was tough since I'm one of the only Christians on my team of 30 or so and we do a lot of discussion of values, ethical leadership, and anti-racism. But I'm getting to know my team better and have some good one-on-one and small group conversations on these things, even though I don't always have the ability to express my viewpoint in the big group discussions. I'm not in West Michigan anymore, that's for sure!
At my school, I had a slow start, getting acquainted with some students and teachers and figuring out what I'm supposed to be doing everyday. We have a great full-time YMCA staff, though, that runs after-school programs and has been at Meany for several years, so they help out a lot! I work closely with the VISTA member at my school (also with Americorps but doing more of the indirect service: volunteer recruiting, donations, making schedules, planning literacy events, etc...). Her name is Allison, and we've been getting along great as a team. Right now, I'm finally getting more into what I'll be doing for the whole school year. During the day, I'm tutoring kids one-on-one or in a small group when they are pulled out of class for more intensive work with me. I also get to do other kinds of tasks like reading aloud every Tuesday/Thursday to an 8th grade class and giving a short in-class writing assignment that I return with comments. Other odd jobs include organizing some teacher libraries by genre so kids can find books they like and hanging up student essays in the hallways for parents to see on our curriculum night. These more random tasks should slow down as I get more kids assigned to me for tutoring. After school, I help with tutoring all subjects on Monday and Thursday as well as co-teach a sign language class on Tuesdays. The YMCA after-school programs are so diverse and popular that I get to meet a whole bunch of kids this way. So far, I'm really enjoying my work at the school and am ready to keep moving towards a full tutoring schedule. Oh! I also went to a cool All-City tutor training held at another middle school over the weekend (this Saturday). It was very helpful with suggesting useful activities and strategies for various levels of readers, and I'm glad I went. Although, I did win a rather bulky box full of prizes at the raffle that I had to take home on the Metro bus...eek! Oh...and speaking of busses...I'm MUCH more comfortable riding them around than I was at the time of my last post. My daily commute is only about 1/2 hour and Kayle (bless his heart) drives me to and from a bus stop nearer to his work in order to save me time in the morning. (That means he's been working the 8-8.5 hours/day I've been at school PLUS the time it takes me to get to and from the bus stop where we meet...awww, sweet.)
Kayle's work is still going well. He's been picking up a lot more of what he'll be doing on his team and is enjoying learning all kinds of new things. He comes home some days and tells me he "fixed a bug" or worked alongside someone else for the day. Overall, he's happy at his job, so I guess that's good! :)
In other news, church is going fantastic. We just joined a community group which discusses the sermons on Tuesdays. We like it especially because it has a variety of experience in it: a couple married 35 years, several just having kids, another newlywed couple and a few singles of various ages. This makes the conversation so much richer, and we feel lucky to have some guidance and wisdom from people at so many stages of life. We are still almost done with the membership process. Kayle is trying to figure out where he wants to serve the church (music, tech, development, set-up, etc...), but I have already started meeting the kids at Proxy, the middle/high-school youth group at Mars Hill. After our membership is complete, I'll probably start helping with the younger kids ministries on Sunday morning as well.
The other (mostly) fantastic thing is the Notre Dame football team this year. I'm so excited at their improvement! No more 3-9, and the announcer said this weekend that "this is a brand new team compared to last year". Jimmy Clausen (QB) is posting better numbers every week and, while we're not GREAT this year, we show a lot of promise for next season! We have tickets for the Washington-Notre Dame game this upcoming Saturday and I look forward to cheering on the Irish in person again. The Michigan team is another story...cough, Toledo, cough...
As the Seattlelites say, "the rain is back." This basically means gray skies and drizzle and fog every day. This is true about half the time now, but the clouds will soon take over full-time until summer... However, Kayle and I finally got over our persistant colds and are waking up each morning refreshed and ready for a new day (for the most part, at least!).
Finally, our cooking ability is still improving despite being much busier than before both of us were working. We've "discovered" the wonders and joy of the crock-pot and having a warm dinner when we get home from work. We try to make pot roast or pulled pork once/week now. We've also mostly mastered the Hinkle spaghetti and meat sauce recipe and have tried (with general success) London Broil, banana bread, marinated steak, chicken picatta, etc. One of my most treasured parts of the day is making and eating a warm breakfast together- we always have pancakes, belgian waffles, french toast (not too often), or bacon/eggs in the morning, which makes for a great start to every day. YUM!! We also have been trying to eat more fruits/vegetables. We especially have been enjoying fresh strawberries, asparagus, and pineapples. We've officially cut down the number of times we have pizza for dinner to about once every two weeks! YAY!
We're so happy to hear from all of you, and it's been CRAZY to try to call tons of people on the weekends. By the time I get out of work, it's usually pretty late at home. Keep leaving us messages and e-mails, because we LOVE to be updated on everyone's lives!
Keep praying for wisdom and prudence in my discussions at work and for our marriage to continue improving despite being more busy. We love you and miss you!!
Angie and Kayle
During my last post, I had just interviewed at Meany Middle School and accepted the job with Americorps. Now, I've been working for about a month and getting into a nice routine with work and home and rest. The first week at work was all orientation, starting with a 4.5 hour paperwork session on Monday (Sept 15)- we work for the Washington State and Federal governments as well as an organization called Solid Ground, not to mention our individual sites (the schools). So, it's all very seeped in bureacracy which equals paperwork all the time! The first week of training was tough since I'm one of the only Christians on my team of 30 or so and we do a lot of discussion of values, ethical leadership, and anti-racism. But I'm getting to know my team better and have some good one-on-one and small group conversations on these things, even though I don't always have the ability to express my viewpoint in the big group discussions. I'm not in West Michigan anymore, that's for sure!
At my school, I had a slow start, getting acquainted with some students and teachers and figuring out what I'm supposed to be doing everyday. We have a great full-time YMCA staff, though, that runs after-school programs and has been at Meany for several years, so they help out a lot! I work closely with the VISTA member at my school (also with Americorps but doing more of the indirect service: volunteer recruiting, donations, making schedules, planning literacy events, etc...). Her name is Allison, and we've been getting along great as a team. Right now, I'm finally getting more into what I'll be doing for the whole school year. During the day, I'm tutoring kids one-on-one or in a small group when they are pulled out of class for more intensive work with me. I also get to do other kinds of tasks like reading aloud every Tuesday/Thursday to an 8th grade class and giving a short in-class writing assignment that I return with comments. Other odd jobs include organizing some teacher libraries by genre so kids can find books they like and hanging up student essays in the hallways for parents to see on our curriculum night. These more random tasks should slow down as I get more kids assigned to me for tutoring. After school, I help with tutoring all subjects on Monday and Thursday as well as co-teach a sign language class on Tuesdays. The YMCA after-school programs are so diverse and popular that I get to meet a whole bunch of kids this way. So far, I'm really enjoying my work at the school and am ready to keep moving towards a full tutoring schedule. Oh! I also went to a cool All-City tutor training held at another middle school over the weekend (this Saturday). It was very helpful with suggesting useful activities and strategies for various levels of readers, and I'm glad I went. Although, I did win a rather bulky box full of prizes at the raffle that I had to take home on the Metro bus...eek! Oh...and speaking of busses...I'm MUCH more comfortable riding them around than I was at the time of my last post. My daily commute is only about 1/2 hour and Kayle (bless his heart) drives me to and from a bus stop nearer to his work in order to save me time in the morning. (That means he's been working the 8-8.5 hours/day I've been at school PLUS the time it takes me to get to and from the bus stop where we meet...awww, sweet.)
Kayle's work is still going well. He's been picking up a lot more of what he'll be doing on his team and is enjoying learning all kinds of new things. He comes home some days and tells me he "fixed a bug" or worked alongside someone else for the day. Overall, he's happy at his job, so I guess that's good! :)
In other news, church is going fantastic. We just joined a community group which discusses the sermons on Tuesdays. We like it especially because it has a variety of experience in it: a couple married 35 years, several just having kids, another newlywed couple and a few singles of various ages. This makes the conversation so much richer, and we feel lucky to have some guidance and wisdom from people at so many stages of life. We are still almost done with the membership process. Kayle is trying to figure out where he wants to serve the church (music, tech, development, set-up, etc...), but I have already started meeting the kids at Proxy, the middle/high-school youth group at Mars Hill. After our membership is complete, I'll probably start helping with the younger kids ministries on Sunday morning as well.
The other (mostly) fantastic thing is the Notre Dame football team this year. I'm so excited at their improvement! No more 3-9, and the announcer said this weekend that "this is a brand new team compared to last year". Jimmy Clausen (QB) is posting better numbers every week and, while we're not GREAT this year, we show a lot of promise for next season! We have tickets for the Washington-Notre Dame game this upcoming Saturday and I look forward to cheering on the Irish in person again. The Michigan team is another story...cough, Toledo, cough...
As the Seattlelites say, "the rain is back." This basically means gray skies and drizzle and fog every day. This is true about half the time now, but the clouds will soon take over full-time until summer... However, Kayle and I finally got over our persistant colds and are waking up each morning refreshed and ready for a new day (for the most part, at least!).
Finally, our cooking ability is still improving despite being much busier than before both of us were working. We've "discovered" the wonders and joy of the crock-pot and having a warm dinner when we get home from work. We try to make pot roast or pulled pork once/week now. We've also mostly mastered the Hinkle spaghetti and meat sauce recipe and have tried (with general success) London Broil, banana bread, marinated steak, chicken picatta, etc. One of my most treasured parts of the day is making and eating a warm breakfast together- we always have pancakes, belgian waffles, french toast (not too often), or bacon/eggs in the morning, which makes for a great start to every day. YUM!! We also have been trying to eat more fruits/vegetables. We especially have been enjoying fresh strawberries, asparagus, and pineapples. We've officially cut down the number of times we have pizza for dinner to about once every two weeks! YAY!
We're so happy to hear from all of you, and it's been CRAZY to try to call tons of people on the weekends. By the time I get out of work, it's usually pretty late at home. Keep leaving us messages and e-mails, because we LOVE to be updated on everyone's lives!
Keep praying for wisdom and prudence in my discussions at work and for our marriage to continue improving despite being more busy. We love you and miss you!!
Angie and Kayle
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
Angie Vs. Metro Bus System
Kayle and I enjoyed a long labor day weekend. On Saturday, Kayle went hiking with Joe, Brenda, and two other friends, mostly to "head for the hills" in escape of my girl's scrapbooking party. It sounds like he had fun on his hike but ended up going farther than they originally anticipated (they had one enthusiastic companion). My party was fun with about 5 other girls from the Microsoft 20 CF bible study and 1 friend from Notre Dame who moved out to Seattle for a year of post-grad service. We found out that Sarah (the ND friend) lives downtown only a few blocks from the school where I'll probably be tutoring. We might also give Kayle's ND football ticket to her, since he's not too "fired up" about cheering for the Irish and it'll be much more fun with a fellow Notre Dame fan. She might be going to the tv game watches with me as well...I'm pretty pleased to have someone from my dorm at school living so close! Overall, the party was really fun with fresh-baked "Hinkle cookies" (not quite as good as the originals, but we're working on it!), some scrapbooking madness, and plenty of conversation. Mostly, it was just good to get to know some other girls on a deeper level.
On Sunday, we went to Mars Hill and I had my interview for the youth/children's ministry. It sounds like the youth group for middle school/high school (called "Proxy") is sort of like Peace Youth Group as far as general order of the night (except it meets on Wednesdays, not Sundays), although Proxy takes 1 week each month for a shared meal together instead of the regular youth group game, lesson, worship, and small groups. I'm anxious to start contributing to my church, but I have to complete the membership process before getting more involved with youth. Only 9 more sermons to go...
On Labor Day, we were originally planning to go to the zoo or aquarium, since it only costs $5 each with the Microsoft discount and I was really excited to check them out. However, I was sick all day with a bad cold and pretty much stayed in bed. :( Coughing up a lung, headache, weak voice, and bellyache = no fun on Labor Day. Kayle ran to the store and got me 3 kinds of cough drops and cough syrup, and today I feel much better (though not quite back to normal). Blah...
Today was a big day for me and I woke up nervous. I had an interview scheduled at Meany Middle School at 10 am in Seattle near Capitol Hill. The major obstacle: 2 Seattle buses. Having never ridden the bus before, I took down extensive notes from the online trip planner but still felt quite nervous. We ended up leaving in a rush, afraid I was going to fail the very first test by missing the first bus into the city. But, thankfully, I made it with about 5 minutes to spare (Kayle dropped me off on the way to work). Phew! So now, I'm anxiously looking for the Montlake Blvd stop and since the driver was mumbling all the names after the bus already stopped, I could barely understand where we were let alone know if my stop was next. But again, I got off at the right stop, and with some help, found the stop to wait at next. On the next bus, the driver didn't even say the stop names at all and skipped all the ones that no one pulled the cord for. Eek! I hoped I would see a street sign BEFORE we zoomed by, and I did. Glad to be off the bus and miraculously about 1/2 hour early, I looked around and realized I could see no school. So I picked a direction and walked and, soon after, saw what appeared to be a school. God must've been with me today, because I was a lost cause (literally lost!) without some serious help! The weird event of the day was seeing a deranged squirrel that was flopping around in the street, about a 1.5 feet in the air. I guessed its head was probably run over or something, but it was pretty scary and I just hoped it didn't flop anywhere near my sidewalk (or I'd have been running fast the other way). Making it to the school, I had an interview and learned that the position is specifically to improve the literacy of the students through tutoring and I would be working closely with a literacy coach (who administers school-wide assessments to discern which students need the most help, trains teachers in literacy-improving techniques, and puts on events/special projects) and an Americorps VISTA student in charge of recruiting volunteers. Meany has an after-school program, so it should be easy to get my 1700 hours in (they said the person last year just worked 8-4 every day). They also mentioned that they encourage me to be creative, and, if I come up with a good school-wide project or event, they will try to get the funding and donations to make it happen. I guess the guy last year made a book of poems and stories written by the middle-schoolers and gave out copies to the students (who apparently were quite proud of their contributions). There's 500 students in the school overall with 85% black students and 65% on reduced/free lunch. But the school is nice and clean and the houses surrounding it are in good repair (overall, it looked like a nice surrounding neighborhood with nice houses and cars). The staff, as was told to me by the Americorps program head, all seemed very nice and supportive. Overall, it seemed like a great place to work, so I hope they call to officially offer me the position soon. For all those thinking: Oh no...now she has to make it HOME on the bus, I'll cut a long story short. I got on and off all three buses on the way home, arriving shortly after noon and spending a grand total of $2.50 for the day!
At home, I ate a quick lunch of leftovers and took a long nap (still not over that cold!). I also made an appointment with the chiropractor, since my back has been bothering me for a while and Kayle insists that one of my legs is longer than the other. (!!) The appointment is tomorrow. Overall, we're doing pretty well. I am especially thankful to be settling in here and establishing some semblance of a routine.
We miss you all!
Angie and Kayle
On Sunday, we went to Mars Hill and I had my interview for the youth/children's ministry. It sounds like the youth group for middle school/high school (called "Proxy") is sort of like Peace Youth Group as far as general order of the night (except it meets on Wednesdays, not Sundays), although Proxy takes 1 week each month for a shared meal together instead of the regular youth group game, lesson, worship, and small groups. I'm anxious to start contributing to my church, but I have to complete the membership process before getting more involved with youth. Only 9 more sermons to go...
On Labor Day, we were originally planning to go to the zoo or aquarium, since it only costs $5 each with the Microsoft discount and I was really excited to check them out. However, I was sick all day with a bad cold and pretty much stayed in bed. :( Coughing up a lung, headache, weak voice, and bellyache = no fun on Labor Day. Kayle ran to the store and got me 3 kinds of cough drops and cough syrup, and today I feel much better (though not quite back to normal). Blah...
Today was a big day for me and I woke up nervous. I had an interview scheduled at Meany Middle School at 10 am in Seattle near Capitol Hill. The major obstacle: 2 Seattle buses. Having never ridden the bus before, I took down extensive notes from the online trip planner but still felt quite nervous. We ended up leaving in a rush, afraid I was going to fail the very first test by missing the first bus into the city. But, thankfully, I made it with about 5 minutes to spare (Kayle dropped me off on the way to work). Phew! So now, I'm anxiously looking for the Montlake Blvd stop and since the driver was mumbling all the names after the bus already stopped, I could barely understand where we were let alone know if my stop was next. But again, I got off at the right stop, and with some help, found the stop to wait at next. On the next bus, the driver didn't even say the stop names at all and skipped all the ones that no one pulled the cord for. Eek! I hoped I would see a street sign BEFORE we zoomed by, and I did. Glad to be off the bus and miraculously about 1/2 hour early, I looked around and realized I could see no school. So I picked a direction and walked and, soon after, saw what appeared to be a school. God must've been with me today, because I was a lost cause (literally lost!) without some serious help! The weird event of the day was seeing a deranged squirrel that was flopping around in the street, about a 1.5 feet in the air. I guessed its head was probably run over or something, but it was pretty scary and I just hoped it didn't flop anywhere near my sidewalk (or I'd have been running fast the other way). Making it to the school, I had an interview and learned that the position is specifically to improve the literacy of the students through tutoring and I would be working closely with a literacy coach (who administers school-wide assessments to discern which students need the most help, trains teachers in literacy-improving techniques, and puts on events/special projects) and an Americorps VISTA student in charge of recruiting volunteers. Meany has an after-school program, so it should be easy to get my 1700 hours in (they said the person last year just worked 8-4 every day). They also mentioned that they encourage me to be creative, and, if I come up with a good school-wide project or event, they will try to get the funding and donations to make it happen. I guess the guy last year made a book of poems and stories written by the middle-schoolers and gave out copies to the students (who apparently were quite proud of their contributions). There's 500 students in the school overall with 85% black students and 65% on reduced/free lunch. But the school is nice and clean and the houses surrounding it are in good repair (overall, it looked like a nice surrounding neighborhood with nice houses and cars). The staff, as was told to me by the Americorps program head, all seemed very nice and supportive. Overall, it seemed like a great place to work, so I hope they call to officially offer me the position soon. For all those thinking: Oh no...now she has to make it HOME on the bus, I'll cut a long story short. I got on and off all three buses on the way home, arriving shortly after noon and spending a grand total of $2.50 for the day!
At home, I ate a quick lunch of leftovers and took a long nap (still not over that cold!). I also made an appointment with the chiropractor, since my back has been bothering me for a while and Kayle insists that one of my legs is longer than the other. (!!) The appointment is tomorrow. Overall, we're doing pretty well. I am especially thankful to be settling in here and establishing some semblance of a routine.
We miss you all!
Angie and Kayle
Monday, August 25, 2008
Yay! Job for Angie!
That's really the only news: that I accepted a job with the Americorps program that tutors middle-schoolers. This will mean bright and early mornings, a long bus ride, and, hopefully, a chance to be a good role model and teacher to some kids who need it. I don't make much money, but it sure beats being home all day!
Kayle and I also decided to become members of Mars Hill. We have friends there, the preaching is challenging and Scriptural, the worship is diverse, and they try really hard to get everyone plugged into community groups and service. We found out that a community group meets right in our neighborhood, but it temporarily meeting one town over. It's for young singles and marrieds, so we hope to visit and fit right in. Angie is also applying to work in the youth ministry (about 6 nights/month) and children's ministry (every other Sunday morning). The membership process is long (13 hour long sermons to listen to!) but I think it will be beneficial. There's hardly been a sermon yet where I didn't learn something new or think about something in a new way. The first sermon was on the Trinity- very good. I recommend listening to the Mars Hill sermons online.
Finally, we have internet at home now, so we'll be able to reply to e-mails much quicker. We're all signed up for our medical, dental, life insurance, and 401 (K) through Microsoft. Now, we just need to find a doctor, dentist, and car insurance. Phew....moving is hard work!
We really miss you all...I was already looking for plane tickets today for Christmas. Can't wait to see you!
Angie and Kayle
Kayle and I also decided to become members of Mars Hill. We have friends there, the preaching is challenging and Scriptural, the worship is diverse, and they try really hard to get everyone plugged into community groups and service. We found out that a community group meets right in our neighborhood, but it temporarily meeting one town over. It's for young singles and marrieds, so we hope to visit and fit right in. Angie is also applying to work in the youth ministry (about 6 nights/month) and children's ministry (every other Sunday morning). The membership process is long (13 hour long sermons to listen to!) but I think it will be beneficial. There's hardly been a sermon yet where I didn't learn something new or think about something in a new way. The first sermon was on the Trinity- very good. I recommend listening to the Mars Hill sermons online.
Finally, we have internet at home now, so we'll be able to reply to e-mails much quicker. We're all signed up for our medical, dental, life insurance, and 401 (K) through Microsoft. Now, we just need to find a doctor, dentist, and car insurance. Phew....moving is hard work!
We really miss you all...I was already looking for plane tickets today for Christmas. Can't wait to see you!
Angie and Kayle
Friday, August 15, 2008
Lots of Interviews!
So, Kayle is now finishing up his 3rd week at Microsoft. He's now fully contributing to his group's work of de-bugging a bunch of code. That's about all I understand about his job, so you'll have to ask him if you want more details. So far, he likes his boss, his office mate, and the few other guys that he goes to lunch with. It sounds like he's settling in well there...
Meanwhile, I have been searching hard for a job. I applied but didn't get the positions at the Gates Foundation and have subsequently been looking at Americorps (think: domestic Peace Corps). I have attended 5 interviews this week alone (phew!), 3 of which were broad program interviews while 2 were at the actual site I would be working. The two programs I am most interested in are the Hopelink and Solid Ground. Hopelink is a broad non-profit conveniently located in Bellevue. I would be teaching ESL and GED classes there to mostly adults. Solid Ground has a tutoring program for kids at their respective schools in Seattle during the school day. The school sites are all about 10 miles away with one being an elementary school, one a middle school, and one both. All the Americorps programs offer extensive training during the 10-11 month commitment with "team meeting days" 2-4 times/month (depending on the program). It sounds like I would be challenged and learn a lot! However, I'm still looking at other programs/sites... Pray for the decision I'll have to make in the next few weeks!
Kayle and I have been enjoying the people we've met along the way too. On Tuesday, after my second interview that day, I visited a friend up in Marysville that we met at bible study. It was a nice visit and a long 2 hour chat. This Wednesday, Kayle and I joined Brenda and Joe to go see the new Batman movie on IMAX in Seattle (Microsoft's discount makes IMAX tickets only $3 each...cool!). On Thursdays, we've been going to 20 CF (Christian Fellowship) which is a 20-something bible study through Microsoft. On Sundays, we still enjoy weekly lunches with some friends after chuch. Tomorrow, we hope to meet a new married couple also from Michigan. We're going out for lunch or dinner with them and maybe to a church youth group event. Kayle knows Steve from classes at U of M, and they both now work for Microsoft. Overall, it's been a nice place to meet people. Seattle is such a growing area that it seems most of the people our age have been here for 4 years or less. So, basically, everyone is eager for new friends.
We love hearing from you all! We just got a new cell phone number that we're sharing between the two of us: 425-999-2229 (how easy!). I'm still carrying my old cell too for a while. Feel free to call anytime!
Angie and Kayle
P.S. We MISS you!
Meanwhile, I have been searching hard for a job. I applied but didn't get the positions at the Gates Foundation and have subsequently been looking at Americorps (think: domestic Peace Corps). I have attended 5 interviews this week alone (phew!), 3 of which were broad program interviews while 2 were at the actual site I would be working. The two programs I am most interested in are the Hopelink and Solid Ground. Hopelink is a broad non-profit conveniently located in Bellevue. I would be teaching ESL and GED classes there to mostly adults. Solid Ground has a tutoring program for kids at their respective schools in Seattle during the school day. The school sites are all about 10 miles away with one being an elementary school, one a middle school, and one both. All the Americorps programs offer extensive training during the 10-11 month commitment with "team meeting days" 2-4 times/month (depending on the program). It sounds like I would be challenged and learn a lot! However, I'm still looking at other programs/sites... Pray for the decision I'll have to make in the next few weeks!
Kayle and I have been enjoying the people we've met along the way too. On Tuesday, after my second interview that day, I visited a friend up in Marysville that we met at bible study. It was a nice visit and a long 2 hour chat. This Wednesday, Kayle and I joined Brenda and Joe to go see the new Batman movie on IMAX in Seattle (Microsoft's discount makes IMAX tickets only $3 each...cool!). On Thursdays, we've been going to 20 CF (Christian Fellowship) which is a 20-something bible study through Microsoft. On Sundays, we still enjoy weekly lunches with some friends after chuch. Tomorrow, we hope to meet a new married couple also from Michigan. We're going out for lunch or dinner with them and maybe to a church youth group event. Kayle knows Steve from classes at U of M, and they both now work for Microsoft. Overall, it's been a nice place to meet people. Seattle is such a growing area that it seems most of the people our age have been here for 4 years or less. So, basically, everyone is eager for new friends.
We love hearing from you all! We just got a new cell phone number that we're sharing between the two of us: 425-999-2229 (how easy!). I'm still carrying my old cell too for a while. Feel free to call anytime!
Angie and Kayle
P.S. We MISS you!
Thursday, August 7, 2008
I'm Singing in the Rain!
Wow! It's been a while since my last post. Kayle has now been at Microsoft for 1.5 weeks and seems to be enjoying it immensely. We took a bike ride to Kayle's work on Sunday, and I was surprised to see that they have a pool table (to let off some steam during the work day) and free beverages all day (pretty much anything you could ever want!). Since then, Kayle has been riding his bike to work everyday and I have been able to have the car and run errands. It's only about 3 miles to his building, and there's sidewalks and bike trails the whole way. In fact, I think you can get almost ANYWHERE in Redmond on a bike trail or sidewalk. Apparently they live up to their title: "Bicycle Capital of the World." Kayle really likes his co-workers and now has his work computer all set up. The whole team is de-bugging before an upcoming deadline, and Kayle says he feels like he understands the overall project a lot better now. I can see why Kayle likes work so much: so many perks! Sometimes I wonder how much work he gets done at work. Yesterday, Coldstone came in and gave all the guys free ice cream. Today, half the day is cancelled for a development division BBQ and tomorrow we have an open house (also during work) to sign up for our medical/dental/etc benefits. Hmm...I think this week is unusual, but still!
Meanwhile, Angie has been running all over town. On Tuesday, I went to Kohl's, Bed, Bath, and Beyond, Great Clips (got a shoulder-length haircut), the mechanic, Kinko's, the post office, and the grocery store. Yesterday, I spent 2.5 hours at the mechanic. He's so nice, though. Since I had to bring it back for the same problem (the check-engine light came back on), he repaired everything and re-checked it several times without charging me for labor at all. I only had to pay $36 (for the part he special-ordered), and they worked on it for about 2 hours! He was apologetic for my "inconvenience" but I am very grateful to have such an honest mechanic. (And he explains in detail exactly what is wrong with your car every time...drawing pictures and everything!) :)
Yesterday was also fun because Brenda (a new friend) came over in the morning to hang out with me. We grabbed smoothies and headed to Kirkland's beach on Lake Washington. To our surprise, Wednesday is concert day in that park, and they had a singing cowboy (who sort of sounded like Elvis) and tons of moms with their young kids (and their free popsicles). It was a happy crowd, to say the least. Then, we walked around downtown Kirkland, browsing the boutiques and chatting. It was a great morning! Brenda told me they had a movie in the park right near our house at night, so Kayle and I went to an outdoor set-up with our pillows and blankets to see "Singing in the Rain". What a wonderful event! They had the local dance troop tap-dancing while we waited for it to get dark enough and an ice cream truck was there. We had fun and went to bed tired. The parks here are so central to community life and so fun!
Well, I think that's all for this past week. I've been working on a scrapbook of our trip out West and Em J showed me a really easy and cool program to take digital photos and make a book on your computer: http://mypublisher.com/. Check it out! She's going to use it to make my wedding photo album too.
We miss you all!
Angie and Kayle
Meanwhile, Angie has been running all over town. On Tuesday, I went to Kohl's, Bed, Bath, and Beyond, Great Clips (got a shoulder-length haircut), the mechanic, Kinko's, the post office, and the grocery store. Yesterday, I spent 2.5 hours at the mechanic. He's so nice, though. Since I had to bring it back for the same problem (the check-engine light came back on), he repaired everything and re-checked it several times without charging me for labor at all. I only had to pay $36 (for the part he special-ordered), and they worked on it for about 2 hours! He was apologetic for my "inconvenience" but I am very grateful to have such an honest mechanic. (And he explains in detail exactly what is wrong with your car every time...drawing pictures and everything!) :)
Yesterday was also fun because Brenda (a new friend) came over in the morning to hang out with me. We grabbed smoothies and headed to Kirkland's beach on Lake Washington. To our surprise, Wednesday is concert day in that park, and they had a singing cowboy (who sort of sounded like Elvis) and tons of moms with their young kids (and their free popsicles). It was a happy crowd, to say the least. Then, we walked around downtown Kirkland, browsing the boutiques and chatting. It was a great morning! Brenda told me they had a movie in the park right near our house at night, so Kayle and I went to an outdoor set-up with our pillows and blankets to see "Singing in the Rain". What a wonderful event! They had the local dance troop tap-dancing while we waited for it to get dark enough and an ice cream truck was there. We had fun and went to bed tired. The parks here are so central to community life and so fun!
Well, I think that's all for this past week. I've been working on a scrapbook of our trip out West and Em J showed me a really easy and cool program to take digital photos and make a book on your computer: http://mypublisher.com/. Check it out! She's going to use it to make my wedding photo album too.
We miss you all!
Angie and Kayle
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Last Trip Pics Online, FINALLY!
Here are the pictures from the tail end of our trip. Sorry, they're a bit more dull than the previous albums! This one covers the Northern California countryside (I was bored in the car...), the Pacific coast, Redwood National Park/Forest, and Crater Lake. Hope you enjoy!
http://picasaweb.google.com/Angie.Hinkle/NorthernCaliAndCraterLake
At some point, when our condo is unpacked, cleaned up, and maybe decorated a bit, I'll post some pictures of where we live. Supposedly, some people are curious...
Angie and Kayle :)
http://picasaweb.google.com/Angie.Hinkle/NorthernCaliAndCraterLake
At some point, when our condo is unpacked, cleaned up, and maybe decorated a bit, I'll post some pictures of where we live. Supposedly, some people are curious...
Angie and Kayle :)
Monday, July 28, 2008
Kayle's 1st Day of Work
Well, the good news is we finally got our stuff from the moving company. After about 10 phone calls (he kept requesting that we call him and get an update on his location) and finding out 5 minutes before he arrived that he was for sure coming that day, the big truck pulled up. I guess the driver was giving Kayle a hard time at first and couldn't show him a weight receipt that proved our load was 450 lbs overweight, so Kayle told me to call the non-emergency police line to have an officer there to facilitate the process. We ended up paying the amount the driver wanted anyway (since teh driver had no power to change it, and we planned to file a complaint on the company). The police officer didn't have to do much, but Kayle just wanted to make sure the truck wouldn't drive away with our stuff forever. We checked all the boxes as they came in and made sure we had every one (we did- they were all numbered). Overall, the driver was nice. We told him to go work for a different company, since he had plenty of experience driving. After a rocky start, we offered some water to the workers, helped with checking all the boxes, and everything went fine for the rest. The driver even said "God bless you" as he left. That made me smile.
After the moving company left, we headed to David and Megan's house for Joe's birthday party. We missed the BBQ (that's when the moving co. showed up) but had fun playing board games with the group that was there. They were mostly people we met last week at lunch after church. Angie played this bean-planting card game with mostly girls (plus Joe and Mike) and Kayle played Settlers with the rest of the guys. Both of us had fun but were exhausted by the time we got home.
On Sunday, we went back to Mars Hill's Bellevue church. We really liked the sermon the week before and decided to go there until the series was over and we could hear the local pastor preach one week (Mark Driscoll is the main preaching pastor and the sermon is recorded and sent to all the locations for most weeks; the rest of the time, a pastor assigned to each location gives their own sermon). I think we will try a few other churches before deciding on one. Bellevue Christian Reformed Church is near-by too...maybe we'll stop there next...
After church, we went out to lunch again with the same group as last week. This time, we went to a cool sushi place with a long conveyor belt which goes by every table. To "order," you simply take whatever looks good and the price, $1.50-$4, is indicated by the color of the plate. I ate yummy asparagus rolls and philadelphia rolls (smoked salmon, cream cheese, and something else in a rice rolls). Kayle didn't eat there- he said it smelled gross. But he sat and chatted with everyone. I admit, the restaurant did smell strongly of different kinds of raw fish and shellfish, and pretty much everything was wrapped in rice. Poor Kayle...he had to wait until we got home for lunch. :( We unpacked a bit in the afternoon and I gave Kayle a haircut for work. Mostly, we were exhausted and went to bed early.
Today was Kayle's first day of work at Microsoft. It was an all-day new employee orientation that explained company values, benefits, paperwork, and some new technology. Kayle said there were about 180 other new employees starting this week too (I guess Microsoft gets about 12,000 new employees every year!). Four of these were guys from Univ. of Michigan, and Kayle recognized one from classes together. He got home early (around 4:30), but I was already itching for him to arrive. I spent all day cleaning and unpacking. One more day should do it! Then, I'll have to find a job to avoid going crazy all alone in the house all day! It's nice to have a fully stocked kitchen. We were having a hard time cooking with only 1 small egg pan and 1 brownie pan. Now, we have our George Foreman grill, toaster oven, microwave, and lots of pots/pans to use! We celebrated by cooking chicken picatta over pasta for dinner. Yum!
Still no internet at home, but we should get it sometime this week. Let's just say, we're less than impresssed with the speed of Verizon's modem delivery.
We miss you all and love hearing from you! Don't be afraid to call and catch up! 616-826-4862
Angie and Kayle
On Sunday,
After the moving company left, we headed to David and Megan's house for Joe's birthday party. We missed the BBQ (that's when the moving co. showed up) but had fun playing board games with the group that was there. They were mostly people we met last week at lunch after church. Angie played this bean-planting card game with mostly girls (plus Joe and Mike) and Kayle played Settlers with the rest of the guys. Both of us had fun but were exhausted by the time we got home.
On Sunday, we went back to Mars Hill's Bellevue church. We really liked the sermon the week before and decided to go there until the series was over and we could hear the local pastor preach one week (Mark Driscoll is the main preaching pastor and the sermon is recorded and sent to all the locations for most weeks; the rest of the time, a pastor assigned to each location gives their own sermon). I think we will try a few other churches before deciding on one. Bellevue Christian Reformed Church is near-by too...maybe we'll stop there next...
After church, we went out to lunch again with the same group as last week. This time, we went to a cool sushi place with a long conveyor belt which goes by every table. To "order," you simply take whatever looks good and the price, $1.50-$4, is indicated by the color of the plate. I ate yummy asparagus rolls and philadelphia rolls (smoked salmon, cream cheese, and something else in a rice rolls). Kayle didn't eat there- he said it smelled gross. But he sat and chatted with everyone. I admit, the restaurant did smell strongly of different kinds of raw fish and shellfish, and pretty much everything was wrapped in rice. Poor Kayle...he had to wait until we got home for lunch. :( We unpacked a bit in the afternoon and I gave Kayle a haircut for work. Mostly, we were exhausted and went to bed early.
Today was Kayle's first day of work at Microsoft. It was an all-day new employee orientation that explained company values, benefits, paperwork, and some new technology. Kayle said there were about 180 other new employees starting this week too (I guess Microsoft gets about 12,000 new employees every year!). Four of these were guys from Univ. of Michigan, and Kayle recognized one from classes together. He got home early (around 4:30), but I was already itching for him to arrive. I spent all day cleaning and unpacking. One more day should do it! Then, I'll have to find a job to avoid going crazy all alone in the house all day! It's nice to have a fully stocked kitchen. We were having a hard time cooking with only 1 small egg pan and 1 brownie pan. Now, we have our George Foreman grill, toaster oven, microwave, and lots of pots/pans to use! We celebrated by cooking chicken picatta over pasta for dinner. Yum!
Still no internet at home, but we should get it sometime this week. Let's just say, we're less than impresssed with the speed of Verizon's modem delivery.
We miss you all and love hearing from you! Don't be afraid to call and catch up! 616-826-4862
Angie and Kayle
On Sunday,
Saturday, July 26, 2008
Furniture Coming In...Mice Going out...
Well, we've kept busy the last few days: opening a credit union account, dealing with our moving company (of whom we are growing less and less fond), searching Craigslist, getting a library card (yes, very important!), and hanging out with some new friends (we went to a GREAT bible study group on Thursday night). Our furniture count now includes a queen size mattress and boxspring, coffeetable, 2 end tables, 2 office chairs, and a nice wood desk. The dining room table/chairs and maybe a couch or two we have yet to find. Phew!
We went to Home Depot yesterday to find a solution to our mouse problem. We decided to invest in a live trap and a set of regular mousetraps. The deal I made with Kayle was, if the live trap didn't work the first night, then we have to try his traps next (and the mice might not live to see outside our apartment). Good thing we caught a live mouse on the first try!! The little (cute) vermin is now running free in the park with a big belly full of peanut butter.
Also, after failing our emissions test, we fixed our car and finally got it all set and registered with Washington plates. It took some convincing to avoid having to pay sales tax on our in-family transfer of the title, but the woman took pity on us eventually (saving us over $250!).
Well, nothing is too exciting here (though sleeping on a bed instead of the floor is pretty great). We're going to a BBQ tonight for Joe's birthday and might get our moving company stuff dropped off tonight or tomorrow. Our house is finally feeling more like a home...now, we just need internet!!
We miss you!!
Angie and Kayle
We went to Home Depot yesterday to find a solution to our mouse problem. We decided to invest in a live trap and a set of regular mousetraps. The deal I made with Kayle was, if the live trap didn't work the first night, then we have to try his traps next (and the mice might not live to see outside our apartment). Good thing we caught a live mouse on the first try!! The little (cute) vermin is now running free in the park with a big belly full of peanut butter.
Also, after failing our emissions test, we fixed our car and finally got it all set and registered with Washington plates. It took some convincing to avoid having to pay sales tax on our in-family transfer of the title, but the woman took pity on us eventually (saving us over $250!).
Well, nothing is too exciting here (though sleeping on a bed instead of the floor is pretty great). We're going to a BBQ tonight for Joe's birthday and might get our moving company stuff dropped off tonight or tomorrow. Our house is finally feeling more like a home...now, we just need internet!!
We miss you!!
Angie and Kayle
Monday, July 21, 2008
Eek! A mouse!
We've been here a few days now, still undergoing the painstaking process of "settling in". After several shopping trips, we now have a stocked kitchen (well, one egg pan, a brownie pan, kitchen utensil set, steak knives, plastic utensils, cheap dishware set, and lots of food), a shower curtain, lots of trash cans, and two IKEA bar stools. It's a start. It seems like we run around all day and get little accomplished. Unfortunately, we're still working on getting a bed and an internet connection, both of which will be VERY WELCOME soon. But at least our bathroom and kitchen seem well-stocked now...
Also, we managed to fail our emissions test on the Cavalier. Our "blah blah blah solenoid thingy" was broken- about $200 to fix! Hopefully we pass next year or this car will be too expensive to keep for long...
Yesterday, we went to church with Joe and Brenda (who have been inviting us to eat meals and hang out with them and their friends lately- so nice!) at Mars Hill, the multi-campus mega-church here. The Bellevue campus is quite large and had a video sermon of the head pastor, Mark Driscoll, beamed in from the main Seattle campus. The sermon was about learning to pray like Jesus, and we both agreed that it was insightful and instructive- it went through the teachings and practice of Jesus on prayer and used examples from the pastor's own life regarding his 5 kids addressing their daddy with requests and companionship. The sermon was the first in a short series over the next few weeks. Mars Hill offers all sorts of community groups, bible studies, and service opportunities, but Kayle and I want to think a little longer about what kind of church to go to permanently. We will probably check out a few more before deciding and becoming members of one place.
Today, I woke up early (couldn't sleep) and decided to make a nice pancake and bacon breakfast while Kayle got ready for the day. As I started cooking, I noticed little black specks all over the perimeter of our countertop...mouse droppings, yuck! How dare the little intruder! This means war! I cleaned up the whole kitchen and made sure all the food was well out of reach (it didn't look like he got into anything- our pantry has pretty high shelves). Kayle wants to buy a mousetrap, but I don't really want to kill him... :( Then again, I really don't want mice in my home!!
We miss you all so much and love hearing from you! We relish every e-mail and phone call, so feel free to give us a ring whenever you have a few minutes to talk. Our cell phone number might change in a week or so, but I'll be sure to post the new one as soon as I can.
LOVE YOU ALL!!
Angie and Kayle
Also, we managed to fail our emissions test on the Cavalier. Our "blah blah blah solenoid thingy" was broken- about $200 to fix! Hopefully we pass next year or this car will be too expensive to keep for long...
Yesterday, we went to church with Joe and Brenda (who have been inviting us to eat meals and hang out with them and their friends lately- so nice!) at Mars Hill, the multi-campus mega-church here. The Bellevue campus is quite large and had a video sermon of the head pastor, Mark Driscoll, beamed in from the main Seattle campus. The sermon was about learning to pray like Jesus, and we both agreed that it was insightful and instructive- it went through the teachings and practice of Jesus on prayer and used examples from the pastor's own life regarding his 5 kids addressing their daddy with requests and companionship. The sermon was the first in a short series over the next few weeks. Mars Hill offers all sorts of community groups, bible studies, and service opportunities, but Kayle and I want to think a little longer about what kind of church to go to permanently. We will probably check out a few more before deciding and becoming members of one place.
Today, I woke up early (couldn't sleep) and decided to make a nice pancake and bacon breakfast while Kayle got ready for the day. As I started cooking, I noticed little black specks all over the perimeter of our countertop...mouse droppings, yuck! How dare the little intruder! This means war! I cleaned up the whole kitchen and made sure all the food was well out of reach (it didn't look like he got into anything- our pantry has pretty high shelves). Kayle wants to buy a mousetrap, but I don't really want to kill him... :( Then again, I really don't want mice in my home!!
We miss you all so much and love hearing from you! We relish every e-mail and phone call, so feel free to give us a ring whenever you have a few minutes to talk. Our cell phone number might change in a week or so, but I'll be sure to post the new one as soon as I can.
LOVE YOU ALL!!
Angie and Kayle
Thursday, July 17, 2008
Home, Sweet, Home At Last
After San Francisco, we pushed northward, through the California countryside (including a well-named "Hick's Valley Road") filled with those now-familar brown hills, green trees, and cattle. We took Highway 1 as far as we could, enjoying the view of the Pacific Ocean and getting out to walk on a beach for a while. We also drove through Redwood National Park at dusk with its huge redwood trees and stopped to watched a beautiful sunset over an ocean pier. We drove on until we were well into Oregon and finally rested at a Travellodge.
Yesterday, we drove the 1.5 hours to Crater Lake National Park, a giant, round, and dazzling blue lake formed by a collapsed volcano. We were told it is the 7th deepest lake in the world (around 2,000 feet deep) with some of the purest water (there are no streams flowing in or out; it was filled by rainfall and snow alone). The rim of the lake is steep with only one path to the water. There is also a small island (the result of the magma billowing up) called Wizard's Island. We drove around the west side of the lake, stopping to view the Visitor's Center video and see some of the viewpoints overlooking the water. It was quite cold there and snow was abundant on the hills. Kayle and I each threw a snowball before leaving the park. Finally (and quite exciting for Angie), we saw a real live black bear in the woods (looking out of the car). It was a small one and posed for a picture or two before running off.
We still had a long 8-9 hour drive after leaving Crater Lake, and we reached our long-awaited destination around 9:15 pm. Our condo in Redmond is plenty big for the two of us and we were pleased when we toured it. I especially liked having a master bathroom with two sinks and two walk-in closets. We each claimed one for our own. After lugging all of our stuff inside from the car, we ran for a late-night shopping trip to the grocery store to stock the fridge. As of right now, we have no furniture and the rest of our stuff won't arrive until sometime next week. We'll have to make due with sleeping on the floor for a while, but we plan to run some errands and look around the area today. Right now, our only internet access is the local library (which, thankfully, is pretty close), so it might take a while for me to respond to e-mails.
We miss you all!
Angie and Kayle
Yesterday, we drove the 1.5 hours to Crater Lake National Park, a giant, round, and dazzling blue lake formed by a collapsed volcano. We were told it is the 7th deepest lake in the world (around 2,000 feet deep) with some of the purest water (there are no streams flowing in or out; it was filled by rainfall and snow alone). The rim of the lake is steep with only one path to the water. There is also a small island (the result of the magma billowing up) called Wizard's Island. We drove around the west side of the lake, stopping to view the Visitor's Center video and see some of the viewpoints overlooking the water. It was quite cold there and snow was abundant on the hills. Kayle and I each threw a snowball before leaving the park. Finally (and quite exciting for Angie), we saw a real live black bear in the woods (looking out of the car). It was a small one and posed for a picture or two before running off.
We still had a long 8-9 hour drive after leaving Crater Lake, and we reached our long-awaited destination around 9:15 pm. Our condo in Redmond is plenty big for the two of us and we were pleased when we toured it. I especially liked having a master bathroom with two sinks and two walk-in closets. We each claimed one for our own. After lugging all of our stuff inside from the car, we ran for a late-night shopping trip to the grocery store to stock the fridge. As of right now, we have no furniture and the rest of our stuff won't arrive until sometime next week. We'll have to make due with sleeping on the floor for a while, but we plan to run some errands and look around the area today. Right now, our only internet access is the local library (which, thankfully, is pretty close), so it might take a while for me to respond to e-mails.
We miss you all!
Angie and Kayle
Monday, July 14, 2008
Pictures from Jelly Belly Factory/San Francisco
Here's some more pictures... I try to take enough so you can see almost everything we see on the trip. Kayle is tired of posing for pictures and almost tired of taking them too! We have a one-picture-of-the-two-of-us-per-place rule now, so most of the people shots will be candid from here on out...oh well!
http://picasaweb.google.com/Angie.Hinkle
http://picasaweb.google.com/Angie.Hinkle
Summertime in California
Wow! Summertime in California is hot and dry. As Kayle put it, "California has brown grass, green trees, and big hills." Most of the wildfires in the state are out or under control (from 1000s to around 300) now, so we shouldn't have any detours as we move north. We've seen some blackened countryside but no flames. Every field sure looks like a fire hazard though!
On Saturday, we ended up hanging around our hotel for most of the day, just about tired of sight-seeing. We met Ben in the late afternoon to go to a free outdoor concert near some shops surrounding a movie theater. There, we met one of his Intel friends from Canada and another girl, Selah, that he brought along. The one-man band (named "Rock Minstrel") was disappointing, so we meandered along the little streetway, stopping in a coffee-shop and Bistro. We had fun, just conversing and walking around in the well-watered, scenic shopping center. It was a nice night.
On Sunday, we left Folsom for the San Francisco area, stopping at the Jelly Belly factory store on the way. We took the factory tour, learning about the 20-day process of making a gourmet jelly bean and preparing it for shipment. We got free samples of different flavors at the sample bar and purchased some "belly flops," jelly bellys that didn't quite pass the quality/shape inspection. The tour was fun, including the mandatory little hats we had to wear. They even had a little cafe where all the food served was shaped like a jelly bean (actually quite strange). Also interesting was the colorful jelly bean artwork, each piece of which comprised over 10,000 jelly bellys and featured famous people, eagles, Mr. Jelly Belly, and, even Donald Duck. It definitely looked tedious! Also, apparently Ronald Reagan was practically addicted to Jelly Bellys and made them a staple at all his meetings as governor and president. They even designed special containers to keep them from spilling on Air Force One! We left, sugared out and hauling 6 lbs of belly flops (buy 2 get 1 free 2 lb. bags)- basically, we're hoping some of you visit us soon and eat them for us! We got to the hotel in Pleasant Hills, a place where we could scarcely find a car comparable to ours (everyone seems to drive luxury automobiles, big trucks, and SUVs). Our hotel was comfortable, so we decided to just hang out again for the night.
Today, we made plans to pick up my friend, Hallie Brewster, from her house and go to San Francisco to tour the city. Hallie is an upcoming sophomore at Notre Dame and in my accountability group for bible study last year. We went to Fisherman's Wharf (lots of fresh fish and crabs...one guy tried to entice us to eat from his stand by sticking a moving crab in our path), the first Ghiradelli's store and factory (where we left with 5 bars of gourmet dark chocolate...yum!), and Pier 39. We stopped by Bubba Gump's Shrimp Co. but decided to eat at the Sea Lion Seafood Restaurant. Outside, we saw 6-7 sea lions sleeping on the floating docks and could watch them a bit during our meal. Apparently, summer is the off-season for seeing sea lions, since most of them migrate south for breeding. But we were happy to at least see a few! After returning to our car, we drove down the most crooked street in America, the super-steep and winding Lombard St., before driving through Little Italy and Chinatown. One funny thing to see was the segway tours through the city, 10-15 tourists all on segways behind a leader zig-zagging through the streets. The street cars and buses were also cool but a little scary to drive next to on the narrow, hilly roads. Saying "goodbye" to Hallie, we returned to our hotel and are looking forward to another restful night.
We are anticipating the end of our trip now, weary of traveling and anxious to finally settle in and get acquainted with our new surroundings. We plan to make it to Redmond, WA (and our condo) by Wednesday evening after driving up the coast, seeing Redwood National Forest, and, possibly, stopping by Crater Lake. Only 15-20 hours of driving left and we're both ready to put the open road behind us for a while!
We hope you're enjoying all these lengthy (and, at times, overly informative) posts. We wish we could tell all of you everything in person!
With much love and a slightly homesick heart,
Angie (and Kayle)
P.S. San Francisco was pretty foggy today, so we don't have many clear pictures of the Golden Gate Bridge. It looks much taller when the top is obscured by a giant cloud...
On Saturday, we ended up hanging around our hotel for most of the day, just about tired of sight-seeing. We met Ben in the late afternoon to go to a free outdoor concert near some shops surrounding a movie theater. There, we met one of his Intel friends from Canada and another girl, Selah, that he brought along. The one-man band (named "Rock Minstrel") was disappointing, so we meandered along the little streetway, stopping in a coffee-shop and Bistro. We had fun, just conversing and walking around in the well-watered, scenic shopping center. It was a nice night.
On Sunday, we left Folsom for the San Francisco area, stopping at the Jelly Belly factory store on the way. We took the factory tour, learning about the 20-day process of making a gourmet jelly bean and preparing it for shipment. We got free samples of different flavors at the sample bar and purchased some "belly flops," jelly bellys that didn't quite pass the quality/shape inspection. The tour was fun, including the mandatory little hats we had to wear. They even had a little cafe where all the food served was shaped like a jelly bean (actually quite strange). Also interesting was the colorful jelly bean artwork, each piece of which comprised over 10,000 jelly bellys and featured famous people, eagles, Mr. Jelly Belly, and, even Donald Duck. It definitely looked tedious! Also, apparently Ronald Reagan was practically addicted to Jelly Bellys and made them a staple at all his meetings as governor and president. They even designed special containers to keep them from spilling on Air Force One! We left, sugared out and hauling 6 lbs of belly flops (buy 2 get 1 free 2 lb. bags)- basically, we're hoping some of you visit us soon and eat them for us! We got to the hotel in Pleasant Hills, a place where we could scarcely find a car comparable to ours (everyone seems to drive luxury automobiles, big trucks, and SUVs). Our hotel was comfortable, so we decided to just hang out again for the night.
Today, we made plans to pick up my friend, Hallie Brewster, from her house and go to San Francisco to tour the city. Hallie is an upcoming sophomore at Notre Dame and in my accountability group for bible study last year. We went to Fisherman's Wharf (lots of fresh fish and crabs...one guy tried to entice us to eat from his stand by sticking a moving crab in our path), the first Ghiradelli's store and factory (where we left with 5 bars of gourmet dark chocolate...yum!), and Pier 39. We stopped by Bubba Gump's Shrimp Co. but decided to eat at the Sea Lion Seafood Restaurant. Outside, we saw 6-7 sea lions sleeping on the floating docks and could watch them a bit during our meal. Apparently, summer is the off-season for seeing sea lions, since most of them migrate south for breeding. But we were happy to at least see a few! After returning to our car, we drove down the most crooked street in America, the super-steep and winding Lombard St., before driving through Little Italy and Chinatown. One funny thing to see was the segway tours through the city, 10-15 tourists all on segways behind a leader zig-zagging through the streets. The street cars and buses were also cool but a little scary to drive next to on the narrow, hilly roads. Saying "goodbye" to Hallie, we returned to our hotel and are looking forward to another restful night.
We are anticipating the end of our trip now, weary of traveling and anxious to finally settle in and get acquainted with our new surroundings. We plan to make it to Redmond, WA (and our condo) by Wednesday evening after driving up the coast, seeing Redwood National Forest, and, possibly, stopping by Crater Lake. Only 15-20 hours of driving left and we're both ready to put the open road behind us for a while!
We hope you're enjoying all these lengthy (and, at times, overly informative) posts. We wish we could tell all of you everything in person!
With much love and a slightly homesick heart,
Angie (and Kayle)
P.S. San Francisco was pretty foggy today, so we don't have many clear pictures of the Golden Gate Bridge. It looks much taller when the top is obscured by a giant cloud...
Saturday, July 12, 2008
More Pictures Online!!
Finally, I finished going through and uploading the pictures from Bryce, Zion, Vegas, and Yosemite! Here they are for your enjoyment:
http://picasaweb.google.com/Angie.Hinkle
http://picasaweb.google.com/Angie.Hinkle
To Las Vegas and Beyond!
It's been a while since my last post. Most of that is because Kayle and I were "roughing it" in Yosemite for a few days with....gasp...no internet connection (among other things). We're still keeping busy, though the relaxation times are spaced closer and closer together. Traveling the country sure is tiring!!
In Las Vegas, we had the privilege of seeing two friends: Claire (Angie's roommate) and Matt (a guy from the Dutch House). We arrived in LV to an overwhelming amount of lights and action and general busyness on Friday afternoon. It was the 4th of July, so Claire didn't have work and the amount of tourists in the city was through the roof! We stayed at a Mariott for two nights, since the casino-hotels were super-expensive over the holiday. That night, we walked the Strip, entering several different famous hotels and shopping/eating in the Venetian's mall. Las Vegas is insane! In the mall, the inside looked like the streets of Italy, complete with gondolas and street performers. It was so hot there, I can see why inside might look like outside...you'd NEVER want to go to the real outside during the day. (Las Vegas is insane for other reasons too...it seems people go there to go crazy for vacation.)
Now, we went on our tour with Claire, her sister Crystelle, and another friend from Guam, but, even with 5 of us total, we still managed to get lost about 4 times that night! Las Vegas is one of those places where you can often see where you want to go but have no idea how to get there. We even had a hard time getting to the Strip from Claire's house! We parked our car at Caesar's Palace and had to take quite a hike to find it again. Crossing streets involved lots of bridges and escalators and "shortcuts" through casinos turned into "longcuts" lost in a maze (we think casinos were brilliantly designed to keep moderately drunk gamblers inside...we could BARELY find our way out with a map, completely sober!). By the time we made it back to the car, we were all exhausted, hot, and ready for bed (preferably in air conditioning). Despite it being the 4th of July, we saw very few fireworks not obscured by buildings. We kept busy anyway and managed to catch glimpses of a water fountain show instead. We weren't too disappointed (dinner sounded better than fireworks anyway...).
Saturday was a more restful day. We woke up late and went to Claire's house where we lounged around some more and sang karaoke (the words scrolled on the TV and her family had a little handheld mic that scored your performance after each song). Next, we headed to the Venetian to pick up some tickets (last night's attempt was unsuccessful- got to the ticket office about 2 minutes late...no mercy!). Claire bought us tickets to "The Phantom of the Opera" show at the Venetian as a wedding present. We waited for the show and ate lunch at Wolfgang Puck's restaurant (apparently a famous chef) where Kayle had a gourmet hamburger and Claire and I shared some AMAZING halibut. While we ate, there was an opera/juggling/human statue/jester variety show going on in the courtyard. We parted ways soon after, Claire to a birthday party for a Guam friend and Kayle and I to our show.
I was SO EXCITED for Phantom of the Opera. Claire and I used to sing the whole CD in our dorm room as roommates, with harmony and different parts and everything. Like everything in Vegas, the show went all-out with the singing and special effects. The chandelier whirled around in the air before assembling its three pieces above our heads, there were indoor fireworks and flares, and people seemed to disappear under the stage and reappear moments later 20 feet up. Also, the boat to the phantom's hideaway really looked like it floated on the foggy mist of a lake onstage. All the actors/actresses did really well, and the singing was phenomenal! Even the ballet dancers who practiced in the background of a scene looked beautiful and graceful! Both of us enjoyed the show immensely.
Afterwards, we walked around a bit in the casino, people watching (probably the best place ever to see a wide variety), gambling (our whole trip we gambled and lost a grand total of $4), and observing the incredible amounts of money other people were losing. (We watched one woman go from $900 to $500 at a slot machine in about 5 minutes.) Another long day and restful sleep!
On Sunday, we finally saw Matt and his family! We went to church with them in the morning and visited their home in Henderson after for lunch and long conversation. (I took my Sunday afternoon nap in the middle and woke up to them all still in the living room, right where I left them...guess there was a lot to say! :) ) Using the computer, we shopped around a bit for rates on the bigger hotels and settled on a Stratosphere package that allowed us to stay, go up into the space needle, and ride two rides each for only $38/night. Our least expensive hotel yet! At the hotel, we ate dinner at a little 50's style diner where all the waiters/waitresses took turns singing solos, with a DJ playing other music in between. It was a lot of fun, especially the big redition of "Greased Lightning" that got all the staff singing and dancing at once! After, we wandered some more before watching the World Series of Poker on TV (which is way funnier than either of us remembered it) and falling asleep.
Monday was our last full day in Vegas. After another late start (Angie loves sleeping in!), we went to see the pool at our hotel. It was on the roof of one of the buildings, eight stories high. Deciding it was too hot, we went to a lunch buffet and played some online poker (with renewable play money). Later in the afternoon, we decided to make use of our ride tickets. Now, the top of the Stratosphere has an amazing view of Vegas, but the same height that lets you see far also makes the rides seem much more terrifying. Now, I love rollar coasters and thrill rides, but I was genuinely nervous. At the top of the space needle, there's three rides: one that shoots you up and down a vertical pole so you feel like you're floating for several seconds each time, one that hangs you over the edge facing the ground at a 70-degree angle and spinning, and one that races on a teetor-totter over the edge and stops abruptly facing downward. We rode the first two. I think we both agreed we got our money's worth, because the two rides were very scary and very fun! Phew! Thrill rides over, we hung around the tower until sunset, taking many more pictures and catching our breath. Then, it was off to see Claire (briefly) for the last time at her house and time for bed again.
On Tuesday, we left Vegas pretty early and made the long 8 hour drive to Yosemite. Once we got to the park's east entrance, we still had two more hours to drive to the west side and loop around to the middle of the park where our campground was (only one road...). At least the last two hours were scenic! We stopped at a few overlooks and saw Belvedier and Yosemite Falls among the canyons. Wow...Yosemite is so beautiful- there is such variety with super-tall trees all around, crystal-clear streams and waterfalls, huge mountains/cliffs, vast grassy meadows, and tons of wildlife. Simply breathtaking... It was late by the time we finally arrived, so we had to find our tent-cabin in the darkness (MUCH easier said than done!). About 4 loops around later, we made it to our lodging for the next 3 days, more tent than cabin but cozy enough. We had three concrete walls (the fourth was a shower curtain), with a full-size bed and twin bunkbeds (sporting those summer camp vinyl mattresses) and a fenced in picnic table under an roof. We had to keep all of our food and toiletries in a bear-proof metal box out back, and, believe me, we didn't want ANY BEARS in our camp. Already, the camp was infested with squirrels that are not supposed to be fed but clearly have tasted human food and try every trick possible to get more (they were naughty squirrels!). We woke up the next morning with a squirrel inside our tent-cabin, scratching on the mattress. AHH!!
Wednesday, we hiked to Yosemite Falls and climbed all over the rocks at its base. The water level was pretty high for the middle of summer due to a torrential rainfall that came the day before (we just missed it). This was my favorite hike by far, so much so that we did it again the next day! It was hot in Yosemite, like everywhere else this far West, so we escaped the 110 degree heat by riding the shuttle around for its full hour-long loop. Then, we went swimming in the pool for about an hour (the nicest pool yet...8 feet deep!), with some meals in there somewhere. That night, we played cards in the tent-cabin.
Thursday, it was even hotter outside, and I was quite sore from hiking/climbing/swimming. We thought about renting a raft to float the river until we felt the water. Being a snowmelt river, it was about 40 degrees....much, much too cold to be enjoyable, no matter how hot outside. We walked back to our campground, laid out by the river a while, wrote some postcards, and read a book/did a crossword (Angie the first, Kayle the second). At night, we ventured out for another meal, did a leisurely walk around Cook's Meadow, and went back to Yosemite Falls. This time, the water level had dropped about 2 feet. We were amazed at the change in water flow from one day to the next. There were even more rocks to climb on now, and we crossed the river several times (now that it was more tame). The final crossing, I reached to put my foot on a wet rock (Kayle said not to...) and fell into the river, getting my pants all wet. With nothing to lose, I jumped in later on to get wet to my shoulders, so I guess I can say now that I "swam" in the river under Yosemite Falls. Thankfully, it was still nice and warm outside in the early evening...though it did get cold on those air-conditioned shuttles!
Finally, on Friday, we packed up our car again and cleaned out the ol' tent-cabin. Then, we set out for our last hike. We hiked a short .7 mile trail (mostly uphill) to the bridge under Vernal Falls and then hiked to Happy Isles, where bridges crossed the beautiful, rocky streams several times. The nature center there was also cool, with lots of stuffed animals/birds on display (in a kind of Where's Waldo type scenery). Here we saw our only bears, unfortunately stuffed ones(Angie really wanted to see a real one, far off). The nocturnal animal exhibit was especially interesting with bats, mice, snakes, owls, skunks, and coyotes all posing there in the dark. Kayle and I sort of like the geeky, educational parts of the trip!! :)
We left the park around noon and headed for Folsom, CA, near Sacramento (about 3 hours away). Ben (another Dutch House boy) got a job here last year, so we went to visit him while we were close-by. He took us to dinner at a wonderful pizza place and gave us a small tour of the town (apparently, Johnny Cash sang a song at a prison here...). At night, Angie went through more vacation pictures (more posted soon!!) while Kayle played a game online.
Today, we're staying in Folsom again, but still trying to decide what to do... I'm sure you'll hear/read all about it soon!
Phew! If you made it this far in the post, you're a trooper! We love you and miss you!
Angie and Kayle
In Las Vegas, we had the privilege of seeing two friends: Claire (Angie's roommate) and Matt (a guy from the Dutch House). We arrived in LV to an overwhelming amount of lights and action and general busyness on Friday afternoon. It was the 4th of July, so Claire didn't have work and the amount of tourists in the city was through the roof! We stayed at a Mariott for two nights, since the casino-hotels were super-expensive over the holiday. That night, we walked the Strip, entering several different famous hotels and shopping/eating in the Venetian's mall. Las Vegas is insane! In the mall, the inside looked like the streets of Italy, complete with gondolas and street performers. It was so hot there, I can see why inside might look like outside...you'd NEVER want to go to the real outside during the day. (Las Vegas is insane for other reasons too...it seems people go there to go crazy for vacation.)
Now, we went on our tour with Claire, her sister Crystelle, and another friend from Guam, but, even with 5 of us total, we still managed to get lost about 4 times that night! Las Vegas is one of those places where you can often see where you want to go but have no idea how to get there. We even had a hard time getting to the Strip from Claire's house! We parked our car at Caesar's Palace and had to take quite a hike to find it again. Crossing streets involved lots of bridges and escalators and "shortcuts" through casinos turned into "longcuts" lost in a maze (we think casinos were brilliantly designed to keep moderately drunk gamblers inside...we could BARELY find our way out with a map, completely sober!). By the time we made it back to the car, we were all exhausted, hot, and ready for bed (preferably in air conditioning). Despite it being the 4th of July, we saw very few fireworks not obscured by buildings. We kept busy anyway and managed to catch glimpses of a water fountain show instead. We weren't too disappointed (dinner sounded better than fireworks anyway...).
Saturday was a more restful day. We woke up late and went to Claire's house where we lounged around some more and sang karaoke (the words scrolled on the TV and her family had a little handheld mic that scored your performance after each song). Next, we headed to the Venetian to pick up some tickets (last night's attempt was unsuccessful- got to the ticket office about 2 minutes late...no mercy!). Claire bought us tickets to "The Phantom of the Opera" show at the Venetian as a wedding present. We waited for the show and ate lunch at Wolfgang Puck's restaurant (apparently a famous chef) where Kayle had a gourmet hamburger and Claire and I shared some AMAZING halibut. While we ate, there was an opera/juggling/human statue/jester variety show going on in the courtyard. We parted ways soon after, Claire to a birthday party for a Guam friend and Kayle and I to our show.
I was SO EXCITED for Phantom of the Opera. Claire and I used to sing the whole CD in our dorm room as roommates, with harmony and different parts and everything. Like everything in Vegas, the show went all-out with the singing and special effects. The chandelier whirled around in the air before assembling its three pieces above our heads, there were indoor fireworks and flares, and people seemed to disappear under the stage and reappear moments later 20 feet up. Also, the boat to the phantom's hideaway really looked like it floated on the foggy mist of a lake onstage. All the actors/actresses did really well, and the singing was phenomenal! Even the ballet dancers who practiced in the background of a scene looked beautiful and graceful! Both of us enjoyed the show immensely.
Afterwards, we walked around a bit in the casino, people watching (probably the best place ever to see a wide variety), gambling (our whole trip we gambled and lost a grand total of $4), and observing the incredible amounts of money other people were losing. (We watched one woman go from $900 to $500 at a slot machine in about 5 minutes.) Another long day and restful sleep!
On Sunday, we finally saw Matt and his family! We went to church with them in the morning and visited their home in Henderson after for lunch and long conversation. (I took my Sunday afternoon nap in the middle and woke up to them all still in the living room, right where I left them...guess there was a lot to say! :) ) Using the computer, we shopped around a bit for rates on the bigger hotels and settled on a Stratosphere package that allowed us to stay, go up into the space needle, and ride two rides each for only $38/night. Our least expensive hotel yet! At the hotel, we ate dinner at a little 50's style diner where all the waiters/waitresses took turns singing solos, with a DJ playing other music in between. It was a lot of fun, especially the big redition of "Greased Lightning" that got all the staff singing and dancing at once! After, we wandered some more before watching the World Series of Poker on TV (which is way funnier than either of us remembered it) and falling asleep.
Monday was our last full day in Vegas. After another late start (Angie loves sleeping in!), we went to see the pool at our hotel. It was on the roof of one of the buildings, eight stories high. Deciding it was too hot, we went to a lunch buffet and played some online poker (with renewable play money). Later in the afternoon, we decided to make use of our ride tickets. Now, the top of the Stratosphere has an amazing view of Vegas, but the same height that lets you see far also makes the rides seem much more terrifying. Now, I love rollar coasters and thrill rides, but I was genuinely nervous. At the top of the space needle, there's three rides: one that shoots you up and down a vertical pole so you feel like you're floating for several seconds each time, one that hangs you over the edge facing the ground at a 70-degree angle and spinning, and one that races on a teetor-totter over the edge and stops abruptly facing downward. We rode the first two. I think we both agreed we got our money's worth, because the two rides were very scary and very fun! Phew! Thrill rides over, we hung around the tower until sunset, taking many more pictures and catching our breath. Then, it was off to see Claire (briefly) for the last time at her house and time for bed again.
On Tuesday, we left Vegas pretty early and made the long 8 hour drive to Yosemite. Once we got to the park's east entrance, we still had two more hours to drive to the west side and loop around to the middle of the park where our campground was (only one road...). At least the last two hours were scenic! We stopped at a few overlooks and saw Belvedier and Yosemite Falls among the canyons. Wow...Yosemite is so beautiful- there is such variety with super-tall trees all around, crystal-clear streams and waterfalls, huge mountains/cliffs, vast grassy meadows, and tons of wildlife. Simply breathtaking... It was late by the time we finally arrived, so we had to find our tent-cabin in the darkness (MUCH easier said than done!). About 4 loops around later, we made it to our lodging for the next 3 days, more tent than cabin but cozy enough. We had three concrete walls (the fourth was a shower curtain), with a full-size bed and twin bunkbeds (sporting those summer camp vinyl mattresses) and a fenced in picnic table under an roof. We had to keep all of our food and toiletries in a bear-proof metal box out back, and, believe me, we didn't want ANY BEARS in our camp. Already, the camp was infested with squirrels that are not supposed to be fed but clearly have tasted human food and try every trick possible to get more (they were naughty squirrels!). We woke up the next morning with a squirrel inside our tent-cabin, scratching on the mattress. AHH!!
Wednesday, we hiked to Yosemite Falls and climbed all over the rocks at its base. The water level was pretty high for the middle of summer due to a torrential rainfall that came the day before (we just missed it). This was my favorite hike by far, so much so that we did it again the next day! It was hot in Yosemite, like everywhere else this far West, so we escaped the 110 degree heat by riding the shuttle around for its full hour-long loop. Then, we went swimming in the pool for about an hour (the nicest pool yet...8 feet deep!), with some meals in there somewhere. That night, we played cards in the tent-cabin.
Thursday, it was even hotter outside, and I was quite sore from hiking/climbing/swimming. We thought about renting a raft to float the river until we felt the water. Being a snowmelt river, it was about 40 degrees....much, much too cold to be enjoyable, no matter how hot outside. We walked back to our campground, laid out by the river a while, wrote some postcards, and read a book/did a crossword (Angie the first, Kayle the second). At night, we ventured out for another meal, did a leisurely walk around Cook's Meadow, and went back to Yosemite Falls. This time, the water level had dropped about 2 feet. We were amazed at the change in water flow from one day to the next. There were even more rocks to climb on now, and we crossed the river several times (now that it was more tame). The final crossing, I reached to put my foot on a wet rock (Kayle said not to...) and fell into the river, getting my pants all wet. With nothing to lose, I jumped in later on to get wet to my shoulders, so I guess I can say now that I "swam" in the river under Yosemite Falls. Thankfully, it was still nice and warm outside in the early evening...though it did get cold on those air-conditioned shuttles!
Finally, on Friday, we packed up our car again and cleaned out the ol' tent-cabin. Then, we set out for our last hike. We hiked a short .7 mile trail (mostly uphill) to the bridge under Vernal Falls and then hiked to Happy Isles, where bridges crossed the beautiful, rocky streams several times. The nature center there was also cool, with lots of stuffed animals/birds on display (in a kind of Where's Waldo type scenery). Here we saw our only bears, unfortunately stuffed ones(Angie really wanted to see a real one, far off). The nocturnal animal exhibit was especially interesting with bats, mice, snakes, owls, skunks, and coyotes all posing there in the dark. Kayle and I sort of like the geeky, educational parts of the trip!! :)
We left the park around noon and headed for Folsom, CA, near Sacramento (about 3 hours away). Ben (another Dutch House boy) got a job here last year, so we went to visit him while we were close-by. He took us to dinner at a wonderful pizza place and gave us a small tour of the town (apparently, Johnny Cash sang a song at a prison here...). At night, Angie went through more vacation pictures (more posted soon!!) while Kayle played a game online.
Today, we're staying in Folsom again, but still trying to decide what to do... I'm sure you'll hear/read all about it soon!
Phew! If you made it this far in the post, you're a trooper! We love you and miss you!
Angie and Kayle
Thursday, July 3, 2008
First Photos Online
We finally had a chance to go through all the pictures, deleting the blurry ones and the repeats and narrowing down the numbers to the best ones. We are still probably posting more photos of canyons than anyone cares to look at, but we hope you enjoy seeing the highlights of our trip so far. Our new picasa album has pictures from Mackinac Island, Omaha/Denver, Mesa Verde, Canyonlands, and Arches. Photos from Bryce/Zion still to come...
Here's the link:
http://picasaweb.google.com/Angie.Hinkle
Here's the link:
http://picasaweb.google.com/Angie.Hinkle
As the Temperature Climbs, the Hikes Don't...
Today, we visited Zion National Park, easily the hottest stop on our trip so far. Temperatures reached around 105 degrees, so we kept in the shade as much as possible with only two short hikes in the "easy" category. The first hike took us along a ridge to a shallow pool filled by a small waterfall. Pretty interesting to have a waterfall in the middle of the desert! Our second hike was to the Weeping Rock, where we were glad to be sprinkled with the falling drops. This was easily our favorite place in Zion, since our water bottles were much less refreshing when the water inside reached about 90 degrees. For most of the short day, we rode the shuttle buses around from one end of the canyon to the other, though the nap under the shady tree was nice and cool too. It's only 6:40 and we're already back at our hotel, anxious for some rest and maybe a swim in one of the two pools. Overall, Zion was beautiful with more red and white canyons, a lovely river, and diverse habitats. It was much greener than most other places in the desert we've seen, further adding to its appeal.
Our animal sightings have been minimal but exciting (at least for Angie). Today at Zion, we saw a black-collared lizard, a ground squirrel, a male mule deer (with a decent rack), and lots of birds. Yesterday, a prairie dog (at least that's what it looked like) ran across the road. We also glimpsed more mule deer and multiple cute, little chipmunks (they made the long hike bearable) at Bryce. Buffaloes, cows, and horses are everywhere along the highways. We still hope to see an eagle or a large predator or something else unique, from a safe distance of course!
Tomorrow, we're off to Las Vegas, where Claire (Angie's roommate/bridesmaid) and Matt (friend from the Dutch House) live. We plan to see a show, relax, walk the Strip, and watch some pretty cool 4th of July fireworks. It should be a nice contrast to all the national parks. Still having lots of fun...
Angie and Kayle
Our animal sightings have been minimal but exciting (at least for Angie). Today at Zion, we saw a black-collared lizard, a ground squirrel, a male mule deer (with a decent rack), and lots of birds. Yesterday, a prairie dog (at least that's what it looked like) ran across the road. We also glimpsed more mule deer and multiple cute, little chipmunks (they made the long hike bearable) at Bryce. Buffaloes, cows, and horses are everywhere along the highways. We still hope to see an eagle or a large predator or something else unique, from a safe distance of course!
Tomorrow, we're off to Las Vegas, where Claire (Angie's roommate/bridesmaid) and Matt (friend from the Dutch House) live. We plan to see a show, relax, walk the Strip, and watch some pretty cool 4th of July fireworks. It should be a nice contrast to all the national parks. Still having lots of fun...
Angie and Kayle
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