conversations

(setting: we have just driven by a sign that says "seasoned firewood")
me: seasoned firewood? what's that? did they sprinkle a little cinnamon and nutmeg on it?
mark: no. not even close.

(setting: i have just said something rude)
mark: wow, that's very...ubiquitous of you.
me: i don't think that word means what you think it means

denise: i do not want to write this essay.

mark: i'm sorry, i wish i could write the essay for you.

denise: well, thanks babe, but it's supposed to be brief and to-the-point and those aren't exactly your strong suits

mark: well, i may not be brief, but i'm to the point

denise: so you're long-winded and to the point?

mark: i mean, it takes me a while to say what i want to say, but i always make my point in the end

denise: you know they changed the astrology signs. you're a cancer now.

mark: cool

denise: do you even know what you were before?

mark: yeah...poseidon

denise: no

mark: no, i mean...presario

denise: presario? as in, a compaq presario? i think the word you're looking for is 'pisces'

(setting: i literally just woke up, it's like 7 am)

denise: what does "dog and pony show" mean?

mark: i don't understand how your brain works

denise: i heard it in a song and i need to know what it refers to

mark: you literally just opened your eyes, when did you have time to think about that?

denise: just tell me what it means!

our sense of humor

when mark and i were doing our premarital counseling, our pastor had us take this 100 question test that was supposed to tell us, out of 10 areas, where we differed the most. and then we were supposed to focus on those areas in our counseling. they were things like, family, money, etc. we knew we'd have some differences but we were really surprised when our #1 area of difference was "personality." i mean, what? how can our personalities be that different? but i guess in several ways they are. i am a typical virgo (meaning perfectionist, critical, nit picky) and am kind of an introvert. a night alone is like a dream to me. mark is very laid back, almost nothing bothers him. and he is an extreme extrovert - a night alone to him is like a nightmare.

so i guess our personalities are kind of different but there is one thing we have the same- and that is, our sense of humor. and the other night, this commercial made us crack up hysterically for about 5 minutes. we kept watching it over and over.

where to eat in boston

for fourth of july mark and i went with some friends up to the greater boston area for one of my best friends' weddings- i speak of kristen marvelle, now kristen kavanaugh. we went with our other dear friends from charlotte and had a really great time, AND we went without verity for almost a week. that was hard - we missed her, but we got to do a lot of fun stuff that we wouldn't have been able to do with her there.


the couple :)


at the rehearsal dinner


at the wedding!

so let me get to the point of this post - food. food can really make or break a trip. mark and i went to jacksonville, florida on vacation one year and we hated it. we had a horrible time. when someone asked me why, i was like, well for one, nowhere we ate had good food. good food at a good restaurant can make a bad trip way worse or a good trip a million times better. so i thought i'd share about the places we ate in case you are headed to boston. which i'm sure is not likely. so i guess i have no idea why i'm actually writing this post.

in plymouth, ma (where we stayed for the wedding):
t-bones roadhouse: for breakfast. the best breakfast i've ever had for this little - mark
and i ate breakfast with tip and coffees for under $10.

blue blinds: this was a really cute breakfast and sandwhich shop with homemade organic breads. i had a delicious sandwich here but i wish we could've eaten breakfast here too, it looked awesome.

ali's galley: so this was a random little "butcher shop" right near our motel that i never would have gone in, but staci and tanner did and then flagge us down. they had awesome sandwhiches with meat that they sliced right there. i had a sweet n'sour sandwich and when i ordered it on wheat bread the woman behind the counter said (in thick boston accent) "wheat bread? why don't you just order it on cardboard?"

in brookline, ma (where mark and i stayed for a few days after the wedding):
upper crust pizzeria: this was a great pizza place a la brixx in charlotte, but i thought it was better. mark thinks brixx is still better. anyway- thin crust, whole wheat and great topping options.

j.p. licks: this is an ice cream place. when tanner and staci were dropping us off in brookline we looked for a place to get coffee. instead we found this place and got giant ice cream cones. they had a lot of crazy flavors, like cucumber (which staci got) and el diablo, which had cayenne pepper in it.

boston, ma:
sam lagrassa's sandwich shop: we ate here because we tried to go to a place i read about in fodor's boston and it was closed. and the two guys in front of us who were trying to go there were like, "oh it's closed. let's go to sam's." and of course we didn't know where else to eat so we just followed them. it was HUGE sandwiches, really fresh and yummy. we had to eat in a standing room only section.

quincy market: this is like a mall's food court basically. it was my least favorite place we ate, but it was still good. i had a lobster roll from one of the vendors. it was yummy. but it was also a greasy $14 sandwich on white bread. there was tons of other options though and you could get fresh lobster. and giant cookies and giant slices of watermelon. giant a lot of things.

so if you're ever in the plymouth, brookline or boston, these are my recommendations :)

verity's favorite game

v's first steps!

my favorite part of church

well, ONE of my favorite parts of church, is the "kids corner." I know a lot of churches don't do this anymore, but during our service, before the message, our pastor asks all the kids to come up front. and then you know, he has a microphone and asks the kids a question and lets them say their answer into the microphone. i already have a little anxiety about what verity might say into a MICROPHONE in front of our whole church someday.

i've heard some funny stuff in the past few years. (yes i record these right along side my sermon notes) here's a taste:

pastor: what is a toy that you have that you used to really like to play with but now you're kind of bored with?
kid: my sister.

pastor: what are some things your mom doesn't like?
kid: my mom doesn't like coming to church

pastor: do you know of any sports that are in the bible? (he was looking for fishing by the way)
kid: golf
kid #2: lacrosse

pastor: (the week of Christmas) what's going on right now that you're probably excited about?
kids silent.
pastor: come on, what season is it? what time of year?
kid: winter!

but there are also some really good kid answers that make you realize kids are listening and they're understanding important concepts. like these:

pastor: what was the deal with the pharisees?
kid: they were hypocrites because they said they loved god but on the inside they really didn't. they were just pretending. (this was a 4-yr old).

pastor: when you sin, does god punish you?
kid: no, because he already punished us in jesus for all our sins (again, a 3 or 4-year old).

so "kids korner" is my favorite part of service b/c 1) it's funny, but because 2) it reminds me what a serious task we have in parenting and what sponges our kids are at ages 1, 2, 3, 4, etc. it reminds me that god has entrusts a child to me to shepherd, raise, parent and guide, and that it starts now.

FINAL thing- related to this, Mark and I are doing a parenting small group now, watching a video series and doing curriculum called "Getting to the Heart of Parenting" by Paul Tripp and it's really good. We recommend it. :)

verity in the tub

yikes, it's been like a year or something since i've updated our blog. what have we been busy or something? here's a new video of the bebe:

she's 13 months now and a ton of fun. she is on the brink of a lot of things. she can take a couple steps, but isn't quite walking. she can say a lot of mumbo-jumbo but no actually words. except for "no," "uh-oh," and "yeah."