Confessions

I managed to do something over the weekend that I never thought I would be able to do. Maybe it was the heat or the fact that he was totally beat from a long week, but while at Blockbuster on our way home from dinner Friday night, I mentioned to Justin that I was somewhat interested in seeing "Twilight."

Usually, when I point at any movie on the shelf that doesn't have a gun or an explosion or some dude dressed up as a spy, Justin lets out an actual whimper and says, "No."

This time, after he'd already picked up "Quantum of Solace" -- the latest in the James Bond series -- we were making our way out when we passed "Twilight." There was no whimper, simply an, "Ok." I stared in disbelief, but didn't stare too long, for fear that he'd realize what "Twilight" actually was.

I think I was surprised enough for the both of us in the fact that I wanted to see "Twilight." I remember driving to work in Seattle last summer/fall when the hosts were talking about a contest to give away premiere tickets. I hadn't heard of the movie before, let alone the books, and remember thinking how funny it was to hear all the girls obsessing about Edward Cullen, the vampire. I also remember thinking it was interesting that this was so popular with young tweens and teens...especially amongst some of the 13 year old girls I knew - I guess I was surprised some of them were even allowed by their parents to read the books or go to the movie since it was dark, mysterious and about vampires. I kept listening to the contest because the books and movie happen to be based in town named Forks, Wash., which is on the Olympic peninsula.

Saturday night we watched "Twilight." I really did like it - in fact, I'm a little embarrassed to admit it, but I watched it again on Sunday when we had run out of things to put away in our apartment. It's not often I get to watch a "girlie" movie. Though, I'm not sure I'd call this girlie??

I'm not much of a reader...I have a huge pile of unfinished books beside my bed. The last book I read cover to cover was How Starbucks Saved My Life by Michael Gates Gill (I heard him do a spot on it on my way to work one day and a bit of the book that he read on the radio made me burst into tears...geez...this blog really does reveal where my weaknesses are, doesn't it?). Anyway, on Monday while at work, I decided I would walk to the bookstore near our house after I got home to pick up the first two books in the series.

Once I was home, I quickly changed my clothes, threw on my sunglasses and walking shoes, and headed to town. I walked right into the bookstore, straight past the customer service desk, thinking I would simply find the books in the fiction section.

Not there.

"Well, it is about vampires...which is kind of science-fictional...maybe they're in Science Fiction," I thought to myself.

Not there.

Eager to get the books and head home so I could start reading, I asked the friendly gal at the counter where I could find them. She offered to lead the way and I followed. We walked past the fiction section, past the science fiction section, past the thriller and horror sections and then I noticed her pick up something that was out of place. It was a children's toy. The further we walked, the closer we got to the children's section. Once there, she put the toy back in its place so I thought maybe were taking a quick detour for the toy. Then turned to face a shelf of books...

Ohhh the feeling I had when she pointed at the Twilight series, sitting out for all to see in the children's section...next to the Babysitters Club and Goosebumps books. I felt like saying, "these are for my...um...14-year-old...cousin." Or, "Oh, is this the altered book with pictures for little eyes or something?" But I didn't. I said thank you, sheepishly, and then shrugged to myself as I justified my decision to read this saga. I knew people in their late 20s who would stay up all night long to read the Harry Potter books when they were the hot new read, but then again so did my bros, who were probably 12 and 14 at the time.

After another minute, I snagged up the first two books scurried up to the front. Smiled without saying much and then I ran upstairs for a latte - a super good latte, by the way - and then beat feet home to sit on the deck and read.

I'm more than half way through the first one already. It's much different than the movie...they haven't even introduced the bad vampires yet, and I'm wondering if/when they will because there aren't that many pages left in the book.

No spoiler alerts here. I'm going to wrap up this post and get back to reading now!

Stop laughing at me :)

Lean on me

I get a daily Bible verse texted to me from the Christian radio station in Seattle, and I wanted to share the one I received this morning. I've found the daily verses to be a particular comfort in the last two years as our families (both the Thompson and Emerson camps) have both been on a very wavy roller coaster full of life's ups and downs.

I don't have a particular life event to apply this to at the moment, but think it's a good one to remember in all situations. From this I take the overarching message to be to have confidence in all you do, knowing God's got your back!

"For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of
power, love and self-discipline."
2 Timothy 1:7

Happy Easter!

One year ago today, Christine and I were hunting for eggs, going to church, opening Easter baskets, and having Easter brunch in Grandview, Washington; naive to the changes about to come. If only we had known how much different this Easter would be! Now we are celebrating our first married Easter in Mountain View, California.

When it comes to celebrating Easter, Christine and I certainly have had different experiences. When I was growing up, we went to Vancouver, Washington for Easter every year to see my grandparents. It was usually overcast and raining whenever we hunted eggs, making for a semi-enjoyable experience at best. So it's very strange to look out the window now and see sunny, cloudless skies and to step outside and feel warm weather. Our Easter egg hunts took place after lunch, and while somewhat entertaining, were not exactly the highlight of the day. My idea of hunting eggs was mostly an excuse to get off the couch and could be done at any time of the day; there was never a rush. And then I met my wife...

I remember the first Easter I spent with Christine and her family (long before we were married). I was sleeping happily in the guest room when I was rudely awakened at the crack of dawn by my future wife. She was holding a basket in her hand and commanded me to get out of bed. Confused, I stumbled downstairs, thinking maybe there was a fire or a flood and we were saving important items and putting them in baskets. But I was wrong. I knew how wrong I was when I saw Christine's brother Matt standing outside (a place where I was soon to be). Matt had a look on his face that was somewhere above annoyed and somewhere below contempt. I turned at the sound of Christine's other brother Joe behind me. His expression was not below contempt. Slowly, my awakening mind put things together: the baskets, the holiday, the outdoors, and Matt and Joe's pained expressions. We were hunting eggs.

Since then, I have been on a few egg hunts in the wee hours of the morning. Luckily for me, Christine's early morning egg hunts are completely dependent on the Easter Bunny hiding the eggs at ungodly hours. Since the Easter Bunny is usually Christine's father, this year things were a little different! I hid some eggs in the apartment at a more reasonable time of 9am while Christine was cooking breakfast and she found them all!


We hope you are finding everything you are looking for this Easter and we're sorry we can't be with you. We'll be thinking of you while we go to church, have Easter lunch and probably fall asleep on the couch later tonight.


Happy Hunting!
Justin and Christine

Here comes Peter Cottontail

Easter is almost here...I can't believe how fast the last few months have gone. Thinking back to a year ago, I was in a panic about invitations, stamps (the bane of my existence at that point), bridesmaid shoes, seating arrangements and my fake-and-bake tan that wasn't exactly coming along. Is that a surprise to anyone...? Haha!

Two Easters ago Justin and I had our own Easter celebration at his little studio in Shoreline, complete with a mini ham, Nanny's potatoes, a fun fruit salad and an Easter egg hunt. Let's just say I'm a good egg hider and leave it at that! Well, I'm also one of the best egg hunters around, 2nd runner up to my cousin Carrie who carried the title of winner in her family for many consecutive years, too! The trick is to be the first one awake - nice and early - beg the Easter bunny to get his egg-hidin' tail out the door, and then run around and wake everyone up, demanding they arise upon request. That way, everyone is still groggy and grumpy when it comes time for the hunt. It works every time. But I digress...

This year I'm going to make my mom's "hockey pucks" for breakfast. For the Easter meal after church we'll have a wee bitty ham, Nanny's potatoes and something else...I haven't decided on what else to serve yet - any ideas for me? Is there something that is always served at your Easter meal that isn't at other holiday feasts? I need some ideas.

We actually hesitated when deciding on ham as the main course because of the massive amounts we had on our honeymoon... It's kind of a long story, but because JT loves it, we got a ham and cut up a yummy, fresh pineapple to go with it for dinner on one of the first nights of our honeymoon. Our intent was to have some left over for sandwiches or as a compliment for cheese & cracker snacks. Not being a ham connoisseur, I bought 2 hams. Apparently that is a lot of ham.

We had ham - heaps of ham - left over. We had ham sandwiches, eggs and ham, ham and crackers, grilled ham steaks. Eventually we threw it out. Bleh. We haven't had ham since.

Cheese, crackers and HAM for a honeymoon snack

Here are some fun pics from Easters past. See...I still hunt eggs...I can't believe I hadn't already put that pink one in my basket (can you see it?).

The champ - Easter 2006

Good thing those aren't the Jell-o shot Jell-o eggs! Yes, we have Jell-o shot eggs.
Donald - Easter 2006

RahRah and her granddaughters - Easter 2006

"Don't ask"
Mom and Justin at Easter - 2008

Joe, Matt and Justin goofin' around at Easter Brunch - 2005

More bars in more places

While on a walk the other day, JT and I discovered that our apartment could be featured on an AT&T cell phone commercial because it clearly has more bars in more places:AT&T - feel free to call us if you'd like to know where this naturally occurring coincidence of equally-spaced-in-height-trees is located. You've got our number.

They Chyterboks are coming! The Chyterboks are coming!

This just in!!

My dear cousins Maggie and Drew are COMING TO VISIT us in May! Just this weekend I asked Justin to get the air mattress out of the storage unit so we can have it inside for company. "Ok....what company?" was his answer. I said, "Well, Maggie and Drew want to come visit soon...you never know!"

I guess I just had a feeling that my Maggie would be calling!! It's a birthday treat to herself and I couldn't be more excited. I've even blurted out "Maggie and Drew are coming!!!" about 5 times now since the call came in.

Holla!

Maggie and Drew's wedding, Nov. 3, 2007

Trading spaces, summer 2007







Drew, me and Maggie in the "Bean" in Chicago on St. Patty's day, 2007. (Cousin Andrew is in the background taking a pic of some other tourists!)

You've got a friend in me

Today was filled with more unpacking, organizing and the Comcast guy. We're almost done with everything - there are just a few loose odds & ends to find a place for and boxes to throw out. Speaking of throwing out boxes, Justin and I were doing just that this afternoon when we came in contact with someone in our parking lot.

We were flattening boxes and when someone came towards the bin with boxes and other recyclables of their own. There was initial eye contact and the standard unspoken pleasantries, and then he said, "well since you're doing this the right way, I guess I better too!" We all laughed somewhat awkwardly, and then Justin and I looked at each other. We knew exactly what the other was thinking. This is a normal looking dude, implying that he lives with someone, he is about our age, he lives in our complex...could this be a possible new friend-couple??

So I say, "Oh well, we've been filling this up a lot lately because we just moved in!" And he said, "Oh, you're just moving in...we're just moving out, right down the street actually. Where did you move from?"

Moving out... :(

Suddenly I felt like a Doug and Carrie from "King of Queens" when they find out that their one friend-couple found a new friend-couple to hang out with, which led Doug and Kerry to go to Home Depot on a Friday evening in search of another couple to befriend. It didn't turn out well, to say the least. I also had a flash of the "Friends" episode where Monica and Chandler are pumped about their new friend-couple, but it turned out in the end that the new couple had given them a fake number.

So we answer his question about where where from, made a little more small talk, and then (we think anyway) we all three stood there looking like we wanted to say something about getting together later to hang out, grab a beer, have a bbq, etc. But alas...nothing more was said. Off he went, back into the complex, and we went back to flattening our boxes. We never even exchanged names.

Justin later said that at the moment the guy turned to walk away, he had an overwhelming urge to yell out, "Will you be our friend??!"

But he stopped short, thinking: "It's too soon. Too soon."

Maybe someday we'll pass their new place while we're on a walk or perhaps see them at our neighborhood grocery store. Not that we're going to stalk them (similar to what Monica and Chandler did), but there's always hope. HA!