are you smarter than a 5th grader?

well, i think i am! :) the other saturday i actually did an IQ test of sorts for a friend of a friend who is getting her master's and needed to practice on someone. it was actually kinda fun, but the sad part is that i can't find out the results since she's not licensed yet. it was kinda crazy though b/c i would second guess some of my answers or think that i was totally getting stuff wrong that i should know. (after it ended i had to look some stuff up on google to ease my conscience!) so here are some of the things i do know: the capital of italy, who painted the sistene chapel, and the president during the civil war. of course there was much more to it than that.....math questons which were kinda hard b/c of it being given verbally, some interesting puzzles, pictures and word definitions. one of the first ones that threw me was "define winter"...uh, what? sounds crazy but i really had to think for a few mins. to decide how to best define a season. (by the way, i said "the season between fall and spring") anyway, at least i got a nice gift card for a nearby coffeeshop out of the deal! :)

since everyone i know is commenting about the election on their blogs, here is what i will say: i will be extremely happy in 8 days when it is all over and we finally know who it's gonna be!!

fall is def. here in full force: i am wearing slippers, drinking hot chocolate, enjoying the crisp air and sights of pumpkins on people's porches and the colors of changing leaves. we took our fall camping excursion up to WI last sun. thru tues. and it was nothing short of amazing. the weather was perfect: cool but not too cold and the trees were gorgeous! i honestly am trying to figure out why we haven't always done a fall trip to WI in oct. - we both love camping at this time of year, it's less crowded, you don't get all hot and sweaty hiking and there's no bugs! anyway, it truly was the break that we needed from the chaos of the city and a good time for us to reflect and reconnect. i will let the pics tell the rest of the story.

august recap

hey again! so now that's it october, i thought i would go back and review the month of august! :) not sure how much i can remember though....we had some fun visitors: phil's oldest nephew, ben, came out for 6 days. they ran around the city, watched the air and water show, and then we went up to WI for a couple days of camping which was really good. we went back to Devil's Lake State Park, which we hadn't been to in several years - we highly recommend it. there are some awesome hikes and it doesn't take too long to get up to a really nice view. we are planning to go back up there in a couple wks. to enjoy the fall colors and hopefully not freeze for one last camping trip of the year!





then right after ben left our friend ann came for a few days. we used to work together at Sunshine Gospel Ministries, but she left a year ago to take a break, travel the world and figure out where God is taking her next. it was fun to catch up and we got to help phil work at a neighborhood festival where the coffeeshop our church owns (ipsento) had a stand selling frozen mochas....yummy! :)





then phil and i celebrated 8 YEARS of wedded bliss. we can hardly believe it - it's a good reminder to make the most of each day b/c they fly by so quickly. we went out for a nice dinner and then attended a seminar on "openness" w/ our adoption agency. it was actually a really good evening....and crazy to think that most likely by the time we celebrate another anniversary we will be parents! anyway, they had a birth mom there who gave up her little boy 2 yrs ago but one of her requirements was that the adoption be completely open: meaning she has a relationship w/ her son and his parents. it was really good to hear her perspective and we were already willing to consider an open adoption but now i think i really want it - it could be really cool to have a relationship w/ the birth mom and see how God could use that. as well as making it a lot easier on the kid.







so, to wrap up august and the whole summer, we went back out to MI for labor day wknd to hang out w/our friends at the lake. it was....well, how can i put it? WONDERFUL! there were around 10 of us that went out and we did it all: tubing, skiiing, swimming, fishing, laughing, sleeping, puzzle making, eating, and more! oh yeah, and on the last morning, our friend's grandpa (whose house we were staying at), said, "i'm really surprised no one took the kayaks out - it's a perfect morning for it...." - so i went to find phil and said, "grandpa T just twisted my arm - we have to take the kayaks out before we leave b/c we don't want them (the neglected kayaks or the grandparents) to feel bad"! :) it was a delightful way to wrap up a perfect wknd. thanks so much to our dear friends the gilberts and talens!!!









that last pic is me and my friend sara tubing - she was gonna go by herself (she hadn't been out yet but most of us already had), so i said, "friends don't let friends tube alone!" ;) well i think that's all i've got for now. maybe in my next post i will actually tell you about the books i read this summer - there were some good ones!