This is not an announcement.

Here's beautiful Audrey! Isn't she adorable? Don't we look good with a little baby?

I thought it'd be funny to show my sis and bro-in-law with a baby too...

Not yet, friends and family. Not yet...

Welcome to our Home!

I thought a video would be better than pictures. Please ignore the horrible cinematography! And come visit soon!

Random musings on the new place

Ayse loves the carpet.  It's hilarious to watch her prance and hop and zoom around!

We had our first dinner party last night!  :)  It was basically family - Andrew & Angie Bryan, Mike & Joyce Cole, and Michelle Cole.  Unfortunately, Mike & Joyce had to cancel last minute, so we'll have to have them over again really soon!  (hint hint)  It was so much fun to have others in our home!  (And use our new table!)  My prayer is that we won't let the innevitable busy-ness of life keep us from hosting often!  So glad to have you over, Michelle, Andrew, & Angie.  Come again any time!

I think we may try out the pool tonight when Greg returns from church!  Yippee!

I've definitely been tempted to claim Greg's study as my own.  I had to catch up on the mail and finances this afternoon, and I absolutely LOVED being able to spread out on his desk and floor!  Yea for a second room!

I think I've given up on a futon loveseat for Greg's study.  When I was at IKEA last week, I was not impressed with the cheaper ones, and I don't want to spend a ton for something really nice.  Is it acceptable to simply have a futon mattress on the floor for guests?  (Our cat has graciously ruined TWO air mattresses, FYI.)

My Missing List

So I've now added another object to my list of "missing" items from the move.  I guess this isn't all that bad, but the list is growing daily.

• Ayse's cat treats
• King and Gimple family pictures
• Our home calendar

How do these things disappear?  Where could they be?  And the biggest question on my mind - will I ever find them?

So Ayse will survive without her treats.  And it was probably time I changed the family pictures to more recent photos.  As for the calendar, well, hopefully we won't forget about anything.  I wasn't all that great about keeping it up-to-date anyway.

Please stay, Spring!

It is a gorgeous day today in Boston! I think it's supposed to reach mid-60s! I even wore capris today, and we turned off our heat in our apartment! For lunch, I took my grilled panini to the patio and basked in the sunshine while I ate. Then I grabbed an ice cold coke and took a brief stroll around campus. I dodged the frisbees and walked around the classes meeting outside and students studying and hanging out on the grass. The president's lawn was packed full of students sunbathing and trying to take advantage of this incredible weather for as long as it lasts! Unfortunately, my favorite bench by the tennis courts was occupied, but I envisioned the many summer days soon approaching when I will claim the bench as mine for my lunch break. I can hardly wait! For a city that sees winter almost half the year, we are sure ready for Spring and Summer to stay!

Moving Pictures & More to Come!

This is what we were living in for a little over a week. Since we were away the weekend before moving, we had to do much of the packing a little early. It is incredible to not be living in a sea of boxes anymore!

Saturday was amazing! 14 of us were able to pack the truck and clean the old apartment in an hour and half! Thanks to the 7 guys and 5 girls who helped Greg & me transition as smoothly as possible! It really was a lot of fun to have so many friends around showing God's love to us by carrying heavy things and cleaning our messy apartment! (FYI, UHaul didn't have the right size truck for us, so they upgraded us to this monstrousity! What an awful gas-guzzler!)
I'm not quite ready to post pictures of the new place, but I will soon. I'm hoping Greg may have time to help me hang things this coming weekend. I did promise Mom pictures of my new favorite piece of furniture, so here it is!!!

And for when all of you come and visit... (Don't worry, we'll gather more chairs for you!)

A Who in my House!

Remember the Who in Dr. Seuss' Horton hears a Who!? Well, last night I had a Who in my house!So apparently, Greg is allergic to one of the hypoallergenic lotions we have, and a few seconds after he put it under his nose (poor guy's been blowing his nose too much!), he ran to me and exclaimed, "I look like a Who!" It really was funny how much he resembled the little guy in the picture above.

To our relief, Greg just sent me an email saying, "my nose is no longer swollen. i thought i would wake up looking like a who. ;-)" I had to write him back and tell him it was still swollen this morning when I left to work, and I had to stifle a laugh so I wouldn't wake him!

I'm ready!

We get our new apartment keys tonight!

I woke up this morning, and I could feel my heart racing immediately. I am so excited about this move! I’ll try to remember to take pictures, Jennifer! I should definitely post a picture of our living room right now. It’s a mess! My boss was telling me this morning about some show she saw a couple weeks ago (maybe on Clean Sweep?) where these three women were living together and had the most clutter you could ever imagine in their home! I was telling her that maybe I should download that show and watch it mid-move to encourage me to keep going! For someone who LOVES to organize but can never quite keep on top of it, moving is a great new beginning with endless possibilities of new ways to organize. And then in reality it’s often just a big mess, like our living room.

Pray we don’t get too soaked (rain predicted all weekend)! Oh, and did I mention Greg's been sick all week? :(

Retreating in New Hampshire

Last weekend, Greg and I were away at a retreat in Freedom, New Hampshire. (I still have no clue where that is…I think I’ll go mapquest is right now.)
So that’s where we were. The area was quite pretty. The retreat was at a camp on a lake near/in the White Hills, ooops, I mean the White “Mountains”. I admit it was a little depressing to leave Boston’s barely-above-freezing weather last Friday and get out of the car in New Hampshire to snow that was as high as my waist in places! It’s APRIL! Where are the Spring flowers?! Greg and I determined that we could never live in weather like that. Boston is cold enough for us!

The retreat was for Christian college students in New England. I think there were around 200 of them, though that’s a really rough estimate. Greg was asked to lead the worship music and help plan the meeting times with John, one of the pastors at our church in Cambridge. I was privileged to go along for the ride and sing a little here and there as well. We also brought incredible keyboardist, recently engaged Chase, and fellow seminarian, very-soon-to-be-a-daddy percussionist, Bryan. So the five of us from Hope Fellowship Church made the trek together in our little Honda and the big white church van, packed full with our sound equipment. Did you catch that? Kim and four guys. It was quite an entertaining trip for me, to say the least!

Our venue was awesome, and the four of us in the band thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to play together all weekend. The college students’ energy and passion were really encouraging as well. The theme of the weekend was based on Matthew 11:28, and the three meetings were centered around these three key words – Come, Take, Rest. Though all three spoke to me in their own ways, God called me to a deeper commitment to self-sacrificial living during the second meeting – Take. He reminded me that abundant and fulfilling life is not found in selfish living but in laying down my life for others despite the “cost” to me. I remembered a statement I adopted my first year at Baylor nine years ago – “I will go anywhere, do anything, at any cost for the sake of Christ.” I guess I want my life to reflect that more than it is at this point. I definitely feel like I have more limitations on what that can look like now that I’m married and working a more structured job. But God’s not limited by my life circumstances…

Anyway, just wanted to share a little about the weekend since it was such an incredible time for me – musically, spiritually, socially.

Out with the 'shrooms!

I just read Grant's post on mushrooms and laughed pretty hard.  Grant, I agree completely!