So Kurt and I love where we live; this is no secret. I read this little blurb in our latest issue of Portland Monthly the other day and literally laughed out loud. Hopefully, you'll get a kick out of it, too (and don't take too much offense, Kari and Kristopher! All in good fun!)
Why Portland Kicks Seattle's A**
When Seattle Magazine printed "Five Reasons Not to Move to Portland" in February, we were nonplussed. We figured we'd scan the story, roll our eyes, and go about using it as a coaster. And then we read it. And felt really bad for them. Our mountains are smaller? We grow beards? Lordy, how ever will we recover from such slights? Gee. Here, let us try.
1. Mass transit. It exists. Thanks to growing populations in both moody cities, commuting can be like undergoing a molar extraction. Portland eases the burden with frequent, partly free, and mostly clean mass transit. Seattle's solution is a pointless monorail. And a floating bridge. That sank. Advantage, PDX.
2. Our beans are supreme. Seattle spawned Starbucks, which is now being mocked by the new McCafes at McDonald's. We grew Stumptown. 'Nuff said.
3. We're tougher. Mount Hood (Seattle called it "short" and "measly") is really a volcano, and it's got a body count higher than most Rambo flicks. In fact, you can see four volcanoes from downtown Portland, each of which could erupt at any second. Which means, theoretically, that we cheat death just by waking up.
4. We don't have to try. Did we ask the New York Times to crown us the new "sixth borough"? Did we make Sleater-Kinney move to town? No. It just happened. While Seattle has pimped itself out to anyone with a working flash, we've remained the cool kid in the corner with a pack of smokes rolled in our sleeve.
5. What's a sales tax? Even when we hold our noses through the aroma of Tacoma to shop in Seattle, all we have to do is whip out our Oregon driver's licenses and--poof--instant 6.5 percent discount. It's a neat trick. You should try it, Seattle. Oh wait, you can't.
We are a praying household and have recently introduced a blessing before all meals to Madelyn. She loves it and will actually remind Kurt and I by clasping her hands if we have forgotten to say thanks to Jesus before taking a first bite (that's a humbling moment for a parent...when your 19 month old remembers to thank Christ before you do). Kurt always ends blessings with "In Jesus' name, Amen," which prompts her to very enthusiastically join in for the "Amen" which sounds a little bit like "Elmo" but we're choosing to chalk that up to pronunciation limitations rather than the possibility that she thinks we're praying to a red, furry puppet.
She's got the clasped-hands part of the blessing down perfectly, and it's so cute to see her tiny hands folded and sitting so nicely. She's still working, however, on the closed-eyes portion:
She reserves her angriest and scowliest expressions for Jesus. But we're pretty sure He understands.
I've been meaning to write for over a week now and just haven't been able to find the energy. One of the three of us (you can deduce who) is still waking up regularly throughout the night... Nothing new to say about that. This post, therefore, will cover a couple of different topics.
I've been really into cooking lately. Well, not just cooking, but food in general and meals made with fresh, healthy, nutrient packed ingredients. And flavors...mmm, flavors... I've written before about Kurt's and my pre-baby proclamation that no child of ours would eat exclusively "kid" food and refuse to eat new and interesting things. I'm neither proud nor ashamed to report that the bottle of ketchup is still a regular fixture at our dinner table, but I also always give Madelyn an opportunity to try our dinner before relenting and making yet another PBJ sandwich. Sometimes, she utterly surprises me. We have been eating loads of asparagus lately, and the other night, she enthusiastically nibbled three whole spears Bugs Bunny style. The next night, she tanked a whole bowl full of shrimp gumbo. Shrimp gumbo! And then the next night, she refused to eat spaghetti with red sauce and parmasan cheese. No rhyme or reason. I have learned, however, that the presentation isn't lost on toddlers. Maddie got a butterfly cookie cutter in her Easter basket, so she had a butterfly shaped turkey and swiss sandwich for lunch today that she gobbled right up. We may be eating lots of butterflies in the next few weeks...
Our Easter was great, and we hope yours was too. Nothing too fancy or out of the ordinary; just a lot of good time with family and, of course, good food. We did a slightly different spin on egg decorating this year and made rice krispy treat eggs dipped in chocolate and sprinkles. Very fun and very yummy.
Just a quick heads up that from now on, you'll have to be a registered user and sign in with a name and password in order to leave a comment on our blog. Some despicable stranger left a comment on one of our recent posts that was nothing short of foul, gut-turning, and evil. It angers me in a way that is primal that people who would even think to do harm to a child even exist in this world. I have an idea what I'd like to do to all of them, so it's good for them that their souls lie with a Savior much more forgiving and merciful than me. At any rate, we know that only allowing registered users might not prevent these kinds of comments from happening again. But at least if it does, there will be some way of tracking the person.
We encourage those of you with blogs to do the same and to be careful about the contents of your posts.
2. Yesterday, I twice caught Madelyn lining up her toy cars. This might not seem like a big deal to most of you, but to the Bickley family, it's quite a laugh. Her Uncle Kristopher was a MASTER liner-upper. Of all things. From cars to Halloween candy. Even at a young age he would become quite distressed if you tried to come over and actually play with the cars. He intended them simply to sit there and look pretty. And organized. I took a photo of Maddie's first official line-up and texted it to Kris to which he replied "see...I told you she was smart."
3. No idea what this face is all about. Any of you care to venture a guess?
