Fun with the 'Rents in Chicago!

Chicago 2008

Thank you, Mom & Dad, for giving us 10 days of your time. We loved having you here! Mollie misses you already.

J'aime Quebec

Has it really been so long since the last post? My parents were visiting last week & chided me for not posting more recent pictures of their grand-dog. Grand-dog aside, it's been a beautifully full summer: full of time with friends, walks by the lake & continued discovery of this fabulous city. Really, Chicago, could you get any better?

Following the termination of spring quarter (which lasted far too long, in my book) we drove up to Montreal for the Neuromusic conference. The drive was a bit long, but bringing Mollie was well worth the mode of transportation.

Mollie's favorite spot in the car, head nestled between our seats:


The downtown location of our hotel couldn't be beat. While I brained away at the conference, Drew finally had the alone time for studying he'd been longing for. He also spent a fair amount of time at the Montreal dog parks. Believe it or not, Goldendoodles are "the thing" (or should I say "la mode"?) in Montreal--I can't tell you how many times we were stopped by groups on the street to oogle at her... Below is a photo of Drew posing with Mollie atop Mont Royal.


Post Montreal we drove 3 hours north, through Quebec City to an area called "St Anne de Beaupre", named for a gorgeous cathedral nestled in the mountains, overlooking the St. Lawrence river and Ile d'Orleans. We camped for 3 days, made friends with the Quebecois, hiked and practiced our French, hammock-balancing and campfire recipes (smores & weenies, unsophisticated as they may be, earned our profound respect).

Below--the greatest campsite EVER! (really, it was sweet)


exploring the St. Anne de Beaupre cathedral (look it up, interesting place! known for performing miracles--see the photo below with the pillar piled to the top with crutches, walkers & braces!):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basilica_of_Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupr%C3%A9




with Mollie by the fire (story: Drew almost lit me on fire. my arm hair was completely singed. you must ask me about it next time you see me...):


at the stretching station before hiking Mt. St. Anne:


my mountain man on our hike:


sled dog village atop the mountain (hundreds of dogs, and yes, we got to pet them):


wet dog, but gorgeous view:


I'll post photos of Quebec City later. As my official closing this evening, let me leave you with one of my favorite photos. Study the text carefully & you just might find out why... (it translates "waxing room"==who would have known "to wax" in French is so similar to the word for a grotesque bodily function in English?). My father would be proud.

more of mollie

can you tell we're obsessed? but tell me--wouldn't you be? check out this cute puppy face!




she has this hilarious habit of carrying around sticks (with greenery still attached) three times her length. she'll carry them all the way around the park, & earns plenty of attention from passers-by. she carried this one around for quite some time (you can't tell how long it is in the photo, but it's about twice her length, with branches flaying every which way):


what she gets most excited about are the leaves:


we have good times...

spring has sprung... or summered?

this same phenomenon happened last year: one day it's snowing & the next it's time to break out the bikini & head for the beach. literally, chicago's all about the extremes. extreme taxes (highest sales tax in the nation), extreme festivals (come, on they dye the chicago river green for st. paddy's day), extreme sports (surfing in sub-zero temperatures?) & extreme weather. from 30 to 90 degrees in 24 hours. good thing i love the heat.

mollie, however, would rather be inside with central air (those spoiled city dogs). our little pup has grown into a teenaged girl! she sits, lays down, heels... & gives some of the best cuddles known to mankind. We'll detail some of our latest Mollie fun.



see what I said about good cuddles??

she LOVES pulling down Drew's shorts when they have drawstring waists!


Playing outside our place with some of the Feliki kids. Moktan (right) loves to run around screaming at the top of his lungs while she chases him, & then jumps into Drew's arms.


she really wanted to get in the bath with Drew--I heard whining & barking & went in to see what was wrong to find her wiggling & trying to get in the bath!


turns out it was the bubbles she was excited about! she loved eating them. little did she know, they gave her a beard:


dog park fun. need I say more?


arf?

so close to a star

here, my friends, is my good friend and neighbor, Johnny Depp. okay, so we're not friends. but we were neighbors for a bit. for reals.

while our close friends Brent & Erin Raska were visiting last week (which was a BLAST), we enjoyed Happy Hour at our favorite Tapas restaurant on Halsted (Cafe Babreba!) & on our way home found an entire street blocked off, the pavement covered with artificial cobblestone & camera crews in abundance. there he was. Johnny. okay, we didn't see him because the camera man lied & said he wasn't there... but this photo happened to be taken of him in chi-town, on that very street, that very evening. darned lying camera man.

Happy Mothers' Day!

To Winnifred & Lucille, Karen & Debbie:

Happy Mothers' Day! We love you & wish we could be with you all to share in person how thankful we are for you today.



Hugs & Kisses,
D&D

dominican republic, we miss you

we have been aching for the DR lately. i was thinking this morning about ridiculous things, like the parade on independence day outside our house that consisted of nothing but skinny horses & cowboys.


or the time when people gathered to watch a dude climb a pole. i didn't get a) why, or b) why it was exciting... i guess carnivale does crazy things to people:


how about that once, when i spent 8 hours cleaning out a moldy, bug-infested, nasty nasty fridge? the cockroaches never did move out...


we HATED doing laundry, especially in the humid winter months, because it would take up our entire house, drying...


performing a tonsilectomy was one of my highlights. dr. dana! who needs med school?


DR, we miss you. sweat, scabies & all.

just can't beat it

it's true. there is absolutely nothing better than spending time with your best friends. let me introduce two of my favorite people in the entire world: Cristina (on the left) & Maile (on the right). they are world changers, appreciators of all things beautiful & just darned cute. we spent a glorious weekend in Portland over my spring break, full of ridiculous giggles, wearing matching clothes, sleepless nights from squeezing into one bed & plenty of mimosas.

for my second full day there, we spent the morning wine-tasting in the Willamette Valley. I had no idea how beautiful it was! this picture doesn't do the many hillside vineyards justice, but we were desperate for a group photo prior to heading home:


introducing another favorite person: Jenny! i was so glad to get time with her, although it was MUCH too short.


we spent a day shopping on burnside (i think that's the street?) & found these ridiculous shorts. i felt like we were tweedle-dee & tweedle-dum. now who's dum, you ask?


one afternoon we drove out to a spa at the hot springs... to find that what the receptionist explained as "rustic" really meant nasty, unsanitary, old &....well, rustY. we would have been disappointed to have made such a long, unsuccessful drive if it weren't for the two plates of fries we consumed at the ritzy River's Edge Cafe. audience, i'm pretty sure our server had a mullet.


thank you, ladies, for an incredible week!

big buns, he thought

what was the owner thinking when he decided "big buns" was a great word pair to include in his business title? there are funny signs like this around our neighborhood (more to be posted as soon as i get around to taking photos). my personal favorite includes the word "boob." gotta love Rogers Park.

easter sunday

easter service at living water was definitely joy filled. through our involvement with burundi refugees we now have around 50 of them attending our church on a regular basis!! sundays are always emotional for me as i look around to see members of our church community reaching out to these individuals, dancing with the children, sending them home with food from the kitchen and making efforts to communicate in broken French/Swahili or being patient with their developing english skills. easter was incredible. the church released balloons from the ceiling during worship and all the little african children were in heaven--dancing in them, carrying them around, putting them inside their shirts. the parents were so joy filled as well, happy to be in their new community and praising the Lord. i couldn't hold back tears.

after the service the Peebles hosted a lunch for the Burundians and other folk from the church wanting to spend an afternoon with them. their place was packed--thank you, Tim & Patty, for all your work! below are a few photos from the lunch.

eating soup.


amanda got a baby (wilfred, actually)! the burundi women found this absolutely hilarious--and amanda was terrified wilfred would fall out the bottom at any given moment.


with my darlings: Upendo & Zena

back, by popular demand

okay, so things have been a bit busy. i will post photos of portland soon (i'm still waiting for my dear friend Cristina to send them to me), but will reply to the many requests we've received for more puppy photos for the time being. RuthAnn (although i still dislike her name) is an absolute doll. no chewing, no whining, and potty training's been a breeze. she's at least doubled in size just in the last few weeks--no joke! below are photos from her second & third weeks with us:

RuthAnn loves the snow!! she hops around in it like a bunny & digs caves to crawl in.


after a bath--nice & fluffy.


cuddling with our friend Jeremy (she's definitely too large for this sort of cuddling now).


interns from Spokane's "New Community Church" visited a few weeks ago & Drew hosted them for an afternoon/evening (complete with food at our favorite Indian fast food restaurant, a visit with Burundi refugees and meeting with members of the Reba Fellowship--an intentional Christian community in the Rogers Park area)... this was how she slept during their meeting, right in the center of the action. everyone had quite a laugh.


cuddles. see how big she looks??

meet RuthAnn.

i'm off to portland for the week, & will be leaving these two dolls (+ Tink the cat) behind. missed they will be, but i'm looking forward to this fun-packed week with two of my favorite people on this planet. Teenie & Mai, here I come!

voting disclaimer (scroll down for photos to help you vote)

drew has begged. pleaded, really. that i change the spelling to the right from"Ruth Ann" to the traditional "Rooth Anne", as well as explain its significance (i think he's trying to bias your votes):
1) yesterday was the birthday Straits' beloved black lab, Anne.
2) Anne happened to be named for Drew's grandmother, Anna, whose date of death was the same as Anne the dog's bday.
3) Priest Lake is one of the most significant places for Drew. at Priest Lake is a mountain, "Mt. Roothan", that holds particular meaning for him and his family. additionally, Priest Lake played a significant role in our relationship--serving as the site for our first kiss, engagement proposal and wedding itself!

i think you can tell who's rooting for that name...

the fluffiest straitlet

meet the newest member of our family! & help us name her via the poll on the right: we need your help!!

Pizza Party with the Felikis

Last Wednesday Drew coordinated a pizza party at our place with the entire Feliki clan (=7 kids, 2 adults), the Botts (=Nick & Jenna) & Jessica, who's been helping to tutor Zena & Sikola. If you don't know who the Felikis are, they are a refugee family from Burundi. As Hutus, the parents fled Burundi in 1978--part of the first exodus fleeing the genocide. You can read more about this history on Wikipedia (what doesn't wikipedia know?!). They spent the rest of their lives in refugee camps in Tanzania. Their entire families minus a sibling or two were killed in the massacre, so it was important for Kabura & Janeatti (Janet) to have a large family themselves, wanting their children to have what violence stole from them. Kabura, the Feliki father, was at work this night (he just got a job! yay!) but Janet brought a family friend, Japhet, to accompany her instead.

Here's the group, minus Drew (Mr. Photographer):


Eating PIZZA!!!!!!!!!! They only liked the orange soda, so we were stuck with 2 liters of coke & 7-up... I also made fried yucca, a tradiational Dominican recipe, in hopes that the yucca would serve as a "taste of home" (they eat it in Burundi):


Japhet, Janet & kiddos enjoying "Spiderman" on the couch:


The kids LOVE Tink--every time we see them, they say "we need to go to your house to see Tink!" Even Wilfred got some cuddle action:


What a blessing this family is to us! Thank you, Felikis, for allowing us into your family.