Fall Catch Up

Things are so delightfully fall-ish around here, in spite of our lack of anything to talk about on the blog. It's been a bit difficult to post here, what with all the homework (blah, blech), but tonight I'm cranking out the fourth of five 100+ citation bibliographies for my research class, and the only way I know how to get my citation program to work is to give ten minutes between each upload. So, wha-lah. Blog time.

Here's what we've been doing:
* Readers: The big news of the week is that my thesis is now in the hands of my readers--approved by my committee chairperson, who was very complementary (of the FOURTH draft, for the love), and one giant step further down the road to being finished. My gracious boss has let me take a day off each week while Congress is out of session to work on it and I have needed every minute. I don't have to think about it (much) for two weeks now while they read it, and that makes me v. happy.

* Nigella: I miss cooking, which I've given up for all but Friday as we push through to the finish. I think Jason misses me cooking, too, but he's such a good sport. He's more than a good sport--he is awesome. Anyway, I recently discovered the charms of Nigella Lawson, who now has a show on Food Network, and found one of her cookbooks used. I read it cover to cover, hearing her British accent on each page, last weekend. Glee got me through the spring, Nigella is getting me through the fall.

* Apples: Although cooking has generally been sacrificed to the homework dragon, I will make applesauce this year. I will. Which is why my friend Missy and I got up early Saturday morning for our now-annual apple picking trip to Maryland. Kevin, her husband, was craving the delicious Jonagolds from Rock Hill Orchards, so what can you do? And now, of course, the apples are rotting in a bag in my kitchen... Oh, another note--we did not go pear picking, but I grabbed some at the farmer's market a couple of weeks ago and made this. Unbelievable on toast with goat cheese...

* Nephews...s...s...s...s: That's five nephews, for those who find counting hard. We are getting all set to welcome Bucher Boy #3 into the family in February. Dresses are nice and everything, but we really like boys in our family! Shaanti and Adam are such awesome parents, and we can't wait to meet this new little guy! (And see how Mason likes being a big brother...we already know that Cole is ready to be, as he says, "another brother.)

* Graciousness: Another thing I've neglected to mention is how grateful we are that God took good care of Andrea and Baby Jane, who are finally, finally home in Olympia. This makes me so very happy.

* Coffee: It's official: I am a coffee drinker. For some reason this disappoints my mom, who thought that we were the lone holdouts on the no-coffee team (and yet Mom doesn't drink tea, so we're not really on the same team). I have been toying with the idea of learning to like coffee since college, but it wasn't until I started to have classes until 10 pm after a full day of work that I decided the caffeine outweighed the cost, calories, and addiction. And then. Oh, and then I discovered marshmallow mocha creamer. So amazing. Like my favorite hot chocolate from Moxie Java at home, but with a jittery kick. I honestly have to limit myself to mochas on the weekends or I would go through a container of creamer a week.

I am mildly concerned that most of these things revolve around food. And me. Clearly this list should have been entitled "What I'VE been doing." Whatev, he can write his own blog entry (when he gets home from Alabama, where he is doing some training for work). And now I have no excuse to not go back to the creative writing piece I'm doing for class tomorrow. It is awful and not getting better. Oh, what is that? There's an episode of Friends on TV? Just a few minutes is okay, right?

The Season for Hockey!

Irregardless of the fact that the temperature has stretched back into the 80s today, October signals the start of another exciting NHL season. Last weekend, a friend from my hockey team gave us his two tickets to one of the Washington Capitals pre-season games. Despite the disappointing loss, it was fun to go to Verizon center and watch the Caps in action!

My hockey season is also in full swing (since mid-September). We are on quite a run (we have a 3-1 record) -- having beat a formidable adversary last night 8-0!

Work Bench!

Having a designated corner of the house as a place for home repair and improvement projects is to be coveted. We had long envisioned this corner of our renovated utility room to serve just that purpose. After successive weekends of installing and painting pegboard, we finally finished the work nook. We might even find a bench stool at Ikea today to round out the work space! We have many to share the credit with, notably Dad Small for the utility room overhaul and Dad Johnson for his advice and assistance installing the pegboard. I suppose I now have no excuse for finishing those lingering home improvement projects!

A Celebration for Baby Gambill

My friend Tilly is about the most joyful pregnant woman I have ever met. Brent says that she's extra fun to be around because she laughs at everything, as if her joy is just bubbling over, even when the joke isn't that funny. I love that. Tilly is one of my favorite people, and swollen feet and all, it has been an outright delight to watch her get ready for the arrival of Baby Gambill.

Andrea, Megan, Tilly, and Layton

Maria and Destin made a beautiful fondant cake and cupcakes.

So when it was time to throw Tilly a baby shower, we felt like it needed to be a real celebration. Tilly's pregnancy, which came after a long, long wait and lots of prayer, was a reminder of how faithful God is, how perfect his timing is. We needed to celebrate this baby with fireworks and a big brass band!

Each guest wrote a blessing for Baby Gambill on a quilt square so that
we can stitch them together for Tilly.

Okay, so we didn't do fireworks or a band. But we did all get dressed up, pull out the twinkle lights, and put on a wonderful black-tie affair of a baby shower. Maria and Destin did an absolutely amazing job of decorating--the yard looked like a fairy land--and the food was delicious. And joyful Tilly, looking fabulous at eight months pregnant, had a wonderful time.

Tilly with all the shower hosts!

Amy and I, taking a picture time out!

I feel so blessed to have such wonderful friends here, friends who encourage and pray for and celebrate with each other as if it is a joy and a privilege, not a chore. There is a Sara Groves song that talks about how life is "Twice as Good" with the people in her life, and that is how I feel about these girls. There is a line in the song that says, "At my good news, you're dancing on the table--baby's born, a celebration." That is exactly what it was like last Saturday...although no one dared to get up on a table in their high heels, the sentiment was everywhere.

Along the Sahel

I just completed a visit to three countries in West Africa: Niger, Mali, and Mauritania. This was my first visit to these countries since taking up my responsibilities for U.S. policy in West Africa in January. The countries have many similarities, such as large swaths of the Sahara desert and high poverty (example: Niger rates dead last on the UN human development index). I spent much of my time learning the dimensions of the challenges the U.S. Embassies in those countries face in advancing U.S. policy in the region: goals as diverse as counter-terrorism, humanitarian disasters brought about by regular droughts and floods, and political instability. My ten-day trip (all in one carry-on suitcase) included flights on such well known airlines as Air Mali and Mauritanian Airways. My flights were virtually all on-time, a rare occurrence I am told. My biggest complaint was when they served fish curry on an Air France flight (who thought the smell of spicy fish was a good decision for a cramped coach cabin?).

I didn't have much chance to get out into the country-side as I had hoped, since I was detoured unexpectedly to Mauritania about half-way through my trip to assist our U.S. Embassy in Nouakchott. Nevertheless, I did take one afternoon to check out the pristine Mauritanian beach front. The water of the Atlantic was incredibly warm -- likely due to currents from the Gulf of Mexico. If only I had had room in my carry-on to pack my swimsuit!

I also ran in to some camels!