Nine on the 9th

Well, we managed to publish one additional post since our last Nine on the 9th, so that's some progress. As we mentioned last month, we are in quite the transition right now. As things get a little more solid we will definitely fill y'all in on what's going on, but you'll have to just bear with us for the time being. 1. Kristl's right eye is noticeably smaller than her left. It especially shows up when she's smiling. Her family affectionately calls it her "small eye."

Check out that small eye

2. Rachel is went to the Summer Olympics in Atlanta in 1996. She got to see a women's basketball game, an archery competition, and rowing. Her aunt and uncle bought her and her parents a brick with their name on it which you can still find in Olympic Park in downtown Atlanta.

3. We take our pets to the Royal Treatment Veterinary Center, a holistic vet here in Chicago. Bradley has received acupuncture, chiropractic, laser, and water therapy for his bum knees. He's currently on a raw diet and we're in the process of trying to switch Delilah to one as well.

4. Kristl loves shopping for school/office supplies. Earlier today Rachel said she wanted to go to Target to get a notebook and Kristl got so excited she teared up. Seriously.

5. Rachel went to Russia when she was 7, just after the fall of the Soviet Union. Her parents took her with them on a mission trip to Latvia and part of the trip was a train ride to Russia. She has visited St. Petersburg and Moscow and was even able to tour the inside of the Kremlin.

6. Recently we have designated Rachel as the bacon cooker and Kristl as the egg cooker in our family, because Rachel cooks awesome bacon but frequently messes up the eggs and Kristl cooks pretty great eggs, but often burns the bacon. This is why we're a good team.

7. Kristl was a swing dancer/lindy hopper off and on for almost 10 years. You could find her out dancing most nights of the week. Unfortunately, she's fallen out of the scene lately (mainly because she likes to be in bed by 11 and that schedule isn't super conducive to social dances). Hopefully she can convince Rachel to take some classes so they can dance together!

8. Rachel used to have a nose piercing. She got it in San Francisco in 2008 and had to take it out when she got her wisdom teeth removed in 2012. She couldn't get it back in after the surgery, but it hasn't been any great loss to her beauty or character.

Rachel showing her curling prowess with the stone (a tea kettle filled with water)

9. We are in a supper club with some friends and the most recent event was in honor of the Olympic opening ceremonies. We each were part of a two-person team representing a country. We chose China and I made flags out of felt and glitter for our outfits. Jess cooked dishes from each of the countries present and made us compete in 4 events. We won the "curling" event (which our competitors attributed to us having taken a Learn2Curl class, but we attributed it to sheer awesomeness) and then dominated in the land skating (like pairs skating but on land, in Jess' kitchen, to a surprise music selection), to everyone's surprise (those years of partner dancing really paid off). We were middling in the other two events (a blind taste test and "Name that Tune" game), but managed to pull off the win.

Victory for China!

Disclaimer: The politics in Russia are horrific and we know there is a lot of controversy surrounding the Sochi games. We went back and forth on boycotting the games, but decided that watching and engaging in discussions about the gross inequities is more our style. Brooke Cartus explained it really well in her blog here.