A&M Wins Again To Make It 5-4 (guest post by Brendan)

To break the long absence from our blog (and what better way could I), it is time for my annual summary of the match up between Texas Tech and Texas A&M in college football. As you may recall, this "personal" rivalry between Anne and I never meant anything to me until I started dating Anne in 2003. She went to TTU and me to A&M - so one Saturday a year since 2003, when we started dating, the game is closely watched and tallied for future reference. Not that we need any further competition in our marriage, though this one is a little safer than the card games at home.

Here are the results since Anne and I started dating.......

2003 - TTU (first game ever with Anne - A&M killed in Lubbock)
2004 - A&M (overtime victory at Kyle Field)
2005 - TTU (A&M killed again in Lubbock)
2006 - TTU (they stole the game on the rode in College Station)
2007 - TTU (A&M killed again in Lubbock - do you see the trend)
2008 - TTU (4 yrs in a row....oh man!)
2009 - A&M (CG is the good luck charm - Gig'em!!)
2010 - A&M (in Hong Kong, Aggies win while I sleep)
2011 - A&M (BK in HKG, Anne in TX with the Aggie good luck charm CG)

We are unsure what the future holds for this game moving forward, especially with A&M ruining it with a move to the SEC. Chances are it will be years until it played again but when it is played you can count us in for watching it and for this scoreboard to be updated. For now TTU holds the one game lead, but CG and myself are happy with her perfect record at 3-0. She truly is Daddy's Little Girl!!!

Love to both my wife and daughter as they spend time with family in the US! A maroon dress from Momma K seems to be in order this year.

Sweet Tea & Watermelon

This post actually has nothing to do with sweet tea or watermelons, although Charlotte is looking quite cute in the watermelon dress she received from her great-grandmother, Mommie Mop! But sweet tea and watermelon have been keeping me cool - and sane - while we endure the hot Madrid summer with no A/C.

I actually haven't written on the blog in a while and just wanted to do a little catching up. I mentioned in my Monday gratitude post that I've been in a sort of "funk". I've just felt down about a lot of things and really felt like if it wasn't one thing that was weighing on my mind then it was something else. I've talked to Brendan about it and mentioned that it was also frustrating because I also feel like I'm closer to the Lord than I ever have been, so shouldn't I be able to shake out of these down times?! He reminded me that spiritual warfare is going to be stronger when I'm closer to the Lord and a greater threat to Satan....huh, thanks sweetie, for that reminder! That definitely helped me put things in perspective and, as the Lord always does, He is bringing peace, contentment, and joy to this time that we are in Spain. I still miss my family and friends and American culture, but I know our time here will not last forever and I don't want to miss out on what the Lord can use me to do while we're here.

On that note, Brendan and I are really excited to be leading/hosting a community group at our church, Oasis Madrid, starting in the fall. God used community groups in a big way in Raleigh to shape and grow our faith, and we love being able to serve others by opening our home and feeding and caring for people. A friend from our previous community group in Madrid who just moved back to the U.S. recently reminded me how awesome and special it is for us to open our home to others; to make it a place of sanctuary and rest for those who enter it - whether that is my family, friends, or strangers. That really started getting me excited about leading and hosting a community group again!

As I'm also now a stay-at-home mommy and homemaker, God has been teaching me a lot about what those roles mean for me. I always dreamed about this time of my life - kind of romantically, not thinking about the hard parts - and then when I found myself here I really didn't know what to do! I found this great blog post recently on Passionate Homemaking that has helped me begin to think through what the purpose of my home is. It's entitled, What is the purpose of the home?, and I would highly recommend reading it. The blog's author, Lindsay, sought scripture to define what God intends our homes to be. I intend to spend time meditating and praying on these purposes in the coming months and use this time in my life to create a vision for my role as a mother and caretaker of my home.

And I know you would all be disappointed if I did not include an update on Charlotte...or as Brendan and I like to call her,

"Little Explorer"

"Pebbles"

and "Sweet Pea"

"Little Explorer" best captures her current stage! She is into everything! Actually, not quite everything, and for that I'm thankful. :) She really just likes to explore "off-limits" areas of our apartment, which are of course interesting because we don't encourage her to play there. She's also pushing the limits of her physical abilities...you know, seeing if she can fly off the bed! Daddy grabs her ankle though, so she doesn't get far. She really has always been a child who likes to see what new thing her body can do...she quickly jumps from one development to another because she just NEVER settles for what she can currently do. I think there were only about 2 weeks between her sitting up completely on her own to then crawling...the girl just doesn't like to sit still!

So she is now pulling herself up to standing in all sorts of places...her crib, on Mommy or Daddy if we are on the floor with her, and objects that move and can't support her attempts to pull up on them! :0 She has thankfully avoided any big tumbles in the past few weeks. Her two bottom front teeth finally popped in a couple weeks ago, so she's not actually putting everything in her mouth like she used to.

Brendan and I are really just amazed at how fast she's grown, and continues to grow. We've been watching the World Cup this summer, which has been fun since we live in a European city and especially since Spain is in the Final! The World Cup is played every four years so the last one we (mainly Brendan) watched was right before our wedding in 2006. I commented to Brendan the other day that the next time we watch the World Cup we'll have a 4 year-old! Crazy!

Vamos Espana!!

The Kinne's Spring 2009 ~ Raleigh, NC

We could not waste the opportunity yesterday to enjoy being outside in our community. The weather was perfect - sun shining, cool spring temperature and the smells of new plant life popping up everywhere. Raleigh is on the backside of the "pollen days" (more to come on this craziness) and will be getting into the warmer months soon. Nothing compared to TX, but still gets a little hot and humid. Natives think it is terrible...we just tell them to go to Houston any month besides December.

Anne is doing much better now that she has entered into the 2nd Trimester. Booger Kinne is at 14 weeks and still growing. Well I guess there is not much more we should expect out of he/she for 6 more months.

The pictures above are from the front of our house. We love the tree in the front and then the bushes have now bloomed as well. Just in case you were wondering how we keep it maintained so well...we currently borrow child labor from our friends at church. They needed me to watch her for a few hours and I needed the flowers watered - perfect match!!

Actually, Rachel is a near and dear friend of mine. I have learned a lot from this 2+ yr old. I will not call it baby sitting any longer, rather baby learning...as she has exposed many parenting techniques that I am horrible at. Good thing for now is I can turn her back over and have her parents (Jarrad and Anna Giles) straighten her back out. I better get my act together soon or I will be a push over for Booger Kinne.

Happy Easter!

We wish you all a Happy Easter!


It was a glorious day in Raleigh and we were blessed to spend time with friends during this holiday. Over the past few weeks we have also been thankful to get the chance to see family. From a trip to Plains, TX for a surprise 50th Birthday Celebration for Brad (Anne's Dad) and then a visit by Karen (Brendan's Mom), Sean (Brendan's Brother) and Ambyr (Sean's Fiance) to our home in NC for the weekend. March madness basketball was sprinkled in there throughout both of the trips...GO TARHEELS!


The trip to TX was a wild one - fighting a snow storm (Yes snow in TX), to a big surprise party for Brad...which he had no clue about..., to even providing more surprise with our baby news. On that front, Booger is at the 13th week mark. Website indicators tell us that Booger is at 3 inches (head to toe), 1 ounce and comparable to a medium shrimp. (Ha - should we look to rename him from Booger to Shrimp?? May be we need to setup a poll on that!!) Anne is gaining back some energy and starting to lose her mind a bit. More to come on the latter in future postings.


The visit to NC from Brendan's family was great. They helped us jump into action on a few home improvement projects that we have been delaying. Just when you might have thought that the "popcorn elimination" days were behind us...think again! The garage was covered and it looked terrible. In one quick day, Sean helped Brendan (under the guidance of Karen) knock out the ugliness. Pictures below. THANK YOU FAMILY FOR THE HELP!!


Our house in the spring...notice the garage open with stuff in the driveway!



Picture from in the garage...making room for improvement




Another pretty ceiling...without POPCORN...successful elimination