New Years in Houston

ok, you regulars. sorry for the hold up. we had so much fun, but 5 days was just too short. sarah got to meet jocie for the first time, lots of wedding gab with the girls, josh got 2 green sweaters for christmas, the taos had a winning comeback in screwy louie (to be preserved in yvonne's book forever), and of course, some awesome houston friends and food to top it all off. here are some more highlights:

family time with the Taos.

three brothers. my, they're growing tall.

dec 31, 2005

gametime 6 pm

guess where??




Our words of the evening: Rockets Suck!! But hey, they always put up a show in the 4th quarter. too bad they couldn't pull through. we had a good time, though... as you can see josh is a little excited here...

Onto the party at Mike's!!

here are some of our favorite people! makes us remember what we miss most about being in houston. we played some games, caught up with old friends, talked about the past year and looked forward to 2006 together. drank champagne at the countdown... and also caught a lot of people kissing on video - look out!

michelle catches a little casino action with the boys.

before the night was over (at like 3 a.m.) we decided to finally pull out our wedding cake for our 1st year anniversary. check it out! the roses on top were flat, but still frozen white. for those of you who were wondering how it tasted... well, it tasted a little like sweet sawdust to tell you the truth. i think it got a little dry over the year, but it was fun to get it out.

what a great way to end the year. family, friends... and year-old wedding cake. happy 2006 everyone!!

Merry Christmas from St. Louis!!

Back to school!

ok, so new news yesterday... I (sarah) was officially accepted to a Ph.D. program in education at Saint Louis University!! so if you've been wondering what i've been doing down here besides taking care of joshy, now you know. i've been walking down this road for a few months now, but unsure of where I was going. so now I just wanted to share the good news with all of you out there in blog-o-land.

Please pray for me as I decide to pursue this program. SLU has a pretty large College of Public Service, which includes educational leadership, public policy, and other courses of that nature. so the avenues from which I can choose to study/do research are quite endless, which is exciting. I spent the last few months taking classes for fun (yes, it's true). I was hesitant about going back to school, but pleasantly surprised. God has really opened doors and made the journey very smooth so far, so I'm inclined to keep going... Josh calls me a nerd all the time, so I may as well accept it - so far, it's been a nice diversion... and hopefully it will be for the next 3-4 years. I'm thankful that my husband has been so loving and supportive of me and what i hope to do with my life. we figure now (a.k.a. before children) is the best time for me to be in school, yeah? so we'll see how things go, starting in January.

the white elephant

we went to 2 christmas parties over the weekend, and we came back with a random collection of objects you'd probably find at a garage sale. next time we're gonna think twice about what we bring to a gift exchange. =)

things we brought: picture frame, serving spoons, travel sequence game, and bath foam soaps from bath and body.

things we got: used snugli (with cobwebs), strange-looking candle holder/vase, bathroom decoration of girl sitting on toilet, open water dvd, and yes, bottled water.

careful, you just might see these gifts again someday...

monday again

i think we play so hard on the weekends, we feel totally exhausted by sunday night, and mondays are quite challenging to get through... anyone else feel like that??

this weekend, we had some visitors from houston (evelyn & emily), both taking a look at WashU... hopefully we'll have some more friends from houston here next summer!! we had a jam-packed weekend:

late night games at the taos
blue elephant thai food (YUM)
chocolate bar (and chocolate soup)
sisterhood of the traveling pants (don't ask)
touring forest park
dim sum at lulu's
christmas party #1
worship practice
chronicles of narnia
church
christmas party #2

what fun. sigh... tiring, but fun. i think we need another vacation.

oh the weather outside is frightful

we woke up tuesday morning to a fresh layer of powder everywhere. looks like the next few days are going to be pretty chilly - today it was a frigid 12 degrees outside. notice the lovely message i left my wife.

wicked!

went to the historic fox theatre just down the street with some friends from church last weekend. thanks to wynne for getting us tix well in advance. anyone else get a chance to see this amazing show? your comments on the flying monkeys and whatever else you found interesting are welcome...

Firsts

Our First Christmas in St. Louis... and our first real Christmas tree together! we chose the tree from Ted Drewes, a famous frozen custard place that happens to also sell all sorts of Christmas trees in the winter. Here we are, choosing just the right one...

we strung on the lights, and thanks to my friends annika and becca, we have beautiful new ornaments, too...

come see our pretty tree!!!

California

pics from our trip to LA and San Diego - enjoy!

at the beach house in Huntington Beach

Sarah and cousin Elaine on their way to go surfing!

Daniel got us into Disneyland free of charge...

...so we could watch Bug's Life in 3D

somewhere in Torrey Pines catchin' some sun

met up with Steve and Olivia - old friends from a college small group

mmmm... 3 x 3 animal style

owen lei - a blast from the past and future CNN anchorman

our final stop in Santa Monica - anyone know these boys??

Cabo Wabo

we flew down to los cabos to celebrate our one year anniversary - hung out at the beach mostly, enjoyed 4-course meals, 24-hour room service, swim-up bars, and drinks aplenty. we highly recommend the all-inclusive package. =) we were totally spoiled.

cha-cha-cha!!

dreams los cabos resort

popular bar-o-fun downtown - we stayed outside

Mexican street vendors were kinda pushy, but it was fun exploring

At the Marina, Cabo San Lucas

hairy feet and painted red toe-nails, hammock-style

here's to one year together! crazy how time flies. so... who wants to come with us next time?

turkey day

a very happy thanksgiving to family and friends - wish we could be with you all on this special day, wherever you are.

and stay tuned for pics from our two-week vacation!!

Ahhhhhh...

California. Land of Sunshine, swaying palm trees, beachlands, and hords of good food. We LOVED staying here.. unfortunately we can´t post any pictures yet, but it was absolutely a stunning way to celebrate our pre anniversary. Sorry this is long, but this will be a record of sorts of our time in cali land. here are some highlights from our trip so far...

day 1: beach house on huntington beach (aka surf city), visiting church, surfing for the first time, Disney Land and California Adventure (thanks to my cuz Daniel for getting us in for free), a little ESPN zone, fireworks, and pizookies at BJs to top it all off. YUM.

day 2: still in orange county. slept in and took a walk along the beach. the morning is really misty... beautiful. ate outdoors at Sugar Shack... still remember the hashbrowns! watched some epis of 24 on a large plasma and surround sound... nice. we drove to San Diego to stay with elaine that night...

day 3: San Diego. Drove around by ourselves in elaine´s solara. gps was fun and helped us find all the hot spots. We saw La Jolla cove, Hiked at Torrey Pines, and viewed Mount Soledad. met up with friends... dinner at George's at the Cove on the top deck. And finally, Extraordinary Desserts = a fancy schmancy dessert place!

day 4: Still touring San Diego on our own... saw Sunset Cliffs while eating In-N-Out burgers and fries. Drove across to Del Coronado... oh yes! the fruiterias were yummy. took the train back up to Irvine... had japanese food and sushi with sarah´s aunt and uncle, then back to the beach house for a walk on the pier.

day 5: took the train up to Santa Monica... met up with some more friends. Walked along 3rd street promenade, had a few contests in the dark on muscle beach (look out for those pictures later!) and played ping-pong!

day 6: here we are... in Los Cabos, Mexico! now, our real vacation is about to begin... :)

not in texas anymore

we made a trip to alton saturday with some good friends... first gotta talk about the food - fast eddy's was grrreat. nowhere else can you find steak on a stick, half pound burgers, and giant bratworst for 99 cents. stuffed.

it was fun being all cheesy and taking pictures in the beautiful autumn landscape. (reminded me of tulip festival last year...) anyway, take a look at some of these beautiful colors! leaves in every imaginable warm color... i forgot how much i missed fall.

three boys. how attractive.

here are some of the better pictures... soon-to-be-married karen & roger here on the left. she's a pretty strong woman, she is.

introducing pat & gloria. what a vertical! check out glo's wild hair.

it wasn't planned... but i guess red was the color of the day. thanks for inviting us, guys! we had a lot of fun :)

help a friend, will ya?

yes, it's true. my sweet friend Sunny submitted her engagement story for a contest, and needs YOUR help. Sunny was my small group leader in houston, and is really an awesome woman. i think she deserves to win (and after you read her story, i think you'll agree.)

so VOTE right now! Once you get to the website, just go to the pulldown menu, and select "A Rock Among the Gems" to read the story. Otherwise, just go to the pull down menu,select "VOTE" and click on none other than… "A RockAmong the Gems." Here's the website.
http://www.diamondcuttersintl.com/contests/proposalstories/Q32005/index.html

voting ends soon! (monday? keep trying...)
post this on your blog! get people at work to vote. ok, enough shameless plugging.

we still bee-lieve!!!

GO ROCKETS.

'nuff said

your comments are welcome.

Why is Josh dancing with a monkey?

...because the ASTROS are on their way to their first WORLD SERIES!!!

We're just one game away, baby!!!

Here in St. Louis, needless to say, we are surrounded by some die-hard cardinal fans. We've just finished watching game 3 here... and josh celebrated with a little dance (while getting pillows thrown at him).
Then, last night, josh is all smiles again... as we lead 3-1 in the series. we spent all afternoon ooh-ing and ahh-ing at HDTV, making fun of each others' players, booing at the bad calls, sitting through some looong innings, watching a manager and then a player get thrown out of the game, holding our breath at the top of the 9th...

and victory again!!

phew! we're glad our friends still wanted to go out to eat with us after... :) by the way, it has been commented that our friends from H-town are not real Astros fans because we have more Cards fans commenting on our blog. What!? this is terribly disturbing to us. maybe we should have a contest. where are you, houston? we need some help here.

now, onto tonight's clincher... will there be a game 6??

i live for this

NLCS - Astros vs. Cardinals

the only reason we moved up here to st. louis - to watch the astros when they come to town baby!!

hot rolls

our friend louis convinced a group of us to take a 2 hour road trip to southern missouri for some southern home cookin'. yes, texans - this place is right up there with hoover's - except the waiters actually throw hot rolls across the room for you to catch and devour. i think we caught about 15 or so.

so if you're ever on your way up to visit us, we suggest a warehouse of a restaurant in sikeston, missouri. lambert's - home of the throwed rolls: www.throwedrolls.com or, if you're with us after our stomachs finish digesting, we just might go again. =)