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. =)

hurricane

so it seems like our friends and family are safe. without power for a few hours, but safe nonetheless. mom and dad said it's barely raining over there right now. sarah and i stayed up late watching cnn last night but ended up falling asleep on the floor downstairs. kinda crazy how what happened two weeks ago turned into pandemonium at home. as for my friends in galveston, i hope everyone got out okay. i can't imagine what it was like to stay on that rock last night. hopefully everyone's picking up the pieces all right.

if anyone wants to keep dry, there's always room at our place!

crash

great film. seen it twice already. wonder why i didn't see it earlier.

i don't really know what to say about it. didn't scare me, move me, or really change me... it just was. the scenes are raw and real, prejudices and stereotypes are blatantly there. you want to laugh aloud at things, but at the same time you feel like you shouldn't. you think the worst evils about someone, then in a twist of events you suddenly feel compassion for them. funny how life is so ironic sometimes.

META

Meta Retreat 2005 - West Houston Chinese Church

So we went back to Trinity Pines for Meta's Annual Retreat. What an awesome time to see what God is doing back home, how the community is growing, and hug all our old friends again. Pastor Ryan Kwon came down from LA to speak some truth to our community about being authentic and living out the gospel. Josh and I had the chance to think more about our church in st. louis and begin to make some committments... so the word was good. also, we did some canoe racing, swimming, singing, running around, and non-stop eating. what fun!

eric, this picture is for you. (for those of you who don't know, eric is the cute guy in the brown shirt. who is married to that cute girl in the green)

yvonne, can't get enough pictures with you :) thanks for helping us get up there, and letting us sleep along the way.

hannah and philbert snuck back to the houston area while we were away. it was great to see you guys again. thanks for leading our small group!

my old small group!! man, i miss you guys. top: kat, christine, me, rebs. bottom: palm, yvonne, susan. best of luck to christine - fearless leader - as they begin another great year.

and then there were the kids...

sorry, we kinda went picture crazy. evan turned 5 on saturday. ching made him this adorable crown... and he celebrated by jumping off the diving board all by himself! what a brave kid.


baby lauren here on the left is like a little max, only with sideburns. what a chub! she is sooo cute.

josh can't get enough... he's a kid magnet. the youngest one here is justin wei. he's only a few months, but oh my, he looks so big already. we didn't manage to get any photos of caleb chiao or mia law!! i can't believe that. i'm sure grace & amy will post pics of their adorable angels from the weekend. sarah, as you can tell, sure loves the camera. she's growing up so fast.

SUMO THIS

ARGH. 500 lbs. of pure massiveness. Let me tell you, it sure was a sight to see. This guy was so big that he needed help getting up and down to do his stretches. The fights only lasted like 10 seconds, but we got to see them go at it a few times. basically, it's a fight of balance and strategy- whoever puts their hands down or gets pushed out of the ring loses. although i was worried the whole time that his blue thong would fall off. that would have been horrifying.

Who knew we'd be so cultural in one weekend? We went to the Japanese Festival at the botannical gardens. it was awesome. food, crafts, street performers, drummers, martial arts... the best part, of course, was the sumo wrestling. we had two wrestlers pictured above from Hawaii come and do some demonstrations. I tried to get Josh to go up there when they called for volunteers, but he declined. too bad, it was a once-in-a-lifetime chance!!

greek festival

OPA! (fun to say, but does anyone know what that means?)

just down the street from us was a greek festival... lots of greek music, gooey nutty pastries, kabobs of all sizes, and of course, the gyros. i did try a sour rice thing wrapped in grape leaves, it was pretty gross. elma and i opted for the gyro salads, loaded with lots of meeeet. we didn't do much else besides eat.

astroworld??

so courtesy of our friend rudy, we got a free lunch and two tix to six flags here in st. louis. sarah almost chickened out on a couple rides, and we both got pretty dizzy coming off of Mr. Freeze and Batman. we recommend The Tornado at the waterpark next door. overall a great experience - especially since it was free. thanks mr. nestle!!

podcast

bored? need to kill some time? sarah got interviewed about her experience in africa on our friend's website. it was pretty neat-o. check out our friend louis and his kwoktalk on episode #006. there are some other random discussion topics on there too, so don't be surprised...

her weekend

wow, i already got one vote. guess i'd better post my weekend. there were so many fun pictures, i had to share more than just two. coming back to chicago, seeing the magnificent skyline, lake shore drive & old friends... always a bit of nostalgia. and what a weekend it was...

walking downtown, gotta do it. the weather was absolutely beautiful.
we checked out millenium park downtown, and wow. it's been awhile since i've been back, and a little water war on a hot day never hurt anyone.
esther, sonya, lydia, sylvia - awesome women. by the way, yes - they're (mostly) single and available. geez! when is someone else going to get married, anyway?

i dunno how many times we jumped for this shot, but i think this one came out the best. i'm waiting to go back to hear a live performance. posh outdoor theatre at its best.
never say no to icecream. we ordered the 'earthquake.' 8 flavors, 8 toppings, burried under whipped cream & cherries - imagine pineapple smothering your mint chocolate chip and strawberry goop on your coffee. it was nearly impossible to find the vanilla... by the end, it was a melted, nasty mess... mmmm. yes, we went on the swings. nice action shot. by the way, if you would like to see a very scandalous picture of esther, please email me at tao.sarah@gmail.com looks like a fake backdrop, right? after the ferris wheel (how romantic) we stopped to watch fireworks before leaving Navy Pier. the rest of the night was spent... uh... getting lost driving and guitar playing. oh! we had the BEST korean bbq the next day, joy yee's boba, and some good ole heart-to-hearts before splitting for the week. adios, girls... til we meet again.

his weekend

so sarah and i went to our respective homes last weekend. me - i think i got the better end of the deal, since i got a good dose of classic kitchen, goode company bbq, boba in chinatown, and of course, screwy louie. thanks yvonne...oh yes, and then there was jocie. that's sam and carol's little 2 month-old. she's a chunk.





and the chans - evan and sarah, minus little josh. they missed big josh a lot.



it was good to be back in houston - it's amazing to see what God's done over just the last 2 months at whcc. you just can't beat a sweet time of worship and fellowship in a familiar place.

train on

so on a rainy saturday night we invited some friends over and taught them a game we learned at home. houstonians, you would be proud. next up - screwy louie??

some of the guys here actually adopted the rockets as their home team. now i've got someone to cheer with come november!!

Taos Tour St. Louis part 2

So the next leg of our journey left me utterly exhausted in front of the TV last night... we crammed a tour of the Arch, St. Louis Bubble Tea, the St. Louis Zoo, the boathouse, the Art Museum, Great Basin, and Jade Garden in chinatown for dinner. I think we ended up driving through only half of Forest Park... that place is gargantuan. here's a few snapshots of our day:

it took us awhile to find the right angle. the thing is huge.

did you know they can layer flavors?

the zoo here is supposedly one of the best in the country... and FREE. The penguins and the monkeys were my favorite. Mom kept "woo-hoo"-ing at the lazy lions (she was pretty loud)

a beeeeeautiful view of the Great Basin with the Art Museum in the back. we stood to the side as a wedding rehearsal was taking place... you just want to sit back and "ahhhh."

Taos Tour St. Louis part 1

Mom Tao and Jonathan are here to visit us in St. Louis this week. Here we are at the Muny outdoor theater, where the sun set as we watched "The Sound of Music" musical. Quite impressive! With a set built in 4 1/2 days and the production rehearsed in only one week... wow. I had to stop myself from singing along to "My Favorite Things." Oh, and Ralph (Liesel's fling) taught us a new pickup line: "You need someone older and wiser telling you what to do-oo..." :) It was warm & sticky by the end of the show, and no one can compare to the real Julie Andrews... but it was really fun overall. What a cool place to discover!

hi jon.

Now THIS is what I'm talking about. Freezing, frosty cold rootbeer first, then topped with more vanilla ice cream than you can handle. A true, overflowing, generously portioned, yummy-in-your-tummy Fitz's Rootbeer Float. Come try one.

Charlie & The Chocolate Factory

let us share our experience with you: in one word, we would describe the movie as... bizarre. truly weird and very, very strange. the oompa-loompas were hilarious, but at the same time slightly disturbing. johnny depp had a neat costume, but he wasn't the endearing, charismatic, cool character we expected. oh well.

we really wanted to like this movie, but roald dahl fans, you can wait til this comes out in video.

On their way to Maryland...

mike & lydia came to visit!! it was short, but it was soo nice to see our good friends again. and sort of weird at the same time to see them here... we took a walk down maryland ave. to bar italia-- an upscale, overpriced but pretty tasty italian restaurant where we chowed on bruschetta, enjoyed the cool air, watched the sun go down, & had candlelight when it got dark. (doesn't that sound inviting?) then, we went home and broke out the dominos. yvonne turned down our offer to play 5-person (she would have to take out her own set and play via speakerphone) but maybe we'll get her to do it next time. thanks for driving way out of your way, guys. we miss you already.

stud finder.

mike tends to be shy around the camera.. but we caught a big smile here. :)