CHRISTMAS IS ALMOST HERE!!!!!

I am happy to say that Sarah and I finished about 90% of our shopping before Thanksgiving this year; it helps when you buy the majority of your items online.
Sarah got a great Christmas bonus this year, and I......am still working at Sierra Select! We got our first Christmas tree on Saturday and we think it's beautiful! The tree has not been drinking much water at all, even though we put it in plenty of water about a half hour after we got it, so Sarah thinks it will probably die soon. :( We also cleaned out our guest room for David and Joanna for when they come up for Christmas!
We are going to have a great time with our small group from church this Wednesday; we are having a Mexican food Christmas party! Nothing says "Christmas" like guacamole. Our Christmas Eve will be spent with Sarah's side of the family, and Christmas day will be spent with my side.

Happy Thanksgiving!

So there isn't much that's new with us, which is probably why we don't update more often. John helped us build a cat tree for Steve last Saturday! He loves it; he sleeps up on the perch all day. It took most of the day to build, but it saved us some money, and it was fun.
We have the majority of our Christmas shopping done already, thanks to AMAZON! It also helps if you buy everyone the same DVD for Christmas... I hope you all liked "Glitter"!
We helped out with the two-year-olds last Sunday at church, and it was bad. Between the two of us we had 11 kids, and it was our first time. We have decided that it is not something that we want to do again; we can stick with the kids who are just learning to walk.
Sarah's cousin Justin is back from Iraq! We met him at at the airport last night and it was a very emotional time for everyone. We are all very happy that he is back safe and sound, and we are going to spend Thanksgiving with him and the rest of Sarah's family.
We were going to fix my Grandma Campbell's window today (which has been broken for about 5 years) but uncle Ted threw a fit about us fixing something on "his house" since he lives with her; so it looks like she will always have a broken window in the front of her house. Maybe he will get mad enough that he actually does fix it, that would be nice. :)

The Holidays!

Work: Sarah will no longer have to answer phones at work as soon as they hire a receptionist (which should only be another week or two, hopefully). I am currently looking for a new job that will pay better and still have all the perks as my current job, but none of the drawbacks. I keep wondering what it is that God wants me to do with my "career", and I have come to the realization that He is waiting to let me know when the time is right.
Church: Sarah and I gave blood last week at church; it was my first time but not Sarah's--she got a little woozy afterwards, but I was fine.
Our pastor just finished a series on Song of Songs and it was very entertaining; we are so happy with our decision to move to Bridgeway. We also had our second Sunday with the childcare and this time we had 6 kids to watch; Sarah was very glad that she did not have to change any diapers this time. Playing with the kids and keeping them entertained for 1 hr 45 min is pretty tiring. Also, Sarah will soon be an Activities Ministry co-leader, so she will get to plan all of the major events that take place at Bridgeway; it is a big responsibility that I am confident she will be great at.
Home: We are planning on buying a house/condo when our lease is up in 10 months, so we are doing our best to save money and pay off as much debt as possible. Someone parked in our spot today, it reminds us that this place we like to call "home" really isn't ours.
Holidays: We are not dressing up for Halloween this year--we just don't have any motivation or desire. We are helping our church set up for the Harvest festival this Monday and going to Becky and John's house Tuesday for Halloween. We are spending Thanksgiving with Sarah's side of the family this year; Sarah's cousin Justin is coming home from Iraq just in time! Christmas will be spent with the Kenneys!

We Are Still Here...

Ok, so it has been a while since we have updated our blog, and for that we are sorry. So here's what is going on with us:
I am still at Sierra Select and I finally had my review last week; it went well but my boss wants me to be more personal on the phone with our customers. I have not been told what my raise will be, but I don't think it will be much since the company is not doing so well.
Sarah is still at Northwest and taking on more and more responsibilities. Sarah does a great job at her work and her employers love having her there.
We got new curtains from Ikea for our bedroom; they are the first set of real curtains for both of us, and Steve loves to play with them. Our trip to Ikea has inspired us to use the space we have more efficiently. We have started to go through all of our things and are deciding what to keep and what to get rid of. We are also moving some things around to make more space.
Sept. 22nd was our 3 year first date anniversary, so we went to Mikuni's for dinner and then had some dessert and watched a movie.
We have also started to volunteer with the kids' department at our church, but have not yet had to work.

I am 25 years old!

I didn't really do anything on my actual birthday. We are having a Superman-themed party today at Becky and John's house with burritos! Sarah got me "The Office" season 1 on DVD and a Superman action figure!
Sarah is on salary now, so that should help bring in a little more money. She had her annual review and it went very well; they said that they will have another review in a couple of months and she should get a raise then. I have been at my job for a year and four months and I am still waiting for my annual review.
Sarah and I are still jogging, hiking, and doing other exercises to lose weight, and we are doing well. We went hiking last weekend and found a great swimming spot. The trail was a little difficult in some spots, but the scenery and trail was great.
Steve has some weight to lose too, but he doesn't do anything but sleep and keep us awake when we are trying to sleep.

Camping At The Yuba Pictures!

San Francisco... dum, dum, dummmm

So, Sarah and I decided to go to San Francisco this Saturday to escape the heat. Sacramento got to about 106 degrees and SF got to about 80 with a cool breeze. We went to the Ferry Building Market and saw a lot of cool stuff and had a mint shake to keep us cool. Parking was $8 when we got there; about an hour and a half later, when we returned to our car, they had increased the price to $10. Good thing we got there early.
Later, we went to the Golden Gate Park and visited the de Young museum. It was the grand opening of some exhibit and we got in for free; normally it is $10 per person. We had a turkey sandwich there for lunch and it cost $10; it was just bread, turkey, lettuce and cheese and so not worth $10.
Then we got lost trying to leave SF and ended up in the Castro district. We realized that the driving conditions for SF are set up so that if it is dangerous and could cause accidents, it's legal. If you need to turn around or go left, it's illegal. We do like some things about SF, but we realized that it is more stressful than relaxing going there. Driving conditions are always horrible--$3 to get in and $3 to get out, parking is near impossible to find, and when you do it is expensive, lots of people who are mostly smelly, and it's not visitor friendly. We remembered that the last time we went there we had more bad experiences than good, so we have decided that we will not be back for at least five years.
We also saw "Lady in The Water" with Becky and John; Sarah and I we hoping for a twist at the end like usual, but no. It was hard to enjoy the movie because there were a lot of talkers, cell phones ringing and random loud laughter.

SAKE!!

We had sushi with Becky and John on Sunday night at the Sushi cafe--lame name, but very good sushi. I tried sake for the first time with John; I don't know what the big deal is; it tastes just like a regular white wine. (FYI: sake is rice wine.)
It is so hot in Sacramento! It got up to 108 degrees and it is not getting any cooler. Sarah and I usually run in the evenings, so this morning we woke up at 5:15am to go jogging. It is much cooler at that time, but it is not easy getting up that early.
Our jobs haven't changed any, but we keep getting promises that they will. I have been taking on lots more responsibilities and was told I wouldn't have to answer phones anymore and would get a pay raise. I am still waiting on the last two. Sarah might not have to answer phones anymore either when her job moves buildings, but that might be a few months from now.

4th of July Pics

No Picture of Steve this time....

Superman Returns! And Independence Day..

So, Sarah and I saw "Superman Returns" a couple of days before it came out (last Monday) and it was good. I didn't think it was the best superhero movie ever, but it was good. If you haven't seen it yet, you need to go into it knowing that it is a love story with superhero action; not super-crazy-action like X-Men or Batman. I think if you go into it with that mind-frame you should enjoy it more.
The special effects were great and they incorporated the old movies into this film very well. Music was good too, but I thought there could have been a bit more.
We went camping with Sarah's family at the Yuba this weekend and I got a little red on my back; no bad burns though. I also lost one sandal, so now I need a new pair. I hate losing stuff. The water was FREEZING; it made our skin all tingly and numb, but it is better than being in 100 degree weather.
Tomorrow is my 5 mile Fourth of July run, so I hope I can do it with little to no problems.

Ok, Here's the 411

I have been training for a 5-mile run on the 4th of July. I am jogging 4 miles now with little difficulty, so I don't think that the 5 miles will be too hard. Sarah has been jogging with me but she has been getting some pretty bad shin-splints, which makes it hard for her to go for too long.
I almost got fired last Tuesday; that was fun. It's kind of a long story and I have told most of you the story anyways. My boss is treating me like nothing happened, but I am finding it hard to feel the same way since he said,"You were this close to being fired on the spot." I have decided that if I do get fired that I am going to find a job at a church or maybe William Jessup University (Christian college). I don't want to keep getting "jobs", I would rather start doing what I know God wants me to do.
Sarah is making a strawberry cheesecake for our bible study tomorrow and it smells great.
I got a new TV stand the other day too! It matches our TV perfectly and it only cost me $18.32. It retails for almost $200 but I got a great deal through work.
I can't think of much else. Our daily lives don't change much.

Memorial Day Weekend!

Sarah and I were going to go hiking today (Saturday) but when we reached our destination it was hailing! That might not have stopped us from hiking, but we were only wearing shorts and t-shirts, and it was very cold. So instead we bought ourselves some new running/walking shoes.
We are going crab-fishing in Bodega Bay with our bible study group on Sunday; it should be a lot of fun.
"X-MEN 3" was AWESOME! Sarah and I loved it! It is non-stop action from start to finish. My only wish would have been that they have Colossus do more stuff; since he is one of my favorites, I wanted him to do more cool stuff.
We went to the State Fair yesterday with John and looked at all the animals; we mostly saw poop.

Let the games begin!

Sarah and I went hiking on Saturday and I saw some sunglasses on the ground. I picked them up and said, "Hey, these are guys' sunglasses and they don't look too bad." They are in perfect shape and they look cool. I looked at the brand and they are Arnette! For those of you that have not heard of that brand, they are popular and expensive. I looked this pair up online and they go for $69.99.
The trail was awesome, as usual, and the waterfall at the end was very beautiful. We even got in a bit at the bottom of the falls; the water was very cold!
We got an unexpected check in the mail from Sarah's step-grandmother so we decided that we should go out to eat. We were going to eat at BJ's that night but the wait was 60-65 minutes and we were pretty hungry, so we went to Mimi's and we were able to sit right down.
David's birthday is coming up! He is turning.........FIND OUT NEXT TME!

Look! Up in the sky...

Sarah and I are still here, alive and well. I like updating this blog, but we don't really do much.
We went on a walk today in Old Folsom and realized that walking weather is officially over! We were sweating...a lot. In order to cool off, we got two vanilla soft-serve cones from McDonald's, which is the only thing I will eat there. We don't even care that, according to John, it has dirt in it.
Tonight we are eating TONKATSU!

Tonkatsu Recipe:
(Serves 2 hungry people, or 4 regular people) This is not a low-fat recipe!

4 small pork cutlets (or chicken cutlets), pounded to 1/4 in. thickness
1/2 cup flour
1 egg, beaten with 1 tbs. water
1 cup panko crumbs (Japanese bread crumbs)
(flour & panko crumb amounts are approximate--you just need enough to coat all 4 pieces)
Tonkatsu Sauce (found in Asian food section of store--I don't make my own)

1. Begin heating 1 in. of oil in large skillet to med. heat (about 350 degrees). I usually serve this with white rice, so I would begin the rice now too.
2. Dredge the cutlets first in the flour, then the egg mixture, and finally in the panko crumbs. Allow them to sit for a few minutes while the oil heats.
3. Fry 2 cutlets at a time in the pan, about 3 minutes on each side; they will be golden brown and crispy. Allow oil to come back up to temperature before finishing with other 2 cutlets; drain each set of 2 cutlets on paper towels.
4. Serve with rice and Tonkatsu sauce. Hope you like it as much as we do!

This week...

So, not much happened with us this week. It's kinda just the same week as the one before. Sarah's brother was in a car accident but he is ok.
I found our "missing" photos on the computer, and that made us both very happy. We thought we had lost all of our pictures when our computer crashed; turns out they were on our "other" hard drive.
Mom's birthday is tomorrow, she turns... another year older!

HAPPY EASTER!

This Easter we are going to go to church on Saturday in order to miss the crowd. We are loving our new church, Bridgeway Christian, and Pastor Lance is awesome!
On Easter Sunday, we will have brunch with Sarah's family on the Delta King, then we will have dinner at the old Kenney house.
Steve is still fat and happy, and he loves to sleep with us. He was pretty good last night; he slept at my side most of the night without moving.
We watched "Flight Plan" last night and it wasn't that bad. A little slow in the beginning, but there were moments of good suspense.

Love you all!

One Year Anniversary!

We had an awesome time in Monterey (thanks to David and Joanna for the "freakin awesome hotel"). It was Sarah's first visit to the area, so we spent a lot of time at the aquarium. Watching the sea otters play was fun, and seeing the big bluefin tuna get fed a half ton of food was cool too. We explored the tide pools at the nearby beaches by ourselves, and got to see a lot of sea life we wouldn't have noticed if we weren't paying close attention (tiny crabs, big green anemones, hermit crabs, sea snails). It was very relaxing, and we had a great time celebrating our first anniversary.

THE DAY IS HERE!

Are you happy now? Sarah and I have a blog. What the heck is "Blog" anyways? Not looking for an answer though.