John Denver Christmas!

Christmas Is Almost Here

Well, we love our new computer a lot; it has lots of cool features and software. This is going to be our Christmas present for each other this year, obviously.

Not much has changed for us. This is Sarah's last month at Northwest Exteriors, and as of right now we do not have another job lined up, but we anticipated this. She is looking for a part-time job, but it can't conflict with her school schedule, which is during the middle of the day, so we haven't really found any.

I have officially started my time on high school staff at Bridgeway this last Thursday. The staff seem really nice, and the kids are pretty cool too. It's a big change from Arcade Church, where I had about sixty or more junior highers; Bridgeway has about 20-30 junior high and high school combined.

We have lots scheduled this month. We have Sarah's work Christmas party on the 15th and her cousin's graduation on the 14th. We were planning on going to David and Joanna's on the 15th to see Declan, but we forgot about her Christmas party (which we want to go to, since she's leaving the company) and her cousin's graduation, both of which we RSVP'd to a while ago, so we'll have to wait.

Just a reminder: Sarah and I are spending Christmas Eve with the Kenney family and Christmas day with the Alwins.

Bye Bye Pointy Face

Most of you don't know who Pointy Face was: he was otherwise named Spunky, and he was my cat. I grew up with him, and he lived with my parents until he died on Tuesday. I didn't find out until Friday, because he had been run over and a nice lady came to tell my parents after they put up some fliers looking for him.

I've been having a very difficult time with this; Spunky was in my life longer than my Grammy, who died when I was 12 and whom I still miss dearly. So, I'm going to use this post to memorialize him.

Here are some things you should know about Spunky:
1. He was a mean cat. He was nicknamed "Pointy Face" because he made an awful face right
before he bit you.
2. He was only really nice to me and my dad, and that was only when he felt like it.
3. He once terrorized my cousin simply by sitting on the back of the couch and staring at
her--he was that scary.

Here's why I'll miss him so much:
1. It was really funny when he got into a bad mood. He made awful noises, and he liked to act
as if he wasn't mad at you any more, then bite your hand like it was a fat, juicy steak. It went
something like this: "Oh, I love you so much, let me just rub my head against your
hand...CRUNCH GNAW SCRATCH."
2. He always slept with me, usually at the top of the pillow on my hair.
3. He liked to give "head butts". When I picked him up, he would smoosh his face against my
forehead, and when he got older, he drooled when he did it.
4. Without fail, he would arrive at the front door precisely when I was pulling up into the
driveway for a visit. He would say "meow," then precede me through the door.

Anyway, I'm going to miss him an awful lot, and it's going to be weird going to my parents' house and not see him coming around the corner into the living room. It's always hard losing a pet, but Spunky was a very special cat that will leave a big hole in my life.

-Sarah

P.S. I don't have any pictures of Spunky, because he just wasn't the type of cat you take pictures of. His spiteful nature just didn't show up on camera very well.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Last Saturday, Sarah and I went on a hike to Point Reyes, and it was beautiful. The hike was about eight miles long, and we hiked right out to the ocean. Along the way we saw some wild hares as well as the "elusive" mountain beaver; it was very cute.

Last Thursday, we went to see a lecture on the UC Davis campus put on by the Veritas Forum; the lecture was given by author and astronomer Guillermo Gonzalez on "The Privileged Planet". The presentation was pretty technical and had LOTS of information; he basically showed all the of the "coincidences" of Earth's placement in the universe, solar system, and axis, how everything is perfect for intelligent life, and how astronomers have not found a single planet in the universe that has our same properties. One of the school's religious studies professors was quoted as saying that a lecture of this kind was "unscientific". We walked out of the lecture saying to ourselves," that was probably the MOST scientific lecture we have ever heard." We loved it and hope to see more lectures from the Veritas Forum.

THANKSGIVING IS HERE! We are spending the day with the Kenney family this year. It will just be a few of us this year; Mom, Dad, Jason, Grandma Campbell and us. We are having Thanksgiving 2 tomorrow with some friends from church, so that should be fun too.
Oh, and this post was brought to you by our brand-new iMac. :)

New Stuff, New Stuff

Not much is new with us. Sarah is NOT pregnant! We have the same jobs! We don't own a house!

Sarah is stressed out from school. She is currently take a longevity class, word roots class, news policies, practices & effects class, and an advanced writing class. On top of that, she is still working part-time AND continues to make delicious dinners. :)

We rented "1408" & "The Host" the other night. "1408" is a pretty good scary movie; good suspense, plot and acting on John Cusack's part--and no gory scenes. "The Host" sucked. Don't bother watching it. You see the creature in the first five minutes, out of the water, in the daylight, running after people on the streets. It just sucked.

We are not dressing up for Halloween; we are spending it with our church small group this year and will most likely just eat food and play games.

Sarah is 25 Years Old!

So, Tuesday was Sarah's birthday; we had friends over for dessert on Friday to celebrate, and Sarah made a bunch of very delicious foods! She made chocolate chip cookies, cheese cake squares, brownies, cupcakes with white frosting, fruit with some kinda sweet dip and a cinnamon layer cake with pudding in the middle. Then we went for a hike on Saturday; it was pretty, but not as much as the first time we did this hike.
Then we celebrated her birthday again on Sunday with family; we had great BBQ plus MORE DESSERTS. On her actual birthday I made Sarah a slide-show of pictures of us (mostly her) with some videos of our trips and other events we have done together so far; she cried big time! :)
Also, Sarah made her first loaf of bread last week from scratch and it turned out great! She was so happy with it that she took a picture of the bread.

Addition (by Sarah): Mom Kenney made an awesome pumpkin chocolate cake for my birthday on Sunday; it was very moist, flavorful, and chocolatey. The cake that I made on Friday was a Blitz Torte, the recipe for which I got from Joanna when she made the cake for Sean's birthday a couple years ago. And the bread recipe I got from my New Best Recipe cookbook from the editors of Cooks Illustrated magazine. So far, all the recipes I have made have really been the best I've found.

California's Hardest Sprint Triathlon!

Well, the day finally came and went, and it was great. Thanks to everyone for the support; it was great having family there, especially my awesome wife!

The swim was very difficult; I would lift my head up from the water and the buoy would seem just as far away as the last time. After the swim, I had to run up the beach approx 3/4 of a mile to the bike transition area. The bike trail was full of hills, and some of the parts were very difficult to get over. At one point my bike chain fell off; fortunately, it only took me about a minute to out it back on. I did see a couple people that got flat tires.

After the bike portion was over, I started the hike/run. The "run" was on a trail in the park area and was incredibly difficult; I couldn't have run this trail even if I hadn't swam or done the bike portion. People came back from the "run" portion with bloody knees because there were lots of steep slopes to run down and up.

Here are the stats:
Swim-3/4 of a mile: (36 minutes) 258 Cal. Burned
Bike-13 miles: (54 minutes) 534 Cal. Burned
Run-5 miles: (1 hr 7 min) 551 Cal. Burned
Total time w/ transitions: 2 hrs 47 min 56 sec 1343 Cal Burned

Lots of Info...

Ok, so Sarah and I went on two camping trips these past few weeks. First we went to Butano State Park with David, Joanna, Becky, and John. The campsite was awesome; lots of big redwood trees, lots of shade, campsites were not too close to each other and it was pretty quiet for the most part. We had a great time staying up late by the campfire and talking with everyone and spending a little bit of time at the beach.
Then we went to the Jackson Reservoir the following weekend with our small group from church. The campsite wasn't quite as nice as Butano, BUT we did enjoy our time with friends.
Friday was my birthday! I am 26 years old now, and with six older siblings, it always makes my family feel much older when I have a birthday; sorry. :(
I got some cool DVDs, a hatchet and mallet (from Becky and John of course), lenses for my digital camera, a book on digital photography, new sports goggles for swimming and a toy squirt gun from my Dad. :) All in all, I had a great birthday this year, and I feel very blessed by having great friends and family.
ALSO, Sarah got straight A's for her first quarter!

Good news and MORE GOOD NEWS!

We did the July 4th run again this year, and this time Sarah ran with me. The plan was that we would run one mile, walk one mile, run the next and so forth; this would mean that we would run three miles and walk two. However, we started going, and after the first mile Sarah was feeling good, so we kept going and ran two. After the second mile we stopped and walked at a quick pace for the third mile; we felt good, so we ran the fourth. At this point I thought that Sarah was doing great, so I said, "You're doing great. We are not stopping until the end." So that's what we did; we ran 4 of 5 miles in one hour and one minute. This is the longest Sarah had ever ran IN HER LIFE! She has been working hard for this race, and achieved some milestones along the way; she had never ran two miles in a row before, so she accomplished that, then ran three miles and now she did FOUR! I was, and am still, very proud of her and all the work she has done to get to this point. That's the first bit of good news.
So, as you know, Sarah has started school and has also gone to part-time at work, which means our expenses went up and our income went down. We had to put her first school bills like enrollment, parking and books on credit, since we didn't want to wipe out our savings and more. The expenses came to about $2,400, and they were all due at once. Well, yesterday Sarah's boss called all the employees into a meeting and started talking about how profits were down about 20% and, come tax time, if they didn't get rid of some money they would pay a lot more in taxes. So, they decided to give the employees a $5,000 bonus. They actually gave Sarah the check right there; after taxes it came to about $2,900, which will more than pay for her school expenses for this quarter (we were not sure how we were going to pay for all this, except that we kept praying that God would provide a way as he always has). This was so amazing, it nearly made us both cry when we got this. All we can say it that God is good and He does provide.

Good News and Bad News...

It's been a while since we updated our blog, and several things have come and gone since our last post.
David graduated from Fuller Theological Seminary with his master's, and we are very proud of him. It was great seeing him and the rest of my family down South; we miss them a lot.
Sarah starts school THIS Monday, June 25th! If all goes well, in 9 months she will be finished and will move on to her passion for copy-editing. That's the good news.
The bad news is that we had to say goodbye to our friends, Cameron and Erin Cox. We helped them pack up for Texas on Thursday night and had a farewell breakfast this morning with them. It was bittersweet saying goodbye to them; even though they are leaving, they MIGHT come back in a few years. The thought of them returning someday makes me less sad to see them go. Either way, they will still be in our prayers and we wish them the best as they start a new journey in the Lone Star state.

The Skinny

Ok, so lots to talk about since the last post. I have been working at Mr. Handyman for about a month now and I really enjoy it. I work in the "office" (which is in our friends' house) and I basically get to do all the things that the owners, Joe and Marla, don't have time to do--like schedule jobs , answer phones, type and mail letters and an assortment of other things. In a nutshell, I really like working there; I feel like I am part of the team rather than just an employee, and I don't think I could ask for better employers.
Sarah and I started riding my bike to work! I ride Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sarah does Tuesdays and Thursdays. Despite that she rides a day less than me, she has farther to go , so it works out. It's 35-40 minutes each way for me, and it's about an hour for Sarah each way. We have only done it for a week but we can tell that we have more energy than before, and it makes us feel good about ourselves.
Sarah starts at UC Davis JUNE 25th! She will be working part-time starting the week before and will eventually go to school full-time in September. She only has about 1 year to go, so we are anxious for her to finish and begin her career in copyediting.
We went hiking yesterday with our bible study group and had lots of fun with them. The trail was 9 miles round trip with lots of sun; not the best hiking conditions, but it was great to spend the time with our friends.
More BIG news...Sarah ran for two miles on Saturday! It's a big accomplishment because it's something that she has never done before and she did it without too much difficulty; I am very proud of her for working so hard to reach her goals.

Your powers combined...I am CAPTAIN PLANET!

This post is dedicated to planet Earth. We wanted to share some of the changes that Sarah and I made that will help the environment and save us money. These are easy things that anyone can do that do not require large lifestyle changes--very small if anything. So here we go!

1) Buy cloth napkins! Using cloth napkins instead of paper napkins/paper towels decreases trash, saves trees and saves money. If you use paper towels for spills and stuff, get cheap dish rags; you can get them anywhere for very little. Ikea has 4 cloth napkins for $1.99.

2) Use compact florescent bulbs! Yes, they cost a little more up front (we found them at the 99 Cent Store), BUT they use about 75% less energy, which means less pollution used to generate that energy. They also last 8-10 times longer; every hard-to-reach bulb should be compact for this reason alone. They come in all sizes so you don't have to worry about them fitting in any fixture.

3) Starbucks drinkers should bring their own travel mugs! Millions of these cups are going in the trash everyday (they can't be recycled since they are soiled). Starbucks gives you a few cents discount when you do, AND they will do it for both hot and cold drinks.

4) Recycle! It's a no-brainer. If you don't have a recycle bin from Waste Management, like us, buy a couple of plastic baskets (dollar store) and find where you can drop off your recycled trash at www.bottlesandcans.com.

5) Paper or Plastic? Neither! Bring your own bags--canvas bags or woven plastic (looks like canvas). The USA throws away 1 trillion plastic bags per year, 1 billion of which ends up in the rivers and ocean, killing marine life. Sea turtles eat the plastic bags because they look like jelly fish, their main source of food, and die because of it. Plastic bags take more than 100 years to decompose; surprisingly paper bags take about the same time due to the conditions at landfills. 14 million trees get cut down to produce the 1 billions paper bags we use each year.
Bring your own bags! www.reuseablebags.com

6) Change your thermostat! We have all heard this one, but it really makes a huge difference. Two degrees can make almost a 10% difference in our C02 emissions. 78 degrees in the summer and 68 in the winter.

7) Turn off the water. Turn off your water when you brush your teeth and minimize the water you use when you wash your hands; it saves about 5 gallons a day per person, so that's 180 million gallons per day for California alone.

There are tons of things we can all do, but these are all easy ones that can make a big difference.

Two Years!

We are back from our two year anniversary trip, and we had a great time. We left Sacramento Friday morning and arrived at Eureka around 3:30. We stayed with my cousin Nate and his girlfriend Shelly; she has a mini horse! We went hiking with them a couple times; Fern Canyon was awesome and we saw lots of elk.
We left Eureka on Sunday morning and arrived at the Inn At School House Creek in Mendocino in just a few hours. Mendocino is a beautiful, ocean side Victorian town filled with shops, Inns and great places to eat. Unfortunately, we had to come home on Tuesday, but it was good to see Steve again; we missed him a lot.