It's 'bout time!

So, since our last post Sarah officially graduated from UC Davis! It was really cool seeing her walk, although we did have to wait about an two hours before they called it. Sarah's grandpa from LA came up--it was awesome that he and his wife took time out to do that. Sarah does not have any immediate plans to leave her current job, since they treat her so well and she really likes the people there.

I also started school again at ARC! This is actually my last week of this summer class; I am taking Beginning Composition, which is a pre-requisite for a bunch of art classes. Just as a reminder, I am going for my AA in Art New Media, which focuses on digital photography, video editing, graphic design, animation, and other art-related stuff that's digital.

We had a great 4th of July up at the Yuba River with Sarah's side of the family this year--they even had a parade! The video is on YouTube for all to see.

Most of the smoke is clear here now, for those of you that don't live in NorCal. It was so bad that we could only see about a quarter of a mile ahead of us on the road, and everywhere we went smelled like BBQ, but not the good kind; it was like that for weeks.

Sarah and I went to Bodega Bay on Sunday; we wanted to "get away" for a little bit, see the ocean, have a picnic, and smell fresh air.

Not much else is new, other than us missing family that is not close to us (and Jason, since we see him as much as we see family from SoCal).

Hey, Hey!

So, here's what has been going on lately.

Patrick and Mary came down to visit us last weekend, and we had a very good time with them. We are thinking of going up to see them in Oregon around August to see their beautiful, and cheap, state. We went to the county fair, which was pretty ghetto compared to the state fair; then again, all "fairs" are ghetto in the first place. As you can see, I got some GREAT pictures of Patrick! :)

Sarah is going to be "walking" for her graduation in two weeks (the 14th), and I am starting school in ONE WEEK! I am only taking one art class, and it starts at 8:30am and goes until 1:10pm.

Today, we went to a farm with Joe and Marla Watkins to pick fruit just for fun, and fruit.

This next Wednesday will be our last week with our small group as well. Since I get home from work around 6:40 pm AND will be starting school, Sarah and I decided that we needed more time for each other. We are sad to leave our group, but we will still see all our friends at church each week. I am still volunteering with high school on Thursdays, and Sarah has a womens bible study that she attends the same night.

Happy Birthday David!

Forty Years!

Our Weekend in Videos...

Some video of David's ordination and one from the Arboretum, where they were filming "Fired Up"

.

Three Years!

 I am officially working at Cup-A-Joe's now, and it's been pretty cool. I like making coffee drinks again, and the people I work with are very friendly. I am also really enjoying only working part-time; I haven't worked these hours since high school.

 April 2nd was our three year anniversary; Sarah made us filet mignon and butternut squash ravioli, and we enjoyed a little wine with the meal as well. We went to Empire Mine State Park on Sunday, since we didn't go anywhere on our anniversary. It was very cool seeing the old buildings and the mines that they worked in.

 Sarah is no longer looking for a new job; she decided to stay at Northwest Exteriors, since she enjoys what she does and really likes the people, and it doesn't hurt that they give lots of verbal affirmation!

 We also bought ourselves a Oster Blender and started making smoothies for breakfast this week.

Good Times, Bad Times; You Know I've Had My Share!

 So, the last month has been full of traveling and moments of joy and sadness.

1) We went to  a family reunion for Sarah's Dad's side and had a great time. It was nice to see some people we hadn't ever seen before and others that we hadn't seen in a long time. We stayed with Sarah's Grandpa in Upland (L.A.) and the reunion was in Corona. It was great.

2) Sarah has officially finished college at UC Davis and she did great in all her classes! I could not be more proud of all the hard work she did and the many late nights of studying. She is now looking for a new job that she can do full time and get paid a little more. She loves the job she is at now, but they don't currently have enough work for her to do full-time.

3) Becky and John finally gave birth to little Roshni! She is a cutie and we are so happy for the two of them; we thank God for blessing them with a healthy, beautiful baby girl.

4) Sarah and I also hung out with Becky and John one last time before they had Roshni. We have had so many good times with them for years and we know that they are going to be great parents. We are sad that we won't be able to hang out with them the same way we used to, but we look forward to adding this new member to our regular group of four!

5) I am also looking for a new job. Mr Handyman is slow right now, and I need to find a part-time job for when I go back to school in June. I am going to be going for my AA in Art New Media; it focuses on graphic design, digital photography, film editing, and more; it's going to be a lot of fun for me.

That's what's going on with us; to all those who are far away, we love and miss you!

Too Much for One Blog

So much has happened in the past month that we have decided to list the events in chronological order, rather than in order of importance.

1. We cut up all of our credit cards and started Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover Plan. We're staying to a strict budget, and any "extra" money coming in is going straight toward paying off our debt. We will not be taking on any debt again, excepting a mortgage payment when we have everything else paid off and a six-month emergency fund.

2. David and Joanna visited with Declan, and they stayed with us. We're pretty sure Steve was louder than Declan at night. It was very educational having such a young baby in the house. There were some unique techniques for quieting him (one having to do with the chilly night air), and there way more diapers than we expected. We see now that it's not all "fun and games" when you have a baby, but then again, the quiet moments seem pretty awesome.

3. Sarah organized and made the food and decorations for Becky and John's baby shower (with Joanna's help). It was a ton of work, and she doesn't regret doing it, but it made her realize that she's not cut out to be in charge of events. Support positions are much less stressful.

4. We went on a disappointing hike at Point Reyes National Seashore. We climbed a very steep 2-mile trail to Mount Wittenberg, the highest point in the park, and the view from the top was very anti-climactic. Definitely not worth the work.

5. Sharon had baby Reece! From David's pictures, it looks like she's going to have an adorable nose. We won't be seeing her in person until David's ordination in April.

6. We sold Sean's truck. We were tired of having a car payment on something he just drives to work and back, so we sold it for cash yesterday. We're going to buy Becky and John's Cavalier for a bargain price.

In other news, Sarah only has one month and one week left before she's done with school. Her graduation ceremony will be on June 14th at 9am.

The only other exciting things on the horizon are Sean's second teaching gig at the church, the arrival of niece (we think) #2 on or around March 17th, and our third anniversary on April 2nd. If anything interesting happens in the meantime, we'll be sure to let you know....

What to say, what to say...

Well, Christmas was great. Sarah and I got some cool stuff: clothes, books, DVDs, and a tripod. Sarah and I bought our own gifts for ourselves; we bought the Planet Earth DVDs, a box for Sarah's wedding dress, an All-Clad fry pan, and some new lenses for our camera. Sarah loves her new pan, and I love my new camera gear. The most unexpected gift I received was from my brother Patrick--he bought me a toy truck, and it wasn't just ANY truck: it was the exact kind of truck that he had destroyed when I was in elementary school. He found it online and bought it for me; I have to say that it was probably the coolest thing ever. I told Sarah later that, "If I had been more tired or possibly sick when Patrick gave me the truck, I probably would have teared up a bit."

For New Year's Eve, we went to our friends' house from church and stayed there until 3:15 am, then we went home and watched TV for about another hour. We had a great time there--I played "Guitar Hero" for the first time and did pretty well.

Sarah has officially started her LAST QUARTER at UC Davis, and she will be finished in March. She is taking four classes: "The Earth," "Non-Verbal Communication," "Individual Differences," and "Health Psychology." Her graduation ceremony will be June 14th.

We can't wait for David, Joanna, and Declan to come up in a couple of weeks; it will be the first time we get to see Declan in REAL LIFE!

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