Surfside Beach

We took the dogs to the beach this weekend. We went to Surfside Beach, which is further down the coast and less crowded than Galveston. They enjoyed walking along the beach and running through the water. Even Battlecat got in the water, which was exciting because Battlecat normally hates water and works very hard to avoid it.

Fancy New Floor

Nasty old carpeted floor (with new tile)...courtesty of Kelsey's anxiety and Battlecat's rather frequent vomiting, and leaking patio doors.

New pretty hard wood floors with tile by the doors...finally finished!

Shaq Fu - Tha Return

Sometimes post titles have nothing to do with the content of a post..... although the headline story today on ESPN is the thrilling tale of Shaq 'dissing' Kobe whilst dropping some freestyle rhymes on a NYC night club. Gripping stuff really.... not a day goes by when I don't look deep into the mirror and ask: When will Shaq and Kobe make up... then I shed a tear.... and pluck my eyebrows. I'm a complex man.

On to other matters: I preached again this Sunday on Galatians 3:15-26. Here's the link:

http://www.kaleohouston.com/mp3/the_gospel_and_the_law.mp3

This weekend was especially cool because my Dad came out to visit us! That's two weekends in a row with visitors. Of course the only pictures we have of the last two weekends involve our dogs...

My Dad and I went to see Get Smart on Friday and loved it. We used to watch the original series on Nick at Nite when I was growing up. We're big fans of slapstick humour... and anything within 6 degrees of separation from Mel Brooks. Friday night we took the dogs over to the Miller Outdoor Theatre to see the Houston Symphony.... Erin even let me get KFC for the occasion. Erin didn't attend the Get Smart viewing in part because she thought the movie looked inane...but mostly because she'd been hanging out at our house for the last two weeks waiting for people to replace the carpet in our bedroom with hardwoods. They'd just put the hardwoods in on Friday morning and she wasn't so excited about leaving the dogs to run around on the new floor while we all went to a movie.

We watched a lot of Planet Earth while my Dad was here... and Kelsey loves Planet Earth. There was a fox on the show and she walked up to the TV to sniff it.... she was transfixed by all the birds etc - it's Kelsey's favorite thing to watch now. We also watched some intense Euro 2008 quarterfinals matches and took naps on the couch. All in all it was a pretty chill weekend.

Anyway it was really cool to have my Dad in town for a visit and I was really excited to have him at church on a Sunday that I got to preach.

The dogs like Brandy better than us.....

Kelsey doing her part to aid in our quest for a relaxing weekend.

Battlecat doing a little bit of the same... just picture my Dad in the same position and that's how he spent most afternoons!

Galatians and Brandy!

Brandy came down for the weekend to hang out with us... and the dogs have decided that they like her best. They got all depressed when Brandy had lunch with a friend on Saturday and rejoiced upon her arrival back at our place. Brandy is a big Yankees fan... and they swept the Astros this weekend. In celebration of her last evening staying with us they beat down the Astros something like 13-0.

In other news:

I got to preach today on Galatians 3:1-14, and I'm preaching next week on the rest of the chapter. I actually plugged in the wireless mic thing today so it got recorded.

Here's the link:
http://www.kaleohouston.com/mp3/the_gospel_and_faith.mp3

-all for now

Congrats to the Graduate

My little brother Joshua graduated from high school this weekend. It is hard to believe he is that old...and it makes me feel even older as it means I graduated from high school 8 years ago! Congrats Joshie, we are proud of you!

Josh in the graduation procession
Josh with my grandma
Josh and I
Each family had to make a poster board of their graduate for the school, which my sister did a great job with.

The show of the graduates at the school graduation reception.
Josh with his pictures and cake at his graduation party.

Richie, Jenny & I at the party.
Josh showing off all his graduation money.

Jake with his BFF Corey

So I have been in SLC hanging out with my family for the week. There have been several days of cold rain with temperatures in the 50s...a little strange for June. Needless to say I have been freezing and without any appropriate clothing, as I was looking forward to very dry 80 degree weather (thankfully the weather was beautiful for the outdoor graduation party).

A stunning SLC sunset...its always hard to leave this beautiful city with mountains and cool weather to return to Houston...

By the way, if you missed skiing this season, there is still hope! Snowbird remains open on the weekends and still has at least 50 inches of snow with a tentative close date after next weekend....so there is still time! If only I had known before the weekend was over...unfortunately now it is back to hot and muggy Houston for me...

Gardens

Here is a picture of the small potted garden in my back yard this year...it expands a little each year and this year consists of 5 tomato plants, 1 green pepper plant, and a few zucchini plants.

As you can see, the tomatoes are growing well so far. Hopefully, if Jake remembered to water it--which he really hates to do, it will all still be alive when I get home tomorrow :)

I get my love of gardens from my mom who loves gardening and always has a beautiful yard. Where I grew up in Duchesne, we always had a huge vegetable garden...and one year we planted 72 tomato plants! Below are pictures of her yard, unfortunately they do not do its beauty justice.