SNOW SNOW SNOW!

I have been in SLC this week to see my brother play basketball (while studying for Step 1) and there is lots of snow that we have been playing in. I am so excited to get to experience actual snowy winter!

Snowshoeing in Milcreek Canyon

Scenery in the canyon

Snow buried signs showing the depth of snow

Aspen taking a break to chew a stick

Decorated tree along the trail

We also went cross-country skiing with my aunt...but we didn't bring the camera, however it was also a lot of fun.

Allow my self to introduce... my self

Joel gave me an RBF CD for Christmas and I've been mentally dancing (that's where a song is playing in your headphones - but your someplace embarrassing like the gym and your ability to bust a move is squashed by society so instead you envision yourself dancing around... and you end up singing out loud anyway) at the gym all week to it.

Anyway - I was at the gym the other day - doing some decline bench.... no spotter... couldn't make my last rep.... I didn't really know what to do.... the decline is sort of awkward - you can't set the bar on your chest because it will roll down and crush your throat - which is bad..... so I decided to try and lift it over my legs and sort of sit up with it..... well my balance isn't all that great and anyway the plates fell off on both sides and it wasn't fun... several co-workers viewed this glorious occurrence so I think I'm going to stick to cardio for awhile and hope they just forget it ever happened. Of course if I don't lift regularly I'll never fulfill my life's ambition of looking like this man:

Right now Erin is studying for her Neuro exam.... then she is off for two months to study for the Step 1 Exam - I'm not entirely certain of what that is - except that she has to take it... and all of her med school friends are taking several months off to study for it also - so I guess it's intense. Erin is a very dedicated studier.... I on the other hand suffer from a severe form of short-attention-spanitis (it's not yet recognized by physicians - sort of like being a nevernude.... but we're pushing for acceptance) which is why I'm blogging right now. I'm supposed to be reading Grudem's Systematic Theology or I suppose I could be cleaning something... but pictures of Mr. T make me laugh and I was inspired to blog something for you the faithful reader.... I know that you are still out there in spite of your apparent collective inability to comment. Which is fine... doesn't bother me at all... I love blogging and never getting feedback - sort of like talking to a stuffed animal - a cyber-space stuffed animal..... it's cathartic at first.... but then it just gets weird.

Moving on - Erin and I are going to be heading out to Italy for a couple o'weeks. I really want to see a soccer (calcio) match but I'm a little concerned about the fan violence issues they seem to be having over there..... incidentally that's a blessing curse for MLS. I mean I enjoy the fact that I can go to a game in the states and not worry about getting stabbed - but I also like the fact that the ref has to call the game knowing that at any second thousands of crazed lunatics could rush the pitch after him.... it's sort of what I envision being a gladiator would have evolved into if it was ever morphed into a team sport......

Erin and I are really looking forward to the break.

It just struck me that I haven't posted in like a month and some significant things have happened which I will now share with you through the miracle of digital photography.

Behold:

January 3rd was our 4th Anniversary - these are the flowers I got Erin. We went to Taste of Texas for dinner the next night and the food was awesome.... Taste of Texas is like a Christian steakhouse... which is a truly glorious concept - cooking meat for the Glory of God... anyway - check it out should you ever find yourself in H-Town.

We really like self portraits... we just think they're silly... anyway - I know what your thinking... and fear not - the stache is gone. I'm back to my roots - Brigham Young style... beard but no stache.

We also attempted to take a picture of us, taking a picture of ourselves in our mirror... but to no avail.

Ikea's half-yearly sale ended recently and we got this cool stuffed soccer ball so I could play soccer with the girls.... they haven't taken to the kicking aspects of the game... mostly they just like to pick it up in their mouths and chase each other around.... but they are excellent on D.

Kelsey has a unique strategy for maintaining possession of the ball....

The 2nd full week of the month we had the Matthew's canines over for a week. All four dogs are in this picture. Trolley, Kelsey, and Battlecat are on the bed... Tank is somewhere underneath the bed.

Christmas Pictures

For Christmas,

Erin and I went for a drive with the dogs. We drove from Houston to SLC to see our families. On the way to SLC, we stopped at Brandy's. We had some Chinese and Brownies.... and stayed up late. The next day we drove to Albuquerque and the following day we made it into SLC in the middle of a snowstorm.

The fact that we drove made the schedule pretty tight - but the dogs were excited to come with us.

This is the only known picture of my parents together smiling.

Juanita and Bernice

Joshnita, Richie & Jenny

The girls in the back of the car
My Dad and Joel Christmas morning.

My Mom and Jon Pow on Christmas morning.

The girls in their outdoor wear.
Juanita and her girls.

Playing in the snow.
Kelsey

The girls and I sleeping in the Motel 6 in Albuquerque

More snowy playtime.

Kelsey getting ready to pounce on Battlecat.

On the way home we stopped at Josh's basketball tourney near Capitol Reef. We stopped in Moab and Amarillo overnight on the way home. In Amarillo, Erin and I ate at a Taco Bueno..... and my taco was not bueno. I think I got food poisoning.... I've been sick ever since. Our last day of driving was pretty miserable, although we did listen to HP7 on CD (thanks Joel for loaning it to us for the drive).

All for now.

Sad, sad, Broncos

Erin and I went to see the Broncos v Texans game this past Thursday. We showed up in full Bronco regalia.... unfortunately the Broncos didn't bother to show up for the game.
This is the view from our seats. It seemed like there were lots of Broncos fans around.When we got home from the game we spent some quality time playing with the dogs.
It's been a little cooler outside this weekend. Battlecat likes to curl up in a ball when she's cold.

More Battlecat naptime
Kelsey really likes to cuddle....due to a 'shaving incident' I am currently beardless.

Preaching and Running

This weekend was pretty busy. On Saturday night Erin and I went to my company party.
We had a really good time and sat next to people from my team at work. Erin spent a lot of time talking to one of the newer members of my team from Tanzania - he had a lot of stories.... anyway - there was a raffle for prizes. Our number was called and I went to claim my prize. A guy at my table won a digital camera, someone else won an Ipod, and another person won a portable DVD player..... I got this:

A Juan Pablo Montoya diecast car..... I don't know what a Juan Pablo Montoya is.... I'm not sure if this post qualifies me for immediate dismissal from the state of Texas... but I'm just not into racing. Maybe someone can comment and tell me why I should be honored to have this thing sitting somewhere within my cubicle.

Anyway - the party was actually a lot of fun.

Sunday morning I preached from Matthew 3:1-12 which is the Gospel reading for the 2nd week of Advent. The sermon can be downloaded from http://www.kaleohouston.com/podcast or you can find it here directly:

http://www.kaleohouston.com/mp3/advent_12_09_07.mp3

Immediately after service ended I had to run home and get changed for the Jingle Bell Run - a 5 Mile run through downtown Houston to support the YMCA. As the race was sponsored by Chevron Deep Water, I got roped into running with some guys from my team at work. Lots of people ran in costume..... my main goal was survival..... I finished the race in 55 min and never stopped running so I feel good about that. Sometime after the 5 mile race started there was a 3 mile family walk.... and they shared the return leg of the course with the runners.... so for the 5 minute mile people I guess that wasn't a big deal... but with about 1.5 miles to go I ran into a large mass of families.... strollers.... dogs... and little kids which really crushed my momentum.... but I powered through. I'd like to get the time down a bit and keep running. I had a good time training for the race. I've never run longer than 1.5 miles before that....

Pre-race photo of The Salt Monkeys (that's a little depth-imaging geophysicist humor for ya): Errol, Tim, Fan, and me

The beginning of the race

Daniel helping his dad cool off after the race

Agony...but finished

Post race team photo

Anyway - that's all for now. I have a picture of Erin from the Christmas party looking gorgeous with her new haircut and pretty dress... but the colors get distorted when I put it in blogger..... strange.... Erin has 3 exams this week so she could use prayer for her sanity.

Turkey Day

Erin and I have had some visitors over the past couple of weekends. First, we had the Carpenter's. Chris and Martha are our favorite neighbors who moved to TN. They have two dogs and a very cute daughter named Abby G. The Carpenters were in town for the weekend and we had a good time hanging out with them. The dogs loved Abby G. Battlecat wanted to give her lots of kisses.

For Thanksgiving, my parents came to visit. On Thanksgiving we went to the Strom's house. Their 94 yr old neighbor made the turkey and it's clear that the last century has really honed her skills of turkey cooking... it was delicious.

As is our custom - we got up at the crack of dawn to go shopping the day after Thanksgiving. Erin and my Mom both wanted to be at JoAnn's when it opened. Being asked to help color coordinate fabric at 6 AM is one of life's great joys that only married men really get to enjoy.

We had a great time with my family. It was 80 deg or so before they got here, but as soon as they arrived, the temperature dropped to the 40's. It was beautiful.... although I think my parents were hoping to escape the cold weather. It was really nice to get to go on walks with my Dad and the dogs and to hang out with my Mom. My Mom helped me make a turkey on Sunday!

This past weekend Erin and I re-arranged our bedroom.... and a couple of weeks ago Erin and I re-arranged the living room and the rooms upstairs. It's like a brand new home..... except it's not. We also went to the Behold the Lamb of God concert with some folks from church. That was pretty amazing. I really like Andrew Peterson's music. This weekend is going to be pretty busy. Erin's got one more week of Family Medicine after this one, so she'll be studying. My company Christmas party is Saturday night, and Sunday morning I'm preaching. Sunday afternoon I'm running a 5 mile race with some people from work to benefit the downtown YMCA in Houston. 5 miles is the longest distance I've ever run in my life.... so here's hoping I'm still alive after the run.

Erin got a pretty significant haircut this weekend and she looks beautiful. This gal who cut her hair cuts the hair of basically everyone that attends our church so she came highly recommended and did a great job. We may post pictures in the near future (sometime before 2009). Until then I leave you with some pictures from my parent's visit.
Battlecat and Kelsey really liked laying on our futon upstairs and hanging out with my parents. (Battlecat is wearing her Broncos collar... but to no avail... the Broncos totally suck.)
Battlecat likes to find warm places to curl-up.... my Mom and Erin were spending some time reading on the couches in the living room so the dogs joined them.

Here's proof that my Mom, deep down inside, actually does like dogs.

And this is my Dad in his natural habitat... fixing a computer. He helped me get all the files off of Erin's old PC and transfer them onto our new(ish) one so we can donate the old one.

New Post!

So.... you may be wondering why we haven't posted for the better part of the last millenium.... there's a good answer.

Erin has been on Surgery rotation for the past 3 months - which basically means she's been crazy. Surgery seems to consist of really long hours where Erin gets to observe other people doing things while she stands there. Granted - she's got to see and help out with some pretty cool things including a heart transplant. It's just not what she's into.

I've been out of the office for basically two months doing campus recruiting, training courses, a technical conference, and a week on a drill ship in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico. It's been busy times in Umbriacoville.

A couple o' highlights from the last month or two:

Jonathan and Christina came to visit us for their Fall Break! We had a great time just hanging out with them. We went down to Galveston and walked around the beach, we went to the Holocaust Museum which is phenomenal, and they introduced us to The Office.

We also got to go camping in Huntsville State Park with Kaleo (our church). Pictured above is the family Strom (Jody, Kyle, & Clara).

After we packed up our campsite we went for a hike with the Stroms and the Crocketts. We tried to take a family picture.... but the dogs were focused on other things.

This was the very first campout for our Pastor Bill, and his daughter Mirabelle.... Shannon has had previous camping experience. I'm also pretty sure this is the first time Bill has donned a hoodie.

Collin Crockett is hanging on to his dad's (Aaron) leg. I think Charlene was still asleep and for some reason we don't have a picture of all of them together. Collin is the chief user of our gumball machine. They live across the street (Charlene and Erin are in the same year at Baylor College o' Medicine) and Aaron will walk Collin down for a visit. Every time Collin comes over he goes straight for the gumball machine. Collin also enjoys running around our living room and being scared of the dogs. I think the camping trip helped him to become one with our canines - perhaps now they can co-exist in harmony.

The beautiful man (not the one sitting) is Clint Adams. Clint and I are basically the same person - except that he's wearing a mesh Bass Pro Shop hat.... and for some reason he's still single.
Clint speaks canine fluently - I think he's Battlecat's favorite human houseguest.

So that's basically what we've been up to.... work has been crazy - surgery is crazy... and we're looking forward to my parents visiting for Thanksgiving.

Erin and I are going to the Western Conference Finals to see the Houston Dynamo take on the KC Wizards..... if the Dynamo win they're on to the MLS Cup for a rematch with the New England Revolution. The game is going to be crazy and we're really excited for it!

A new post is coming

Fear not faithful reader - a new post is coming.