Happy Friday! Don't forget to vote!

Can you tell we're sisters? :) Kate and I went out for a very fancy dinner at The Melting Pot to celebrate her birthday. It was an amazing amazing meal of everything (except salad) fondue style that you cook at your table...breads and raw veggies in cheese, about 4 kinds of meat and ravioli and potatoes and broccoli and mushrooms that you cook in a flavored broth, and the ultimate desert experience of life changing bananas foster fondue with cheesecake, regular and chocolate marshmallows, sponge cake, bananas, strawberries, rice crispie treat, brownies dipped in the banana white chocolately cinnamony gooey goodness. The entire experience was so much fun and there's noone else I would have wanted to share it with!

Kate getting ready to dip some bread in the fancy cheese...

and me being cheesey (HAHAHAHAHA)

And then last weekend our junior staff here at church had our second annual Hallo-Wii party. We had sooooooo much fun even though we did wish Scott and Abby and Will and Kristi and Rob and Lynda could have all come back for the event! The costumes were amazing...couple of rednecks, James Bond, Kris Kross, Ed McMahan and prize winning housewife, Hurricane Ike and tree-trimming, electric repair man, Sarah Palin, a very very young olympic Chinese gymnast, and yours truly as a Starbuck's barista with her very HOTT cup of Venti Salted Caramel Hot Chocolate!

Yep, here I am getting my crunk on during the worst ever attempt at Guitar Hero.

Me and my cocoa. Is she absolutely fabulous or what?!? She was simply amazing and has already inspired at least 3 people to copy her idea...it did take some work for us to convert that laundry basket into a very authentic looking cup of coffee complete with cardboard sleeve. Yep, that STIR STICK was all my doing.

Not sure if you can see my fake nose ring...you know, part of my emo barista look!


My favorite pic from the night. How cute is she?

The Z-Man

So, you know I live with my newly 10 year old nephew, Zach...well, I also live with my sis and her hubby, but they aren't nearly so entertaining. At least not this week. So just for kicks, here's a recent convo shortly after Z-Man comes running into the living room after he's taken his bath. Side note: he's always running because there is only one thing faster than a speeding bullet. Z-Man taking a bath. We're not exactly sure what happens in there or even if any soap actually touches his body, but all we know is that he comes out wet and running. He is willing to sacrifice cleanliness at the altar of things that are much more fun in what he must think of as "anythingsbetterthanhavingtogotakeabath" world. But I digress, so here we are in the living room when he comes running in with his usual fervor and wet head shaking and I'm contemplating taking a much longer and more thorough bath of my own...

ME: Dude, uh, I'm just wondering if I'm gonna find any of your dirty clothes on the floor in the bathroom?

Z-MAN: nope

ME: So, did you hang up your towel?

Z-MAN: yep

ME: So, is the floor all soaking wet?

Z-MAN: nope

ME: What about any poop waiting for me in the toilet?

Z-MAN: hmmmmm, I'm not sure about that one, I better go check!

And off he goes running to the bathroom and my sister and I soon hear flushing. Guess that was an affirmative. Man, I love that kid.

Requiem

So, you can finish playing the dirge for my long lost blog. I know you thought it died with the summer, but alas, I'm trying to revive it once again. Mostly just with pics, but hey, I gotta start somewhere letting you know what I've been up to the past couple months...First, was a mini-vacation up to Louisville, KY to visit my good friends Will & Kristi and Kari too :), as well as my seminary buds Alicia and kiddos and Rob and Chandi and more kiddos. What did I love most about the trip? Leaving Houston, dining at the cute tearoom, whipping up on Willimo on DDR, hanging out with Farmdale BC youth, eating Krispy Kreme donuts, praying with Kristi, spending the day at C.A.L., eating salmon and playing with Rob & Chandi's sweet girls and watching Sarah Beth and Chandi sing at rehearsal, and chatting it up with Alicia over Tony Boombozz and laughing at her hysterical children!

And then, over Labor Day I went to Louisiana to see my friends Billy and Elizabeth who I knew from Turkey - I hadn't seen either of them since their wedding about 5 years ago! And I had never met their sweet children. We survived one Tunisian and one Hurricane Gustav and spent most of the weekend in Tallulah once we evacuated to safety thanks to Angie and her parents! It was a crazy weekend, but so much fun and so good to catch up on the past 5 years! Liz and I promise to do better this time around!

And well, then we had our very own hurricane here when I got back known as Ike, but I'll get to that next time...(Hey, I know this is a lame post, but I've gotta start somewhere!)