Happy anniversary to us!

Bethany and I are celebrating our third anniversary tonight in a very low-key way -- dinner at Olive Garden (where we went on our first date) and just hanging out watching TV.

I made Bethany this video looking back at our first three years of marriage, and she suggested we share it on the blog. Odd to think that we've now been married longer than we were together before we got married (three years vs. two years, three months).

Happy anniversary to us! :)

Merry Christmas!!!!!

All Is Well

Words: Wayne Kirkpatrick
Music: Michael W. Smith

All is well all is well
Angels and men rejoice
For tonight darkness fell
Into the dawn of love's light
Sing A-le
Sing Alleluia
All is well all is well
Let there be peace on earth
Christ is come go and tell
That He is in the manger
Sing A-le
Sing Alleluia

All is well all is well
Lift up your voices and sing
Born is now Emmanuel
Born is our Lord and Savior
Sing Alleluia
Sing Alleluia
All is well


We hope you have a wonderful Christmas celebration wherever you may be and that you feel the joy, hope and peace that comes from knowing the true meaning of Christmas. Merry Christmas!!!!!!

In Celebration,

Jeff and Bethany

The Two Towers? Maybe Not...

Ok, so I was standing in the kitchen the other day looking out our front living room window and I saw our neighbor's Christmas tree across the street. Then I totally remembered the scene in the Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers where you could see the two towers. Neither of the pictures we have really captures it well, but I wanted to share anyway. Do you see it?

Another Man's Poison: 12/18/07

Time for pre-Christmas random links!

Project MedSend -- the group raises money to help recent med school graduates pay off their loans so they can begin full-time missions work.

The Mitchell Report -- I'm still making my way through 300+ pages of baseball and steroids.

Presidential Polls -- As we get closer to the 2008 Presidential election, this sites averages all the most current polls to give a better view of who's leading who.

A Tale of Two Houses -- This is pretty interesting. I'm as surprised that Bush is environmentally conscious as I am that Gore is not.

Mr. Rogers learns about Donkey Kong -- This is just pure coolness.

A brief history of PhotoShopping -- Includes lots of examples, even from long before PhotoShop existed.

ShowBiz Pizza -- Oh, how I miss ShowBiz!! Chuck E. Cheese was never as good.

Blog re-design!

So I've been playing around with trying to understand Blogger's CSS/HTML combo for awhile (I'm pretty rusty on programming of any sort, and have virtually no experience with CSS). I finally got enough of a handle on it (I think) to work out the tweaking of the original layout that you see here. Not a major work of art, by any means, but at least it's a little more personal and not so obviously a template.

Let me know what you think, particularly if you have any suggestions. Hope y'all like it!

Peers

The following occurred to me yesterday:

1) I write for Baylor Magazine.
2) All parents of current Baylor students receive Baylor Magazine.
3) Steven Curtis Chapman's daughter attends Baylor.
4) Therefore, SCC receives Baylor Magazine.
5) Therefore, there is some chance that he reads at least part of it.
6) Therefore, there is a slight chance that he reads my writing.
7) Therefore, there is a tiny chance that SCC and I are peers -- he reads my work, and I listen to his.

Who's in your peer group?

Orbit does tricks!

We recorded this video several weeks ago, but hadn't gotten around to posting it 'til now. Bethany just put it on her iPod for her trip to Pennsylvania, and I thought I'd post it here for everyone else.



Yes, we taught our cat to stand up and do "Sic 'em, Bears!". He also plays fetch (sort of), follows us from room to room, and will meet me at the door when I come home from work. The most dog-like cat ever.

Fun Things From Our Backyard: Goes Front!!!

Strange and wonderous creatures have moved from our backyard to the front (better outside than in, Orbit gets very playful when he finds something inside, which thankfully is not very often)!!! We found this guy crawling around on the front porch and the naturalist in Bethany had to take a picture and blog about it.

What do you think?



Some other fun critters we've noticed around the house lately:

One Saturday morning (not too early) we noticed invasion of Morning Doves in the driveway. We figured they were taking advantage of the pecans that had been run over by the cars...




There were also a few geckos running around...



So those were the fun critters running around our yard...

Christmastime on Crestwood II: The New Batch

Since Bethany's last post on our Christmas decorations, we've finished putting things up and decorating the tree. Enjoy!

Here's the outside of our house at night. You can see the Christmas tree in the big windows, and (electric) candles in a couple of the windows. (They're actually in every window there, but weak batteries = hard to see.)



Our porch and front window up close. Yay wreath and poinsettias!



Our Christmas tree -- now with ornaments!



Family room decorations:



Last but not least - Bethany and Jeff under the mistletoe (G-rated, of course):



Oh, and because I love video, here's a short "video tour" of our Christmas tree. Make sure you have the volume up if you want the accompanying soundtrack ("Deck the Halls" by Reliant K), and be sure to keep your eye out for all our favorite ornaments, including Baby Jeff in a nutshell, Bert and Ernie, Bethany's Texas boot, and the stockings Bethany's mom crossstiched for us.

Christmastime on Crestwood

Well, we started hauling out the Christmas stuff and thought we would post some pictures for the family and whomever else wants to see them.

Our first challenge was the Christmas tree. This year, in a new house, we had to figure out how to have our Christmas tree in a way that we could enjoy it but Orbit can not. After some finagling involving an extra dining room chair, some shoeboxes and an old comforter covered up with a tree skirt, we came up with what you see below. So what do you think, is this a kitty proof Christmas tree? (we're putting the ornaments up this weekend)




We actually get to hang our stockings on a mantel! Here they are with the nativity set modeled after my mom's...




I found this little nativity set at Hobby Lobby over the weekend and love the fact that the commercial is, in a sense, bowing down to the true meaning of Christmas.



So that's the start of our home at Christmas time!!

Orbit Loves Christmas too!

Another Man's Poison: 11/28/07

While we all wait for the press conference announcing Art Briles as the next Baylor football coach, how about some random links?

Canadians say we don't need toothpaste -- my future dentist friend calls BS on this one.

The ultimate geek tie -- If I wore ties often, I'd have to consider this one. The clip-on bit seals the deal.

Mike Huckabee for President -- If Chuck Norris says it's so, then it's so.

Baylor equestrian helps make a cancer patient's dream reality -- Bethany and I were at this meet; very cool.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

A very hearty "Happy Thanksgiving" from Jeff, Bethany and Orbit to you!

AWESOME!!!! God is doing great things...

I thought this was so cool, I just needed to share, and since we have a blog, here I am!!

I grew up in a church that I always really liked and was heavily involved in, but did not see a whole lot that set it apart (perhaps this was because I was a kid/teenager). It was always focused on missions and gave me a place to call home while I was growing up and into my college years. Don't get me wrong, I loved this church and still do, and am proud of where I came from.

Recently, God has blessed Christ Fellowship with the opportunity to merge with some other churches in Miami and also start a couple new ones of their own. THIS IS AWESOME! They truly have a heart for showing the Miami area who Jesus is and introducing them to His Love.

It is so exciting and refreshing to see what Christ Fellowship in Miami is doing to reach the people of that city. Instead of growing into one of these enormous campus mega-churches, they have spread out into the city they love and have satellite churches. In total, there are 5 campuses spread out across Miami. Instead of making the people come to them, they are reaching out to the people!!

I am so excited to hear/see what God is doing with Christ Fellowship Miami and I continue to be proud of them and pray for them. MAJOR PROPS go out to the volunteers, staff and everyone at all of the Christ Fellowship locations who is praying, living, and working to make this happen!!!!!!!!!! We truly can do all things through Christ who gives us strength!!!!!!!!

Check it out!!!!
http://www.cfmiami.org

Another Man's Poison: 11/15/07

When I found the Internet as a college freshman 11 years ago, I almost immediately starting boring my friends by reading excerpts of interesting pages I found to them. (Seriously, I did this; ask Zan.) Even though those friends now live all over the country, I'm still able to bore them by sending links to pages or articles I find interesting. I had the bright idea to expand my audience of disinterested listeners/readers by posting some of the more interesting things I've found recently here; if I remember/have time and anyone cares, I might make this a semi-regular deal. Here goes:

freerice.com -- answer a multiple-choice vocab question, and if you get it right, they'll donate 10 grains of rice to an impoverished people. Play as long as you like, and they'll keep donating.

Fly Girls -- seriously, an interesting history project about women pilots during WWII.

Fast food nutrition facts -- all in one place, sorted by item (hamburgers, nuggets, fries, etc.)

Stepfather remake cast -- I can't believe they're remaking this. The original is a classic.

O Holy Night -- a surprisingly good version by a singer I don't normally care much for. You'll have to click the link to see who.

Random enough? That's probably enough for now. If you enjoy this at all, let me know by leaving a note in the comments. Thanks!

p.s. I "borrowed" the title, "Another Man's Poison," from my dad; he used to make random mix tapes with that name. I've always liked it, and thought I'd bring it into the 21st century.

Lilies & Kitties...end in sight

Orbit came home tonight around 5:45 and is still very woozie. He had an IV in his paw and it took him all of about five minutes into the car ride on the way home to get the bandage off. The vet says he should be fine, but wants to see him again in two weeks to make sure his kidneys are still working. Ironically enough, Jeff and I ran across a show tonight on TV about animals and the things they swallow. I have definitely learned my lesson. It's good to have our kitty home again.

Lillies & Kitties

FYI...Lilies of any sort are extremely toxic to cats.

I didn't know how toxic until today and sadly Orbit is in the kitty hospital on an IV. The vet said we caught it early enough that he should be fine, but apparently any sort of lily flower is extremely toxic to cats and causes Renal failure and death. We've decided it's time for me to find a new favorite flower...maybe a cactus.


Here are some websites we found... after taking Orbit to the vet:

http://www.sptimes.com/2007/04/02/Northpinellas/Nibbling_on_lovely_li.shtml

http://www.showcatsonline.com/x/lethal_lilies.htm

http://www.aspca.org/site/DocServer/vettech_0402.pdf?docID=354

Our Baylor room

From one project to another... We got these two chairs for our living room at an estate sale a couple of months ago; they go with the room's Baylor theme. But, Orbit decided they were HIS new chairs. My mom suggested we put a towel or something on it to keep them clean, but Bethany did one better; she found this Baylor fleece material and fashioned a couple of throws to keep the cat hair off.





Sic 'em, Bethany! :)

Happy (belated) Halloween!

Okay, so we didn't have time to get these pics up before Halloween. Still, we're quite proud of our creations! These were artificial carvable pumpkins we got at a craft store (no guts!). We designed the patterns and carved them last weekend so that we'd have some decorations for our trick or treaters. Enjoy!

Biggio's last game

For my birthday, Bethany and I got to go with my mom, sis, bro-in-law and nephew to Biggio's final game back in September.

Watching Biggio's last game was much sadder than I expected. I told Bethany, it hit me that I was seeing one of the last direct links to my boyhood go away. They kept showing pictures of Biggio as a rookie, and I thought man, I was just a kid, a KID, when those were taken. It was nuts, but I'm glad we were there. Josh will get to tell Joseph that he saw Biggio's final game when he was two years old.

Here's a link to my photo album from the game (some of the pics I stole from Kim), and below is a video of Biggio's short speech during the pregame ceremony honoring him.

Behind the camera

Elizabeth apparently would rather be behind the camera than in front of it. Either that, or she wanted to eat the camera -- I'm not sure.



Here's what it looked like from another view.



Also:

• Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you...
• "Weeeoooooooo!"
• And finally, Jeff's first encounter with the Wii.

Oh, and here's our photo album from Joseph's 2nd birthday.

Happy birthday Joseph!!

So we're finally catching up a little... Moving on to Joseph's second birthday party, which took place in mid September at Kim and Josh's house in Austin. Here's the birthday boy enjoying one of his gifts:



A few other videos from Joseph's birthday:

• The day's theme was clearly Bob the Builder
  
• Joseph knew what to do with his presents
  
• Elizabeth and Jeff dancing
  

Latest Furniture Additions (from Orbit)

Meow, Meow wanted to post about some new pieces of furniture that have recently arrived into Meow's home. Jeff brought back a very sentimental bookcase from Houston that he and his dad painted together when he was 4, which went into his den. Today, Meow acquired two swiveling club chairs from a sale at a house down the street, which go great in the Family Room (aka the Baylor Room).

Here are some pictures:

Jeff's Bookcase:


Meow making use of said Bookcase:



New chairs in Family Room:


Meow making use of the Chair:

It's Elizabeth!

Sorry this took so long; technical issues on our end. Presenting the last of our Labor Day videos... Starting with the starlet Elizabeth!



And one more:

• Joseph at the Bear Pit on Baylor's campus
  

Eight Pitchers

Joseph and Aunt Sue worked together to read his baseball numbers book. A budding statistician!



Even more videos from our trip to the Mayborn Museum over Labor Day Weekend:

• Cars
• Repeat after me: Turtle...
• A Joseph-Sized Couch
  

Sic 'em, Bears!

That's what all the Bears say, right, Joseph?



A few other videos from our time at the Mayborn Museum over Labor Day Weekend:

• Joseph and Elizabeth play cars
• Fireman Joseph
• Hiccup!
  

Joseph on Drums

Joseph got a big kick out of the children's part of the Mayborn Museum Complex at Baylor when they were here Labor Day Weekend. Here he is playing the drums with his Daddy.



More pics and video still to come!

Labor Day Fun

Now that we're done with the daily bathroom updates, it's time to backtrack a little. Here are some pics from when my whole family came to our house for Labor Day.

Hopefully this slideshow deal works for everyone, but if it doesn't, click here to go to the photo album page.



If you want to read the accompanying captions, mouse over the bottom of the photo and click on the speech bubble icon that shows up on the left.

You can also see Aunt Sue's pics from Labor Day here, or see Kim's pics here, here, here and here.

Future updates will include photos from Joseph's 2nd birthday party and videos from both the party and Labor Day. Stay tuned!

Before the remodeling...

Finally found a simple, free program that would edit video (no thanks to you, Windows Movie Maker) and was able to pare down a long video that we took of the house before we even bought it. Here's a 30-second clip from then that shows the master bathroom before the remodeling; take a look at it, then compare it to the video below after the remodeling was done. If you like pink tile, then maybe you prefer the "before," but we think it's quite an improvement.

Drool...

Yes, I am absolutely drooling over the new iPod Touch... Once I save enough money, the main question is: should I wait for one with just a little more storage? My music right now would almost exactly fill the larger 16 GB version, and I'd like to be able to have some video on there, too.

We'll see. Right now, I don't quite have enough money. By the time I do, maybe I will have decided.

Bathroom Remodel- COMPLETE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It's done!! Sorry for posting the pictures so late, I just finished painting :) . We are most excited about the new bathroom. It's got a towel bar on order, so that's not in yet, but most everything else is done.

Please let us know what you think! We want to hear feedback!!!!

Here's a video tour:



Here are pictures!!

Sink/Toilet Area:


Other View of Sink/Toilet Area:


Shower Curtain & Wall:


Shower Area:


Back of Shower:


Mirror Area:

Baylor Football!

Since we don't have any bathroom remodel pics, how about some Baylor football pics?

Bethany and I got season tickets, and yesterday was my first game in the stands at Floyd Casey since the Bears lost to Miami in 1997. Here's the view from our seats:



Oh - how random is this? We get to our seats, and who has season tickets directly in front of us? The couple we bought our house from!

We had fun; Baylor won 45-17, and Baylor's quarterback set school single-game records for passing touchdowns and passing yards. Nice home start!

Bathroom Update

Hi Guys!

I just wanted to update you on the bathroom...it did not get finished yesterday (*SIGH*). The electrician came out and installed the bathroom heater/fan and the outlets, but the plumber never showed up to install the shower faucet, toilet, vanity, etc. The contractor promises me they will both be here first thing tomorrow, so we'll see. Tomorrow evening, I plan on painting the bathroom walls with the faux finish whether they're done or not, so we'll see what happens. We'll keep you updated!!!!

Thanks for following our remodel, we love to hear your feedback!

Bethany & Jeff

Bathroom Remodel - Day 9

The bathroom will be done tomorrow! Or so the contractor tells me...but I believe him, he's been true to his word so far. Today they grouted the floor tile, put up the shower tile and touched up a few places here and there. Tomorrow they grout the shower tile, put in the faucet/shower fixture, and install the mirror, toilet and vanity again. Then they're done!!!

Here are the pictures for today...

Floor Tile with Grout:



Shower Area:



Back Shower Wall:



Shower/Tub Shelf:

Bathroom Remodel- Day 8

Sorry this posting is so late! A somewhat last-minute errand called us to another city and back last night.

The bathroom should be done tomorrow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thursday they laid the tile on the floor and painted the bathroom. Friday they will put the tile up in the shower, then Saturday the electrician will come back and finish up with the heater/fan combo and the outlets and everything. It's looking good!

Here are the pictures:

Mirror Area:



Toilet Area:



Tile floor (no grout yet):

Bathroom Remodel-Day 7

Today more progress was made in the bathroom! Mike the carpenter came (and just left a minute ago!) and put up the wainscoting and chair rail, then also did the crown molding and the frame for the shelf behind the bathtub. It looks great!

The ceiling was also textured so that now you can't really tell there were ever walls taken out.

Tomorrow they are supposed to start tiling!

Here are the pictures for today:

Toilet Area:


Bathtub Shelf:


Ceiling:


Another view of ceiling:

Bathroom Remodel- Day 6

After a few days off from the remodel, things were up and running today despite an almost 2 hour power outage that threatened to thwart the entire day. The guys worked today primarily on the ceiling and on the walls. On the ceiling, they worked on smoothing out the texture and actually putting a ceiling over the shower. On the walls, they put this black tar like substance that makes the sheetrock waterproof if it was ever to get water on it. I think it also helps the tile stick. The tile was ordered today and should be in tomorrow (coming from Dallas), so hopefully that will still happen.

The carpenter was supposed to come today and put up the wainscoting, chair rail and frame out the wood shelf behind the tub, but after several hours of waiting, I don't think he's coming.

Still, there's progress!!!

Shower Area:


Shower Ceiling:


Tile we chose:

Bathroom Remodel- Day 5

Yup, you guessed it, more progress has happened to our bathroom! Today they put in sheetrock, so it looks even more like a bathroom! We're still trying to pick out tile, but hope to have that done soon.

Here is the video tour for today:


Here are some pictures as well with some of the new tile samples visible:

Toilet Area:


Shower Area:


Tub:


Tile Choices: