Anniversarypalooza...arriba!

So we did it. We've been married a year (and a week). It's unreal how time has blown by and how much fun we've had, not the least of which would be the last week, when we celebrated on our Caribbean cruise. Here's a little picture (little in size, a ton of pictures in content), as well as the highlights.

*Unless otherwise noted, please assume that food was eaten at least every half hour of each day.

Saturday, Jan. 24: Arrive in Houston. Took $50 cab ride for $4 Potbellys sandwich (reuniting with an old flame? Priceless).

Sunday, Our Anniversary!: Wake up and have magical,velvet box thrown at me with shiny goodness inside. Meet Rich and Genie, the couple sharing a shuttle with us to the cruise ship. Drive to Galveston, a town slowly trying to revive itself after Hurricane Ike. Enter cabin decorated for our anniversary and meet Stanley, our amazingly friendly stateroom attendant from Honduras. Meet our tablemates: the mayor and first lady of Spur, Texas, and their friends from Phoenix.

Monday, Day at Sea: Played Bingo. Got stylin' Bingo shirt for playing Bingo. Shuffleboarded with help from a spectator, mini-golfed. Squeezed into dress for formal night. Had special anniversary cake.

Tuesday, Cozumel, Mexico: Went on 4 mile jungle hike and explored Mayan ruins in pouring rain(which was really awesome. No, seriously, it was). Met Matt and Sarah from Wichita on hike. Watched mosquitoes eat us. Watched tour guide eat termites. Managed to still want lunch and ate at taco stand. Nachoed to death. Napped. Went to Country Music "Night". Left 45 minutes later when it was over and turning into a battle of the sexes gameshow. Talked Derrel down. Did not sunburn today.

Wednesday, Roatan, Honduras: Went on snuba excursion. Disappointed by lack of color, fish, and heads up about how the tour company's boat had broken down the day before, which is why we were in sea grass off shore, and not out on the actual reef. Went to onboard ice skating show. Still did not sunburn today.

Thursday, Costa Maya, Mexico: Went on Rhino jungle excursion (it was super rad) to beautiful beach. Got jostled and muddy. Napped. Saw magic show. Spent rest of night telling Derrel to stop trying to figure out tricks. Cram a Love Connection into is belly. Early night. Sunburned today, in very random places.

Friday, Day at Sea: Played more Bingo. Had lunch with Matt and Sarah. Went to Art seminar. Destroyed Joan Jett's "I Love Rock and Roll" at Kamikaze Karaoke in the onboard pub with new friends watching.

Saturday, Day at Sea: Played more Bingo (three numbers away from $4,700). Elbowed children and knocked over elderly ladies to find and purchase pictures. Learned there's no good way to pack chocolate-covered strawberries in your suitcase. Got Kamikaze Karaoke survival t-shirt. Spent evening out on balcony with a bottle of wine, a plate of cheese, and the most wonderful man in the world. The best part of the entire cruise.

Sunday, Day at Airport: Boarded three planes, got home at 9:30. Just recently woke up.

For Fun

We are a week away from our anniversary...

...and NOW the skeletons are coming out of the closet. Derrel was getting ready to head out to his man-date (a.k.a. 'poker night'), and we were talking about numbers:

"Numbers rule everything," he said. "That's what we used to say in Math club."
I laughed, he didn't. Come to find out he really was in Math Club.

"Yeah, we used to do math problems for fun at lunch," he continued.

I was agog (we used to study SAT words at lunch, way more acceptable).

If that wasn't enough (which it absolutely was), they apparently had a little gang sign that they threw at eachother around campus:




Yeah....
That's Pi.

In other "learning more than we had hoped" news, we were watching TV the other night when a commercial came on talking about the Yamaha Rhino, a type of dune buggy. Derrel informed me that this was the vehicle we were going to be in on one of our excursions during our anniversary cruise.

As we continued to watch the commercial, it turned out to be one of those "if you have suffered any of the following injuries while on a Rhino, contact Bob and Bob Law Firm, as you are entitled to settlement money."

We laughed for quite awhile, in the nervous, let-me-write-down-that-phone-number sort of way.

Satchy Meets the Snow!

We got about six inches of snow when it was all said and done this evening. We went outside to get the mail and decided to see how Satchmo would enjoy it. We also wanted to see how our camera did with videos...so here you go, the Ebert's first video!

The side effects of the snow are amazing. It's so incredibly quiet outside. Plus, it's actually lighter than it usually is at 7:00 p.m. I tried to capture some of the post blizzard glow.

Let Them Eat Snow

Not 10 minutes after we realized it had started snowing did we decide to do what anyone would do...

Go out for ice cream. Of course, being former Californians, we didn't think that the longer we sat in that ice cream shop, the more time the snow would have to turn into ice. If our experience in the desert stirred any thoughts, it was only that the snow would be completely gone by the time we were ready to head home.

Of course, we're in Washington now.

We figured that out as we were sliding down a sloped street in our neighborhood. As Derrel was saying, "I don't have it! I don't have it!" I realized that this was probably the stupidest thing we've ever done. Neither of us have a very good track record with snow. Even walking in the snow has been a problem in our pasts.

Finally, Derrel was able to slide us right into our driveway. It was enough of an adventure to render us homebound today.

Update in the Real Life

Not to say that '24' is not real life, but I suppose not writing in well over a month warrants some reality as well.

We're raking the leaves for the fourth time since we moved here as the season is rushing to it's transition to winter in less than a month. I was about to say that the rainy season has officially started here in Bellingham, but it looks like the sun is actually finding it's way out as I write. Even when it's overcast, it's incredible to be driving around town and see a light layer of fog nestled into the trees. It's amazing how everyday things here can leave you in awe. More evidence that God is everywhere.

The folks were out to visit over the last couple of weeks. There was a weekend where all four of my parents were here visiting. I'm so blessed that all of my parents get along the way that they do so that we don't have to miss out on visits if schedules overlap. It was fun to get to show off our town twice over. We even made it up to Canada one day!

Derrel is still enjoying his job. They've hit a little bit of dry patch as far as selling sponsorships for the season goes, but Derrel loves challenges. And with that big brain of his, he'll figure it out.
My own job hunt has had it's highs and lows. I had interviewed for a position at the university in town, and even made it to a second interview this past Monday, but that didn't pan out. I know He's got something in the works for us, so I'm anxious to continue with the search and see what what that is.

With Christmas coming up and being just a few clicks shy of a new niece (who we've deemed Audreden) and our first anniversary, it's hard to ignore all the good things God has given us. Thus far, our experience in Bellingham has been stellar. Being in a place where we are the only family we've got has done nothing but turn us closer to eachother, and closer to the God that brought us together. We've found a church and church family we're quite fond of, and I really feel like our life together has officially started. I am very much looking forward to traveling with my new family this Christmas; sleeping on his shoulder in a crowded airport between flights, finishing half-completed sudoku puzzles in airline magazines, relying on eachother to remember what city we're in, and, ultimately, when the dust settles in mid January, returning to the bedtime television ritual that I've grown to love so much. Oh yeah...then we go on a cruise. :O)

And of course I'm anxious for the times between. I can't wait to see my family and be able to help welcome Baby Mitchell into the world. I'm anxious to see how Derrel's folks are settling into their new home in Arizona and am looking forward to coloring with our nieces out there. Both of our families have had a big year and have seen a lot of changes. It will be nice to settle in with everyone and see what new gifts those changes have brought.

I hope it's a pony!

Good thing your father has been in Africa, Kim.

The Ebert bedtime television ritual is usually a combination of the following: House, ESPN, some police reality show, and a rerun of some UFC fight. Mind you, we don't spend four hours watching TV as we nestle into sleepy mode. Derrel has what we in the field call Remote ContrOCD. In our studies we have learned that often times, he will change the channel merely out of habit, and not necessarily because he is unhappy with the current programming. When I say 'we', I mean wives, and 'the field' would be husbandology. This should not be confused with the breeding and raising of livestock. That was their mother's responsibility.

But I digress. In the blip of Sports Center that we caught last night, we heard Dallas Stars hockey player Sean Avery make a very crude comment in reference to his ex-girlfriend dating other hockey players. We didn't hear all of the interview, but the term "sloppy seconds" found its way in and, thankfully, that was the trigger that got us over to channel 58 (for a second). This morning the front page of our internet had a picture of Kim Bauer, Jack's ridiculous daughter in the world that is '24'. She is the American Idol to my Arrested Development; the Cameron to my House. I clicked on to the back section of the internaper to make sure she didn't mess with January 11's launch of season 7.

Turns out Kim Bauer is the ex-girlfriend of the gentlemanly Sean Avery. Apparently the gal likes hockey. Whatever the reason, let's just be grateful that her antics will keep her out of CTU. You're a lucky guy, Sean. Had he not been helping African kids to asylum in the U.S., Jack Bauer would have been dropping down from the Teletron during your game, in a hail of gunfire.