to Grandma Dottie

So as I'm sure all of you have noticed that we are still somewhere in New Mexico...well, don't believe the blog. We're in SoCal and things are going well. I'm really not that inspired to write much lately. I apologize. Maybe this will help. I had a lovely "request" from my wife (I'm sure you can picture it) to write something. So this is a shout out to Sarah's mom's mom, Grandma Dottie. Hi Grandma Dottie! I hope you're holding things down in Toledo.

I hope you all are doing well. We miss you all, and pray that Sarah gets inspired and decides to write some on the blog.

day 3 and day 4

Okay, so it just took me like 10 minutes to get to this screen. We are currently in Flagstaff, AZ, and we have a terribley slow connection, so I think I'll post pictures later. Regardless, let me get you all caught up on what we've been up to. Last you all heard we were leaving Oklahoma City for Albuquerque, NM. Well, that was a long, but good trip. It started off with an oil change. We went to an Instant Oil Change where you god 10 cents off for every year you were old. It was one of those times I wished I was much much older. It also made me think of my mom since it was her birthday. I will not tell you all how old she is, we'll just say that now she gets an extra ten cents off at the Instant Oil Change in Oklahoma City. So we did that and we began our day through the lovely Oklahoma countryside (can you sense the sarcasm)

Later that day we stopped at the Cadillac Ranch on our way out of Amarillo, TX. For those of you who don't know what it is, I'll explain it with a pic...it'll make more sense. We really liked it. Well, Day 3 continued on through Texas and into New Mexico. There's really not a whole lot going on on this trip. In Amarillo we saw a billboard for a Free 72 oz. steak. A later billboard informed us that the steak was free if and only if you eat the whole thing on your own. I think that I would need at least 3-5 friends to help me polish one of those suckers off.

Well, we cruised on in to Albuquerque, found a hotel, and then went exploring. Everyone in Albuquerque was so nice. Even this random woman at the gas station who just struck up a conversation with me and then helped us find a hotel and pointed us towards some stuff we may want to check out. We walked around and went into a coupele of shops that were still open in this area called Old Town. It's really cool. It's a bunch of old Adobe buildings with some cafes, galleries, and shops with a big old church right in the middle (again...pics...later). We got a recomedation for a cafe called "Church Street Cafe". It was so good. The place is in a 300 year old house (the city is celebrating it's tricentenial this year). It was some amazing Southwest food.

The next day included some more time in Albuquerque. We went around the University of New Mexico (and the surrounding parts), downtown, and we hit Old Town again. We loved it. I needed some film so we found a cool camera store and we scored a new/used camera bag and some film. We also bought a old original photo in Old Town.

We didn't want to say goodbye to one of new favorite cities, but we had to proceed. Day 4 meant that we had to get to Flagstaff, AZ. So we went off. This was a gorgeous trip. We ended up deciding to stop off at he Petrified Forest National Park. It was a bit of detour, but it was incredible. Got some good pics, saw some stoney logs, and walked through a painted desert.

The night brings us into Flagstaff. We went out for pizza. It was good, but I'm pooped and I'm sure you all could handle a break. Tomorrow is the Grand Canyon. Hopefully, we can get some of the other pics up before we go to the big whole in the ground.

an OK day

So were back from exploring Oklahoma City, and I don't know if it was having low expectations but we really enjoyed it. It's a really cool city. It seems like it's actually a city that cares about itself. There are a number of renovated buildings, a cool baseball stadium for the Rangers' Triple A team, museums, music halls, a cool riverwalk, and some of the biggest houses I've ever seen in my life. The whole city is divided into districts (Art District, residential, etc.). It's all very cool. I could live here if it weren't for the tornadoes. I would have to agree with my sister in law Kate on that one...."I hate tornadoes!".

Before our exploration of dowtown we went to the Federal Building Memorial. It was awesome. We were both really impressed. It was very well done and very well thought out. Here are a couple pics. They can't do the place justice. If you are ever around Oklahoma City, definately check out the Memorial. We liked it so much that we went back at night after dinnner.

road trip...okay...it's really relocating via a long drive

So yesterday Sarah and I started our trek to Lancaster, CA, which most of you know is where my call is to plant a church. But before I can start we have to get there, so yesterday we packed up the car and head off. I decided that I would use blog world as a means of journaling a bit.

Day 1-We ran around St. Louis trying finish all of the "stuff" that needed to get done including framing a drawing that Sarah did for a memorial comission from a family in Arcata. It turned out really well. We'll post a pic of it later (actually Sarah just yelled at me and said that "we" were not going to post a pic of it...if you really want to see it I'll email you one!). That went fine (other than we had to sacrifice our plants in order to fit it in the car. Regardless, we were off. Not a far drive. Just a short one. A bit of a warm up. We drove about 220 miles or so to my Godparents house (I call them my Aunt Marti and Uncle Bob). It was awesome! I was a little bummed about missing the Word Cup Finals but we had to get on the road. We were greated by my Uncle Bob and Aunt Marit who gave us a tour of their new home in Springfield, MO, and they grilled us up some Bacon Wrapped Filet Mignons that were AMAZING. It was a good time hanging out, talking, and watching the Cardinal game.

Day 2- We headed out for Oklahoma City (yeah, we know...two short trips in a row but it's just how it worked out. We just checked into the hotel and that is why I'm blogging. So hopefully we'll find some more spots with WiFi so we can keep the journal going. As of right now. We're gonna head out. Check out the downtown and try and see the Federal Building Memorial. Should be cool.

Eli

Eli
Originally uploaded by tboneandclay.

Always on the move, we finally managed to capture a brief moment of stillness from our nephew...

Sassy Pants

Sassy Pants
Originally uploaded by tboneandclay.

Ask her to "raise the roof" ...Very entertaining! Also, we've heard the American Idol routine is not to be missed.

Going...going...gone

Going...going...gone
Originally uploaded by tboneandclay.

Ava is starting to fade in Papa's arms after a long day at the aquarium.

Giddy up!

Giddy up!
Originally uploaded by tboneandclay.

It was great to see the cousins all together...Eli and Jens have conversations in the complicated jibberish language and actually understanding one another...Izzy swimming (it looks more like flailing in the water) while Nate tries to stay dry in the pool...good times

"Jens?"

"Jens?"
Originally uploaded by tboneandclay.

This is Jens in his best form pointing to anything (in this case a goat) and saying "Jens?" ...He would point to other things and say "Papa?" as the weekend progressed.

The Risk Taker

The Risk Taker
Originally uploaded by tboneandclay.

Nate is well known for his amazing feats of courage. Here is yet another example as he quickly rushes past the fountain before the water gets higher.

Izzy 1 and Izzy 2

Here is my niece Isabelle. She is 3 1/2 years old.






This is Jason Isringhausen. He is 33 1/2 years old


Both go by the nickname "Izzy". We saw both of them on Monday. The first Izzy (our niece) we said goodbye to as she and her family (Josh, Brianne, and her brother Jens) drove back to Louisiana. The other Izzy (we'll call him Izzy 2), we saw last night when we went to the Cardinals game. Here's where the two Izzies differ. Izzy 1 has mad throwing skills. She can throw anything from a stuffed animal, a ball, or even a tantrum. Izzy 2 on the other hand only has mad skills at throwing bad pitches like the one he threw against Ken Griffey last night when he blew yet another save in the Cardinals loss.

Needless to say we have much love for Izzy 1, and no love for Izzy 2. I've usually been a huge supporter of Izzy 2, but even when he came in last night with no one on and a two run lead I knew something bad was about to happen.

Regardless, I was skeptical of the new stadium, but it is awesome. Very fan friendly. We sat in the bleachers, and we felt like we hade more room than at Old Busch, and it looked like all of the views were better. All in all, a great experience except for the end part.

As for my niece, as you can see, she is cute. Maybe we'll talk to Josh and Brianne and get her throwing baseballs more, b/c the Cards need some help in the bullpen (we'll put up some more pics of our recent trips and visitors soon).

master of the universe

So I'm done...

I'm finally done with Seminary. This is the first time I've not been a student since I was 3 years old in Preschool. Needless to say, I'm pumped about the change. It was a great weekend. My brother and godparents came into town, which was great. We had a great time. Brad was even able to come to a "sending out" service at my field work church for all of the people associated with the church that are leaving (there's quite a few). It was a great time. It was the first time I had been a part of a laying on of hands for a sending out. I was awesome. Service went about 2 hours long, but it didn't feel that long at all. I was shocked when I looked at my watch afterwards.

And no, I'm not Pastor/Rev. Todd yet. I am eligible to be ordained (what makes me Rev.) and installed (what makes me Pastor), but for now you all can just call me Master Todd since that's about all I've got right now. Ordination will be this summer. Haven't decided on a date, but we'll soon have that set in stone (probably in mid-late July). There's just a lot of what ifs right now.


Going up to Chi-town this weekend to see Sarah's WHOLE family. Should be fun. 3 beds, 13 people...should also be a bit cozy, but we're looking forward to it.

random ramblings of midnight inspiration...

just thought I'd stop in to say 'Hi" I just finished a 20 page paper on HIV/AIDS in Africa and the Christian Church's response. It's a good feeling to be done with that one. I'm suprised that my fingers even feel like typing right now, but I will ask no questions...I will only type.

I guess I'm in one of those moods where my eyes are heavy, my head kind of hurts, I'm a little exhausted, but I feel good. Things are starting to wind down. Things I should have done a while ago are starting to take shape and I'm getting stoked about new oppurtunities in SoCal.

Sarah is asleep right next to me. I'm sure she'd say "Hi" to all of you blog people if she were conscious.

I just got a roll of film back that I took with my new camera (an old Yaschica TLR camera from 1959). They weren't too bad. Still have a lot to learn. Just fun to be creative again.

I also want to thank all of you hard core blog-chekcers. Sorry we are not good at keeping up. I'm afraid we are by nature, flakes and losers, so it is always hard to tell how often we will post.

Please keep Sarah and I in your prayers. This is a crazy time of transition for us.

good night...I'm done

our new home

Yup, were moving, as I'm sure the vast majority of you who still read our very sparse blog already know. Call Night was on Tuesday night. This is a worship service where everybody finds out for the first time where we are called. It's been a nerve racking year, but Sarah and I are very happy with the outcome.

We are going to be moving to Lancaster, CA. I was called by Grace Lutheran Church where I will be sort of on staff. Most of my duties will revolve around planting a new church in the Antelope Valley (which has a pop. of about 400,000 people or so). It's very exciting. The Antelope Valley is a growing area with very few churches, so the mission field is definately ripe.

For those of you who don't know much about SoCal geography, Lancaster is about 70 miles straight north of LA. It is high desert which means that we'll be high and dry (picture the opposite of Arcata which was low and damp).

Even though we are both really excited about this new adventure we definately need all of your prayers. We will be finally moving somwhere permenant for the first time since we've been married, and it's to a place neither of us have ever been to.

1 pphhhhhhh....2pphhhhhhh

That's the sound that I heard today. I decided after my guitar lesson to go work out at school. For the first 25 minutes I was in there I was by myself. Kind of nice, but sometimes its nice to chat with someone while you're trying to forget that you're running or lifting. Well, this older, quiet-looking guy comes in with headphones on. He smiles and nods and we respecitively continue with our business. Well, I move over to start lifting on the bench machine and he sits down at a different machine. I begin my lifting and all of a sudden I hear at a volume just below a yell 1 PPPHHHHHHHH!!!!!! 2PPPHHHHHH!!!!!! and you can imagine how the rest went. I don't want to sound like a jerk. I guess some people love counting outload and exhaling loudly in the process. I guess I couldn't help but laugh. I'm sitting across the room struggling to get up a weight that girl scout could probably do, and this guy was making me crack up. I felt bad so I kept trying to hide my face. I don't know if I was successful. And, yes, it remained funny for the next half hour I was in there.

I know what you're thinking, "I guess you had to be there." Well, you've all been there I'm sure. It's like that time when you were in school, at a funeral, or some other inappropriate situation and something ridiculous made you laugh WAY more than it should have. Well, for me, that was today in the weight room.

chit chattin' w/ Gabe

Had a great conversation with Gabe today. For those of you who don't know, Gabe is one of our friends from Christ in the City. He's the worship leader and my guitar teacher. We talked today after my lesson about art and music. It's always nice to talk to someone about the creative process, and someone who's so excited about expression and taking it to another level. This has been something that I've struggled with since I've been in Seminary. I can make plenty of excuses, but it boils down to choosing to do other things with my time instead of using what God has given me (this has been something that has been bugging me since the end of my first quarter at the Sem...and my chit chat with Gabe has inspired me to throw it out into blogworld). Sarah has been super encouraging for me to do this, so I'm gonna get back into what got me to love Art and expression in the first place, photography. The hunt has been on for a new camera for a few months. I know very few of you out there even care, but I've decided to jump into a different film format and buy an old school, used camera. Pray that the hunt is both short and fruitful.

Also, check out Kate and Ben's blogs. They visited last weekend and took some pics from the MO Botanical Gardens. It was a great weekend, and we already miss them.

ode to nuevo latino cuisine

Yeah, I know...I suck. I haven't blogged in like 14 years, and, no, I don't have a good excuse why not. I know all of you have been painfully waiting on the edge of your seats to know what we've been up to, so here it goes.

Two weeks ago we went skiing out in New York. It rocked....Sarah still has bruises.

Last Friday, Sarah and I went on a killer date. Usually our dates consist of renting a movie and maybe splurging on California Pizza Kitchen. A fun night, but sometimes you just gotta go for that awesome night. We went to what might be our favorite resteraunt EVER, Mirasol. They serve Nuevo Latino cuisine, which is quickly becoming my favorite of all the cuisines. They have a blend of Caribbean, Central American, Mexican, and South American food with a modern flare...and served Tapas style. Our favorite tapas is plantains served over Chihuahua cheese and topped with Guava paste. Yeah, sounds strange, but even when we ordered it, our waitress smiled, and said "Oh yeah! Good One!" I don't think I've ever been so applauded for an order at a restaurant, but her reaction certainly made me feel like I did something great.

After our delicious meal we followed it up with the Gallery night in downtown St. Louis on Washington Ave where they open up all of the galleries and have receptions for the artists all on the first Friday of the month. I used to work in this area, and it has certainly turned itself around a lot since I worked there. It was great. The art wasn't at an extremely high calliber (kind of like my spelling), but it was still awesome to see this sort of thing in St. Louis. There were a ton of design stores and resteraunts open, too. We stopped and had some desert at a place called Gelateria. We had some Gelato and Espresso. A perfect cap on a great evening with my wife.

So what do we do?


We eat Nuevo Latino Tapas, go gallery hopping, eat Gelatto, drink Espresso, and enjoy a nice walk around downtown with each other....see....we're not total losers.

so what do you do?

A couple weeks ago one of our friends from church asked us "So what do you guys do after worship?" Well, just to give you a quick background, our church only worships on Saturday nights right now and we get done around 7pm and then we hang out for about another hour (that puts us at 8pm). Well, I'm sure Sarah and I both had confused looks on our faces. After a moment of deep contemplation I said, "I don't know...what do YOU do?" She said "Nothin'...just wanted to know if I was the only loser."

Are we simply old farts and we didn't know it? Do we not have any friends? Well, those could both be true, but we realized that we're always so tired from the week, that we never want to do anything. I know what you're thinking, "But didn't you just talk about spending time with people in your last post." In our defense, we get to church at 4:30pm and stay til 8pm, and sometimes we do go out with people afterwards (can get $$$$ though). We do like to spend time with people, but also each other. So now here's the question..."So what are y'all up to tonight?" Well, let the hypocrite say "We're gonna watch TV." That's right, Arrested Development is having a marathon tonight, so we're gonna be glued to the TV for a bit. If you have never watched the show before, go out and rent the first season on DVD. You won't be sorry. Saturday night will be spent out with my parents, which ten years ago would have been embarassing, but now is nice since we only saw them twice last year.

So, yeah, we sound like losers...but before you judge, here's a question..."So what do you do?"