Move over Volvo.....Here comes the Tiguan!

My new obsession....

Isn't she sooooo pretty?

Christmas Pants

A Brown family tradition.....Christmas Pants!


Each original Brown has a pair, and now the in-laws do too! This past Christmas, Nate, Mitch, and I received our very own pairs of Christmas Pants. We're officially part of the family Christmas Pants club!

Time for an UPDATE!

It's about time we updated, huh? It's been so long since our last post that I'm just going to give an all out life update. Get ready to hear what we've been up to since January.....

I turned 24 in January. Not that big of a deal, but I did get the best birthday present ever! 

Tada! Isn't she pretty? I've taken up sewing again. The last time I really spent any time sewing was in elementary school with Liz and Erin - we made some pretty hilarious things. My favorite was a vest I made in second grade out of fabric that looked like the cover of a National Geographic magazine - very realistic lions. I have no idea why I picked it, but I was so proud to wear it to school and show everyone.... How embarrassing! Anyway, I LOVE my new machine. Sewing has quickly become my new favorite hobby. So far I've made....

a baby quilt for my friend Kirsten's little girl

a purse/tote for my sister's birthday

and curtains for our bedroom (I still have some improvements I want to make to them). All in all, I'm loving the new hobby!

We celebrated our one year anniversary in March! Hard to believe that we've been married for over a year now. Time sure flies when you're having fun! We celebrated by spending the weekend on the plaza and eating at lots of fun, fancy places. It was so wonderful to get away and spend an entire weekend enjoying being married. I'd do it all over again if we could!

Let's see....what's next? Zach turned the big 25! I tried to make it special for him by asking 25 of his closest friends and family to write honoring letters. I compiled all the letters into a book and gave them to him. It was sure fun to read through them all together! I hope he enjoyed this year's present as much as last year's (a remote control helicopter). Zach sure has wonderful people in his life!

Life since March has been fairly routine. We've been playing a lot of cribbage and watching Wheel of Fortune. I know it sounds pretty lame, but we have a lot of fun doing it! Sometimes I even drink hot tea.... Does that make me old? Since the weather's gotten nice, we've been going on what we call "run/walks" together after work. They generally tend to include more walking than running, but it's great to spend time outside together. 

I got new running shoes last week! This might not be exciting news to anyone else, but I'm pumped! They're pretty humongous. I went to one of those fancy stores where they analyze your foot shape and watch you walk. Apparently my toes need lots of room to wiggle, especially if I'm planning to run long distances, which I'm trying to do. Last week I ran a total of 15 miles! It's not that much, but it's a great start! I'm contemplating if I want to register for any races....Who knows! The road is my oyster, I guess.

That's about it for our life update. I know it included more about my life than Zach's, but if he refuses to blog, I can write more about myself, right? Maybe he'll get on here one of these days and grace us with some words!

Just for fun, I'll leave you all with a WONDERFUL picture sent to me last year by the beautiful Sally Jane....

I broke my husband's heart last night...

I was the one who had to break the bad news that ponies are, in fact, not baby horses.

He didn't believe me. 

We were laying in bed, trying to fall asleep, and he had to go get his phone to look it up on Wikipedia. After reading the Wikipedia entry for ponies, he was still skeptical. He googled "baby horses" just to be sure.

I'm not even joking, I think he lost sleep over the discovery. 

This is why I love the elderly.

I know it's been a LONG time since we updated....me in particular. I promise I will soon. I have lots of fun new projects to share, but for now, I leave you with this....

Cartoon Fridays! #2

First off, we need a different title for this if its going to be a wildly popular weekly item (though how "wildly popular" could it be with only 2ish people who read our blog). Aren't reoccuring things supposed to have catchy names that draw people in? And by catchy names, I mean alliteration? Here are some ideas for the new title going forward:


Friday Funnies
Humorous Humdingers
End-Of-The-Week Entertainment
Last-Of-The-Week Laughables

Before you say anything, the answers are: yes, I found a thesaraus; yes, the last two are incredible lame; and yes, I need help. Please help me.


Letme know if you have any ideas of what I could name this. Remember how important this is, we're saving the world.

And now: an oldie, but a goodie.

Slumdog Millionaire

Everyone else has a post about this movie.  They're all very insightful breaking down the movie.

I'm not that deep.  But it was good.  One of my favorites of all time.

Right behind Top Gun and the Blade trilogy.

Psych

Please, just watch this show when it comes back on air.

It will make you happy.

a little taste of married life...

Most nights, Zach reads a book or magazine in bed before he falls asleep. I usually fall asleep right away (sometimes before Zach even gets into bed), but he needs more time to wind down than I do. The other night, his reading material of choice happened to be Cooking Light. I teased him a little (naturally), and told him that I liked how domestic he had become. He responded (in an overly exaggerated deep voice), "You mean manly domestic....(voice reverted to baby talk here) Come cuddle with me!" Isn't he so manly?

I just love being married!

Saturday Interview

Kristen and I are sitting outside Starbucks on this beautiful Saturday afternoon sipping on an iced soy latte, one pump chocolate, no ice (Kristen) and a sugar free non fat cinnamon dolce latte (me).  Apparently we had a contest to see who could order the item with the longest name...I am such a girl.

Anyway, in honor of this beautiful day in January and in an effort to get some insight into my beautiful wife, we’ll be interviewing Kristen today.

Zach:  "Kristen, what is the best thing going for you right now?"

Kristen:  "Hope.  I have a lot of things going for me, but I’m also tired right now.  So I just don’t want to lose hope."

Z:  "That’s a good perspective.  In three words, describe this last month for you."

K:  "Endurance.  Stress.  Hope."

Z:  "Explain 'endurance'."

K:  "Well, the first half of December seemed really long.  I was working a lot of hours, and my body was holding a lot of stress.  But I still feel like God was saying that He was with me and that He would ever give me more than I can handle.  So even though, there were times when I felt like I couldn’t handle things, I felt like God was faithful and really teaching me endurance."

Z:  "Would say that my hospital visit and diagnosis contributed to any of this?"

K:  "Probably.  But that didn’t add stress to me.  As much as I felt a lot of sadness for you,  I didn’t necessarily stress out about the diagnosis.  I was in one sense relieved to have an answer to why you were losing weight, to know that you’d be ok.  But I did feel sad for you and I felt like I wanted to be strong for you."

Z:  "Well you did a great job.  I feel like last month could have been a lot harder for me if you had a different reaction."

K:  "Thanks, babe."

Z:  "Ok, moving on from 2008, tell me how you feel going in to 2009?"

K:  "Excited to make the most of things."

Z:  "Going back, do you feel like you’ve learned a lot from last month?"

K:  "Mmhmm.  I do."

Z:  "Endurance being the biggest one?"

K:  "And more specifically, that God’s plans for my life are so much bigger than the things that I settle for.  And I know that while things feel stuck right now, I know I can trust that God won't let me get stuck.  And that gives me hope.  That what I’m going through right now is preparation for something bigger."

Z:  "How has this last months helped/hurt/changed our relationship?"

K:  "I think it’s definitely helped it.  I just feel like we’ve grown a lot.  We’ve faced harder things in the past month, than in the rest of our marriage.  I’ve just been amazed by your strength, I think it’s been good for us. And I like her sweater (looking at girl walking into starbucks)."

Z:  "Thanks.  That can be all for now."

K:  "Thanks, Zach.  I'd just like to say one more thing.  You are just the most awesomest guy ever.  You are totally the coolest guy I know.  I love your hair.  Everyone loves your hair".

Ok, fine.  I made up that last quote...but I'm sure she was thinking it.

The bottom line, and I think what Kristen is saying in my interview, is that while the end of 2008 was tough, we're looking ahead to 2009 with optimism.  We're excited to see what God has in mind for us this year and going forward.  We just want to make sure that we're open for whatever.

Cartoon Fridays!

As far as I can remember I've read the comics in the KC Star as often as possible. I subscribed to the Star throughout college and when I moved back solely for this purpose. I love to start my days with a little Dilbert, Blondie, and Get Fuzzy. While I rarely laugh out loud or even smile when reading them, there's still just something about them that makes me happy.

Sadly, when my subscription to the Star ran out last year, I decided not to renew it. Since then I've been living a boring, mundane life as a shell of a man.* I just realized why: no comics in my life. And guess what else I just realized? Hardly anyone reads the comics anymore!!! That would explain why you've been feeling a little melancholy (admit it, you have), why the economy is tanking, why consumer confidence is at an all time low, why there's conflict in the Gaza Strip, and that's probably why we're still in Iraq and looking for Bin Laden.

So without further ado, to save myself, you, and the world: I give you the first installment Cartoon Fridays!

-Zach


*Not Really

A Little Experiment to Ring in the New Year

Happy 2009 everyone! Zach and I had a great time last night celebrating the New Year with good friends. It was so much fun to spend time with the girls I love so much, however, I was slightly disappointed that NONE of them had heard of the Diet Coke and Mentos phenomenon! I'm hoping that some of you (possibly the 2 people who read this blog) have heard of it....

Yesterday, in preparation for a late night, I took a nap that went on for a little too long. I woke up so groggy, that I needed some diet coke to get me going. I normally don't drink pop, so it was kind of a big deal. Anyway, I was getting ready to go to dinner, drinking my diet coke, and thinking about how I really wanted some mentos (I had some in my purse from my Christmas stocking). Then, I remembered the dangerous combination! I honestly contemplated conducting my own little experiment - popping a mentos in my mouth and taking a little sip of diet coke - to see what would happen, but I chickened out. 

This is the part in the blog where I ask for participation....Should I have tried it? Would I have died? Has anyone tried it before? What happened? What do you think would have happened? Oh I'm so curious and so nervous all at the same time!

I'm eager to hear your thoughts!

Kristen