One Year Down....

One year down and a bazillion to go. It's funny how time works...sometimes it seems long, and sometimes it seems short, but it never seems quite the length of time that it actually has been. Some may disagree...for instance, when I informed my dad over the phone that our first year anniversary was approaching, I said, "Can you believe it's been a year, dad?" and he pragmatically and unenthusiastically replied, "Well, yeah...it seems like it's been about a year". That's dad for you though, doesn't get too riled up about much of anything (except while driving and playing sports, of course, and then he starts calling people sons of bunnies and sugar muffins). When I reflect on what's happened this past year: two thesis' completed, two graduations, full time jobs, trip to Hong Kong, moving to Houston, moving to Beaumont etc etc the year seems like it's been pretty long. When I think about last summer, and returning home from our study abroad it doesn't seem like a year at all. Well, regardless, we're excited to have a year under our belts.

We celebrated by eating cinnamon rolls and lemon cake for breakfast. I gave Matt some sunglasses, and a guitar stand. He gave me 3 pair of good scissors. We have one pair of butcher scissors that previously met all our cutting needs: opening various packages, cutting my hair, sewing, art projects, wrapping birthday presents and sometimes they were used for what they were meant to do...cutting meat. Gross?? Matt thought so, but I'd always bleach them between uses. Don't worry. So you think our gifts aren't very romantic, huh? Well they're not, and neither are we. Matt and I LOVE practical gifts and just keeping it real in general. Let it be known that Matt did throw in a bouquet of lillies lest ye think it was altogether non-romantic.

We then drove downtown to the natural science museum and looked at lots of bugs and butterflies. The butterfly atrium was 3 stories tall with a waterfall that fell all three storis. Pretty awesome. Matt and I decided after watching a video clip there that we want to be bee keepers when we settle down in a house for a few years. I'll let you know how that goes. Here are some photos of what we saw:

Stick Bugs:

Roaches:

Millipedes:

Lots of Butterflies:

In the afternoon, we attended the baptism of Darin Garrett. I worked at Darin's costume shop for a few weeks doing alterations and whatever else there was to do around the shop. Darin is so awesome, and really has such a great testimony. As a missionary, I always hoped that my converts would have the kind of testimony that Darin does. I spoke at his baptism and Matt baptized him. We finished the day out with a good meal at Pappasitos. Yum!!! All in all...a pretty good day and a pretty good year.