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    Lemons, Pringles, & Flu Shot

    Attention, attention: Baby Brooks is now 14 weeks old as of today. He/she is the size of a lemon, which is quite a bit bigger than the poppy seed we started at. Who knew that time could go by so fast? I’m already in the second trimester! It seems like just yesterday I was scheduling an appointment with the doctor to confirm that both of the pregnancy tests were false positives, and I had indeed breathed in hormones from the 4 other pregnant women at work – hence the high HCG levels in my blood from the test at the walk-in clinic. Turns out, the signs were there all along…

  • awkward,  baby,  pregnancy,  pudge

    HPT, Pudge, & Wiggles

    I have been waiting entirely too long to write this post, and I haven’t blogged in a while because I couldn’t think of anything to talk about that didn’t involve baby Brooks. I also have discovered through this process that I am a very bad secret-keeper. It’s not that I mean to tell people, I just can’t ever remember who I’m not telling what. Alas – it is time to finally shout our excitement for our baby that will be coming sometime in the vicinity of August 25, 2011. This baby was a complete surprise to Taylor and I both. Since I’ve been married, I cried wolf many-a-time about possibly…

  • awkward,  blessings,  strangers,  unexpected Jesus

    Punch Bowl, Adult Movies, & Blessings

    I started to write a Thanksgiving post, and, well that didn’t get published. It’s hard to top the Halloween costume story and I’ve been quite nervous to post again. I just don’t really know how these things happen to me, but I shall now entertain you with two more “This would only happen to Sarah – and apparently now Taylor, too” stories. Punch Bowl A few weeks ago, I was at an import store (you know – the kind that you really don’t like to shop at but has really good prices and is coincidentally where all the “cute” places actually get their merchandise) in Dallas trying to pick up…

  • awkward,  costumes,  fail,  Halloween

    Resurrecting Bugs & Halloween Costume Failure

    This post is in honor of this ghoulish Halloween evening… Side note: does anyone else pronounce it “Holloween”? I need backup. Resurrecting Bugs Once upon a time (last week), I was running through Bob Eden park at dusk. The sun was setting, the swamp creatures were out, and I was gasping for air during my grueling 1.5 mile run. During one gasp of oxygen, a plump (perhaps “big-boned”) flying insect made a dive straight into my windpipe. I gagged a little, coughed quite a bit, swallowed even more until that bug went down. Now, kids, this is when the story gets scary… I continued on my jog through the park…

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    Waco & Pesky Denominations

    Team Ice vs. Team Brooks Today has concluded a fabulous weekend spent in Waco with our good friends, Whitney & Estebaan Ice. We took a [very] long overdue trip to visit them and had a fabulous time, of course. Funny how much fun you can have when you carve out time from your “super busy” schedule. They’re great friends and we miss them being around. Estebaan is one of the most randomly knowledgeable person we know, and the most naturally talented person we’ve ever met. He could literally do anything he wanted to. Whitney is super fun, very passionate, a great listener, a killer competitor, and a fabulous cook. She…

  • church

    Futuristic, Giant Legos, & The Individual Church

    Futuristic Age Already?! In case you haven’t read this yet, Google has developed a car that drives itself. They’ve driven it 100,000 miles in California, and it has been in one wreck… when it was rear-ended by a human-driven car. Seriously, we are living in a futuristic age. Remember when you would watch the Jetsons and think, “Flying cars and a robot that makes you bacon – that’d be awesome!” Now that is coming true. TRUE! Maybe not the flying cars yet, but I wouldn’t put it past Google to do that too. They’re taking over the world. Here are some other crazy things that are currently blowing my mind.…

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    Angry Hispanics, 30 Minute Floods, and Saving Lives

    “No Truck for YOU!” When I was training for my halfsie recently, I would run through this one neighborhood pretty regularly. One day, I passed a truck that had a hand-written sign on it that was begging to be read. I stopped to snoop, and saw the message below: I mean, seriously?? How lucky is this guy? This lady just stops by and offers to buy a truck that has no For Sale sign on it. At this point in the story, Taylor goes, “I’m going to park my truck over there.” Ha! Then comes the good part. I run through this neighborhood a good 3 weeks later and see…

  • blessings,  siblings,  unexpected Jesus

    Nashvegas, YAM, & Cheryl

    Nashvegas Whew, it’s been a while since I’ve blogged. Oops. Taylor and I had somewhat of a sibling reunion this past weekend with his two sisters and brother-in-law in Nashville. It was quite possibly the funnest weekend we’ve had in a while. His middle sister and her husband are going to Chile in January, so we had a Labor Day festival at his oldest sisters’ house. We went to vineyards, ice cream shops, lounges, church, Mexican food…I recommend you look at my album on Facebook. I’m not gonna lie – we’re pretty fun. YAMs at The Hills A new ministry started at our church – the Young Adults Ministry (YAM!).…

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    Facebook invites, Myrtle, & Valentine’s

    As I logged onto Facebook today, I experienced the ever-present guilt trip when I checked my event and group invitations. Have you ever received the “Pray for John Smith’s left leg” or “If 10,000 people join this group, my friend will become a Christian” invitations on Facebook? It doesn’t matter if it is a hoax, if you know the person, or if you are actually going to participate in the group, you have to accept. It is your Christianly duty to accept anything with “prayer” or “Jesus” in the title. Is anyone else guilted into these groups or do you have the strength to ignore? A dear friend of mine…

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    Hands, Desensitization, & Butt Brush

    Fried Hand Here are few reasons why you should not fry your hand:1. It hurts pretty bad.2. People in Dallas gasp at the extreme flesh wound and wonder when the plastic surgery is scheduled for.3. It doesn’t actually add any flavor to the chicken wings. It’s actually almost healed now, but the past several weeks have been 3 parts: “Man, that hurt but it’s not too bad”, “I think I have gangrene,” and “Crap – that scar is pretty permanent.” Desensitization Switching gears, I read an article a long time ago about how Generation Y (born early 80’s to 1994) is desensitized to tragedy because of how saturated our entire…