death cab for cutie

last thurs night amanda and i headed out to see our favorite band of all time, Death Cab For Cutie. it was definitely the biggest venue we have seen them in - and a crazy weird mix of people. ok go opened - they were not as fun as i thought they were going to be - but had a sweet visual experience with the show. the best part of ok go was the last song - they put all the instruments away and danced like champs! ha!

after ok go it was time for our boys...and it was an amazing show once again. here are some pics of our evening:




here is a pic of 'title and registration' (amanda's fav song):



typically (or at least the 3 times i have seen them) for the last song before the encore they do 'we looked like giants' and they bring out a little kit and ben plays drums at the end. so amazing! here are some pics from that song:




for the encore they did:

i will follow you into the dark



marching bands of manhattan
transatlantacism

yes. it was a great time. go see these guys if you can - ken, we are jealous - you get to see them on the last day of the tour...

thanksgiving update, part 2

so yes - we did have to wait like 40 min at the causeway cafe on Friday morning - but it was amazing!!! amanda had oreo and peanut butter pancakes. yum!! and i had an omelet with a sausage biscuit. man i am getting hungry just thinking about it. after the cafe we headed for the coast. i could not have been any more beautiful. here are some pics for ya:








matt's emo picture:



after the amazing day at wilmington - we picked up my sister at work then headed back to raleigh. when we got home - mom had the amazing mexican feast ready for us and we ate like champs!! then it was back to helios one last time. oh the caramella is so good:





after helios we headed back to my house to hang - talk about music and chill for our last night together. another highlight was that my dogg from back in middle school days, Pat - was able to stop by as well. great, great times had by all. here are some of the 'goodbye' pics. enjoy:





it was a blessing to be with you all in NC!!

apartment for rent

so most of you know we are moving soon. we REALLY need to rent our apt. if you are in the houston area or know someone who is and needs a place to live, PLEASE CONTACT US! here is a link to our apt info:

5454 Newcastle Dr

also, you can email me at : onajourney@gmail.com or leave a comment here and i will get in touch with you. thanks!

thanksgiving update

so this morning we are at the hilton in downtown wilmington. we drove down here yesterday because carolyn has to work today - so she didnt have to drive down by herself, we came to hang and see the ocean and the amazing downtown wilmington! it has been a great time so far - matt and allie surprised us at the airport when we arrived:

sweet. wed we went crazy out at a southpoint mall and amanda and i got our christmas presents early...check out amanda's blog for that fun adventure.

on wed night we went over to Visio Dei - got to see jason and diana and the new building. man it was amazing! we are so stoked for these guys - the church they got and how the renovated it in an amazing 3 days is so cool. their community is amazing - if you live in nc and need to find a church - please go check out visio dei. great community and great people.

after that you know we headed out to HELIOS!!!.

oh man. i love that place. number one coffee shop i miss in nc. carmella. my oh my. and you know we are headed back there tonight. it was great to see jason and diana. looking forward to hanging with them again as well.

on thurs we all just chilled out and watched the macy's thanksgiving day parade. yes! and then it was lunch time. here are some shots of the table:


the food was sooo good! thanks mom for all the hard work. after dinner it was photo time for us:

and bentley:



after photos it was football time - then we hit the road and headed to the beach! now we are all showered up and off to causeway cafe for some amazing breakfast - then to the beach. see ya on the flip flop...

our new home! (almost)

well...we will be in before you know it! please offer your prayers in our BIG life change.

isn't it cute?

we're buying a house!

yes the rumors are true - we are buying a house! the story goes like this - last weekend i called my buddy radkey and asked him what he was up to. he said he was cleaning out his garage because they were going to sell their house. and i asked what he was selling it for and after he told me i said - dont put it on the market, we want to buy it!! it is in our price range and an incredible house.

the house is 3 bedroom /1 bath - huge yard - hardwood floors throught. the bathroom was renovated this summer (amanda and i helped, ha!) and new granite counter tops in the kitchen and the roof is only 4 years old. so yeah - so so great!! so the biggest prayer requests we have now is our apartment. we had to break our lease and give 60 days notice. the catch is we NEED someone to rent our apt...bad. it will save us so much money!! so if you are in the houston area and need an apt - we got ya! put the word out everyone, k?

and please be praying for us as we go through this process. it is our first house and we are crazy scared - but way pumped as well!! more info to come soon.

thanks for all your prayers.

a dream come true

so if you know us or went to the wedding you know how much we love rosie thomas. the bridesmaides walked down to a rosie song and there was a rosie song in our video as well. so the second we found out she was going to be in austin the same weekend nikki was here - WE HAD TO GET TIX! the show was amazing and to top it all off we got to talk with rosie and get this pic. whoo hoo! what a great time. here is the money shot:

happy fall!

so i have a feeling i have gone a little overboard with the leaves this year...but who cares? it's fall!

enjoy!

austin, tx

so this past weekend we headed out again - but this time a little closer...we headed to austin to see Sufjan Stevens and to hang with the marlows. what an incredible time! austin is a great city!! when we arrived we met chris, necole, bailey and mckenzie at WAHOO's!! it was good - but not cali good - still a little wahoo's loving is great. then we walked from wahoos to the paramount theater where we saw sufan.

what a show. he came out dressed in bird wings as the magic snowbird and his orchestra came out with butterfly wings and he dubbed them the chinese butterflies. hilarious! anyways - as you can imagine the show was spectacular and mindblowing. i think sufan is an amazing composer and a great songwriter. if you dont listen to him - you should. and to top it all of he had a huge screen behind him projecting images that corresponded to the songs. so great. another pick up from the weekend was the band that open for him - My Brightest Diamond. check her out as well. after the show we headed out to the marlow's place and chris and i enjoyed some yummy cognac and a great cigar. yum. it was rapidly approaching 1am - so we crashed for the evening.

our day began on sat with the wonderful marlow kids plaiyng with us in the living room and chris making some incredible french toast and some amazing coffee. what a great way to start a saturday!! the coffee was so amazing we had to stop at get some before we left austin - it was Ruta Maya Coffee. so so smooth. if you are in austin do yourself a favor and hang here and get some beans!!

we started the morning driving through the hill country back towards downtown. what an incredible view. who knew texas could be this pretty! ha! after winding to and fro we headed for some lunch down by zilker park. we ate at Shady Grove for lunch - great atmosphere and great food. there were tons of people downtown, esp in that area because this weekend was a huge festival called austin city limits. there was a great energy around the city. here are some photos from lunch:







now of course - before we left town there were 3 more stops:
1.BookPeople - sweet independent bookstore
2.Waterloo Records - the best CD store i have been in
3.Amy's Ice Cream - amanda's fav fo sho'

so yea - like i said above - waterloo records was incredible. all the artists we listen to at great great prices. we scored the new now it's overhead record there for $11. so so great. cant wait to go back. they had some sweet listening stations - hooked up via ipods. here is amanda enjoying the tasty tunes.



ah - what a refreshing trip.

our 1 year anniversary

yes - we cant believe it! ONE YEAR!! for our celebration i surprised amanda and took her to seattle. it was an amazing trip. and as a second surprise i jeff and stacey met us up there as well. whoo hoo!! what a great time. here are the pictures of our wonderful time in seattle!! enjoy:




















bye seattle...see ya soon...