Austin Visit

We took a day trip to Austin on Saturday, October 17. We hadn't been down there since our good friends Charlie and Emily Rajeh had their baby boy in May. We left mid-May to head out to Albuquerque for the summer, and since we've been back, I've been busy with school and Stephany has been working most weekends at Starbucks, making it hard for us to get out of town.

Here is a picture of us on Town Lake (now called Lady Bird Lake, in honor of Lady Bird Johnson, former First Lady and long-time resident of the area), with the Austin skyline in the background.



I used to live close to the lake and enjoyed running and biking along the trails there. We spent part of the afternoon walking through Zilker Park, which Stephany had never visited. The park has a little train called the "Zilker Zephyr," which I can remember riding as a kid with my dad on a trip to Austin. We thought it would be a fun family trip to come down and take our little guy on the train in the next few years!

And here are a couple pics of Steph, featuring our growing little boy! She's getting bigger by the week (23 this week)!





We were really glad to be able to spend some time with Emily and her son Laith that day, who we had the great pleasure of meeting. He is definitely a charming little guy with a great personality and a great hairdo. Here are some pics of us with little Laith. (His team won that day against Oklahoma.)









Emily's parents Roger and Patricia and her sister Sarah, good friends of ours, were also in town, so it was an added bonus getting to see them. We're thankful for good times with good friends and short, spur-of-the-moment day trips!

Nathan

The U2 360° Show

Last Monday, Stephen, Malory, Stephany, and I saw U2 perform at the new Dallas Cowboys Stadium in Arlington! This was a really fun event for us. Stephen drove up from Waco that evening and met us there. It was my fourth time to see U2 and my third time to see them with my brother. Getting to see them with Stephen again was very cool for me, and it was great getting to experience one of the biggest bands in the world, and one of my favorites, with Stephany.

Here are some pics of us on our way to the Cowboys Stadium.





Stephen wore appropriate attire.



The new stadium is really massive. With standing room on the floor area, it can hold up to 111,000 people, so there were most likely at least 100,000 people at this show. The huge television screen (which wasn't used during the concert) hanging in the center of the ceiling measures 160 feet long by 72 feet wide and is supposedly the world's largest. This is definitely the place for over-consumerized football games and rock shows.

Here's the stage setup prior to the show starting. U2 went with a spaceship theme (or something) this tour. The novel idea was that you could see the band from all directions, hence the tour was called the U2 360° Tour. Also, U2's screen circled the stage and could be viewed 360°.



There was a Bono impersonator in our section. Pretty decent get-up, but for real, like Bono's hanging out in Section 230.



And here's us!



Opening was the British band Muse. I wasn't very familiar with them, but Stephany knew them, and Malory is a really big fan. They put on a really great show, and their music was a very good complement to U2. They had lots of energy and good sounds, and consequently, they rocked the place.











The band had a pretty good lightshow going, although it was nothing compared to U2's performance (which is appropriate for the opening band, but, hey, at least they got to use U2's 360° screen).





And U2.

What completely surprised us was, prior to the band emerging, the house sound system playing David Bowie's "Space Oddity" ("This is ground control to Major Tom...") in its entirety while the stage began spewing smoke, followed by a countdown. Then the band walked out onto the stage and the drummer, Larry Mullen Jr., played a short drum solo leading into the opening song for the evening, "Breathe," from the band's latest album, No Line on the Horizon.





The image on the screen here is part of the art theme from their new album.







About halfway through the show, the 360° screen started separating and lowering, which was really cool. It turned into a pretty awesome display.











When the band came back for the encore, Bono emerged in a suit displaying red LED lights, and a lit-up circular microphone-swing-thing (yeah) came down from the ceiling. It was a fairly simple setup, but I thought the lighting was really cool. Bono would occasionally hang/swing on the microphone during this part of the show. I was very happy that the opening song for the encore was "Ultra Violet (Light My Way)" from 1991's Achtung Baby. It's one of my favorites from that album, and I don't think I'd ever heard them play it live before.







And another shot of the stadium on our way out. It's like a contemporary Texas Death Star right in our backyard.



It was a really fun evening for us, and we enjoyed being able to see such a great concert (a rarity for us these days - and we know that will continue to be the case for a while)!

Nathan

It's a Boy!!!

We found out yesterday that we're having a boy!! As pretty much all of you know, we'd been looking forward to finding out for quite a while. It was really exciting for us. It's definitely a milestone in this journey in a way, because from now on, we will never not know.

We are so much looking forward to the adventures of raising a boy! Both of us were just so hopeful to have a healthy, developing baby, and we were very happy yesterday to hear that mom and little baby boy are both on track and are doing great.

Here is Stephany at twenty weeks!



And here's our little baby boy! He was so active during the ultrasound! We saw him moving around quite a bit, opening and closing his mouth, moving his arms, making little fists, putting his hands to his face, and playing with his toes when they came into the vicinity of his hands. It was so awesome.





And here was the shot we were hoping for! It's definitely a boy.



Another shot of the legs. We think they look pretty long, so we'll see if he gets my height.



And a cute shot of a foot. Five toes.



Nathan & Stephany

Employment!

We are pleased to share the good news that I was offered a job with the law firm in Albuquerque for which I clerked this past summer! Last week, I accepted the offer to become an Associate of Keleher & McLeod in September of 2010.

The firm has around thirty-five attorneys (with staff, about seventy people) in an office sharing most of two floors in the Albuquerque Plaza building. Its attorneys practice in a number of practice areas. This past summer, for example, I worked on cases and issues involving real estate, contracts, trust litigation, medical malpractice, construction litigation, employment law, litigation procedure, and personal injury. The firm does quite a bit of civil defense work but also represents plaintiffs. I really enjoyed the people and the work at Keleher & McLeod this past summer, and I feel very fortunate to be taking a job at a firm known for being respected in the community and family friendly. I believe it will be a great place for me to begin my career.

Stephany and I are excited to be heading back to Albuquerque! When we decided to move to Dallas for law school, we knew that we were committing to three years in Dallas, but we did not know where we would be after that. Now we know that we’re heading back to New Mexico, at least for this next chapter of life. This is a big year for us: having the baby in late February, graduation in May, moving back to Albuquerque, taking the bar exam in late July, and starting work in September.

This news brings about a great sense of accomplishment for us (Stephany experiences law school to a great extent as well). We are confident that the Lord is guiding our steps and further equipping us for good works and service, both to His kingdom and to those around us.


Much love,
Nathan & Stephany

SMU Law Race Judicata 5K

This past Saturday, the law school held its annual Race Judicata 5K, and Malory and I ran together! This was my third year to run the 5K, which benefits a charity each year. This year, the proceeds went to the American Cancer Society, which I was proud to support.

This was also Malory's first time to run a 5K! Malory began running several months back and has shown some considerable improvement. We started running together a bit over the summer, which has continued through this semester. We've been trying to run together a couple of times a week, and she tells me (afterwards) that she appreciates me pushing her. To her credit, she ran the 5K, her longest distance so far, with apparent relative ease, so I think I need to really crack down on her and see what she's made of. :)

Several of her friends and coworkers from Dallas Theological Seminary (DTS) also came to run the race, which was fun! Here's a picture of us before the race: me, Malory, Marnie, Sarita, Katherine, and Lisa.



Stretching.



Synchronized stretching.



And of course my honey Stephany was there to support us, take some pictures, and cheer us on.



The runners assembled to hear about the route, which wound through the neighborhoods near SMU.



The race beginning - there's Katherine on the right.



And here's Mal and me taking off.



This is us a little more than a mile into the race.





Sarita and Marnie.



And this was us about 2.8 miles into it.



Coming in for the finish. It was a beautiful day and probably in the 60s that morning. Pretty awesome. A great day for the race.



And another picture of the runners, post-run.



The Race Judicata has been something I look forward to each year, and I was really happy to run it again. I was also really glad to run it with Malory this year, which will be my last at the law school. It was a very fun event.

Nathan

P.S. My posting from last year's race is here (just don't tell anyone that I wore the same outfit).