Hi everyone! I think this blog was hacked! If you would like to still get updates from Sarah my new blog is here: http://phoenixrising28.blogspot.com/
I wish you all well, and I hope you have a Merry and Awesome Christmas and Happy New Year!

<3

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

The updates have been running thin lately and we've been hearing a lot about it. Things have been fairly slow for us other than all of the holiday office parties. However, we did see snow in Austin! Apparently this is not a frequent occurrence, it didn't last very long, but it was fun to see snow once again. It hasn't rained much yet this winter, which is good for my walk to the bus, not as good for the farms and vegetation around Austin. It has been very cold though, much colder than we would have ever imagined. With the wind chill it's been getting into the twenty's, which I haven't seen since I moved from Sonora, and I don't know that Sarah has ever seen consistently. Sarah keeps exclaiming that no one warned her that it would get cold in Texas. I suppose the lone star state conjurers images of cacti, the desert, and tumbleweeds. Not the sub-freezing temperatures we've encountered thus far.

December did bring good news for Sarah at work. She had her three month review and made FTR. What the accronym stands for exactly I do not know, but it does mean that she is no longer on contract, and is a full employee with benefits. She has really been excelling at work. Sarah has consistently been one of the top performers at work, between the Austin and Irvine offices.

Just before Christmas we also found out a way that Sarah can work out of the Irvine office in California for about a week. Everything fell into place, with a desk being available in Irvine, for the week of January 5th. So she'll be making her way out to California for a short time, working during the day and hanging out with all of our family and friends at night. I'm jealous, but I did get about two weeks off from work for Christmas and New Years, and she has only received those two days off. This is one of the busiest times of the year for her company, and all of those kids need her support to play their brand spanking new video games. In the meantime I've been hanging out at my parents house sick, so much for being productive.

The end of November also brought Sarah's huge 80's themed birthday bash. Some of Sarah's coworkers were kind enough to let us use their home for a night of 80's themed crazyness. There was plenty of 80's music, Tang, Twister, and movies to keep everyone celebrating all night long.

We hope you have all had a wonderful Christmas and end to 2008. We're excited to see what blessings 2009 brings to all of our friends and family.

- Jason

Trick Or Treat?

Mostly Treat! Hi everyone! Ok I know it's been forever and we've all but fallen off the face of the planet. I'm going to post a ton of pics and hopefully have time to explain them all. Basically... life is crazy and fun and full of craziness. I'll be posting more pictures from Halloween soon.

YAY! This was the "Rock Band" band! We had a blast! I would say we came in at an unofficial 3rd place - crowd favorite

This is most of "the crew." We decided to have blue shirt day! Our team is really close... can you tell??


This is Jason Josh and Jason at Josh's bday party. The other Jason is Victoria's Hubby.

Dave and Rene's Wedding Reception - Our long lost family in Texas!

Jason and I at an early Halloween party my friend Mario from starbucks threw.
And this is me and Mario! Had to show you the boots! I rented them for the Rock Band competition... and then decided to keep them... so glad I did!



Between the days when I dressed up like a Pirate... I ended up doing a photo shoot as a Marine... from Halo 3. The armor we're all wearing is custom made... these guys are amazing.

Josh and I on Ninja Vs Pirate Day! He won 1st place in the costume contest! You've got to love a job where they have you dress up as ninjas or pirates on October 30th... so you can dress up again as something else on Halloween!

And me and Victoria... how you like the new hair?

X amount of things that make Austin great.

A) I can see the sky, and it's blue.

B) It's green here and there are trees everywhere.

C) There's a disc golf course any direction you go.

D) Riding a bike to work is hip.

E) Cupcakes are huge here.

F) It's really Gotham City. Austin has the largest population of bats in North America, and the city power plant looks like a shady hideout for the Joker's goons.

G) Young hip kids say things like "Howdy" and "Partner"

H) There is live music everywhere, every night of the week.

I) It's rare to see a BMW, and I'm yet to see a Lamborghini or Lotus.

J) There are snow cone stands all over the city.

Jason

--- Jason's Written a Post---
Hey everyone, I guess it's about time that I took on the duties of updating the blog. Things are going well. The last two weeks have been really crazy with work. I've been working a lot but am finally getting around to doing my own levels start to finish, which is going well. The game I'm working on is starting to really shape up, it's getting exciting to see all of my work in game. Sarah's doing really well with work as well.

Yesterday was the beginning of the greatest competition known to man, Beardtober! At work a whole bunch of us are competing in olympic beard growing over the course of October. It'll be a tough competition, but I think my years of training growing facial hair have really paid off. The winner gets a video game of their choice and the title of Best Fizz Factor Beard.

I've been riding my bike to work for a few weeks now and it's nice to actually get out get some fresh air. I've been racing my bus and can actually make the ride faster than it takes me on the bus. It's crazy how many people in Austin ride bikes. They're everywhere. At my studio alone about ten or so of the 45 employees ride in. I hear road bikes are so big here due to Lance Armstrong being from Austin. I ended up going with a Trek mountain bike, which I'm really glad I did. The "sidewalks" can be a bit rough and I'd rather be safe staying off of the street as much as possible. A good portion of my ride takes me along the hike and bike trail along the river, which isn't exactly a tough ride, but a road bike wouldn't fair well.

So the new seasons of Heroes and Office just started last week... and as of yesterday our local NBC station is no longer on air on Time Warner Cable. =( The cable company and KNAX are both blaming each other so who know if we'll get our favorite shows back. Bleh. I guess we're going to end up watching everything online.

Hope everyone is doing well.

Jason

Work Work Work

Hey everyone! Just wanted to throw out a quick update on my break here. We're missing you all immensely!! Apparently we need to get a web cam so we can see the mamacita!! Give Aubrie kisses from us!!

I'm having a great time at my job. I will be really glad when my benefits kick in here though because working at Starbucks can be really draining some days.

Jason is doing GREAT at his job, and still loving it.

We watched the season premiers of The Office and Heroes this week!!! WOOO HOOO!
So much fun, if you don't watch either of those... you should! Alright, well back to work. Like I said we miss you all... it's starting to set in that we actually live here and this is not a vacation, I wish I could come out and see you all, but it's going to be a while. Talk to you soon!

Love,
Sarah and Jason

Seconds between jobs....

Seriously can one of you send me a time stoppermechanithingy??? There's too much going on to fit in 24 hrs. Ok sooo, I've been bugging Jason to do a blog... but that's obviously not happening so with the few seconds I have between starbucks (this morning) and Blizzard (carpool leaves in 5 min) I will update you lol!

Let's see. Jason is doing an outstanding job at work. In fact during a team meeting he was singled out by the guy that runs the company because of how great his work looks! YAY JASON!! He's also turning into a toothpick with huge legs because of all the bike riding he's been doing lately, he really enjoys it.

My job (the new one) is pretty great. I'm getting better at I'm at the point where I'm taking the number of calls per day I should be. I really love my coworkers, turns out one of them lives 5 minutes away from me so we carpool now! Oh! our "Rock Band" video game band, made it to the finals, which are next wednesday! We'll be playing "Are you gonna be my girl" By Jet... which will be fun since I'm singing it (AND YES.... I will be wearing BIG BLACK BOOTS!!) I'll be sure to get some one to take tons of pics.

Also... who knew geeks like to party?? The people in my department seriously go out 3 times a week, either to 6th st. or to a little pub that's closer to work. It's really been fun getting to know everyone and hanging out with them outside of work (I can haz friendz??)

Also, met one of the other PMS clan girls that lives out here and finally got to hang out with Amber (PMS clan founder who lives in San Antonio) OHHHH ANNND... you're all going to laugh, I went to a casting call for the some show about the Nation's top gamers, and I actually got called to be a finalist to be on the show! BUT with the new job and all I had to turn it down, they want to film in LA for about 3 weeks, and I can't take that kind of time off. SO you can say you almost know someone who would have been on TV???

OK here's some pictures then I gotta run!!! LOVE YOU ALL SOOOooooooOoOO Much.


6th Street on a THURSDAY night!! They close off the street because there's so many people.


Josh and I playing DDR (he's the guy I carpool with)


The girl closest to me is Aundie (PMS UT Princess) and next to her is Amber... www.pmsclan.com YAY for women video gamers!