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It's Getting To That Time of Year Again

It's been a while since I've been to the State Fair of Texas. I got to go with the apprentices from last year (my unofficial apprentice class). Got to eat my first Fletcher's Corny Dog and just walk around and have a good time. I really wanted to try the deep fried gumbo balls, but the line was about an hour wait and I thought it wasn't worth it. Maybe next year. 
Pictured from left to right: Taylor, Lindsey, Andrea, Joey, William.

My little sister, Angela, was a summer intern for FOCUS. She was contracted through the end of September and planned on flying back home to California afterwards. But, when it came time for her to go back, she decided to stay in Texas! And FOCUS generously offered her a position for the remainder of the school year. Shortly after, she decided to get baptized and claim her faith. She'll always be a little middle schooler in my eyes, but I guess she's actually a college graduate. 
Pictured from left to right: Peter, Angela.

After Angela's baptism, a number of us wanted to go out and eat. What better way to celebrate than some good ol' Torchy's. Her baptism fell on the same weekend as my wedding, so you can see one of my college friends in the very back!
Pictured from left to right: Isabelle, Angela, Stephanie, Jaz, Zoë, Emily, Jacquelyn.

My family came in for my wedding and my parents met Stephanie's for the first time (it's hard meeting up in the time of COVID). We went to Kirin Court for some dim sum and absolutely filled up. If you know of any good dim sum places in the area (within 30 minutes of the Plano/Richardson area), please let me know! Kirin is not very good in terms of service or dish variety, in my opinion. 😬
Pictured from left to right: William, Grace, Ariel, Ed, Beth, Stephanie, Paul.
PC: One of the waiters at Kirin.

When my family came in (including my aunt and uncle and cousin), they got an Airbnb together and we had a few homecooked meals. It has been a while since everyone has been together and those homecooked meals are very missed.
Pictured from left to right: Stephanie, Angela, Paul, Grace, William, Peter, Emily, Jen. 
PC: My uncle, Daniel.

Here is one of the photos from the wedding! Shoutout to Nicole for being ah-mazing! She stepped in when our photographer unexpectedly dropped out and the photos that she has shown us so far have all been stellar.
Pictured from left to right: Stephanie, Paul.
PC: Nicole Bristow.

Enough with the wedding talk! Back to real life. Northeast Church typically has a chili cook off in the Spring, but it has been canceled the last couple years due to COVID. The last time it happened, though, me and my friend John got second place. We've been craving a win, but haven't had a chance. So we decided to take matters into our own hands and have our own chili cook off. Which turned into more of a chili hang out. But we won in our hearts. You can see all of the jalapenos we put into the chili (along with a tablespoon of ghost pepper flakes).

Northeast Church had a church retreat this year (in lieu of an all-church retreat/conference). We had 3 talented speakers (Kylie, Mandy, and Garrett) all speak about Koinonia (fellowship) through one-on-one relationships, small groups, and the church body. Even though I felt a little under the weather (negative for COVID and the flu), it was such a refreshing time to get to hang out with everybody from our church and build relationships.

This is me and my godson, Tommy! I got to meet up with my old friends from Fossil for lunch at Rodeo Goat at the Harbor and spend some time with the little dude.



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