Emily and Kolby: November 2008

Thanksgiving

We spent Thanksgiving break with Kolby's family in the Texas hill country. We had a great time relaxing, watching plenty of college football, eating WAY too much Thanksgiving food, playing games, and spending time with family. The house we stayed at was on a few acres of fenced property and Maya was in doggie heaven getting to roam around and explore things off-leash.

We looked forward to this vacation for quite awhile and are sad that it has come and gone so quickly. But, just a few more weeks of school (albeit a miserable few weeks) then we're off on our next adventure!

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Kolby and I have so much to be thankful for this year. God has blessed us in countless ways this year and we are daily reminded of His provision in our lives. This Thanksgiving we are especially thankful for our family, our simple and happy life here in Waco, our little Maya (I'm slightly embarrassed to say that at church last week we were given index cards to write a few things we are thankful for and Maya had a prime spot on both our lists), our quaint apartment, and most of all-- that our unknown future is in the Lord's hands and not our own.

First Application is In!

For those of you who don't know this already, Kolby is in the process of applying to creative writing graduate programs. Writing was something he really took an interest in while he was at Wheaton (college) and he got his undergraduate degree in English: Writing. There are four programs that he is applying to --- University of Missouri, University of Texas, Seattle Pacific University and Vanderbilt. They are all very different from each other and some have Masters programs and some have Masters/PhD programs. Unfortunately, the acceptance rates for these particular programs are VERY low... as low as 2% and only as high as about 13%. So the odds of getting into any of the four are stacked against him, but we figured it was worth a shot. Depending on which program he were to get into/choose, his future "career path" could be continuing to teach high school English and writing as a side career, teaching English/Writing at a collegiate level, or pursuing some other option that peaks his interest. He is quite content continuing to teach high school for the near future so if he were to not get into any of the programs he'll do that and possibly re-apply later on or start considering other types of graduate programs.

Kolby submitted his application to UT today and the others will soon follow, but it won't be until late Spring that we will hear back from all of the schools. So, our future as of June 2009 is one huge question mark but we're somehow OK with that. But- we would certainly appreciate your prayers as we navigate this next phase in our lives together. It is NOT a good time for me (or anyone) to be entering the job market, especially since I don't even know what state to be looking in. It'll all work out though..... right?!?!

Ramblings

I found out last week that my (in-progress) thesis paper was selected for Baylor's graduate scholarship forum and I ended up with an unexpected $100 in my pocket. I decided that I would of course deposit it into our savings account. Then, a few days ago I was taking a shower and accidentally squeezed a little too much shaving cream into my hand. I immediately started thinking about how I could go about saving the extra so that I could use it next time... I mean, shaving cream isn't free. This incident brought to my attention what a ridiculous level my frugal tendencies have reached. I later committed to frivolously spending the $100 "scholarship" money in order to restore some balance to my spending habits.

Today I went to Old Navy and spent the entire $100 on winter clothes for Kolby and I. I bought 4 sweaters for him and 3 for me (How? I still kept to the sales tables... baby steps, right?). At the front of the store I found two sweaters that I thought were surprisingly stylish, tried them on and loved them, and later returned to the table of sweaters only to notice that the mannequin modeling one of the sweaters was a man and that it was in fact a table of Men's sweaters. That explained the funny look the saleswoman in the dressing room gave me when I asked for a smaller size, and my short-lived self-esteem boost of needing the smaller size in the first place. This confirmed (once again) that I should never go shopping by myself.

In other news, we spent a wonderful weekend in Arkadelphia, AR visiting our friends Tyler & Erin. We had so much fun catching up, chatting about their upcoming wedding, introducing them to the glory of Arrested Development, and playing several rousing games of Blokus. Once again Kolby and I were reminded of how blessed we are to have such great friends in our lives.

We're now in the home stretch until Thanksgiving break, and then in one month we'll be on a plane headed to Australia for Christmas!!!

***Oh, and I bought those sweaters anyways***

Wedded Bliss and an 80th Birthday

This weekend we attended our first wedding since our own. It was at the Arboretum and was absolutely beautiful. Best wishes to my cousin Kyle and his bride Melissa! My little cousins Addi and Jackson were the CUSTEST flower girl and ring bearer and I can't believe it has been almost a year since Addi was my precious flower girl. Jackson was only 8 months old at our wedding, but he made his big wedding party debut at this one and I don't think there is anything in the world more adorable than a handsome 1-year-old in a tuxedo! Here's a short video clip of him tearin' it up on the dance floor:

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This weekend we also got to spend some time with Kolby's whole family and celebrate his grandfather's 80th birthday! We were even able to snap a family photo while everyone was in town for the celebration:

Back: Kason (older brother), Kolby, Kevin (dad)
Front: Sarah (sister-in-law), me, Kassidy (younger sister), Roycee (mom)

Maya as a Puppy

Every now and then when I'm really wanting to bring procrastination to a whole new level, I'll waste a few minutes online looking at pictures of husky mutts to try to find one that looks like Maya because I would love to know what other breed she is mixed with. No luck so far, but I did run across this picture of a husky-labrador puppy that is pretty much the cutest thing ever.

Obviously Maya doen't have any labrador in her, but this puppy has markings that are IDENTICAL to Maya's markings and I'd like to think Maya was as cute as this little girl when she was a puppy. She was full grown when we adopted her so we'll never know what she really looked like, but I think this picture is pretty darn close. So precious.

Baylor Homecoming

This weekend was Baylor's Homecoming and we enjoyed all of the festivities with some of our favorite Baylor alumni. Brad & Remy (my brother and sister-in-law) stayed with us for the weekend and we loved getting to spend so much time with them. Some friends of theirs (and ours) stayed with us too so we had 6 people and 4 dogs for 3 days in our 1 small apartment. It was quite crazy around here but we loved the company and Maya enjoyed having dog friends around, although I think she's glad to have the place to herself again. Here are some pictures from the weekend:

Our family at the Friday night bonfire