Emily and Kolby: October 2010

World Series Here We Come

As you probably heard, the Rangers made the World Series for the first time ever. Kolby and I were there. It was awesome. Here are some pictures, courtesy of Kolby's iPhone.

Rangers attire, check. Kolby's playoff beard underway, check.

The stadium was nuts:

After Vladi hit the double and the Rangers went up 3-1:

Top of the 9th; one out standing between the Rangers and the World Series:

Nefti struck A-Rod out and the Rangers win!:

Lots of confetti flying through the stadium:

It was seriously one of the best nights we've ever had together. I'm so glad we decided to pull the trigger and go, because it was an experience we'll never forget. And Kolby for sure will never forget it. He's already watched the game twice on our DVR.

World Series here we come! We'll be in Wimberly with Kolby's parents for the first home game, but we have tickets to the other two. I am not even joking when I say that they are currently locked away in our fireproof safe. Apparently Kolby was worried that our house would eat them (a distinct possibility) or that I would accidentally throw them away as I was cleaning.

Go Rangers!!!

As a total side note, Maya continues to kill opossums in the backyard. We find them lying dead in the grass, not a hair misplaced, damp from Maya's licking. I have a suspicion that it is more of a Lennie from Of Mice and Men-type siltation and that their death is accidental, resulting from her playing with them in a less than gentle way. It's sad and grotesque on many levels, particularly the level that requires us throwing opossums over the fence with a pooper scooper.

Catching Up

Here's what's new with us.

If you've been following baseball lately, you can imagine that our October has been largely dominated by watching the Texas Rangers make history in the playoffs. Kolby asked me in July if we could please start saving for playoff tickets, so we've been attending several games in each series. Our hope is to see the Rangers make it to the World Series in tomorrow night's game! Kolby is beside himself with excitement for the Rangers-- finally doing so well after a decade of slipshod management and mediocrity (his words, not mine). I've been passively watching dozens of games with him this season, trying not to care much, but I finally succumbed to baseball fever. Asking about pitch counts and having the lineup memorized-- I don't even know who I am anymore. Go Rangers!

(Confused by Kolby's shirt? Google "Rangers claw and antlers.")

Our church celebrated its one year anniversary on Sunday, and Kolby and I shared our testimony as part of the celebration service. We are so thankful to have found such a wonderful church home. Even though I can't seem to convince our Bible study group that our house usually starts shutting down at 9:30pm and they are infringing upon my precious beauty sleep when they hang out so late :). I kid... we are happy to have such a great group of new friends.

I spent the first part of this week in New York City on a business trip. I attended a conference and gave a presentation, which went well despite the fact that I was a solid 25 years younger than the next youngest person there. My hotel room was on the 45th floor and the elevator ride felt like a wind tunnel. On my first night there, I walked into my super clean and crisp hotel room with a huge king bed and all I could think about was how I'd rather be in my insanely messy bedroom back home, sharing a queen bed with my 6'3" covers-hogging husband with our sweet dog passed out on the wood floor next to us. I don't think I'm cut out for business travel. My hotel room window directly overlooked ground zero next door, which was rather surreal. I could clearly see the new granite footprints of the twin towers, which will mark the center of the memorial site. I have a picture on my phone, but not one I can share thanks to Russell never giving back my point & shoot camera after his summer abroad. Who knows if it even survived.

Maya had a rather wild night while I was gone--- killing three opossums in the backyard. Don't let this innocent face fool you. She's from the streets, remember?

Kolby has started back to grad school, with his first packet of poetry due this past Monday. The work/school combo is keeping him a bit overwhelmed, but with the 15+ hours a week he's been spending watching the Rangers, it's hard to pity him too much. When he misses a game to catch up on work, that's when I'll start to worry about him!

That's about all that's going on around here. Aren't you glad you stopped by? Riveting stuff, right?!?

Miscellaneous, Part 2

Kassidy and Derek’s wedding last weekend was absolutely beautiful. It was intimate, unique, and perfectly suited for them. I took some pictures at various pre-wedding festivities, but not at the actual event. Here's a family picture from the bridal luncheon:

In other news, Kolby starts his fall quarter for grad school next week. He worked really hard over the summer to get ahead quite a bit, so hopefully the transition won’t be too rough. Teaching at a new school, especially after taking a year off, has required a lot of time and energy, but hopefully he can find a routine that allows him to get done what he needs to get done and still be able to enjoy this final year of his grad program.

Speaking of transitions, our friend Chris recently moved into our garage "guest house". He started a new teaching job this fall and needed a transitional living arrangement to bridge the gap between living with his mom and renting a place of his own. We’re glad to have him, and Maya is particularly glad to have his chocolate lab, Sadie. Talk about fast friends.

The Life Group that we lead has kicked off for the fall season and is going really well. We’re reading the book In the Name of Jesus by Henri Nouwan. It has made for some great discussions, and we enjoy the fellowship the group brings to our house on Tuesdays. Also, we hosted a dinner on Thursday night for some people/couples our age that have been coming to church on Sundays but haven’t gotten plugged into a Life Group or Alpha Course yet. Our pastor’s wife emailed me at the beginning of the week to say that 14 people were coming. I literally laughed out loud. Have you seen the size of our house?!? We don’t have a dining room, and our kitchen table only seats 6. Luckily the weather was beautiful so we set up tables on our back deck and it worked out great. Our 1957 oven even handled the mass quantities of enchiladas (delicious recipe here). It was a wonderful evening with new friends and we loved having such a full house.

As we were cleaning up for the party, I realized I never posted any pictures of our backyard like I meant to awhile back. I'm sure you have probably been on the edge of your seats wanting to know what it looks like. Well today is your lucky day.

This is our back deck.

We bought this patio set for really cheap off Crag's List. It was white when we got it and I painted it black. It was the worst idea ever. But the chairs are really comfortable so it was almost worth it.

This is our backyard.

Another angle. The nice cedar carport will come in handy once we get around to installing our new gate and electronic gate opener. It's been over a year. Our garage is the white building on the far left.