Fall

We have yet to dig ourselves out of the blanket of leaves that grace our lawn every.single.day. I honestly hadn’t given much thought to the naming of this season before now. So fitting.

Maya doesn’t have one single complaint about the piles of leaves that we allow to reside in our yard for longer than we should.The leaf piles add one more texture to her backyard line-up. She has a very specific route that she passionately and joyfully runs when she is struck with sudden bursts of energy: grass, wood deck, concrete driveway, grass, leaf piles, ivy ground cover; repeat. Suffice to say that she is definitely making the most out of finally having a yard.

We have officially finished our fence. Yes, the project that was slated to be started and finished in August has finally been completed… just in time for Thanksgiving! It still needs to be stained, but we’re strongly considering hiring someone to do that because it would cost about the same as staining it ourselves and it’ll save us from delving into yet another nightmare DIY (do-it-yourself) project. We’re about maxed out with those.

Our backyard is really coming together. We bought some patio furniture off Craig’s List last week that I’m working on sanding and painting. I think it’ll look really good once it’s finished. I’ll take some pictures of our backyard soon. Right now we’re saving for a car, but once we make that purchase here in a few weeks we’re going to start putting some money aside to do some landscaping in the spring. Not a lot, just something to add some color. We have a lot of trees and plenty of bushes/plants/ivy, but everything is green and brown. Kolby really wants to plant some climbing roses along our back fence and I want to plant some flowers around the perimeter of the house. Money seems to be flying out the window these days so that endeavor will have to wait awhile!

There are a lot of small things about having a house that I am really enjoying. This week, it has been decorating for Thanksgiving. We didn’t decorate for holidays at all when we lived in our apartment because we knew that place was temporary and we didn’t want to buy stuff just to move it less than a year later. I’ve been waiting for fall decorations to go on sale and Hobby Lobby finally came through for me with an 80% off all fall merchandise sale this week. We keep to a very tight budget so I only allowed myself to spend $20, but I feel like a little went a long way in making our house Thanksgiving-ready.

As a total aside, we have a lot of great news so share from Kolby’s family. In order of occurrence: Kolby’s brother, Kason, passed the bar exam and started working at a law firm in Houston; Kolby’s sister, Kassidy, got engaged to her longtime sweetheart, Derek; Kolby’s parents adopted a PRECIOUS little puppy (their dog, Ginger, passed away in August)… she is a tiny shih tzu-dachshund mix and they named her Muppet; and Kason and his wife, Sarah, purchased their first house! What a month! Also, the cabin that Kolby's parents are building on their land in Wimberley is coming together really quickly and is looking awesome. We are very much looking forward to celebrating all of these things together at Christmas!

Mr. Fat Hand

Kolby got stung by a bee over the weekend while we were working on our new fence. When I came home from work on Monday, he showed me this:His bony hand had been replaced with this beast, and I laughed harder than I had in awhile. Poor thing.

The concrete around the poles didn't dry in time for us to put the wood fence panels up on Sunday like we had planned, so we're having to do it a little at a time this week so we can still stain it all this weekend. I get home from work about 20 minutes before it is pitch dark outside ("daylight savings"-- yeah right!), so we have just enough time to put up one 8ft. panel each day. I'm sure our neighbors think we are so ambitious.

Fall is in full force in our backyard and Kolby finally bought a rake and tackled the blanket of leaves today. He took this picture with his phone and sent it to me at work: Leaf piles are apparently making their way to the top of Maya's top 10 list. I mentioned before that Maya typically crosses her front paws when she lays down. Ten thousand pictures of her later, I hope everyone has come to terms with the fact that I wasn't making that up.

We've had a lazy week here, and I talked Kolby into letting us have blueberry pancakes for dinner two nights in a row. PLUS chocolate milk. Life just doesn't get much better than that!

Weekend Update

We've had a string of packed weekends lately. We've gotten to put off replacing the fence in our backyard as a result, though, so that's been an added bonus. I don't have a ton of pictures, but here are a few.

Here's a picture from a few weeks ago when Laura came home from Colorado for the weekend. We didn't do much, just ate a lot of BBQ and hung out. The guys joined us, too. Starting at the left there's Katie with her boyfriend, Daniel; Laura with her fiancee, Benton; Kolby and me; and Alayne and her husband, Tommy. We (girls) have been best friends since middle school.

Then three weekends ago, we went down to Austin for a UT game and hung out with Kolby's family at their ranch in Wimberley. Somehow the only pictures I ended up with were of the pups. These guys were having the time of their lives down there. Maya loves her cousin, Molly. So much so that I almost took her to the vet the following week because she was being really sluggish, but then I realized that she was just being a mope over missing Molly after a long weekend together.

A favorite: Maya trying to chew on something while Molly tries to chew on her.
We attended a hometown wedding the weekend before last and a lot of our friends came in town for it so we had fun catching up with everyone. The wedding was in the bride's parents' backyard and it was absolutely beautiful.
The picture above doesn't show it well, but I cut my hair off that week. It was time. My hair was much longer than it had ever been in my whole life, so I had Kolby take a picture of it for good measure. It was even a couple inches longer than this when I straightened it. There were a LOT of curls on the floor after that haircut!

Finally, we went to Waco this past weekend for Baylor homecoming. It was our first time back since we moved at the end of May. Here's a picture of my parents with Russell, who is a sophomore there this year.
We tried to get a family shot after the [horrible] football game, and halfway through taking the picture we realized my dad was on the phone. My aunt was counting 1..2.. and then all the sudden we heard Dad saying "Hey Remy, just checking to see how Brad was feeling..." Seriously?!? He was smiling the whole time as if the fact that he was ON THE PHONE would go unnoticed in the picture.
Notice that both of my parents have their jacket/sweatshirt tied around their waist... classic Webb style. Strap on a couple of fanny packs with an attached water bottle holder and you've got a replica of a family Disneyworld picture from 1993.

We met some of our Waco friends at a park after the game. Our up-and-coming photographer friend, Walker, took this picture of Maya watching the rest of us throw a frisbee. So poised.

***

On a different note, today is October 26th. That means that Kolby and I have been together for eight years! Our wedding anniversary is really important to us, but this date will always have a special place in our hearts as well.

As we drove I-35 to Waco this weekend, we had a nostalgic conversation about how we've driven that stretch of road together during so many completely different phases in our relationship.

We drove it in early high school when we headed to a stadium in Waco to watch our school's football team compete in the state semi-finals. We talked about who would win the game and did NOT talk about how we had kissed two weeks earlier.

We drove it when we were 17 and on our way to Wimberley for the first weekend I ever spent there with Kolby's family. We talked about whether or not it'd be weird to sleep under the same roof.

I drove it by myself for 2 1/2 years while I attended Baylor and Kolby went to Wheaton. I either talked to Kolby on the phone or cried about how much I missed him.

We drove it when we spent a day over Christmas break in Waco looking for an apartment for Kolby. We talked and talked and talked about how wonderful it would be to live in the same town (or state!) again.

We drove it when we came up here to "look" at some stray dogs at a local animal control center that were scheduled to be euthanized. On the way back, we talked about what on earth we were going to do with the sick, shaking husky that was curled up in the back floorboard.

We drove it every summer weekend the year we got married. We talked about the litany of wedding planning matters we needed to take care of that trip.

After we got back from our honeymoon and celebrated our first Christmas together with each of our families, we drove it to our first home together. We talked about how cold moving-in was going to be since we forgot to sign up for electricity.

Then in May we drove it from Waco into the great unknown. We talked about the wonderful life we were leaving behind and took bets as to how long we'd be without a home of our own. (Neither of us guessed 3 months!!!)

Who knows what that road will have in store for us in the future, but it sure has been good to us so far!

Single-Ply

Not much is new around here, but I figured I’d fill everyone in on the latest since that’s the purpose of this blog.

Kolby has been working non-stop lately. He had heard that substitute teaching gigs in this area are hard to come by, but once again, being a male English teacher has proven to be a hot commodity. He no longer has to go through the “sub-finder” website or call logs; he now gets personal phone calls from the school principals requesting him by name. For the past two weeks, he’s been teaching language arts at a nearby junior high. There was an SAT test this past weekend, so he’s been double-timing it at the college prep center as well. Some days he goes straight from one job to the other and works more than 12 hours straight, and he has also been teaching several SAT classes each weekend. So he’s been my little worker bee lately, but things will slow down for him soon. SAT season is pretty much over, so he’s switching to just substitute teaching a few days a week and will concentrate much more on grad school since the fall quarter began at the beginning of this month. He’s really enjoyed all of the work, and we’re certainly thankful for all of the hours he’s getting, but he’s ready to switch his focus back to his writing.

Staying this busy causes Kolby to lose weight because he just doesn’t have time to eat enough calories. His high metabolism drives me nuts. There’s nothing more frustrating than trying to lose a few of the many pounds I have gained since we’ve been married and him stepping off the scale and griping about how his weight just keeps going down. I was giving him a hard time about it the other night and he said, “It’s OK honey, we can meet in the middle!” Very funny.

Kolby claims it’s hard work trying to maintain a sufficient caloric intake, but it’s difficult to feel sorry for someone who spent the last two weeks chipping away at a HUGE chocolate cake some friends brought over.

You’re right, dear; having to eat large quantities of delicious chocolate cake straight from the pan must be tough.

In other news, we have tree roots infringing upon our plumbing which caused our sewer lines to back-up twice in less than 2 months. Fun! The plumber that we called out this last time also detected a semi-broken connection near our house that he thought was probably a main compounding problem because toilet paper can get caught up there and cause a clog. Replacing the broken connection would cost around $700 and addressing the tree root problem is incomprehensibly expensive, so we’ve opted for a hillbilly fix--- a switch to single-ply toilet paper. A plumber may totally disagree with this logic, but I have to figure that septic-safe, single-ply toilet paper will dissolve much better and decrease the likelihood of clogging the pipes. Right?!? That’s our plan for now, and we’ll make a decision on what to do next based on how long we go before it backs up again. I apologize in advance for those of you who come visit us and are relegated to using toilet paper comparable to that which is found in gas station restrooms. Oh the joys of home ownership!

We’ve had a lot of visitors to our house lately, which has been really fun but also reminds us of all of the stuff we still need to do to the house. It’s gotten to the point where I don’t really notice that we don’t have any curtains, that all of the bedroom walls are completely bare, that our office is a total wreck, that we have a kitchen cabinet with two huge holes in the back of it, and that we have a massive pile of fence-building materials in the middle of our backyard… but giving people a tour always serves to remind me of what is still on our to-do list. When I go over with Kolby what needs to be done, he says we should just sell the house. We're just tired of house projects!

But you know who never gets tired of a single thing about this house? Maya. Boy does she love this place. She loves her fun yard, she loves that the front window has a sill that's the perfect height for her to sit up and rest her chin on as she keeps watch over the house, and she especially loves the glass back door.All in all, things are going great here. We've had a string of very eventful weekends that I'll post about once I get some pictures together. One thing worth mentioning now, though, is that we went and saw Where the Wild Things Are at the IMAX theatre and it was fantastic. I would highly recommend it!

Welcome, Welcome!

I kept waiting to show you guys our new house until it was completely put together and complete, but I don't know if that will actually happen anytime soon so I figured I'd just go ahead with a tour.

So, without further adieu.... welcome to our first home! We fall in love with it more and more each day!

Here's the view from our front yard. I may be biased, but I think we have the cutest little house in the neighborhood!

When you first walk in, we have a small entryway. The living room is to the right, the dining room/kitchen is straight ahead, and the hallway to the bathroom and the bedrooms is forward and to the left. *Maya loves to have her picture taken so as soon as I got the camera out she was trying to pose in front of every shot. I got her out of the way for most, but she insisted on being in this one.

Here's the view of our living room from the entryway. The doorway on the left leads to the kitchen. Here are two shots from the other side of the living room, facing towards the entryway. *We are planning to lower the mirror above the entry table a bit... we just haven't got around to it yet :) Here's the kitchen. This picture was taken from the doorway between it and the living room.
Another shot of the kitchen. The oven is original, from 1957.
This is my favorite part of the kitchen. Check out how spacious this cupboard is. No more digging around in a tiny bottom cabinet for what pot or pan I want to use!
The kitchen has granite counter tops and a marble tile back splash, which was a great update. We replaced the old vent-a-hood with this new black one and are in the midst of a renovating the cabinet above it, as you can tell.

This is the pantry that Kolby's grandfather built for us. He built it to match our other cabinets, so it looks great and gives us a lot of extra storage space. The pantry is directly across from the end of the counter with the stove, and you walk between them to get from the kitchen to the dining area.
This is our dining area. The doorway in this picture leads to the entryway and the hallway to the rest of the house.
Here's a shot of the entire dining and kitchen area. We replaced both light fixtures and painted the walls taupe. On the left is the glass door that leads to our backyard.
The back door is Maya's FAVORITE spot. She loves laying there and keeping watch over what's going on outside.
Our house has one hallway and the first stop is the guest bathroom.
I LOVE this vanity. We love all of the updates that the previous owners did to the house, namely the kitchen counter tops and the complete renovation of the bathrooms, but this is my favorite thing that they did. Just for fun, here's a shot of the beautiful shower.
One great thing about this house is the unbelievable amount of storage space it has given its size. This is a cabinet in the guest bathroom and it is as deep as that shower wall. So nice. This is the aforementioned hallway. This photo was taken from the guest bathroom. Just to put the floor plan into perspective: the front of the house is behind me, the living room is to my right and is at the front of the house, the kitchen/dining area is to my right and is at the back of the house, the guest rooms are the first and third doors to the left, and the master bedroom is straight ahead. The other doors in this picture are closets, including a laundry closet. The entry, living room and hallway are all painted the most beautiful green paint color I've ever seen. I would never have had the guts to paint my house this color, but we both absolutely love it and it works perfect in this house. Please note the fresh WHITE trim in this photo... it was such hard work but it turned out so great. The same goes for the new hardware on the doors.
We use the first spare bedroom as an office. This is the room I'm most embarrassed to post a picture of because it is certainly our biggest work-in-progress, but I'll just put up some better pictures once we get it more in order. Eventually, I'll have a nice clear desk to use, Kolby will have his own large corner desk to use, I'll have a folding table to use for taking care of bills, filing, etc., and Kolby will have recliner to sit and read in. We use our second spare room as a guest bedroom. We inherited this furniture from my college roommate who didn't want to take it back to Florida with her when she graduated. We stored it last year but decided to pair it with an air mattress and use it here because having a twin bed makes the space more roomy and we aren't expecting too many overnight guests since the majority of our friends and family live nearby.
We decided to keep the armoire that goes with our master bedroom set in this room for now. You'll notice all of the bedroom walls are bare because we haven't gotten around to decorating them yet. One day, maybe. Also, we aren't in love with any of the bedroom wall colors but we like them enough to keep them as is until we feel inspired to repaint. It'll probably be a couple years, though; they just aren't that bad and I have no idea what I'd want instead.
I keep all of my work clothes in the guest room closet. There's so much room in there and it keeps our master closet from getting too crowded.
We have a built-in telephone stand, which I think is really neat. We're hoping to find a vintage black telephone to keep there at some point.
Finally, here is our master bedroom. Again, there's nothing on the walls yet so I'm sorry for how bland it looks.
We have three large windows in our bedroom and they all face our own backyard, which is nice.
Here's our bathroom.

I had to stand in the shower to take this picture, but I wanted to show off the wall of cabinets we have :). It's a ton of storage and is much more convenient than having just one cabinet under the sink like a lot of bathrooms this size have.
Here's a shot from our bedroom back into the hallway, and our closet is there on the left.
I had never even heard of these before, but we have an attic fan. Apparently this is what they put in houses before central A/C came along. Our house does have central A/C now, but this thing is so nice to use during the spring and fall because we can open the windows and turn it on and the whole place stays cool without using hardly any electricity at all.
Well, that pretty much concludes the tour. I'm throwing in this last picture so I can spend a moment talking about how much I love our wood floors. They are original to the house and are the pride and joy of this place. They creak with every step and the sound brings joy to my heart. At first I was nervous about the color because it is lighter than what is in style these days, but I've completely come around on it because it provides a great contrast to all of our dark wood furniture and the floors show NOTHING. We have a husky, so we're no stranger to dog hair around here. But the floors don't show it at all, and when we want the floors clean--- we can sweep and mop and know that they are spotless. Our apartment had nasty burber carpet and Maya's hair clung to it like velcro so the floors were always covered in dog hair, despite endless vacuuming attempts. It was sick. But not anymore! And speaking of cleaning, we can plug the vacuum into the outlet in the guest bathroom and vacuum the entire house without having to unplug it. That's how we know this place is just our size!

So there you have it! Once we get our new fence finished and stained, I'll post some pictures of our backyard.

We are head over heels in love with our house and feel so blessed to have found such a perfect place for our family. If you're ever in the neighborhood, stop by and see us!

Santa Fe: A Retrospective by Kolby

Friends and Family,

Here's a quick synopsis of my time in Santa Fe and my thoughts surrounding this graduate program. Better late than never, right?

I am currently enrolled in the Masters of Fine Arts program at Seattle Pacific University. The program utilizes a low-residency model, which is becoming a pretty trendy thing in the field of creative writing. By pooling resources toward the twice-a-year residencies, the school is able to afford terrific visiting faculty. And, due to the nature of the curriculum, there are even advantages to this distance relationship with faculty.

Some have asked what the point of such a program is. A valid question. An MFA isn't exactly the most employable degree. Technically, it is a terminal degree for the arts, but because it isn't a true Ph.D., most colleges will probably hesitate to give me a gig. While it could also lead to publishing, I am in the poetry concentration of the program and I'll let you figure out whether or not even the most celebrated poets actually make a living from publication.

Truthfully, I am in the program because I am still trying to follow a train of thought that left the station when I was quite young. It's what led me to poetry in the first place, what excites me about teaching, and what keeps me frustrated at this ever obscured view of my future vocation. What I mean to say is that for no small length of time I have felt deeply that I have something to say. I mean I think that I have something that is truly worth the speaking. Believe me, I have wrestled like Jacob with the angel over whether this is a part of my semi-enormous ego or some real call. Heck, I wrestle with what it means to have a call. But I digress.

It seems poetry is the best way to say anything. I won't go into the details on that, you'll just have to trust me. So I took up poetry some time ago. This may come as a near surprise to some of you, and that's understandable. It's never been something I've felt too comfortable speaking about at length. I find it usually isn't conversation for social gatherings.

Seattle Pacific is allowing me to pursue this interest that I have within the context of a community of faith. The program is specifically interested in writers who are engaged with matters of the Judeo-Christian tradition. My particular interest is in looking at the Christian scriptures outside of a typical evangelical modernist perspective.

My inaugural residency was a few months ago in Santa Fe--a pretty glorious place in which to begin an artistic endeavor. The program holds two residencies a year, with quarterly classes in between. This first residency is held in conjunction with Image Journal's Glen Workshop. If you are a Christian interested in the arts, you should absolutely sign up to attend. Guests included Lauren Winner, Marilyn Nelson, B.H. Fairchild, and Luci Shaw. Of course there were more, but you wouldn't believe the feeling to get to spend over a week rubbing shoulders with people who are doing precisely what it is you want to do with your life. Fantasy Camp for the literary nerds.

I will try to wrap up this convoluted post by saying that so far I have found the program to be a pretty affirming experience. The people I met were really great and everything I have experienced so far tells me that this is a great spot for me to be at this time in my life.