Getting Ready for Christmas

We are officially ready for Christmas at our house.  

On Saturday, we put up our lights.  Kolby pulled roof duty last year, so it was my turn.  It is not as easy to get up on a roof as you might think, by the way.  It was worth it, though.  Here I am making it happen (hello front teeth!):

  Kolby convinced me that the best way to get down was to climb from the roof into a tree.  Which went well, but then I was just stuck in a tree and not any closer to the ground than I was on the roof.  It was touch and go for a bit, but then I climbed onto Kolby's shoulders and eventually made it down.  This was all in the front yard, as several neighbors were out raking leaves and thinking we were crazy.

The final result:

Then on Sunday, we went out to some of my family's nearby farmland to chop down a Christmas tree.  It was  super cold and windy, but we found a winner.

Did I mention it was rather cold out?

Our friend Jay came to help out.

  
After dusting off a wasp nest and some bird feathers, we brought it in and gave it a little trim.

Then we put on some Christmas music and went to work.  I think it turned out awesome.  I love people's reaction when they walk in and see it.  It may not look it in this picture, but it is really big and takes up a fair share of the living room.  It is also not a type of tree that is typically used for Christmas.  A friend that was over last night and asked if it was a shrub.  But then another friend walked in and said she absolutely loved it and said it was "Charlie Brown meets Anthropologie."  Best compliment ever.

***

On Tuesday night we hosted a Christmas Party for our Bible study group.  We had 18 people over for dinner and a gingerbread house contest.  It was nuts.  I *may* have taken a few moments during a seminar at work to game plan how we were going to fit that many people in our house for a meal when we don't have a dining room and our kitchen table sits 6 at best. 

By 7:30pm our house was super loud and nearly splitting at the seams, but it was so great to have our friends over for such a great night.  I love a full house.  I feel like it was one of those nights that Kolby and I will look back on years from now and remember very nostalgically.  This is our first house.  It is rather small.  Our kitchen has one drawer, two cabinets, and virtually no counter space.  But man did it strut it's stuff last night.  It was warm, cozy, and smelled like Christmas, and everyone had a great time gathering together here-- eating, laughing, building gingerbread houses, and chatting.  We felt very blessed.  We also blew a fuse (twice).

The night in pictures:

(Yes, Kolby made a baseball stadium.  Obsessed, much?)

 One of the couples has three of the most precious children, and they joined us last night.

I love these two pictures above because neither of the guys holding these sweet little boys are the kids' dad.  Our group has definitely become more like a family than anything else, and I love seeing the tangible ways that plays out.  Mike let that baby drool ALL OVER his hand.  Also, the little toddler-- my oh my does that kid melt my heart.  We are in BIG trouble if we ever have a kid half as cute as him, because he could get away with anything with that sweet little voice.  And he is so mellow.  Kolby and I may or may not have debated taking him home with us after a Christmas concert we had at church last week.

***
Then today we celebrated Christmas with Kolby's family.  I love having Christmas twice.  We gathered with Kolby's extended family for a delicious meal at his grandparents' house.  It was a wonderful day!

Mimi's famous extra-large dinner table:

  

 One of Grandfather's barns:

 The beautiful house:

Kolby's lovely grandmother (Mimi):

 Mmmmmmm.......

 Mimi's awesome chocolate pie:

 Grandfather reigning at the head of the table:

So glad Christmastime is finally here!  Kolby is off work already (lucky dog!).  It's been a very busy week, but we're happy to get to celebrate Christmas with our friends and family.  Let the festivities continue....

Thanksgiving

We had a wonderful time celebrating Thanksgiving in Wimberley with Kolby's family.  There was plenty of eating, relaxing, reading, college football, and more eating.

We even managed to take a few family pictures while everyone was together: 

We tried to get a picture for our Christmas card, but we failed for two reasons.  1) Maya got into some wild mushrooms, went on a bad trip and then threw up twice, resulting in her being less than eager to cooperate.  2) After we took several pictures, figuring we had surely gotten at least one good one, we called it quits--- only to look at the pictures later and see that Kolby looked rather.... crippled.  Somehow his skinny legs combined with a weird camera angle, ghostly pale ankles and Toms shoes to make him look a bit like Tiny Tim.  I laughed so hard it almost made it worth it :)

When she wasn't off hunting for shrooms, Maya would find a peaceful spot to keep watch and refused to come to us when we called for her since she knew she was well within our eyesight.  Too bad she wasn't aware of how hard she is to find out there:

On our way home today, we took the back roads to avoid traffic and stopped off in a small town along the way for a quick lunch.  When we came back out to our car, guess who had parked next to us?

There was a plastic bag filled with who-knows-what stuffed inside the deer, and its eyes were open and its tongue hanging out.  Keeping it classy.

Now we're home, watching The Muppet Christmas Carol and counting the days until we can go get our tree and put our lights up!

Catching Up

First, let me start with some BIG NEWS.  Summer 2011 will bring Kolby and I the title of uncle and aunt for the 1st time!!  Brad & Remy are expecting a baby, and they had a doctor's visit last week that confirmed that everything is looking great (praise God!).  My heart could explode just thinking about having a teeny baby just up the road that I can hold whenever I want, and likely take home with me when they aren't looking.  Congrats bro & sis--- we're so happy for y'all.  I'll plan to pack up and move in around mid-June.

Next, allow me to brag on my brilliant husband for a moment.  Kolby is the best teacher ever.  For a lot of reasons, actually.  Last week he hosted a poetry reading at a local Barnes & Noble for his creative writing class, and 50+ students and parents came and it was a huge success.  Several of his students came up to me at the end of it just to tell me how much they love him and that he's the best teacher they've ever had.  Kolby has a very natural ability to #1, instill confidence in his students and build them up in a real and meaningful way and #2, get them interested in English and writing in a way that will give them a tremendous advantage in college (he teaches seniors).  I could go on and on, but suffice it to say that I think he's found a perfect niche for himself in teaching, and I'm very proud of his work.

I went to New Orleans for work at the beginning of last week.  I had never been there before (the food was delicious!).  I'd say the highlight of the trip was that I didn't trip and fall on my face during the presentation I gave, and I'd say the lowlight was that I did trip and fall on my face the very next morning, walking from the hotel to where the meetings were.  It didn't help that it was right in front of the 5 co-workers I was walking with, including my boss.  Awesome.  And I fell all the way to the ground--- it wasn't just a little stumble.  I have the bruised knees and scraped elbow to prove it.  My pride actually recovered fairly quickly, on account of how kind everyone was about it, but I can't say the same for my slacks, which were ruined by marks on the knees from where I hit the concrete sidewalk, or my brand new very first pair of nice heels, which got scuffed up in the utterly embarrassing fiasco.  I would have been much more upset about the whole thing, but this was the same day Brad & Remy were having their first OB appointment, and I kept reminding myself that if something had to go perfectly right that day, I'd obviously rather it be that than me being able to successfully walk from point A to point B without humiliating myself.

One of my very best friends got married this past Saturday.  It was a beautiful wedding to be a part of.  Here's the happy couple (Katie & Daniel) at their rehearsal:

And here are some pictures Kolby took of Maya, just for fun.  He is off from school this week and was in charge of raking the yard yesterday.  I got a text from him while I was at work that read, "Guess who decided to pose for a leaf pile photo shoot?" to which I replied, "Chris?" and then laughed out loud to myself.  Chris is our friend that lives in our garage apartment.  I really feel like I hit that one out of the park.  

[Note that I messed with these pictures a lot because I've downloaded several photo editing software trials so I can figure out which one to ask for for Christmas.]

Well that about sums it up here.  Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Halloween

In the spirit of Halloween, we had our Life Group over for pumpkin carving, apple cider, and caramel-chocolate apples.  It was a great night. 

Kolby's pumpkin.  You can probably guess where his design is headed.

Heather reviewing the literature.

This is Chris.  He's our friend that lives in our garage.  And he can carve a mean pumpkin.

We had several prizes.  You can see how enthusiastic Mike is about his lambskin seat belt shoulder pad.

Kolby's finished product.  It's the Rangers claw.  He won a special edition DVD of Harry and the Hendersons. 

On Halloween night, my mom helped me hold down the home front with the trick-or-treaters while my dad and Kolby went to the World Series game.  I discovered that I was completely unable to resist the temptation to guess what the kids' costumes were, and I never guessed right one single time.  One time I guessed a fairy and the girl informed me that she was Tinker Bell.  So the next fairy that came around, I politely asked if she was a fairy or Tinker Bell.  The little 4-year old girl not-so-politely told me that no, she was the queen of the butterfly princesses.  Obviously.

Now we're ready for Thanksgiving!

A Decade

Kolby and I first started dating on October 31, 2000.  Also known as a decade ago.  10 years.

We were 15.

When my mom made me pick up all my leftover childhood stuff at their house before they moved a few months ago, I came across this collage:

The football ticket is from the game where Kolby and I sat on the handrail by the concession stand at halftime and told each other that we liked each other while sharing a bag of peanut M&Ms.  I can still remember so much about that night.  We went to a haunted house with some friends the next day and did some pretty heavy flirting.  I remember so much about that night as well.  Then I remember that we officially started "going out" (I wonder what the kids call it these days?!?!) on October 31-- Halloween.  Unfortunately neither of us can remember a single thing about how we got together that day, we just remember that was our anniversary for Kolby and Emily Part 1.

Kolby and Emily Part 1 didn't last too long.  I like to blame the fact that neither of us could drive at the time, which made for a pretty lame relationship.  Kolby was my first (and only) kiss.  I wasn't his.  I like to hold that over his head on occasion.  Anyway, that relationship ended shortly after the fateful broken ski pole incident on a youth group ski trip circa Christmas break 2000.  If you don't know that story then you are fresh out of luck because I don't have the energy to tell it again, but suffice it to say that the words "I hate you!" were yelled in sincerity by one of us (cough, Kolby) in a heated moment atop a double blue diamond ski run and the other one of us chose not to stand for such treatment, and may have used said event as a great excuse to end a relationship that was already headed south.

I finally got my braces off soon after we got back from skiing and was looking like a total hottie, causing Kolby to totally regret losing such a great catch.  Of course with my frizzy hair and the fact that the CHI was years away from hitting the market, I'm sure I didn't look nearly as good as I thought I did.  But isn't that what 9th grade is all about?

We spent the next several months as friends.  Here is a picture from youth camp in 2001, age 15:

That fall, Kolby asked me to our school's homecoming dance "as friends."
Homecoming 2001--- age 16:

You'll notice butterfly clips were a preferred hair choice for me at that time in my life.  Classy.

 I have a very clear memory of how uncomfortable Kolby was as we were taking this picture, with his hands on my waist and my dad watching.  :)  And yes, we were rather awkward and gangly.

It was later that night that Kolby kissed me on my front porch after he walked me to the door.  Then a few weeks passed with neither of us having the guts to talk about it.

On October 26, 2001 we were hanging out at Kolby's house watching Rush Hour 2 when the conversation finally went down.  It was Kolby and Emily Part 2, and it was official.

We even survived the youth ski trip that year:

It was Valentine's Day 2002 that I told Kolby that I loved him.  He said the same.  We were 16 so I know that sounds crazy, but what can I say?  Maybe it was a different kind of love than we have now, but I can't really say that I think we were crazy for feeling like we loved each other then, given how everything panned out.  Here we are on that night (again with the butterfly clips, sheesh!):

Even though we were the same age, I was a sophomore and Kolby was a junior at that point.  We finished out high school with some great times together:

Some of my favorite high school memories are from homecoming and prom Kolby's senior year (age 17):

We were having such a great time together--- completely happy--- then Kolby had to go off and graduate and kill all of our fun.

We both turned 18 the following summer and we decided to give the whole long-distance thing a go when Kolby left for Wheaton (a thousand miles away!)in late August.  It was miserable, but I was having a great senior year with my friends and Kolby was loving college.  I think I blocked out of my memory a lot of our relationship from that year.  Kolby flew back and surprised me for Valentine's Day, and that's about all I can recall.  I think I also got in trouble from my parents a lot for staying on the phone too late.  We learned a lot about each other and about how to communicate, which is something I'm still grateful for.

It didn't take long for us to realize that it probably didn't make sense for us to keep the long-distance relationship going for 4 whole years, given how hard it was on both of us that first year alone.  If it was "meant to be," it could happen later on in life when it wasn't so difficult.  Unfortunately, we came to this conclusion in May, and we would both be around all summer.  So we made the super mature decision to postpone the breakup until August-- we were in love and why shouldn't we enjoy those last months together?!?

Then came what we affectionately refer to as Snot Fest 2k4.  We were 19, and were breaking up for reasons that had nothing to do with the way we felt about each other. At that point in my life I would not say that I was an emotional person, but I cried so hard the snot just poured out (TMI?).  So did Kolby.  It was a rough evening.

We spent the next 6+ months barely communicating, save one or two phone calls to say hey and a hangout with friends at Christmas break.  I don't really remember how it came about, but I decided to visit Kolby at Wheaton the next spring.  We had each had been on a few dates (Kolby more so than me, also something I like to hold over his head) but nothing stuck.  That weekend visit was the first time we'd spent time together since Snot Fest 2k4, and it was amazing.  We loved each other, but we were still 2 years away from living in the same state again, so we entered this no-man's land where we were in love but not dating.

Flash forward to July 4, 2005.  Kolby had just recovered from the most horrible jaw reconstruction surgery of all time.  We were in my bedroom (at my parents' house) sitting on the floor playing Duck Hunt on my old school Nintendo.  We kissed.  It was our third first kiss.  And so began Kolby and Emily Part 3.

The third time's a charm!

If you had told me when we first got together 10 years ago that we'd be unbelievably happily married and falling asleep every night hand-in-hand in our first house together, I would have called you crazy.  But our story is one of my favorite things about us, and I feel so blessed to be on such a great journey!

[End of sappy, nostalgic, LONG story. Is anyone even still reading?]