Catching Up

Please excuse the fact that this will have no cohesiveness whatsoever.  I'm just trying to keep my commitment to post at least once once a month, even when my computer acquired a virus and was down for the count for the past few weeks.

Kolby started the new school year in August.  Here's my all-star teacher on his first day of school:

My family got together a awhile back to celebrate birthdays, and I took some new pictures of Tucker.  He is serisouly the cutest thing.
[These were taken about a month ago, FYI.]

Here's a picture of Kolby and Tucker from a different occasion.  If I had to name one person who is almost as baby crazed as me, it would be Kolby.  Can't blame him though, there is really nothing sweeter than holding a sleeping baby.

In late August one of my college roommates came in town from Memphis to spend the weekend with the three other roomies that live around here.  Despite the oppressive temperatures, we all had a great time together!

Our church had a "soft opening" of our new building earlier this summer, but we've been working since then to furnish the place, build a stage, assemble a kitchen, decorate, etc. and we celebrated our grand opening on August 28.  It was a great service and an awesome reminder of God's faithfulness.

 


For Labor Day weekend we had our annual family reunion with my dad's side of the family at the ranch.  It was similar to all the family gatherings down there so I'll spare the recap.  But here are a couple cute pictures of my cousin's kids, and a full scoop of the weekend can be found at my cousin Debby's blog here.

Kolby making ice cream with the little ones:

Miss Laura:

I may have mentioned before that our neighbors have chickens.  Well now they have 5 chicks as well and they are absolutely adorable.  A few weekends ago they asked me to come over and snap some pictures.  What started as this:

Evolved to this (albeit at a seven year-olds prompting):

When I woke up that morning if you had told me that my day would include photographing chickens in wingback chairs reading the newspaper, I definitely wouldn't have believed you.  :) 

Because this post is already so random, I'll leave you with a couple recent quotes, for your reading pleasure:

Kolby: He's the one who looks a little like a hobbit.

Emily: Oh, I know who you're talking about.  He's not thin, though.

Kolby:  Hobbits aren't thin.  I think you're thinking of elves.  I would have said he looks like a dwarf, but he doesn't have a beard.

Kolby:  What is that kid's name again?
Russell:  Holden.
Kolby:  Oh, like Holden Caulfield.
Russell:  Yeah (insert fake laugh).
*Kolby was referring to the protagonist in The Catcher in the Rye*
**Russell thought he said "holdin' coffee."**

Congrats, Kolby!

Kolby graduated a couple weeks ago with his Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing.  His final residency was in Santa Fe, and Kevin & Roycee and I met up with him for 5 days to be there for the last part of it and for his graduation ceremony.  It was so great to meet his friends and professors and get a glimpse of what he's been up to these past two years.  

Here are some pictures from the trip.

We stayed in a beautiful house on the same street as all of the art galleries.

 Apparently they don't make people as short as they used to.

Part of Kolby's graduation requirements was a reading from his poetry manuscript.  He did great!

Kolby graduated alongside 11 other writers, whose occupations ranged from Wall Street Journal reporter to surgeon to engineer, etc.

Here are some other pictures from after the graduation ceremony:

 Kolby had two mentor teachers.  They are really sweet and really talented.

Kolby's parents and I had some down time while Kolby was in class, which we spent enjoying the beautiful town and great weather: 

***

Because not everyone was able to travel to Santa Fe to witness and celebrate Kolby's graduation in person, I  put together a killer party for our whole family after we got home.  We got together at my parents' ranch for a big BBQ, and somehow we lucked out and the party fell on Texas' one-day reprieve from +100 degree temperatures.  I can honestly say that it seemed like everyone had a REALLY great time, and hopefully Kolby felt how proud we all are of him.  Success!

I decorated with pictures that Kolby had taken in Seattle or Santa Fe and ones I took during his graduation weekend.  I also printed out some of my favorite poems he's written.

 I set out a couple of books that Kolby has had poems published in, and I also put together a booklet of his poetry that I pulled from his graduate manuscript.  The booklets turned out really great and everyone got to take one home with them.

Guess who went on his first road trip to be at the party?  Remy unfortunately had a church event that day, so Brad brought Tucker all by himself.  Impressive!

My dad and Kolby's dad tag-teamed the BBQ.  They made the.best.food.ever.  Oh my gosh I wish I was eating it again right now.  It was SO good.  They made brisket, chicken, and sausage, and it was in the smoker for so many hours that the meat just fell apart it was so tender.  I could go on and on, but I'm seriously drooling just thinking about it so I'll leave it at that.

 Kolby wasn't super excited about this part, but we talked him into reading some of his poems for us since everyone missed his graduate reading in Santa Fe.  He was a good sport though, and it was much appreciated by all!

 ***

 Congratulations, honey.  I'm so proud of you, inspired by you, and honored to be living life with a guy as amazing as you.:)

 All my love and support,

Summer Update

Wow, it’s been awhile!  Where to start?  First things first…

We have new neighbors!  Kolby’s sister Kassidy and her husband Derek leased a house just a couple blocks away from us.  This is exciting for a lot of reasons, but my favorite at the moment is that when we have each other over for dinner we can just walk since they’re only about 20 houses down the street.  Welcome to the neighborhood!

EVEN BIGGER EXCITING NEWS, Kolby's brother Kason and his wife Sarah are having a baby!  And, they found out last week that it's a GIRL!  So, we're expecting our very first niece in November and we are so excited!

In mid-June, SK (Summer Kolby) and I went on vacation with his family to Kiawah Island, South Carolina.  It was absolutely amazing.  We stayed in a big beautiful house that overlooked a pond with alligators, and the most peaceful beach I’ve ever been to was a 5 minute bike ride away.  A typical day included sleeping in, eating a big breakfast, taking a morning nap (everyone knows that’s the best kind of nap), lathering on sunscreen, biking to the secluded beach, reading a book in a beach lounger with the waves rolling over my feet, grabbing lunch, going back to the beach so Kolby and I could break our previous paddleball record, having a nice family dinner on the back patio, and watching the Mavericks win the NBA championship.  That’s basically my perfect idea of a vacation, and we enjoyed every second of it!

 Kiawah Island is a private golf island and it had a very southern, country club feel to it.  Picture a woman in the grocery store saying to her husband, with a very ritzy southern accent, “Hamilton, I believe you forgot the cherries for our old-fashioneds!”  Yes, that actually happened (an old-fashioned is apparently some type of cocktail).  So SK and I called each other Charles (don’t pronounce the “r”) and Mitzy, and had fun dining in restaurants where the dress code was always “Resort Casual,” whatever that means!
*Please excuse the lack of a big family picture.  We had a plan for one but then a certain baby nephew of mine decided to enter the world a few weeks early so I rushed home to be there.*

Then in mid-July we went to Cancun, Mexico with our friends Tyler & Erin for a long weekend getaway.  Last year the four of us spent a week exploring several National Parks in the southwest, which was a total blast but I voted this year for something that doesn’t involve hiking in any form or fashion.  So we went to the beach, and it was great to hang out with them (they live in Arkansas so we never get to see each other!) and relax and play games. 

 We stayed up late every night playing dominoes and around midnight we'd order a club sandwich from room service to share.  What is free 24-hour room service good for if not that?  Here's a quick pic of the club club: 

One other big thing that happened this summer was that our church moved into our own new building.  As I’ve mentioned before, we are very involved with a new church plant (“plant” meaning that a larger-well established church in the area started or “planted” a new, small church in a nearby city with very few churches).  We spent most of our first year using a vacant restaurant on Sundays, and then we spent a year renting space in a hotel.  We had been looking for a permanent location for quite awhile but the real estate in that particular area is not church-friendly and it was really difficult to find something that would work.  Finally we found a building owner who was interested in working with us and we built out a portion of a commercial property.  After a lot of work and anticipation, we celebrated our first Sunday in our new building on July 3.  It was a really exciting day, and we’re very excited for what God has in store for our church during this next phase.

Here are some pictures of the build-out process:

Helping build IKEA kitchen cabinets:

Our first Sunday in the new building (our pastor's wife talking about the journey of finding and completing the new building, and then Kolby reading scripture):

One downer thing that happened this summer is that Maya developed some type of bug allergy and now when she gets bit by anything she chews at the spot until the hair is gone and the skin raw.  Things escalated last weekend while we were out of town and what had started as a small bite on her tail turned into the grossest thing I have ever seen.  She really did a number on that thing.  Like the responsible pet-owners we are, we opted to dodge the $90 emergency vet fee and just bandage it up and buy her a cone to get her through until Monday.  If you're ever convinced you have a smart dog, put a protective cone on it and watch it try to turn a corner or fit through a doorway.  Maybe she was just milking it, but it was pathetic.  After a visit to the vet and an upgrade to a neck ring, she's on her way to recovery.  She'll also be one of the few animal survivors were a sudden flood to come upon us.

Other than that, we’ve just been enjoying the summer.  SK has had some down time and has tackled a few home improvement projects, and I finished a really busy period at work and have made the most of our vacation time.  Kolby graduates with his MFA in Creative Writing in a few weeks and his parents and I will head out to Santa Fe, New Mexico for a long weekend to meet up with him at his last residency and to be there for the ceremony. 

And in case anyone was just itching to see baby Tucker, I'll never disappoint.  As his shirt says, he's a total chick magnet!

I took this picture today when I stopped by to visit.  That happens a lot-- the visiting.  And the picture-taking too, I guess.  Everyone has "that aunt" who is always in your face with a camera whether you like it or not.  Yes, I am already "that aunt."  Get used to it, buddy!