Emily and Kolby

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

At the Saturday morning parade

(sister-in-law Remy, older brother Brad, me, younger brother Russell)

Kolby and I at the Baylor football game

Chocolate caramel apples that we all made on Saturday night...so delicious!

Enjoying our VERY HAPPY little dog

Such a fun weekend! Sic 'em Bears!

Pumkin Carving

We decided to bring in the fall season by hosting a pumpkin carving extravaganza with some friends. Kolby put the whole impromptu event together to continue his grandmother's annual tradition of pumpkin artistry. The evening was complete with hot apple cider, Monday night football, roasted pumpkin seeds, and awards for pumpkin-carving talent.

Cleaning out the pumpkin goop

Kolby hogging the Princess Pumpkin-Carving Kit tools that we bought at the grocery store

Our final products at their best: Kolby's pumpkin calling for Batman and my pumpkin just sitting there being the amazing masterpiece that it is. If this isn't a creative display of raw talent then I don't know what is!

The whole gang

The pumpkin line-up

We all had a great time and Kolby and I ended the night chatting about how blessed we are with our little life here. We have wonderful friends and have jobs that let us spend time with them often. And our apartment is very old and small but we love it and that night it held 8 people carving pumpkins and smelled like yummy apple cider so what more could we possibly need?

October Twenty-Sixth

Today is the first October 26th in 7 years that we aren't celebrating as our "anniversary" anymore. We have a new one now, and although a wedding anniversary is much more official than a dating anniversary, it is a little bittersweet to be starting over. I don't think an October 26th will ever pass by without thoughts of how our story began. We were sixteen and chatting on my front porch after a school event that we had attended "as friends" when Kolby kissed me. We awkwardly didn't really speak much for a couple days afterwards and then eventually decided that we might as well start dating since we'd already kissed and I suppose that means we both like each other :). He proposed to me on that same front porch almost 6 years later.

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In other news, I presented part of my thesis research on micro-credit yesterday at the Baylor Symposium of Faith and Culture: Bottom-Up Approaches to Global Poverty. I was pretty nervous about it because it was my first time to do a presentation for anyone except other students in my classes so I was quite intimidated by the audience of professors from universities all over the country and ministry practitioners from all over the world. It went really well, though, and now it's time to get back to all of the schoolwork I've been neglecting.

Lil' Two-Five

My brother's t-shirt company has just launched a chilren's line, Lil' Two-Five. Each t-shirt purchased still provides a chicken for a poverty-stricken family in India. So, if you have any kiddos or even know any kiddos --- buy them a cool t-shirt and know you've changed the life of a family in need. Here are a couple of the designs:

Go to http://www.25cloth.com/ to buy a shirt!

A Winning Weekend

Kolby took the GRE on Saturday and knocked the socks off of it-- one of the many highlights of our weekend! Others included Texas beating Oklahoma ([college football] to Kolby this was probably a bigger deal than the GRE success), a visit from my best friend/college roommate Laura who I hadn't seen since she moved to Colorado this summer, watching Baylor win a conference football game (not a common occurrence!), and an afternoon taking care of our favorite kiddos:

Addi helped Kolby take Maya on her daily walk through campus and Jackson enjoyed our stop to visit the Baylor mascots.

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Queso, Michael Phelps, and Cookie Cake

Kolby and I finally got around to celebrating my birthday, which was back in August. We were in Ghana on my actual birthday and then my birthday present didn't come in the mail until this week so we've had to delay the celebration. What did I ask for for my birthday that took so long to arrive? The MICHAEL PHELPS: INSIDE STORY OF THE BEIJING GAMES dvd, of course! Isn't that what everyone requests for their birthday? I know it may sound strange/random, but we were in Africa for the vast majority of the Olympics - obviously without access to any television - and missed the whole Michael Phelps phenomenon. So, neither of us had seen a single second of any of the races. Spoiler alert: He wins all 8.

Our evening started with a yummy dinner at Ninfa's, my favorite Mexican food restaurant in Waco. I got to order all of the things that we're usually too frugal to spring for like QUESO, a topping for our fajitas, and a coke! I mean it just doesn't get much better than that. Then it was two full hours of Michael Phelps commemoration followed by a delicious dessert --- a mondo cookie cake that Maya had ordered for me. She's so thoughtful.

It may not have been the most conventional of birthday celebrations, but it was quite perfect and certainly worth the wait!

Help?

I'm getting to spend this beautiful Saturday cooped up at my desk studying for a microeconomics test that will most certainly be the death of me. I vaguely remember the head of the economics department telling me (years ago) that if I plan to go on to graduate school in economics then I should use my undergraduate electives towards upper-level math classes. But what fun would that have been? Not nearly as much fun as taking classes like "backpacking & camping" and using the spare time to plan a wedding! The fun was short-lived. So if any of you math guru's out there have any insight on the following topics, it would sure save me some time on Wikipedia.com:

Quasi-concavity, homothetic functions, Euler's theorem, Marshallian demand vs. Hicksian demand, log-function rule, matrix determinants, second principal minors, bordered Hessian matrices, Lagrangian multipliers, monotonic transformations, Cobb-Douglas utility, the envelope theorem, or Shepherd's lemma.

Seriously, who comes up with this stuff?

Wedding Album

We finally got to see the design of our wedding album this week, via e-mail. Who knows when we'll actually have it in our hands, but this certainly suffices for now! Here are a few pages:

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What a wonderful, wonderful day!

Memory Lane

I was cleaning out some stuff around my computer today and came across a CD with pictures of Kolby and I from high school. I thought I'd share my walk down memory lane...

Dressed as G.I. Joe & G.I. Jane for a costume banquet... age 16.

In St. Louis, Missouri on a church mission trip... age 17.

At youth camp... age 15.
I think I may even still have braces at this point. And, if you think Kolby is lanky now--- check out those legs in this picture!!!

I feel like we've changed a lot since then but when I take a look at pictures like these it seems like we're exactly the same and that no time has passed at all. It was this time of year at a high school football game EIGHT years ago that we awkwardly talked about how we both liked each other.
And that's how it all began...

www.25cloth.com

My older brother's t-shirt company has a new initiative for this quarter. Now, every t-shirt you buy will provide a chicken for a poverty-stricken family in India. Chickens can produce up to 40 dozen eggs per year, providing these families with a steady source of food and income.