Kolby is LOVING the summer residency for his grad program! He took this picture with his cell phone from the balcony of one of the buildings where they have classes. 
Maya isn't too sure about it yet. We can't even get her to pull the empty sled more than a few yards. I think it'll take her some time to get used to the sound and feel of something dragging behind her. She gets better at it each time we try, so we're still assuming that husky instinct will kick in any day now! Although, her penchant for laying outside in full sun during the heat of the day until the point where her fur gets so hot it could burn your hand suggests that her Siberian instinct is nowhere to be found these days. We'll see...
Also, I helped my mom create a blog to document the progress of their ranch since it was getting cumbersome to e-mail multiple pictures to all the curious family members. She just updated it this week: http://www.lostcreekranch.blogspot.com/
Enjoy!
The Baylor group (plus Kolby) at my college roommate's wedding in Memphis, TN on July 3. Her name is Emily but we know her as Griffin because 3 of the 5 girls in our apartment were named Emily so we resorted to last names. 
Laura, Brittany, Katelyn, and I at Brittany's beautiful wedding in East Texas on July 11. Brittany is a dear friend of mine from Baylor and she and her husband will live 10 minutes away from us when they get back from their honeymoon!
It was A LOT of wedding festivities but we survived it all and enjoyed spending good time with great friends!
Picture 2: We approach the swell--- Remy gets thrown forwards while Kolby quietly slips out the back. This picture cracks me up because it looks like there's nothing too crazy going on with the raft yet Kolby somehow loses his hold and has no hope of recovering it. We hadn't even hit the swell yet.
Picture 3: NO IDEA what's happening here.
Picture 5: I was the ONLY person who knew Kolby had fallen out (I watched the whole thing happen... see pictures 3&4!). Everyone had their eyes locked on Remy (even the guide) to see if she'd be able to hang on, which she did. In this picture you can see I'm frantically looking for Kolby in the direction he had fallen out but he was resurfacing (rather creepily) on the opposite side of the raft. Mom and Brad had NO IDEA that he had fallen out nor that they were banging him with their paddles!
Picture 6: The front of the boat is laughing at Remy's wild ride, Mom is trying to figure out what keeps getting in the way of her paddle, and I am SCREAMING "Kolby fell out!!!" at the top of my lungs. All this happened in a split second but it seemed like an eternity before I could get anyone to realize Kolby was gone. At this point, our guide was the only one to notice Kolby clinging to the side of the raft for dear life.
Once I realized where Kolby was, I grabbed him by the life jacket and pulled him out of the water and into the raft in no time. The guide had hollered for me to let go of him and he said that he'd pull him in once we got through the rapids but I was not about to let him spend one more second outside that raft. Talk about the power of adrenaline... I pulled him up and out of that water completely by myself. [And he's not small... just take a look at picture 4 again.] If not adrenaline, it could have also been the power of a bride-to-be who already had her wedding dress and was NOT about to lose her fiancee that gave me the strength to get Kolby back in the raft. Either way, he made it back safely and lived to tell "his side" of the story. Basically, he just never thought he (or anyone) would actually fall out so he wasn't hanging on that tight. He fell (flipped?) out and wound up resurfacing underneath our raft but had the presence of mind to guide himself to the edge while even remembering to keep his legs up so they didn't get caught on any rocks. He said it all happened too fast for him to be scared and all he could think about was how cold the water was.
Such a trooper!
It wasn't long before my phone started ringing with calls from people who had seen her at some point in the night. Then we finally got a call from a lady who was on a walk and had just seen her on the street that my parents' house backs up to. So we headed that direction and got another call minutes later from a man who had her by the collar at his yard sale. I guess she was just in dire need of a garden gnome to give Kolby for his birthday.
It is a pier & beam house (I'm still not totally sure what exactly that means, but I know it is an alternative to a slab foundation), was built in 1957, and has 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. There is a nice-sized living room and a there is a large breakfast area off the kitchen where we'll put our dining table. The entry, living room, hallway, and bedrooms have the original hardwood floors. The house is in really great condition and the sellers have made a lot of updates during the 9 years that they've been there.
The kitchen cabinets are original, but there are new granite countertops (AWESOME!), a new tumbled marble backsplash, and new ceramic tile floors. The sink, electric cooktop, and dishwasher are new as well. Here is a picture of the kitchen (all these pictures are from the listing website):
The sellers completely remodeled both bathrooms (down to the studs). These first pictures are of the guest bathroom, but I wish I could post pictures from a typical bathroom in a 1950s house to make you appreciate how amazing these bathrooms are. The bathrooms in the other houses we had looked at were AWFUL. We love the beadboard (which is also in the breakfast area) and the tiled tub and the vanity area. And the new ceramic tile floors. We pretty much love everything the current owners have done to update the house, which is so great.
Below are a couple of pictures from the master bathroom. The first thing you'll probably notice is that it is tiny. There is just enough room for the sink, toilet, and shower. This is true for ALL houses of this size that were built in that era. It is a negative attribute for sure, but we decided that the "positives" that go along with such a unique and quaint house are well worth the sacrifice. The wall to the right of the sink is nothing but built-in cabinets, which will be great for storage. The sellers replaced the old tub with a large tiled shower and it looks really great.
I didn't want to post pictures of the other rooms since they'll look totally different once we put our furniture in them, but our plan is to use one of the extra bedrooms as an office and the other as a guest room. The house has a great yard full of great trees: magnolia, crate myrtle, cherry laurel, bradford pear, red oak, pecan and hackberry. I love that they are all different. There is also a cedar deck off the back of the house and it and the backyard are shaded enough to actually be usable even during the summer. I'll post plenty more pictures once we get settled in.
It is such a great house!
Technically we haven't bought it yet, but we did sign a contract today and assuming all goes well with the inspection, appraisal, etc.--- we'll be homeowners as of July 6th!
At the end of last week, my mom came down for a few days and helped me pack (thanks, Mom!). There are now dozens of packed boxes scattered throughout our apartment.
We brought the aforementioned bags of clothes to Goodwill and hauled 6 huge trash bags of junk out to the dumpster. It was a long couple of days but I'm so glad we got all that done and out of the way! Kolby and I will disassemble all of the furniture this week and pack up the last few boxes before moving day on Saturday!
