Miscellaneous

Not much new is going on around here, but it's Sunday afternoon and I have a few spare minutes on my hands so here is a super exciting post about nothing.

The weather here was really nice yesterday so I took Maya on a walk while Kolby was at the library.  I hadn't used my nice camera in awhile, so I took it with me because I want to develop a "creative eye" or whatever it is that allows photographers to find great photo ops in everyday surroundings.  I took a picture of a street sign and then a tree, and then I gave up because they didn't look cool at all and I just don't get how they do it.  So I reverted to an old favorite.  

 As I mentioned awhile back, Kolby is having two of his poems published!  They are being published in a literary journal that two of his SPU professors have published in recently, so it's a great step for him.  The issue is on pre-sale for 20% off or you can get it on Amazon.com for $15 starting in February.  If you want more details, shoot me an email: emily.[last name]@ymail.com.

The Bible study group that we host at our house kicked off a new season a few weeks ago and we had 14 people this past week.  It's been really neat to see the group grow and develop a great sense of community, which is particularly important for a new church plant.  We don't really have room for any more people (literally), but we hope our group continues to grow and feel like having more people than room will be a great problem to have.  We'll cross the logistics bridge when we get there.  I highly doubt that we'd ever seriously look into it, but Kolby and I did have a conversation the other day about whether we think the wall between our living room and kitchen is load-bearing.  Because everyone knows we've been super successful with our home improvement projects around here! :)

Speaking of successful, I started cutting Kolby's hair.  We decided it would save us some money.  I save money by not bothering to get my haircut except for twice a year, but Kolby doesn't really have that option.  So we used a Christmas gift card to get a kit, and I think I've done a pretty decent job.  I was supposed to cut his hair yesterday but I wasn't feeling well and he got impatient.  I walked back to our bedroom and found him shirtless in the bathroom well on his way to giving himself a chili bowl.  I did what I could to save it, and I think it turned out OK.  Like I've said before, we live an exciting life.

Maya has been rather mischievous lately.  She's escaped from the yard three times in the past month.  Thank goodness for kind people who take the time to call her over, get our number off her tag, and call us to let us know where she is.  So here is my public service announcement:  if you see a dog wandering the streets and it looks like it clearly belongs to someone, take a minute to help out.  It's probably Maya.  OK probably not, but we would have lost Maya a dozen times if it weren't for complete strangers going out of there way to help her get home.  **Update, Feb. 1**  Make that four times in the past month.  We were really enjoying our snow day when I got a phone call from a guy who said, "Hey, are you guys looking for a dog?"  Ha!  Thank goodness he called because we would never have found her among all the dead grass and snow.  If I had to describe the majority of Maya's fur color, I would probably have said a mix of dead grass and snow (see bottom picture above).  Silly dog.

Alright, it's past time to wrap this up.  Those last three paragraphs were really a stretch.

Life with Kolby, in Numbers

Number of times we’ve watched the entire TV series Arrested Development together: 4

Percent of the time I can come into the office while he is busy writing poems and he’ll let me sit in his lap for a few minutes and shoot the breeze: 90

Inseam of the jeans I had to buy him to wear with his new cowboy boots: 36

Number of days each week he packs me a lunch: 4

Percent of grocery shopping that he does: 75 (I’m a lucky girl)

Inches taller he is than me: 9.5

Number of times this week he has laughed out loud at the new Cheetos commercial: 4

Percent of the time he will sing along with me or dance around with me when I ask him to: 70

Percent of the time he will dance around with me if he is wearing his new cowboy boots: 90

Percent of the time he will dance around with me if he is wearing his new cowboy boots and I play this: 100

Months since we started dating: 123

Fights/Arguments we’ve had since we’ve been married: 0.5

Number of times we’ve raised our voices at each other: 1

Clean rooms in our house right now: 2

Number of times we have mopped the floors since we bought our house in 2009: 3 (yes I know, gross)

Number of kitchen drawers we have at this house: 1

Number of nights since being married that we forgot to kiss each other goodnight before falling asleep: 0

Number of times this week I heard monkey sounds coming from the shower because the water was too hot or too cold when he stepped in: 3

Number of foods I have ever heard him say that he doesn’t like: 1 (mushrooms)

Odds that I can talk him into an afternoon family nap on a Sunday: 1 in 10

Number of times in any given day that he’ll speak for Maya, in the voice we came up with for her: 2-3

Number of books he’s read out loud to me: 5

Number of minutes it takes for our electric blanket to warm our sheets before we go to bed: 15

Number of people we had over for Life Group last night (bi-weekly Bible study through our church): 14

Number of chairs to spare at Life Group last night: 0 (if our group continues to grow, which I hope it does, we'll be left with an office chair on wheels, Maya's dog bed, and the toilet as our best options for additional seating)

Poems that he will have published this year: at least 2

Months until he'll graduate with his MFA: 7

Number of times we've stayed up past midnight in the past year: 3-4, at best

Minutes until bedtime tonight: 10

Catching Up

After Christmas, we gathered with my whole family two more times, apparently in an effort to not let a 48-hour period of Christmas break pass without seeing each other.  First, we all piled into Russell's Tahoe to head to Houston for the Baylor bowl game.  That's 7 adults in 1 car for 4+ hours.  Not to mention that both my brothers have a fondness for all the most disgusting road trip snacks-- Chili Cheese Fritos, Combos, Chocolate Peanut Butter Bugles, you name it.

This shot may make things look nice and roomy, but Russell, my dad and me had the luxury of sharing the back seat, thanks to preggo Remy needing to drive so she didn't get carsick.  And if you aren't familiar with the back seat of a Tahoe, it would probably be an uncomfortable squeeze for 2 kids, much less 3 adults.  Then things got worse:

Russell: “So what time are we picking up Megan?” (his girlfriend)

Emily: “Please tell me you’re kidding.”

Russell: “What?”

Emily: “How in the world are you thinking we can fit one more? I haven’t been able to feel my legs since Madisonville.”

Mom: “We can make it work.  Emily, you can climb onto Kolby’s lap, and I’ll whip around into your spot and Megan can sit here.”

Emily: “Mom, there is no way that you and dad and Russell can all fit in this back seat.”

Mom: “Sure we can, I’ll just whip around.” [laughing at herself]

Dad, Russell, Emily, in unison: “There’s no way.”

Mom took this as a challenge and sure did just “whip around” into the back seat, brushing Russell’s face with her rear on the way.  

Russell was so tightly sandwiched between mom and dad that he couldn’t get out to pick up Megan at the door, and Remy had to go to the bathroom.  So poor Megan, who has only been dating Russell for a few months and had no idea what she was in for, answers her door to a pregnant woman needing to use her restroom and then goes to the driveway and opens the door to Russell’s Tahoe to find his entire family in there like it was a clown car.  Bless her heart.

We survived the trip, although I did hear a "OK, 1...2...3!" count coming from the back seat when we stopped for dinner, which I can only assume was my parents prying one or the other out.  Unfortunately, Baylor didn't play well and lost the game, but fortunately we still had a fun time together.

A few days later, we had a joint New Year's Eve celebration with my mom's brother and his family that included Whilrlyball, pizza, and of course playing games.

Farewell 2010-- you were a great year!

On New Year's Day, Kolby got a call from our pastor who was really sick and asked if Kolby would be willing to preach on Sunday in his place.  He told Kolby the passage he wanted the sermon to be on (Romans 7), and left the rest open.  So, on less than 24-hours notice, Kolby had the privilege to preach at our church. He had written an amazing sermon (not surprising) and delivered it perfectly.  I was seriously in awe of him.  So proud.  He has such a noticeable talent for teaching-- whether it be teaching Scripture to a congregation or teaching literature to a class of teenagers.  I was really nervous for him that Sunday, but he wasn't at all-- he said he faces a much harsher audience every day at a school :).  I think he shared a great message on the new life we have in Christ, and so many people came up to me (or him) to say what a great job he did.  Getting to teach that lesson really lit his fire, and it was so fun to watch.  

My preacher man:

Here is the audio of his sermon, if you care to take a listen (20 minutes).

[the first part got cut off, so here's the text of what's missing from the audio]

So I’m in first grade and my older brother and I are in the backyard of one of his friends with some of the other neighborhood kids playing whiffle-ball.  Because I’m the youngest one there, I’m the designated pitcher, so I don’t get to hit, but I’ve got my slider working and the game is going pretty well.  It’s the bottom of the last inning, I’ve got my eye on the ghost runner on second and third and the chunky kid is on first.  My brother is at the plate—he’s got that skinny, yellow bat waggling behind him, his tongue sticking out the side of his mouth.  I give him a high heater and he swings and he bombs it into deep right, which is the bed of monkey grass against the side of the house.  Our right fielder takes off after it and stretches out his hands and looks like he is going to make the catch but then…it gets caught in the top of the crape myrtle tree.  So of course I explode, saying that it was going to be an out, so we win the game.  Needless to say, my brother saw it a little differently—he’s screaming that with his speed, he would have easily had an inside-the-park home run on that hit, so they win the game.  I’m in a headlock in about two and a half seconds and the right fielder is threatening to take his bat and go home and everything is falling apart until finally I whimper those two magical words.  If you have ever been in first grade and played any sort of playground game then you no doubt know what these two words are that can pacify everyone.  DO OVER!  Do over!  Reset everything just the way it was and let’s just do it over again.

Isn’t that what the New Year is for us?  We look at our waistlines, in our refrigerators, our closets, our checking accounts, our email inboxes, our Bibles collecting dust along with the half dozen devotionals we bought that year and we think: Do over. Let's pray.
[sermon continues in audio clip]

We both started back to work last Monday (I took a few days off the week between Christmas and New Year's) and are back in the swing of things.  I traveled to Denver on a business trip last weekend and attended a conference where there were 11,000+ economists in attendance.  Now if that doesn't sound like a party waiting to happen, then I don't know what does.  Just kidding... really just kidding.  It was actually a pretty lonely trip because I didn't go with any co-workers.  On Friday night, I was back to my hotel and in my pj's by 4:45pm.  I ordered pizza and a 20 oz. coke from Papa John's, and when had I called the concierge for the number, I caught myself saying to her, "We're thinking about ordering a pizza, ..." because I was so embarrassed that it was just me. Yes, I realize how pathetic that sounds, mainly because I know how pathetic it felt.  I gotta tell you, though... a small sausage pizza, an ice-cold coke, a fancy hotel room all to myself, and a TBS lineup of The Wedding Planner followed by Father of the Bride... not a bad Friday night once in a blue moon.:)  Again, I do know how pathetic that sounds.  As I've said before, I don't think I'm really cut out for business travel!

OK, I think that about sums it up.  Aren't you glad you're up-to-speed on these exciting happenings?!?  Until next time...

Webb Christmas

We celebrated Christmas with my family at my parents' ranch, and it was wonderful.  The kind of wonderful where you don't get out of your pj's for three days straight.  And all you do is eat, sleep, and play.

I had to work on Christmas Eve, but my boss let us out at 1pm so I can't really complain.  Once we all made it to the ranch, we got started decorating the tree and listening to Mariah Carey's Christmas album.

Next, we moved on to the tradition of making cutout cookies.

Then we ate chicken & dumplings, played a lot of games, opened one present each, and then ate Christmas goodies until we felt sick enough to call it a night.

Then it was Christmas morning.  Santa brought Kolby and me our first pair of cowboy boots!

Kolby is 7' tall in these boots.  Not really, but it's close.

We siblings and siblings-in-law need to apologize to Russell.  We made fun of him for the fact that his Christmas list looked like something an 11-year-old would come up with, but then we all had the BEST TIME EVER playing the Xbox Kinect that Santa brought him.  Holy cow was this thing amazing!

Pictures of the gaming will dominate the rest of this post, so I apologize if you don't find these pictures as amusing as I do. My photography skills suffered quite a bit because of the tears from laughing so hard clouding my vision.  Watching my parents play beach volleyball will go down as one of my top 5 moments of 2010.

 A little whitewater rafting and adventure games:

 Mom vs. Russell in the 110-meter hurdles:

It did not take long to work up a sweat when playing Kinect.  I think the picture below is one of my favorites from the weekend--  my mom had to go stand by the door to let some cold air in after her intense bout against Russell (cough... hot flash...):

 Nothing screams Christmas morning like a good old-fashioned Wii dance-off.  Kolby won by a long-shot, repeatedly.  Although Remy gets all the style points, especially with a baby on board:

Speaking of baby on board, the picture below is of Remy's baby belly at about 14 weeks pregnant, and my food-baby belly at about 14 minutes post Christmas meal.  Can you tell which is which?!?!  :) 

[sorry for the bad glare from the sun... it's hard to get good photo help around here!]

I asked everyone to put on some real clothes for just a minute so that we could snap a quick family picture. Poor Kolby has had to get used to being asked to stand in the picture spot while I get my camera adjusted, especially if we're using the self-timer.  He knows the drill.  I was so caught up in trying to figure out how to deal with all the natural light coming in that I didn't notice his little photo shoot until I just uploaded these to my computer:

Way to put out the vibe, honey.

Anyway, back to the family picture.  It isn't great, but at least everyone has their eyes open:

It was a little strange to be at the ranch without the 20+ additional family members from one side or the other, but it was nice to have our rooms to ourselves, and my mom baked as though she were feeding the entire western hemisphere.  

We are so grateful for the fun we were able to have with both of our families this year, but most of all we are grateful for the birth of Jesus.  Take it away, Linus.

Merry Christmas to all!

Three Years!

Three years ago:

Can you believe it's been three years?  More shockingly, can you believe my arms used to look like that?  Lol.  This picture (almost) makes me want to dust off my Jillian Michaels 30-Day Shred DVD and get back in that kind of shape.

I always get really sentimental about our marriage and our life together this time of year.  Yes, our anniversary is a big part of that.  But even more than that, it's the cold weather.  Let me explain.  Kolby and I had quite a lengthy courtship, if you recall.  Not sure why I just called it a courtship.  But anyway, I'd say the latter 4 years or so that we were dating we got really hung up on this thought of how great it will be to one day not have to say goodbye to each other after an evening of hanging out, but instead just say goodnight and fall asleep together.  When the frigid Texas winters would set in (ha!), the feeling was always much stronger because we always had a tumultuous time debating whose house we would go hang out at and thus who would have to be the one to face the cold drive home.  Our houses were 7 minutes apart which isn't really enough time for the car to get warm, and it is completely stuck in my memory how miserable those drives were.  I spent 6 long years waiting to be able to say "goodnight" to him, and I try my best not to take it for granted that I finally have that privilege.

Back to the anniversary.  I would say that the thing that stands out most about our third year of marriage is how much fun we had together.  Kolby makes me laugh every day, several times a day.  I can't tell you how much I love that.  He is super witty, and he also has a killer knack for flawlessly quoting TV shows (Arrested Development and 30 Rock, mostly) at just the perfect times.  Speaking of TV, Kolby is the kind of person that laughs out loud at a funny line on TV, and that has become one of my favorite silly things about him lately.  Isn't it so much more fun to hang out and watch TV with someone like that?!?

Among the favorite Kolby/Emily pastimes at our house are singing silly, dancing silly, and talking on behalf of Maya.  I can't imagine how ridiculous those things probably sound to an outsider, but Kolby and I genuinely have such a fun time together and I hope we never lose this sense of childish humor.  Our lives aren't too stressful, and we are taking advantage of it!

This third year brought us some wonderful time with family, and the wonderfully hectic transition to both of us working full-time.  Also of note this year is our involvement in our new church, and the many new friendships it has brought into our lives, particularly for Kolby. 

I can honestly say that I'm happier than I ever thought I would be, and that being married to Kolby is so much better than I ever thought it would be.  He is such a blessing.  I could go on and on about him, but I imagine that anyone who knows him well could easily imagine what a wonderful husband he is to me.  I am so thankful.

K + E = MFEO

[Meant For Each Other]

Here's to another great year!

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....