Catching Up

In an effort to keep to my commitment of blogging at least once each month, here’s an update.

We celebrated Easter with Kolby’s family in Wimberley.  It was a great weekend—great food, golfing for the boys, reading, and a lot of play time for the pups.  Maya met her new canine cousin Maddie.  She introduced herself by fitting as much of Maddie’s tiny poodle body gently into her mouth.  I forgot my camera so I have nothing to show for the weekend, but we had a great time!

Kolby went to prom last Saturday.  It was his school’s first prom, since this is the first senior class, and it went really well.  It was at a fancy hotel and the kids all looked great and had a great time.  I got snubbed on an invite (this wasn’t the first prom Kolby has not taken me to, although I think I handled it better at age 25 than I did at 18).  His loss :).  At school the Friday before prom, Kolby gave a short speech to his students about making wise decisions on prom night.  I got the following text message from Kolby that afternoon.

“Me: ok guys, before you go, I want to talk to you for just a minute about prom.

Jeff: hey, can the Mormons just go ahead and take off now?”  Ha!

Maya had her 6^thish birthday a couple weeks ago.  It’s been four years since we got her, and the pound thought she was probably around 2 at the time.  We got her something really ridiculous for her birthday:  thundershirt.com.  Maya is absolutely terrified of thunderstorms.  Her heart starts beating a mile a minute, she trembles, she pants, and she paces all over the house.  You wouldn’t think a mute dog could make so much noise.  The gift idea started when I pointed out the Thundershirt to Kolby in SkyMall magazine several weeks ago when we were flying to Kansas City for a wedding.  But then I convinced Kolby to let us try it because it wasn’t all that expensive and it came with a money-back guarantee, and Maya has been driving us crazy this spring will all of the crazy storms we’ve been having.  So I ordered it for her.  It’s a soft, vest wrap thing that is sort of like a cross between a t-shirt and a doggie swaddling blanket.  I do hear how ridiculous that sounds.  Anyway, we got it in the mail and used it for the first time last weekend.  And wouldn’t you know—it worked!  I can’t say that it worked miracles or anything, but it kept her a LOT calmer and she wasn’t panting or shaking.  She was still scared, but she wasn’t panicking like she usually does.  It was worth every penny.  It stormed all weekend and we didn’t lose more than 10 minutes of sleep.  Add this to the list of things I never thought, I’d hear:  Kolby at 4am, “Hey Em, it’s storming and Maya is over here freaking out.  If I go get it, will you put on her Thundershirt?”

Kolby took his mom to the Rangers game for Mother’s Day, and they had a great time despite the sun, heat, and the game-losing grand slam.  He also has recently taken his dad, my dad, and his grandfather to games.  And he's taken me (a lot).  It's been so fun to have season tickets!

I spent Mother’s Day weekend with my mom, three aunts, and my cousin who is getting married in July.  We had a fun girls weekend in The Woodlands, complete with shopping, eating, napping, seeing a chick flick, and relaxing by the pool.  On our way down, my aunt picked me up from work and then we picked my mom up in Groesbeck (shout out to anyone who can remember the important role Groesbeck played in our early marriage!).  It was past dinnertime and my aunt suggested swinging through Bush’s Chicken.  My mom asked, “Isn’t everything at Bush’s fried?” so we ended up at Dairy Queen instead, where we proceeded to order two chicken finger baskets.  Plus an extra side of gravy.  I mean, you can’t make stuff like this up. 

On a whim, I decided that it would be fun for Kolby and I to make sopapillas on Cinco de Mayo.  Mainly because I love me some sopapillas.  They were pretty easy to make and oh my goodness it was so delicious to eat a whole plate of them for dessert.

  And here’s a baby update:

Alayne is due May 22; aka any day now.  Although I’ve never one to be attached to my phone at the hip, I now completely avoid being away from it for more than half an hour.  Collin, I’m ready when you are buddy!
***UPDATE, 5/16/2011:  He's here!  Healthy and super cute.  Pics coming soon!***

Remy is doing really well.  She has her last baby shower on Saturday.  Here’s a sneak peak at something I picked up for Tucker awhile back:

 How cure are those?  Remy’s due date is July 1, but the doctor thinks maybe he’ll come a little sooner?!?!  We’ll see! 

Katie is having a BOY!  That’s right--- three boys this summer!  His name is Maximilian.  August seems far away now, but I’m sure it’ll be here before we know it!  Even though Max will be the youngest of the three babies, Katie is 5’11” and her husband Daniel is probably 6’4” or so, so my guess is he’ll grow fast and make up those months pretty quickly!

I can’t wait to meet these sweet babies.  I’m totally fine with being the crazy aunt that takes all the pictures, so hopefully you all will get to see less of our dog and more cute babies on here!

Finally, I'll end with some really exciting news!  My cousin Chris and his wife Ashley bought a house on our street last week.  It is about 15 houses down from ours, and we are REALLY excited to have them as neighbors!  Hooray for having more family living close :). 

Exhibit A

I've mentioned that we live a rather simple life.  Exhibit A:

This is what most of our evenings look like these days.  After dinner we go on a long walk to and around the awesome park in our neighborhood.  Kolby brings Maya and the AM/FM radio he bought for $16 (see the antenna?).  We listen to the Rangers game (they play almost every night, remember?) and talk about our days at work or whatever else is on our minds.  Sometimes we walk to the public library and Kolby trades out the numerous books he reads each week.

Simple, yes--- but we love it!

Springtime at the Ranch

A few weekends ago we took some friends from church down to my parents' ranch to relax and grill and chat and relax some more.  I took my good camera with me on a whim, and I ended up having a really fun time snapping a ton of pictures of how beautiful the ranch is this time of year.  Enjoy!

 It's snake season so I grabbed some boots from Russell's closet before heading out to the old barns to take some more pictures.

This is how fashionable I was as I was taking these (a friend took this picture)--- a hoodie, long basketball shorts and men's size 11 boots.

 There is a lot of strange (cool) stuff in the old barns.

 Maya LOVES the ranch.

Did I mention that Santa brought a mondo telescope to the ranch for Christmas?  Kolby is more than a bit obsessed.  He figured out how to hook my camera up to it.  The pictures aren't as good as what you can see in the telescope because he has to take the zoom lens out to use the camera, but I think they are still impressive.

The moon (duh):

 Saturn (blurry, but how awesome is this shot?!?!):

Miscellaneous

Kolby is home.  All is right with my world again.  This was his last trip to Seattle (for grad school); now it's downhill until graduation in August!  Here are some pictures that a friend of his took of their time there.

Where Kolby stayed:

 A joke that's totally lost on me:

 Kolby having a conversation with Mark Jarman, who was a guest lecturer and also happens to be one of Kolby's absolute favorite writers and the main reason Kolby got interested in writing poetry in the first place:

 My happy camper:

 One of Kolby's best friends in the program:

What they really did the whole time:

While Kolby was gone I told a friend that “We are loading up and heading to the ranch this evening” and then got a little embarrassed when she asked who was going with me and I had to admit that I had used “we” with reference to me and Maya.  What can I say, she’s good company.

A few Saturdays ago was family work day down at the ranch.  I sit and work at a computer for over 8 hours a day 5 days a week, and sometimes I just really need to get away to a place that looks like this:Even if it means riding a tractor until the sun burned my shoulders to a crisp.

Eight years ago, my dad and I bought a boat.  OK, my contribution was limited, but I still lay claim to it.  Last weekend, my dad and I sold said boat.  [Cue the gasps from my friends--- I’m sorry I didn’t tell you.  There just was no easy way to say it in person, so I’m hiding behind the internet. :)]  It was just time.  We got a ton of use out of that boat through high school and college and beyond, but it just wasn’t getting used as much anymore.  When we took it to the boat shop the guy was very impressed with how many engine hours it had on it (that’s the comparable statistic to mileage for a car).  I guess a lot of people buy boats and then just don’t end up using them that much.  Our family (and friends) used the heck out of that boat.  It was perfect for us and I have a ton of fun memories of spending summer days out on the lake.  Here is our beautiful boat on the day of our final farewell:

And just for fun, here are some pics of my friends at the lake sometime forever ago (late high school or early college) that I found in a folder on my desktop last week:

 We had our final Life Group of the winter season a couple weeks ago.  Now we have some time off before the next round starts again.  Also, our church is getting really close to moving to a more permanent location, which is really exciting. 

Kolby preached at church last Sunday.  He filled in at the last minute when our pastor got really sick a few months ago, and I guess he did a good enough job to be asked back.  This time no sick pastor, just an invitation to preach.  Encore!  He did a phenomenal job, if you ask me.  :)

Have I mentioned here that Kolby’s parents gave him half season tickets for the Rangers as an early graduation gift?  Yep, we have 2 tickets to every-other home game this year.  Any guesses how many games that is?  41.  41!  We're already 3 games into it and it's a lot of fun already.  Ask me again when it's over 100 degrees outside and it may be a different story, but for now it is really fun.

At work this past week I was assigned a speaking engagement in Austin on June 28.  This is very, very unfortunate.  Being the keynote speaker at a an annual conference of 250+ people?  No problemo.  Giving a talk that lasts a full hour?  Easy peasy.  Leaving town 3 days before my nephew's due date?  NOT COOL.  I booked my flights in as narrow window possible so that I'll only be gone for about 8 hours, but if the baby decides to make his debut in that time frame I will absolutely die.  Tucker, if you are reading this--- don't even think about it, buddy!

Speaking of babies, we threw a precious (if I do say so myself) baby shower for Alayne and baby Collin today.  Now it's just a waiting game until the day we get to see his sweet face!

That's all for now. :)