Update on Uncle Mark

A member of their church started a journal for my aunt and uncle here. If you're interested in his progress, you can check it out. He is still improving, slowly but surely. In her latest post, my aunt mentioned that he doesn't remember the accident. Each time he wakes up, she has to tell him what happened and where he is. The nurses have said that he probably won't remember his time in ICU, which she considers a blessing. Thanks for praying for him and his family. They have been blessed by the prayers and compassion of the church family that surrounds them and the Christians they know are praying across the country.

I feel like I'm back in high school

This weekend, I went to a training session to become an SAT instructor for the Princeton Review. I spent Friday from 5-10 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. learning how to teach an SAT prep course to high schoolers. It was intense, but actually pretty fun. Basically, the trainer taught the class to us exactly as she would teach it to high schoolers, and we took notes. We then were each assigned a lesson to teach to the class. I have to go back next weekend and do the same thing. In the meantime, I have a huge book of SAT practice problems to complete. Aaahh! I haven't done homework in a year! I guess this is good preparation for grad. school. I really wish I had done this training before I took the GRE. I think it would have helped me with my math score. This weekend, I relearned so many things I used to know!

On a different note, please keep my Uncle Mark and his family in your prayers. He was hit by a car while he was jogging on Thursday evening. Thankfully, he is in stable condition now, but he has some pretty severe injuries and a long recovery ahead of him.

Spoiled

I realized this week that I have been spoiled by working at the same place that Darby goes to school. Every day, we ride together in the morning and walk together until I get to my office. At noon, he comes to meet me for lunch, and we drive home and back together. At 5 p.m., he comes to my office and we leave together. This week, though, he's been working from home, so I've had to drive by myself. I still go home for lunch and see him, but I miss our little 5-minute rides in the car. Then, I started thinking, "What happens when we get real jobs and leave in the morning and don't see each other until 5 p.m. or later?" I know that 's what most people do, but it seems so sad to me. I hadn't thought about how lucky we are to get to see each other so much during the day. I'm definitely going to stop taking it for granted before we have to switch to a more "normal" routine.

No thank you!

Darby and I just finished writing our thank you notes. As I was writing them, I thought about what a silly tradition it is. I don't mind writing them at all, and I do try to be sincere, but how meaningful can you really be in a few lines? And with postage increasing so much, it's expensive to send them. When I get a thank you note from one of my friends, I open it, read it quickly, and then throw it out immediately. Occasionally, if the card has a pretty picture on it, I'll cut the front off and reuse it for scrapbooking. But, generally, the card goes from unopened to trash in under a minute. Is it really worth it? It seems especially silly when the person gave you your gift in person. Shouldn't a heartfelt thanks at the time suffice? I'd much rather get a "just because" note or a detailed e-mail than the compulsory thank you note. Of course, I'm not going to stop writing thank you notes or anything. I know they mean a lot to some people. But if I ever give you a gift, feel free to skip the note.

Christmases 3,4,5, and 6! (and Erin's wedding)

I think the theme for mine and Darby's Christmas break was "Tour of Texas." We drove from Abilene to Waco to Fort Worth back to Waco to Garland back to Waco to San Antonio and finally back to Abilene. It was kind of crazy, but we had a really great time. It was so nice that we were able to work it out to be at all of both of our families' Christmas celebrations. It might not be so easy in the future if we end up going to grad. school far away. So we lived it up this year. We ate a ton, played lots of games with my family, introduced his parents to the Wii, and saw four movies in the theater! And we still managed to make a few Barnes and Noble trips, of course!

Here's a few random pictures. I'm really not good at remembering to take pictures!

The guy "frousins" or "primigos." We're a bilingual family :) I'm actually not sure if Darby's officially allowed to be a frousin.



The girls. We take this exact picture every year, and we're always wearing red, green, or white. We are pathetic.


Me and Darby with my cousin Corrie. She loves Darby. The girl's got good taste.

My friend Erin got married in San Antonio on the 29th, and I was a bridesmaid. The wedding was beautiful and everything went really smoothly. We had our makeup professionally done, and I can't even recognize myself in the pictures! I almost never wear makeup, so having that much on was kind of a shock. At least I didn't have to put it on myself, though.


Former roomies!


Tough bridesmaids!

After the wedding Darby and I stayed an extra night in San Antonio. We ate at Paesano's, a really good Italian restaurant on the Riverwalk. When we got back to the hotel, we were psyched because Flip That House was on. It's one of our favorite shows, but we never get to see it because we don't have cable. Yes, we are officially old people now (as if our puzzle hobby wasn't enough). On Sunday, we went to the Buckhorn Museum and ate at Casa Rio. The museum was really cool...they have tons of taxidermied animals. It doesn't sound that neat, but I promise it is. Well, that was our Christmas. Tomorrow it's back to the grind. :(

Christmas #2

Darby and I celebrated our Christmas on Thursday night since we're going to be out of town until New Year's. I made dinner for us (Paula Deen's beef bourbon and onion-cheese bread), and we ate on our china. After dinner we opened gifts. I already knew what his gift was to me - staying an extra night in San Antonio when we go for Erin's wedding next weekend. But, we also decided to fill each other's stockings, so that stuff was a surprise. I got him a game he really wanted called Ticket to Ride and some Wii points. Below are some pictures of us with some of our stocking stuff. I guess I didn't realize that my hair was in my face. :)





After opening gifts, we went and looked at Christmas lights and then went to Starbucks for some gingerbread lattes. When we got home, we ate apple pie that we had gotten for free at United with a coupon. Free pie! Woo-hoo! It was a great first Christmas. And it's not over yet!

Christmas #1

Darby and I went to Arkansas this weekend to celebrate Christmas with his mom's side of the family. It was a whirlwind trip. We flew out of Abilene at 8:30 Saturday morning and got back in at 8:30 Sunday night. His parents generously offered to pay for our plane tickets and a hotel in Searcy, so how could we refuse? It was fun getting to spend time with his aunts, uncles, and cousins. We had a big get-together Saturday night. There was so much food; I'm still full! I've only been to Arkansas once before, and that was a long time ago, so it was neat getting to see some of the scenery. We went to Harding on Saturday night; they have a huge Christmas light display every December. It was beautiful; there were lights hanging from the trees, which made it look very magical. I wish ACU would do something like that. This weekend was the kick-off of our many Christmas celebrations to come in the next ten days. Holidays get crazy once you're married!

Now that all my grad. school applications are turned in (finally!), it's really starting to hit me that I'll be going back to school. I'm excited because I'm a nerd who actually likes school, but I will miss my free time in the evenings. I've enjoyed being able to cook more, scrapbook more, and read more. I want to set some goals for the 8 or so months of freedom I have remaining, so I don't look back when I've started school and wish I had gotten more done in my time off.

1. Finish my wedding scrapbook. I got off to a good start this fall, but Christmas gifts kind of derailed me.
2. Continue to stick to my plan of baking at least one batch of bread per month. I am trying to overcome my fear of yeast breads.
3. Read at least 6 books that I owned prior to this year. I keep buying or borrowing new books, and I never get around to reading the ones I already own.
4. Seriously clean out my closet/dresser. I'm pretty good about weeding out clothes that I know don't fit anymore, but I need to take EVERYTHING out and really evaluate which clothes I actually wear. I know I have some things that I haven't worn in at least two years and some things that I probably shouldn't have worn in the last two years :)
5. Invite more people over for dinner. I love to cook, and cooking for a group is usually more fun than cooking for two. But I rarely invite people over - mainly because I don't want to have to clean the house AND cook. I need to stop being so lazy, though.

Well, I think that's a pretty manageable list. It helps me to put my ideas in writing, so maybe I'll actually follow through with them.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

I began getting the Christmas decorations out before Thanksgiving, but I didn't get everything arranged until this weekend. Here are some pictures:


Here's a wreath that I made. Well, I tied the fabric bows onto a store-bought wreath. This is actually hanging on the inside of our door because I was afraid it might get stolen if we hung it outside. (I might be thinking a little too highly of my handiwork). I realized in looking at this picture that the top of the wreath looked weird; I've fixed that now, so you can all quit making fun of me behind my back. :)


Our cute stockings! We ordered them from Pottery Barn. Since we don't have a mantle, I hung them from the bar.


Our Christmas tree. We don't really have room for it, but I really wanted to put it up. So it's kind of just in the middle of our living room. Oh, well! It's still very festive. And we even have some wrapped gifts under it. I did some wrapping this weekend while I was avoiding finishing my last grad school application.

I also have a little shelf in the dining area that has Christmas stuff on it, but I forgot to take a picture of that. I love decorating for Christmas, and I am so excited about mine and Darby's first Christmas as a married couple!

Santa Fe, here we come!

Well, in about three months. Darby and I decided we wanted to take a little trip together over Spring Break this year. We had so much fun on our honeymoon and are really wanting to travel a lot together before we have kids (which will hopefully be a very long time). Right now we can't really afford plane tickets, so our destinations were limited. Neither of us has ever been to Santa Fe and we thought it sounded like fun. We'll be staying in a little guest cottage near the Plaza. It's much cheaper than a hotel and is decorated in the "authentic" Santa Fe style. It has a full kitchen which means we can cook our own meals rather than spending tons of money on eating out all the time. I just made the reservation this week, and now I'm getting so excited!

Thanksgiving Highlights

- eating a cinnamon crunch bagel at Panera with Darby's parents
- used book shopping at Golden's (even better, we got to use his parents' credit)
- doing all of our laundry for free!
- having my brakes fixed by Darby and his dad
- getting two throw pillows that Darby's mom made out of his grandpa's old ties
- PUMPKIN PIE!!
- Black Friday shopping with Mom and Hannah ($14.75 jeans at Old Navy!)
- dinner at Cracker Barrel with all 4 of my best high school girlfriends
- many rounds of Outburst with my family
- a visit from my crazy cousins on Saturday night
- having Darby help decorate our Christmas tree for the first time
- eating at Double Dave's with both of our families after church on Sunday

All in all, I thought mine and Darby's first major holiday as a married couple went well. It was a little hard to adjust to not seeing my family on Thanksgiving Day, but I am blessed with great in-laws who make me feel welcome and loved. The difference in our two houses is incredible, though. It's kind of like My Big Fat Greek Wedding (I bet you can't guess which family is which!) We are so lucky to have families that are both wonderful in different ways.

The end of an era...

Every year, sad as this may be, I feel like the Christmas season has begun when Starbucks releases their holiday menu. I know that technically you can get a peppermint mocha any time of the year, but I only like to order it when it's "official." On Saturday, Darby and I went to Starbucks, and it was all decked out for Christmas. Of course, I got really excited. So much red! So much glitter! I noticed they had added a new drink to the Christmas menu...a peppermint WHITE chocolate mocha. Of course I had to try it. However, when I got it, I couldn't even drink all of it because it was SO sweet. My coffee-addict husband has converted me to the dark side! Now I actually prefer regular coffee with just a little milk and sugar. I know it's a good thing nutritionally and monetarily, but what's Christmas without peppermint mocha?

A nerdy Halloween

Darby's friends decided to host a little Halloween party this year. Of course, we had to go all out on our costumes. Darby came up with the idea of being Tetris pieces, since we both really like that game. He worked so hard on our costumes, and they were awesome! They turned out much better than I had imagined. Everyone loved them, but we couldn't keep them on for very long because they restricted our movement and vision so much. Plus they were hot! We had a lot of fun; I'm so lucky to have a husband who's willing to spend hours making crazy costumes for us!


Me and Darby


Me


Darby

Yum-o!

Friday was Fall Break for ACU students, so I took off work to spend time with Darby. I decided it would be fun to make a "fancy" meal and serve it on our china. I picked a menu from my Rachael Ray cookbook. (It might not meet some people's standards of fine cuisine, but it's definitely more complicated than my normal casseroles).

The menu consisted of:
toasted ravioli with tomato-basil dipping sauce
seared pepper steaks with marsala sauce
roasted asparagus
individual chocolate lava cakes with ice cream

It was delicious, if I do say so myself. Here's our beautiful table:



And here's what the kitchen looked like after I got done cooking:


Aaahhh!!



Needless to say, we spent a lot of time after dinner doing dishes! It was worth it, though. Next time, I won't cook the steaks so long; they were a little overdone. But Darby was such a sweetheart; he insisted they still tasted great.

I did A LOT of cooking Thursday and Friday. Thursday night, we had our friends Laura and Dan over for dinner, and I made fajitas and a fiesta rice dish. Friday, we baked an apple cake to take to our friend in San Antonio and then I made our big dinner and dessert. We have a lot of leftovers for this week, which is a good thing, because I still have to make treats for a Halloween party on Wednesday. I love cooking and baking; if only I could cook without dirtying more dishes!

Every Sunday night, I watch Desperate Housewives while Darby works on his homework. Usually, he goes in the other room so he can concentrate. Lately, though, he's been staying in the living room while I watch. Last Sunday, he admitted to me, "You've kind of got me hooked on this show. I really want to find out what the new woman is hiding." Yes! Further proof that this show is irresistible. I had actually planned to stay away this season since my girls that I used to watch it with are gone. But then they had to end last season with a big cliffhanger, so of course I tuned in "just to see what happened." Now, I'm hooked on this season, as well. It's a vicious cycle.

***

It's actually cold this week! I love fall, and I'm so happy that it's FINALLY here. I love pulling out my jackets and sweaters, sleeping without the air conditioner on, drinking hot chocolate, wearing scarves, eating soup for dinner, and starting to think about Christmas - only 2 months!

I hate Wednesdays

Okay, I need some help. Wednesday is consistently the worst day of the week for me. I wake up dead tired, without even the consolation that the week is almost over. Every other day of the week, I have something to look forward to. Mondays, Darby and I watch Headlines on Jay Leno. Tuesdays, I get to practice the piano. Thursdays is The Office. And Fridays are, of course, Fridays. We do go to church on Wednesday. But it's hard for me to get excited about that. I enjoy seeing everyone at church, but by the time I get home from work, cook dinner, clean up, and make it to church, I'm usually worn out. What's a fun, cheap routine I can have on Wednesdays to make me look forward to the day instead of dreading it? I don't want to hate a whole day every week.

Girls' Weekend

I had a great time hanging out this weekend with my Fat Tuesday girls. We got to Kalyn's house in Frisco about 10 on Friday night, and she had a bunch of yummy snacks waiting for us. We ate and caught up until about 2. Saturday morning, we got up and went to Le Peep for breakfast. I had blueberry pancakes, which were delicious:

These aren't actually my pancakes, but I didn't take a picture, so I found some similar ones online.

After breakfast, we went to a ginormous mall and shopped, shopped, shopped. I didn't purchase much, mainly just drooled over all the clothes I couldn't afford.

Then, we went to the Cheesecake Factory, where I had a slice of my all-time favorite - Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cheesecake.

Yummy! It doesn't get much richer than that.

We walked off our cheesecake at IKEA, then went over to Carolyn's apartment in Lewisville. After a slight detour through downtown Lewisville (we meant to do that!), we headed back to Frisco for pizza and Wii-playing. Here's a shot of Erin in action. What a bowler!


And here's all the gals (minus Em).


Here's how Em spent most of Saturday evening.

And they make fun of me for going to bed early! Ha!

On Sunday morning, Kalyn got up and cooked us a big breakfast (That girl is quite a hostess!), and then we headed back. It was a great weekend to catch up with my girls, but I sure was glad to come home to my wonderful husband!

Fat Tuesday Reunion!

It's Friday! Yay! And I am super-excited about this weekend because we are having our Fat Tuesday reunion. Brittany's coming down to Abilene today, and she, Erin, Em, and I are going to drive to Kalyn's house in Frisco, where Carolyn will also meet us. It'll be the first time we've all been together since my wedding, which didn't really count because it's not like we spent much time together. We're going to spend the whole weekend shopping, chatting, playing games, and, of course, eating. (We call it FAT Tuesday for a reason). I'm so excited to catch up with everyone. I've missed our weekly meals so much. I'll post some pictures of the mayhem when I return.

Lately, I have become obsessed with cooking blogs. Why did I not discover these before? They combine my two favorite pastimes - cooking and reading blogs. Two I really enjoy are The Pioneer Woman Cooks and Smitten Kitchen. Both are very entertaining, in addition to having great recipes and photos. If you like cooking, go check them out. You'll be hooked. Every time I read them, I want to go cook something right then. Of course, I'm also the type of person who could flip through a cookbook for hours without getting bored.

Happy Fall!

I know the beginning of fall was really Sept. 22nd or something, but I think fall officially begins October 1. I got out my Halloween decorations this weekend, and they make me so happy! Here are my favorite things about fall:


Candy corn! This stuff is awesome! It looks cute, and it tastes even better.


Caramel apples...yummy! The perfect combination of sweet and tart, and so deliciously messy.


Friendly ghosts...they look so cute and not scary at all.


Pumpkin pie with whipped cream...there's nothing more to say.

Is it sad that most of my favorite fall things are food? Probably so.

There is one thing I really DON'T like about fall - allergies. Mine are horrible right now as are pretty much everyone else's in Abilene. If those will clear up and the temperature will drop about twenty degrees, fall will be pretty much perfect.