Cary Ranch

Cliff and I got to go out to the land this past weekend. We were able to leave Wednesday night after church and my family met us out there late Thursday night. We all left Saturday around lunchtime. It was a great weekend. We are so thankful to Cliff and Debbie for letting us all meet out there. It was a blast!!

Dakota enjoyed this basket more than her presents!

Trish brought her camera and we got a family picture. I shot this one of them in between other family shots. It was so fun taking them out at the land.

Lerin pretended to deliver mail in the mail jeep. We didn't even tell her that that is what it was, she just figured it out. She had a blast all weekend pretending and 'sploring.'

I absolutely love this picture! She couldn't keep the sunglasses on but she kept saying that she needed her sunglasses because it was too bright!

Update

Things around here have been pretty busy lately. Last week Cliff went out to the land from Thursday through Saturday. He got to hunt and hang out with his dad some. I think he really enjoyed the time alone out there. I get to go back with him this weekend! We get to leave Wednesday night and stay through Saturday. It is going to be awesome!

I had to work and get Christmas shopping done while he was gone. With the move, Christmas shopping was put on the backburner this last month. Thursday night, Friday night and Saturday were spent shopping between everything else. I had a ladies luncheon from 11-12:30 Saturday at church, then I went to the Nutcracker at 3 that same day. I shopped between events. Cliff surprised me and was home by 6:30 so we got to go to dinner together and then he helped me get a little more shopping done. We have fun together.

I was pretty down Saturday morning. I was going to these events and I really thought it was unfair that I didn't have anyone to go with me. I was mad that I had to live up here isolated from my friends and family. I was mad that I do not have the privelege of worshipping in a church with my family like I did all growing up. I want to attend these ladies things with my sisters and my mom-or any family really.

I was praying for a good attitude and really just telling God all about it. In His great love he reminded me that He is with me. He reminded me why I am here and who I am serving. I still would have liked to have someone with me shopping and going to the Nutcracker, but I enjoyed the day with Him. I enjoyed the beauty of the colors and dancers. He let me get alot of shopping done. I am so thankful for those years at Tate Springs. I miss those years, but at the same time I am thankful for this journey that the Lord has me on. He is good and He is merciful and patient with my frustrated moods.

I am really looking forward to Thursday. I am looking forward to being in Brownwood for a few hours! :)

If you've made it to the end of this post, please pray for Cliff. He is beat down by his school stuff that he is still trying to finish up!!

Improvements on the House this weekend

Below are some pics of the house. We were able to paint the office yesterday morning amidst the business of our weekend. Cliff is still finishing up school stuff. We had a birthday get together at 1 yesterday and then a 6th grade progressive dinner to attend last night. It was all fun, but we are worn out. I am about to attempt to go to a musical at Amarillo Little Theater that a couple of our little girls are in. And then tonight and tomorrow night we have the church Christmas musical. Busy Busy.

Below is our new Norfolk pine given to us by the Chaddicks, some friends from church. It is much larger than we though, but fits nicely in our dining room. I googled how to take care of it so that I don't kill it! It reminds me of a Charlie Brown Christmas tree. :)


Below is our Christmas tree. It's pretty cute! We like it. :)

I hope you can see the pics below. The deer is prepared to hang above the gun cabinet. We are soooo glad to get a room completed. We need another weekend to finish it up. The color is a natural color, but looks nice in there.

Thanksgiving pics

Here are some Thanksgiving pics. I didn't even get one of Lerin! I actually did take one but it's blurry and not blog worthy. All of these are of my adorable cousins. I love getting to watch everyone talk and visit at Thanksgiving. We sure missed everyone who couldn't make it this year.

My favorite part of the whole weekend were our two trips down to the river. I carried Lerin on my back in a carrier thanks to Chuck and Ginger. She had so much fun throwing rocks in the river with her cousins. :) Good memories. I left my camera on both trips. I guess I was just enjoying being with my family.

Cybil and Calvin playing

Aunt Laura and Robbyn being silly.

Robbyn playing and eating an apple. Isn't she adorable!!??

Charis taking a pic of me with the toy camera. :)

This is my cousin's son Carsen. He will be having a baby sister any time!

Can't wait to meet baby D.

A quick afternoon with Dakota

Sunday after the wedding Mom, Dad and I spent the afternoon with Trish and Dakota. We brought over the best pizza ever...Mama's Pizza and were lazy. I got to hang out with my prescious neice Dakota. She is adorable and doing sooo many new things. She is sitting up all by herself and so intently plays with her toys. We got to get to know eachother a little and snuggle alot. :) Here are some cute pictures of her.

I cannot wait to see them in a couple of weeks!!!!!!!!!!

Pics of Chase's wedding

I am starting to post pictures this afternoon. It seems that I was not in much of a picture taking mood the week of Thanksgiving. I got really random shots. The weekend before Thanksgiving my cousin Chase got married to Melissa in League City. I got to go and had a blast seeing my family pre-Thanksgiving. I didn't get any shots of Chase and Melissa so sorry guys...It was a beautiful wedding though!



This is a pic of Tristan and I in the car on the way to the wedding. Tristan and Aunt Laura got to come from California for the wedding and the whole week after. It was soooo good to have them around. We had a blast on the drive together.

I found all of the Dad's along the wall at the reception. I think Uncle Sean was just taking it all in after the whirlwind of the wedding. :)

Mom, Dad and I stayed with our cousins Greg and Kathy. I took a pic of their family. Trent and Lauren are their kids. Lauren just got married this year to Mike. They all live close together in League City. I couldn't believe that in all of these years I had never been to see where they live. It was fun being with them.

And here are the munchkins!! Cybil was in the wedding and Lerin almost joined her during both precessionals! Dad had a hand on her thankfully, but she was pretty pumped to get to hang with Cybil for an evening. They are buds. It was so fun seeing them together! They are only a few months apart. Both 3 years old.

Here is a pic of Leigh and Robbyn. Robbyn looked sooooo cute in her little hat. :)

Sorry no pics yet

Sorry no pics yet. I got side tracked decorating for Christmas and picking up...o and figuring out Direct TV. Fun times.

Anyway, the pics will be up at some point this week.

HAVE A GREAT DAY!

School and DISH Stuff

Woohoo!! I'm done with school until January. Yesterday was the most stressful day I've had in a long time. I had a group presentation to do last night and found out at 7:30 in the morning that the girl preparing the presentation skipped out on us. She sent like a title slide of our slide show and that's it!!!! The other three of us were not happy to say the least since we all work. Of course, I did the presentation because I have a low maintenance job, we did the presentation and it went ok. The most frustrating part about the whole thing is that the chick who did nothing is getting the same grade as the rest of us...awesome. But it's over now and I am soooo glad to be done with it.

I am even done with my online class. I just have to grade a couple of units for the class that I grade for. I can do that this week while I sit at work. It feels good to have this semester behind me. Only one more year left and I'll be done with school forever.

Cliff's school is a different story. Poor guy, he is still trying to finish up all of the work for his three classes this semester. We are praying that he'll be done this weekend. Please pray that he'll be very efficient!

Now for the DISH story that I just heard from Cliff. Today we are having DISH installed at the house. The guy who came out was too scared to get in the attic and was about to call someone else in to do it for him. Well, he and Cliff made a deal. Cliff wouldn't have to pay the 150something bucks for installation but...Cliff would have to run all of the wire! Ha!! Makes me laugh so hard. Cliff may have himself a second job if he doesn't be careful. They are still there working, but by this afternoon we'll have 200 plus channels at our fingertips. I am still perplexed as to how the guy coming to do all of the work was too scared to get in to the attic. Why is he working for them??

This week should end up being a normal week. I am soooo excited about being home all weekend. We have a 6th grade Christmas party Saturday night which should be fun.

I'll post Thanksgiving pics tonight. I didn't take too many, I was too busy talking to everyone. But I'll get the few up that I took.

Friday Afternoon

It is Friday afternoon again. You can pretty much bet that I'll be posting on Friday afternoons. It is something to occupy me for a few minutes. It is seriously dead around here. I'm a receptionist, right? Well receptionists answer phones...primary job...on Fridays all ministerial staff are off except for one. Most people know this...translation...one call every half hour. Fun times! I am usually very productive on school work on Fridays. Thankfully I am pretty much done with all of that. Only a couple more assignments due after Thanksgiving.

Cliff's school on the other hand...very different story. Today he told me at lunch that he has a list of to-dos for school that would take him about 3 weeks. Um...everything is due in about a week. Please pray for him this weekend that he would be super productive this weekend while I'm gone! He can't keep going at this pace much longer. He stays up 'til midnight or 1 working on school and then gets up early to work some more with church work in between. :( Poor guy.

Last night he made me a fire in our fireplace for the first time. It was so fun and beautiful! It got really freakin' cold here yesterday. We have been having really beautiful perfect weather, until yesterday. Now it is sooo windy and cold! The fire was sooo nice and fun to have while we worked on school, packed and washed clothes.

Our living area keeps us sane! Nothing else is really in order since the move and probably won't improve much til after the holidays. O well...I'm thankful for it all!

I'm o so ready to see my babies this weekend. I'll post pictures next week and then even more after that from Thanksgiving. O I love this time of year!!

Well, 2 hours and 45 minutes left of my forever long Friday. I think I've exhuasted my blog roll and don't have much else to do. Maybe I'll try and watch something online. Hmmm....we'll see. :)

Another week

It's Monday again. Another busy week ahead. Tonight I have to go to an Amarillo ISD school board meeting and skip about an hour and a half of my class. It is a requirement for my class to go to a community meeting and I haven't found anything that I could get to. So, tonight I'll be going to that at 6 and then heading over to Canyon to catch the rest of class.

I have three weeks of school left...awesome! Cliff should be finishing up his stuff this week.

This weekend I get to go to Houston for my cousin Chase's wedding. I cannot wait! Except Cliff can't go of course. :( This does mean however, that I have to be very organized this week to get everything that I need for Thanksgiving.

I am making an apple crunch pie off of pioneer woman using her crust recipe. I am looking forward to trying the crust. I like my normal recipe but this one uses egg so maybe it'll be better. Also I am going to make this yummy pumpkin cake. I might make two...that's how good it is. I'm also going to bring a ham and a couple of side dishes. Not sure yet what sides though. I've got to figure that out.

Sunday was mostly a wasted day for me. Church was ok. Then I left to go to Plainview which is a little less than an hour and a half. I had a group meeting at 2 and thought I'd get to Wayland's library an hour early to work on my part of the project. Well...the library didn't open until 2. Plainview is a tiny podunk town and they do not have a coffee shop with internet. The Starbucks closed months ago. So...I parked at the library, leaned my seat back and slept for about 40 minutes. The meeting was pretty pointless. Pretty much everyone just needs to get their stuff done. One girl didn't even show up until 4! Ugh!

We have a ton of work to get done on the house...but the week has started again. :)

I'm thankful for a quiet day in the office
I'm thankfu that I got to chat with Kimberly online for a few hours
I'm thankful that next weekend I get to see LOTS of family
I'm thankful Thanksgiving is next week.

And today...not enough time!

So time is a sneaky thing. All week I have been wanting those creaping hours to hurry up. Well...then my day comes and it flies by. STINK!

I finished the hallway and the doors. I only got kilz on the one bedroom and ran out of time. Now I've got to write a 10 page paper. Thankfully, it is part way done, but I have to get it done before tomorrow. I will be driving to Plainview after church for a group project. NIGHTMARE!

As you can see I'm frustrated with the weekend that I was so looking forward to. It has been a great day, some things have been accomplished but I know that Monday will come all too soon. At least now I can start hanging things in the living room and the hallway. It'll probably be after Thanksgiving that I can get anything else done. Too bad the family can't just run over to my house to help out over the break. That's what we get for living so dang far away.

This morning I went to a violin concert at 9:30. It was fun. Only spent about 40 minutes there. I had a Home Depot run before that. The first of a couple today. Here are a few pics of the concert.

Mark and Reese are on the back row. Reese is the one looking my direction and Mark is the one to his right. They were so cute and pretty good!

That is Elise, Reese's little sister. It was fun to go watch. The concert was at Barnes and Noble.

Cliff is almost home...I've got to get started.

One more hour...

One hour left of work...it is creeping by. I am so thankful it is the weekend. I practically live for the weekends! It is so hard to get things done that I need to get done during the week. This week has been no different. Monday night I had class, Wednesday was church. Tuesday we had people over for a little bit and took it easy. Last night I ran errands: grocery store, home depot, hair cut. Finally it is Friday and I can accomplish stuff. I have a looooong to do list. I'm absolutely positive that the list will still have a ton on it by the end of the weekend, but we'll see how far I get.

Cliff left yesterday to go hunting at the land. I know he is having a blast with the guys. Tonight I get to hang out with Hannah. Since they moved here in August we have not really hung out at all. I am looking forward to going to dinner and just hanging out.

My to do list:
Paint the kitchen, hallway and two bedrooms
Write a 10 page paper
Meet my research group in Plainview at 2 on Sunday
Go listen to a 30 minute violin concert by a couple of our kids at Barnes and Noble Saturday morning
Clean up before Cliff gets home
Make a list of what to buy for my Thanksgiving dishes

Ok, so maybe all of that won't get painted but I really really want it done! I think I'm going to stay up really late tonight and then get up early tomorrow. We'll see what happens. If I can get the painting done then we can really unpack all of the boxes and find a place for stuff. Sounds like I'm going to be exhuasted come Monday.

I only have about 3 more weeks of classes left and Cliff will be done with his next week. I have this rediculous group project to get off my back before it is truly complete.

I am thankful for the weekends! I am thankful for some time to get things done.

One more hour...

Photo Tour

Welcome to our home: 4408 Kingston Amarillo, TX 79109! :) I uploaded the photos in a sort of order, but they got jumbled in uploading. So bear with me and I'll tell you about each photo.

This is the front view. On the right side of the driveway there are three trees between ours and the neighbors drive. That clump of trees to the left is a cedar elm clump. A really nice part of our front yard. We actually have a sprinkler system so the grass is awesome...perfect barefoot grass.

This is the guest bedroom. We just bought the bed spread stuff and will paint the room next weekend. Cliff is going hunting so I'll have the weekend to work and get all of the painting done...or most anyway. Then I can really begin unpacking and decorate. We bought the mattress and box springs on the black market. The box springs has a space theme...really cool. I am so glad Dad was here to go get it with us because seriously, the warehouse could have been a scene from Law and Order SVU. But hey, in and out, and we got what we needed. They are brand new so don't fret. Come visit us there is a queen bed awaiting you!!

This is the office. It is a bit smaller than the previous room but otherwise exactly the same. Obviously not put together but getting closer. There is a small twin bed in this room. I'll probably put another bed spread on this one so it will be a bit more masculine. This room will house the deer head and other Cliff things.

This is the guest bathroom. We hope to extend that wall up and add a shower head soon. That will mean we'll also retile the bathroom as well. Nice bathroom with a double sink.

Laundry room between the kitchen and garage. Pretty good sized space. Thankfully there is a door to close so we can shut it when it is messy.

Kitchen. I am standing in the small dining area. The kichen is long and skinny with plenty of space.

That is the entry way. I hope to get a rug to put in that area because it is pretty big.

That is the living room view from the front door. It is the only area in our house that is pretty much complete. Well except for wall decorations. The paint looks awesome!! Mom did a great job painting. I love the color we picked. Kind of a pumpkin spice. Yummy looking! It makes the area so warm. We also just got our entertainment center. It has a peice broken but we are getting it replaced. We set it up anyway.

This is our bedroom. Real messy sorry! I took these this afernoon so that I could get some pics up. Sorry it took so long! Our bedroom is very spacious! Can't wait to get it painted and decorated as well.

This is our bathroom. It has two sink and dressing areas. It looks kind of funny but it is quite functional. We each have our own closets.

Thank you Mom, Dad, Leigh, Lerin and Robbyn for all of your help! It was sooooo much fun to have you here.

Big thanks also to all of the guys from the church that helped! Joe, Robby, Jeff, Bradley, Adam and everyone else who brought us food and other helpful stuff. Martha, thank you for loving us and helping us out!

This week

No pictures yet of the house. Those will come this weekend hopefully. I haven't had much time on the lap top at home to load pictures.

Dad, Leigh and the girls left yesterday morning. I was sad to see them go. Lerin and Robbyn were so much fun to have around! Cliff and I missed waking up this morning to little girl noises. It's hard to wake up in a bad mood with sweet smiles and little girl hugs! :) Every morning they would wake up at like 6:30 or 7 and immediately were asking for breakfast! It was so nice to sit at the table with them every morning. They both did so good the whole week while everyone worked around them. I didn't take too many pictures of them but I have a couple that I'll post this weekend.

I took off Monday and Tuesday afternoons but now I'm back at work till 5. Mom is still here though and continues to get stuff done at home. I owe her big time!! I wish I could be there enjoying the day with her. We get all of Saturday together thankfully and then she'll have to leave Sunday. :( I sure wish they lived closer.

More later...

First Night

Well, Praise the Lord! last night we stayed in our house for the first time. I am praising God this morning but yestereday I was one big grump! Say a prayer for Cliff to have patience with me. I had been at my desk all day and I did not want to move the remaining things at our apartment much less clean the place up. We finished around 9:15 or so. Cliff set up the bed and made it for us while I made a run to Wal-Mart for a shower curtain and some essentials. That put me in a little better mood. Cliff is checking out of the apartment and storage today. We are done with those places!!! Woohoo!

Tonight I'll be staying after work to be here for the trunk or treat at the church. (trying to have a good attitude about this too...ugh...what's my problem!) That'll last until 7:30 or 8 and I'll finally get to go home probably just in time for Mom, Leigh and the girls to show up. I cannot wait to see them!!! I am soooo thankful for their help. I'll post pics next week sometime of the house...if I can find the camera. :)

Ok, gotta get back to work.

Working on the Layout

I'm working on the layout of this blog. I just figured out how to change the background. The words don't really pop but I'll get it figured out.


In other news...the house is relatively clean, the U-Haul truck will be rented at noon and things will start moving in this afternoon. :) We are so thankful for this house!

DONE

Papers have been signed, large amounts of money have exchanged hands and we've got possession. Praise the Lord! Today at 1pm Cliff and I signed papers on our house after a short walk through of the house. The house is empty and quite clean. The previous owners were so nice to leave it in such great condition. Tonight I have class but will leave an hour early to head over to the house and take care of a few things before Cliff moves stuff in tomorrow.

We are so blessed to be around such great people here. We have been overwhelmed with offers of help and food. I am thankful today. We've got a busy week ahead! Carpets are being cleaned Wednesday morning, then hopefully sleeping at the house Wednesday night or Thursday night. Then the troops arrive on Friday! Mom, Leigh, Lerin and Robbyn are coming to help. Cliff and I are so excited!

Packing and missing Lerin's 3rd BDay party

Today we are packing. We are having fun...Cliff is keeping me laughing all day. Right now we are taking a break. I'm hanging out online and Cliff is watching football. Below you can see Cliff taking his break in front of the TV. Also, you can see the state of the apartment. ONE BIG MESS! But I think we should be done packing everything today. All but the essentials to get us through the week. Fun times.

We are a little sad though because we are missing Lerin's third birthday party! Bummer!! Leigh and my parents have told me how stinkin' excited she is about her birthday. She's having a Barney party with all of her friends and family. :) Lerin was born October 28, 2005. We love her so much and will be thinking about her all day. Cliff and I can remember the day she was born so vividly...me especially because I got to be there with Leigh and Bubba through the whole thing! What a miracle! Here is a pic of Lerin from this summer. Such a cutie!!