I'm warning you now...this is going to be a pretty lengthy post! But we have done a lot in the past month and want to keep you all updated on our lives. So without further delay...
School ended for us on December 10th and was much anticipated. I graduated with my masters on December 12th. It's nice to have that finished and behind me. Michael took a two week mini-mester online Spanish course that concludes his foreign language requirements to graduate. He will be taking 7 courses (21 hours) this spring semester and I know he and I both would greatly appreciate your prayers for him to get through it in one piece and finish up his undergrad Aerospace courses. He is also preparing to take the GRE on January 8th. "
I can do everything through Him who gives me strength." - Philippians 4:13.
We also traveled to Colorado Springs on December 16-17. We left our apartment on the 16th at 8:30PM and drove through the night and arrived in Colorado Springs on the 17th at 12:30PM. It was a very dark and long night, but thankfully we did not encounter any animals or icy roads. The dogs did great in the back seat, for the most part - Ginger, a.k.a. The Ginginator, chewed herself free of her harness within the first hour of the drive. So she lost her safety privileges and rode loose in the back. Abby was a perfect angel and sat or laid calmly the whole trip with her harness unharmed.
Our hotel wasn't as nice as we had been expecting, but we were pleased with it overall. They did not have a computer center so we had to go to a public library nearby to have internet access. But the breakfasts were very good. Our hotel room had a TV with composite ports to hook up our DVD player that we brought, but the hotel has it programmed in such a way that it blocked all incoming signals (including our DVD player), I suppose to try to force people to purchase pay-per-view movies instead of bringing their own. Well, for those of you that know how much we love watching movies, you won't be surprised to hear how that simply would not do for us. So my brilliant husband came up with the idea of purchasing a cheapy CRT TV and then returning it before we left to go home to Texas. So at night, we were able to watch our own movies and relax.
We met with two realtors and liked them both a lot. They were both so kind to show us around many different subdivisions and model homes. The housing is pretty different there compared to Texas - wood siding is primarily what you'll find in older homes and stucco for the newer ones. We didn't see a single house made completely of brick or stone. It was very odd to us, but we can get used to stucco. We found a couple of new subdivisions we really liked for location and pricing. But Michael and I decided to purchase our first home in College Station because the market is a little better (get more house for the same dollar amount). We aren't planning to buy for at least 1-2 years, maybe longer, but we think starting a family here would be the best choice. We eventually want to make it out to Colorado Springs, but we figure we want that to be the city where we finally settle for good. We want to move there when we have enough money to get a nice sized house, which we would not have for our first home purchase.
It snowed a couple times while we were there. It got pretty cold one night (9 degrees F) - so cold that my hair froze when I was outside for a couple minutes after I showered! But the residents there commented how abnormal that is for their city, so that was a good sign that it doesn't get that cold that often. Our third day there was perfect: sunny, cool, and clear. It worked out that this was the day we had planned to go to Garden of the Gods, a national park with a lot of red rock formations. If you haven't already seen, most of the pictures below are from our visit to Garden of the Gods. It was so beautiful in Colorado Springs - I really hope we can live there someday! For more pictures, go to:
http://picasaweb.google.com/ceyager/ColoradoSpringsVacation?authkey=lg-YAdGsKlQWe ate out every night for dinner. We love finding new restaurant favorites and out of the 5 we ate at on this trip, here are our top 2 picks: Elephant Restaurant - giant sized portions (Michael's favorite pick) for a reasonable price. We split an entree and it seriously was like two entrees. Salsa Brava - my personal favorite, Mexican food restaurant with pretty good salsa (ha ha).
Our drive home was much better. We left on the 22nd at 7:00AM and got home around 11:00PM the same day. While we were driving through New Mexico and west Texas, it was unbelievably windy. There was such strong wind that literally hundreds of tumbleweeds kept rolling across the highway, sometimes pummeling our car. This lasted for over 6 hours! It was like a redneck "Frogger" arcade game trying to accelerate and decelerate at the right moments to avoid running over the tumbleweeds.
For lunch we stopped at a McDonalds somewhere in west Texas and I ordered chicken McNuggets. You may find this absurd, but I haven't had any chicken McNuggets since I was a little kid (when they still tasted like cardboard - hence why I stopped eating them). But I've heard that they taste better now because they use real chicken (um, that makes afraid of what they were made of before, but that's another matter...). Anyways, I was really looking forward to eating them, especially because I was hungry for lunch. So we ordered it and got back on the road and I ate my fries first. When I opened the box (that said "McNuggets" on it) there was a McRib sandwich inside (which I do not like). I was so disappointed and a little frustrated that the person who packed our food couldn't tell the difference between chicken nuggets and a sandwich.
Last story about our drive home: We were south of Fort Worth on I-35, north of Waco and Hillsboro and it was about 9:00PM. We saw a sign that said something like "Interstate closed ahead. Expect delays." Before we even had time to think about exiting or taking another route, we come upon stopped traffic. (This bumper to bumper traffic lasted until 9:30.) Now my question to TXDOT is, couldn't you have placed this warning sign like 10 miles back (and every other mile thereafter) so that we could have had an opportunity to take a detour, hence decreasing traffic congestion?? Maybe that's just my pet peeve because I work for TTI, but still, it seems like common sense to me.
Once we were all settled at home, Michael's family came to College Station to on the 23-24. It was nice getting to see them all, especially since we don't get to see them but maybe once a year. Our little nieces are growing up into even bigger cuties! My parents moved into their nice new house before Christmas, so it was a lot of fun getting to hang out with them and spend Christmas in a new place. Also, for the first time since I met Michael (we met January 2005) this Christmas was the only time that we were able to spend time with both of our families on Christmas Day. It was really great to have both families in Bryan/College Station this year. And I hope it won't be the last!
For New Year's Eve we went to a party at our friends' house from Sunday school, Jonathan & Anna. They are such great hosts! They came up with several creative games and door prizes - it was awesome! Michael and I had been "training" for New Year's because we knew we would want to stay up late that night. So we tried to stay up until 3:00 or 4:00 each night for the few days before New Year's Eve. It apparently worked because we didn't leave Jonathan & Anna's place until 4:45AM (they didn't mind...I hope!).
This week I started my full-time job at TTI. I hope I get used to working from 8-5 everyday! I'm more of a morning person now than I was a few years ago (my parents and Aunt Becky can attest to that), so it's easier for me now to have energy throughout the day. But I find myself getting pretty sleep around 10:00PM. It's strange how your sleeping pattern changes so much throughout your lifetime.
Well, this concludes our latest blog post. Thank you for taking the time to read it! God Bless!
This is Pikes Peak as seen from the parking lot of our hotel.
This is us at the entrance to Garden of the Gods.
Michael & Ginger
Me & Abby
This is a view of the park from a scenic stop.
These are the "Kissing Camels".
This wasn't labeled on the map, but we think it looks like a man kneeling and praying.
This is called "Balanced Rock".
Abby liked the snow!
And this was me forcing Ginger to hold still for the camera...after I threw snow on her face because I thought it would be cute.
This is us on Christmas Eve at Central Park.
After the ceremony, we all celebrated at my Meemaw's house, where Michael gave us all a showing of "The Reading of the Degree"...
So our afternoon activities consisted of taking Ginger & Abby to the Dog Park. It was so fun watching them play with other canine friends. After taking the dogs back home, just the two of us went for a walk on a trail near our place. I couldn't help taking a "pretty" picture when I saw the opportunity. 
Oh, was I not supposed to eat that dirt?
