I realized I haven't posted anything since October, and the Oct post wasn't much to talk about. I don't think life has been that busy...I guess facebook has taken precedence the past few months. So here's a last post for 2008.
Over the last couple weeks we have been receiving super fun Christmas pictures and cards from many friends living in other states, and even some friends living 2 doors down from us! Needless to say it has made us feel slightly guilty that in 7 1/2 years of marriage, we have yet to write and send out a "Christmas letter" - ya know the ones that give a summary of your life during the past year to everyone you haven't had a chance to hang out with in person. Maybe that's because we don't have kids yet and usually that's the main focus of the letters. I don't know. But I'm glad that we have so many friends who are nicer than we are and who do send out those letters and cards - it's so fun to see what you've been up to (or at least see a recent picture!)
I noticed that my blog profile pic is from our Big Bend trip in 2007. And now it's almost 2009. Maybe it's time to find a new one?? We'll see.
In November, Paul and I went to a marriage conference put on by Family Life. I highly recommend it. It's a great check up for your marriage - it has great reminders about principles everyone should hear in pre-marital counseling, and the homework that they give is really fun and definitely something Paul and I needed! I feel like we are more proactive in putting our marriage first now (over work, etc). It's easy to fall into a routine and become more like roommates sharing a house, instead of soulmates sharing and living life together with one purpose. So if you want more info about it, go to Family Life website and look for Weekend to Remember.
We've had fun family visits recently. Paul's mom was in TX for almost a month going back and forth between our house and Philip's house in Austin (Paul's brother). It was a good time to catch up, play games and relax all together. Mom treated us to Cirque Dreams Jungle Fantasy show in Austin which was really fun. Paul's dad got to come out and join us for about a week of that time and we all had an early Christmas together. It was fun to get to give gifts and see everyone's faces as they opened them. Part of my Christmas gift from Felicia was a pedicure which was super fun. All of us girls went together and either got a pedicure or manicure.
The game of choice was Settlers of Catan, or Cities & Knights (a variation of Settlers of Catan). Any outsider looking in would say we were addicts, and the prevailing comment before starting a game was, "Christianity and Marriages go out the door when this game is played" - we were all ruthless and competition was fierce. To prove our addiction, both Paul and I and Philip & Felicia gave each other the Cities & Knights game for Christmas (we had always borrowed their friend's copy before), so now we have a game at each house so it's always ready to be played. It's a sickness! But so much fun!
After Paul's parents left, my sister Daria came into town to visit - her first trip to Texas! We also had fun going to a different kind of acrobatic show - Golden Dragon Acrobats. It is a smaller production than the Cirque Dreams show, but a lot of similar feats and definitely amazing. It's crazy how people can move their bodies like that and combine such strength, balance and grace all at the same time! Daria also did a mini makeover on me and got me out of my "camp" clothes into a dress and heels! We had fun shopping at the new outlets near Houston, and also got to visit our cousin Stephanie in Houston and her 3 kids (including twins!).
(After she arrived, TX decided to change from the 70 degree weather to 30 degree weather for a few days)
Her friend Lindsey lives in Austin, so we got to hang out for an evening and explore Austin cuisine including Hey Cupcake for dessert.
Of course we also had to teach Daria how to play Settlers of Catan (she won the 1st game). Then we taught her how to play Cities & Knights and she won that one, too. She definitely caught on quickly and dominated. Though playing with 3 people is much different than playing with 5-6 people - strategies change depending on the number of players.
We attempted to make cut-out cookies, too. We did eventually succeed, but it was a 2 day process because we didn't finish rolling out/cutting/baking the cookies til 1am, so we waited to frost the cookies the next morning. They were filmed as part of Paul's Board Report soon to be posted on YouTube for our Board of Directors to watch, so I'm guessing it's the first batch of cut-out cookies to become famous...okay maybe not but I bet no one else posts their Christmas cookies on YouTube. :)
After she went back to Florida, Paul and I had a few days off and we pulled everything out of our bedroom and bathroom and sorted/re-organized/cleaned. It felt good! We had about 4 bags of stuff we trashed and 4 bags of stuff we gave away, and now I feel like we can decorate and eventually paint/put new floors in. The big projects will come later - probably after summer, but for now I'm excited about an organized room without junk we don't need!
This is a picture during the middle of the process when everything was pulled out. Paul thought it looked like a "Where's Waldo" type picture - can you find Flurry, our dog?
The next project will be sorting our home office in the same way, but I think we're both dragging our feet on that one because there is so much stuff in there!
Today we went Geocaching for the first time together. Paul had gone once before with Philip, his Dad, and Corban, but I had never gone. I didn't really get what the attraction to the hobby was, but now I can see that's fun. Basically it's just an untimed scavenger hunt that uses GPS as clues. We set out to find 4 spots in Giddings, and were successful at finding 3 of them. One was pretty tricky. The 4th one that we didn't find - I'm not sure if it still exists, even though it was posted only 1 month ago. But I think it must have blown away or accidentally picked up and thrown away.
Other than that, we've been working and watching Heroes episodes (we're on Season 2 now), playing with the dogs, and enjoying the "quiet" camp season. Summer is just around the corner for us, which I need to learn to embrace instead of fear. I really love summer camps, it's just the "to-do" list that needs to be done before summer camp always seems so long and time seems so short!
Merry Christmas everyone...and if I don't get another post up before 2009, Happy New Year, too.
