Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone! We are so grateful for our friends and family and most of all for our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We love you all so much! Enjoy the Lord and loved ones today!

my sneaky husband

I have this strange talent. Nothing double jointed or anything, but I have this thing with wrapped presents. Even when I was little, I would go around the tree shaking all the presents and telling everyone exactly what they were. And more often than not, I was totally right. I've always thought that I should set up a booth beside Santa in the mall and charge kids $0.25 a present for me to shake it and tell them what it was.
This year for my birthday my mom gave me a really pretty engraved Christmas snow globe. I shook it and jokingly said 'You got me a snow globe?'. Then I opened it to indeed find a snow globe. I don't know how I do it, but I do.
Jeff LOVES to buy presents. I think he gets more excited about the presents he buys people than the presents that he receives. He has the hardest time not telling me what he bought me because he is so excited about it. So, yesterday after work I come home and Jeff tells me he wrapped a present for me and I can go shake it, which is unusual because I'm normally not allowed to touch or shake the presents he gives me. So, I go over to the box, and pick it up and it has got to weigh like 10 pounds! So, I'm shaking it and it's unlike anything I've ever felt and the weight seems so evenly distributed but there is something inside that moves without disrupting weight distribution. I'm totally clueless, I can't figure out what it could possibly be (especially what it could possibly be that I would want). Jeff proceeds to laugh hysterically and do a little victory dance because I can't figure it out. Then he tells me that he ducktaped 3 pipe wrenches to the bottom of the box to throw me off...
I told him that I just inherited 3 pipe wrenches since they were in my present. He said that was fine, but when we needed to use them I was responsible for doing the work. So.... what is a pipe wrench anyway? Does it really have something to do with plumbing?

5 weeks

The countdown has begun! I don't have a lot to say right now, or probably more accurately don't have a lot of time time say it.. but just wanted to give you a quick update

Our traveling adventures will continue when we head to Corpus on Thursday to be there until Christmas (sadly, I think that will be the longest we've been in the same location in the last month). We're looking forward to some quality time with our families and time with friends there! Then we are heading to Pennsylvania to see Stephen & Elyse. This will be the first Christmas that Elyse & I haven't been together for and I'm pretty bummed about it. But at least we get to see each other the day after Christmas! Then we are going to NYC for our anniversary weekend! I'm so excited about that! We will return to Corpus on Jan 1st and then back to Waco on the 2nd and then we will be here until the 13th when we will make our final trip to Corpus to make sure everything is in storage and then we will head to Houston (with a quick trip to Austin for a wedding) and will fly out on the 22nd. I think we'll catch our breath a little when we get to Iraq! =)


Here's Elyse & I on Christmas morning last year. It won't be the same without you and pastel Santa will definitely miss you.

I'm grateful that we get to spend our last holidays with our families and we are looking forward to the next 5 weeks, even if we appear to be slightly crazy, don't worry the whirlwind will pass. Here is what we've been up to lately.



We shipped these boxes to Iraq and are shipping 2 more this week. Hopefully we will only have to make 1 more shipment after that to get all of our stuff there. We are looking forward to getting there are getting to settle down for a little while, I think up to this point we've had a pretty transitional lifestyle. Our friends might have found a house for us (that sounds perfect) so keep your fingers crossed. Until next time....

New Rosa loves T-Shirt

Our friends at Rosa Loves created this shirt to help raise $4,0000 to pay for Hussein's heart surgery. I heard about Rosa loves through their partnership with The Preemptive Love Coalition in making this shirt. They exist to tell the stories of people and organizations who are doing something good and call others to get involved.
They make these awesome looking shirts that graphically tell the story of the organization and then on the inside of the shirt right where your heart is, is the written story in this case of Hussein.


They will continue to make and sell the shirts until they reach their goal to fund Hussein's surgery. So, get yours today and get one for your friend for Christmas and not only will you have an awesome shirt but you will have helped save Hussein's life. Click here to purchase this shirt.

bye bye Bullet

We just returned from another trip to Houston where we celebrated Jeff's grandfather's 90th birthday and sold my car - the beloved silver bullet.


This was my first car (that I didn't have to share with my sister). This was actually the first car that I ever REALLY wanted. When they first came out in 2000 I was kind of obsessed with them and couldn't wait to turn 16 so I could drive one. One fall weekend of 2000 when I was out of town at a speech tournament, my sweet Father traded in his huge suburban for the Beetle. I couldn't believe it when my mom came to pick us up from the school that weekend in the new Beetle. My senior year of high school my dad gave me this car and I couldn't have been more excited or grateful!


My dad and I saying good bye to the silver bullet.

Thanks to Missy for naming my car my freshman year of college. There have been thousands of great memories in that car and only a handful of bad ones - most involving some kind of vehicle malfunction. I'm a little sad to see her go, but realize that it's just another step in being free to leave the country.

Brief Update

We are back in Waco after over a week of traveling and it has been really eventful. I'll spare you the details and just give you the highlights:

spoke at our church in Corpus. Hosted a Kurdish Tea. I turned 25. Went to Houston for Thanksgiving. Fun times with the fam and step fam. Twisted my ankle playing football. Did A LOT of shopping. Shipping the first boxes to Iraq this week. I think that about covers it. Here are some pics of the festivities... and a little Jeff surprise for you at the end!



It was fun to get to celebrate my birthday with my mom in Corpus. I haven't done that in a few years! It is weird having a cake that just says my name on it... this may have been the first time?




My dad had his knee replaced in mid October and went on a shaving strike. So, here he is sporting the beard. He went back to work today so he had to shave it. But, he had a good time with it I think. It's pretty Sean Connery no?



This is me and Jeff, my sister and her husband, and my step brother and his wife and then all of my dad and step mom's dogs! =) We had a great time getting to all hang out together. It has been a while since we were all together (and not at a wedding)

AND NOW, FOR YOUR JEFF SURPRISE....

You're gonna have to keep scrolling


it

is

totally


unrelated

to this post

but I think

it

is

very

entertaining

are you ready yet?


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does this remind you of one of those chain e-mails?

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I never learned how to make faces out of this stuff.

Okay here it is















You weren't ready for that were you? Jeff took this picture at the zoo a couple weeks ago and considers it to be his greatest photographical (word?) feat to date. I would have to agree. This one is pretty good too though





I think this is Aslan...I didn't expect to find him at the Waco zoo. Will wonders never cease?