Old Cake

I forgot to post these pics in the previous anniversary pics. Since we were out of town on our actual anniversary, we decided to eat the top of our wedding cake on Christmas. I wasn't convinced that it would actually be good.


Here's the year old cake.... and the verdict...


Surprisingly, it was actually REALLY good. If I had this cake at someone elses wedding, I would think it was really good. I'm not sure where this tradition came from, the idea of eating year old cake is kind of gross? But fortunately, the cake itself was pretty good!

Back in Action!

Well, that is kind of misleading because we've never really been missing in action, just not anywhere with a good enough internet connection to post on the blog... until now. I have all kinds of posts bottled up inside, so I'll try to not go too overboard. and I'll start with the most exciting.... our 1 year anniversary!!

On December 28th one year ago we were married! We got to go to New York City this year because we were already up in PA visiting Elyse and Stephen. It was such a fun and memorable way to spend our first anniversary and our last vacation for a while! Here are some pics of the occasion.


That morning we went to worship at the Brooklyn Tabernacle. I have always wanted to go there and I'm so glad that we did! It was such a sweet experience - and the choir is just incredible, even beyond my pretty lofty expectations. This pic is in front of the Brooklyn Bridge... we're kind of in front of it though.

After church we went to Joe's Shanghai Kitchen in Chinatown for the most amazing Chinese food ever... I mean really, people from China come to New York to eat here. I did take a video with our new, awesome video camera that Elyse & Stephen gave us... but I haven't taken the time yet to figure out how to upload stuff yet.

Then after some shopping we went to Rockefeller Center to see all of the lights and the big tree! it was beautiful!


That night we went to the Wax Museum, which was so fun!

Oh Hugh...

All in all, it was a fabulous day and a wonderful anniversary. Below is the gift that I gave Jeff for our anniversary. It is a poem that I wrote for him.... it is kind of sappy, so reader beware.

To Jeff on our first anniversary, this is how I have treasured our marriage thus far:

It is in those first moments before I am fully awake
When the dreams of us still linger and the sleep I can’t quite shake.
I can hear your steady breathing and you find me in the sheets

When you are kissing me goodbye and you nuzzle your head into my neck.
Listening to you pray for me as I slowly drift to sleep.
This year has been full of challenges and full of smiles too.
I wasn’t sure what to expect but I knew I was right about you.

Like when you know exactly what I want or need…
And when you don’t and I’m upset, but you listen patiently.
When your eyes tell me everything before you’ve even said a word,
And the way you say my name is the sweetest sound I’ve ever heard.

How you want to be mad at me and then I smile and you forget,
It’s those fleeting glances and the things that we keep secret.
This year has been full of love and full of heavy hearts.

All the things I’ve learned about you no one else can know about.
And the woman that you’re certain that you just can’t live without.
It’s how you hold my hand and lead me up the stairs,
Or the way our love blossoms out of deep sorrow and through tears.

Tickling till you fall of the bed and rushing to you after you hit your head.
It’s yelling till you slam the door and crying till you’re back for more.
Or the way you call me ‘beautiful’ even when I don’t believe you.
This year has been full of fear and full of memories we’ll always hold dear.

No matter what the future holds there’s one thing that sustains me –
Knowing that the God who promised is the God who will
Work out His grace in us and His life through us fulfill.
Glory be to Him who holds us both together
This year has been full of blessings that I know we’ll keep forever.


I love you Jeff, looking forward to many years to come.

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.