Thanksgiving 2011

It seems like you never realize how much you appreciate your family until you don't have them near you.

We have been so lucky to have Kate and Aria (couple in the middle) in our lives.  Kate works with me on 13 Roberts, the cardio/thoracic surgical telemetry floor, at Baylor in Dallas.  Her husband goes to DTS with Sean and they play on the same basketball team. (I believe he is standing on the ottoman, because he is not quite that tall).  Her parents, Jack and Barb Stein, live in Arlington, which is just about 20-30 min drive.  They invited us to join them for Thanksgiving this year.  We had a delicious meal and great company.  I am so happy to have them in our lives.

Record setting heat

There wasn't too much else to report about during the Summer of 2011, except for the record breaking heat in Dallas and most of the south.  We had 60+ days in a row of 100+ degree heat and then we had a total of 100+ days over a 100 degrees.  Basically, it was hot as Hades! The chaplain at Seminary down here said that when he first moved to Dallas, he thought that he had moved to Hell cause it was so hot.   I figure, if he can say it, so can I!

We couldn't even find reprieve in the pool at our apartment.  It was just too hot! The water was even warm.  Not one bit refreshing.

But we survived, and actually last summer was the best time that we had since moving to Dallas.  Our friendships only became stronger and it was a good feelings knowing that we had 1 full year of school under our belts.

Weddings Galore

Summer 2011 was a fun one for our families.  My little sister Karissa got married on our family's house in Davenport, WA on August 6th.  It was a whirlwind trip for us, but definitely a fun one. We got into town on Wednesday, Thursday was a busy day with preparing for the wedding and getting the yard ready. That night we had a fun girls night and did Karissa's Bachelorette party and stayed at the Davenport Hotel in Spokane.

 The next day was the rehearsal dinner, so there were lots of flower arrangements to put together and last minute things to get ready.  Here is Sean helping put together some centerpieces.  My Aunt Judy has done all the flowers for all of her nieces and nephews' weddings.

We got to stay at a hotel the night before the wedding and get a little girl time together.  This made getting ready the next day pretty easy.

Karissa and I headed off to Spokane that morning to get her makeup and hair done.

Hottie!

Jen Nelson did my hair for my wedding as well as Karissa's. She has been doing our hair for years as well as my mom's so it was so fun to get to share this day with her.

The first look

The tables turned out awesome.  Karissa was so creative with the birch bark and lanterns. This is a picture sans flowers.

 A little bit of a hot day, but we all survived

Head table ladies

Back yard, reception area

 Toast time

Memory Montage Photography did the pictures for the wedding.  This was one of the only pictures that Sean and I took together.  Good thing it turned out cute.

We headed up to Spokane on Monday morning and got to spend some time with Sean's family.  We had another wedding planned for that upcoming weekend.  Sean's youngest brother, Alex was getting married on Saturday. It was nice to have 3 days to relax and enjoy each other before we flew down to Dublin, CA (outside Oakland/ San Fran).  This was our first time seeing Bayley after she was born in March.

Proud Grandma Sandi and baby Bayley at the rehearsal dinner

Sandi did the cupcakes for Katie and Alex's wedding.

The coordinators did an awesome job of setting the event space up 

Beautiful day for an outdoor wedding in Northern California

Saying some vows

Bayley was all tuckered out.  She did great during the whole trip.

Now Pronouncing: Alex and Katie Blackburn

We had a great time at the weddings and we flew back home on Sunday, the 14th.  My birthday actually.  It was a whirlwind 2 weeks, but some awesome celebrations!

Spring Time in the 214

Doesn't quite have the same ring as spring time in the 509.

Any hoo.

After a short winter in Dallas, which did include a couple days of snow and an ice week that shut down the city and classes, we get to enjoy the beautiful spring time in February!  That is one thing that Dallas does well, Spring and Fall.  Gorgeous.  Can't beat 70 degree days in March.

It was not hard for us to adopt the Rangers as our new favorite baseball team.  The Mariners had just been bad for so long, that they had broken our hearts one to many times.  Now that we live in Dallas.... we had to become Rangers Fans.

Rangers Ballpark is beautiful.  Great architecture.

Not too much to complain about in the Spring... except I know Summer is on it's way.

I will be a blogger, I will be a blogger!

I did enjoy having a blog at first. I felt like it was the cool and trendy thing to do when you are newly married. I did ok at first, but Sean regularly made fun of me saying that no one wanted to hear about our boring lives.

But now, we are 2000 miles away. We don't do much, but it is more important to us now that we stay connected and share with everyone.

So here we go! I promise to write more often. I am also going to attempt to fill you in on the last year. There has been Rwanda for me, the last summer days at the the river, of course our move across the country, first couple weeks/months in Dallas and starting my new job. We are finally coming up on our first school year down here, so I better do my job and fill y'all in (in true southern fashion).

Christmas 2010

It was pretty fun getting to fly back to Washington for Christmas.  It was our first time, for both us, to be that far away from all of our family.  We no longer had the luxury of just driving to the other side of town to see the family.  We got to split up our time with both of our families and had some great food and time celebrating!

Heather was expected little Bayley at this time.  Heather was due in May, but delivered 5 weeks early.  Both mom and baby were healthy.

These are the sweet little jeggings that we couldn't wait to see her wear!

It wouldn't be a trip to Spokane without seeing snow downtown and also a trip to Madeline's.  It's our favorite place!

Somehow I didn't end up with any pictures of my family, but I promise we did see them.

This was one of the first times that we realized that we were going "home" to our new home in Dallas at the end of the trip.  We were still learning to adjust to that new normal.

The Move to Dallas

What a driving trip this turned out to be!  We left beautiful cool Spokane with 68 degree temps in the morning.  Little did we know that we were going to be entering the hottest place on the earth!  We took our Subaru and hauled a small U-Haul trailer behind us.  The rest of our belongings were shipped with a moving company the day before.

 This gives you an idea of our driving iteneray

 

We stopped in Nampa, ID and stayed with my cousins at Northwest Nazarene University.  They are Resident Directors for one of the all male dorms.  We got to stay in a dorm room for our overnight visit.  It was during the summer, so there weren't any students, but it was pretty fun  to get to relieve some college memories. Although this time we were married and sleeping in the same room, so not quite the same.

We then headed to Salt Lake City and saw the Mormon Tabernacle.  Pretty amazing, but Sean wouldn't let me stop to take any pictures cause it was rush hour and we had a trailer behind us! We stayed overnight in Grand Junction, CO.  The next day we had a short little drive to Pueblo, CO to stay with Sean's uncle.  That was a nice little reprieve after crossing the Rockies!  I thought we were going to blow up the engine! But the little Suby held up.

Wind energy is very common as we got into North Texas and Oklahoma.

After a short encounter with New Mexico, we grazed the top of Texas before heading to Oklahoma City.  Our first time in Texas.  Yeee Haww!

You know you have hit the Bible Belt when...... large crosses start appearing on the horizon.

We heard that the memorial for the Oklahoma City Bombing was something that we needed to see while we were in town.  It was well worth the time.  Beautiful and very informative.

We stayed overnight in Oklahoma City and were starting to realize that the humidity was going to be our constant companion.  It was unbelievable.  I don't think that the air conditioner in the hotel room turned off once that night.  It was on full blast and barely keeping up.

The next morning we headed off for Dallas.  We were fortunate that Sean had an old high school friend from Indiana who was now living in Dallas with her husband.  The graciously offered their place for us to stay that 1st night in Dallas.  We had a noon move in time the next morning and we knew that we were going to need to be well rested to move in with 100 degree heat.

This delightful little temperature was waiting for us the next day.  Talk about climate shock!

All in all, great road trip.  No break downs, no arguments.  We couldn't have asked for more!  The move in process was a little bit of a shock.  I believe that I started to cry when I realized that the water from the tap was very warm (no such thing as cold tap water in Texas) and tasted like dirt.  I was hot and tired, and just wanted things to be like home.

I can now look back and be thankful for the safety that God provided us during the trip and the relative ease of our move process.  God continues to keep us provided for.  He is good and deserves all the praise!