50 Things

Kristen and Meg did this and I am home alone since Tim lives in Fort Worth now, so I thought I'd do it, too!

50 Things You Possibly Didn't Know About Me

1. What is in the back seat of your car right now? A jacket, umbrella, some of Tim's law books he left in my car when he cleaned out his office here in Waco, a Hobby Lobby bag full of trash that I put my water bottles in when I drink them in the car, and a box of cookbooks I am taking to Half Price Books for my Nanny (that's a lot for what's usually in there!)

2. What's your favorite curse word? Shoot! ;)

3. Name 3 people who made you smile today? Tim, John (my "boss" at work), and Lauren (another co-worker)

4. What were you doing at 8 am this morning? Getting dressed for work

5. What were you doing 30 minutes ago? Painting my nails and toenails for New Year's Eve! (Pompeii Purple, which is actually hot pink, and I got it all over my fingers because I didn't realize the top wasn't on when I turned it over to look at the name - nice...)

6. What will you be doing 3 hours from now? Sleeping, I go to bed early

7. Have you ever been to a strip club? No

8. What is the last thing you said aloud? "What have you been doing?" to Tucker

9. What is the best ice cream flavor? Cake Batter from Cold Stone

10. What was the last thing you had to drink? Water

11. What are you wearing right now? The robe I got for Christmas from Nanny and Papa

12. What was the last thing you ate? Mrs. Freshley's light brownie bites

13. Have you bought any new clothing items this week? As a matter of fact, I just bought three dresses to choose from to wear on New Year's Eve. All from Forever 21, for less than $40 :)

14. When was the last time you ran? Yesterday. About three miles with the Waco Striders for half marathon training

15. What's the last sporting event you watched? Texans football on Sunday

16. Who is the last person you emailed? Missy

17. Ever go camping? H-E-double hockey sticks NO! I do not like sleeping outdoors - much to Tim's disappointment!

18. Do you have a tan? A tiny one - I tanned today (bad me...it's free at our apartment complex!)

19. Do you drink your soda from a straw? Only if it's a fountain drink

20 What did your last IM say? I have no idea...I think it said "bye! you too!"

21. Are you someone's best friend? I don't know, actually...

22 is missing!

23. Where is your mom right now? At the duck/deer lease

24. Look to your left, what do you see? Side table with lamp, clock, and the flag Pete gave me that he flew for me in Iraq :)

25. What color is your watch? Stainless/Silver with blue face

26. What do you think of when you think of Australia? The accents and beaches

27. Would you consider plastic surgery? Yeah. I've had a small amount of plastic surgery to remove a scar, but I'd consider it for other things

28. What is your birthstone? Ruby

29. Do you go in at a fast food place or just hit the drive-thru? Depends. If I am in a hurry, usually pull through. If I am eating lunch with someone, go in.

30. How many kids do you want? Four!

31. Do you have a dog? Yes, just little Tucker

32. Last person you talked to on the phone? Tim

33. Have you met anyone famous? Umm...Pat Green (twice!), Roger Creager, and Wade Bowen. I saw the main guy from CSI:Miami in Houston once but didn't meet him

34. Any plans today? It's almost 8:00 PM, so just eating dinner, watching some TV, and drying my hair

35. How many states have you lived in? Just Texas

36. Ever go to college? Yes. A&M (WHOOP!) for undergrad and Baylor for law school

37. Where are you right now? In the living room

38. Biggest annoyance in your life right now? School

39. Last song listened to? Sugarland, Already Gone

40. Are you allergic to anything? Cats and I think I am becoming allergic to all non-hypoallergenic dogs

41. Favorite pair of shoes you wear all the time? My black flats from Nordstrom...Sechilles or something like that?

42. Are you jealous of anyone? I am jealous of people who are not in school right now. And, sometimes I get a little jealous of people who have babies...but it's not the time for that right now!

43. Is anyone jealous of you? Not that I know of

44. What time is it? 7:51 PM

45. Do any of your friends have children? Just one couple - Rose & Drew

46. Do you eat healthy? Try to. Moreso lately

47. What do you usually do during the day? Sit at work and do work things or look online. Or, sit in class.

48. Do you use the word 'hello' daily? If I answer the phone

49. How did you get your scars? Chin: falling off a bike in 4th grade, Nose: cutting it with a knife when I was three and trying to cut my own apple; Left-Side of Face: Jaw surgery

50. How old will you be turning on your next birthday? 24

Hope everyone has a good night!

Christmas Sum-Up

We did a lot of travelling this Christmas! As I mentioned in a previous post, we celebrated Christmas with my dad's side of the family on December 21st. Then, we celebrated Christmas at my dad and stepmom's house on December 23rd. The 24th, we went to Crockett and stayed there until the 27th to have Christmas with my mom and her side of the family. The 27th, we went to Beaumont and had Christmas with Tim's mom, brother, and his family, and then had Christmas with his dad on the 28th. We came back to Waco yesterday so Tim could pack everything up today to move to Fort Worth. He starts his new job tomorrow!

We got lots of great stuff - too much to mention here! Tim got some new clothes for work and a giftcard to get some more clothes, we got some skillets we had been wanting (mine are stainless so stuff sticks to them, so we got some nonstick ones), some books, a bag I wanted that I am going to use for a briefcase, the stable part for my Willow Tree nativity, a small decorative lamp, some giftcards, and more stuff! We had a wonderful Christmas.

Tim is leaving this afternoon to go up to Fort Worth. For the time being, he will be staying with his friend Tennessee. Tennessee and his fiancee, Lauren, have a mother-in-law house in their backyard that they agreed to let Tim stay in for very cheap for a while! We are going to go look at houses to rent this weekend. Tim kind of wants to wait a few months before we rent anything since I won't be moving there until May (our lease here in Waco is up the last day of April). I told him we should keep our options open and if we find something we REALLY love that is well-within our price range, to go ahead and rent it now. I'm just anxious to get something because I am excited about moving there ;)

I'll be going up to Fort Worth on Wednesday after I get off work and we're going to Dallas to celebrate New Year's with my friend Kaitlin, her boyfriend Beau, and another couple. We're going to go to Pappadeaux's for dinner and then to Blackfin bar in Addison. I love going out on New Year's, so I'm really excited!

Hope everyone had a great holiday and has a great New Year's!

Heartwarming Story

I thought this was a great Christmas story. Hope everyone else enjoys!

Life of Reilly
There are some games where cheering for the other side feels better than winning.
by Rick Reilly

They played the oddest game in high school football history last month down in Grapevine, Texas.

It was Grapevine Faith vs. Gainesville State School and everything about it was upside down. For instance, when Gainesville came out to take the field, the Faith fans made a 40-yard spirit line for them to run through.

Did you hear that? The other team's fans?

They even made a banner for players to crash through at the end. It said, "Go Tornadoes!" Which is also weird, because Faith is the Lions.

It was rivers running uphill and cats petting dogs. More than 200 Faith fans sat on the Gainesville side and kept cheering the Gainesville players on—by name.

"I never in my life thought I'd hear people cheering for us to hit their kids," recalls Gainesville's QB and middle linebacker, Isaiah. "I wouldn't expect another parent to tell somebody to hit their kids. But they wanted us to!"

And even though Faith walloped them 33-14, the Gainesville kids were so happy that after the game they gave head coach Mark Williams a sideline squirt-bottle shower like he'd just won state. Gotta be the first Gatorade bath in history for an 0-9 coach.

But then you saw the 12 uniformed officers escorting the 14 Gainesville players off the field and two and two started to make four. They lined the players up in groups of five—handcuffs ready in their back pockets—and marched them to the team bus. That's because Gainesville is a maximum-security correctional facility 75 miles north of Dallas. Every game it plays is on the road.

This all started when Faith's head coach, Kris Hogan, wanted to do something kind for the Gainesville team. Faith had never played Gainesville, but he already knew the score. After all, Faith was 7-2 going into the game, Gainesville 0-8 with 2 TDs all year. Faith has 70 kids, 11 coaches, the latest equipment and involved parents. Gainesville has a lot of kids with convictions for drugs, assault and robbery—many of whose families had disowned them—wearing seven-year-old shoulder pads and ancient helmets.

So Hogan had this idea. What if half of our fans—for one night only—cheered for the other team? He sent out an email asking the Faithful to do just that. "Here's the message I want you to send:" Hogan wrote. "You are just as valuable as any other person on planet Earth."

Some people were naturally confused. One Faith player walked into Hogan's office and asked, "Coach, why are we doing this?"

And Hogan said, "Imagine if you didn't have a home life. Imagine if everybody had pretty much given up on you. Now imagine what it would mean for hundreds of people to suddenly believe in you."

Next thing you know, the Gainesville Tornadoes were turning around on their bench to see something they never had before. Hundreds of fans. And actual cheerleaders!

"I thought maybe they were confused," said Alex, a Gainesville lineman (only first names are released by the prison). "They started yelling 'DEE-fense!' when their team had the ball. I said, 'What? Why they cheerin' for us?'"

It was a strange experience for boys who most people cross the street to avoid. "We can tell people are a little afraid of us when we come to the games," says Gerald, a lineman who will wind up doing more than three years. "You can see it in their eyes. They're lookin' at us like we're criminals. But these people, they were yellin' for us! By our names!"

Maybe it figures that Gainesville played better than it had all season, scoring the game's last two touchdowns. Of course, this might be because Hogan put his third-string nose guard at safety and his third-string cornerback at defensive end. Still.

After the game, both teams gathered in the middle of the field to pray and that's when Isaiah surprised everybody by asking to lead. "We had no idea what the kid was going to say," remembers Coach Hogan. But Isaiah said this: "Lord, I don't know how this happened, so I don't know how to say thank You, but I never would've known there was so many people in the world that cared about us."

And it was a good thing everybody's heads were bowed because they might've seen Hogan wiping away tears.

As the Tornadoes walked back to their bus under guard, they each were handed a bag for the ride home—a burger, some fries, a soda, some candy, a Bible and an encouraging letter from a Faith player.

The Gainesville coach saw Hogan, grabbed him hard by the shoulders and said, "You'll never know what your people did for these kids tonight. You'll never, ever know."
And as the bus pulled away, all the Gainesville players crammed to one side and pressed their hands to the window, staring at these people they'd never met before, watching their waves and smiles disappearing into the night.

Anyway, with the economy six feet under and Christmas running on about three and a half reindeer, it's nice to know that one of the best presents you can give is still absolutely free.

Hope.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espnmag/story?section=magazine&id=3789373

God is Good!!

I just found out that I got the internship job in Fort Worth!!! I was getting really anxious yesterday since I hadn't heard anything so I went ahead and e-mailed them this morning just to ask for an update and tell them that I was very interested in the job and enjoyed meeting everyone (I already sent everyone a thank you note, this was just a follow up). I got an e-mail back from the lady telling me 'congratulations!' and it had a letter attached that they were going to send me in the mail that told me I got the job!

I will start after I take the bar and graduate. I could start on August 3rd, but they told me in the interview that they usually like to give people a couple weeks off after the bar. However, I just heard from the lady again and she said she would mark my tentative start date as August 1st. So, I guess I might be able to start the 3rd. They used to last into October but she told me they had a policy change and they now end September 30th. That would mean I would work there for about 8 1/2 weeks. I get my bar results somewhere around the first week of November, so hopefully after that it will lead to getting a full-time Assistant DA job with them.

Anyway, I just wanted to give an update since I just found out! I will post about what department I will be working in when I know more about it. Thanks for all the prayers and good thoughts from everyone!

Have a great holiday!

Christmas Travels

I haven't heard about the job, yet. I will definitely post as soon as I know something.

We started our Christmas travels this weekend and visited my Mammaw and Pappaw (dad's parents) in Crockett for family Christmas. I always love going to see them and eating some yummy food. Before that, on Saturday, we ran with the training group and ran a little over 5 miles! That was the most I've ever run.

Christmas Eve we are going back to Crockett to my Nanny and Papa's (mom's parents) until Saturday. We haven't been to their house in a long time, so we can't wait to get to visit for a few days! Saturday, the 27th, we are going to Beaumont to see Tim's mom and dad for a couple days. Then, we are coming back to Waco and Tim is leaving for Fort Worth. He starts his new job on Tuesday!

We are spending New Year's Eve in Dallas with my friend Kaitlin, her boyfriend, and some other people. I really love New Year's Eve so it is fun for me to get to be in a big city and have a big time :) Hopefully I will have good news about the job by then.

I am so nervous about the job. I feel sick when I think about it because I am so nervous. I know that I will be able to find a position somewhere else if this doesn't work out, but the Tarrant County DA has such an amazing reputation and I have heard so many wonderful things about the office that I just want to work there very badly. We are going running again tonight in the freezing weather. I cannot stand cold weather! I know it makes it more like Christmas, but it does not bother me if it is 70 degrees at Christmas - I just want to be warm!

Hope everyone travelling stays safe and has a wonderful Christmas/Hanukkah/Holiday in general!

Great news!!

TIM GOT A JOB!!!!!!!!!!!

Yayyyy!!! We are so excited! I haven't posted this week because he had the interview on Tuesday and I didn't want to post about it and then him not get the job and have to post sad news. So, I just decided to hold off on posting until we knew something. He got the call at lunch today that they want him to work for them! It's a relatively new firm - made up of three attorneys that have worked for several years at other firms - called Judd & Vural, PLLC. It is in Fort Worth which is even more awesome because we really wanted to live there. I am just so excited I can't even begin to try to express it!

I also had an interview today at the Tarrant County DA for an internship after I take the bar. I thought it went pretty well. It was only a 15 minute interview, which I couldn't find a parking spot and ended up going into the wrong building at first so I was 5 minutes late :( Luckily, the lady knew I was coming in from out of town and it was bad weather and the guy who was going after me was already there so he just went before me. I hope that that doesn't hurt my chances but I felt like I did well overall. I guess we will see...They are supposed to let me know next week.

We are about to go to Tim's current job's Christmas party. He is starting his new job shortly after Christmas and will be staying with a friend until we find a place. Our lease at our apartment in Waco is up at the end of April, so I will probably move to Fort Worth for my last quarter and just come into Waco for my one class everyday. If that doesn't look like it will work, we will try to figure out something else but that seems like a great option for now.

I'll try to write more tomorrow to update on the past week. Hope everyone has a great night!

Christmas Decor

Okay, I finally took pictures of all of it! I tried to put them in some sort of order.

I know I posted this a couple months ago, but for those of you that weren't reading them or didn't see it, here is the wreath I made for the front door.

We don't have a mantle so I found this cute stocking holder on the internet.

I have also made it double as a Christmas card holder on the back of it since we only have three stockings to put on it and they all fit on the front.

Tim's mom gave me this beautiful set of ornaments. They all kind of go together, so I decided to get a small tree to put them on so they could all be around eachother. I don't have lights for it yet so it is kind of hard to see them. But, there are 12 ornaments and each has a meaning. The collection is called the Bridal Collection and it is a set of good wishes for new couples to begin their lives together. Angel - God's guidance in the home; Bird - Happiness and joy; Fish - Christ's blessing; Flower Basket - Good wishes; Fruit Basket - Generosity; Heart - True Love; House - Shelter and protection; Pine Cone - Motherhood and fruitfulness; Rabbit - Hope and faith; Rose - Beauty and affection; Santa- Unselfishness and goodwill; and Teapot- Hospitality

Here is my Willow Tree Nativity. I LOVE all things Willow Tree. If Tim hadn't objected, our tree would also have Willow Tree ornaments. I asked for the actual stable thing that they sit on for Christmas this year from my Nanny and Papa.

Kitchen table decorated...

Close up of the centerpiece. Flowers and ornaments from Hobby Lobby, bowl was one of our wedding presents. It's a really beautiful crystal bowl.

Christmas trees I made...

Here's a closeup of the tree. It's a cardboard tree with tiny little glittery balls hot glued onto it. They had some similar to this at Target that I really liked but they were $30 each. I decided I could make them for less than that. I ended up making them for about $20 for both of them!

My bobble-head Santa with his Christmas tree. You obviously can't tell he is a bobble-head and this picture really doesn't do him justice, but he is just about the cutest thing ever.

Jack Frost potpourri with Jack Frost scented candles in the pretty wooden holder. My mom bought this for me when she was in town from this great store we have here called Spice. This is on the coffee table.

Little bit of a close up on the Christmas tree. My pictures do not make it look as pretty as I think it looks. We went with a red and gold theme with a little bit of silver mixed in.

Here's a full view of the tree with the star. It took us FOREVER to get the star on and make it stand up. I ended up having to use a wooden spatula stuck inside of it along with the branches to keep it from falling over. The lights are actually on but the flash made it hard to tell. I think I will add a couple more strings of lights next year to make it light up more.

That's it! Sorry the post is so long! We're heading to Boerne tomorrow so I hope everyone has a great weekend!

Tucker & Swearing In

As I have mentioned in a few posts, Tim and I have both been sick the past couple weeks. We have a lot of drainage, so we have been blowing our noses a lot. Tucker likes snotty Kleenexes (awesome, I know). Usually, we leave the bedroom door open for him so he can sleep on the bed while we're gone but we close the bathroom door. Well, we forgot to close the bathroom door the other day and this is what we came home to...

And this is Tucker hiding after we discovered the mess...

Also, I never posted pictures of Tim's dad swearing him in to the Bar. Here is a picture of the actual swearing in.

And here's an "after" picture with his dad.

That's all for today. Stay warm - it's windy and cold outside!

Ornaments!

The last ornament exchange on The Nest was this month and I got some great ornaments from dangerkitty102!! Here is a picture of them:
They are perfect for our tree :) Oh, and by the way, that little thing isn't our main tree. That was just the best way for them to show up for a picture.

Weekend

Ok, so I still haven't taken pictures of the Christmas decorations. I swear I will this week!

Friday we had my office Christmas party. It was really fun! We had dinner and a White Elephant exchange at one of the ADA's houses and then went out to this place called Crying Shame in Waco. It's a somewhat seedy bar but they always like to go there after the Christmas party every year. You can dance there, probably won't see anyone you know, and it's interesting to see all the people. We left about midnight because we were starting half marathon training on Saturday morning.

We got up EARLY on Saturday at 7:20 to go running with the Waco Striders - the group that is doing the half marathon training. Tim complained the entire way to the place we were meeting because he was tired, he didn't feel good, it was cold, etc. etc. etc. We ran a 5k on flat ground and did 3 minutes of running and 1 minute of walking. I thought that would make our time slower but one of the guys was telling us that it really doesn't add much to your time because, if you were to run the whole way, you actually slow down as you run. So, walking every four minutes actually helps you keep your speed up. I think he was right because we ran that same amount a couple weeks ago and it took us 30 minutes running the whole time. Yesterday, it took us 30 minutes and 44 seconds. Anyway, it was freezing outside when we were running - I think about 27 degrees - so my nose was running a lot. We came back home and got back in bed about 9 AM and slept until 1 PM!

Last night we had our monthly supper club. This one was Chinese Christmas themed so we had Chinese food for dinner and took saki bombs. It was fun - they usually are! We slept in again this morning (bad us, not going to church) until a little after 11:00. I think we haven't been sleeping well this week because we have been sick, so we needed some catch up time on sleep. My nose is running a lot more today but I don't feel bad.

That's about it! I think we are going to go to Boerne this weekend. My interview with the Tarrant County DA for the internship position is on December 18th at 2:00 PM. Oh, and please make sure to pray this week for Sarah. She is the one I talked about a couple weeks ago that is in the process of trying to adopt and the adoption calendar is going to help with she and her husband's expenses. They may have an opportunity to adopt a baby girl that was just born this weekend. Please pray for the biological mother of the baby who is making the decision and also pray for Sarah and Jamie that this works out for them and they have a smooth process.

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Storm!

I got a new phone yesterday!! I got the new Blackberry Storm, which is RIM's (Blackberry maker) version of the iPhone. It's a touch screen and I L-O-V-E it!! It was my Christmas gift from Tim but it wasn't supposed to be in until December 15th or 16th so I was very excited when I saw that I had a package from FedEx yesterday when I wasn't expecting anything.

I'll try to give a better review of it once I use it for a while, but so far I really, really like it.

Ornaments

I forgot to put up pictures of the ornaments I got in November's Ornament Exchange on The Nest. They are really pretty and look great on our tree! Thanks sethsgal :)

Mistletoe

Onion