Homecoming 08!

I am so glad that I was able to make a quick trip to Indiana for Homecoming! I flew in on Wednesday night, and Emily picked me up. We tried, unsuccessfully, to find the only Caribou Coffee in Indy, and after 45 minutes, we gave up and just headed to our hotel. We spent the next day shopping at Castleton (what's better than a day of shopping with Em?) and finally headed back to Taylor late in the afternoon...just in time for Airband!

Loralee and I went to Airband together. It brought back so many funny memories of Taylor! My sister's group, "Daft Punk," won 3rd place!

I met Dr. Rediger for coffee the next morning. We had a wonderful time catching up, and our hour together went much too quickly. I am always so thankful for what an amazing encouragement & mentor Dr. Rediger has been to me over the years.

On Saturday afternoon, Em & I made our first trip (of 3 for the weekend) to Ivanhoes...yes, I completely blew my no sugar/no grain diet for a mint chocolate chip cookie shake!

I drove to Ft. Wayne on Friday night to meet Michelle. After a great time catching up over dinner at FlatTop Grille, we went to visit her parents. I spent many, many weekends at their house during my time at Taylor, and I feel that they are my second set of parents.

Michelle and her husband, Jeremy, ran the Chicago Marathon this morning, & they were featured in an article in the Saturday edition of the Ft. Wayne Gazette. We read their great article while sipping coffee on Saturday morning!


I hadn't seen Stephen & Joy since their wedding 3 years ago, so, of course, we had an amazing time catching up over lunch at Cracker Barrel. How I miss these friends!

I also had a great time catching up with my freshmen year roommate, Sarah! We hadn't seen each other since graduation, which was much too long!


Saturday afternoon & evening was consumed with music major reunions...we had so much fun reminiscing our days in the music building together!
(left to right: Drew, Becca, me, Loralee, Stephen, Cat)


(left to right: Dr. Rediger, Dr. Robertson, Stephen, me, & Joy)


And, my trip ended with a very late night (only 2 hours of sleep for me!) of setting up a Facebook account after much persuasion--mostly from Stephen & Em!
I had so much fun staying at "The Mansion," the house where my sister lives this year! As always, the time flew by much too quickly, but I am so thankful that I got to spend these past few days with these friends (and Em!) who mean so much to me!

Birthday Fun!

Here are a few pics of my birthday festivities! Dave was able to be in town for my birthday, which made the whole week even better! I woke up on the morning of my birthday to THIS... Poor Dave--I had been begging for a glass door for our front door for several months now, but I really didn't think that was what he got me. He had hidden it in our attic and got it down while I was in the shower that morning. I don't think he had ever heard so much screaming...especially at 5:30 in the morning! I was so excited!

On Thursday night, I met many of the ladies from Keystone at the Cheesecake Factory! I had never had the avacado eggrolls before, but they are definitely my new favorite! In case you don't know her, this is my precious friend Heather, who arranged for many of my friends to all give me personal charms for a James Avery bracelet. It was truly a heartfelt gift and one I will truly treasure! (I should note, for Dave's sake, that he took me on a fabulous shopping trip to my favorite store--Ann Taylor Loft--before dinner at the Cheesecake Factory!)

Dave & I continued our celebrating on Friday night with dinner at Brio in Southlake. We had such a wonderful time being out together...plus the food, and especially the desserts, were fabulous!

On Saturday night, I had my family birthday dinner at my parent's house! As is the tradition in my family, the birthday person gets to pick the menu...so, of course, I picked my mom's "famous" (if only to me) tater tot hotdish & baked corn. Dave surprised me with an ice cream cake from Woolley's...so good! :)


This picture is for all my friends who think I am crazy to wear gloves while I do dishes...now I can do it in style! These are called "glam gloves," and, even better, they're pink!
I'm so thankful that we live so close to my parents...I couldn't love them any more!

And...my uncle Jon & cousin Nate--so glad they are both now "official" Texans!
It's hard to believe another year has passed...and while it has definitely been a difficult one, I am so thankful for all my family & friends who love me so much, and, even more, a God Who has an amazing plan for our lives, even when we don't understand what it is. We are truly blessed.

Carcassonne Game Night!

We had a great time playing Carcassonne with Joel & Jenny last night! It is somewhat similar to another of our favorite games, Settlers of Catan. Yes, we know--we're all board game geeks....but it was a lot of fun! Dave won this time, but we look forward to a rematch soon!

Not in the car!!

It's been a while since I've written anything in our blog, but I feel compelled to address an issue that affects many of our male readers. Farding. Many of our manly concerns could be completely resolved or even be made non-issues if women would just curb or learn how to time their farding properly. We could severely limit female motorist accidents and maybe even get to events in a timely and unhurried manner if women would just fard at home with plenty of time to finish instead of farding in the car- and how rude can you be if others are present in the vehicle?!?! Like this morning on our way to church (of all places!) Bethany decides to fard at least half of the way there.
Now many of you might be wondering why am I throwing my lovely wife of five years under the bus like this? It's simple: farding is a distraction that gets in the way of good conversation, and heaven help the freeways if she is doing it while driving. Now farding as opposed to a similar issue many women have with men (and NOT to be confused) is defined by Webster's as: "To paint (the face) with cosmetics."
Here is a common farding kit (the very one my wife used this morning):

Guys, tell your ladies in the most polite way that farding will not be tolerated in the car and, if they want to linger on it, they need to get it out of their systems at home.

p.s. Many thanks to Rush Limbaugh for bringing such a serious issue to the table.

Thankful **Updated**

As most of our four (or five) faithful blog readers know, I had surgery on my thyroid last Friday. The week before school began, my doctor noticed a lump on my thyroid, so I went to a surgeon the following week for what I thought was to be a biopsy. After being in his office for only about five minutes (in which he referred to my "lump" as a "TUMOR" several times), he told me that, due to how quickly the lump appeared & my family history with thyroid problems, he recommended not doing a biopsy, but instead scheduling surgery as soon as possible. At this point, I don't really remember what happened, but there were a *lot* of tears. The surgeon kindly asked me why I was crying (as if I ever need a reason), to which I somehow replied (through gasps of air from all the tears) that finding out you have to take a week off of school for surgery (on the first day of school, nonetheless!) while you are trying to do fertility treatments is just *slightly* overwhelming!

So, after a day of praying and talking with family & friends, Dave and I decided that, yes, it would be best to have this taken care of, so we scheduled surgery for Friday the 5th. I have never had surgery (or even stitches!) before, so I was very nervous leading up to Friday. But, I was amazed at how peaceful I felt once I got to the hospital...we are so thankful for the many precious friends & family who were praying for us!

Since finding out I had to have surgery, my biggest fear had been that my voice would be damaged in surgery, even though Dr. Lorimer reassured me that laryngeal nerve damage is very rare. I was far more scared about losing my ability to sing than finding out that the lump was cancerous....so, there was MUCH rejoicing in the recovery room when, first, I realized I could still hum, and, then, when my family came in to tell me that my lump was benign!

After a somewhat-eventful night in the hospital, we came home on Saturday afternoon. My mom, who is truly the nurse extradordinaire, has been amazing. When I thanked her (once again) for all her help, she actually said, "This has been fun!" I must also give a huge shout-out to Dave who has been so wonderful taking care of me...he is an expert at changing my dressings, and he even watched "High School Musical 2" with me last night! (A bonus to this whole ordeal is that Dave is working in town this week, which means he is home every night!!)

We are also thankful for our amazing friends who are bringing us dinner every night this week! Wow!--this is by far the most home-cooked meals we have eaten in a very long time! :) Both Dave & I have been absolutely overwhelmed by how many friends and family have cared for us so much these past few days, and we are truly thankful!

**Wednesday morning update**--We just got back from the doctor, where I had my stitches removed. The surgeon shared the pathologist report with us, which showed that I had a smaller lump (next to the large one that they originally found) which was cancerous! He said it was "serendipity" (which we know is truly a miracle) that essentially the larger, benign lump led us to the smaller, cancerous one. (It was removed in surgery, as it was on the left side.) We are even more thankful that we had the surgery done...for if we had just had a biopsy of the larger lump done, it would have come back as benign, and we would have never known that there was a cancerous lump right next to it! Wow!!--we were truly in shock at God's goodness as we left the doctor's office today...what a mighty God we serve!!

Another Reason Why I Love Fall!

Each fall, I have to celebrate the return of the Pumpkin Spice Latte to Starbucks! My first Pumpkin Spice Latte for this fall was especially good because Heather brought it to me at our house, since I am housebound due to surgery...definitely a special delivery!

Quick Trip to Steamboat

After work on Friday afternoon, we flew to Denver and then drove to Steamboat for a wonderful weekend with the Rinns! We absolutely loved being back in Colorado again...the cool weather felt wonderful! After getting in around midnight on Friday night, we woke up on Saturday morning to a delicious breakfast (as always!)...including fresh carrot juice!
There was an air show in town, and Dave & Susie noticed this in the sky!
We spent most of Saturday relaxing & reading at the house. Later in the afternoon, Dave & Tim went to check out the air show, and Susie and I went shopping downtown. :) On Saturday night, we all went out to a delicious Mexican restaurant in Hayden.
We also got to see Jon and Kristy's new condo in Oak Creek and spend Sunday evening with them! This was the first time the 4 of us had hung out together as couples, and it was so fun!
On our way back to Denver, we stopped to see Michael where he works at C.B. & Potts. Though our time was too short, it was great to see him for a little while!
And...we saw a Caribou in the airport and couldn't resist! ;) How I wish there were a Caribou closer to us!
Even though our time in Colorado was much too short, we had a great time with our family. We are so excited to see them again soon...when we host this Christmas in Texas! ;)