Christmastime

We celebrated Christmas this past weekend...all across Texas!  Since Brad and I got married in November, I wouldn't say we've had any fights, but two of our "heated discussions" have been about the holidays.  First up - Thanksgiving - I thought it was important to see my dad's side of the family (and my grandma had been emailing about Thanksgiving since before the wedding), while Brad usually spends that weekend in Hearne (where his grandma is) since he and his dad and brother hunt there.  I had this grand scheme for going to both places in one day, and we butted heads over that for awhile :)  When it came down to it, we woke up in Hearne on Thanksgiving day, drove to Georgetown for a late lunch with my family that afternoon, then came back to Hearne in the evening so he could hunt Friday! 

Now, Christmas...Brad basically doesn't like driving all over the place when the holidays should be a relaxing time...but for this one, we had fewer days and more families to visit!  My dad is currently in Korea for work, so we did our Christmas meal with him a week early.  That left my mom and Sean in Round Rock, his family in Hearne, and his family in Tyler to go see...in three days!  Again, we clashed about it and for awhile it sounded like he was just going to see his family without me...which I'm not okay with since it's our first married Christmas!...but I guess he was just picking on me, because he came along in the end :)  We started out in Round Rock, where we saw Mom, Sean, and my brothers along with Matt's girlfriend Tess.  Mom made her traditional tenderloin with moutarde sauce, and I brought sooo many cookies I had been making in Temple.

Holiday Hats

On Saturday we made our way to Hearne, and we woke up there on Christmas morning.  I had a stocking!  Felt like part of the family :)

Showing off our new texting gloves!

Family Pic

And after all the Christmas festivities in Hearne, we drove up to Tyler to see Brad's mom's side of the family.  (Teri got a family shot on her camera but I didn't, so here's an action shot of present-opening!)

Papaw gave us a heated blanket (a wedding registry item we had never received!) and I'm sure it'll come in handy in NY.  Teri gave us the new Baylor cowboy boots!  Brad will be wearing his tomorrow...

...at the Alamo Bowl!  We're so excited to go watch the final football game.  Ready to see our Bears achieve 10 wins for this season!  It's a little bittersweet, since we'll be in New York next year when football starts up again, and I'm not sure when we'll be able to personally attend another game!  Maybe we'll fly down in the fall sometime...just can't imagine a fall without football!

Sic 'em, Bears!!

Great Weekend

What a great weekend in Dallas!  We went up to go to brother Dave's annual Christmas party...turns out the Heisman trophy presentation was scheduled to start right as the party was starting, so we had a room full of Baylor bears glued to the TV. 

And of course...Baylor's own RG3 won the award!  First time ever for a Baylor player to win the award.  It's still surreal to think about...so proud of him and he's such a good guy all around.

The Christmas party was fun (of course, got off to a great start!) and we spent the rest of the weekend with Brad's mom.  Now, gearing up to Christmas...I still have a lot of shopping to do, whoops. 

Speaking of Christmas, I'm really glad I won the debate with Brad...he doesn't like that Christmas is a "season" (doesn't like the commercialism of it) and wanted to wait till Christmas Eve to put up our tree!  I got him to agree to get a tree with me if we got the apartment cleaned and all the wedding presents put away...and that happened :)

Merry Christmas and sic 'em bears ;)

We're Married!!

Well, the wedding came and went in a rush!  It was beautiful and the reception was so fun.  16 months of planning...it's weird to not have wedding plans consuming my life now!  But it's a good feeling.  Some ladies get the "post-wedding blues" after it's over...I felt a little bit like I wanted to experience it again, from a guest's point of view, in the few days after the wedding, but for the most part I'm glad to be done and on to spending the rest of my life with my best friend!

Our photographer promised pics within 2 months of the wedding...since we're not even at the 1-month mark yet, I'm just patiently waiting!  But here are some pics I stole from friends' facebook albums!

More to come, of course...everything went really well, the only major mishap came during the exchanging of the rings in the ceremony.  Everyone always jokes about losing the rings, etc...well...our coordinator got the two rings from me so I wouldn't have to keep track.  She gave Brad's ring to my maid of honor right away, then slipped my ring on her hand to give to the best man (Jared) later on.  Fast forward to the ceremony...we're standing up there and our officiant asks Jared for the ring.  Jared gives this nervous smile and kind of shakes his head.  The officiant continues with talking about the rings, and even looks like he might be holding a ring on the Bible! - so I think we're fine.  Then after his statement, he asks Jared again for the ring.  Now I know there's a problem.  I pause for a second, then slip the engagement ring off my right hand and slip it to Brad so that he has something to put on my finger for that part!  Then we continue, Caitlin has his ring as expected and we go on with the ceremony.

Afterward, I found our coordinator in the lobby and asked where the ring was.  She thought she had given it to Jared...she went back to the room to check the ring boxes, and then someone asked her "Is it still on your finger?"  Sure enough...there it was.  I had Brad place it on my hand unceremoniously right there in the lobby :)  Ah well, gotta have a story right?

Anyway, overall the day was everything I wanted it to be.  A meaningful ceremony, and a fun party after.  Lots of friends and familiy stayed and danced all the way to the end when we made our grand exit.  So many good memories from that day.

And I'm sure there will be more pics to come!

Wedding Week!

It's been crazy times this week...is it only Tuesday?

Yesterday I woke up feeling very calm and excited about the wedding.  Then I started thinking about the to-do list and wondering if I was forgetting something, and all of a sudden I felt so anxious!  When my mom arrived in Temple to bring me to Waco for some appointments, she immediately told me about a situation with the blocks at the Hilton - we thought they'd stay reserved, but a different rep had released them...I started feeling overwhelmed and crying, then my mom cried a little. 

We gathered ourselves up and made it to Waco, no more tears for the day :)  I'm really glad we made that trip, because our rental lady wasn't aware of what the catering lady was going to order and the linens we need have to be special-ordered!  I.e., if we had waited till Thursday to firm things up with the caterer, the linens probably wouldn't make it.  Or be charged a crazy freight to make it in time.

Today I got a few things done, but the day was interrupted a bit by a necessary meeting for my background check stuff for my job.  The guy doing the check is going on a vacation on Friday for 2 weeks...and I'm getting married...and apparently he had to get this to his boss ASAP.  So, we had a 2 hour meeting to just review everything I had told him.  Fun times.

Tomorrow I'm going to Austin, I get to see my grandma (who lives in Montana), and we get to do some SHOPPING!  Maybe that will make me feel better ;)  I really just need to accept that we have lots of helping hands this week, the things on the list will get done, and if some minor detail gets overlooked, it really won't matter on the wedding day.  I get to marry this pretty awesome guy and at the end of the day, that's all that matters!

Hello

Hi there.

I've decided to start up a blog about my life happenings, mostly because I'll have lots of major life changes in this next year and want to document the craziness!  I wanted to put this out there for family and friends to follow along (or if nothing else, it's a nice personal journal!).  A preview of coming attractions:

1.  We're getting married!

Brad and I met at Baylor University in 2006.  We've been dating for over four years now, and in just NINETEEN DAYS we're getting married on Baylor campus!  Can't believe it's so close...we got engaged last July (as in, 2010) so it's been a long time coming.  I'm now in the stressing-out-what-am-I-forgetting stage of wedding planning, so that's...fun.  We're just so ready to be married already...and Brad is so ready to not have to listen to me chat about all those little details.

2.  I'm getting my Ph.D.!

....hopefully.  I earned my Bachelor of Science in Statistics at Baylor and stayed on there to receive the Master's, now working on that third degree.  I've completed three years of coursework so this school year I'm just doing my assistantship at Scott & White Research Office while I write my dissertation.  But...it's a bit slow-going.  It's been an adjustment setting my own deadlines (although my advisor helps me along with that), and while the original intent was to defend the dissertation in March so that I could walk the stage (and get that awesome hood!) in May, now we're looking at a May defense.  Even that seems so out of reach when I think about all there is to do...but at least after the wedding, I'll get serious.  Really.

3.  We're moving across the country!

...to Schenectady, New York (still have to spell it out slowly to myself when I type it).  We both grew up in Texas and in talking about the future we had been very intent on staying here, somewhere (anywhere but Houston!)  But, events seem to be leading us elsewhere.  I recently had some interviews after doing some screening at a stats conference.  This company in Schenectady (Niskayuna, technically) offered me a job, and after a week of consideration - that's all they gave us! - we decided to go for it.  Why not have an adventure at this point in our lives, when we're not really tied down.  I'll be doing statistical consulting for engineers in support of the Navy.  It sounds like really neat work and an exciting opportunity.  Of course, it'll be a big adjustment for us moving up there.  For one, we'll be very far from most of our family and friends (I at least have some family in Baltimore - 6 hours away!).  And then, there's the snow.  Apparently, they don't close everything down for snow days up there...we'll have to learn to drive in the stuff. 

But I'm really excited for this and if nothing else, there should be some entertaining blog material about these two Texans adjusting to the New York life.  When we make the move, we're toying with the idea of making the drive ourselves, so that'll be neat to see a lot of the country that neither of us have experienced yet.



Several major life changes.  Can't wait to see what God has in store for us.  As for now, that's all I've got...I really should be writing my dissertation...