4 weeks from today

In exactly 4 weeks from today, my husband will be a college graduate!! Can I just tell you that is one of the most exciting things ever?!? Also, we will celebrate our 5 year anniversary on that day. Pretty good anniversary present if you ask me!

101010

Yesterday was a special day. Not only was it binary day 101010, but it was my 29th birthday. So in honor, here are 10 pictures to document 101010.





My birthday gift from Zach was a pair of cranberry TOMS wedges and Beauty and the Beast.




So glad to finally have my very own pair of TOMS.





My actual birthday was at 10:10am on 10/10/10!





Ate lunch with the church bunch at Potbelly's.





Claire gave me a big smile for my bday.





Derby helped me do the laundry.





Watched the rangers lose game 4 in the division playoff game. (They must pull off a win tomorrow night.)





Made hotdogs for dinner.






And watched Beauty and the Beast in our backyard on the big screen that Zach rigged.





A great way to end my 29th birthday on 101010!

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Moving Ganky

In the last week a lot has happened in my grandmother's life. She has decided that she just shouldn't be by herself anymore and so she is moving from Groesbeck to Beaumont to live with her daughter. So in making this decision she had to sell her house that she has lived in for the last 40ish years. It's the only house that I can ever remember my grandparents in, so it has lots of memories. Fortunately all this happened while Ganky (my grandmother) is still with us. So this past weekend my whole family went down to help organize and pick out anything that we wanted. We came home with lots of treasures and lots of stories about the memories behind all of our treasures.



You can't tell from the pic but this is her sewing machine. I'm excited to learn how to use this one as it is older than my mom's sewing machine. I also took this big glass water bottle. Ganky gave me the last change that grandaddy had to start my coin collection in the glass jar.





I was really excited about this lamp because I was able to replace one that we got for a wedding present that really didn't fit our style. This goes perfectly with our style. I also brought home two tractor seat stools that they always had out by the shed. I can remember playing on these as a child. We are going to paint them and find a good spot on the deck for them.



I brought this old Hunter fan home especially for Zach because we gave seen them in antique stores but they were always so expensive. Now he has his very own and he didn't even have to pay for it.


I'm sad to say that I won't be going to Groesbeck amymore for family gatherings, but I'm so glad that Ganky shared some of her treasures with us.

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Derby

A tribute to my wild and crazy pup, Derby.



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Stairs, the Continuation

Obviously still in the works. We are still trying to decide on the paint color and the rails still have to be formed and put in place. We are in a great place for the project. Still a long while before school starts back so Zach has plenty of time to work on it.


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Projects in Progress...

You may remember this post or this post...

Well we have finally made progress on these projects. ;-) Zach put the spindles up yesterday and I am very pleased with how they look. I'm excited to get the rest of the stair project complete and I have been told that it will get done this summer. ;-) Derby is not as excited about the spindles because he no longer has a short cut to get down the stairs. It's much safer now though. Zach realized on Sunday night when we had several little kiddos at the house that it would probably be best to have these spindles in place rather than sitting in the office collecting dust.

Here's the covering of the little sewing chair. I'm excited about it. I would like to cover the sides as well, but I am okay with just the top for now. The sides will definitely not be as easy.

Non project news, Zach and I went to our first Rangers' game of the season last Tuesday. It was a celebration of the end of the semester for Zach. 12 more hours done... and a passing grade in Art History. That's a definite plus. They won against the Angels. It's always fun to go to the game when they win. So back to the school story... Zach is on track still to graduate in December barring one minor detail. An internship for the summer. The internship with Tracy Locke didn't pan out... now we are waiting to hear from one that he had an interview with last week. We should know something by the end of this week or at the latest Tuesday. The earlier the better in my opinion. Praying hard that this one will work out because it would be a huge blessing!

So here's to the beginning of our summer....

Happenings...

The past month has brought about many different happenings...

• My aunt Sharon passed away on March 31st after an 8 year battle with cancer. Her funeral was April 2nd in Groesbeck and it was truly a wonderful memorial to her life. She was such a warrior and had such a great impact on the little community that she lived in. I'm still constantly thinking about my cousin Amy and uncle Jim as they continue to grieve from this loss.
• Zach has two and half weeks of school left and we are so excited about the fact that there will only be one semester after this... December 2010 is looking very exciting!
• We are still waiting to hear back from Tracy Locke and the possibility of a graphic design internship. Zach interviewed during spring break and they said call in 4 weeks if you haven't heard from us. He called and they said they needed at least two more weeks.... so April 27th will have been 6 weeks since the interview. We're still crossing our fingers.
• Zach's parents came Easter weekend and we were able to play around town with them. We took them to Taco Diner and Sprinkles... both of which I had never either. Great food and will definitely be going back for a $3.75 cupcake because it was pure greatness!
• The next weekend, April 9-11, we spent at Lake Texoma for a retreat with the Homebuilder's class at Riverside. It was an amazing time to get away and much needed weekend of rest. We spent the weekend discussing Community and what that should look like in a church family. And of course playing.... here's are the pics from the weekend....

• The next weekend was spent mostly indoors due to the stinking rain. Not much to tell about that. But last Sunday was a day of many highs/lows. There was all sorts of exciting news in bible class with one couple having their baby boy at 6am that morning, one couple announcing that they were having a little girl and two couples announcing they were pregnant. Whew, that's a lot of baby talk. Then that afternoon was the shower for another girl, my prayer partner for the last two months Renae. It was a beautiful shower that I was honored to be a part of... but we got news shortly before the shower that one of our Elders and his family had been in a terrible car accident. The news of this hit pretty hard and we immediately prayed for the family. We had a prayer meeting at the church that evening for the family and in the middle of the prayer we learned that the Elder and his daughter had passed away from the injuries that had sustained in the accident.
• That leads us to today, we had a lament service at church this morning for Phil and Raychel and we wrote on notecards for Debby and baby Zach . It was very emotional, but the part that hit me the most was when we sang Blessed Be the Name... "you give and take away, you give and take away, my heart will choose to say Lord blessed be your name." Couldn't make it through that part of the song. There will be a memorial service for Phil and Raychel on Friday, April 30th.
• This week, my sister and dad will both celebrate birthdays... we celebrated as a family last night at Maggiano's with a gigantic dinner. It was greatness!

Well that about sums up the month of April... there's much more in store for the month of May... this year is flying by....

Two weeks ago...

So two weeks ago, I packed up my stuff and headed down to College Station for the first time in my life. I have lived in Texas all my life with the exception of college and I have never been to college station until two weeks ago. Unfortunately, the trip did not include a visit to the A&M campus, hopefully that will come in the fall, friends and football, maybe? Anyway... my mom and I made the trip for a wedding of one of my best friends in the youth group.... Alan and his new bride, Lisa. It was such a sweet wedding and I just couldn't have been more happy for two people. It's amazing to think that they didn't even know who each other were until a year ago. God definitely works his ways! The wedding was also a great reunion of the boys (and some girls) in the youth group. So fun to see everyone in one place again. I was able to hang out with the Nichols' family and see Brodee... love that little man. Neena and I actually got a good pic as well.

The trip was two-fold.... after going to College Station, we drove back home by way of Groesbeck... this sign was actually in Bryan, TX. Anyway... we drove to Groesbeck, so that we could visit my aunt Sharon in the hospital. My heart and mind have been on my Aunt Sharon, Uncle Jim and Cousin Amy for the last two weeks. So keep them all in your prayers.

That brings us to today... Zach is working to write his last paper in Art History. I will be so glad when that class is over with. About 6 weeks left of school... crazy how the time is flying. We are also anxious to find out about Zach's summer plans. Continuously praying for an internship to fall into place for the summer, so that a December graduation can be a definite reality!

Laceration Repair

On this beautiful March day, I woke up and thought I needed to get out in the yard and start doing some work to get it ready for Spring. So Zach and I got up and put on our grubby clothes and got outside. Zach worked on his truck and I decided to pick up some stuff in the backyard and re-pot our little Japanese Maple tree. The pot that it was in had really taken a beating during the harsh winter that we had and it was all cracked and I knew that just by touching it it would fall apart. So I was careful, had my gloves on and I re-potted the tree.

When Zach was done with his truck, he moved the new pot into place and as we were cleaning up the old broken pot, Derby flinched and scraped his leg. Didn't think too much of it, but we did notice that he didn't want to put his full weight on that foot. So we continued to clean up the pot and then I noticed that there was blood. No wonder he didn't want to put his full weight on that leg... it was hurt pretty bad. So we brought him inside and doctored up his leg, but we didn't want to take this lightly. We called the vet and they referred us the the North Texas Emergency Vet Clinic and so off I went, by myself. Not something that I wanted to do by myself as the last time that I ventured to this particular place, my dog was not breathing and ending up not making it. But I fought through it and left Derby in good hands for stitches.

And now with a broken bank (not really, but definitely more than I would want to spend.), our pup's "laceration" is all bandaged up with pretty green shamrock. Too bad they can't just put stitched in a dog like they would a human. The nurses at the clinic joked that Derby's name should be Rowdy, but let me tell ya... he sure isn't rowdy tonight. It's actually kinda nice to have a calm pup laying in my lap for once.

Another type of laceration repair will take place in our house as well... last week, on a whim... Zach and I went by ReSale, the CCA shop here in Lewisville. Zach spotted this chair and I liked it, which if you know me, I'm not a fan of goodwill and/or garage sales, so he was pretty amazed that I liked it. What's neat about this chair is it's very vintage, but yet modern and even better it has storage. You can't tell in this picture, but the only thing wrong with the chair was a deep cut "laceration" in the middle of the seat. We have bought fabric and intend to recover it very soon. Until then here are pics of my little "sewing" chair.

Snow Day 2010

It's not very often that I have two snowy posts in a row. Record snowfall in February 2010 is definitely something to talk about. On Thursday (Feb 11), I was at work watching the snowfall from a conference room where I sat in a meeting all day long. We dismissed at 345 and I was out the door shortly thereafter to make the snowy drive home. There was never a lull in the snow on Thursday from at least 5 AM Thursday to 12 Midnight it was snowing. CRAZY!! So Zach took some good pics to document the 12 inches of snow that we got in one day in the great state of Texas. Pretty amazing... in the 28 years that I have been here in Texas there has never been this much.

And on a completely separate note... here's Derby's good friend, Myko. They got to have a little play date a couple of weeks ago and he's wondering when his friend can come play again.

Christmas Vacation at the House in Taos

Better late than never, but be forewarned...this is a very long post... so this Christmas was a little different for the Kilgore family. We decided to take a trip instead of giving gifts. So Christmas day was spent with a great breakfast and the traditional afternoon movie, this year Sherlock Holmes.

On Sunday, December 27th, we left for a week vacation in Taos, New Mexico. It was a very long drive, but was only made longer by the fact that we were delayed for an hour just outside of Wichita Falls so that they could run the snowplows over the bridge there. It was still that icy from Christmas eve. So you can only imagine what a welcoming feeling it was to finally drive in to Taos.

We arrived at the house late on Sunday night, but these pictures show a little bit of what we arrived to. For more info on the house in Taos, see Casa Corazon. The house had a great layout and was so warm and welcoming to us after a long day of driving.

The view from the front door to the mountains.

The kitchen/dining area/living room were most of our time was spent when we were at the house. My mom had delicious meal for us every night especially homemade soup and beef tenderloin. Wonderful treats after long days of skiing.

The outdoor fireplace and backyard which Derby and Miley enjoyed thoroughly.

Proof that we really did take the dogs with us. Derby had a blast and really did travel well for the 13 hour ride.

Miley did very well too... and amazingly enough they didn't attach each other all week. They were actually very civil.

So we got up on Monday morning and got out very early to get the mountain at Angelfire. We decided to ski Angelfire because it didn't seem as difficult as Taos Ski Valley and Zach was brand new at this skiing thing. (One day I'll make it to Taos Ski Valley.) We got to the Cottam's ski rental and got our skis/snowboard right away and made our way up to the mountain for the beginning of skiing 2009. We hadn't had the chance to reserve a spot for Zach to take lessons, so we were just hoping that they had a spot in the snowboarding class. He went into the school building and came back saying they were full. I thought, oh great, this is going to be interesting. I decided, that I would go back into the school building one more time and see what we could find out for him... and thank goodness I asked the right question... he got into a group lesson right away. So my sister, dad and I were off to make a warm up on the bunny slopes and Zach made his way to snowboarding class at 10am.

The one family pic that we took during the trip. The skiers and mom the one day that she came up to the mountain.

Lisa and I at the top of the bunny slope lift. Great view of the Angelfire valley below.

Zach learning his moves in class... he really did well in class.

In the afternoon when he was done with class, we made our way up a the bunny slope together so that he could get practice on a bigger part of the mountain. Let's just say he looked like this a lot... being on your bum is not fun.

Preparing to get off the lift... especially nerve-wrecking for me as I am not accustomed to being on the lift with a snowboarder. It was actually one of the biggest reasons why I wanted Zach to have snowboarding lessons because I had no idea how to tell him how to get off the lift. We managed just fine though and had a system down pat by the end of day 3.

The best picture that we took together the whole trip, thanks Josh for letting us borrow your jacket... it worked out great for Zach.

So here were are on the first time down the big bunny slope in the afternoon on the first day. You see Zach has taken his boot out of the binding and he's walking his way up the mountain. I believe this is when Zach decided that it might be fun to venture off to the side of the path where you could see grass coming up out of the snow and a path to an ungroomed black was in his sight. Fortunately, he got back on the green path and we made it down the hill after several stops on the way. I always tried to stay behind him so that if he did fall, I could be there to help him up, but it was real hard because I just wanted to ski all the way down. A definite lesson in patience, but so much fun!

On the third day of skiing my sister turned in her skis, so it was down to me, Zach and my dad. The was the day that Zach finally made it to the top of the mountain. Here's a picture to prove it... We were real bundled up because it was snowing at the top of the mountain. It was so cold and unfortunately Zach dropped his goggles while we were on the lift to the top of the mountain. I was so proud of Zach for making it down the big hill, he had improved his boarding skills so much since the first day. I can only imagine how he would have been if he had had a few more days, but after that 3rd day we were all very sore and pooped from the activity.

So we headed home from the mountain the last day and came upon a few things on the journey back...

A rainbow in the sky after the snow...

A smart alec sign.

And lots of snow on the trees.

The last day in Taos, we decided to take advantage of the town. Taos is full of lots of artistic shops and boutiques. We ended up with two prints from local artists, a handmade ornament for the Christmas tree, and a fun winter hat for me. We ate lunch in the plaza at Ogelvie's so that we could get a little New Mexican flare while we were there and then again we were pooped from shopping and spent the rest of the night at the house in Taos. (I just really like saying that.) Our New Year's eve was spent being pretty lazy and I can say that we didn't make it to New Year's in New Mexico, I think that we made it to New Year's in Texas though (considering the time difference.)

So bright and early Friday morning, New Year's day, we started the long journey back home. I think that Zach was surprised by the fact that I really didn't sleep on him during the trip. The trip home seemed longer, but it was actually the same. We even stopped on the way home at the Cadillac Ranch to leave our mark.

We made it home at 11pm New Year's Day and so ended the much needed and much enjoyed Christmas of 2009.