Home...

We are headed home (finally!) tomorrow! Please pray for safe travels for us!

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

Snow in Bryan!

Yes, you read that correctly. We woke up yesterday and had to brush the car off!! Below are the pictures of what we saw yesterday afternoon - yes it snowed for over 12 hrs. straight here!







At work we did NO work after 2 o' clock. Many of my co-workers have never seen snow in their lives so our afternoon consisted of snowmen and snowball fights.

Ben and I felt like we got transported!

See you all in 11 days :)

Christmas is Coming!

Ben and I are leaving for home in two weeks... actually in two weeks we will already be on the plane back home! In two weeks we will be seeing all of you, in two weeks we will be able to make a snowman, in two weeks.... Can you tell we are exicted?

Can't wait!

The Promised Pictures!

Ben putting together our table...

Our first meal on the table!

Our Christmas decorations:

And one of Ben studying, just for kicks :)

6 months and more...

6 month Anniversary
Yesterday, Ben and I celebrated our 6 month anniversary. It is so hard for us to believe that it has been 6 months since our wedding already. It seems like the time just flew! We didn't do much to celebrate just had some dessert and played some games. We weren't up for a whole lot since we had a busy busy weekend already!

Thanksgiving
Ben's parents left Tuesday night from Michigan to drive down, and got down here about one 'o clock (cst) on Wednesday. I had to work all day Wednesday, so Ben showed them around town a little bit while I was still working. When I got home from work, we all caught up on things in our lives, I showed them some art things I have been working on and we made pizza and just relaxed. Thursday morning we all drove to Houston to celebrate Thanksgiving with Ben's aunt and uncle. Once in Houston, we pretty much just sat around, ate LOTS of food, watched football, and played many, many games. What a fun day! Then Friday we drove back to Bryan, and showed Seth Texas A&M, and where I work, and just other places around the city. Saturday we went a got our Christmas Tree (just a fake one from Walmart) and then Ben's parents left around 5 pm (cst). It was a busy weekend, but so nice to have them down here. We did a lot of laughing!

3 weeks....
3 weeks and Ben and I will be back in (snowy) Michigan. We are looking forward to it so much. It was good to see family again this past weekend, and now we are ready to see the rest of our family and friends back home!

I will post some pictures of our tree and our new table later today!

Love you all. See you soon!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you back home! Ben's parents and Seth made it safely around 1pm cst today and they are fast asleep right now as we get ready for Thanksgiving in Houston. We miss you all - and will being around your table for thanksgiving.

A Few Things I am Thankful For:

-Being married to an amazing man for 6 months (on Sunday!)
-A family, that so far away, but we can feel your closeness in the emails and phone calls
-Ben and I, both having jobs
-Siblings - that I LOVE!
-Cooler weather
-A nice cozy apartment
-A God that is always here for us

And the list could go on forever.... Thank you all!

Love,

Diane

Facelift!

So I hope you like the new look of the blog! It's finally starting to feel like fall here.

Also check out my parent's site at www.nuts2you.com when you get a chance!

We are Alive!

Sorry, I know it has been awhile. We have been busy :) Not with anything too exicting, just busy working, busy working on my parent's site (that is taking a lot of my time but is so fun), busy with school, and busy with Christmas Shopping! Yes, you read that right we are trying to get it all done before Thanksgiving so Ben's parents can take it back with them and we don't have to bring it on the plane.

Otherwise not a ton of news down here. Ben only has about 6 weeks until the semester is over and we are thankful for that. We are rejoicing with great friends who are expecting! We can't wait to be home to celebrate with them! See you all very soon!

Here's some pictures from Halloween in Texas!

The Jack o' Lantern Pizza

Ben cutting the pizza! And below the Tourist and the Black Cat - see the tail I made and Ben made the ears!

San Antonio

Our Little Vacation

Ben and I had a bit of cabin fever in Bryan/College Station and decided to get away for the weeked. We had planned on going to Austin but since there was a home football game, people around here advised us not to go so we decided on San Antonio, about a 3 hr. trip from here.

We left Friday afternoon about 4pm and started to the trip, it took us a bit longer than 3 hrs to get there because we got into two traffic jams on the way there. But we finally arrived at our hotel which was very close to downtown, and not the nicest place we have stayed in but it was cheap :) So we headed downtown to the Riverwalk area - Awesome! I loved it, it is like a whole different world down all these little shops and resturants all along the river.

Then we went to the zoo on Saturday. Here's a couple hightlights:

1. Ben with the birds - they really liked him! :)

2. The Capybara's - the largest rodent on earth!

3. The Flamingo's - I just like them!

Then we went back downtown and did some shopping in the little shops and went to the Alamo. What a cool experience to see. We didn't get a ton of pictures because they don't let you take too many pictures around the Alamo.

We also saw tons of cool fountains downtown near and around their giant tower.

We also got "Texas" waffles at the hotel for breakfast.

Overall a great trip for us. The only thing I wish is that I had brought my toothbrush, needless to say Ben has gotten a new one since we have been home :)

Also for those interested in visiting.... We saw the largest outlet mall I have ever seen on our way there and I am anxious to visit it!

You can see more pictures at:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2015138&l=f0ff6&id=119300047

Two months from tomorrow and Ben and I will be home. We are counting down the days :)

We're Back!

Ben and I spent the weekend in San Antonio and we are finally back, and tired :) So I will share the details of our trip and some pictures very soon! Love you all!

A Long Time

Wow, almost two weeks since I have updated you guys, sorry!

So Life... What have we been up to...

The Office
Ben and I re-arranged the office because we got another desk very cheap and thought it would be a good idea for me to have a place to do my Mary Kay stuff, pay the bills, and once we buy a desktop computer we will have a place to put it. So we started that tonight but it should be well-finished tomorrow, and then I can post pictures. It was nice for us to go through some of our stuff that we didn't know where to put when we first moved in but now actually have a place for.

"Rocky"
Rocky is our new fish :) Ben named him Rocky because he is a male beta fish and they are fighters. But he lives in a nice bowl/vase with an ivy growing out the top. It feels like home again!

Gas Under...
So gas is under $3 a gallon here. We saw it for $2.93 tonight at Wal-mart. Not trying to rub it in it is just as much of a shock to us to!

Work
Work is going really good for me. I am staying very busy there which is what I like but some days I think I am TOO busy :) I have about 20-25 websites that I am working on at a given time - which means 20-25 clients calling, emailing, and breaking their sites within the course of a day!

School
School is going well for Ben still. It was mid-term week for him so he spent a lot of time at school and in his office study. He feels very confident that he did very, like I was worried :) But he gave his kids their mid-terms too, and they did surprisingly well for them. Ben also went on a field trip to the KT Boundary (about 1 1/2 hrs from here) and look at rocks where the river had eroded. I can't give you too many more details because it is too detailed of stuff for me to remember!

Otherwise life is great for us down here, we still miss you all like crazy. I found this quote which I believe 100% in and I am going to end the post with it.

"Happiness is having a large, loving, caring, close-knit family in another city."

This Week

So not a whole lot going on around here but I thought I would update you guys on our lives.

New Client

So I have a new client at work.... Heilman's!! I hope that they are going to be one of my super complaining customers :) I am so exicted though. It is a long overdue project for my parents and it should be fun for me to work on something to close to home too.

School

Ben is doing well at school. He is staying really busy by keeping his kids busy :) He has been working on a midterm for them. And hopefully that they don't all fail it. He also picked a topic for his master's thesis and will hopefully be able to work with Wolverine on it.

Fall
So it seems like Fall at home we know, and while it is still in the 90's here everyday it does not seem like fall. So we had to make a bit of an adjustment to the apartment so it would feel like fall to us. The new centerpiece for our table! I made the cloth :)


See the pretty leaves!

A New Addition
This is also our new addition to the apartment, a pantry! We had to do something, one little cupboard was not big enough and needless to say not able to be organized very well. So Target had them on sale and we got one. And yes, we could stay in the apartment for month and not ever get groceries!




Vacation
I got my vacation time approved at work! So we are coming home Monday (late) Decemeber 22nd, and will fly back here on Saturday, January 3rd. So almost two whole weeks home! yay!!
Ben and I are so exicted. We can't believe that we have been here 6 weeks already and that we have been married 4 months already. Wow, time flies. Which is a good thing we will be seeing you all (or y'all) very soon!

A Life Update

My Job

My job is going very well. The first day (a week ago now) was very rough and it was too much information to process all at once. I actually came home and told Ben that I couldn't do it and was going to quit. While he was supportive, I think he knew better. And the second was MUCH better, so I am staying there. Each day gets easier and easier to understand and the more I work with their software the more I get it too. And it is nice to have my own space there too now. Ben actually help me put my desk and shelves (in my office at work) together, Thursday and then I finished setting it up on Friday. Today I got my nice new flat screen 22" monitor. So I feel as though I am at home now.

Houston

Ben and I went to Houston for the weekend. We were able to spend time with his aunt and uncle, eat lots of good food, watch some football, and play lots of games of Apples to Apples (we had to play until Uncle Doug won one... that was on game 10). But we also got to see a lot of the damage of Houston. It is absolutely heart-breaking. There are so many people who had their lives turned upside down by Ike and we were just looking at Houston and not Galveston. We saw many, many houses and garages with trees through them, lots of power lines down, streets you couldn't even drive down because of all the debris and this is a week after Ike.

School

Ben is doing really good at school. He has a focus for his Master's thesis, which is huge progress and he feels like he has a purpose now. His students continue to amaze us but that is a different story. He is working on their mid-term now and is trying to find a way to make it so that half the class doesn't fail, like they do on his quizzes which are not very hard at all! But alas, a teacher's struggle :) He may be able to take a trip to Yucatan Pennisula (Mexico) in May for free with the geology department. He is working out the details so we will see.

Misc.

Ben is sick right now. So pray for him to get better and that I don't get it. We are keeping him heavily drugged in hopes that I don't get it.

Ben and I are going to be home Dec. 22/23 through Jan.3/4 (we aren't for sure on the dates yet, we will know exactly after we book our tickets).


And... that is about it for us in Bryan. We hope that you are all doing well and miss you tons!

Hurricane Ike

The Hurricane Ike update that you were all looking forward to...

Friday, Ben and I spent most of the day watching the weather channel and preparing the things around our apartment for a power outage. We played LOTS of cards, and watched the radar constantly. I slept from 10pm-1am and Ben slept 2am-3am. We were anticipating the hit of the hurricane at anytime so we just stayed up. About 3:15 am the wind had picked up and it began to rain lightly. At 4am, it was raining very hard and Ben and I went to bed knowing it was going to be hours before the storm got to us.

Saturday, we got up around 9am to very hard rain and strong wind. The entire day was spent watching the Weather Channel (a bit sad, I know), playing cards, and looking out the window. By the evening it was done raining, and the only remnants of Hurricane Ike were the small twigs scattered around. The apartment across from us was missing a few shingles after it was all said and done but minor compared to Galveston and Houston. We got 25-40mph winds and lots of rain but that is about all we got. Ben was utterly disappointed with the hurricane.

Since it was disappointing we were able to make light of the situation and have a Hurricane Ike Party. (as shown in the picture above)

We had Hurricane's to drink, Mike & IKE candy, and were listening to the Scorpions "Rock you like a Hurricane." :)

I start my new job tomorrow! Please pray that it goes well.

Much Love from the Hurricane Survivors!

Just a quick post...

Hurricane Ike is on it's way, and we are prepared for it. We have stocked up on water, food, and have the lantern and candles ready for lighting. We went to Wal-mart tonight to get some groceries and I have never seen shelves so empty. It was very slim pickings when it came to food and there were skids and skids of water sitting everywhere around the store. Ben and I got lucky and found a guy with "D" batteries otherwise we wouldn't have gotten any, and we got the last pack of matches in the whole store. It was crazy. We had to go to 4 different gas stations just to fill up the car, all the gas stations are running of out of gas. So it should be an interesting weekend. We would like you all to pray for us, pray that the storm isn't too bad and that we are smart in our decisions.

On a brighter note, I had a second interview for job at a web-design company and I got the offer today! I have to go in tomorrow and find out the details of the financial package and to sign the papers. It would come with full medical health insurance including vision and dental, as well as a gym membership and season tickets to the baseball team. I plan on taking it but it is not for sure yet.

I will update more about the week after Ike hits.

September's First Weekend

So, already it is Sunday. We had a busy week, and I am sure the ones to come are going to be just as busy if not busier. But we are doing well, becoming better orientated down here and starting to get a few familiar faces. Anyway to the week....

Thursday, Ben had class in the morning and then came back to the apartment for lunch and just to relax before his afternoon class. I spent the morning picking up and washing some laundry. For some reason the blanket we have on our bed is shedding a ton of little fuzzies all over our sheets and comforter so I had to wash all that including the blanket and hopefully that solves the problem. While Ben was in his afternoon class I dropped off a few more resumes at different business so hopefully I will hear back on something this week. I am getting a little anxious to hear about something. Thursday night Ben and I cleaned out the fridge and ate all the leftovers from the week - so some spectacular cooking on my part :)

Friday, Ben doesn't have class until noon so we slept in and had cinnamon rolls for breakfast. Then Ben went to his TA meeting, the help room, then class. While he was gone, I did more laundry, walked to the grocery store (just for a few things) and managed to break the microwave. Ok, not really. I accidentally unplugged it when I put a bowl in the cubboard above it but I did have to go find the maintance guy and then I felt like an idiot :) Friday night, Ben and I went and picked up my diamond (finally I have it back!) and Ben helped me try and find some clothes for interviews and such. We did stop in the Puppy Spot in the mall and saw a mini-Ernie that was so cute :)

Saturday, Since Ben and I were unsuccessful at finding some clothes at the mall I went to Kohl's while Ben did some homework. I should have gone to Kohl's first, I hit the jackpot there! I got 5 shirts, 2 tank tops, a skirt, button up jacket, and a zipper hoodie for $50! I did very welll there. Then we worked on cleaning the office some more and headed to our favorite place, Texas Roadhouse, for dinner. After dinner we went to Bretanti's (a fellow TA of Ben's) to watch the University of Texas (shh! don't tell the Aggies :) ) football game with some other TA's and their significant others.

Today we went to Restoration Church, this little little church that just started in May. We liked it very much, we aren't 100% happy but it is the best we have gone to so far and the people were extremely friendly to us. They wanted to know where we came from, why were here, etc. etc. and talked to me about possible jobs. It was a nice service too, a bit more traditional than the other churches. We are going to go to a couple more on our list and then decide, but definetly the best we have been to so far. Then we had lunch - tip: McCormick makes these new "Crusting" seasoning, they are in the spice aisle, and it is like a flavored breading on meat. Ben and I got the Garlic Lemon Herb and put it on chicken - SO good :) After lunch we went and relaxed by the pool, played some cribbage, swam, napped, and read our books. Now we are just waiting for the pizza to cook and going to watch a movie to end the night.

Oh! and I really need to find a job, in the last two days I have made:

Ranch Dressing/Dip

Caesar Dressing

Chocolate Oreo Cheesecake

Banana Bread

and....

Homemade Chocolate Ice Cream!! :) Check it out....

Here is the link if you want to make it yourself. (you don't need an ice cream maker!)

http://www.cooks.com/rec/view/0,1713,149189-225197,00.html

And it looks like we may get some of Hurricane Ike. They are telling the people in Houston and Galveston to start looking for places to go incase it comes. So we should get some rain from it, Ben is super exicted.

Otherwise, not much else going on here. We miss all of you. And are anxious for Christmas!

Much Love!

Just another picture for kicks.... Ben and I at the Texas Welcome Center

Labor Day and on...

We didn't have our usual camping weekend for Labor Day but did enjoy our day off to just to relax around here. We were able to put some more things away and just continue to make the apartment more comfortable and more like home to us. Monday night, Ben's friend, Jonathan Shanks came to visit us. (Ben meet him last summer when he was working on the oil rigs in Texas. Jonathan was also able to make it to our wedding.) Jonathan got evacuated from his rig in LA because of Hurricane Gustav. Speaking of the Hurricane, we didn't get anything from it for those that were wondering. Not even a drop of rain, Ben was a bit disappointed.

Tuesday is Ben's busy day at school. So Jonathan and I spent the day driving around town and stopping in places that looked interesting. We also walked around campus and were able to see Ben's office, and some stuff in the geology department. Then Tuesday night, Jonathan took us out to dinner to Antonio's Pizza right near campus and it was very good. Just a little hole in the wall kind of place that had really good pizza. Then back to the apartment for some card games and a movie.

Wednesday, Ben doesn't have school until 11am so we were able to have a big breakfast and just relax together in the morning. Meanwhile Jon and I tried to find a place for Jon to fax his time sheet in, we finally did at a Kinko's. Then the three of us went to a Mexican Resturant for lunch, which was so good :) After lunch, Ben and Jon made plans to go fishing at a lake just a bit east of here but Jon got the call from work that it was time for him to go back. Ben was pretty bummed about not being able to go fishing. After we said good-bye to Jon, I went out and applied for a couple jobs but both of them had quite a few applications on them so I am not too hopeful to get them. Then Ben and I went to Best Buy and got Ben's birthday present.... a Playstation 3. Ben was able to sell his Playstation 2 and then with the birthday money he got he was able to upgrade and is very happy :)

Otherwise, we just keep going along. Because of the Hurricane we had a bit cooler weather here for the last two days which was very nice to us. And we see that there are three more hurricanes coming yet.

Oh, and yesterday strange thing - we saw a hot pink VW bug with purple neons underneath. It made me smile :)

Hope all is well! Thank you for the calls and the e-mails, we enjoy hearing how things are going at home!

Current Temp: 72

Weekly Update

Well, sort of a weekly update. More like a half week update.

Thursday, Ben had just two classes, one of which is he has now dropped. So instead of having three classes he now has four but two of them are only one hour seminars with a lot of discussion and are more on topics that he is interested in. I spent most of day working on some Mary Kay items, and unpacking a few more things around here (we are getting close to being done, I promise!). Thursday night we went to Sam's Club and picked up a few items.

Friday, Ben just had a meeting at noon. So we had a lazy morning and then he went to school for a bit while I made a dessert for that evening. Friday night Ben's aunt Shannon, Uncle Doug, and Ryan came for dinner. We were treated Olive Garden for their never-ending pasta bowl which was SO good. Definitely recommend trying that out. We then took them to Texas A&M and showed them the Bonfire Memorial and the Geology Dept. They then came back here for some dessert - Triple Layer Chocolate Cherry Cake. Check it out!

Doesn't it make you want to come visit us? :)

Saturday, Ben and I just had a lazy day. We honestly didn't do a whole lot but it was so nice for us to just sit around, play some games, and just do whatever. We did unpack a couple things just so it doesn't sound like we didn't do ANYTHING :) And ended the night with homemade pizza.

Today, we went to First Presbyterian Church and we were there almost 2 hours. It was a long service and not really what we were looking for and made us feel like it was "the" church. We have to admit that it was better than last week just still not right. As for the rest of the day, we will probably go for a swim and make it a movie night.

We are also watching the Hurricane Gustav very closely as we probably won't get much of it just some rain but have family in Houston that are very concerned about it and may have guests because of it :)

We wish we were in Holland this weekend with the Herder's. Praying and thinking of you all! Much Love from us!

Current Temp: 94 degrees.

p.s. sorry that the words are all jumbled together - I have tried, but can't fix it!

Mid-Week Update

So as I sip on my Strawberry-Banana-Pineapple Smoothie after at 95+ degree day I though you all (notice not y'all) should know how the week has been going so far.

Sunday, Ben and I went to Grace Bible Church. And while we liked the church it was very different than what we are both use to and we compared it to Mars Hill in Grand Rapids. We probably won't be going back there but it was mentioned to us by a professor at Calvin so we thought we would give it a try. The rest of the day we just relaxed around here.

Monday, Ben went to school for a bit to get things organized but wasn't there more that 1/2 hr since it is technically his day off from school. The rest of the day we just did some more errands, got groceries, and continued to unpack.

Tuesday, was Ben's longest day at school but it really didn't go as bad as he thought it was going to go. He taught two labs. The first one was a bit frustrating to him and he felt frazzled because he wasn't quite sure what he was supposed to do. The second went great, he was relaxed and things went great. Ben got home about 8 and we just ate some chicken sandwiches and relaxed.

Today, Ben didn't have to be to school until 11am so we had a big breakfast, and cleaned a bit more. Ben had to teach one lab today and then had to be in the help room for an hour. So total, Ben has 58 students in three different labs. He had them write an interesting fact about themselves on a piece of paper and got quite interesting responses... ones on the equestrian team, one from Ohio, one drives a burnt orange car, one is left handed, one told Ben her entire birthday so that he could send her a present, and one had no interesting thing about himself. Needless to say, we had a few laughs at their expense.

But otherwise things are going great. As much as we feel like we are a part of a foreign country down here with all the y'all's, and that we need a large 3500, 1 ton, Heavy Duty Dodge Truck to fit we are great :) I did have two people ask me for directions today! So we must being doing ok around here.

I hope all is well at home. You are all missed!

The first week...

We began our trip to the south on Friday, August 18th at about 3 in the afternoon. We made a slight detour to Kalamazoo so that I was able to say good-bye to my sisters, family, and Heilman family. We made it through Chicago great and were making great time. In Effingham, Illinois we greeted a car going the wrong way on the highway and we figure he had been going that way for a least 2 miles. It was a bit scary and very funny at the same way. In Marshall, Texas we had a flat tire on the Sprinter van on the inside dual. We went to three different places before we found a place that had a jack that would lift the van and it just happen to be this teeny little place with super nice people.

We made it to Houston about 8:00 (cst) on Saturday and were able to have a steak BBQ with Ben’s aunt and uncle. We then left Houston Sunday afternoon to head to College Station. We arrived here at our apartment to see tile un-grouted, unpainted, our appliances outside, and many things needing to be done. We knew that the apartment wasn’t going to be ready for move-in on Monday but hoped for the best.

Monday morning I dropped Ben off at Texas A&M for orientation and went straight to the apartment complex. When I arrived there they told me I wasn’t able to move-in until 3 pm, which was very frustrating to us. They told us that they would call at noon and didn’t follow through on that promise. At 3:10 Ben and I, along with his parents, came to the apartment to see the painters leaving, some tile done, bath tub not fixed, brand new carpet that was now dirty, paint on EVERYTHING and an apartment that was not able to live in. My parents arrived at 10:30 pm.

Tuesday, Ben and I along with his parents went to the apartment. The lady in charge was not aware that we weren’t able to move in the day before and we showed her the apartment, she was shocked to see the condition of the apartment. She told us the apartment would be rushed and finished quickly. Ben and I went back to put our food in the refrigerator (most of it we lost because it got too warm and soggy from being in the cooler so long) and the only thing that had been done since that morning was the bathtub being re-glazed. We couldn’t move-in because of the smell and that we weren’t able to use the tub for 24 hours. So instead the six of us went through the Texas A&M bookstore (where you can buy ANY item with Texas A&M’s logo on it), toured the campus, and walked out on Kyle Field (the football field) in the pouring rain. We also resorted to touring some other apartments but decided that ours was still the best.

Wednesday we were finally able to move things in. It was a bummer for Ben though because he had to be at school all day, as opposed to Tuesday when he had the whole day off. We got all the stuff moved in very quickly and unpacked most of the day. The women unpacked all the kitchen and bath things while our dads put together our washer and dryer and many other manly things. We didn’t get quite as far as we had hoped because we had to clean everything before putting things away. We were still disappointed with the state of the apartment, there were still many little things that should have been fixed before we moved in. We ended the night with Texas Roadhouse and cake to celebrate Ben’s birthday before my parents left.

Thursday, we spent most of the day unpacking things and getting some shelves put together and pictures hung. We also went and got a few groceries, and items we didn’t get for wedding presents. We finally got the office to compensate for our inconvenience of moving in late and we still have things that need to be fixed. After the long day we ate chili-cheese dip and watched the Olympics.

Friday, Ben’s birthday we sorted through the things we wanted to return, keep and store, or send back to Grand Rapids with Ben’s parents. Ben’s dad spent the day fixing little things and getting some more pictures hung. Ben’s mom and I went to Bed, Bath, and Beyond and got some ideas for some shelving for our bedroom and closet since we don’t have a dresser and don’t plan on getting one. Ben was at school for part of the day picking the classes that he is going to teach this fall and getting some instruction on how to teach them. He is teaching three labs, two on Tuesday and one on Wednesday. He is going to have a long day on Tuesday with class and teaching two labs (pray for him especially on those days) but will have Monday and Friday free of school related things which will be very nice. Friday night we used our new grill :) and made some chicken to celebrate Ben’s birthday (again!).

Saturday, Ben’s parents left early in the morning. Ben and I then continued to unpack our stuff until about mid-morning and then we ran errands for the rest of the day. We were able to accomplish all that we wanted to – returning items, buying items, and just seeing the town a bit. We felt a little like Paris Hilton because we were spending money like crazy! We are so thankful for the money and gift cards that we got from the wedding, it sure made our move easy and allowed us to pick out what we needed for our apartment once we actually got to see our apartment! We got a lot of what we needed and few decorating splurges :) Now as I watch the Men’s Marathon, Ben reminds me that he is ready for dinner I should close this week with some homemade pizza.

I hope to update once a week, but bear with me. I hope that you enjoy knowing how things are going on down here. You are all in our prayers and are missed greatly!

We made it!

For all the curious ones, Ben and I have made it to Bryan, Texas and while it has been an adventure the last couple days we now have all of our stuff in our apartment, and are hoping to be able to stay in our apartment tomorrow night.

I will write more about our experiences thus far in a day or so.

We thank all of you for your support and prayers on our journey so far. We appreciate them.

Goodnight.