You ready for a CRAZY travel story???

Ok, so we left yesterday from our home to get to idaho for Christmas. Our journey began in Troutdale at 8:20am. My dad was driving Amandas car with a lot of the luggage, Bailey and Nate. Mom had Kenzie, Abi, Mandie and I in the van and the rest of all the luggage. Well, with the blizzard conditions at home, we put on chains just to get out of the driveway and then took them off before the freeway. Well, we got onto the freeway and were driving through THICK snow and what usually takes us about 45 minutes to get to Hood River took us 2.5 hours! So a little ways outside of Hood River, mom and us in the van hit a patch of ice... mom did everything she could, steered into the slide, she really did the best she could, but we still got in an accident. We hit the median with the front middle fender, then hit the passenger front side hard and then spun and hit the back right. by the time we stopped, we were facing oncoming traffic, thank the Lord we didn't get hit! after we checked it out, it was drivable, so we took off again (or so we thought). we made it to Pendleton 5.5 hours later (usually takes us 3 from home), we stopped for food and gas and thought we were in the clear and ahead of the storm... nice thought! so then we got back on the road and were headed up the mountain. on the first curve on the cliff up the mountain, mom, who was driving the van said, "somethings wrong! i cant", i said, "mom, what do you mean, ice?, what's wrong??? what?". She said, "I have no steering and no accelerator!" The car started smoking and we pulled over as soon as it was safe. dad and Nate pulled over too. We called AAA and got a tow truck. the lovely part was that we had one small car with heat for 1.5 hours and it was 3... yes 3 degrees outside! well, the tow came and took us back to Pendleton. we waited in the only open repair shop for an hour or so. the radiator cracked, the steering belt came loose and the damage was big. We have some friends that live in town so we called them and crowded in with them for 3 hours to eat and keep warm. In the meantime, uncle Dennis started driving from Idaho to meet us and take half of us and the rest would have Mandie's car. When Dennis came, at about 8:40, we CROWDED everyone and everything in and started our drive. It was scary and dangerous, but we THOUGHT we were in the clear, once again. well, of course, that would be too easy! All the sudden, the car with Dad, Nate and Bailey started flashing the lights over and over again. the called the cell and said, "we have a flat tire!" "you have got to be kidding me!!!???" haha (all we could do at that point was laugh! The boys got out and braved the 0 degree weather to change the tire. We got on our way, snowed all the way back and made it in finally at about 2:30am! Whew!!! 17.5 hours later!!! we are hear, safe and thankful to be!!!

Me and My roomie...

I love Kearby, she is my current and future roommate.

Prayers for Kyle's LSAT

If you could please pray for Kyle this week, he is taking the LSAT for Law school admission on Saturday morning at 8:30 and we would all really appreciate the prayers. He is very well prepared and has been studying and dedicating hours a day for 4 months now, but just pray for concentration and confidence going into it on sat. I am so proud of all the work he's done and we are both super excited that it will all be over soon... its been a long, tough semester. Thanks for the prayers, I know he appreciates you thinking of him!

Turkey Day 2008

This Thanksgiving was wonderful! Kyle and I spent our first Holiday together and it was relaxing, and fun. We had a lot of good food and good desserts from his aunt and Grandma. Kyle and I stayed a few houses down from his mom and his grandmas house cause his moms house was pretty full. We hung out and played board games and had many good conversations. I had a lot of fun getting to know Kyle's whole family better. On Thanksgiving day we ate way too much and watched a lot of football! Kyle's Aunt, Uncle, cousin, brothers, grandma, mom and dad were there. Kyle's mom Terri and I got to spend some nice time together and just the two of us went and saw a movie friday night. Then on saturday Kyle and I spent some time by ourselves Christmas shopping near Austin. We had beautiful weather the whole week and lots of great company:) I missed my family a lot, but the Smith's sure did a great job of making me feel a part of their family. I really had some great visits with Kyle's dad and mom. It was a good week!
Oh, and the picture of the silly man pretending to be an elf... ya, thats Kyle's dad:) haha.

Hallmark Smiles...

I had a mini photo shoot with Abi and Nate for their Christmas card today:)

My Beautiful Little Sis

She's a grownup now!!! how did that happen?! Bailey had her senior pics taken a while ago. I love them all so much, but i just decided to put on here my three favorites:) I love you Bailey and i'm so proud of you babe! you look so beautiful!

Heartbreak and Sadness

My heart is in so much pain, i feel as though I cant deeply breath! We have experienced great loss and mourn our dear, sweet Cindy. I have been asking God why. It makes NO sense at all to me. It came as such a shock, so much in so little of a time. Its very hard to be here in Texas when i want to be there holding and being held by my East County family. I am thankful for my East County family here, but we miss our home!

Abigail, Alli, and I were recalling our fun memories and loved experiences about our friend Cindy this afternoon while crying and laughing in each others arms. we shared about trips, camping, cooking, mission trips, lifegroups, knitting, craft parties, longerberger baskets, artichokes, mary engelbreit, ford escape, tea, fourth of July's, football, hugs, the list goes on. Many of these words may not mean a lot to you, but they have a special place in our hearts. We miss her, but we also are thankful she is at home. Alli put it best, "all the great ones are in Heaven! I sure am jealous Cindy gets to be with Adam right now." I smiled when I heard that! How great for Alli to say that... it warmed my heart, I am glad of that, she's going home.

What a dear friend she was to my mom, to so many others and to me. She had a bright smile and lived a much fulfilled and Godly life. She loved the Lord and loved her family. One of my absolute favorite things is how her boys could make her laugh so hard she would cry. We love you very much Cindy!

Surprise Date Nights

So i am super excited about this, I decided a week or so ago that Kyle needed a bit of a break. He needed to just have fun, relax and we needed to spend time together, just the two of us, so I told him last Sunday night to not make any plans Friday night and that I was going to take him out on a date. I told him it was all going to be a surprise and I was paying for everything. He agreed, but under one condition, I had to let him do the same for me on Saturday night. (my goal was of course to make it so he didn't have to pay or worry about planning anything, but if it's the only way I could get him to go, then so be it). So I got super excited that I got to do this for my sweet boyfriend who works his tail off everyday and is in desperate need of a break.

Friday night:
I picked him up (in his car... haha) and drove him to one of our favorite restaurants, Szechuan Chinese Kitchen. We had some really good food!

Then I took him to Play Faire Park to play 36 holes of miniature golf. We had such a fun tie and there was like no one else there, so we had a blast. of course i had to let Kyle win on his surprise date night:) The score was 109 to 120. It was good to just have fun together and relax.




Then on Saturday night, Kyle surprised me with his date. He took me to Logan Steak house and we had a yummy dinner. then we rented "fun with Dick and Jane", cause i have been wanting to watch that for a while, he remembered me talking about it i guess:) We watched it here at my house and it was good, He knows that I didn't need anything big to do tonight. We had a lot of fun last night and we both need to relax.It was a much needed break for him and a much needed one-on-one time for me! It was a good night.

Its been a while...

Well, sorry i've been bad about updating my blog this semester, i will try to be better in the coming weeks:) So not much new is going on. I'm feeling pretty sick today, i came down with something the day Kyle and I got back from his house in Marble Falls.
We went to his moms house for fall break and just hung out, we had a lot of fun. We even installed a kitchen faucet for his mommy, it was a new experience for both of us and we didnt even fight:) we were working on it for a good 2 1/2 hours (so if any of you need a new faucet, just call us:) ) haha, i told him "who needs a law degree and a bachelors in Interior design when we could do couples plumbing" haha. Anyway, we had fun. we went to visit University of Texas Austin law school on friday, we got a lot of great information and they made a good impression on kyle, so thats good. so all in all it was a good weekend. now i'm just trying to get over being sick and finish this large book report due in 3 days... ahhhh, i better get going.

My Wonderful Homecoming Weekend:)

Wow, this was a busy, full and fun weekend. It started friday when my classes were canceled... YAY! so friday afternoon i relaxed and watch a movie with a blanket on a cold day. Then friday night I had my art photography show from Europe. I was asked to speak about my trip for the visitors and then we showcased our pieces. I was so blessed that so many people came to see me and the show. Kyle, Abi (she brought me flowers too:) ), nate, Jacob, Jacobs girlfriend Sarah, Jordan and his friend Ryan, Kyles brother and his dad, My roomie, and a bunch of my good friends, it was amazing to have so much support! The coolest thing happened too, i actually sold art!!! my first, second and third sell ever!!! it was so exciting. the pictures that sold were the framed one of the poppies and the church and the framed picture of the inside of St. Peters and a small 5x7 print. Not only did i sell three pieces, but later today i got a request for 2 more! i am so excited! Everyone was very supportive and sweet! I think most peoples favorite is the inside of St. Peters, titled "Majestic Rays". Anyway, after that Kyle's whole fam and I went to italian food and had a yummy dinner. later, Kyle came over and watched a movie with me, which was really great, cause its been a while since we just got to be together, just us.

Laci (my roommates old roommate), my other roommates two sisters AND and Katie Beth came this weekend to stay... we had a very full house, 6 people... but it was so great to get to see my kate and visit with her again, we needed some cousin time, even if just for a few hours over a few days.

Then, saturday was so wonderful. We had the best start to the day ever. Kyle's littlest brother Collin was baptized at Jacobs dream. It was such a blessing to get to be apart of Collins baptism and celebrate in that with their family! Im so proud of him, he's an amazing kid and i have a lot of fun with him. Then after that I had a choir concert that was really good and fun. then we said goodbye to Kyle's family (except Collin, he got to stick around for another night). The three of us met up with Jordan, Abi, Nate, Jacob, Sarah and Pete for the homecoming game... we of course won by almost 30 points! we are 7 and 0!!! GO WILDCATS!!!! then I relaxed by myself at home for a few hours and worked on some homework. Then in the evening Kyle and Collin came over to watch a movie. It was a lot of fun just relaxin' and hangin' out, Im glad Collin got to be here.

It was a really great weekend and i'm looking forward to only having a 4 day week this week cause of fall break... yay:)

Not much here... Sorry its been a while

Im sorry its been so long. its just that there's not too much to report on, same old thing for the most part. just going to classes everyday, making random trips all over the place like to Fort worth and Austin for interior design conferences and field trips, hanging out with my great roomie, and getting ready for my study abroad art shows.

Kyle is good, really busy, but we expected that at least until he takes the LSAT on dec 8th. We try to hang out everyday and spend any time we can together. We have homecoming and my art show this coming friday and the following weekend (the 31st) is fall break and Kyle and I will go together to Waco to visit Baylor and then to visit UT Austin. He's really excited about everything and i am super excited for him. I know he'll do really well on his LSAT and get to go to a really great Law school.

I am missing home, especially the fall. Its cooler here every once in a while and when it is, i savor it! well, i don't have much more to report on, but i will post pictures from my show next week.

A Needed Weekend Rest

Well, this weekend Kyle is gone. He left with his best friend Kevin on thursday to go and check out the University of Utah's Law school. They left about 2pm on thursday and got there 7am on friday. They checked into their hotel and within two hours, they were sitting in a law class and visiting with professors there... i'm sure they were ready to get some sleep at that point!

Anyway, I finished up classes and homework this week and then we had family night at Abi's house. Scott, jordan, Pete, Ani, Nate, Jacob and Sara, Jacob's New girlfriend came. we had lots of fun. Tomorrow we have a girls day planned. Abi, my roomie and I will probably go shopping and watch a girly movie together and I am very excited. It should be a good relaxing weekend.

Cousin Time...

I have had such a blast this semester spending time with my cousin Jordan. in the past we have done stuff together every now and then, but this semester we have been fortunate enough to see each other or talk just about everyday and its been great! Im even learning how to play the drums:) hehe. Susie, i know you read my blog a lot and i want you to know you raised a pretty great kid and i'm blessed to have him close by. we take care of each other. anyway, just thought i would write quickly about that:)

The Lollar's Visit and Summit

Oh the Lollar's, i miss them so much and i am so happy when they come to visit us! we had a wonderful, very quick week. I knew it had to end, but it was sure great while it lasted. they took us out to eat, went to lectures with us, got to meet Kyle and just hang out and talk. I am so blessed to have found such a good friend in jacob, have nate as a brother-in-law and to be included in their family. I miss you bob and sherry. sorry there are no pics... we didn't take any!:(

Weekend With The Smith's

This weekend was great! Kyle's Mom, Gram and little brother Collin came to visit us at school. They drove in Friday and stayed until Sunday afternoon. On Friday we went shopping, ate dinner and visited for a while. Then on Saturday Terri Jo (Kyle's mom) asked me if I would take some family pictures for them and I gladly accepted. It was fun, we went out to Jacob's Dream and i took some pictures of them. The pics i'm posting are some that Terri Jo took of my handsome boyfriend I and I think she did a wonderful job (we were way over due for some pictures, its been a few months since we have taken any:)! ). After that, we went and had lunch together. Seeing as Terri Jo has three boys and no girls, she doesn't always get to do fun girly stuff, so we had a great time going out later that afternoon and getting pedicures together:) we also found this furniture auction nearby that we checked out. We had a great time, and my toes look fabulous if I do say so myself:) Then Sunday we went to church at Southern Hills and had lunch together, then they had to head back to Marble Falls later in the afternoon. It was a fun weekend and I look forward to seeing them soon again!