Home Sweet Home!

Warning...this post may be long...but we were just at HOME! This was such a perfect trip! We didn't get to see quite everyone, but we got some true quality time with our families and together with a break from work.

Friday we got into town around noon, and Nana and Papa picked us up. Poor Brad, as soon as they announced that we were beginning our descent to Indianapolis I had tears in my eyes. That pretty much continued for the day whenever I saw someone new! We got home and decided to go pay a visit to St. E and my old coworkers. It was so great to see them, it was a reminder to me that I will make friends at the Heart Hospital, just like at St. E. We then surprised mom at her office, and got her to tears too! We really missed our family! Next stop was to Becca and Jared's apartment. We tried to surprise them, but they weren't home when we arrived. They came just about 5 minutes later, and we had some quality time catching up with them! We've missed them! They are such a Godly couple, who are so open and loving you can't help but smile when you're with them! They're coming to visit us and the Mullin's in March, yay! After that Dad called to say that Sarah, Phil, and Emily had gotten into town so we headed back to Nana and Papa's for some family time. We had some supper for mom's birthday, and just hung out! It was WONDERFUL! Ellen came by to say hi too.

Saturday we got up and Brad, Mom, and I went shopping. I think Brad secretly loved it! Mom and I helped him pick out gifts for his parents, and I think he enjoyed being able to do something special for them. We also got to look at some puppies...not to buy...but that's my favorite part of the mall! Then the boys all went to BW3s (which I'm a little jealous of) and Mom and I met up with Sarah, Nana, and Emily. Saturday night was Chris Tourney's wedding, which was beautiful! Not only that, but we got to see so many friends; we had a great time!

Sunday we got to go to Kossuth for the first time since the wedding! How we love our church family in Lafayette; it was wonderful to see everyone! Then we went down to Indy and spent some time with Brad's family. It was so good to see them all! We took Ally and went to paint pottery with Jared and Becca. Mine turned out pretty awful...art has never been my strong point, but we loved it! Ally made a Frosty candle holder, and Brad painted a mug, and I painted a pretty hideous plate, but you better believe we'll be using that plate! We got to see Ally, Kelsey, and Kenny! They all grow up so much each time we see them! This trip was the first visit where Kenny and Kelsey seemed to remember us. They even called us by name! We were working on a puzzle with Ally, and Kenny kept handing me pieces saying "Try mine Rachael? Try mine?" So adorable! Kelsey, kept sitting on my lap when I had my vest on and saying "Take off? Rachael? Take off?" We also got to do our second gingerbread house with Ally, I think it turned out better this year!

Christmas Eve was more shopping and then we went to the Christmas Eve service at Crestview with Nana and Papa and Mom, Dad, and Luke. It's been so long since we all went together! We were CRAMMED into a row, but it was totally worth it! After church, we all went back to N&P's and Rox and Brandon came over and we played some cards. Brandon, Rox, and I lost to Brad, Dad, and Papa, but I blame it on being a little rusty from little practice. Next time, it's on!

Then Christmas! Oh, I LOVE being with the family on Christmas! We had such a fantastic day! There is nothing like getting to spend Christmas day with the family after being gone for 3 months! We had a blast watching Emily get excited to play with her gifts! She was all dressed up in a Christmas outfit, and it just made us laugh! The only missing piece was Uncle Mark, we missed him! Hopefully we'll see him next year! For the afternoon we headed out to Aunt Vic and Uncle Mike's, and I think it was the best Christmas we've ever had! We didn't play our games as much as we usually do, but it was good just to be together! Brad's parents came to join us in the afternoon, it was nice having more family there, and I know my family enjoyed having them there! Maybe we've started a new tradition? Here are some final pictures of the trip!

Luke and I playing with Emily on Christmas!


In between the wedding and reception, getting some loving in for Emily!


Oh, the girls!
I love my family! We missed Kyle, so we got him in the picture!
Dad, Uncle Ed, Aunt Jo, and Aunt Vic!
These three are nearly impossible to get smiling all at once!
She's such a ham..but I love it!
Dishes..blah!
Brad and his parents!
So, we LOVED our first Christmas! It was wonderful! Thanks to all who sent us Christmas cards and letters...WE LOVED THEM! Also, we just want to thank the Lord for being the reason we even celebrate Christmas! Can't mention Christmas without remembering the perfect gift God gave us when Jesus was born! While we loved every minute with our family and friends, that is the true reason we are celebrating!

Now, we're back in Austin! Last night saying goodbye to everyone was tough, and this morning saying goodbye to Mom and Dad at the airport I was a mess! I miss them all so much. Brad let me have some tears this afternoon, and then I got to feeling better. It was a strange feeling when we got off the plane. I thought, "it's nice to be home." Funny how two places can be so different and so far away and yet feel like home. We have a busy busy week ahead! I have to work 6 of the next 7 days...WHOA; Brad already returned to work tonight...BOO! Then it's off to Florida for a trip to Disney, and we're pretty excited about that! We hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! Take care!

We get to see FAMILY!!

Seven days from now....we'll be in Indiana with our families!!! Who wouldn't be excited about that? We're so so excited!

Also...it's snowing in Indiana, and not here. I have a special request for Mike Prangley this week...bring it on weather man, bring ON that snow (as long as you all are safe of course), I just am so so excited for some Christmas snow!

That's all for tonight...no pictures. Can't wait to see you all!

Party Time!!!

Who doesn't love Christmas parties?! We have been so excited all week for Aaron and Shauna's party, so in my anticipation I went a little Christmas and candy making CRAZY!! It was a fantastic day on Friday as I prepared! I even convinced Brad to get into the spirit..as you will soon see!These here are some candies for Brad with pecans and dark chocolate and pretzels. I do know these may not look so appetizing but he seemed to like them. These are my pride and joy! I LOVE these every Christmas when Nana makes them..and now I know how to make them..and they are delicious!Chocolate covered pretzels.

Chocolate covered strawberries...I told you I went a little crazy. This was all one day.
These were for my coworkers. I had to work on Saturday and I figured maybe I could score some brownie points with my coworkers for bringing in treats. Donna, my preceptor, used my treats to introduce me to doctors I hadn't met yet. I think it worked. So...as for our Christmas spirit. Brad and I thought it would be fun to wear crazy Christmas sweaters to our party on Saturday night. We picked them out for each other. Brad's is from Goodwill in the ladies section. It has some lace looking decorations...along with some glitter. It was perfect for the occasion! Mine, was from the little girls section at Kohl's. It has a jingle bell on the zipper, and on Rudolph's nose that jingle every time I take a step. I wish you could see them in the picture better...the reindeer are all on the bottom of my sweater! We had fun!!

During the white elephant gift exchange Adam got the light up nose. It was awesome. It blinks red. Tamara and James! We've missed them! They are the third couple in our small group!!Another picture with the sweaters..there's my reindeer!Katie and Evan! They're just awesome!

Overall, we had such a great time at the party! We had to be late since I worked, but it was so nice to just spend quality time with some friends! Not only that...we played Guesstures and Catch Phrase and those are ALWAYS a good time! The girls rocked out the Guesstures, (not with my help, as on my first time I got stuck on wounded) but during Catch Phrase I'm not actually sure who won. I'll go ahead and say the girls won though; who's counting? Around midnight my vision got blurry from being so tired, and we decided it was time to call it a night!

Today, we went to church, and then out for lunch with Katie and Evan, and Adam and Blair. We had some tasty McAllister's. I realized that since we got married we haven't been there ONCE! That's just crazy!! We made up for it though...don't you worry! After lunch we went shopping with Katie and Evan, and then watched some football. I was hoping to see the Patriots lose, but no such luck. All is good though, as the Colts are winning as I type this.

One little praise I would like to give is just for God's perfect timing. Today at church we celebrated the 5th birthday of the church. This is pretty awesome considering where they started from 5 years ago. It was so neat hearing the stories of those who have been there since it started. It was also so amazing just to think what the Lord has done to take us to the Stone. 5 years ago, Brad was a sophomore in college, and I was still in high school. I wasn't even starting to think about live after Olivet, I wasn't even sure where I was going to college. During the time since then, the church has grown, it has reached others for the Lord, and now it is where it is today. About 1 1/2 years ago, Aaron and Shauna began going to the Stone when they moved to Austin, and almost 1 year ago we met Aaron for the first time at a lunch at McAllister's in Lafayette. We had never really met Aaron, other than just in passing before that day, but we had heard all about he and Shauna from the Salt and Light group once they heard we were moving to Austin.

During lunch that day I remember talking to Aaron about the church they went to here in Austin. It sounded pretty cool, but he warned us that it was different from Kossuth. Then, in March we came to Austin to find an apartment and we got to go to the church for the first time. It was great, but SO huge! I was a little nervous, and not so sure about it, but the people were amazing, and the message was definitely Biblical. Then, the summer came and Brad started going to the church by himself with all these friends he had made down here. They took him in and helped him get involved, and I was just so excited to get here!

Now, we've been married three months, (whoa!) and we are so unbelievably content with the work the Lord is doing in our lives. The Lord, through the Stone and Kossuth together, has provided us with amazing friends, strong, challenging, and Biblical teaching, and a church that we are ready to REALLY get involved in. It's just all so cool to us. I don't know even how to describe how we feel, but we're happy and we know that we are EXACTLY where we are supposed to be. We're looking towards ways to get involved in ministry, and I'm working currently getting ready to pursue one possible way. We're just thankful. We couldn't imagine where we would be if we weren't here. We miss home, and family and friends. But we have been taken care of. We are growing together so much down here; we both think this is very much due to getting involved at the Stone. That's my story. It may be long, but it was on our minds today.
Finally, this is for dad. I know that the upper pictures make my hair look super short..and yes, dad, I cut it. However, it is growing and it's not all chopped like usual. You might like it at Christmas.

That's all for now. 12 days and counting!! See you soon!!

So close!

We promised pictures of the Christmas decorations and here they are!! Hopefully, next year we will be in a house and have outdoor decorations also! It's feeling cozy in here though, and that makes us oh so happy!
Here we have some of our Christmas dishes that I described. Looking at them here they may not seem to go together, but they really do...I promise!
Our mugs! When we picked these dishes out it was late in the season, and they didn't have all the sets of one of these mugs, instead we got half of one and half of the other! Also, thanks to Carl and Rosemary, we have enough mugs!
More of the dishes.
Our Christmas tree!! It's enormous...7 1/2 feet tall! We need a couple more ornaments, but we still like it and it is our own! That's what we like! It is our very first Christmas tree! Wooo!All lit up!Our candles! We got these candles at one of our showers...I was so excited that they were blue and at least with color matched our dishes! Yay!Close up!We're trying to make the apartment more decorated...these are our very first hanging decorations. We have some others to put up..we just haven't figured out how to go about that yet!

Getting rid of those white walls!

So...that's all for now. We should have more pictures after this weekend! I'm attempting another holiday sweet treat this weekend...some of Nana and Papa's recipes..hopefully this will be easier to complete than the pumpkin roll! I wanted to try some buckeye's but Nana said I might want to wait on that one! Hahaha...sad. I love you, Nana! For those of you in Indiana...we'll see you sooooo soon! We get home on the 21st. Yay! Hope all is well! Take care everyone!!

CHRISTMAS!!!

It is almost Christmas! I know that I made this point my last post...but it is almost Christmas?! I'm telling you, you wouldn't believe how that one tiny little fact can make this girl grin like a child. I'm not even ashamed! Thank you for enduring my previous posts about all the mishaps of life as an adult. I think the adult part is the hardest thing about our new life. College...even with the exhaustion and fear induced by nursing school...was easy. I mean, I woke up, went to class in sweatpants, came home and took a nap, maybe went to work for a couple of hours, and then just studied. Even all the meals were prepared for us. Or, for another example, when I didn't know an answer in clinical...that was ok, I was a student. Now, if I don't know an answer, there could be a serious problem. Additionally...bills, really? Bills. Ok, Mom and Dad I love you both, for the willingness to take care of those for me for the past 22 years. We don't even have that many bills, I mean, we're young; but I'll be honest, if Brad wasn't around, I might forget them. Isn't that pathetic? Thank goodness I'm learning.

Back to the point....Christmas is coming! Many good things have happened over the last couple of days that have made this oh so real...and oh so exciting!!
1. We got out the Christmas dishes. I LOVE our Christmas dishes, they're perfect and subtle and cheerful all at the same time. I know that this could be classified as materialistic, and I really hope that isn't the case, it's just having snowflakes on my dishes makes me think of Christmas Eve service, shrimp rings at Nana & Papa's, cards on Christmas Eve with my family, totally cheating at the Christmas draw to get Kyle and Lauri, Mom's spinning Christmas tree, her birthday dinner, having time to talk to her on the couch at night, Dad making me a special bed in the den with my favorite sheets and shopping with me for Mom's birthday gift, Luke's birthday coming up and splitting gifts with him, Sarah and Phil coming home (with EMILY!), and SHOPPING with Sarah, Christmas breakfast with Nana, Papa, and Uncle Mark, and all out Christmas day over at Aunt Vic and Uncle Mike's. That's just my family! Think about Macaroni Grill with Carl and Rosemary, Indianapolis with Kenny and Jennifer, Scotty and MJ, and Ally, Kelsey, and Kenny. Gingerbread houses with Ally. COLTS football! I mean seriously, I LOVE CHRISTMAS!!! (Mom, I completely know this is a run-on sentence, it is for effect)
2. We bought our VERY first Christmas tree. Now, can I just brag about how sweet Brad is. He's just not as big of a Christmas decorator or celebrator as I am, not because he doesn't love Christmas, he's just not as insanely sentimental as I am. He knew how badly I wanted a Christmas tree, and how important it is to me that our home be so inviting and cozy and so he went with me to 3 stores to find the perfect tree. We ended up with a 7 1/2 ft. tall tree! Oh my goodness. The thing is huge! It's perfect though! I love it. I promise pictures soon...but there need to be a few more ornaments. Currently, our poor giant has only 15 ornaments on there, with lights. I would refer to this as puny, but we're going to perk him right up. Now, granted, it doesn't spin, but I love it!
3. We have a 24 hour Christmas music station! 95.5. One word: YEA! (I was rocking that out on the way to work this morning!)
4. We're going to a Christmas party. Yay! (I'm taking something on my Christmas serving dish too..yes!)
5. Aaron and Shauna's house is so cute and decorated. I want to go sit on their couch and read a book and enjoy the cozy goodness. I can't even lie about that!

So, overall, we're excited! We get to go to Indiana in just a few short weeks! Hopefully it will SNOW! I love the warmth down here...but I really am hoping for snow for Christmas!

Finally, I would like to just give a praise for answered prayers! The past couple of weeks Brad and I have had more time together on his off days, such as 3-4 days at a time off together. It has been so wonderful getting to spend time together enjoying really feeling like we're married and not on completely opposite schedules. We have had so much fun! We went Christmas shopping, went to lunch with some friends, watched a movie, ate breakfast together, got to eat dinner together for the first time in what felt like weeks...AMAZING! I'm so thankful God works everything in His time!

If I could throw out a prayer request. I know this seems so bad...always having to pray for work, but these past couple weeks have been TOUGH! Not tough at it was before with the people, but my patients have gotten more severe. I have a lot to learn. This is not exactly new news for me, but wow. It gets scarier every day I think about how important it is that I am so thorough in my patient care. I'm learning...tough...but I'm learning. However, I have been so fearful of making a mistake, that I am I afraid I will make one when I am nervous. If you could just pray for peace during my shifts...it would be so appreciated.

Brad is doing great at his job. (I think so at least!) He doesn't talk about work like I do, he's a bit quieter since I chat 24 hours a day for him, but he likes it. His coworkers seem really nice, and he said the guys he works with on his shift he really likes! Yay!

Ok...time to get some sleep. This was supposed to be short. I just am NOT a short and sweet kind of writer! Have a great day!

Thanksgiving and beyond...

First and foremost...I would like to announce that my disastrously bad looking pumpkin roll/sandwich cake tasted just fine! Brad made it presentable for me when he got home, and many of the pieces were gone! So yay it was not a total failure!

We hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! We really did have a great time here in Austin! It was so hard being away from home, and I may have shed a few tears when talking to the family, but it was nice being with Shauna and Aaron and their family. The meal was DELICIOUS! We had turkey (obviously), stuffing, green bean casserole, cream corn, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, and rolls. While I know it is a typical Thanksgiving meal, being able to have that with friends and not by ourselves, made it that much better! YUM!

So, last night I decided I was going to be the complete Black Friday shopper and go out WAY early to the stores for my Christmas shopping adventures. I mean, I had a plan. I was going to go home, take a quick nap, and be shopping by 3 am. I was planning on going to the outlet malls at 3, Kohls at 4, Target at 6, and the mall after that! I mean this plan was perfect...all until I fell asleep and didn't wake up until 5:30 am, so I decided it wasn't worth getting up then and decided to get up at 7:30 instead. However, still managed to have a good day shopping. Kohls had fantastic sales. Can I just tell you, it has been at least three years, if not more, since I have been able to go shopping on the day after Thanksgiving! I loved it! I love all the people, and the feeling of Christmas, and the Christmas music! It makes me so happy! Seriously, I spent like 2 1/2 hours at the mall and didn't buy anything, but I had a great time! I love talking to strangers in line, I just do! So today was great! I only lasted until about 1pm, so I came home, took a snooze and then decided at 9ish it was time to go again. This turned out to be an adventure!

Brad and I had rented a couple of movies and needed to return them tonight, so I thought I would do some shopping on my way. So, I stopped at the gas station on my way to Old Navy. The sweet gas attendant was in a good mood and gave me a punch card full of punches so I could have free coffee next time I come in! She said she was feeling happy! I was all excited, but then I got back to the Rodeo. I pulled the gas pump out of the car and apparently was holding onto the handle. As I was doing this, the gas poured, and by poured I mean shot out at me and all over my clothes! I saved my coffee, but literally I REEKED of gasoline! However, I didn't see the need to go change, because I just wanted to go shopping and go home.

So, I walked into Old Navy, and was all determined to do some shopping. However, every time someone walked by they were all like "Do you smell gas?" "Is something burning" or "Why does it smell like the gas station?" Seriously, it was embarrassing! I kept having to tell everyone that I was the reason the ENTIRE store smelled like gas. It was a trail, I couldn't get rid of it! The worst part was when all the employees went to their manager and told her they were concerned about the gas smell in the store, they were worried they had gas leak. Ok, seriously...there are many issues with this.
1. Vehicle gas and natural gas (or whatever that would be that would be leaking at a store) smell NOTHING alike!
2. It was clearly located in a small area that traveled whenever I traveled...do you REALLY think the store is going to catch fire?
3. I then had to go up to the manager and explain that she need not fear, because the smell was ALL me. Ridiculous.

However, there were good points because I saw our friends Tamara and Jim at Old Navy and got to catch up! They are in our small group, and we didn't have small group this week so we didn't get to see them! They are such a sweet couple! They also pointed me to some jeans that only cost $15 for Brad; who could pass that up?! After running into our friends, I then was revived on my shopping spree and continued to pollute the air of Old Navy. When I got to the cash register I apologized to the girl, and she laughed and then asked how the smell didn't bother me. Seriously! Just wow. I explained I had a head ache, but didn't see the need to change clothes for an hour of shopping. I don't know any one else who has these mishaps.

I then went on to Barnes and Noble, and had the same issue. The cashier was a cute girl who laughed with me, and right as we were talking about it, another employee told me she had been really concerned because she smell gas all through the store. I think I'm a mess.

Finally, the best part of my night. You know, I moved to Austin and was sad about never running into someone I knew when I was out around town. So tonight, I was extremely excited when I ran into Tamara and Jim, and then I got to Blockbuster! The guy working seems to be there every time either one of us goes to the store, but I didn't figure he ever remembered us. Well, he was telling this guy about the new Die Hard movie and the guy was all bummed because no copies were in. However, Rach saved the day, as I had just turned it in. Now, I found another movie to rent and got up to the register, and told the employee my last name and he goes, "Brad right?" Seriously, he didn't even type the name in and he KNEW our name. How sad is that? The guy that works at Blockbuster is our buddy! He then tried to get me to buy some yearly deal that they have now, and used the fact that he knows us as ammo to get me to fall for it. I didn't, but it was sad that he was able to use that against us. Wow.

Haha...so all in all, life in Austin gets better by the day. We make friends with the video store employees. Yay for us! No pictures tonight, sorry. Just wanted to share another adventure. Take care!

Oh....disaster.

So with this being the eve of my very first Thanksgiving away from home, I really wanted to cook or bake or do something Thanksgiving-ish. However, I feel the need to share with all of you my disaster. Brad and I are going to our friends' home for Thanksgiving tomorrow, and I really wanted to bring something with me for dessert. Well, last week Brad and I were able to purchase a Kitchenaid stand mixer with some of our wedding gift cards. We have been SO excited to use it, and it even came with a recipe book . Of course there was a pumpkin roll recipe that seemed absolutely perfect for Thanksgiving, and apparently to me, owning a Kitchenaid makes me a baker. I have news for you...I was so very wrong! :) I can't even explain the magnitude of a mess that was our kitchen, and sadly Brad was not here to witness my adventure, so I took pictures for him to see. Let me just explain the situation. I think it might make you laugh. Thankfully, after a crazy week at work, it really did just make me laugh.

First off...I should have known from step one that this would be a problem when I was expected to put a layer of Crisco on a cookie sheet, cover it with wax paper, and then spread MORE Crisco out. Seriously..I just created a fatty embolism for someone, not even kidding. I could cause a blood vessel to be clogged just with one ingredient.

So, this happens, but I'm still on the "I'm gonna make this work" train. Think again Next step, I was supposed to cover a kitchen towel with sifted powder sugar. Many problems in this.
1. I read 3 cups, recipe stated 1/4 cup. WHOA!
2. On a kitchen towel seriously?
3. In a kitchen with NO counter space?
4. So I tried the kitchen table...No no no
5. Move BACK into the kitchen with my 3 cups of powered sugar and out comes the cake from the oven.
6. I am supposed to remove this cake and flip it over with the wax paper onto the 3 cups of powdered sugar towel immediately. This part actually went WELL!

Ok, onto the next issue. Roll the cake from narrow end to narrow end. Problems...
1. The cake cracks
2. Then it cracks again
3. Here my 3 cups of powdered become an issue as it has caked itself on the towel, and barely touched the cake.
4. Then the cake broke it half. My goodness, could this get worse? YES oh yes it could!

Next, I just decided to leave it broken, and make more of a sandwich. At this point I called Brad at work and informed him of mission failure. He thought this was funny, and said if I was interested we had ingredients for cookies. One failure is enough for tonight, but the show must go on...so it was time to continue with the project. Filling. The filling itself was easy, throw the ingredients in and turn the mixer on for 10 minutes. I can't even mess that up. However, putting the "filling" into/onto my two 1/2 pieces that were supposed to be a nice roll, this proved to be a problem, as you will see in the photos below. Which brings me to the pictures...these are the state of the kitchen during my catastrophic evening. Thankfully, this has all be fixed, and it now SPOTLESS and smells suspiciously of bleach; I may have gone a little OCD to ensure we did not have ants with all my sticky messes. Alright, onto the pictures...

This doesn't look so bad...keep going.
Why did the drawers have to be open? Why did I have nothing under the rack that cake was sitting on? Why did I try to use 6 eggs instead of 4, and because of this leave two extra eggs sitting there in a bowl? Why did I think a strainer would work for sifting the powered sugar? Oh, if only I knew....
Those cans are the pumpkin and evaporated milk cans. We also have all my prior ingredients, measuring cups, and measuring spoons sitting up there on the counter.

And oh, oh yes, that would be my final product. Spillage and all. Don't you even worry, I wrapped that bad boy up and put it in the fridge just like I was supposed to. Someone will eat this, and they will like it! I would liken my creation to an eel. It is the length of my finger tips to my elbow. I'll give an update later on the taste, but I will tell you...I ate the batter and I ate the filling and they really were GREAT! So YEA!!!

So there's the story. I hope you enjoyed my trials.

As for news. This week has been pretty great, but uneventful thus far. Brad has been a sweet man and got up every morning with me at 4:30 am! I'm spoiled, I can't even lie about it! He is at work tonight, hopefully he'll really be able to enjoy Thanksgiving tomorrow without being too tired after working tonight. Work this week has been very tough for me. I do want to just praise the Lord, because yesterday was just awful...I mean truly awful. I cried at work, and that's just embarrassing. (Don't worry, just over stressed, all is great!) Today though, was my VERY best day I have had since I began at the hospital. I mean, the nurses with me at the pod were such a team, our tech was awesome, it was a positive atmosphere. It was just wonderful! It made yesterday just seem like it was so long ago. It made me realize that I'm not a bad nurse, and that bad days will happen, but life goes on. So I am so thankful for that! Other than that, we're excited for Thanksgiving tomorrow, but we will miss home! We hope that everyone has a fantastic Thanksgiving!! To our families, we wish so badly we could be with you all! We love and miss you, but only just a few more weeks until we'll be home! Take care!

Company

Only time for a short post tonight, but more to come sometime soon. We had company this weekend! I'll tell you one thing, it sure was nice to have people to talk to on Friday night while Brad was at work! Really though, we had a great weekend with Brad's parents! We've missed our families, so it was so nice to have Carl and Rosemary here with us. I wish I had taken more pictures, but we forgot our camera on Saturday. They arrived on Friday, while I was at work and were able to spend some quality time with Brad. When I got home it was nice to catch up and show them our wedding pictures. I crashed early though...apparently work wears me out! :)

Saturday when Brad got home he was exhausted, so Rosemary and I got to spend a little time shopping. We had some fun...it's pretty nice having all those shops right across the street from us. Once Brad woke up we went down to New Braunfels to the Wurstfest. We had some absolutely DELICIOUS fried foods and listened to some great music, and Carl and Rosemary danced! :) Brad and I didn't, aren't we losers? It was such a neat experience though, because we have heard so many things about Wurstfest, so it was nice to experience it first hand.

Sunday, after church, we went to the UT women's basketball game against Missouri State It was so fun, even though Missouri didn't win. Both teams were pretty impressive. I forgot how much fun watching basketball was. That evening Brad and I went to a get-together or his section of Samsung at Dave and Buster's. We had a great time, I really enjoyed meeting his coworkers, and we rocked out those games! :) We won 4 coffee mugs with our tickets. That was fun! When we got home, we watched the Colts game with Carl and Rosemary..such a sad ending if I might add. I was quite upset with the past two weeks of play by them. Poo!
So! We had such a wonderful weekend with Brad's parents...we LOVE having company! Here are a couple of pictures from the game.
Having a great time at the game!
The Rudy's blimp that shot out coupons! So fun!
Texan pride right there!
It is a pretty neat arena!

Brad and I also had Tuesday and Wednesday of this week to spend time together which has been wonderful. We've decided that we want to begin working out together, so the past two days we have taken advantage of the beautiful weather here in Austin and the Hike and Bike trail, and have started running together. While, I may not like running, it is so nice to have some quality time with Brad outside in fresh air and sunshine and having the chance to just talk to each other. It makes running TOTALLY worth it! Yay!

Well, that's all for now. The Lord has been taking such amazing care of us down here, and life is good. Brad's job is going well, and mine is getting better. We have been blessed with an amazing small group who had some real words of encouragement for me about feeling down lately. We're so thankful for them! We hope all is well for all of you! We LOVE hearing updates on everyone and their lives...so keep us posted! Take care!

Two Months

As of today, we have been the Allison's for two months! YAY!!! To celebrate, or to just enjoy a weekend, we went to San Antonio on Sunday after church and spent Sunday and Monday there. We loved it. It was our very first tiny little road trip together since getting married. Brad is a huge advocate of road trips, and after this past weekend, I would love to continue with our little visits. San Antonio is such a unique city; I've never been any place quite like it. They are so proud of their history there, and I think that is pretty neat. We visited the Alamo, and the Riverwalk...clearly we are tourists still. Here we are at the Alamo. These next couple are at the San Jose Mission a little south of San Antonio. There is a route you can take that runs from the Alamo to six other missions that used to exist. These places are so peaceful and neat and the buildings that are still standing are incredible. We had a nice time just walking around this one.




Monday morning we took a walk after getting some breakfast, and we came to the Tower of the America's (or over the America's, I'm not sure which). We went all the way up and looked out over the city and then we watched this virtual tour of Texas. Who knew this state was so pretty? One thing about San Antonio that we noticed though, the air is DEFINITELY not as clean as Austin. These are just some pictures from up in the tower.





Down on the Riverwalk, which I had no idea was actually a side walk along the river, we found a true mariachi band. (They were so good!)


The view at night time.
We found the cutest outdoor theater over by our hotel, we want to go back if there is actually a play there sometime.

So, overall we had a fantastic weekend, and a FABULOUS two months. We're loving this marriage thing! :) Life is good here in Austin. We've made some really great friends, (we miss you friends from home though!) and the Lord has truly been working in both of us and guiding us as we grow together and figure out where all we are headed in life. This week Brad got off of shadowing and is all by himself at work. Woohoo Brad!! He seems to be liking it, although we're not liking the not seeing each other part. Only a few more weeks though, and then we're smooth sailing!

Can you believe it is already November? My goodness! Next weekend, we have our very first set of visitors, Brad's parents! We're excited to have some company. We've been planning some outings for awhile now. We think we've cooked up some good ideas. (Note to you who do not live in Austin...you come, we plan and we'll having a stinking good time so GET HERE!) For Thanksgiving, Shauna and Aaron have invited us to their house. Those two have just been awesome! So, we're now invading on them for Thanksgiving...but thanks to Hil we have a turkey roaster pan to put to good use. We will really miss our family, and I'm going to go out on a limb and say especially me because this will be my very first holiday away from my family. We'll miss you guys!

If I could just make one little request for prayer...if you could just pray for my job. I'm feeling a bit defeated. There are great days, but there are bad days, and while I know this is exactly where I am supposed to be, I've just been feeling a little negative towards it. It is a little different than I expected...but that is both good and bad. I am learning so much, and for that I am so thankful! Thank you for the prayer though!

So, that's all for now! Take care all!