Birds, Babies, Boy are we tired!

I am not sure that we could have packed more into a weekend, but I'd sure love to try!  This past  weekend Larry and I headed to 'Ole San Antone for our (now) annual dove hunting weekend with our friends Matt, Kim and Co.  For the past couple of years Matt has invited us and a bunch of his friends down to their family's place near Floresville for a little dove hunting along with a strict "no work talk" policy.   I'm also considering suggesting a "no politics" policy however, I'm pretty sure we'd have nothing left to talk about and I wouldn't be half as entertained.

Matt & Kim:  I introduced this awesome couple =)

And now Braelyn makes 3

Larry decided to go camp out with the boys Friday night, so I got to spend a relaxing girls night with my mom.  One of the many things I love about my mom is we pretty much share the exact same interests.  God, old movies, animals, and things in the shape of animals or have animals on them.  Ok well that last one is mostly her, but I get a HUGE kick out of it.  Almost every gift she gives anyone will have at least one item with an animal on it....if you have ever been the recipient of a Patti Sue gift, think back and I can guarentee that there was an animal incorperated in some way.  I guess we know that she didn't miss her calling as a veterinarian!

mom and me

Bright and early Saturday, Larry went on a morning hunt while my mom and I went for a jog around the farm with the dogs.  It was great to run some hills because the area where I run here in College Station is pretty flat and hills will remind you real quick that you may not be in as good of shape as you thought before beginning your journey.  I sort of planned with Mom that we would lay low during the day so she could work on her paper (her last step in becoming a certified accupuncture vet), but I was chomping at the bit to see family and friends, so we decided to head up to San Antonio to go pick up my Grandma for lunch.  We had a really great time and like always it was much too short of a visit.

Later we headed to La Vernia to see one of my dearest friends Amy her husband Stephen and their brand new baby boy Ryan.  They have such a great life and have the two sweetest kids anyone could ask for.  Easton their eldest who just turned two is not in our picture, because he was deathly afraid of me at the time.  Poor little guy...

Then I rushed home so that Larry could meet me to head out to a ranch belonging to a family member of Matt and Kim's.  I ended up being the only female as it was hot humid and muddy....not exactly ideal conditions for Kim and her daughter.  The hunt was AMAZING, the birds were flying and I shot better than I ever had before!  Larry was really proud.....He of course limited out both days.  I did remind him that its a lot harder to knock them down with a 20 guage than a 12, but really he is THAT good of a shot.

Happy =)

The boys - all super great guys!  Such gentlemen, they wouldn't let me clean my birds.

I first learned to dove hunt with my grandma and in fact I hunt with her gun to this day.  It is so special to me and it holds with it such great memories of my childhood (and sometimes horror when our little feathered friends hadn't exactly passed on).  One of my most treasured hunting was one of the first times grandma ever met Larry.  She decided she wanted to come hunting with us at the family ranch, so we loaded up and headed south.  Grandma and I hunted together, which consisted of me loading her gun, handing it to her, and Grandma Graham BLASTING away at anything (and everything) that flew by.  She harvested two birds that day, but the thing I remember most about that evening is her commentary for each shot.  As a bird would come near she would say "FLY AWAY BIRD WITH YOUR HEART SHOT OUT! (BANG)" or "WEE HA! (BANG) or "GET DOWN BIRD!" (BANG).  If she missed, its possible that some sort of 'colorful' word would come out of her mouth followed by a "don't tell Larry I said that!"  She must have said that about 15 times.  It was priceless and something I'll never forget as long as I live.

Sunday after church we met up with Kitty, Christian, and Ewan.  I can't believe he's only 6 months!  He's pulling up, crawling, and would be running circles around us if we'd just let him.  He is the most special thing ever and we absolutely love him to death.  I was so excited to see Ewan, that I forgot to get a picture of Kitty and Christian.  Kitty, who just gave birth 6 short months ago, had ran 18 miles that morning and met up with us at La Fonda on Main. Delicious!

This is the look of a champion.....

The proudest Aunt & Uncle in the world!

Ewan loves Uncle Larry's beard!

After all that we are exhausted but wouldn't trade it for anything.  Thanks to all our family and friends that make our lives so rich.  We are so blessed!



Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our "God is a consuming fire."

Hebrews 12:28-29

Now forming at the north end of Kyle Field

This past weekend brought an extra special treat.  My dad got a very rare weekend off and decided to head up from the swamplands of Matagorda county to beautiful and noticeably drier College Station to join me watch the Aggs BTHO FIU.  We soon found out that we would not be watching the game as mere mortals in the stands or even in the coveted alumni section.  We would be rubbing elbows with a few high ranking, but very down to earth old Aggs in the comforts of a suite!  I want to assure those who know me particularly well that I refrained from giving the guy on the board of regents my two cents on the direction of the university... although the thought crossed my mind...twice.

Anyway, we met up with my good friend Vicki, who was responsible for making these prized seats available and headed for Kyle Field.  So there we are, walking in a sea of maroon and white headed toward the battle field, with one exception: a long haired motorcycle type wearing a black west coast chopper cutoff t-shirt, ripped blue jeans and boots.  An outfit that would make Poison and Dwight Yokum equally proud.  Well that guy happens to be my dad and we are in Aggieland, home to the Corp of Cadets and the crew cut, so needless to say he stood out.

First of all let me tell you how amazingly proud of him I am.  He embodies marching to one's own drum and I believe takes particular delight in knowing that LAST thing you would ever think he did for a living is a surgeon.  He's an awesome doctor, the kind that you would want if you were ever sick because you know he's 100% dedicated to his patients.  Because of that fact, he NEVER takes time off of work.  I can't imagine working 24/7 365, but he does it.

I think he said about 10 times how relaxed he felt on his weekend off.  Yeah Dad, its called sleep...try it....its amazing!

Well those old Aggs didn't even bat an eye as we walked in.  They warmly welcomed us, put food in one hand and a drink in the other....I could get used to this.

Reveille stopped by!

I'm going to intentionally not speak about the game....it was terrible!  Somehow we pulled out a win, but it was not pretty....come on Aggies!

Well we always win at halftime...

Now forming at the north end of Kyle Field, the nationally famous Fightin' Texas Aggie Band!

Whoop!

If you are wondering where Larry is in all of this, he was finishing off his week to work.  I'm so proud of him and how hard he works at making a good living for our family.  Hopefully he'll get to enjoy this next week off.  I'm thinkin there is going to be some sort of hunting involved. 

We topped off an awesome weekend by making a quick trip to Austin to see Trevor for lunch and watch the equally dissapointing Cowboys game. 

I wish I had pictures of all the characters we saw in Austin.  Keep Austin Weird, Keep College Station Normal.

P.S. That's Trevor's new car in the backgroud....its so nice!

But from everlasting to everlasting the LORD’s love is with those who fear him, and his righteousness with their children’s children – Psalm 103:17

Blogging...don't you need a kid???

We are so excited to start this blog!  Well mostly me, Larry just smiles and chuckles when I talk about the MAJOR decisions that have to be made.  What to call it, the design, etc.  You get the picture....

Me = pumped.  Larry = supportive, but all the while hoping none of his friends happen upon this and see how silly I can be =) 

Secretly I've been wanting to blog for a long time.  Its a great way to keep up with friends and family as well as an easy to organize online scrapbook.  I mean I read all sorts of people's blogs and love every minute of it.  But as I was thinking of starting my own I realized one significant difference between me and my blogging buddies....KIDS!  So I'd like to give a quick shout-out to Bekki Watts and Katelyn Taylor for showing me that even though we don't have kids yet we can still be interesting (well my mom thinks I'm pretty dang interesting)

So here we go!!!
Update for those that I haven't seen/heard from us in a while:
BIG CHANGES - after Larry and I finally finished pharmacy school and my year of indentured servitude...err residency...was over, we had some major decisions to make.  Where were we going to start our "real" lives?  We had a WONDERFUL life in Houston, Larry had a great job, we had great friends and most of all an amazing church family where my personal relationship with Christ had really matured.  I can't tell you what these people mean to us....I mean how could we bare to leave all that?!?  But there was something tugging at both of our hearts to be open to where God would lead us.  Now you have to know that Larry and I are more of the simple type and the hustle and bustle of Houston really got to Larry.  I mean I was commuting 45 minutes both ways in traffic (for a grand total of 8 miles) and Larry was commuting any where from 1-2 hours both ways doing his consulting work.  For a hunter/fisher guy this is not ideal, so I began looking around for a job in a place that was large enough to support a clinical pharmacist yet small enough that we could live a little "country."

See what I mean.....

Well when the Lord answers a prayer he sure does it with flare doesn't he!?!?!  Not only did he open the door to an awesome job that suited me perfectly, that job was in College Station, Texas!!! 

WHOOP!

Plenty of country livin' around here!  So we said some really hard "see you soons" loaded up the pups and headed west.  We also took the plunge and bought our first house!  Its on 1.5 acres with plenty of room for guests!

More details of that to come soon.

So here we are, happy wife, happy hunter, happy pups.

And a new addition to the family....Larry is so thrilled about this...

We love you all so much, and can't wait to hear from you soon!

"The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases.
His mercies never come to an end.
They are new every morning.
Great is thy faithfulness." (Lamentations 3:22-23 RSV)