Oh where do I even begin?...well, I suppose I’ll start where
I last remember leaving off- Thanksgiving! We had our Thanksgiving Day meal
with my boss, Jeff, and his family and we had our own little meal by ourselves
the day before. While cooking an entire thanksgiving meal by yourself in a
tinie tiny kitchen and one oven isn’t quite ideal, Michael and I never get any
time together, so I really wanted our first holiday alone to be special. Though
it didn’t end up quite how I imagined it because Michael was gone for the most
of the day until about 9 pm, the food sure was yummy lol. I ended up eating it
by myself because I was so hungry after skipping breakfast and lunch to save
room for our feast, and Michael wouldn’t answer his phone, so I had no idea
when he would get home. It was a hard day to be by yourself. Our meal this year consisted of: deviled
eggs, ham, tomato and bacon green beans, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes,
broccoli cheese rice casserole, stuffing, sweet potato casserole, cranberry
jello salad, and chocolate pie. Believe it or not, we actually finished almost
every bit of it in the days that followed.
On the actual day of, I woke up early to make a corn
casserole and chocolate pie and then headed to Jeff’s house. Everything was
good and after our Thanksgiving lunch, the guys all watched football while I
took a nap on Michael. On the way home, we picked up a newspaper to see if we
could find any good black Friday deals that would be worth battling the crowds.
We found a few ads we thought would be worth checking out, so around 11 PM, we
hit Walmart and Michael’s. Looking back, I don’t think we even bought anything
on sale lol. But we did have a Texan moment to speak of! While we were at
Walmart, we asked one of the employees in the electronics section where the Black
Friday DVD’s were at. He told us they were in the pop section. Thinking he
meant the isle with pop cd’s, we looked all around, but couldn’t find them.
Finally, we asked another worker who told us the exact same thing but pointed
in the direction they would be at. While looking in that direction, the light
bulb went off in Michael’s head. “Ohhhh, they meant pop, as in coke!” Needless
to say, we felt dumb.
On Black Friday we meant to go shopping pretty early, but
neither of us woke up to our alarms. At about 11AM, Michael woke up to me
jumping out of bed telling him we had to go! We were missing all the good sales
that end at noon! Feeling a bit defeated, I told him nevermind because I didn’t
think we were going to be able to make the sales. Michael wouldn’t take no for
an answer. He knows how much I love black Friday with my mom, grandma, and girl
cousins every year and didn’t want me to miss out. Though I looked like a
sloppy mess, with greasy hair pulled up in a ponytail, we made one of the sales
that ended at noon and found lots of good deals at the stores that had sales
all day long. We genuinely had a great time together and I appreciated
Michael’s willingness to go with me, despite his hatred of shopping.
On the Sunday following Thanksgiving, we went and cut down
our beautiful Christmas tree from one of the local tree farms. Since I was a little girl, picking out a tree is one of my favorite days of the year! There is
just something so special about finding the perfect gem that will mark the
center of your holiday festivities. By the time we got home, picked up some
dinner to-go at Zombie Burger, put the tree in the stand and vacuumed, we were
too tired to decorate it. We decided to decorate it the next night. Looking
back, I wish we had just sucked it up and decorated it. Michael didn’t have a
single free moment for the next few weeks so we didn’t end up decorating it
until mid December- only about a week before leaving for Texas. Even still, it
filled the apartment with the sweet smell of pine and we had a nice place to
store all the presents. Oh and let’s not forget that it was the perfect chew
toy for Darcy…sigh.
After we finally did decorate the tree, we couldn’t find an
ornament that we each liked for our new ornament to represent the year. Michael
didn’t like how generic they all were at Hobby Lobby and Hallmark, and we
couldn’t find any little mom and pop shops that had any. Frustrated, we finally
just decided to wait till we got back in TX. Michael ended up getting a spurs
stocking, which was perfect because he got spurs tickets in his stocking on
Christmas day, and I got a little stuffed snowman, which represented our first
blizzard in Iowa…more about that later!
Darcy's stocking :) I made it to match the rest of the family's
She would not stop eating our tree, or the ornaments!
Well, much of my Fall and Winter was consumed by work. Our
biggest season of the year is October 15th- December 7th,
which is Medicare Advantage Season, so outside of thanksgiving and Christmas
preparations, I was busy making money. I was so relieved when the end of the
season finally arrived, and even better was that I hit the goal my boss gave us
to hit 75 sales. As a reward, he gave us a catalogue and let us pick our own
prize from it. I think Michael and I are either going to pick the 32” plasma
screen for our bedroom, or get the kitchen aid mixer and sell it to help pay
the cost of fixing Michael’s broken fillings over Christmas break.
This year’s winter in Iowa is a bit different from last
years. Last year, they had the warmest winter on record! This year, a blizzard
arrived on the day we were supposed to have our office Christmas party and leave
for our vacation in Texas. My boss and co-workers kept texting and calling me
the days leading up to it, telling me to go ahead and hit the road early so we
wouldn’t be trapped, but we couldn’t. Neither of us had even begun to pack and
Michael had a meeting with his Dean. We did end up getting trapped for a couple
days extra, but that was okay with the both of us. I had time to clean and do
some laundry so we wouldn’t come home to a messy house, plus we finally had a
moment to breathe- just Michael and I (and the doggies of course).
This was in the middle of the night, when we first got the snow
We played in the snow, made Christmas cookies, and watched a
Christmas movie. We would have watched more than one, but the blizzard knocked
out our internet and cable. We were so so thankful to have some time together
and it was a neat experience to see our first ever blizzard! To tell you the
truth, as much as I always miss Texas and our friends and family, I think we
both would have been perfectly happy just staying here and having some us time.
This past semester has been the worst one yet! Michael stays gone at school
until about 3am studying and leaves as soon as he wakes me up in the morning
for work. I’m talking every day, Monday-Sunday. Being alone constantly, every
day, is the hardest part of all of it. Moving to a new place, even a place as
boring as Iowa, wouldn’t be too bad, if I had a husband to come home to- even
every once in a while. Well, I guess even him being gone wouldn’t be as bad, if
he would at least call/txt every once in a while to let me know if he was alright.
It makes me so anxious never knowing what’s going on. I almost always try to
stay up and wait for him to get home, so I can at least tell him goodnight, but
I am generally too sleepy and just end up being exhausted the next day.
Gizmo is so nosey :)
My cookies
Michael's cookies haha
Anyway, our trip to Texas was full of the hustle and bustle
of the holidays, but we had a great time visiting everyone! We started the trip
off at the King’s for a couple days before heading down to Lake Jackson to have
our Elkins and McGuire Family gift exchanges. On Christmas morning, we opened
our millions of presents at my Aunt Mary and Uncle Bobby’s, along with my
immediate family and both my grandmas. Ryan and Aubra also got to join us for
lunch on Christmas day, which was so exciting for me! I think it has been a few
years since we got to have Christmas with them, because Ryan has to travel so
much for his job. It was perfect!
Christmas morning!
Dad's present. We were so excited to give it to him lol
Spurs Tickets!
Michael's new gun
Michael and Dad showing off their new jackets/coats
McGuire cousins
Michael’s most exciting gifts were his new
handgun from my parents and I, and Spurs tickets from Santa ;). I wanted to get
him everything he would want, but didn’t think he could have. He always tells
me stories of when he was really little, before his dad got laid off, and his parents would go all out for
Christmas. I wanted to recreate that for him. He works so unbelievably hard ALL
THE TIME, and he deserves the world. It was extra special when he opened his
presents because on our trip down to Texas Michael turned to me and said “Oh my
gosh, we should have gotten Spurs tickets!!” This is probably our last chance
to watch Duncan play”. He looked so disappointed; it was hard to play along.
Then in another convo, Michael told me “one day, we’ll have a lot of money and
I can get a handgun.” It made my heart overjoyed to think about how happy he
would be on Christmas morning. My dad also got him all the accessories to go
with his new toy, which was the cherry on top! My main gift from Michael was my
DSLR that he gave me back in October, but he also gave me a remote starter for
my car, and I got more than I would ever expect or ask for from my parents and
other family.
On Christmas day, we traveled back to San Antonio to spend
some time with our friends Lauren, Dylan, Erin, and Jake that night. I wish I had pics, but it was a fun time that will live on in my memories.
Sorry…does that sound super cheesy? Lol because sadly, it’s the truth. We
don’t ever ever get to hang out with friends here together because Michael doesn't have time for any sort of life outside of school. I really cannot
even explain how jealous I am of people I see on facebook that get to hang out
with friends regularly. At one point, we were all laughing
at something and I was reminded that I haven’t laughed that hard since summer,
over our cruise. I feel like right now we’re just living for the glimpse of
happiness we get a couple times a year. I can’t even imagine the kind of
happiness that will come with being done with school and having time together.
The next couple of days were spent in SA celebrating
Christmas with the Kings, with intermittent Lauren and Dylan time and a Spurs
game. It was a lot of fun! On one of the days, we went out to eat Mexican food
with Lauren and Dylan (since we’re deprived in Iowa) and went bowling, where I
scored my highest score ever! Seemed
like time really sped by and then it was already time to go to the ranch with
my family. I was so excited, though! Going to the ranch is one of my favorite
family events every year! My Aunt Mary, Uncle Bobby, Grandma Margie, and
cousin, Kristyn, always join us, and this year Ryan and Aubra even got to come,
since Ryan wasn’t away for work! Though our trip was dampened a little by the
Flu, I think we all had a fun time…with the exception of my mom, who was super
super sick for the entire time. Michael even shot his first deer!
Just on a walk at the land
She was exhausted from running around all day :)
from the blind
pulled pork and brisket mmmm!
She found a random animal bone
Teaching me
my big baby girl
first deer
learning how to clean it
Dixie (mom's dog). She was worn out too hehe
Kristyn brought some stuff that you sprinkle on a fire and it makes it all colored. It was really cool!
On the last day of our trip to the land, the Flu finally
caught up with me. I was pretty bummed because it was New Years Eve and it was
going to be our last chance to see Lauren and Dylan. In fact, they had made
plans to go to Austin to celebrate, but they ended up staying in town just to
spend more time with us! Imagine how bad I felt when we had to cancel! After a
few days of resting up, I was back to normal and we got to enjoy some more time
visiting with the Kings, plus I made a couple trips to visit my favorite two
little girlies, Myla and Taylor. We concluded our time in San Antonio at Ryan
and Aubra’s Cotton Bowl Party. It was a great time and exciting to watch our
boys destroy Oklahoma. What an awesome way to end the best and most unexpected
season in Aggie history (at least in my life time)! It was especially
gratifying on our drive through Oklahoma the next morning on our way back to
Iowa, as we passed all the cars decked out with Sooners decals on their
windows.
Our drive home was long, although it was broken up by a nice
pit stop in Dallas to visit our family friend, Troy, at the fire station he
works at. We had a short tour of his equipment and the trucks, lunch with all
the firemen, and it was back on the road. It was a depressing ride, and the
further we got from home, the more it set in that we were headed back to the
misery that we call Iowa. It’s not Iowa itself that’s so horrible, but the
stress and pressure and strain that Michael’s school puts on him and us is
overwhelming and the freezing temperatures and gloomy weather for months on end
doesn’t help anything. We both kept encouraging each other and taking turns
convincing the other that it would go fast and everything will be fine, but we
both knew that saying the words doesn’t make it any more true.
