Back from Iraq!

My dad came home for Iraq unexpectedly, and James and I were able to go home and visit him and my mom!! He was having surgery done on his face due to a skin cancer growth, and although it was benign, because it was on his face, they decided to send him home to have it taken care of. He flew through Germany, where he stayed for a few days, and was given things to feel at home by an organization out of Roanoke! Operation First Response, http://www.operationfirstresponse.org/, provides backpacks with the comforts of home, including hygiene things, underwear, and a homemade quilt.

It was great seeing my dad, but sad that it had to be under these circumstances. I tried on his armor, as he had to travel with it, and it was SUPER heavy! I could hardly breathe in it…let alone wear it for more than 5 minutes! But….if it stops bullets then it is worth it!


He brought back some really cool Persian rugs as well.
They are red, white, and blue, to match our house, and they look amazing! We had to rearrange the house trying to figure out where they looked best, and we ended up finding the perfect spot for them. AJ loved the rugs, and he would jump on them when we were trying to roll them out. The rugs are REALLY cool! You can’t buy that quality in the US!  We also enjoyed some good meals, talked, went shopping, and just hung out while he was home. It was great seeing him! We can’t wait until he is home for real!!!

Christmas with the Gougers!

After a wonderful visit in Virginia Beach Angela and I dragged our poor dog away from his Lizzie and headed across the Bay to see my family. AJ and Lizzie became quite good friends while we were there, and he was sad to be leaving her. Although, I think he was more upset about getting back in the car! We were very tired and still exhausted from the move,

and we realized that in all the chaos there were several more boxes of presents to wrap! Angela thought that she would be able to wrap them in the car, but that was very unsuccessful, and she only wrapped one present in an hour! So we stopped in the parking lot of an elementary school in Newport News to finish…

the rest of the day was a slow paced family visit where Colin was the center of attention. Baby’s first Christmas is always a big deal! We methodically exchanged gifts until Grandma and Grandpa Gouger came over for dinner, which was great! Angela at first had a hard time catching on to the method, but she figured it out!
AJ loved opening his gifts, and really enjoyed his cigar and duck! He was completely worn down from all of the attention, presents, and traveling, and he fell fast asleep on Grandma’s comfortable lap. He loved Grandma and Grandpa, and we have decided that they need to get a little dog! We had a wonderful Christmas ham, with great wine, and spent the evening enjoying great food with the family.

We watched family videos during the afternoon, and enjoyed seeing how cute Mary was as a little girl, how funny James is playing football by herself, and how awesome it is to see teenage girls in the 80s who are too cool for everything! ☺ After family videos, the girls made bracelets and earrings from the bead kits they received for Chrismas.
All in all, we had a very pleasant Christmas with both of our families, whom we hadn’t seen in quite awhile. It was our first Christmas together, which was very exciting and very eventful! We hoped Rod had pleasant holidays in Baghdad, and that next year, we can all celebrate together!

Christmas with the Burley's!

This year was one crazy Christmas. After driving for over 2500 miles since early December, Angela and I were utterly exhausted. We finished unloading our furniture in Blacksburg in a pouring rain alone and headed to Virginia Beach on our last bit of energy. On Christmas Eve we frantically searched for gifts to give each other as we had not the opportunity before.
Christmas Eve traditions for the Burley’s include going to Olive Garden. We dropped of AJ with Lizzie for doggy bonding and picked up Mom Burley from work. It was nice to see Tony, whom we hadn’t seen since July 4. He is really enjoying the Coast Guard Academy! The Burley’s neighbor, Karen Minkowitz threw a Christmas Eve party with a bunch of neighbors which included a silly gift exchange. We had a good time, but it was bittersweet in the fact that Rod was on the other side of the world and Taryn was leaving for California the next day. After the party we went to Midnight Mass with Father Scordo who had married us! There was so much incense in the church my eyes watered up and I could not see anything, plus I was a tad tired. Angela and I stayed up till 2am to wrap presents then passed out till 5am to wrap more. We had a nice gift exchange with Mom Burley and Tony around 6am. He really liked his cigar box we got for him in Key West. The dogs loved their toys, and we realized how dominant AJ is due to the fact that he could control everything Lizzie did… but she is a tiny dog.

Nebraska

Grandmother Lois passed away in early December, and given the fact that Lincoln was merely a long days drive from Waco, we drove up.
Angela had not had the opportunity to meet my Mother’s family as they could not make the wedding, and I was excited to show her Lincoln, which I think is an awesome city due to childhood vacations. We left around 5am and headed north. Our only traffic was in Fort Worth and we made good time. AJ was introduced to snow in Oklahoma at a small truck stop. Kansas was stereotypically flat, and Nebraska met us with tidy farms and a spectacular sunset. At York we hopped onto I-80 and grabbed runza’s, a Nebraska fast food oddity. Meat is cooked with cabbage and wrapped in dough… sounds weird but is fantastic. Using mapquest we found the hotel we were sharing with my Parents and Sarah who had flown in earlier. They were at my Uncle’s place for dinner after the wake. We used the internet to find our way there and had a good reunion with my parents whom we had not seen since July. The rest of the family received Angela well and we shared some memories of my late grandparents. The next day we gathered for a cold funeral for Grandma Collings. It had been 16 degrees the night before… and for acclimated Texans we were COLD. After a nice ceremony we went sight seeing with my parents. We visited my mother’s alma mater, Nebraska Wesleyan where my Grandmother had been a librarian and professor of children’s literature. We then headed to see the library my Grandfather had run at the University of Nebraska. My dad found a park near our hotel to take AJ on a walk, where he met his first frozen pond, poor dog.
Lincoln’s skyline is dominated by the state capitol building and the gigantic University of Nebraska football stadium. They love their Huskers! After a nice visit we got up real early and headed south across the plains to pack up and leave Waco for good!!

Fishing with the Frank Weller’s

The day after Thanksgiving Grandpa and Uncle Frank were going fishing down at Ingleside Navy base. They convinced me to come so we went and picked up a one day saltwater fishing license. We got up early and left by 6am for Ingleside first stopping for some freshly caught shrimp as bait. We walked to the end of the only pier at the tiny base overlooking Corpus Christi. As soon as we started fishing sand trout started biting. In just a few hours we had a cooler full of 120 trout and headed home. Grandpa decided I would be in the way if I helped gut and clean the fish, so I was assigned to cleaning the poles. Angela and I had some friends over before we moved and grilled up the trout into good po’boys. We had a nice stay in Rockport before heading back to Waco to pack it all up and move home.

Cousins + Mac = AWESOME

Thanksgiving break was sooooo good! James and I went to Rockport to spend the holiday with Grandma and Grandpa Weller, Uncle Frank and Aunt Chris, and my cousins, Nicole and Sarah. We entertained ourselves with the macbook! Check out these awesome family photos!