Move over Dorothy and Toto...

WELP, at long last, we got our assignment from the Army, and as of mid-July, our new home will be...Fort Riley, Kansas.

Not our first choice, but not our last either. We were both a bit surprised at first and kinda bummed we didn't get Ft. Lewis (near Tacoma, WA) or Ft. Campbell (near Clarksville, TN...an hour from Nashville), but the idea of Ft. Riley is slowly growing on me. It's near Manhattan, KS (nicknamed the Little Apple...how cute is that) - home to Kansas State University. There's a good website about the town here. (Thanks Whitney for researching for me :) ) It looks like it's in a slightly hilly portion of Kansas, instead of the stereotypical flat expanse, and there's even a lake nearby! And who knows - maybe being close to KSU will be a good opportunity for me to go back to school part time to get my masters.

We'll definitely need to get some warmer clothes...it's 10 degrees there today and snowing. Umm, I've never been in weather that cold in my entire life.

Besides ME and MY NEEDS (kidding), Ft. Riley is a great first assignment for JAG, as it is the headquarters for the 1st Infantry Division. So it will be a great opportunity for Andrew to gain good legal experience and work with some "high speed" people.

I'm glad at least now we KNOW and can start planning for it. All in all, I'm excited to experience a few years of life in small-town Midwest USA, and Andrew is ready to start his legal career!

Thanksgiving in Dallas

We spent Thanksgiving weekend up in D-town, kind of going back and forth between Jenny and Ryan's house with baby Ella Grace, and Suzanne and Justin's new house in Plano with Julianne and baby Jenna. How we love being Aunt Ya-Ya and Uncle Agamoo/Ags to all those chickadees! The bummer was that most of the adults were sick, so we delayed the actual Thanksgiving meal until Saturday. Nonetheless, it was SO GOOD to all be together. As we're all getting older, I'm really appreciating those times more and more. I think it's only natural for all of our lives to get more hectic and spread out with time, so it makes it that much more special when the "original 5" can reunite with all our spouses and kids...or lack thereof :).

Some pics of little peanut Ella Grace! The first one is more a picture of Andrew, but it shows you how tiny she is!


Some pics of Jenna and Jules!



The baby cousins together!

And finally, some pics of our 2-day-delayed, but scrumptious Thanksgiving feast in Suz and Justin's beautiful new home. Our family unit was joined by my Uncle Mike and Aunt Julie from Fort Worth, their good friends Bill & Jean who join a lot of our holidays, and Jenny's in-laws. I'm mad I didn't get any pictures of people...

The earliest snow in Houston in recorded history!

It's snowing in Houston! It's snowing in Houston! It's snowing in Houston!!!

It's not sticking to the ground much, but the whole city is in pandamonium. Dwight even put on his new lumberjack outfit. Something about a stressful day of work doesn't seem so bad when you're working from home with Christmas music playing, an apple cider-scented candle burning, a cup of hot chocolate in hand, and snow flurries flying past the windows. :)

Random pics and hapenings from the past few weeks

Dwight the hermit crab dog doesn't like how cold our drafty apartment gets when we don't turn on the heater in an effort to save money on the electricity bill. On Halloween, we visited Andrew's brother in College Station (where he's in medical school) and went to the A&M game. I don't remember who they were playing...it's not like I actually pay attention to the game. But it was a beautiful day to be outside!
This past weekend, we had reservations to go camping at Huntsville State Park. We mostly wanted to try out our new tent we just bought. Sadly, the weather this weekend was cold and rainy. So, instead, we spent Saturday Christmas shopping, then went up to Huntsville early Sunday and just spent the day there. We hiked for several hours (it's surprisingly kind of pretty out there...who knew?), grilled chicken and bratwursts, and made a big fire for s'mores once it got dark. Then headed home back to reality.
Artsy (okay, artsy for me) berry pics from the hike. Dwight was pooped after so much walking, then as night fell and it turned colder, we had to wrap him up to keep his shivers at bay. Three blog posts in one day oughta do it. Despite what you'd think...I actually am busy at work, so the next few days will be nutty. Then off Wednesday and headed to big D. Wahoooo!

Dagummit.

WELP. I guess the sooner we (re)adjust to military ways, the better. Ya know...the whole "you'll know things on a need-to-know basis, and you don't need to know yet" mentality. And that everything takes longer and involves a lot more paperwork and process than anything else in the world. Really fun for OCD planners like us.

I worked from home today so I could be here when JAG called Andrew to tell him his assignment (i.e. where we'll be spending the next four years of our life). The phone rang at 8 o'clock, and BER DER DER DEEEEEEEEEEEEER!!!!....they said nevermind - we actually won't know the official assignment for another two weeks.

Doh!!

The officer on the phone did discuss Andrew's eight choices with him, describing somewhat what he'll be doing at different places. And she said we will most likely get one of our top four choices, which were Ft. Lewis (live outside of Tacoma, WA), Ft. Campbell (live in Clarksville, TN...an hour outside of Nashville), Ft. Riley (live in Manhattan, KS...home to Kansas State University), and Ft. Leavenworth (live in Kansas City, KS). This is a relief to me, because after we submitted our list, I started waking up in the middle of the night feeling sick to my stomach, just knowing we were going to get our #8 choice (Ft. Wainwright in Fairbanks, Alaska). It sounded adventurous at the time we were making our list, but then I was terrified I'd actually have to move to a tiny town in the North Pole where it snows from September to May and is pitch black for months out of the year. And I hate the cold.

So, we are REALLY pulling for Ft. Lewis. But now won't know for another two weeks. So. We wait.

Ella Grace has arrived!

Yesterday at 1:07 p.m., our third precious niece came into the world weighing a petite 6 pounds, 7 ounces, and 19 1/2 inches long. Below are a few pics my mom sent me on her phone - not great quality, but you can tell how adorable Ella Grace is!! Jenny had a heckuvah time delivering this little chikadee. You can check out Suzanne's blog for more details. Poor thing...I can't imagine how exhausted she must be. But definitely worth it! We are very anxious to get up to Dallas this Wednesday to spend a few days with family and meet Miss Ella.