Finally Home!!

Well, here are a few pictures from the rest of our trip. I started getting sick when we were on our way to Boston, but I still ended up having fun at the Red Sox game! Christopher was right, it was more fun than a Rangers game! The crowd was more into it and even though we were in the "bleacher" section people all around us were going crazy! Red Sox fans are way more fun than Rangers fans, sorry Mav and Mel, but maybe that's because the Red Sox are a little more rewarding to watch...

I was writing our names in the sand, Christopher added Addi's to the end!

Red Sox game!

Cool picture of Fenway Park! This is when David Ortiz hit in the winning run! The crowd when crazy! But not as crazy as when Papelbon closed the 9th inning so perfectly!
Flying home took FOREVER. We got to the airport in Boston at 9:00 am and drove away from the Longview airport at 8:45 pm. It was a long, boring and tiring day! Not to mention it was not fun waiting in airports for a total of 8 hours when you don't feel good... Any way, Christopher and I got bored and decided to take pictures of each other. They were all terrible, kind of funny that they were, it describes what our day was like!

Not sure why my nose looks so big, maybe it's swollen from all the "build up" that was in it.

When I took this picture of Christopher I laughed so hard I was crying and then the fact that I didn't feel good made me start coughing out of control, which only made me laugh harder!

Update on the painting... not going so good... I think we've discovered why the ceiling was a color other than white, there are some really weird textures in it and Christopher is on his 4th coat of paint. We decided to switch paint, and now have decided that after this coat if it still looks funny then it's just going to have to stay that way. If you come to our house, just don't look up in Addison's room!

Vacation is here!

I am so excited that the week of vacation has finally arrived! We started out our vacation with starting the of paint of the nursery! Here are a few pictures of the events!

The last of the red wall... all for Addison!

Here is Chris doing what he said that he would never do, paint the ceiling! He is doing a great job and would only do it for his little girl! One more coat when we get back and he is finished! I keep saying "he" becuase he won't let me be in the room very long...

We are in Brewster, Massachusetts! Christopher has a financial something conference here Monday and Tuesday. Our trip here was good! Our luggage didn't get lost... GOOD TRIP! Brewster is beautiful! We are in "The Cape" area in a small town that looks like it should be in a movie!

As we were driving into Brewster we noticed that several houses were for sale so we wondered how much houses around here went for so I decided to look it up this morning... So what could we get here for the price we paid for our house, a 211 square foot room with 0 bedrooms and 1 bath. Not sure what the 0 bedroom means, but it doesn't sound too good!

We are enjoying the nice cool air. Yesterday it was 70 degrees. There were people swimming and we were walking around in sweatshirts... We decided that we must be "Texas-ized" and only used to the warm weather! I mean don't get me wrong, I love the coolness and the ability to breath without feeling as though my lungs are filling up with water, but swimming in 70 degrees weather... no thank you! Here are a few pictures of what we have done so far

The beach

I just thought this was a pretty picture of the Sun glaring off the water

Here is Addison and her first trip to a beach!

I thought this was funny Christopher with his pants rolled up, I called them his man capri pants!

One last thing, I felt Addisons hiccups for the first time last night! It was kind of funny and I'm not sure if she new what to do with them either because everytime I felt a hiccup it was followed by a huge flip/pick/punch, whatever it is she is doing in there!

Mr. and Mrs. James Gladstone Thompson III

Just in case many of you were wondering what Stoney looks like, this is him!!

Yes, here is my belly!!

The wedding was fun! A bunch of the girls came in and several of us were able to meet Reece Cope for the first time! We stayed up WAY past my bed time! But it was worth it to watch Mary sing "Sin Wagon" all dressed up in her karaoke outfit!

Went to the Dr. yesterday for my checkup! I'm measuring just right and he said that the pictures from the sonogram last week were good and everything looked okay! I start going every 2 weeks now. Crazy how time flies! Christopher and I are going to start painting and so hopefully the nursery will be all painted by the end of next week! Yeah for Addison coming soon!!

Still having a problem with Titles... Leslie, Thanks for the tip, but I don't have a place that says "Title." Anyone have any other suggestions?

Sorry that it has taken so long since I've posted. I have a feeling that maybe once Addison gets here I'll have a little more to share! I just really haven't sat down at the computer with the intent to blog lately. I will have several things to post in the upcoming weeks. This weekend is Mary Beards wedding! She is so excited and I am excited for her! Don't worry, I'll put pictures of the 6 month pregnant lady in a bridesmaids dress, not always the most attractive thing to see, but I wouldn't say no because of that! On June 10 Christopher and I leave for Boston! Cape Cod actually! He has a conference there and so I decided to tag along. The last night that we are there we are staying in Boston and going to a Red Sox game which he is super excited about. I'm not the biggest baseball fan, but maybe that's because the Rangers just aren't that fun to watch, in my opinion...

I wanted to put some pictures on here, but for some reason it's not letting me right now, so I'll try those later!

Chris and I did have our 3rd Anniversary on May 15th. How did we celebrate you might ask... by watching him play softball and eating Chick-fil-a like we do every Tuesday night! We (I) try to find something to do on our anniversaries that have to do with the traditional wedding gifts... year 1 - paper - we got paper tickets to the Mav's play off game, year 2 - cotton - we were suppose to get new swimsuits ("suppose to" being the operative words there) and year 3 - leather - we are counting this as the leather in the gloves and shoes of the Red Sox... It's going to get a little more complicated to come up with things as years go by, pearls, what can you do for pearls, eat clams... YUCK!

I guess that I also haven't updated in a while on my parents in College Station! They finally found a house and closed on it this week. Now all they have to do is build a barn and paint, lots of paint! We are just excited that after a long time of looking, they finally found something. I took pictures when I was there a few weeks ago looking at it with them, maybe I'll have to do some before and after pictures of the inside of the house. I feel as though it will be a dramatic and much needed improvement.

I've noticed that on other peoples blogs there are titles to your posting, I've been trying to figure this out for a while and just can't seem to. Can anyone give me some tips on how to do this??

Well, I'm finally posting again! This blog isn't all that exciting,

but the Mav's are on and it's getting close to my bed time.

First things first... We are having a girl!

Addison Beth Collier will be here in a few months! When they were measuring her at on the sonogram they said the due date, according to her size, is September 4 instead of the 3rd. We'll still say the third, who knows the due date really anyway!

The other day someone at work told me that her grandmother had an old wives tell that when you feel the baby move the first time that your pregnancy is 1/2 over, if that's true she'll be here about 34 weeks. I'll like to keep her cooking a little longer than that!

Tomorrow I'll be 21 weeks!

Crazy how fast this seems to be going by so fast.

Here is my 20 week picture. She's growing all right!

And this, well, Christopher has a new trick!

Ripping phone books in half has become his new hobby!

I must admit, he is getting quite good at it!

I also want to encourage everyone to continue to check on the Phillips Blog. Kanyon is doing okay, his little body still just needs lots of prayers. There is a link to their blog in my links!

Jayde and Kanyon

Jaymie Phillips, my sweet friend from ACU and luckily enough moved to Longview when Chris and I did, went into labor with her twins at 25 weeks on Monday at 12:00 am. Jayde and Kanyon are stable, but need our prayers. Jayde is having a little bit of a harder time than her bother. Please check out their blog http://www.thephillipsphamily.blogspot.com/
for updates on how they are doing. There is also a link to a prayer chain on their blog as well as their prayer pager 903.210.0122. Jaymie has said that her and Kory can feel all the prayers that are being lifted up to the Father for them, Jayde and Kanyon. Now they have a few little electronics to help them know that they are being prayed for all the time. They are doing what the doctors say and taking everything one day at a time. Please pray for them, and their strength especially when Jaymie and Kory will no longer be down the hall, but across town.

It's been a while...

I know it's been a while since I've last posted. So I'll give a quick update...

December 30, 2006
Kallen, Christophers younger brother, and Kelsey Bailey were married.

Oh yeah, for those of you that didn't know, I'm pregnant! We found out the Thursday before the wedding. Here is my first sonogram picture, I was 7 weeks. I am now 17 and in two weeks we go back and get to find out what it is!!

Girls Trip #8 - MLK Weekend in the icy Abilene!

Annual weekend at the Lake with of Chris' buddies!

New Kitchen!!

We've been in the process of redoing the kitchen! Here are the before and after pictures.

Marathon!!

This weekend was the White Rock Lake Marathon. Christopher ran in it with the youth minister from our church, Ricky Pruitt. They did well, their first goal was to finish in under 4 hours and they did! They finished in 3:53. I took several pictures, of course! I told Christopher that I thought I worked almost just as much as him trying to get to all of the different miles before he did. I only missed him at one spot, mile 15, and I think that I missed him only by about 1 minute. Oh well! It was fun. Christopher had fun! I think that he wants to do another one, we'll see when!

The drop off at 6:30 am... (aren't they cute dressed like opposites!)

9 miles down, 17.2 to go...

Mile 19

Middle to the end of mile 22

It's OVER, 3 hours 53 minutes and 23 seconds!

Out with the old...

I took this picture on my last ride to work in the Saturn. I had no idea how hard it was actually going to be to give her up. She's been good to me, I mean we did just buy her new shoes. I was stopped at a stop light about 5 miles before the dealership and thought "What am I doing, I can get another 100,000 miles out of her. We really don't need a new car, should I be doing this." It's then (and the fact that I nearly burst into tears in the GMC parking lot) that I realized I have a hard time letting go of things. But I mean it's the Saturn. She even cried on our way to work that morning, only for a few seconds and she had never made that noise before, I knew she was sad. I was sad. When I got to the dealership Joe was helping another guy so I could have gone inside and not frozen, but I didn't, I stood outside, with my bag on my shoulder and coat in hand just standing by her, soaking in those last few moments that we had left together. Yes, I teared up, I said my good-byes. I'm glad that I have those extra minutes...

In with the new!!

Here is the new one! Yes, I'm excited! I like all the buttons, the seat warmers, radio, the fact that I do not feel like I'm sitting on the pavement but mainly it's the quietness. It's so quiet compared to the Saturn! Like I told Jaymie, I think I could fall asleep while driving, there's no noise to keep me awake! So I got the car on Friday night and have already put 100 miles on it. Now the miles on Christopher's truck are going to slow down because I feel that we will be taking this everywhere now! (which is fine as long as I get to drive!) My argument in that... He never wanted to drive my car before but now it's a fight, so apparently he was too good for the Saturn!

This was a long decision coming and we are glad that we made it! Jaymie and Amy called it my "mom car," maybe someday, just not yet.

We really are glad to have this and know that we are blessed because we can have it. Throughout this whole process I keep thinking back to when we were making our decisions for what our commitment was going to be for Advancing the Vision at church. We ended up upping our amount a few times and then Chris said that he felt sick at his stomach and wondered how we were going to be able to make it happen. Jay Knight told us that's where we should be and that's where God wants us. He wants us to have commit that to him and have to trust that he is going to work it out and we will be blessed because of it, we truly have been. I know that to some it sounds strange, but I thank God for our car, it's because of Him that we could do it!

I couldn't get these pictures to send to my mom, so I'm putting them on my post.

I know that I haven’t blogged in a while. I just seem to just not want to think sometimes! Blogging does make you think. So what has been happening? Pretty much nothing. My dad is know in College Station. I believe that he is liking it so far! My mom and Mary Beth are still in Callisburg. There are a few people that have been looking at the house, but no offers yet. To most people I guess that it would seem strange that my parents are living 4.5 hours apart while they are still married, but that’s sort of how I grew up. We moved so much that every time we were going to move, Dad would move there first. Then, when it came to a normal break in school, Christmas or end of school, the rest of us would follow. This time though they just have to wait for the house to sell.

A while back I had a strange feeling. I passed a Purina feed store in wanted to “boo” them like I always did, but then realized that I no longer needed to dislike certain feed companies. Since that is no longer my dad’s occupation, I can buy any kind of feed that I would like. I can also eat McDonalds hamburgers again. My dad said a long time ago that McDonalds does not support the American Cattle Industry which would directly effect his old job, so no hamburgers. But now that has all changed!

22 days until my birthday!!

For some reason I couldn't add these pictures to my previous post. The most fun part about the weekend was watching Christopher learn how to cut for the first time! I guess my dad finally had enough confidence in him to let him have a go round on his horse! Christopher said that he had a good time!

This one I like to call "The First Lesson"

Look at him go!!

"I believe my work here is done!"

Home Again!!

Another good weekend in Gainesville. It's getting more real that soon that will no longer be home. What will I say when people ask me where I'm from. I guess I can revert back to the comical answer and say "what year?" I took a few pictures of some of the things that I am going to miss about Callisburg that cannot and will not ever be the same anywhere else...

This would be the 11 years worth of manure from the horses stall, who else has a pile that monsterous? (No, it doesn't smell)

One of the things that I know that I am going to miss is knowing that just over that hill of trees is one of my favorite places... Camp Sweeney.

Notice the well worn path from the house to the barn? That's from many years of little and big feet, some humans and some dogs making their way to the barn.

It was fun being home! Nana and Papa came up from Waxahachie to see us! Mark decided to surprise us Saturday night! Everyone was home at the same time! Not everyone was ever together or awake at the same time, but we were all under one roof. That has to count for something right. I did try and get everyone to take a family picture, that didn't go so well, here is the best one that came out...

That's about it for our weekend...

It seems that lately I've been asked what's the matter a lot. Really, I don't know. There are so many things that have been running through my head this last week I guess that I don't have time to process them all.

I've been thinking a lot about my career path that I am currently on. Is this something that I really want to be doing? Would I really rather be teaching? Who knows. I was suppose to pick and be content in my decision, I just have to keep reminding myself of that... daily.

The other thing that has really been bothering me... our world. Does anything good happen anymore. It seems as though every time I turn around someone is asking for prayers for a family or a loved one who is dying, very ill or had already passed away. I mean just today I received an email from a friend about her nephew that needs prayers, by then end of the email it seemed as though everyone in the whole family had something tragic going on and needs prayers.

I just received a phone call from my brother, his girlfriend is flying home tonight because her dad is in the hospital with "all kinds of bad things happening" as quoted from my brother. Apparently he is having kidney failure amongst other issues.

Sunday in class at church it really did make me sad to sit and listen to all the prayer requests. Does anything good happen anymore in this world? Maybe right now my eyes are just closed to it. Maybe Satan is trying to kick me while I'm down and not letting me see all the good things. The one good thing that was mentioned in class, Rand's daughter is coming home from language school Sunday! Everything else was illness, death and tragedy.

These next few days I am going to try to think of all the things that I am thankful for. When you actually start to make a list, it's rather amazing how blessed we truly are. I think that it's just that it's easier to remember the bad stuff than the good. Much I golf, you could shoot and 80, but all that you would think about was that one putt that you missed that kept you from that 79!

Things that I am thankful for:

• A God that loves me for me and was willing to sacrifice his son for my mistakes.
• Grace for when I do make those mistakes
• Parents that are still married and still love each other
• A family that is close, we are more like friends than siblings
• A husband that loves me very much and makes me laugh everyday
• A beautiful house to live in
• Food on the table (although sometimes it doesn't seems like it but that's just because I don't really like going to the grocery store)
• In-laws who love me like their own child, sometimes more!!
• A whole second family in the Strickland's, although I never get to talk to them much I know that they are there and always will be!
• Friends that I can count on anytime, day or night, all we'll need is a box of tissues!
• My health, I think (I find out about cholesterol tomorrow)
• The ability to save money to buy new things (even though in the grand scheme of things it's all just "stuff")
• The thought that if we ever feel satisfied here on Earth, it's not even close to the satisfaction that we will feel when we are with our Father in Heaven.
• The ability to read
• To write.
• To love.
• To be passionate about something.

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I was just reading back through my last post and it all makes since. A week and a half ago I was amazed by all the blessing. This week, disturbed by all the disappointments. Sometimes it's so hard to see when Satan is messing with your heart and you have no idea why things are going on. It's so obvious now what was happening to me this last week. You have one good week and Satan says "oh no, don't think that I'm letting that happen two weeks in a row" and bam... I get sad. But not now. "Get behind me Satan!"