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.

Our CRAZY move!

Moving every six months is crazy, but doable…even with just two people! James and I had a crazy time packing the apartment during finals, and then we had to pack the ABF Relo-Cube too. Relo-Cubes are very similar to PODS, except PODS don’t deliver to Waco, so we used a different company. We ordered two cubes, with the hopes of fitting everything into one, which we were able to do, after getting rid of a few things. Filling a cube is like putting a puzzle together, as every inch of space is important. It took us an entire day and a half longer than we expected, but we did it! We wanted to see my grandparents again before we left, so we headed down to Corpus Christi, my favorite part of Texas, to spend a night before heading east. Our cars were jammed packed, as we found an extra closet of stuff after the cube had left! We then drove the 1400+ miles in two cars back to Blacksburg. The only problem we really had was finding a place to stay in Mississippi, as the place we were going to stop was still recovering from the hurricane, so we had to drive an extra hour through a wildlife reserve to find a hotel. Overall, the drive was great though! It would have been better if we’d been in the same car, but I had AJ to talk to the whole time. When we arrived in Blacksburg, we had some problems in locating our cube, because the guy on the phone thought they had already delivered it to someone. I was a little bit concerned, but they ended up finding it! They delivered it so late that we couldn’t unpack it, and it rained the entire next day. It was rough unloading in the cold rain, and then reloading into our storage unit in the rain. I think we are going to be fairly nomadic over the next few years, so we will see what the next six months brings, and where we end up!

Another beautiful Blacksburg sunset!

Mother Nature welcomed us back to Blacksburg with an amazing sunset! There is nothing quite like the sun setting in the mountains, something I had taken for granted until we left! One of the wonderful things about being in band was that we were often outside practicing around the time the sun sets, or we might have otherwise missed many amazing displays of God’s awesomeness! Dave would always take time to yell....everyone look to your left. "It's another beautiful sunset in Blacksburg."

Our Engagement!

On January 5th, James and I celebrated our one year anniversary of our engagement! So...to commemorate the wonderful moment in our lives, we thought we would share a wedding picture with everyone. We hope that your lives are filled with the same amazing love we have been blessed with!

We've made it!

I know its been a VERY long time since we've updated! We've had a VERY crazy month...and have finally made it to Blacksburg. We had a wonderful holiday, and are back in the Burg setting up the apartment and job searching. We will update a great deal in the next few days! :-D Hope you had a wonderful holiday season!!! :-D