Mini-Vacay in the Big Apple!

So... Brian and I totally had a blast in NYC :) I hadn't been there since high school when me, magen, loobs, and sexy had a blast singing at carnegie hall and roaming the city streets :) So... we don't have quite as many pictures as we had HOPED...because yours truly brought the digi but forgot the charger! bummer :( anyway, here are some pictoral highlights of our awesome Christmas Vacay!!!

Vote for TRINITY (aka-Rileton!)

Vote for the incredible play known nationwide as The Mississippi Miracle:

So, I know that my blog's circle of influence consists strictly of my fav female friends who, for the most part, don't care a whole lot about football, HOWEVER!! This is NOT just about football...this is about Mr. Rileton Curry...my super cool bro who we all know and love...right?? Okay, regardless of your feelings for my brother, PUH-PUH-PUH-PLEEEEEEEEEEASE click this link and vote each week for TRINITY for ESPN's Pontiac Game-Changing Performance of the YEAR!! The top teams will get an invite to the ESPYs!!!! (the link will take you to the "Trinity Miracle" page. Scroll down a bit and you will see a big box in the middle of the page where you can click to go to the ESPN voting page. THEN, just click on Trinity!

Now...For those of you who don't know what the ESPYs are, every notable athlete in every single sport is present. It's basically like..the Grammys of sports. So..it's a big deal. And if Trinity makes it to the top, Riley is pretty much guaranteed a spot to go with his coach..ANNND if he gets a date, one of my lifelong dreams will be within reach!! I'm pretty sure that he would choose Morgan, the love of his life, over me...but I'm TOTALLY willing to pay her out!! Okay...anyway. Just please vote. Not for me, but for all of the Div3 football boys at Trinity who never have and probably never will experience this kind of attention again! How FUN, huh?

k. thanks loves :)

~ellie Dub~

A friend of mine from UT shared this with me. She has some friends who have been trying to adopt an international child and have had all kinds of problems with the process. Through their struggles they discovered this super awesome clothing company who's mission is to aid families in raising funds for rescue adoptions. AWESOME. You totally need to check it out. They've got some hip and totally wearable stuff.

I dig it. I think you will too.

WEEK IN PHOTOS***

Brian's and my first Christmas Tree!! yay!! :) Okay, so I know it's only 4.5 feet tall and we don't even have a tree topper yet, but we love it :)

So this weekend was Kerbey's big introduction to the Curry Familia! They lovvvvved her! (duh.) And soooo did Tori (my parents' dog). Everytime Kerbey went near her she started salivating like crazzzzy and drooled EVERYWHERE...including all over poor little Kerbs! :) hahaha it was SICK.
We were home for The Reidster's playoff game against Texas Football GIANT, Katy High. This is Reid's LAST TIME to head to the center with his fellow captains for a High School coin toss!

At the game I saw Lenny, pretty much the greatest CHS fan ever, at the game annnd Tay Tay, who I hadn't seen in almost 2 years! I miss my soccer girls! Oh, and Lenny and I spent halftime brainstorming ideas for our high school 10-yr reunion! haha...i think we have plenty of time to get THAT thing planned. :) BTW- I'm PRETTY sure my hair was straight when I arrive at the game. Darn humidity!

Okay. So I know we lost 42-0 (trag), but it was still a totally cool experience for the guys and it was really fun to be there! I have DEFINITELY never seen so many ppl interested in a Clements football game. I'm pretty sure the attendance at this single game outdid a typical SEASON's attendance for CHS. YAY :) I'm so proud of the little studs.


All of Reidster's biggest fans after the game...AFTER he had showered! What a cute little family portrait :)

I woke up the other morning to take Kerbey out and THIS is what I found!! The golf course was completely whited out! SOOO pretty! I got to catch the gorgeous sunrise, too :) I LOVVVVE winter!

Doesn't Kerbey look studious? She's getting so big!!

Um...so she kept attacking the Santa Hat I had up on the couch. I finally just let her have it...but NOT before I created a cute photo opp :)

Kerbey Lane and me!! Um...how about you just look at Kerbey, and ignore the "me" part of this pic. ....it was early okay??

Other highlights of the week:

• I got to head to Austy for a VERY short time to do a fun presentation at UT (oh how it made me MISS being a Longhorn student!!)
• I got to hang out with Banana for quite a while who I miss a WHOLE heck of a lot!
• I got to go to dinner with LizzyFizzle on her graduation weekend and get the scoop on her life/relationship/future plans! It was SO great to hear how amazing she is doing!
• I got to see my Moo...even if it WAS only for an hour :)
• The Curry Connection was back in action for the weekend and it rocked!
• Brian flew back to NYC for his last out of town phase of training.
• WE SOLD MY CAR!!!!!!!!!! finally! :) Thanks Mer for the selling tips!
• I got to see Kayla at church!!!!! Um...i MISS youuuu!

PRAYER REQUESTS for the week:

• Please pray for an anonymous friend who is going through an EXTREMELY trying time.
• My cousin (in-law) is about to go through a tough divorce. There are 3 kids involved and it is just SO heartbreaking!
• Mer's grandfather, who is expected to sit with Jesus in the near future, and their family
• My friend, Tiffany, who we have been training at APEC. She takes her physical exam on Thursday...the last step to make it into the FBI!! She is SUPER nervous and anxious and excited!
• Safety for my trip to NYC on Friday and for the returning trip for both Brian and me!! CAN'T WAIT TO DO THE NYC CHRISTMAS EXPERIENCE w/the hub!! <3>

it's "FLUE" season...

So... Brian, Kerbey, and I woke up to some awesome 35 degree weather this morning. We were SUPER thrilled because that meant we got to use all of the fire-making supplies that we bought last week! yayyyy! I love cozy little fires when it's cold outside! So Brian gets the fire all prepared to be lit and makes sure the flue is open, because our smoke detectors go off when I boil water (SO annoying!) Well... the little flue switch isn't labelled so we can't tell when it's open or closed. We figure if smoke starts billowing into our living room then we should PROBABLY flip the switch the other way. Pretty self-explanatory, right? Let's just try it. So...we did just that!

A few minutes later our whole place is FILLED with smoke, and the shrill, EAR-PIERCING screech of BOTH smoke detectors is threatening to deafen our whole building. Brian is flipping the switch back and forth trying to figure why the heck it won't work, I'm standing on a chair frantically waving a towel and pillow by the smoke detector to get it to SHUT UP before my eardrums explode, Kerbey has freaked out and is cowering under the chair, Brian and I take turns sprinting to the sink to fill a bucket and douse the fireplace until it has completely flooded over, and Brian and I are suffering from burning eyes/nose and are near the point of suffocating. Not to mention I was worried that the neighbors were going to freak out and that the fire department would be storming through our door at any moment. Well...Brian finally just ripped the smoke alarms out of the ceiling and after a few minutes with all the doors open, the smoke started to dissipate.

We proceeded to rant about how retarded it was that the flue was disfunctional. We made plans to go ranting and raving to the office about how they needed to come fix the flue and make them feel guilty for ruining our morning. Brian went over to dry up some of the water from the fireplace and he goes, "uh... whoops..." So um.... he found the REAL flue switch. We were totally flipping the wrong little metal thingy. So... yeah... "whoops" :) It's not OUR fault the flue switch is tucked away so that you can't even see it!! How much sense does THAT make!? LABELS, people!!! A simple label could have saved us a LOT of trouble this cold, December morning! Oh well... good story to tell right? And definitely made for some good laughs and a humbling moment :) We enjoyed a fire anyway... and Kerbey FINALLY stopped trembling with fear about an hour later.

Moral of the story:
ALWAYS disarm your smoke alarm before building your first fire of the winter. OR...you could always just label your flue switch!

HAPPY WINTER!!!

We got ELFED!!!

hahaha...I remember this thing, but it has NEVER been quite so funny. So... apparently all the cool kids are doing, therefore, the Bradfords have joined in the Elfing Extravaganza!!!

PS- props to all of my blogging buddies whose elfinations are HYSTERICAL!!!!!!!!! PLEASE go Elf Yourselves, if you haven't already!!

Daily Good

Cool site that i just discovered... check it :)

"Good Morning, Mom" Love, Kerbey

Yes, that's right. This morning I got Kerbey out of bed (she slept straight through the whole entire night...AMAZING!!) to take her to go potty outside. Usually when I pick her up in the mornings she is a S.P.A.Z. This morning, however, she laid against me, barely moved, and stared at me with this sad, worried expression on her little face. I thought it was positively adorable... until suddenly... I felt a warm, wet sensation on my leg and couldn't figure out what the heck was going on. Then, I caught a wiff of the nasty little odor and that's when I knew. My super cute little pup had urinated on my PJs!!! Instead of her morning ritual of licking my face off, she peed on me! SICK. I didn't get mad though...because I could tell she was trying SO hard to hold it hahaha. The poor little thing just couldn't control herself. What a way to start the day, eh?

In other news, Brian and I are trying to tell my 2001 black Honda Civic (in GREAT condition, I might add!) If anyone happens to randomly know of anyone in the world who might be interested, shoot me a line, k? K. Grac. :)

T-Giv Recap

So...my first Thanksgiving with the Bradfords was definitely NOT my first Thanksgiving away from the Curry fam...in fact, most of my Thanksgivings growing up were spent at soccer tournaments!! So, although I was away from The Curry Connection, I welcomed the idea of I know I'm a little delayed, but just thought I'd share a few highlights and pics! It was awesome :) Kerbey, Brian and I drove to Lufkin in the rain and COLLLD on Wednesday night when I got off work and coincidentally, we ran into Amy on the road! Good timing, right? Fast forward to Thursday... I was in charge of the sweet potatoes...my fav! So, I prepared a sweet potato 'bar'...kind of like the baked potato martini thingys that are so "IN" at wedding recently. Um... not even half of them got eaten...needless to say I have been eating sweet potatoes out the wazzoooo. Granny and Marsha BOTH made red velvet cakes!! YUMMYYYY...Brian and I definitely benefitted from that one...we came home with almost a whole entire cake. DELISH/bad for my love handles :)/:(

Kerbey was seriously AMAZING over the weekend. It was our first long-term road trip with her. I had taken her to Nac to see my cousins but only for the day...this was a whole 4 DAYs away from home! Everyone fell in love with her...(duh) Charlie, Brian's little cousin was obsessed with her. He completely exhausted her...which has NEVER happened! We were excited :) She only had...MAYBE 5 accidents the whole weekend (which is unbelievable considering her normal 3 accidents per day trend).

This was Kerbelicious and Charlie ALL DAY LONG on Thanksgiving.

Amy practicing her puppy-sitting skills for when Bistro and me go to NYC!!

Marsh-Marsh, Davey, & Ames babysat her on Saturday while Brian and I road tripped it to H-town to watch The Reidster's playoff game. We trekked through the rain and then sat in it for THREE HOURS!!! Good thing we came prepared with our ski gear, a tarp, approximately 5 raincoats, beanies, gloves, trashbags, rainboots, scarves, and hoods! I SO wish I had a picture of everyone...we looked ridiculous...but it was worth it! The Rangers pulled out a victory. Down by 12 with under 5 minutes left, we came out on top 34-32! UNREAL. Congrats Reidy-boo :) It was awesome to see my parentals, G-momma, Riles and Morgster, and the Reidster. I can't WAIT til Christmas with the Currys!!!

But Thanksgiving with the Bradfords was definitely TOTALLY awesome. All 5 of us Bradfords haven't gotten to spend that much time together in FOREV. Brian and I have been running around like crazy and Amy's a work-a-holic (too busy hanging out with celebrities, planning marathons, and throwing high profile parties for Dallas' finest!).

Anywho- I'm glad to hear how awesome everyone else's T-givs were! I miss all of you LOTS and can't wait to see everyone! I hope we will all be in the Shoog at SOME point over the holidays!!! Til then, God bless, love you, ...holla :)

---BLACK FRIDAY---

In honor of this day, I will write in BLACK. I know, I know...I'm so creative and witty. ANYway- moving on. So i did something that made me feel TOTALLY old, married, and adult-ish. I got up before the SUN to go... (drumroll please) ...that's right, you guessed it: SHOPPING!!

So a couple of weeks ago I started working on my Christmas gift list. I do this every year in an attempt to start my Christmas shopping EARLY...so that I don't become "one of those people". You know the ones I'm referring to... the "ones" who are running around at 10:30pm on Christmas Eve to find that last minute gift, which they're OBVIOUSLY not going to find because it's been sold out since 2 weeks after Thanksgiving, so they get stuck with the classic (and lame) gift card. Not that I'm dissing the gift card...it's a beautiful thing...but if you can't come up with something personal and original for a family member... okay...I digress.

Back to my Black Friday adventure. I had every intention of getting up at 5:30 to head out, and well, I got half of it right. I got up at 5:30...to let Kerbey outside to take care'o'bidness...and went back to bed :) I tried again at 7:00, but decided I would just shop online. I could have SWORN I heard that online sales are even better than the in-store sales. Um...whoever gave me that bit of sadly mistaken advice is on my bad list. SO...after an hour of scouring the internet for anything even RESEMBLING a good deal, I armored up. I put on tennis shoes, a baseball cap to hide my greaseball of a head, and Brian's extra large "scrub jacket". I figured looking this nasty would clear the aisles enough for me to get my shopping done quickly! Actually...I was just WAY too tired to do anything to improve myself. Sooo...off I went...my first Black Friday shopping trip EVER! (my mom and i have NEVER been big on the idea of shopping at the exact same time as 8million other people.)

Needless to say, 3 hours later I returned home with a trunk full of AWESOME gifts, a 1/2 tank less than when I left (I have yet to create a mental map of Lufkin), and a LOT more still in my bank account than I could have imagined! Who knew shopping could be so fun...and COMPETITIVE??

So...all that goes to say...God Bless Black Friday :) It's my new fav holiday!

MeRRy Thanksgiving!!!

Okay, so I know it's not Christmas yet...but I LOVE Thanksgiving just about as much as I love Christmas! AND...when THanksgiving comes along, it automatically starts the Christmas Season in my book...so this holiday DEFINITELY merits a "Merry" at the beginning <3

My AWESOME Heavenly Father, THANK YOU! Thank You for Your grace and Your mercy. Thank You for Your amazing and precious son, Jesus Christ. I am so thankful for His example and for His sacrifice. Your forgiveness is truly miraculous. I thank You, Lord, for my incredible family and for making Your love SO apparent through them! Thank You for my totally awesome husband who loves me, supports me, makes me happy, and through whom You reveal Yourself to me in new ways EVERY DAY! Thank you for the happiness of so many of the ones that I love. I pray that Joy, Peace, and Love that can ONLY come from You will reign over this day. You are amazing. You are my Savior and my rock. I love you and I THANK YOU!!! I pray that I can be so thankful on EVERY occasion! :)

~Amen

MERRY THANKSGIVING to all...I love you! :)

"Give THANKS to The Lord, for He is good; His LOVE endures FOREVER!!"

-Ps. 107:1

"God's Quarterback"

Ha! I don't about calling him, "God's Quarterback," but I thought this was a pretty cool story!

I stumbled across this story while on my daily ESPN.com surfing trip :) It's exciting to hear stories like this....stories about people who are taking advantage of the size of their circle of incluence to increase God's Kingdom...without having to be in the spotlight. Pretty inspiring! Check it out...even if you DON'T like football!! ;o)

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=hill/071107&sportCat=nfl

Poor Kerbs!! :(

So my poor little Kerbey is sick!!! I woke up last night to this terrible hacking cough coming from the living room... and it was Kerbs! She sounds like she is gagging on something...she just coughs incessantly for a few minutes...but then in between her coughing bouts she is totally normal... Playful. Energetic. Super Hungry. Poopy.

So anyway...I've been googling all morning, and I have diagnosed her with "Kennel Cough", which I think she got (ironically) from the VET!!! grrr... When we went last week there was a nasty mangy looking dog who was basically coughing up a lung the whole time. I tried to keep Kerbey away from him, but he was in the waiting room. There was no way to hide her from his nasty little germs. EW!

I'm not taking her to the vet yet... instead, I'm proceeding with a more... holistic approach.

A few different herbs and some honey will HOPEFULLY do the trick and save us from a third vet visit in as many weeks! We'll see how it pans out :)

Does this count as being a "mom" ? ;)

My First Visitor!!

So Magen came to visit this weekend!!! My first official visitor since our move to Tyler...besides our parents who don't REALLY count :) It was definitely AWESOME to have a friend here with me for a while! Since Brian has been gone I feel like I have become a complete anti-social! I guess it COULD have something to do with the fact that I basically have a newborn child to take care of (aka- a 7-week old puppy who poops more than I EAT!!...and that's saying somethin'!)

Our weekend consisted of neglecting our puppies to road trip it to Sherman to see Rileton play, only to arrive 2 hours later than expected...JUST as the game ended! We were quickly filled in on the events of the afternoon and apparently Riley had a COMPLETELY amazing game...until the 3rd quarter when in a FREAK accident, his hand got ripped open by some dude's helmet. BUMMERRRR! I did, however, get to join him in the training room after the game to watch his hand get stitched up. I was sad I didn't get to take any pictures...it was pretty bad! He's supposed to be getting x-rays tonight so say a little prayer that it's not broken! They have their first playoff next weekend against Mary-Hardin Baylor (and they're typically SUPER good!)

Magen and I were pretty stoked about going out to eat with the team after the game because we always go somewhere really good... well um, we went to Golden Corral. Boo. So...Magen and I drove BACK about 2 hours after we got there and rescued our poor little stranded puppies. The bakery we were SO excited about dining at this morning...was closed. So we ate at Dennys, I gave her a lesson on airing up your tires, we dropped on my Civic that I'm trying to get sold ASAP, and Magen headed out. It was definitely a weekend full of unfortunate surprises...but that didn't stop us from having a blast together as always :) THANK you Magen for coming to visit me! I'm hoping you were the first of MANY! Oh...and I MUST mention the Ultimate Highlight of the weekend:

I had the HONOR of signing Magen Gray up for Facebook!! Believe me....that's HUGE!!

Anyway, we took a family portrait before Magen and Sport headed out... I'll leave you with that! Here's to my last week alone before the hub returns!!! :) Prayers for a safe trip home would be appreciated!

I'm Giving In!!!

So... I've always been a blog/diary/journal kinda girl... I just haven't always opened up to the scrutiny of the public eye. However, thanks to a couple of things (1. our recent move to Tyler and away from so many of our friends & 2. so many of my closest friends diving into the wild world of blogging), here I am! I guess now is as good a time to start as ever! I have always HATED falling out of touch with people... so now at LEAST I can provide an easy way for everyone to keep track of every detail of our life if they so please!

So now, I bid farewell to any bit of privacy we might have gained by moving away! It's actually quite a relief :) Living an overly-private life makes me feel weird anyway :)

Update on the life that Brian and I are currently living:

We recently moved to Tyler, Tx because Brian got a GREAT job here with Pfizer! yay :) He's been gone for the last 3 weeks at training in Dallas and did a SUPER great job! He finished with the second highest test average ever (just 0.1 behind his regional manager who had the highest!) I'm so proud :) I'm working with Accelerate Performance Enhancement Center. We train athletes at all levels in their respective sports. For example, basketball players train in the Jump program. Football players train in either Speed or Power programs, etc... I'm definitely enjoying it! BUT, I can't wait til Brian is done with training, home for good, and dealin' his drugs (aka- selling LEGAL prescriptions to licensed professionals!)

We live in a super cute little townhome community that's right on the Cascades golfcourse, so we get one free round of golf a week! (That was my pitch to get people to come visit us!! We have a GREAT guest room waiting for you...and for all you golfers out there, Brian is ALWAYS up for a golfing buddy. It takes a solid 4 swings for yours truly to actually make contact with the ball, which doesn't make for a very satisfying golf experience.)

Now for the EXCITING news!! We have a new puppy! Brian came home yesterday from his first round of training and had little Kerbey Lane Bradford with him! She's a 6-mo. old boxer and she is PRESH!!!

We are having so much fun watching her eat, sleep, poop, and stumble around the house. She's definitely lacking in the coordination department, but we're working on that! She'll be a little athlete in no time! We named her (for those of you who aren't familiar with Austin, Texas) after one of our FAV places in Austin: Kerbey Lane Cafe. She's our little taste of Austin over here in East Texas!

So... that's all for now, but I'm sure I'll have something to bore you with in the near future :)

Love!! <3