M&K: yes, we are alive

hey all :)

so we just now got access to internet in our apartment (thanks mom and dad!).... thus, i can FINALLY keep this thing updated!! so, this will be a very long post... buuuut... it will bring everyone up to speed on whats been going on!

so this past tuesday (sept 14) marked one month since we moved to league city! i am not quite sure if the time has gone fast or slow... but it does seem crazy that its already been that long! we did get our apartment all decorated and set up the way we want it :) we LOVE our apartment... which is such a blessing, and definitely has made the move much easier. mick has gone fishing almost everyday since we have been here..at least 3 to 4 times a week i do believe haha. He has finallly figured out a method that is pretty successful, which only increases the number of times he has been fishing. he is definitely loving that! anyway, here are the things that have happened over the past month...

the last weekend in august, mick and i snuck home for the weekend and surprised our parents!! mick hadnt started school yet, i hadnt started working, and cobys game got moved to friday (they are usually on thursday)... since it would be the only football game we would be able to make of his all year (which makes me sad), we decided to go ahead and come home to see it!!! as soon as we got to town we went over to the matthews house to suprise them!! we got to hang out there for a little while and visit with them... it was so good to see them :). then.. we happened to get into town in time for my indoor soccer teams last game, and joslyn convinced me to go, so i did!! it was fun and really great to see the girls! after that, we headed to fuentes. on the way home, i had emailed a good family friend, julie, and asked her to invite my family out to dinner at 730 at fuentes so that we could get them to the restaurant and still suprise them. she did awesome and it was a complete success!! we got to fuentes first, so we got a table for the two of us and both our families. when mom dad and coby walked in it took them a minute to figure out it was me and not ashley sitting at the table! haha. they were excited to see us and i was thrilled :) christi tommy and dillon came in quickly after that and we had a great dinner! the next day mick and i ran around town and saw some friends and ran some errands. we got to go to lunch with micks family and see them for a little while too :) that evening we went to cobys football game! it was a great game and i was so happy to watch him play. after, we went to chilis with some wonderful family friends and family... it was a great time! after that we got to hang out with my friend joslyn for a while :) the next day we hit the lake (OF COURSE!) with mom dad and coby! ohhh how we miss the lake! after that we got to hang out with our good friends matt and danielle, and then spent the evening with the robbins :) needless to say, AWESOME day! the next day we went to church at GMBC, went to see micks paw paw and his mamaw and papaw, then hit the road! it was such a fun weekend and we had a wonderful time seeing all our friends and family!

the next week, mick started school! so far, he is really liking it! the work load is a bit tough, but as we all know, mick is super smart and handles it well. sometimes i even help him study! haha.... which basically just consists of me holding flash cards... but hey, thats helping right? the classes he is taking are called Clinical Medicine, Gross Anatomy (he dissects real cadavers in here, so it truly is gross), Health Promotion Disease Prevention, Clinical Lab Methods, Physical Diagnosis, Pathophysiology, and labs for some of those classes. sounds like fun huh?? So far he has had to learn how to do an initial interview with a patient... basically all those questions doctors ask you in the beginning of the appointment to get a medical history, hes worked on the hand, wrist, arm, back, and chest on his cadaver. his class has about 88 students in it, only about 10 of them being guys haha. needless to say, hes outnumbered big time. However, there are about 3 of those girls who live closer to where we do and are all married... so we are working on maybe getting them all together to hang out sometime soon! he is learning a lot already... all kinds of new terms. which makes my life just oh so interesting haha. all in all, so far so good!! thank you to everyone who has been praying for him and thinking about him in school!

Labor Day weekend... the matthews came to visit!! tommy, christi, dillon, bradley, and stephanie (bradley's girlfriend for those in my family who may not know who she is) all came to spend the weekend. thats right, 7 people in our apartment! the living room was full of airmatresses, but between them and the guest bedroom it all went pretty smooth! saturday christi, steph, and i went out shopping for a girls day while the boys went to academy and then fished on the lake by our apartment. after buying some groceries (thanks tommy and christi!), we came home and met up with the boys. we got cleaned up and then took them out to the Kemah boardwalk to check out the shops there. it was a lot of fun and they had some really great shops! however, weather seemed to be the theme for our weekend haha. it was EXTREMELY windy! it made it interesing, and it decided to rain a little bit, but it didnt ruin our trip! after that we went to jimmychangas for dinner YUUUUM!! then of course, we had to make it home for the UT game ;) . sunday we had a lazy morning and a big breakfast. we packed some sandwiches, drinks, and snacks, as well as swimsuits and towels and headed to galveston. we went to mickeys school and looked around at the buildings and what not. we also saw the hospital that warren jeffs is currently in, yes, on micks campus haha. then we headed to the beach. we got all unloaded and put the chairs out and the boys started riggin up their fishin gear. steph, christi, and i did not change into our swimsuits... like i said... the weather was weird and it was super windy and a little too chilly to swim. sooo we just stood in the water about shin deep and chit chatted while the boys fished. annnnnd again, weather strikes haha. it starts raining pretty hard... and with the wind blowing, the rain was pelting us! it hurt!! we all start laughing and take off for the car (just like everyone else on the beach). by the time we got inside, we were all SOAKED. i mean, completely wet. after hunting down "the right" (tommy.. cough cough) convenient store to change in, we finally got some dry clothes on and headed out.... we went to Fish Tales for an early dinner, again, really good!! when we got back, christi, dillon, steph, and i went to get some ice cream while tommy did some more fishing and hung out at the apartment. bradley and mickey went to a golf course near by and played some night golf. after taking us to sams for more groceries (thanks again!) the next day, the matthews headed back to angelo, and we headed home!

since then... we have just been hangin out! annnnnnd thennnnn.... all the sudden, God opened up a big door in a place that i never intended on looking for a job! :) the tuesday after labor day, i went and dropped off an application. wednesday i got a call, and thursday i went in for an interview, and immediately was blessed with a second interview! saturday i got the job offer, and i took it! this past week i have spent the whole week doing training and paper work!! monday, i start my first week :) my new job is teaching in a three year old classroom at a preschool in pearland! the class has 24 kids enrolled, even though they are hardly ever all there at once, and there are a total of three teachers in the class. it is about a 45 minute drive for me to get there... buuuut.. it has been SO WORTH IT so far!! the kids are absolutely adorable, i love every single one of them already.. even the tough ones! and the two girls that i work with are both around my age and are super sweet and fun to work with. they took me right in and i have never felt for a second like much of an outsider! it has been an incredible blessing and i am just getting started :) it is so great to finally have something to do during the day and to feel like i have a purpose. YAY GOD!

also, we have visited two different churches here in league city. the first was a baptist church not too far from our apartment. the people were really nice, and the preaching was good... but for whatever reason it just didnt feel completely right. so, we thought we would try some others and see where God led us. this past sunday we went to Clear Creek Community church that happens to be right around the corner from our apartment. WE LOVED IT!! it is very contemporary, which we like. it is a lot like being at home at GMBC! we loved the pastor and everything he had to say. there are a few things about it that are different.... instead of doing life groups on sunday, they have different groups that you can join that meet throughout the week and do different things together. for example, one guy was a part of the "golf group". they meet every saturday, three saturdays out of the month they work on a Bible study, and the fourth one they go play golf together. we really liked the concept.... its a really big church and the purpose behind them was to make the church "smaller" and create relationships on a more personal level. after the service we went to a little meeting called "new 2 creek" where they told us all about the church and their beliefs and goals. we really loved it! the church has three campuses in town.. the one we went to is the main campus, and then the other two are school gyms where the church meets. the reason behind this is that they believe that people who have to travel a long way to get to their church are less likely to be involved regularly. its a foreign concept for angelo ha, buuut... for example say there is an event on a thursday evening and you have to drive 30-40 minutes to get there, you are less likely to attend due to the drive time. thus, their goal is to take the church to the community. thus, there are three options for people to be able to attend church closer to their home. great though right?? anyway, we plan on going there again tomorrow!!

all in all.... mick and i are doing great! we of course miss our friends and family, and miss san angelo (ESPECIALLY the food!) but we are starting to really settle in and like it here. thank you all sooo much for your prayers and thoughts for both of us... this move has been a challenge, but we are conquering the changes together and enjoying it!

we love all of you and couldnt ask for better people in our lives. see you soon!

here are a couple of pics!
click here to see apartment pics!!

click here to see kemah pics from moving weekend!