Pensacola Christmas Vacation

The recent Christmas holiday was fantastic! Matt and I made it to Pensacola around 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday. It was nice getting there before midnight for a change! Matt stayed a week longer than me to spend time with his mom, so unfortunately, we had to drive separately.

We had dinner with my parents that night and later visited Tara, my best friend, for our gift exchange. Tara recently moved back to the states from England where she and her husband lived for three years. It was so awesome seeing her again, even if it was only for a couple of hours.

We spent Christmas Eve preparing for the following day and visiting Matt's family. Since we've been married, our tradition has been to spend Christmas Eve with his family and Christmas Day with my family. It works out great because they live in the same city, not to mention they live within a mile of one another.

It has been really hard being so far away from family, but it makes our reunions with them so much more special. It was fun seeing everyone open up their gifts, especially the kids. They get so excited!

Matt and I went to the movies on Christmas Day and saw "Marley & Me" with my parents and Matt's mom and brother. First, I would definitely recommend the book - it was a great read. Second, the movie was also a good adaptation of the book. One minute you're laughing hysterically and the other you're balling your eyes out. It doesn't help that I'm a dog lover, but it definitely doesn't help that one of my dogs shares the name, Marley. If you see the movie or read the book, be sure to have some tissues ready!

For the record, we named Marley before we ever heard of the book. ;)

My good friend, Laura, drove from Tallahassee on Saturday just to see us! We had brunch at an amazing local jewel in Pensacola called "The Coffee Cup." I've been wanting to go there for a long time. I saw (and tasted) why so many people love it! The food was delicious and our waitress was really nice. After we ate, we headed to the mall to battle the crowds (compared to Houston, it was NOTHING). 

Later, Matt, Laura and I went to my nephew's first birthday party. Check out this awesome photo of Nikolaus chowing down on his first birthday cake! It was adorable.

After saying our sad goodbyes to Laura, Matt and I stopped by the Coleys' house. We were only there for a little while, but we always have a blast with Steve, Amanda and their precious daughter, Ava. Matt was excited that he was able to spend practically his last week with them just hanging out, playing with Ava and working on his Rock Band drum skills. We love hanging out with the Coleys!

Later that night, we joined the Coleys for an "After-Christmas" Party at Josh and Megan Moralita's house. It was great seeing all of our friends again, but unfortunately, I wasn't feeling well, so I had to leave a little early. It was hard leaving not knowing the next time I would see them again.

On Sunday, I headed back to Houston all by my lonesome. I sound pitiful, but it really wasn't that bad. I think I'm getting used to the eight-hour drive, which is hard to believe. It stinks being in Houston without my husband, but I know he's enjoying his extended vacation in Pensacola spending time with his family and friends. I only wish I could be there too!

After I returned to Houston, Matt stayed and spent time with some of our closest friends whom we miss so much. He was grateful to have an extra week to hang out with many of our closest friends for a New Year's "bashapalooza" (as Matt called it) at the Henrys' house.  I hung out with some friends from our Sunday School class where we spent the evening building a bonfire and shooting off fireworks. Even though Matt and I weren't together, we still had a lot of fun on New Years Eve. 

We miss all of you so much and can't wait to see you very soon! We hope all of you had a wonderful Christmas! Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas

Three more days until Christmas...that's just crazy. I can't believe Christmas is this week. I feel like it was just yesterday that Matt and I moved to Houston, but that was five months ago! We are driving to Pensacola tomorrow and I can't wait! We get to celebrate Christmas with all of our families, friends and dogs (Marley & Macy) - we are so excited to see them all again! We are very lucky that our families are very close to one another so we won't have to travel all day on Christmas day. We are really looking forward to spending time with all of the people that we love the most. My best friend Tara just moved back from England so I'm ecstatic about seeing her and her husband this week. I also get to see my really good friend, Laura, who lives in Tallahassee. I just love reuniting with people that I haven't seen in such a long time! We just finished our Christmas shopping yesterday - FINALLY! It was a madhouse out there...and I thought Pensacola holiday shopping was bad. We're going to see the Nutcracker at the Houston Ballet tonight and then a full day of traveling tomorrow.

We hope all of you have a very Merry Christmas!

~The Arnolds

White Christmas

Anyone who knows Matt well knows that he loves cold weather.  So when he started his job hunt last summer, he didn't start looking in the south.  Anywhere with cold weather was good for him.  However, he figured out that cold weather must not have been in God's plan when we moved to Texas.  You can only imagine our shock when it started snowing last week.  I know it wasn't a lot of snow, but it was still exciting for us because neither Matt nor I have seen snow for nearly 15 years.  Here are some photos of our fun night:

We still have a lot of Christmas shopping to do so the next few days are probably going to be pretty busy.  Also, Shane and Shane plus Bethany Dillon are playing at our church Saturday so we're stoked about seeing them.  Next week we'll be driving to Pensacola for Christmas.  We can't wait!  We're so excited to see all of our family, friends and dogs again!  

Update

These past few weeks have definitely been interesting.  First, I left my job at the oil company...it just wasn't the job for me.  I had a hard time finding a job so I got really discouraged.  Since I wasn't working, I took a trip back to Pensacola.  It was so great and refreshing to be with family and friends for a few days.  Don't get me wrong, we really like Houston, but Matt and I both were getting pretty home sick.  Soon after returning to Houston, my parents came to visit.  We had a lot of fun touring Houston and showing them our new life here.  While they were here, we got a chance to visit the Museum of Natural Science, which was really interesting.  We saw complete dinosaur fossils, rare gemstones and learned a lot about the oil industry here in Houston. 

Soon after my parents left I got offered a job at First Baptist Academy, the school located within our church.  I am working in the Admissions department in our primary school (infants through PreK).  I've been there a week so far and I love it.  I still have a lot to learn, but the people are really nice and I really enjoy the type of work I am doing.  This job is such an answered prayer. 

I'm so excited about Thanksgiving.  It's definitely one of my favorite holidays.  Matt and I are off Thursday and Friday so we'll be driving to Pensacola after work on Wednesday.  It's an eight hour drive so it will be a late night for us.  We're pumped about visiting P'cola for a long weekend! 

Our house is still for sale back home.  We've had people interested in it, but they haven't been able to get approved for a loan in these tough financial times.  Please pray that our house will sell so we can settle down and bring our furniture and dogs over here!  We miss our babies.

Below are some photos of our visit to the Museum of Natural Science and my birthday in October (Matt got me a delicious chocolate raspberry cake).

New Design

As you may have noticed, my blog has a new look.  I would like to give all of the credit to my hubby, Matt, who created the new banner for me.  His designs just blow me away sometimes; he's just so talented!  If you're ever interested in seeing some of his other designs, his website is listed on the right side of my blog.  I'll be posting another update very soon.

Ike Photos

Here are some pictures of the damage that Hurricane Ike caused around our area. While this area was definitely not hit as bad as Galveston, it definitely shows why our power was out for weeks!

A lot of the roads flooded like this. I was surprised that some cars would drive through it.

Another familiar site: downed powerlines from uprooted trees falling.

Houston's First Baptist Church (HFBC)

Here is a photo of the Oasis at HFBC. The Oasis is a court yard in the middle of the church that had uprooted trees from the storm.

After the Storm

FEMA trucks, downed power lines, uprooted trees...Hurricane Ike is bringing back so many memories of Hurricane Ivan that hit Pensacola in 2004. Houstonians thought this storm would curve and miss them like most storms do - boy were they surprised. We were actually very lucky that the storm hit as at Category 2 instead of the 4 that the meteorologists were predicting. The night the hurricane hit Matt and I stayed at the church. There were other families of staff there as well. It was actually pretty fun. We watched Princess Bride in the sanctuary before the electricity went off. I slept through the worst of the storm on the couch in Matt's office. The church suffered just minor damage: a few leaks throughout the church and an uprooted tree in the courtyard.

Phil and Vicky's house (where Matt and I are staying) wasn't touched. One side of their fence was knocked down and their mailbox broke, but that's it. A few days after the storm, Matt and I went to College Station with friends from Sunday School, Michael and Laura Simpson. We stayed with Michael's sister and her family. They had electricity - woohoo! It was so nice of them to let us stay with them. They were such a great family! College Station is home to Texas A & M so we all took a visit touring the campus. While we were there we went to the George Bush Library (George Bush Senior). It was amazing to see all that he's done and accomplished in his life! Since we were Houston "evacuees" we got in free. Gotta love that!

We still don't have electricity, unfortunately, but hopefully we will soon! Michael and Laura got electricity last week so they've been kind enough to let us stay with them. As soon as I get my cable to my camera I will upload some pictures of the area after the storm. Hopefully next time I update we will have restored electricity and be somewhat back to normal. Well, it may take a while to get back to normal.