Grandmother at the Lake

Ryne and I were very busy this past weekend. On Saturday we had our Lamaz class (which went very well) and that evening we headed out to the lake to see my Grandma and Grandpa. Ryne was super excited because Grandaddy made us some of his famous ribs. He hadn't made them in a while, so we felt really special that he made some for us. Grandmother made us some baked beans and potato salad. I dont know how she knew, but I had been craving some baked beans for a while, so I really enjoyed dinner on Saturday night. We had a great time visiting and we even watched a movie. Oh, and Grandma made us two whole blueberry bananna pies!!! We had no problem helping her clean those dishes! This is a picture of us at their church Sunday morning. Ryne and I had a great time at the special Veterans Day service. We spent the rest of the afternoon looking around the lake, it sure was beautiful, and visiting some more. All in all, it was a great break from our busy lives here at school. Thank you both so much, we loved it and can't wait to see you again!

*TeamRB Pictures*

Last Friday our good friend and neighbor Maryanne, took some pictures of me and Ryne. We had a really good time and Maryanne enjoyed the break from her sons Corbin (4) and Vincent (6 months). There were so many pictures, I tried to pick out some just to show you. We went to some old run down buildings by the railroad tracks. Some trains actually started to leave and some enter, while we were trying to take pictures, so we had so hurry up and get off the tracks. For those of you who don't know, the picture of us with the bunny, is my childhood toy, "susie." I just love her to death, and Maryanne thought she was to precious not to have atleast one picture with susie. All in all we had fun taking some pictures and spending the time with Maryanne.

*TeamRB Pictures*

Our new church!

Ryne and I have finally found our new place to worship. This is a small church in Chalkhill. It is about 20 minutes from our apartment. The church is a historical marker so as you can see, the church still has the original wooden pews and the church cant change anything because it is a historical marker. Brent Ellis is the Pastor and he also works at LeTourneau University. The music leader, Corey Ross, is my mentor here on campus and a has become a good friend of mine and Ryne's here at LeTourneau. The church is very well rounded with some small children, (about 4yrs old and up to about 10) some "people of a different vintage" and then many in between, including about 12-15 LeTourneau students. Right now there is only one sunday school class that consist of Ryne and myself, the teacher (a older man probably in his 70's) and his wife, and a couple of other ladies on occasion. Although its small, Ryne and I have really enjoyed the class. There is so much potential in the Sunday School department though. I am hoping that in the next year we will have a class for young adults. (we have plenty at the church) So, for now, we are very excited that we have settled down to this small, quiet church tucked back in the East Texas pines.

Birthday's at Grandma's...

A couple of weekends ago (yes I'm still backtracking) Grandmother Anne invited Ryne and I to come to Detroit to celebrate Aunt B and Uncle Jeff's Birthdays. We couldn't wait to go. This was Ryne's first trip to Detroit and it was the first time that Uncle Jeff's family got to meet him. I had a lot of fun showing Ryne around where I used to live and of course, we ate really well. We went to see one of Jacob's football games. Even though they didnt win, Jacob did a really good job and it was alot of fun. Thank you for inviting us to celebrate with everyone for the birthday's, we both had a great time.

Fall Break

Yes, I know all of these updates are VERY late, but better late than never. Ryne and I had an extended weekend for our fall break that was the same weekend our parents were going to be in Dallas for the Cowboy weekend. So, we had an opportunity to spend some time with our sisters and friends. On Saturday we went to Frisco for a very good friend of our's baby shower. We had a great time and enjoyed the time we had to visit with her. That night we took Caitlin and Hannah out to the Drive in Movie in Gatesville, TX. We did the same thing on Sunday night with my Hannah and Leah. We had such a good time with all of them. It was nice to have some one on one time with each of our siblings. We ordered pizza in Gatesville, and then watched "The Game Plan." It was a good movie and it was really neat to go to the drive-in. None of the girls had ever been before. We had to come home to Longview on Tuesday but we got to have a meal out with both our parents before leaving town. It was really nice for us to have that one-on-one time with just our parents as well. All in all, it was a great break and we can't wait to head back home for Thanksgiving.

More Zoo Pictures

Sorry, I couldn't get blogger to work properly so it took a while for me to get some more zoo pictures up.

Rainy day...

Yesterday, Monday, was the first day that it has really rained since we have been here. It was actually kindof fun to get out our new umbrellas and put them to use. What was even better was, when it wasn't raining, it was really cold ourside. Ryne and I both got to get out some longsleeve shirts. We both even got out our jackets at one point in time. We both said that we were so excited that it had cooled down, it just makes it feel like Winter is right around the corner. Of course we can't wait til' Christmas... only 9 weeks til' we will welcome our Miss Riley. Today was nice as well. After the cooler weather yesterday, today was pretty nice. The sun came out, it didn't rain, and we had a nice little breeze. We both can't wait until we get to really get out some of our "Winter" clothes.

Zoo Day!

This past Saturday Ryne's Cornerstone class went on a trip to Dallas. I was so excited that they invited me to come along. We left around 9:00 Saturday morning and headed to the Dallas Zoo. It had been a while since either one of us had been to a zoo, so we were so excited. As soon as we stepped off the van we started to have a good time. The man who drives around the parking lot picking up people, was apparently very bored. He had his music jammin really loud and drove like a maniac. We finally arrived to the front entrance safely, and all began to laugh. We were all hungry so we got something to eat as soon as we got there. Then we began to look around. As you can see Ryne really liked the penguins. I liked all the animals, especially the camel. We had a really good time and were glad we could go. I was pretty tired after all the walking that we had done, so Saturday night, we both slept nice and hard. We had both forgotten how much fun the zoo could be.

Norweigan Golf

Ryne and I had some friends over the other night. I made dinner and then we had a very intense match of Norweigan Golf. For those of you who don't know, it is a game where there is a ladder type thing made of pvc pipe. It makes an open rectangle at the bottom and has three bars. You play with 2 golfballs that are connected by a string. Each team gets three sets. You toss the balls and try to wrap it around one of the bars. You get 4 points for the top bar then 3 then 2 and 1 point if it lands on the ground in the rectangle. You win by getting 21 points exactly. So, our friend Natalie was my partner, and our new friend Brandon was Ryne's partner. The first picture is of all four of us and the second picture is of the winners: So of course it's the girls! All in all, we had a great time. We enjoyed our dinner, the game, and of course the time of fellowship with some new friends. We will definately have them over again.

Company!!!

I can't believe they got away without us taking a picture, but they did. Greg and Dara Beard were down in Longview for a seminar so they dropped by to see Ryne and me this weekend. We were so excited and couldn't wait to see them. On saturday night we all went to Papacita's, a Mexican joint here in Longview. It was the first time that any of us had been there and it was really good. Especially the tortillas, I think that I ate the most tortillas. We had a really good time visiting and talking about all sorts of stuff. Sunday they went to church with us. We are still searching for a church home, so we went to visit a smaller country church about 15 minutes from here. We all enjoyed ourselves and afterwards went to Tyler for lunch. Mrs Beard's brother owns a resteraunt there so we went to visit him. Man was it good, we all ate way more than we should have and again, really enjoyed our visit time. All in all, their visit really made our weekend. It was nice to have a break from our usually Saturday routine of clean-up and homework to visit with some loved ones. - Thank yall so much for coming - we love you both so much! (and next time, I'll be sure to get a picture)

One quick photo...

Today I had a ultra-sound appointment. That was all that we did, just take pictures and look around, so everything went well and is looking good. I was so excited because the doctor was going to take several pictures for me to have but Riley was being so stubborn. We couldnt get her to turn around. She was facing my spine and would not budge. So we tried to wiggle my belly around and knudge a litte so that she might get the hint. All she did was turn around for a split second and quickly nestled back to her position. We got these two photos in that split second. The doctor said "oh look how cute she's yawning", but I knew better. She turned around to tell us to leave her the heck alone, posed for one short photo and then turned around thinking that we would just have to settle for our one picture. So I guess we will. The picture on the right is the only one that we could get that you could actually see. Ryne says that she is super cute and looks just like him and I think that she lookes absolutly perfect. I have my regular appointment next week but so far everything is looking good.

Phonathon!

I (rebekah) am so excited because I got hired to work my schools Phonathon! I know, this is the perfect job for me. I get paid to talk on the phone and I take breaks whenever I want and walk over to our snack table and get something to munch on. The first picture is my little work area. We start a 6:00 and call til' 10:00. We start on the West coast and then work our way East. When we get a donation we get to ring that little bell you see in the picture. (that is my favorite part) The second picture is what a normal night looks like. There usually are only a small handful of us working at a time so we have alot of phone calls to make. The last picture is of my Phonathon friend Kylie. We sit by each other every night and chit chat in between phone calls. Phonathon will be over next thursday, the 27th. Working each night is helping the time go by quickly because we are going home on the 28th and I am super anxious. I cant wait to get back home again and see all my sisters...

Look Mom...

Ok, I know that it isn't much but, it's a start. I am trying to become more organized! The first picture is my first attempt at "decorating". That is a shelf in our spare bedroom where we currently have our computer and printer set up, so we spend a fair amount of time in that room working on homework and such. The second is the desk in our bedroom. It has a little junk lying around but for the most part thats clean. Ryne and I have all of our book there and we can sit down and view our assignment on our big calender, and work on papers. (and we do sit down to do homework :) The third picture is our "extra" closet. We decided to make it our cleaning and such closet. Ryne and his dad put in some much needed extra shelving, and the space actually works out really nicely and we DO use our broom, vacume, laundry detergent, and cleaning supplies. The fourth picture may not seem like much to anyone else but Ryne and I are very proud of that buy. Ryne had tons of DVD's so we were able to put them all on this nifty little thing and we still have room for more. It is another one of my small attempts to utilize the space that we have. Ryne and I spent all this past saturday cleaning out the spare bedroom and getting all of our nic naks officially unpacked. We made alot of headway but were still not quite where we want to be. So, very soon I will post pictures of the rest of the apartment so yall can see our new home. Were both starting to really settle in and feel at home. Little by little we will get the apartment just the way we want it but for now, I'm proud of our little headway.

Married Life...

This is a picture of us in front of "our" tree. Ryne carved our initials in this tree and showed it to me the first time he ever told me that he loved me. Our love has continued to grow more and more each day. Married life is almost exactly like our loved ones told us it would be. It is full of excitement and plenty of learning opportunities. We are learning all sorts of new things about each other and more importantly we are learning how to balance our strengths and weaknesses in order to be a more effective team. Because we are so busy, we dont have as much time as we would like to keep everyone updated on how our journey is playing out. So we hope this blog will keep you updated on how things are going here in Team RB's 1st season of Married Life.