Merry Christmas, Happy Anniversary, Happy New Year, You Have a Kidney Stone

Happy New Year Everyone! Sorry I didn't write a Christmas blog...I am getting pretty bad at this. Christmas was great though. We spent our first Christmas as husband and wife in White Deer with my family. It was cold and cuddly and it even snowed (you certainly don't get that in Austin). We actually opened our gifts to each other on Tuesday night. Jason was really excited about his table saw and his Art Monk signed football (BEST WIFE EVER!!!) to be placed on the new shelves that he is building with his saw in his man room. But that wasn't even comparable to the excitement of my Christmas gift. Wrapped up in a huge box under the tree were two COTTON BOWL tickets! "YOU ARE THE BEST HUSBAND EVER, I LOVE YOU! WE HAVE TO GET YOU A TECH T-SHIRT! YOU ARE THE BEST HUSBAND EVER!" You get the picture...I was really excited.

Wednesday we were off to White Deer where we pulled into town just in town to make the Christmas Eve service at the First Baptist Church. Luckily we were late enough to miss the handshaking part (I don't know why, but I have never liked the church meet and greet section). Later that evening, we had homemade stew and each opened one present. I got weights from my brother (is he trying to tell me something?). The next day was Christmas morning. I snuck down around 3:30 am to check out the present situation. I wasn't sure if Santa still visited you once you got married...but yes, in our family, he does. My brother, Jason and I opened gifts and then my mom and dad did. We still act very much like we are in elementary school on Christmas. We were off to my grandma's for Christmas Day dinner and gifts. Friday, we went to the other grandma's to meet up with my 13 cousins and open a huge pile of presents.

Saturday, Jason and I went to Amarillo with my mom and dad to do a little shopping and see Marley & Me which I loved. The most exciting part of this day was during the drive home. My mom was a little tired and cranky (no offense mom), and somehow the topic came up of how much the government spends on the little white stripes in the middle of the road. According to my dad is a dollar a foot. My mom kind of shrugged it off and said, "well that is pretty cheap." "Wrong," my dad replied. Each one of those stripes is 10 feet long. "Whatever, there is no way those stripes are 10 feet long. That is taller than the ceilings in our house. You don't know what you are talking about, Tam." And so on and so on. So thirty minutes later, we pull into Panhandle, Texas which is 14 miles from White Deer. My dad tells Jason (who was driving) to turn down this dark road. He did as he was told and took us three miles out of the way down a dark, but paved road. Not only was the road paved, but it had stripes. So dad tells Jason to pull over. Jason pulls over. Mom protests. Dad gets out of the car, tells Jason to lie down on the stripe in the middle of the road. Jason does as he is told. Mom reluctanltly gets out of the car to find my husband's 6 foot 3 body frame lying on the stripe with an extra four feet to go. Mom gets huffy because she is wrong. Dad laughs and says I told you so. Jason (who is from the city) is in total awe because he just laid down in the middle of road and wasn't run over.

On Sunday morning, we left, cats in tow and headed back to Austin. The next day I went to work and remembered...it is our anniversary. Of course my husband had been thinking about it all day. That night we had a great dinner, and although we agreed not to buy presents, Jason showed up with a big bouquet of beautiful flowers. I didn't even get him a card (WORSE WIFE EVER!!!). The other great part about this day is that Jason got his LSAT score back. It was no surprise that he did amazing. I am so proud of you honey!

Now we are at Tuesday. The Cotton Bowl is only 3 days away. We decide we will spend New Year's Eve with friends in Austin since I have to work, wake up early on Thursday and drive to Dallas for the game on Saturday. That way we can spend time with Jason's family since we didn't see them on Christmas. I start to have back pains which get increasingly worse as the night goes on.

Here we are on Wednesday and I spend my morning at the Kyle Urgent Care Clinic because clearly I don'g have a doctor yet. I am there for two hours getting poked and prodded. Finally they take X-rays, and low and behold, there is a kidney stone. And not just a tiny kidney stone like the last one four years ago (remember that Ashlee). This kidney stone is 8 FREAKING MM. To give you some perspective, they usually surgically remove them at 5 mm. The doc tells me it is going to be a rough couple of days. Give me a prescription for Vicatin and Flomax (pain killer and muscle relaxer), tells me not to drive while taking these meds, drink lots and lots of water, and see if it will pass on its own over the weekend. In 5 days, if it hasn't, I will probably have surgery to remove it.

Cotton Bowl is in 3 days.

Hurry up kidney stone! You may be the size of China, but in no way are you going to deter me from enjoying my first Tech game of 2009. I can take the pain, but I can't take missing out on the chance that Tech could beat Ol' Miss on Friday.

Santa Baby

Here are pics from the Austin Trail of Lights 5K. Note the super sexy Santa costumes Meredith bought for us to wear over our running clothes (who new victoria's secret lingeria could look so good on the outside of your clothes!). Even though we took the 2 mile shortcut, it was a great event. We had so much fun at the run, at dinner and then at our "girls only" slumber party where Meredith and Nicole shared their singing talents with us. Merry Christmas! Love you girls!

Affirmation

The past two and a half weeks have been crazy (hence the lack of blog entiries). This is the third week of my new job, and it is going really great. I am stealing the title of this blog from a good friend of mine back in D.C. who blogs about her life. She talks about affirmation, and the feeling you get when you know you are doing the right thing at the right time. For me, it is rare to have peace about major decisions, but today I have perfect peace about our decision to move back to Tejas and to take this new job.

I am the Director of Public Affairs for the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association. While I don't really know yet what the title "Director of Public Affairs" ensues, my main job is to bring more public awareness and raise the profile of the association. Basically, I am in charge of the media operation, which means I get to talk to reporters on a daily basis about what it is TSCRA is all about and why it is important. The Cattle Raisers have been around since 1877 so they are a pretty credible group of cowboys and cowgirls.

My dad and my brother are cowboys...and to some extent, I am a cowgirl. I grew up in White Deer, TX (population 1,060), and my family (the Terry's) have a ranch. On the ranch we work around 650 head of cattle. We are stewards of the land, keeper of the cows, and producers of American beef. But maybe most importantly we are a family with a deep heritage. My great great grandfather settled the ranch in the early 1900s. He had 14 (!) children and it was eventually passed down to my grandfather, Ernie Bill. Now, my baby brother is living on the ranch and working the land in the house that my great-grandfather built in 1912. What history!

It is such a privelege to work for an organization made up people that share the same history, work ethics and values as your family. You may not think that agriculture is important to your life until you stop to think about it. Most things you own or eat started on farm or ranch somewhere by a family like mine.

This job is hard. There is a lot to do and working with the press and getting them to write your story is never easy. The organization plays a huge role in the history of our great state; however, we have never sought much press coverage. Enter: Carmen Fenton. Lot's of late nights, early mornings and many miles on the highway are in my future...but that is ok. In fact, I kind of like it. It is really cool waking up in the morning and knowing you are exactly where you are supposed to be.

The pics above are from the Terry Ranch. The mysterious shadowy cowboy is my baby brother and those are his dogs.

Good Luck Fenton!

Today's your big day husband. No, it's not your birthday or your first day of work. It is LSAT day. You are the smartest man I have ever met and I love you so much. You will do awesome. I will be praying for you all day while I am Christmas shopping. Good Luck!