Quigley and Co.

Oh my goodness I am seriously one of the worst blog writers ever! I told myself I wouldn't get super behind like this, and guess what? I did! Anyways sorry this is way way way way way overdue, but here's an update.

All the way back in February it was Kyle's birthday. We had a little get together at our house with some of the guys from his program and a little dinner for the two of us.

We got to soak up some sun and enjoy even more family as we all celebrated the life of our wonderful grandma. It actually was a really special trip that allowed us to see family we hadn't seen since in 17 years! It's amazing to me how just a few thousand miles can separate people so permanently. Out of all my extended family members there I had seen maybe two of them since I was 6 years old. That just blows my mind.

 Hold on though, the craziness doesn't stop there. While I was in California Kyle went to give a talk in the middle-of-nowhere Texas and we both got back in the wee hours of the morning on my birthday. I was totally exhausted and didn't even feel like celebrating (which totally isn't me, I live for birthdays, especially mine!) But, my wonderful husband and some awesome friends had something up their sleeve! They planned a surprise salsa party for me. It was so sweet, unfortunately it was a total bust! It worked out though and it was still an amazing, unexpected birthday.

Oh but wait, the madness continues! We had back to back visits from my parents and Kyle's family. This was the first time we really got to share our life in Texas with all of them. We got to show them around and have some fun adventures while giving them a taste for our life here. It was such a blessing to get the spend time with all of them. We love all of you more than you know! (But again, we didn't take a single picture!!! Ugh I have to get better about capturing all of these moments!)

We did capture this little moment on my parents visit. Happy first birthday Quigley! We love him so much!

Since all of that craziness we have tried to get back into life as normal. Kyle is working hard to finish his research project before the end of the semester and I am working hard at work. In just a few short weeks he will be on his was to Sumatra for the summer to do research for his dissertation. Yes, I said summer. The puppies and I will be holding down the fort while he is away. We are also taking any roommate requests and vacation requests to fill our time! This research is the very thing that brought us to Texas though and it is truly going to be a once in a lifetime opportunity. Be praying for his safety, protection and lots and lots of herps!

That is pretty much it though for the last few months. I promise to not be such a slacker again! We love you all and love sharing our life with you!

Lots and lots of love,

Kyle, Katie, Quigley and Harper

Oh my goodness life has been soooo busy lately that I completely haven't had time for an update. Let's rewind quite a few weeks back. We'll take it back to the 18th. It was our first anniversary. Let's just say that it's a great thing we have many, many more ahead of us because it was not our best day. I totally ruined it by getting wicked sick right in the middle of our date then landed us in an urgent care center for the remainder of our "romantic" night.

We can then fast forward to Christmas.  Texas had their first white Christmas since 1975 and I had to work the two nights before and Christmas. Needless to say Kyle didn't have the merriest of Christmas' this year. But, we made the most of it and carried on the only two traditions we have started, fun breakfast while we open presents and lobster dinner. Then it was back to work for me before we packed up and headed for Nebraska. We got to enjoy the lovely lack of snow removal equipment here in Texas as we drove on 1" thick ice for 40 miles; as we left the state I have never seen so many accidents in my life! But, the rest of the drive was a breeze and there we were!

It was so great to be back in Nebraska. We really missed the familiarity that is Omaha and all the people that make it home. There were so many important people to see and so many dear conversations shared, but we just couldn't do it all in the mere five days we had. A big thank you to everyone who made time for us and a big apology to those we didn't get to see this time. We will be back soon though! It was wonderful to see our families and we are just so blessed by them. We love you guys (now if only some of you would start moving to Texas!)

We rang in the New Year with some great friends and then it was back to Texas. Now, we are back and life has carried on as usual. Kyle started his next semester today and I am carrying on at work. We still love the house and the dogs are as rowdy as ever! So, there is our very abbreviated version of the last few weeks. Lots of great moments and more to come!

We are so excited to tell you that we have finally moved into our house! I shared a photo of it about two months ago when we came to look at it, and now we are all moved in. We asked the Lord to swing doors wide open or shut them in our face when we were thinking about moving and, well, He left every single door as wide open as possible. We love love LOVE our house and are so excited to share it with you. 

We had forgotten how different a house is from an apartment. There is no one walking on top of us anymore! The first night we realized how dark and quiet it was compared to our apartment, which was a little scary at first! But, it is truly wonderful and we couldn't ask for anything more right now. It's just the perfect little house. Oh, and the dogs are in love with it too, they spend literally all day outside playing and jumping over leaf piles. So, are you ready for a tour?

Well, I hope you enjoyed the quick little tour. I didn't put up every single room of the house and we aren't quite done decorating and such, but I hope you enjoyed it! We sure love it and can't wait for all of the wonderful memories that will be made here!

Hope everyone is doing well. We are still loving life here in Texas. We are so excited because we move into our house on Friday and Saturday!!!! We can't believe it is less than a week away. We see daily how needed a house is, especially with the dogs (Kyle only has a few pairs of shoes that Quigley hasn't chewed on yet). But, we can't wait to have a backyard and a little more space. It's going to be nice to not be surrounded by neighbors all the time! 

Speaking of good things, we got a very exciting letter in the mail this week. We have been getting bill after bill for a trip to the ER we had to take right after we moved. It was going to be a few thousand dollars and we were not looking forward to it. But, the Lord knocked our socks off again. We got a letter from the hospital charity fund stating that our bill was paid in full. It was such an amazing blessing!!!

We have had a great week since and have been surrounded by so many awesome people. Our small group leaders took us in for Thanksgiving so we enjoyed a meal together and hung out all evening which was so great. We volunteered with our group that morning delivering turkeys to an apartment complex where God has been moving and they now have their own church with around 200 people. It was totally awesome! Then, the cherry on top for the weekend, we went to the symphony with everyone from our small group. It was super fun to get all dressed up and hang out! We finally feel like we have community here in Texas, yay!!!

Oh where do I even start?!?! We have had a great last two weeks. The Lord has poured out so much love on us. His love is truly relentless, and so are the curve balls of life! I feel like every week there is just so much that happens and I can't write about it all. I feel like we are just constantly in this time of change and transition and it's transforming all the time! I guess we can start most recently and work back from there.

We are moving, again. Yes, this will be the fifth time I have moved in just over a year and I am so ready to never see another big brown box or a piece of packing paper again! We are currently live in a questionable part of Arlington and feel like the longer we stay here the more we are asking for something to go wrong. (The armed robbery one parking lot over last week doesn't help either!) So we have been praying for the Lord to fling the door wide open, or shut it in our face. Well, it seems like He has been flinging it open. Unless otherwise we are getting ready to move on December 1st. Just last night we found a lovely little house in a SAFE neighborhood that seems quite perfect for what we will be needing. If everything checks out then we will be signing papers this week and getting ready to move, again. This is really the lat time we plan on moving I promise! We would love for you to join us in praying about this potential move!

Before all of this happened we got to cram us and Kyle's parents into our tiny apartment. It was such a blessing to have a taste of Nebraska for a few days. We got to show them some of our favorite new spots and run them all over DFW. We had a great visit though and loved sharing our new life with them. They are awesome and were such a blessing to have! The puppies loved seeing their grandparents too. Quigley slept in their room the night they left hoping it would make them come back! We will see them again soon though, yay!

Lots of love,

Kyle, Katie, Quigley and Harper

It's been a while since we've given you an update on life in the lone star state. Life has been keeping us busy with the mundane and extraordinary all alike.

Oh the mundane side of things (which really isn't that mundane) we pretty much just do work and school. Working nights has been a big shift for me, but I'm liking it way more than I ever thought I would. I work at a truly amazing place and have so many opportunities to impact so many lives each day. It is something I honestly didn't expect. I love going to work each night! Kyle is busy with school and working hard on writing grants and coming up with research topics. The Lord has blessed him with this quirky group of guys that are all in a pretty similar boat as us and we all get together often and all get along really well. It's great to see small changes starting to happen in that group (because there is a lot of changes that could be made!) But, we love them and look forward to building relationships with them. We've also been blessed by our small group and it is often the highlight of our week. They have taken us under their wing and made us feel like family. That helps our mundane to not feel so, well, mundane. 

The one "mundane" area where we are still trying to figure out or place is where we live. We don't live in the best neighborhood and most of the people are pretty rough. We have never been the minority before and it is really stretching. There are times where we don't feel safe and like we should just get out, but we know this is where God has us. We know we have a purpose and we will be protected fulfilling that purpose, but that is tough to keep in mind sometimes. Then the Lord does something awesome and totally reminds us why we are here. Like last week we got a call from our apartment manager. We have invited him to church a few times, but  et4he has declined...until this week. He called and asked us what service we were going to because he went the week before and wants to go back. It was awesome.

I love when the Lord just rocks your face off and does something totally amazing. Our car broke down on Saturday and we were stranded 30 minutes from our house. No big deal though we got a tow to a friend's mechanic and he fixed it that night for hardly anything and we were still able to go out after that. It was truly amazing. I feel like time and again the Lord is revealing His faithfulness and each time it just blows me away even more, amazing!

We are still having fun exploring all that DFW has to offer and look forward to sharing it with Kyle's parents this weekend. It's going to be great to see someone familiar. Believe it or not, we both were talking about how we kind of in a weird way miss parts or Nebraska. Don't get us wrong though, we still think Texas is just a better version of Nebraska.

Can't wait to keep you updated with all the surprises to come from life in Texas!

Hope everyone is having a great start to their week. We are just getting through a pretty crazy two weeks ourselves. This past week was Kyle's first week of teaching, classes, research and meetings. It was a big shift from his few classes a week with reading whenever type of schedule he has had so far. Then, I started my job!!!! Yay!!! It was even better than I thought it would be. I knew Cook Children's was a great place to work, but I had no idea it would be as fantastic as it is. We had training five days a week all day. I'm soooo glad I only have to work three days a week whenever I want. I am totally not made to work in an office!

Everything sounds so great like this was an awesome week, right? Well, in the middle of the week that changed. I was in class and got this intense pain in my side. I was rushed to occupational health where they took one look at my yellowish-green face and sent me across the street to the ER. Little did I know, I had a cyst that ruptured and was bleeding quite a bit causing a TON of pain. But, the Lord is so good and everything is back to normal now.

Then, this week I started on the floor which has been a huge shift in schedule. I work nights so the transition from being a normal person to nocturnal has been a little difficult. The dogs aren't big fans that I sleep all day either. I love my floor though and the little kiddos are so amazing so it makes it all worth it.