MBA Hooding

Last Friday before our trip to Houston, we attended JW's MBA hooding ceremony.  Joey's dad, sister, and mom came in town to go with us.  There were several MBA students being hooded that night with different specialties, but JW was the only joint Law and MBA student.

 

 It was a pretty small and intimate ceremony, so I got to stand up there and get good pictures.  We all hooped and hollered as they called Joey's name and announced his post-graduation career plans.  So proud.

 Joey and his dad

 Jenn, me, JW, and Joe

 Momma Hance and JW

 Carol, JW, me, and Jennifer

  The MBA graduate and his proud wife

JW is done with graduation ceremonies now!  We have been thankful for a time to reflect and celebrate the opportunities and accomplishments God has allowed us over the last several years of JW's school career.  We're now ready to fully move forward in our transition to Houston and the new things the Lord has in store for us there. 

Moving to Houston - Part 1

This weekend we traveled to Houston to see our house in-person for the first time!  JW's MBA Hooding Ceremony was Friday night (more on that later), and then we came home and loaded up our cars and drove to to Houston on Saturday morning. 

The movers come one week from today!  Yikes.  My stomach just did a somersault as I typed that.  There were a few things I preferred for the movers to not move, like pictures and the china we got as wedding presents, and some things that would just be difficult (and expensive) for them to move like mirrors and lamps, that we went ahead and brought with us. 

Jenn and Momma Hance all loaded up and ready to go.

Me and JW ready to go see our new house.

We stopped at the Farmers Market on our way out of town.  Yea for yummy coffee and breakfast tacos!

This was a family picture after church on Mother's Day.  JW & I are both very blessed to have wonderful mommas.  Dad cooked a yummy steak lunch after church and Grandma and Aunt Kimmie came over to celebrate with us.

After lunch, we changed into work clothes and headed to our house to start painting.  JW and I got there first and went out the front door working on our inventory list of the house's condition.  Mom and Claire met us at the house a little later.  JW and I were around back when they arrived, so they just came in through the front, locked the door behind them, and found us out back.  Only when they joined us out back and closed the back door behind them, they didn't realize the bottom door knob was locked.  You know those lovely knobs that have the little lock you can turn to make it lock from the outside?  I'm sure you can guess where I'm going... all four of us got locked out!  Luckily, Claire and JW both had their cell phones on them.  We looked up locksmiths.  They were expensive.  So,then we looked up "how to pick a lock with bobbypins" on Claire's phone.  Mom and I tried to be spy-like and attempted to pick the lock for about 20 minutes, and then Joey's patience ran out.  He broke a window in the front of our house, Claire climbed through, and let us all in.  Here's a couple of videos from Claire's phone.

This first one is a little anticlimactic.  My favorite comments:

Mom- "Joey, the lawyer, breaking into a house."

Claire- "Amanda could climb through."

My response, "H- - - no."

Claire- "Language...  I'll go!!!" 

Best comment:

JW- "Nice butt shot, Claire!"

And we're in.  Let the painting begin!

Claire was so excited to start painting.  She wanted to be the first one to get paint on the walls, and she was.

Mom was looking cute in white shorts on Mother's Day, so she taped.

Girl pic!

Em came over to see our new place, and we put her to work in no time!  She timed her drive over from her and Britt's place... 11 minutes, and she hit two lights.  It's going to be great to be close to them!

Our room didn't have a ceiling fan, so we found one on sale at Home Depot and the boys got the fun task of installing it... with no instructions!  How do you package a ceiling fan in lots of unassembled pieces with no instructions?  The dialogue over the hour or so it took them to get it up and fully functioning was comical.  At the onset, when dad realized there were no directions Joey said, "If there were, would you read them?"  Dad said, "No, probably not.  But, I'd at least look at the pictures".  Love it!  So true.

Momma Hance came by the next day and helped us get the first coat of paint on our bathroom.  She was a rockstar with the spray bottle of bleach cleaning some mold around the window before we painted.  Our new bathroom has no vent in it, and apparently gets a little steamy.  Then, we ate pizza from a local place around the corner from our house on a box in our living room.

We painted an accent wall in our living room and dining room and painted our master bedroom and bathroom.  It was a productive weekend, and our family was so helpful in helping us get our house move-in ready!  We love it.

We are back in Waco now and packing with a new vengeance since I realized in the shower yesterday that the movers come in a week!  Wow.  Rich & Meg are coming in today to hang out and help us pack.  Moving is kind of exhausting, and last weekend was just a warm-up for the big day.  Hold on to your hats!  I have a feeling the next couple of weeks are going to fly by.  We are excited and can't wait to have it all done! 

Graduation Day!

Oh, how we've dreamed of this day!  On April 28, 2012, JW graduated from Baylor Law School with honors.  He was one of eleven students to graduate cum laude because not only did he finish Baylor Law School, which is referred to the Marine Corps of law schools, he did it while maintaining a 3.4 GPA.  Needless to say, I was a proud wife when they called JW's name to walk across that stage.

We had lots of friends and family make the trip to be in town to celebrate with us... 25 people to be exact.  We had a large cheering section and were so honored to have loved ones there for the momentous occasion.

Most of my pictures turned out blurry, so we're going to have to get copies of the ones the professional photographer was taking.

Such a handsome graduate!

Hance Family: Macie, Matthew, Angie, JW, me, Joe, and Jennifer

Proud daddy!  JW and Joe

Momma Hance, JW, me, and Jenn

 

Nana, Papa, Carol, JW, me, and Jennifer

Mullings crew: Claire, Hunter, JW, me, Mom, and Dad

Gotta love that wind!

With the Perry's: me, JW, Adam, and Lauren

Uncle Randy, Aunt Gigi, JW, me, Erica, and Jake

That wind was picking up!

Howard, JW, me, and G-Ma

The graduate and his proud wife

After graduation, we had a party in a room at our church.   We ate lunch, visited, and then had a pick-up basketball game.  You know Joey has never turned down the opportunity for competition, and when we reserved the party room at church, we got half of the basketball court too.  So, we had friends bring a change of clothes so they could play basketball after lunch.  JW had a blast!  It was really fun to watch them and was a perfect ending to a pretty great day.

With the Hitte's: me, JW, Cory, and Lauren

Meg, JW, and me

Rich had a youth event for church, so he couldn't make the trip, but Megan came in and represented the Roush's.  We missed you, Richie Rich!

Papa, JW, me, and Nana

Momma Hance, JW, and me

JW and Dana

This is one of the judges in Ft. Worth that Joey clerked with last summer.  She and her district staff have been so sweet to keep up with JW.  We were honored to have her there to celebrate with us.

I spent all day Friday cooking 15 lbs. of pulled pork, sides, and dessert.  Momma Hance, Jennifer, and Nana and Papa came in that afternoon in time to help me finish up some centerpieces, take us out to dinner, and go and setup the party room.  They were a huge help!

You probably don't care much about the menu, but I want to remember what we had, so here's the list:

Appetizers:

Salsa and Spinach Artichoke Dip with pita chips and crackers

Lunch:

BBQ Pulled Pork Sandwiches on rolls, Potato Casserole, Fruit Salad, and Cole Slaw

Dessert:

 Spice Cake, Lemon Snowball cookies, and Momma Hance made her famous Cheesecake, brownies, and Hermits

I had never cooked for 30 people before, so we definitely aired on the side of having too much food rather than not enough.  JW had the idea to purchase disposable tupperware so that our guests could take left-overs home with them.  That ended up being a great idea and many people took food home with them.

For the centerpieces, I got three different sized mason jars and tied natural, yellow, and green raffia around the top, filled them with sliced lemons and limes, and fresh flowers.  They went on top of burlap in the middle of each table and turned out pretty cute!  I will definitely save the jars to use for parties in the future.  Math is not my strong suite and I had a major brain fart when buying them, so we actually have twelve of each.  Thank goodness Momma Hance arrived before I had put flowers in all of them! :)

Friend table: Lauren, Adam, Cory, Lauren, and Meg

Mom, me, and Claire

The ladies in my family all ended up wearing the same color and it wasn't even planned.

Angie, Macie, and Jennifer

Pretty ladies!  This turned out to be a really cute picture.

Let the games begin...

We are very blessed to have such amazing friends and family to celebrate life with!  Law school has been a challenging chapter that has taught us a lot.  We are thankful for the support of friends and family throughout the journey and look forward to beginning our new chapter in Houston very soon.

Life Lately

 At the end of March we attended a marriage conference at our church with Gary Thomas as the speaker.  It was great.  We enjoyed the chance to slow down and spend some time together talking after the sessions.  After the conference was over, we went to the Texas Rangers Museum and checked another Waco Bucket List item off our list.  JW definitely enjoyed this one more than me.  We made it in time for the last showing of the day of a 45 minute documentary on the history of the Texas Rangers.  It was just as exciting as it sounds... I ended up taking a little cat-nap. :)  Hubs had fun though and enjoyed walking around and reading about all of the exhibits.

 JW getting to handle an old revolver.  That thing was heavy!

 In other news, we have been trying to move dinner time back for the pups.  They have been spoiled and were getting fed right at 5 p.m. with Joey's schedule being so flexible.  In Houston that won't be the case, so we have been working on pushing it back.  They're not a fan of the new schedule.  One day we found them both hanging by their bowls at 5 wondering where their grub was.  It was pretty funny, so JW snapped a picture.

 One day last week our kitchen sink got backed up and JW attempted to fix it before we sent in a maintenance request.  Although Joey has an uncle that is a plumber, he has spent no time with him on the job and had no idea what to do.  Dakota tried to help.  JW put forth great effort and did his best, but we still had to call the plumber.  Oh the beauty of renting!

 We're in moving mode around here.  We have to be completely moved by the end of the month, but May is a busy one for us, so we are trying to pack a little bit at a time when we get the chance.  We took pictures of the house before we started packing so we could remember our first place.   I enjoy being organized and don't mind packing too badly as long as I can spread it out and don't have to do it all in one week.  Being able to pack a few boxes a night is a great way to get it done for me.  We have 19 boxes packed so far, and we still have 17 more days to go before the movers come!  I think we're in pretty good shape.

 We gave our 30-day notice and a sign went up in our yard.  It made me a little bit sad the first time I saw it... it's all setting in and feeling more real.

 We've both been wanting Waco shirts to take with us as we move from here.  We went to a local t-shirt shop and picked these up.  I got a cute Baylor shirt too.  It's like it was made for me... with the megaphone and BU.  Love it.  Sic 'em Waco!