Where we call HOME

We moved to our rent house in Royse City in July 9,2008, the day before we got engaged! It is the halfway point between Colt in Commerce and me in Dallas and it has worked out perfectly for this point in our lives. I was willing to keep doing the long drive from Commerce to Dallas but Colt talked me into at least going to look in Royse City and man am I glad we did because now I can't imagine making that drive! We've lived here a little over a year already but I just got around to taking pictures of it.

Entrance

Our living room and Colt's pride and joy TV


Lucky and Alex are both playing a little "where's waldo" in all of these pics! They think they have to be in all the pics!

The kitchen

and our wonderful doggie door

Colt putting up our new "Smithson's" sign that my mom bought me on our trip to Canton.

I love it!

Our office

Colt's side of the office. This is where he spends the majority of his time, or actually we both do!

Master bedroom

Master bathroom (and Alex)

Spare bedroom (also known as the storage room)

Spare bathroom

And Colt's sometimes organized garage

We will be here at least until next summer and it has been a great first house for us! We have definitely learned some things we would never want or do when we go to buy or build a house in the future though!!

October

I can't believe it's already October. October means another tax deadline, Alex's (our lab's) 1st birthday and Colt's birthday on Halloween!

It also means I got to make a new desktop calendar Wednesday night, or I should say add pictures to because I didn't actually make it! Here's my new desktop for October. I love these things, especially for my computer at work. I ran across these at shabbyprincess.com when I was looking for information on digital scrapbooking. They are premade little layouts, but they're still fun!

And this is the first one I made for September. Now Colt asked for me to make him one for his computer but he wants a more "manly" one so that I am going to have to make from scratch. Needless to say, I am still working on that one, and October may already be over by the time I get it made! As for digital scrapbooking, I haven't decided yet. When I get time, which will probably be when I get done taking CPA exams and get a break from overtime, I do want to start scrapbooking again, one way or another! Hope everyone has a wonderful month of October!

Our shows are back!

I didn't really watch a lot of TV through college. Emily and I went through our spell of recording and watching Days of Our Lives after class, but besides that I was never really addicted to certain shows. That is until Colt and I first started watching Moonlight on Friday nights. We loved that show the whole ONE SEASON we got to watch it before it went off the air!

Since then we have a number of shows we watch weekly and they are all are starting their new seasons! Colt told me not to put ALL of them on here cause people would think we were nerds! LOL. It gave me something to look forward to during this tax deadline week though! Supernatural started this Thursday. We started watching it because it came on on the same night as Colt's show, Smallville, and we just started liking it. It's a little on the weird side, but it seems like a lot of the shows we became addicted to are. I guess that says something about us!!

Heroes - Starts Monday, Sept. 21st

House - Starts Monday, Sept. 21st

This guy reminds me so much of Colt!

Biggest Loser - Starts Tuesday, Sept. 15th

Smallville - Starts Friday, Sept. 25th

This one, Vampire Diaries, came on before Supernatural the other night and we watched it. I think I'm gonna be a fan of it too. Thank goodness for DVR!

And I almost forgot until I saw a preview. Medium starts on Sept. 25th. It's a good one too that I've always watched on and off a little bit. Colt and I started actually really watching it the end of last season.


Numbers - Starts Oct. 4th

This has ALWAYS been one of my favorites. What can I say, I love the math part of it. I used to watch it when I still lived with my parents, but I always just catch it whenever I can. We usually have it DVR'd and just watch it when we get a chance.

I promise I didn't think we watched TV that much, but it sure looks like we do!

Colt's First Medical School Interview - UT Houston

Colt in the hotel before going to his first interview for med school. You can kinda tell he didn't want his pic taken.


At UT Houston during our tour. The day started with a welcome and get to know UT Houston Medical video. Then we went on a bus tour around all of the campus, hospitals, housing, rec center, etc. We had a great lunch with faculty and current med students before going on a walking tour of the hospitals. The only time I took my camera out was when we were on top of the helipad. Great view of the city though! He had two interviews that day which he thinks both went well. I was impressed with the campus and especially the faculty and students that I met. I definitely know what he was talking about when he told me that it was "homey" and comfortable. This was a start to many interviews for him. Time will only tell what the future holds. I'm so proud of him!!

Our Honeymoon - Dominican Republic

We had an AMAZING time on our honeymoon in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic! We stayed at the Majestic Colonial Resort. We did a lot while we were there. It seemed like we never really slowed down. I think we took about 500 pics so they definitely aren't all going on here.
When we first landed and got in our van to head to the resort it seemed a little "iffy." There were people with sawed off shotguns on the side of the road, etc., but it was absolutely beautiful once we were there. It is sad all the poverty you see outside the resorts though.
The wait staff was kinda overwhelming too. You would barely be putting an empty drink down and they were already taking it and replacing it.

We got pics taken by the resort photographer, "Martin,"while we there. He was from Argentina and he was hilarious! We wish we would have had a video of him while he was taking our pics. The top photo is what he called our "Adam & Eve jungle" photo. He meowed and purred like a panther and got us to "take sexy photos." He was definitely entertaining! Our so called "sexy" photos, I didn't post, but they're in the photo album.

 

It was fun, and I'm glad we got them taken.

When we first got to the resort on Sunday, we went to our room, did a quick tour of the resort, ate dinner and went to bed. We were exhausted!

Monday we planned our excursions for the week and mostly just spent time at the beach.  Every night, we would get ready and go eat dinner. We had seven or eight places to choose from and they were all good. After dinner, we sometimes walked around and looked at vendors and explored but we always called it a night pretty early. 

Tuesday we did an excursion where we sailed to another island for lunch, got to swim with starfish and then took a speedboat back. The lunch on the island was cooked fresh. Needless to say, I didn't eat very much. You could here the rooster and pigs when we got there, but definitely not when it was time to eat! On the way back, it was storming when we were on the speedboat which definitely made for an experience. We were flying in the air. I was holding on to Colt's leg for dear life and there were people on the boat crying and scared. 

On the speedboat

Wednesday we went horseback riding, four wheeling and swam in a cave. That night we also had reservations for the Japanese Hibachi restaurant which was fun. Colt ate way too much though and was miserable the rest of the night. 

Colt's poor little horse. He tried getting one of the biggest ones they had!

On Thursday we went on our last excursion to go snorkeling and swimming with the stingrays and sharks. We got to feed and pet the stingrays. Then they even went along our backs and gave us massages!A shark fin also went through Colt's toes while we were swimming with the sharks. 

Colt in his snorkel gear. Isn't he cute?

Us and the stingrays! Colt was all for it, but I was a little unsure at first. 

Friday morning we had a little time to go to the beach again before it was time to leave.

Looking down the beach from our resort.

It was a once in a lifetime trip and a terrific honeymoon! We definitely weren't ready to come back home. Great ending to our wedding events!