New Furniture!

Rob and I were blessed this year with some monetary gifts this year for Christmas and we decided to use it to help us purchase a new bedroom set and mattress as well as a new entertainment center. We had been to several places before Christmas and didn't find anything we couldn't live without. After Christmas though, we made a trip to a few places - one of them being The Dump. We found a great deal on a bedroom set as well as a super comfy mattress. It was delivered the next day (the 28th) and it has been so nice to sleep on it! It is a King size bed - which is a change for us because we've been sleeping on my old bed which was a Full! Can you imagine?! So yes, we are loving the space. And not only do we love it, but our cats seem to rarely leave the bed during the day and even the night. These past few nights when I am about to go to bed, I usually have two cats between myself and Rob - if not all three! We also purchased a new entertainment center from Rooms to Go which will be delivered in about two weeks - so I will post pictures once that gets set up. For now, here are some pictures of the new bedroom!!

Christmas 5 and a Birthday too!

Our final Christmas celebration took place at my Aunt Jo's house on the 27th. The 27th also happens to be my sister Catherine's birthday so we had much to celebrate! We had a great dinner with much to talk about, and then had a yummy fruit tart for dessert. We exchanged presents and opened them. Catherine got my the movie Love, Actually which I lost somewhere and my other sister Carol sent a cookbook as a birthday present. Rob and I gave everyone else their presents and everyone seemed to like what they received. It's been a good and long holiday season for us Biddle's and we are ready to celebrate with a new year!

Christmas 2, 3, and 4..

For the actual Christmas holiday, Rob and I went to Bridge City to be with his family. We left the morning of the 24th and got there around lunchtime which was just in time to head to Whataburger for a free hamburger! Although, we had to pay for drinks and fries, but it was still a good deal. Then we headed over to Aunt Pat's house (my father-in-law's sister) to visit and have a Christmas exchange with them. There were a lot of really great while elephant gifts going around, but I must admit I think I got the best one which was a handmade blanket that Kelly made. I'll have to take some pictures soon to show it off! Rob got a Hickory Farms gift box with some meats and cheeses, and I think he was pretty happy with that too. We stayed and visited for a while and then went back to the Biddle house. We went ahead and had our Christmas even though Wes wasn't there because he unfortunately had emergency stuff with work and couldn't make it in. We all got some really great gifts. I got a warm-up suit, a beautiful bracelet, and a jewelry armoire from Peggy & Sam, and got two pairs of handmade earrings and a choker from Kelly. Rob got a new shirt and sweater, an edger/weed eater, and a game called LittleBigPlanet from his parents and Kelly got him a beard and mustache trimmer. That evening we hung out with more of the family and had a good time. On Christmas morning, we went to mass and then went over to Carrie and Daryl's house to watch their little boys open their Christmas gifts. We went back to the house afterwards to start on lunch and not too soon afterwards there was a knock on the door -- it was Wes!! He surprised us all by coming in and not letting any of us know! I know Sam & Peggy were pretty happy that he was able to make it in for Christmas. So, we ate lunch and then had another little Christmas with him. Wes and Sherri got us a wine grape tree that we're going to have to plant soon - which I'm pretty excited about. And, there is another gift coming next time we see them too.. We played a game of Mille Bornes before Wes had to head back home. Then we (me, Rob, Kelly, and Uncle Randal) went to go see the new Avatar movie - which was pretty good, though I don't have a strong desire to see it again.. Then today we had our 4th Christmas with the Klein side of the family. We went over to Uncle Glen and Aunt Susan's house for pizza and the Klein gift exchange. I always enjoy it because there are always so many good gifts going around! This year, Rob got a remote controlled car that he played with not long after getting it, and I got a really pretty candle holder that I can't wait to put up in the house. We stayed until later in the afternoon and headed back home to come be with our kitty cats. :) We have one more Christmas tomorrow and then I think we're done for the season! I'll be posting some pictures shortly but until then.. Merry Christmas, y'all!!

Christmas #1

Since Rob and I haven't had the chance to head over to Midland/Lubbock to visit my family much this year, we decided that we would go in for a pre-Christmas Christmas visit. We left on Saturday the 19th, and came home Tuesday the 22nd. When we arrived in Lubbock on Saturday, the first place we headed for was Rosa's - one of my favorite Mexican food places ever! From there we drove about two hours to Midland to see my family that lives there. We stopped first to see my sister-in-law Staci and nephew Cameron. From there, we all drove to my brother Jon and his wife Amber's house to say hello to them and then left a bit after that to go on a "hayride" at a local church. It was actually a lot of fun - we were given hot chocolate, kettle corn, and a ride around Grasslands to look at the Christmas lights for free. When we went back to Jon and Amber's house, we opened up some presents and had our mini-Christmas. It was a good family night of fun. Afterwards, Rob and I went to go visit my friend Ashley (and Kelli and Andrew) at her house. On Sunday, we headed back to Lubbock with Cameron in tow. We played a bunch on the Wii with Cameron that day, and that night Rob and I made Chicken Parmesan for dinner. Monday was a bit laid back - we ran a bunch of errands around town with my mom, and of course, played more Wii with Cameron! For dinner that night, we went over to Grandpa Henderson's house and had Spaghetti with Bacon with him and my Aunt Annie. Afterwards, we played a fierce couple rounds of spades but ended up calling it a night because it was getting later in the evening. Monday morning we headed over to my Aunt Maura's house so we could say hello and whatnot, and she wanted to cook us breakfast. How could you say no to that?! We had some yummy omelets and pancakes. After running a few more errands, Mom took us to the airport to head back to Houston. All in all, we had a great trip and would have loved to have stayed longer -- but my Mom promises that she's going to head this way next year and visit us instead!! Here are a few pics from our visit!

The good, the bad, and the birthday!

One of the great things about having a birthday fall on a weekend is that you pretty much get to celebrate ALL weekend! And that's exactly what we did! On Friday as I mentioned, Rob and I went to visit Kelli and Andrew for dinner and games and to celebrate Kelli's birthday. We had lots of fun and the home cooked meal was de-lish! For lunch on Saturday, Rob and I drove downtown to have lunch with my sister Catherine, my Great Aunt Jo, and my Uncle Bill at a wonderful restaurant called Prego's. It was really great getting to spend some time with them and all because it was my birthday! From there, we came back home and had a little time to relax until it was time to go to my holiday party for work. It turned out to be a lot of fun and I am glad we went -- especially because they had Olive Garden cater the food! My favorite! On Sunday (my actual birthday), Rob's parents and sister Kelly came up north to take me out to lunch wherever I wanted! So after some thought (since I had eaten my favorite the night before..) we decided on The Cheesecake Factory. And, as expected, it was amazingly good. Of course, my wonderful mother in law just HAD to tell them it was my birthday so I would get a group singing to me.. :) All kidding aside though, it was really sweet that they drove up to see me for my birthday. I got some really great presents from everyone which was good - but I won't go into detail about those - except for the one Rob got for me. Being the sweet guy that he is, he knew that my iPod was older than dirt and surprised me with a new one! It was totally unexpected and it was pretty exciting to see that ALL of my music could fit onto it. But here comes.. the bad. Since it is a newer model, I wanted to check and see if it would fit in my old iPod speakers. Well, I looked and looked... and looked. And.. Gone. And so was my old iPod. It was taken in the robbery, and we didn't notice it missing because I hadn't used it since the break-in. Good news is that we have added the two items to the insurance claim and will be getting a new set of speakers for my iPod shortly. And that's the good, the bad, and the birthday!!

Happy Birthday to...

...one of my best friends, Kelli!!!! (Maroon of course because she's an Aggie too!)

Rob and I are going to the Burrow house tonight to have dinner and play games and celebrate our birthdays! I'm so glad it's our birthday weekend!

How it's going..

Just a quick update from our recent break in.. We finally were able to get our insurance adjuster to come visit this past Monday to assess the damage and take pictures. We are still waiting on the financial part from them because we are waiting on the police report to be completed, faxed to us, and then faxed to insurance. So, here's hoping all of that gets taken care of soon and we have money to replace some of our stolen items. Once we had the adjuster come out, we were able to have our glass replaced. We also have a security system in place which is making things feel much safer while we are away at work. And that's how it's been going..

Nothing dashes your Christmas spirits...

..like getting your house broken into :( On Tuesday, Rob and I had our house broken into and had some items taken out of the house. Although it really sucks, there are a few positive things - the first one being that the break in happened while we were gone at work so both of us were unharmed. Thankfully all three of the cats were all accounted for inside the house which was my first thought after finding out the house had been broken into. And finally, we were lucky because a neighbor several houses down from us had noticed there was a suspicious car driving around and he called the police. He also called again once he saw that car parked in front of our house, and the police showed up not too long after.

So - the robbery happened around 1:30, the neighbor called as soon as he noticed the car, and the police arrived around 2. From our looking around so far, it seems they took Rob's Mac laptop (super bummer), the Xbox 360, the Wii, and a flat screen computer monitor. When the police got to the house, the robbers were already gone. The witness got some information, but who knows if anything will come of it. Anyways, once the police arrived, they called Rob who headed home to see the damage. Our back window was busted by a brick being thrown at it, and there was glass everywhere. The thing that saddens me the most (besides all the things that were taken) was that my babies were here alone and I don't know where they were when the brick came thru, or how they were treated once the robbers came in.

We are hopefully getting the window replaced next week -- it takes time to make one our size apparently, and the insurance adjuster should be coming out Monday. I'm not sure how much money we will be getting from insurance, but I'm sure it won't be too much since we have to meet our deductible first. I'm starting to understand the saying - Bah, Humbug!