Top 5 Things About the AdvoCare V100 Independence Bowl

1. Friends

2. Awesome pre-game B-52 flyover.
This happened right after a prayer was said
to OUR FATHER in JESUS NAME. AMEN.

3. The incomparable Fightin' Texas Aggie Band.

4. Opposing Team's Band had a fire twirler/juggler
who at one point actually set the turf on fire.

5. My first taste of McDonald's hot chocolate--but not my last.

Obvious omissions from the list: the football game itself, the cadet from Va Tech who hurled drunken obscenities to anyone within earshot until his friends dragged him (since he could not walk) out of the stadium, and any fan from Shreveport in our general vicinity during the game.

That currently ranks up there as the worst football venue I've ever visited. And I've been to Lubbock TWICE!

Hi Mom!

Gentry Family Christmas 2009

Could he be any cuter?

It was a different kind of Christmas for us this year. Because I am on call over the holiday, we stayed in FW until lunchtime on Christmas day. We had no choice since we were iced in. We tried going to the Christmas Eve service at our church and slipped and slid all over the road. After aborting that plan, we went back to the house where I whipped up a candlelit dinner of puffed pancakes (originally we had planned on eating out with friends.) The first attempt at leaving for Corsicana the next morning was at 9, but when we tried going up the hill to get out of our 'hood, the car slid straight back down. Hands down one of the scariest experiences of my life.

In the meantime, we played a lot of Rockband.

I don't have any pictures of me, but Brad got me some awesome boots. When I wore them to lunch on Christmas Day, my dad informed me that he had a pair like them in the 70s. He says they are called dingos. So even more awesome--I got dingos for Christmas.

My dingos are pictured below. When I started to get dressed for the photos Hailey made of us recently, I whined and complained casually mentioned that the boots I wanted for Christmas would be so much more amazing and fabulous much cuter with my outfit than those I was planning on wearing. Much to my surprise, B had already bought them and pulled them out to let me wear them. That's a good husband right there. After the shoot, he immediately hid them, and I hadn't seen them until now.

Yay, husband!

McCary Family Christmas 2009 in Pictures

Christmas Day after lunch





Typical Drew, smelling his presents

Before Mom broke the Wii (then bought a new part)

Handmade by Yours Truly

The easiest/best time waster ever.

I don't have pics of us playing because I've been too busy shredding the plastic guitar.

Warmest Wishes

Merry Christmas!

On My Wishlist Today

Every girl should enjoy her morning tea from
a cup inscribed with Mr. Darcy's proposal, no?



via the fabulous Brookish on Etsy.

{She tells me that she hopes to have these
back in stock by the end of the week.}

Brad ♥'s Christmas lights.

So I had the bright idea for us to drive around and look at Christmas lights tonight. Brad did some googling, and this is what we came up with. What you are watching below is a house in Fort Worth, and It. Is. Awesome.

The Surprise Mix 2008 from chapelcreeklights on Vimeo.

Above is the 2008 Surprise Mix. This year it's the Black Eyed Peas, and you will NOT be disappointed. Seriously we watched it for 25 minutes, and the neighbor across the street has his own show going as well. Call if you want the address!

And So They Fell in Love, Over Processed Sugar.

This time of year is so fun for me because these were the first months of dating for us back in good 'ol 2003. On one of our first times to hang out, we went to Wal-mart (the glamorous life!) and ended up purchasing white chocolate covered oreos. My husband LOVES these, and so every year we are very happy when we find them in store. It's become our family tradition to consume them at Christmas.



First you bite a hole in the shield that is the white chocolate.

Then you dunk.

The white chocolate holds all the milk in and your fingers don't get mushy chocolate cookie on them--a very clean and delicious way to eat oreos.

I Met The Pioneer Woman

For any unfamiliar, The Pioneer Woman (Ree Drummond) is a lovely house/ranch wife from our neighbor to the north, Oklahoma. She has a beautiful blog that has morphed from simple to a serious work of technology. Her posts vary from life on the ranch to makeup, and she is a HOOT. My description sells her blog short because I know you would love it.

{And she has awesome giveaways, but that's just a bonus.}

She has a fabulous new cookbook out that any lady on your list would enjoy receiving for Christmas with beautiful photography and great home-cooked recipes. If you've been following her Griswold Family-style book tour, you know that last night was the much anticipated booksigning at Borders in Dallas. From what I gathered from the the Borders staff, they anticipated anywhere from 400-500 people showing up. Instead, they got EIGHT HUNDRED.

Ashley and her mom were there for a little while, but the line just got way too long. They finally called our color group to line up for the signing (behind 5 other color groups of 100 people), and I decided that I'd give it 30 minutes and leave if the line wasn't moving.

What happened next was something I did not anticipate.

After about 15 minutes of waiting in line, the girl behind me asked about my Aggie ring, which in turn led me to forming a line friendship with 7 other ladies waiting it out. The line friendship morphed into facebook friendship, and then facebook friendship started us talking about starting a P-Dub Supper Club. We had so much fun, and it made the time pass a lot faster!

Ashley and me. We are like 10 feet from PW.

Crazy line ladies amusing themselves
before they became the P-Dub Supper Club.

This was taken at 12:30 AM.
She had been signing books for 5 1/2 hours at this point
and was still so gracious and smiley. I have to imagine that
3 years ago she never imagined her blog would turn into this.

{I'll update soon with a picture of the charter members of the P-Dub Supper Club along with P-Dub herself. It was so nice to meet you ladies!}

Full is Right.

On my mom's side of the family, everyone was in for the holiday at some point during the span of 4 days. We celebrated new lives given to Christ, new friends, new adventures, and being together. We also made something like 5 trips to Wal-Mart. I wish I were kidding.

Thankful for home.

Thankful for my grandparents' home and table.

Thankful for Grannie's dressing and
that man helping himself (my daddy!)

Thankful for my mother, and that I
didn't have to put the ice in the glasses.
(Seriously, my least favorite chore ever.)

Thankful for family.
{Grannie, Aunt Sheri, Pop, and Mom}

Thankful for my super husband. I am a blessed girl.

Public Service Announcement

{From Etsy seller 3LambsGraphcs}Their stuff is cool.

He Makes the Impossible Possible.

I lost my engagement ring and
wedding ring this past week.

Thinking about it makes me want to throw up even now.

We were at a park having some family pictures made. We set up for a tossed leaf picture, and on three, we threw the leaves up in the air. As soon as we were done, I looked at my left hand which no longer had rings on it and said to my husband, the man who gave me these rings, "MY RINGS ARE NOT ON MY HAND. I HAVE LOST MY RINGS."

I am convinced that those must be the most feared words for any man who has worked and saved to buy his fair lady a beautiful, shiny diamond.

Immediately he told me, "DON'T MOVE."

I froze like a statue while he and our wonderfully talented photographer began canvassing the area that was covered in leaves and grass. Feeling dumb for not helping, I finally marked my spot with my scarf and tried to search between pleas like, "Lord, help us" and "I'm so sorry."

Within 5 minutes we had retraced my steps, and Brad found my engagement ring. SWEET RELIEF. Praising God for that HUGE MIRACLE, we set about looking for my wedding band. The sun was setting, and after a while we were unable to look any more. The "Citizens on Patrol" car in the burb we live in came rolling through the park, asking what we'd lost. He mentioned that he had metal detector, but it was too late for him to come back that night.

After a long night of me sobbing over my sweet little wedding band, that patient, kind, and wonderful man of mine went back to the park at first light with a flashlight. The thought of him out searching makes my heart melt even now.

Unfortunately, he did not find it.

A few hours later, our citizen on patrol and his wife met Brad back out at the park with metal detectors. After two more hours of searching, the wife glanced down and saw the sun bounce off of something in the grass. What was lost was absolutely found. If you saw this park and the ground they were searching, you would understand that what I am talking about is an absolute miracle.

I am absolutely convinced that God cares about even our small things. This was a moment--a tangible reminder to me--that He is GOOD and faithful in all things, whether the answer is yes or no. Praise His Name.

(P.S. My rings were insured for loss, but who wants replacement rings?)
(P.P.S. I love how our pictures turned out. Check them on Facebook.)

OH NO I DIDN'T

Oh yes, I did.

At the theater at
7:45 PM last night
for a showing of New Moon
that began @ midnight
and was over at 2:30 AM.

I am tired.

Everything but Bella
was much improved,
and I enjoyed the movie
about my least fave book
of the series.



Edward is nice, but
I'm 100% Team Brad.

The Great Outdoors

I seriously could go on and on about Salt Lake City, but it's time to move on. I'm currently typing this on 2.5 hours of sleep (more on that later) so if my humor (if there is any) is lost on you, I apologize in advance.

On Friday the 13th, we embarked on a camping adventure with a bunch of friends. I told no less than 20 people the week prior that we were camping in Weatherford to which each responded, "I didn't know there was a place to camp in Weatherford." Well, clearly I did not make our reservation since it was in Mineral Wells. I had no idea where we were going other than somewhere west of where I live where there are no solid roofs or fluffy mattresses and down comforters. Instead, there are spiders and dirt.

I watched Brad set up the tent. Good job honey!
(He's an Eagle Scout. He certainly doesn't need my help, right?)

Grand theft pictorial: this came from Ashley's blog.
If someone knows where that long hair came from, let me know.

Ashley and Brad were on a quest to drink two gallons of sweet tea.
That equals 1 gallon per person. You're welcome.

They have rock climbing and all sorts of cool stuff out at Mineral Wells. After our
campsite was invaded by Boy Scouts on Saturday, those of us remaining left to explore.

The Laramores win the prize for travelling the farthest to camp.
Oklahoma OK!

The Gentry Family and sedimentary rock.

Overlooking the lake

Caroline by the cave

SLC Public Library

Public libraries have been on my brain lately. A library is so cool. Seriously. For all the taxes we pay, it's so nice to go and have all these free fabulous books to check out and read. Be a fan of your public library!

While our own local library system is wonderful, the facilities are not quite so fab, so I nearly died when I read up and subsequently visited the Salt Lake City Central Public Library.

It had me at the the bike rack. How cool is that?

READ BOOKS.

The inside

Bookshelves to the left, study/reading areas to the right. Amazing.
On the first floor, there is a Friends of the Library store (selling old library books and other fun literary paraphernalia), a coffee shop, and an art gallery.

The right wall slants inward, and the architecture is beautiful, although this pic doesn't do it justice. It's 5 or 6 floors. More details found here.

And up top, a rooftop garden.

Wow.



All my faves are there.

Fort Worth, I want this library.

Hiking Adam's Canyon

On my last day in Utah, my dear husband suggested we go hiking. Let me first say, "Hi, my name is Emily. I do not hike, and I do not like dirt. I prefer leisurely strolling in climate controlled shopping centers." But I knew it would make him so happy because, like most boys, he's into that kinda stuff, so I threw my hat in the ring for Wife of the Year.

He had done his research and decided that Adam's Canyon would be our destination for the day. After stopping by Del Taco for some jalapeno rings (YUM-O) and a gas station run for bottled water, we parked the car and got out for what was described to me as a "moderate hike."

At the trailhead, the path was immediately a steep incline. We could still see the neighborhood where our car was parked when I started asking, "how much further?"

After 3/4 a mile, it levelled out a bit, and we stopped so I could take a few pics. Of course, our stop had nothing to do with the fact that I was completely winded. Some senior citizens came by and pretty much made fun of us for resting so soon. After that, we saw some people trail running, so we decided that clearly we had not adjusted to the altitude and that must be why we were having such a tough time. My pics from there were worth the humiliation. Gorgeous!

Anyway, onward and upward. Finally the path took us back into the wooded area and up the side of the mountain. The sights and foliage were amazing. I tried to limit how many times I asked, "how much further?" unsuccessfully. Everyone we passed on the trail would say it was only 15 more minutes to the end.

Finally, I had reached my limit. I was actually scared to go any further. There was some climbing involved, and I'm not that graceful, nor can I pull myself up, and I was convinced I would fall off the ledge and die. So my knight-in-shining-armor did exactly what you would expect him to do: he left me right there, by myself, in the Utah Wilderness.

[insert huge fit right here]

I calmed down after about 15 minutes when I saw a little girl around 10 come hopping down the wall that I refused to climb, one-handed. ONE-HANDED. At that point I was all, "I will show Mr. Gentry who can climb a mountain!" And y'all, I climbed right on up, rounded a corner to find another huge ledge, got scared again but kept right on going. I even surprised my man who met me as he was coming back from the end.

He turned around with me, and we went back to discover a beautiful waterfall that trickled all the way down through Adam's Canyon. Here are some pics from the end.

Just call me nature girl.

Park City and the Olympic Training Center

The next day we slept in and got a late morning start up to Park City, only 25 minutes outside of SLC and home to the Olympic Training Center.

Since we were starving, we started out our visit with lunch along Main St. and some shopping. This is the perfect little mountain ski resort town. Loved it and would love to go back!

After we finished up some shopping there, we headed onto the Olympic Training Center, the site of the 2002 Winter Olympic bobsled, luge, skeleton, and nordic events. It was insane. It costs $4000 a day to keep the bobsled track iced. While we were there, they were taking test sleds down. Piloting this one was Pat Brown (the guy John Candy played in Cool Runnings.)

Wave, everyone!
Here you can see the giant Nordic hill. The nets and such are there because they were converting from summer training to winter.

Note the Olympic logo on the landing spot.
Here we are at the top of the Nordic hill. Note now that you can't even see that Olympic logo because the hill is that steep.

Nordic, no thank you.
At the top of the nordic jump.
Athletes only, of course.


This was one of the coolest sports venue tours I've ever taken. It has me seriously begging Mr. G to take me to Vancouver 2010, but I'm mostly interested in the ice skating, of course!