Time for an update...

It's been a long time since my last post. I'm SO thrilled to say that I now have semester #1 of grad school under my belt! I can't begin to express what a weight has been lifted off of me as I get to relax this holiday break. No more worrying about finding enough time to study or reading textbooks until my eyes burn (at least not for another month). The weirdest part about my break, though, is that Jacky doesn't get a break like I do anymore. Hello, real world. While I have a month off of school and work, he only gets a total of four days. Not enough!! I miss him, but I'm so proud of him. Seeing him during his lunch breaks makes my day (and hopefully his) so much brighter! With all this free time, I've been cooking and baking, catching up on laundry and other housework, and cleaning out my second home--my car! I think I'm also going to go buy the Hunger Games series to read over the break. I've heard only wonderful things about it, and the movie looks awesome. Any thoughts???

Jack and I have been learning a lot about dealing with holidays as a married couple. Last weekend we split time between his family in Marshall and my family in Bentonville. We loved seeing everyone and made some wonderful memories! However, we've learned that we don't want to split one weekend between families anymore, if possible. It would be much more relaxing to just spend an entire weekend in one place instead of spending 6+ hours on the road. This weekend will be even crazier: we'll be in Bentonville the 23rd and 24th, come home to Conway to wake up here together Christmas morning, then off to Marshall for the 25th and 26th. It'll be fun, and we can't wait for more precious moments together and with family... but we (hopefully) won't be doing holidays like this again. :) We're very grateful, though, to be able to live close enough to both families to see them often. We know that we are very, very blessed!

One more exciting thing we're looking forward to this winter break is the COTTON BOWL! Go Hogs! Our tickets came in today, and we can't wait! We have family and friends in Dallas, so we'll be making a fun weekend trip out of going to the game. And hopefully I can get some good Dallas shopping out of it!

Jack Tyler, Maggie, and I wish you all 

a safe, fun, and blessed holiday season!