Congratulations Chrissy!!!

On December 17, 2011 Cody's sister, Chrissy, graduated from college!!!  And...we couldn't be more proud of her!!!  Chrissy has been working on getting her Bachelor's degree now for quite some time, and I know she is so thankful to have accomplished this goal as well as be completely done with college.  When Cody and I first started dating, she was planning a wedding, making plans to move to Del Rio, raising two kiddos, working full time, and going to college.  She and her hubby got married in June and by August, they had moved to Del Rio to begin their new life together.  When they moved, Chrissy had been attending Cisco Junior College so that she could get all of her basics out of the way.  She and Richard had been together for a long time and she knew that after they got married, she was going to be moving to Del Rio with the kids.  So, she didn't want to attend a major university and then have to deal with the headache of all her credits not transferring and so on and so forth.  Whenever they moved, she was able to only do school for the first year they were down there.  Well...I say that.  They were getting adjusted to living in Del Rio, the kids were involved in sports and after school activities, and Chrissy was in school full time.  When they moved, she transferred to Sul Ross Rio Grande College.  She was able to take several classes online, but she also had to attend traditional classroom lectures.  Sul Ross is in Alpine, so whenever she had class in the actual lecture halls, she would have to commute one hour both ways to attend school.  Needless to say she was very busy. 

At the time they moved, they lived in a really cute three bedroom apartment, but new that they would soon find a house to live in so that they could all have more room as well as a backyard for the kids to play in.  After their first year there, they began house hunting, found a house, and moved in.  About a year after they lived there, Cody and I went down to see them during Spring Break.  Neither one of us had ever been to Del Rio, so they showed us all around.  I must say, there are some beautiful little spots in Del Rio.  We had a lot of fun with them and enjoyed our stay and getting to spend time with them.  By this point, Chrissy had found a full time job that she was really enjoying and still going to school full time as well and being a full time wife and mom.  Not too long after that, she and Richard had decided that they wanted to try and have a baby.  Chrissy's two oldest were thirteen and ten at this point, and they were super excited at the possibility of having a new baby brother or sister around.  Well...soon after they first started about having another baby, we got a phone call with their announcement that they were pregnant!!!  YAY!!!

The whole time Chrissy was pregnant, she was still going to school, working, raising two kiddos who were busy and involved in lots of activities, taking care of the house and her hubs.  I remember talking to Cody several times about how she was such an inspiration with doing all of this and still being so determined to go to school full time and get her degree.  At this point in time, I had just started going back to school myself to get my Master's and it was hard on me and we don't have kids and my entire degree program is online.  I couldn't imagine trying to go back to school while working full time and having two kiddos as well as being pregnant...she was definitely an inspiration to me!  In June of 2010 we traveled down to Del Rio to welcome sweet little Aaron into the world.  He is the cutest little thing and will be two years old this year...wow how time flies!

After Aaron was born, Chrissy took that summer off so that the could focus on taking care of her sweet newborn and start getting into the routine of having a new baby in the house.  It was good timing because Airicka and Eli were out for summer break, so they were huge helps to Chrissy and Richard when Aaron was born.  In the fall of 2010, Chrissy began school and went back to work full time...but she was down to the last two years of school.  I can't imagine how busy she really was, but I do know that I have never seen anyone more motivated or determined to go to school while being involved in all the things that she was involved with.  She never missed a single thing that any of the three kids were doing or involved in.  They were always around for the holidays, remembered birthdays and anniversaries, came to visit when they had time off, took the kids on mini vacations, all while both working and Chrissy going to school.  I know it was super helpful to be able to take many of her classes online, but I also know that it was really hard on her the one or two nights a week she had to travel out of town for class.

But...this December...it all payed off!!!  December 17, 2011 will be a day that Chrissy will never forget because that is the day that she walked across that stage and received her Bachelor's Degree in Social Science.  The commencement ceremonies took place in UvaldeOmni when we go to San Antonio and this time was no different.  After we ate, we checked in to the hotel, both took showers, and then just crawled in bed to watch TV.  It was so nice to not have an agenda and just be able to sit in bed together and watch a movie...before that night...I couldn't have told you when we did that!  On Saturday morning, we woke up, had breakfast, went to the work-out facility in the hotel (which is so nice...and one of the reasons we love staying there), got an amazing work-out in, went back to the room, got cleaned up, then headed out for a fun filled day.  We had lunch at BJ's Brewhosue...which is by far our MOST favorite restaurant of all time.  Abilene seriously needs to get one of these restaurants.  Thank you Amie for introducing me to it several years ago when I went down to stay with you for a girls weekend...I'm officially addicted!!!  I've also gotten my entire family on the BJ's Brewhouse kick too...it's just that good!  We had an amazing lunch, then headed out to the La Cantera Mall.  This mall is fabulous!  Think North Park and the Galleria combined...but the corridors and hallways are all outside!  The weather was so nice, it was cool, but just warm enough that walking around the shopping center was so enjoyable.  Cody and I got Chrissy a gift certificate from there so that she could go shopping and treat herself with anything that she wanted.  She doesn't do that very often, so we thought the perfect graduation present was a gift certificate to go on a shopping spree!  We did a little bit of shopping ourselves, then headed back to the hotel to change, freshen up, grab some dinner, and head to Uvalde.  We were running a little late, so we wound up stopping to eat at an amazing little mom and pop restaurant in one of the towns on the way.  I believe it was called Sammy's.  Anyways, we got to Uvalde around 7:00...just in time for the commencement ceremony to begin at 7:30!  There were about 120 graduates that evening walking across the stage.  Several of them were receiving the Master's degrees while the rest of the graduates were receiving their Bachelor's degrees. 

All of Chrissy's family was there.  Richard's parents, one of his sisters and her little girl, us, both sets of her parents, her sister and her boyfriend, and of course her hubby and their three kiddos.  She had a full house with just our group there!  When her name was announced, we all stood up to clap for her and show her our excitement and how proud we were of her.  After graduation, we were going to try and make it back into San Antonio to go have drinks and appetizers, but we did too much celebrating and didn't even leave Uvalde until 9:30!  We took tons and tons of pictures and just talked and enjoyed one another for a little bit after the ceremony was over.  Chrissy and the rest of the family were all staying in San Antonio all weekend as well, so we all headed back to our hotels and made plans to get together for an early lunch that Sunday.  After we got back from Uvalde, we watched another movie...it was so nice being lazy!  We slept in a little bit on Sunday morning, had a light breakfast, got ready and packed up all our stuff, checked out of the hotel, then headed to meet everyone for lunch.  Chrissy picked Cheddar's, which we hadn't been to in forever either, so we were excited about that!  We all had lunch together and got to spend time with the family before we all went our separate ways.  Chrissy and her little family were going to to to the mall and do some shopping and we were heading back to Abilene.  We had so much fun getting to celebrate Chrissy and spend some much needed time together!!!  Luckily, we were going to be seeing everyone again in a week because it was going to be Christmas!!!  Yay...my favorite time of year!!!

Chrissy, we are so very proud of you!  CONGRATULATIONS!!!