Up All Night- The Growing Prysocks

For weeks I have seen several blog posts and Facebook notes in which the author shares random facts seemingly unknown by the general population. I have loved reading them but have really struggled to find anything weird/interesting/funny enough to post. However, since David and I haven't been able to post in about two weeks I thought I would give it a shot. Hopefully next time David will be able to share as well.

So here goes!

1. Secretly, whenever I take a shower I imagine that I am auditioning for American Idol. I don't typically watch the show nor would I ever dream of trying out for it. Yet, when I am in the shower (which has AWESOME acoustics) I go to town. Whitney Houston, eat your heart out.

2. Lately I have found myself daydreaming up creative ways to someday unveil the news to our family and friends that we are pregnant. When we get pregnant, that is.

3. I have a very strong fear of sharks that has slowly developed into a fear of being in the deep ocean. Actually, I had a panic attack once when I was swimming from an island out to a sailboat and almost drowned because I was terrified that a shark was coming after me. (Then, it turned out that I had to tread water for 10 minutes once I reached the boat because a barracuda was circling it. I think that sealed the deal.)

4. I think the best gift in the entire world took place in a Disney movie: When the Beast unveiled an entire library as a present to Belle. A-Mazing.

5. There was a time in my life where I had to sleep completely under the covers and as still as humanly possible because I was convinced that a tyrannosaurus rex was staring directly into my bedroom window.

6. I do not eat scrambled eggs because, to me, they look like dead baby chickens.

7. One of my favorite things about Christmas is looking at Christmas lights. I learned this year that not everyone thinks it is as fun as I do.

8. I love canned spinach. I would eat it straight out of the can if my husband wasn't totally disgusted by it.

9. I think that dogs go to heaven.

10. At one time I could quote verbatim the entire movie "Ever After." It's been several years since I have seen it, but I think I could still manage over 50%.

11. I have never successfully eaten a tomato.

12. My biggest pet peeve is when things fall down. My husband says I am constantly mad at gravity.

13. I do the most incredible lip-syncing rendition of Air Supply's "Making Love Out of Nothing At All." It's a shame none of you will ever get to see it because it is truly something to behold.

14. I love to read. I know everyone knows that but I just HAD to include it.

15. I am obsessed with Jon and Kate Plus 8. They make me want to have sextuplets.

16. I've recently taken up crocheting. My favorite thing about creating things out of yarn is not what the actual product is but rather is the idea of carrying on the tradition of something my grandmother did. Every time I crochet I feel more connected to the women of past generations.

When I was growing up we always had a dog. I honestly can't remember a time when my family didn't have pets. So when I went off to college at ACU, my whole world changed. No pets allowed. I knew this before I came to Abilene. I had watched plenty of movies and television shows about college before my freshman year so I was well-versed in the rules of dorm-life. Hiding puppies and kittens in the hall might have been humorous on TV but certainly wasn't going to fly in Nelson Hall.


I didn't realize how much I missed having pets until I saw some lucky man or woman walking their adorable puppy around ACU. Wherever I was, my life would come to a stop while I forced myself on all these wary owners and their friendly dogs.

So almost immediately after David and I got married, I started having puppy fever. If you ask, I'm sure he would agree that I was incessantly pointing out puppies, pouting about not having one, or dreaming up new schemes to get one. Until finally, God smiled down on me and presented us with the perfect opportunity. And just days after my birthday, we brought home our baby: a little Sheltie puppy we named Beesly.**



Since the day we brought her home, we have loved her so much. Yeah, we're those people. The people who refer to her as our baby. The people that worry about our dog when we're out of town. The people who frequent PetSmart just so they can take their dog somewhere. We've forced her on our Life Group family and the rest of our families. And (thankfully) everyone has graciously embraced her.


Despite our obsession, Beesly has helped us immensely through the program. She has been a great source of amusement and a fabulous way to de-stress after a long day. She loves to cuddle (which makes me happy) and plays Frisbee like a pro (which makes David happy). So forgive us when we're a little bit crazy and thanks for humoring us by looking through the vast amount of pictures I just uploaded to the blog. :)

*So honestly. How many of you thought David and I had some "special news" to share? ;)
**And special points to our wonderful readers who know who Beesly is named after!

Because the clinic is closed on Wednesdays, David and I have decided that each week we'll have a date day and spend some quality time together. We had the brilliant and completely original idea to go to the NCCIL, as we're always excited about free or inexpensive date ideas. It was wonderful! It was a cute little exhibit featuring the children's author Mo Willems. His books are adorable it it took the restraint of my sweet and smart husband to remind me that buying EVERY Mo Willems book in one day probably wasn't completely necessary. But they're on my radar now. :)

Here are some of the pictures from the day with my fabulous narration:

We started the day driving to the NCCIL:

We started walking around the exhibit and reading a few of Mo's books:
Throughout the exhibit were all sorts of cool drawings that Mo apparently painted onto the walls:


We also discovered that Mo got his start twisting wire into all sorts of cool shapes!


Then we discovered the Pigeon books:



And David decided that "The Pigeon Wants a Puppy" sounded an awful lot like some girl he knows.....

Next we found the Elephant and Piggie books which are hilarious! They had both David and I laughing out loud. Here's a picture of me with my favorite:


Finally, we ended our time at the NCCIL by drawing pictures of the Pigeon! They had great step-by-step instructions from Mo Willems!



Unfortunately I did not think to snap a picture of David with his Pigeon. But here is a picture of it anyways!

And look what we found!

Christmas time is highly anticipated and celebrated at the Prysock household. Typically, we officially start listening to Christmas music the day after Thanksgiving (although we may sneak in a few Christmas favorites before then). We love the cold weather that is supposed to come with the season. We love the decorations and how everyone always seems to be in a better mood around Christmas. We also love traditions: traditions that we've had our whole lives and those we are defining as a new family.

This year we bought our beloved Christmas tree a few days before Thanksgiving so that we could start decorating as early as possible Friday morning. Since this was our last Christmas in Abilene (Lord willing), we decided to go all out: we took advantage of our awesome apartment and its insanely high ceilings and bought an 8 foot tall Christmas tree. David named him Sappy. And grew very attached.

Yesterday, however, we took down Christmas. I carefully unhooked all the ornaments and placed them in their boxes. I wrapped fragile pieces in tissue paper and hoped they would survive another year stuck in storage. I ripped the lights from the tree (yes ripped. I discovered that I don't have the patience for taking down lights) and rolled them up. We boxed up everything that reminds us of Christmas and it's now locked away until next year.

There are not a thousand pine needles on our floor like there has been the past few weeks. I don't have to pick up tiny, Christmas-related knick-knacks in order to clean or dust. I don't have to remember to water a giant tree and come up with needles and branches sticking out of my hair. And I miss it already.

In honor of Christmas 2008, here are a few pictures of the final days of Christmas:

So one of our New Year's resolutions is to lose weight and be healthier by (surprise!) eating better and working out more. Our game plan for exercise (for me) is to play Wii Fit and DDR. The rest of my physical activity comes from lifting 80lb bags of concrete multiple times every time I go to work, which is often. As far as eating better, we're trying this diet plan we found out about from my mom. It's worked really well for my mom and stepdad so far so we're giving it a shot. So far we're on day 2.....and I think I'm going to die. LITERALLY going to die.

I don't really know the logic of the diet, but from what I can tell so far, you basically eat a little as humanly possible without going completely insane from hunger. As an example, for lunch today I had a small can of tuna (just tuna, not tuna salad) and 8 saltine crackers. That's it. No chips, no bread, no soda. Nothing else. Most meals are typically characterized by that level of meagerness. Dinners are a little better, but still not filling (for me). Basically on this diet I am ALWAYS hungry. As in gnawing my finger off out of desperation hungry. I have learned a few things about myself from this diet so far. These may also be a side effect of eating close to nothing:

- I can actually eat tuna straight out of the can and not gag. (Although I have been adding Tabasco just to spice it up some)
- I do actually like bananas
- Eating light requires much less effort and clean up
- Tabasco can fix many things, culinarily speaking
- I have an unhealthy dependence on chocolate (my mouth waters just typing the word)
- I really like meat (twss)
- Diet Sunkist is better than no Sunkist at all

And perhaps the most important thing I've learned- I LOVE food. I really love food. Perhaps too much (obviously). This is starting to become somewhat of a frightening realization to me because I wasn't aware I was so hung up on food in general. So as much as I whine about being hungry and not getting to eat food I like, this diet has helped point out to me an area in which I rely too much on something that isn't God. But I guess that's the point of New Year's resolutions.....

My two best friends from college, Alyson and Myranda, came into town this weekend. Alyson brought her wonderful fiance, Charlie, to meet her crazy friends and to see the sites in Abilene. Alyson and I met our freshman year at ACU. We lived on the same hall together which we affectionately (and appropriately!) referred to as the "Psych Ward." Alyson left right after our junior year to pursue her doctorate in physical therapy but before she went we had some AMAZING times together. She lives in Nebraska now so it's always a blessing when she is able to come down for a visit. Seeing her with Charlie was perfect. I'm so glad I got to see the happy couple together before their big day in May!

Myranda and I first met my sophomore year and her freshman year. We were really just acquaintances at first but our junior and senior year we became inseparable. She lives in Tyler, TX so she gets to come visit often which I LOVE!

We all spent the weekend eating delicious food, playing games on the Wii, having good talks and watching lots of movies. Despite the lack of actual physical activity, I still managed to take tons and tons of pictures.



Here are pictures Aly and I took on our mandatory walk around ACU. We're teaching the creepy bronze kids in front of the education building to read.

David and I thought that before we officially started the "what's going on in our lives" portion of the blog, we would tell a little bit about how we got here! I'll try to be as brief as possible since no one wants to read a 5,000 word blog post!

David and I both completed our undergraduate work at Abilene Christian University in Abilene, Texas. In the spring semester of 2004 we both participated in a study abroad trip to Oxford, England where we met and became friends. After two year of being friends, David decided we should try our hand at dating! April of 2006 he proposed and on May 19th of 2007 we got married! Now we're (still) in Abilene and are both working on our Masters of Marriage and Family Therapy degrees.

Here are a few pictures from the last few years. Enjoy!

After weeks of debating names and formats and other insignificant details, we have a blog! Hopefully lots of changes will be happening soon but for now we just wanted to get SOMETHING posted!

Happy New Year to everyone!