Happy Holidays to you and yours! Here's a video of one of my favorite songs that I was able to sing when I participated in an annual singing of Handel's "Messiah." The words of the song come straight from the Book of Isaish in the Bible, as does much of the music for the full concert. Enjoy!
Have a great holiday, and I'll be back another day to post the remaining recipes from my Christmas week menu and pictures!
Friday, December 25, 2009
Monday, December 21, 2009
Christmas Week Menu
I'm so excited this week is here! I love Christmas and all the meaning and spirit of the season! This is the first Christmas I've spent away from Texas in a LONG time...as in since I was in 3rd grade! Anyway, R's parents and sister are joining us here in MD for the holiday and I'm so excited! We may have gotten over 21" of snow the other day, with a likely chance of more on Christmas Eve, but the roads have, for the most part, been cleared for easy travel throughout most of our area. There's still some issues I see at the smaller intersections and on the lesser used highways, but the workers who deal with the snow plows and salting trucks have been hard at work, and I'm so thankful as Saturday was very treacherous to drive!
Anyway, back to the reason for the post: The menu I came up for dinners for the week. We may actually change one or two of these to go to a restaurant or two, not sure yet. (Mon. and Tues. are still up in air...may have spaghetti on Mon.) If you notice that these recipes come from Southern living, you would be right, as I love having a subscription to that magazine for all kinds of ideas throughout the year.
On Tuesday: I'll be making some Apple Cinnamon Bread to take to work as well as another loaf for the house.
Wed.: Spinach-Apple Salad, Antipasto Penne Pasta (I'll type up the recipe here the day of), Homeade Sugar-Free Cherry Ice Cream Cordials with Whiskey Hot Fudge Sauce
Thurs.: Happy Christmas Eve!! R's family is Italian and German in heritage on his dad's side and British and Irish on his mother's side (as in my mother-in-law's mom was British). Anyway they have a family tradition of shipping in Dungeness Crab to eat for that dinner from Pike Place Market in Seattle. We'll be having that, as well as a Green Salad with Orange Vinaigrette, some red beans and rice, and a Pear Tart for dessert (Recipe I will be using will be typed up here on Thurs.). I might make up some Pomegranate Cocktails as well.
Fri.: I'm off work! Christmas morning, presents will be opened and we will be having an easy breakfast and lunch, possibly even some leftovers. For dinner, we will have Meat Fondue, Green Beans, and Lasagna. I'll also be making some dinner rolls with my breadmaker to help.
Sat.: May make corn quesadillas and slow-roasted tomatoes (if we do this, I'll put the recipe up that day), or we may go out to eat, not totally sure. The family was once stationed in Hawaii (R's parents are both retired USAF officers), and there is an excellent restaurant (Roy's) that is centered around Hawaiian dishes. R and his mom ate there when he moved East early this past summer before we were married.
Anyway, back to the reason for the post: The menu I came up for dinners for the week. We may actually change one or two of these to go to a restaurant or two, not sure yet. (Mon. and Tues. are still up in air...may have spaghetti on Mon.) If you notice that these recipes come from Southern living, you would be right, as I love having a subscription to that magazine for all kinds of ideas throughout the year.
On Tuesday: I'll be making some Apple Cinnamon Bread to take to work as well as another loaf for the house.
Wed.: Spinach-Apple Salad, Antipasto Penne Pasta (I'll type up the recipe here the day of), Homeade Sugar-Free Cherry Ice Cream Cordials with Whiskey Hot Fudge Sauce
Thurs.: Happy Christmas Eve!! R's family is Italian and German in heritage on his dad's side and British and Irish on his mother's side (as in my mother-in-law's mom was British). Anyway they have a family tradition of shipping in Dungeness Crab to eat for that dinner from Pike Place Market in Seattle. We'll be having that, as well as a Green Salad with Orange Vinaigrette, some red beans and rice, and a Pear Tart for dessert (Recipe I will be using will be typed up here on Thurs.). I might make up some Pomegranate Cocktails as well.
Fri.: I'm off work! Christmas morning, presents will be opened and we will be having an easy breakfast and lunch, possibly even some leftovers. For dinner, we will have Meat Fondue, Green Beans, and Lasagna. I'll also be making some dinner rolls with my breadmaker to help.
Sat.: May make corn quesadillas and slow-roasted tomatoes (if we do this, I'll put the recipe up that day), or we may go out to eat, not totally sure. The family was once stationed in Hawaii (R's parents are both retired USAF officers), and there is an excellent restaurant (Roy's) that is centered around Hawaiian dishes. R and his mom ate there when he moved East early this past summer before we were married.
Sunday, December 20, 2009
Winter Wonderland
AKA Blizzard Maryland style! Drove to work today....usually takes me 20 minutes down the highways, except today it took over an hour due to the .5' of snow already on the ground. I stayed for about an hour and a half then was able to come back home due to the worsening weather conditions. R and I watched a movie and then walked down to the Cheesecake Factory in all our snow attire fabulousness...had a miniature snowball fight in the plaza in front of the Inner Harbor...good times!! There's a good two feet of snow on the ground already and its not supposed to stop until morning, with a possible chance of continuing all tomorrow. It's lovely when you're inside looking out through a window, but not so much when driving on the roads.
I plan on making sourdough bread (the start of my Christmas dinner plans for next week) and watching more movies with R for the rest of the evening.
I plan on making sourdough bread (the start of my Christmas dinner plans for next week) and watching more movies with R for the rest of the evening.
Friday, December 18, 2009
Going back a few months
So I just now uploaded a large selection of pictures from my camera and they include my first trip to Vegas, and Rick's umpteenth millionth (so I make up words sometimes, what of it?) ; ) Anyway, we went out to attend a friend's wedding in October and be tourists for half a week, as her wedding was on a Thursday. We had a lot of fun exploring the different hotels, casinos, and sights! We found a Jummy Buffett Margaritaville and had "Cheeseburgers in Paradise" to continue our trend of eating at each of those restaurants we come across (we previously ate at the Orlando one in 2006). This one had a volcano like one of the other hotels, that "blew up" with smoke and lights during our meal. They have an area for live music as well as a large screen for showing pictures of fans from the different shows.
Picture from the airplane...flying over possible Lake Mead? I don't really remember, sorry!
Flying over the Grand Canyon area! Now to only get back and see it in person and not courtesy of Northwest Airlines.
The City of Las Vegas as seen while descending onto the runway.
Some of the best food I've ever eaten!! Rick and I discovered Diego in the MGM Grand Strip. I got the fajita plate as part of a dinner special that came with drinks, entree and dessert. Down the hall from Diego is a restaurant that some of you may know about if you're Top Chef fans....Tom Colicchio's CraftSteak, which also sounded delicious! Basically he has that restaurant, another one in the hotel called 'wichcraft, and then in New York City he has Craft. Anyone else notice a trend?
Ok, enough of that and back to the sightseeing in Vegas:
This was the hotel we stayed at, and also where the wedding was located. It was a fabulous hotel! The hotel is comprised of suite style rooms. The price was really reasonable as well, and it's a fully non-smoking hotel.
When we walked through the Bellagio, they have a garden that changes with the seasons and it made up of completely organic plant and food material for decorations such as the following picture of the replica of the hotel.
Had so much fun on that trip and added three states to my goal of visiting each and every state!
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Update on 101 in 1001
Here's a quarterly update on my 101 in 1001 list. To see the original post go here.
Start Date: August 13, 2009
End Date: May 10, 2012
1. Celebrate our anniversary (0/2)
2.Surprise my husband with a gift just because (Done 9-4-09)
3.Get married. (Done 9-5-09)
4.Officially change my name to doublelettered. (Done in Oct 2009)
5. Create a will
6. Host my family at our house (0/2 (at least, may be updated later))
7. Host Rick’s family at our house (1/2 (same as my family, may be updated later))- Christmas 2009
8. Go to my family reunion (0/3)
9. Create living wills
10. Finish my list of First Ladies biographies I started (2/44)
11. Finish re-reading the Presidential biographies I started (2/44)
12. Complete some form of exercise at least 3 times per week (16/146)
13. Read at least two books per month (4/66)
14. Get my advanced open-water SCUBA certification.
15. Get re-certified in CPR
16. Go to church every Sunday for at least a month- we may have finally found a church to go to regularly! (Dec. 2009)
17. Get my rescue diver certification
18. Indulge in a few manicures (0/5)
19.Move to the new place (Done in Oct 2009)
20.Remember to take my vitamin everyday for a month- Viactiv chews are actually good. (Done in Nov. 2009)
21. Clean and go through all items in storage before moving (Didn't get done.....)
22. Teach myself Russian and Arabic
23. Get back into reading though my German materials, and complete my books I still need to read to re-familiarize myself with my college foreign language
24. Go to a cathedral for Midnight mass.
25.Unpack my stuff in our home. (Done by Oct. 2009)
26.Unpack and organize wedding gifts in our home. (Also done by Oct. 2009)
27.Set up a recycling area that will be taken to the recycler weekly (there's one on the first floor of our building) (Done by Oct 2009- trashcans not being used come in handy at times)
28. Save up for new living room furniture
29. Go house-hunting
30.Find a solution to our floor-ceiling windows in the living room (the apt. comes with vertical blinds)
31. Buy decorations for classroom
32. Buy supplies for classroom
33. Set up my classroom
34. Graduate with my Masters in Education degree (June 2011 hopefully)
35. Begin work on Anthropology Masters degree
36. Start on my thesis for my MAT
37. Research area programs for Anthropology departments (Nov 2009)
38. Travel to at least 12 different cities for weekend getaways/vacations (1/12)
39. Travel to Canada. I've been across the pond to Italy, I've been on a Caribbean cruise, and I've been south to Mexico but I haven't visited our Northern neighbor.
40. Get to New York City during the Christmas season!
41. Start a “Newlywed Map”
42. Go camping (0/3)
43. Be in D.C. for July 4th.
44. Continue my list of visiting every President's childhood home/ museum - so far I've had it easy, LBJ's ranch is down the highway from our wedding location and George Bush Sr. is in the town I where I went to college. (2/44)
45. Work on completing my U.S. travel map (20/50)
46. Try at least four new recipes a month (6/132)
47. Sit down and plan a weekly menu and shop for food each Sunday.
48. Go out to breakfast (4/16)- Frank & Nic's, Teavolve,
49.For one week, make meals that can only be made with ingredients already in our cupboards (excluding perishables—vegetables and dairy)
50. Work through all the recipes in at least two of our cookbooks
51. Write my friends in Germany and the Netherlands at least 4 times a year (2/24)
52. Send baby and wedding gifts to our friends (2/6 so far. . .)
53. Talk to my best friends every two weeks (8/73)
54. Get together with our friends from college at least twice a year (1/6)
55. E-mail friends/ send a message on FB at least once per month (5/33)
56.Celebrate Thanksgiving with a good friend of ours. (Nove 2009, good luck on the remaining finals, Rosary!!)
57. Host a friend in our new home. (My friend Anja and her boyfriend are coming to visit from Germany in a week and one half!!)
58. Celebrate my friend's graduation from law school!
59. Send birthday cards to all friends/ immediate family in 2010
62. Start a retirement account for myself.
63. Finish paying off college credit debt. (1/3)
64. Work on paying back student loans (0/3)
65. Buy a new car for one of us.
66. Buy a new laptop
67. LASIK eye surgery is sounding better and better
68. Buy a Nintendo Wii
69.Buy Wii Fit and/or Wii Active (There's funny story behind this, but I bought a Wii Fit with a wedding giftcard we received when it was on sale in Sept. 2009)
70. Get over my fear of needles and donate blood at least once. (I had a horrific experience as a five year old in pre-op)
71. Clean out closet twice a year and donate old clothes to charity (1/6)
72. Continue my habit of donating at least a dollar for every Salvation Army Bell Ringer I come across. (0/3 holiday seasons)
73. Donate $ to charity (0/10)
74. Mail packages to soldiers through Operation Baking Gals (0/10)
75. Donate my wedding dress and veil to Brides Against Breast Cancer in memory of my paternal grandmother.
76. Go on a wine cruise
77. Go on a roadtrip up and down the East Coast- I've only been to the Gulf Coast of Florida and to the Atlanta region of Georgia.
78. Go skiing again.
79. Go to each part of the Smithsonian
80. Visit all the sites in the Maryland/Pennsylvania/ Virginia area that are listed in 1001 Places to Visit Before You Die- USA and Canada, as well as the World edition.
81. Go to a Gamma Phi Beta Convention (next up Orlando, FL 2010)!
82. Host a holiday cookie swap
83. Go to the National Aquarium
84. Go to the National Zoo.
85. Go on wine tours on all the wine trails of Virginia (0/13)
86. Blog at least 20 times per month (0/33) (yea...still hasn't been done yet, although I got close one month, maybe that will be a New Year's resolution)
87. Redesign my blog. (Done in Oct. 2009)
88. Reupholster our dining chairs.
89. Finish my cross-stitch projects.
90. Have my grandmother's grandfather's, (did you follow that?) i.e. my great-great grandfather, violin fixed and ready to be played again.
91. Play the violin again- I stopped when I was in junior high.
92. Enroll in a cake-decorating class
93. After the wedding, get our proofs from our photographer. (Done in October 2009)
94. Design the wedding album and gift books (Done by our photographer and mailed in Dec. 2009)
95. Make my Christmas memories photo album that I came up with a few years ago to start when I got married.
96. Participate in Project 365
97. Actually finish the quilt I started for a friend a year ago.
98. Get my regular scrapbook up to date.
99. Work on my travel scrapbook and update it.
100. Donate $5 to a charity for every item on this list that I do not complete
101. Start a new 101 Things in 1001 Days list once this one is completed
Start Date: August 13, 2009
End Date: May 10, 2012
Marriage & Family
1. Celebrate our anniversary (0/2)
2.
3.
4.
5. Create a will
6. Host my family at our house (0/2 (at least, may be updated later))
7. Host Rick’s family at our house (1/2 (same as my family, may be updated later))- Christmas 2009
8. Go to my family reunion (0/3)
9. Create living wills
Zen of life
10. Finish my list of First Ladies biographies I started (2/44)
11. Finish re-reading the Presidential biographies I started (2/44)
12. Complete some form of exercise at least 3 times per week (16/146)
13. Read at least two books per month (4/66)
14. Get my advanced open-water SCUBA certification.
15. Get re-certified in CPR
16. Go to church every Sunday for at least a month- we may have finally found a church to go to regularly! (Dec. 2009)
17. Get my rescue diver certification
18. Indulge in a few manicures (0/5)
19.
20.
21. Clean and go through all items in storage before moving (Didn't get done.....)
22. Teach myself Russian and Arabic
23. Get back into reading though my German materials, and complete my books I still need to read to re-familiarize myself with my college foreign language
24. Go to a cathedral for Midnight mass.
Unsere Hause
25.
26.
27.
28. Save up for new living room furniture
29. Go house-hunting
30.
All Work, No Play
31. Buy decorations for classroom
32. Buy supplies for classroom
33. Set up my classroom
34. Graduate with my Masters in Education degree (June 2011 hopefully)
35. Begin work on Anthropology Masters degree
36. Start on my thesis for my MAT
37.
"Not traveling is like reading only one page of a book." - Aristotle
38. Travel to at least 12 different cities for weekend getaways/vacations (1/12)
39. Travel to Canada. I've been across the pond to Italy, I've been on a Caribbean cruise, and I've been south to Mexico but I haven't visited our Northern neighbor.
40. Get to New York City during the Christmas season!
41. Start a “Newlywed Map”
42. Go camping (0/3)
43. Be in D.C. for July 4th.
44. Continue my list of visiting every President's childhood home/ museum - so far I've had it easy, LBJ's ranch is down the highway from our wedding location and George Bush Sr. is in the town I where I went to college. (2/44)
45. Work on completing my U.S. travel map (20/50)
I am a foodie through and through
46. Try at least four new recipes a month (6/132)
47. Sit down and plan a weekly menu and shop for food each Sunday.
48. Go out to breakfast (4/16)- Frank & Nic's, Teavolve,
49.
50. Work through all the recipes in at least two of our cookbooks
Friends Are Forever
51. Write my friends in Germany and the Netherlands at least 4 times a year (2/24)
52. Send baby and wedding gifts to our friends (2/6 so far. . .)
53. Talk to my best friends every two weeks (8/73)
54. Get together with our friends from college at least twice a year (1/6)
55. E-mail friends/ send a message on FB at least once per month (5/33)
56.
57. Host a friend in our new home. (My friend Anja and her boyfriend are coming to visit from Germany in a week and one half!!)
58. Celebrate my friend's graduation from law school!
59. Send birthday cards to all friends/ immediate family in 2010
Pinching Pennies
60. Change banks. (Done in Sept. 2009)
61. Deposit some EXTRA money into savings every month (1/33)62. Start a retirement account for myself.
63. Finish paying off college credit debt. (1/3)
64. Work on paying back student loans (0/3)
Chump Change
65. Buy a new car for one of us.
66. Buy a new laptop
67. LASIK eye surgery is sounding better and better
68. Buy a Nintendo Wii
69.
Pay It Forward
70. Get over my fear of needles and donate blood at least once. (I had a horrific experience as a five year old in pre-op)
71. Clean out closet twice a year and donate old clothes to charity (1/6)
72. Continue my habit of donating at least a dollar for every Salvation Army Bell Ringer I come across. (0/3 holiday seasons)
73. Donate $ to charity (0/10)
74. Mail packages to soldiers through Operation Baking Gals (0/10)
75. Donate my wedding dress and veil to Brides Against Breast Cancer in memory of my paternal grandmother.
Just for Fun
76. Go on a wine cruise
77. Go on a roadtrip up and down the East Coast- I've only been to the Gulf Coast of Florida and to the Atlanta region of Georgia.
78. Go skiing again.
79. Go to each part of the Smithsonian
80. Visit all the sites in the Maryland/Pennsylvania/ Virginia area that are listed in 1001 Places to Visit Before You Die- USA and Canada, as well as the World edition.
81. Go to a Gamma Phi Beta Convention (next up Orlando, FL 2010)!
82. Host a holiday cookie swap
83. Go to the National Aquarium
84. Go to the National Zoo.
85. Go on wine tours on all the wine trails of Virginia (0/13)
I like to be busy with random activities (aka hobbies)
86. Blog at least 20 times per month (0/33) (yea...still hasn't been done yet, although I got close one month, maybe that will be a New Year's resolution)
88. Reupholster our dining chairs.
89. Finish my cross-stitch projects.
90. Have my grandmother's grandfather's, (did you follow that?) i.e. my great-great grandfather, violin fixed and ready to be played again.
91. Play the violin again- I stopped when I was in junior high.
92. Enroll in a cake-decorating class
Thanks for the Memories
95. Make my Christmas memories photo album that I came up with a few years ago to start when I got married.
96. Participate in Project 365
Queen of Procrastination
97. Actually finish the quilt I started for a friend a year ago.
98. Get my regular scrapbook up to date.
99. Work on my travel scrapbook and update it.
101 in 1001
100. Donate $5 to a charity for every item on this list that I do not complete
101. Start a new 101 Things in 1001 Days list once this one is completed
Our First Christmas
Technically this isn't the first Christmas that we've celebrated together, but its our first as a married couple! I'm a little late with this, but I took some pictures last week with the full intention of participating in The Nester's Tour of Homes on the 14th. Due to work schedules, I was unable to put it up that day, so here's the selection of photos of our apartment decorated for Christmas.
R's immediate family is flying up to visit us next week, and I'm pretty stoked to see them! Here on the east coast people tend to freak out when you tell them driving for 4-6 hours is really no problem, but what they don't understand is I had to do that to visit some friends and family on a regular basis as I lived that far away from them up in North Texas. I miss being able to do that and that was all it took to visit those friends and family members. Visiting friends in Houston required me to be in my driver's seat for a solid 6 hours, maybe more if I hit traffic...oh and by the way that means I didn't leave the state and it took me that long. Over here, that same trip would get you from Baltimore all the way up to Rhode Island!
Our shopping is all finished, but there's still a few gifts to be wrapped and some that need to be wrapped and sent. Including a few that R picked up on a recent business trip.
Last weekend we went to a restaurant here in Baltimore with some friends that made it on the city magazine's "Top 35 Best places to eat breakfast" - Teavolve! It was really good, and I'm definitely hooked to go back! Afterwards we went with them to pick out their Christmas tree and it was an entertaining experience. We found one though! Sorry, no pictures, as I forgot my camera.
Happy Holidays!
Our Christmas tree with the angel from my childhood on top. R's mom sent us four packages that had presents to be placed under the tree for the five of us, and I'm looking forward to their getting here next week! On the tree, there's a collection of Reed & Barton ornaments that my grandmother gave me, one for each year, as well as various other ornaments from the past 25 years.
This is the nativity set I inherited from my grandmother and I've always loved it! It's a collection from Fontanini and she had been collecting them from the mid 1980s. One of our wedding gifts from an aunt and uncle is in the left corner next to David, the shepherd boy. It's the photo frame of a cross.
R's immediate family is flying up to visit us next week, and I'm pretty stoked to see them! Here on the east coast people tend to freak out when you tell them driving for 4-6 hours is really no problem, but what they don't understand is I had to do that to visit some friends and family on a regular basis as I lived that far away from them up in North Texas. I miss being able to do that and that was all it took to visit those friends and family members. Visiting friends in Houston required me to be in my driver's seat for a solid 6 hours, maybe more if I hit traffic...oh and by the way that means I didn't leave the state and it took me that long. Over here, that same trip would get you from Baltimore all the way up to Rhode Island!
Our shopping is all finished, but there's still a few gifts to be wrapped and some that need to be wrapped and sent. Including a few that R picked up on a recent business trip.
Last weekend we went to a restaurant here in Baltimore with some friends that made it on the city magazine's "Top 35 Best places to eat breakfast" - Teavolve! It was really good, and I'm definitely hooked to go back! Afterwards we went with them to pick out their Christmas tree and it was an entertaining experience. We found one though! Sorry, no pictures, as I forgot my camera.
Happy Holidays!
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Halleluia Chorus
HAHA! I got sent this in a message from a friend on Facebook and I'm loving it! These kids are super creative and for the most part are right on cue with their flashcards. I grew up going to see the Messiah performed by my church choir every Christmas, and then when I was a teenager I got to participate for three years during high school. It was an amazing experience as that church choir has been performing the Messiah for over 30 years! Here's a link to the website and the video with the choir singing the Halleluia chorus as pictures scroll through:
And now for your viewing pleasure, the high school students performing the same song in a new way...as silent monks!
And now for your viewing pleasure, the high school students performing the same song in a new way...as silent monks!
Thursday, November 26, 2009
Happy Thanksgiving!
Thanksgiving Graphics
Happy Thanksgiving!
We're spending it with a great friend of ours in Syracuse!
Have a wonderful holiday and weekend!
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Bonfire
Being a third-generation Aggie, I've grown up with a lot of the Aggie Spirit in my house, and most definitely when I chose to go there and graduate from there as well. I met my husband there! I met some of the best friends I have ever known there, both from my sorority and non-greek. I have several pictures from when I was a child where I'm standing in front of the Aggie Bonfire being built, one in which I'm standing on an actual log that is slated to be put into the stack.
So in 1999, when I woke up on the morning of November 18th, the picture on the front page my hometown newspaper rocked me to the core. They chose to show a highly-circulated photo( I personally thought totally inappropriate photo) of what would eventually become the 12th student to die from the collapse, except at the time the photographer snapped the picture, he was still tangled in the logs.
During my time in cllege I joined an organization that worked with the TAMU administration (including the now Sec. Def. Gates) to release the moratorium on Bonfire merchandise, and also to steadily work on keeping the memory of the 12 alive and working to educate the rest of the incoming Aggie community. During that time, the videos I've included in this post were released on YouTube, and as such I've seen them many times. The first is a memorial to the 12 who died, as well as all those injured in the collapse. The other is a video of what I was able to watch during the annual rivalry football game between TAMU and Texas. The Texas band performed a tribute to the fallen Aggies during their halftime performance.
So in 1999, when I woke up on the morning of November 18th, the picture on the front page my hometown newspaper rocked me to the core. They chose to show a highly-circulated photo( I personally thought totally inappropriate photo) of what would eventually become the 12th student to die from the collapse, except at the time the photographer snapped the picture, he was still tangled in the logs.
During my time in cllege I joined an organization that worked with the TAMU administration (including the now Sec. Def. Gates) to release the moratorium on Bonfire merchandise, and also to steadily work on keeping the memory of the 12 alive and working to educate the rest of the incoming Aggie community. During that time, the videos I've included in this post were released on YouTube, and as such I've seen them many times. The first is a memorial to the 12 who died, as well as all those injured in the collapse. The other is a video of what I was able to watch during the annual rivalry football game between TAMU and Texas. The Texas band performed a tribute to the fallen Aggies during their halftime performance.
Nov. 18th will always be a day for remembrance and to never forget.
"We Remember Them."
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Life. Love. Gamma Phi.
Today is the 135th anniversary of my sorority's founding at Syracuse! This year's founder's day message was posted in a video on Youtube:
If you look closely, there's a picture of me with several alumnae. Happy Founder's Day (Pins and Pearls Day) to all my sisters!!
And, because I'm also a chapter advisor, here's another video that talks about volunteering for Gamma Phi. I LOVE the song in the background, and the song has apparently turned into a very popular Pref night song.
If you look closely, there's a picture of me with several alumnae. Happy Founder's Day (Pins and Pearls Day) to all my sisters!!
And, because I'm also a chapter advisor, here's another video that talks about volunteering for Gamma Phi. I LOVE the song in the background, and the song has apparently turned into a very popular Pref night song.
Monday, November 9, 2009
Berlin Wall
So this will obviously give away that I'm 25, but I was 5 years old when the Berlin Wall came down. I don't wholly remember the event, besides watching television (most likely the NBC Evening News with Tom Brokaw) with my dad. However, in college I decided to take German as my foreign language and that gave me more opportunity to delve into the history. Another class, the History of Eastern Europe, also gave me that study opportunity. One of my German professors, Frau Laane was born in Estonia, and moved to East Germany when she reached Gymnasium (High School). My last semester in German, an assignment was for us to create a video that used parts of a video that we had seen that year in the class. Some of my classmates chose Goodbye, Lenin.
There's a statue/ fountain of mustangs in Irving (or somewhere in the Greater DFW area) that are running through the fountain. On the Texas A&M campus, there is a statue behind the George Bush Presidential Library that borrows from that design, however those horses are running over a real piece of the Berlin Wall, as he was President when the wall came down.
Yay for 20 years of celebrating the Wall coming down, and the people free to chosse their government for themselves.
For more reading: go here.
There's a statue/ fountain of mustangs in Irving (or somewhere in the Greater DFW area) that are running through the fountain. On the Texas A&M campus, there is a statue behind the George Bush Presidential Library that borrows from that design, however those horses are running over a real piece of the Berlin Wall, as he was President when the wall came down.
Yay for 20 years of celebrating the Wall coming down, and the people free to chosse their government for themselves.
For more reading: go here.
Saturday, November 7, 2009
Wedding recaps and fall fun
So, we got 3 discs of pictures from our wedding photographer! I'm going to post a few different ones on here. My husband and I were laughing hysterically at a few of the outtakes, so a few of those will be posted as well. This will most likely take most of the next few days, as I'm also finishing a semester of grad school at the moment, so bear with me!
Later this afternoon, I'm driving down to McLean, VA for a Gamma Phi Beta Founder's Day event with the DC Alumnae! Then heading over to a friend's house for some Dr. Mario on Wii playing and fun!
Have a great Saturday!!
Later this afternoon, I'm driving down to McLean, VA for a Gamma Phi Beta Founder's Day event with the DC Alumnae! Then heading over to a friend's house for some Dr. Mario on Wii playing and fun!
Have a great Saturday!!
Friday, November 6, 2009
Kelly's Korner Show us your life- Thanksgiving!
Kelly's Korner's blog does a weekly "show us your life" posting on Fridays. Today's topic is Thanksgiving recipes! Here's one of my favorites from my maternal grandmother:
Cherry Cola Jello Salad- it's delicious!!
Cherry Cola Jello Salad- it's delicious!!
- Take 2 cups Coca-Cola, and boil them in a saucepan.
- Remove from heat.
- Then add 2 cups cold Coca-Cola to the boiling Coke.
- Add two small packets or 1 large packet of cherry jello. (The Coke replaces the water in the traditional recipe.)
- Feel free to add a small bottle of maraschino cherries as well.
- If your husband/ any other relatives aren't allergic to nuts, feel free to add some walnuts to the mix.
- Chill in the fridge, just as the traditional directions state.
- Serve!
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Sesame
As a former watcher and fan of this show, the following pictures made me laugh yesterday and this morning. Now as I am finishing my masters degree and becoming an educator of young children, I appreciate this show even more. Somewhere in my childhood home (well, the one that has been lived in the longest), there is a copy of Sesame Street Christmas version where Big Bird is on ice skates. So I originally planned on posting this yesterday, but then logged on to Google this morning and saw this:
yesterday had this:
Happy 40th Sesame Street!
Sunday, November 1, 2009
Happy November
Hope everyone had a great and Happy Halloween! I dressed up in a witch costume that I used as a freshman in college, and baked some cookies as my husband made his Dark Chocolate Banana Bread (Crockpot classic!). We invited a few of his coworkers over to watch some football (specifically the Florida vs. Georgia and Texas vs. OK State games). Great evening, I must say!)
We're also pretty sure we may have seen the Indy Colts buses driving on the street below our apartment last night. They are playing the Baltimore Ravens this evening. On that note, I'm kind of excited to hear about the reception that Brett Favre will receive when he comes out on the field at Lambeau? I can't imagine mayn Packers fans will be that nice, but we'll see. He's doing a pretty good job for the Vikings.
I officially received word that our wedding photos are online and I will receiving the CD with them in a few days!! Recaps will begin soon, starting with my second bridal shower (I have no photos from the first shower in June?!).
We're spending a relaxing day at home for the morning, then its off to VA for me to go to the George Mason campus as I'm the chapter advisor for fabulous Gamma Phis there! I didn't take any pictures, but last weekend I made Halloween decorated cupcakes for all the ladies, and they were a hit.
Don't forget to set your clocks back one hour!
Happy November 1st, or Dia de los Muertos, or All Saints Day!!
We're also pretty sure we may have seen the Indy Colts buses driving on the street below our apartment last night. They are playing the Baltimore Ravens this evening. On that note, I'm kind of excited to hear about the reception that Brett Favre will receive when he comes out on the field at Lambeau? I can't imagine mayn Packers fans will be that nice, but we'll see. He's doing a pretty good job for the Vikings.
I officially received word that our wedding photos are online and I will receiving the CD with them in a few days!! Recaps will begin soon, starting with my second bridal shower (I have no photos from the first shower in June?!).
We're spending a relaxing day at home for the morning, then its off to VA for me to go to the George Mason campus as I'm the chapter advisor for fabulous Gamma Phis there! I didn't take any pictures, but last weekend I made Halloween decorated cupcakes for all the ladies, and they were a hit.
Don't forget to set your clocks back one hour!
Happy November 1st, or Dia de los Muertos, or All Saints Day!!
Thursday, October 15, 2009
First trip to Vegas!
In Vegas!! (No thanks to US Airways, but that's a story for later) Full story and pictures to come Sunday when we get back home.
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Teaser Photo
So excited!! I logged into Facebook earlier and noticed this post from our wedding photographer, Number 9 Photography. If you are in the Austin area or semi-vicinity check them out! They have amazing photographers who do ALL kinds of amazing work! Without further ado, I give you our wedding photography teaser:
Thanks Charlotte and Kim!!
Monday, October 5, 2009
Coupons!
Ok, sorry for not being so great with the updates, but I recently moved halfway across the country! I'm now a Texan transplanted to Maryland! I love our place, and took pictures of our view of Baltimore to share on here as soon as I finish my unpacking (only three more boxes!).
Now on to the real reason for this post. I love saving money, and therefore LOVE coupons. You may already know about this, but I went to our grocery store's website to look up some information, and found out about this neat trick. You can load coupons onto your saver card directly from online! This will work with Tom Thumb, Safeway, and Kroger stores among many other choices. Just go to this website and this one (that I've found so far) and start saving some cash!
Come back later for Wedding September Recap (4 weddings in a month!!)
Now on to the real reason for this post. I love saving money, and therefore LOVE coupons. You may already know about this, but I went to our grocery store's website to look up some information, and found out about this neat trick. You can load coupons onto your saver card directly from online! This will work with Tom Thumb, Safeway, and Kroger stores among many other choices. Just go to this website and this one (that I've found so far) and start saving some cash!
Come back later for Wedding September Recap (4 weddings in a month!!)
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Fall
I was going to write something else orginally, but then changed my mind. I will say this family has been in my prayers for some time now, as I follow Kelly's Korner blog. My heart goes out to him and his beautiful daughter and whole family. I know what it feels like to lose someone so close to you from a fight with cancer, among other complications. Obviously, I know there are differences, but this family will continue to be in my prayers along with all the rest of my family and friends going through hard times and fighting illnesses right now.
I'm fixing to head down to the Houston area for wedding #4 of "Wedding September!" I've been representing husband and I at two other weddings after our own the first weekend. I love weddings, I love that it means showing the world that a pair of people have chosen to commit themselves to each other for a lifetime under God's leadership and care. Every single wedding I've been to has been so beautiful. Here's just one instance: one of my "lil sis'" in Gamma Phi got married this past weekend and after another sorority sister read one of the readings the pastor commented. They chose to have the 1 Corinthians 13:4-8a "Love is Patient, Kind, and never-ending." He then advised everyone to think on what that means for a couple and to insert "I" where the word "love" goes, therefore it would read I am patient, I am kind, I am not envious, boastful or arrogant or rude. I do not insist on my own way, I am not irritable or resentful. . . Think on that and figure out how close you come in your relationships, and if you do all those things you are following the way Christ wants everyone to love. I loved my friend's pastor's message/ homily!
One last note on the fact that Sep 22 was the official first day of Fall! I love fall for all these reasons:
1) I like Starbucks, but I'm quite seriously addicted to their Pumpkin Spice Latte
2) I love the changing of the leaves
3) I LOVE Halloween, and Thanksgiving, and Christmas (but thats for another post)
4) I love that I can get out my assortment of sweaters and jackets
5) I love that this Thanksgiving will be my first one as a married woman and we are going to spend it with a close friend in NY instead of flying back to TX. However, I must note that I will dearly miss my Aunt Helon's house for this festivity as it means at least 4, sometimes 5 of the 6 siblings of my Mom's are usually in attendance.
6) Oh yea, and I can't forget this one, I love some Texas Aggie Football!
7) As a history buff, I should mention this one as well: My sorority's Founders Celebration Day is in the fall as well.
Have a Happy Fall weekend!!
I'm fixing to head down to the Houston area for wedding #4 of "Wedding September!" I've been representing husband and I at two other weddings after our own the first weekend. I love weddings, I love that it means showing the world that a pair of people have chosen to commit themselves to each other for a lifetime under God's leadership and care. Every single wedding I've been to has been so beautiful. Here's just one instance: one of my "lil sis'" in Gamma Phi got married this past weekend and after another sorority sister read one of the readings the pastor commented. They chose to have the 1 Corinthians 13:4-8a "Love is Patient, Kind, and never-ending." He then advised everyone to think on what that means for a couple and to insert "I" where the word "love" goes, therefore it would read I am patient, I am kind, I am not envious, boastful or arrogant or rude. I do not insist on my own way, I am not irritable or resentful. . . Think on that and figure out how close you come in your relationships, and if you do all those things you are following the way Christ wants everyone to love. I loved my friend's pastor's message/ homily!
One last note on the fact that Sep 22 was the official first day of Fall! I love fall for all these reasons:
1) I like Starbucks, but I'm quite seriously addicted to their Pumpkin Spice Latte
2) I love the changing of the leaves
3) I LOVE Halloween, and Thanksgiving, and Christmas (but thats for another post)
4) I love that I can get out my assortment of sweaters and jackets
5) I love that this Thanksgiving will be my first one as a married woman and we are going to spend it with a close friend in NY instead of flying back to TX. However, I must note that I will dearly miss my Aunt Helon's house for this festivity as it means at least 4, sometimes 5 of the 6 siblings of my Mom's are usually in attendance.
6) Oh yea, and I can't forget this one, I love some Texas Aggie Football!
7) As a history buff, I should mention this one as well: My sorority's Founders Celebration Day is in the fall as well.
Have a Happy Fall weekend!!
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Great new giveaway at Mrs. Newlyweds!
Go check out this blog. Run/ surf right now. . . I've been a follower of hers for a while now, and she never fails to crack me up with her wit and sarcastic humor. On top of that, she hosts fabulous giveaways, such as this one:
The giveaway ends this Friday, September 25 at midnight!
Monday, September 21, 2009
Monday Randomness
It's already the third week of September! I feel like I have a mountain of tasks to do this next week! This past weekend, I was able to attend the third wedding in three weeks- one of my Gamma Phi " lil sis' " got married! It a was a beautiful and stunning wedding at the Four Seasons in Irving! If she doesn't mind, I'll see if I can post some of the pics. The band at the reception was out of this world good, so I'll see if I can get their names too for anybody reading this from the Dallas area.
Last weekend I was able to attend the wedding of a mutual friend of ours from college. I have decided that going to weddings after yours is downright awesome, because you can just kick back and have fun! Before our wedding, I found myself having a lot of fun, but also seeing different ideas and thoughts on possible inclusions to my own wedding. Now that weekend has passed, I just to hang out with good friends, good wine ( or champagne as was the case this weekend!) and have a great time seeing our friends get married!
This Friday I get to travel to another of our friend's weddings in the Houston area, and I'm so excited! I get to see several of our friends that were at our wedding two weeks ago, and actually get to hang out/ chat with them.
On that note- I have seven thank you notes left to write, except I have a problem, which maybe one of the readers can help me out with. You see, we got four gifts that had no card or name attached, so I don't know who to write the thank you's to!
On another note, I leave for our apartment in Baltimore next Monday! That's only a week away! Today, my goal is to go change my name at the SS office and do something about my bank situation (the bank I've been using since I was 17 doesn't have any locations east of the Mississippi). I'm waiting to change my drivers license once I get to MD. Here's a cool fact- the MD DMV has a form you can print off and take to your eye doctor and they can sign off they have vision tested you in the last year, and you don't have to take the eye test at the station! I know I'm a little crazy with how excited I am of that fact.
I've been staying with my in-laws the past couple weeks (have I mentioned how amazing they are and their hospitality is out of this world!) Anyway, I managed to complete an entire class thats part of my masters program last week! This week's goal is to complete Classroom Management. As it's a three-four day trip to MD, I'll lost those days of working on schoolwork, so I'm trying to get as much done now as possible.
Look for a later post today, as I think thats enough randomness for this morning!
Last weekend I was able to attend the wedding of a mutual friend of ours from college. I have decided that going to weddings after yours is downright awesome, because you can just kick back and have fun! Before our wedding, I found myself having a lot of fun, but also seeing different ideas and thoughts on possible inclusions to my own wedding. Now that weekend has passed, I just to hang out with good friends, good wine ( or champagne as was the case this weekend!) and have a great time seeing our friends get married!
This Friday I get to travel to another of our friend's weddings in the Houston area, and I'm so excited! I get to see several of our friends that were at our wedding two weeks ago, and actually get to hang out/ chat with them.
On that note- I have seven thank you notes left to write, except I have a problem, which maybe one of the readers can help me out with. You see, we got four gifts that had no card or name attached, so I don't know who to write the thank you's to!
On another note, I leave for our apartment in Baltimore next Monday! That's only a week away! Today, my goal is to go change my name at the SS office and do something about my bank situation (the bank I've been using since I was 17 doesn't have any locations east of the Mississippi). I'm waiting to change my drivers license once I get to MD. Here's a cool fact- the MD DMV has a form you can print off and take to your eye doctor and they can sign off they have vision tested you in the last year, and you don't have to take the eye test at the station! I know I'm a little crazy with how excited I am of that fact.
I've been staying with my in-laws the past couple weeks (have I mentioned how amazing they are and their hospitality is out of this world!) Anyway, I managed to complete an entire class thats part of my masters program last week! This week's goal is to complete Classroom Management. As it's a three-four day trip to MD, I'll lost those days of working on schoolwork, so I'm trying to get as much done now as possible.
Look for a later post today, as I think thats enough randomness for this morning!
Friday, September 11, 2009
Remembering
Photo SourceIt's 9:06 am on Sept. 11. I apologize in advance for the slightly morbid post which is to follow, but I've been noting an interesting trend in recent years. Do you remember where you were this day eight years ago?
I was sitting in my high school physics class (2nd class period of the day) as a junior goofing off with two of my friends as we were getting settled in to class. Our chemistry teacher from the previous year walked in and whispered something to our physics teacher. (All the science classes were in one wing, the english in another, etc.) Mr. B turned on the television without saying a word and we just sat there and watched. I remember most of us watched thinking it was some kind of physics test gone horribly wrong- until my friend M.J. looked at his watch and realized it was real time. That's when everyone hit the fan and needless to say no one was thinking of physics for the rest of that hour. You see I grew up in a town that has an active Air Force base outside city limits, which also happens to have some NATO officers stationed there as well. A good friend of mine in high school (I lost touch with her when we graduated and she moved back to the Netherlands) was the daughter of a Dutch pilot. Not only did they ground all air traffic that day, they shut down incoming traffic to the military bases as well. My friend had to go down to the front office and drive back to base with the other military kids around 11 am.
By the middle of third period, parents were calling the school and saying the images on tv were too graphic for their kids to watch, so our principal asked all teachers to shut their televisions off. I had choir for two class periods and our director let us keep watching through our lunch period. Anybody have thoughts on that? Images from that day too graphic for high schoolers who are most likely watching R-rated movies already? The whole situation made me mad.
I still see images and they make me mad all over again. Then I went to and graduated from a college that produces the second most amount of military officers (behind the service academies) and I have a lot of friends in the military. In fact all of the groomsmen in our wedding last weekend were either already officers, or will be shortly with their graduation. All I can ask is for people to stand behind our troops and support them.
One of our wedding registries gave a donation for every gift bought online to the National Military Family Association. Last week I was reading my hometown newspaper, and there was a huge front page article on this camp for kiddos that is funded by the Nat'l Military Family Assoc. They raise money to send children, to a camp, who have either currently deployed parents or who have parents who have come and gone from deployments.
Here are some interesting links to check out that I have found over the past few years.
Baking Gals
Beyond the 11th
National Military Family Association
I'll post (hopefully) later today some recap pictures from our Labor Day weekend wedding.
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Yay for being married and having a birthday!
Sorry for being absent for a little while on the blog! I got married on Saturday, had a birthday yesterday and I won a gift certificate from Kate's giveaway!! I usually don't win anything, so I'm super excited, and to have won it on my birthday? Total awesomeness! Check out one of the bags:
I'll post a little later on the parts of the wedding! Have a great day!
I'll post a little later on the parts of the wedding! Have a great day!
Monday, August 31, 2009
Giveaway!
For the last day of August (!), here is the first post of the day. Over at Bless this Nest, she's having a giveaway for some gift certificates to an awesome designer of super cute bags!
Head on over there and check it out!
Check back later for some enteraining shots of my cat attacking my printer while its printing our programs for the wedding this weekend!!
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
10 days!
I am unbelievably and freakishly excited for the next ten days to pass so that we can party with our friends and family for an afternoon and evening!
I have also been busy traveling the past few days, and guess what: I'm driving somewhere five hours away again tomorrow.
Sometime today in between picking up my sorority badge from having added the officer charms to the guard chain, working on schoolwork for my masters degree, cleaning up all my stuff to make it more organized for the upcoming move to Maryland, and finishing printing the last of the programs (I'm 1/3rd finished), I will try and upload pictures from my camera of the previous two showers my family and friends have thrown for me!
Here's the random comment for the day: If you are a woman, go celebrate fact that the 19th Amendment was passed today in 1920 which enabled all of us the right to vote.
Picture Source
I have also been busy traveling the past few days, and guess what: I'm driving somewhere five hours away again tomorrow.
Sometime today in between picking up my sorority badge from having added the officer charms to the guard chain, working on schoolwork for my masters degree, cleaning up all my stuff to make it more organized for the upcoming move to Maryland, and finishing printing the last of the programs (I'm 1/3rd finished), I will try and upload pictures from my camera of the previous two showers my family and friends have thrown for me!
Here's the random comment for the day: If you are a woman, go celebrate fact that the 19th Amendment was passed today in 1920 which enabled all of us the right to vote.
Picture Source
Saturday, August 22, 2009
Freaky Friday
I'm entertained by the contestants on Project Runway. I don't remember what his name is off the top of my head, but I'm not liking the guy who has the fashion design and thinks he "knows what all women want, and what they will all buy." I love Tim Gunn! He has amazing advice for all of the contestants year after year and is so nice in helping everyone.
I finished buying the last wedding gift for friends of ours today- the last one, that is until the January wedding! I am not sure if I mentioned this previously, but we (mostly me) are going to five weddings/wedding celebrations in the next 8 weeks not including our own in two weeks. So excited!! One is even in Vegas on the rooftop of a hotel! The first is tomorrow for an old friend of mine, then I will be traveling down to the Houston area for my third and last bridal shower!
Today happens to be my dad's 48th birthday!! We are going to see this movie in celebration in a few minutes:
Photo Source: Movie
Lastly, for the random comment of the day: On this day in 1911, the Mona Lisa was stolen from the Louvre.
I finished buying the last wedding gift for friends of ours today- the last one, that is until the January wedding! I am not sure if I mentioned this previously, but we (mostly me) are going to five weddings/wedding celebrations in the next 8 weeks not including our own in two weeks. So excited!! One is even in Vegas on the rooftop of a hotel! The first is tomorrow for an old friend of mine, then I will be traveling down to the Houston area for my third and last bridal shower!
Today happens to be my dad's 48th birthday!! We are going to see this movie in celebration in a few minutes:
Photo Source: Movie
Lastly, for the random comment of the day: On this day in 1911, the Mona Lisa was stolen from the Louvre.
Thursday, August 20, 2009
Thursday Fun
So if you didn't quite know what the picture I posted yesterday is from...Top Chef!! on Bravo tv. I'm pretty excited about this season as it seems they picked a heavy award-winning crowd- as in one of the competitor's was a nomimee for the James Beard award last year? Holy cow, that's awesome!
Today has more greatness coming our way: Project Runway returns!! Even though its now on Lifetime, I can't wait to watch this season. Last season's winner- Christian Siriano now has a makeup line with Victorias Secret, I think, as well as his own line of clothing.
Photo Source: Project Runway
And, last but not least, here's a random fact in honor of my masters class: Vitus Bering discovered Alaska on this day in 1741. Want to see where I get my random educational facts: TeacherCreated.com- has great resources for all grades of teachers PreK-12.
Today has more greatness coming our way: Project Runway returns!! Even though its now on Lifetime, I can't wait to watch this season. Last season's winner- Christian Siriano now has a makeup line with Victorias Secret, I think, as well as his own line of clothing.
Photo Source: Project Runway
And, last but not least, here's a random fact in honor of my masters class: Vitus Bering discovered Alaska on this day in 1741. Want to see where I get my random educational facts: TeacherCreated.com- has great resources for all grades of teachers PreK-12.
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Wednesday loveliness
I agree with another fellow blogger in that I can't believe I am writing about this, but seriously, Brett Favre, you should have just continued your retirement with dignity. You are my Dad's age...which I don't consider old by any means, just that you should not really tempt fate and play professional football at that age. Oh well....good luck.
My bridal picture CD came in the mail today!! I am so happy with the way they turned out...I may post some pictures after the wedding (18 days!!)
Here's another reason to be excited today:
My bridal picture CD came in the mail today!! I am so happy with the way they turned out...I may post some pictures after the wedding (18 days!!)
Here's another reason to be excited today:
Giveaway!
If you're interested in a creative update to the header on your blog/ website, go check out Mrs. Southern Bride's blog! Her creative husband is offering a design for free! Ends August 26th at 7:00 PM!!
Weekend Shenanigans
So super excited that the bridesmaid dresses are now in! I will be delivering them this weekend as I travel, yet again, around the state of Texas. I have a shower this weekend being thrown by a friend in the Houston area, and I'm really excited! But first, I get to go to a friend's wedding reception on Saturday before I head out of town.
This past weekend was amazing! Some of my cousins/aunts on my dad's side threw me a shower, and for me, it turned into a mini family reunion almost as I got to spend two days visiting with some family I haven't seen in awhile. I am so blessed with such a large family (my grandfather was one of nine kids) that manages for the most part to stay in relatively good touch with each other. I got to meet one cousin's ADORABLE twin daughters this weekend, and see another cousin's two boys practice roping some calves they own. I consider that excellent weekend entertainment. Pictures to follow in a later post. I'm even more excited that several of those family members will be able to make it to our wedding in a few weeks!
This past weekend was amazing! Some of my cousins/aunts on my dad's side threw me a shower, and for me, it turned into a mini family reunion almost as I got to spend two days visiting with some family I haven't seen in awhile. I am so blessed with such a large family (my grandfather was one of nine kids) that manages for the most part to stay in relatively good touch with each other. I got to meet one cousin's ADORABLE twin daughters this weekend, and see another cousin's two boys practice roping some calves they own. I consider that excellent weekend entertainment. Pictures to follow in a later post. I'm even more excited that several of those family members will be able to make it to our wedding in a few weeks!
Schooltime Giveaway!
Here's an awesome giveaway being hosted over at Classroom Confessions! This contest ends August 20th, so hurry on over!
Friday, August 14, 2009
Show us. . . vacation spots!
Kelly at Kelly's Korner has a weekly "show us your life/ house/ wedding post every Friday. This is the first one I have been able to do, as our wedding is not for another three weeks (!!!) Anyway, I have two favorites: Florence, Italy (if not all the cities I visited six years ago in Italy), and St. Lucia.
Because I'm lazy (and they're already packed for the move) I am having to rely on random internet pictures. I can however describe for you how amazing it was to watch the sunset over the Tiber River while sitting on the middle of these bridges. The covered one is the famous Ponte Vecchio-its not for cars to drive through, just full of street peddlers. I bought a calendar from one of them. Then we spotted a river otter playing in the river- I took a picture of that too. I could definitely go back any day....just don't go and order a drink from the Amadeus bar- its a cool place, but go for the people-watching entertainment factor.
The next place I visited while on a cruise with my fiance and his family. It was amazing! If you have a chance to cruise on a Celebrity ship- go for it!! It wasy frist cruise, and I'm kind of addicted now. Anyway here are two pictures for your enjoyment. The first is yours truly zip-lining through the rainforest in St. Lucia.
The next is us standing in front of waterfall waiting for the guy to jump off the side into the water! It was fun to watch! A German couple took this photo for us after we took theirs. They were nice and we saw them several more times over the rest of the cruise.
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Super Fun
So everyone who reads this should check out this blogger who has a fantastic giveaway that is running through Aug. 14. Classroom Confessions has a Summer Survival Spectacular that includes a Barnes & Noble giftcard and a ton of bath and beauty products, all in celebration of 1,000 hits on her blog.
Sunday, August 2, 2009
Hair trial and makeup
My hairstylist for the last six years is an amazing woman. I found her through a cousin, and she does great things for my hair. I will be sad to move totally out of the area where I can drive down to see her. Anyway, she has generously agreed to do mine as well as any one in the bridal party's hair that wants it done. So here's some pictures of my french twist with curls.
Then the other day, I went back to an old favorite makeup counter for a look to try out. I ended up going with this look over the earlier one I posted about.
Then the other day, I went back to an old favorite makeup counter for a look to try out. I ended up going with this look over the earlier one I posted about.
Saturday, August 1, 2009
Holy wonder, Batman!!
So, its already August 1. That slighty creeps me out. This year is flying by...not that I mind so much this year, as that means I'm getting married in 35 days!! I'm so excited to finally be able to use the actual moniker for which this blog was created! Oh yea, and live in the same STATE as my fiance. I digress.
This time of year has made me so excited for the last 6 years or so. Why, you ask? This. Thats right, its time for Discovery Channel's Shark Week! My fiance thinks I'm slightly crazy ever since I told him I want to go see great whites in the wild... (and possibly get in a cage to see them underwater).
Oh and it's going to be a busy couple of months, as every single weekend has something for me to do/ enjoy. Look for later updates!
This time of year has made me so excited for the last 6 years or so. Why, you ask? This. Thats right, its time for Discovery Channel's Shark Week! My fiance thinks I'm slightly crazy ever since I told him I want to go see great whites in the wild... (and possibly get in a cage to see them underwater).
Oh and it's going to be a busy couple of months, as every single weekend has something for me to do/ enjoy. Look for later updates!
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Need a friar?
So here's an entertaining story that I found on Aggie Catholic, and if you would like to read the whole story, go here.
"They've been mistaken for Jedi-wannabes headed to a Star Wars convention. They've been investigated by police, approached by strangers, gawked at from cars and offered gifts of crumpled dollar bills and Little Debbie snacks.
After trekking along more than 300 miles of dusty Virginia country roads and suburban highways, six Franciscan friars reached Washington on Tuesday, having seen it all during an offbeat modern-day quest for God.
For six weeks, the brothers walked from Roanoke with only their brown robes, sandals and a belief in the kindness of strangers to feed and shelter them.
The sight of six men in flowing habits, trudging single file on the side of the road, prompted many to pull over and talk, even confess. People on their way to work described their loneliness. College students wanted help figuring out what to do with their lives. Children, mistaking them for the Shaolin monks in movies, ran up to ask the friars if they knew how to beat up bullies.
"Dressed like we are in our habits, it's like a walking sign that says, 'Tell us your life's problems,' " explained Cliff Hennings, the youngest of the friars at 23.
In every instance, the friars made time for conversation. They shot the breeze with a gang of drunk bikers, dispensed relationship advice to the brokenhearted commuters and bore witness to one and all, yea, even to the Chik-fil-A employee dressed as a cow.
The pilgrimage was the idea of four young friars just finishing their training in Chicago and working toward taking lifelong vows. Seeking to emulate the wanderings of their founder, Saint Francis of Assisi, they wanted to journey together as a fraternity, ministering to one another and to strangers, while depending on God for every meal and place to sleep.
Joined by two older friars supervising their training, they picked as their destination a friary in Washington, D.C., called the Franciscan Monastery of the Holy Land -- a symbolic gesture, because the actual Holy Land was too far away.
Then last month they drove from Chicago to Salem, just outside Roanoke, parked their van at a church and set out on foot.
They tried to live by the ascetic rules Jesus laid out for his 12 disciples: "Take nothing for the journey -- no staff, no bag, no bread, no money, no extra tunic." The less they brought, they reasoned, the more room they could leave for God. The friars did make a few modifications, carrying a toothbrush, a wool blanket, water and a change of underwear ("a summer essential," one explained), as well as one cellphone in case of emergency.
Some rules, however, had to be made on the fly. They had agreed not to carry any money, but just minutes into their first day, strangers were pressing dollar bills into their hands. So they made a pact to spend what they received each day on food, often high-protein Clif bars, and to give the rest to the needy.
They walked 15 miles their first day and found themselves at dusk in front of a fire station just outside Roanoke. One of the friars, Roger Lopez, a former fireman himself, knocked on the station door and asked whether there was somewhere they could sleep. As they talked, the friars spotted a giant trampoline out back.
"It seemed like such a good idea at the time," said Lopez, 30.
The six spread out on the trampoline as if they were spokes on a wheel. But soon they realized gravity was against them, pulling everyone toward the center. Some tried to sleep clutching the side railing. When one person rolled over, the rest bobbed uncontrollably like buoys. No one got much sleep, but the firefighters did send them off the next morning with corned beef sandwiches.
Since then, they have slept on picnic tables outside Lynchburg, basement floors in Charlottesville, even on office tables at a food pantry.
One night they were hosted by a man with tattoos on his arms, an unkempt ponytail and all of his front teeth missing. He had pulled up in his beat-up Jeep and offered to let the friars stay with him in an old one-room schoolhouse in Nelson County.
"He looked like he had just gotten out of prison," said Hennings, but the man turned out to be a Native American healer. The friars stayed up all night talking to him. He told them Native stories and played his double flute. They chanted Latin hymns in return and told him stories from the Gospel.
Such moments of grace became a daily occurrence for the friars. Sure, some passersby gave them the finger. One guy even leaned out the window to add a sprinkling of Nietzsche ("God is dead!") to his vulgarities. But most encounters were meaningful, even profound.
Just outside Harrisonburg, a woman in her 40s with a young daughter pulled over in her old Dodge sedan to talk to 25-year-old friar Richard Goodin.
She'd recently caught her husband cheating on her. He had kicked her and her daughter out of their house, she told Goodin. Now, like the friars, they were wandering through the wilderness, unsure of their next meal or their next move.
As they talked, the woman's daughter rummaged through the car and gave the friars a soda. Then she found a chocolate bar and offered that. As the conversation began winding down, the daughter said there was nothing more in the car. The woman reached for her purse and told Goodin, "I want to give you what we have left."
She pressed $3.52 into his hand, which he accepted reluctantly.
"I realized she wasn't giving this to us or to me," Goodin said. "I think she heard us talk about trusting in God and she wanted to try to trust in the same way. She was giving that money to God.""
"They've been mistaken for Jedi-wannabes headed to a Star Wars convention. They've been investigated by police, approached by strangers, gawked at from cars and offered gifts of crumpled dollar bills and Little Debbie snacks.
After trekking along more than 300 miles of dusty Virginia country roads and suburban highways, six Franciscan friars reached Washington on Tuesday, having seen it all during an offbeat modern-day quest for God.
For six weeks, the brothers walked from Roanoke with only their brown robes, sandals and a belief in the kindness of strangers to feed and shelter them.
The sight of six men in flowing habits, trudging single file on the side of the road, prompted many to pull over and talk, even confess. People on their way to work described their loneliness. College students wanted help figuring out what to do with their lives. Children, mistaking them for the Shaolin monks in movies, ran up to ask the friars if they knew how to beat up bullies.
"Dressed like we are in our habits, it's like a walking sign that says, 'Tell us your life's problems,' " explained Cliff Hennings, the youngest of the friars at 23.
In every instance, the friars made time for conversation. They shot the breeze with a gang of drunk bikers, dispensed relationship advice to the brokenhearted commuters and bore witness to one and all, yea, even to the Chik-fil-A employee dressed as a cow.
The pilgrimage was the idea of four young friars just finishing their training in Chicago and working toward taking lifelong vows. Seeking to emulate the wanderings of their founder, Saint Francis of Assisi, they wanted to journey together as a fraternity, ministering to one another and to strangers, while depending on God for every meal and place to sleep.
Joined by two older friars supervising their training, they picked as their destination a friary in Washington, D.C., called the Franciscan Monastery of the Holy Land -- a symbolic gesture, because the actual Holy Land was too far away.
Then last month they drove from Chicago to Salem, just outside Roanoke, parked their van at a church and set out on foot.
They tried to live by the ascetic rules Jesus laid out for his 12 disciples: "Take nothing for the journey -- no staff, no bag, no bread, no money, no extra tunic." The less they brought, they reasoned, the more room they could leave for God. The friars did make a few modifications, carrying a toothbrush, a wool blanket, water and a change of underwear ("a summer essential," one explained), as well as one cellphone in case of emergency.
Some rules, however, had to be made on the fly. They had agreed not to carry any money, but just minutes into their first day, strangers were pressing dollar bills into their hands. So they made a pact to spend what they received each day on food, often high-protein Clif bars, and to give the rest to the needy.
They walked 15 miles their first day and found themselves at dusk in front of a fire station just outside Roanoke. One of the friars, Roger Lopez, a former fireman himself, knocked on the station door and asked whether there was somewhere they could sleep. As they talked, the friars spotted a giant trampoline out back.
"It seemed like such a good idea at the time," said Lopez, 30.
The six spread out on the trampoline as if they were spokes on a wheel. But soon they realized gravity was against them, pulling everyone toward the center. Some tried to sleep clutching the side railing. When one person rolled over, the rest bobbed uncontrollably like buoys. No one got much sleep, but the firefighters did send them off the next morning with corned beef sandwiches.
Since then, they have slept on picnic tables outside Lynchburg, basement floors in Charlottesville, even on office tables at a food pantry.
One night they were hosted by a man with tattoos on his arms, an unkempt ponytail and all of his front teeth missing. He had pulled up in his beat-up Jeep and offered to let the friars stay with him in an old one-room schoolhouse in Nelson County.
"He looked like he had just gotten out of prison," said Hennings, but the man turned out to be a Native American healer. The friars stayed up all night talking to him. He told them Native stories and played his double flute. They chanted Latin hymns in return and told him stories from the Gospel.
Such moments of grace became a daily occurrence for the friars. Sure, some passersby gave them the finger. One guy even leaned out the window to add a sprinkling of Nietzsche ("God is dead!") to his vulgarities. But most encounters were meaningful, even profound.
Just outside Harrisonburg, a woman in her 40s with a young daughter pulled over in her old Dodge sedan to talk to 25-year-old friar Richard Goodin.
She'd recently caught her husband cheating on her. He had kicked her and her daughter out of their house, she told Goodin. Now, like the friars, they were wandering through the wilderness, unsure of their next meal or their next move.
As they talked, the woman's daughter rummaged through the car and gave the friars a soda. Then she found a chocolate bar and offered that. As the conversation began winding down, the daughter said there was nothing more in the car. The woman reached for her purse and told Goodin, "I want to give you what we have left."
She pressed $3.52 into his hand, which he accepted reluctantly.
"I realized she wasn't giving this to us or to me," Goodin said. "I think she heard us talk about trusting in God and she wanted to try to trust in the same way. She was giving that money to God.""
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Another giveaway link!
For all of you who like pink and green, or just need a new calendar and planner for 2010, head on over to Mrs. Newlywed!! Her giveaway ends Aug. 4:
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
HaHa! I love my life.
This will be totally random, so just bear with me. I had an incredibly busy weekend this past weekend, as evidenced by the fact that I'm just now blogging at 11:30 Monday night.
It really started last Wednesday with my travels to visit friends. Thursday was spent hanging out with more friends and me driving, as well as getting to see the Diamonds exhibit and the Terra Cotta Warriors. Both were fantastic, except for a minor incident with stormy weather that turned the lights out in the "diamonds" exhibit. We were in the vault part of the place, and that room has no windows. Just a tad scary. Oh well, we decided to try and follow the super-fast walking guard with the flashlight and as soon as we cleared the door to the next room, the lights came back on. We just decided to skip through the rest of the exhibit and leave to deal with Houston traffic in rain. Upon getting back in the car, I realized I had left my coupon for the place in my car's console. Anyone in need of coupon that wants to see the show before the 9th of August? I still want to make it back to see the Genghis Khan exhibit.
Friday was spent driving some more and having my hair trial that morning, followed by picking up my soon-to-be sister-in-law, then driving down to Houston to pick up a friend who had been with me the previous night at the museum. Once that was done, we drove to Austin for my bridal pictures. I love the photographers! Some of the pictures were taken in front of a wall of graffiti art next to Homeslice pizza! Can't wait to see them! Once I unpack, I may include some photos of the hair trial as well in a follow-up post. After pictures, we drove to FBG for my bachelorette party!!
I have amazing friends! One found the cutest little B & B to have us stay the weekend, and we went wine-tasting at four wineries around the area. It was a good weekend, and I enjoyed getting to catch up with several friends I hadn't been able to see recently. Hopefully pictures will follow in a later post, as my camera was not used. I just remembered one of the wineries added a picture of me and my maid of honor to their website while we were there.
Thats right, I was given a pink cowboy hat to wear. I'm a huge fan! You know you love it.
Today, I went around town(FBG) with my soon to be mother-in-law and handled SEVERAL details for the wedding weekend! Paid for the cake; met with the church's pianist/wedding coordinator extraordinaire to finish up planning for the ceremony and wedding programs; then went by and handed in the flower order (later realized I need to call her back and change it up bit). Then I separated out the wedding party gifts (sorry, no pics, just on the off-chance they read this), and decided on the final bit to go with them! Then I drove back home.
Came home to more amazing-ness: two wedding presents and a flood of RSVPS!! > with a couple exceptions that really make me laugh more than anything else. I designed our RSVPS to be postcards and decided to change the M line to a line that has a space for actual names...and yet we got two today with no names. HAHA!! I am actually still kind of laughing, more to the fact that I can narrow down one of them to two guests based on the postmark, but the other one has the postmark half cut-off. Why am I laughing? It's probably just entertaing to me as they are two "no" responses, so it doesn't really matter.
Last note to add: R and I will officially have all four weekends in September booked. Thats right. We have our wedding, then were notified this weekend of a wedding the following Saturday, next I have a sorority sister's wedding the following Saturday after that, and then after that we have a wedding in Houston of more mutual friends!! As a huge fan of weddings, (still kinda thinking of that long ago idea of being a wedding planner) I am really excited to see all the creativity and to see my friends get married!!
Stay tuned for later in the week, as I print out the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner invites- crazy excited for that party, as my soon to be mother-in-law found some quite entertaining items that flow very nicely with the reception place. Hint: Hawaiian Tiki Bar.
I will also be printing out the programs and should be putting those pictures on here as well. My apologies for the insanely long post, and hope you had as wonderful a weekend as I did!
It really started last Wednesday with my travels to visit friends. Thursday was spent hanging out with more friends and me driving, as well as getting to see the Diamonds exhibit and the Terra Cotta Warriors. Both were fantastic, except for a minor incident with stormy weather that turned the lights out in the "diamonds" exhibit. We were in the vault part of the place, and that room has no windows. Just a tad scary. Oh well, we decided to try and follow the super-fast walking guard with the flashlight and as soon as we cleared the door to the next room, the lights came back on. We just decided to skip through the rest of the exhibit and leave to deal with Houston traffic in rain. Upon getting back in the car, I realized I had left my coupon for the place in my car's console. Anyone in need of coupon that wants to see the show before the 9th of August? I still want to make it back to see the Genghis Khan exhibit.
Friday was spent driving some more and having my hair trial that morning, followed by picking up my soon-to-be sister-in-law, then driving down to Houston to pick up a friend who had been with me the previous night at the museum. Once that was done, we drove to Austin for my bridal pictures. I love the photographers! Some of the pictures were taken in front of a wall of graffiti art next to Homeslice pizza! Can't wait to see them! Once I unpack, I may include some photos of the hair trial as well in a follow-up post. After pictures, we drove to FBG for my bachelorette party!!
I have amazing friends! One found the cutest little B & B to have us stay the weekend, and we went wine-tasting at four wineries around the area. It was a good weekend, and I enjoyed getting to catch up with several friends I hadn't been able to see recently. Hopefully pictures will follow in a later post, as my camera was not used. I just remembered one of the wineries added a picture of me and my maid of honor to their website while we were there.
Thats right, I was given a pink cowboy hat to wear. I'm a huge fan! You know you love it.
Today, I went around town(FBG) with my soon to be mother-in-law and handled SEVERAL details for the wedding weekend! Paid for the cake; met with the church's pianist/wedding coordinator extraordinaire to finish up planning for the ceremony and wedding programs; then went by and handed in the flower order (later realized I need to call her back and change it up bit). Then I separated out the wedding party gifts (sorry, no pics, just on the off-chance they read this), and decided on the final bit to go with them! Then I drove back home.
Came home to more amazing-ness: two wedding presents and a flood of RSVPS!! > with a couple exceptions that really make me laugh more than anything else. I designed our RSVPS to be postcards and decided to change the M line to a line that has a space for actual names...and yet we got two today with no names. HAHA!! I am actually still kind of laughing, more to the fact that I can narrow down one of them to two guests based on the postmark, but the other one has the postmark half cut-off. Why am I laughing? It's probably just entertaing to me as they are two "no" responses, so it doesn't really matter.
Last note to add: R and I will officially have all four weekends in September booked. Thats right. We have our wedding, then were notified this weekend of a wedding the following Saturday, next I have a sorority sister's wedding the following Saturday after that, and then after that we have a wedding in Houston of more mutual friends!! As a huge fan of weddings, (still kinda thinking of that long ago idea of being a wedding planner) I am really excited to see all the creativity and to see my friends get married!!
Stay tuned for later in the week, as I print out the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner invites- crazy excited for that party, as my soon to be mother-in-law found some quite entertaining items that flow very nicely with the reception place. Hint: Hawaiian Tiki Bar.
I will also be printing out the programs and should be putting those pictures on here as well. My apologies for the insanely long post, and hope you had as wonderful a weekend as I did!
Friday, July 24, 2009
Awesomeness
Can I just say how awesome this is?! I love the creativity!
Last summer at a friend's wedding, she had two groomswomen, and I skipped back down the aisle after the ceremony with one of the ladies, while another friend of mine (and my MOH) danced and twirled down the aisle with the other one.
Last summer at a friend's wedding, she had two groomswomen, and I skipped back down the aisle after the ceremony with one of the ladies, while another friend of mine (and my MOH) danced and twirled down the aisle with the other one.
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Dress and Moon Anniversary
I got to go pick up my wedding dress today! SO excited....now to find somewhere in town to have the train steamed before my bridal pictures on Friday. On that note, I get to do a lot of traveling this week: College Station/Houston Wed-Friday morning, then to Fredericksburg for bachelorette party! It's going to be a good week!
I found a wedding gift for a friend today! I'm pretty excited for September to get here, as it starts the second half of wedding season (we get to go to 3 weddings, not including our own, within a month and a half)!
On a shoppng note, I found a dress I have been eyeing for almost a year now, except it has gone down in price (can't beat $15)! S0 I purchased it to wear to one of said weddings, possibly? not totally sure about that one yet.
I love checking mail. I know its random, but I always get wierdly excited when I see the mailbox has actual items in it. I still send actual cards to friends and family for different events/ holidays. Anyway, when I checked it this morning, there were RSVP cards there!! 5 of them!
And lastly, on this part of the random post, yay for the 40th anniversary of going to the moon! I just got done watching a segment on the History channel that was a replay of the exact same footage from when it was first aired in 1969. My dad was telling me that at the time, my aunt and he were upset they had to come inside when my grandmother called them in to watch the original broadcast. Apparently they were lighting Blackjack firecrackers under Tonka trucks or something to that effect, and sending them down the driveway.
I found a wedding gift for a friend today! I'm pretty excited for September to get here, as it starts the second half of wedding season (we get to go to 3 weddings, not including our own, within a month and a half)!
On a shoppng note, I found a dress I have been eyeing for almost a year now, except it has gone down in price (can't beat $15)! S0 I purchased it to wear to one of said weddings, possibly? not totally sure about that one yet.
I love checking mail. I know its random, but I always get wierdly excited when I see the mailbox has actual items in it. I still send actual cards to friends and family for different events/ holidays. Anyway, when I checked it this morning, there were RSVP cards there!! 5 of them!
And lastly, on this part of the random post, yay for the 40th anniversary of going to the moon! I just got done watching a segment on the History channel that was a replay of the exact same footage from when it was first aired in 1969. My dad was telling me that at the time, my aunt and he were upset they had to come inside when my grandmother called them in to watch the original broadcast. Apparently they were lighting Blackjack firecrackers under Tonka trucks or something to that effect, and sending them down the driveway.
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Passport, anyone?
So, I found an amazing tool online. It's called epassportphoto.com! Instead of paying the average price of $10-15 to go have them done at CVS/ Walgreens/ Kinkos, etc. you can take the photo and print for free! Just go to the website and follow the directions, then send them in!
Monday, July 13, 2009
Dedication
If you have not caught on by now, I'm Catholic. Even though I wasn't always, I am now and I love it! (In fact my two year Catholic anniversary will be in October) Yesterday, I was able to go to a new church dedication in my hometown for a Catholic church that has been worshipping in the same building since they opened in the '50s. Granted, when I think of how old the church I will be getting married in, that's a pretty small amount of years. Anyway, it was fun. The new church is beautiful, and it was a wonderful ceremony, especially the part where Bishop Vann used the homily to read a letter written by "St. Paul." It was the parish's own version of Paul's letter to the Corinthians (i.e. the Book of Corinthians in the Bible). I put his name in quotations because obviously Paul hasn't written an actual letter in 2000 years. I like bishops with a sense of humor.
The following is a notice to anyone who is a current politician or anyone with aspirations of such a "career." Don't get me started on that last part, though.
Notice:
Dear Mr. Texas state senator,
I suggest in the future when you want to hobnob with your constituents you pick an alternative location than a church dedication where there may (just maybe)be someone in the crowd that knows fully well you are not Catholic. Didn't you get caught by our pastor at First Presbyterian when I was in high school for politicking during our "Sign of Peace" handshakes? You would think you would have learned your lesson, but apparently you wanted to be Catholic for a day so you could drum up more votes. Don't even get me started with how you walked in halfway through the two hour service, and not from the back door of the church.
Ok now I'm off the rant box, Happy Monday!! I'll post a note later about my awesome friends and family who are throwing me a total of 3 showers, and coming to a town for a bachelorette party next weekend!! The town is at least an average of 3-5 hour drive for everyone making it.
The following is a notice to anyone who is a current politician or anyone with aspirations of such a "career." Don't get me started on that last part, though.
Notice:
Dear Mr. Texas state senator,
I suggest in the future when you want to hobnob with your constituents you pick an alternative location than a church dedication where there may (just maybe)be someone in the crowd that knows fully well you are not Catholic. Didn't you get caught by our pastor at First Presbyterian when I was in high school for politicking during our "Sign of Peace" handshakes? You would think you would have learned your lesson, but apparently you wanted to be Catholic for a day so you could drum up more votes. Don't even get me started with how you walked in halfway through the two hour service, and not from the back door of the church.
Ok now I'm off the rant box, Happy Monday!! I'll post a note later about my awesome friends and family who are throwing me a total of 3 showers, and coming to a town for a bachelorette party next weekend!! The town is at least an average of 3-5 hour drive for everyone making it.
Sunday, July 12, 2009
One down, one to go!
Oh, I am so excited! Rick and I can now officially get married in the Catholic Church! Ha, and yes I realize the wedding is only a couple months away, now, but until today there was still quite an obstacle in our way.
One of the Church requirements, on top of Pre-Cana (marriage counseling with one of the deacons) is to take an NFP class and then pass the test, especially if you're doing the home study version, like we ended up doing. If you would like to know more information from a fellow blogger who practices NFP (and is WONDERFULLY hysterical) I advise you to head over to Mrs. Newlywed's.
Well, today, I passed the online test!!
Now, to just get our marriage license from the state next month. . .
Happy Sunday!!
One of the Church requirements, on top of Pre-Cana (marriage counseling with one of the deacons) is to take an NFP class and then pass the test, especially if you're doing the home study version, like we ended up doing. If you would like to know more information from a fellow blogger who practices NFP (and is WONDERFULLY hysterical) I advise you to head over to Mrs. Newlywed's.
Well, today, I passed the online test!!
Now, to just get our marriage license from the state next month. . .
Happy Sunday!!
Saturday, July 11, 2009
Sorority
Reader, be warned: this is a very random post, so smile and enjoy :) !
I was a charter member of my sorority's chapter at my college (Texas A&M). I had quite a bit of fun during college, but ever since I became an alum two years ago, I've had a blast! So far, I've been lucky enough to be an advisor to two collegiate chapters at two VERY different campuses.
One of my favorite things of being an alum? Writing recommendation letters for upcoming college women! I got to do that the other day for a woman going to OK State and two going to Alabama. I like reading the letters these women write when they are asking for a recommendation, and visualizing all the potential they will enjoy in college. If these women do end up joining Gamma Phi Beta, I'm sure they will be wonderful additions to the sisterhood on each of their campuses, and ours in general.
Ok, random post of the day is now finished, I will leave you with regularly scheduled programming of your Saturday.
I was a charter member of my sorority's chapter at my college (Texas A&M). I had quite a bit of fun during college, but ever since I became an alum two years ago, I've had a blast! So far, I've been lucky enough to be an advisor to two collegiate chapters at two VERY different campuses.
One of my favorite things of being an alum? Writing recommendation letters for upcoming college women! I got to do that the other day for a woman going to OK State and two going to Alabama. I like reading the letters these women write when they are asking for a recommendation, and visualizing all the potential they will enjoy in college. If these women do end up joining Gamma Phi Beta, I'm sure they will be wonderful additions to the sisterhood on each of their campuses, and ours in general.
Ok, random post of the day is now finished, I will leave you with regularly scheduled programming of your Saturday.
Presley's cake
So my dad's fiance's little girl came back today for a visit (she's spending a month with her dad). Dad's Fiance wanted to make her a "welcome back" cake, and I volunteered. I haven't made a cake like this since last summer when I made one for a friend's bachelorette party. This time I used a cake dome I was given as an engagement gift from a friend.
Ever seen one of these? It's a Dormeyer from 1946. It was my grandmother's first mixer, and it still works! The website is just a better picture reference, I'm not actually selling mine.
The cake dome turns into four different uses: punch bowl, dip and veggie plate, and just a display stand as well as the cake dome.
Ever seen one of these? It's a Dormeyer from 1946. It was my grandmother's first mixer, and it still works! The website is just a better picture reference, I'm not actually selling mine.
The cake dome turns into four different uses: punch bowl, dip and veggie plate, and just a display stand as well as the cake dome.
North Texas Heat
Oh how I love thee. I realize I can't even compare to the Houston area, as they have a bit more humidity than we do up here, but it's still oppressive. While I was working on an assignment for one of my graduate school classes, I took the liberty of taking a few other pictures. Enjoy!
And yes, that says 108*.
The next one is a picture of the paper informing us, again, that we have a heat advisory until the end of the weekend (or for eternity). As if this hasn't been the situation this entire past week.
And yes, that says 108*.
The next one is a picture of the paper informing us, again, that we have a heat advisory until the end of the weekend (or for eternity). As if this hasn't been the situation this entire past week.
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