Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving Graphics

Happy Thanksgiving!

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We're spending it with a great friend of ours in Syracuse!

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Have a wonderful holiday and weekend!

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.

Nov. 18th will always be a day for remembrance and to never forget.

"We Remember Them."

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.

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.

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!!

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!!

• 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!

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!

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!!