First Day of School

Today will be my LAST first day of school. I am so excited to start this semester, everyone else has been saying that they are not ready for it to begin but I am looking forward to this fall for so many reasons.

Look forward to posts about my graduate defense, breakfast taco making for day workers, potlucks with the homeless, Family Promise (a program where churches house homeless families for a week), Sunday School teaching, study abroad programs, and interesting classes. Between all of that, if you hear of any jobs in the south Florida area, let me know :)

This past weekend Treehouse (the Lutheran campus ministry) had a leadership retreat. Not necessarily a very restful retreat, but a very productive one. I'm on the justice and service team for the semester, along with a couple other wonderful Aggies.

The really cute country church we stayed at. Complete with lots of ghost stories.

Impromptu mid-afternoon nap time. We were all so tired, and the semester hadn't even started...uh oh.

Group meeting and discussion time with Pastor Mindy and some of the leaders

Random Happenings

On Emily's last day in Texas we had a great day of cowboy boot shopping, painting toenails, reading magazines, eating pizza, and making microwave mug brownies. I'd give you the link to the mug brownie recipe but they didn't turn out that great, so I'll spare you.

While I was in Maryland I re-potted most of my indoor plants and trimmed them up a bit. Here is one plant that grew a huge spiral root

Here are a few new meals I've tried lately

Chili-Maple Glazed Chicken with couscous (Chicken would have been better with more of a sauce, wasn't especially flavorful)

Baked Potato Soup- This one was pretty good and easy. Here is the link for the recipe-http://pearls-handcuffs-happyhour.blogspot.com/2011/03/outback-aint-got-nothin-on-me.html?m=1

Grandmom

Sadly, my Grandmom passed away earlier this week. Though I am sad she is gone, I have so many happy memories of time spent with her. I couldn’t possibly name all of the great times I had with her growing up, but here a just a few things that come to mind...

Feeding the ducks at Italian Lake

Eating scrambled eggs and bacon for breakfast EVERY time we came to visit. Still, when I smell bacon cooking the only thing I picture is me coming downstairs for breakfast (sometimes skipping the two creaky stairs) at my grandparents house

Making Christmas countdown paper chains

Playing lots of old board games like Merry Milkman, Camp Granada, and something exciting about dueling tops or spinners

Shuffle board in the basement

Mini-golf, ice-cream, and Hershey Park visits

Here is a beautiful picture of Grandmom in her nursing uniform. (Thanks Patty- for putting some pictures up on facebook)

The occasion was sad, but it was nice to see family members who I do not get to see nearly often enough.

All of Grandmom’s grandchildren

My three cousins all have beautiful children of their own, but I was too busy looking at how cute they all were to remember to snap a few pictures.

More Family Time

This week has flown by fast. Soon I’ll be taking Mom and Erik to the airport, and Emily and I will have a couple more days to do fun things in College Station.

Since we got Emily at the airport we ate at another fun restaurant called Kreuz Market.

Had to try some good Texas beef brisket, no plates or forks allowed!

The next day (after getting free corn on the cob at church, unexpected and exciting) we headed to Corpus Christi.

There we had the chance to…

Pet and feed sting rays.

Hold a sea urchin

Act like dorks, a recurring theme in my life

Visit the Gulf of Mexico

Practice our golf skills

And explore the Botanical Gardens

When we got back to College Station on another day we went on the Blue Bell factory tour. If you have never had Blue Bell ice cream, you need to change that in your life quickly. I’ll for sure miss it when I leave Texas.

Mom wouldn't join in and wear the really cool Blue Bell hats with us. Probably because I laughed when she tried it on, oops sorry!

In the evening we settled in for some time at the pool and a new crock pot meal. You all have to try this…just put pork chops (I did frozen) on the bottom of a crock pot, cover them with onions and cream of chicken soup, then wrap potatoes and ears of corn in foil and put them on top of the pork chops. You get a full meal with the crock pot, so easy! Here is the link where I got the recipe: http://hickeryhollerfarm.blogspot.com/2012/03/crock-pot-cooking.html

Thank you so much for visiting Mom and Erik, I loved my time with you!

Good Food and Good Company

I LOVE visitors. Having family and friends come visit and explore Texas with me is one of the best things I could ask for. Going through travel books and the 5lbs of pamphlets I picked up at the Texas visitors center is always fun. (Actually, I think the exorbitant number of pamphlets is still sitting in my closet untouched…opps.) Since I have been in Texas I have had the chance visit Houston, Austin, Dallas, Fort Worth, San Antonio, Big Bend National Park, and several other places. Most of these excursions have been with my friends and family visiting from Maryland or Virgina; so in the midst of a week-long visit from Erik, Mom, and soon Emily I’m looking forward to the new adventures in store.

Right after I picked up Mom and Erik from the airport we went into downtown Austin to eat at the Texas Chili Parlor http://www.txchiliparlor.com/. For all you movie buffs and Quentin Tarantino fans out there (aka my brother Erik) this is where a scene in the movie Death Proof was filmed. You don’t have to twist my arm to get me to go to a dive with great atmosphere and tasty nachos, chili, and burgers (aka not-having-to-eat-again-for-a-week). 

I made Erik pose with the menu

Me outside Texas Chili Parlor

Family picture in front of the Texas State House. It's just a bit bigger than Maryland's :)

An account of this visit would not be complete without showing off the “air mattresses” we are using for beds. Only one of them popped open and deflated when I tried to lay on it. I just need to avoid a few more meals at Texas Chili Parlor and I bet I could sit on it with no popping. That will be my goal.

I call the one with all the cup holders!

Another day we stopped by the George Bush Library on the A&M campus. Much more entertaining than you would expect a presidential library to be, I recommend it to anyone visiting College Station. 

Erik in the Situation Room

They play solitaire in the Situation Room...wait, what?

Another family picture, in the Bush library http://bushlibrary.tamu.edu/

World Travels

I’m thinking I’ll do a few posts about Namibia over time...Here is the first!

Let’s start with the plane ride to Germany. We had a 13 hour layover which gave us the chance to explore the city of Frankfurt. 

 This is Josh, Holly, and Brandy...all bright eyed and smiling, they had no idea how tired we would all feel by the end of the day

I don’t think anyone in the group knew German, so it took us a few wrong stops and some debating to actually get into the city.

It just looks so German!

The first place we stayed was the University of Namibia Neudamm Campus. The campus was pretty modern and not so different from one in the US. Just a whole lot smaller than these large Universities I love to attend. 

Some sort of gathering or hang out area

Couldn't resist a picture of the animal science building

 Here is the dairy

Dairy processing facility

Some of the finished products

My friend Holly made this video with a few of her clips from the trip. I don’t know if the link will be good for long but have a look at this if it works https://vimeo.com/46987632?action=share

Welcome to friends and family!

Recently I’ve gotten the itch to try my hand at blogging. On my latest expedition I traveled to Namibia. Everyone in the group had to write a couple of blog posts (http://alecabroad.com/) and it was a great way to keep in touch. As I travel around from Maryland, to Virginia, to Texas, and anywhere in between, I thought this would be a perfect way to give friends and family insight into my daily living and a peek at of the places I visit.

I’m sure this will end up being a hodgepodge of my adventures, cooking, knitting, and maybe random thoughts here and there…I hope you enjoy and please keep me up to date about what is going on in your life!

This is one of the places I've visited this summer, I'm on a hike to Emory Peak in Big Bend National Park

Disclaimer: This blog could very well end up being like a New Year’s resolution diet. I’m excited about starting it, but no promises for how long it will continue.