Taste of Louisiana

I finally got to visit Lake Charles, where Jarrod grew up, for a Fais Do Do which I learned a while back is basically a Cajun dance with zydeco music & lots of good cajun food & fun! This particular one was to raise money for Mitochondrial research. Many of you know our good friend's child named Jude has this disease. You can find out more on his website at http://www.judesmitojourney.com/. The fundraiser brought in about $25k toward Jude's fund for research for his disease. This year he will present a check at the symposium to researchers who will begin researching cures for his specific type of Mitochondrial disease.

I finally got to see Jarrod's stomping grounds. We toured around town and saw all his old hang out spots, where he went to middle school & high school, where he lived and of course ate at all the favorite spots which proved to be as good as he had described them. Friday night we went out to eat with his college buddies at Pat's of Henderson to celebrate Bryan Manley's birthday, Saturday we at breakfast at Delicious Donuts & lunch at Leonards. And of course that night we had some amazing cajun cookin' at the Fai Do Do!

Pictures of our Cajun weekend

Reunion...

This passed weekend was a reunion of sorts. Stacey and I had not seen each other since my last night in Dallas, which had been exactly 15 weeks to the day! (I just looked at the calendar so no I'm not psycho woman) Almost 4 months! I've missed Stacey so much and her silliness a ton!! I miss our Potbelly lunch dates and grillin' nights at our place, but most of all just missed knowing I had a great friend just 10 minutes away to go hang with. Ok, dry the tears...it's only 3 hours now...well...not for Stacey & Josh --- they seemed to have managed to turn it into a 5 hour haul! She and Josh, her fiance, arrived Friday night and silly girl that she is, parked on the street so that we could run up the driveway to give each other a great big hug -- I know, dramatic, but it was funny. Anyhow, we had fajitas awaiting & had a great time visiting and getting to know Josh. Saturday morning we headed out for College Station to the A&M vs OU game, which was part of the reason for the trip (hate to admit that, but when we bought the tix, we didn't really know the extent of the horribleness that would be the Aggie season this year). But forget about that, it is about the experience of being at Kyle Field with the 12th Man and hearing the famous Fightin' Texas Aggie Band at half time, right! We stopped in at Southside in Elgin for lunch on the way to introduce Stacey & Josh to some of that great Texas BBQ that we have been finding around here. It was yummy! And for a West Texas country girl, I gotta say that I couldn't believe how grossed out Stacey was at eating meat off a bone! It was hilarious. She is so silly and that is why we love her. ;) Then on to College Station we went. I'm not going to go into anything about the game here except that we enjoyed the company we were with, getting to see my brother and some of his friends, watching the band and eating kettle corn. We also got to go onto Kyle Field after the game, which I had never done before so that was fun. Here are some pictures at the game.

On Sunday, Stacey & Josh went to Hill Country Bible Church with us. We are really growing to love this Church and haven't been anywhere else since we tried it. We visited many others before we tried it, but none of them were as alive as this church. I can just sense God moving among the people there. After church, we took Stacey & Josh to one of our faves where we take every guest that visits, Z Tejas, and it didn't dissappoint. The view was great and the food was even better! It was a great weekend! We had a great time hanging out. I didn't want the meal to end b/c I knew that meant they would be heading back to 'Big D'. I'll be there in a few weeks though, so it was just "see ya soon"!

Mavs vs Spurs...

Last week Jarrod got us tix through work to the Dallas Mavs vs San Antonio Spurs game. After work Wednesday, we headed out to the San Antonio AT&T Center, which neither of us had ever been to before. Last time I went to a Spurs game in SA, it was in the Alamodome so it has been a while. The new arena is really nice & was really convenient for us to get in and out. We had a VIP parking pass in the lot right next to the entrance and were able to get out super fast. It was still a long night though, but well worth it. I have a hard time when Mavs and Spurs play each other b/c I was a Spurs fan growing up in South Texas and then living in Dallas for almost 7 years, I became a Mavs fan too. I didn't clap too much at the game b/c I felt urges to clap for both sides and I think people would have looked at me kind of funny. I did start clapping for the Mavs toward the end of the 3rd quarter though. They were making some great plays & were smearing the Spurs so I had to. Dirk was playing awesome as always & man that Jason Kidd is a hustler! Kidd was fun to watch. Here's some pictures from the night.

Dirk puts up a fadeaway

Down South where it's "Gruener"...

Mom told us about a music & wine festival in Gruene when we were in Corpus a couple weekends ago so we decided to make a day trip down South to Gruene, TX this past Saturday. We met up with mom and Ernie and had a relaxing time listening to some music, trying a few TX wines & of course hitting up a few of the "cute little shops" in Gruene. We ate at the famous Grist Mill restaurant & conversed about why the restaurant would be named a mill if its history went back to a cotton gin? Oh well, the food was really good. We had great weather and a great time! It was so great to be able to meet up with them on a daytrip! We never would have been able to do that in Dallas. Here's some pictures.

Spirit of Aggieland Never Changes...

Our lives are ever changing, but it never ceases to amaze me that the same spirit I knew while I was at A&M, is still there & is felt the moment I drive into College Station. It is also that feeling like you get when you go back to your hometown to visit family -- it was so exciting to be home in Aggieland this past weekend! And if you are reading this and thinking, "what is she talking about?", I guess it is like they say, "those inside cannot explain it & those outside don't understand it (my husband included in this bunch)". It was a great time of visiting friends and being a part of the 12th Man (fans) at Kyle Field! Army was the opponent so it was fitting that special tributes were done in honor of those men who proudly serve our country.

There is usually a fly over at all the games, but I had never seen paratroopers dropped from helicopters to drift down to Kyle Field...

The band played a piece for each branch of the military,

And of course, the standard block "T"...

God Bless America! And God Bless our Troops.

The singing cadets sing as the flag covers Kyle Field.

The guys were focused on the game,

Jarrod & Brad


While Emily & I chatted & caught the highlights...

After the game we met up with friends.

Amber, Me, Rachel, Emily

To bring the weekend to a close, on our way back to Austin Sunday we stopped through Elgin to check out 2 BBQ places we keep hearing people rave about. We got BBQ at both & taste tested that night. And the winner is.....

Southside Market! Their pork ribs are tasty!

River Trip 2008

This is part of the Frio River where we float to and take out at.















We stayed at dad & Jim's new cabin in the Mountain Valley area of Concan called 'Boondocks' -- they also own Casa Del Sol so click on the link & check 'em out for your next family gathering! There are great views and is so quite & peaceful out there sitting out on the porch and gazing at the beauty God created. Every now and then a deer will wander by. We had a relaxing weekend.














I have to admit that I did not take any pictures on the river or with us in them this year so I stole these 2 from last year. It is always a great time floating the river. This year the water level was not quite as high, but was still good floatin', great relaxin' & lots of laughin'. There are no cares or worries in mind when floating down the Frio!














My brother fried up some catfish & Jarrod provided some famous Catahoula fries to go along with it on Saturday night. We had enough to feed an army! We had some friends over from the cabin next door and chowed down. Our good friend Bryan Hoy's birthday was on Sunday so we brought out some cupcakes that we had brought with us from Cupprimos, one of our faves in Austin, and burst out in song to celebrate his 33rd year! We did fit in some football watching & poker playing while we were there. Even the rookie poker player that I am managed to beat up on the guys a little, but in the end Jarrod & Jim were the last ones standing (I was snoozing by that point as I think it went until 1am in the morning). Jarrod & I drove back on Monday, but took a different route up through Fredericksburg. It was a beautiful drive. We saw lots of wildlife & rolling hills. It was a great end to the weekend. However, when driving through Fredericksburg, I could definitely feel a magnetic force wanting to pull the car off to park & go shop in all those cute little stores!! That'll have to be another trip!

Good Times...

I got to spend this past weekend with some long time friends from college who are all very special to me -- Amber, Emily & Sherry. We all met up in San Antonio to eat us up some Beth Moore Bible teachin' & some good 'ol South Texas Mexican food!! We went to one of Beth's Living Proof conferences & stayed at the Marriott right on the river and attached to the mall! No, we didn't even go shopping! (Amazing, I know!) Beth delivered a great message about the inheritance that we will receive as children of God. She had us all in tears of joy & of laughter! She definitely has a God given gift of teaching & speaking with lots of humor mixed in. Not only did I enjoy hearing Beth speak, but so enjoyed the time that my college friends and I got to spend together. It is the most time that just the four of us have gotten to spend together in quite some time. We ate at Mi Tierra

(famous in SA) after the session on Friday night and don't think we were headed out of there until about midnight! Good thing they stay open all night! There was still a wait to get a table when we were leaving! Crazy! The conference was over on Saturday at noon and we hadn't had our fill of Mexican food just yet so we took a stroll down the river to eat at another Mexican food restaurant for lunch! When in South Texas, do as the South Texans do!

Busy, Busy, Busy...

Well, since my last post, I've been to San Francisco & Chicago on work trips, returned back to Austin, mom came to visit to help with the move, movers arrived & so did a ton of boxes & stuff!!! I didn't know we had so much stuff! They just kept bringing it out of the truck. I wish I had a picture of the gigantic truck that they barely fit our stuff into. (I need to get better about taking pictures again now that I am a blogger!) Anyway, 6 hours later, all of our furniture was in place & all billion of the boxes awaited our attention! It'll be 1 week tomorrow that we've been in the house, and I think we only have about 8-10 boxes to go, but that's nothing! We are definitely on the down hill slope. Take a look at our new house -----

Also, the day after we moved in (last Saturday), a good friend of mine (my tennis double partner--district champs baby!) from high school got married here in Austin (thankfully we didn't have to drive far!) so mom & I did a brunch for her and the bridal party and then went to Erin's wedding at Chateau Bellevue in downtown Austin that night. I would put a link to Erin's blog here, but she doesn't have one YET! (wink, wink, Erin) It was a wonderful outdoor wedding in a quaint courtyard & the rain held off just long enough for the pastor to say "you may kiss your bride".