Sunday, March 27, 2011

the BIG event

Yesterday was The BIG Event in College Station. Over 15,000 students signed up to be a part of "the largest, one-day, student run service project in the nation where students of Texas A&M come together to say "Thank You" to the residents of Bryan/College Station." 
The Geology & Geophysics Society put together a group that split to two locations. There was some major confusion in the masses during registration, but [most of] our group found each other eventually and headed to a families house in Bryan and gave their metal fence a fresh coat of black paint. The family was so nice and really needed some help around their ranch--both parents had been in the hospital in Houston recently. We actually had a lot of fun hanging out and the weather isn't scorching hot yet which was an added bonus. 
The fences were pretty rusty and old. They looked SO MUCH BETTER with a coat of black paint.
We had an eclectic group of students--grad and undergrad who usually don't hang out all together, but we had so much fun laughing and singing eye of the tiger, la bomba, and teach me how to dougie. 
We used oil based paint which is pretty serious stuff. We called it "black tar paint" because it was so thick and oily. These trays were very convenient for carrying from place to place, but as we would bend over to get the lower bars, occasionally the black tar paint would spill all over the place. We successfully coated the fence, our shoes, clothes, hands [we had gloves], arms, faces for some, the concrete sidewalks [oops] and grass. Exibit A:
Exibit B: Poor Alyssa had almost no control over her paint bucket.
And did I mention that this ranch had HORSES and EMUS?? We waited until we finished the first section of the fence by the road to take an "emu break" so we were extra motivated in the morning. I don't spend much time around emus, and they are a little creepy. We decided they were straight from Jurassic Park, which makes sense because birds are the only living descendants of dinosaurs! They were pretty curious about us as well.
It seemed as though they could get aggressive at any moment, but they never made any moves even when the guys decided to get in their pin.
The sound they make is very odd as well. It sounds a lot like drum or deep popping sound. I tried to find a video, but it's really difficult to hear/capture. It's the kind of noise you would expect a dinosaur to make. 
The horses were cute too, and at times didn't seem too keen on sharing a pin with several ornery emus.
We had a great day and left feeling like we had really spruced up this families house. With all they're going through, they needed a little pick-me-up.



The Big Event is the largest, one-day, student-run service project in the nation where students of Texas A&M University come together to say "Thank You" to the residents of Bryan and College Station. For the past 28 years Aggie students have participated in this annual event to show their appreciation to the surrounding community by completing service projects such as yard work, window washing, and painting for community members. Although The Big Event has become the largest one-day, student-run service project in the nation, our message and our mission remains the same – to simply say “Thank You.”

Friday, March 25, 2011

BAM-spin on the BLT

The only reason people eat BLT's is for the bacon, right?? Well how about drop the lettuce and tomato and add an entire avocado [the small kind] and some mayo, toast a couple pieces of flat bread and you are set to enjoy the most delicious sandwich of your life. 



Monday, March 21, 2011

warrior dash

Yesterday Rhett and I did the Warrior Dash, a 5K obstacle course, in Conroe. We started out looking like this:
Please note the bright blue color of my shirt. 
This company travels all around to different cities in different states setting up their course. Ours was on a dirt bike track, so we started off running up and down the bike ramps [wishing I had hit the treadmill during spring break]. Winded, we crawled through a black tarp tent, slid down a muddy slope, crawled under barbed wire, up 2 rope walls, struggled climbed over logs in chest height water, jumped over fire and swam through a mud pit to reach the finish line. At which point our faces and clothes changed color significantly.
We clearly [and rightfully] felt very accomplished.
The shirt never recovered its original color. A small price to pay :)


In other news, my cell phone fell face down from the hood of my moving vehicle this afternoon. About 3 minutes down the road, I realized I didn't have my phone on me. I had a sneaky suspicion of what happened so I raced drove home and tokyo drifted parked to see my lime green phone face down on the pavement in the  middle of the road. As I walked up a car drove by and missed my helpless phone by mere inches. Fortunately it only suffered a slight concussion which was fixed by a quick restart. If you have an iPhone, you should really consider getting an Invisible Shield. I drop my phone OFTEN and today it fell from the hood of Kiki while in motion and the face did not break. If you see those kiosks in the mall, it looks kinda shady, but it's the real deal. PLUS it's not bulky like the OtterBox. Think it over. 




Friday, March 18, 2011

buffet top

Is it already Friday?? This week has been a blast and I'm going to post about ALL of it, but not right now. 
For now I'll head back to last weekend and tell you about the buffet top restoration project my mom and I worked on. Here is what it looked like before we got started.
Nothing special. We painted it Cream Puff by Behr and it took 2+ coats to get it covered! The wood is Pine, so it's super porous. Just the off white color made it look a lot better. 
Meanwhile, my dad cut a piece of bead board to fit in the back. It was actually a little too thick so he had to chip some off the back to make it fit. Thanks, Dad! 
We painted the bead board Firebrick by Behr and slipped it into the back to make sure it fit. Turns out it was such a perfect fit that we couldn't get it back out, so we put the glaze on the whole thing together. 
I used a coarse grit sandpaper to rub around the edges and make it look worn.
We had a lot of fun working on it and I think it looks a million times better. 
Maybe it looks a little weird on the bottom now? I'll let you know what comes of it.
The Round Top Antiques Fair is coming up at the end of March/beginning of April and I'm thinking we will come home with some fabulous finds to populate our buffet top.
:)





Domestically Speaking



Thursday, March 10, 2011

shalom project update

About 4 weeks ago, I told you about the Shalom Project. I actually got the numbers wrong in the first post--our goal was to save 30 Restaveks in Haiti from child slavery and 5 girls in India from sex trafficking. In order to accomplish this goal we would need to raise over $27,000. 
This Tuesday Ben told us the final results and we had raised over $97,000!! People were still donating right before and after Breakaway this week and at 11:42pm Tuesday night the final count was up to $107,000!
Wow. God is doing big things in a college town in Texas and the effects are being felt around the world.


If I'm being honest, it's been the kind of week that makes me think what am I doing with my life?! Spring break could not come at a better time. I'm so ready to shop with my bff Danielle, paint a buffet topper with my mom, and hang out with my hard working beau on his vacation! We plan to see children riding sheep at the Houston Rodeo and jump over fire in the Conroe Warrior Dash! Oh ya.

Happy Spring!




Monday, March 7, 2011

so fresh and so clean, clean

The Masterpiece Conference this weekend was amazing. Donna Stuart did a great job and the women she got to lead the "breakout sessions" were equally awesome. 
I spent most of Sunday lounging and feeding my addiction to HGTV. I typically gravitate to interior remodel stuff, but I watched the episode of The Outdoor Room where Jamie Durie does his own house. It was over-the-top fantastic and got me thinking about outdoor showers. My grandparents have one at their house and I remember as a kid showering there after getting out of the pool and thinking it was sooo cool. We have one at our family property, but it doesn't have any privacy whatsoever, so it's considered the "boys shower." Here are some of my favorite outdoor shower/bath ideas:
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I love the wood ones and, of course, the bath tub. All this outdoor shower talk reminds me of a time on field camp when the professor gave the girls directions to a "bathing pool" just down the road [this was after approximately day 5 of no showers]. We took the van and, much to our dismay, the "bathing pool" was a horse trough/water plant sanctuary. We dunked our heads in anyway. Desperate times. 


PS- As I typed the title of this post, the word 'clean' looked very strange to me. Does that ever happen to you? It's odd. 





Friday, March 4, 2011

masterpiece conference 2011

TONIGHT is the kick-off of the Masterpiece Conference in College Station. Abby is on her way right now and we are going to have an amazing girls weekend including but not limited to the Masterpiece Conference, a throwback sleepover, and fellowship with some amazing women and college girls! I ran a Phone-a-Thon for the College of Geosciences last night and was on the phone with prospective freshmen until 9pm, so the weekend and conference could not be more welcomed. Hope you guys have an awesome weekend too. Check out the promo video for the conference below.





Wednesday, March 2, 2011

blurb

For Christmas I made my mom this book on Blurb. She loved it and it was really fun to make. You download a program to your computer that allows you to customize almost everything in your book. They aren't that expensive for the quality of book and come in a variety of sizes. I actually bought two Groupons in November for $20 and got to spend $60 on the Blurb website. So I made 1 book for Christmas that was a surprise and then one of our Hawaiian vacation. I'm not as pleased with the second one, but it's a nice scrapbook type thing for our family vacation. 

In other news, how much are you loving the warm weather?? Goodbye fabulous knee high boots, hello silver morroco toms!
I bought these at a boutique in Kingwood in the fall and had to buy a half size too small. The woman who worked there promised they'd stretch out, and I am pleased to say that mine have graduated from Chinese foot binding devices to shoes you just don't wear socks with. I am also loving these fingerprint inspired ones from the new spring collection.

Happy March! 



Tuesday, March 1, 2011

monthly resolutions- march

It's no secret that I was horrible at keeping my February resolution. What was I thinking when I made that one?? I believe I've found a much better resolution for March.

I resolve for the month of March to keep a prayer journal and write in it daily.

I bought a cute journal a while back and never filled it with anything. It's in the drawer of my bedside table begging to become my prayer journal and a slam dunk of a monthly resolution! I bought the prayer journal app for my iPhone last semester and used it for a while, but I think having a hard copy is much more my style [as I am currently still in the paper agenda period of my life.] I have SO MUCH to be thankful for, and plan to make a special part of my prayer journal dedicated to giving thanks. 

In other news, my mom showed me this article from Southern Living on the 10 Adventure in Texas' Hidden Hill Country. Yes, or yes?! Some of them are pretty weird [smell lavender? come on.], but most of them are awesome! Rhett and I plan to take his new kayak to the Medina River as soon as our schedules allow. We will be headed to #7 for sure which is in Colorado Bend State Park, and check out #3!! For name's sake, we may have to do this one as well. 
Happy March! [btw, how cute is that praying bunny??]
Speaking of bunnies, the Rodeo is here! Can't wait to clock some face time with real life bunnies!