SURPRISE!!

I had an incredible weekend! 

Friday night Zac and I didn't do much; a little cleaning, cooking and watching a movie. I knew that Saturday was going to be a REALLY busy day.

Sat. morning I went up to the museum early to volunteer for the annual Easter Celebration! The event went smoothly, the weather cooperated (even if it was a little chilly and windy) and there were soooo many people in attendance. I went straight from there to the Physics and Engineering Festival to take pictures for work. After being there for an hour, I left to meet my cousin Emily, her husband Jonathan and Zac for lunch at Layne's! I was so excited that Emily and Jonathan were coming to hang out in College Station with us for the day/night. They got to see our house, the dogs and a lot of what has changed here since we were students. We gave them a tour of our house, CS and the Bonfire Memorial. (Emily and Jonathan were freshmen here when Bonfire fell in '99.) After the tours we came home and changed because Zac said that we had dinner reservations. I kept trying to guess where, but he would not tell me (typical). We ended up driving in to Bryan, to Mr. G's Pizza. We walked in the door and a bunch of people yelled "SURPRISE!!" really loudly. It took me a few seconds to process what was going on before I realized the fun surprise was for ME! WOW! I was surprised, indeed! Mandy, Beth and Zac had been plotting against me, with the help of everyone, to get me - and it worked! Mandy, Meranda, Beth, Mai, Teal, April and Becky all came in from the metroplex - Mary Alice, Jonathan and Emily were here from Austin - Jesse, his friend and Kevin came in from San Antonio/Houston - Amy and Austin came in from Houston, and Kelsey, Mack, Spike and John (and Zac of course) were here in town. :) Am I blessed or what? I have the most thoughtful/caring/fun family and friends in the whole world. Thank you, friends!! We had pizza, cake and opened presents at Mr. G's, then everyone came to our house to hang out for a while. Afterwards we headed up to Northgate. What an incredibly fun birthday celebration that I wasn't expecting AT ALL! 

Sunday morning some of us went to breakfast at Coco Loco before heading back in a million directions. That afternoon, Zac, Mary Alice and I installed my birthday present from Zac, fireplace glass! It is absolutely beautiful, and I love how it looks installed. I wanted something that wouldn't ash and stain the rock or make a mess. Mary Alice saw this done on HGTV, and luckily I had a birthday coming up so I asked for it. :) We love it! 

CLICK HERE to see a few pictures from the surprise party, and the installation of the fireplace glass! For more birthday celebration pictures, see Facebook!

Me ke aloha,

RAWE

Hamm Visit, Shelton Visit and More!

Where to begin? Since my last post a lot has been going on!
The last weekend in February, the Hamm family came to College Station for a visit, and so that Mary could shoot to qualify for nationals. Zac and I had SO much fun with Mary, Reed, Kaylie and Carter. Mary shot well, and this time Kaylie wasn't so scared of Zac. In fact, she loved him.

Kaylie was here on her 4th birthday! I can not believe she is already 4 years old. She is such a beautiful little girl, and says some pretty hilarious things. I made a list of a few of my favorite quotes of hers over the weekend she was here.

• Kaylie eating one of our Yoplait Whips yogurt: "I think your yogurt turned in to ice cream. Can I have a different one?"
• "It's my birthday?? I think I need more presents!!"
• Talking to me in the car: "You need a hair cut!" (I'm trying to grow it out for Amy's wedding in July.)

She really is SO funny.

March 8th I drove to Austin after work to meet Mary Alice, Jessica and Tiffani for the John Mayer Battle Studies concert. Yes, I have seen him several times in concert, and he does not disappoint. I think this was my 6th or 7th time to see him live. Love it. He is so talented.

And now Spring Break is upon us! Zac and I both had Thurs. and Fri. off. :) Whoop for working for TAMU! Wed. afternoon Tony, Barb, Tommy and Amanda drove down to visit us! That night we gave them a driving tour of campus, visited the Bonfire Memorial and had a fun dinner at Wings 'n More. Thurs. morning we got up, had an awesome kolache breakfast and drove to Brenham. We first visited Blue Bell Creamery! (All with hundreds of other families also on spring break.) We took the tour of the creamery, learned how they make their glorious ice cream and even got to try a scoop at the end of the tour. I had the most amazing flavor: Southern Blackberry Cobbler! If you can get your hands on it - buy some - it's in a lavender colored carton. Afterwards we drove in to Brenham to ride their antique carousel. I chose to ride a horse, and not sit on the benches. There was a sign telling adults to ride on the benches, but what fun is that? On the way back to College Station we stopped at Washington on the Brazos and walked the grounds before driving back for a Freebirds lunch. Everyone left full and happy. Then the Sheltons had to go back to Carrollton. We had so much fun with them here. :) 

This past weekend I went to a baby shower for a friend of mine from the museum. There was an exciting moment when one of the gifts caught on fire - the gift was not damaged and was extinguished by a glass of Sprite! At this momentous baby shower I ran in to my cousin! Natalie was in town visiting her God parents - and neither one of us knew that the other was in town. It was such a fun surprise. 

To see more pictures of these events, CLICK HERE! 

More blogs to come soon!

Me ke aloha, 

RAWE

Aidan is here! And it is snowing.

Mom and Dad are here. They brought Aidan with them to finally be back with Zac and me. :) They also brought their dog, Mabel, so the house is dog-filled! (That's 4 dogs with the puppy and Kodi, the dog we are dog-sitting for!)
And it is currently SNOWING in College Station! This is the most snow I have ever seen here. It's nuts! Here is a pic of the snow covered house.

Me ke aloha,
RAWE

I have a job!

Yesterday I received a job offer, and accepted it!
I will be the new Communications Specialist for the Aerospace Engineering department for A&M.
I am very excited about this experience, and I start work March 1st.
WHOOP!
Me ke aloha,
RAWE

Mandy and Josh!

Something REALLY exciting happened this week! Thursday night Josh popped the big question to Mandy! And of course, she said yes. :)
Mandy has been one of my bestest friends for the past several years. We first met at a MSC OPAS retreat at Texas A&M, and clicked from day one! Many college memories were soon made with Mandy during OPAS activities, various Aggie traditions, football games, study time, hangout sessions and going out. We were even roomies for our last semesters in college, with Mary Alice. I am so thankful to have her in my life!
Josh and Mandy have been dating for the past few years (longer than Zac and I have been together! :) ) and last year had a baby -- Meranda! She is one of the cutest babies in the ENTIRE world, even if I am biased because I am her Auntie.
Josh sneakily planned a perfect evening and proposal. This is the Reader's Digest version: After taking their beautiful daughter to Mimi's for a sleepover, Mandy and Josh had dinner at Eddie V's in Fort Worth. They sat in the lounge area - Mandy's suggestion - and Josh gave Mandy three letters. (I'm sure he super pumped that I am sharing all of this with everyone.) One letter about the past, one about the present and finally one about the future.  I was so impressed with his creativity and romanticism. WAY TO GO, JOSH! He then got down on one knee and proposed - and she said yes! WHOOP!
Since Zac and I have been living so far away until recently, we haven't had a ton of time to spend with Josh. We did have a blast with him and Mandy on NYE this year, and we are so looking forward to many more nights, memories and fun ahead! Welcome to our little family of friends, Josh!
Again, millions of congratulations to Josh, Mandy, Meranda and their families. I am looking forward to dreaming about, celebrating, partying for, planning and attending your wedding.
Me ke aloha,
RAWE

Sewing Sisters

This weekend my sister came back to College Station to visit! She has been gathering her college sorority t-shirts to make a t-shirt quilt and brought a second batch down from Austin with her so that we could start working on it. Friday we bought a little bit more fabric (have I mentioned I love fabric and may be a little obsessed??) and started figuring out which t-shirts to use in this quilt. She has so many t-shirts that we could easily make two more quilts. So, Friday afternoon and evening we began cutting the t-shirts into squares. That night we had dinner with some friends and played laser tag (soooo much fun). Saturday we woke up, got some breakfast kolaches and came back home to work on the quilt. After a lunch with Zac's friend, Karl, that was also in town visiting, we worked on the quilt a little bit more, had dinner with some other friends, and went to the Aggie v. texas tech basketball game. The game was great, and we beat tech! WHOOP! Today had brunch at the "famous" diner, Hullabaloo's (on the Food Network's show "Diners, Drive-ins and Dives", and came home to piece together the rest of the quilt. And we finished! It is so cute - here is a preview!

We used fabrics from "Wonderland" by Momo for Moda. All we need to do now is sew on a border and put the backing together - and send it away to be professionally quilted! It turned out really well, and now she will have a cute cozy Theta t-shirt quilt to show her friends and keep her warm.
Here are a couple of close-ups.

We had such a great time working on this project!

I also uploaded a funny video of Kona to my You Tube channel - CLICK HERE to see it!

Me ke aloha,

RAWE

Not just another January weekend

Now that we live in Texas again, I am so blessed to be near so many of my family members and best friends. So close, in fact, that we can now have visitors drive in just a day or for the weekend! 

Last Monday Mary Alice came to visit us and stayed the night and most of Tuesday. We had fun just hanging out and playing with Kona. We visited some of her (our) favorite restaurants and had dinner with our cousin, Jerome! I love living close to my sister again. :)

That weekend Zac, the dogs and I drove down to Houston for a brunch with some of Zac's corps buddies and their wives and babies. We had a blast meeting two new K-2 little ones, meeting Erin Wagstaff, seeing Emily, Nathan, Cameron and Michelle and did I mention playing with all 3 little ones! They are so funny. We spent most of the day just catching up and entertaining ourselves with the babies. Later that evening we drove over to Pearland to visit Fi and Ryan! We had a great Mexican food dinner at Gringo's. I so enjoyed catching up with and spending time with Fi - and finally meeting Ryan.

This past weekend Mandy and Beth ventured down to College Station for a much-needed girls' weekend! (Zac participated in some of the activities, however.) :) We decided that we would do things that we never got around to doing while we were all in college here. Friday evening we met at Kyoto Sushi on Northgate to finally see how their sushi compares to other we have had. We were pleasantly surprised to find some decent sushi in a landlocked city! Afterwards we headed home to talk and rest up for the day ahead. The next morning we stopped at Kolache Rolf's and drove to Washington on the Brazos, the birthplace of Texas. We explored the museum there (yes, Zac read every single thing possible) and took a short tour of the grounds. It was extremely interesting to see where the Great State of Texas signed their declaration of independence from Mexico. And, I was proud to see "J.W. Bunton" as a signer - one of my relatives. We also toured the Star of Texas museum, Barrington farm and the home of the last president of the Republic of Texas, Anson Jones. I really am glad that we drove the short 40 minutes to see all of these things! This is a picture of the ladies at the meeting of the Navasota and Brazos rivers.

For lunch we ventured over to downtown Bryan, which looks great! The City of Bryan and its businesses have done a fantastic job making the area look cleaner, nicer and more approachable. We ate at Casa Rodriguez, a restaurant that was recommended to us by our realtor and one that we hear numerous advertisements for, and all had great Tex-Mex dishes. (I still do not think that I have met my Mexican food quota since being back from Hawaii. I love it so much!)
Zac went home to do homework after lunch while Mandy, Beth and I visited Messina Hof winery for a tour and tasting. I learned several things about wine that I had never heard before, and the wines that we tasted were (mostly) pretty good! Our tour guide demonstrated to us the correct ways to taste red and white wines. I think that I will now have a great appreciation for the different tastes of wines. Dad would be proud! :) After the tour we went back to downtown Bryan to try a new wine bar, Downtown Uncorked. We each tried one glass and had a couple of good appetizers. I look forward to visiting there more often! We then went home, relaxed for a little while, and headed up to Northgate for some more college reminiscing. We had trash can lid nachos at Zapatos, visited the Corner Bar for a few minutes, and we all decided to head home. We may or may not have admitted to feeling so much older. :)
Sunday Zac ditched us to play golf in Houston with Cameron, and we had breakfast at Coco Loco! One of our favorite breakfast restaurants in College Station! Beth, Mandy and I watched a little bit of television before the made the drive back to Dallas.
We had a couple of wonderful weekends, and I am so thankful that MA, Beth and Mandy were able to visit, and that we were able to visit the Houstonites. I truly am blessed to have so many wonderful friends. For more pictures from the past twos weekends, click here.
Me ke aloha,
RAWE