pre-aggie game with cat and chris

meeting up with the Wilson, Twardowski, and Nash families in Chicot State Park

bonfires

stargazing

kayaking

fishing

biking

hiking

etc.

the pics really speak for themselves 

blisters can't keep a good man down! 

Uncle Charlie coached the kiddos in some Zombie pictures 

Nate and his cousin Tyler were playing some soccer

and Nate caught a ball to the face

and a loose tooth was knocked out in the shuffle 

movie night with the boys!

my three cutie-pie dates and i went to see Puss in Boots Saturday night

some pre-historic fun was had as well.

i love my boys!

another craig list find

taking on a quick side project from the bathroom renovation

charlie found this vintage 1940's record cabinet

that was in need of some TLC

The "Spin Doctor" 

Charlie cracked 'er open and took off the front two doors

inside we found...

old spark plugs 

and these strings are what were functioned as the antena

pretty nifty if i do say so myself 

Lil Pumpkin

last weekend we went to a little carving party...

of pumpkins 

the finished product 

and our magnum opus...Jacques!

Yes, Weekend.

{via: tumblr.}

the perfect day!

it really and truly was...

it began with the best weather of the year and an early morning spin class

while i was at the gym, charlie scouted out 2 estate sales

and scored some classic record finds:
3 Little Pigs
Hans Brinker & The Silver Skates
Hansel & Gretel
Walt Disney - 30 Favorite Classic Songs
Night on Bald Mountain from Fantasia

{the chipmunk record will be a great addition to our "Muppets and John Denver" Christmas CD}

he also bought me this fun prize

My Fair Lady staring Rex Harrison & Julie Andrews

...wait, Julie Andrews?...

this is the record of the stage musical and not the movie staring Mrs. A. Hepburn

I do have the vinyl of the movie/musical but

I can't wait to hear Mrs. Andrews take on all of my favorite songs

then we hit up my two favorite resale stores in the world...

Blue Bird & Catholic Charities

by this time we had worked up quite the appetite and headed over to our favorite

crepe and waffle joint...The Brownstone Cafe

they have the best nutella and "very thin pancake" concoctions you can imagine!

as we were leaving Charlie spied an interesting looking

i.e. orville redenbacher's doppelganger

person standing outside of a Tin Soldier / rare-book-and-print store.

Never one to shy away from a memorable conversation, Charlie started visiting with Orville.

One thing led to another and we ended up going inside to stand agape at all of the

Ernest Hemingway

F. Scott Fitzgerald

Ludwig Bemelmans (Madeline)

Cormac McCarthy
Ayn Rand

SIGNED first editions

these beauties cost upwards of $15,000 - $40,000 and were in great condition.

'Ol Orville didn't disappoint in the conversation department and we promised to come back

when we had an extra 20K laying around to invest.

On our way home charlie found another estate sale going on

where he, newly inspired, picked up a few classics for our library...

i hit the pool and finished Steve Martin's biography "Born Standing-Up"

drove over to eat dinner with my lovely Mama at Happy Lamp

and then visited the Twardowski family.

what more can a gal ask for:

glorious weather

challenging workout class

one-on-one time with the sweetest man in the world

allowing myself to enjoy the moment

unexpected discoveries

family togetherness

get really excited for the future

stop & take everything in...

sunday morning we headed to campus and students were already

camped out to get tickets for next weekend's game against Oklahoma

we all went to our main buildings where most of our classes were held.

Francis is where I spent most of my time as an aggie 

but as I walked up to the door

i noticed a sign

"we are moving"

sad day!

it was like going home and finding your house completely empty.

 well, not quite that tramatizing but still unexpected.

this was the room where i had my first class as an RPTS student 

i'm just glad that i got to walk the halls and say goodbye.

we are the aggies, the aggies are we

"big gulps, huh?

yep, well see ya later."

gotta love wal-mart in aggieland

the aggies put the spank on Idaho at

37 to 7 saturday night

the lloyds and woodleys whooped it up for the ags like old times

and encountered the youngest aggie who bleeds maroon. 

he fell asleep with his head resting on a water bottle.

the band rocked as always

kati and i showed all the college girls how to get the perfect

jump shot on the first take

we finished off the night with dinner at our favorite authentic italian restaurant

Olive Garden :)

to aggieland and back again

there is a thrift market in Hempstead on the way the College Station.

sellers rent a section of property every third weekend of the month.

picture a garage sale on the side of the freeway.

there were several "other people's trash is your treasure" items available

{a picture is worth a thousands words}

 

{nothing says classy like a cross-stitch pick-up line}

                         {Why is this rabbit at the north pole?}         {just not too sure}

... but we didn't get completely skunked ...

we found this cool wooden box for just $5

(brass key included)

and I got this sweet bird cage with three pieces of garland for...

you guessed it...$5!

i was pretty stoked to say the least!

chef charlie

friday night charlie decided to try his hand at making my

favorite soup from scratch...

spicy, chicken tortilla!

one of the ingredients he forgot to get at HEB was 

chicken broth. 

After digging around the kitchen we found several

boxes of beef broth but couldn't find any chicken broth.

{"why are we so beefy?" ~charles}

finally we found three cans of chicken broth.

1 was expired and 2 were good to go! 

after an hour and a half of hard labor

we enjoyed big 'ol heaping bowl of steamy

chicken tortilla soup. 

charlie's opinion of the whole experience was that

paying the premium at a restaurant is well worth it.

The soup was very delicious but the prep time can take a while.

Being the lucky wife that I am, I was able to taste test all along the way

and then took 'dish-washing' duty after the meal.

As the rule goes,

"the one who cooks, the other does the dishes"