365 Challenge - Week 8

February 21 - Our trip to Seattle was far too short! I'd love to go back to explore more, especially the outdoors in some beautiful weather. Although we went to Pike Place Market each day while we were there, I'd love to go back. I wish we had something similar in College Station. We just don't have the population to support it, or the tourism industry. This was one of the produce stands in the market. The muscat grapes (bottom right corner) were delicious!

February 22 & 23- I forgot to take pictures both of these days. Clearly I have not met this 365 challenge, but I'm still doing my best.

February 24 - On Wednesday, I broke into this book. After seeing the play on Broadway in October and listening to the soundtrack on repeat ever since, I finally broke down and bought the book that inspired the musical. I got hooked after reading just the introduction. The history nerd in me is itching to completely blow through this book and absorb the details of Hamilton's life, but I'm trying to pace myself. We'll see how long that lasts.

February 25 -  At our staff meeting... this happened. Because what staff meeting is complete without a wrestler belt being broken out.

February 26 - On Friday night, I headed down to The Woodlands to spend some time with my family and friends for the weekend. My mom regaled me with stories from her and Catherine's (my sister) week of cooking classes at the Culinary Institute of America in San Antonio. They had a wonderful time and I can't wait to try all of the recipes they perfected on their trip. While they were there, they purchased me this macaron cookbook. I'll be adding it to my growing collection of macaron recipes.

February 27 - On Saturday, I had a wonderful day dress shopping with Kristin, one of my best friends getting married in October. I'm lucky enough to have known her since the second grade. We've been best friends through thick and thin and she's undoubtedly my partner in crime. I can't wait to stand by her side as she marries Kyle in a few short months. We spent the day with Laura and Rachel, two of her bridesmaids, bridesmaid dress shopping. Afterwards we indulged in brunch and mimosas. If you've been reading these all, you may see a theme developing here...

365 Challenge - Week 7

There's a lot of my face in this weeks's pictures. Enjoy!

February 14 - I spent Valentine's Day with my family in The Woodlands. We grabbed a late brunch at the Black Walnut Cafe and afterwards my mom made her traditional Valentine's Day molten chocolate lava cake. Yum!!

February 15 - Last week, Texas A&M made national news, but it wasn't for something that the university was proud of. Some high school students visiting students encountered some less than welcoming students. You can read more by clicking here. After the incident, the student body came together to write thousands of letters to the visiting students effected to apologize. I snapped this picture in an area frequented by students. The box was filled with letters that would be taken to the high schoolers the next day.

February 16 - On Tuesday, I went to the A&M men's basketball game with Aubrey. The men played and beat Ole Miss, although it was touch and go for a while. We had great tickets to the game and I had a lot of fun!

February 17 - On Thursday, I spent most of my evening packing and getting ready for Kellie and my trip to Seattle. Thankfully Aubrey was there to distract Tucker while I did laundry and packed for the weekend.

February 18 - On Thursday, Kellie and I left before the crack of dawn to head to Austin to catch our flight to Seattle. We decided to take off Thursday and Friday and have a four-day weekend up in the northwest. One of the first things that we did when we got to Seattle was enjoy a tour of Theo's chocolate factory. We learned all about how chocolate is made and how Theo's makes theirs organic and fair trade. Best part? We got to taste a ton of chocolate and we got these awesome hair nets!

February 19 -  On Friday, Kellie and I woke up bright and early for brunch before our Woodinville wine tour. After enjoying a delicious breakfast, we were picked up by our tour guide at our hotel. That's when we learned that we were the only two on the tour! We visited Chateau Ste. Michelle and some other tasting rooms in the area. We had a lot of delicious wine!

February 20 - Saturday was an exciting day! We started out with a VIP tour of Pike's Place Market and tried a lot of different market food- so good! Afterwards, we got brunch at Agrodolce- also so good! It also involved bottomless mimosas (which we also did on our New York trip; two times is a tradition, right?). After watching the last few minutes of the men's basketball game when they beat Kentucky in overtime, we headed out on a scavenger  hunt in Seattle that Aubrey surprised us with. The end location- a speakeasy in downtown Seattle! It was a blast!

365 Challenge - Week 6

February 7 - Super Bowl Sunday! I watched the game at Kellie's house. While we snacked on queso we watched an exciting game. We were pretty excited to see the Broncos win! Kellie's pup, Laney, was a tired puppy. I think the game wore her out! ;)

February 8 - I'm breaking my rule. I'm posting way too many pictures of Tucker. But this has been quintessential Tucker recently. Every time I try to do work on my computer, he crawls into my lap and makes it impossible to be productive. I've been trying to do research on where to go on vacation with my mom this summer. Let's just say very little research was done that evening.

February 9 & 10- Tuesday and Wednesday of this week were rough for me. I was pretty sick with a nasty cold and honestly didn't do a thing. I didn't end up taking a picture either of these days because it probably just would have been the couch medicine I was taking and a box of tissues. Not necessarily great blog material.

February 11 - On Thursday, we had a wine-tasting event at work for graduate students. It's always a fun opportunity to see all of the graduate students that we've worked with over the years. And, there's wine, so who can complain?

February 12 - Since I didn't get a photo for every day this week, I'm doing two for Friday since they look so good! On Friday evening, Kellie and I baked for Valentine's Day. We made strawberry macarons and dipped some of them in chocolate to make "chocolate-dipped strawberry' macarons! They turned out phenomenal! There will definitely be more macaron dipping in the future. We also made two gigantic macarons that are the size of my palm! We had a big one on our trip to New York last year and have been wanting to make some ever since. Thankfully, they didn't turn out a total disaster!

February 13 -  Saturday evening was spent with friends. Spending time with these two makes me miss the year that we spent living together. I can always rely on these two for a good laugh and a great evening! Especially when sangria and margaritas are involved!

365 Challenge - Week 5

January 31 - I forgot to take a picture on Sunday. Still working on this whole photo a day thing. Hopefully I'll have it down soon.

February 1 - On Monday, Kellie and I presented at the Alumni Professionals of Texas Conference in San Marcos. It was really fun and it meant escaping College Station and the office for a day- who can complain about that?! The presentation went great, even though the computer decided to act up half-way through.

February 2 - A coworker asked me to make some macarons for a baby shower she was hosting. Each batch takes 6-7 eggs and I needed to make 4-5 batches, so I bought a ton of eggs! I've never had that may eggs in my fridge before. Between that and the multiple bags of almond flour purchased, I'm sure people at HEB were wondering just what in the world I was making. I bought the Laduree macaron recipe book at the Laduree store in New York last October. I decided to break it out for macaron making the following day.

February 3 - Yes, it's another picture of eggs! If it seems like this week revolved around making macarons- it did! I had to knock out five different flavors, which meant 5 different batches. Each batch takes about 2 hours... so that means a lot of time in the kitchen!

February 4 - And finally, one of the finished products! These are some of the salted caramel macarons that I made for the baby shower. They wanted to go gender neutral, so I made these green (and some others purple and yellow). The had a caramel filling and were topped with sea salt. I'll brag for a minute- they were good!

February 5 - I'm not one for a lot of selfies, so I promise they will be few and far between during this 365 day challenge. I took this one to send to Catherine (my sister/hairstylist) to show her how great my hair still looked. She has done a wonderful job lightening it over the past few months with a super fun ombre technique.

February 6 - I spent most of Saturday on campus helping interview for student leaders. So, when I got home I spent some tome with the Tucker dog. You can tell he was missing me that morning.

365 Challenge - Week 4

January 24 - Last week I mentioned the perks of living so close to home. These two beautiful girls are just another reason that I love being just over an hour away from The Woodlands. On Sunday I got to spend some time with Nicole and Alli. We walked to the neighborhood park and watched her climb all over the jungle gym equipment. She has totally mastered the slide! It's so crazy how quickly she is growing! It also seems that Nicole has a singer on her hands!

January 25 -  No photo (fail!) 

January 26 - On Tuesday, one of my Howdy Camp Smith counselors ordered his Aggie Ring! I'm so glad that I was able to share the moment with him and help him with his order. I can't wait to see him on October 8 for Aggie Ring Day! 

January 27 - Wednesday was the first 'Kolache Day' of the year, where my students go out on campus and provide some delicious breakfast treats to students walking to classes. This has quickly become a favorite event of students. Also, since I pick the kolaches up on the way to work in the morning, my car smells wonderfully sweet for a day or two. 

January 28 - So, anyone that knows me well knows that I'm mildly obsessed with planners and notebooks or journals. Kellie and I were perusing the MSC Bookstore and found these awesome Moleskine journals. They have a wine journal and a travel journal and I totally freaked out (in the best way!) when I found them. Afterwards, I looked online and saw that they also have a recipe one, which I've decided couldn't be more amazing for all of the macaron recipes I have! 

January 29 -  My coworker got this giant water mug from the university and it was hilariously large. So, of course, I had to take a photo with it! Talk about getting all of your water in for the day!

January 30 - After a long week, Tucker was a tired puppy!