Here I am!

Helloooooo!!! Man, I've missed writing to you guys and reading your comments!

Well, I had my final conference today with one of my clients! Which means that clinic is coming to a close. It has been a wonderful semester of new experiences and I have (mostly) loved every minute of it! This is definitely what I want to do with my life :-)

Scott has been working away! Their project is coming to close, so he has been able to come home earlier during the week, which is nice. He has continued to be a dear and cook dinner for me when I have night class. I try to chip in with the dishes ;-)

So, I need to catch you guys up, eh?! Let the picture reel begin!

SO...... Scott and I were looking in our pantry during one of our "make it work" weeks (meaning that rather than buying groceries, we "make it work" with what we have in the pantry and refrigerator. Makes for some very interesting meals at times, e.g. fried zucchini with broccoli and cheese...) and we happened to find a can of sauerkraut. Now what else do you do with sauerkraut other than make BEER BRATS!!! Okay, if you have never had the pleasure of eating a beer brat, you must go buy you some bratwurst and a 6 pack of beer and get started! So simple: 1 pkg. bratwurst boiled in a pot of beer until cooked, grilled, served on a whole wheat hoagie bun with sauerkraut on top=divine. Well, perhaps "divine" is not the proper adjective for a food with the noun "beer" involved. We'll go with..... stinkin' good. Yes, that's more fitting.

Scott and our friend, Eric, probably talking about buildings or architecture...

Scott at the grill! He is so skilled!!

We came in after beer brats to eat dessert and play Apples to Apples (a fantastic party game, if you have never played). I am on the stool in the back.

We decided to make it a friend-affair and invited a lot of our friends from small group to enjoy the feast with us! The night was beautiful, our friend Jeremy let us use his back porch, and we gorged away.

Next:

Scott has been volunteering his time at a community garden that was started by some friends from church, Jonathan and Tarren. They live in the "bad" part of Houston with the intention of building good relationships with their neighbors and giving them the opportunity to be a part of this garden. Scott was put in charge of building the fence! He did such a good job :-) Photos of the finished fence will be posted later.

This is not Scott, but a friend of ours that helps out with the garden.

Easter:

Scott and I went to Belton for Easter and had such a wonderful time seeing all of our family! It's always such a joy and blessing to be with those you love most. It was Levi's birthday, so we had a little party for him on Saturday with my extended family.

The following pictures were taken using my mom's FANTAAAASSSTIC camera. OOOOHHHH how I ENVY this camera. She was SO gracious to let me play with it that weekend and I have shared some of my shots below:

Me, decorating Levi's birthday cake! (Okay, so I didn't take this picture, obviously, but the next several were shot by me--I WANT THIS CAMERA!!!)

Levi's finished cake-Tada!

Make a wish!!

My parents' dog, Danny

My husband :-) Man, the way this camera captures light is truly stunning. I LOVE IT.

Adding the finishing touches on the Lemon Truffle Cake

The Lemon Truffle Cake! Nice composition, eh? See how the lens of the camera blurs the background..... ahhhh...... (*sigh of pleasure*)

My mom and I made a Lemon Truffle Cake in celebration of Easter and Levi's birthday--it was KILLER GOOD! If you like lemon, you will LOVE this cake. Yum, yum. My dad, Jim, Scott, and I went over to my Mema and Papa's to have samosas (courtesy of Mema, SO GOOD!) and I brought over the lemon cake for dessert.

Okay, back to my little ol' point 'n' shoot camera.... It does a good job for a point 'n' shoot, though, I must say. Momma, thanks for letting me play around with your AMAZING camera. Maybe one day I will be so lucky to own one myself (*hint, hint*)

My beautiful grandmother, Mema, making samosas! Yum!!!

We spent Saturday with Scott's parents :-) David grilled some AMAZING ribs.

Oh man, slow cooked, smoked to perfection. They were very tasty!

We all sat around their outdoor patio table and enjoyed a home-cooked meal outside. The weather was perfect!

Sometimes, you just want to climb! (I did make it to the top of that rope, by the way...)

Mixing cocktails with my father-in-law!

Two weekends ago (April 9th-ish...), we went out to a Mexican food restaurant called Maria Selma's with our friends Steven and Emily!

This is Emily! She is living with us this summer!!

We haven't eaten any Mexican food since we moved to Houston (can you BELIEVE that?!) and this was very good stuff :-) I ordered the fish tacos and Scott ordered some sort of enchiladas with green sauce. We went to Agora afterwards for coffee, tea, and talk!

I had never been to Agora before, but I will definitely be going back. The atmosphere was so relaxed and eclectic. They had large coffee table books on every table, ivy covers the outside walls, and the tea I ordered was delicious :-)

My daddy came to visit us last weekend! It was SO nice to get to see him! He had a medical meeting in Galveston, which is only an hour from Houston. He had dinner with us on Thursday night at Shiva (an Indian restaurant), then Scott and I drove down to Galveston on Friday night to have dinner and ice cream. We ate dinner at a burger joint called Cafe Michael Burger, a small shack on the beach with very tasty burgers!

Daddy :-)

Their "Tiki Burger" was rated number 37 in Texas Monthly's 50 top burgers in Texas. Of course, that's what I ordered. We spent the rest of the evening driving the coast line and stopped at Ben and Jerry's for ice cream!

Daddy stayed with us on Sunday night after attending our church with us. He and I went out to lunch at Lankford's Grocery (featured on Food Network's Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives) on Monday and then we hung out after my night class. It was so good to have a family face around!

Last Saturday, we went to Miller Outdoor Theater and saw a high school production of CATS! Our friends from small group's daughter was performing, so we went to support her performance. Did I mention that President George Bush, Sr. was there??!! We were so close to him! Didn't snap a picture though... should have...

Our view of the show from "The Hill"

TODAY... I took pictures of our fast-growing garden!

Oh man, has it took flight! We have had our casualties (2 jalapeno plants and 1 tomatillo plant, thank you SNAILS), but we took care of that quick. Tin of beer on the ground=drunk snails, which in turn equals healthy plants :-)

The Jasmine is in bloom and our apartment complex smells like HEAVEN.

If heaven could be wrapped up into one smell, it would be Jasmine (and... maybe freshly baked cookies with a hint of laundry straight from the dryer smell.)

I got my haircut today, too, by Brandi at Sunchild Salon!

I found her last year via a friend and I will never go anywhere else! She does a fantastic job. If you live in Houston, go to her!

Okay..... I'm out. We have to get ready for our trip tomorrow! That's right, we are going to HEB Camp!!!! This is the place that my family went to every summer for about 5 years because my dad was the camp doctor. I have so many memories from this place and I am ECSTATIC to be going back! Ashton, you remember the year you came with us?! Our church is holding an all-church retreat their this weekend!!

Much love, family and friends. Will be back soon.

HK