Happy Thanksgiving!

Although I'm 2200 miles away from my family, I decided to make Thanksgiving my own. Robyn offered for me to spend it with her family, but I haven't met them and thought it'd be a little awkward to meet them for the first time at Thanksgiving. My friend James (with whom I'm going to a wedding in December as his "date") offered for me to spend Thanksgiving with his family, but again, I thought it'd be weird to randomly spend time at his sister's place in Houston for the weekend when I barely know them. One of the girls in my lab who's family lives right outside of Waco offered for me to come spend Thanksgiving with her family, and it was the sweetest offer I've ever received because I only know her within the classroom setting.

However, I decided that for my first Thanksgiving away from my family, I wanted to spend it alone. It's always a different change and I was unsure at how emotional I'd be. To tell you the truth, it wasn't bad, except for the time when dad sent me a cell phone picture of my family's Thanksgiving table. Thanks for rubbing it in, Dad! I got a group phone call from my mom and Aunt Heide, so that was fun, plus a picture text message from the boys I babysit back in Washington (and their new baby brother, who's HUGE!), and lots of text messages from good friends back at home who wanted to let me know they were thinking about me. I'm pretty lucky to have the friends I have! Anyway, here is some pictures of mine and Chloe's Thanksgiving! Enjoy!

Me, reppin' the Hawks even though they lost miserably.

My Thanksgiving dinner!

A close up of my amaaazing green been casserole (my favorite!), and my tomato and mozzarella tarts (the appetizer)

My "main dish," some ham (that was darn good, good call there) and a baked potato, along with my two other side dishes, some left over mac and cheese and stuffing (don't worry, I still have leftovers!). Plus, a California Zinfandel 'cuz it reminds me of my mama.

Lastly, for dessert, a yummie piece of pie that I baked last night! Yaaay Sar!

Just like warm apple pie

Hi friends and family! It's 8:30 but I've been up since 6 (Chloe's fault!) so forgive me if this isn't coherent at all! Life's been pretty hectic around here, as I had a test last week (that I aced; super excited about that!), two papers due this week, and a presentation on Tuesday! And of course, now that it's the break, I have nothing to do--ironic, huh?!

The papers went well; one was for a class that I had the presentation in. "Calendar Counting in Savants: A Review"...sounds boring, but it was actually pretty interesting. Plus, our presentation (me, Sarah M., and Megan) rocked, and I'm feeling pretty confident that my paper was good as well. My second paper was part of a larger paper that my adviser is writing for a journal. He's one of the main researchers involved in a questionnaire that assesses impulsiveness in people, and 2009 is the 50th anniversary of the use of the scale. Thus, a journal editor asked him to write a review article, and he asked me to write part of it! It's pretty neat; I wrote a whole entire section out of four (yaaay!) and although I'm a fifth author, there's six so at least I'm not the last! Plus, it's also really cool because first years normally don't publish (and it's even more rare when something a grad student wrote their first semester of graduate school gets published)! I promise to send you all copies when it officially gets published, as it will be sometime in the summer next year. Woot woot!

So now that I have all the papers, presentations, and tests done, this break (five days; what in the heck am I going to do?) will be pretty low-key. I'm planning on working on some packages for a couple army guys, as a girl in the PsyD program has a friend in the army and we're "adopting" them for the season! I "adopted" three men (yes, that's the only way I can get 'em!) and so I think I'll spend some time making their packages pretty special.

Last Friday, I was invited to a pie cooking class with Robyn because her mom bought tickets but forgot she had another obligation. Then Friday morning, I got a call from Robyn saying that she wasn't feeling well and didn't want to get everybody else sick (which was sweet, even though I wish she could've came) so Nathaniel was nice enough to be my 'date.' Thus Nate and I had a great time at a pie cooking class that neither of us paid for...it was a pretty sweet deal, actually! Once I proved to myself that I could bake a pie as part of a group, I decided to try it by myself! Below are some pictures of my pie day:

The mess I made with the dough! The finished crust is on the left, with leaves around the edges...yeah, I'm pretty professional. Although I didn't have a little silicone basting brush so I used my finger with the egg wash. Give me a break.

I'm sooo proud of my crust!

This is with the apples already in the middle; I have a picture of them if you really want to see, but I looked kinda goofy so I didn't put it on the internet!

Finished product! I'm excited to try it, and also excited that it looks good!

Yuuuuum!

I gave two pieces to my neighbor Sharon, so I'm interested to see if she likes it or not! Also, to make it Chloe-proof, it's on my stovetop with a big bowl over it. :)

Speaking of Chloe, here are a couple pictures of me and Chloe that I took on Sunday. I had just gotten home from church, and Chloe was being uber sweet so I knew it was time to get her into pictures before she got squirmy! So enjoy! Love and miss you all!

Dennis Quaid is here!

I dare you to watch this and not laugh! This is Dennis Quaid on the Ellen show, pulling a prank on a Starbucks employee! Enjoy!

Dear Dad

Dear Dad,

If you are sending "word scramble" forwards on email, retirement is way too easy and you need to be checking off more things to do on mom's Honey-Do list.

Love,
Sar

Glad to know "ya'll" are still reading!

Just wanted to make sure that I was actually blogging to people (besides mom and dad, who I talk to every week anyway)! School's gotten pretty busy, so I didn't want to spend too much time blogging if it was just for them (errr, but I love you anyway, parentals)! :) So anyway, to Anne, Heide, Kate, Amanda, Amanda, Stephanie/Scott, Stephanie, Mom, Dad, and anyone else who reads, glad you're still with me.

Last weekend was fun; my friend Chris from PLU came down to visit and see Texas! We went to the Texas Sports Hall of Fame (kinda lame, unless you like learning about the Dallas Cowboys a lot) and Chris went tanning on my front lawn. I tried to sneak down to get a picture of this (because his shirt was off, and it is November; you can't make this stuff up) but he caught me! We were planning on going to the Branch Davidian site (kid you not, and apparently, a little older lady named Mary comes out and makes sure you're not the government) and house-turned-museum, but it rained on the day we planned and so we decided not to go. Overall it was a good weekend, plus it was great seeing a friend from home!

This weekend has been fun as well! Joanna, an amazingly wonderful undergrad who works in the lab with me, invited me for dinner and then the Baylor/A&M football game on Saturday! We ended up cooking stir fry at my place on Friday and then procrastinated on our homework by having a good four hour chat about life! She's definitely someone I'm going to be spending a lot of time with in the future, although she's spending next semester abroad. I also got to hang out with two grad students (one clinical psychology, one physicist) Friday night, so it was neat to be able to get to know more people! On Saturday, we went to the Baylor/A&M football game along with her brother True, who is a high school senior and debating on coming to Baylor (although it sounded like he's ready to make the leap)! Below are some pictures of the game and then a video of what happens after a touchdown (its loud though, so turn down your volume about halfway). Today (Sunday), I got together with a girl Abbey who started out in the BU grad program but is taking a year off because she's not sure if she wants to be a social psychologist or a clinician. She's 24 and a lot of fun, and doesn't have many friends down here either so I think we'll be spending some more time together as well!

I received a lovely surprise in the mail from my mom of return address labels with a picture of Chloe on them! It was sweet, even though Chloe looks completely scared in the picture! :) They're great, and I cannot wait to send out Christmas cards/letters this year with my own address on the label (**Speaking of, Amanda Wilkins, I need your address!**).
Other than that, life's all school school school! Enjoy the pictures! Love and miss you all.

Probably the most full this stadium has been this entire year.

It's in the shape of Texas...this made me giggle, 'cuz they played "Deep in the Heart of Texas" and had the lyrics up on the screen, just like the Rangers game with Christopher in the summer! Texans are weird.

Joanna and I pre-game (and before there were trillions of people around us!)

Joanna and True (his real name; we had a great discussion about this) showing off their BU "It's Time for a WHOOPing: Battle of the Brazos" shirts!

A creepy (Joanna called him "terrifying") man who was a hardcore BU fan (and looked like a leprechaun)!

At halftime, BU did their normal routine (or maybe they switch it up, I dunno, I was bored) but A&M had their award-winning, nationally recognized band play, and it was amazing...lots of straight lines and people crossing other people without running into each other! It was really neat to watch first-hand. Anyway, here's a picture of them making their logo (it's a big T with an A and M on each side), and not only is this impressive, but the people in the large T are all moving. It was pretty badass.

Joanna and I, trying to stay warm as the wind picks up

Joanna and True, with their "cold faces" on (and this was before it got freezing).

Our "cold faces" after the sun went down...brrr! Who knew Texas was so windy?!

Lastly, here's a video of what happens after a touchdown. All three cheerleading squads come out onto the field and they do a little dance and sing a little song and get down tonight. You can hear some people finish the fight song, and then each side of the stadium yells either "BAYLOR" or "BEARS"...it's pretty neat, but really loud so turn down your volume to about half.

Dear Family...

Dear Family,

Are you still reading? Let me know.

Love,
Sar

That Good Old Baylor Line

As promised, to all of my lovely family and friends, here are some pictures of Homecoming weekend! First, let's start off by showing the chunk--yes, chunk of hair that Chloe somehow managed to chew off of my head (it's nicely in a bunch because my hair was wet). Uhh...

We arrived at the bonfire about 45 minutes early, so here is Fountain Mall (aka the middle of campus with a big grass field). You can see the stage and screen on the left side of the picture, with the big wood pile for the bonfire in the middle (on top of sand, no worries there) and then a bunch of people (and this is nobody compared to how many people were around once the fire was started).

Here's the stage, and I'm pretty sure those are senior football players. We were far enough back that we couldn't hear what they were saying (even through the mic and speakers) but the lights and stage set-up was pretty neat.

Here are Robyn and I, waiting for the bonfire to be started.

I didn't want to bore you with too many pictures of the fire, but here's one from the opposite side of where we actually were when the fire was started. There's a video below where you can tell a bit more about the magnitude of the fire, but let's just say that not only were people not even close to the fire (because it was roped off), but people were even standing a good 100 feet away from the rope because it was so dang hot!

Saturday morning, the biggest Homecoming parade in the US. This is when the parade started (about two miles away from where we were; we were towards the end on campus but the parade started in downtown Waco). If you watch how many people are in the picture, the number grows exponentially!
A blow-up bear...what more could you ask for?
Like a creepy clown car that moved both forwards, backwards, and sideways... we were definitely not a fan of this. In fact, Joann kept saying, "That's terrifying!" because it was so creepy!

The Homecoming parade is known for its float competition--apparently there's a monetary limit that the groups (usually sororities and fraternities) have, but they were all so ornate that the cap must've been sky high!

They brought the bear out (which is pretty normal, as they bring the bears around campus during the school year when it's respectable weather and you can take your picture hugging the bear...like, it gets up on its hind legs and hugs like a human). There are two bears that live on campus in a bear habitat (that is gorgeous, by the way), and this bear seemed to have been pretty happy as he got food the entire way. Plus, they had a trailer in front of him just in case he got tired. He did do "tricks" though--he sat on command. It was cute!

One of the fraternities' floats broke down literally right in front of us (which was immediately preceding the cameras that filmed the parade for broadcasting purposes), and it was so heavy that it took more people than in this picture to get it moving. Luckily, once they got it moving, they were able to restart the motor.

There were 53 (!) women nominated for Homecoming Queen. A university-recognized group can nominate a woman and then they go through an interview process to win Queen. This year, the Queen had four Princesses, and here is the Queen and her court riding in a carriage. One of the girls that was Queen, Cassie, is in Robyn's lab and has hung out with us in the office a couple times, so it was fun to cheer her on! She's wearing the greenish brown dress and is smiling directly at the camera!

Had to throw this in here because I found it hilariously bad...it's the advertisement on a company truck that says that they do "Remodeling & Stuff." Good marketing.

The video of the fire! You can hear me try to commentate as the fire is going on. Check it out! It's also fun to note that this was pretty close to the beginning of the fire, so it wasn't even close to as big as it got. Good experience! Enjoy!


Here's a picture that Robyn took of me, taking the video. Thus, you can see a little bit more of the scope of the actual fire! Crazy big.