greetings from belize.

sadly not from me.

BUT this year Boston College sent a crew to Belize City, Belize through hand in hand ministries! I lead this trip my senior year and one of my participants was leading HIS senior year!

Chris Mario passed along this photo...

Chris with Nicolee and family!

The trip consists of a week long house build. Chris was able to contact and reconnect with the family that we built for! What an exciting thing. I love when things come full circle!

other fun things...

I got a fishy for our apartment. 

His name is ben-day.

He likes watching romantic movies on TV.

AND get this.. Will Daley took this picture. He FINALLY got my Christmas card!

Hoping to have a future post about my new BIKE! His name is Ira... from This American Life.

trampoline!

Look at our recent Saturday Adventure....

We went to SKYZONE! It is a trampoline place.

An hour may not seem like a long time... but we were EXHAUSTED.

We got to wear super cool shoes.

So excited.

Pre-jump photo.

 I didn't bring my phone into the fun land... so no actual jumping pictures but skyzone was pretty legit. We bounced around and had a TON of friends... be careful around those little ankle biters... skyzone practices "size separation" what a politically wonderful way to say that.

My favorite was the "foam zone" where you could trampoline into a foam pit. The hardest part was getting out!

adventures of creating a giant community art project!

Last Friday we had a special "President's Reception" to celebrate all our wonderful donors. The theme was "Halls of Thunder" and everything was comic book themed! 

They had giant cut outs of superheros, cookies that had comic book action words, the invites were a comic strip... comic comic comics!

This event was held on our campus and was set up to showcase what goes on at the school/in the class rooms!

Even the art room!

So I created a special project for the night. I needed to create something that would be easy/not intimidating for people to do AND something that could be done while socializing. After some brainstorming I was brought back to my own high school days where I created a painting of a Roy Lichtenstein print.

Hanging in my childhood bedroom!

I decided to make a paint by numbers/coloring book canvas for people to paint. 

I looked at some old comic book covers and combined a few ideas to sketch out my came plan.

Then I bought a GIANT (5x3) canvas to put it on.... I measured to make SURE it would fit in my car.... but it didn't!

This was my final sketch.

I blew it up to put it on the canvas and then painted/sharpied  the outline image.

Then I painted a few of the sections so people wouldn't be intimated!

A few students who were around for the evening painted a few parts!

Then the pressure was on! (those lamps got a bit hot)!

Work in progress...

Some of the background Dots AND check out how AWESOME this woman is.... She was so into it she sat on the floor!

Mrs. Burns!

Mr. Walsh!

It is pretty much done by the end of the night!

Each artist got to sign their for their artwork!

I touched it up a bit (with a fellow student artist, Victoria) and now it is complete!

valentine's craft

Well a new holiday is coming around.... VALENTINE's day.... and I thought I would make a wreath  for this one too. This one was a bit more than I signed up for.... I am not sure how I feel about the finished project but it was quite an adventure.

Felt Roses!

Up close and personal!

The finished product.... well there are still a few things I want to work on but my patience was running out.

And I finally switched over our holiday quotes (Christmas is over?)

Song I have been BLASTING

This song (thank you joe/brian/rachel/margie) is AWESOME and I am hooked. But even more incredible is this one guitar action.... check out the video.

olympic time trials

The Olympic time trials were in Houston last weekend! They were just a hop/skip/jump from my apartment so Tomas, Micaela and Sam and I all headed to watch. 

They were FAST!

Tomas at the time sign.... this was about a half hour before the first finisher.

The course was an 8 mile loop that is supposed to simulate the London course. We got to see each runner a few times!

Ryan Hall... the favorite took second!

calendar

For Christmas I made a few of these neat perpetual calendars. 

This is the one I am using at work. 

I saw the idea on pinterest... I just thought it was SO simple and cute. Each notecard is stamped with the date and each day I write a brief description of the day. Then NEXT year I will continue and I can look back and see all the things I did THIS year! 

Fun right? 

And I made the box/container out of duct-tape! 

cake pops in houston

Had my first trial of making cake pops in Houston (thanks mom and dad for shipping down the machine)... I think they turned out pretty swell!

This time I even wrapped them so they would look like they came from a candy shop!

robert earl keen

Robert Earl Keen

Here he is. Live and in color. I guess I REALLY live in Texas now!

crafts of late

Been doing lots of crafting lately...and I cannot wait to share all the details... BUT I thought I would pass along some remaining Christmas crafts!

I got to use my Grandma's embroidery machine to make these monogrammed napkins for Tomás' Parents!

I got this idea from good old Pinterest.... But I made a booklet of all the Christmas cards I got this year... I figure I can put it out for next year!

saturday (last) adventures

I am a bit behind on my blogging... So here are some pictures for the weekend before this past... 

After our adventures of bull riding... Mackenzie, Tomás and I had a DELIGHTFUL breakfast (think grilled cheese) at Denny's... I LOVE Denny's... not as much as I did last year when it was walking distance from my JV house and a popular hangout for my community mates.... but I still love a good Denny's meal esp on a Saturday morning!

After Denny's we stopped in a place that is on Wash Ave that I have been looking at for sometime... It was a store that I didn't have a clue what it sold... It looked like it sold antiques and maybe garden supplies...

but SURPRISE... there were puppies!

and we got one!!!!

Ah just kidding but wouldn't that have been great!

Here is Mackenzie with this beautiful pup!

I want a dog.

The adventuring continued when Tomás and I decided we wanted to go on a dinner date... our conditions were it had to be someplace close to either of our place AND it had to be somewhere we had NEVER been.

We drove past a place that was a Bar, Restaurant and a Coffee Shop? Doesn't that sound strange! But it was awesome.

We had a fantastic dinner at the DownHouse it had a fantastic atmosphere.... think eclectic couches and chairs and GREAT food.... and a interesting bar/dirnk/club policy. Apparently there is a
"dry" section in the heights but this bar gets around it by being a club..... sounds strange but in the end I just had to sign something so Tomás could have a beer!

How thoughtful!

And they had the MOST incredible cheese plate (recall I am from WI)... so many wonderful treats!

packer pride.

 

well packers... I will always love you. 

I got my stock framed and it is hanging up on the wall in my room above the window.

bull riding

Just some shots of some bull riding adventures as of late.... Let's just say I am not too good at this!

Will Daley? In Houston? He came to visit again via layover to Honduras!

Look at him go!

MB at her finest.

This might be my favorite picture of Mackenzie!

Even getting onto the bull was a struggle for me.

And my time was short lived.

Rachel! Yehaw!