Roomies Foreva!

I read a quote about there years ago that said "How do you know you've found a great friend? When you are ready to talk to them about anything, even though they already know everything about you already". This instantly striked me and reminded me of my college roommate of three years, Deanne. 

This picture above is what I believe is the first picture of us EVER together. Deanne and I went to the same High School and we were both involved in Ag, but we never hung out. We knew each other but for some crazy reason we were never buddy buddy which I will NEVER truly understand.  When I first moved to College Station I lived by myself. It was an experience.... I hated IT! I was so ready to be an "adult" and live on my own but when my 6 month lease was up I was ready to have some company. I did not know too many people that I could have lived with and luckily Holland suggested Deanne. I can remember him clearly saying " You should talk with Deanne. She is looking for a roommate". I thought OH MY GOSH. YES YES YES. I KNOW her but I don't KNOW her KNOW her so this is great! I can get to know her. We met up for lunch one day and we signed a lease for an awesome apartment a few weeks later. Little did we know this apartment would be our home for the next three years and it was going to burst from the seams from the amount of memories and laughter we filled it with. 

I remember it being kinda awkward when we first moved in together. I was unsure if she wanted just a roommate to help with rent cost or a best friend and luckily she wanted a best friend and so did I. We did SO much together. We would get pedicures, carve pumpkins, cook and bake together, watch greys anatomy and Ellen religiously! It became an annual tradition to watch the Victorias Secret Fashion show while stuffing our faces with pizza and then strutting around the apartment like we were on a runway for the following two weeks. All in all, we just had tons of fun. 

Aggie Ring Day 2009

Celebrating my 20th birthday! 

Deanne one time had this great idea to try and take pictures with all of these trains around town. We got 3 pictures done in one day and that was it because we realized they moved the trains and we could never find the time to locate the ones who did not have pictures with yet though. It was a great day with those three cabooses! 

On our last day together in our apartment I remember just saying something along the lines of "well, wow... thats it" and we both just burst into tears. We both realized that our fun was over and even though we thought we were adults in college the real adulthood was about to begin. We just hugged each other as salty tears streamed down our cheeks and then we laughed because we were talking about how living with boys was not going to be as much fun.  It was seriously like that scene from friends when Rachel and Monica have their last night in their apartment. I knew we would still be friends-nothing could take that way, in the end I feel like that is what pulled us both out of our hot mess of tears. 

Deanne and Karls Wedding. October 2009

I have been able to see Deanne transform into a wife. I knew from the moment that she mentioned Karls name that he was the one. She always had this little kid grin and her dimples pretty much never went away once she met him. They both have been through a lot together. They lived in different countries and then He was deployed to Iraq two months after they were married. But their love was strong and their bond is meshed between the both of them which proves that distance can truly make the heart grow fonder. 

Of all the roles I have seen Deanne in, I have to say my favorite is her role as a mother to Savannah. Deanne was born as a mother hen. When we would go to parties she would encourage people to start drinking water and to slow down on their drinking. We did hardly any partying in college. A party to us was cooking dinner and drinking a glass of wine with it while watching tv. This is why we were always called "old ladies". I loved that about her though.  Seeing Deanne as a mother is just beautiful. She is patient, giving, caring and best of all, funny. She talks to Savannah like she is a teenager already which I think is hilarious. I know she wants to also work again but geeze, if she could get paid to be a mom she would be a millionaire. 

Canada Trip Spring Break 2009

Canada Trip Summer 2012

I am so lucky to still call Deanne my friend. I could not have asked for a better roommate in college and I am glad to say that things remained strong between us after we lived together. I can never express how grateful I am for the memories we have in that little apartment. I am so proud of her for so many little things that make a big difference. Like standing up for what you believe in, speaking your mind, giving helpful advice, knowing how to make the best damn egg rolls in the world and being able to show others kindness and compassion with no effort at all.

I find it important to share with others what they mean to you and I know I got all sappy and watery with this post but I truly mean every word I have typed.  Like the quote I mentioned at the beginning, Deanne is a true friend. She knows EVERYTHING about me. She knows my past... what makes me strong and what makes me weak and she still calls me her friend.

I am so happy with the life you are leading, Deanne. You are such a great partner to Karl and caring Momma to Savannah. Anyone to have you in their life can be considered lucky. 

Our Taste Of Canada

I used iMovie to make a video compiling our experiences from our trip. Enjoy! :)


Our Taste of Canada.

Our last Days of Canada and Back to the Real World.

We have made it back to Texas in one piece from our amazing one week vacation to the great north! While everyone was sweating bullets and melting in San Antonio, we were enjoying the nice highs of 70 degrees.
 We spent our last two days of the trip in Vancouver(mainland) to do this we took an air boat instead of the ferry due to the price drop a few days before we left Vancouver Island.

There were about 8 people total on this little plane. No door to protect the pilot, so if I really wanted to I could have totally tried to take over the plane and fly it on my own. Instead  I was glued to my seat and Holland and I had our eyes stuck on the pilot giving us the safety procedures because seriously... if there was a time that we would need to know how to evacuate a plane and put on some flotation devices THIS WAS IT!  Last time we were in a plane this small, we jumped out of it and I had no intentions of getting out of the plane until it landed safely into the next harbor.
After take off the view was lovely. I know every post I have said I love how green everything is but wow. I. Love. How. Green. EVERYTHING. IS!

Footage of Greenery from float plane!

We flew over in the late afternoon, so we just walked around downtown Vancouver and found a brew pub to go to. YaleTown is a very popular neighborhood in Vancouver and it was just a few blocks away from our hotel. We really enjoyed the atmosphere of this place. Everywhere we went to eat Holland was insistent that we eat outside because the weather was so nice and we would not want to eat outside anywhere in San Antonio for at least another 5 months.  It even started to drizzle a little bit but we did not care. I got a raspberry beer(which by the way was the only beer I really ordered since we have no raspberry beers in TX! It is going to be Hollands next brew and he said I have to help him with the entire process!) Holland got his usual IPA-he likes the hoppy stuff!

I liked the logo for YaleTown. a "Y" with an upside down "T"

On our last full day in Canada, we went to the Capilano suspended bridge. This bridge is OLD Y'ALL! It was first built in 1889 and of course since then it has been made stronger and can hold up to around 30 elephants? CRAZY. It sways a bit but not too bad. Would have been a little more stable if there weren't 20 kids running on it all at once. I would HIGHLY recommend going to this place if you are ever in the area. Holland and I found a free shuttle bus from a hotel in town to drive us the 30 minutes there and the tickets were around 32.00 each. We spent about three hours of our morning here which makes the price completely worth it. This is an awesome place for kids. They had so many things for them to interact with and explore. The park also shows ways that we can take care of the earth and the beauty that it holds.

** You cannot take strollers on the bridge and the rest of the park does require a lot of climbing stairs and walking**

Once you cross the bridge there is an entire forest of other little bridges to go on. They had some birds of prey in a section and they let them loose in the forest to go fly and they come back for their dinner.

I never get creeped out by heights. I have been sky diving, bungee jumping and I did the king swing at the wild play zone on this trip! I really enjoy roller coasters and that feeling of your stomach being higher than your body is BUT I get really creeped out walking over stuff like sewer access points, those breezy Marilyn Monroe vents in streets and the worst is by far this glass ledge I am standing over in this picture above. Holland forced me and I was like looking at him with a huge frown saying I did not want to do it. Then this couple was like "Oh, do you want us to take your picture?" and here we are above 5 seconds later. I know I look happy and totally content, but inside I was freaking out. I don't know what it is.... lack of stability? I just like stuff under my feet where I am standing/walking. Glad I went out there though!

After our adventures in Northern Vancouver we shuttled back to gas town to go to SteamWords Brew Pub. WE WERE STARVING. I truly believe the food was fantastic but I really was hungry and everything hit the spot for us. I totally embarrassed Holland by taking pictures of our food but I wanted to remember it! We got Poutin which I pronounce "poo-teen" Deanne informed me it is supposed to be pronounced like "powtin"? Either way it is french fries soaked in gravy and cheese-cannot get much better pub grub than that! Holland got a lamb burger and I got lobster ravioli. 

Deanne and Karl-this is the next best thing to Cafe Capri!

We were unsure of what to do with the rest of our day so we asked our waitress what we should go do. She suggested Granville Park which I was hesitant about but Holland talked me into catching the buses to there and THANK goodness he did! We spent the rest of our day there. There is a fresh farmers market with the prettiest fruits you have ever seen. They have bakeries, meat markets and people making things to sell right in front you. That is the best crafter-the one who can make things while people are hovering and watching. 

One of the last things we did here before leaving was a brewery tour of Granville Island Brewery. Holland was so interested in watching how things worked at this brewery and I don't think our tour guide ever got so many questions. Holland asked stuff like "How many liters do y'all produce each week?, "Do you always use this machine to blah blah your beer?", How much more blah blah blah do you use for this beer vs. that beer?". She kept having to run back into the brewery to ask the brewers and I told Holland he was being a bit too GT for our group! After we had some tasting in a small glass room in the brewery we got to talking with the rest of the people on our tour. We met a couple honeymooning from England  and a mother and son traveling from Germany. We had a great chat about beer and about our travels on the island. We told them we were from Texas and they gave us consoling faces because they knew the heat stroke we were going to have the next day when we returned home. Holland gave them his business cards and they were very excited and said if they were ever in Texas they would definitely come by. It was neat seeing people from different walks of life, all together at the same time enjoying the same thing- beer and company. 

Although we really could have stayed in Canada forever with the beautiful weather and sites we were enjoying, we were so anxious to get back to Texas to see our beloved pups. We quickly got back into the swing of things and Holland returned to work the next morning at 7 am to brew. I have been wanting to just stay at home since getting back. It is funny how you all of the sudden love to do things when you return from a trip-definately shows how much you missed your home. I did laundry, went to the grocery store, made holland lunch then took it to him at work, cleaned the house, played with puppies and never resented any of it.

I am looking forward to our next adventure. We will definitely make a trip back up to Canada. I loved it sooo much the first time and I feel like I just fell deeper in love with it this second visit. Make it in your plans to go there! If you go to seattle I hear you can take a bus over for 50 dollars! Make it happen- make some memories and take a jacket with you because it is that chilly in the summer time ;).

***HUGE shout out to our neighbors Linda and Mike for watching our puppies and our garden while we were gone! Thanks to y'all our garden is still thriving!***

Vancouver Island Travels

We have been enjoying our stay on Vancouver Island! We are spending our last evening at the Cattrall house and tomorrow we are off to the mainland for the last two days of our stay.  I cannot express how grateful we are to have had such an amazing trip so far. We have been seeing SO much but also relaxing and kicking back which is what vacation should be all about.  It also is a perk to wake up in the morning knowing you are going to see stuff like this.

Qualicum Beach

Cathedral Grove

We have been doing a lot of walking and exploring of some cities. In the past few days we have visited Coombs and Victoria, which is the capital of British Columbia.
Coombs is a fabulous place. They even have a market where they have goats on the roof with their own little houses. Those goats look pretty happy to be there. We browsed around stores, looked at funny knick knacks and the guys ate some candied salmon... I tried it and it was not too bad with a slosh of root beer following it!

At the end of our stay in Coombs it started to drizzle and although part of me wanted to tell Deanne and Karl to just head home a HUGE part of me really wanted to drive a little more north to Cathedral Grove. We decided to be adventurous in the rain and head to the place that has trees over 800 years old. This was one of my favorite places I visited last time. I just cannot get over how green everything is! Moss growing on moss, trees and leaves sprouting up like weeds but they are not weeds they are beautiful trees!

Tree Huggers!

In Victoria we visited the Craigdarroch castle. This castle was used by tons of people. It was first used by a family, then it was used as a hospital, college, music school and then lastly a museum as it is now. It has 39 rooms and four floors! It was really cool and there was a large amount of the castle that was original to make it even more historic and interesting.

After our castle tour, we walked through the largest bike festival in Canada, ate some awesome seafood near the water and we also enjoyed the most delicious doughnuts in the world.

The weather got pretty dark and extra chilly so we headed back to Nanaimo in time to spend time with Savannah and order some Thai food.  Today, our last full day in Nanaimo we spent our time at Qualicum Beach. It reminded me of the Quilette beach from TWILIGHT! Without any wolves than transform back and forth from human to animal form. We let our toes go numb and let a baby get extremely dirty in the sand.

Karl, Savannah and Deanne Blumenhagen

See how he treats me!? haha

Savannah Marie Blumenhagen. 9 months!

As you all know, Holland is an assistant brewer in San Antonio so it is only fitting that we go to some local brew pubs. We found our favourite so far! Holland usually tried samplers when we go somewhere new. I usually just choose a beer that has anything fruity or floral in it and I am usually please but OMG. Deanne and I both got one of the Rasberry Framboise and it was DEEELISH.

Deanne is currently making us egg rolls for dinner and this is about how she feels right now...... SO I better get going!

Tomorrow we leave for Vancouver mainland by airboat! That should be fun! I will post my next blog when we get back to San Antonio on Wednesday. Hope you are enjoying your 106 degree weather San Antonio! I am enjoying the 65-70 degree range here :)

Oh Canada!

After traveling a total of eighteen hours-driving to Austin, taking three flights and then a ferry we finally arrived in Nanaimo, British Columbia!We are here visiting my college roommate Deanne and her husband, Karl along with their 9 month old baby girl and Karls mom, Morgan. This is my second visit here and I was so pumped to come back with Holland and experience it all over again.

  Karl and Deanne picked us up from the ferry and drove us through the famous Tim Hortons for some delicious coffee to keep us perked up! Deanne had Canada flags and souvenirs waiting in our room for us, and although she did not get to wave her flags while we got off the ferry, she did a remarkable dance once we got home.

This place is really is just too beautiful for words. I can breathe better here and it is hard to not just be completely engulfed by all the beauty.  It also does not hurt that the weather is so much cooler here!

We started our first full day by eating breakfast on the patio in the seventy degree perfect weather.  We then set off to kick off our adrenaline for the next three years! Flash back!

Spring Break 2009

Over spring break right after I had started grad school, I went to visit Deanne and her family.  The first day of our visit we went to WildPlay and went bungee jumping! It was crazy/awesome, but I did not have the want to do it again so Deanne and I decided to do something different. We did the primal swing. We thought that nothing could be as scary as the bungee jumping so we were more excited than scared. We were fearless until we were sitting on the edge of the bridge and then they started telling us to keep our chin tucked in and do not lean back and WE SWEAR there was a point where we just stopped moving mid air while our stomachs fell by their lonesome selves in the canyon.  

Website to see a video of what we did.

Holland was brave and did the bunjee all on his own. He asked the workers if he could do a backflip but they suggested the swan dive for his first jump and he did it well!

Fearless!

After being at WildPlay for around three hours. we went to the Black Bear Pub for some good brew and fish and chips which are THE BEST fish and chips I have ever had. We came back to the house all belly full and lounged and the guys took naps. It really is awesome to see Holland so relaxed. This is his first vacation since he started working and he really deserves this break. While the guys rested I read with Savannah and noticed that she already knows how to hold a book the right way :).

What a smartie.

Today, I enjoyed the weather,  talking and catching up with Deanne and Karl, laughing, eating barnacle swirl ice-cream at the harbour,  eating lazy lasagna and watching Holland and Karl take off in Morgan's new mustang. 

We have our cell phones off and our hearts and minds turned on and focused on the adventures ahead of us for the next six days.

A Padre and a Turtle

This was a big weekend to celebrate my dad. Not only was it Fathers Day, but it was his 54th Birthday as well! We wanted to go out to eat on Saturday thinking we were smarter than everyone else trying to go out on Sunday, but everyone was just as smart as we were and it was packed. We did not have to wait long and it was well worth the wait!

 I am always on my dad about eating too much red meat. Usually when I go eat with him and my mom he orders fish or a salad but I know deep down what he really enjoys... a medium, juicy piece of beef!  For our ten year anniversary, Holland and I went to Chama Gaucha (a Brazilian Steak House) and I immediately thought of my dad and how I needed to take him here. He seemed to really enjoy it. 14 different types of meat and the supply is unlimited! We ate and ate and ate and drank some delicious Australian Muscato and enjoyed vanilla bean ice cream, creme brulee and flan for dessert. YES, we went ALL out on the eating part. 

He looks very focused!

Padre and Madre

My family. 

Today I spent the ENTIRE day at my parents' house. I have not spent an entire day there in a long time. I loaded up the pups and some groceries and headed over right after I woke up and drank some coffee. Bleu swam in the pool and Hannah chased him. I started the gumbo in the crock pot(recipe to come next!) and caught up on all my reality television that I used to watch. Holland and I have been cable free for almost a year. We survive with Hulu and Netflix and surprisingly I was not that affected by it but today I was all about catching up with the Kardashians! I was watching the shows in my parents room where I had successfully recorded them and my dad came over to watch them too(because he is just as obsessed as I am with the Kardashian family!) Within ten minutes he started snoring and then he snorted so loud he woke himself up and we were both laughing hysterically. I felt like I had a bunch of these great moments with my dad today. We laughed a bunch, we relaxed, we cooked and we talked about Grandma Jones. He ate oatmeal and chocolate chip cookies that I made for him and he was even nice enough to share them with family that came over.  

note:** if you have run out of ideas of what to get your dad, boyfriend, husband, etc- baking is the way to go. The way to a mans heart is through his stomach! 

All in all it was an awesome day full of genuine laughs and smiles. Now... let me tell you about this turtle!

My dad's office has a window to the front  of the house and he said"There's a guy walking up to the front door......... he has a turtle...... he is bringing the turtle to the front door......." The guy was really nice and said he found this poor turtle struggling and trying to get on the curb and he thought maybe he was our pet and the turtle was just trying to get home. I thought it was silly and sweet. Being the caring animal lovers my mom and I are, we got a bucket and were off to the pond within 10 minutes of the turtles arrival on the doorstep. HE WAS HUGE.

 In our mind I think we envisioned the turtle to run towards the water immediately but he was too scared and just stayed in his shell until he was about two inches from the water then he booked it and never looked back! This is the second turtle we have rescued and hopefully he will like his new home.

See ya later!!

 Hope everyone had an awesome weekend. Happy Fathers Day to all the dads out there.  I know I can say I am lucky to call Rick Bruns my dad. He is the most hard-working person I know. He would do anything and everything for anyone and support you as long as you need him along the way. Thank you dad for being so giving and generous with your time, wisdom and energy.

Any man can be a father.  It takes someone special to be a dad.  ~Author Unknown