Mamma Came to Town!

My lovely Mamma came in for a quick visit last weekend. She also braved sleeping on our barely 5ft long couch. Poof completely flipped out when she arrived. If he could talk I imagine he would have been yelling (in a french accent) "oh my god madame! is it really you!? are you really here!!!?"
So when she arrived Friday night we went straight to Hula class. It was nice having Tom and her there watching. I think it was the first time Thomas has ever really seen me hula dance.

Saturday morning we went to the Museum of Fine Arts (the type of museum I WISH I'd be working at!) and spent most of the dance roaming around the place. It was way bigger than I thought. Museum day was followed by delicious Tapatia tacos, wine & fancy cheese for dinner and then River Oaks (the Boca Raton of Houston...but probably a bit richer, think higher up oil company employees) for out of this world Christmas light displays!


Amazing.




I love this! Too funny!


Note to Madden: Pom found a gnome!


We found Santa too! Poof's first Santa experience! He thought Santa was sketchy individual.


Looks like coral. Every single branch was wrapped


We also went to Discovery Green and there happened to be some type of festival going on where Mom and I found an old pull down map like they had back when I was in elementary school!

My map collection is getting out of control already but I absolutely could not walk away without this. I'll take a picture of it once we hang it up.


Discovery Green ice skating rink!


We could pass for 12 year olds (minus Tom's beard). It's pathetic haha
These are all the pictures I have stolen from Mamma's camera. All in all it was a very fun time. Thanks for visiting Mom! I LOVE YOU! XOXO

Current Events

Let's talk about Thanksgiving. In the nearly 3 years I have had the wonderful Thomas in my life he has NEVER made anything other than sandwiches, mac and cheese, and eggs. So of course when we were assigned the task of making pumpkin pie and mashed potatoes for our friends Thanksgiving celebration I assumed I'd be making it all. But Tom said he'd make the mashed potatoes. "Yea, whatever."

So he made them. From scratch. No recipe. WHAT?! WHERE DID THESE COOKING SKILLS COME FROM!? But most importantly...

WHY HAVEN'T YOU MADE THESE FOR ME BEFORE?!


...men. ugh.


and of course they were the bestest mashed potatoes I've ever had. Bitter? Upset? Feeling neglected after all these years.....nah.

So my slacker Tom can cook. I'd consider myself lucky if I could reep the benefits more than once every 3 years. Silly Tom!

On another note...I made the pumpkin pie thinking I would maybe decide to like it if I made it myself. Nope, still gross.


As for other recent happenings...today was Tom's official last day of his first graduate school semester! He truly maintained coolness throughout the intense workload he had and I am so proud of him.

I can never get enough of that picture. Miss Madden's happy face always makes for a good celebratory picture!

So up until now we have been super busy. But December calls for some exploring so we hope to bring you more interesting adventure posts soon!

Here are some photos of one of the larger Houston parks nearby (I think it's call Memorial-Hermann Park?) Notice the heavy jackets, dog sweaters and mittens!? It's been in the 40s and 50s for a solid week now. Before that on and off temperatures of insane freezing winds to tropical rainforest hot and humid. My wardrobe cannot keep up with this. I might need two separate closets for summer and winter.

The obligatory insightful Patapouf photo


Terrified on the statue

Some other neat statues. Deep in thought.



I keep meaning to take more photos of Houston street art. So much good stuff out there, especially in the Museum District.


I think he's quite handsome without the scary lumberjack facial hair.

Stay tuned! December will be exciting! Momma comes to visit and I'm taking her to Hong Kong Market! Craziest grocery/Asian shopping experience ever! Not to be missed!

Beware

If this doesn't scare you, I don't know what will...

Facial Hair

Fugitive? No, just the many looks of Thomas Calder

Things to do in Texas

In an effort to motivate myself to go out and really explore Texas when we are not insanely busy...I'm posting some future adventures to look forward to! Grad school is definitely hectic. I'm anxiously awaiting Tom's winter break for some adventures!

Here's the problem with Texas though, this state is way too damn big. Everything is hours and hours away and it seems like Houston is not the best place to be if you are looking for outdoor adventures. Central Texas seems to be a good location for access to state parks and some nature. Here are some things I'd like to visit within my 3 year stay in Texas:

Pedernales Falls State Park (4 hours)


Enchanted Rock State Park (4.5 hours)



Marfa, Texas for some alien lights (10 hours)





The San Antonio RiverWalk (3.5 hours)



Big Bend National Park (10 hours)



I've always wanted to cross the border into Mexico by car and drive through small Mexican towns and meet people and then somehow go see the Crystal Caves in Chihuahua. I really really love Mexico. Here's to hoping it gets safer to cross into.


I'd like to pass by Cadillac Ranch one day (10 hours)


The Alamo (in San Antonio, 3.5 hours)


Wildflowers are a huge deal in Hill Country. Apparently you see Bluebonnets all along the highway driving to Austin in March. Can't wait!


and the Houston Aquarium and the Zoo!! (2 minute drive! YAY!)

Happy Halloween!

Thomas is just a scary guy with a big beard. the usual.

I Haz Chocolate

My Museum Directors brought me back this lovely treat from the Czech Republic. I have my own brand of chocolate! Yum!

Mission Accomplished

Oh my god, I finished baking them.

Baking, Baking, Baking...

I don't know how many more I have to bake tonight but I think it's close to 500. Wish me luck!

Hula 'Oni E 2012

For those of you who don't know (since it's all I've been talking about lately) our hula halau (school) will be going to Hawai'i next September to compete in the Hula 'Oni E festival in Waikiki! I posted a video from last years competition at the end. Are we excited?! YES.


Here's our Tahitian class, a good chunk of us are in the competition team. We practice to live music from our lovely musicians in the front row. My Kumu (teacher) is all the way on the right.


So to get us all to Hawai'i we are fundraising like crazy. Our goal is to fund raise our entire trip for everyone so that no one has to spend any money out of pocket. This weekend is the Puerto Rican/Cuban festival. Our halau has one of only a few food stands at a festival (most of them are for drinks...drunk hungry people? Look out!) with over 20,000 people so we are preparing for absolute chaos. My job? Bake 600 lime-coconut cookies. I'm trying to get ahead and started on Sunday, freezing as many as I can until my nonstop bake-a-thon on Thursday night but I'm running out of freezer space! 480 done, only 120 to go!

This is certainly preparing me for my future bakery/catering business! Here's what making 600 cookies in a kitchen the size of my bathroom looks like. Trust me, the picture makes my kitchen look way bigger than it is.

The current situation in my freezer:


Anyways, hopefully outside of practicing like crazy the entire week that I'm there, I'll have some time to do a little of this:

I'll also be stopping in to Momma and I's favorite quick food stop Coconut Cafe for some...


passionfruit & pineapple Hawaiian shaved ice!


Hopefully I'll get to climb Diamond Head again!


and soak up as much sun as I possibly can! I CAN'T WAIT!!!!!!!!

First place. We have a lot of work to do! These girls are amazing!