Gone to Texas

Hello? Anybody out there? Remember me? It's me, Alyssa. Your friendly sporadic blogger.

Man, it's been a CRAZY past few months. Most of you who read this are also Facebook friends, so you probably already know that Marcus and I are once again residents of the great state of Texas. It is a very bittersweet time for me. I am SO proud of Marcus, who finished seminary at Vanderbilt and accepted a position at Grace Avenue United Methodist Church. We are so excited to make our new home in Frisco and be closer to family. But I was devastated to leave my amazing job at Blood:Water Mission and all the wonderful friends and places we loved in Nashville. To be honest, I don't really feel like I was "done" with Nashville. It feels so surreal to be back in Texas and not have a job or a place of our own (yet!). But I am so confident that God has called us here and feel very blessed for His provision in our lives.

I suppose this little blog will need a makeover eventually. Hopefully I will get back to blogging on a more regular basis that warrants a new design! I have several things I want to post about in the next month, and while I'm on the hunt for a new job, I should have plenty of time for that! To hold myself accountable, I'm listing them here.

-Completion of my Nashville Bucket List
-Books I read in 2012
-Review and Resolutions for 2013
-Progress on decorating our new house

Yes, we bought a house! I could not be more thankful for such an easy house buying experience and I can't wait to share pictures with you. Praying everything goes smoothly until we close at the end of January!

And finally, to celebrate my return to blogging, I want to invite you to join me in a Valentine's Day blogging party! I'm a big fan of The Crowley Party and Alycia has joined with four other bloggers to host this swap. It should be fun!

It's good to be back, blog world! I hope you'll stick around!

Welcoming Baby Ian!

I was so so excited to go home to Texas this past weekend to throw a baby shower for my sweet friend Megan. She and her husband, Kyle, will be welcoming baby boy Ian Scott in November! I'm not-so-secretly hoping he will come a little early so we can share a birthday. :)

It was so much fun to host a shower with one of my other besties, Leisha. Megan's baby bedding has a cute little alligator, so we decided to make that the theme and go with the colors of her nursery. We found a little inspiration from Pinterest (of course) and Leisha got busy with her Silhouette machine, and I love the way everything turned out! Please excuse the quality of photos- one of these days I will learn to use photoshop and take some pictures on manual...maybe.

The spread (punch, sausage balls, spinach artichoke dip, and fruit pizzas)!

Candy coated popcorn favors

The mommy-to-be!

All of Ian's goodies! Isn't the banner so cute?

This is the quilt I made for baby Ian! I used this tutorial from the Moda Bake Shop and I love the way it turned out. I think it will go great with the nursery colors and I hope Megan loves it as much as I do!

All of us!

It was so good to see old friends and celebrate Megan. I can't wait to meet you, baby Ian Scott!!

Happy New Year!

I cannot believe it is already 2012! I hope you all had a great time ringing in the new year.  The Womacks sent 2011 out in style...on the couch.  It was actually a nice NYE, just going out to eat and spending time together as a family.

I have enjoyed reading all of your posts about the holidays, and I finally have a chance to sit down and share mine.  We had a great time in Texas visiting with family and friends and celebrating the most wonderful time of the year.  It always goes by way too quickly, but it was also good to come back to Nashville and start settling into the new year.

Our break started with the wedding of our dear friends, Nicki and Alex. After dropping Max off in Longview with my parents, we headed down to Houston for the party! We had such a great time celebrating and catching up with close friends from college.

The Womacks and the Zeisigs!

We headed back to Longview on Sunday and spent some time with my family. It was really great having time to just relax, eat, and enjoy family time! I was really excited for our family gift exchange because I finished my grandmother's quilt! While it was fun to watch everyone open the gifts we gave, I was most looking forward to this one.  Here is the completed quilt!

Front

Back

My grandmother collects quilts, but has never had one made for her. I made this using some doilies that her grandmother and grandmother-in-law made! This was such a special project for me and I'm so pleased with how it turned out. Here she is opening it up!

I think she liked it!

Unfortunately, I was really bad with the camera this year, and didn't get many pictures of the rest of our family. Maybe I should add that to my list of new years resolutions?

Christmas at Nunna's!

On Christmas Eve, we headed to Rockwall for Christmas with the Womacks. We had so much fun visiting with family, especially our nieces.  They NEVER run out of energy so there was lots of play time while we were there.

Love these crazy girls!

We are always sad to leave Texas, especially when we don't know how long it will be until we're back. But we returned to Nashville hopeful for the new year and all that it has to offer. Come back tomorrow for a review of 2011 and my resolutions! I know most people have already done this, but better late than never, right?

The Eyes of Texas are Upon You!

Happy Thanksgiving!! Hope you all had a wonderful day full of family, friends, food, and giving thanks. Oh, and football!

Tonight was the end of an era- after 117 years, it's hard to say if there will ever be another Thanksgiving Day match-up between the University of Texas Longhorns and the Texas A&M Aggies.  It's one of the biggest rivalries in the history of college football, and tonight's game was quite a thriller.  This year was the first time I watched the game with Marcus's family- ALL aggies! I was a little nervous, but everyone was very civil! :) The game was great and kept us on our toes to the very last second! We were happy for the outcome, but sad to see such an incredible tradition come to an end.

I'm so proud to be a graduate of THE University of Texas and to have been able to take part in so many long-standing traditions, both in athletics, and not!  My four years in Austin were some of the best in my life. In fact, in many ways, I'm still "grieving" the loss of my time there.  I love my life now, but college was where I grew up. It's where I figured out who I was and who God wanted me to be. It's where I made the most amazing friendships, and where I fell in love.

I'm a fourth-generation longhorn, so to say that my love of UT runs deep is just a bit of an understatement.  I hope some day one of my children will carry on our legacy and have as wonderful an experience as I did.

Today, I am so thankful for my families- the one I was born into and the one I married into.  I am thankful for a really cool job and a warm home in Nashville. I am thankful for a loving, compassionate, patient husband who cares for me and loves me unconditionally.  I am thankful for the school that brought us together and the valuable education I received.  And most importantly, I'm thankful that God has so graciously provided these things.

I hope you continue to remember the things that you are thankful for and enjoy the start to a blessed holiday season.

Oh, and hook 'em horns! 

Sweet Things

Greetings from Texas! It is so nice to be back for a whole week! We are enjoying time in Longview now and on Thursday, we'll head to Rockwall. 

Road trip!

Max was a great traveling buddy and is having so much fun for his first time in Texas! He hasn't quite figured out how to play with Mitzi (Mom and Dad's new pup), but he's definitely making himself at home!

Now, onto the point of this post.  We've been spending most of our short time here in Texas concerning ourselves with food.  So far, we've checked three places off our list- Whataburger, Taco Bueno, and Dudley's! Yum yum! We've also gotten started with some cooking.  Of course, dessert is the most important part of the meal.

I found the recipe for these babies on Picky Palate and just had to try them.  They were super easy and so delicious! If you're looking for a last minute dessert (that easily doubles as a great breakfast treat!), you should give these a try!

Sweet Potato Cupcakes with Cinnamon Sugar Cream Cheese Frosting

We also baked up my Granny's famous Paper Bag Apple Pie.  If I could only eat one dessert for the rest of my life, this would be it.  I love this pie so much, it's what I always request as my birthday "cake" of choice.  So what makes it so special? First, the crumble topping. Instead of your standard crust, we sprinkle a mixture of butter, cinnamon, and sugar over it.  Second, the paper bag.  The pie is baked in a brown grocery bag and comes out perfectly cooked- juicy and lightly browned.  I know my grandma is not the first to bake an apple pie like this, but in my book, it will always be her special recipe, and I'll never bake an apple pie any other way.  

Can you tell I love this pie?!

And finally, we ended the night with another piece of pie. This one, a strawberry pie from Dudley's Cajun Cafe.  Dudley's is my favorite restaurant back home- it's where we had our rehearsal dinner and we try to make a trip there every time we visit.  Let me tell you- the strawberry pie is the best and it goes fast! There was one piece left when we got to restaurant, so I made sure to reserve that little plate of goodness before anything else (priorities, people!). Mmmmm...it was the perfect ending to a perfectly delicious dinner of boudin balls, gumbo, and fried crawfish.

Does it get any better than this?

What are your holiday standards?  Do you like to try new recipes or stick to your family's favorites? However you celebrate, I hope it's perfectly sweet!

Countdown to Thanksgiving

We leave for Thanksgiving break in Texas in 6 days and the countdown is on!  

I have a long list of things to get done before then, including

laundry

cleaning the house

changing the sheets on the beds

grocery shopping

host small group

wash the car

pack

But getting all that done means nine hours in the car with this guy:

Pray for us...

But getting that done means six whole days at home in Texas with:

(my parents)

and

(Marco's parents)

and the rest of our wonderful family!

and

and

and

and 

and

(and real food too)

and my first:

and the last:

(for a while anyway...)

Can you tell I'm a little excited?  We always enjoy getting back to our roots and spending quality time with our family and eating lots of fried food and shopping and watching sports.

What are your plans for Thanksgiving? Are you counting down like I am?