Vegas, Baby!

Well, the Shuttle slipped a bit, and Cory and I got to go to Las Vegas to my cousin Jessie's wedding! Neither of us had ever been before, and we had a great time celebrating and hanging out with family. My immediate family was there, and so were some of my extended family, including an aunt and uncle and some cousins. I don't get to see these cousins very often anymore, in fact I can't remember ever spending this much time with them since we are all 'adults'. It was really fun!!

We got there early Thursday and pretty much ended up being awake for more than 24 hours except for a brief nap. The guys gambled and me and my sister and mom walked the strip, seeing all the cool hotels (and awesome high-end shoe stores). That night was the bachelor and bachelorette party and the girls had lots of fun!

Friday we relaxed at the pool and the bride and groom hosted a cocktail hour. After that we went with my immediate family to see Cirque du Soleil's 'O' at the Bellagio. We got to see the fountain and lights show before-hand. These two things were by far the highlight of the trip (other than being at Jessie's wedding and seeing family, obviously)! The fountains were just so cool, and 'O' was simply amazing! I highly recommend it if you ever find yourself in Vegas.

Saturday was the wedding, and the reception at the Mandalay Bay buffet, followed by open bar at the Mix Lounge on top of Mandalay Bay's 'THE Hotel'. All was delicious and lots of fun, and Jessie looked beautiful!

Cory and I left early Sunday morning and now we're back in H-town, waiting for Discovery to get off the ground!

Mentees, or 'I am old'

My freshman year in college, I participated in WEPO, the Women in Engineering Program Orientation. It's a program where freshman women entering an engineering major at Penn State head up a few days before freshman orientation and meet other women in engineering, do a design project, and meet people in industry. When I was a senior and a super-senior, I became a mentor for this program. Being a mentor, and meeting Cheryl, the woman in charge of this masterpiece, were the best parts of WEPO for me.
One of my little mentees, Chloe, has followed in my footsteps, or so I like to think. She's all grown up and graduated and lives down here in H-town and works at NASA. Chloe has remained close friends with two of the other girls that were in our group, Shannon and Ashley. This past weekend was Chloe's birthday, and the girls were in town from Austin to celebrate.
It was so great to see my mentees again, and I can't believe they've graduated already! I feel old, but it was great to see them!

Chloe and me

me, Shannon, Chloe, Ashley

Wedded Bliss

Happy Anniversary Heather and Aaron! Two years ago today, my little baby sister (haha that's so funny, 'cause we're twins, get it?) married the love of her life. I can't believe it's been two years. Two years of pure bliss, right guys? We love you!

Recreating Paris, and other yummy treats

Cory finally came home on Thursday, after two weeks in Russia and one cancelled flight. To celebrate his homecoming, I planned a dinner to recreate our trip to Paris. We started with homemade french bread and brie. I'm really enjoying making bread, and it's super easy with my Kitchen Aid, and oh so tasty. For the main course I made lamb curry; I realize curry is not french, but we had a lot of lamb there and Cory had a curry dish he really liked. The lamb was delicious and tender and I can't wait to cook with it more! I finally tried out our kitchen torch on the creme brulee I made for dessert. We had creme brulee in Paris just about every night and we love it! It was much easier than I thought it would be to make and it turned out delicious! All of this was, of course, accompanied by some French wine. Bon appetit!

My good friend Beth had surgery a few weeks ago, and in my opinion, nothing says recovery like food :) So I made some chai tea latte cupcakes and some vanilla fro yo for her! I also gave some cupcakes to my other chai-loving-friends, Jaime and Lisa.

Last week I went to Alicia's for dinner and brough some macerated berries with cool whip for a yummy healthy dessert. What do do with leftover berries that are getting mushy? Why, make a mini berry crisp of course! And then eat the whole thing yourself. Not that I did that. Maybe.

Blast from the Past, 6th Edition, Puppy Style

I'm sorry. I couldn't resist. Look how cute Cosmo was when we got her, almost 3 1/2 years ago!

For more cuteness, see these videos that I posted on YouTube. We have lots of pictures from when she was little, but these are the only videos. Thanks to Josh for taking them!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ga4TsV9Zm3M

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uq209ezGXJo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8HY0hNCUb4

Corpus Christi, Moscow, Pennsylvania

It's been almost a month since I've posted, and that's mostly because I like to have pictures when I post, and I didn't. But now I do!

The Sholls are world traveler's apparently ;)

Cory and I spent the 4th of July weekend in Corpus Christi with the Wilkes at their friends the Ketters' house! Neither of us had ever been there, and it was a fun, relaxing weekend! It was great to meet Susan and Toby and their two adorable girls, and they were wonderful hosts. We forgot our camera, and Beth keeps pictures on her camera for years (I'm not exaggerating), so I don't have any pictures.

After that we spent a few weeks waiting for the next Shuttle mission to launch and seeing if Cory would be going to Russia for two weeks. It slipped a couple times but he's finally there now. He left last Thursday and will be back next Wednesday. I miss him. He posted some pictures on facebook, but here is one of St. Basil's Cathedral, and of the Omega watch he got!

This past weekend, I went to Pennsylvania to celebrate Alicia's upcoming nuptials. We had her bridal shower on Saturday and her bachelorette party that night. Both events were lots of fun, and the public-friendly pictures are posted here, courtesy of Heather

http://picasaweb.google.com/heatherly.hamm/AliciaSShower#

Here is one of all the girls from the bachelorette party!

In addition to Alicia's festivities, I got to see a good friend from high school and my parents. Oh and I got to eat lots of good Pennsylvania food! It was a great trip!

Now I'm busying myself watching girly movies and trying to wait patiently for Cory to come home!

Next stop: Vegas! Hopefully, depending on the next Shuttle launch...

House Project: Office Makeover

When we first moved into our house, we had our desk in one of our spare bedrooms. But then we got another bed to make the spare bedroom a real guest room, so the desk moved to what is supposed to be our living room. We knew we never wanted a formal living room, but this room was basically a mess. In addition to our desk with our computer on it amidst lots of junk, we had my 'scrapbooking table' which consisted of a card table loaded 2 feet high with supplies and other random stuff, and my Grandpa's old chair that I inherited when I moved to Houston, also loaded with lots of random stuff. Here are some 'before' pictures.

So on our long list of improvements we want to make to our home was turning the living room into a nice office. After we got the carpet, I really wanted to get new bedroom furniture, but Cory and I both agreed we were pretty sick of this space, and since it is one of the first rooms people see when they walk in, this became our top priority. We didn't think we were going to do it this soon, but a shopping trip to Ikea with Beth will change your mind quick ;) Here are the 'after' pictures! Let me know what you think!

Thanks so much for your ideas and inspiration, Beth!