third time's a charm

It's been said that good things come in THREES.  Well, maybe I made that up but I happen to believe it's true.  THREES are everywhere.

There were THREE pigs and THREE bears.
THREE stooges and THREE musketeers.

THREE's Company.
THREE men [and a Baby].

THREE answer options [Yes, Maybe, No].

THREE strikes.
THREE bulbs on a traffic light [American].
And so forth.

I have done some research-aka Googled-and have learned that there are a lot of rules regarding THREES.  According to Wikipedia a 'Rule of Three' may refer to:

• Rule of THREE (aviation), a rule of descent in aviation
• Rule of THREE (C++ programming), a rule of thumb about class method definitions [Emily]
• Rule of THREE (statistics), for calculating a confidence limit when no events have been observed
• Rule of THIRDS, a compositional rule of thumb in photography
• Rule of THIRDS (diving), a rule of thumb for scuba divers

With all of these rules is does not surprise me to any degree that my parents had THREE kids; they are never ones to break any rules.  And, following in their footsteps, we THREE little angels do our best to follow suit.

Let's see what I can scrounge up...

• Let's see, each one of us busted our chins in various pool accidents at the age of 3.5.
• The second letters of our first names are the first THREE letters of the alphabet group 'L-M-N-O-P' eLlen, eMily, aNdrew.  You just never know what you might learn here :)
• We were all three born in Louisiana.
• We have all [or will soon] subjected our family to THREE graduation ceremonies each.
• We all THREE graduated in 2009 from Grad School, College, and High School.  (I wanted to put a link to my blog post about that but I see that I wasn't blogging then :/)
• And now, in the year 2013, we have all THREE received fairly significant bands of precious metals:  Engagement ring, Engagement ring, & Aggie ring.  As I'm writing this I just realized that our rings fit our familiar alpha-rhythm of EEA or Ellen, Emily, & Andrew.  I would call that coincidence but knowing our parents they probably planned that too.  Trust me, it is entirely possible with those two.

Jeff, Emily, and I all drove to College Station to go with Andrew to pick up his Aggie Ring.  This is a big deal at TAMU; a deal so big that I still don't quite understand.  People tell me it's because I didn't do my undergrad there and I missed out.  I've never really argued this point as it is quite obvious that I did miss out [please detect some sarcasm here!!!!!]

I should also note that I am so proud of Jeff for making the trip to the forbidden land and did so with very little grumbling but he still tries to hide in pictures.  My beloved Texas Tech Univ. graduate is still trying to grasp the fact that he is marrying into a fairly well-rooted family of TAMU-ers.  It's a tough pill to swallow but he's a big boy.  And if not that's what counseling is for ;)  Sigh, love makes you do some crazy things.

Anyhow, we had a great time pretending to be like we are still in college.  And do you know what I found out?!  I can't do it anymore.  You know, the moment your 2X year old body wakes up and realizes it's not 22 anymore?!  You have no idea how hard that is for me to admit but it's so true I couldn't lie about it if I had to.  And I know it's only going to get worse...

Regardless, we had a good time and am thankful for to Brother Andrew for opening up his sofas to us for another night's sleep.  Even though there are few things in the world that I would enjoy laying my head on less than that of sofas belonging to college guys.

I have to be honest in the next picture.  I am not quite sure who's arm is who's and actually find it quite disturbing.  But I like our smiles.  Andrew looks like he's loving every minute, doesn't he?!  My, how he loves his two sisters :)

And there's Jeff!  The camera man.  We were racing the sun and I'm thankful to Jeff that he volunteered to be behind the camera :)

Congratulations, ANDREW!!!!

I love you and am so proud!

Now go study ;)

pumpkin cake & aggieland

Happy Halloween!  I hope this finds your with fun plans for today/tonight.  I know some people got to dress up and go to work today.  How fun is that?!

I don't have any plans for tonight and am kind of excited about it.  Lame, I'm sure, but I'm hoping to get some stuff done around the house.

I did get into the spirit this weekend and made a Pumpkin Cake.  I was proud of how it turned out AND it tasted really yummy, too.  I decided to make it an all out pumpkin cake and stuck with the tastes of Fall by using Duncan Hines Spice Cake Mix [click here for what looks like a delicious recipe!] and Duncan Hines Creamy Home-Style Cream Cheese Icing.  Hmmmmmmmm hhhhhmmmmm!  It was tasty!

Emily gave me the Wilton Giant Cupcake Pan this past Christmas and I am ashamed to say that until this past weekend, I have not used it.  So, I was determined to make this work.  I used a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup Miniature for the step of the nose.  The cake came out kinda squatty...there wasn't enough batter in the mix to fill both sides of the pan up.  But actually, I think it worked out for the best in this case.  Now I know for next time, though.

Did I mention it was super Yummy?!

We also went the the Texas A&M vs. Univ. of Missouri game with my parents.  It didn't turn out so well.  I'm not exactly sure what happened but I do know we did not come out with a W. :(

*The original content of this post has been edited.  I was informed post-posting that the game I ACTUALLY went to was Texas A&M vs. MIZZOU!!!  I really was there, I really did watch the game, and I really do enjoy football.  However, I seem to find it difficult when keeping up with more than one team and have a tendency to up-mix my who-played-who's.  Thank you, Jake, and welcome to my life :)

The sun got in the way of the fly-over!

The Nationally Ranked Fightin' Texas Aggie Band

It wasn't until about the middle of the 3rd Quarter that I started to feel my right shoulder burning.  It had been soooo cold that morning that I didn't even think about sunscreen.  I always remember when it's 100 degrees outside.  But as it was on Saturday morning, I woke up a frozen popsickle and donned furry boots, leggings, fleece jacket, and scarf over my game day dress.  Sunscreen was NOT on my mental radar.  By 1:00 pm, however, I had shed my furry boots, scarf, jacket, and leggings in that order.  When I came back from removing my leggins Mom leaned over and asked, 'You aren't taking off any more, are you?!'  Haha!  No, Mom, but I should have PUT ON sunscreen during one of those wardrobe changes.  The 4th Quarter was just a little too late.  I have not been this badly burned in a long time...

You can't tell it as much in the picture, but my face looks awful!  I have crazy lines and splotches all over the place.  I am not looking so good right now.

We decided that this is a very innovative way of costuming and we would go as raccoon's or bandits.  No costume necessary!

Have a safe and happy Halloween!!!