Rocking New years Eve

" Every new year is a new opportunity to draw closer to your creator, and therefore draw closer to who you were made to be."

New Year Eve we lazily got up and hung out with Jim and Noni. We were suppose to go to downtown Nacagnoches for the morning to shop, but decided to opt for coffee and games and go in the afternoon.

Aunt Noni introduced us to two new games, skip-bo and Rummy- O. We played skip-bo in the morning a few rounds, and I won of course. ( Rach) Skip bo is like Uno and Rummy i think, and rummy- O is like Rummy and domino's. There's just something about playing games to get to know people. I have to be active- i'm not great with just sitting around and doing nothing. What a lot of people don't realize though, is that that doesn't require going out on the town or even spendin gmoney, i just want some good quality time. if I am hanging out with someone i want to hang out, talk, play games, just actually be engaging with them. I don't understand how people can sit around and not have a word with one another, when there is so much to learn about our friends and family all the time. There is always something I didn't know about them, why waste time?

When we were gamed out we headed down to the old house (*pic above in the old house kitchen), the house they use to live in when their kids were growing up is still on their property! Super cool, because all their old stuff is still inside. it would take a couple weeks to sort through everything and clear it out, but Aunt Noni has enough for her own antique store. We were looking for a video of Aunt Noni, uncle Jim, uncle Larry, Aunt Sue and Grandma and grandpa Metzger when they went to Alaska. it is suppose to be really hilarious and beautiful./ unfortunately we couldn't get the video player to work, so we didn't get to see it this trip. After we left the house with an armload of magazines and old slides to look through we headed off to town. (* pic of uncle larry, uncle jim, and grandpa don)

Downtown nacogdoches is the oldest town in Texas. We walked along the cobblestone streets, and enjoyed one too many of the stores. The Fabric store they had was full of do it yourself projects and local artists stuff; basically enough to make me go broke. I love those type of stores, it's what i would like to do! I also got sucked into the good Book. Aunt Noni and Autumn like it as well, but were smart and got out as soon as posible. We love a good book store, and I couldn't resist getting some books even though we had no where to put them. I got A lineage of grace, by francine rivers. Several small books by the fathers and mother sof the church, and Forgotten God by Francis Chan. The last several stores were antique stores that we looked through, and just realized more and more that Aunt Noni needs to look into having her own store for real.

After Downtown we met up with Uncle Jim at the schezuan chinese restaurant. I am sure I am spelling that wrong, but regardless it was amazing! A mix between east coast and west coast chinese. Aww west coast chinese. how we love you so. From the restaurant we came back and played some more games with Aunt Noni. We also got to hear more funny stories of their alaskan adventures. Uncle Jim played a round of Dominos and then went in to relax. We were all super ready for bed before the ball even dropped. A little after 11 mom and dad finally called to say they had read our blog and now knew we were moving back to Oregon. FINALLY. it's about durn time we told them. What a great way to start the new year. Poor Uncle Jim he went to lay down so he could get up before the ball dropped. i don't think he realized what time it was though, because like ten minutes later we went into get him so he wouldn't miss it. We all hugged and kissed as the ball dropped and then went off to bed. WE are party animals. Happy 2010. Got in a couple poses for the new year. Hopefully this year I will be a yoga teacher yay!
Good night

Still Lovin East Texas

" I have found out that there aint no surer way to find out if you like people than to travel with them."
                                                                             -- Mark Twain

The above quote is totally true, as does living with someone. Good thing Autumn and I already know we drive each other crazy and love each other for it.

The Next day we went to the Tea Room with Eva called Mar teres I think. I don't know the date, because we have been sucked into the vortex that is our road trip, but regardless we are having a great time!
The tea room was tiny and packed and super quaint. We were seate din a small corner and each of our place settings was different from the other and mismatched within themselves, yet they looked lovely, and Autumn and I are going to do the same at our apartment. When we get to portland, we are going to go garage saling, hopefully with our grandma, mom, aunts, and cousin and find unique little dishes. Yes we are girls.

They served assorted quiches, and sandwiches, soups, and of course teas. We all ordered peach tea, except Eva who decided to be adventurous and try the strawberry margarita tea. Peach was a better option we found out. If anyone is passing through Lufkin, the food was really delicious. We tried the mexican quiche, the chicken salad, the apple walnut salad - all of it was yummy.

After lunch we headed to downtown Lufkin and visited some antique shops. Rach and I both discovered some small treasures to keep for ourselves and Eva and John bought us a gorgeous table cloth with sunset yellow and red poppies on it. We cannot wait to use it in our soon to be adorable apartment. At another antique store the manager gave us two bags of cards because he wanted to get rid of them!

  
Our shopping quota met we headed back to Eva's house to play Mexican train version of Dominoes. I was dominating the dominoes until one round when I couldn't make a train and rachael of course rejoiced in this fact. Though Eva won I took solice in the fact that I still beat Rachael. In the midst of our game playing, Eva's husband John ( who is hillarious) was scheming to set Rachael and I up with some true Texan boyfriends (not that we would have minded they seem to grow them tall, good looking and polite in Texas, we may have to get aunt nonie to find us a husband - I am sure John would help her.) We party hardy so we didn't leave until 8pm after whataburger fries and sitting on John's harley and seeing his old and new corvette.

Tommorrow is new years eve - hopefully we will get another one of Jim's famous margharitas:)
See you all in 2010!

God Bless Texas

""In all of us there is a hunger, marrow-deep, to know our heritage, to know who we are and where we came from."" -- Alex Haley

Hanging out with Aunt Noni and Uncle jim is so much fun. We LOVE family history! It so incredible to hear where your parents and their parents and their parents parents came from, as well as all the trouble they got into and their love stories or mishaps to get them to their one and only. If you haven't asked an older family member lately, your parents, grandparents, uncles, aunts, then ask someone- we always have a story to tell, I for one cannot wait to tell my great great grandchildren or whomever all the fun things I did to get there.

Today  we heard stories about Cumberland homestead in TN and how Great grandpa metzger was the mayor there as well as a friend of Eleanor Roosevelt, because the homestead was her pet project. Great grandfather visited Eleanor in Washington DC at least once and gave them a painting of the homestead ( he was a wonderful artist). At least one of his paintings is in the smithsonian or with the roosevelt family. Uncle Tim and Aunt Tracie have at least 3 I think, and I am super jealous.

 Aunt Nonnie told us about setting eyes on uncle jim at age 15 and knowing "this is the man I am going to marry." Three years later they met again and were married.Although on their first date she had another date that evening, after her date with Uncle Jim that he ended up driving her too, love it. You know it was the big guy at work, and Aunt Noni was a total catch since he asked her out again anyway. 4 Kids and 16 grandkids and 1 great grandbaby later. This seems to happen in our family alot, seeing as both my grandmother and grandfather were quasi engaged to other people when they met. Which by the way was also Aunt Nonnie's doing. The man my grandmother was engaged to lived in Misssissippi. He had been a patient of hers, fallen madly in love, bought them a house together yada yada. Aunt Nonie and my grandmother are best friends, she didn't want her to move away and knew my grandmother wasn't head over heals for the guy so she decided Jeanine was going to marry her brother donnie, and as things seem to happen as Nonie decides them they did get married.

Does love like this happen anymore? Is there a instantaneous connection? Or did generations before us just decide to love and go from there? i'm learning more and more that love is a choice not just a feeling.
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We rented Julie and Julia that night which was lovely as well as Angus, thongs and perfect snoggie! Major thumbs up. It is based on the georgia nicholson series that we love and read often.

At this point in our trip we had already blogged to let mom and dad know we were coming and they still had not checked. Again we blogged to them, text them all the blog, called them all to see if they had checked it- all this on christmas day- and they still had not checked. ( they are following now tho- and we are happy for it- especially since mom can get on the blog herself, and mom generally has nothing to do with comps. )

After the movies we headed to bed.. Tomorrow we are heading to meet cousin Eva, wes' mom and have lunch at the Tea Room! Love ya'll faithful followers!

Hey Sug'

 

   

"Family faces are magic mirrors.  

Looking at people who belong to us, we see the past, present, and future."  

~Gail Lumet Buckley

We arrived in texas late on the 28th.. We were promptly asked if we wanted coffee, tea, or margaritas by Uncle Jim. Love it! Uncle Jim and Aunt Noni are adorable. We were so exhausted, but wanted stayed up to visit for a while. Uncle Jim and Aunt Noni's house is gorgeous. Super big open rooms. Our bed was so comfy and we were out as soon as our heads hit the pillow. 

The morning of the 28th I didn't wake up until eleven. Autumn was already up with Uncle Jim and Aunt Noni chatting and making breakfast. Little did I know when I hopped out of bed we were ab0ut to have another cousin George moment. When i walked into the kitchen there was an adorable guy around my age talking to Aunt Noni. My immediate thought was crap I'm still in my jammies, haven't ashed my hair, or brushed my teeth! I look a mess! Fortunately Aunt Noni cleared all my worries saying, " Rachael, this is your cousin wes." Thank the Lord, we're related. I don't have to feel bad for looking all unkempt. Of course as soon as Autumn and I could link eyes we were speaking through ESP> We have to get wesley together with one of our friends, and we had just the one in mind. Breakfast was a lot of fun, and it was great to meet more extended family. I love how you can waltz in to people's homes that you have hardly met and be right at home, because they're family. I knew I would love being at Uncle Jim and Aunt Noni's the day I talked to Aunt Noni for over an hour on the phone months back. I got off the phone and told Autumn, " OMG- I am Aunt Noni!" Meeting her has only confirmed we are kindred spirits, and then looking through her wedding album confirmed that I am her twin. All of her  pictures from when she is 20, I look just alike. Works for me though, because aunt Noni has aged well, and married quite a looker, so there is hope. (pictures to come later.)

After breakfast, we headed out for a walk around their property. Wesley decided not to come, he had been up duck hunting since 430 am. He had already had 6 cup of coffee and was still tired, I think I would be too. Their property is about 80 acres! They use to have twice that, but they sold half their land to the county. It is beautiful here in east texas. Autumn and I pictured all of Texas looking dry and deserted with tumble weeds and old west towns and boy we we wrong. East Texas has lots of trees and lots of open gorgeous country. Uncle JIm decided to take some trash and sticks down towards the creek on his tractor so Audi and i jumped on with him. it's like we are on  farm. i would love to live on a farm some day. We walked down to the creek which will someday be a river, whenever the county gets around to finishing it. Them we wandered down to their old house. Uncle Jim and Aunt Noni have lived on this property for a while. My mom and dad came to visit them at their old house in the eighties, and this is where their kids were raised. Now it is used as the storage and guest house for when lots of people come to visit at once. Unfortunately we couldn't go in, because we hadn't brought the key down, but we will in the next few days.

On our way back we picked up some of the few scattered pecans left on the ground, but none of them were good. uncle Jim cracked them in his hands by pushing two of them together. That's the tick he said. You learn something new everyday. When we were in the middle of the hay field it started sprinkling so we hurried our step back to the house. We couldn't go too fast, because Aunt Noni is still recovering from all the surgeries she had in the last several months. Everyone, including her, has told us it is a miracle she is alive with all the complications she was having every time they repaired something. Praise the Lord she is alive, she has so much wisdom to impart on us still, along with some funny stories of her and grandma jeanines shenanigans. 

** This isn't the end of the day, but I am getting sleepy and we are at a semi sketch hotel..it is in Gallop, NM. tomorrow hopefully we can get caught up.. say a prayer we sleep well and everything is fine. Love ya'll good night

Why are we at the Walmart distribution center and What is a Tamale?

" One main factor in the upward trend of animal life has been in the power of wandering."

~Alfred Worth Whitehead

"You are a failure GPS!" the following picture is after we selected Walmart in the GPS to stop and get some hummus and apples... it failed to include distribution center in the title. Thus we ended up in the middle of nowhere a couple miles off the highway.. Great Job Suzy.

The drive from Alabama to Mississippi we rocked out to eighties and acapella music provided by Helen.. amazing! The eighties Cd is Autumn's favorite so far. As we entered mississippi we stopped at their rest area/welcome center.. all I can say is WOW! This place had free wi-fi, free coffee, free restrooms ( that were clean), tons of great touring guides, and the inside was sweet, like a formal living room. It also had a huge dog park outside and gorgeous grove of trees that we frolicked through to get some of our jitters out.

Welcome to mississippi:) 

After plenty of tree climbing and pictures we loaded back into the car and headed to Vicksburg where we would stop to have dinner. Unfortunately, all the places we were calling in Vicksburg would be closing at 5, and we were suppose to arrive like 2 min before. Luckily we found one, The Tamale Place, that was open until 8. I wish we had taken a picture of the Tamale Place, because it was truly sketch. On a strip of road that had hardly anything on it, we arrived as it was starting to get dark, and the tiny building looked like a bail bonds drive thru. To make it even more interesting when we walked inside there is a huge glass window separating the cooks in the back and the customers with a lovely sign that reads:

If you are on you cell phone, we will not serve you.

If you are using profanity, we will not serve you.

If you have a credit card, we will not serve you.

If you lean through the window, we will not serve you.

Of course when I entered I was on my cell phone, with Erica Bethel Metzger, and had to quickly go outside, because I was getting eyeballed. When I came back inside, Autumn and I looked over the menu and decided we would get a tamale, because that was what was recommended, but what is a tamale?

We debated not asking for fear of getting a dumb look, but finally gave in and asked the girl in front of us, who, after a dumb look said, "what, ya'll really don't know what a tamale is?You're not from round her are ya? Well, I don't know how to describe um, but theys good."That was enough for us, we ordered a half dozen and anxiously waited.

When we got up to the window the guy scooped our tamales out of the pot, plopped them on some news paper and wrapped them up. This was going to be good. I looked at Audi who was looking skeptical at this point, and just shrugged, when in Rome...

The tamales were fabulous.. super greasy.. but totally worth it. After we opened them up, I realized I had had a tamale before, made by Brian, from an el salvadorian recipe from his wife Jenny. The one's jenny made were of corn and not greasy at all.. you topped them with a creamy cheese. These on the other hand were a mixture of pork and I don't know what, dripping with grease and pretty spicy. So even though it was sketch looking, we give The Tamale place a thumbs up.. a definite stop to eat if you are passing through.

 

From the Tamale Place we went to Vicksburg's downtown to explore and catch a glimpse of the Mississippi river. There were some beautiful churches and overall really quaint, but it was starting to get dark so most things were closed ( pretty much everything in town closed at 5 pm), and since there was no one else about we decided to head out soon after we arrived. On the Road Again..

Stopped at subway for dinner.. Autumn and I have a new fave the veggie sub with every veggie toasted with cheese and add marinara sauce... so yummy.

After Vicksburg we passed through Louisiana. We really wanted to swing by New Orleans, but weren't sure if we could lock down some one to stay with, and we were super anxious to get to Aunt Noni and Uncle Jims so we pressed on. I wish I had more to say about Louisiana, but it was dark at this point, and we were on the highway. Almost to Texas. Yee haw

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So we are way behind on POsts

SO we are way behind on posts, but promise to catch everyone up in the next 2 days. we love you!here are some fun pictures until the next posts....

Yummy recipes

Cheesy mushroom pizza

I pillsbury pizza dough

1 Pack cream cheese

1 package of mozzarella shredded cheese

1 small block of fontina cheese, shred

2 small cartons of mushrooms we mixed white cap and bella

fresh thyme and butter

Pre-Bake the pillsbury dough for like 5-7 minutes

saute the mushrooms and thyme and butter

spread the cream cheese

sprinkle fontina, add mushrooms with thyme and cover with mozerella

bake 12-14 minutes on 350 ( i think.. check the pizza can)

Slice and serve! Ridiculous good

We served with:

Balsamic Chicken

Boneless skinless chicken breast

Marinate in Balsamic vinegar( we used a fig balsamic dressing)

Fresh garlic, salt and pepper

Feta Cheese

Fresh Roma Tomatoes

Put the oven on Broil and flip chicken after 5-6 minutes

after 2nd side is finished add sliced tomatoes and feta cheese until they brown lightly..voila