Indiana Fall

There’s really no place like Indiana in the Fall.  It is beautiful with bright colors and cool crisp air.  People travel from everywhere to come to Brown County in the fall.  We’ve been trying to hit up all of the places to see the best views.  The first place we went was the Scenic View Restaurant out on Hwy 446.

Then we hiked around Browne County State Park.

Come visit! :)

Lotus Festival

Bloomington has a large artistic community with a love for all things international.  You can always find a concert displaying a unique foreign instrument or strange music from across the globe.  This community comes together and puts on a festival every year honoring the unique and vast differences of music and art from all over the world.  It is called The Lotus Festival, and you always know when it’s coming to town because you can be walking down the street or across campus (like Hank and I were last week) and come across a display like this…

This group is called Strange Fruit from Melbourne, Australia.   

Gotta love strange events like this that turn an ordinary day into a good story.

Annual 5k

Every year I like to train for a race.  Once the snow melts, it’s a great motivation to get outside and start exercising again.  So I’ve been running since April(click for that post) to see how far and how fast I could get this year.  K, my running buddy this year, and I decided to run in the Hoosiers Outrun Cancer 5k this past weekend.  This race allows you to run for people you’ve known with cancer.  I decided to run in memory of a beautiful ballet friend of mine from high school and then in celebration of my aunt, who kicked the pants off of cancer!  Lots of people came out for the race, including the entire IU basketball team, and we had a great time running with so many people from the community.

So here's to next year's race!  Love you, Aunt BJ:)

Book of the Month

Reading during my lunch break has become one of my favorite pastimes.  Every day over the past month I’ve eaten as fast as I could so I could get outside to my favorite reading spot and read…"The Help".

Talk about a new favorite!  This book is awesome.  I went to college and worked in Jackson, and it was really fun reading all of the references to the Belhaven neighborhood, Woodrow Wilson Avenue, etc.  My old stomping grounds…  So definitely read this book if you haven’t already.  It was kind of sentimental finishing it.  So I snapped a picture;)  I didn’t want it to end.  Then, like all other lunch breaks, I took my walk around campus.  I’m glad IU has such an outdoorsy campus.  I can walk over the wooden walkways into Dunn’s Woods and feel like I’ve left the city.  It’s a nice break in the middle of the day.

So any recommendations on what I should read next?? J

Cuisine de Michelle

It seems like most blogs out there are about cooking in one way or another.  They may not have started out as a blog about food, but they kind of morph into that somewhere along the way.  I promise that is not what I’m doing…because I’m actually a really bad cook.  I mean, I truly suck at it.  Before getting married I literally lived off of Kraft mac n’ cheese and salads.  (Just ask my sister who had to put up with me and my college-like eating habits that whole year before I got hitched.)  And poor Hank.  He had no idea what he was up against.  I’ve burned too many pots and pans to count.  I have a good idea about something to cook, and it just turns into an over-salted smoking nightmare!  One time I actually served him eggplant completely encrusted in burned salt.  (I'd heard you had to salt the eggplant before cooking it.hehe)  But then…BUT then…we got one of the best wedding presents in the whole world.  The Betty Crocker Cookbook Bridal Edition.  I didn’t use it too much that first year because we had yet to accumulate all of the kitchen essentials (like herbs and flour and such), and Betty Crocker only has REAL recipes that require more than 2 ingredients (which was foreign to me).  I was so used to “just add water” that I think I was a little intimidated even to open it.  But when I did…aaaa(insert heavenly chorus)…it became like a Bible in the kitchen.  It not only provides recipes but detailed instructions on all the basics, like how long to cook chicken and how to hard boil eggs.  Fabulous book.  So all that to say, I used it last night to make chicken pot pie and just had to show y’all the pictures of how pretty it was!

Finished Product!



Failed attempt to cut a pretty piece like in the cookbook.  How do they do that??

So a big thank you to Donna, who gave us the book!  We didn’t even register for it, but it’s like she knew how much I’d need itJhehe    

Hiking Weather

It’s beginning to feel a lot like Fall, and with it brings the urge to hike.  Fortunately Hank has a lot of classes this semester that have outdoor homework assignments, so this past weekend we went on our first hike of the Fall to research and gather leaves from different Indiana trees.  I am loving this homework!

We went to Griffy Lake to hike some of their trails...

Check out my cowboy learning his leaves...:)

This guy just about gave me a panic attack!  I made Hank go take a picture;)  He said it's just a black rat snake, non-venomous.  Somehow that didn't make me feel any better...  I jumped at every little thing for the rest of the hike.

Cool trees...

It started raining right after this picture, so we hightailed it back to the truck to finish our first hike of the Fall. 

So y'all have fun hiking as the weather cools off!  My friends in the South, it might still be a while until it really cools off... So come on up and visit!:)

One Last Hurrah

Today is the first day of school here at IU.  Campus has awoken from its lazy summer and is swarming with excited and lost students.  It’s been a fun day for me, meeting students that I’ve been working with over the past year through their applications and auditions.  Today is also Hank’s first day back to school for the semester.  We are sad to see the summer leave and with it so much time together, but we’re excited that this is another step to the awesome walk across the stage that ropes in that diploma!  So last week we decided to have one last summer adventure together.  We took off for Indianapolis!

You didn't know Indy was so wild, did you?;)  The Indianapolis Zoo has some amazing exhibits that are really spacious and beautiful for the animals.  We felt like kids as we hopped on their roller coaster and walked around eating frozen lemonade.  Then we toured their spacious White River Gardens.  The below pictures are Hank's beautiful photography.

We concluded the day by tasting a piece of Hank’s favorite show Diners, Drive In’s, and Dives.  The host of the show, Guy Fieri, has visited Indianapolis several times.  We had just watched his show where he visits 3 Sisters Cafe up in Indy, and their gourmet sandwiches were just calling out to us.  And they were A..MA…ZING!!  Check out the episode.  The lady in the show who’s walking around calling everyone her babies and sweets, she was our waitress.  She totally called us her dovesJ 

So that was our last hurrah for the summer.  And for you runners out there, I’m running my end of the summer 5k on September 24 in the 12th Annual Hoosiers Outrun Cancer race.  So if you’re in the area, come join me!

Back in the Swing of Things

Man, it feels like forever since I’ve posted anything!  My apologies.  I blame it on getting back into the swing of things.  (Pronounced “swang of thangs” in my head.  Just watched Steel Magnolias;)  So how are y’all?  Thoroughly enjoying your summer, I hope.  It’s been a good one.  A little short for me.  Do you realize that summer in Indiana really only lasts about a month?  Seriously!  It never even broke 100.  And on the days when it got up to 98, I was relishing the sun and humidity and Georgia memories.  But now it’s over.  I got up one morning last week, walked out the door, and froze on the spot.  Partly from shock, and partly from the cold.  58 degrees.  58, in August!  Strange place, the Midwest.  But with the cold brings thoughts of an amazing fall ahead of us.  That’s one thing the Midwest definitely has on the South; the most gorgeous fall colors in the world.  So with the sadness that summer adventures are almost over comes an excitement about future hikes in the woods crunching sun colored leaves under your feet.  But we still have time for a couple more summer adventures.  So until then, this is where I’ll be…   (“Admissions, may I help you?”)

…reading one of my favorite blogs http://thepioneerwoman.com, thanking God that I got to marry my dream cowboy, and dreaming of our future ranch.  (Btw, does anyone know what kind of camera she uses?  I have got to get me one of those!  These two pictures are case in point.hehe) 

So here’s to getting back into the “swang of thangs”!