Newport, RI

Thomas had a couple of days off due to the win against Detroit last Thursday, so we decided to do more exploring around New England. We keep hearing about Newport, Rhode Island, so we wandered that way yesterday. It was such a neat place and happens to be where the Vanderbilt's (and other millionaires) used to have their summer "cottages," aka there are tons of huge mansions all on one long street. Here is one such "cottage":

The great thing about the mansions is that they're all built along one street that overlooks the ocean, so there is this cool "Cliff Walk" that is a 3 mile walk between the ocean and the mansions. 

 Along parts of the Cliff Walk

You can also tour the inside of these homes, which we hesitated about doing because A. it costs money and B. according to me, "who wants to see all of that crazy early 1900's decor anyway?" Well, thank goodness we listened to Thomas and not Marge, because the house tour was SO WORTH IT! You get to listen to headphones and historians tell you about each room of the house. It was really cool and we were like little kids wearing our headphones and deciding which parts we wanted to listen to etc. Thomas was very insistent about only listening to the same tracks and listening simultaneously. It was all very entertaining and I'm sure other folks on the tour were thinking....who knows what.

We only got to go into the Marble House, but there are so many others that we can't wait to go back and tour.{Side note: the Vanderbilt's dropped $11 of their $70 million on the Marble House. And lived there 3 months out of the year.} Only some of the homes are on the Christmas tour, but we've heard that going to Newport in the summer is unbeatable, and all of the houses are available to tour. So come visit and you too can wear these snazzy headphones and hear about the insane daily life of the Vanderbilt's!

And there were Pilgrims and Indians....

Here are a few photos of our Thanksgiving Extravaganza. Long story short, we cooked dinner with another player's wife for about 12 players when they got home from the Detroit game. And we even dressed as Pilgrims and Indians to round out the Thanksgiving spirit. We had a wonderful time and are thankful for new friends in the area.

Please note the Pilgrim hanging from the door. And the fact that none of these boys wanted their photo taken. They just wanted to see the Jets get hammered. 

Thomas' plate. There are no words to describe the enormity of it.

All of our hard work paid off with little left overs and plenty of full bellies!

Sending Thanksgiving Love {and germs} Your Way

Good thing germs can't be transmitted keyboard to keyboard. Because if they could be, you'd probably be receiving this wretched unknown illness from my couch to yours. Ever since Sunday morning, I have been running high fever on and off and it feels like there is a razor slicing the back of my throat every time I swallow. And I have a swollen lymph node in my neck, so all of that is proving to be a real blast around here. Our apartment got so messy it even bothered Thomas, which is could only be an act of God. I went to the doctor yesterday and he said "hmmm, it could be a virus, it could be the flu, it could be strep, we'll do a strep test." Ten minutes later he came back and said "doesn't look like strep, you can go home!" I sat there with my mouth hanging open, wondering if he was joking. Surely he could tell I was on the verge of death. But I gathered my belongings and drove myself home in the mullet truck and commenced lounging miserably on the couch.

Last night I made Thomas sleep on the pull-out in the living room because I was terrified he would get my awful disease. After all, his body is his livelihood! This morning I woke up and the fever came and went based on my Ibuprofen intake. Around 3pm, I'd had enough of the misery. I called the doctor. No answer. I called 3 more times. Still no answer. I left a message that went something like this: "Hi, my name is Margaret Austin and I was in yesterday with a high fever, sore throat and swollen lymph node. This is the third day of my fever and I simply can't do this for a 4th day. A friend and I are cooking for 12 people on Thanksgiving Day, and I have to get better. So can you please call in an antibiotic of some sort? Please?" A few minutes later a nurse returned my phone call {finally!} and I swear she was chuckling on the other end. But I don't care, because I got an antibiotic and I WILL be well by tomorrow. Or else....I guess I will just keep watching old Marilyn Monroe movies and drinking G2 alternated with water under the watchful eye of my sweet husband.

But wait, there's more. I most likely brought this sickness upon myself. Or at least made it worse than it had to be. I woke up Sunday morning with a low grade fever. But my brother-in-law was in town for the Pats/Colts game, and I simply didn't have time to be sick. I wasn't going to miss church in order to rest for the game, and I wasn't going to miss the game. So I decided to do what any hardheaded person like myself would do, and went to church AND the game. The best part of this is, the temperature at the game was a lovely 27 degrees. Fahrenheit. I honestly didn't feel that bad after church, but about halfway through our tailgating experience  I began to be miserably cold. I thought "wow, I must be a class A wimp. I better stick this out to become a real New Englander." By halftime I was wearing Thomas' massive team issued down jacket, and he was wearing his flimsy fleece. But I was still shivering uncontrollably. By the 4th quarter I was close to tears and Thomas insisted we listen to the rest of the game in the car. By the time we got to the car I was having a major meltdown and feeling like a serious New England loser for not being able to sit through an entire game. By the time we got home, my fever was 101. something. And there it has remained on and off every few hours for the past 2 days. But now I have an antibiotic, and antibiotics solve everything, right?

Here are a few fun photos from the game, pre-Margaret meltdown:

Thomas was giddy with excitement about his first tailgating extravaganza. He bought way more Brats and Italian Sausage than our group would ever eat.

The Hagopian men + Thomas.

I jokingly put Thomas' down jacket on for a photo. Little did I know I'd be shivering uncontrollably in it in a few hours. 

Gotta go, Thomas is telling me to "hydrate or die."

Christmas Gifts

Ok, Christmas is just around the corner. I can admit that, but PEOPLE, doesn't anyone follow the "wait until the day after Thanksgiving to listen to Christmas music and refrain from decorating everything absurdly soon after Halloween" rule anymore?

I, for one, hope to strictly adhere to that rule for the rest of my life. I do not like Thanksgiving to get overlooked. I is the day we are to be thankful for crying out loud, not the day to already obsess over what "stuff" we should give and get over the next month.

Enough about that. I do want to share a few favorite things that I think you should buy for Christmas that will help others at the same time. Sounds like a win-win situation to me!

First of all, please consider supporting our friends Shane and Kristin in their ministry to kids in East St. Louis.  In fact, if you plan on giving us a gift, just tell us that you gave money to Shane and Kristin and we will be tickled pink! You can give them the following amounts of money that go towards really cool gifts for the kids:

-$5: Buys one book for a child 
-$25: Pays for a meal hosted at the Fast's house for local kids
-$35: Buys a coat for one child
-$50: Covers the cost of food for one of their bible studies. {I especially appreciate this one because they feed guys physically first, then feed them spiritually}


You can find out how to give on their website. 

Another cool gift {for the ladies} are these amazing cosmetic bags made by my sweet friend over at We Three Pilgrims.  I have this one and absolutely love it. It holds all of my make up, plus travel shampoo, conditioner, face wash etc.

We also must admit that we like Toms shoes. I cannot believe that I am actually typing that. And by "we" I mean Thomas talked me into liking them. Can you believe that? I used to give my friend Katie quite a hard time for wearing them. I called them all sorts of ugly names. Alas, I was young and ignorant, and have now seen the light. For every pair of shoes you buy, they give a pair to a shoe-less child in another country. You can watch the video here.  I especially like the boots, but haven't bought them yet, so I can't tell you how they fit:

 I also must admit that Tiger Plums Etsy shop makes me want to buy a million things and give them to all of my nieces and nephews! Alas, I would be in debit if I bought all 10 of them something cute from this site. One of the player's wives here introduced me to this site and her baby was wearing the Gobble Gobble Turkey Day is Here onesie. And it was one of the cutest things I've ever seen! I know it may be a little late to buy Thanksgiving Themed onesies, but I am obsessed with this one:



If you liked the book stamp that had Thomas' name on it in my previous post, you can browse them here. They are kinda pricey but you'd think Thomas got a million dollars when my sister gave him his stamp. He even stamped his legs one time in a fit of sheer boredom. He forgot that he'd stamped himself and guys in the locker room were making fun of him later. So don't stamp your leg.

 You can also get one with your address on it! I am wanting one really badly but getting anything printed with my address on it would be foolish. And basically like throwing $45 in the trash. And I don't wanna do that.

In light of these suggestions, please enjoy Thanksgiving FIRST, then crank up the Christmas tunes and tree lights.

Birthday Books

I'm back from the conference. My brain is definitely on overload and I can hardly remember what I learned, because I learned so much. I took pages and pages of notes, but hardly comprehended anything because I was just trying to get it all down on paper! Maggie and I are going to try to combine and type up all of our notes {eventually} and between the two of us, we went to about 5 breakout sessions and 5 large group sessions. If you're interested in getting a copy of the notes, email me! The conference theme was marriage, but I think the classes applied to counseling all types of people, not just those who are married. I love how CCEF teaches that you do not have to be a professional to give wise, Gospel-oriented counseling. If your understanding of the Gospel is clear, you can counsel people who are struggling by simply telling them the Truth.

As part of my birthday gift to Thomas, {he turned 24 yesterday!} I bought books at the conference. And just as I suspected, I couldn't have given him a better gift. He was SO excited about all of my purchases and immediately asked if he could stamp them with his own book stamp:

Maggie and I were thankful that our husbands were not there to see all of the books available for purchase. There would have been major marital/financial strife as they would have been wanting each and every book they saw. Most of the books were half off and there were special promotions throughout the weekend {kiss your spouse for a free book, buy one paperback get one hardback free} and Thomas and Tyler would have been like wild animals. Thomas would have probably even caused physical harm to anyone who got in his way of the promotions. They love books so much that they included it in their bet over the Patriots v. Steelers game last night. The loser of the bet has to buy the winner one spiritual book of his choice, and dinner for all four of us next time we are together. Maggie and I thought that a shopping trip to Anthropologie should be included for our benefit, but they didn't like that. 

Did I mention that we won the bet as the Patriot's beat the Steelers 39-26? I'd better get back to researching restaurant choices...

My brain is about to explode.....

Why is my brain about to explode?

Because I am leaving in the morning for the annual Christian Counseling & Educational Foundation conference. My dear friend Maggie and I attended 3 years ago and learned SO MUCH. In fact, I still refer back to my notes quite frequently and share them with others. The folks who teach at CCEF are pretty solid and have so much godly wisdom.

You can listen to the live feed of some of the sessions here, and then I'm sure the podcasts will be available online soon after the conference. It is going to be three full days of LEARNING and NOTE TAKING and plenty of FUN catching up with Maggie and discussing the blessings and curses of being married to our wonderful, godly, amazing, sometimes annoying husbands. {Who cannot attend because their teams are actually playing each other this weekend. And they are sad that we get to be together and they cannot. Alas, we will have to share all of our notes on marriage with them}.

I'm sure that you'll get an earful next week on all that I learned.

The other man in my life

It is high time that I blog about the other man in my life.

There he is, Mark Bittman. And there I am, gazing lovingly upon him as he signs my copy of his book, Food Matters.  Right after this photo was taken, my sister and I gushed to him about how he "changed our marriages." He laughed and said no one had ever said anything quite like that to him. 

Bittman is famous in the eyes of the Hall sisters because of the following reasons:

1. He wrote How to Cook Everything.  Which is quite literally, a dictionary of cooking. I highly recommend the 10th anniversary edition. I have the non-10th anniversary edition and am jealous of my friend Maggie, to whom I gave the 10th anniversary edition for her wedding. The 10th anniversary edition has an amazing spreadsheet for how to make all kinds of amazing vinaigrettes. Alas, I will continue to use my paragraph-style version of how to make all kinds of amazing vinaigrettes. 

2. Mark Bittman loves to cook with meat, but he does so in a way that isn't heavy or over the top, and he uses the least amount of meat possible, if only to allow the meat to lend its flavor to the dish.

3. He also wrote Kitchen Express,  which makes my heart go pitter-patter, because I love the words kitchen+express in the same title. And it is organized seasonally. Which also makes my organized heart go pitter-patter.

4. And of course because he wrote Food Matters, which is the book I was having him sign in the photo above. The thing I love about him is that he is SENSIBLE about food. He has a wonderful "diet" plan in Food Matters, but I wouldn't even go so far as to call it a diet. Because I don't think diets are sensible. And his plan is sensible, tasty, and easy to integrate into your lifestyle. I've semi-adopted his "vegan until 6" plan {I use milk in my coffee, occasionally have eggs or yogurt for breakfast, and if eat out I'm not about to stress over having an animal free sandwich}. But he has an approach that is simple and let's be honest, I am sick of hearing about these nonsense diets that don't fix any of the food problems that people have. He basically says to make sure your diet it 90% plant based and you'll be fine. I agree. 

5. He writes for Runners World, and runs marathons. I love Runners World. I don't love marathons.

6. He writes for Cooking Light.  Which I also love. 

7. He writes for The New York Times. Love.

8. He is appears occasionally on The Today Show.....you guessed it, I love that too. Back when we had a tv......

WHAT CAN HE NOT DO? Thomas refers to him as the other man in my life. And I think he is right. 

I made his recipe for granola this morning and just had to share it as it is so simple and delightful. I mix it with some plain yogurt most mornings for breakfast. 

• 5 cups rolled oats {not quick-cooking or instant}
• 3 cups mixed nuts and seeds. I used pumpkin seeds and soy nuts. 
• 1 cup dried unsweetened shredded coconut. {I used sweetened because I can't find unsweetened and Whole Foods is too far away!}
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• Dash salt
• 1/2 to 1 cup honey or maple syrup, or to taste
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 cup raisins or chopped dried fruit {make sure you add these AFTER the cooking process is complete. The first time I made this I didn't read the recipe and they burned in the oven. Had to throw out the whole batch. Mother, if you're reading this, I'm sure you're laughing}.

• 1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a bowl, combine oats, nuts and seeds, coconut, cinnamon, salt vanilla, and sweetener. Place on a sheet pan and put in oven. Bake for 30 minutes or a little longer, stirring occasionally. Mixture should brown evenly; the browner it gets without burning, the crunchier the granola will be.
• 2. Remove pan from oven and add raisins or dried fruit. Cool on a rack, stirring once in a while until granola reaches room temperature. Transfer to a sealed container; it will keep indefinitely. {He says to keep it in the fridge but I disobey and do not}.

Last week I also made his recipe for Chicken Not Pie. {Get it? Chicken NOT Pie? He is clever too}. But don't put it over noodles like we did {because I am lazy and hate waiting for rice to cook}. Make brown rice or just put it in a bowl and serve with some sort of bread. 

 It was amazing and Thomas ate almost all of it. Thomas now says "well, I like Mark Bittman. He is pretty smart." 

Took him long enough. 

Why the thrift store is my friend

In the same way that Ikea is my friend. And HomeGoods. And yard sales too. For the basic reason that I never want my house to look like this:

Stuffy, if you ask me. And way too expensive. And it kind of looks like a hotel lobby. I've had so much fun buying inexpensive things for our little apartment. Seeing as we have no idea when we might be moving next, and I left most of our belongings in Clemson, we needed a few simple things to make it feel like home around here. 

These mugs made by Sundance were $1 each at the local thrift store. 

That cute lamp was $3. And that cute French pillow on the couch was inexpensive too, which my sister found in HomeGoods. I refuse to buy upholstered items from the thrift store, because I am terrified of bed bugs. Oh and the side table was from the thrift store too! Because it isn't upholstered.....

These glass bowls were $1. For FOUR bowls! The fourth isn't in the photo because it was dirty. And since we don't have a dishwasher, I only do dishes once a day. Sorry, Mr. Fourth Bowl who didn't make the photo. Maybe next time. 

The eggplant couch and lamp and curtains are from Ikea. The green pillows are from HomeGoods. The side table is from a yard sale. 

I got this cool painting at a yard sale for $5. The sister kind of ridiculed it, but I hung it anyway and LOVE it.  But not as much as I love her, even when she hates on my painting. 

I refuse to buy a dresser since we have 3 in storage. So I finally hung this mirror and shelf so that I can do my makeup while standing rather than crouched on the floor, looking into a mirror that is leaning against the wall. Which is what I've been doing for 3 weeks and Thomas laughs at me down there. The only problem with this shelf is that our walls are pretty terrible. There is something behind them that prohibits proper hanging techniques. So the shelf isn't very sturdy. In fact, my sweet husband who I love so much was leaning his petite frame upon the shelf the other night and it crashed to the floor. And a few items broke. And the people living below us probably thought an earthquake was occurring. 

If your house looks like this, and you wish it didn't.....

call me and I'll be glad to help you out. I don't have anything else to do!

Cashew Chicken Curry

Good news for you AND your stomach {but mostly my stomach and Thomas' stomach}: I have been cooking a TON lately. I'm reading My Life in France by Julia Child and I'm perpetually hungry because she describes food in such fabulous detail. When she writes these things about food, it makes it all sound so easy and delicious. Sure, I can make light, fluffy croissants! Sure, I can make fish in a complicated white wine sauce! Sure, I can bone a chicken without gagging! At any rate, I've been trying to spend more time in the kitchen and just enjoy the process of cooking. I never had enough time when we were married in college to cook things that were complicated or involved buying a lot of ingredients, so this has been a fun thing for me.

The recipe I'm going to share today is Thomas' all time favorite dish. He made the proclamation the other night that he'd eat it every day if he could. That seems like a pretty dangerous statement, but he did eat the entire recipe. I don't have the cookbook of origin with me {you guessed it! It's in storage} so I had to go by memory. And judging by the fact that Thomas ate it all, I think I did just fine. I used to make it without the fresh ginger and let me tell you, BUY THE GINGER ROOT and spend the time chopping it up. It is so.very.worth.it.

I'm going to call this Cashew Chicken Curry because I can't remember the name. So, here is the "recipe" for Cashew Chicken Curry. Measurements are all estimates.

2 chicken breasts, cubed
2 T olive oil
1 T ginger root, chopped
1 T curry powder (I use a lot because Thomas loves it)
2 c. low sodium chicken broth (or better yet, make your own broth)
3/4 c. bismati or brown rice
1/4 c chopped cilantro
1/2 c chopped cashews

Heat oil in a large pan {preferably a good dutch oven}and add chicken. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and cook about 10 minutes. I am obsessed with chicken being completely done so use your discretion on the time here. Remove chicken and set aside. Stir ginger and curry power into the pan for about 30 seconds, then pour in chicken broth, scraping up the browned bits on the bottom. Add the rice, bring to a boil and then simmer for 45 minutes or until all of the liquid is gone. Stir in chicken, cilantro, and cashews until heated through. Serve to your big, hungry husband who is agitated that it takes the rice a full 45 minutes to be done.

I also served a salad and my sister's Crispy Kale, because we are obsessed with it. And as Julia would say, Bon Appétit!

Sister Sister

The sister came to visit last week and it was so.much.fun to have our first house guest! She got a candid glimpse into my life here, which includes lots of driving Thomas to and from practice and figuring out what to do with my day.

And enjoying the small town our apartment looks down upon

And of course we ate lots of yummy food from two new Italian discoveries, Venda Ravioli in Providence, RI {an amazing Italian grocery store/to-go lunch items} and a nearby pizza placed called Scorpio's.  Thomas and I are probably most excited about Scorpio's because it is really close and everything is FRESH. Fresh pasta, fresh pizza, and fresh garlic knots that will make you fall to your knees and thank the Lord for taste buds.

We also went into Boston twice this past weekend as Clemson was playing Boston College. On Friday we went to have lunch with my uncle and aunt who were in town for the game, and it was hilarious to see so much orange on the streets of Boston. We did a little sightseeing afterwards and Jeannie and Thomas had a little TOO much fun with the history.

It was sad to see Clemson lose to Boston College on Saturday, but we had a good time catching up with football friends and lost only a few years off of our life looking for parking in the city. Never again will we drive into Boston twice in one weekend! Our marriage would surely crumble.

Jeannie paved the way for visitors, and says that the pull out couch is pretty comfortable but you will have to sleep through Thomas snoring. So head on up for some garlic knots, history, and snoring through the walls!