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...