So Much to be Thankful For

With Thanksgiving around the corner, I thought it would be nice to stop in and say hello before I settle in for a long morning of writing about "localization abilities in children with cochlear implants".

Just a few more days until a well-deserved break, and Evan and I are getting excited to head home to West Virginia. We're lucky enough that our families are going to come together in Charleston to celebrate the holiday, and maybe even engage in some Black Friday madness. I'm looking forward to a busy house full of food, friends, family, and football. I've already told my mom I plan on contributing to the plethora of food by making some chocolate chip pumpkin bread and pumpkin spice puppy chow. Mmm! Did I mention I'm excited?

As I said in my last post, Evan and I travelled to Asheville, NC a few weekends ago to enjoy a nice dinner in town and then go backpacking for a few days. Downtown Asheville is such a fun area - we didn't get into town until pretty late (Asheville was a little more of a drive from Carrboro than we realized), but we enjoyed walking around downtown and dining at the Lobster Trap (hence Evan's fabulous bib). It was delicious!













The next morning we packed up our backpacks at the hotel and headed to Pisgah National Forest for a 2 day-1 night backpacking trip. We ended up combining a few trails to make our own 12-mile loop to hike over the 2 days we were there. We missed the peak time to see the leaves changing by about a week; still, the area was beautiful and some colors spotted the mountains.







We found a great spot to camp about half way through out hike. We ended up sharing our campsite with a large group from Clemson University, but we found a cozy little spot to put Evan's new tent!

The next morning we hiked out to a unique overlook to have lunch. This overlook was a bit off the beaten path, but was definitely worth it. The rock face overlook had a beautiful view of "Glass Rock". 

Content.

We even ran into a local couple nice enough to take our picture. That's Glass Rock in the right hand corner! (And that's where we parked, way down below!)

All in all it was a great weekend away to celebrate three years together. 

Since then, we've had a few quiet weekends at home. It has been really nice to not have any plans, especially because I think we're starting to earn the reputation of "weekend warriors". 

Well, my term paper is softly calling my name. Until next time...See you all soon!

-Molls

Happy Halloween!

It's been a while since my last post. I had a quick, but nice, fall break from classes mid-October, and I was lucky enough to head home for the weekend to see family and a few friends. I attended the WVU vs. Kansas State game, but I didn't really find that worthy of a blog post (yikes, Mountaineers!)

I did get to go up to Cooper's Rock, WV with my parents the morning before the game to see the leaves changing. Fall in WV is definitely something I miss.

Beautiful colors at Cooper's Rock

Some of my cohort & friends headed to a corn maze a few miles outside of Chapel Hill to enjoy the fall festivities. Evan and I bought some pumpkins to carve, too!

Posing for a shot after our hay ride!

Jack-o-Lanterns! Evan on the left, Molly on the right!

After break, studying for midterm exams dominated most of my free time over the last few weeks. Just in time for Halloween, however, I was able to relax a bit and have some fun. 

I present to you, the heroes from the original Ghostbusters film:

Evan perfected the ghostbuster look. He turned an old flight suit into a ghostbuster jump suit (from an Army surplus store) and wore the elbow pads with pride. His ghost pack was homemade and full of flashing lights and gadgets. Needless to say, everyone was impressed.

Who ya gonna call? Evan Widney!

Of course, there must be an antagonist for the heroic ghostbuster. This is where I come into play!

Remember him, the Stay Puft Marshmallow storming through the streets of NYC?

I wasn't able to figure out how to transform myself into a giant Marshmallow Man, but I do think I did a pretty good job portraying his attitude! Plus, I loaded up a tupperware full of marshmallows and let people enjoy a little late-night snack downtown. 

The good guy always wins.

We dressed up and celebrated the Saturday before actual Halloween. This also just so happened to be my and Evan's 3 year anniversary! It may not have been the most romantic evening, but it was certainly fun. In our version of the film, there is a whole lot of love between Stay Puft & the Ghostbuster. :)                                                                                                                                                                                                                  

This weekend we're going to do some belated anniversary celebrating by exploring Asheville, NC and backpacking in the western part of the state. I have heard wonderful things about the area and can't wait to check it out!            

We're heading out of town in just a hours, so until next time...

-Molly