Greek Is Greek? The "Tri Omicrons"

Today, I'm linking up with Kelly at Messy Dirty Hair to tell you about my "Greek" days! Why is "Greek" in quotation marks like that? Well.... I wasn't exactly Greek, but I was in a "sorority." Meet Erin, Emily, and Rose.  (Erin is also my cousin!)

Yep, we are that classy and sophisticated. Okay, these are a bit more normal:

We were roommates my junior and senior years in college.  None of us knew Emily; she just signed up for our apartment because there was a free space in it.  Rose went to high school with Erin and me and was in band with Erin, too.  We did find out that Emily's boyfriend was in choir and in Nick's (Erin's boyfriend) music frat (Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia).  And thus we bonded quickly.  One of our first weeks together, we did a craft night and decorated canvases with our names to put on the wall.  But this was before my digital camera and the smartphone-era, so I don't have photos of that.  :(  I do remember I almost wrecked driving us home from Walmart and thought I had scarred Emily for life!

We had movie nights, made up games (like "Fun," which is what you see with the streamers), and cooked and baked together.

With our first Halloween together, we started a tradition:

Yes.  I went as a pregnant homecoming queen one year.

Because we started spending a lot of time together, it meant that we spent a lot of time with Nick and Philip and their Phi Mu Alpha friends.  After a while, we got sick of hearing about their fraternity stuff all of the time, so we decided to start our own sorority.

with the guys

And the Omicron Omicron Omicrons were born!

This is us throwing up our sign.

Yes, I know it can be seen as something kind of sexual.  That's half the fun.  ;)

(We first thought we were the Tri Omegas, but Nick clarified that the "O" is not the Omega sign.  *lol*  Apparently, we didn't pay much attention in church or in history class!)

We've been Tri O's through illnesses, vacations, weddings, birthdays, babies, and holidays.  After all, O's are never-ending. ;)

Be sure to say hello if you are a Greek (or non-Greek) popping in!

Menu Monday: C Is for Herbed Roasted Corn

C is for corn...and it's a fruit, vegetable, AND a grain!  (Riddle me that, folks.  Riddle me THAT.)

I almost called it just a grain, but then I decided to fact check my facts, and I learned some things.  I was right--it is a grain, and it's okay to call it a vegetable.  BUT I did not know it was a FRUIT.

A fruit, y'all.  It's like that time my roommate Rose told me a banana is biologically a berry.

(Actually, Rosey may have been the first person to inform me that corn is a grain...way back when she took that botany class.  And I totally had to Google "study of plants" to recall the word "botany.")

What????  If you are like me, you grew up calling corn a "vegetable," but then we read a lot of nutritionism junk, and saw the light--it's a "grain."

But it's also a "fruit!"

It's a fruit of the plant because it is formed from the reproductive parts of the plant (SCIENCE!), but it can be classified as a vegetable because it can be harvested fresh as a plant to eat (SCIENCE!!), and biologically, since it is a dried seed-like fruit, it is a grain (MORE SCIENCE!!!)

See, all grains are fruits, but not all fruits are grains.

Oh my goodness, that LOGIC class I took senior year is paying off...IN THE KITCHEN!

So let's get back in there.  :)

HERBED ROASTED CORN

corn-on-the-cob

salt and pepper to taste

fresh herbs (5-6 sprigs per cob)

butter (1 T. per cob)

-Preheat oven to 410.  Shuck and clean corn of silk and debris if necessary.  Place each cob on a piece of foil or parchment.  Season to taste.  Top with butter and add fresh herbs at the side.  Seal corn in foil or parchment and roast for about 30 minutes.

You can choose to serve it with whatever.  We had ours with sweet-n-sour veggie stir fry and grilled peppers.  YUMMY!

EDIT:  I used thyme, and let me tell you, thyme and corn is amazing.  I've always liked thyme in green beans, but I wanted to try it with something else since some friends from work gave us a HUGE thyme plant.

What is your favorite veggie or fruit (or grain!) this time of year?

What I Wrote Wednesday

Last week, I sent a little card to my cousin Erin, who is pregnant and on bed rest.

You can see a bit of the card through the envelope.  It is from a set Zach got for me on our first wedding anniversary (paper) with my name and a bird image.  (He used my maiden name and initial as that is what he calls me.  My first name and maiden name go together very well and are usually said in one run-on breath!)  He also got me a wax stamp, which I used, but as you can see, I dribbled a bit of the wax!

Today marks the 29th day of bed rest, and little Keegan Michael has made it to 37 weeks (technically, full term)!  So my newest second cousin should be arriving any day now.  I can't wait to see Erin and her husband Nick meet their son and grow as parents, and I can't wait to love on that baby.  :)

Erin and Nick have been together since we were in high school and went to the UCA together, where Erin and I were roommates for two years, our roomies helped Nick put together his proposal, and we were all in their wedding, etc. etc. etc.  (Nick proposed on the football field after the homecoming game, and then they got married in front of the school fountain.)  In short, we (Erin, Nick, our roommates, and I) have a long history together.  My cousin was probably my first friend as our dads lived in the same town when we were small, so we were just blocks from each other for a few years.  And after my parents divorced and we moved to another town nearby, Erin and I ended up at the same middle school through high school.

I'm so thankful for my cousin and for all our memories.  And I can't wait to have many more, starting with Mr. Keegan!

Erin and I as babies

We are about six months apart.

I hope you aren't afraid of clowns!  Also, I'm pretty sure the kid in the back went to high school and college with us...

 Maybe we were running away together?  I suspect we were about five or so here.

Easter 98?

We were in middle school/junior high and ever so awkward.

my high school graduation in 2003

Since Erin is six months younger, she just missed the cut-off date and started school a year later.  We were getting slightly less awkward here.

NYE 2006-2007

 This is with our roommate Emily in 2007.  Our other roommate Rose had to have emergency surgery to have her appendix removed and ended up having to withdraw before the spring semester was over.  We took silly pictures with chalk messages on the sidewalk next to our apartment and put together an album for her.  This was the year we started living together and began our "sorority," the Omicron Omicron Omicrons.  That's why we are attempting to make the "O" face.  ;)

celebrating Emily and Erin's birthdays in November 2007

my college graduation in 2008

Erin's bachelorette party in May 2008

 

Erin and Nick's wedding on May 31, 2008

Phillip (Nick's fraternity brother) and Emily's wedding on May 23, 2009

 my wedding on September 19, 2009

 my reception on December 20, 2009

 with Kristen, Erin's sister, at our family reunion (September 2010)

Erin's favorite holiday is Halloween, and as her birthday falls shortly after, she and Nick usually host a Halloween party.  This year, they did a murder mystery.  Rose went as a Hollywood glamour gal, I was a peacock, and Erin was a western can-can girl.  We had so much fun trying to capture a photo of our Omicron faces!  (I posted more of our Halloween adventures last year.)

 at the baby shower Erin threw for Kristen to welcome baby Zachary (June 2011)

at Erin's baby shower thrown by Rose and two other friends (December 1, 2012)

I love you, cuz-cuz!!