Home, Sweet, Home

So here it is! This is our apartment in Bryan we will rent during this year while we search for a permanent home in the area more suitable for a family. We are excited about living in a downtown area close to restaurants, bars, a hotel right across the street, a internet cafe...you name it - it is coming to Bryan and we can walk!

We will be living there as of the first week in August so come visit soon!

Ours is where the lofts sign is advertised

exposed brick - we love it

Bryan, TX

We have been house hunting in College Station and Bryan, TX for the past several days. Here are a few scenes of downtown Bryan - a town adjacent to College Station going under major rejuvenation. See a local theater, a street shot of downtown, the hardware store, the palace outdoor movie theater, the library, a cool building in town, the la salle hotel, and a very quaint antiques market.

We spent yesterday afternoon wandering around the Bryan area and talked with several locals. It is very, very cute and typical of a small texas town. We liked it! Oh, it is extremely hot here as well! 95 degrees all week and it is not even Summer!

For dinner, we went out with Rudy's fellow collegue, David, and his wife Ally to a local Mexican join named Papa Perez. We have had some awesome Mexican and Tex-Mex Food since we arrived.

Ahhhh Spring

Some pictures of our Memorial Day Weekend.

Chilling and relaxing.....before

we head to Texas for house-hunting.

On North Campus looking up at the Trees


Rudy napping on North Campus

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We had fun hanging out at Emily and Doug's pool.

Cousin Joe and wife Jennifer came into town!

Rudy and Little Dog


Lloyd and Corey


Nice breakfast @ Big City Bread
(the best bakery ever...for reals)
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We love convertables!








Cousin Joey

Athens Farmers Market

Last Saturday, Rudy and I got up late, fed my neighbors baby chickens (sooo cute) and went to the official first day of the Athens Farmers Market @ Bishop Park. It was an obvious success - by 10:30am when we arrived they had sold out of veggies and all food! It was still so great to see the crowds of families coming in an effort to support local, sustainable agriculture.

We even ran into some folks from "The Farm" where Rudy did his research. They were so happy to hear of Rudy's new job developing a 'Community' major within the Recreation and Leisure Department @ A&M.

Hopefully, next week we can score some fresh veggies.

Stacy, a friend of ours, rocking it out as a volunteer

Celebrating Part Deux

L-R: Sorry Lila (I cut her off!), Rachel, Ami, Jonathyn, Mango doing his best sorority girl impression, Matt

Jonathyn and Bryan yo yo yo

Doug looks pretty serious (although I do not think it was!). Mango seems to be reaching deep to figure out what the hey hey Doug is talking about.

Me and Ami (god that was a full pour, eh?)

Believe it or not, the couple at the end of the table were Dunlaps (no relation). Carlton (in green) is interviewing them to replace Rudy and I once we are gone. They may be the bizarro Dunlaps once we are in TX. C, did they do well on the interview?

L-R: Emily, Lila and Rachel

Best Buds - Rudy and Mango. Mango began his PhD the same time as Rudy and I. He just scored a research position in DC @ the Smithsonian. He is getting his PhD in History. CONGRATS, MANGO!

Celebrating

Downtown Athens on Day #1 of celebrating the news about Rudy's job. Doug and Emily came down to visit with us at The Globe.

View from The Globe looking down

Lumpkin towards the Georgia Theater.

Clayton @ Lumpkin


Our happy (albeit tired) mugs


Emily must be laughing at something inappropriate

Our ride home (shah right!)

Paging Mr. Herman

check out where Dudy will end up...

www.youtube.com/watch?v=QltlctqfY4E

Get a Rope

YES, the news is awesome! Rudy has accepted a professorship @ Texas A&M! We will officially be in Aggie territory early August (after his August 2nd graduation here @ University of Georgia). Rudy was successful in interviewing against 3 other candidates - I guess all of those years in Debate finally paid off!

I am so very excited and proud of what we have been able to accomplish here in Athens. Although, I am deeply sad to leave our friends and family and our house here - we will have plenty of space for visitors in College Station (yes, Corey you will visit us in College Station)!

More to come later....

Doctor, Doctor

Hey guys. I has been quite awhile since we posted. As you can imagine, life has been a little nutso in the Dunlap household! On top of three interviews all over the US (Arizona, Massachusetts and one this coming week in Texas), Rudy has been as busy as can be with end of semester duties with his students and putting the finishing touches on his dissertation (due on June 25!!). He will finally 'defend' his dissertation (essentially the final meeting amongst all of his dissertation committee members) on July 9th. Although officially Rudy will graduate on August 2nd, July 9th is really the day which will determine if he will graduate. You can bet we will go out on the night of the 9th to celebrate Rudy finally becoming Dr. Dunlap! Check out this hilarious link to a clip we will likely quote often once Rudy is officially a Doctor....:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Lge2_H_8IQ.

Danielle on the other hand has been busy at work and also has been getting the house ready to rent out. We seemed to have scored some awesome tenants which we invited over for dinner the other night. They seem like great young women. They move in on July 31st and it is quite the relief we can cross that off our list of things to do.

We will keep you up to date in the next few weeks as we will found out where we will be living in the Fall. We hope it will be in College Station TX @ Texas A&M. Texas is one of the top schools in Leisure and specifically has a Community focused position which is the research area Rudy is most interested in developing. Rude leaves today for TX and will be interviewing over the next several days.

Dreaming about being an Aggie....