MNDN Update

We've made it three in a row. This week it was my turn to plan MNDN, and I lucked out in that my Company was having a big party, so no cooking or real planning on my part was involved. And we got to hang with the McElroys who we don't get to see very often, so it was a fun time.

The guys drove over from FW to Big D for the night, and we ate dinner and enjoyed the music of Asleep at the Wheel. It was hard not to start two-stepping right there. They played some of my favorites: San Antonio Rose, Boogie Back to Texas, Route 66, and tons more. We loved it!

Here was our souvenir for the evening...

Class of '98

My 10 year high school reunion was this past weekend.  Initially, I was only going to the Saturday night event, but last minute I changed my mind because more people were showing up Friday than Saturday. It turned out to be a great decision. After I visited with quite a few people, we ended up around the corner at a local coffee shop with several of my classmates and played games until about 11 PM. I also found out that I really enjoy the game Mad Gab. Beware party people!

Saturday, Brad played golf with my dad, and my mom and I went shopping in downtown Corsicana. There are a couple of antique stores I love to dig through, and I found something beautiful that I can't wait to put up in the house. We also talked Christmas lists, and that, my friends, is always a good time.

Saturday night was not quite as fun as Friday, but there were a few people there that I had not laid eyes on since May of 1998, so it was good to catch up with them. I learned what people do, who they married, how many kids, where they live, etc. It's hard to summarize 10 years of living in a 5 minute conversation. It has made me reflect on life in a small town, which is not bad at all, despite the fact that everyone tries to escape! There is no traffic, and there is a greater sense of community, in my opinion. And, we have a really good bakery, plus they are getting a Denny's.

I guess we'll do it again in 10 years. Three cheers for the gold and the blue!

Ladies' Night Out

Last night was Ladies' Night Out at my church. I ended up at a table with girls from my Sunday school class along with a couple of the leaders from our Department. There are so many beautiful and talented ladies in my church, and it's such a sweet time to get to be in the same room with them from so many different walks of life, different ages, and different callings on their lives.

And now for the part where I borrow pics from Ashley's blog.



Our theme for the year is celebrate, so here we are doing exactly that.

Monday Night Date Night

You know, we are Aggies, so pretty much anytime we do something more than once, we like to call it a tradition. That being said, tonight was our traditional Monday night date night (MNDN). What can I say, my husband loves me more than football. And I him.

Tonight we ventured down into the refurbished Montgomery Ward building (now Montgomery Plaza) for dinner at Brad's pick for MNDN, Mac's on 7th. In a word--delicious!!! For my meal, I ordered from the appetizer list the tamale with shrimp topped with some ridiculously tasty sauce, and Bradley had CFS with their macaroni and 7 heart attacks--I mean cheeses--on the side. Somehow we ended up with an order of onion rings. We cannot help but try onion rings wherever we go. I think we've eaten them on every anniversary at nearly every nice steak place in DFW. It's our "thing" I suppose. (FYI, we think Smith & Wollensky's are best, but they are closed in DFW, so Reata has taken the top spot for best ORs.)

Anyway, two very enthusiastic thumbs up for Mac's on 7th. Since it was his date night, Brad blew me away by topping it off with dessert--Halloween cupcakes from Bluebonnet Bakery. He's the sweetest!

Finally, a Weekend at Home!

This weekend has been wonderful! It was slow and laid back and perfect.

Friday at noon I had the occasion to get away from work a little early. Brad and I ended up on our way to Southlake Town Square for a little shopping (a sacrifice on his part) and stopped on our way back home at Joe T. Garcia's. It was a perfect afternoon and evening. We sat in a section of Joe T's that was so beautiful, we hardly wanted to leave.

Yesterday I did the most luxurious thing--I slept in! Brad got up and went golfing at dark-thirty. Apparently they were the first people on the golf course. No thank you. I spent the rest of the day doing laundry. If it was fabric, washable, and in my house, I think it went through my washing machine. My kitchen is sparkling, and I even finished a book I had been reading, The Time Travelers Wife by Audrey Niffenerger. I'll have to give you a book report on it when I have more time because there is a movie coming out based on it. We finished the evening at a friends' kiddo's birthday party and had a great time catching up with friends we hadn't seen in a while.

I have to pause here to say that as we were coming home at 8:30 Saturday night, we were both commenting on how we were tired and would be ready for bed soon. Almost immediately, the radio deejay came on and said he was playing music for people getting ready to go out. We just had to laugh--we are getting old.

Today was church and a nap. Now we're playing with Penny Lane. She has some new tricks (however she has not learned to stop biting. Any ideas--leave them in the comments.)

I know this is a boring update, but to me, it was a beautiful fall weekend. At home!

Date Night

Over the past month we have been incredibly busy--both of us have been going in different directions, 90 miles an hour. Last weekend we were in Texarkana for Brad's high school reunion, which was busy, but really fun. We decided we needed one more night to put off cleaning the house and unpacking, so tonight was declared a date night. It was a wonderful time to hang out just the two of us. (We spent 8 hours in the car this weekend, and we still wanted to spend time together. I think that's a good thing!)

I saw a mention in the Dallas Morning News a few weeks ago for an Italian restaurant in Fort Worth that was listed as one of the top 5 places this particular reviewer would recommend to visitors to the area. That's all we needed to decide to check out Brix Pizza located near Hulen and Vickery.


We both had a salad to start and split a pizza. It was more than enough food for the two of us, and we will definitely go back. The crowd was a little sparse (everyone but us was on the patio), but the atmosphere was perfectly romantic for us. Here's my hot date! (Pardon the dark pics--my camera is under the weather.)


We rounded out the night with a trip to the Apple store and a lap through Williams-Sonoma. For dessert, we sampled their pumpkin spice waffles and the apple cinnamon cider. Yum-o! We just finished laughing at Penny trying to capture a frog (unsuccessfully.) She cracks us up.

Here's to a trillion more date nights with the love of my life.

Where I've Been, What I've Been Up To

I am finally home from my recent work trips for good. Last week was Atlanta, and when I left on Monday morning, my suitcase from San Francisco was still sitting in the middle of the bedroom floor. As a general rule, I don't like unpacking because it means that some really fun trip is over with, but in this case I was extremely glad to be home and both of my suitcases are now put away. Of course, in place of those is a big giant pile of dress clothes that either need to be dry cleaned or laundered, and I just can't bring myself to take care of it. No fun.

I was in Atlanta for approximately 4 days and saw about 45 minutes of a mall where I ate Chick-fil-a and picked up some makeup that I had run out of (at Bloomingdale's though, so that was a little fun, and I got a 'little brown bag'.) Otherwise, I saw zero of the city outside of the airport and a classroom where I sat for 8 hours a day. I'll have to go back someday.

One thing in my travels over the last 2 weeks that I have come to appreciate immensely is free WiFi. Other cities have free hot spots everywhere. I was even able to video iChat with Drew from the PHX airport. What's the deal, DFW? Other than Panera and the Toyota dealership, we have no free WiFi love around here.

While I was gone, my husband went on a mission trip with some men from our church to help victims of Hurricane Ike down in the Beaumont area. From what I understand, it was quite a trip. The devastation down there is wild, and it seems to me the news media has barely reported on it. I don't get it. The trip definitely opened our eyes, and we are praying so much for those affected.

Since he left on Wednesday for that trip, and I got home on Thursday, that left me with some time on my hands. I stayed with Alisia on Thursday night, took a vacation day Friday just because I could, hosted a Girls' Night In at my house on Friday night (husband away = chick flick movie madness) with some friends, and my brother came to spend the rest of the weekend with me. (I should insert a note here for myself that in the future, when I make chicken salad, I should half my recipe. I forgot, so when I made it for Friday evening, and it made enough to feed the neighborhood. For several days. )

I was so glad when Brad got home Saturday night! We have just about readjusted to sharing a bathroom again, the dog recognizes both of us, and the laundry is piled up in the usual locations.

In the words of Dorothy, "there's no place like home!"