August 2010

Well, so....I was WORSE this month than I was last month about taking pictures. In fact, I think this is the worst I've EVER been!!!! I took a lot of pictures on our vacation, but once I got home, I forgot it almost everytime I wanted it. I can say that I'm already doing better for September though! :) Here is August!

~Celebrated our pastor's, JB, 25th anniversary with our church

~Had JB and Jean over for hamburgers and fellowship

~LUNCH WITH ABBY! My sweet friend who lives in Washington State! We rarely get to see each other and the last time was for my wedding. She is beautiful and my sweet sister in Christ and I love getting to visit with her any chance I can get!

~Celebrated a friend's birthday at Palamino's

~2 Arbonne parties

~TULSA!!! Visited with family and went to the Priscilla Shirer's Going Beyond Conference at Church at Battle Creek

~Enjoyed the pool at my parent's house with Caitlin and Kristin.

~TEXAS VACATION!!!! August 9-15th

~Birthday Dinner at Palamino's with Ken

~Made dinner for Caitlin and she spent the night....first person to use our guest room!!!!

~My 32nd birthday!!!!!!

~Spent the morning of my birthday with Ken at home

~Spent the rest of the afternoon and evening with Michelle: We ate at Cheesecake Factory and went to see "Eat. Pray. Love." (which I would NOT recommend!!!!). And went back to Cheesecake Factory to get dessert to-go! It was a wonderful day!!!!!!~Got pedicures with Kristin

~Lunch with Lorinda at Hideaway

~Tulsa to celebrate my birthday with my parents! While there, Ken said that Palamino's wasn't REALLY my birthday dinner, so we went to Los Cabos, which we both LOVE!!!!The next day, I laid out by the pool until mom was finished with her bible study and then we went shopping!!!! I got some fun new clothes! Some of them are for our family pictures. We were supposed to take them in early September, but now we are having to reschedule. I can't wait to get them done b/c I think it will be so cute. We've never had a REAL profession family photo shoot (weddings don't count!). Anyway---after shopping my dad and Ken met us for dinner at the Polo Grill at Utica Square and then we went back to their house for coffee and CAKE (from Nibbles!)! YUM! :) It was so fun to spend a time with my mom and dad!!!! I think this year really was a fabulous birthday! Probably the best of my 30's! :) ~Met with the college pastor at church and I am going to start serving a LITTLE with that ministry. I would love to help more, but their main event is on Wednesday nights...which is the only day off that Ken and I have together. Maybe one day I can do more, but for now its all I can balance.

~Worked an Arbonne booth at the Payne County Fair

~Helped with a baby shower at church

~I've really enjoyed Summer TV! Rizzoli and Isles, Covert Affairs and Rookie Blue are our favorites. Sadly, they are all about to end. I hope they return next summer though b/c we really did like them! I love that networks have Summer series b/c summer TV used to be so boring!!! But, maybe that's why I haven't gotten as much reading done this summer. :)

~And sadly, I've become addicted to "The Bachelor Pad". Its totally ridiculous and LOTS of drama!!!! Which makes it pretty amusing! :)

~Plus, my favorite...."Project Runway" is back and better than ever!!!! I love love love this season!!! I like how Lifetime has changed it up, but left all the good parts too. I haven't really found a designer that I totally love and want to win, but I still really love this season so far!

~And again (like last month), I'll leave you with this month's favorite picture of my sweet, baby Ru! :)Thats about it!!!! Welcome FALL!!!! My favorite time of year!!!! :) The cooler weather where you can wear your cute summer clothes during the day, but at night you need a light jacket or sweater! Its also football season!!!! And, now it the season that brings our ANNIVERSARY!!!! Plus, its leading us into holiday season!!!! LOVE IT!!!!!

Texas Vacation: Day Seven

Well, this is the last day of our trip. :( We were very sad to leave. If we could have moved-in to Ft. Worth, we would have! We could have had our belonging and dogs shipped there....but sadly, we had to return to work. Why can't we work only one week of the year and vacation the rest, instead of the other way around?????

Well, Sunday morning started with brunch at Taverna Pizzeria and Risotteria. It was delicious!!!! Ken had the eggs benedict with crab meat (what I had when Michelle and I vacation here in June). And I tried a pasta dish with shrimp, mussels, clams and scallops. They also brought us complimentary "chef's focaccia". Its not just bread....its this amazing flatbread with olive oil and garlic that they cook in their stone oven. It was SO amazing!!!! And, I also had a couple of their $1 mimosas! I just LOVE that bigger cities have Sunday Brunch! And its not the buffet style like you see in Oklahoma....you still order from the menu, but there's just a different ambiance.

We headed back to the hotel to take advantage of the pool and gym. I went to the pool and Ken went to the gym, before he joined me at the pool. Their pool is FABULOUS!!!!! Its a salt-water pool and it was just amazing! We both wished that we had spent more time there, but NEXT TIME! :) I decided to give my husband a break from the camera...so this is the only picture we got...right before we left the hotel.
We loaded up and were headed home by 1pm. On our way home we saw a sign for "Babes" in Sangre! I was SOOOO excited to see this sign b/c I wanted to stop there so badly. I first heard of this place at the Going Beyond Conference in Tulsa from Priscilla Shirer. She is from Dallas and I figured if her family loves it for its good southern fried food, they we would love it too! So, we exited and found this great little treasure! Now, when you walk in, they don't have menus. They sit you down and list off what they are serving that day. Our options were fried chicken, fried catfish, chicken tenders, pot roast, and there was one other that I can't remember. Ken stopped listening at the mention of fried catfish. :) And I chose chicken tenders. The first thing they bring out are the most amazing homemade biscuits like my grandma makes! Oh my word, were they ever good!!!! They are served with butter and there is honey and molasses on your table. Next you get salad. There's only one dressing. It was a poppyseed vinegarette. It was good, but a little sweet for me. However, I have never seen my husband eat so much salad! He LOVED that dressing! Then the main course arrived! You get your plate of whichever meat you choose, and then the sides are served family style! And they are AMAZING!!!!!! Everything was like grandma makes (and full of the butter too! Paula Deen would be so proud!!!). Creamed corn! Green beans! And the creamiest, butteriest mashed potatoes I've had in a long time!!!!! FABULOUSNESS on a plate!We were so thankful that we stopped there and that we just happened to come across it! It was the perfect way to end our sweet, little Texas vacation!!!!!

Texas Vacation: Day Six

Oh how we love Ft. Worth! :) We woke up to a knock at our door with coffee and juice (and a diet coke!) with bagels and cream cheese! We watched some TV while we ate and then got ready. We headed into town and walked around Sundance Square. There are a few stores there...some are touristy and others aren't. We love looking at boots! The western store they have in the Square is very NICE! Its very upscale!!! The boots I liked ranged from $395-$950! They are VERY fabulous! :) From there we decided to go to a jewelry store that sold Rolex. Ken has really been interested in buying one and he wanted to actually look at them in person. Not only did we look at Rolex, but Tag Heuer as well. And, for me???? Well, I decided to look at engagement/wedding rings. Why? I don't know!!!!! I LOVE LOVE LOVE mine, but there is just something about trying on fabulously expensive rings that is just fun to me! I wouldn't trade mine for anything, but I'd take a little BLING for my right hand!!!! :) Maybe one day!!!

For lunch, we headed to "The Flying Saucer"! I had told Ken so much about their homemade soft pretzels and I was very excited to have one again!!!!! We had pretzels with three dipping sauces...plus Ken had pizza and I had a snack tray with smokes salmon, two kinds of cheeses, almonds and olives! YUMMY!!!!!Despite the stinkin' HOT weather, we wandered around downtown.I have always loved this building, but never walked all the way to it. I learned this time that its City Hall! Its beautiful!On our way back to the hotel, we walked through the Ft. Worth Water Gardens. Its a park right across the street from the Omni. It was very interesting, but really too hot to enjoy for a long time.We headed to the hotel and got cooled off before we went to the Ft. Worth Stockyards. On Saturdays, there is a trolley that takes people to the Stockyards for free, so it was nice that we didn't have to drive out there. Its not too far from downtown, but we didn't want to try to find it on our own. Once there, we made it just in time for the cattle drive!!!!!It was really cool to see the longhorns just mosey down the street. Then we did a little shopping and a little tour of Billy Bob's, of course!!!! :) LOVE Billy Bob's!!!! I wish we had been there on a weekend for a good concert. And, it wouldn't have been a GREAT trip without seeing my friend JJ's (the drummer for the Great Divide) handprint!!!!!! That's okay...we can always go back! We tried to keep out of the heat as much as possible...and finally found our way to "Cattleman's". Oh my gosh!!! Its so good!!!! And, we ate way too much!!!! We were full and happy and heading back to the hotel! :)And lucky for my husband, I left the camera in the hotel room the rest of the night. We went to the third floor where the pool is on the roof. They also have a little pool-side bar and we spent the rest of the evening there.

Texas Vacation: Day Five

Leaving the city we love. San Antonio.

We got up and dressed and took one last walk around the River.Had lunch at ORO (at the Emily Morgan). After lunch, we loaded the car and headed north. We decided not to take I-35 b/c every time we were driving through Austin, it was HORRIBLE!!!! So we took a highway that ran parallel to I-35, just west of it....and it went through all these small towns! For awhile it was scenic and fun....but after about 5 hours of driving, I was about to go INSANE! This route took WAY too long!!!! I don't think that sitting in traffic would have taken as long as this did!!!! As much as I had enjoyed the road-trip, I was so ready to be in Ft. Worth!!!! We had made dinner reservations, and thankfully, we made them for late in the evening so we had time to get settled in the hotel.

Anyway---we FINALLY made it to Ft. Worth and I just have to say that I love it just as much as I do San Antonio!!!! Its so wonderful!!!!! We stayed at the Omni Hotel, which is fabulous!!!! Its right across from the convention center and a very easy walk to Sundance Square. We are members of their Preferred Guest program and its AMAZING! The customer service is wonderful and they really make you feel special during your stay! One thing I LOVE is that each room gets FREE bottled water!!!! I know that sounds silly, but the other two hotels we stayed at charged you $5-$6.50 PER bottle! So, getting free water bottles to take with us as we walked around was GREAT! As Preferred Guests, we got a few more things: a nicer bottle of water on the night we arrived, free beverages of our choice (2 each) delivered to our room every morning, the local newspaper every morning, 1 item per day that can be pressed for free, free internet in our room, there are a few more, but those are the highlights on the first level of membership! And did I mention their Preferred Guest program is FREE?!?!?!? AWESOME!Once we got everything settled, we changed clothes and took a walk downtown to my favorite restaurant, The Reata!!!!!! YUM!!!!! We had a beautiful dinner and the food was amazing!!!!After dinner, we took advantage of the nice weather and just walked around downtown. Back at the hotel, we decided to visit a few of the restaurant-bars they had to offer. Our first stop was "Wine Thief". Its a wine bar in the lobby. They mainly have wine (of course) with a few appetizer/small plates and a dessert. We had a drink and moved on to the Bob's Steak and Chop House, that is also located on the lobby level. We had a few drinks there...and were even able to take our last one to the room! It really was a wonderful day...and this was the beginning of our favorite stop! :)