Daniel's Dinner Party

For Daniel's birthday (which was actually three weeks ago), he wanted to have several of his friends over for a gourmet dinner. His brother Jon and Jon's brother-in-law Josh are quite the chefs so they got roped in to doing most of the cooking. Not only do they enjoy it, but they are really good!

Dinner preparations began hours before the actual event but I think they were all having fun. Dan made quite the sous chef.

My kitchen will never be the same!

Mandy came early to help me get everything set up. We were also in charge of printing the menus. I think our table turned out really pretty!




I did not take any other pictures of the guests -Sorry!

And now for the food...

I did not get a picture of the appetizer which was homemade pizza...yummy!

Insalate - prosciutto and goat cheese bruschetta with spinach salad and balsamic dressing


Primi -Lump crab and shrimp stuffed ravioli with tomato basil cream sauce




Secondi - Filet mignon with red wine sauce and family style spaghetti



And my favorite, dolci - chocolate gelato with fresh berries and chocolate ganache


It took us a while to clean up but we had a blast and I can't wait to have people over again!

Wardrobe malfunction

I have to share a funny story about my day yesterday...

I always decide what to wear to work before going to bed and then put it in the car to take to the gym. When I got dressed yesterday morning, I noticed a small tear in my shirt just above and left of my chest. It was on a stripe and was not too noticeable unless I moved in a certain direction. I decided to put a piece of tape on the inside to hold it together so it would not tear anymore until I could get it fixed.

After I got to work and before I could fix the shirt, I noticed a few more small tears next to the larger one. It looked like the shirt was just disintegrating - and it is only a few years old!

I took my jacket off and reached back to pull the back of my shirt down and my hand went all the way through my shirt and it ripped all the way up to my shoulder. The weird thing about itis that none of the tears were on seams or anything!

Luckily, Daniel was at home (although he was still sleeping) when I called in a panic and brought me a new shirt within 20 minutes. What a sweetie!

What in the world happened to my shirt?!?

Mercy's Birthday

Yesterday was Mercy's 13th birthday...wow!! After church services, we all went to Spring Creek Barbeque (our somewhat normal Sunday lunch haunt) for a little lunchtime celebration. Suzanne made the cutest cake, which Mercy loved!! She is all about fire engines right now...I wonder why? :)




JD got a little hungry while we were all eating so Dan got in a little practice for our little one. Doesn't he look like he is doing a great job?!?

We ended the celebration with a trip to the State Fair of Texas. I had never been before and was amazed at everything that goes on...it's crazy! I took my camera into the fair but then forgot to take pictures. Real smart I know.

Hope that everyone else had a great Sunday!!

All in a day's work

Dan is working today and I just got back from having dinner with him and the guys at the station. (Yummy food too!)

I love seeing them all at work. They have such a unique friendship...I laughed the whole time we were eating. I like getting to see them like that...I know that they really do have fun together while they are waiting for an "emergency" to happen.

We had just finished dinner when the tones went off and they were called out to help a lady with a medical emergency. The switch they make from laughing and cutting up to completely serious about their job always amazes me.

I hopped on the engine with Daniel and away we went. I love riding in the fire engine when he is driving. I feel like I really get to see him in his element. He is so good at what he does and our baby got to have its first fire engine ride....even if it was in utero!

In the end, the lady really did not have an emergency....she was just a little (read a lot) tipsy and had fallen over while walking in a ditch (?!?). She hadn't even been able to tell the dispatcher exactly where she was located so the medic went one way and the engine went another. It took a good while to finally find her! We all loaded back up into the engine and the ambulance, the policeman got in his car, and we all went home.

By the time we were back at the station, the talk was back to what movie to start and who was going to have to do the dishes...I guess that was nothing unusual to them...All in a day's work!

(I have a really good picture of Dan and the guys he works with, but blogger is not letting me post...maybe later!)

Lights Out....again!?!

So I was going to try to scan the sono pics at work yesterday but, when I arrived, we had no electricity! We did not think too much about it at the time because of the deluge outside, but even after the rain let up, the lights did not come back on. My office manager called the electric company and they said they would try to have it all fixed by noon.

We still had patients coming in and we had a similiar experience a few months ago and just worked in the rooms with windows. We were so glad that the patients (well, most of them) were understanding about the things that we could and couldnot do. We tried to keep it to mostly sick visits and not too many physicals.

Noon came and went and still no lights. When we called back at 2:30, they told us the electricity was supposed to be back on at noon...haha, very funny! At least it was nice and cool out, so with the windows and the doors open, it did not get too hot.

Half of the office ended up going home and the rest of us stayed for the people that were dropping by when they could not reach us on the phone (somehow our phone system is tied into the electricity).

By the time I left at 4:45, it was still off, and they do not have a clue why....they told us not to expect too much today either.

Should be fun! :)

Quick Update

Sorry I haven't updated in the last week...time just slipped away!

Our sonogram on Friday was great! It is so weird to think that there is actually a living being inside of me...I'm sure it might get a little more real once I start to feel the baby move. I tried to scan the pictures but there is something wrong with our scanner. I will try to take a picture of them and post them later. The Doctor who did the sono said he had a really good idea of what we are having, but we are going to wait until we know a little more certainly before we really start spreading the news. I mean, He even said we were still kinda early to know for sure!

Hope that everyone has a great day!!

04/22/08

Now that both families and the boss have been told, I can announce it to the rest of the world...

Daniel and I are expecting a new arrival in our family sometime around April 22, 2008.

We are both VERY excited and so are our families. I have kind of slacked on the blog recently just because I have been so tired. There have been a few days in a row recently where I have not even walked into the study to get on the computer.

I am sure that now I can fully share, you will all get tired of pregnancy/baby talk. We have a sonogram on Friday so I will try to post a picture if I can...

We can't wait!!

Dan the Vacuum Cleaner Man

Here are the promised pics of all of the vacuum cleaners in my garage. Daniel was hard at work yesterday and actually got two of them working again and ready to go!

New Bed

Our new bed is here!!

I can't remember if I had posted the story about this whole fiasco earlier or not, but, finally, after almost three months of waiting, our new bedroom suite is here!!

I am so excited and it looks great. All the girls at work had given us a gift card to Bed, Bath, & Beyond for a housewarming gift so we used that to buy a new comforter, etc. We are working on getting everything put together just right.

Pics coming soon! (If I ever remember to take them!! )

No update on the vacuum cleaner business as of yet, but I will keep you posted :)