Chris's Birthday Weekend

Chris turned 26th yesterday and we had a weekend of festivities. Saturday night we went out to dinner (compliments of Laura and Josh) at Romeo's, a small, romantic Italian restaurant voted Austin's best date spot. We went all out for dinner, which was pretty special considering we rarely go out to eat...but this was for a special occasion. We started out with calamari, then bread and rolls, Chris had a chardonnay and I had a pinot grigio, Chicken Marsala for me, Shrimp Romeo for him, and a dessert to share. While he was in the restroom, I asked the waiter if they did anything for birthdays, so after our meal, she brought out a brownie sundae with a candle on top. He was surprised. After stuffing our bellies, we headed over to the hotspot Saturday night activity on the East side of town--Bingo! When we moved to Austin, we were surprised out how many Bingo places there were and we always said that one day we'd go play. It was so much fun even though we didn't ring in the big $400-$700 of the night's winnings. Those people are intense. Not just senior citizens were in their, and they tell you if you're being too loud--or if you called Bingo when you really didn't have one (I learned from experience). They are focused. So, I had to take a picture of our cards. To Chris, I'm sure it seemed as though the celebration was over, but I had a little something in the making and we just had to wait. After church last night, we headed back to our apartment quickly because Chris had forgotten to send some important emails for work to Singapore. It was perfect him being in the study because I worked on picking up the house and putting the finishing touches to his birthday cake. At 9:30, tons of friends from our Community Group from church and a guy from AMD showed up to surprise Chris and celebrate with us. Chris was surprised, and I was too, especially since I had expected 7 people to come, and 17 came instead! It was a lot of fun having our little apartment packed full of good friends. I made the famous Dora Cake, Chris's favorite and his mom's recipe, and we had two kinds of ice cream. It was a blessing to us that others came to share in Christopher's birthday. A fun memory for our first year in Austin.

Wisdom All Gone

The dentist put them in a box for me so I could keep them. See the one with the sharp hook? That's the one they worked on for like 30 minutes. Pretty mean-looking. So glad it's over. It has not been a fun recovery process.

One Sick Puppy

Last Friday I had all four of my wisdom teeth extracted, and since, I have been battling sickness and pain. I took the recommended narcotic, but because I was unable to eat (and haven't done much of it since Friday), I got really sick from the medication. Also, I knew that I wouldn't be able to function very well at school this week or driving to and from, so I stopped taking it. But as a result, I've had to deal with the really painful recovery. It's been 5 days and I'm still not better. I'm just taking Tylenol religiously and making sure that I get a nap in during the afternoons. So, life hasn't been very enjoyable lately. Tonight I made dinner, even though I can't eat anything solid yet, because I've felt bad for Christopher eating mac and cheese, spaghetti, and whatever else he's gotten by on while I've been out of service.

My Chef Shoes

The industry is really picky about the shoes you wear while working in a kitchen. Texas Culinary Academy specifies what type are allowed, also. Here's a pic!

Food for Thought

Yesterday was my first day of culinary school. I am taking two classes; Sanitation and Nutrition. Every three weeks, I finish a block (consisting of 2 classes) and move on to the next block. So basically I will be taking intensives for the next year. I started yesterday, and I have an exam in each class on Friday, then my mid-term in next Wednesday. Crazy, huh? I have to really stay on top of things in order to do as well as I want. I have a feeling I will really need more self-discipline for this new academic journey. I learned about inhumane things that happen on chicken farms during the production of the poultry. It makes me want to raise my own chickens. Also, here's some "food for thought"...You know how there are so many products out there today in grocery stores to accomadate vegetarians and vegans; such as, "Not-A-Dogs" (hotdogs) and Veggie Burgers and something that looks and sort of tastes like cheese, but it's not? Well, my chef instructor brought up a good point. What about those who don't eat vegetables? How can our equal opportunity society accomadate their tastes? Chef Ritter ingeniously gave some suggestions for names to call vegetable subsitutes made from meat products...."Tomeatos" and "Mockoli." Anyone have an any other ideas??

The Fam

These are special people in my life. I love my family. I miss Aaron a lot.

Happy January!

One of my favorite traditions that Chris and I have started (this being only our 2nd year) is to get away and reflect on the past year around New Year's. Our usual place of retreatment is Starbucks, but not because we like to support corporations, (had to put that in there) but moreso to commemorate our first date there way back in February of 2004. So we retreated last night. We have this leather journal that we write in and we have our annual entry and then it sits on the shelf and collects dust until the next January comes around. We decided to cover a big event for the year in a 2-sided story. Then we make a list of all the major and minor events that happened because we are likely to forget all those details years later. Last, we write down our dreams and ambitions and goals for the upcoming year. It's interesting to look back and read last year's entry. It showed what we valued and what was dear to us. Last year we wrote the story of how we met, our first impressions of each other, and cute stories that we've already forgotten about. When we read through them last night, I just couldn't hold back the tears. It's amazing to read OUR story and see so clearly how God has manifested His perfect will into our screwed-up lives. To God be the glory, great things He hath done. This year we wrote about our wedding. A lot of other big things happend (trip to Europe, moving, starting new jobs, losing credits, etc.), but we felt like our wedding and all the emotions we felt was something we wanted to record while it's still fresh. I love reading what Christopher writes about me and I love to write about him. So this has become a really special thing for us.

The Stranges

For some reason, I wasn't able to post text with my last entry...We spent a week in Colleyville with Chris's family, then last Friday morning, headed off to Santa Rosa Beach in Florida for the wedding of Curtis and Catherine Strange. Curtis was a high school friend of Chris's and they swam together, too. We met Catherine about a year ago and she is the sweetest. They had a beautiful wedding on the beach near Destin. They rented a huge beachhouse for their wedding party and we got to stay there, too, even though we weren't involved in the wedding. It was a lot of fun and sort of like a mini-vacation for us. They had an absolutely beautiful day for their ceremony, and the sunset was gorgeous. Chris and I had fun just roaming around on the beach and relaxing into the new year together.

Beach Wedding Bliss