Third Annual Wine Night

My best friend Stacy has a tradition that once a year she hosts a wine and cheese party, known as "Wine Night!" It has evolved, and gotten bigger and better each year. Here is how it works, and why it is so amazing:
1. Each guest brings a bottle of wine, which gets covered in gift wrap by the hosts. This encourages people to try new types and brands of wine. It is also necessary because we vote at the end of the night for our favorite white, and favorite red, and this makes the voting more about the taste and not who brought it or what the bottle looks like.
2. The hosts serve an amazing plethora of cheese, fruit, and crackers. The cheese MIGHT be my favorite part. In fact, as far as I am concerned, it could be called "Cheese Night" and just have a little wine there to wash it down. :) I love trying new kinds of cheese that I have never had, or don't usually buy or eat. It's a little treat for my tastebuds!
3. We got to excersize while we ate and drank! Courtney (Stacy's roomie) has a Wii and owns "Just Dance" a choreography game where you dance along for points. It's like Guitar Hero, but dancing, aka, SO SUPER FUN!!
4. There are PRIZES! Best White and Best Red each win a gift, and, there are party favors for everyone...what amazing hosts indeed!
5. Everyone looks very pretty, and this year, we were especially beautiful on the inside too, because we all brought canned goods to be donated to a local food bank! Good call on that idea Stacy, Courtney and Nicole!
Please see the video below to experience the fun and silliness we created this year! (at the end of our music videos, there are still pictures)

Here are a few pics from Wine Night 2007...

And Wine Night 2008...


I don't care how far away I live from Stacy, every year she hosts a Wine Night, I will be there! Even if I have to drive in JUST for the weekend! :)

Brothers

We saw Brothers today, and I am still not sure how I feel about it. This is just a quick review, and I will not give ANYTHING away. I enjoyed the whole movie while I was there, and it definitely had the potential to be amazing, but for some reason I thought it fell short. I don't know...I just left disappointed. I did love the actors (including the child actors) and thought they did an amazing job. It's just a heavy subject, especially knowing that we are currently at war, and situations like this are probably more common than we realize. Anyways, I am glad I saw it, but I am sad that it wasn't quite what I thought it would be. Oh well.
Have any of y'all seen it? Thoughts? Any other movie recommendations?

Movies

I just realized that there are tons of movies out (or coming out) that I want to see. Here is a list:

Invictus
Everybody's Fine
Brothers
Precious
Remember Me
Nine
Sherlock Holmes
It's Complicated
Up In The Air

As you see, I have a lot of viewing to do! I will now be taking dates/reservations/requests. Who wants to go with me, and which show? Which movies do y'all wanna see?

On Monday I am going with my class to see The Princess and The Frog! Since we are a middle school, we are not allowed to have a Christmas Party, so our teacher started a tradition a few years ago, that we take the kids to Studio Movie Grill and they get lunch, popcorn, and a movie. It should be lots of fun!!

Live like we're dying...

I like this song a lot. Fun sound and nice message too. Enjoy...

Sometimes we fall down and cant get back up
Were hiding behind skin that's too tough
How come we don't say I love you enough
Till its to late, its not too late
Our hearts are hungry for a food that wont come
We could make a feast from these crumbs
And were all staring down the barrel of a gun
So if your life flashed before you
What would you wish you would've done
Yeah gotta start
Lookin' at the hand of the time we've been given here
This is all we got and we gotta start pickin' it
Every second counts on a clock that's tickin'
Gotta live like were dying
We only got
86 400 seconds in a day to
Turn it all around or throw it all away
We gotta tell em that we love em
While we got the chance to say
Gotta live like were dying
And if your plane fell out of the skies
Who would you call with your last goodbyes
Should be so careful who we live out our lives
So when we long for absolution
There'll no one on the line
Yeah gotta start
Lookin at the hand of the time weve been given here
This is all we got and we gotta start pickin it
Every second counts on a clock thats tickin
Gotta live like were dying
We only got
86 400 seconds in a day to
Turn it all around or throw it all away
We gotta tell em that we love em
While we got the chance to say
Gotta live like were dying
Like were dying oh - like were dying [x2]
We only got
86 400 seconds in a day to
Turn it all around or throw it all away
We gotta tell em that we love em
While we got the chance to say
Gotta live - like were dying
We never know a good thing till its gone
You never see a crash until its head on
All those people right when were dead wrong
You never know a good thing till its gone
Yeah gotta start
Lookin at the hand of the time weve been given here
This is all we got and we gotta start livin it
Every second counts on a clock thats tickin
Gotta live like were dying
We only got
86 400 seconds in a day to
Turn it all around or throw it all away
We gotta tell em that we love em
While we got the chance to say
Gotta live like were dying
Like were dying oh - like were dying [x2]
We only got
86 400 seconds in a day to
Turn it all around or throw it all away
We gotta tell em that we love em
While we got the chance to say
Gotta live like were dying
Live like were dying

Spectrum of Emotions

Today I woke up late. I have to be at work at 8 and I woke up at 7:48. Luckily, I live less than a mile from school, and I picked out my clothes the night before. I was in the building at 8:03, but what a horrible way to start the day.
It was a day I will never forget though. It was my last day of college classes. Throughout the day I was stressed about my finals. I was nervous and anxious. After class I was so happy that I was giddy. On the way home I called Mom and left her a silly voicemail (some of it might have been in song). When I turned on our street though, I became suddenly emotional. I pulled into our garage and tears filled my eyes. I parked and walked across the street to get the mail. By this time I was truly crying, and I just kept thinking "I did it! I did it! I really did it!" I felt so proud, and felt like I was flying, like I could do anything I put my mind to. It was the best feeling.
I had finished the tear-fest by the time I walked in the door, but then Zac gave me the best hug and made me start crying all over again. I was crying out of relief, joy, and personal accomplishment. Like years of stress, frustration, and hard work had finally paid off! Sigh...
A very long time ago, I told Zac that IF and WHEN I ever graduate college, I wanted this certain charm from James Avery. Guess what was waiting on me when I got home tonight? I am one lucky lady!

My list...

So many times, I have said I wanted to create a list of dreams that I want to fulfill. I said it when I watched The Bucket List (great flick) and then again when I read my cousin Matt's list of 101 things he wants to accomplish in 1001 days. It's impressive!
This is not a formal list, but here are a few things I hope to do in the next 24 months, in no particular order...
-graduate college
-go to Europe (Spain in particular)
-attend a bullfight
-speak Spanish with the Natives (with confidence and success)
-train and compete in some type of race (5k or something)
-have a pregnancy or experience the process of adoption
-get my first teaching job
-grow my hair out long again
-quit biting my nails
-start saving more money
-travel w/Zac to San Fransisco (he's been wanting to take me for 7 years now)
-see Lady Gaga live in concert
-move to Austin
-find a church we love and join it
-BE A MOMMY!!!!!!

Twins!

I have always had an obsession with multiples, like twins and triplets. (I am the same person who wanted to have quintuplet girls, so I could name them Kacey, Lacey, Stacy, Tracy, Macy!) I thought this video looked SO interesting...I want to see the show it is previewing! Crazy!



PS-Has anyone else seen THIS movie? My sister and I used to watch it, and it also fascinated me. This story kind of reminds me of that movie!

Sometimes, no plans are the BEST plans!

Yesterday was pretty much the perfect day. I had absolutely no plans when I went to bed Friday night, but here is how Saturday unfolded. I slept late, and then woke up to a bouquet of flowers from Zac. For now reason at all...wasn't that sweet? We relaxed around the house a bit and then decided to go to lunch. I had been given a card for a free meal at Chick-Fil-A (which I LOVE), so we went there. Yum! After lunch we went shopping to kill some time before a movie. We didn't buy anything, but it was fun to walk around and look. Our local outdoor shopping center put up their Christmas decorations, and it was a gorgeous day, so all this combined made me so very happy. Everyone we passed was in a great mood, and everything just felt right with the world. Plus, we got to go inside Barnes and Noble and if I could bottle the smell of that place, I would! I love it! I have talked about it before, but Zac and I can spend hours in a bookstore, some of it together, and some on are own, but we are both completely content. Next thing we knew, it was time to head to the theater for one of the greatest movies I have seen in ages...The Blind Side! I posted a trailer for it awhile back and have been anxiously awaiting to see it, so I had pretty high hopes, but it surpassed even how amazing I thought it would be! Zac even loved it, and he is quite the movie critic! If you have not seen this movie, I highly recommend it! I can not say enough good things about it! (Liz, you and Andy should go on at least one more date before Owen comes and see this! You will both love it! I promise!) Another cool thing about the movie is that the little boy in it (who pretty much makes the movie!) is the nephew of one of our close friends. He was also in Hancock, and even played in Friday Night Lights! He was great!
When we came home we took a little nap and watched some tv. Awesome right? The day couldn't get any better, but then Ramsi texted and asked if we wanted to hang out tonight. Yay!
They came and picked us up around 7, and we took a few pics before leaving the house. I LOVED Ramsi's hair that night! Isn't it gorgeous? I wish mine was long again...and I knew how to do that!


We decided to eat at Papasito's which we LOVE but rarely go to. It is Zac's number one favorite Mexican food restaurant! We were pretty excited to be there...


They have the best chicken fajitas, and it comes with this garlic butter sauce. Yum...it's truly heavenly! After dinner we weren't sure what we were going to do. As we were driving, we saw the new Cowboys Stadium and decided to drive closer to look around. Zac knew there was a high school playoff game going on there, but it had already started and we didn't really wanna pay a million dollars just to watch a game we didn't care about. (Our waiter told us at dinner that parking on game day is $60-70 bucks! Isn't that insane?) Anyways, so we start getting closer, and then we see an entrance with no parking attendant taking money. Huh. We pulled in and were just driving a bit, looking up at the massiveness, when "LOOK! There's a FRONT ROW parking spot!...FREE!" So we pulled in to walk around a bit and see the Tom Landry statue. Then Zac remembers that he has a "Texas High School Coaches Association" pass that might get us into the game free. What the heck, we'll try it. So we all walk in, and VOILA! We are in the fancy-schmancy stadium COMPLETELY FREE! In fact, we were kinda/sorta treated like VIP when we walked in, or else the people there are just the friendliest in the world. One of the two. :) Anyways, we walk in and jeeze...this place is incredible! We had to take a pic immediately.

The JUMBO-tron is literally the biggest thing you've ever seen! Well, I don't know, but it's HUGE! It is the biggest in the world! (Click here for more interesting trivia about it, like the fact it took over a year to build, Oh...and guess how much it cost?!) It is so high-def that it almost hurts your eyes to look at it, because it's so crystal-clear!
Some guys that coach with Zac were there, so we went and sat with them for awhile. (Yeah, they paid to park...far away, but we didn't rub it in or anything!)

Since we didn't really plan to sit at a football game all night, we decided to leave after just a bit. We had already gotten the experience of the stadium (free). Did I mention that parts of it felt more like a 5-Star hotel than a sports venue? Check out this lighting and marble flooring and leather lounges. It really was gorgeous. The building itself is like a piece of art!

When we left the stadium, the party was not even over yet. I mean, look at how much fun I had on the way back to Midlo!! :) Yep...I do know that I'm a complete dork! But My best friend Ramsi always says that it's fun to be a nerd, and I have to agree! Also, it's way more fun to be a teenager than an adult! See below for proof...

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Eliza's TWO!!!

This weekend we went to Austin for our niece's 2nd birthday party. It was a weekend filled with family time, which was just what we needed! Saturday afternoon we went over to Tatem and Scott's house and got to hang out and see Eliza in her prime. She even tried on her halloween costume for me! I asked her to show me a "turtle face" and this is what I got...

She has LOTS of funny faces actually. She is so expressive. Here is a sample of a few of her faces.

We met up with Eli and Ryan at Hula Hut (which is one of my favorite Austin restaurants) and had a lovely dinner on the lake.

Rye just got a new VW Taureg, and his key/remote is the jacknife style, where you push the button and the key swings out. Ellie thought this was VERY fun, and was really cute, doing it over and over, making all of us laugh.
Sunday afternoon was the big birthday party, and it was a beautiful day! They could not have asked or hoped for lovelier weather! It was at a cute little remote park that has a playground area and a picnic area. I definitely want to go back there. Here is Uncle E-Yi (that's how Ellie says Eli) pushing the birthday girl on the swing...
We almost had the whole park to ourselves. It was cool. Tatem and Scott brought really yummy snacks and great cupcakes. I think I might have even called Scooter "Martha Stewart" once.So good to be surrounded by family! I can' wait to live close to everyone, so we can do stuff like this more often!!
Eliza got LOTS of great gifts. She loved every present so much (and wanted to use it/play with it right then) that you had to convince her to open the next one. Soo cute.
She especially loved a babydoll that "Gigi" her great grandmother (Zac's grandma) gave her.
Look what a cute family they are! (Also, see that kitchen in the background? Zac's parents gave her that and it was quite a hit among all of the kids!)

Little Emily

Please pray for peace and healing for Jeff and Karen.

"After a long struggle in the hospital for many weeks, Emily went to Heaven this morning. Our beautiful girl was 5 months and 13 days old, and brought us a lifetime of love and joy during this short time we were privileged to spend with her.

Thank you for all of your prayers, love, and support.

Love,
Jeff & Karen"