A Toast to the Future...

Ahhh...another week has come and has almost gone...this week carried some news with it that required a little celebration.  I can't resist a good chance to build suspense and I just can't share this news with the blog world yet.  Keep reading over the next several months and eventually I will have to spill it.  All I'm going to say is...it's NOT a baby!!! Wanted to make that clear!

This weekend was a relaxing one and was far too short! Saturday morning was spent doing taxes...yuck! Taxes are no fun, esspecially when you owe them instead of getting the nifty refund that lots of people get!  Of course they say it is more fiscally responsible to pay taxes in April because that means that you have been earning interest on your money all year instead of giving it to the government to earn interest on, just so you can get a refund (with no interest).  That doesn't make writing checks to the government any more fun...even as a lisence-pending CPA, taxes make me so paranoid that I will leave something out, so hopefully we won't get any "screw-up" letters from the IRS!

To blow off some steam after that miserable task, Chris and I went out to the CAFB lake for a picnic.  I made guacamole bacon grilled cheese sandwhiches and homemade hummus and we brought a bottle of wine out and played with Mason.  I am just loving this weather!

Complete with homemade bread :)

Saturday night was fondue night...I had been meaning to bust out the fondue set again, and I figured that the rare weekend spent at home with no big events planned was the perfect weekend for it.

Chris had some studying to do on Monday, so I kept myself busy by making some Easter candle-holders out of doileys, doing a little decorating in the kitchen and around the house, and some other things on my list.  For lunch we made black bean burgers and they were delicious! For those of you who like to save money and who aren't scared of veggie substitutes, I would highly recommend this.  Black bean burgers don't necessarily taste like hamburgers, but they are low fat and very delicious! And get this...6 black bean burgers cost about $1.50.  I'm pretty sure you would be lucky to make 6 hamburgers for $5.  We put the leftover guacamole from the picnic along with some white cheddar cheese on them and they were dee-lish.

Monday we had Jon and Autumn over for dinner.  Autumn left Tuesday to go to Washington for a couple of weeks for a wedding so it was nice to catch up before she headed out.  Tuesday we returned to Little Tokyo and it was my turn to take a picture with the sushi "Love Boat".




Fast forward many years, and I feel like this picture of me would be a pretty good indication of what our future teenage sons could look like...haha


So, I've been doing a little updating on the blog and have decided on a couple of things.  First of all, there is a new page that I'm going to add tomorrow with all the events going on in Columbus.  Lately, I have had quite a few people ask me how I know everything that's going on, and it's mainly because I just look high and low to find some fun events to try.  However, Columbus isn't the type place that you can just google "events this weekend in Columbus, MS" and come up with...well, anything! Hopefully this page will be useful to some of our friends here, to me, and to any of our friends/family who I know are looking for excuses to visit us :)

Another thing I'm going to start doing tomorrow is something I'm going to call Friday Favs.  I know some of my friends are laughing at what a nerd I am right now! Laugh on, but I know you will love it! I am constantly coming up with recipes, tips, products, ideas, etc that I want to share with the people I care about.  I have gotten even more obsessed with this since a.) joining Pinterest, and b.) becoming an avid blog-reader. The problem with these venues is that on Pinterest, as much as I love it, it is hard to keep organized the things you would like to try, and the things you have tried.  Beyond that, it's hard to organize the things you would recommend that you have tried, and the things you wouldn't recommend.  Plus, not everyone has Pinterest, and it's not the best avenue to describe things in too much detail. 

The main problem with sharing things on this blog is that, unlike most of the blogs I read, which focus on cooking/decorating/crafting/couponing, etc, this blog isn't really about anything except for, well...us! I am not an expert enough in any field to attempt dedicating an entire blog to it, nor do I have the time.  But I do have time to write reviews about the many venues I use, whether sucessfully or unsuccessfully, to spice things up and keep them interesting.  I have been sharing these in the blog all along, but not in much detail, and I feel that they kind of "clutter" the point I am usually trying to make, which is, more or less, "here is what we did this week".  This way, if you don't care what we do, you can just read my Friday Favs posts, and if you don't care about the Friday Favs, you can just read the normal posts. 

Chris passed his test on Monday with a 90 and has another one, the hardest one so far, tomorrow on weather.  Then he is done with academics and gets to take his first flight! Everyone wish him luck and keep him in your prayers... He passed his PFT (Physical Fitness Test) yesterday and did even better on it than he did on the last one.  Next week he begins FORMAL release (this is a correction...previously I ha written permanent release, but thank goodness, it's not permanent!) which means that he will be gone a mandatory twelve hours a day.  So if he goes in at 4am, he gets off at 4pm.  If he goes in at 9:30am he gets off at 9:30pm.  He doesn't get to choose when he goes in, it's all on a schedule and will vary day to day.  We hope this demanding schedule only lasts the minimum amount of time.  The amount of time spent on formal release depends on how long it takes the class to meat certain qualifications.

So there is the update! Ever since I have gotten so into reading blogs, I have been itching to try something different with ours...we will see how it goes! I'll leave you with some pics of our house all decorated for Easter. Thanks for reading!

I am in the market for some Easter egg placemats...if anyone knows where I can get some, let me know!

That is one of my homemade doiley candle holders.

My other candle holders.

See how hard Chris is studying for his tests...wait, that's an ESPN magazine.

Yes, we have light up Easter eggs!

Happy St. Patty's Day, and Welcome Spring

Happy Spring, everyone! I believe that yesterday was the "official" Spring Equinox, although we have been having spring weather here in Columbus for a few weeks now.  With that spring weather has come terrible allergies for me, and I have never had allergies in my life! Luckily, they have seemed to clear up somewhat, so now I can really enjoy the weather.  Which is a good thing, because our calendar has been packed the past couple of weeks!

Before I start, I want to give a word of warning to all iPhone owners: don't download the new operating system until you have BACKED UP EVERYTHING on your iPhone! I rarely install the updates to my iPhone, so I kind of forgot the way you are supposed to do it.  You are supposed to back up everything on your iPhone to iTunes before installing updates.  Apparently, I hadn't done this since the very beginning of October.  Thursday of last week, I downloaded the new operating system, and lost all of my contacts and (worst of all!) pictures since then! That includes the phone # of basically everyone I've met at CAFB. So I am probably going to leave a lot out of this blog since my pictures and iPhone calendar are usually what I  use to remember what the heck happened over the past x number of days.  You know how sometimes your week flies by and by the time you get to the end of it, you don't remember what you did! Anyway, hopefully my experience will save someone else from having the same problem.  Luckily, thanks to my blogging, most of my pictures had already been uploaded to my computer. Also we recently started using this amazing app (would recommend to all) called Cozi which syncs my calendar and Chris', and also saves online so I didn't lose all my appointments. 

Anyway, two Fridays ago when I got back from Birmingham, Jon and Autumn and we had decided to throw a bonfire in the huge open field between our houses for the guys in our class.  We brought both our fire pits out and burned a bunch of wood and did s'mores.  Then someone...okay it was me...had the idea for the guys to take this picture...I think it is pretty funny!

Someone (NOT me) had the idea to burn that huge cardboard box...I was terrified we would light the whole street on fire, but nothing happened.  I guess that's what happens when you give a bunch of guys access to fire.  No matter how old they are, they are going to want to see what happens when you burn this or that.

The next day (Saturday the 10th) Greg and Tammy came into town for a visit.  It was the perfect day for a visit because it was career day again, and all the planes were brought out for us to tour.  I took a bunch of pictures, but unfortunately, I took them with my phone so I don't have them anymore! But Tammy took these and put them on her facebook.  I wish we would have gotten a group picture!




Chris with the C-17.  This is the one he has been leaning toward wanting to fly, but he's still undecided. 




C-17 again.




With the KC-10 (refueler)




In the F-16

 For dinner we went to J. Broussard (we love that place!) and everyone enjoyed their meal there.  We were so exhausted after spending half the day in the sun walking around that we didn't do anything after dinner! The next morning I made breakfast (Goat Cheese and Artichoke Frittatta...yum! Lost my picture though!) and they headed out around lunch.  I spent the afternoon on my cornhole project (more on that later) and Chris had to do some studying.  Later on is when I started having a complete allergy attack which kept me feeling pretty miserable for a few days. 

The rest of my week was spent fighting with allergies while trying to get ready for our St. Patty's day party.  After getting thoroughly medicated, I felt a lot better by Friday and finally cashed in the gift certificate that afternoon for a massage that Chris gave me for Christmas.  I guess my masseuse had the healing touch because I have felt just fine since then!

Chris and I were so pumped about throwing our St. Patty's day party for the class! My idea was to make it a beer tasting where everyone would bring different beers and everyone would taste each other's.  I had cups out with green dye in the bottom so that the beer would turn green.  Chris commented that I put a lot of "work" into decorating, but what he doesn't understand is that is half the fun for me! So here are some pictures of the decor:

Alright, so...starting in the back, there is our bucket full of beer in the living room area. Next to it, I put out a basket full of coozies for people to use. Then there are my Irish Car Bomb cupcakes, actually made with Guinness, whisky, and irish cream (like a real Irish Car Bomb)..they were a huge hit! A pitcher of water, and in front of it an empty plate where I put Beer Battered Fried Pickles (beer battered to match the beer theme, and pickles because they are green!).  To the left of the empty plate was spinach dip (green, again), and then all my little empty cups with green dye at the bottom to make the beer turn green.  The little green bowl next to the beer bucket was for bottle caps.  I also decorated the table with scattered beer bottle caps that I collected a while back to make a "man" table for Chris (still gotta find the time for that little project!) Also, can you see the little food labels? I made those :)

Beer cheese dip...dyed green...see, y'all, it's a theme!  Just love themes!

Kitchen drink set-up...with a little St. Patty's dish for the bottle caps.

Guacamole and pigs-n-blankets with...you guessed it..green-dyed mustard. 

Casey brought this yummy Buffalo Chicken Dip (and I had also made little food labels for stuff people brought)

Outside (patio) mini-setup

I can't believe I didn't take a picture of this sign that I made hung up in front of our hutch! Luckily, I took a picture with my phone (on Friday, after I updated my iPhone) to send to Autumn so just imagine it on the hutch by the kitchen table! It says "Everyone is Irish on March 17"

I also forgot to take a picture of this once I got it to the house, but I made it too...and you can imagine it hanging over the lamp shade in our entry-way. It says "Happy St. Patrick's Day! Eat, Drink, and Be Irish!"

Also, we asked everyone to dress for the St. Patty's day theme, and a lot of people went all out! Here are some pics:

I was completely obsessed with Casey and Eli's hilarious shirts...with each other's faces on leprechaun bodies!

Jon and Autumn brought homemade ice cream...mint chocolate chip, yum!

Nancy is the only girl in the class and she is lots of fun!

Me and Casey at our pilot partner, The Princess, later on.

Sometime over the last month or so, Chris and I decided that we really needed a cornhole board so that we could bring it to tailgates and have it at outdoor parties like this one.  Neither of us have any carpentry experience, but I got a great deal on this set (beanbags included) from the Alabama Cornhole Association while I was working in Birmingham.  They are actually used cornhole boards from their tournaments so they are the exact right size and I could paint them in an Auburn-theme.  Can't wait to bring these babies to Auburn this fall! I am pretty proud to say I painted them!

I made a couple of new discoveries on CAFB this week.  First of all...I can't believe we have been living here 8 months and didn't know there was a lake on the base! And a really pretty one, at that! We are definitely going to bring a picnic basket out here sometime this weekend. Autumn, Casey, and I brought our dogs out on Sunday afternoon and let them chase the ball in the water.  I couldn't believe how far Mason swam out to get the ball! Maybe he is finally getting over his fear of the water, or maybe he just couldn't stand the other dogs to be out there without him!

Also, this would have been nice to know when I was training for the half marathon: Columbus has a 10.7 mile "perimeter road" that goes around the base.  Casey (who is training for the full Air Force marathon in Ohio later this year) and I ran it and discovered several things while we were one it, such as a horse stable and a paint ball course. 

Last night, the class had dinner at our "Pilot Partner" in town, which is a business in town that "sponsors" your class by offering discounts and just helping you get acclimated to the local culture.  Our pilot partner is...surprise! The Princess (the most popular bar in town that has also has a restaurant).  We now get 50% off 3 nights a week there and 25% off 3 other nights a week.  At the dinner, they had a raffle and Chris won this amazing T-shirt:

"Only the Strong Survive"...haha! I don't know about a picture of two roosters fighting...

As you can see, Chris' mustache is getting quite impressive.  We still have 10 days to go in "mustache March" and I definitely think he could stand to win some kind of award. I don't believe I actually covered the tradition of Mustache March in my last post, so here is a brief history, and the "rule" as outlined in the instructional email Chris forwarded me from the Lt. Colonel in charge of the students (I guess he forwarded it to me so that I would believe that this actually existed):

U.S. Air Force ace Robin Olds became celebrated for a flowing handlebar
mustache he grew while commanding the 8th Tactical fighter Wing Wolfpack
during the Vietnam War, and when forced to shave it by his superior, the
source of an Air Force tradition known as "Mustache March."

The first rule of mustache march is...

Let's get things straight from the beginning:  Mustache March is not a
contest. It's a reminder of our rich Air Force heritage...For a month!
If there's a contest to be had, then I recommend the following:

1. All registered participants must be clean-shaven on March 1st, unless
they are competing in the pre-existing condition class.

2. Until March 15th, the leadership above the squadron level is 'likely' to
allow "minor" deviations from the AFIs with regard to (sts) width of the
'stache...after that, get it trimmed (sts).

3. Registered participants who shave off their mustache prior to judging are
disqualified. I recommend a Disqualification Fine of $20 to be added to our
donation to charity.

4. Participants will be subjected to a minimum of 2 photographs (before and
after) during the course of Mustache March for documentation/humiliation
purposes...and additional photographs are encouraged. It is highly
recommended that all participants get their 'before' pictures taken
willingly as you've practically all got smart phones in your pockets...as
for the "after" photos, those will be done at the to-be-organized squadron
function at the end of March. Those pics will certainly be used for "humor"
(read humiliation) purposes. Future squadron roll calls deserve some humor!

5. Here are the award categories:

Best of Show
The name basically sums it up. This award is reserved for the most
spectacular specimen produced over the course of the month.
This is utterly subjective to the judge's personal opinion(s).

Most Disturbing
When you look at this mustache, if will frighten you. We will warn others
about the sight of this mustache.

Most Fitting
Sometimes the stars align and a man and his mustache become something...
more, with a mustache.
This award is given to the mustache that makes a man greater than the sum of
his otherwise wholly inadequate parts.

Dirt-lip Award
The little follicles that couldn't...The recipient of this award can only
take solace in the fact that this is all for charity.

Preexisting Condition Class Award
This is an wholly separate class reserved for the few, proud men who choose
to wear a mustache every day of their glorious lives. Members of this class
are not required to shave their existing mustaches on March 1st. There is
only one award for this class, and members of this class are not eligible
for any other award categories.

Judging
All remaining participants must attend the March 30th judging ceremony. I
recognize that the 30th is not the last day of March, but it IS a Friday.
More details will follow regarding the squadron function to take place on
that date.

Other Mustache Categories that could be judged in an "Instant Justice"
fashion:

Wyatt Earp
Fu Man Chu
Janet Reno
Magnum PI
Free Candy in the Van
Dictator
Stalin
Groucho Marx
Warren Harding

As I have said before, I think Chris stands to win the "Free Candy in the Van" award.  We shall see...

Chris has been busy studying for his tests and doing a lot of simulations lately.  Yesterday, he did a simulation where he practiced several emergency procedures, including being ejected from the plane.  Let's hope that's the closest to a real ejection he will ever get! He has passed all of his tests so far, and hasn't even come close to failing any of them.  He got fitted for his "G-suit" this week too, which has all of these pockets that fill with air when he pulls G's while flying.   Some of my lady friends may not know this, because I didn't know it...but when you are flying, and you are accelerating very quickly or doing different maneuvers, the weight/pressure on your body may be several times that of a normal "g" (or the regular gravitational pull of the earth), which can cause you to black out or lose consciousness.  There are different methods you can use to keep from blacking out, like flexing certain muscles to keep the blood from pooling in the lower body, etc (you don't want the blood to flow away from your brain!).  The G-suit has pockets of air that inflate around your legs when the g-forces cause a certain amount of pressure to keep  the blood from flowing to the lower body. I doubt my explanation makes much sense, but that's the general idea.

Tomorrow some ladies and I are going to Starkville to do their downtown wine trail (all the stores are giving 25% off! yay!).  Friday, our friends Jaime and Jordan are having his  (i.e. their) assignment night, where they will find out what plane he is getting and where they will be stationed, so we are going to that, then to a BBQ at Casey & Eli's house. Saturday is half ruined because we have to do our taxes...yuck! But maybe if we get it done early, we can salvage the second half of the day! The Pilgrimage starts next week, so I have that to look forward to as well!

Thanks for reading this week...wow, our social life has really gotten crazy since Chris started training, but we are enjoying every minute of it.  For the time being, Chris has been able to budget his time really well and still has time to do most anything, but that will change when his 12 hours days begin.  We are making the most of it while we can.  His first flight in the T-6 is in 1 week from Friday!! Here he is with it on Career Day:

Thanks for reading!

Valentine's and Countdown to Training!

As usual with holidays, I managed to go "all-out" this Valentine's Day (read: Week) and do plenty of entertaining others, and entertaining myself.  Luckily I actually took some pictures this time. So here goes with what I think is going to be a pretty long post with lots of pictures!

Last Thursday was the February wives social.  Autumn is going to be the student spouse club's new chair-wife (I just completely made that title up, but you know what I mean!), so I know the rest of the socials this year will be great, and hopefully I will be able to help her where I can.  The February social revolved around my new obsession...Pinterest projects! Woohoo! 

Not that I was ever uncomfortable at the wives' socials, I've always enjoyed them...but this was the best one yet, I think for two reasons: First of all, now that Chris is actually about to start training, I have something in common with the other wives and I am also on a similar timeline as the other wives.  This was not the case when we first moved here.  Chris was just on "casual" status, so when the other wives talked about what their husbands were doing, I really didn't have much to contribute.  Second of all, for some reason when I walked in to the February social, I felt like most everyone there was a new face.  It definitely feels better knowing you aren't the "new" one who doesn't know anybody anymore! I keep hearing that you socialize most with the wives of your husband's classmates, so I was really excited to meet another 13-06 (Chris' class #) spouse at the social...who, it turns out, had already been invited to our house (by Chris) for the dinner I was planning on hosting Sunday night! It was great to meet her ahead of time.  She and her husband are from Minnesota and it seems like the four of us are going to be friends.

So I didn't actually take a picture of MY wreath...but it basically looks like this:



We also made cards for our hubbies, which I stuck underneath Chris' keys the next day for him to find when he headed out to meetings.  We had the option of decorating sugar cookies, too, but I didn't make any of those.  Chris and I aren't complete health-nuts, but we try to avoid bringing such temptations into the house!

Chris and I had Valentines Day plans to try out a restaurant we hadn't been to yet, but as y'all know, I am always looking for an excuse to make a fancy meal, so we decided to have Valentines Day, Exhibit A on Friday night. 

This isn't the best quality picture, but this is the hutch at the moment decorated for Valentines.  Those are light-up pink and red hearts on the top and bottom.  I have been agonizing over this area ever since my Christmas decorations came down because I just can't get it how I want it.  I don't like going out and buying something just to "stick" somewhere so that it's not empty when I decorate...I like to stumble upon something lovely that I can't live without and then find a place for it.  I haven't stumbled upon "that thing" yet, but I am on the lookout! Right now I just have some silver bowls filled with fake rubies and white balls to get me through Valentines Day.



Table set for V-day dinner! I should have taken it from the other side so that you could see how the other side of that vase (containing the flowers-still living-that Chris got me at the beach) says "love".



Course #1...Tomato Parmesan soup

Chris' and my V-day present to ourselves...a spiritile that says "When we are two balloons and together our direction is up, chances are we've found the right person" by Richard Bach.  Kind a goofy quote, but we liked it and found it appropriate.  Richard Bach is the same one who said the famous quote: "If you love someone, set them free.  If they come back, they're yours.  If you they don't, they never were."  The following is a larger passage that our spiritile quote came from, which I think some of my engaged/"en"-love friends will appreciate, and which I find quite appropriate for a Valentines Day post :)

“A soulmate is someone who has locks that fit our keys, and keys to fit our locks. When we feel safe enough to open the locks, our truest selves step out and we can be completely and honestly who we are; we can be loved for who we are and not for who we’re pretending to be. Each unveils the best part of the other. No matter what else goes wrong around us, with that one person we’re safe in our own paradise. Our soulmate is someone who shares our deepest longings, our sense of direction. When we’re two balloons, and together our direction is up, chances are we’ve found the right person. Our soulmate is the one who makes life come to life.”

*The Meal*...Green beans & Cumin Mashed Sweet Potatoes (from my Paula Deen Magazine, February), and Seared Tuna (from my Southern Lady Magazine, February).

Before they hit the plates, they resided in my lovely themed serving peices

Rasberry Lemon Drops (from Pinterest)

My first attempt at Creme Brulee.  It's brown because I put chocolate in it.  The recipes I found suggested broiling them to crystalize the sugar, but it didn't really work properly and wound up melting the creme part.  It tasted good but it just didn't have the right texture. I am in the market for a torch now!

On Saturday, Autumn and I did some "thrifting" while the guys studied all day.  I didn't buy much, just an old green glass milk jug that I thought would work as a cute vase for some white flowers during March/St. Patty's Day (which I am already planning a party for...can't wait to give the details!) I also made some purchases at this awesome store we discovered in Columbus called "Dirt Cheap".  This is a store where everything has fallen off of trucks and a lot of it is broken...so you dig through all the broken trash to find treasures! Tori had told me about these type stores a while back. I'm telling you, it's a hoarder's paradise.  I'm not a hoarder, but I do suffer from "the thrill of the chase", and had a blast digging through all that junk to find a water bottle, light-up easter eggs for my front yard, and a veggie slicer.  Autumn bought an amazing (and expensive) name-brand bread machine for...$30.  Oh my gosh, the deals were incredible! I can't wait to go back.

Saturday night, one of the girls who went to the Academy with Jon and Chris threw a girls' get-together at her house, so we went to that and met a bunch of fun Air Force girls that I hope to hang out with again in the future.  The guys stayed home and brewed beer. 

Sunday was dedicated to getting ready for the fancy-pants dinner party that I've been planning for over a month.  This was the first chance I had to get some of the other married couples (we haven't met all of them) in Chris' pilot class together for a celebration of the guys' soon-to-be accomplishments.  Of course it wasn't necessary to take out silver, crystal, and fine china, all of which must be handwashed...but what's the point in having beautiful things if you don't ever use them?  I think it makes special occasions more "special" when you don't just use your every day stuff.  Now, if I used fine china, crystal, and silver for every dinner, it also wouldn't be as special.  That's why I like to break it out for the big celebrations...and I certainly think that starting pilot training (and Valentine's Day dinner) qualifies!

Drink Tray with my lovely Valentines Day cocktail that I got from Pinterest! It was much more "organized" before people started congregating around it, but you could tell it was being enjoyed by everyone :)

It may be a little hard to tell from the picture, but it had rose petals in it...so cute (and tasty)

Valentine's Day Decor Exhibit #2...I switched things up a bit.Thanks to Autumn for making this cute Valentines Day sign (and helping me with dinner since I was running behind)!! I will be holding onto it for next year...

We had to improvise with the table cloth since it was too short for the table once we added the leaves.  I sent Chris out to Wal-Mart for some last minute things while I was cooking, and we were video-chatting on our iPhones so he could show me all the white table cloth options to pick from. I wish I could do all my shopping that way! :)

Salad and Angel Chicken (yum!) Like my trendy new chalkboard plate? Found it at a thrift store!

Brown rice and roasted broccoli with cherry tomatoes.

And on the end over there...double tomato bruschetta

Everyone cleaned their plates!

All of our guests...From L-R, Jon, Autumn, Casey and Eli, Abigail and Jimmy, and my and Chris' empty seats.  I warned everyone that if they were going to be socializing with me, they needed to be aware of my blog and that I would constantly be taking pictures!

Red Velvet cake with homemade coconut icing, topped with toasted coconut flakes, served up in glasses given to us by Aunt Bette.

 When the dinner (and the Grammy-watching) was over, we were so excited about how much we enjoyed everyone's company and how much we are looking forward to getting to know these people over the next year or so.  Hopefully this will be the first of many dinner parties to come!

Tuesday, Valentines Day, we were excited about trying a new (to us) restaurant in West Point called Cafe Ritz, which is in an old theatre.  The restaurant had good reviews online, and we were looking forward to having a set menu, which is something we really enjoy in restaurants because it allows us the opportunity to try several different things.  The menu was $50 a person, which we thought was fair for 5 courses.  At the last minute, restaurant.com (which I really recommend to anyone who likes to eat out) added about 20 restaurants to our area, including Cafe Ritz, so we bought a $50 gift card for just $4.  We wound up being glad because the restaurant we chose was disappointingly average.  Even though we had reservations, we waited at least 20 minutes at our table before getting any water, and a full hour before our wine was brought out and our orders were taken.  All the food was good, but not great, so we were glad that, using the gift card, we essentially got them at half price.  We got to the restaurant about 6:15 and didn't get out until about 9:45 due to the slow service.  The company was wonderful, of course, but sometimes it puts a damper on things when you go in with high expectations that aren't quite met.  Perhaps after we had spoiled ourselves with all the fancy cooking we did over the weekend, we were doomed to be disappointed! In any case, we were glad to at least try out a new place and get to listen to some music and relax for a few hours on Valentines Day.  Next time we crave a nice date-night meal, we will head back to J. Broussard, which has proven to be our favorite restaurant in the area.

The setting was definitely really nice and unique.  The restaurant is in an old theatre...it would be a pretty place for a reception.

Even when an experience leaves something to be desired, we still love being together :)

When we got home and got into our bedroom, we were startled to hear this creepy, eerie, scratching sound coming from our wall.  Thinking it was some kind of creature outside, we went out to shine a flashlight, and discovered a rodent trap on our roof.  Apparently someone (I would assume in the rental office) discovered a rodent around our house and didn't feel the need to tell us! I'm pretty certain that it is either in our attic or somehow stuck  (or just living) in our wall.  I just hope and pray it doesn't burrow it's little rodent-self into the house! I have no idea what it is, but it sounds like a fat, nasty raccoon or something! If I see it, I will take a picture, but I certainly hope that I do not.

What else is going on with us? I'm working in Birmingham currently.  I got fitted earlier this week for a fashion show that I will be in at the end of March, and I just signed up to be in another one on April 17.  I can't help being a ham! I know they will be fun.  Also, I just did my last 10-mile run this weekend with an average speed faster than my goal (About 9:30 a mile), so I'm gearing up for my race, which is in just about 2 1/2 weeks!

Chris is studying, studying, studying, and this is just the beginning.  He has been dealing with the IRS claiming that he made $150K in unreported income in 2010 (believe me, we wish he did..but he didn't!) which has been a huge pain so far and just continues to get huger (I know...that's not a word). He is starting training...TOMORROW! It's so hard to believe! The first few weeks will probably be pretty uneventful as far as blogging goes because it is the "academic" phase, which consists of around-the-clock studying and test-taking.  I will keep everyone updated with everything. 

Thanks for reading! xoxox,

The Becks