Reunion

I am so ridiculously excited for this weekend.

Tomorrow, I am driving the two hours to Bethany's house for a little girls' night/reunion with five of "the girls" from college. The six of us have not been all together since September, when we gathered the night before Bethany's baby shower. So it has been way too long!

We don't ever do anything when we get together, yet I thoroughly enjoy myself every single time. We'll simply sit around a table full of food, and talk, eat, and guzzle sip wine. Quality girls' time, I'm telling you. Oh, and there might be a certain little someone that is contributing to my excitement about this trip... a certain baby girl that I can't wait to see!

(One of the most recent group pics I have, and it's from July 2007 when we were all at Megan's wedding! Must remedy the group pic situation tomorrow. Anyway, only person missing from this picture is Megan!)

I so love my girls. I mean, let's be honest: nothing really compares to the four years spent in college. If I was going to go back and relive a period of my life, it would most certainly be college. :) So many memories...

*Saturday afternoons spent watching Lifetime movies
*Sneaking into bars while still underage
*Decorating our bathroom in our dorm suite
*Insane amounts of drinking
*Dressing up as a regiment of "Army girls" for Halloween
*Throwing crazy parties at our house
*Walking over to the dining halls in one huge pack
*Finding a random guy passed out in our front yard
*Dealing with our landlord and his battleax wife
*Did I mention the insane amounts of drinking?

SO MUCH FUN. All of which is guaranteed to be relived through our conversations tomorrow.

I am so ridiculously excited for this weekend.

(There's Megan!)

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Taggedy Tagged

I've been tagged by Lynsey over at Foster Following.

The rules of this little photo game:
Open the folder with all of your photos.
Open your 6th photo folder.
Take your 6th photo in that folder and blog it.
Write something about it.
Tag 6 fellow bloggers to do the same.

This photo is from August 2004. This isn't the greatest photo of the bunch (there were much more exciting ones!), but I had to follow the rules. I guess I was taking pics of the stadium to document the complete view from our seats, because when this pic was taken, the players were at the other end of the field!

Anyway, I had purchased preseason Bills tickets for super cheap on ebay, and Michael and I went out and enjoyed the game (vs. the Denver Broncos) on a warm summer night. It's good we did stuff like this then, because I can't even imagine doing it now. This was almost five years ago, and I still had hope that the Bills would pull themselves out of a funk.

Four crappy seasons later, and I am no longer convinced. There's very little chance in hell that I would ever make the effort to go see one of their preseason games again. We didn't even go to a regular season game this past year, which says a lot (we ALWAYS go to at least one game a season). I'm tired of them losing! Faithful fan, yes. But I still admit that they SUCK.

My husband has informed me that free agency starts at midnight tonight, so maybe we'll actually acquire some players WHO CAN PLAY (that's apparently too much to ask?).

The Bills also released two of their terrible starters today. Here's hoping for CHANGE WE CAN BELIEVE IN. (It worked for Obama. Can't it work for the Bills, too?)

For my six people to tag, I'm going to pick six random followers. Here we go...
1. Katy at Follow Me to I Do
2. Sarah at Life as an Alex
3. Sassy Mrs.
4. Silly Monkey at Random Ramblings
5. Vanessa at Pen, Paper and Cake
6. Gia at A Life in Progress

(That just took me wayyy longer than it should have because of Blogger's genius redesign of the whole "followers" gadget. Blogger, for the record? I hate you right now.)

I'm off to rest my aching bod. My kickboxing instructor gave us a hardcore asskicking tonight. It was ridiculous. Thank god it is almost the weekend!

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Ash Wednesday

Today is Ash Wednesday.

I was able to go on my lunch break to receive ashes. Lent has officially begun.

Don't worry--I'm not about to go off about religion. I'm the last person that would ever tell someone that they should believe what I believe or that I'm right and they're wrong. When it comes to religion, I am completely open minded.

But I'm also Catholic. I just happen to be a Catholic that thinks that a little skepticism about it all is a healthy way of thinking. I have a hard time throwing myself into religion without trying to rationally think through it all. Even though I know it's not how I'm "supposed" to think and feel, I don't think I will ever 100% agree with the Church and its teachings.

Does all of this make me a bad Catholic? Some would argue yes. I happen to think it just makes me human. *shrug*

Looking back on my life, I'd say I was taught to be spiritual, but not really religious. My mom was raised Catholic, and my dad was raised Baptist. My mom didn't like the strict Catholic Church she grew up in (it's quite a bit different now!), so she didn't really want to raise us Catholic. As you can imagine, my dad didn't want to either, so my brothers and I were all "dedicated" in a non-denominational church after we were born (as opposed to being baptized). I remember being taught numerous prayers and little Christian songs when I was a young child, and it was a nightly ritual to "say our prayers." I remember my mom or my dad would sit next to my bed and we'd go through the whole family--"God bless mommy, God bless daddy, God bless Tyler, God bless Trevor"--we'd even go on to include grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins!

After my parents divorced and we moved here to New York, we became involved with a church here, and I vaguely remember the little religion groups I was a part of. While visiting my dad in Virginia in the summers, we used to attend Bible Camp with my cousins (at a Baptist Church). So we kind of got a little bit of everything in our younger years.

My mom says that eventually, she didn't agree with the views of the church we were attending, so we just stopped going. And we never really went back. We would sometimes go to Catholic Church with my mom's family for holidays and special occasions (baptisms, weddings, etc.), but that was it. I always continued to believe in something, just nothing really organized.

I always said that someday, when I got married, I would most likely convert to whatever religion my husband practiced (if he practiced at all). Because in a lot of ways, I'm OK with all religions. I just think it's nice to believe in something, and be guided through life in a way. Since I grew up feeling like I didn't really "belong" to one religion or another, I kind of always wanted to do differently for my children.

So, well, I kept my promise. When Michael and I started talking like we were really going to get married, I looked into RCIA (Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults) programs so that I could become a part of the Catholic Church. Michael's family is Catholic on both sides, and I think it meant a lot to them for me to become Catholic.

For about six months, I attended all of the RCIA classes, and then, on the night before Easter in 2007, I was baptized, confirmed, and received my first communion as part of an Easter Vigil. It was a pretty cool experience. And I was officially a member of the Catholic Church.

Michael and I attended church really regularly for a while, but in the months leading up to the wedding, we got out of the habit, and then it fell off completely. Around Christmas time, we realized that we hadn't been to church since our wedding day. Oooops! So bad.

SO... this year, for Lent, instead of "giving up" something trivial such as soda, chocolate, or TV, we're going to add something good back into our lives.

We're going to go back to church on Sundays.

We know we're supposed to be doing it anyway, but the fact is, we're not. So this seems as good a commitment as any. And we have always been good about giving up meat on Fridays for the Lenten season.

Enough of my rambling for tonight. But I'm curious, if you observe Lent, what are you giving up (or adding) this year?

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Recent Read: Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen

I finished this book a couple of weeks ago when we were on our way to Vegas, but haven't taken the time to sit down and write about it until now.

But this book--what a delightful read! I loved it.

Water for Elephants is the story of Jacob Jankowski, a retired veterinarian who is 90+ years old, lonely, and living in a nursing home. When a circus comes to town, Jacob begins to reminisce about the time he spent working for a circus during The Great Depression.

Right before graduating from veterinary school at Cornell University, Jacob experiences a horrible family tragedy. His way of coping with his pain is to run away from it. He randomly hops a train and finds himself in the middle of the train-traveling Benzini Brothers Circus.

And so begins Jacob's adventures--with the circus, exotic animals, and the people. He finds unexpected friendships, and even love.

In the book, the reader is taken back and forth between Jacob's action-packed past with the circus, and his present, where he is frustrated that his aging body and brain are beginning to fail him. We live what he lives and feel what he feels, whether it is the awe with which he regards the circus animals, or the pain he experiences at the nursing home, having been left behind by his wife, who passed away, and his children, who have all gone on living their own lives.

The author does a wonderful job at setting this story in the middle of a Depression-era circus. So much of what makes this book great is in the details, which were apparently really well researched by Gruen. Many parts of the story are actually based on things she read and heard about the circus while preparing to write the book.

Water for Elephants is an exciting and fun novel that kept me turning the pages. It has become one of my favorites and I think it would be enjoyed by just about everyone. If you haven't read it, definitely put this on your "must read" lists!

And, as always, if you have read it... let's discuss in the comments!

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Italian Baked Chicken & Pastina

My husband actually found this meal! Michael was browsing the Food Network website one day a few weeks ago and came across this recipe from Giada Bobblehead De Laurentiis.

Reading the measurements for the recipe, it was clear to me that we would need to double it to make a normal sized dinner. As I've mentioned before, we like to have leftovers.

This recipe is so simple (not many ingredients), it was hard to believe that it would really be all that tasty. But I was pleasantly surprised. Using a tip given by someone in the reviews of the recipe, I made sure to buy diced tomatoes that were Italian seasoned so that the tomatoes were already infused with flavor.

Making this meal creates a LOT of dirty dishes. The nice thing, however, is that you can finish up all of the dishes and cleanup while it is baking, resulting in very little fuss after dinner (very nice!).

Italian Baked Chicken & Pastina
(Source: Giada De Laurentiis, "Everyday Italian")

Ingredients:
- 1 box small pasta (we used a 14 oz. box of Whole Wheat Barilla Rotini)
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 lb. cubed chicken breast (1-inch cubes)
- 1 cup diced onion (about one small onion)
- 2 clove garlic, minced
- 1 (30-ounce) can diced tomatoes with juice (get the ones with Italian seasoning! i.e. basil, olive oil, garlic, etc.)
- 2 cups shredded mozzarella
- 1/2 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley (we used a small handful of dried parsley instead)
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 1/2 cup bread crumbs
- 1/2 cup grated Parmesan
- 1 tablespoon butter, plus more for buttering the baking dish (we omitted the butter and just used olive oil cooking spray for the baking dish)

Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

2. Bring a medium pot of salted water to a boil over high heat. Add the pasta and cook until just tender, stirring occasionally, about 5 minutes. Drain pasta into a large mixing bowl.

3. Meanwhile, put the olive oil in a medium saute pan over medium heat. Add the chicken and cook for 3 minutes.

4. Add the onions and garlic, stirring to combine, and cook until the onions are soft and the chicken is cooked through, about 5 minutes more.

5. Put the chicken mixture into the bowl with the cooked pasta. Add the canned tomatoes, mozzarella cheese, parsley, salt, and pepper. Stir to combine. Place the mixture in a buttered (or greased with cooking spray) 9" x 13" x 2" baking dish.

6. In a small bowl, mix together the bread crumbs and the Parmesan cheese. Sprinkle over the top of the pasta mixture. Dot the top with small bits of butter (optional).

7. Bake until the top is golden brown, about 30 minutes.

P.S. Today was the 7th anniversary of the night Michael and I met. Crazy!

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Eight Months

I'm actually having one of those days when it feels like we've been married longer than eight months. Usually these posts involve me talking about how quickly time is flying, and I guess that overall, it is.

But right now, I am so sick of and done with winter that these last several weeks until spring are just killing me. As a result, I wish I was posting about say... the ten-month mark instead. :)

*sigh* Soon enough.

It is still nice to celebrate yet another month of our first year of marriage, however.

Speaking of the wedding, we are still waiting on our album from our photographers. I can't wait to get it; it will be nice to go through it and reminisce. I love looking through the albums that we made for our parents for Christmas.

We're really closing in on a year now. June will be here again before we know it. I absolutely cannot wait. The warm weather, the shorter hours at work, our trip out west... not to mention all of the new babies that will be here by then. We have much to look forward to.

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S'more Cupcakes

Tomorrow night, we're going to a birthday party for my brother's fiancee, Marie. I was asked to make the birthday dessert, so today, I went on the search for yet another new recipe.

I was browsing someone's blog when I saw mention of marshmallow frosting. My brain went right from marshmallows to s'mores. So I thought--that's it! There has to be a s'mores cupcake.

I immediately began searching for recipes and came across many different versions with different combinations of cupcakes, frostings, and garnish. I never did find something that completely suited what I was looking for, so I took different components from various places and came up with my own s'mores cupcake.

I started off with a graham cracker cupcake recipe. I decided to use a milk chocolate frosting filling to fulfill the chocolate portion of my s'mores cupcake, and then used a marshmallow buttercream on top.

This was my first time filling cupcakes, so I didn't quite know what I was doing. Next time, I need to squeeze a bit more frosting inside, but it's not bad for my first try.

I wouldn't say that the finished cupcake tastes exactly like biting into a s'more. But it's a pretty good likeness, and they have a tasty flavor. The cupcake definitely tastes like graham cracker. I just wish the marshmallow buttercream tasted a bit more like marshmallow... perhaps there is a way to use real marshmallows instead of Fluff? I'll have to explore that idea more next time.

I sprinkled extra graham cracker crumbs on top of the frosting, then finished off each cupcake with a Hershey's milk chocolate square. Delightful!

Graham Cracker Cupcakes
(Source: Vanilla Garlic)

Ingredients:
- 1/2 cup butter, room temperature
- 1 cup sugar
- 3 eggs, room temperature
- 1 cup milk
- 1 cup flour
- 1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
- 1 tsp. baking soda
- 1 tsp. baking powder
- 1/8 tsp. salt

Directions:
1. Beat the butter for about 30 seconds until well creamed. Add the sugar and mix for 3 minutes using a paddle attachment until light and fluffy.

2. Add the eggs, one at a time, being sure to beat for 30 seconds for each egg.

3. Place graham crackers in a food processor or in a plastic bag and beat the crud out of them until they've been ground into small crumbs and powder. (I used a whole "sleeve" of graham crackers, so I left them in their original packaging and crushed them in there. I had a bit of extra, but I used most of the excess to sprinkle on top of the cupcakes when they were finished.)

4. Sift together the flour, graham cracker crumbs, baking soda and powder, and salt. Add about 1/4 of the mixture to the butter mixture, then add some of the milk. Continue to add the ingredients in a dry-wet-dry method, ending with the dry. Continue to mix until just combined.

5. Scoop into cupcake papers and bake for 15-18 minutes in a 350 degree oven or until a toothpick comes out clean. (These cupcakes don't rise much, so go ahead and fill the liners up most of the way.)

Makes 12-14 cupcakes. (I got 16.)

Once the cupcakes were cool, I filled a piping bag with milk chocolate frosting. Using a fairly large tip (it's a star tip, so it has the sharp ridges on top), I stuck the tip down into the top of the cupcake and gave the bag a good squeeze while I pulled it up and out of the cupcake.

Milk Chocolate Frosting
(Source: RecipeZaar.com)

Ingredients:
- 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter, room temperature
- 1/8 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, sifted
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 1 1/2 tbsp. whipping cream (more if needed) -- I substituted milk

Directions:
1. Place softened butter into a mixing bowl.

2. Add in the cocoa powder, powdered sugar, and whipping cream. Start beating with an electric mixer. Add in more whipping cream as needed to create desired texture.

3. Beat until mixture is smooth and creamy.


Marshmallow Buttercream Frosting
(Source: Hello, Cupcake!)

Ingredients:
- 1 container (16 oz.) Marshmallow Fluff
- 3 sticks unsalted butter, softened and cut into 1-inch pieces
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup confectioner's sugar, plus additional sugar, if necessary

Directions:
1. Spoon the Marshmallow Fluff into a large bowl. Beat with an electric mixer on low.

2. Gradually add the butter pieces, beating well after each addition, until smooth.

3. Add the vanilla extract and the confectioner's sugar. Scrape the bowl well to incorporate. Add more confectioner's sugar, if necessary, to adjust the texture.

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Banana Cake with Brown Butter Frosting

I have had this recipe saved as a "must try" for a really long time. I have just been waiting for the right occasion to make it.

That occasion came yesterday, which was my sister-in-law's 18th birthday.

I baked the cake on Tuesday, and brought it over to my in-laws' for the little family party last night. I had never made brown butter frosting before; in fact, I don't know if I had ever even tasted it before. I was surprised at how different it tastes than normal buttercream, but the surprise was certainly pleasant. It is very sweet!

The sweetness of the frosting perfectly compliments this cake, which is not overly sweet on its own. The cake is moist, but dense. It reminds me of a pound cake in a lot of ways.

Anyway, it was a complete hit. Everyone loved it. My father-in-law (not a big sweets eater) even liked it, and my mother-in-law sang its praises as well. And of course, the birthday girl thought it was tasty, too.

Banana Cake with Brown Butter Frosting

(Source: Everyday Cook)

Ingredients:

For the cake:

- 1 1/3 cups mashed very ripe bananas

- 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

- 2 teaspoons vanilla

- 2 cups all-purpose flour

- 1 teaspoon baking powder

- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

- 1/2 teaspoon salt

- 1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon

- 3/4 cup packed brown sugar

- 1/2 cup sugar

- 1/2 cup butter, softened

- 2 large eggs

For the frosting:
- 6 tablespoons butter (no substitutions)
- 3 cups confectioners' sugar
- 5 tablespoons milk
- 2 teaspoons vanilla

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a 13x9 baking pan; set aside. (I decided to make a two-layer cake, so I used two 8-inch rounds. I greased and floured them well.)

2. In a small bowl, combine bananas, lemon juice, and vanilla.

3. In another small bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon.

4. In a large bowl, add brown sugar, sugar and butter; beat on medium speed until light and creamy. Add 1 egg at a time; beat well after each one.

5. On low speed, alternately add the flour mixture and the banana mixture; start with flour and end with flour. Beat batter just until smooth.

6. Spoon batter into prepared pan and bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. (Baking time was about the same even though I used smaller pans. I started with 20 minutes, and kept adding time as needed. I kept checking it with a toothpick.)

Cool cake on wire rack.

For the frosting:
1. In a small sauce pan, heat butter over medium heat until melted and dark nutty brown color, but not burned, about 6 to 8 minutes; stir occasionally. Immediately transfer butter into pie plate; refrigerate until firm, about 30 minutes. (I had to crank the heat a little higher on my stove in order to brown the butter. If you have to do the same, make sure to keep a close eye on it. It's important not to burn it. The butter is browned when the little "grains of sand" you'll see in the bottom turn a uniform color, a nutty brown.)

2. In a large bowl, add chilled butter, sugar, milk and vanilla on medium speed until creamy and smooth. (I recommend adding your milk one tablespoon at a time until you reach the consistency you want. When I added the full 5 tablespoons at once, my frosting turning out more like an icing or a glaze, and I ended up having to add more sugar and brown more butter to get my desired consistency.)

3. Spread frosting over cooled cake.

P.S. Please excuse my conflicting photography styles in this post. I am working on learning some new techniques, so I've been doing a lot of experimenting and practicing!

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SSG Archer Says Thank You

For those of you on Team Archer (and even if you are on Team Fuller!) for this round of Operation Baking Gals, I wanted to share this e-mail with you.

Anna, the blog reader who nominated Ryan Archer to be one of our soldiers, forwarded me the following e-mail this afternoon:

Hi Anna,

I just wanted to let you know that I received three boxes in the mail today from the Operation Baking Gals team and me and some of the guys have already dipped into the cookies and they were great.

In response to the request for more information I am originally from Georgia but have lived in the Fayetteville/ Fort Bragg, North Carolina area for the past seven years. I am currently engaged and will be getting married soon after returning home in a few months.

My favorite type of dessert is most definitely brownies... got some today actually and they were awesome. I think that is about it.

I just wanted to say thank you to all of those who have or will be sending stuff to us here because we all like getting mail and sharing it among the guys here.

Thanks for your support
Ryan

I was so happy to hear from him in some way, as I never did hear from the soldier I baked for back in December. I know they're most certainly busy over there, but it's just nice to get some confirmation that the packages were received!

I still have to bake my goods and ship them out this weekend. I have been busy this time around and have been procrastinating. I guess I will be sending Ryan some brownies! :)

Anyway, I wanted to be sure to pass along the thanks so that you all know how much your work has been appreciated. I will pass on any other notes I happen to receive from either Ryan or our other soldier, Walter Fuller.

If you haven't gotten your baked goods out yet, there is still time! Even if you get it out a few days late (say, early next week even), I'm sure the guys over there won't be complaining.

Thanks again for your participation; I am so proud!

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Advance Baby Shower Prep

Tonight, Marie came over and we enjoyed a couple glasses of wine (on a Monday, woohoo!) while we put together all of the invitations for Kara's baby shower. March 21 is fast approaching, and I really want to get the invites mailed by this weekend.

We had to make 30 invitations, but it only took us about an hour and a half.

Then Marie helped me finish up another baby shower project I've been working on. I just need a few last finishing touches for it and then it will be completely done. I sooo want to post pictures, but I think the mommy-to-be might read my blog sometimes, and I do want to keep some things as a surprise for the shower. :) So I will post photos of everything once the shower has come and gone.

I'm starting to get really excited about our new nephews. Michael's sister, Melissa, is going into the hospital to have her baby on March 3. That's only a couple of weeks away now! Amazing. And after that, May will be here before we know it and we'll have Trevor and Kara's little guy, too.

It's going to be so fun. As I'm sure you all must know by now, I absolutely love babies!

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Badass Brownies

We don't "celebrate" Valentine's Day, but yesterday, we still wanted to indulge a bit. So we not only ordered pizza (which we almost never do), but we also made dessert for just the two of us (no sharing!).

And this is not just a regular brownie. This is a brownie with chunks of chocolate chip cookie mixed in. I mean, seriously. Talk about heaven on a plate.

And I owe this one completely to Betty. Sure, you could go all out and make this from scratch. It's not hard to figure out. Brownie batter recipe + cookie dough recipe. But Betty made it so easy.

You see, she put it all in the same box. (Thank you, Betty.)

It turned out that this Valentine's Day was all about loving Betty.

You start off by mixing up the brownie batter. Pour into baking dish, as usual.

But THEN! THEN, my friends, you go an extra mile and you mix up the package of chocolate chip cookie dough.

And THEN (and this is the mind-blowing part), you drop dollops of that chocolate chip cookie dough into the brownie batter. (!!!!!)

If this isn't perfection, I don't know what is.

Pop it in the oven for almost an hour, and you've got yourself some kicked-up, badass brownies.

The only thing I can think of that Betty could do to make this easier? The dishes.

(Just kidding, Betty, you know I love you. Please don't shun me.)

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Happy Valentine's Day

We don't buy into the Hallmark holiday, but for those of you who do (and there's nothing wrong with that!)--Happy Valentine's Day. :)

On our agenda today:

Gym.
Errands.
Takeout pizza and champagne.
Brownies from a box.
Wine and a movie rental.

Pretty low key. And I like it.

Do you have anything special planned? Or not special, but equally as enjoyable?

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Flight 3407

I was catching my last 20 minutes of sleep this morning when Michael came in and stood at the end of the bed and said, "Heather."

I could tell by the tone of his voice that something was wrong, so I sort of frantically asked, "What? What?!"

"There was a plane crash in Buffalo."

Needless to say: Not a great way to begin a morning.

When I hear of things like this, there is always that initial panic while I sort of take a mental inventory of the whereabouts of everyone I love. Since this particular tragedy happened right in Buffalo, it was particularly worrisome.

After watching a few minutes of the news on CNN, I quickly sent text messages to several friends from college to make sure everyone was accounted for. Thankfully, the people I know and love, as well as the people they know and love, are all safe. I am grateful to not have been personally touched by this tragedy.

But you know what? I'm still touched by it. Because it's Buffalo, for crying out loud.

It still has not quite sunk in that this happened so close to home. Even though I'm 60 miles away, it feels like it happened right in my city, just because of how much time we spend in Buffalo. We went to college not too far from Buffalo, and we have countless friends and family members there. It's like a second home.

And plane crashes that garner national news attention? Deadly plane crashes that kill 50 people? They happen in other places. Not in Buffalo.

The problem is: That's not only naive--it's untrue.

I pray for the poor passengers that were on that plane who had to live the last few moments of their lives in terror. And I pray even harder for their poor families and friends who were left behind, and will live the rest of their lives carrying the pain of their losses.

This has hit me slightly harder than some other incidents. Not only because it occurred so close to home, but also because we spent a lot of time on planes just a few days ago. It has made me think back to our takeoffs and landings, the small amounts of turbulence we experienced, and conversations we had with friends about fears of flying.

All of it just makes me realize that in reality, something like this can happen at any time. To anyone.

Even so, I do not live in fear of it. I mean, how can you live in fear of it? The fact of the matter is, something horrible happened last night, and people woke up this morning and boarded planes anyway. After a car crash, we still get back into our cars. After a drowning, we still get back in the ocean. Life must and does go on.

But of course, we do remember. And I feel for all of the people who lost loved ones last night. I hope that the recovery efforts and subsequent investigation give these people at least some of the answers that I am sure they are seeking--and the peace they need to move forward.

R.I.P. Passengers and Crew of Flight 3407

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Birthday Girl

Today is a day that a few short months ago, we weren't even sure would ever come. Actually, the day would have come no matter what. But the celebration would not have.

Today is Tessa's 3rd Birthday. :)

As with all of her birthdays, I made her a makeshift birthday treat. This year, it was a cracker spread with peanut butter, with a couple of frosted mini wheats stuck to the top. Random, but she loved it. And of course, she had three little candles.

The thing that was great about this year is that she has now mastered the "stay" command, so we were able to put the birthday treat right down next to her for pictures and she didn't try to immediately attack it. Michael kept his hand on her just in case (didn't want her to jump onto the candles), but she did really well. It was cute.

I pulled up some old pictures tonight to reflect back on the last three years with little Tessa girl:

This picture is from the day we got Tessa (April 21, 2006). She was only 10 weeks old and 3.8 lbs. She was absolutely exhausted and I almost died from the cuteness when she rolled over to sleep on her back in my lap. Little did I know then that this would always be one of her favorite ways to sleep. She still sleeps like that (when she's really, really tired) to this day.

Relaxing in the sun at my mom's house, only a few days after we got her (April 2006).

Look at how tiny she was! This was within the first few weeks of her arrival, too. I love her cute little face.

Tessa's 1st Birthday (February 12, 2007) -- The birthday treat consisted of a saltine, a dollop of peanut butter, and a peanut butter milkbone. :) Michael had to hold her back from it because she was so excited.

Tessa's 2nd Birthday (April 12, 2008) -- This was the only photo we could get of her "with" her birthday treat. Every time we tried to put it closer to her, she tried to eat it. That birthday treat was made out of a tortilla chip and peanut butter.

I guess peanut butter is the recurring theme for her birthdays, huh? :)

Anyway, we are very happy to have celebrated a third birthday with Tessa today... and we hope for many, many more!

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Celebrity Sightings

In my Vegas recaps, I forgot to mention our celebrity sightings. :)

We were all walking to our gate in the Atlanta airport on Saturday when Shannon made the first spotting. She came up from behind us and said, "You guys! That was a Backstreet Boy!" We all looked, and it turned out that Brian Littrell had walked right past us with his wife and son. I can be tremendously unobservant, so I'm not surprised I didn't see him, even though I definitely would have recognized him if I had.

(The kid is a lot older now, maybe 5 years old? He had really long hair, too. I almost mistook him for a girl.)

They ended up stopping at a gate right next to ours for a flight to Los Angeles. So of course, we all spent the next five minutes (until we boarded) trying not to stare. The funny thing was that for the most part, people left him alone. I guess he's not that big of a super star anymore, huh?

The biggest surprise was how tiny he is. He is a very small-looking man. Anyway, that was our most famous celebrity sighting, and we weren't even in Vegas yet.

For the second sighting, I have to give Dave major credit. I'm really surprised he recognized him. We were walking through Caesar's Palace when all of a sudden, Dave stopped us in our tracks and said, "That's Jason Peters!" We look over, and sure enough, there's our big offensive lineman, playing craps.

What are the chances we'd go all the way to Vegas and run into a Buffalo Bill? So funny. We stood back for a few minutes and debated about whether to approach him, but he looked to be in the middle of some serious gambling, so we decided not to. Not only that, but he was supposed to be in Hawaii playing in the Pro Bowl that very same day--he didn't play due to injury.

We tried to keep our eyes open to potentially spot others during our trip, but to no avail. Maybe next trip!

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Goodbye, Las Vegas

After our last night out, the alarm buzzed an annoyingly-short four hours later, and it was time to say goodbye to Vegas...

And, as luck would have it, we woke up to the nicest weather we had seen in Las Vegas. On the day we were leaving. Figures, doesn't it?

After a long day of traveling (and almost missing our connecting flight in Atlanta--we had to RUN!), exhaustion doesn't really even begin to cover it. Now, we just need bed.

Back to work tomorrow...

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What Happens in Vegas...

For us, what happened in Vegas was a big ol' birthday celebration.

The reason we booked the trip in the first place was because one of our friends, Jason, really wanted to go for his 30th birthday. And well, it just so happens that his birthday? It's the same day as Michael's. Today, February 9th.

So today was a day of birthday fun, starting with more sightseeing in the morning, followed by an absolutely amazing dinner and more drinking and gambling to close out our last night in Vegas.

We all slept later this morning, thankfully, since I think we all needed it. It was still not enough sleep, but what can you expect when you're in Las Vegas? After we all showered and got ready, we went downstairs and found a deli in Treasure Island. We ate a fairly quick lunch there, then caught a couple of cabs to visit Old Vegas.

I had never even heard of Old Vegas until Jason mentioned that we should go there, but it was really cool. The cabs dropped us off at Golden Nugget, an old and slightly trashy casino. It was trashtastically awesome, however.

Inside, we wandered around for a little bit while Jason and Dave played a few slots.

I came across this slot machine and nearly died. $500. That's $500 for ONE PLAY, folks. One push of the button = One pull of the lever = $500. As you might expect, there was no one playing it. I mean, damn!

Next, we came across a truly giant slot machine. We thought the one in New York, New York yesterday was big! This was huge. And of course, we had to take a few turns playing it. You know, mostly for photo ops. :) No one won any money, but we had fun pulling the giant lever.

After that, we swung over to a roulette table that had $5 minimums. Jason, Dave, and Michael put a little bit of money down and we had fun with that for about 1/2 hour. Michael actually won a decent chunk of money, which was cool since it's his birthday and all.

After cashing out, we left Golden Nugget to check out the rest of Old Vegas and Fremont Street.

Michael and Dave had to stop and get their picture taken "with" Gordie Brown. (I have no idea who he is, and I'm not sure Michael and Dave did, either. Too funny.)

It was neat to see all of the old casinos and hotels. They had good souvenir shops there, too. Oh, and if you're ever looking for a truly cheap place to eat or shop in Vegas, head on over to Old Vegas. We actually saw NORMAL prices for things there, unlike on the strip, where everything is ridiculously expensive.

Once we had fully explored Old Vegas, we decided to walk to the Stratosphere, which is at the very north end of the strip.

As with all places in Vegas, it looked close, but turned out to be a pretty long walk. Luckily, everybody was up for it and we made it there in about 40 minutes. Jason was determined to ride one of the rides on top of the Stratosphere, and he had spent some of the morning/afternoon trying to convince all of us just ONE of us to go with him.

As we approached the Stratosphere and saw a couple of these rides actually running, everyone quickly proclaimed that we did not think we would be accompanying him. (These thoughts were confirmed when everyone later saw the prices for these rides once inside. Even Jason decided not to ride.)

Once again, inside the Stratosphere, everyone gravitated toward the slots for a bit. After about an hour, most everyone left with some sort of cash, and we decided to cab it back to the hotel to rest for a while and get ready for our fabulous dinner.

We watched a sobering presidential press conference about the economy, drank a few beers, and got dressed up to go out. At about 6:45 p.m., we once again caught a couple of taxis and headed to the Four Seasons.

Let me back up here for a minute. Last week, before we left for Vegas, Michael's boss called him into his office. He told him that he had been doing a great job, and went on to say that he wanted to do something nice for him. He had heard that Michael was taking a trip to Las Vegas, and offered to send us and our friends to a really nice restaurant--the bill taken care of. We obviously jumped at the opportunity, and decided to have his boss make the reservations for us for Michael and Jason's birthday dinner.

And so we ended up at Charlie Palmer Steakhouse in the Four Seasons Hotel in Vegas. Niiiice.

I think it was pretty unanimous across the board that this was the best meal any of us had ever eaten, let alone one that we were treated to. We had a few laughs about how "out of our league" we felt in this restaurant, but we all appreciated and enjoyed it just the same.

The food was absolutely fabulous, starting with the bread, and continuing with the wine, salads, entrees, sides, and dessert. Sooo good.

This is a photo of Michael's surf and turf. I'm not a fan of seafood, so I just had filet mignon (which is actually the "turf" part of Michael's dish anyway).

After dinner was finished, I mentioned to the waiter how it was Michael and Jason's birthday, and asked if they could bring out a dessert for them with a couple of candles in it. A few minutes later, our waiter (who was so awesome), and a bunch of other servers came out with SIX desserts to sample and share, and told us they were all compliments of the chef. Um, hi. These guys were so good to us! And of course, two of them had candles in them for Jason and Michael.

Happy Birthday to my husband! (And that strawberry shortcake that is pictured? So.freaking.amazing.)

And a Happy Birthday to Jason, too! (I can't remember exactly what that dessert was, but I know the ice cream on top was Kahlua flavored. Also very good.)

And this is a photo of what turned out to be my absolute favorite dessert. It was something like a caramel cake with caramel and apple ice creams. To die for.

After many thanks and much praise to the Charlie Palmer chef and waitstaff, we walked through the Four Seasons and into Mandalay Bay for a little while. Before long, we hailed cabs to leave. We stopped halfway up the strip to check out the Bellagio fountains at night.

After watching one of the "fountain shows," we once again got cabs (it was too cold and our feet were too sore to walk) and went back to our hotel to hang out in the Treasure Island casino. We figured that since we had to get up early for the airport the next morning, it'd be easier to already be back "home" so that anytime anyone wanted to go to bed, they could.

Annnnd... You guessed it! Everyone got drinks and spent time playing more slots. :)

After probably a few too many drinks (on my part) and a lot of slots (so addicting), we all went up to the hotel rooms to catch some sleep.

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