(p.s. Sorry, Hermano, for facebook stalking to find this pic of you and random people I don't know!).
This week was Sarah's birthday (well yesterday was) and I'm thankful to have such a wonderful friend! She has been there for me since the day I met her in law school and I've been blessed to have such a good-hearted person in my life. I'm glad she had a good birthday and I wish I could have shared it with her! I'm so grateful that Hermano has been feeling well enough to hang out with friends lately! His medicine seems to be kicking in a little bit and, although he still has a long way to go, he has found more energy and he's been able to go out to see people. I really hope he continues on this upward trend and heals up soon! (p.s. Sorry, Hermano, for facebook stalking to find this pic of you and random people I don't know!). I'm sooo thankful for my hairdresser, Tessa. My hair is at that point that I can' t do anything with it and I'm glad I'll get it cut this weekend. Tessa is such a good person and has saved my hair so many times! Not only does she do my hair, but she's also a friend. I'm just grateful for her! I'm also thankful for this little man. He is absolutely adorable and great to talk to on the phone! I talked to him last night before his t-ball game and he promised he would win for me (which he did!). He is such a cutie and can always bring a smile to your face :) (I'm thankful for his mama, too!)
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I found this delicious recipe from Self Magazine. It's easy to make an filled with protein so it will keep you full for a long time! Artichoke and Beef Lettuce Wraps INGREDIENTS:
DIRECTIONS: Place artichokes, beef, zucchini, chickpeas, Parmesan, basil, capers, lemon juice and oil in a bowl; add salt and pepper. Toss to coat. Wrap 1/4 cup of filling in each lettuce leaf and serve. NUTRITION INFORMATION:280 calories per 4 wraps 9.5 g fat (3 g saturated), 25.6 g carbs, 5.2 g fiber, 23.4 g protein I created this delicious salad for dinner Sunday night and it's so easy!!
INGREDIENTS: Tomato Basil Chicken Mixed Greens Spinach Sun-dried Tomatoes Walnuts Feta Cheese Parmesan Garlic Salad Dressing DIRECTIONS: Cook the chicken thoroughly (about 20 minutes at 350 degrees F). Then cut the chicken into bite-size pieces. Cover mixed greens and spinach with a little Parmesan Garlic dressing and then toss with Feta cheese, sun-dried tomatoes, and walnuts. Top with the chicken pieces and enjoy! I hope everyone had a great weekend! My weekend was super full and I loved every minute of it! What did you guys do? Who saw The Hunger Games??
Friday night, I saw The Hunger Games with Husband. I was so excited that I had energy ALL DAY LONG even though I got to work at 6:30am for a meeting. The movie was really good! (Though, it cannot even compare to the books!). To add to The Hunger Games excitement, my friend Erin brought me an A&M Hunger Games t-shirt that I sported yesterday! Saturday, Husband and I did a 5K to raise money for breast cancer. We ran in honor of Carrie in the first annual Walk Like a Diva 5k in Kingwood. My friend Amanda organized the 5K and it was such a success that they are going to do another one next year! Husband and I were in the small group that ran the walk and we came in 3rd and 4th. Then, we went to my parents' for a crawfish boil and some pool time!! Erin joined us for the day and it was sooo good to see her! We are trying to get her to move to Houston so we can see her more often! To finish off the weekend, we did house work, got our new fridge going (yay!!), and I got a wonderful 1 1/2 hour massage :) Hope everyone else had a weekend as exciting as mine!! There are so many things to be thankful for this week such as my anniversary with Husband and the extra year we got with my Uncle Steve before his passing. I've already talked about this week, though, so I'm going to try to keep to some different things for today's thankful list. I am so, so blessed. This week, I have been thanking God for all of the special blessings he has given me. I always seem to run into wonderful people and I'm given opportunities that I could only dream of. I'm thankful for all of the blessings -- big and small -- that I have in my life. God is truly taking care of me. I'm sooo excited/thankful for the vacation Husband and I are taking to celebrate our first year of marriage together. We made our reservations last night and I canNOT wait to get away and spend some carefree time with just us. I'm thankful that The Hunger Games are finally here!! I've been looking forward to seeing the movie since I read the books and Husband and I are going on a date to see it this weekend. I heard it's spectacular! Can't wait to share the story with Husband! I'm thankful that I got to spend some time with Salice this weekend. I took her to the Aeros game for a (belated) birthday present and we had such a good time! We have a hard time coordinating our schedules so we seldom get to see each other. I was actually quite surprised that the game worked out for us. Yesterday my Uncle Steve passed away after years of battling Hepatitis C. He was in a motorcycle accident in the early 1980s and began showing signs of Hep C about 10 years ago. It has been a long, hard struggle for him and his children and there have been many close calls over the past few years.
Uncle Steve was a very good-hearted man and I always called him my "dad" because he would call me his baby whenever he took me anywhere. He tried so hard to make it to my wedding last year (though he was in ICU the week before) because he wanted to be able to see his "first daughter" walk down the isle since he knew he would never get to see his real daughter get married. Though he was too sick to make it to my wedding, he was there in spirit and I'll never forget how hard he fought to come. It's crazy that he passed away on our first anniversary and Husband is convinced that he stood at the gates asking why he had to go on that specific day. Though it made our anniversary a little bittersweet, I think I will always have the reminder of how much he fought to be there to share my special day with me. Each year, I'll be able to celebrate his life and remember what a special person he was to my family and to me. I pray for his children (his daughter is in college and his son still in high school) that they come through this loss okay and heal soon. It has been hard for both of them to see their dad sick for most of their lives. I'm so sad that he is gone but at the same time, I'm glad he is no longer suffering. I'll miss him always. Below are two pictures from September. He is very frail but seems happy! One year ago today, I married my best friend. I was surrounded by friends and family who had come from all over the country to watch me say "I do" and I was and still am so blessed for all that I have. I can't believe how quickly time flies! Husband and I were talking this weekend about how crazy the year has been and all that has happened. One thing's for sure, though - we are more in love today than we were a year ago and I hope that trend continues over the next 60+ years.
Love is definitely a lesson and every day I feel like I learn more from Husband. I think we each have learned a ton this past year about patience, love, kindness, forgiveness, strength, etc. And we have grown together. It's more than I could ever have hoped for! I look forward to the many years to come and hope they are full of love, joy, passion, family, and life! Our wedding day was filled with so many people that mean so much to us. It's wonderful to know I was surrounded by those who truly care for us as a couple. We have even received cards and anniversary presents from some of my bridesmaids and their husbands! How thoughtful is that??? I wish I could put a million pics on here from our wedding day, but I can't choose. Here are just a few to capture the evening. This week I am thankful for the beginning of March Madness. I love this time of year and it's always so much fun to keep up with the craziness of upsets and Cinderella stories! I already filled out my bracket and I can't wait to see how I do!! I'm also thankful for my cat who always makes me laugh. We caught her watching tv the other day. Apparently she likes the show Grimm and sat watching entranced for 10 minutes. Glad we got this pic on camera! I'm sooooo grateful for the new fridge we are getting this weekend. A friend of mine upgraded her fridge and is giving us her old one. We are truly blessed with the people around us. It's so nice to have decent appliances as a newly married couple. Monday will be our first anniversary and I'm so excited, shocked, anxious that a whole year has passed with Husband. It's been a crazy year and I can't wait to celebrate all we have been through!
For my anniversary present, Husband is taking us on a Caribbean cruise!! As you can imagine, I'm constantly thinking about sun, clear water, good food, and of course cute cruise clothes! That means that my Pinterest time has been mostly spent perusing outfits I want to take with me.... I thought I'd share some cute summer clothes (you know, in the spirit of my upcoming trip!). I recently finished The Paris Wife by Paula McLain. It is a portrayal of Ernest Hemingway's first wife Hadley Richardson and their experience as Ernest begins his career as a writer. He moved to Paris to get his start and began forming friendships with several well-known authors who helped guide him through the first steps of his career.
The first 5 years in Paris, Hadley held his hand and supported him through the good times and the bad. Paris in the 1920s was full of experiment and non-traditional lifestyles and soon Ernest fell into the rhythms of society which shaped his future as a writer as well as a man. Many people know the reputation Ernest gained throughout his life. He had many women and partied throughout his travels. This book provides Hadley's perspective of life with Ernest. I found this book interesting for many reasons. First, Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises is one of my favorite books of all time. He wrote it early in his career and The Paris Wife illustrates his experiences which led up to the book. I feel like I had a much deeper appreciation for The Paris Wife because I had read The Sun Also Rises and could adapt to the book much more easily. I also found it interesting to learn more about what life was like for artists in Paris during the era as well as how closely many of those artists worked together. At the beginning, Ernest is introduced to many authors and artists that have become timeless such as F. Scott Fitzgerald. The book emphasizes what a close-knit community writers and artists were a part of and how they influenced each other in good and bad ways. I still don't understand the lifestyle that many chose during the 1920s but I feel like it influences the works that have come from that generation. The Paris Wife (though fiction) gives good portrayal of some of the challenges that spouses went through during the time and how their influence may have shaped some of the works we read today. I recommend this book because it is not only a good read, but it also provides depth to an era that many people cannot truly understand today. |
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