Mmmmm....Mmmm....Margarita

I think I've found my new favorite Margarita. Shannon called and told me she was in town this afternoon so she and I decided to meet for dinner and a quick drink. We went to Amorcita (not sure of the spelling). It's on 1604 E. between Bitters and Huebner. What a great location, right close to work. That'll be nice especially during the high Margarita peak times (a.k.a. VBS season). We shared the fajitas for two and they were delicious. The "El Grande" margarita is a 20 oz drink and it comes in a very large margarita glass and get this...in the margarita they put two shot glasses filled with tequila. You can either shoot them or pour them into your margarita. Since my tequila shot days are way behind me, we decided to pour the extra liquor into our already yummy drink. Guess what? It made it even more yummy!!

High Heels, High Hopes, High Calling

That's the theme for this year's Women of Faith National Conference.
Five of my girlfriends from college are joining our Concordia group......



We have about 25 ladies going all together. Thanks to Shawna and Rachel for organizing all of this!

Wash the Dog

That's Zeta. You've probably seen this picture on my desk top. It's one of my favorites of her. Right now, here in San Antonio, it is about 38 degrees and my poor Zeta is outside. Did I mention that it's also raining? She's not a tidy, clean, mess-free kind of dog. If there's a puddle, she'll find it. If there's mud to dig in, she's all over it. When I get home today I'm putting her in the tub immediately to give her a bath that's long overdue. I'm trying to cut back on the grooming to save some money.

Also after work I hope to meet up with Amy. She's had my camera since New Years. I'd like to think my posts would be more interesting if I had my camera so I could upload current pictures.

Nathan works until 9 tonight and we're going to the movies. "27 Dresses" didn't sound good to him so I'll have to look at what's showing again to compromise.

New Bible Study

Today I started a new bible study with some friends at work. I'm excited and more importantly, I'm long overdue for some time with my bible. You'd think working at a church, I'd be in the Word more but sadly, I've been slacking. Julie (our pastor's wife) has wanted to do the New Inductive Study bible since last fall. There are about 8 of us and we all ordered this new bible...


Before our bible study we had a funeral service for a wonderful lady who was a member of Concordia for many, many years. Louise Hairston was 90 years old and was diagnosed with cancer a short time ago. Even though she was living with cancer she continued to faithfully serve as one of our greeters on Sunday mornings. She knew my grandma and asked about her often. Louise never complained and never had anything but a smile on her face. I am blessed to have known such a sweet lady.

Heartsong

I am part of a singing group at church and we call ourselves Heartsong. We have been together for 5 years, I think? We sing a lot of Point of Grace kind of music. This past summer we recorded a cd and this past Sunday it was released. There are 10 tracks and I'm very pleased with how the cd turned out. Here are a few pics of us celebrating Leslie's birthday in the recording studio....

Here's Carol...














Here's a picture of Adam.
He is our worship director at Concordia and he's Linda's son. He mixed and engineered our cd.

Let It Snow!

We're all set. We're going skiing!!! We've booked airline tickets and found a great condo in Keystone! There are 5 of us going as of right now but we hope to add a few more friends to share the experience.

Me, Nathan, Amy, Mike and Jo! Although I don't ski very well, I really enjoy being in the mountains. It reminds me of how "small" I am. Not "dress size" small (I wish!). I'm reminded of just how big and amazing God is.







Here's a picture of us with Amy and Mike.

And here's Jo....



Soon I'll have pictures and posts of us playing in the snow!

Timberrrrrrrrr

Last night I started to take down our Christmas tree. It's such a huge job and I must say, it's not as much fun to take it down as it is to put it up. I get a little "down" when Christmas is over. It's a whole year until "It's The Most Wonderful Time of the Year". I love Christmas! I love the spirit I feel up at work. All the services, the drive thru nativity, the carols, time with family and friends and....shopping for new Christmas ornaments. Nathan and I always go to Hallmark and pick out a few that symbolize some special memories of the year that just flew by. Here are a few ornaments from 2007...





We just got this one yesterday. Nathan and Daniel went to Hallmark and they have the ornaments on sale 75% off. This one reminds us to be thankful for all who serve our country.

There are 3 trains that make up this Lionel set. Here's just one of them.
Nathan was raised to love trains.
His dad is a big train lover and so is Daniel.

This one is the 3rd in a series. 2005 was a red cardinal. 2006 was the chickadee and here's the 2007 bluejay. Nathan thinks 2008's will be a robin and I think it will be the mocking bird. We'll have to wait and see...










I never had a Chatty Cathy doll but I remember my Spanish teacher in high school told me I talked so much, I was just like a Chatty Cathy doll. I know what you're thinking...How rude!!

My brother had this same Spanish teacher when he was in high school (he's 9 years older) and he told me that she always came to school with hickies on her neck. Too bad they don't make a "Hicky Heidi" ornament. Hee hee!






Here's something else that Nathan loves.....Corvettes. This is the 1961 Corvette.










While we're talking about things that Nathan loves, here's another Star Wars ornament. We have a lot of these. This one's really cool. It plays the Star Wars theme song.











Since we love to travel we got this first in series. It will feature a different front door each year from around the globe. This one is Germany.







This last ornament will remind us for years to come of our awesome trip to Australia.

We got to do and see so many amazing things. It was our dream trip!

My Crazy Friend

My friend Joy is thinking about blogging. She asked me "Orange ya going to show me how to do it?"

Where's the Beef? (Pork, actually.)

This weekend has been rather slow and relaxing. After having 2 weeks off of Sunday school and Kids Praise we were back up and running yesterday. We had a full crowd! Since yesterday was Epiphany, we talked about the visit from the Wisemen. It was a great lesson. After church, Nathan and I grabbed lunch and went to his moms for a short visit. Then, I took my usual Sunday afternoon nap. When I woke up I decided to fix a pork tenderloin for dinner. It was so delicious! Nathan and I ate about 1/3 of it. Easy....with 2/3's of it left, dinner was decided for Monday night, too. WRONG! What I'm about to tell you will shock you, I know.

The rest of the pork loin was on the counter, still on the cutting board. We left it there because....we are lazy. You see, Desperate Housewives came on and we sat down to watch it. We had to! The cliffhanger from the fall was almost too much to take. Were Lynette's kids ok from the tornado? Did Tom surivie the twister AND his asthma attack??

During commercials we took the trash out, got the dirty dishes going, put away leftovers and checked movie times. We saw that THE GREAT DEBATORS was showing and we had to hurry if we were going to make it in time for the previews. So, knowing I had one more thing to do (put away the pork tenderloin) I went to the kitchen and saw the empty cutting board. I thanked Nathan for wrapping it up and putting it away. Here's how that conversation went:

Me: Thanks for putting up the meat
Him: I didn't put it up
Me: Well, then where is it?
Him: (looking in the fridge) i didn't touch it!
Me: (also looking in the fridge) I didn't touch it either!
Me again: Nathan, stop kidding! Where is the pork tenderloin?!?!
Him: I'm telling you, I promise I didn't touch it!


After we both were able to get rid of our dazed and confused expressions, we looked down at Zeta. She was sprawled out on the carpet napping oh, so sweetly. Her belly looked extra full. We went back over to the cutting board and there we saw the proof. Drops of pork juice dropping off of the cutting board onto the counter, running down the cabinets to the floor. I went over to her bed in the laundry room and saw (and smelled) the big drool puddle of her delectable dinner.
Needless to say, she spent the night outside. We think she learned her lesson and we must admit we learned our too. We won't leave yummy smelling meat within her reach.This is Zeta when she was a little puppy. What a sweet little face! She's back inside. Back in good graces. Probably, dreaming of a good Tbone.

Let's hit the road after all

We're glad to be feeling better!!! Just in time for New Years. We weren't able to go to Dallas but Amy and her family invited us to come down to Port A to celebrate with them. Since the drive was only 2 hours, we went! We had a great time. We got there and went driving around to scope out our plan for the night. We went to the liquor store and got some goodies. Then, we went to eat dinner at Virginia's. It was delicious. After dinner we loaded up the truck and went out to the beach. It was cold and very, very, VERY, windy. Mike and Nathan made a fire and we set up our lawn chairs and tried to warm up all the while sand was in our eyes, mouth, shoes, socks, pockets...everywhere! Amy and I had to wear our sunglasses because the wind was so strong and the sand was making us miserable. After a while, the fire was perfect! We were warm and we were thoroughly enjoying ourselves and our spiced hot wine. The clock struck midnight and we cheered for 2008. A new year! Time for new beginnings. New adventures. New blessings. We are so thankful to God for Amy's healing. She's totally cancer free and that, in addition to the new year, was a reason to celebrate.

A couple of days off...ahhhhhh

Time off from work is always nice. Nathan and I planned to go to Dallas to visit Ali and Shannon for New Years Eve. Nathan had to work on Saturday until 9 so our plan was to leave Sunday morning. I was able to take off of work b/c we were on break from Sunday school and Kids Praise (children's worship service). Well, Nathan got sick Christmas night and had a sore throat and fever. He started to feel a little better but it always got worse at night. On Friday night I started with a sore throat and that continued through Sunday. We decided not to make the 5+ hour drive to Dallas. I HATE BEING SICK!!!

Wii-iiiiiii

For Christmas I got Nathan a Wii. Funny thing is I didn't plan or commit to getting him one until Wednesday, Dec. 19th. I emailed Sprayberry and asked him what he thought my chances would be in getting one. He offered to go stand in line for me on Sunday morning if I was unable to find one. I stalked numerous Game Stops and while I was no. 14 at the Game Stop in the Rim, Joy waltzed into the one in the Vineyard and walked out with Nathan's new Wii 5 minutes later.

Yea, friend!! (Hi, friend).
















He was so excited and we've been playing the bowling game a lot. In fact, we were up until 2 am with Schulmeier and Daniel on Saturday night.