The Great Pumpkin

Today officially starts the annual pumpkin carving/decorating contest here at the Texan. Last year we were robbed so hopefully this year we can pull through. Our theme is The Dark Knight complete with Bat mobile, Joker, and a spotlight that shoots the Bat emblem into the sky. The pumpkin team was extra creative this year, the buildings and the Bat mobile are all shoe boxes, the spot light is a cut down Pringles can, and the pumpkin is the water tower. People seem to have stepped up their game this year though so the competition could be tough. If you live in the area though, come by and check them all out (and vote for SALES of course!)

"You and I both love..."

Thursday night, my friends Kate, Amy, and I all went to see Jason Mraz in concert. The last time I saw him, he was performing at the Del Mar Fair. Needless to say, it looks like he has come a long way. We started the evening off with some delicious skillet queso from the famous Chili’s. After reading that, I bet you are starting to crave some skillet queso yourself…I know, it’s just that good. We headed off to the concert and when pulling up to park, Kate made the executive decision to park VIP (totally the way to go by the way). We parked right outside the entrance! After the concert, we hopped in our car and all of the flag guys directing traffic stopped all the other cars to let the VIP’s through. We felt very important. The concert was great! Our crush for Jason Mraz definitely grew that night. He was so funny and entertaining. He taught us important life lessons through his songs like “I won’t worry my life away” and “desperation is a mambo so dance it.” I was just impressed with his voice. Boy can sing! At one point he started singing this opera song and his drummer joined in. I was shocked at how good he was. As a whole, the concert was great. However, we were disappointed when he didn’t sing our favorite songs. Amy said she might have to write a message to him on his myspace page to express our disappointment. We made up for it though by rocking out to “you and I both” in the car on the way out of the parking lot. Who needs Jason when you’ve got Amy, Kate, and Jenna to serenade you?

Turner Falls

This past weekend Casey and I went camping at Turner Falls in Oklahoma. We drove up late Friday night and after driving around for a bit, found the perfect campsite. After getting the tent set up in the dark we realized that the batteries for the air mattress did not make it into my car for the trip. So, we made the trip into the small town of Davis, OK. In classic small town fashion, when we told the old man who ran the gas station quick mart we needed 4 D batteries, he said “Oh, well those are $6 each here but if you just go on down the road, you can get them a lot cheaper at WalMart.” Who turns business away these days? I got to experience my first real small town WalMart. It’s nothing like those big city WalMarts you’re used to going to. It was so small! We finally got all settled in our tent by 1:30 AM. Saturday, our friends Candace and Ryan were driving up to meet us and camp for the night. The four of us had so much fun! We went hiking around the falls and I kept laughing and calling us billy goats since Casey and Ryan liked to try some off-trail rock climbing. We found cool caves, saw the falls, and then hiked a little up the river…actually in the river. We also played a game of Frisbee golf and spent just as much time playing as we did searching for the rogue discs that flew into the forest. That night, we all sat around the fire and roasted brats for dinner and then had the best s’mores ever (the secret is dark chocolate!). Sunday morning I whipped up some French toast, eggs, and bacon. Quite the meal for camping outside, if I do say so myself. Before we went home, we decided we definitely needed to plan another trip. I had forgotten how much I enjoyed it!

A Night at the Theater

Last night, Casey and I got the opportunity to go to the theater! Thanks to Margaret, my mom’s college roommate, who gave me her tickets because she was going to be out of town. The show we went to go see was The Color Purple which I was really excited about since Oprah talks about it all the time. Even though O (I like to call Oprah “O” since we are close like that) I really didn’t have any clue what the story was about. Later I come to find out that Casey has seen the movie like 4 times which was a surprise to me. Anyway, Casey and I got all dressed up and headed to Fair Park to see our first show together. Once I walked into the theater I realized it had been way to long since I had seen a live show. The ushers directed us to our seats and the first thing that Casey said to me was “What? You couldn’t get better seats?” which was clearly a sarcastic statement judging by the fact that we were center orchestra and the perfect distance from the stage. We decided then that Margret had officially spoiled us with the seats. I think it was probably like flying first class, after that, flying coach just isn’t the same after you know how good it could be. The show was AMAZING! I loved the music and the character Sofia was by far my favorite. I laughed out loud every time she came on stage. I knew it was a really good show with an awesome cast when I started tearing up at the end. It just reminded me how much I love the theater and how much I miss being a part of shows. Whether it’s choreographing the children’s church musical or getting my first lead and partial solo, being there took me back and just made me want to see more. They were advertising the 2009 season and I already told Casey that one way or another, I am seeing Legally Blonde the musical (I already know all the songs by heart and thanks to MTV who aired the live Broadway show which of course I recorded). Overall, it was such a nice night and an awesome show! Thanks Margaret!

Out at the Ranch

Friday night we went to a big party at Circle R Ranch. They throw it every 2 years to thank all of the hotels and meeting planners in the area for sending them a lot of business. Jen, Kyle, Casey and I all met up at Flips to have a drink before the party. Jen and I got ready at my apartment and the boys met up with us at Flips. When they walked in, it was so funny. They had gone to Western Warehouse and bought pearl snap shirts! They looked so adorable! Casey was just bummed he didn’t have cowboy boots to complete the outfit. When we got to the ranch, it was hoppin’! There were SO many people there. They have a big barn-like area inside with tables and a stage where the band was playing and then a huge outside patio with couches and all of the food station. The food was delicious. They had everything from smoked chicken quesadillas (my favorite), ribs, tacos, and chips and salsa. Everything was free…even the beverages. They had beer, wine, margaritas, and a very interesting purple drink that tasted like a liquid purple skittle…and not in a good way. It was so sweet you could only have a few sips and you were good. Later we ran into the sales managers where we were let in on a secret. If you had a special VIP card, you had access to their “full bar.” Luckily, the managers were willing to share their cards. This made me happy since I was now able to get my favorite…cran-vod with a lime. I think someone told me the technical name is a “cape cod” but I like crad-vod better. One of the highlights was that they had photo booths set up for FREE! Those things are normally like $10 at Six Flags. So of course I made Casey jump in one with me and take some pics. They turned out like most photo booth pictures do. The first one Casey is trying to figure out where the camera is. The second one I’m looking down at the picture laughing at the fact that Casey wasn’t looking at the camera. By the 3rd and final picture we got it right though. Towards the end of the night, I was adjusting my shirt and realized something…I had been so excited that my new outfit worked when I put it on that I completely forgot to take the tags off. I had been walking around with 2 tags on my jeans all night. Luckily my shirt was long so I don’t think anyone noticed until I did. Still, everyone got a good laugh out of it. We had all talked about going out somewhere to dance after the party until we heard that a DJ was coming on at the end of the night. We all danced the night away. It ended up being a ton of fun!

Photo op with Kristen and Jen

Whoops! Left the tags on!

Doing Casey's "old man" dance

The Sales Girls

Queen of Crockpots

I have a new passion in life…crockpots. This past weekend I made an investment in a 6 quart, stainless steel crockpot and I am happy to say that I have not one ounce of buyers remorse. My first crockpot experience took place on Sunday. My crockpot came with a cookbook so I already read through and picked the ones I wanted to try first. So on Sunday, I made my first pot roast. It was delicious! Taking after my father, I of course could not stick to the bland recipe provided in the free cookbook. I had to kick it up a notch and make it better. Thanks to some motherly advice, I replaced the onions with onion soup mix and the mushrooms with cream of mushroom soup. My favorite part of the crockpot cooking experience…only 1 dish to clean at the end of the night! How can you beat that?! After the initial cooking experience, I was hooked. Yesterday, while at work, I was slow-cooking some chicken with rosemary and great northern beans. Again, not to toot my own horn but TOOT TOOT! It was AMAZING! So the 3rd round will be this Sunday and it’s going to be a kind of cheesy chicken but after talking with my cooking buddy Kate, I am going to make it a little chicken cordon blue and add some prosciutto. It’s still in the works but I think I’ll have a plan by Sunday. I’ll let you know how it turns out. Until then, just call me the Queen of Crockpots!

Reata

Last night Casey and I joined my parents for dinner at Reata, a restaurant located in Sundance Square in downtown Ft. Worth. We had all seen the restaurant when we were driving to drop my parents off at their hotel to check-in. It just looked like this garden patio on the top of a building. When you actually sit up there, it is really cool. You see all these buildings lit up and it has a kind of garden terrace feel. The food was super good too! It’s all very classic Texas food but with a gourmet twist, for example, the jalapeno cheddar gritz. We all ended up getting the exact same thing, the chicken fried steak which came with these amazing mashed potatoes. Before our food arrived my mom told me that she had a surprise for us. She had eaten lunch with her college roommate and she said when she came out of the restaurant, she saw…SPRINKLES! The cupcake place that I had been telling her we HAD to go to. She bought 4 cupcakes for us and the restaurant had said we could bring them in. So after dinner, we all split the cupcakes: vanilla, black and white (chocolate and vanilla frosting), red velvet, and peanut butter chip (which was by far the best one!). We let our waitress have some too which I’m pretty sure made her night. If you are looking for a nice restaurant to try with awesome atmosphere and delicious food, you definitely need to try Reata!