non-Twin birthday...

Jenny and I turned the big quarter-of-a-century on Monday! Since graduating from ACU, we have been apart for our birthdays each year (first in Switzerland, she in grad school; last year Houston vs. Memphis; this year Dallas vs. Memphis). I enjoy spending time with people on special occasions like birthdays, so this weekend, I tried to spend as much time with my friends as possible.


I began the weekend by organizing a girls' night for my church class. Friday night, 17 wonderful gals got together for a lengthy fondue dinner at Simply fondue. We had all four courses (salad, cheese fondue, meat fondue (where you cook the raw meat in oil or broth), and the best: chocolate fondue -- all eight styles). The meal took four hours to enjoy and we had a blast going from fondue pot to fondue pot to try everything. I believe we were all in heaven at the final course. We were able to choose eight chocolate fondues, ranging from Peanut Butter Swirl, Bailey's, Banana's Foster, Chocolate/White Chocolate Swirl, White Chocolate Amaretto, and some others that slip my mind at the time. I recommend doing the fondue thing with a group; I think it would be an awkward, say, first date.

Saturday, I helped a friend move out of her apartment and just spent a relaxing evening at home watching movies. I did make my grandmother Virginia's enchiladas as a birthday treat! Yum!

After Sunday night church, my friend Jessica spread the word that we were all going to dinner. Emily helped me choose Cheesecake Factory (an excellent birthday choice!) and there were 20 of us total! I don't really hang out with one specific group at church, and it was fun to see the variety of groups that came to celebrate. I don't really believe I have 20 friends at church; I think they were there because of the cheesecake. Unfortunately, with that many folks, we had to split into two tables, so I wasn't able to visit with everyone. Luckily, Monday night is small group night. I think I'm really going to like my small group with church. We've only met twice so far and we're studying the Love Language book for Singles. Pretty funny how the author changes up the analogies for "Singles", but it beats hearing about "how to treat your spouse" all the time. :)

I talked with Jenny several times on Monday; I even had my students sing to her! (all the while she was saying, "I have to go, Laura, I have to get back to work! Aww, thanks, kids!" so funny!) My students were so cute -- some of them (honors class) brought me two cards they had all signed (mind you, they made the cards in their social studies class because they had a sub that day), and a rose. Cute, you may think? Hmm, the fake rose's bud was filled with this horrid-smelling red perfume. So precious... When I got home from school, Anne had covered the door with a "Happy Birthday" banner and had blown up balloons for me to trip on as I entered! Flowers, more cupcakes, and DVDs. She's the best!

Anyway, that about did it for the big 2-5. I didn't freak out like I kind of expected. I'm looking forward to a fabulous year. I think I'll rent a car. Any suggestions? I'm thinking either a Z-3 or a Hummer -- you know, something I wouldn't normally drive (something with at least a power antenna!).

Peace out!

The Sassy Seven

This wonderful Spring Break commenced with a trip to see Jenny (and her new house) in Memphis. We had so much fun and the weather was just perfect! She lives in an artsy part of town and her house is next to an amazing park by the zoo. She has wood floors and big, open spaces.

Since our birthday is coming up (and I'm horrible about mailing things, especially on time), we decided to go shopping together for birthday presents. We began with clothing, but soon got bored. I had been telling her how I want to stock my outdoor sports equipment stash, so we went to Target and she "present-ed" me with a soccer ball (always good to have on hand), volleyball (I have a sand volleyball court at my apartments), and frisbee (can't believe I didn't even have one of those). So, now I'm set. Next item on the list is a tennis racket (or is it raquet?). When I was little, I tried to take tennis lessons, but the Rich klutziness wouldn't allow any good to come of it. I think I've grown into my feeble bones and can better manage myself so I'm trying to give it a shot again.

On to the SASSY SEVEN! At ACU, there was a very close-knit group of seven of us girls. We have not all been together since graduation (there have been six together, but not seven), and it was past time to do something. Angie, Anne, and I live in the DFW area. Kristi and Jenny live in Memphis, Dearing in Nashville, and Allison in Iowa (her husband is in podiatry school there). A good "mid-point" that we found was Hot Springs, Arkansas! I'll let the pictures tell the story:

This is the Buckstaff Bath House. Five of the seven of us did the whole bath house experience. I won't go into details, but it was an experience -- once in a lifetime for me. thanks.

We ate in Hot Springs a couple of times. The most memorable was at this place called "Bubbalou's." A sweet old man and his OCD and keep-it-all-together wife ran the place. Lou kept it social and his wife flipped all the burgers and made sure all the orders were filled. A little backwards to our normal stereotype, but cute nonetheless.

For lodging, Allie found us a house to rent for the weekend, which was a fabulous idea! However, the house was located in Hot Springs Village, a gated retirement community that stretched and winded and curved forever and ever! A good example of how it was a retirement community was the local Wal-Mart. Instead of a line of carts greeting you as you enter, we saw this:

Therefore, we mostly hung out at the house:

At the house, we hung out and did various things. One of the things we did was watch Dearing and Angie try Bertie Botts' Every Flavored Beans. This is Angie's reaction after eating "vomit" or "booger" or something equally as disgusting:

Imagine a picture of Angie about to vomit...The photo thing isn't letting me download my pictures at the moment...

We also played an exciting game of...er, I can't remember the name at the time. Obviously it wasn't so exciting, mainly because we all achieved the highest goal each round. In the end, Dearing, who was half-asleep the entire time and not really paying attention (and who didn't finish first) had the highest score...

Imagine a picture of Jenny throwing ("rolling" if you will) the die cubes... ahh, victory!

Overall, we enjoyed ourselves and had a great time. It was so relaxing to just hang out with people that KNOW me -- people that I don't have to impress or worry about what they might think. I'm so thankful for my close friends. Ah, the beauty of the self-timed photo:

Imagine a super-cute picture of the seven girls smiling. This picture is similar to the top photo, except we're not being as goofy.

The end...

Riverdance!!!

Wow, I never thought I'd get to go to a Riverdance show, but thanks to Katie, not only did I get to go, I got to sit on the lower level of the Bass Hall in an incredible seat! Katie's friend Holly's dad has company tickets to many shows and he decided not to go. Holly gave Katie 2 tickets and Wednesday night, Katie asked what I was doing on Thursday. To make a short story long, I got to go last-minute.

This was perhaps one of the most fun performances I've been to. There are a few others that top the charts, like Stomp (at the Majestic in San Antonio), Cirque du Soleil (in Disney World with my family), and I loved seeing "Thoroughly Modern Millie" in London with Kristi and Jacque. But Riverdance was fantastic and it ranks #1 with me at the moment!

My favorite part of the show was the dance-off (or tap-off) between two jazzy soul dancers and three Riverdancers. so fun! However, not only were the dancers spectacular, the musicians were great as well. They were as much a part of the show as the dancers, with their own costume changes, solos, and playing to the crowd.

Onto other things, tomorrow I'm driving 7 hours to Memphis, TN. I'll spend most of my wonderful Spring Break with my amazing sister. I can hardly wait! I have a few things to go before then, so I better wrap this up. More adventures to come!

OOOOOOOOOOOOO

KLAHOMA, when the wind comes sweeping down the plains....

This weekend, some friends and I took a random road trip to Oklahoma City, OK for a concert called "Winterjam." Several Christian rock groups were featured, like Toby Mac (and Diverse City), The Newsboys, Zoe Girl, and a few others. Although the concert was geared toward a slightly younger crowd ("Who wants to go to college?!?!" was one thing that was said), we had a lot of fun. Eric, Emily, and I let loose and enjoyed ourselves a great deal. Katie got to see some of her friends and I think Brandon had fun as well. :) After the concert (and a very exciting Chinese Fire Drill), we went to eat at IHOP and got to Emily's friend's house rather late. Emily's friend, Rebecca, was a fabulous hostess. We all discovered we had some crazy ACU connections.

On Saturday, we were supposed to go rock climbing with Rebecca and her roommate at this place called OKC Rocks. However, there was a large group of children that we had to wait on, so we figured it wasn't worth our time. No worries! We got our climbing in for the day:
I think the goal of road trips is flexibility. No, I don't mean in the climbing or athletic sense, but flexibility in plans. The point is to have fun, and if plans get changed, it's easy to get frustrated...unless you're flexible! Also, many people have varied tastes in music, topic of conversation, food preferences, etc. What is the necessary ingredient? What will make it all fly? That's right -- flexibility. I'd say the group was very flexible this weekend and we all had so much fun. yay for road trips! I look forward to many more in the future.