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Dallas Arboretum 2010
With less than 6 months left in Texas I decided to get started on my list of things to do before I move out of Texas. First up? The Dallas Arboretum! I made it just in time to see the Spring Blooms – it was the last full day they were showing the flowers. With my BFF and our cameras in tow, we made the rounds.
This was my first time to the arboretum, excluding my engagement. Not that I’d ever exclude that, but it was kinda private event that night and we only saw one part of the arboretum. This was my chance to soak it all in! It was super packed and we saw several brides getting their pictures done, as well as a couple of weddings taking place. I was glad to see the weddings in place because it made me realize how much I would NOT want to get married there after all (at one time we had considered it). Babies crying, tons of people you don’t know…it just isn’t how I imagined an intimate wedding ceremony.
The flowers seemed endless and I couldn’t wait to get to the spot where Thomas proposed! When I got there one of the first things I thought was, “it looks so different!” That night (the night he proposed) the place seemed huge and I felt so small, so vulnerable – I guess to a degree I was. Since then, they had obviously pruned several feet off of the surrounding blooms and it made the area look totally different, and a heck of a lot less secluded!
I really enjoyed going back to that moment though. With all the colorful flowers around, and just a few seconds of peace on the green – I remember the man I love asking me to be his wife…that was the perfect moment. The only thing that would have made it better would have been him, standing right beside me.
I can’t wait until he comes home so we can get one step closer to the hubs/wifey life! So, #4. Visit the Spring Blooms exhibit at the Dallas Arboretum , you are done!
(step)daughter date to American Girl
Before Thomas left on deployment he and I talked about me and his daughter, Faith, going to see his parents for her Spring Break. I was really excited about the opportunity because she doesn’t see her grandparents often and it gave me a chance to finally bond with my future step-daughter one-on-one.
I decided to take her on a date before our big trip so we could get comfortable with each other, and since she loves American Girl I thought the American Girl Bistro in Dallas at the Galleria would be the perfect place for us to go! I told her ahead of time to bring her favorite American Girl doll with her and she told me she choose Kirsten because she was the “best behaved.” Ha ha ha!
We arrived and were taken to our seats once we got there. Our company for the night included Faith and myself, as well as Kirsten and Thomas (via the phone). While Faith caught up with her daddy, I began looking around and quickly decided it was the poshest little bistro I’d ever been in! Girly, pink & sparkly!
While I was taking in the scenery and snapping photos, Faith was explaining the menu choices to her daddy on the phone. Meanwhile, Kirsten was behaving nicely (I’m not surprised since that good behavior is what won her a trip to the store with us!)
They had a really neat menu set-up where you paid a set price and you each get an appetizer and a main entree. We started by ordering our drinks. Faith opted for PINK Lemonade and I choose my predictably boring water with lemon. While we decided on what appetizers to choose, we took a break and played a game with our napkin rings. The rings were made of paper and on the backs they had words on them. The game was to create a sentence using the word on your paper ring. My word was loyal and Faith’s word was friend. Faith got creative and used both her word and my word and said, “I am loyal to my friends.” I thought it was a great sentence.
For appetizers Faith chose chicken noodle soup and I chose spinach artichoke dip with toast points. Faith was skeptical of my choice since it had the word spinach in it, but I assured her it was delish. She tried it and couldn’t believe how much she liked it! She even said she wanted to tell her mom she liked spinach! Score!
After the appetizers we were served our main course. This time Faith was the predicable one choosing chicken nuggets with a fruit skewer, while I went for the salmon with mashed potatoes and veggies. It was AMAZING. I was pleasantly surprised at how flavorful and beautifully plated the food was…it definitely made me feel like a princess! Faith was really excited to dig in and almost didn’t let me get the picture!
Once we finished our dinner we discussed dessert (man this girl is after my own heart!) and we eventually decided on the brownie sundae. Chocolatey, but not too chocolately. Our runner up was the mini ice cream cones, mostly because I’m a sucker for anything in mini-version – I think it’s so cute! However, in the end we just decided to share the sundae – another awesome choice made by Faith! It showed up and I swear the choir of angels let out a little song and cast a beam of light on it…or maybe I was just imagining that…
We dug in right away and mmmm’d and ahhhhh’d our way through half of it before we came up for air. At that point I’d had my fill and Faith considered for a moment whether or not she was done…she wasn’t! She managed to get a couple more bites in before she decided she was done. Poor Kirsten…she sat there and watched us devour that whole meal and I think we only offered her a bite one time!
After dinner we really wanted to look around the store, but we were running out of time to get Faith home and ready for bed since she had school the next morning. We did have time to stop by the display at the front real quick so she could show me the doll she liked. That store was pure heaven for her! I’m actually surprised I never even heard of it until just a couple of years ago.
As we walked out to the car we decided we’d definitely have to come back again. Faith even suggested the next time we come early in the morning and plan to stay there all day…at least we wouldn’t go hungry. I think next time it would be fun to see what other things we can do in the store together. I know they have a salon for the dolls and I think for the girls too. And then there’s always the shopping…what girl doesn’t like shopping to some degree? No matter what we decide, I’m really looking forward to getting to spend more time with her before the wedding and getting to know my future daughter even better!
four {yellow} eyes
So you remember me telling you about my eye allergies, right? Well I finally got brave enough to try my ingenious idea of wearing goggles outside to protect my eyes!
In case you don’t know, the reason I had come to that point was because my eye allergies made my eyes itchy. And itchy eyes means:
So after I rubbed and scratched I still had:
Allergy eyes. But I have to go outside. I work with kids. I can’t coop the kids up all day because of my allergies. I don’t wanna coop myself up all day from allergies.
So I did what any creative thinker would do: I thought creatively. It occured to me that swimming goggles would be the perfect solution to my eye allergies. They are clear so I can see and drive with them, they provide air-tight coverage of my delicately senstive eye area and they are cheap. So cheap in fact that I borrowed them from the 4 year old I watch.
I did miss my sunglasses, but the goggles worked pretty well! In fact, my only complaint was that they got foggy often. And yes, I put spit on the insides of them (multiple times) to try and prevent this but it was rather unsuccessful. So aside from spit-coating them every 3-5 minutes – the goggles are my solution to Texas springtime allergies. Take that Visine!