Merry Christmas!!

Hope you each had a perfect holiday with your family. I got to spend time with my sister and parents and am thankful for it! Hope 2011 brings joy and peace to everyone!

Meg hosts Thanksgiving 2010

I cannot believe today is December 1st! Last week I was lucky to get a few days off so my parents and I could go to see my sister in Dallas for Thanksgiving. Proud to say my sis made some awesome food, we got to hang out in her place, do some Black Friday shopping and even got to go to the K-State vs. North Texas football game. Great weekend and so glad to see Meg!

Meg's beautiful table....via Michaels.

Mom and the turkey!

Me with the host....
Meg and Dad at the K-State pre-game party in Denton.

Meg and me at the pre-party. Go State! :)

Oldies but goodies....

This weekend I got to see some of my favorite people....my college roommates (minus Julie). These girls know me better than the majority of people on the planet and I really MISS them! Living together several years in college, you go through the good, the bad and the crazy. We don't get to see each other as often since I moved back to Topeka, but we had a great weekend of shopping, eating and even saw "Life as We Know It" (such a good movie!). It was a great time relaxing before the holiday season and before Kylie has baby #3!

Now, my friends aren't the oldies, but we went to an antique mall together Saturday afternoon and saw (and smelled) LOTS of oldies to buy. I absoultey LOVED it and had to constantly resist the urge to buy everything! I took a few pictures for laughs and of my ONE purchase. I will remember this afternoon fondly. Take a glance at the great stuff we found and somehow managed to pass on buying.

Lindsay kindly poses with "the cart". As a group we maybe bought six items, but we hauled that cart all over the store and you could definitely not lose the person who was pushing it. It was definitely not "quiet."

Who wouldn't want these creepy feet salt and pepper shakers on their table?! Um, not me!

Now, this hoof on a plaque is so versatile.....it could go in any room of the house! Temptation isle- I had to walk away before I bought it. ;)

Katie modeling the dress she found to wear to Lindsay and my future weddings....she will look so fancy!!!

Three pretty ladies in one of the booths....please note the "Merry Christmas" decorations strung above their heads. They are stamps mini pie tins. Our brief plan was to go buy a bazillion pot pies and eat the beJesus out of them and stamp 'em up so we too could have our own beautiful decorations. Alas, we got distracted and our master plan did not come to fruition. Maybe next time!!!

Me in front of the mall with my prized possession!

My new kitchen decoration!! :)

Chicken Spaghetti Cook-Off 2010!

Some of my friends at work decided that we should have a chicken spaghetti cookoff this fall. They also decided that we should have it at my house....I said that was fine, but that I didn't want to compete....wouldn't be fair since I would win. :) Just kidding!

I was in a contests of sorts last spring for chicken pot pie...it wasn't as official as this set up though! This cookoff involved a ballot box and voting- very official! A few other folks brought over some salad, some others bread....and I made a few desserts. Needless to say, there was plenty of food! Congrats to Kristen for her victory; her chicken spaghetti involved some Velveeta and rotel. There was already some discussion sarted for the next cookoff...chili this winter! Mmm!


Leslie, one of the cooks, dishing up some pasta!!


The whole gang....

Sharee, aka "Peachy" and me, counting up the votes....

The peanut butter fudge bars, banana-sour cream cake and carrot bars...

Go State!

I love, love, love the K-State Wildcats and am excited to have recently received a cute little vase to help me display my love for the Cats. My parents were at Nell Hill's a few weeks ago and my dad picked out this little gift for each my sis and me to show our purple love. It's basically a bunch of purple test tubes wrapped together, and with some white flowers, it looks pretty festive! Excited to go to K-State games the next couple of weeks! :)

It must be fall...

So far this autumn season, I have used my favorite recipe for pumpkin bread twice and LOVE it! It is now on the black list of foods to not have in my house (along with Oreos, Doritos and Nutella) cause I want to eat the WHOLE loaf! But, for those of you with willpower, I thought I would share the recipe. I made it recently when my sister and I returned home from our trip (more on that later) since Meg requested, pleaded and begged that I make her some. We also like to add chocolate chips for extra sweetness. Give it a try!

Australia/New Zealand Trip....The Details:

Well, I started writing this blog post over a week ago before I went back to work, but life distracted me and I haven't got it done. So, here we go again....It has been two weeks ago today that I got home with my little sis in tow after two weeks in Australia and New Zealand. Megan worked in Perth, Australia (on the West coast) for 3 months. She is an auditor and her accounting firm has a branch there, so she participated in their exchange program. When Meg finished working at the end of September, I flew over to travel with her.

I wrote down everything as we traveled and I'm glad I did since it was so busy, I would have had trouble remembering everything. I am going to write up our trip before I forget it, definitely way more than anyone on the planet wants to hear about, but I think that someday I'll want to look back and remember all the details of our amazing trip. So, here is the long and dirty version:

Wednesday, September 29th-

• My dad drove me to the KC airport to catch a 1:00 flight to Dallas. First hiccup of the trip was when I was getting through check-in, it was realized I didn't have the necessary Visa to go into Australia. Yep, you need a Visa to go there even for tourism, not just to study or work. So, with a quick call to Australia, she got me fixed up so I would be able to enter the country.



• After flying to Dallas, I had a two hour layover before heading to Los Angeles and while walking around, I discovered Cereality, a cereal bar like an ice cream shop. I didn't try anything, but will have to next time.



• LA greeted me with a 4-hour layover where I ate some crummy Chinese food and anxiously awaited my 14-hour flight to Sydney.



• The flight for Sydney left at 10:30 pm from LA. I was SO tired and basically got on the plane and fell asleep. During the flight, they served two meals, a snack and passed water/juices all night. I probably slept on and off for the first half of the flight, woke up and was convinced that we were almost there...bummer that we still had 7 hours to go! Thankfully, there were about 60 movies offered and the chairback in front of everyone had a personal screen. The guy next to me slept so hard most of the flight! He might have rested his head on my shoulder for awhile....awkward.



• There was a 2-hour layover in Sydney, during which I had to RUSH through customs, baggage and the quarantine station....slight hold up there was that they are super strict with rules about bringing anything into the country. I checked "yes" that I had food with me, as I had some trail mix....a term they weren't familiar with and I had several people ask me if I had beef jerky in it??? Um, no.



• On the last leg of my trip over to Perth, I had a 5-hour flight from Sydney with a choice of 10 movies. It seemed very short comparatively to the 14-hour journey.



• I landed in Perth about 11 am on Friday, October 1st...my precious baby sister arrived close to noon. She got caught at work, while understandable, not impressive to someone who was on a plane for 24 hours. Nevertheless, I went to her apartment and napped for four hours. After my sleep, we got ready and met up with her coworkers for one last Friday night happy hour at Fire & Ice, then went to dinner at Han's with her friend Crystal, followed by a drink with a few other friends before calling it an early night before our day of playing tourists Saturday.
  

Saturday, October 2nd-

• Thanks to some jetlag, 8:00 brought rise and shine for me, so we got up and headed to King's Park....a really beautiful park in Perth with great views of the city.




• After looking around the park, we took the train to Freo and strolled around the town. We hit up a chocolate shop or a mid-morning churro and milkshake, followed by a quick walkabout through the markets.




• We got ferry tickets to go to Rottnest Island, which is about 30 minutes away and is very isolated from the rest of the world. No cars, just bikes and people walking around. Very laid back, with a few restaurants and some camp grounds. We rented bikes and rode around or about two hours. Very fun!




• Around 4:30 we caught the ferry back to Freo, then took the train back to Meg's apartment, followed by a teeny nap so I would be rested for our night our with Megan's friends.




• Meg and I wen to Julio's for an Italian dinner before going to her friend Crystal's apartment with a few friends. After that, we ventured out on the town and had a great time!

Sunday, October 3rd-

• Megan and I were up about 9:00 and did some packing as it was our last day in Perth. We went to brunch at a restaurant by Meg's office building, which was great! We both had pear and cream stuffed fresh toast with strawberries and a side of bacon. On the way leaving, we walked through the farmers market and got a almond chocolate croissant for the road and also went in the grocery store so Meg could buy some of her beloved Tim Tam's...one of her favorite Australian treats, a wafer cookie.




• The afternoon was a bit of a mess. We went to the airport to check one of Meg's bag unaccompanied back to Dallas to save her cash and it wasn't an easy task! They were closed on Sundays, but thankfully someone was able to come in after about an hour and get it done for her.




• From there, we headed for Swan Valley, which is where we went to find the wineries, chocolate shop and a brewery. Well, it didn't go so swimmingly since we didn't have a map and we got a bit turned around. I was perhaps not a very kind sister, but we found it!




• We hit up the chocolate shop and did a tasting of the different flavors of candy. Mmm. We didn't buy anything, as the candy bars are about $12 each. Um, no thanks. We ventured on to the winery where we each paid $2.50 to taste nine wines. Our final stop was to the local brewery in Swan Valley where we split some "hot chips" aka, fries....and had a beer.




• About 5:30, we zoomed over to Caudleslow, where there are supposedly world famous sunsets. Wouldn't you know it, it was cloudy?! :( And it was cold...but it was still pretty!After the sunset, we picked up Crystal for a last dinner in Perth and went to "Must". A lovely time with great food.




• About 10:00, we returned to Meg's apartment to pack and clean a bit, and finally arrived at our CREEPY motel by the airport at 11:15. Thankfully we were only there one night. Not a good sign when you feel like you should wear your flip flops in the shower. Ew.

Monday, October 4th-

• Ugh, up at 5:30 and showered. Left for the airport at 6:00 and returned the rental car. At 8:00 we flew from Perth to Sydney. We lost 3 hours with the time zones, we actually arrived at 3:00, took the airport shuttle to the hotel.




• After a quick change of clothes from our travels, we went to "The Rocks" area to explore, as well as Sydney Harbor. We went to the visitors Center and got lots of tourist info.




• We ended up at Giovanni's for dinner where we split a sausage/pepperoni pizza and tortellini stuffed with sausage, with cream sauce and mushrooms/proscuitto. Tasty.




• After dinner, we went back to the hotel and crashed early.

Tuesday, October 5th-

• We got up at 8:00, bought a little 24-hour internet at the hotel to get reconnected to the outside world a bit after almost a week without. Eeeek!




• At 9:00 we headed for the infamous Opera House Tour; no tours starting until 10:30 so we walked through the nearby Botanical Gardens for 45 minutes. It was hot and humid! Definitely more trees/shrubs than flowers, but very pretty.




• 10:30 was the start of the hour long Opera House tour. Really amazing! The internationally known building was completed in 1973 after 16 years of building and a 103 million dollar budget, which was initially set for 3 years and 9 million dollars. Oops. A Danish architect designed it and it is the biggest site of tourism in Australia.




• At 12:00, we ate lunch at a restaurant on the harbor. Afterwards, we bought some post cards and mailed them in the city before we took a harbor cruise. It went all around the harbor and gave the history, including the Darling Harbour.




• After the harbor tour, we took another ferry over to Darling Harbour where we went to the Sydney Aqaurium...it was neat, but probably not worth the $35 each. We took an excessive number of fish pictures and learned lots of random facts, including that the male seahorses carry their babies. Post aqaurium, we walked around the harbour and got some chinese take away to eat while we hung out people watching....nice ending to a full day.

Wednesday, October 6th-

• Rise and shine at 6:30 to get ready for our 7:45 pick up for our tour of The Blue Mountains. Such an amazing day trip! We're so glad we did it. It started out with a stop at the Featherdale Zoo where we got to pet koalas, kangaroos, penguins, etc. Lots of pictures!




• After seeing all the cute animals, we went to a park where our tour guide showed us how to throw a boomerang...it was tough!!




• About 10:30 we continued to head into The Blue Mountains, which is a range West of Sydney. We went to a lookout, where it was initially cloudy, but it quickly cleared and was gorgeous! They took us to the country club and served lunch. From there, we went on the scenic railway, saw The Three Sisters and the rainforest at the bottom of the mountains. After a quick stop at the candy store we went by the site of the 2000 Olympic Games before taking a ferry back to Sydney harbor to finish up the tour.




• Since it was a full day, we grabbed some take away from "George's on Jackson," a restaurant not far from our hotel, went by the grocery for snacks for an upcoming beach day, and we went to the hotel room and had dinner with wine we bought at the winery in Perth.

Thursday, October 7th-

• This was definitely one of our more low-key days on the trip. We went to the Paddy Markets and looked around at ALL the stuff they had, incluidng an outfit I bought for Halloween to be a geisha girl. I also bought a sundress....couldn't resist.




• Things went very wrong as we were leaving the markets, we saw a man unloading skinned goats onto a cart in the street in Chinatown. My sister, a pseudo-vegetarian, was mildly traumatized. Possibly ended her days of eating in any Chinatown....ever.




• The afternoon brought another ferry trip; this time to Manly Beach, which is one of the famous beaches in Sydney. We had heard from several people about a fish and chips place on the beach, so we got that and found a sport to hang out. Unfortunately, it was SUPER cold and windy. :( We were looking forward to a day of sun, but not meant to be. We called it a day early and headed back to the hotel hot tub!




• For our last night in Sydney, we got spruced up and went out on the town for dinner. We found a German bar we a great bartender and each had a lemon beer before going to a FANTASTIC Italian dinner in The Rocks area. We met the only other Americans we found on our trip while in Australia...a little older couple from Georgia. Very nice.

Friday, October 8th-

• Another early morning....we got up at 6:30 to get the airport. Our flight for Cairnes left from Sydney at 9:00 and arrived at 11:15. We got picked up by our hostel shuttle and checked in to the room at our first hostel ever at 12:30.




• We quickly booked a tour of the rainforest there as it is one of the "to see" places in Australia....we caught a shuttle to the Skyrail at 1:30 and took a gondola up to the top, then took the train back to town. We arrived at the train station at 5:30, then we looked around the town, including the pool and coast.




• We ate at Outback Jack's for dinner...mmm! We returned to our hot and humid hostel room about 7:30. We paid $1 for 3 hours of air conditioning in the room. Called it an early night before our big day on The Great Barrier Reef the next day...

Saturday, October 9th-

• What a fun day!! We got picked up at 7:15 by The Reef Experience shuttle for a day on the ocean! We were taken to the dock and were greeted on the boat with breakfast. There were about 40 people on the boat and 10-15 crew members. We had an intro to ship safety and rode approximately an hour to the first dive sport. A marine biologist did a presentation on the reef. We had an intro to scuba diving lesson and had our first intro dive into scuba diving. It was definitely scary at first, but our guide was great and stayed with us the whole time. We went all the way to the bottom of the ocean; about 6 meters.




• After scuba diving, we ate lunch before going to a second spot. We snorkeled for 30-45 minutes. They served wine, crackers and cheese on the way home and we relaxed on the roof of the ship. I missed some sunscreen on my chest and shoulders, which resulted in some burning. Oops. :(




• We returned to shore about 4:00, we walked around Cairnes, and returned to our hostel about 5:30 to get cleaned up. We walked around for an hour looking for somewhere we wanted to go for dinner....and ended up settling on chinese at the food court. After dinner, we went to a bar and had a beer before going home to bed....exhausted after a long, but fun day!!

Sunday, October 10th-

• Sadly, it was our last day in Australia! :( . This day was essentailly lost to travel. We got packed up in the morning and checked out of the hostel at 1o:00 before our 1:00 flight to Brisbane. We left Brisbane at 5:15 for Auckland; in that process, we lost 3 hours in the time change. Our flight didn't land in Auckland until midnight and by the time we got through customs and got our bags and to the hotel, it was 1:30. It was a Holiday Inn and only about a year old. By far the best beds, pillows, sheets and comforters ever in the history of the world!

Monday, October 11th-

• Too bad that we only got to stay in the best hotel ever for about six hours. We had to get up about 8:00 to catch our flight to Queenstown. Auckland is on the North Island and Queenstown is a popular tourist spot on the South Island.




• We landed in Queenstown about 1:00 and took the airport shuttle to the hostel there. It was really nice and seemed like a very clean dorm with two twin beds and a shower/toilet in our room. We walked around town and found a $10 lunch special at a Thai restaurant. Pretty good and cheap!




• After we ate, we went to Bob's Peak Gondola and it had the most amazing views!




• That evening we tried to cash in on the free dinner they served in the hostel and about 7 minutes after they started serving, they were out of pasta. So, we hit the streets and found half-price pizza across from our hostel...split that and two Diet Cokes for only $20. Pretty good for New Zealand prices!




• Post-dinner, we walked around and found where we needed to go for our tours on Wednesday.

Tuesday, October 12th-

• Up and at 'em at 6:30 or our day trip to Milford Sound. We had the most amazing day and enjoyed really beautiful scenery! It was four hours each way and Meg managed to sleep about half of the time on the bus. About 10:30, we stopped for a coffee break....well, I bought water and chips while the rest of the planet had coffee.




• After our pit stop we ventured onto Milford Sound. We made several stops on the way to take pictures, incluidng looking at The Chasm and Mirror Lakes.




• At 1:00 we arrived in Milford Sound and got on our ship for the day. We had picnic lunches including with our trips and it was SO amazing!! We saw penguins, seals, dolphins, waterfalls and had a great time.




• About 4:00 our ship returned so we got back on the tour bus, where Meg promptly fell asleep for 2 hours. We got to Queenstown about 8:15 that night and went to "The World Bar" to redeem our coupons for free beer from our hostel and had some dinner. We felt super old as most of the folks there were the 18-year-old backpackers. What a life they have! Hang out all day and go out at night....

Wednesday, October. 13th-

• We were up and showered at 8:15 in order to meet up for the Segway Tour at 9:45. Two other people were on the tour; a couple on their honeymoon from the North Island. The guide showed us how to use them, then we had an hour and a half tour of the town. We went up and down hills, through gardens, played disc golf and went around the lake. I screamed for a good portion of it.



• At noon we rushed over to get picked up for our "Skippers Canyon" Jetboat Tour. It was an hour drive to the canyon, about half an hour on the water and it was very fun! Another hour back to Queenstown.



• We got back to town and shopped a bit, ate at Fergberger, which is a local burger joint that is really popular and so good! We split a burger and fries.



• Later that afternoon, we walked by the bay, grabbed a couple $2.50 beers and looked at the shops. For our last evening in New Zealand, we split a pizza from Winnie's....a favorite pizza place of locals and ate by the bay.



• We returned to the hotel to pack up and ended up watching "The Dutchess" and sadly couldn't sleep until 11:00....flight early the next day!

Thursday, October 14th-

• Up at 7:15 and enjoyed the free breakfast at the hostel. PBJ! We got picked up at 8:15 by the airport shuttle. Meg ended up paying $80 in overages fees for the checked bag weight. We dodged a lot of potential charges throughout our travels for overages in baggage weight!!



• We landed in Auckland about 11:30 and drama ensued when there were two Megans booked for the flight to LA and no Michelle. It took over half an hour to find out that was the hold up, and eventually it was sorted out, but I was stressed out! We finally boarded our 12 flight from Auckland to LA at 2:30 New Zealand time and arrived at 6:30 am to LAX. Meg didn't sleep at all, but I managed about 3 hours.



• At 9:30, we flew out of LA to go to Dallas and got there 2:30 Central Time. At 5:20, we left Dallas for the very last leg of the trip and got to Kansas City about 7:00. Our parents picked us up and we went to a bar in Zona Rosa for dinner and to watch K-State beat KU in the football game.

What a great trip....memories that Meg and I will always treasure. I'm so thankful we were able to have this time together and can't wait until our next trip!

Meg and me at Milford Sound in New Zealand...

Wow! Ten years already?!

This weekend was my ten year reunion for my high school. I cannot believe it has been TEN years! I helped with putting the reunion together and as good as it was to see everyone, I'm glad it's done!! Friday night, we were supposed to watch our Topeka West football team get beat, I mean play, Manhattan High School. They suspended the game 3 minutes in due to lightning, so we headed to a local bar early and had about 50 people turn out.

This is me with the other girls in my class that were on the basketball team when we won state my senior year- Kelly, Casey and Tammy. Two other girls in my class were on the team, but weren't there that night. Tammy and I actually played basketball together ever since we learned in third grade. That's a LONG time!

This couple is Andrea and Jesse Razak....they have essentially been dating since our days at Landon middle school in 7th grade. They're married now and have a little boy and Andrea recently joined the bunko group that I play in here in town.

This is me and my friend Alex....we went to school from preschool through graduation; until we parted ways for KSU/KU respectively.

Saturday night, we had an appetizers and bar at a hotel in town and had about 60 people show up. Some people came who I am still friends with and see on a regular basis, but there were others there that I literally had not seen in 10 years. So, lots of chatting and some drinks and mission accomplished. Can't wait to see what the next 10 years brings for my fellow TW alumn.

Here's my friend Lacey with her husband Chad. Lacey is one of my closest friends from high school and fortunately we are both in Topeka now so I get to see her some, including bunko nights! They recently welcomed their second little boy, so they are busy parents!

This is a picture of Casey and her husband Matt and our friend Kelly.

Here's me with Jacob, who came in for the reunion from Atlanta and actually helped out quite a bit with planning. It had been a long time since I had seen him! Good to catch up.

This is one of my best friends from high school, Tisharria, and her fiancee, Reis. She was also on the basketball team (she basically was our team) and we're still good friends. Great to get to know her fiancee a bit better; seems like a keeper. :)

Labor of Love

This past Labor Day weekend was spent by my family at a wedding in KC. My sister flew in from Australia to be a bridesmaid to the bride, one of her best friends from KSU. It was an absolutely perfectly gorgeous day for a wedding and it was really lovely. I'm so glad we got to see Meg and help Libbie and Dru celebrate their marriage.

Me and Meg
With my family....
Meg and me with the bride Libbie. Congrats!

Road trip to Mmm....

This week some of my good friends at work (who all happen to root for the Jayhawks) and I took a little drive over to Manhattan for dinner at So Long Saloon. This bar/restaurant was a favorite when I went to K-State and judging by the crowds Wednesday night, it's still doing pretty well. My KU friends haven't been to Manhattan very much, except Leslie who lives between Topeka and Manhattan....and Jenny's daughter is a senior on the cross country team there. Anyway, I'm so glad we made the trip and I would recommend it to anyone looking for a great place to stop in Aggieville for good food.

Leslie and Kristen

Jenny, Sarah, and me

We had to wait for about 10 minutes for a table so we decided to order a drink....I asked for Old Style and pinnapple, since that's what we drank there in college. My sister and I LOVED this combo! The bartender sadly informed me they don't carry Old Style anymore since it has went up in price, but now mix pinnapple juice with Old Milwaukie and they call it a Nancy. We all had one and loved it! Just as good as I remember.

A couple of reasons we went there are for their fried pickles and the black bean raspberry dip. Both are really good and super popular! We split some of each and enjoyed an evening out of Topeka. I look forward to going again sometime soon. Visiting Manhattan makes me really excited for the upcoming football season!! Go Cats!! :)

7:30-

7:32

Before:

After:

The day my parents bought pork chops at Sam's.....

My mom casually mentioned that my parents had went to Sam's this weekend. She said they happened to get a "good deal" on some pork chops there. Well, if you have ever been to Sam's, you understand that they sell in bulk. And lots of it. I think my parents forget they don't have 18 children. Whoops.

My cousin Jennifer recently moved here from Denver and I mentioned we were grill some pork chops at my house tonight for dinner so she should join us. I had no idea what I was promising. Jenn came over and shortly after my parents show up with the better half of a pig. Holy moly. Their idea was that we would have dinner tonight and then all have leftovers. Granted, my dad didn't grill all of them (some were saved for the freezer), but it was slightly overwhelming and I think Jennifer was like, what kind of family do I have in Kansas?!


In addition to the chops, I grilled some veggies and we had baked potatoes. Turns out, we needed a spare plate for the chops....what a mess! We discussed how in fancy restaurants, they give you a nice little side for plate for bread or salad. Apparently when you eat at my house, you get a Pork Plate since all of our pork wouldn't fit on the main plate. Geeze!







Anyway, thanks for dinner Dad (tonight and for the rest of the week!). Welcome to Kansas Jennifer and good luck starting law school tomorrow (pictured below with her first day of school picture)!

A visitor and celebration

Last weekend my friend Amanda drove to Topeka from Colorado for a wedding celebration of my friend Megan. Amanda worked with us until May when she moved to Colorado. It was good to spend time catching up and the wedding was beautiul, as well as Megan. Here are a couple pictures:


The beautiful cake....


Most of the gang from work....


Me with the beautiful bride....

Our little Coloradan with the Martins. Congrats Megan and Anthony!

Answered Prayer

I recently posted about a friend's dad who went missing in KC July 8th. An article came out this evening that he was found on a trail in a Shawnee Mission park. Although he is disoriented and dehydrated, he is alive. God Bless Kristen and her family as they reunite!

Old friends, new recipes and the French Press!!

This weekend I had a few friends from grad schoool over to my house for dinner. Out of the four, only one of them had seen my house since I moved in last summer. We had a blast. Not much that I love more than having some of my favorite people over, sharing a meal and catching up. It had been quite awhile since all five of us had gotten together and I'm so glad it worked out for everyone to come over.

My friend Gena offered to bring dessert and said she was gonna whip up a key lime pie. And did she ever! It was SOOOOOO good! She said the credit goes to a Betty Crocker recipe. So, since she was making something light and sweet, I found a recipe for Tequila-Lime Chicken on the super popular Pioneer Woman website. That woman knows what she is doing! I would highly recommend it! So, to round things out, Maha looked up an amazing Corn, Avacado and Tomato Salad on Paula Deen's website....really tasty! Leah and Teresa completed the meal with some wine and it all went together really well.

Gena and her beautiful pie!

To finish off a delightful evening, my friends taught me to use a French Press that my friend gave me. As a non-coffee drinker, I have not had much interest in learning how to use it, but they were VERY excited. My friend Amanda that gave it to me also had given me some Caramel Creme coffee from World Market. Again, all these coffee drinkers were VERY excited. I took a couple sips and so badly wanted to like it, but no luck.

Maha getting things started with the coffee....

Brewing....

Me wanting so badly to like coffee.....guess I will be sticking to Diet Coke for a vice.

I was super glad to spend time with these girls and look forward to doing it again! :)

Me with Leah who I lived with for a year after we graduated from KU....
With Gena who had baby Lydia in December....

Maha and Teresa.....Maha just got a new apt by the Plaza in KC and Teresa is getting married in November. Lots to celebrate!

With 3 of the 4 ladies...we figured out the self-timer! Ta-da! :)