Villa-O

Monday night we got to go out to dinner with some good friends and try out a new restaurant that we had never been to before: Villa-O. Our motivation to go was partially spurred on by a rumor of a special Monday night discount:
50% off entrees! Woohoo!

Despite the savings, all of us ended up shaing meals anyway!

Ahh to be a twenty-something on a budget.

Taylor and I shared the Fennel Crusted Sea Scallops (served over a sweet basil vinaigrette with baby arugula), Hayden and David shared the Mediterranean Sea Bass, and Shelbi and Preston shared the Lasagna Bolognese.

Yum!

Image/D-Magazine

4th of July Weekend

I absolutely love long weekends. Aren't they just wonderful? I wish we had them every weekend. We were long overdue for a very chill weekend and this one totally hit the spot. I made a point to go out to the pool almost every day. It was glorious. I brought out my stash of magazines that were begging to be read and soaked up as much sun as my pale (now slightly red) skin would allow.

Friday night we discovered that the grill in our apartment complex is broken. Very sad. We marched straight into the apartment complex management office with a heaping plate of raw meat and tried to look as sad as possible. It apparently worked because the next day there was at least an "out of order" sign on the grill so other poor souls wouldn't spend 20 minutes in the scorching heat trying to get a broken grill to function. We did discover that it was broken during the Memorial Day holiday weekend too. Which makes no sense. Maybe they'll have it fixed in time for Thanksgiving. When no one wants to grill anymore. Sigh.

Saturday morning my sweet husband made me breakfast in bed! He knows the way to my heart. And by that I mean more of the feeding-me-breakfast part than the actual eating-in-bed part...but either way, it rocked!

After that we met up with two of our friends (Ky & Emily) for coffee at the Pearl Cup. These are the friends that recently got married in California...which you will know more about when I finally get around to posting about their wedding and our trip! Ky is a (recently-promoted) captain in the army and he and his new wife are shipping out for a year in Korea. It was great to catch up with them a little before they left Dallas!

Saturday afternoon (after some more good pool time) we spent a little while tidying the apartment in preparation for dinner with another set of good friends, Hayden & David. These friends used to be in our small group but then moved to Oklahoma/Ft. Worth so it's quite the challenge to get together! Our game plan had been to use the outdoor grill to cook our (blue cheese) burgers but since our apartment complex foiled that plan we resorted to pan frying the burgers...and they turned out pretty well if I do say so myself. We had such a fun evening together that we planned a second dinner-date for Monday night. Don't you just love long weekends?

Sunday morning we gave in to one of our favorite breakfasts out: Einstein bagels & Starbucks! Love me a double-toasted-sesame-bagel-with-plain-cream-cheese. Nom nom nom. After breakfast we headed over to Northpark for an early afternoon movie and discovered that the mall doesn't open until noon on Sundays! Who knew? It gave up plenty of time for (forced) window shopping! Northpark has a bunch of cute fountains and sculptures so it's actually a really fun place to walk around.

One fountain had a whole family of ducks and turtles! So cute!

We eventually plunked down near a few of the stores we actually wanted to go in to and waited for the doors to open. You should have seen the rush going into Tiffany's! :)

Cars 2 was our movie of choice for the weekend...super cute!

Sunday afternoon we headed out for a 4th of July BBQ hosted by one of Taylor's co-workers, Marvin. Yummy food and fun people!

Marvin is definitely seriously grilling in this picture. Oh and can see you see the corn we brought on the top shelf? We used Taylor's parents recipe for yummy grilled corn: husk the corn but leave the leaves attached (so just take out the stringy stuff), rub down the corn with butter, season with S&P, and then stuff/lay sprigs of fresh rosemary along the corn and tuck the leaves back up (so they cook in a little shell basically!). They're delish.

Another friend at the party, Paisley, made these fabulous looking desserts: 4th of July cupcakes and homemade apple and blueberry pie!

The majority of Monday was spent relaxing - both inside and outside by the pool! Monday night we headed to Ft. Worth for dinner round II. This time we feasted on baked fish with cheesy risotto and green beans. So. Good. After dinner we got to catch part of a local fireworks show from right outside the apartment which satisfied my 4th of July fireworks craving! The 4th of July just isn't complete without them, you know?

And so, here we are. Back to work and back into our regular routine. On the plus side, it is already Wednesday(!!!) and the next long (scheduled) weekend is only 58 days away! Sigh. 
 

Picture Perfect Part II

Remember my picture post a few weeks ago? Well I do believe 'Picture Perfect' might just become a regular series here on T&G Web Log. Here's a little bit of our goings-on from the past week or so, in pictures:

Texas Barbeque

Lindsey, a good friend and former small group member (before she and her husband left the Lone Star state and moved to San Francisco), came to visit Dallas and we got to catch up and enjoy dinner at Spring Creek bbq.

Cork

A few of Taylor's coworkers planned another after work gathering at Cork wine bar. I only got Taylor to take one picture when we walked in and then put my camera away. Fail! It was a fun night though!

Mail

We received a super cute and creative save the date for a good friends' wedding next fall. She and her fiance met in the library at their school and inside the cute little book was written: "We met amongst the books at Gonzaga University, please join us as we celebrate the next chapter of our lives." How cute is that??

Eats 'n Treats

Taylor and I took a trip to the well-known Flying Saucer one day after work the other week. 

I love all the plates on the walls and ceiling and their funky chandeliers! 

Oh and in case you haven't heard of the Flying Saucer (for my non-Dallas readers out there), it's a fun pub (read: not a normal bar) with specialty beers. Love it. And I always get cider because it tastes better than beer. My husband, of course, disagrees. 

Yum. I cannot get enough of these new cake pops from Starbucks. The pink one (birthday cake flavored) is my fav!

Showtime!

We caught an "early bird" showing of the Adjustment Bureau last weekend and paid $5, yes just $5, per ticket! So awesome. I know there are discount theaters out there, but I'm going to be honest and just go ahead and confess that I don't like them. Sure, I love the idea of $2 showings any time of the week, but the theaters are usually over-crowded and kinda of gross. I'd take an early bird special at a nice theater any day. Oh and the movie was really, really good. I would definitely recommend it if you haven't seen it yet!

Sweet Surprises

My super amazing and very sweet husband came home Wednesday night with this wonderful surprise! We hadn't gotten a chance to see the movie yet and it was every bit as great as I was expecting it to be! Tangled was Disney's 50th movie and they sure did put a lot into it to make it so awesome. It is the most expensive animated film ever made and the second most expensive movie ever after Pirate of the Caribbean. Crazy, huh?

Celebrations

Yesterday Taylor took me out for an excellent dinner at Gloria's to celebrate work, life, and the fact that it was Friday! Yum. Yum. Look at this feast! 

Spring Cleaning 

I have this wonderful antique jewelry box that used to belong to my grandmother. It's made out of gorgeous wood with lots of curvy edges, elegant knobs, and cute little hooks. It's a treasure. Unfortunately, in the past few months it's become stuffed to the max and it's been impossible to find anything. When I do find what I'm looking for, it's usually tangled. Mass chaos.

So last weekend I bought one of these. This is what my sister-in-law, Bayley, keeps all of her her jewelry in and it's incredibly organized. Now don't you worry, I'm not in any way shape or form giving up on using my jewelry box, I just wanted to cut down on the clutter. 

This is what I was able to take out and organize:

And now my jewelry box looks like this! Such an improvement!

Bliss

Bliss is getting to go back to Pepperdine for a (super fun incredible amazing) weekend

Bliss is getting to walk around campus with my hubby for the first time since we left almost 2 years ago and take tons of pictures

Bliss is being surrounded by stunningly gorgeous palm trees

Bliss is standing on campus and being reminded of the incredible breath-taking views. I know God's work is everywhere but man oh man is it evident in Malibu!

Bliss is getting to visit the chapel where we got married and remember our wedding day (and get super excited for our friends, Emily & Ky, who are getting married in the same chapel this summer!)

Bliss is getting to spend the weekend going to awesome meetings with alumni chapter leaders across the country and hear dozens of great ideas and best practices

Bliss is getting to make new friends, meet other chapter presidents, and hang out with our awesome coordinator Sandra (left next to me)

Bliss is getting to be a Pepperdine alum and still be actively involved with my school

Bliss is getting to see, hear, smell, and touch the ocean!

Bliss is getting to see all the changes Pepperdine has made to the campus in the past year and half (and getting to meet George!)

Bliss is going back to Rosenthal winery in Malibu where Taylor took me the day he proposed

Our weekend in Malibu at Pepperdine was...blissful! What an amazing weekend! We got to see old friends: Jamie (one of my roomies for two years at Pepperdine and bridesmaid at our wedding), and Scott (Taylor's old roomie and good friend). We got to visit lots of favorite restaurants and eateries: dinner at Father's Office, lunch at Howdy's, breakfast at Lilly's (most amazing breakfast burritos in the world), and a trip (or two) to Coffee Bean. We got to walk around campus, take lots of pictures, and reminisce about when we lived in LA. Of course, the main part of the weekend for me was being at the Pepperdine Alumni Leadership Conference, which was incredible (I'm the DFW Chapter president, if there's anyone out there who didn't know). Chapter leaders from all around the country come together for a weekend of sharing ideas, learning new tips on how to make our chapters better, getting to connect with the Pepperdine staff in Malibu, and a lot of general getting to know each other. It was such an inspiring conference - I came home with a looong list of exciting new ideas for our chapter and have already been getting a few of them rolling.

It was an awesome weekend and made me realize a few things:

1. I miss the ocean
2. I miss palm trees
3. I miss the views from campus
4. I took numbers 1-3 for granted while I was at Pepperdine
5. I love Pepperdine and being involved with our alumni chapter
6. I can't wait to go back to Malibu in June!