Deep thought of the week

This past week has had some ups and downs for us... In light of this, I am especially grateful for God's presence in our lives. Specifically, my book club just finished reading "The Shack" and Dana and I started a new class at church called "Equipped Disciple" which really gets back to the basics (i.e. scripture reading, memorization) for walking close with God.
The combination of these 2 things (plus our awesome community group) has really helped me focus on our eternal life rather than our earthly life. Also, someone recently told an interesting story. "Be careful that you don't try so hard to run up the mountain, only to get to the top and realize you've climbed the wrong one". Sometimes I think it's important for us to evaluate the things we're prioritizing in our lives and working so hard to achieve to make sure they're the right things. They might just not be as important as we once thought...
Whew, that's a lot to think about.

Something to celebrate...

Dana got a promotion at work to "Brand Manager". On top of that, he received a great review for 2008 for always doing things the "right way" (i.e. with integrity, optimism, strategic thinking, etc). I'm so proud of him!

Champagne & Chocolate Fountains

A Valentine's Day party to remember! We had so much fun last weekend throwing a V-day party for our friends. We had dark and milk chocolate fountains, champagne glasses for everyone to decorate and a "Prom" picture backdrop. I think this was our favorite party ever! I'm looking forward to it hopefully becoming an Allen tradition.

Aebleskivers & Acquire

We were thrilled to spend Friday night with one of Dana's groomsmen, George. George rocks! We took him to RA Sushi, where we all laughed about how it felt like a night club. North Dallas is really changing!


Saturday morning I did a 6 mile run (still in early training stages for the half marathon) and Dana made aebleskivers for us (danish pancake balls) . The boys also beat me badly in a game of Acquire. I also tried a new hairdresser who apparently does a lot of movies and has even styled Tom Cruise and Ryan Phillipe!

Saturday night we met up with Carl, Kelley, Chad and Rebecca for dinner at Benihana (which just opened up by our house). Great times! Carl & Kelley took their new boat out for its first spin today - so we're really looking forward to a lot of fun times on the lake this summer. Today we're in party planning mode for next weekend, so we have lot of errands to run and champagne to buy!

Crazy Times

Work and life has been quite hectic lately, so I'm definitely falling behind on the blog. It's also been over 2 months since I've talked to my sister though (due to nutty schedules), so don't feel so bad that I'm ignoring the rest of you!
Last weekend we had a wonderful date night at Nicola's, my favorite Italian restaurant. The following night we celebrated Lauren's birthday with an evening of Mexican food, Trivial Pursuit, Guitar Hero and of course... champagne! Sunday we watched the Superbowl at Nicole and Stan's house. Only crazy people host a Superbowl party 3 days before they're scheduled to have a baby. So anyways, Nicole gave birth to baby Charlotte on Wednesday and she is ADORABLE. : )
The other highlight from last weekend was that we met with a real decorator. After 5 years of living in our house and having beige walls, I've discovered that I'm not a natural decorator. Anyhow, our appointment was a sweet gift from Dana and meeting her was awesome. Next week we're having our kitchen and living room painted. I'm beyond excited.