2 Thumbs up for Nick and Sams

Saturday night we had the most amazing dinner at Nick and Sam's Steakhouse in Dallas. The food was really good, but the service was AMAZING. Truly the best I've ever had. It started out with a complimentary round of champagne when we arrived and really just got better from there. I highly recommend it!

It was so nice to get a little dressed up and enjoy quality time with the Keys and Brazeals (2 of the couples in our church community group). This week is restaurant week so we got an amazing deal on our 3-course meal. I only wish that I had remembered my camera!

Sunday we had the Cavins, Hottingers and Loredos over for brunch. Little Maya and Charlotte are so adorable!

Dressing the part

Although western clothing is becoming increasingly common in India, the organization I'm volunteering with has requested that I wear traditional attire while I'm there. I think that most of the women they are helping must dress this way and I think it will be alot of fun to dive into their culture this way.

My friend Sinhura kindly took me shopping this week and introduced me to an Indian boutique here in Dallas. The women who ran the shop were unbelievably nice - I left thinking we could be life-long friends! I don't know what I would have done with Sinhura because I would not have had any idea what types of clothes were appropriate for what settings - everything is so beautiful and ornate. She did a good job of getting me a range of things and explaining when to wear them.

The experience was fun but hilarious at the same time. Many of the outfits come with pants that seriously fit like MC Hammer pants. I felt like I put on an extra 20 pounds with every outfit. I picked up a lot of fun stuff, but here are pictures of my "nice" outfits for parties, dinners, important meetings, etc. The rest is much, much more casual and comfortable. Some of the tops I'm even hoping I can wear with my jeans.

Prayer and Precious moments with friends

This week I enjoyed a wonderful tapas dinner with my friend Sondra. Sondra and I have been friends for almost 20 years - I almost can't comprehend that because I still remember so clearly the night we met! We met at a friend's house where we ended up hot tubbing as it was snowing outside - such a cool experience if you ever have the chance... As an avid runner with 3 kids Sondra leads a full life, so every moment with her is a gift!

Today Dana and I spent 4 hours in prayer. It was an assignment for a class that he's taking at church, but I decided to do it too. It was really an incredible experience. I completed my personal testimony of how I gave control of my life to Jesus Christ, prayed personally for each of our family members and friends and spent time mentally preparing for my upcoming volunteer trip. Dana dove into "The Purpose Driven Life" and studied the act of prayer altogether. Even though we had to give up our traditional Saturday morning pancakes : ), we both got a lot out of the experience.

Total happiness...

What a perfect weekend! It was the best of both worlds - totally relaxing and utterly productive at the same time. We caught up on sleep, organized several previous disaster areas in our house, saw a great movie, enjoyed an amazing meal with the Hottingers and a beautiful day out on the lake with the Loredos and Scurlocks. I also crossed a ton of things off my list in my preparation for India and planned a really fun Indian-themed going away/33rd birthday party that we're totally looking forward to!

A glimpse of sorting food at the Food Bank

During our morning shift we helped pack about 27,000 pounds of food for over 12,000 meals. (but we did have some help - including us there were about 45 other volunteers)

Thanksgiving came early this year

Last weekend both of our amazingly loving families flew in to celebrate "Thanksgiving in August". We decided to celebrate all that we are thankful for a bit early this year, since Christine will be volunteering in India in November.

We volunteered at a food bank, cooked a full Thanksgiving meal (adapted for the hot weather - but we still had turkey, cranberries, pumpkin dessert, etc), created a scavenger hunt for the kids, visited the Kimball Art Museum and Museum of Modern Art, enjoyed lunch at the famous Joe T Garcia's and played a lot of games, and just enjoyed each others company.