Prayers for Tess

Last week we unfortunately discovered that Christine's last manager was diagnosed with an aggressive brain tumor. So sad... The good news is that her emergency surgery went extremely well. We saw her yesterday and she's doing great! We will be saying our prayers for her follow-up chemo and radiation therapy to go smoothly as well.

Happy St. Pats!

This week was soooo nice because most people at work took off for Spring Break so it was quiet. I feel like it's the calm before the storm because I'm launching a new healthy snack brand for women (Smartfood) next week and I imagine life at work will be crazy as soon as it hits the stores!

Tuesday we enjoyed a Dallas Mavericks basketball game with our friends Pete & Shea. It was fun to go on St. Patrick's day because the people watching was fantastic. Most of the stadium was filled with people decked out in green attire, green face paint, green wigs, green mardi gras beads, etc. You get the picture.... We had an amazing dinner before the game at Charlie Palmers - totally delicious!

Munchins and Movies

Saturday was a busy day. First, Dana made amazing waffles - I LOVE it when he cooks! Then Nicole and I went to meet a (Make-A-Wish) child whose wish is being granted next week. After that we headed over to Maj's baby shower. As always, I learned a lot of great tips for the future (by the time we have children I should be VERY knowledgeable from all of the baby showers....) and I really enjoyed learning how to make homemade, organic baby food. Toria always throws the best showers!

Later in the evening, Dana and I met up with Elizabeth and Jordan for an evening of dinner & games at Dave & Busters and a movie (International). The movie kept us on the edge of our seats and I kicked-butt at the Boxing game!

Friday Night Bowling

A fun night of bowling with the Keys!

What we've been doing...

Things have been CRAZY busy for us lately, so I've sort of lost track of what we've done since the last time I wrote.

Our 2 biggest highlights were work-related.

First, Christine's team had a red carpet event in LA where we launched our new advertising campaign ("only in a woman's world") to the media. Here is a campaign "teaser"...Brooke Burke hosted the event and 1 of the Spice girls attended. We have bloggers all over the country writing about it. It was so different from anything I've ever attended, but such a cool experience. On top of that I stayed at a really neat hotel (the Mondrian) and was able to meet up with my college friend Caroline and her husband Justin for dinner. Caroline also announced that she's pregnant. Congrats Caroline!

This past week we were both in San Diego for our annual Marketing Department offsite. We stayed at the brand new Hard Rock Hotel, which was FABULOUS. We had a fun week of inspiring speakers (such as a blind man who climbed Mt. Everest), laughs (we had an awesome Canadian comedian host the week), Boot Camp on the beach (led by Navy Seals), Follies, karaoke and more. We are very blessed to work with some incredible people!

We also had a chance to catch up with Scott Macke, Dana's b-school roommate, since he lives in San Diego.

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.