01.22.09 Tattoo Design

Angie, Shannon, Miriam and I are headed to Vegas this weekend for a girls harrahhhh. We plan to get tattoos to commemorate the event and signify my upcoming marriage. Juan didn't want me to get one, but I think he has finally came around. This is something I've always wanted to do, but never had a good enough reason or a design I liked enough to keep forever. Juan designed me a dragonfly. Dragonflies represent new beginnings and I will never forget our my special 30th birthday when Juan took me to the Dragonfly restaurant. Dragonflies have been consistent throughout our relationship and I can't think of anything better to have a tattoo of; especially one designed by my love to signify our relationship and the beginning of the rest of our lives.

01.21.09 Wedding Band

I FINALLY got a wedding band. We have been looking for months for the perfect band to match my engagement ring. We went to Robbins Bros. once and they said they didn't have anything. We finally decided we were going to have to something custom made, but we went back one more time to Robbins Bros. to see what they had. Ryan was MUCH better than the previous sales person we had. He found just the right ring, a 3/4 carat matching the channel set of my engagement ring. He checked with the master jeweler and they said they could notch the band so that it sat flush with my engagement ring, add the grooves at the base of the diamonds to match, and thin out the band. That was Sunday. Today I was supposed to pick up my ring. I even called Ryan on Monday just to check that we were on the same page so that everything would be ready for me on Wednesday. I had to leave my engagement ring, and it killed me to be without it for three days. I went in this evening to pick it up and the ring wasn't ready. It wasn't ready because the master jeweler said they were unable to notch it because it would damage the integrity of the band. They said our only option was to have it custom made, another $400. By the way, we spent about double what we had planned; but only because it was going to be perfect. I was not happy about forking over more money. After long discussions with the manager, I decided to let them shave my engagement ring at the base to allow the rings to sit flush. They added the grooves and rounded and thinned out the band. I also demanded that I get both rings that evening. I am very happy with the way it turned out. There is still a slight gap between the rings, but I think I'll be able to live with it. If not, soldering them together is still an option and would fill the gap completely. It is a beautiful ring and more than I ever expected.

01.20.09 Nashville

I travel a lot for work. I have been lucky that my flights have been limited the past couple of months with the holiday season. Today is the first day this year I have flown for work or pleasure. It was just a day trip to HCA in Nashville. It was a meeting on the Las Palmas Hospital Expansion in El Paso. It was FREEZING cold. It was 20 degrees when we landed and only about 32 degrees when we returned. There were even mild snow flurries this morning. I will be glad to return to Dallas tonight, where cold means 50's-60's.

01.19.09 Winter View of our Home

It has been cold lately. All of the leaves have fallen and everything has that dead look about it. This is my least favorite season of the year. I can't wait for spring to begin!

01.18.09 D'Vine Wine

Juan and I went today to D'vine Wine in Grapevine to make our own batch of wine for our wedding. We are not sure yet how we are going to use the bottles, but I'm sure we will figure out a way. We tasted almost every wine they had and ended up with a Strawberry wine. It is very unique. Now we just need to come up with a name, label and then return in 6-8 week to bottle, cork, and label it. It was a fun afternoon and a very unique experience.

01.17.09 Invitations Sent!

YEAH IT IS FINALLY DONE!!!!!! Wedding invitations are complete and were sent today! It was a total of about 120 invitations. It took a lot more work than I originally planned, but I love how they turned out. We took them to the post office and the worker said they needed an additional $.20 postage and oh yeah the lady with the keys to the stamp locker was not working on Saturday. He took pity on us and hand cancelled them at the rate they previously told us. $.59.

01.16.09 Addressing Invitations

With so much to do making the wedding invitations, I thought it would be great if Juan addressed all of the envelopes. I wanted them to be hand written, but we didn't want to hire a calligrapher. Juan's hand writing is so nice that it worked out perfect. He has spent countless hours addressing them, so I'm sure he is a bit sorry that he agreed. He's so great!

01.15.09 Wedding Invitations Yet Again

Yep, yet ANOTHER night of making our wedding invitations. Tonight Danna, Sarah, Janet and of course baby Audrey came over to help. We worked on them until about 10:30pm. The end is near, but not yet here.

01.14.09 Avocado Tacos

Here's my baby on a typical evening, making me an avocado taco. One of my absolute favorite meals. Homemade flour tortillas that his mother made heated to perfection, a ripe avocado, add a little salt and walla! Delicious. So easy, yet it always tastes better when he makes them.

01.13.09 Tea Pots

I'm not a coffee drinker, but I have always liked a nice cup of hot tea in the winter. A couple of years ago my perception of tea was forever changed when I found a store called Teavana in the mall. It's a specialty tea shop with everything under the sun related to tea. This is the tea pot and tea cups Juan and I bought about two years ago from Teavana. Right now, we are drinking a couple pots of tea almost every other evening. Our current favorite is White Avurvevic Chai/Samurai Chai Mate.