01.26.09 Bedroom

After a long weekend and an even longer plane ride, it was heaven to see my bed. My bed and entire bedroom is one of my most favorite spots in our home. The bed is tall with a fabulous pillow top queen mattress. Vanessa handmade the comforter, and both she and Mom made all of the pillows. Our bed is often unmade, but it still feels just as good to come home to.

01.25.09 Roulette

Today Angie wasn't feeling well, so Miriam, Shannon, and I headed out to visit some other hotels. We ended up in Paris where we found wonderful fruity frozen drinks, reasonably priced. We then parked ourselves at a Roulette table where we all proceeded to have a grand time. We were all winning for a while, but of course our luck ran out. Shannon and I managed to quit when we broke even, but Miriam lost a bit. It was still a fun afternoon.

01.24.09 Girls in Vegas

Amazingly enough, we only managed to get a couple of photographs with all four of us together. We were together quite a bit, but somehow forgot to pose for pictures. This is us in front of our hotel, Harrah's, on the strip.

01.23.09 Arrival in Vegas

Miriam and I met Angie and Shannon in Vegas. We arrived ahead of the girls, so Miriam and I quickly found a slot machine in the airport to keep us busy. The slot machine was a Wheel of Fortune. I remembered from past Vegas trips that this particular slot machine had a bonus round where the wheel spins and you win a lot of quarters. I played this machine over and over for the next three days and never once hit that bonus round! Hmmmph!

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.