Happy Birthday Tyler!

Today my second born is 27 years old! It's hard to believe. Seems like just yesterday that he was running around in his Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle pajamas. I nabbed this photo off of his fiance's facebook page. It's the perfect depiction of him....kinda laid back with a sly grin on his face. What can I say about Tyler? To say that he is unique would be a gross understatement, because with that uniqueness comes a sweet, sensitive, thoughtful, talented, intelligent, witty, hilarious man. MAN? Holy cow, my boy's a MAN! And what a WONDERFUL man he is! Love ya Ty! Happy Bird day! ;-)

Rainy Day Adventures

As you can see by my limp, stringy hair, today was quite a rainy day. We had decided to go exploring in DC for the day and didn't let a little (or a lot) of rain ruin our fun. We began the day on Metro and went to the National Archives to see The Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. It was such a sobering experience to think that we were actually seeing the original documents. Since photography wasn't allowed at the Archives, you'll just have to go and see it for yourself if you haven't been there. It was an unforgettable experience. We then walked to the Old Post Office and took the elevator to the top where you can see the Congressional Bells and look out over the city. It was too foggy to see much today, but we'll go back again. We then took Metro to Georgetown and had lunch at Martin's Tavern, a historical restaurant where many US Presidents have dined. Kurt had arranged, beforehand, for us to sit in the Proposal Booth - where JFK proposed to Jackie. It was a lot of fun. The food was amazing. After lunch we walked to Georgetown Cupcake for our $3.00 cupcakes. They have been made famous on the TLC show "DC Cupcakes." I love the show and just had to see what all the hoopla was about. The crowd was lined up down the street, in the rain, waiting to get in. Brought back memories of Carlo's Bakery in Hoboken. At least they served complimentary hot chocolate at Georgetown Bakery while we waited. We finished the day by browsing through shops in downtown Georgetown. What a fun day!! I'll post all of our pictures soon.

The Games We Play

Kurt and I had a game night tonight. We love playing games! We brought quite a few of our games with us when we moved here but haven't had much of a chance to play them. Tonight we broke out Bananagrams, our new favorite game. Other games we LOVE are Phase 10, Scrabble, Quiddler and Five Crowns. I personally love Boggle, but Kurt usually vetoes it. Why? He's only beat me once in 30 years (and that was because I was loopy on cold medicine). Kurt loves Monopoly and Risk. I detest them. Why? Probably the same reason I don't like playing tennis or ping pong with him. My mild-mannered husband turns into a fierce, aggressive, competitive, dog-eat-dog person that scares me a little ;-) We stick to nice, low-key, relaxing games. It works for us.

Pho 50

Today I met my cousin Roger's wife for lunch at Pho 50 in Falls Church. Denise and I have talked on the phone, and chatted online, but have never "officially" met until today. It was so much fun to meet her today. She is a wealth of information about the area and has a fun personality and great sense of humor. She suggested we have lunch at one of her favorite restaurants, Pho 50. Pho, (pronounced [fə᷉ː]), is a Vietnamese noodle soup usually served with beef or chicken. The soup includes noodles made from rice and is often served with Thai basil, lime, bean sprouts, and peppers as a garnishment. It was YUMMY! I'm excited that we have a Pho restaurant here in Manassas. Can't wait to take Kurt there. He'll love it!
Thanks for the fun Pho Phothursday Denise!!! ;-)

Out on the Town

Our date night has changed from Friday night to Wednesday night. Friday nights are just too crazy around here. There's at least a 1 hour wait at every restaurant we go to, and the movie theaters are packed. Since we usually go exploring on Saturdays, we decided, "Why not spread the fun out over the week?" This has worked out pretty well until last night. My plan was to go to Cici's Pizza for dinner and then to go bowling at Bowl America. Dinner went without a hitch, but bowling didn't happen. It's league night on Wednesday night. We'll have to change our date night to Thursday night if we ever want to bowl I guess. Plan B was to see "The Green Hornet." It's only playing in 3-D and it kills me to pay $15 per ticket to see a movie, but I had coupons and a free pass. It's a good thing, because the movie was pretty lame. Oh well, date night is still my favorite night of the week!

The LAMINATOR

It all started with a bookmark. I just wanted to laminate my favorite bookmark. I was on my way to Staples to have it done and made a quick stop at Costco for milk, bread, etc. I found a great deal on this laminator and have been going crazy laminating everything in sight. Hmmmmm.....what other treasures can I find that need to be preserved and protected? I think I need to get out more ;-)

Mom's Recipes

Alyssa, my sweet daughter, gave me the most thoughtful Christmas gift this year. Unbeknownst to me, she had gathered over 100 of my favorite recipes, most of which were scribbled on sheets of paper or printed off of cooking blogs and websites. She then typed over 100 of those recipes, created a cute cover page and divider pages, and gave me the computer files to FINALLY organize my recipes. Today was the day! I printed the cover page and dividers, all of the recipes, and organized it into a book that will be SOOOO wonderful to have and easy to add to. Thank you Alyssa! I LOVE IT!!!!!