Sunday Dinner.

The past 2 Sunday evenings, we have made dinner together, which has been nice. Making dinner isn't something that has happened recently since we have been so busy at work. Last Sunday was Justin's famous shrimp scampi. Delicious!

Tonight was steak with tons of sides. We could have fed an army. You know the meal is crazy when you have to use 3 plates (1 for your salad and 2 for your steak and sides). As you can see we had: salad, steak, grilled peppers, sauteed mushrooms, broccolini, microwaved baked potatoes, bread, and wine.

I used the recipe here for the broccolini. Very easy and very good. I also used my grandma's trick and microwaved the potatoes to save time. You just clean the potatoes, poke holes in them, microwave on high for 4 minutes on each side (or longer if big potatoes), and then wrap in foil for a few minutes before serving. They taste like they baked in the oven, but without the wait! Everything was so tasty!

Wonderful Sunday.

I had a great Sunday (and didn't have to work for 1 minute)! We slept in and had coffee and Lucky Charms (breakfast of champions). We then ran some errands (the antique shop close to our house, High Fashion Home, and Pottery Barn).

Justin was sweet and dropped me off at the nail place so I could get a mani/pedi while he went to store to pick up items for tonight's dinner. (Post to follow on the delicious massive meal we had).

We ran back to High Fashion Home, which sells furniture and great fabric, after we checked out some swatches we had grabbed earlier in the day. I will have a recap of the little DIY project we started today. I am super excited about the results. Stay tuned for the before and after!

Riley: Before & After.

BEFORE:

As you can tell, Riley was in desperate need of a hair cut. I promise he has eyes! (His leg was partially shaved for his teeth cleaning). He looks like a big furry stuffed animal!

AFTER:

He looks completely different! I barely recognized him when he came back from the groomer. We normally don't get him cut this short. On the bright side, his shaved leg doesn't look like a poodle-paw anymore! I am sure he loves the summer cut for the 100 degree weather we have been having here, but I miss his curly hair.

5 things . . .

It has been too long since I have done my list of 5 things. Here are 5 things I am thankful for . . .

1. UT getting to the national championship series, even if they blew it in the 3rd game.

2. J. Crew getting some new pumps in. I am loving these simple black peep-toes. Believe you me, a good simple pair of black peep-toes is not easy to find.

These ones are gorgeous too. I love this deep red color. Maybe I can convince Justin I need both pairs.


3. Getting to go on a mini-vacation to Austin over a weekend in mid-July with some great friends. Me and the Barton Creek spa may have to have a little date while I am there.

4. Having our new bed delivered in a couple of weeks! Now we just have to buy a mattress, side tables, bedding, etc. Wish I had some spare time to look around.
5. Jon and Kate + 8 being on an 8-month hiatus. They should have stopped the show a long time ago. I will refrain from getting on my soapbox!

Texas Fight.

Heck Yeah!! I am totally rocking my burnt orange shirt at work tomorrow.

Hook 'em Horns!

Bathroom Idea.

I love this bathroom! If I could only convince Justin that the venetian mirrors are awesome. He's not so sure.

(photo: http://www.myhomeideas.com)

I love the glass tiles behind the mirrors. Just beautiful! (Thanks mom for sending this along).

Our sconces should be here this week from Restoration Hardware for the bathroom update. We still have the mirrors from RH after they shipped us new ones that were in the correct finish and not broken. I think they ended up shipping us 10 mirrors total before they got it right. What a hassle. I am excited to see them with the sconces. Updates on the master bedroom progress to come . . .

5 Year Anniversary!

So I am over a week late, but I have to recap our wonderful 5 year wedding anniversary. I got back home from Denver on our anniversary early in the afternoon and was able to avoid going into the office. Justin picked me up and we spent the day together! It was great.

We had Justin's favorite cake (yellow with chocolate frosting) from Carrie Made the Cake. (Thanks mom for taking care of that while I was out of town).

Justin ordered beautiful flowers for me from a new place down the street. He was extremely disappointed since he ordered peonies, roses, and hydrangeas in pink and this is what he got. However, they were still pretty and I appreciated the thought.

After a nap (I had been up since 4:30 a.m.), we headed to dinner at Pappa's Brothers Steakhouse. It was amazing, to say the least. They had a great special -- 2 salads, 2 filets, 10 oz of rock lobster, and a side dish (we had asparagus). Of course, we also ordered a side of mac and cheese with crab. DE-LISH!

Here is the lobster (taken with Justin's blackberry):

We also had a tasty dessert -- chocolate mouse with heath bar and dark chocolate ganache with a homemade marshmallow. It wasn't Justin's favorite, so he enjoyed scotch instead. More dessert for me!

I forgot to take a picture before we left, so this is us with extremely full bellies once we got back home.

It was a great day. It's hard to believe it has already been 5 years! I have the most wonderful husband in the whole world. I couldn't imagine loving anyone as much as I love him. I am so blessed and look forward to many many more years of great times ahead.

Hook 'em Horns!

Dear Cameron and Connor,

Thank you for being ballers. Nothing like a walk-off home run with 2 outs. You both provided a great end to an otherwise generally crappy week.

Thanks,
Emily

P.S. I like your names.

My recent schedule:

6:47 a.m. - get out of bed

8:15 a.m. - leave for work

8:26 a.m. - let the madness begin (and continue unless otherwise noted until 9:30 p.m.)

9:45 a.m. - eat breakfast at my desk

10:16 a.m. - decide what form of caffeine to drink (chai tea, earl grey lavender, or coffee)

11:21 a.m. - wish it was 10 degrees warmer in my office

12:30 p.m. - eat lunch at my desk

2:30 p.m. - talk to Justin for 2 minutes to say hi, I love you, and am too busy to talk

4:45 p.m. - eat a 100 calorie pack of m&ms

6:00 p.m. - eat dinner at my desk

7:56 p.m. - attempt to convince myself I love what I do

9:30 p.m. - leave work

9:49 p.m. - put on pjs

9:55 p.m. - check e-mail, the news, and google reader

10:30 p.m. - reluctantly work from home and pray that my blackberry doesn't go off

10:45 p.m. - wish ERISA, the ADEA, and pension plans never existed

11:00 p.m. - try to keep from falling asleep

11:30 p.m. - work, have jeopardy on in the background, and attempt to remain awake

12:03 a.m. - decide enough is enough and go to bed

(repeat)

Chandelier.

I have been looking for a mini-chandelier to put over our bathtub when we finally get some free time to do some minor renovations.

I came across this beauty tonight:


You've gotta be kidding me! As if the seahorses were not hideous enough on their own, check out the awful lampshades. Did a kindergartner paint those? And then it is like the designer thought the few crystals at the bottom would class it up. Simply amazing. This beauty can be yours for $1,199.91.

I did find the one below that I really like. It is not quite as colorful and expensive as the lovely seahorse chandelier, but it is a touch more glamorous, which is the look I was going for.

Back from Denver.

Sadly, I wasn't able to do much exploring in Denver. We went to a few great restaurants (Palace Arms in the Brown Palace hotel, Panzano, Capital Grille, and the Trinity Grille) for dinner, but otherwise my time was spent working in my hotel room or the conference room. However, I had a view of the cutest little church outside my hotel window.

(photo: flickr)

I was glad to get home on our fifth wedding anniversary! Another post on that later . . .

Off to Denver.

I leave today for Denver until Friday for work. Not that I have been blogging a lot any way, but I am almost positive there won't be any new posts this coming week as the majority of my time will be spent in 4 depositions.


I have never been to Denver before, so I am hoping to have a break to explore the city a little bit. Hopefully my trip recap will include something other than how the depos went!

SmashBurger.

Typically my bad eating habits are positively correlated with the number of hours I bill. (Can you tell I am in the midst of working with statistical expert reports? I am slightly worried that the phrase "positively correlated" came out like it was second nature. I need another vacation stat.)

Well after billing 70 hours last week alone, I splurged tonight and tried a hamburger and rosemary fries at SmashBurger. It was SO delicious. I love a good hamburger, and this one was well worth all of the calories. We will definitely be going back.



I hope my workload decreases soon for numerous reasons, one of them being for the sake of my expanding waistline.