This is the only picture I have of Grandma at our engagement party. You can't see my face, but I'm super excited to meet her!
Now that we're back in Maryland, I've been keeping myself very busy with crafts. I'm NOT a crafty person, but I think a lot of my friends must be in the crafty mood this time of year, so I just joined the bandwagon. A couple of week ago, a few of my friends from work and I went to a place called All Fired Up to paint pottery. It was Ladies Night there and we were able to bring our own food and eat it while we painted. My friends brought a lot of nice finger foods to eat while we painted: veggie tray, orzo salad, meat pies, turtle brownies, wine (sparkling cider for the Mormon crowd), etc. My contribution to the party: pizza roll ups. Yep, keepin' it classy! We all painted some really nice pieces. I painted a tea cup and saucer. I can't say I'm artistic, but I think it turned out okay for my abilities.
My cup and saucer I made at All Fired Up. It turned out okay, I can drink out of it with little to no shame.
Last Friday, we went to pick up our artwork and we all went out to lunch to celebrate our creations. We went to a place downstairs from Lindamood-Bell called La Forchetta. It's a new restaurant none of us had been to before and it was quite an experience. I told my friends I would write a review on Yelp about it, but maybe I'll just vent here. We were seated right away and given menus. The customer service was actually pretty good. The waitress was prompt, attentive, and helpful. The chef, on the other hand, seemed to have a lot of rules for eating at his overly pretentious restaurant. I saw gnocchi on the menu, which I love, but it was served with pesto, which I don't love. I asked the waitress if it was possible to change the sauce from pesto to something else and she said no they could not do that. I can't say I've ever been to an Italian restaurant that didn't allow you to change your sauce, but whatever, I ordered the whole wheat pasta with lots of fancy Italian food words. My friend ordered pillow ravioli and asked if she could add chicken to her dish and the waitress said no they could not do that. I can't say I've ever been to an Italian restaurant that didn't allow you to add chicken to your dish, but whatever. The food came pretty quickly, which is great since we were on a schedule, and what they brought was interesting. The dish I ordered with all the fancy Italian food words was...wait for it...spaghetti with meat sauce. My friend who ordered the pillow ravioli was given FOUR small raviolis as her meal. She basically paid for a $17 appetizer and she did not get full. While she was halfway through her expensive snack, my other friend was furiously attempting to cut her pizza because it wasn't sliced! She eventually had to ask the waitress to go slice it and bring it back. I'm surprised she said yes to that, but she did it! And my friend in front of me ordered a HUGE calzone for only $12 that was bigger than her plate. There was hardly any cheese in it, and it was watery. As we were all struggling to get through our meals, passing our hungry friend some of our overcooked food, and choking down the stale bread, our waitress was chatting with the table behind us saying that they cannot bring them a pizza sliced. The chef insists that the pizza MUST come out un-sliced because it has to continue to cook while coming to the table, and they have to special request the pizza to be sliced. The rule states that you CANNOT request beforehand to have your pizza sliced, you must wait for it to be brought to the table, you must look at it, and then you may ask your waiter to bring it back to be sliced. What the...? Anyway, once we were done with our food, mine was fine because how bad can you really screw up spaghetti, the waitress graciously allowed us to split the check four separate ways. As we were leaving, my friend needed to get her parking validated from them and went to ask them to do so. As we waited, we joked that validation was probably against the rules. As she returned she excitedly told us that they validate for 2 hours free parking and we all shouted for joy and relief. She then looked at the small print and said, "Oh, nevermind. They only validate for two hours for 50% off parking until 6pm and on weekends and then it's free." After hearing that news, we all slumped our shoulders again and shuffled back up to the office. We now know never to go to that ridiculous restaurant again. It sure is an arrogant little place for being brand new. I hope that chef humbles himself when he realizes he can't pay the rent because no one is patronizing his restaurant due to the strict rules. Despite that, I'm always happy to be spending time with all of my friends while I still can before I move, so that was fun :)
Another very productive thing I've done these past couple of weeks is make drink coasters for my living room. One of my friends and I went to Home Depot and found tiles for $0.16 a piece, we then went to the Paper Source in Bethesda, which is an adorable store for paper, gifts, and stationary, and we purchased some printed scrapbook paper. We then cut them in squares and Modge Podged them onto the tiles. After that, we put felt on the back with fabric glue and now we have 8 very cute new additions to our living room coffee tables. The coasters were very cheap to make, very easy, and very fun while you chat with a friend. Since I'm not an artistic person, this was something that I could do without screwing it up.
My cute little homemade coasters.
Last Saturday, we had a BBQ at our house and invited all of our closest friends. I was so happy to see that they all came and had a good time. It was originally a hot tub and BBQ party. Our landscaper came and completely cleared out the back of our house of ivy and weeds. Once I saw that there was an actual pathway to the hot tub, I decided immediately we needed a party before we packed up and left to never use it again :( I nagged the hubby for two days to assure me that the hot tub would be up and running before everyone came over and he PROMISED that it would be, so I went ahead and sent out all my evites. The very next day, he tells me that the hot tub has electrical issues that are too expensive to fix so we won't have a hot tub for the hot tub party. I was annoyed with him, of course. How am I supposed to have a hot tub party with no hot tub? I even considered heating up some water in a large bucket and placing it on the porch to show people I'm no liar! But I came to terms with it and we just had a BBQ on the back porch. I invited dogs as well so Ralph Otis could have his debut as a party host. My hope was that they would all run around and play in the humongous yard, but I guess as a good host should, Ralph Otis made sure his guests were fed by having them all roam around the porch begging for food. Fun for the dogs, not so fun for the adults, but the dogs are cute so I think it was okay. Things took a turn for the worst when we found ticks all over one of the little yorkies. Once the ticks come out, all the dogs have to go home to be treated, but I think despite the fact that Ralph Otis allowed his guests to leave with Lime's Disease, he did a pretty good job as a first time host. We all make mistakes on our first try, right? Other than the tick epidemic, I think everyone enjoyed the beautiful weather and conversation. We had some teeky lights and some string lights on the porch swing to liven things up. I finally got to buy a drink tub for our drinks. Hubs was worried that all the bottles wouldn't fit in there, but I promised him if we bought it, I would be the one to refill the drinks. Yeah, I didn't do that. He refilled them all night, and cooked the food, and made sure everyone had everything they needed, while I sat all night chatting with friends. I don't feel that bad because he promised a working hot tub and didn't deliver, so we're even ;) I'm really glad I got to have all of the people I love most here in Maryland at my house. I wish I would have done that sooner and more often.
These aren't the best pics because I forgot to take pics while the party was in full swing in the sunlight, so the flash made them a little weird in the dark.
Sunday was Mother's Day and I went to church where I heard some amazing talks about mothers. Now for Mother's Day, one of the biggest pet peeves a woman has in the Mormon church is that they receive a rose every year after the sacrament service, whereas on Father's Day, the men receive a huge chocolate bar or brownies. I think I can speak for all Mormon women when I say we think it is bull crap! WE are the ones who love chocolate. Why do they get to enjoy the moist, delicious chocolate in their belly while all we can do is watch our rose slowly die as we crave the one treat we feel guilty buying ourselves? Well this Mother's Day, our cries were heard and we not only received a rose, but a small box of Rocky Mountain chocolate as well! I was elated as I heard the words come from the man's mouth that we would be receiving that which I love most. So, I enjoyed my chocolate as I watched one of my all-time favorite movies, Mommie Dearest. I think they played it on tv twice to remind me to be grateful for my wonderful mother who has always allowed me to use any kind of hanger I wanted in my closet, and has never beat me with Comet for not having the bathroom clean (even though I know she wanted to). Thank you, Mom for your restraint and never making this face:
I have more to come this week. My wonderful husband is graduating this Saturday and I can't tell you how proud I am of him. He's worked so hard for so long, and he deserves everything good that happens to him this weekend. I even tear up as I say this because medical school is truly an accomplishment as it is full of hardships, disappointments, adjustments, sacrifices, and challenges. Needless to say, I have nothing but respect for him and what he's done, and I can't wait to see him walk down that aisle to receive his diploma and become a doctor. I'm also excited because I've been watching Jeopardy for the past two weeks and is being filmed in the same location as his graduation! I can then say that I have walked the same steps as Alex Trebec. More to come next week, hopefully!
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