Perspective

I haven't written anything in way too long. I have a million excuses. Mainly time related but that's even a poor excuse as I have found that you will always make time for the things you really, really want to do. 

It's ok. 

It really, really is. I have been thinking about perspective the past few days. I am very anxious and worried right now. I feel a lot of burden about being in a situation where our house hasn't sold but we are under contract on a new one. It was a joint decision- but one I pushed for so now I feel the pangs of worry and fear. Two of my old friends-back for a visit. They tend to show up from time to time.

Around me-I see way more worrisome and fearful situations. I can't help but to think of the families that lost so much in the recent floods or the families fighting cancer or job loss or addictions or homelessness. It makes my burden feel so frivolous. We are healthy, employed, and hey-soon we will have 2 homes! 

But none the less-perspective means to me that it doesn't make my worries any less-it just means that it times like this I need to be more mindful. My words, actions, and feelings have power over myself and my family.  

Grateful instead of worried

Peaceful instead of anxious

Loving instead of edgy

Keeping the focus on the right things keeps life in perspective. I promise to do more of that.

Oh and write more. 

Stephanie 

My baby girl's smile today. Now that is a reason to be happy!

Anniversary Dinner

This past Saturday night, we decided to go out on the town and have a really nice dinner to celebrate our upcoming third anniversary.

My favorite restaurant in town, UCHI, does not take reservations and normally requires an hour and a half wait so I decided to try somewhere new. (That and my husband gives me such a hard time about always going to the same places!)

One restaurant I had heard about is called Congress. It is owned and operated by Chef David Bull who is an Austin icon as far as I am concerned. I was excited to try it!

I called, no luck. Completely booked. But the hostess told me that she was always able to work someone in if we wanted to try and walk in. We decided to try that. After all, we had no plans and we love sipping cocktails and people watching.

2 hours and 4 cocktails later...we were finally seated.

Now don't get me wrong. We considered leaving. But we really were having a good time sitting on the sidewalk and talking. And by the time we noticed how late it was, we felt like we had to see what the hype was about.

Well...they brought us champagne and caviar when we sat down. We ordered from the 3 course menu. We had some more wine.

We left hungry.

I am sure that the food is fabulous. I mean I did think that it was good. But it was so pretentious. I can't even remember exactly what we had. It was like they were just trying too hard.

We didn't even go out afterwards like we had planned. Dinner took so long. It was already midnight and all we could think about was going to bed and sleeping in since we had a sitter getting up with the baby in the morning. Yes we are losers.

At 3AM when I was up and looking for the imodium....I laughed to myself.

Here we were, trying to "celebrate" our anniversary at some fancy restaurant when we would have been just as happy at Matt's El Rancho. Sipping Mexican martinis, eating enchiladas, and hanging on to a few benjamins. We would have probably gone out dancing some after that too. (well as much dancing as you can do before midnight that is). 

At 9AM when my hubby was looking for the imodium too, I shared with him my thoughts. We had a good laugh together. Here we were, trying to show each other how much we loved each other and how special we know our relationship is-by going to some fancy restaurant.

Next year we are going to Matt's.

We don't need champagne and caviar...or imodium the next day. Just each other.

Happy Anniversary to my love Brian!

The New Kitchen

I bought a kitchen yesterday at a garage sale. A Little Tikes kitchen complete with working grill, dishes, and plastic food items. We (my 18 month old and I ) have been playing with it non stop ever since I brought it in the house. He loves the sound the grill makes "firing up" and I keep restocking the pantry and the fridge with all the food items everytime he pulls them out. After he went to bed last night and I was picking up the fake fruit and hanging the pots again, I started thinking about kids

My sister and I played lots of games growing up. School, (I was always the teacher-hey! I am the oldest!), grocery store, babies, etc. But we had to make believe a lot. We didn't have a play kitchen, or a barbie dream house, or multiple cabbage patch kids.  

Momma goes to Vegas Fall 2012

My hubby and I took off Friday and went to Vegas for a much needed, short getaway. We had a rough time getting there as Vegas doesn't normally get much rain, being in the desert and all, and the night we were arriving they were experiencing a rare thunderstorm that shut down the airport for 2 hours. We found ourselves stuck in Phoenix and then when we finally got there it took an hour to get our bags. My hubby made me promise that I would carry-on from here on out. Sorry hubbs.

Vegas is a favorite place for us. But maybe not all the same reasons as other people. Yes, my hubby loves to play poker and I love to shop, Vegas is great for both of course, but I also love to go there for many other reasons as well. Here is my personal list of why I heart Las Vegas and sitting here on the flight home already planning our trip.

#1 All time favorite place to people watch.

I LOVE to watch people anywhere I go but Vegas is the best. I look at clothes, styles, accessories, shoes, outfit combos....etc. I like watching them interact with who they are with and making up stories in my head about where they are from or what they are doing in Vegas. It's highly entertaining. Especially the outfits in Vegas. Ladies, if you wouldn't wear it at home then don't wear it in Vegas!! Leaving a little something to the imagination is always classier I say.

#2 The Food

I consider myself a foodie. I will read blogs, reviews, and obsess about which restaurants we should go try while we are in Vegas because the options are endless! This trip I made 3 good choices and 1 that was just ok. Here are my Vegas restaurant reviews:

Bacchanal Buffet at Caesar's

First off, Friday morning brunch for $21.99 is a wonderful value for Vegas. The service was impeccable and the choices on the buffet were endless. Foods from all over the world and loved the presentations of little things like mini-skillets of skirt steak and eggs or tiny fry baskets of tater tots. I don't know what it is about serving up yummy items in small fry baskets but I like it! The red velvet pancakes may have been the best part. They were cooking them fresh and serving straight off the griddle. I will be trolling Pinterest looking for a red velvet pancake recipe to make my own now!

Here is a picture of those yummy pancakes

Happy Hour at Sushi Roku-The Forum Shoppes at Caesar's  http://www.sushiroku.com

I had read about this sushi restaurant on several sites and that the happy hour was a great way to try some yummy sushi at a happy hour price. So once we finished at the Pawn Stars pawn Shop (keep reading and I will fill you in on THAT) we had the cab take us back to Caesar's just to try out this place and it was worth it. We sat at the bar with several locals (always a good sign) and took suggestions from the bartender and the girl that works for one of the hotels in PR that was sitting next to me, they did not steer us wrong.

The happy hour menu had many options including 2 Albacore sashimi's that were each distinctively different and beautifully delicious. Try them both!

Cut at Palazzo http://www.wolfgangpuck.com/restaurants/fine-dining/3801

For dinner Friday night I decided to try Cut. My hubby loves to find a good steak in Vegas and so do I. I had read multiple reviews and decided that Cut would be our Steakhouse of choice this trip.

We had reservations at 9:00 and when we arrived we were immediately seated. The restaurant was full but not too busy. We had a booth in the corner where we could see the entire restaurant which made this people watcher so happy but THEN they brought the wine menu. On a IPAD. Yes. The list was so extensive it was on an electronic device! My hubby laughed as I sat there looking so happy. He took this picture and posted what may be his 4th ever post to Facebook.

We ordered a bottle of Pinor Noir to accompany our steaks and then the chef brought by the meat for us to see. Amazing.

I mean that is just awesome.

So we split a butter lettuces salad with a champagne-herb vinaigrette, then Brian had a 20oz bone in rib eye and I had a petit cut filet mignon. We had those with sides of creamed spinach with fried organic egg and cavatappi pasta mac and cheese.

Here is a picture of my plate. Not that great of a picture but you get the idea!

The steaks were cooked perfectly. I mean melt in your mouth. YUMMY! Possibly the best steaks we have EVER had. We live in Texas. We have had some steaks. But these were AMAZING. We enjoyed every bite. The sides were wonderfully creamy and rich. Perfect matches to the meat. One of the best meals we have had in Vegas for sure. If you go to Vegas, don't miss Cut!

After we left Cut we went back to the Wynn where we were staying and went to Tryst. We danced like we are not parents to 4 children and we went to bed very late. I am not sure I should tell you all this but my hubby carried my high heels as we walked through the casino on the way back to our room that night. That is some tired dancing feet!

Saturday we woke up early for the Texas/OU game and before halftime went back to bed. That's all I will say about that.

Later I needed some greasy food, for reasons I am sure you all can guess, and so we found ourselves at a restaurant in Palazzo again called I Heart Burgers. It was good. But it would take one heck of a burger to impress me for $17 and it didn't really do that. BUT they had hot, salty French fries covered in chili and cheese and those hit the spot.

For dinner Saturday night we went to Sirio in Aria. Aria is one of the newer hotels in the City Center area. We hadn't tried a restaurant there so I thought we would but I was really disappointed. I order a Caprese salad to start, even with the $21 price tag. FOR A SALAD. Then they tell me they are out of the roasted peppers that come with that salad. I almost asked if I got a discount! But not wanting to look like a loser, I said ok and ended up with 3 hunks of mozzarella and 2 slices of tomato. OK fine. Bring my scallops that are $49.

They brought the scallops and those had a slice of parmesan cheese on them and served with mushrooms and like 2 artichokes. Scallops and mushrooms. Way too much of the same texture on the same plate. That was as much as my steak the night before and I couldn't even finish it.

Now I am not all about the $$$$ or we wouldn't even go to these restaurants but I am about value. Cut was a good value. We left full and satisfied. For the same money the next night, I was eating cocktail peanuts at the bar after dinner. That's not a good value.

But after dinner we did a little bar hopping.

#3 I love the cocktails in Vegas. The bartenders in Vegas take real pride in serving up a real drink. (now drink on the casino floor may not fall into this category)

One stop was the 23rd floor of the Mandarin Hotel. Gorgeous bar and fabulous views. Not too busy. We had a seat right by the windows to enjoy our cocktails.

Here was our view:

 Oh wait, that was my view :) My sexy husband!!

 Here was our view of the strip, beautiful!

Here was my gorgeous french martini:

From there we went over to the Cosmopolitan Hotel and the Chandelier Bar. I had heard that if you go to the second level of this bar you can order a cocktail called the fire breathing dragon. I had to try that!

So I ordered it up. It came in 2 glasses. one with some frozen raspberries and the other was the cocktail. It was fun to drink! The raspberries were frozen in dry ice so as soon as they hit my mouth there was smoke coming from my nose and mouth! My husband died laughing and so did I. I love that we laugh so much together by the way.

#4 I love seeing celebrities in Vegas

While in the cab line at our hotel Saturday night, my hubby and I saw someone in front of us and we were both awestruck. Now some of you might not be but if you are a fan, then you get it and we are HUGE fans of the office. We saw Darrel waiting for a cab with his family at our hotel! Before we could even get his attention and deliver one of our favorite lines of his to him, they were loading his family into 2 cabs and were on their way. I did make my hubby stalk the casino floor when we got back that night just in case they were hanging out gambling but alas, we did not see him. In case you are still wondering who that is, here is a picture:

We had a great time. Thanks for letting me share it with you! Viva Las Vegas!

Bevo

We said good bye to Bevo this morning.  He was my husband's best friend for 12 years and my boys playmate for the past 4. He will be missed everyday by our family. I remember the first time I met him. I had come over to Brian's house and Bevo looked at me like, "Oh great, another woman trying to take my spot on this stinky couch." But he and I grew into a love/hate relationship over the years after we both realized that neither of us were going anywhere. I should have known he wasn't going anywhere, I mean, Brian's match profile name was Brianandbevo!

I am sure if Bevo could talk, he would tell some great stories of my husband's former single days.  Like trying to pick up ladies at the dog park! Bevo was a great wingman from what I hear. I would like to write more but the tears are falling again. Help me by posting a comment to my husband or a memory of Bevo if you have one. I will make sure he sees them. I think he and the boys would like that. Here are a few of my favorite Bevo pictures.

 Brian and Bevo were both so young here!

 Avery loved him very much

Shea had a special place in his heart for Bevo. One Christmas eve, Bevo had a seizure and didn't want to come inside. Shea put his coat on and laid in the grass beside him until he felt like coming in.

Bevo was keeping an eye on his new baby brother and the photographer that was taking the pictures!Bevo always found a way to get in on the action.