dresses, sunshine, and love

Well, I had a post all fixed the other day, but then the browser crashed on me and I didn't feel like typing it all back out again! In it I had described our Valentine's Day dinner at Bistro de Paris at Epcot. It was delicious! Here are some pics of us:



Our weather has been getting warmer and warmer, tomorrow and Saturday it will be in the 80s, and I'm finally getting a little tan again since I'm walking several times a week again. I really really want to get these last 20 pounds off. It would be a shame to get this close to my goal and not make it! Plus, I want to get into single-digit sizes, and I'm not that far off!

Speaking of clothes, I went shopping today after I got my hair done. I've been looking for a dress or two, and I finally got lucky at Ann Taylor Loft! Here are the dresses I bought:





I know, I know, lots of brown - but apparently brown is big for spring. Good thing I look decent in it! I had fun shopping, which is still a shock to me. Although today it reminded me that I REALLY want to get rid of the extra 20 pounds I'm still carrying around!

Tomorrow we're headed to Animal Kingdom for the day. We're meeting Brian's friends Glenn and Lorie (Glenn was the best man at our wedding) and some other friends. For dinner, we made reservations for just the two of us at the Sci-Fi Cafe, which is probably our new favorite cool dining spot. It will be a fun day.

Sunday, we'll have church and then Sunday evening, the whole band and praise team and spouses are coming up to our neck of the woods to attend a service at Northland Church, and then they're all coming over to our house for dinner! So I've been cleaning. I'm making my wonderful friend Sera's Tortellini Soup. Yum! OK, gotta go dust.

Oh! I almost forgot! I've mentioned before that we have a clear glass shower in our master bath. Since it's CLEAR glass, you can see every bit of soap scum. Well, I finally figured out how to get it off. A DRYER SHEET! I took a NEW dryer sheet and wet it and scrubbed the door - it rinsed beautifully! I was amazed. Just another tip from me - your favorite lazy, short-cut-finding house cleaner. :-)

playing catch-up

Well, has this blog been boring or what??!! It seems like 40 years since I blogged! Christmas and New Year's came and went with barely a post from me, let alone a picture! So I thought I'd take a little bit of time and try to catch up a little.

Let's see. A few weeks ago, my friends Julie and Rob came to Orlando for Children's Pastors Conference. I used to work with them at Brentwood-Benson (Provident) Music and it was so great to see them! They came last January too. No, they're not a couple. They are just the ones from work who come and man the BB booth at the conference. The week they came was extremely busy, but we met them for dinner at the Rainforest Cafe (Downtown Disney) late on Saturday night. Here is a pic of us:



And for fun, let's compare it to a pic of us from January 2006:



Um, yeah. Check out my 5 chins in that second pic. Are you tired of me talking about my weight loss? Do you want another update? hahahaha! I actually haven't officially weighed myself since October. My home scale says I haven't lost or gained, so that's good, but more importantly, my clothes tell me that I haven't gained. I'm back into the exercise and healthy eating full-force now. I'm easing myself into some Yoga - it's kicking my butt so far! But I can see that I'm going to really enjoy it, if I can ever endure it for more than 10 minutes!!

Ah, Idol is back on. I don't enjoy the preliminary auditions as much now as I used to. We've seen it all before. People who live in their own little world come out of the woodwork and make fools of themselves, blah blah. I'm ready for Hollywood week and the top however many they're going to pick this year. More Idol chat to come, for sure.

Brian and I have been busy little bees every weekend in January and so far in February, and it looks like it's not going to let up until March. Whew! But at least we've been having fun! Last Saturday we went to Tampa for a matinee showing of the Broadway show "Monty Python's Spamalot." Let me just say, it was hilarious. This was Brian's birthday present, even though his birthday isn't till the end of March. But I saw last fall that Spamalot was coming to Tampa, and we bought tickets the day they went on sale in October - and we got orchestra seats! It was a great time and we laughed our heads off!

As we were walking from our car to the Performing Arts Center, we saw this:



As we came around the truck, we saw that they were giving out free samples of Spam! Of course, Brian couldn't pass up the chance to try some Spam:



That Spam was gross, it smelled VERY bad! Brian ate a few bites, but he couldn't stomach too much of it. Yuck! At any rate, the show was excellent and hilarious, and we would highly recommend it.

I've been busy with the band at church, too - we've been doing gigs other than church and it's been a lot of fun! Someday I'll figure out how to put some music on here.

I've been scrapping a ton! Scrapfest is still going on at Lifetime Moments, and we all know how much I love that! Here are some of my favorites I've done during Scrapfest:






I think that's about all I have to tell you about right now. Oh, except for that my best-friend-since-we-were-born, Jenni, finally got to meet Joey McIntyre, with whom she has been obsessed since she was like 12, when he was in New Kids on the Block. Here's the proof of their meeting:



Heehee. Hope everyone is having a great year so far. We're busy tomorrow, but at least Brian and I get to spend some time together! Yay! So I'm off to bed. Good night!

we're ok

I don't know if what's happening around here has been on national news, but Central Florida was hit last night and this morning with some devastating tornadoes. But we're okay - Brian said he woke up to some lightning and wind, but I slept through the whole thing. Apparently, one touched down in our little city, too.

I know I've been really bad about updating! I have lots to share! But I've been so busy, and still am - maybe I can write more later.