Bang Bang!

David and I have been talking about getting a gun. With all the traveling we do, it's better to be safe than sorry. I didn't grow up around guns and have never shot one or even held one. So I'm a little hesitant since guns scare the crap out of me. But David always tells me that guns are like life insurance...you don't want to ever use it, but you'll be glad you have it if you ever need it.

Our friend, Shelby, agreed to teach me how to shoot a shotgun! So today, we met her at her family's ranch just outside of Mineral Wells. Her mom and dad also came because we wanted to try out a handgun., too Since we don't have much experience with guns, her dad wanted to be there with us.

I went first. I was so nervous. I don't think I'd even ever heard a gunshot before. Yes, I grew up in Texas. But I grew up in Arlington and went to high school in Plano, so give me a break! Tony (Shelby's dad) was so good at showing me what to do and how to hold it. We started with a .380 handgun.

Bend your knees and lean into it...

Then it was David's turn...

We had a contest on who could shoot the target the best. We both took 5 shots and guess who won! ME!

Then came the shotgun. We used Shelby's 20 gauge since I probably would have hurt myself if we used a 12 gauge. Ha!

David won the shotgun contest. The first shot I took, I did the almost-impossible and missed the target. But to be fair, shotguns are a lot heavier than you think they'd be. Or at least I thought so.

David took a turn shooting Tony's .45. I didn't think I needed to do that. I didn't want to hurt myself.

I had a lot of fun learning how to shoot! I want to see how other kinds of guns shoot, but I'm definitely more comfortable with the idea of getting one. I think for home protection we should just get a shotgun. And hopefully if anybody ever breaks into our house (knock on wood), just the sound of cocking the shotgun will be enough to scare them off and we won't actually ever have to shoot it.

One Year

Well, we made it! We survived our first year of marriage! David and I celebrated our first wedding anniversary last Sunday. We didn't have any big plans, but we had a nice dinner at Cool River Cafe in Las Colinas. It worked out really well for us that our anniversary fell on a Sunday because Cool River had half off bottles of wine on Sundays!

 When we got home, we of course had to have some of our wedding cake. We unwrapped the box, and opened it to find this...

Definitely not the prettiest looking cake, but not so bad for being a year old. David didn't want to eat any of our year old cake, but I told him he had to for good luck! So we cut into it...

And opened the bottle of champagne the venue gave us a year ago... (David really hated that I was taking all these pictures, can you tell?)

And then I went to get our champagne flutes and found this...!

I'm not sure when this glass broke because we never use champagne flutes. I was bummed because I got these from a good friend a few years ago when I got my job, but we improvised and used our regular wine glasses.

Then we ate some cake! David loved it...!

Okay, maybe not really. It wasn't terrible. But it wasn't great. And the most disappointing part about it all was that our wedding cake was supposed to have a raspberry filling in it. I guess the bakery decided that we shouldn't have raspberry filling on our anniversary. We tore through the cake thinking we'd find some, but didn't find any.

So, we threw it in the trash...you can only eat so much plain almond cake.

Although I'm sure Casey would have gladly polished off the rest of it!

Trick or Treat!

Trick or treat, smell my feet....bring everyone something good to eat!

We had a Halloween party today at work. I organized it with the help of a couple other girls in the office. When we have parties at work, it's usually a pot luck...we work for the state and unfortunately, we don't have a party fund! Most people bring a little something to share with the office and we usually get a pretty good spread of food. So last night, I made spinach dip, mummy dogs, and snickerdoodle cupcakes! I've been asked for the recipe for the cupcakes a few times, so here it is!

The cupcake recipe is from Martha Stewart.  Mine came out a little dry. I think next time I'll substitute some canola oil for butter to make them a little bit more moist.

For the frosting, I didn't use Martha's 7 minute frosting. I made cinnamon cream cheese frosting!

• 8 oz cream cheese, softened
• 1 stick butter, softened
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3-4 cups powdered sugar (I used 3 1/2 cups)

In a bowl, combine the butter and cream cheese. Beat until the mixture is smooth and creamy.  Add the cinnamon, vanilla extract, and powdered sugar (1 cup at a time). Beat until smooth and creamy. Delicious!

Texas Travels: Sherman, Texas

I spent the last two weeks in Sherman, TX. Sherman is about 80 miles north of Dallas off Highway 75.  It's not too far from home, but far enough that it requires staying out. This was my fourth time to stay in Sherman and just when I thought I knew everything about this small town, one of the bankers told us about a taco bus. An old school bus turned into a restaurant? We had to check it out. We were told that it was about 10 miles north of the bank we were at, in the parking lot of a liquor store. Classy. When we found it, it was just as we expected. A school bus. Turned into a restaurant.

Taco Hondumex is run by a husband and wife. There is actually seating inside the bus, but there's also a few picnic tables set up outside. They have tacos, burritos, sopes, tamales, etc. And it's super cheap! I got a pork sopes and a soda and my lunch was only $5.50 including tax! What a deal! This is pretty authentic Mexican food, and it was pretty tasty! So if you're ever in the area, go find the taco bus!

Taco Hondumex
2301 Highway 691
Denison, TX

Cowboys Game ... the VIP way

Last Sunday, we went to the Cowboys v. Titans game. At the Texans game a few weeks ago, we met a guy in the parking lot after the game and gave him and his friends a few of our beers.  After chatting for a bit, we found out he worked in the Cowboys ticket office! He offered to get us into the Cowboys tunnel the next time we were at the stadium, as a thank you for the beers. I put his number in my phone, and only half expected him to respond to my text message on Sunday. Well, he did respond and he followed through on his promise and got us into the tunnel!! It was so cool! Definitely a once in a lifetime opportunity for us, since the only people allowed in the tunnel are those who are willing to pay an arm and a leg for their seat license. We were only willing to pay an arm for ours. :)

We saw the players run through the tunnel from the locker room to the field (there's Tony!)...

And then Jerry Jones walked through and even stopped to chat and sign some autographs!

David, with his long arms, was able to get his ticket stub out there and Jerry signed it!! Guess he didn't notice the small size of the ticket (if you really belong in the tunnel, your ticket is about twice the size of ours)!

The tunnel is actually part of a bar that's on field level. There's a little "patio" area where you can stand along the railing and you're basically *THISCLOSE* to the players. It was pretty neat! The only thing that sucked is that since you're pretty much on the field, we weren't able to see much. But we were about 10 feet from the Cowboys bench!

When the players are being introduced, they have a Cowboys star that shoots out fire, and boy was it HOT!!

 

We also got to see where the post-game interviews are held.

Just before the end of the second quarter, we made our way up a level to the other bar. The view of the field was much better from here!

The Cowboys didn't win (we were 0-2 on games for the weekend...boo), but we had fun watching the game from where the aristocracy sits! haha! 

ALDS Game 3

Last Saturday, we went to the ALDS game 3 at the Ranger's Ballpark! We were so hoping to watch them sweep the Rays...but, alas...it wasn't in the cards for the Rangers all weekend. Nevertheless, we had a blast!  

We ran into the Rangers t-shirt girls posing with a Rangers super-fan. He was decked out in antlers, a cowboy hat, rally towels, and even chaps!

The energy inside the ballpark was A-M-A-Z-I-N-G. Everyone was so excited!!

We would have loved to have seen a sweep, but at least the Rangers pulled through in Game 5. Now that we're done with the Rays, it's time to take on the Yankees!! GO RANGERS!!!

Date Night No. 1

October is a crazy month for us. I'm out of town for two weeks, and then David is out of town for the other two weeks. We haven't had to travel very much this year, so now that we're starting to again, I'm remembering how much it sucks sometimes. I especially hate it when our out-of-towns are opposite - I'm out of town when he's in town and he's out of town when I'm in town. Oh well...it's part of our job. 

We recently decided that since we're only getting to spend weekends together this month, and part of next, we needed to set aside some time to spend together! So last Friday was our first official date night. We plan on alternating who plans the date each week, so last week was David's turn. We went to have dinner and drinks at Piranha at the Arlington Highlands. YUM! I was too busy eating to remember to take a picture! I actually forgot to take any pictures at all the whole night...oops!

After dinner, we went to see The Town at Studio Movie Grill. 

I had zero interest in seeing this movie. We work as bank regulators and we're almost always in a bank. So why feed my already ridiculously high paranoia level with watching a movie about bank robbers?!? But for the sake of date night, I sucked it up and went. And it turned out to be pretty good! I don't really like movies that have you cheering for the bad guy, but David says that's the sign of a good movie.

All in all, I'd say that Date Night #1 was a success!! Now it's my turn to plan our Date Night for this weekend...what to do, what to do...!

2-0 on the Road

 Last weekend we went down to Houston for the Cowboys v. Texans game! It turned out that the scheduling worked out perfectly since we had to be in Galveston Monday morning for our annual staff conference! A couple guys we work with and David's friend from college, Andy, also came. We had a blast!!

We had to make something easy, since we didn't have a fridge or a kitchen to prep in, so we settled on burgers! Have you ever been to San Marcos and eaten at the Tap Room? Well if you have, then you know all about their famous queso burger.

A juicy 1/2 pound patty, smothered in homemade spicy queso and guacamole. Absolutely delicious. Well we attempted to duplicate this at the tailgate. I'd never made queso on the grill and it actually turned out pretty good! It had the smoky bbq taste to it, but it was still really good.

One of the guys we work with, Matt, was the one who requested the queso burger. I think he approves!

Tailgating is always so much fun!! We played washers...

Andy broke out the vodka and we took some shots...

Matt & Ricky (from work)

Me & David

Pretty soon, it was game time!! Go Cowboys!!!!

We really went into this game mentally prepared to lose. The Cowboys were 0-2 and we just weren't playing very well. But surprisingly, they put their game faces on and we won!!! I am very proud to say that David and I are now 2-0 on our road games. Last year, we went to the Saint's game and if you'll remember, they were undefeated. And we went into the Superdome and kicked some booty!  Needless to say, we did the same thing at Reliant! So really, all I have to say is...we're going to Green Bay in November, so the Packers better watch out!! Just sayin'!

Here's the group after the game...

A little fuzzy...but to be honest, I think we were all feeling a little fuzzy...haha!

Ricky polished off the vodka for us...

And the boys decided they needed to shotgun a beer...or two...

We had so much fun at the game! Cowboys games are always fun, but going on the road to watch the Cowboys win is even better!!