mmm mmm good!

One of my go to recipes for a delicious, easy, semi inexpensive dinner is by Giada De Laurentiis from the food network. When I was in school I was watching her show one day and she made a delicious looking Pasta Primavera. So, over the years, I've turned to it on several occasions for a good meal that will easily impress people. My mom, the best cook I know, told me it tasted "gourmet." Now, props of to Giada, because I definitely didn't come up with the recipe, but it impressed my mom..and it is just too easy. This pasta will only take about 20 minutes once you've cut everything up. To get your taste buds going, here is a picture of the delicious meal and I'll put a link over to the food network site below that.

Pasta Primavera

picture courtesy of FoodNetwork.com

Relaxing, fun weekend

Joshua had a wonderfully relaxing weekend. Friday night was spent at home. Joshua got home late because he had gone out the Rust Restorations in Mansfield, where he gets the Ducati worked on. We ordered a pizza from I Fratelli, probably the best pizza place in town and watched random tv, and then put in a John Wayne western. Now, putting in a western puts me right to sleep so I didn't really watch any of the western. Saturday morning we woke up early (meaning 8:30ish...which is early for us on a Saturday), did some cleaning around the house, ran to Einstein's bagle for a good bagel and coffee out on ther patio, came home and watched New in Town, which stars Renee Zellweger and Harry Connick Jr. Now, it was a major chick flick...and IMDb gave it a pretty poor ranking, but Joshua even liked it and I found the plot line to be pretty entertaining. Just about the time we were about to start movie number 2 (as we had dedicated Saturday to movie day), Josh got a call from Matt, my co-worker Stacie's husband. The invited us out to their place to go out on their boat, as we had planned this adventure for the weekend before, but were unable to go due to some illness on their end. So Joshua and I accepted the offer and went out on the boat with them Saturday evening. Man, it was the PERFECT day to be out on the lake and the water was absolutely beautiful! Nothing like good weather and good company!

Today, Sunday, we tried out a new church. We went to the 11 am service at Lovers Lane United Methodist. The service was great and the people were so friendly and welcoming. We definitely felt more at home there than at the church we had previously attended. I'm hoping to get involved in a Bible Study there. Next week we're going to try out heir contemporary service, which I am really looking forward to.

So, all in all, its been a good weekend! I'm definitely not ready for the week to begin again. I love my weekends with Joshua and hate having to go back to the real world...aka work.

Back to Running

Thanks to mom and dad (in law), I have new running shoes! As in every good sized city, Dallas has a great running store called Luke's Locker. The great thing about this shop, other than it's HUGE selection of running gear, is their personal service for fitting you into the right running shoe. Now, I have been a Nike girl for pretty much my entire running life. I love Nikes and they have always fit my foot really well. However, this time I actually walked out with something different. The nice gentleman watched me walk and came to the conclusion that I run on the outside of my feet...who knew?!?! So he brought me three different shoes to try on and then I got to pick the one that fit my foot the best and...it was not the Nike. I ended up with a really cool pair of Saucony's They are purple and super comfy.

My new shoes!

There is also this great site the help map runs. You can become a user for free, or you can just use the application as needed. If you become a member, you can keep track of routes, and log all of your runs, which is really handy if you are training for a race. Right now, I am just trying to get back in shape...and get used to running in the Texas heat again. Maybe I'll think about training for the Nashville 1/2 though. And maybe THIS TIME..I won't injure myself a week before the race.

Here's to setting goals and pushing myself to achieve them injury free.

New Digs!

Joshua and I have been busy since mid July moving into our new place, and it is really starting to come together. We absolutely love our new place and we are finally (almost) done doing upgrades/additions. Our new home is a 2 bed, one bath duplex just 5ish minutes from work and 1.5 miles from SMU. It's on the Preston Hollow neighborhood of Dallas, which is also home to Ross Perot, and George W. Bush. They, however, live in the mansions of Preston Hollow and though our new place is an upgrade from our first apartment, we are definitely not living in a mansion. Our place is a 1950's design with a really cute yellow tiled kitchen and yellow and blue tiled bathroom. I've taken a few pictures but don't have them uploaded quite yet. They BEST feature of our new pad is the yard and garage! These were two things that were a "must have" for the new place. We've already spent a lot of time out on our patio and Joshua has a nice "man cave," as he calls it, in the garage.

I've already been out running in our new neighborhood and love it. We're no longer on a busy road, so I feel a lot safer running on my own. Joshua and I walked to Blockbuster the other night...but that was a little more of a trek..as it is just beyond school. But, it was good exercise and good talking time.

Joshua's parents came down to visit last weekend and we made a trip out to Ikea, the land of everything one could ever desire for a home, and had fun looking at all they have to offer. Since we only have one bathroom now, I really needed a space to get ready in the morning. So, we bought a little desk/vanity for the office. I now have my very own space to sit in the morning to do my makeup and hair...and then a desk to work at in the evenings while Joshua is doing his school work.

In the next couple of days I'll take some pictures to show the new place.