Great day today. And I have no pictures to show for it because, as previously mentioned, neither Michael and I are great at remembering to pull the camera out. Which means I'll have to describe it. And to do so, I'll have to geek out a little bit. Is that ok? Are you willing to follow me down the road to nerd-dom? Pretty please? I promise to give you some great recipes if you do!
This evening, we had our friends Frank and Deanna over for dinner and games. Since I got to Michael's before he did, I had a chance to row and set a personal best for the 30 minute row. Woohoo! I am now 18th in the world for my age group . . . of course there are only 21 in the entire group, so that isn't too exciting. Still very satisfying though.
Normally when I head up to Michael's, I don't have time to row because I need to work on dinner. Not so the case today, thanks to the wonders of the slow cooker. I assembled the ingredients in the slow cooker liner yesterday and asked him to turn it on this morning. It's always nice to walk in the door and smell pork flesh. Yum! I made the pork carnitas from The Dinner Doctor. Which, let me tell you, is a great cookbook. I have not made one thing I don't like from it. The carnitas are great because they are so easy and I have the recipe memorized. Which means when we invited Frank and Deanna over, I didn't have to search for a recipe, I just headed to the store to pick up the ingredients. So, without further ado:
Savory Pork Carnitas
Ingredients:
1 Boneless Boston butt pork roast, 3-4 lbs
3 cloves garlic (use as many as you want!)
1 onion, peeled and quartered (I normally use 2 or 3)
1 can whole chiles, drained (I normally use 2 or 3)
1 packet (1.25 oz) low-sodium taco seasoning mix
~ 1 cup water (depends on size of roast and your slow cooker - the smaller the roast, the less you need. Also, if your slow cooker runs hot, which mine does, you may want to add a little more)
Directions:
Combine all ingredients in slow cooker. Cook on low for 10 hours. Eat! This pork is great for burritos and salads, so be sure to have all the fixings (cheese, salsa, beans, sour cream, guacamole . . . )
To go with the carnitas, I made a corn and black bean salsa I found on All Recipes. I made several changes, though, so here's my version.
Corn and Black Bean Salsa
Ingredients:
2 cans white and yellow corn (or 1 of each), rinsed and drained
2 cans black beans, rinsed and drained
1 bell pepper, chopped
4 roma tomatoes, chopped and pulp removed
1 small red onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced (feel free to add more!)
1 bunch cilantro, chopped
1/4 cup lime juice (2 - 3 limes, depending on their juiciness and your juicing ability. Use a spoon to ream them out if you don't have a juicer)
Salt, pepper, and cumin to taste
Directions:
Combine all ingredients. Can be eaten immediately, but tastes even better after being refrigerated overnight.
After we finished dinner, we got to the real meat of the evening: Settler's of Catan! Ok, here's the geeking out part. I really love this game. I really love the Cities and Knights expansion, but no one plays that around here, so I have to be content with the regular version. Which, ultimately, I am. It's just so exciting to have met other people who enjoy playing it that I'll take whatever I can get. In fact, inviting me over to play was Michael's first offensive move in his "Get Naomi to Date Me" campaign. Boy, even then he knew me too well!
Anyway, we played two games. Even though I haven't won Catan in a while, I was feeling good about the first game. I was second-to-last in placing my settlements, which means I was able to place two fairly close together, but still get all the resources. Sure enough, my strategy (which involved longest road) worked out and I managed to win. Woohoo! I would have been content with ending the night then, but everyone else wanted to play again. I knew I couldn't win twice in a row, so I tried to enjoy the glow of my victory while it lasted. I ended up placing my settlements first, which (if you know the game) is not necessarily the best position to be in. I ended up with vastly separated settlements (no chance for longest road) and, within the first hand, lost my chance at getting any ore. Not a pretty place to be in. But, with my great strategy skills and (Dad, you'll love this) judicious use of various ports, I managed to emerge victorious for a 2nd time. Yay! I'll be riding that victory pony for a long time!
So yes, an altogether lovely day spent with great friends. But, I must apologize for burying the lede . . . the main reason today was an awesome day? Well, it all has to do with that ticker you may have noticed up top. We have received word that St. Luke's in FoCoCO has reserved November 20 for our ceremony. 131 days until I'm Mrs. McElroy!!!! :-D :-D :-D
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Sunday, July 11, 2010
7/10/2010
We went in to Houston today to see an Astros game, courtesy of ExxonMobil (well, Michael's ticket at least. We had to pay for mine. Discounted rate, though!) We brought along his camera, but neither of us are big photographers, so here are the only two pics we took . . . hopefully it should satisfy the cries of "where are the pictures of the two of you?" ;-P
Even better than the Astros game (in which they beat the Cards, woohoo!) was dinner before-hand. Whenever we go into Houston we almost always stop at our favorite restaurant: Aladdin's. Yummy Mediterranean food. I had beef shawarma and Michael got kibbe. I was wishing we had a place like this in Beaumont, but now that I think about it, it's probably better that we don't. I don't even want to think how many WW points I consumed there! ;-)
In other news, Michael emailed me some professional photos of my ring. These are far better than what my dinky camera took. Isn't it pretty?! :-D
Even better than the Astros game (in which they beat the Cards, woohoo!) was dinner before-hand. Whenever we go into Houston we almost always stop at our favorite restaurant: Aladdin's. Yummy Mediterranean food. I had beef shawarma and Michael got kibbe. I was wishing we had a place like this in Beaumont, but now that I think about it, it's probably better that we don't. I don't even want to think how many WW points I consumed there! ;-)
In other news, Michael emailed me some professional photos of my ring. These are far better than what my dinky camera took. Isn't it pretty?! :-D
Friday, July 2, 2010
Happiness
Ok, I guess I better get writing or else I might have a mutiny on my hands . . . ;-P
On Tuesday, Michael came down to go bowling and afterward we came back to my house and he continued helping me with my living room painting project (which, incidentally, is nearly complete. Just need to steam/shampoo the carpet and I can move the furniture back in. Woohoo!). Long story short, I'd had a long day and pretty much broke down in front of him. Yes, that wonderful female tool called tears made its appearance. And then I got frustrated that I was crying which made me cry even more . . . suffice to say, not a pretty site! But Michael was wonderful, hugging me and calming me down. So by the time he needed to leave, I was pretty much back to my normal sane self. I was just about to say "See you on Thursday?" since that's our normal schedule when he said "Would you like to go to Easy's for dinner tomorrow? You could even row if you get to my house early."
Of course I said yes, but my radar immediately started beeping wildly. Date nights are not uncommon for us, but we rarely go someplace nice on a weeknight. Plus, we had just been to Easy's on Saturday with some friends for dessert. Since Easy's is the restaurant we went to on one of our very first dates, I had my suspicions. But, the more I thought about, the more I started convincing myself that there was nothing to his invite. After all, he was probably just being nice because I'd had a rough evening and he knew I'd like Easy's dinner since we had eaten only dessert on Saturday. Plus, while we were there Saturday our friends had told us about their engagement story that included Easy's and I didn't think he'd want to do the same thing. So, by the time I got to his place Wednesday evening, I'd pretty much talked myself out of any proposal expectations.
Sure enough, I got to his place before he did, so I went ahead and started a 30-minute rowing session (yes, he has his own rowing machine and man, does it work the abs!). Michael got home when I had about 10 minutes left so I finished up and talked to him briefly before jumping in the shower. Now, I had convinced myself that I wasn't receiving a proposal, but I still brought a nice skirt and top to wear . . . I figured it is always nice to look feminine once in a while! So, I took a little longer getting ready than normal because I actually put on makeup and all that jazz. And boy, am I glad I did! Who wants to look like a bum when she's being proposed to? ;-P
When I came out to the living room, I could see that there were some flowers in the kitchen, so I went to investigate. Michael gets me flowers on a fairly regular basis (yes, I know, he's wonderful!) so the fact that he had then wasn't too odd. However, instead of the normal one bouquet, here were two HUGE bouquets of the most gorgeous roses. Then, I noticed that he had put out some fancy brie cheese with crackers (yum!). By this time, my radar (and heart!) was once again beeping wildly. Michael told me something had come in the mail for me and he made me close my eyes while he pulled it out. Sure enough, he pulled out this lovely small wood box that contained the most beautiful ring. I, of course, was grinning like a mad-women and saying "Yes, yes, yes!" followed by some smooching. In fact, dinner was slightly delayed as we had a little cuddle time (which also gave me time to admire his excellent taste in jewelry!)
Anyway, that's the proposal story. We finished the evening with a lovely dinner at Easy's and some excited phone calls and texts to family and friends. And now let's move on to what I know you really wanted to see: pictures! But be forewarned . . . I have a really cruddy camera!
The roses (and my freshly painted living room wall in the background!)
Aren't they gorgeous?!!!
Uh-oh, looks like it's too sparkly for flash!
Of course, no flash means out-of-focus pictures when taking them with one hand.
But it's still beautiful even when it is fuzzy.
On Tuesday, Michael came down to go bowling and afterward we came back to my house and he continued helping me with my living room painting project (which, incidentally, is nearly complete. Just need to steam/shampoo the carpet and I can move the furniture back in. Woohoo!). Long story short, I'd had a long day and pretty much broke down in front of him. Yes, that wonderful female tool called tears made its appearance. And then I got frustrated that I was crying which made me cry even more . . . suffice to say, not a pretty site! But Michael was wonderful, hugging me and calming me down. So by the time he needed to leave, I was pretty much back to my normal sane self. I was just about to say "See you on Thursday?" since that's our normal schedule when he said "Would you like to go to Easy's for dinner tomorrow? You could even row if you get to my house early."
Of course I said yes, but my radar immediately started beeping wildly. Date nights are not uncommon for us, but we rarely go someplace nice on a weeknight. Plus, we had just been to Easy's on Saturday with some friends for dessert. Since Easy's is the restaurant we went to on one of our very first dates, I had my suspicions. But, the more I thought about, the more I started convincing myself that there was nothing to his invite. After all, he was probably just being nice because I'd had a rough evening and he knew I'd like Easy's dinner since we had eaten only dessert on Saturday. Plus, while we were there Saturday our friends had told us about their engagement story that included Easy's and I didn't think he'd want to do the same thing. So, by the time I got to his place Wednesday evening, I'd pretty much talked myself out of any proposal expectations.
Sure enough, I got to his place before he did, so I went ahead and started a 30-minute rowing session (yes, he has his own rowing machine and man, does it work the abs!). Michael got home when I had about 10 minutes left so I finished up and talked to him briefly before jumping in the shower. Now, I had convinced myself that I wasn't receiving a proposal, but I still brought a nice skirt and top to wear . . . I figured it is always nice to look feminine once in a while! So, I took a little longer getting ready than normal because I actually put on makeup and all that jazz. And boy, am I glad I did! Who wants to look like a bum when she's being proposed to? ;-P
When I came out to the living room, I could see that there were some flowers in the kitchen, so I went to investigate. Michael gets me flowers on a fairly regular basis (yes, I know, he's wonderful!) so the fact that he had then wasn't too odd. However, instead of the normal one bouquet, here were two HUGE bouquets of the most gorgeous roses. Then, I noticed that he had put out some fancy brie cheese with crackers (yum!). By this time, my radar (and heart!) was once again beeping wildly. Michael told me something had come in the mail for me and he made me close my eyes while he pulled it out. Sure enough, he pulled out this lovely small wood box that contained the most beautiful ring. I, of course, was grinning like a mad-women and saying "Yes, yes, yes!" followed by some smooching. In fact, dinner was slightly delayed as we had a little cuddle time (which also gave me time to admire his excellent taste in jewelry!)
Anyway, that's the proposal story. We finished the evening with a lovely dinner at Easy's and some excited phone calls and texts to family and friends. And now let's move on to what I know you really wanted to see: pictures! But be forewarned . . . I have a really cruddy camera!
The roses (and my freshly painted living room wall in the background!)
Aren't they gorgeous?!!!
Uh-oh, looks like it's too sparkly for flash!
Of course, no flash means out-of-focus pictures when taking them with one hand.
But it's still beautiful even when it is fuzzy.I love you, Michael! I am so thankful the Lord has brought us together and I am so excited to share the rest of our lives with each other!
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