Girl's Night

Last night I took advantage of Ben being away and planned a girl's night. It was so fun! Really should do those more often.

We started off meeting at Noodles for dinner. It was Dawn, Andrea, Heather, Cassie and me. After I stuffed myself with pasta for the sixth time this week, we (excluding Dawn because she had to get her hair done - lame!) headed over to the AMC theater to see "The Secret Life of Bees." I am for sure going to AMC during the week more often! Only $5 as compared to the $10 on the weekends, or other places. After the movie, we walked (thanks to Andrea's brilliant idea) to Houlihan's for dessert. So yummy!

Back to the movie. I read the book probably 3 years ago. So, it wasn't exactly fresh in my mind. But from what I remember, it is pretty close to the book. It was funny because I had little bits in my head from the book but when the movie started I was like, oh yeah - I remember what happens next. I thought it was a very good movie. If you haven't seen it yet I would recommend Kleenex.

Heart Ache

This past weekend we had my parents, sister and husband and grandma over for dinner. It has been a long time since there was a family gathering. To celebrate Ben and I tried pasta again. It was yummy for the second time in a row! :) This time we made fettuccine, which was WAY easier than cutting and shaping bow ties.

Leading up to the big dinner I thought on several occasions that this would be the first family thing without Jake. Then on Friday on my way home from work, it really hit me that he wasn't going to be there. My heart ached with the loneliness I felt. Literally. I almost started to cry. I was tempted to call my little brother, but then thought maybe it would be better if he didn't know how much I miss him. After all, I still have everyone else right here, and he is the one that is alone. Well, not really. When you have 400+ friends on facebook are you really alone?

Anyway, I'm anxiously awaiting Christmas break so we can hang. We even have a shopping date planned (for Christmas). So excited!

Coincidence?

Last night I was reading my latest Rachael Ray magazine. I got to this one article about having a pasta making party with friends! Coincidence? When Ben got home I asked him if he had been reading my magazine and that's how he got the idea to make pasta last weekend. He just rolled his eyes at me.

The last few days have been pretty chilly on the morning walks (this morning it was about 30 degrees). I am currently wearing shoes, socks, pants, short sleeve and long sleeve shirts, polar fleece jacket with hood and gloves. I hate to break out the winter coat; wearing long-johns seems too winter-y too. I think tomorrow I will add a hat and sweatshirt and see how that goes.

Pasta Experiment

On Saturday we decided to have some friends over for dinner. Ben decided that it would be a fun group activity to make pasta. And I do mean from scratch. So, while he was out playing a round of golf, I bought a pasta maker. Our friends came over and the fun began!

Colleen was nice enough to take a stab at making the dough. The rest of us were a little scared. But, we added too much flour, so we had to make a second batch of dough. This time Ben tried it. Second batch looked perfect! Ben and Philip went to work rolling the dough through the pasta maker. Colleen and I worked on making the dough into bow-ties. (Yeah, Ben thought bow-ties would work better with the meal so we hand made the bow-ties).

Finally at 10 pm dinner was ready! It was very tasty. We made pasta with green vegetables. The sauce was cream based and very light. All in all it was a fun night, but a lot of work! Next time we are just going to make spaghetti or fettuccine since the pasta maker will cut dough into those shapes. I took a couple of pictures that I will have to post another time.

On the Map

I just found out yesterday that you can know use Google maps to find us! The satellite picture is still of a field, but the streets are out there. How cool!

Using Gmaps Pedometer, I have verified that our morning walk is indeed a mile. I also checked our current running route. That is about 1.6 miles. So on both accounts, my calculations were not that far off.

On the Range

This morning, my mom and dad and Ben and I went out to the shooting range. My dad has a membership at a place about 1/2 hour away. My dad brought his pistol and two rifles. It was a little chilly, but we had a fun time. I definitely need to go more often - I'm no Annie Oakley! But I did get a few shots on the bulls-eye! Ben's fun was hampered a bit by an injury he sustained while cocking the pistol. Not sure what he caught himself on, but he got a huge slice on his finger. Blood everywhere! (OK, not really but it was bleeding pretty good). Next time we go out I am going to bring the first aid kit. :)