Fantastic Fun

What an incredible weekend! On Thursday, Mike arrived in DC shortly after Mal and I returned to the apartment with our weekend groceries. Since it was already late, the evening was spent catching up and making weekend plans.

Since we had both taken off on Friday, Mike and I had an extra day to play while everyone else was working. We began our day by going by the CCCU (yeah... I go into the office on my day off, I'm one of those people) and I introduced Mike to Rich. The two of them seemed to hit it off and I learned today that Rich "approves."

After visiting a little bit, Mike and I left and went to the National Museum of the American Indian. I'd heard from a credible "Washingtonian" (aka someone who has lived in DC all his life) that it has the best "museum" food in town and should be tried by everyone who visits. Since Mike and I both appreciate culinary experimentation, I figured it'd be a great place to go. A museum + yummy food = good times. The museum itself wasn't my favorite by any stretch. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but it was a little flat. The food, however, was excellent! We both got a cup of soup- Mike a peanut based and I a corn chowder. We each got a tamale (he black bean and I chicken) with peanut sauce on top. We split our three sides: a cold, black rice salad (his selection), grilled zucchini and tomato combo (my selection), and something else that was corn-like (a joint selection, but given all to him after I thought it was completely unexciting, but he enjoyed it). We later decided that on a scale of one to ten, the museum was a seven. If it didn't have the food, it would have only scored a six.

After the museum, we swung by the Sculpture Garden and checked out the times for the skating rink. The second picture below is of us at the rink during the day. We made a mental note to return that night with Mal and Dave (who was able to come and visit!) before heading to Chinatown and doing a little shopping. After C-town, we met Mal and Dave at Bistro. Since Mike had never been, it was fun to FINALLY take him to the restaurant that I had been boasting about for months. After polishing off our plates, the four of us went to the skating rink and skated for almost two hours! Phew. When we arrived home, it was shortly after 11:00 PM. We watched a movie (You, Me, & Dupree) and then we all crashed.

Saturday morning came early for me. I had my pregnancy counseling training from 8:30-12. It was really hard at first to wake up! I thought I'd get to sneak a quick nap in when I arrived home, but was informed by Mal that we had all been invited to brunch with our friend Dom, whom we know from church/ Alpha, and his girlfriend, Christiana. So, Mal, Drew, Mike, and I joined the two of them at a new-to-me-and-my-roomies restaurant called Saint X. Mike and I visited with them until the food they'd ordered arrived and then we slipped out to pursue some of our own plans.

We headed to Woodley Park, a neighborhood that's a few stops away and features a Vietnamese restaurant that I wanted to try and the zoo! Mike had been talking about a Vietnamese soup, called pho, that he'd recently discovered and wanted me to try. Since I'll try anything once that he suggests (he suggests fabulous foods), I was anxious to taste it. I wasn't disappointed- it really is delicious soup! After my first pho encounter, we went to the zoo.

Unfortunately, most of the animals were hidden away or their exhibits were closed. None of the super cool animals (think: pandas, lions, bears, or elephants) were out playing. We saw a cheetah, an emu, and some horse-type animals. Also, some zoo "extras" were some wild deer that had creeped into the zoo from the neighboring trees. A herd (?) of eight deer attracted as many onlookers as the emu and they let us get pretty close to them. Pretty random, right? So, the zoo exhibits were a little disappointing, but I still really enjoyed my time spent with Michael.

After the zoo, I had a salsa class to attend! Mike watched as Dave Winfield and I salsa danced for an hour. He was even our photographer (see a couple pics below)!

After salsa, Mike and I returned to the house, helped prepare a delicious meal of scalloped potatoes (Mike's doing), meatloaf (Drew's creation), and salad (guess who). After the three of us and Mal devoured dinner, Mal and I whooped the boys in cards. The night ended with the threat of a snow storm on the weather channel and a documentary about Al-Jazeera.

Sunday came fast and we began the day with church. It was a great message about Mary, Christ's mother, and the ways in which she is a Biblical example of femininity and what it means to be a woman of God. It was a great message, but one more applicable to us females in the audience than the guys. When we went into church, about two inches of snow had already fallen. When we exited, close to four were on the ground. By the time we made it back to the house, parked, and relaxed inside for about an hour, over five inches could be seen. Mike decided to stay another day and let the weather (and roads) clear before driving home. YAY!!

We spent the evening relaxing from our busy weekend and really just enjoying one another's company.

I've discovered that I'm capable of loving him more everytime I see and spend time with him. God is so amazing and I am so blessed. How is this not a dream?

Friday; On our way to the Native American Museum; US Capitol in background












Friday; Scoping out ice skating rink times













Friday; Back at the rink that night with Mal and Dave












Friday; Mal and Dave ice skating












Saturday; Brunch at Saint X; Pictured left to right: Mike, Drew, Mal, Christiana, Dom (Domenic)













Saturday; Zoo time- Mike pointing out the only panda that we saw











Saturday; Me looking into the panda pen. No luck and no panda there.

Saturday; Cheetah







Saturday; Salsa!! Me (pink sweater) and Dave W. (black t-shirt facing me) watching as our instructor (black tank) tells us another confusing step. At least that's what I'm thinking in this picture anyway.

Saturday; Dave and I dancing... er, trying to anyways.











Sunday; Snow bunnies.












Sunday; Drew pimpin' the Duncan sisters.

Sunday; the picture that sealed the deal. I snapped this and Mike emailed his boss. "How can I drive in this?"

A look ahead

Well, I haven't had much to report on and have been kind of busy. The result has been a neglect of my blog. Highlights of the past week include:

• Having a substitute teacher during Salsa last week. He was really talented instructor and much better than our "regular" teacher. We went slow and reviewed the steps over and over and over. After we left, Mal, Drew, and I felt much more confident and comfortable in our Salsa shoes.
• Pregnancy Training went well. I helped to host it at the CCCU, so we all had much more personal room. Everyone seemed really appreciative of the venue change. We're going to meet at the CCCU this week too. Training last week centered on abortion. It was interesting and somberly. I learned much about the process and many of the technical terms and "types" of abortions. We watched a video about how abortions are performed in the first and second trimesters. Although it was animated and completely "non-gory," it was still emotionally a lot to handle.
• Mal and I tried a new restaurant on Sunday. It's located in Union Station and on the third level. It's balconey-type seating looks over the two levels below and provides much "eye-candy" while dining. Plus, it wasn't that expensive and the food was delicious! I've included a link to another blog that gave a decent review of it.

I'm looking forward to this weekend. Mike is coming to visit and it's the first time I've seen him since I traveled home for Christmas and New Year's. So, it's been WAY too long. He's arriving this evening. Both of us have taken tomorrow off from work and are planning on an enjoyable weekend together. I'm not quite sure what we'll do, but I have a few places to visit and restaurants in mind. Also, tomorrow I have plans to swing him by the CCCU and meet Rich, whom I have dubbed "the other important man in my life"... behind my dad, of course! :)

Sorry for the long delay in posting something. I'll try better...

Salsa

I can't believe it Saturday night already. This entire week has just flown.

A group of us went out for Thai last night. It was a new Thai place, although once we got there I realized that it was a chain... and that we'd eaten before at another one across town. No worries. The food was still yummy and company engaging.

After dinner, Mal, Drew, and I came back to the house. Drew and I watched The Grudge. Well, Drew watched all of it and I hid behind a blanket and told him to narrate during the really scary parts. I kept threatening to stop watching entirely, but it was like an accident scene- I just had to see what would happen. Er, hear... as I didn't really SEE much.

Today has been productive. I went to my second pregnancy counseling class. I've asked permission from the CCCU to host the last three classes at the Council offices and the VPs agreed that it was a good idea. The current room that we are training in at the Capitol Hill Pregnancy Center is entirely too small. So, next Saturday everyone will gather at the CCCU offices and we'll train in our conference room. Yay!

The training session today was mediocre. I felt like most of it was pretty common sense. A lot of the verbage I had learned in college in my Communication classes. We focused on interpersonal communication. Although, I must admit that there were many examples in our manual that I was unsure of how to approach. It's slightly intimidating to think that there are going to be scared women who will ask ME for advice and answers five seconds after I tell them the results of a pregnancy test.

I know that there will be many times when the Holy Spirit's guidance will be all that I have. I'm excited and am anticipating my experiences there. My prayer is that my own spirit is willing to listen and respond as He would have me.

Mal, Drew, Dave (DC Dave), and I went to our first salsa class tonight. It lasted only an hour and the room was blazing hot. I was surprised that so many men showed up to the class. There were about 25 people, and only two single women (or at least two who hadn't found a man to drag with them). I couldn't help but wonder if the demographics of DC made a difference in the male ratio. Our instructor is Hispanic and claimed to go out every night to salsa. Maybe it's his way of doing homework?

The class went fast. By the end, I felt like I had finally gotten down the basic steps. The beginning of the class focused on elementary steps. We all danced in front of mirrors that span the length of the room. As I looked to my left at Mal and right at Drew and Dave, I quickly realized that my friends were picking up on the steps quicker than I.

Slight panic ensued as the instructor told us to partner up and that unless someone objected, we would be rotating partners for the rest of the evening. As I looked around the room, I quickly realized that many peoples' eyes were screaming, "NO!" Great. I thought dragging two of our own boys along meant we at least had two people we knew whose toes we could step on with few apologies. But, alas, not so. We formed a rough circle and began. Our "partner" dancing lasted for about twenty minutes.

I felt like I was participating in one of those "two minute date" arrangements, where a woman sits at a table with a man, talks with him for two minutes, makes mental judgements, and then goes to the next table until all have been visited. Phew. Except this was shorter than two minutes. We rotated in a time frame of about one minute.

"OK, rotate!" the instructor yelled in his syrupy accent. I moved to the next guy, still mentally noting what I or my partner had done wrong just ten seconds prior. My palms were sweaty due to the temperature of the room. After guy number six, I was already nursing a heel that had been stomped/ scraped (?) on by the guy dancing behind me. Wearing sling back heels maybe wasn't the best idea. I knew he was dancing too close! There were brief introductions before every dance. I retained half of my partners' names and the others have slipped into another land...

The hour went fast. It was fun and I've already accepted my "forgetful" fate. While the night's ending had been promising, I know that in a week from now my retained knowledge will be lacking. My muscles will have to be retrained. You can bet that next week I won't wear sling-back heels again. I'm thinking boots.

Quiet Week

It's been relatively calm around here this week. Last week was super chaotic. I worked some extra hours and even worked over the weekend as the CCCU hosted a president's conference here in DC. We had 140+ college presidents fly in from all over the world to be a part of the event.

I had the pleasure of picking two of them up from the airport- one from the Netherlands and another (plus wifey) in from Australia. The guy from the Netherlands had never been to DC before. I found myself going into "tour guide" mode as we passed anything about which I had any knowledge.

There were times during the weekend that I couldn't believe where I was. It's crazy to think that people plan months in advance for a few minutes of a President's time. Here I was, spending 30 minutes alone and in a car with them. If we weren't in a car, I later had opportunities to just walk up and talk to any of them over the weekend. Kinda nuts!

I played a pretty key part in organizing an "international dinner" for the 25 or so presidents who were in from outside the US. We had dinner on Friday night and then joined other presidents and staff from the CCCU for a sneak preview of Amazing Grace. It's an inspiring film based on the life of William Wilberforce, who helped put a stop to the slave trade in England. Mal was able to join us at the movies and it was a fun evening. I definitely recommend the film.

The rest of the weekend was spent recovering from working long hours at the conference. I caught up on some missed television on Saturday night (yay for websites that have the episodes on them!). Mallory was distracted by Dave, who came in for the evening and left on Sunday.

Sunday was pretty much just the Superbowl. Mal and I attended a party in Maryland. The party was fun although it was too far away. I was extremely disappointed with the game. Mallory and I agreed that it was pretty boring compared to past Superbowls. Maybe it was because they played in the rain or something. The only thing I was excited about was that the Colts won... that and the yummy food at the party. :)

Tomorrow night is our first Bible study. I'm mostly prepared although I do have a little more reading tonight. I think we're going to have about eight people in our group- the ideal number for a small group.

Some Snow Pictures

We had a beautiful snow last night. From our windows, it looked like we were witnesses to a life-size snow globe. The dainty snow sprinkled down, caught on the wind, as it made its way to rest. The snow is fluffy and light. Just perfect.