Par-tay

My friend Kate came for a visit a couple of weeks ago. Our friendship has forever been long distance and now that we live on the west coast we see each other less and less. BUT, thanks to the snowmageddon in D.C. (and something about a PT conference), she needed a little California sunshine. Our visits are never long, but always fun.

As soon as she got here we headed to The Grove for some grub. We opted out of the hour-long wait at most places and settled for outdoor eating at a Greek restaurant. After a little walking around we headed to Hollywood to stand in line at the Laugh Factory for a little stand-up comedy. I had prepared myself for the inevitable inappropriateness of the jokes, but none of us were prepared for the unexpected guest....Dane Cook himself! When they announced him we were all looking at each other and screaming. A little star struck I suppose. Classic moment nonetheless.







Day 2 consisted of more patio eating and a movie. We saw Valentine's Day since....well, it was Valentines Day. I was pleasantly surprised. Not the typical, cheesy romcom I was expecting. We knocked Kathryn's socks off with a trip to Golden Spoon....a heavenly selection of non-fat frozen yogurt. And then we ended the night with a steak dinner. What else for V-Day...but steak?

We spent the entire next day in one of my favorite places....Pasadena. We shopped and ate....and ate some more. Breakfast at Noah's Bagels, lunch at P.F. Changs and dessert at Polkatots. Kathryn has this weird obsession with cupcakes. Just kidding....but seriously, she has to get a cupcake in every city she stops in. Seriously though (again) I admire her keeping up the tradition and enjoy the benefits of being with her when she continues it. I think this one was cookies and creme. YUM!



Since Kate had to be in San Diego for a conference, we spent Tuesday in San Diego. We had lunch overlooking the beach at Hotel Del, walked around Balboa Park, did some shopping and ended with some tasty Italian food after catching a west coast sunset. Sounds too good to be true...I know.

Day Date

Patrick is in an extremely busy season with school and work right now, so I was thrilled when we were able to successfully mark out an entire day to hang out together. I love those dates....the ones that last all day. Since we had company coming in on Saturday (which I will be posting on soon) we decided to take a day trip to Santa Barbara. We started the morning with a stop and Noah's Bagels and Peet's Coffee in Pasadena. Mmmm. We rarely make a stop for bagels since the nutrition facts usually haunt me, but every now and then I can savor every bite.

The drive up the coast was gorgeous....as are most drives up the west coast.


We of course ran into traffic. It wouldn't be L.A. without traffic right?!


Our next stop was the Santa Barbara Mission. We took a guided tour and loved getting in on the history....especially since Patrick was a history major. It was quite a sight.




As soon as the tour was over we hurried into the mountains for lunch at Cold Spring Tavern. It was tiny and in the middle of nowhere. I can't count how many times we kept saying "Maybe we should have updated our maps like the Garmin keeps telling us." It seemed like we were on the flag forever, but we finally found it and joined the line of people waiting. Lunch was good once we got inside. We even saw an Auburn fan and were sure to shout out a little "War Eagle!" Don't judge us. We told him we were DAWG fans, but you get excited to see anything SEC when you are out west okay?!





The rest of the day featured shopping on State Street and a stop at the outlets.....oh and a ridiculous amount of traffic all the way home. Oh....and surprise....looks like Santa gets tired of cold weather too...apparently he has his own place in SoCal.

Lessons learned from Genesis

I have been failing miserably at posting updates of my journey through the Bible this year. For you, my devoted readers, I am sorry...I know you are missing my take on the genealogy chapters--what to do with all the crazy Hebrew names!! While I'm still reading, life has been going non-stop so I haven't been able to put much thought into my posts. But hey, this morning I have a few minutes to quickly list the lessons I learned in the book of Genesis.

1. God is sovereign and can do whatever He wants with whomever He wants.

2. When you go into Egypt as a migrant, don't lie about the pretty lady standing next to you-especially if she's your wife. Perhaps that whole episode could have been avoided with a nice fatty diamond ring.

3. There is a difference between walking through life and walking through life with God. Anyone can stumble along the way according to his or her own plan and understanding (we've all done it). But it takes focus, energy, and discipline to live a life seeking after God and HIS plan, HIS understanding. Can I get an Amen? Cross-reference Proverbs 19.21 "Many are the plans in a man's heart, but it is the Lord's purpose that prevails."

4. You ARE influencing those around you. It isn't a question of IF, but HOW. My hubby just read in Proverbs 20.11 that "even a child is known by his actions, by whether his conduct is pure and right." Be careful little mouth what you say. Be careful little hands what you do. And be careful little feet where you go.

5. Don't pick on your youngest sibling...it can really backfire. Ask any of Joseph's brothers.

And....the last one is compliments of Christie....thanks for your bit of wisdom.
6. Manipulation, even in its finest, fails when Gods plan is being carried out. Amen.

My Favs

My apologies for the delay in this post. I intended on posting this a couple of days ago, but then the work week started.

I L.O.V.E. superbowl commercials. Besides this year's weird trend of commercials with people in their underwear, I laughed pretty hard....especially with the Doritos commercials. I think they may have even outdone the beer commercials, which is blasphemy I know. Here are a couple of my favorites. Did you have any?

Resolution Recap

For most of us, we have long given up on our New Year's resolutions by February. This year, I decided to come up with some creative ways to remind myself of what my resolutions are so I won't forget them like I did in 2009. The entire point of a resolution is to make yourself better than before...to make 2010 better than 2009. One obvious way to do this is to tell others what your resolutions are so that you can at least fool yourself into thinking they expect you to come through. So, here are my two biggest resolutions for 2010. What are yours? Don't give up yet....it's only February!

I'm going to run a 10k. I can't imagine ever being ready for that, but I'm going to do it.

I'm going to join forces with my husband and pay off our debt. We've been on Dave Ramsey's plan for exactly 1 year now. We started this year with around $40,000 left. Yes, $40,000. I'm too ashamed to tell you how deep we were this time last year. BUT, we are going to get crazy in the Mitchell house and pay off $40,000 in 2010.

Gluten Free White Chicken Chili

So one of the ladies in our small group is gluten-free, which means that when it was my turn to host, I had to find some appetizing gluten-free recipes. It was a crock-pot kind of day, so I thought I would try the white chicken chili recipe. Besides, it's really hard to mess up chili so I thought it would be a safe start. And let me just say....in a humble way....it was a huge hit. So much so, that I keep making it every time I host....AND, it's super easy to make!

3 Tblsp. olive oil
2 lbs. diced chicken meat (uncooked, chopped)
4 cloves garlic, minced
2-14.5 oz. cans chicken broth
2-18.75 oz. cans tomatillos, drained and chopped
2-16 oz. cans diced tomatoes
2-7 oz. cans diced green chiles
1 tsp. dried oregano
1 tsp. ground coriander
1/2 tsp. ground cumin
4-15 oz. cans white beans, drained
10 oz. frozen corn
salt and pepper

Saute onion
Cook in crock-pot 6-8 hours on low
Serve with lime, cilantro, avacado, tortilla chips or my favorite....cornbread