"New" Clothes

 Since starting calorie counting, I have lost 16.2 lbs :) So today I decided to try on all the clothes on the "doesn't fit" side of the closet.

I added 1 pair of jeans, 1 skirt, 1 dress, & 8 shirts back into my everyday closet!!! One of the shirts still had the tags on it because I bought it thinking I would lose weight to fit into it, & now that has happened! Thank you for your encouragement! Hubby & I still have a ways to go, but we are getting there! And I have more clothes I need to get back into :)

Book 8 - The Pulpit Commentary Leviticus & Numbers

The 8th book on my Empty Shelf is "The Pulpit Commentary - Leviticus & Numbers"

I finished Exodus last year, & have really enjoyed reading through the Bible using commentaries. The Pulpit Commentary is so full of great info, but that means I was working through it very slowly! I was recently given the entire set of Pulpit Commentaries (Thank you so much to The Family Who No Longer Lives Downstairs!!), & I am very excited to read through them all! However, I am going to space them out with other commentaries as well, mainly because that one took me so long to get through!

How many books have you read this year? I am currently in the middle of 4, so we shall see which ends up on the shelf next!

Beer & Pizza in Dallas

We have tried a couple of new places in Dallas, so I owe you a couple of reviews!

 Several weeks ago we finally tried Brain Dead Brewing in Deep Ellum.  I had been wanting to eat here since I read a review by D Magazine that their burger was going to be one of the top burgers this year! I take my D Magazine reviews very seriously! :)

This is the Coma Burger, which is a bacon/brisket patty served on the softest bun ever, with sweet potato chips, and housemade pickles! I askede for extra pickles when I read they make their own! I love funky pickle flavors, I don't think any mass produced pickle can top a good housemade pickle! Also, that beer you see in the background is Maui Coconut Porter. A very dark beer with a slight taste of coconut. Once I had eaten a bite of burger, the taste of coconut in my beer really popped! It needed that savory to bring out the sweet. They also offer a San Tan Mr Pineapple beer, which was great as a finisher once I had eaten my burger. There is no hiding that pineapple flavor! If you aren't brave enough to order a whole beer you have never heard of, they will bring you a sample of it. We had great service!

They had some very interesting decor! This is a place we will be returning to!

 A week or two ago, Hubby & I drove out to Bishop Arts for a date night :) Hubby wanted pizza, which there is no shortage of in that area. We decided on Zoli's because we like to try new places! Hubby was very excited about their marquee because the new Star Wars trailer had just come out a day or two before.

These zucchini fries were worth the trip! Fried til crispy, perfectly seasoned batter, and a jalapeno ranch dipping sauce, yum!

We ordered their Chicken, bacon, jalapeno ranch pizza. It was flavorful, on a crispy crust. The jalapenos tasted roasted, which was a very good addition.

We were a little disappointed in their pizza options. They only had 3 or 4 on the menu, and everything else was create your own. The problem with that was, the pizza we ordered off the menu was $23, not bad for a large pizza. To create your own, the cheese pizza was $18, each meat topping was $6 & each veggie was $3, so to make a supreme which is what we normally order when trying a new pizza place, would have put us in the poor house!

We did enjoy our pizza choice though, and we would go back just to get more of those zucchini fries!

Have you been to any great places in your home town recently? Let us know so we can check them out!

Baby Girl Sprinkle

This weekend we had a "Baby Sprinkle" for my niece! :)

 Her mom & Aunt Jen are very creative decorators!!!

We had a build your own cupcake station! With several flavors of cupcakes, frostings, sprinkles of course, marshmallows, crushed oreos, & Sixlets.

 I found this recipe for a Funfetti Cheeseball

 Scentsy knew just what we needed with this cupcake warmer!!

We asked everyone to sign this book with well wishes for the little one. I love this idea over a traditional guest book, because this book remains useful for the baby :)

 Gifts! :)

 Aww!

 Father & Son throwing tissue paper at each other!

 That's a skirt not a hat!

 Those diapers are for your sister! :)

 Cute tissue bouquet :)

The Great Aunts keeping the tissue paper safe!

 Can you guess what baby item is in each bag? I'll give you a hint, it starts with the letter on the bag!

 B is for Bib!

 A is for Applesauce!

 B is for Burp Cloth!

 Y is for Yellow Duckie!

 S is for Shampoo!

 H is for Hat!

 O is for Onesie!

 W is for Wash Cloth!

 E is for Elmo!

 R is for Rattle!

Quick, while the grownups are busy, lets eat sprinkles by the spoonful! ;)

Photo Booth!!

 Photo Bomb!

 2 Great Aunts, A Great Grandma, & a Mommy :)

 Pretty Pretty Princesses!

 Who knew a monkey & a mouse could be friends!

I don't want to be a princess today!

We can't wait to meet you little one!!!

Book 7 - The Book of Virtues

The 7th book on my Empty Shelf, "The Book of Virtues" by William J. Bennett, is a book I have been reading to my nephew before his nap time every time I get the chance to keep him :) It has 2 children on the cover, and in every aspect appears to be a book for children. Well, you know what they say, "Don't judge a book by it's cover." He is young enough, his mom & I felt, that I went ahead & finished the book with him. However, this book may not be appropriate for older children who can understand a little more what you are reading them. All the stories have good 'Virtues' in the over all theme, but some of them are a little rough getting there. For example one of the 'faith' stories was about a priest who was in a concentration camp during the holocaust. He gave up his life to save the life of another man, but to tell that story they gave some very detailed accounts of what people were going through in the concentration camp! So I would say this is a book for the more mature. The next book I read to Luke will be a little more child friendly :)

Deep Ellum Arts Festival

This weekend was Easter! Did the Easter Bunny visit your house? :)

This weekend was also Deep Ellum Arts Festival! Fourtunately, we have friends that live in Deep Ellum who told us about this event. Somehow, we had never heard of it, even though I try to stay up on the goings on in Dallas! So we met them out there for a great night!

We got to wander the streets of Deep Ellum enjoying booth after booth of some really talented artists!

 We had lunch at Monkey King Noodle Company, where they hand pull their own noodles! Their Spicy Garlic Peanut Noodles were everything I hoped for, plus a little extra spice! It was reminiscent of Pad Thai, but different. I will go back for that dish! Hubby had the Hot Spicy Beef Noodle Soup, which he loved. I tried a bite, and it was very flavorful. I was expecting something similar to Pho, which it was not (which is good for Hubby's sake, he hates Pho!), but it was good and the beef chunks were melt in your mouth tender! When you go, plan on eating outside or taking it home, there is no indoor dining, they need all their space to crank out yummy noodles!

 More art to see!

What a cool street to hold an Art Festival! The majority of artists do not allow pics to be taken in their booths, so you will just have to visit next year to see it all for yourself!

 They also had some awesome food vendors!

 Crawfish Pies, they were tasty, but could have used more filling.

 This is the third time we have seen Crepe Crazy at an event! The first time was at the German Christmas Festival in Arlington last year, then they were at the Irish Festival several weeks ago, now here. They make amazing crepes fresh to order! We have had their Nutella Banana Crepe & their Sweet Cream Crepe, yum yum!! They also make savory crepes, which we need to try next time we run across them. Also, I just found out from their website that they have a restaurant in Dripping Springs! Road Trip! :)

To remember the festival, Hubby bought me 2 Deep Ellum pins :) We had a great time, as always!