10 years with my Valentine

Happy Valentine's Day everyone! I hope you all enjoyed your day and got to spend it with someone special. Yesterday marked the 10th Valentine's Day Anthony and I spent together as a couple, and I have to admit--life with him gets better every year! In honor of our 10 Valentine's Days together, I thought I would highlight a few of them:
Valentine's Day #1 (1999)
Anthony invited me over to his house for dinner and he cooked for me! It was an Italian-themed dinner, the dining room table was decorated accordingly, and the rest of his family was upstairs so we could "have the place to ourselves". He made salad, homemade pizza, and pasta. I don't remember what we had for dessert but I'm sure it was tasty just like the rest of the food. For the most part, he did it all himself but he did have some help from Tina.
Valentine's Day #3 (2001)
This was one of Anthony's all-time surprises--we were Freshman at ACU. He told my friends to make sure I was dressed and ready to go by 2:00 (they all knew what he was doing but wouldn't tell me; just told me what to wear). He picked me up around 2:00 at Nelson dorm and we were off...driving down I-20. Frank Sinatra was playing and he had packed some snacks since he knows I love to snack on roadtrips, and that's what we were doing...going on a roadtrip! I soon figured out we were driving to the DFW area but had no idea what all he had planned. He had made dinner reservations at this quaint little Italian restaurant--it was a really nice place and we were just glad to be out of Abilene for a date :). After dinner, we went to the Cheesecake Factory for dessert (this used to be my favorite place) and we each got our own piece of cheesecake. I had to call the dorm around 11:00pm to tell them I was going to be late for curfew since we were still in Dallas and my curfew was at 11:30pm. I explained the whole story to them and it was all fine. We got back to Abilene around 3:00am, which was no big deal since we hardly ever went to bed before then freshman year! Oh to be 18 again!!
Valentine's Day #4 (2002)
We spent February 14th in Moody running through our Sing Song act...how romantic! I'm sure we celebrated on a different day.
Valentine's Day #8 (2006)
We were living in Chicago for this one. It was an extremely cold day/night but we bundled up and headed out on the town. We had dinner at a French place called Mon Ami Gabi and it was very tasty. They had an old fashioned wine cart and this man walked around all night, pushing his cart, trying to get people to try & buy wines. This was my first French restaurant experience and soon after this, we became big fans of French food!
Valentine's Day #10 (2008)
We decided to stay in last night--Anthony was in charge of dinner and I was in charge of dessert. When I got home from work last night arount 6:30, I found my hubby working hard in the kitchen. He prepared a WONDERFUL dinner for us--ceasar salad (none of that bagged lettuce stuff and even made his own dressing) with pancetta and his special homemade croutons AND linguine with shrimp. The pasta was soooooo good!! It had a nice lemon/olive oil/white wine dressing, fresh parsley, garlic, red peppers and pancetta. He outdid himself for sure! We also had a nice bottle of sparkling wine and for dessert we had chocolate merigune pie. It was a great night and I was so excited to have him home when I got home from work. That's a rare treat!

I hope you all enjoyed your day and took advantage of eating lots of chocolate!!

Drink PINK!!

On Saturday night, Anthony and I hosted a wine-tasting party and we had such a fun time! The theme was PINK so we had a variety of sparking and still Rose wines along with several different desserts and cheeses. There were 16 of us, and it was so much fun seeing old friends and getting caught up with people we hadn't seen in a long time! Here are some pictures from the night.

Some of the different wines we tried...Anthony did a great job of making sure every one was trying different wines and keeping those glasses full!
Our spread
Some of the cheese we served. We also had individual heart-shaped containers filled with raspberry mouse type dessert.
We had a Chocolate Fountain and had strawberries, pretzels and marshmallows to dip in the chocolate. I also made mini strawberry cupcakes to go stick with the pink theme.
Some of our guests Andrew came and was a big hit! He is such a good baby.
The Brocks drove in from San Antonio and its always great seeing them.
They were a big help getting everything set up pre-party
Me and my Honey :)

I think this will become an annual party we host! It was fun, we love having people over, and I always welcome a chance to bake!

123's of my life

I saw this on my friend Kristen's blog, thought it was a cute idea so I'll give it a try! Enjoy...

1...wonderful husband who I've known since we were in 1st grade. I don't really have vivid memories of him until 6th grade but we do have a picture from VBS where we are sitting by each other when we were in 1st grade, maybe younger
2...part-time jobs that I really enjoy and love the kids I get to work with every day
3...years we lived in CHICAGO; we'd both move back in a second if we could, although I'd wait until it was warmer
4...months until Summer :) I do love to be tan!
5...nieces & nephews (soon to be 7) that I love very much and think are the cutest kids out there
6...days until Super Tuesday-I sure hope its not a successful day for Hillary!
7...is my shoe size
8...is about the the time we've been eating dinner lately
9...th of February we are hosting a wine-tasting party; I better get busy finishing up plans for it
10...years (almost) Anthony has been my significant other

thoughts on sibling order

I am the youngest sibling of 4, and lately I’ve been thinking about how much I love being the youngest. Growing up as the youngest in a family with 5 other people, I often had to try pretty hard to get some attention since there was always lots of commotion and so many things going on at once. Growing up in a big family I always had plenty of people to play with, but as the youngest, I was usually the “child or student” anytime we played house or school. I never seemed to mind or really know any different, it was just the way it was! My siblings were actually great to me growing up and usually treated me no different because I was younger…except when they made up a VERY elaborate story about finding me on the front porch in a basket. They told me I was from Mexico and that the family adopted me since they had no way of giving me back. My real name was Isabel Chavez…I believed the whole thing and for the longest time didn’t ask my parents about it in fear that it might be true (my brother is still so proud and loves to take the credit for it!). Anyway, I have been very blessed with great siblings, and I'm thankful we are closer than we've ever been.

Poe family--early 1982 I think

Since I was the only non-blonde headed child and had darker skin, I can see why I would believe I was adopted. No one ever told me I looked just like my Mom did when she was little!
all grown up!

I have always looked up to my 2 sisters and brother (and still do); my eyes were always on them—I wanted to do what they were doing and learn as much as I could from them. They took the time to show and teach me all sorts of things—I wanted to be a cheerleader like my oldest sister Kim; play basketball like Kara; be easy-going like Kurt. What a huge responsibility older siblings are given and its not even a choice; as soon as that 2nd child in your family is born it is automatically give to you whether you want it or not. I didn’t realize what a huge responsibility this was until I married Anthony. He is the oldest and since we started dating when we were 15/16, I have practically seen his sisters grow up, and I feel like I am truly their older sister. Tara was in 4th grade when we started dating and is now a freshman at ACU…man, does that make me feel old! I remember seeing them peak out their bedroom window at Anthony and I when he would walk me out to my car…they were always trying to see if we would kiss! I remember thinking I had to always be on my best behavior around them because they were watching and learning from us. Just because we all grow up and get older, that responsibility as an oldest sibling never really goes away. I know I still look up to my siblings and still watch them because I want to learn from them.

Laura, Tara & me

I find the whole birth order thing fascinating and think having siblings is such a great blessing in life. I'm very thankful for all of mine (in-laws included)!

Over the weekend, my mom and sisters came to stay with me because Anthony was out of town for work. It was so much fun to have some girl time and it has been a while since the four of us have been together without our hubbies or kids. We did lots of eating and chatting and we got pedicures, did some shopping and saw the movie P.S. I love You. If you haven't seen it, you definitely should. Its a sad one but so good. When its over, you'll want to love on your spouse that's for sure!! It was so nice to just do whatever we wanted, sleep in and just be together. I'm very blessed to have family as some of my best friends.

Sisters...baby Peyton will be here in just a few short months!

me and my mom

For some reason, the girl who took our picture at the restaurant, decided to take it at a slant...I don't know if she was trying to be artistic or what!

various thoughts

So, has anyone watched the new American Gladiator in the last few days?? I used to love watching that show back when it was on in the late 80s, so Anthony and I have watched it the last few nights. I don't think I will get into it where I have to watch it every week but it has been kind of been fun thinking back to the old show. The Gladiators actually gross me out...they are not attractive and they just have way too many muscles!! I'm the type to always cheer for the underdog, so I like to see the "common-person" kick some Gladiator butt!!

Speaking of shows...I am ready for this writers strike to be over so we can all get back to watching Grey's and Private Practice! Those are really the only 2 shows I watch on a regular basis and its been so long since we've seen a new episode I can't even remember what's happening.

Has anyone been keeping up with the Presidential debates/stuff? Being in a political family I feel like I keep up pretty well (whether I want to or not) and I just want to say...Go Barack Obama!! I think this country need some serious change and I think he could lead us in that direction. And remember--I met him twice! I rode with him 2 different times in the same elevator in our old apartment building in Chicago. Its not why I like him but its still cool. Anyway, I'll save my opinions on this matter for another day, when I have more time to write!

We celebrated Christmas with my family over the weekend and it was fun to be together. I will post pictures once I get them uploaded. Anthony didn't get to come because he had to work and neither did my brother and his family. I enjoyed playing with the kiddos and catching up with the rest of the family. Kara & Shane graciously opened up their new home to all of us and now that we've all been there, it is already much lived in! They also officially kicked off their church plant on Sunday so it was nice to be there for their first "service". It's so nice that Waco is just a short hour and a half drive from Dallas!

I hope everyone has a good week!

happy new year!!

Ringing in the New Year
We had a fun New Year's Eve with friends. Our first New Year's experience in Dallas was pretty fun. We had dinner at Kenichi (a sushi place in Victory Park) then stayed down there for the fireworks and outdoor concert. There were actually a lot of people around! We took the DART (public transportation) and it was my first time to use it here in Dallas. The train was actually clean and rode smooth, which is quite different than the El in Chicago! For the past 3 years we spent NYE in Chicago and did the same thing every year, so it was a little sad not to be there this year BUT we are making new traditions and memories in the Big-D!! It was also pretty cold last night...I don't see how some people can wear mini-skirts and halter tops and no coat when its 30 degrees outside! I might not have looked sexy but at least I was warm, which is more important to me.
Dinner at KenichiHanging out listening to some live music waiting for the countdown

The firework show was quite impressive!!

It's hard to believe 2007 is over. It has definitely been a year of change for us...Anthony graduating from law School, moving to Dallas from Chicago, and both of us starting new jobs. It has been hard, but life is still good and we have much to be thankful for. Here are a few highlights from our year:
--Anthony graduated from The University of Chicago Law School and passed the BAR exam
--We were able to take a wonderful vacation to California and spend several days in San Fran and the wine country
--We found out that we'll be adding 2 more kiddos to the Poe grandkid list: Kara & Suzy are both pregnant
--I have 2 jobs that I love and I am really glad to be working with kids
--Anthony's sister, Laura, got engaged and we'll be adding another member to the family in June

Happy 2008 everyone!!