Esther Party

Earlier this month, I was involved in a Beth Moore bible study in the life of Esther. Tomorrow night, we're having an "Esther Party" or banquet to celebrate our time in that study and to share what God has done in our lives through the study. This was an amazing study, I highly recommend it.
I am very excited and spent the last few days getting things ready in order to prepare for the party. I offered to bring side dishes. The theme is a "mediterranean/persian feast", so tonight I will attempt to make homemade Hummus, Baba Ganoush and marinate Feta & olives... wish me luck :)

Easy Greek Tilapia

Made this for dinner last night... Found a similar recipe in Good Housekeeping magazine, but didn't have the ingredients it asked for..so I just used their cooking method and it turned out great!

Easy Greek Tilapia

Ingredients:
4-6 Tilapia fillets (unthawed if frozen)
1/2 pint grape or cherry tomatoes
3 sprigs parsley, 1 tsp of dried parsley can work also
Juice of 1/2 lemon or 1-2 Tablespoons lemon juice
Cooking Spray

• Preheat oven to 400 F
• Spray 13x9 baking dish with cooking spray.
• Season tilapia on both sides with greek seasoning and place in baking dish.
• Cut tomatoes in half and place them in the pan around the fish.
• Squeeze lemon juice over the fish.
• Chop parsley and sprinkle over the fish
• Cover with aluminum foil
• Bake for 16 minutes
• Uncover and bake for an additional 3-5 minutes to let the fish brown a little
• Enjoy!

The final result! Tasted great, and I don't even like cooked tomatoes!

First-time fondant Fun!

So, my wonderful friend, Rebecca, asked if I could make graduation cupcakes for her husband's graduation party.. of course I said yes! She found a pic of little graduation caps made out of fondant online and asked if I could do something like that.... ummmm... "of course!", I said.

Yeah, I had never worked with fondant before, but I love a good challenge.

I spent the morning and some of my afternoon on Memorial day making little fondant graduation caps and diplomas... I think they turned out pretty good for a first-timer. And I had so much fun making them. It's so rewarding to take a lump of fondant and make it resemble something.. I think I may have found a new hobby :)

I used the pre-colored fondant made by Wilton's which I purchased at Michaels. It didn't take very much fondant, I had about 1/2 of each color left-over.

I made my own templates out of paper and just jumped right in!

Here's the final result! Strawberry , Vanilla, Chocolate.

Catching Up

Well, it's been 2 weeks since Naomi and Florin's wedding, but I am still looking at their wonderful wedding pictures! Their photographers, Anna & Paul, were amazing! Not only were they wonderful to work with, but they also do amazing work and really captured the feeling of their wedding. They have by far done the best wedding photos that I have seen! So, if anyone is getting married in the Chicago area, they are the ones to hire!

The slideshow of their wedding pics can be seen here . If you want to see more samples of their work, you can visit her website at: http://www.annaguziak.com/ . Naomi & Florin's pics were also published on http://vintageglamblog.com/ which is a cool wedding blog to browse.

My sisters and I also had a great time working on the flowers for the wedding. Thanks for trusting us with that Nomers! I had a blast doing the main altar bouquets... it really made me question why I am still working in ultrasound!!!!! Flower arranging is one of the few things that I feel I could do forever and still not have it feel like real work... Especially if the bride gives you a starting point, but then lets you have some creative freedom, thanks Nomers! She really had a clear vision in mind and bought beautiful flowers online.

I had never worked with amaryllis before, but they turned out beautiful, especially her bridal bouquet. It was a simple bouquet of white amaryllis and white freesia. We just wrapped it in floral tape. Then it was covered in an olive satin and the final layer was some leftover lace from her wedding dress... so pretty! She also bought a beautiful pin that we added to the front of the bouquet... original, simple, stunning.

All the girls, sisters, family friends (by that I mean Nancy) and cousins worked on all the table centerpieces. So cute! I'm so glad Naomi picked lemons to be in the arrangements, they looked so fresh (even though plastic) and really warmed up the area.

Our cousins Monica and Alina also decided to finish Naomi's aisle runner. Nomers made sewn her own aisle runner to match the color-scheme (olive green, yellow & gold). She also wanted to paint a monogram on the end of it in gold paint, but gave up on the idea due to lack of time. Luckily, our awesome cousins saw the template of the monogram laying there, and they took it upon themselves to finish it... All I know is that it involved breaking a window, duct tape, strategic lighting and about 6 people! But they got it done and Naomi was so happy with the finished result!

Jen and Otilia made most of the boutonierres and corsages, and they looked cute! Thanks for all the hard work guys!

Jen and I also had to scramble last minute to put flowers on the cake. We left the ceremony as soon as it was over, missing the family pics... oh well. There were already guests there and the cake was just as white and unadorned as could be. Jen found some ribbon, I barked orders to Deric to find me some sicssors (he loved that! sorry babe!) and somehow we finished it before most of the guests arrived. Thanks for keeping calm boys (Deric & Brandon) because I was a mess! I was babbling non-stop and emotional and erratic trying to make sure all the details were taken care of.... thank goodness Deric is more even-tempered!

The night ended well, especially when Reid master-minded the idea to add some romance to the newly-married couples' honeymoon suite that night. We sat with Tab & Reid and Jenn & Brandon and we all brainstormed some things that we could do to make their ummmm special night a little more special.... and I think we were successful! 'nough said :)

Now we plan for Jenn & Brandon's wedding!!! Can't wait! More flowers!

Almost over!

Luckily this day has gone by fairly quickly... i have been so excited about going to Chicago tomorrow for nomer's wedding !!!! I didn't even take my morning pre-work nap today! Usually I leave home at 6am, arrive at work at 6:30, take a 30min nap in my car, and ready to go at 7! I finally fessed up to Deric this morning when he asked me why I left so early yesterday... ooops :) Ok, I admit it - I'm a closet napper! Turns out he thought I didn't have to be at work until 7:30, so he was wondering why I left and hour and half early for work... I guess it could be worse, I could be leaving early to spend time at McDonalds (yummmm, sausage biscuit goodness).

We had a company meeting today and we received our annual self-assessment surveys today.. what a joke. we know that we are not getting raises this year, so what's the purpose of doing a self-evaluation? Doesn't everyone just give themselves an "A+" like I do?! I always feel like I have to find something terrible about myself, just so I don't seem like I think i'm so great...
But, I do a good job and take pride in my work, so I hope I am consistently doing my job to the best of my abilities. I think the company should spend more time addressing the dress code. Last week I was able to see a girl's bra straight through her white T-shirt! I felt like I should at least take her out to dinner since I all-of-a-sudden knew her so intimately!!! I work at a cardiology clinic, not Hooters! Enough said.

I am just so excited to see my family this weekend. and to see nomers getting married :) can't wait!

Friday!

Ugh! It's been a loooong week, but it'll be over in about 10 hours. Today my skin is a lovely shade of Maine crab Red. All for the sake of vanity! I haven't been to a tanning bad since last July and thought that I could just slide right into the super-duper-tan-in-10-minutes bed and have no problems going the entire 10mintues.... wrong! The worst part is that I hate my tanning salon. I hated it the first time I walked into it and the walls were royal blue, there was european techno blaring thoughout the place, and the only employee there called me sweetie, or honey or something inappropriate like that. then he proceeded to take me on a 20 minute tour of his place and explained to me why the UVA and UVB rays that his beds emit are soooooo much safer than the ones that the actual sun emits.... yup, I should've run and never looked back.

But being the logical, responsible and reasonable person I am, instead of running, I signed a 1-year contract with them! Yup, apparently my alter ego, the vain one, needed a tan for her sister trip to Vegas and could not fathom going to Vegas with her current pasty-white skin. oh, and this was the only tanning salon close enough to work to make it possible to tan during my lunch hour.

Which I did yesterday... so everytime my bra straps scrape my sensitive shoulder, the pain will remind me that yes, I am willing to pay dearly - physically and monetarily for that ultimate shade of bronze. (which I hope this red will eventually turn into)