Sarah's Key

Sometimes you just need to share a good book with a friend...

Last night I finished reading a book called Sarah's Key by Tatiana De Rosnay. It was one of the best books I've ever read, so I wanted to share it with everyone out there who likes to read.

Have you had a world history class in your life? Or visited a Holocaust museum? Or been to Paris? I have done all of the above and still had never heard about the "round-ups" in Paris during the second World War. In particular the Vel d'Hiv round-up or the Velodrome d'Hivers, this was a round-up of almost 14,000 jews in the city of Paris (mostly women and children), that were packed up, temporarily housed in subhuman conditions, and then sent to their deaths. This portion of history is cleverly weaved into the story of Sarah's key, and deeply touched my heart.

This book is a work of historical fiction, and is absolutely brilliant. If you're not interested in reading the book, but curious in France's role in the extermination of the Jews during WWII follow the link below

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafle_du_Vel

The Weekend that Shouldn't Have Been

.......................................................................................

So this weekend we were supposed to go camping, but one thing lead to another and our plans fell through, so we suddenly had a free weekend to fill.

The Blessing of the Vines

So we started out Saturday, heading to downtown Grapevine for the annual blessing of the vines. We were a little late so we still don't know how they actually bless the vines. There are several wineries on Main St in historic downtown Grapevine, so we started our day with a tasting at D'vine Wines.

Then we had a fabulous lunch at Big Fish Seafood, where I enjoyed my personal favorite RAW oysters. Yum! Then we continued on to another winery called Farina's, they had true Texas wines here, and we didn't sample a single wine we enjoyed.

Then we ventured on to Su Vino Winery, the best of the three wineries with the most variety. We enjoyed our day, but felt a little cheated by the fact that 2 of the 3 wineries we visited imported their grapes from California...But when it came down to it, we didn't like any of the wines made of Texas grapes, so maybe that's a good thing after all.

So in Summary:
Farina's Winery-YUCK
D'vine Wines-Great
Su Vino Winery- Even Better
Big Fish Seafood-Tasty!



Katherine's Bachelorette Party


Then Saturday night was my friend Katherine's Bachelorette Party. So we met for dinner and drinks at Ozona in Dallas. Where we enjoyed peculiar service from our waiter Chris, enjoyed some tasty chips and queso, and even some double Chardonnay's. Then after dinner we headed to Hotel Lumen for dessert, drinks, and Lingerie. The best part of the evening besides the company of course, was the Chocolate Fountain!!!! Since it was a bachelorette party this is really all I can say, but it was really a wonderful time with the girls.





















Ranger's Game


We ended our weekend with at a Texas Ranger's game. Stephen had tickets to the game that he decided he wasn't going to use, so he e-mailed us the tickets, and we went to the game.

We had absolutely awesome seats, right down the third base line on the seventh row from the feild. Today was Red Hat day, everyone got a free red hat, see the picture. It was a really good game as well, the Ranger's came back in the 8th inning to tie it uspafter being down 2 runs. Then in the last inning they pulled it out with a 6-5 win against Kansas City. The weather was nice, sunny and 68 with a nice breeze (that you couldn't actually feel in the stadium).


S'mores

The perfect end to a wonderful weekend, oven s'mores at home. If you can't go camping, bring camping home.

Welcome Muffin Muffin Star

Congratulations to Sarah J. and Andrew on the birth of your baby girl! We can't wait to meet her.

.........................................................................................

Our First House

So here is the update about our house and the entire month of March!

Wonder why you didn't see us in March? We put our house on the market on Monday, March 30th. So we spent all of March fixing things up getting ready to sell, new carpet, new fence, clean office (which some of you know is a miracle of God), and now it's absolutely beautiful. Just in time for someone else...

Kitchen

Bedroom

Dining Room




Porch




We listed it with a great realtor, Ryan Cave, he's really great if you need a realtor in the Plano/Allen/McKinner/Frisco Area. Here's the link to our realtor.com listing.


http://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/1538-Sleepy-Hollow-Drive_Allen_TX_75002_1108032487?mp=1


So our first showing was wednesday, and we had several showings in the following days, but the first people that saw the house made us an offer. Initially we did not accept their offer, and continued to show the house. However, after some negotiations we struck a deal, and signed a contract on Tuesday.


So we're under contract, things could still fall through, but we're fine with that. As it is we will close June 19th, and have to be out by June 22nd. So we're taking suggestions about where to live until August...Hmmm... Then they did the inspection Thursday, so we're expecting to enter repair negotiations in the next couple of days.

First Blog Entry...Let's Discuss the Name

Hello Everyone,

This is my first attempt at a blog, so please be lenient and enjoy.

I decided now would be a good time to start a blog due to the upcoming move. I thought this would be a good way to communicate with everyone, especially once we move to DC. This way I can keep you all abreast of everything that is going on, even when I can't find time to talk or e-mail you all individually.

For this first entry I thought I would explain our blog name choice. I called Richard at work today and told him I wanted to start a blog. First, he said why? I replied, "Because I want to!" Then I asked him if he had any suggestions for our blog name and he replied, "Our Dumb Blog". I thought it was perfect! If you know Richard, you know this sounds exactly like him. Then when I was selecting our domain name, OurDumbBlog.blogspot.com was already taken, so we tried OurDumberBlog.blogspot.com and Victory was ours!!!