You've got to THAI this!

I got home from another exciting day at work, stood in front of my pantry and said, 'Sabrina make it a Thai night!' So I made pad thai with shrimp. I had pretty much everything needed to make pad thai, I even ground some peanuts. It was great! No Sawatdee or Krua, but who is keeping track? AND it was super fast and easy to make.

Back.

I went back to work today. But I'm still a little under the weather. But its tolerable now. I made some delicious pasta after work. Linguine with Lemon, Garlic and Thyme Mushrooms. I saw it being made on Nigella Express the other day. Simple and delicious. I love the combination of the lemon and garlic and thyme. mmmm.

I watched the Academy Awards last night. Nothing special, but hands down the best dressed, most beautiful was French actress Marion Cotillard. She also won Best Actress for her portrayal of Edith Piaf in La Vie En Rose. I saw that film and it was amazing!

Small town girl, trapped in the big city.

Time for an update, *sigh, I am still sick. :( Although, I am not as sick as I was earlier this week, I am still pretty run-down. Which is a big fat bummer (BFB!) because I was supposed to go to a concert tonight! Shannon and I got tickets to see Miranda Lamberts at Mystic Lake Casino. We even got a hotel room, so we could have fun and not have to worry about driving late at night. But alas, I am still not well enough to go. Shoot, I even got a cowgirl hat when I was in Texas that i was going to wear. I still admit to not liking country music, but there are a few country artists like Miranda Lamberts who are really fun to sing a long to. Shannon was very understanding about me not being able to go. But that still makes me sad!
For the rest of the evening i will be doing what I have been doing best, resting. I am border-line stir crazy...its strange not being around anyone for this long. So many of my friends have offered to drop by or bring me what i need... but I really don't want anyone getting my sickness, so I have declined them all. Just call me plague girl! I feel like when i get better I want to have a party! That's is how much i am missing my friends! I did leave for a tiny bit today to get some more medicine and some ice cream, purely for medicinal reasons, cause it makes my throat feel better. :0
I spied these lovely tulips, so i bought some to brighten my germ infested home.

I'm Alive!

Well actually, I am alive, but a little (no, a lot) sick. I can't remember the last time i was this sick. Actually i think it was about 10 years ago when i was living in New Hampshire. I caught some sort of flu bug and was banished to bed for over a week! My BFF Rachel was also there, cause we worked at the same Residential Crisis-Care Facility, His Mansion Ministries. Anyway, we were both sick in bed, but it was nice to have a good friend close by. Ok, so yeah I went to Urgent Care last night, and if you know me at all, that is not something I ever do. The last time i went was about 2 years ago when I had this lingering cough\lung thing. My boyfriend at the time was convinced it was pneumonia... and I was convinced he needed to stop worrying about me so much! Finally, i begrudgingly headed to the UC and they did some x-rays and sure enough... pneumonia. Eat Crow Sabrina! :)
Well I don't have pneumonia, and they ruled out strep, even though my throat is raw and painfully tender. They took blood to see my blood count and all that fun stuff... I have a lingering fever and a bad case of the flu. This flu also encompasses sore throat\congestion\bad cough\achy limbs and very out of it feeling. It's a doozy! And I was just thinking to myself last week, 'Girl you held out with all this sickness going around!' Guess i spoke too soon.
Where did i just hear that pain was a good thing? Oh yeah it was in the movie World Trade Center. One of the guys trapped in the WTC said, "Pain is good, then you know you are ALIVE."
And Alive I am.

My Buddy

***I was sitting here thinking about posting something, not having much to say. So I found this draft I was working on awhile back. Somehow it never got posted. I just thought I would share it today. Happy Friday.*****

I was at my parent's house last night.

Both my parent's were busy with other projects, so my brother and I sat down and had dinner together.

Now if you don't know this about my brother, he has Down's Syndrome. He is 28, lives with my parents and is the happiest person I've ever met. I love his simplistic easy going spirit. His eyes that see only beauty in people. His sweet way of making me laugh or patting my back when he senses I am sad. I don't know if words can ever express how much I love him.

So, as we are devouring our spaghetti and turkey meatballs, talking about what he has been up to... my brother stops and yells, ANGEL YOU STAY ON THAT TREE!

I was a bit confused because my mom's dog is named Angel. Why would she be on the Christmas tree?

And then he says it again: I TOLD YOU TO STAY ON THAT TREE YOU DUMB ANGEL!!!

Oh yeah! Last week when he and I were putting up the Christmas tree, i couldn't reach the top of the tree, so i threw the angel way up there hoping it would stick. Instead it fell on the floor. So i picked it up and yelled at it, STAY ON THE TREE DUMB ANGEL!!!!!
I never think about what my brother is processing in that cute little head of his. But he is like a sponge and he just takes everything in. I guess he was remembering when I said that to the angel. I didn't even realize that he was watching me or listening.
I said to him, Oh yeah, I threw the angel on the tree then yelled at it didn't I?!
He just smiled at me. And we ate more spaghetti and told each other funny jokes to bring more smiles to each other's faces.

I just wanted to tell this little story because I love my brother so much.

Here comes the bride...

What a whirlwind weekend! That pretty much sums it up. A big twirly whirly whirlwind. I arrived in San Antonio just before midnight on Thursday night. Liz's fiancé Stephen picked me up from the airport, and we hit it off immediately. You never know with meeting someone for the first time, but he is a great guy. I arrived at Liz' place as everyone was just leaving from her personal shower. Her two bridesmaids Amanda & Melanie were the only ones left and immediately the 4 of us went to work putting together the final touches of the wedding. I finished making Liz's veil as the other girls put together the table arrangements and place cards. Liz and I also did a dry run on the flower arrangements. We all ended up staying up until 5:30 am! We slept for about two hours and then got up for our nail appointment. I think we spent most of the day in a fog. Going from nails to the hotel to the rehearsal and then the rehearsal dinner. And then my camera battery pack died! To not be able to document your friends wedding is sad! Thankfully the photographer Olivia is also a friend of mine from our china days, so she said she would hook me up with some wedding photos!The rehearsal and the dinner were fun and the food was delish! Tex-Mex fajitas! And lots of Guacamole! The place they had the dinner was gorgeous and tre chic! And this is when my camera died. :(
After that we went back to the hotel to crash and get some sleep before the big day. The day of the wedding it was forecasted to rain and yet... it held off. We prayed a lot!!!
It was a beautiful day, although busy right up until the wedding. I was the mistress of ceremonies so I made sure everyone walked down the isle when they were supposed to... and it was really sweet to be with Liz right before she walked down the isle. She was a beautiful bride. The ceremony was happy and joyous, and I read some scriptures from the Psalms and some of Liz's friends sang, The Andre Bocelli's song The Prayer in English and Italian! It sounded like angels were singing!
The reception were great and special and all things fancy and elegant. We rode in on one of the riverboats to the hotel where the reception was at, and Liz uncle Gino sang to them with an Italian love song! At the reception, we ate and ate and danced and had a ton of fun!
Sunday, I spent walking around San Antonio seeing the sights eating OUTSIDE on the river! What a treat. Flowers really bloom this time of year? I was so happy to see living flowers! I will write more about this when I get my pictures developed. I had to succumb to buying a disposable camera! Soooo it was a fun\crazy\busy\WARM weekend! Too bad it went by so quickly! I also caught some sort of bug\cold thing so I am really wiped out and must lie down. But this will not be the last you've heard from me! :)

Liz is getting married!

My sweet friend Liz

is getting married this weekend in San Antonio! Which means I will be leaving for SA Thursday night! Yay!! I met Liz about 6 years ago when we were teaching in China for the summer. We immediately hit it off and spent many hours (when we weren't with the students) shopping, EATING! and playing our favorite card game, Peanuts! The next summer Liz and I traveled throughout Europe and had an amazing time! This is a picture of us after we climbed a bazillion stairs to the top of the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, Spain.

Since then we have hung out in Minnesota, Michigan, California, Vegas and now San Antonio! I am so thrilled to see Liz and finally! meet her husband to be, Stephen! Hopefully Stephen will let me steal Liz away for a few more adventures in the future! I'm anticipating a wonderful and SNOW FREE weekend! I will report back when I arrive home on Monday.