Black & White Party

Last night, the Social Concerns Committee hosted Night of Discovery, an event to raise funds for Mending Kids. The organization helps children from around the world travel to the US for medical procedures. A church member recently housed a child and her mom from Zimbabwe, so the organization was close to our heart.

We went for a black and white theme. I created luminaries out of tap-on lights, white paper and black ribbon. I used a projector to write on the letters and then used black paint and glitter. At the last minute we decided we wanted a menu board. I brought my menu board from home . . . complete with a painted-on colorful rooster. I covered up the rooster with white flowers I fastened out of coffee filters and napkins from the church kitchen. I was quite proud of this!

Is it normal . . .

. . . to carry around a frozen meal in your purse? Ah, life on a diet. By the way, this Lean Cuisine - Chinese Chicken with Rice - was AWFUL. I ate in Amy's office while I was giving presentations at her school.

Purple People Eaters

I showed up to small group the other night and oddly enough, all four of us girls were wearing purple. Isn't that weird?

I did it!

My first year as a high school representative wasn't easy. Summer was a nice break, though. In August all the High School Reps headed to coporate headquarters in Pittsburgh for a week of meetings. Sounds oh-so-fun, right? It actually wasn't too bad.
At the final banquet, I was pleased to find out that I had earned the Quintessential award. That means I met four of my five goals - not bad for a rookie! Here I am with my bosses, David and Cheryl, and the others on my team who earned this award.

I'm 26 (and 7 weeks)!

Okay, so this is a late blog. But I realized I had photos on my phone (not the best quality) from my birthday.

After church, Aaron took me to lunch in Old Town Pasadena. We went to a Thai restaurant and surprise! Heidi and Josh were there! We didn't take any pictures but that was a nice start to my birthday. We shopped for a while in Pasadena and then went home for a nice nap.

Aaron took me to Animal for dinner. Animal is a very, very hot restaurant right now in LA. The two chefs are Art Institute graduates! They also formerly had a show on Food Network called Two Dudes Catering. Each day they only take reservations for one month from that day. So to get a July 19 reservation, Aaron had to call first thing on June 19. This place is so cool they don't even have a sign.

Cheers! I ordered a crisp, cold, yummy rose wine and Aaron had a "Mexican Coke." Did you know in Mexico they use REAL sugar in their Coke instead of high fructose corn syrup like here in the US?

We dined on several delicious shared dishes:

Chicken liver on Toast

Whole Fried Quail with bacon, sauteed chard, grits and a maple jus (soooo good)

Garlic bread with chorizo and melted petit basque cheese (Yummy! Pictured below)

Branzino fish with farro, rocket pesto, roasted artichocke hearts, pancetta vinaigrette

And for dessert we shared the famed Bacon Crunch Bar. Chocolate and bacon is a very trendy pairing right now, and let me tell you, it was delicious. It really just adds a salty, slightly smoky crunch. Sort of like nuts. They cook the bacon super crispy, so it isn't as meaty. It is a served with a creme anglaise underneath, to keep it from being dry.

It was a fabulous (slightly fattening) day! Thanks Aaron for making my birthday spectacular!