Randoms

Hi Y'all!

The  past few days have been rather stagnant, not too much going on around the Simmonds household except lots of rain and TV!

First off the weekend went by quickly, but we did eat some yummy meals: Friday evening-Cheddars, Saturday-Sonic (aren't we fancy for a Sat night?), Sunday-Blue Mesa. We have been eating pretty unhealthy around here, but I am just waiting for February to roll around cause I have a few surprise events going on that I have to get fit for!

Saturday, I did take my little student on a fun day and we made this adorable stationary. It was her treat for finishing a violin book. Her mom texted me later on that night that Emma had a blast, I did too :)

Sunday we went to brunch and did a whole lot of nothing after, I think I went to bed at like 10! There wasn't much TV on, and since RHOA and Shahs come on so early (and no Revenge) I went to bed early.

Now about these shows going on, can y'all believe Sean The Bachelor and his antics on giving Tiara that rose. I think it is all big set-up but either way, I'm probably going to be forwarding to the rose ceremony for a few weeks. I just don't really like any of these chicks...

Yesterday must have been the first day this app was launched, but there is a new App called Vine which is basically an instagram but for videos. Anyway, please feel free to follow, Im sure it will be a lot of music/frenchie action but fun nonetheless.

Follow along if you please :)

Hope you all have a fabulous week!

~Mrs. S

Mozart Festival at the DSO

Hi Lovely readers! 

I was offered free tickets to the symphony for the Mozart Festival going on this week, and I was thrilled to invite my new symphony buddy Michelle. Since we had two extra tickets, Michelle invited her sister Heather and good friend Jayme, neither of them had even been to the symphony! I couldn't resist the opportunity to watch my conducting idol Mr. Jaap Van Sweden himself so of course it was a real treat. To make the night even better, the Vivaldi Patron Circle held a Happy Hour at the Cafe de Artistes in the One Arts Plaza complete with appetizers and fellow symphony goers before the concert, it was so much fun!

These are the girls and I in the lobby of the Meyerson

My student Diana was there also!

The Dallas Symphony

Michelle and I, don't you just love her shoes!

The best part of the night... So, we went back to the greenroom after the concert to see Maestro Van Sweden, and he totally gave me a mini conducting lesson! It was incredible, he gave me such good tips, and was so nice about it!

What a fun night, I love going to the symphony!

~Mrs. S

Girls Movie Night

Since we had Monday off from school, 

I decided to have a girls movie Sunday night at my place for my three gal friends (2 of them teachers who also had the day off) and it was a blast!

We had 2 stacks of movies to choose from, and we decided on Pride and Prejudice...

We had some finger foods to munch on

And, I made some sangria, which was a big hit!

Of course my little Wrigley was all about having friends over who loved petting her!

Its always good to have some girl time with good friends.

Thanks Amy, Megan, and Michelle for coming over!

~Mrs. S

TV

Hello everyone!

We got quite a bit of snow this morning, unfortunately, they did not cancel school. As much as I would have liked to have the day off, in the long run it's nicer that we saved our snow make-up day for April and May!

On with my TV post,

Lately I have been watching...

1. Real Housewives of Beverly Hills and Atlanta: Polar opposite casts, but fun nonetheless. I love the drama that is stirred up in each show, even if I think it is a little fabricated by the producers.

2. Shahs of Sunset: I cant get enough of these hilarious Persians, they remind me of the Jersey Shore cast, much more so than the new JS replacement show "Buckwild" which is terrible

3. The Sopranos: I have never watched the series in its entirety, but I am on the 3rd season and I am hooked.

4. Revenge: I just like it.

5. Vanderpump Rules: And they follow me on Twitter!

What shows do you watch?

~Mrs. S

Fun Read!

Hello Everyone!

If you read my blog regularly, you already know my love for the Dallas Symphony and the Vivaldi Patron Circle. Last Wednesday the VPC had their annual Mid-Winters Evening at the Hotel ZAZA gallery in uptown. Kimberly Schlegel Whitman who is a famous Dallas Socialite and fabulous author, tv anchor woman, editor at large of Southern Living magazine, cool lady, yeah... hosted the event. At every event, the VPC invites musicians from the DSO to play a little and when I got the invite, I saw they were having world renowned violinist Nicola Bennedetti as the guest musician! I was so excited to hear her play, especially because I knew I would be going to her concert on the Friday night. As usual the beautiful Amy Espinosa joined me, as well as some new fabulous friends I met through Amy last weekend. We had a blast, and at the end of the night I received a huge surprise!

This was the girls and I getting our chat on!

To my surprise, Nicola did not play her violin, but she did give a short question answer session about her life as a violinist.

I couldn't resist taking a picture with her after the big surprise she gave me when she drew my name for a raffle to win a night stay hotel at Hotel ZAZA!!!! That was the envelope I am holding on my RH!

This hotel is beautiful, and we will probably be staying there for the Mr.'s B day in early March. This is the second time I win the big raffle prize at a VPC event! The chair of VPC thinks I am rigging the raffles :)

Friday night, Michelle and I headed to the symphony to see the DSO play Dvorak's Carnival Overture, Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto (with Nicola) and Brahms 1.

The dogs weren't too happy I was leaving them...

Michelle and I at the Meyerson

Dallas Symphony Orchestra

Getting Nicola's autograph during intermission

I had such a great teaching week, and got to go to fun events, what did you do this week?!

As always, thanks for stopping by and be sure to become a follower here (click the Join this site if you are not on blogger), on instagram, or twitter @catsimmonds!

~Mrs. S

Weekend Update

Hello Everyone,

Tomorrow is my first day back to work in 2 weeks!

I am ready for school, but am nervous about several things coming up including 2 straight months of school, orchestra competitions, concerts, early mornings, ahh!

I am so glad I had such a great weekend with the Mr. and a few friends I hadn't seen in a while. Here is a photo recap :)

Friday night, the Texas A&M vs. OU game kept us home to see the devastating OU loss. I ended up finding several movies on Netflix so Wrigley and I watched "September Issue" about Anna Wintour...

Saturday night, I met up with Amy and some other friends for a girls night at Micocina HP where we had a blast!

Amy got me an adorable cup

Fun times

Sunday afternoon, we met up with the Conder family at the Perot Museum in downtown. There was a horse and carriage by the museum.

The belated Christmas gift for the Conder's 

A pretty silver "C" for their new house

The museum was awesome! It had a different floor for the galaxy, dinosaurs, minerals, and the sports level. I took this pic in front of the huge dino

You could race different people/animals in this race track

Another activity was the hand reaction ruler that released at any moment and you had to catch it with your hand as fast as you could

The Mr. with the Conder men/boys

After we left the museum, we drove by SMU and took pictures of the George W Bush Presidential Library, so excited about it opening up this spring.

On our way home, we decided to stop 

at the Watters Creek shopping center for an early dinner and coffee/crepe outing

Such a pretty shopping center with a creek and all kids of cute shops

Yummy latte

I think Im ready to get back into the grind :)

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend/break/holiday season!

~Mrs. S

New Years Recap

New Years was a blast!

The Mr.'s brother came in early for the OSU Purdue game today, and our good friend Jeff and his girlfriend came in from Louisiana to ring in the new year. 

We ate at Saint Ann in downtown near Victory Park, and watched the fireworks at midnight. Here are a few snaps from the evening.

The Simmonds

Eating at St. Ann

My Big D shot

Fireworks at Victory Park

Breakfast this morning....

We had such a blast celebrating the new year, hope you all did too!

~Mrs. S

Break so far.

The day we got back from Tulsa, there was still snow from the White Christmas that hit Dallas. 

Paisley was very weirded out by the cold snow...

I had to take advantage of the yucky weather opportunity to wear my Hunter Boots. The nail polish was a gift from my sis :)

We finally used our gift card to Ricks in downtown McKinney, it was delicious! I had the shrimp and grits, they were perfect...

This outing was actually the same day we painted my pink office a navy blue to make it the Mr.'s MAN CAVE. I think it tuned out nice.

Sunday, my student and her mom invited me to Painting with a Twist. We had such a fun time painting our snowman!

Last night, we had a blast on New Years, stay tuned for a recap post!

~Mrs. S