Buffs

I can't run out in the cold without a mask.  Doctor's orders.  The mask I had wasn't working out for me so I bought two buffs!  The wool one is green and the other one is purple.  They're pretty amazing.

Holiday Blog

I don't know why I'm so bad at updating.  I think about doing it often but I never do.  So here's a long blog devoted to the 2011 Holidays
Matthew turned old, again, received a great present and we stayed at home for Thanksgiving.  I posted pics of his birthday present but never the final project.

That's right.  This sucker is over 4 ft long.  Matthew said he would tear it down and put it back in the box until next year but he hasn't done that yet.  And yes, he likes to carry it around the apartment and make flying and shooting noises.  I married a 12 year old.  

Vanessa had her baby

The parents came in town for the Baylor and Tech game and guess who won???  That's right, Baylor did.  It was such a sweet victory for this Baylor Bear that grew up in Raider Land.  My mom sported her Baylor Colors, even though she wore a Tech shirt but dad can never root against Baylor.  He wore his Tech gear proud.

 Pickles, my mom's new dog came.  He's cute but he is all puppy. 

Chris Melton, a Baylor/Truett friend got married.

Do you see that Ally's shoes, Chris's new step-daugheter, match the bridesmaid dresses.  How cute is that?

Mom came into town for Angie's Wedding shower and we watched RG3 win the Heisman Trophy.
No Pictures here, sorry.

We had a Peck Christmas dinner with the Pecks.  I was so relieved to find out that my mother in law loved (or at least approved of) my gift to her.  Turns out she enjoys Orgins scrubs.  Amy gave me the book, Born To Run by Christopher McDougall and an REI gift card.  So sweet of her.

My nephew, Ethan, trying on Aunt Beth's new cowboy boots.  

Bachelorette/Ladies night out for Angie.  We went to Painting With a Twist then to Cru Wine Bar for dinner.  I don't know what happened to all of the pictures.  I'm so glad I sat next to Angie at PWT.  We were by far the least creative people there.  The teacher had to come help us out with our paintings several times.  Someone else has the pictures from Painting With a Twist.  Look how beautiful, classy, and romantic our room at Cru was!

We went to Lubbock for Christmas and the weather was fantastic!  It snowed all day Christmas Eve and Christmas day but it was never icy.
I received several gift cards to RunOn and REI and Matthew bought me the Nook Color Tablet.  I love my Nook!  I wasn't sure how I would like it but it is fantastic.  Also, my mom bought my dad and I two plane tickets to San Francisco this June.  Why, you ask?  Well to see Sergio Garcia, Tiger Woods, or Phil Mickelson to win the U.S. Open!!  I'm soooo excited to go to the US Open and I love that its just a father-daughter trip.
I enjoy getting and giving gifts but I would be okay if we didn't do the gift giving thing, to family members anyways.  I'm so thankful that for us, Christmas isn't about the gifts.  No wonder people get so stressed out, they're working so hard to please others and get the perfect gifts.  I'm so thankful that Christ came to save.



We left Lubbock the day after Christmas to spend 2 days in Dallas then we were off to Galveston for Angie's Wedding Festivities.  We watched the Baylor bears win at the Alamo Bowl!!!  Holy moly was that a stressfull game.  The wedding was beautiful.  She got married at the Hotel Galvez.  We were hoping to get pictures on the beach but the fog was crazy!  We were right across the street from the beach but it was so foggy we couldn't see it.  The fog never let up but I know the pictures will turn out beautiful anyway.  The wedding went great.  After the ceremony, Angie looked at her new wedding band and noticed that one of the diamonds had fallen out!  Ahhh!!  So we had family members, the wedding party, and the staff looking for this little diamond and someone found it!  It was so crazy.  She gave it to me to hold on to until she got back and I didn't lose it.  I was pretty proud of myself.

 Rum and Coke before the wedding!

 Matthew's not drunk, just really bored and exhausted.  Happy New Year!

Leaving Galveston.  We had to drive by an old cemetery which meant that Matthew had to hold his breath so that he wouldn't breathe in any ghosts.  

We left for Dallas the next day and I had to be back to work on Monday.  It was a really busy holiday.
This week we started our new running class.  I wanted to do the 15K but I have a bad case of bronchitis and right now I can't handle running that far in the cold.  I'll just stick to the 5K class now and then start training for a long run in the spring.  Stupid asthma.

 This is how I have to run until it gets warmer.  Cool, huh?

Joey is glad to be back home.  We won't be leaving town for awhile now.  

I mean to update, I really do

Thanksgiving came and went and I haven't stopped going since.  Boo!  I've been meaning to update so many things but I haven't made the time.

-Matthew finished his lego set.   It took 17 hours.  Pictures to come.  It is still connected but hiding in the office.  Someday we'll make a trip to Ikea to see if we can find some shelves we can put it on in the office.  If not, he's agreed to take it apart and put it back together next Christmas

-The Baylor vs Texas Tech game was INCREDIBLE, especially for this girl who grew up in Raider Land (Lubbock) and is the only person in her family to not attend a single semester at Tech.

-A few Christmas Decorations

-Rough start back to school.  The week long break is nice but it doesn't do any good for the kiddos or teachers.

-My asthma doctor won't sign off on the medical form for me to start a half marathon training.  Boo.  But, if I can get things under control, he will sign off on the 201 class which builds the milage from a 5k.

- Angie's wedding shower is this weekend!  Yay!

-Mom is coming into town for the shower! Yay!  I'm sooooo glad that she can also call Angie and her mom friends.

-My 3rd period class is the only class that doesn't have a single kiddo failing!  Yay!  This class used to be my lowest but is now my highest and even though they're high maintenance, I love them and am super proud of their hard work.

-I really just want to spend an entire day in silence, meditating on the Word.

She's Here!!

Yesterday my cousin Vanessa and her husband welcomed their first child into the world!  Riley Jean came 4 weeks early but she is absolutely perfect!   Riley Jean came in weighing at 6 pounds even and 18 1/2 inches long.  Apparently she came out screaming so no need to worry about her little lungs.  They went to the hospital at 2:30 in the morning and little Riley didn't come until 4:00 in the afternoon!  All 3 are exhausted but doing well.  I can't wait to meet her but I don't think I'll be able to meet her until January  :(

Here's the proud daddy.  I love this picture.

Pretty little baby with a head full of hair.  

Happy Birthday, Matthew!

Yesterday was Matthew's Birthday.  We both woke up super early (for a vacation) so that Matthew could spend 3 hours at the DMV to renew his driver's license and so that I could make homemade cinnamon rolls that I make for his birthday every year.  Yeah, I'm impressed to that I can do it and do it successfully.  After way too many hours at the DMV he came home, had his cinnamon rolls and then opened his birthday gifts of all birthday gifts.

  I love the way Joey is looking at Matthew in the picture above.  

What's the gift of all gifts? A Star Wars Super Star Destroyer Lego set!!  What else would a 33 year old want for his birthday?  It's only 4 1/2 feet long and consists of over 3,000 pieces.

Oh, and the instruction manual is 220 pages.

He has been working on it non-stop since yesterday afternoon.  He's almost finished.  Pictures to come soon.

For dinner we met his parents and two youngest siblings for dinner.  Matthew and I got to dinner early (which was planned) to have a few drinks before dinner.  The bartender was great, she put a little bit extra in our drinks.  Won't say much about dinner but I have to end with this notable quote that she whispered to Matthew, "You know, when I was your age I was pregnant with my 5th child" and the one I hear all the time about my weight.  Oh well.  

We ended the evening by watching The Biggest Loser special, Modern Family, and Revenge.  I went to bed and Matthew stayed up until 2:00 (I had to go get him to tell him what time it was) working on his lego set.  :)

Fired Up 5k

Yesterday Matthew and I skipped out on church to run in the Fired Up 5K.  I was worried that I wouldn't be able to run.  Stupid asthma and allergies have been out of control lately.  I don't complain about my asthma when its my fault that its bad (not taking my meds, hanging out in smokey places, playing with animals I shouldn't...)  but this time it was not my fault.  All day Friday and Saturday I was using my nebulizer every 4 hours, taking allergy/sinus medicine every 6 hours, and using my sinus rinse (nedi pot on steroids) every other hour.  Nothing was helping.  I finally decided to bust out the big steroids Saturday night and I'm glad I did!  I was actually breathing like a normal person on Sunday morning.

I made the mistake of assuming it would be chilly in the morning, I mean it was November 20.  So I didn't do laundry and all of my shorts were dirty so I wore my capris.  Bad idea.  It was in the low 70's with 90% humidity.  Crazy Texas weather.  I will never get used to Texas weather.

During the run, the first two miles I ran a 10:07 mile but that last mile was a killer.  It started to sprinkle but the humidity was really bad and I had to walk a minute and ran a lot slower, about an 11:15 min mile.  I finished strong and I was able to sprint on the last leg through the finish line.  I finished in 32 min 20 sec.  I was hoping to finish faster than 31 minutes but the weather plus the asthma didn't help out.    Matthew finished in about 37 minutes.  I'm proud of him.  He really didn't want to join the running club but he did (and he likes it) and he really didn't want to wake up so early Sunday, and he definitely did not want to run in 90% humidity but he did.  He was able to run the entire time.  Way to go Matthew!

We stayed for awards hoping we would win a 5 day trip for four to Hawaii but we didn't win.  The only other awards they were giving out were for the winners for all of the age groups.  We definitely weren't winners.  How in the world can people finish 3.1 miles in less than 20 minutes?  It blows my mind.    There was was 92 year old woman that one for her age division  :)

I want my next class to be a half marathon class but right now all of them start at 5:15am on Tuesday and Thursdays and I would be late to work twice a week and that won't work out.  My next class is just going to focus on more speed work and building up miles.  Hopefully RunOn will get tired of me asking when they'll have an evening half marathon class and decided to get one going soon!

Call me Martha Stewart

Today I was crafty.  All sorts of crafty (not really but that's my story).  If you know anything about me, you know that I usually hate crafts.
Today I spent the day at Christina's house to make party favors for Angie's Bachelorette party.  We're going to Painting With a Twist and then head on over to Cru Wine Bar.  There will be a lot of wine drinking that night.  We thought that the little bottles of wine would make the perfect gift.
The picture isn't perfect and only a few are completely done, but you get the idea:

Little wine bottles with their own sexy corsets!  We kept with the wedding theme of black and white but the red wine has red ribbon and the blush has pink ribbon.  The wine is Michael Buble's new wine.  Kroger had a killer deal on them.  The tag says "Thanks for the memories."
I'm proud of myself.  I think I should call Martha Stewart and let her know she has competition!  :)