Ok, NOW it's snowing!!!

Yes it is!! And it is a beautiful sight. I love the way the snow crunches under your feet when you walk on the grass!

It's snowing!! Okay, maybe it's just sleeting....

But it is supposed to turn into snow soon! It IS snowing in parts of Houston right now (my Mom's house), and that is exciting! Makes me want to drive there just to experience it. I absoultely LOVE snow!! My dream is to someday live where it snows at least once or twice a year and lasts more than 24 hrs. But right now, I will settle for some sleet that doesn't quite stick to the ground, I guess. Now I am not an expert on the difference between sleet and snow, but I could SWEAR I see some snowflakes mixed in with the sleet. Maybe it is just my wishful thinking. I am a little crazy about this, because I parked my car in the driveway so I could see it accumulate. And I keep checking outside to see if it is turning to snow.



I hope it keeps up tonight! It feels so much like Christmas with this weather.

Are you ready for some football????

On Monday we went to see the Texans play the Jaguars in our first Monday Night Football broadcast ever. We won and it was an exciting game! Hopefully our win will get us back on Monday Night Football next year too.

Dun, dun, dun, dun...can't you just hear the music?

Opening of the game

We had seats in the nosebleeds!

This is the ESPN booth.

Brent, Tommy, Ronnie (Shane's Dad), Shane and Tara

Another Half Marathon for me!

Tara and I drove to San Antonio this past weekend so we could run the Inaugural Rock 'n Roll Half Marathon. It's always an adventure when we travel....

We had procrastinated in getting a hotel room (well, Tara did--she is always in charge of those things because she is so good at it!). So all we could get was a La Quinta WAAAAY on the north side of town. After we went to Expo and picked up our packets, we decided to drive to our hotel to check in before dinner. It is a newer hotel, so the GPS did not have the exact address, but it had something close to it, so we headed in that general direction. We were pretty sure we were on the right road, just not exactly sure where the hotel was! About 15 minutes into our drive, at 5:45 pm, we saw a sign that said "Freeway closed at the next exit, expect delays." They were right about the delay, it was horrendous. It was a parking lot! Tara called the hotel, at 5:58 pm, to see how far away we were, and they said that "on a good day" we had to drive 15 more minutes to get there on this road! Tara asked me if I thought we should cancel the reservation, and I said, without hesitation, "YES!". So she did, with 2 minutes to spare (we had to cancel by 6 pm). So there we were, the night before an inaugural marathon/half marathon with 30,000 entrants, with nowhere to stay (it was absolutely crazy!!). Suprisingly, I was not worried at all. As I said, Tara is very good at this stuff. She went online and started calling hotels, and we got a MAJOR blessing. She found a Comfort Inn Downtown, 2 full beds, free breakfast, 2 blocks from the shuttle stop that would take us to the start line! Wow, she did great!!

I was not as prepared for this race as I should have been, and even though Tara could run this distance in her sleep, she was so awesome to stay with me and get me through it. I had a personal record of almost 1 minute, and it was so much fun running with her! We have some great pics, which I will share after I order them.

Check-out at our hotel was 12:30 (that was considered late check-out!), and we did not even get back to the hotel until 12:45! Thankfully, they gave us until 2 pm. We hurried upstairs, took showers, packed , and were out by 2 pm, amazingly! We went to lunch at our favorite Mexican food restaurant La Margherita in Market Square. Then we met up with a friend of Tara's that also ran the half marathon, much faster than we did. We finally hit the road around 5:30 pm, and got home about 9 pm that night. Ten minutes after Tara left my house, I was in bed asleep. I was exhausted!

I learned a few things from this experience:
1. Book a hotel WAY in advance in the area that you want.
2. I need to train more consistently during the week, so I will be able to do it my sleep too!
3. Running with someone was SOOOO much more fun than running it alone. I want to get FASTER so I can run with Tara in all the races we are in together.
4. Never drive home from another city the same day as the race. It was exhausting and it seemed like we would never get home!
5. Never check your bag with your hotel key, your entire wallet, AND your car keys. (We had a panicked moment when they could not find my bag, that was a little scary!)
6. MOST IMPORTANTLY, bring toilet paper, the porta pottys WILL NOT have any! (A gracious man was handing it out at the start line, I was so thankful!!)

Next races:
January- Aramco Houston Half Marathon
February- AT&T Austin Half Marathon
March- Seabrook Lucky Trails?
April- Angie's half crazy, Clear Lake
May- Heels and Hills, Irving, TX

Wow, I better get training!!

Bad blogger!!

Yes, ok, I know, I am a self-proclaimed bad blogger! It has been months since I have posted, and I am so sorry. Life is busy and there has been alot going on. I know that is no excuse, but that is mine!

To update you on what has happened recently, well, alot has been going on. In a nutshell, my sister-in-law gave birth to my new nephew Dylan (who I have not seen yet), I have been training for a half marathon (attempting to anyway), evacuated from Ike (oh, the chaos), coping with the stress of my job (which I just resinged from), joined a new Bible study group (still not sure about it...), and Shane has been working 60 hours a week (the money is nice, but I am lonely).

Did you catch all that?

More to come later!

Reunion--again!

I did not have the chance to post this earlier this week. I wanted to share some pics that were taken last weekend when our friends Regina and Colby were in town. It was so good to see them again. Unfortunately, we don't get to see them that often, but we hope to be seeing them more often in the future!

Tara, Regina, and I

Colby and Shane

Regina and Colby

How do you like my new "Do?"

Last Wednesday, I had an appointment to get my hair cut. I had been thinking of cutting it short for a couple of weeks, but I wasn't really sure what to do with it. When I talke to Laura, my hairdresser, she said "why don't we do a short bob haircut?" Not knowing really what I wanted, I said "OK." Here is how it turned out:

I think it is a little shorter than I would have liked, but that is the great thing about hair--it grows!!

From disappointment to blessings

Today I was scheduled for the embryo transfer, but this morning the nurse called to tell me that my embryo had not survived the thaw. I was devastated. I really did not expect it. I was completely ready for it to happen! I had done all the labwork, I had taken all the medicine, and I had mentally prepared myself for this, and now I was not going to get the opportunity to see it through. My first question: WHY God? My second question: Are you really there God? My third question: What do I do now? After I boohooed about it, asked my questions to God, and took a shower, I tried to focus on my blessings for the rest of the day. Here is what I came up with: (bear with me, some of them are a little cheesy)

• It is OVER! I know my answer now, rather than later
• I get to keep running and training for the half marathon
• I get to keep my body shape (although I would like my hips to be a little SMALLER :) )
• I no longer need to take my heart medicine (WooHoo!!)
• I have a wonderful husband who loves me
• Most of my family is relatively healthy (including my dogs)
• I have awesome friends in my life who have prayed for me diligently through this
• God IS still there

All day as I was listening to my Ipod, every song that played offered me hope. They reminded me that God IS still there, He has never left, and never will leave me. I just have to keep focused on Him and He will tell me what to do next. I know that I will survive.

July 17th

As I posted before, we are going to use my last embryo this month. I called my doctor's nurse on Monday and she scheduled me for an ultrasound on July 11th. If everything looks good, then the plan is to implant the embryo on July 17th, and then have a blood test on July 31st to see if it worked. I have a mixture of emotions at this point: excited, nervous, calm, peaceful, and anxious. I am not sure how you can have all of those at once, but I am there! At times I am planning for the baby and my life as a new mom, and other times I am thinking about running the Houston half marahton (which I signed up for yesterday, just in case). I do not want to be too hopeful, so I am continuing life as usual. But at the same time, I want to be excited, but no so much that I will devastated if it does not work. I think right now I have a good balance, so let's hope it stays that way! I will keep you posted as we go along!

Weekend away

Last weekend, we were supposed to have a "weekend away" at the lake. Since that did not work out, we went to our friends Brent and Heather's house in Baytown. We considered it a "weekend away" because it was 30 minutes from where we live. Our Godson Conner got to play with the dogs, Brent cooked a delicious brisket on the grill, and we brought the Wii over and played all night. We had a great time!

Boring days, wild and crazy nights

A couple of weekends ago, I had the opportunity to go to San Antonio to do some recruiting for my home health agency. We desparately need a physical therapist, but I don't think this trip will bring us any applicants. The conference had less in attendance than it ever has, probably because not many people are travelling right now. Or maybe because they thought about it and who wants to spend a weekend in Texas in the hot month of June? Anyway, I spent my days at the Physical Therapy conference, and my nights.....well.....the pictures should speak for themselves! It was soooo not like me, but we had a great time! My two awesome friends Tara and Carrie went too, and when we get together, you never know what kind of trouble we will get into!! In addition to the shenanigans seen below, we danced at Polly Esther's, a 70s, 80s, 90s dance club, but we made sure there was no evidence of that in the form of pictures (you do NOT want to see my lack of rhythm). It was a great weekend, and it was so nice to get away with the girls. And the best part is that it was mostly on my company's tab! :)

Tara eating ribs at The County Line

It all went down at Durty Nelly's Irish Pub!

Tara's coworker sang with the piano player

We ate at LuLu's Cafe one day for lunch, where they have the biggest cinnamon rolls! (Thanks Courtney!)

Disclaimer: All parties drank responsibly and walked back the their hotels. There was no driving involved in the pictures seen above.

Rolo's First Birthday

This past weekend we went to Forth Worth for Rolo's first birthday party. Yes, folks, my dog had a birthday party. His foster mom Holly invited all 10 of her foster puppies, and their mom, back to her house for the event! And Bailey got to go, too. Eveyone had a great time!

Are we there yet??

Rolo's Mom Candy

Playing with his brothers!

They got birthday hats!

And birthday cake (no, is wasn't chocolate!)

And party favors!!

Foster mom Holly

So tired from the trip, they laid around for days!

We visited with my brother-in-law Jason, sister-in-law Priya, Priya's family, and my niece Anjali and nephew Deven. They are growing up so fast! Priya is expecting her third child (another boy!!) in September (I can finally post that, now that the secret is out!). We also had a great time catching up with our friends Regina and Colby, who we have not seen in 4 years! We are so thankful to have them in our life again. On Sunday, we went to help out at Shane's parents' rent house in Cleburne, which they are renovating and getting ready to sell.

Overall, it was a great trip and we can't wait to do it again when our new nephew Dillon is born later this year.

Here we go again...

I wasn't sure that I should blog about this even before it begins, but I decided that my journey to have a child has always been an open book, mainly because I hope that others will benefit from my lessons. So I felt it was the right thing to do. So here goes...

I went to the fertility specialist today, for the first time in over 2 years. We met to talk about implanting the last embryo that is frozen. (Sidebar--for those of you who are not of a medical background, an embryo is formed from an egg and a sperm. Two years ago, we made 3 embryos in a petrie dish, implanted 2, which did not stick, and froze 1). We discussed that the process would start in July (the dr is going on vacation for 4 weeks), as well as the odds of it working. But something was different in that office today than was there 2 years ago. GOD was there. Now don't get me wrong, I knew God was in control back then too, but I think I felt that I needed to be in control more than Him. But today, the whole time I kept thinking, "He is in control--not me, not the doctors, and not advanced medical techniques." If this is supposed to work, it will, plain and simple. The "25% chance" we talked about are human odds, not God's odds. And we all know God's odds are the best.

What I need is prayer to KEEP this attitude throughout the entire process. Because what I WANT to do is search for signs that it will work. Signs that have already crossed my mind, like for the first time since I started working for my employer (4 years), we have short-term disability insurance starting July 1; signs like, I have a foot injury, and being pregnant would let my foot heal for a good 9 months; signs like, I would be due around my 35th birthday, which was a goal for me. But I should not look to these things to tell me it will work this time, because I KNOW my God is in control and only He knows the answer. That is the difference between today and 2 years ago--back then I knew it in my head, and today I know it in my heart.

A weekend in the city

It is hard to believe that as of Saturday, Shane and I have been married 11 years! Last year, at 10 years, we went camping in Colorado for a week. We had the best time. While this year could not top that (due to that thing about trying to be debt free), we had a great weekend in Houston, all planned by Shane! On Saturday, we first went to the Astros game. It was the perfect night for baseball in Houston: seats right behind home plate, the roof was open (it was BEAUTIFUL weather), and the music minister from the church we got married sang the national anthem! After that, we spent the night at Inn at the Ballpark across the street, which is something we have always talked about doing. We had a nice dinner at the Ballpark Cafe inside the hotel. Our room had an awesome view of downtown and the new park they just finished last month. Today we had breakfast at Le Peep, then we went to REI and bought a new tent (they were having a big sale). We needed a new one, since two years ago Bailey and Hamlet (Tara's Great Dane) decided they were lonely and escaped out of our old one by making a hole in the door. We had been able to use it with just us and Bailey, until adventurous Rolo came along and thought it would be fun to escape through the same hole in the middle of the night 2 weeks ago when we went camping! So we really needed a new tent. This one is also bigger, in case God decides to bless us with another (human) little one! Too bad it is getting too hot to go camping.

I know, it is not extravagant or fancy, but I am a simple girl and not hard to please, and he knew just what would make me happy. As Tara joked to me today when I got home from the trip, "only you would enjoy a trip like that for your anniversary. Shane is a lucky guy." ;)

Boot camp has begun

This week my marathon training group started Boot Camp. It is kind of a pre-marathon conditioning sessions that is 4 days a week for 6 weeks. Monday was our assessment (which we will do every 3 weeks) and we had to time a 1-mile run/walk, and then do as many sit-ups, seated dips, crunches, and mountain climbers as we could in 1 minute. It was tough! Tonight we started the training and I think tomorrow I will hurt in places I did not know I had. I know that I will be much better off when I am done, but the only thing I kept thinking was that people actually pay for this (and I am glad ours is free)! I was a little worried about it because since I ran the half marathon in January, I have had severe plantar fasciaitis and have not been able to run. But I went to the sports medicine doctor yesterday and they said it was not broken (which I worried about since it really has not felt any better). Then today I went and had my feet casted for custom orthotics, so hopefully that will help too. I am so ready to get back to running. Not running has made me realize how much it is a way for me to spend time to myself, away from the hectic life, and I feel so lost without that. My running shoes miss me! I am so amazed at how much running has gotten in my blood. I certainly never thought I would ever say such a thing!

We finally went camping!

This weekend we finally got to go camping. I know it is hard to believe it, but we have not been in almost a year, since our 10-year anniversary trip to Colorado last May. We went to Hill Country State Natural Area, which is on the other side of San Antonio. It is a beautiful park with great hiking. It only has composting toilets and no running water, but our rules anyway are "no showers," so that was ok with us. They are some of the cleanest composting toilets I have ever seen! We had to cross a creek to get to our campsite, which was sooo much fun when we got there at 11:30 Friday night! :) Actually, it was awesome and very secluded. It was Rolo's first camping trip and I think he loved it. We went on only a 3-mile hike on Saturday because Shane was not feeling well. Here are some pics. Check out the hilarious picture of Shane when his chair broke! He had only used it in Colorado! I guess you get what you pay for.