2011 Happenings

Jeff and I decided to try something new…together! We took up tennis…well, lessons for now! From the get go, Jeff was so much better at it than I was. I will get better in due time! While on the athletic topic, Jeff and I also did our first 5K…together. The Firefly run was very cool. This run benefited the hospital that I work for…Children’s Hospital of Dallas. These were our results:
In Jeff’s age group (35-39) he came in #41, overall he came in 453 and his time was 30:48.
For my age group (25-29) I came in #187 (ouch!), overall I came in 1233 and my time was 37:50. My goal was to make it in 35:00 or under, but this was my first 5k and considering that I dislike running, I was pretty proud that I even finished it. 

Crossing the starting line

After the race

Along with these exciting and new things, Joshua came up for his Summer Visitation with us, just in time for Father’s Day! I helped Josh make a very cute and sweet card for Jeff! (I think that putting a personal touch on gifts make it that much more meaningful, so I try and do this always!)

This month also marked the start of my new position as a Team Leader for the Perianesthesia department! 

August 2011

For Jeff’s birthday, he wanted to go to Corpus to spend time with my side of the family! So, we drove to Corpus on the weekend of August 19-21 to celebrate his birthday! We had a little family get together with food and fun! I left that Sunday and my husband stayed behind for a few more days, as there were a few more guy things he wanted to do, such as fishing and golfing! 

During this month, I think we were off, more than we worked.  Regardless, it was a fun month.  We kicked off the month and Labor Day weekend by going to Concan, Tx. We made this our 1st Annual Family Getaway.  It was filled with laughs, yells, beer, sun, and water, but most importantly family. 

Our First Day/Night at the House

Our Second Day

Our Second Night-Enjoying Smores and Great Company

Our Third Day @ Garner State Park We all had so much fun that we plan on doing making this a yearly tradition!

After a couple of weeks of working, we had another week off for my birthday. Every year we take a vacation and it either happens during the week of my birthday or of Jeff’s birthday, so this year it was on my birthday! This year I was so indecisive about where to go, we simply decided to spend the first weekend (Sept. 17-18) with Tyler and Elaine at Horseshoe Bay, Marble Falls, Spicewood, and Fredericksburg, Tx.  Due to teenage drama (i.e. Tyler’s first break-up) this weekend was not as fun as we had planned. We did what we could to console, support, and distract but at times that still proved to be unhelpful. While he was experiencing this sad time, one thought came to my mind….”This too shall pass”. We’ve all been there and it’s funny to think how we all thought it was the end of our world….now, it’s just amusing to think of how heartbroken we were. What doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger! 

The Beautiful Sky-as we were leaving the crash derby

Elaine with her dad

The rest of our vacation time (Sept. 19-25) was spent in Corpus where we ate good food, hung out with family, played a little tennis, enjoyed the beach, and Jeff did a little fishing….We simply enjoyed a week of some much needed R&R! We even went and looked at vacation condos!

After a week of not being home, we were a little tired because, after all,  a vacation is never really a vacation. I think we all felt a little like Max did by the end of the week…..

Well this month was pretty eventful for us…we purchased a vacation condo in Corpus, a block away from the beach! After going back and forth with offers and counter offers we finally closed on The Cole Cabana. We are so excited to have a place of own when we go down to spend time with the family. It’s not that we don’t like seeing them, we just like sleeping in our own bed and the comfort of being in your own home.

Halloween was pretty uneventful this year. I was sick with a cough, congestion, bronchitis and bilateral conjuctivitis of which seemed to last for about 3 weeks! After some good antibiotics it finally went away. Since I was a little under the weather and since Halloween was on a Monday this year, we sat outside by our garage and handed out candy to the neighborhood kids. At work, the dress up theme was M&M’s. 

Josh spent his Thanksgiving break (Nov.18-27) with us. Tyler and Elaine spent a portion of their Thanksgiving break with us (Nov. 23-26). We took Joshua to Legoland and I took him to look at the train display at Northpark Mall. 

Dallas Skyline

DFW Airport

Cowboys Stadium

Downtown Ft. Worth

Ft. Worth Stockyards

Texas Rangers Stadium

Dallas Skyline

Josh and Dad

This year I didn’t cook a full Thanksgiving lunch/dinner, instead I made a smaller lunch with ham, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, and some pumpkin pie. For dinner, we went and ate at Cracker Barrel. Believe it or not, the Thanksgiving meal was amazingly good. After dinner, we went to the movies and watched Jack and Jill. 

On Friday night, the day before Tyler and Elaine were going back home, we went to the Gaylord Texan to see the ICE! display. This display was A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!!! I would recommend it to anyone. It was a little pricey and probably not as long as I would have liked, but the sculptures that are created out of ice are gorgeous. It was the neatest thing ever! Every year they have a different theme. Last years theme was Peanuts. This year the theme was Shrek!

This Thanksgiving, as every Thanksgiving, I’m thankful for the life that I’ve been given and for my husband, stepkids, and my family! 

I was also thankful for the hard work that my husband did to get me the car I wanted. I am notorious for getting a new car every 1-2 years. The last vehicle I purchased was 13 months ago and, I must say, this vehicle was the one car I actually loved and wasn’t in a rush to get out of, but I did for a number of reasons! 

Things I’m going to miss about my GX: 

Things I won’t miss about my GX:

Things I think I’ll like about my Mercedes:

The BIG 8!

Josh turned 8 on the 3rd and we celebrated all weekend long! We let him open his gifts on Friday and he got a mega pack of the Wii Skylanders (he was super excited)! As always, he got some clothes (a boy can never have too much clothes, huh?)

On Saturday, we went and had a special birthday dinner at the Rainforest Cafe! This is Josh with his special volcano! Josh we hope you had a great birthday!

The following 2 weeks after Josh’s birthday came and went…fast! We had not bought a single Christmas gift and we had a week left to buy them all. We spent the last week working and going from work straight to the stores until it was closing time. I WILL NOT DO THIS AGAIN NEXT YEAR! Part of the procrastination problem was that I had no idea as to what to buy anyone! Did I mention that we purchased our tree 2 weeks before Christmas?! This year I wanted a flocked tree and it was beautiful, but I don’t know if I’ll get one again! Oh the mess it created! 

In the middle of trying to finish off Christmas shopping, we were preparing for my mom, brother, and Al to come in to town. They arrived on Friday night, shortly after I found out that someone had stolen my credit card number and had attempted to make an online charge to Walmart.com.  I’m glad the charge was caught and stopped before they did major damage. It was difficult to not have my card for the holiday weekend, but I managed to get along well…with Jeff’s card!

So, after they arrived, we celebrated my brother’s 16th birthday. What an important milestone in a teenager’s life!! He can not wait to get a driver’s license and continues to give my mom reasons as to why he should get his license sooner rather than later (i.e. having figure out how to get him to soccer games). I’m sure he’ll be driving around town in no time!