100 Things

Ever since Amity posted her 100 Things list in 2005, I have wanted to make my own list. Finally when the 25 Things lists made their rounds on Facebook I decided to not just make a 25 things list, but go for the full 100. So without further ado, here it is.

1. I am married to my high school sweetheart, and he is also my very best friend.
2. Food is a major motivator for me, and most often dictates my mood. My coworkers know that I am not very friendly before lunch. Accordingly, we eat promptly at 11:00am every day. My husband also knows that if I ever need cheering up, he can suggest one of my favorite restaurants/foods and immediately my mood improves.
3. As a young child, I was bitten on my upper thigh by a large dog. Ever since, I have slightly feared dogs, especially big ones. One day after I graduated from college, I decided I wanted a Chihuahua (no other breed was considered). Getting Cooper was one of the best decisions, and he is like a child to me. I let him lick my face, eat from my utensils, and he gets his own ice cream bowl.
4. I am a Liberal, especially when it comes to social issues. I am a huge supporter of gay marriage. Obviously, I am very proud to live in this country under an Obama presidency.
5. I was the Valedictorian of my high school class.
6. Despite this, I have never truly felt that I was really good at something until I worked at CS. I feel proud to consider myself truly good at my job.
7. I consider myself a perfectionist and have trouble delegating because I feel that I will have to do it over again because it will not meet my (high) standards. This means that I stay overloaded at work 100% of the time.
8. Someday I want to have 2 children, but I am not ready yet. There is a history of twins on my side of the family (my aunts are twins and my grandmother had twin sisters) and Phil is a twin, so our chances of having twins are even greater.
9. I love shopping secondhand at thrift stores. This has made me almost entirely unable to spend more than $5 on any article of clothing. I typically spend about 3 hours at each store, searching through the racks of clothes, filling up an entire shopping cart, and trying everything on in the dressing room. I always try clothes on before buying them, no matter where I am shopping. Fit is very important.
10. I choose beach destinations for all of my vacations. Luckily my husband and I are on the same page with this.
11. Unfortunately, I did not value living at the beach for 17 years of my life and very rarely stepped foot on the sand as a teenager.
12. Phil and I are Scuba certified and have dove in amazing tropical locations such as St. John and Belize.
13. I cherish efficiency. I drive fast, walk fast through crowds, type fast, and hate sitting through commercials on TV. Thank goodness for DVR; I rarely watch live TV these days.
14. I am an only child. As such, I see no rush to eat the food in our pantry because I know it will be there when I am ready for it, since I am not competing with any siblings to eat it first. My husband, one of 4 children, is quite the opposite and I have since learned never to expect the chips to still be there when I am ready to eat them, unless I sternly warn him that I plan to eat them later. On the other hand, I refuse to eat any food that is stale or past its expiration date, so it is probably a good thing that Phil eats it quickly. I do not like to buy food in bulk because I get tired very quickly of eating the same thing over and over again. Philip learned this around our 2nd year dating when he bought me 2 cases of Samoas (the Girl Scout cookies) for Valentine’s Day because they were my absolute favorite cookie, but I did not even eat the first case before I got tired of them and refused to eat any more. That was the last time he bought me a large quantity of any food product.
15. I like to maintain a ratio system with the food I eat. For example, I want to have at least one marshmallow per spoonful of Lucky Charms cereal. Or, I need to be sure to have a sip of milk with each bite of my cookies. When the milk runs out, only then do I stop eating. On a plate full of dinner, I am sure that the portions of each item remain equal so I have at the end one bite of salad, one bite of chicken, and one bite of corn left. This was something I did subconsciously all my life until my husband pointed it out. Now I notice that my Dad does exactly the same thing.
16. My mother is the most positive person I know. She can find good in anything and always has a wonderful outlook and great advice.
17. My parents are still happily married after 26 years and enjoy spending every day together. I look forward to this type of life-long love and feel lucky to have such great role models for it.
18. I love the games Scattergories and Catchphrase. I tend to become an intense Catchphrase player. People say that being on my team is kind of stressful because of the pressure to win. I take this as a compliment.
19. I do not enjoy cooking, cleaning, or working out. In my mind, these are what the expectations should be for a stay-at-home-wife, so I have no desire to be one.
20. I played the oboe in high school and was in the marching band. Stop laughing.
21. I wore braces and headgear for 4 years up until my Freshman year of high school. I never wore my retainers so my orthodontist put me back in headgear in college. I finally told him that I was not going to wear it, because there could be a fire drill at any time and I would rather have bad teeth than be seen by my classmates wearing it in the dorms.
22. I love our home. The location is great, and it has such great charm including hard wood floors, a large back yard, stainless steel appliances, and a great floor plan. But I am ready to live in a house with more than 1 bathroom, larger closets, and overall more square footage. We also want a pool.
23. Ideally I would love to rent out our house fully furnished so I can start from scratch in a new house and decorate the whole thing. Unfortunately I have a hard time spending thousands of dollars at once on furniture and decorations, so it is likely that we would have bare walls and furniture-less rooms a while.
24. I have a terrible memory.
25. I do not enjoy shopping at what I consider to be “boy” stores: Best Buy, Academy, Office Max, etc. I tend to be grumpy and rush through them, much to the dismay of my husband.
26. I am secretly glad that Philip is so financially strict that I feel guilty when buying things I don’t think he would approve of. I know that we will always be financially secure because of it and I really value that.
27. I spend a lot of time on Facebook and check my friends’ blogs for updates every day.
28. I rarely deem anything blog-worthy, so my own blog goes without being updated for long periods of time.
29. My favorite TV shows currently include Lipstick Jungle (recently cancelled and I am still distraught), The Office, Tabatha’s Salon Takeover, House Hunters International, Beauty & the Geek, Project Runway, The Girls Next Door, Desperate Housewives, and Intervention.
30. In high school this list would have been comprised of Dawson’s Creek, Beverly Hills 90210, Party of Five, Friends, and Gilmore Girls. Obviously this was prior to the reality TV boom.
31. My favorite color is pink.
32. I do not like to take medicine unless it is absolutely necessary.
33. When I go to the beach I am always on the lookout for unique shells and heart-shaped rocks.
34. As a child, I remember riding my bicycle around with my friends and checking inside the coin return areas of soda, phone, and newspaper machines to look for coins. This was a lucrative adventure and many times would find at least a quarter in the machines. Almost always we came up with enough change to buy a soda or candy bar.
35. I almost always feel cold. I have a space heater at my desk at work that I use year-round.
36. I have a bad habit of plucking out my eyebrows with my fingers when I am nervous or bored. I really wish I could stop doing this because having no eyebrows is very unattractive.
37. I truly believe that my husband is far smarter than I, and admire his logic, decision-making, and reasoning skills. He always knows how to make a great argument. I like to let him make decisions partly because of this. He does not like my indecisiveness and this sometimes leads to argument.
38. In my household growing up, there was not any fighting/arguing and certainly no cussing. My mom used words like “shizam” and “fudgesicles” in the place of cuss words.
39. I enjoy watching basketball, gymnastics, and tennis on television. However, I would always choose one of my favorite TV shows (see #29) over any of these sports.
40. The only sport I have ever played is tennis. I went to tennis camp 3 times while growing up but still am only mediocre at the sport. I still play with the same racquet my parents bought me in high school which was nicknamed “The Skunk” because it is black and white.
41. As a child, my parents also put me through piano lessons, tumbling, oboe lessons, and tennis lessons. I also participated in elementary school choir and Girl Scouts. My mom was a Troop Leader, of course.
42. My first source of income around the age of 10 was washing boats at the docks every day when the charter captains came in at noon. My Dad was my first client and paid me $5 per day to wash his boat. Then I started working with the other captains who paid up to $10 if they used live bait and their boats were dirtier. This is how I bought my first pair of roller blades.
43. My first real job after I turned 16 was at a hotel. I worked PBX first, then Reservations. I worked there during the summers all the way through my Junior year of college. Sometimes it was boring when the phones would not ring, and my good friend Jane and I would write each other notes to stay entertained. They were silly and many times we would great creative and write the notes in weird shapes like spirals just to keep them fresh and exciting.
44. Drug use is prevalent in a place like South Padre. Combine the relaxed atmosphere of a beach resort town with the proximity to the Mexican border, and it makes perfect sense. From a very young age I knew what pot smelled like. However, I can honestly say that I have never done any drugs.
45. I am currently having laser hair removal treatments. I am hopeful that 6 months from now, I will never again have to pick up a razor. That would make it worth every penny, and justify the pain (it does not just feel like a rubber band snap like they tell you when you sign up).
46. I do not cry often. Not at movies, commercials, even when someone says something that hurts my feelings. The last few times I have cried have been when I was stressed over work issues. Most of my best friends have never seen me cry.
47. Getting gas for my car is a task that I loathe. I never fill up before my indicator light comes on.
48. I appreciate organization. The shirts in my closet are organized by length of sleeve, then color. All of the cans and jars in my pantry face the same direction, and everything has its place. I do not like it when Phil puts away the groceries, dishes, or laundry because things do not end up where I believe they go.
49. My family is full of teachers and as a child I always thought I would be a teacher when I grew up. However I realize today that I do not have much patience and would be a terrible teacher. I get frustrated/annoyed at work when someone asks the same question twice because they did not listen or take notes the first time, or when people do not fully read the information they are provided but immediately start asking questions about it. I have a hard time agreeing with the saying “There are no stupid questions”.
50. I did not ever envision myself as a sorority girl, but ended up loving my experience as one. My sorority sisters are some of the most successful people I know, not to mention fun, intelligent, beautiful, well-rounded, and admirable.
51. I always wear my seatbelt. My mom would not start the ignition of the car when I was growing up until all seatbelts were buckled and she heard the clicks. Now it is habit to me to put one on and I feel anxious and agitated when other people do not wear theirs.
52. I am not a rebel and enjoy following rules. I guess I am like Amity in this way.
53. I hate waking up in the morning. No matter what time it is and how long I have slept, I will always want 5 more minutes. Then 5 more. And 5 more. Usually our alarm starts going off at 5:15am and I do not get up until 7:00, with the snooze alarm going off in 10-minute intervals.
54. When I do wake up, I am going to be grumpy. I do not want to speak to anyone for at least an hour. This is for your own good.
55. I hate to be late so I am always sure to wake up on time to make it where I need to be. I think it is very rude when people are habitually late. I start to feel anxious when I arrive somewhere even 1 minute past the time I was scheduled to arrive.
56. I value thank-you notes. I think they are an important response to the receipt of a gift. I read once about a man who writes approximately 12 thank you notes per day and I love that notion. I have a place inside myself where guilt resides when more than 3 days has passed and my thank you notes have not been written. It gets larger and louder as each day passes and I don’t forget. I remember the thank you notes I never got around to writing for one of my bridal showers and always wonder if those people have judged me because of it. Probably not, but I would understand if they did.
57. I am so glad that I made the choice to attend Trinity University.
58. I think that my wedding was perfect, and would not change a thing.
59. I almost always prefer a night staying in with my husband, puppy, and bowl of ice cream to a night going out and drinking.
60. I do not enjoy dancing. If you see me dancing, I am drunk. I have been known to do the chicken dance to an Outkast song, dance on a raised platform with an “X” on it at a gay bar, and dance around the living room to salsa music in a sombrero after a house party while drunk.
61. I love US Weekly magazine. I know it is wrong to support the intrusion into the lives of celebrities, but it is a guilty pleasure of mine. And I find US far superior to Star or OK! magazines.
62. The only type of books I like to read are the girly non-fiction ones. I judge the books by their covers and if they are pink with a cute font, I’m sold. I also love all of Nicholas Sparks’ books.
63. I am not interested in the news, true crime, history, or non-fiction. My husband enjoys all of the above, in all forms (books, TV, internet).
64. I have never lived anywhere but Texas. Its climate is perfect for me and I do not plan on moving out of state anytime soon.
65. I enjoy traveling and want my list of destinations is almost endless. Too bad my vacation time and funds are limited.
66. I took the SAT 3 times in high school. My score went up each time and my highest score was 1360. I was proud of that score.
67. I am not a good story teller.
68. One of my favorite things is having a pedicure. However, I find it hard to justify the $30 cost, especially if it is not the hottest days of summer where I am wearing open toe shoes every single day.
69. On the other hand, I faithfully get my hair highlighted and cut every 6 weeks.
70. I really want to own a set of dishes that I love, all matching in a place setting of 8. I think I am old enough to have them, and finally get rid of our mismatched, chipped IKEA bowls.
71. Often when I am standing in place, I cris-cross my legs. I am not sure why I do not just stand with my legs parallel to one another.
72. Christmas is my favorite holiday. I enjoy the decorations most of all.
73. Once in pre-school I was trying to impress a boy and ate the crust on my sandwich first. I hate the crust, so I guess he was pretty great.
74. I like Coke. Not Diet Coke. And I get a little offended when waitresses assume I would ask for Diet.
75. I enjoy dressing my male puppy up in sweaters and doggy t-shirts. I find it cute.
76. I think my husband is HOT.
77. I love my nieces and nephews. I am so glad to have married a man who has siblings so I can be an aunt! What a unique role; I love being Aunt Lauren.
78. I really wish I would have been able to know my maternal grandmother.
79. I would someday like to bungee jump and skydive.
80. I am not a worrier. I realize that worrying does not help a situation and logically am able to stop my brain from going into worry-mode.
81. I love amusement parks and roller coasters. My favorite ride is called the Frisbee at Fiesta Texas which combines heights and spinning. This type of ride makes my husband sick to even watch but I like to ride it over and over again.
82. When someone sings a song, it gets stuck in my head and 5 minutes later I will find myself singing it and wondering where it came from. Then when I figure it out, I get angry at that person because it is usually something ridiculous. Currently “goodnight sweetheart, yeah it’s time to say goodnight, shoobeedoowap”. Last night, “8675309”. Thanks, Phil.
83. In high school I had the bright idea to get bangs. They were thick and covered my entire forehead. This was a bad idea. Please don’t ask to see photos.
84. My first car was a 1994 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme. It was maroon exterior, with maroon interior. I drove it for 5 years. Today I drive an Acura 3.2 CL with leather interior, sunroof, and my favorite part: heated seats.
85. I am a people-watcher. Airports, malls, and restaurant waiting areas are very entertaining places for me. I just have to be sure not to stare too much; sometimes I get wrapped up in observing and other people realize I am watching them, which is embarrassing.
86. If there was one day of my life I could do over, it would be the year my Mom and I forgot my Dad’s birthday. It was bedtime before he reminded us that we had all forgotten and he looked so hurt. I don’t know if he realizes how much I still regret that day and if I could do it all over again I would go overboard to make him feel special with gifts, parties, cake, and love.
87. I love s’mores. Indoors or outdoors, I don’t care. They are even delicious when cooked on our gas stove.
88. I believe recycling is important. I believe in global warming and Al Gore’s message. I try to do my part.
89. If money were no object, I would get involved with non-profits and spend my time helping organizations I believe in, rather than corporations, to succeed. I would travel more frequently, but only if my husband could join me. I would enjoy luxuries such as those pedicures, a personal trainer, dining out frequently, and I would buy more expensive clothing and accessories. I would probably also get a boob job.
90. I am not a gum chewer.
91. I do not mind silence or being alone. I will go to a restaurant, movie, or shopping alone. However, I feel uncomfortable spending the night in my own home alone when my husband is out of town. So does Cooper; he tends to bark much more frequently when one of us is gone. This doesn’t help me feel safer.
92. I have always been a little afraid of the dark.
93. I wish I would remember my dreams after I woke up. Sometimes I know they were really cool but I just can’t lock in the memory. I have never had the falling dream that people speak of.
94. I do not fluently speak a second language, but my Spanish is good enough that I can get by to travel in Mexico. I took 3 years of Spanish language in high school and a semester in college.
95. My birthday sometimes falls on the first day of Spring, and always is the first day of Aries astrological sign. I feel that as I get older, I exhibit more and more Aries-characteristics. But I also have some Pisces personality traits which makes sense since I’m right on the line between the two signs. However, I do not believe in astrology.
96. I have a difficult time with faith. I would like to be religious and go to church, but my logical side makes it difficult for me to believe in something without seeing anything tangible.
97. I get rid of stuff on a very regular basis. I almost always have at least a bag full of things in my trunk to take to Goodwill and if I have not worn an item of clothing in 6 months or so, I get rid of it. I also help my Mom clean out her wardrobe at least once a year.
98. I have a hard time watching channels on TV that are not HD, now that I’m spoiled by it. Same goes for sitting in floor seats at the Spurs games. You can’t go back from these types of luxuries to the way you used to do things.
99. I use SPF 8 sunscreen when tanning.
100. I am nervous to post this list for everyone to read because I am not confident that it is properly organized, all-encompassing, and am not sure what story it tells about me.

So... which of these things did you not know?

PS- Phil plans to write his list soon, which I look forward to reading. He said there were a few things on my list that he did not know, which surprises me, and I look forward to maybe finding out a few things about him through his list!

Christmas

Felicity and Karthik arrived on Christmas Eve and we picked them up at the airport, heading directly to the mall to stand in line to get Ethan's picture taken with Santa. He is 8 months old so this is his first Santa photo and very important to his mommy. As it turned out, many other mommies had the same idea and we ended up being in the Santa line for about 2 hours before it was all said and done. But Ethan's photo came out really cute! (I have given his mommy ample time to post his photo on her blog so I don't really feel bad stealing her thunder and posting the picture on here since it's been 2-1/2 weeks since Christmas Eve!)

It was lots of fun playing with the kids at Christmas. Blake received Guitar Hero from all of his aunts and uncles...

... and Drew showed off his new costumes that he had gotten for Christmas. Uncle Philip jumped right in and joined in on the fun!

And this is just a cute picture of Ethan being a hoodlum :)

Sam & Henna

We have been dog-sitting since the first week in November for Felicity's dogs, Sam & Henna. This post is a tribute to them since they will be headed overseas with their parents in just a few weeks.

One day in November while I was doing some dead-heading of our rose bushes in the front yard, Sam and Henna could be heard whining from the back yard. We came over to the fence from the front yard to see what they were up to and saw them doing their very best to try to come help.

We found out in December that Sam, the largest of the three dogs in our household, is a scaredy-cat (dog). He does NOT like the lawnmower. When Phil mowed the back yard, Sam found the farthest spot away in the back yard and stayed in the very corner until the mowing was done.

Philip thought it would be funny to give Sam & Henna peanut butter and watch them get it stuck in their mouth and smack. This was probably the hardest Phil had laughed in a long time. It was hard to get a good photo of it while laughing so here is the best one we got. (Notice Henna's tongue in the background!)

Most of the rest of the time, they can be found lounging around, doing some light reading...

... and of course always making time for a nap.

Luckily, Cooper gets along really well with them and they play quite a bit so they tire one another out!

My friend Amanda graduated with a Master's Degree in Health Care Administration from Trinity in December and Phil and I attended her graduation. She had an entourage of friends and family at the ceremony and I am so glad we could be there to support her.

Unfortunately, she will be staying in Louisianna for the time being and starting her new job at the hospital where she has been interning for the past year, so I won't get to see her as often as I'd like, but hopefully I can go visit her in the exciting town of Alexandria sometime this year!

Debbie's Reindeer

To get into the spirit of the holidays at work, we had a week-long schedule of festivities. Day 1 was Hat Day and I won with these antlers!

Day 7

Woke up this morning to Phil saying "So I have good news and bad news." As I squint my eyes to see (contacts not in yet), he holds up my flip flops which had been left on the ground just outside our car the evening prior, one of which has been what appears to be chewed up and spit out. This is the bad news.

The good news happens to be that although at first Philip thought his shoes were missing altogether, he found them strewn out about 50 feet away. Apparently the campsite dogs had feasted on our shoes the evening before just outside our vehicle, while we slept soundly within. Luckily, my flip flops are still wearable and since they are Reefs and cost $25, I am not giving up on them that easily!

That morning, after a morning surf session for Mom, Phil & Dad, we had breakfast at the restaurant at the campsite and then packed up camp to head further south to our final destination, La Saladita.

We stopped in town for supplies (ice, food, beer, etc.) and got Aguas Frescas for the trip (fruit-flavored waters). I got a pina colada flavored one and my parents got orange and they were very refreshing.

We arrived in Saladita that afternoon and set up camp next to my parents' long-time friend, Dean. They met Dean many years back in Sayulita when we used to go there before it got very crowded and have spent many winters with Dean and his wife since. Now they meet up in Saladita where Dean has purchased land and is in the process of building a house. The construction process in Mexico is much more laid back than we are used to in the US, so Dean has taken an active role in the construction to try to help streamline the whole thing. He was originally told the construction process would take 6 months, and he celebrated the 1-year construction anniversary while we were there, and the house still has about 1-2 months of work to go before it will be complete. So Dean spends every day all day at the house so he was not around when we arrived that afternoon. We got situated and later that afternoon met up with him for dinner at the restaurant nearest our campsite on the beach. Guess who was at the restaurant? Gregory with the motorcycle from our previous campsite! Seems like he did take my parents' advice of where to stop!

After dark, the bugs started to show up so we had an early night retreating to the 4runner to read and listen to music inside before falling asleep early.

Day 8 - Day Trip

The next morning we woke up and took a walk on the beach around 8:30am while Mom did her yoga.

Dad had gone out surfing so we watched him for a while catch some waves. We knew we wanted to take a day trip south to Zihuatanejo to check the city out and wanted to leave kind of early. By almost 10am when Dad still had not come in from surfing, Phil and I decided to go ahead and do the day trip on our own rather than waiting any longer to get going. Mom stayed back so Dad would not be all alone for the day at the campsite.

My parents had recommended a surf town called Troncones, so we stopped there first. We came across a cool art shop, and the artist happened to be a surfer from the US who had lived on South Padre and knew my parents! We got to talk to him for a while and bought some small pieces of his artwork- magnets which we have on our refrigerator now!

Next we drove south and went through Ixtapa, which turned out to be a very touristy town with hotels lining the beach, lots of Americanized fast food chains, and shops. We didn't even stop, just drove though to see it and kept on going. Not much farther down the highway was Zihuatanejo which is a much larger city and very populated. There was traffic we didn't really have a destination so we stopped at a supermarket to see what it was like. It was basically like a super Wal-Mart. It had everything we could have wanted and we decided next time we didn't really need to bring anything; we could get it there for great prices! We did not spend too long in the city and decided to head back to Troncones to spend the rest of the day on the beach.

We had a snack of guacamole with a beer/pina colada for lunch right on the beach at El Burro Borracho restaurant. It was kind of pricy for Mexico and their menu was very touristy but it was right on the beach and the day was beautiful.

We took a long walk on the beach and swum for a bit in the water. The waves were pretty forceful and at one point the waves threw my into Phil's head and I hit my cheekbone just below my eye and got a mini-black eye! After that I was pretty ready to leave so we decided to head back to the campsite. The afternoon sun was still high when we got back so we decided to take our chairs to the beach and do some reading. After about 30 minutes, my Dad came down to the beach to see what we were up to and while he was there, a bee had been flying around me and ended up stinging me right at my collar bone! I have never been stung before by a bee and didn't really know what to do. Phil even had to pull its little stinger out of my skin because it got stuck! My Dad wasn't very sympathetic- he couldn't believe I had never been stung by a bee before in my life and by the time he was 10 years old he had already been stung multiple times! But despite all those stings, he couldn't tell me what to put on it to soothe the sting! The guy in the campsite next to us told me to put niccotine on it, but of course I did not have any available nor did I think that was an attractive idea so I just decided to suffer in (semi) silence.

That evening we watched the sunset and then had dinner at the campsite which Dean joined us for, consisting of grilled sausage with cheese/jalapenos, salad, and toast. It was a great way to end the day!

Day 9- Last Day of Vacation

We wanted to spend the last day just relaxing and not driving anywhere since we had a long road ahead of us starting the next day. Phil and Mom joined Dad in the water for an early morning surf session. I slept in a bit and caught just the tail end of their session but got to greet them as they came in.

We ate some breakfast and then my parents, Phil, and I walked up to Lourdes' which is a restaurant, bar, and surf shop where the locals like to hang out. We did not find anything to purchase so we didn't stay long. We decided to talk over to Dean's house so Phil and I could see the construction (my parents had been by the day before so they were able to give us the tour). After walking through the house, we headed back to the campsite and on our way stopped at a little taco stand and had drinks (limonadas for my parents and Coca Cola for me!). We talked to the ladies there about coming back for dinner and they said they would be open. But that evening when we showed up, there was not a soul in sight! We ended up having to eat at the restaurant on the beach that we had eaten at two nights before; we were hoping to add another taco stand to our count so this was disappointing!

Day 10 - Long Drive

We left Saladita at 5:45am and headed North. We had spent over an hour the afternoon prior mapping out our route to find the best way, a tricky combination of finding the most toll roads, least mountainous terrain, least windy roads, and not going too far out of our way to accomplish these goals. We must have done a good job because made very good time. We stopped minimally - only for gas when necessary. We had snacks (junk food) in the car and did not stop for a meal all day. Our goal was to make it to Cuidad Victoria and spend the night, which we were not sure we could accomplish since it was many more miles than we traveled on day 1 of our trip. We did make it there around 6pm and decided that since there were only about 3 more hours of driving to get to the border, we would rather keep going than stop and have to find a hotel.

I will be honest and say that driving in Mexico at night is not fun. Actually, some might describe it as scary. The roads are mostly 2-lane with small shoulders, and this is best case scenario. So, many times when a car is trying to pass an 18-wheeler going the other direction, you are facing that car head-on in your lane and have no choice but to slam on your brakes and reduce your speed to avoid a collision. This happened more than once! Also, the big trucks in Mexico are double-long which we don't see in the US much, so that makes passing them even more trecherous since it takes longer to get around them! We had to both stay very alert and awake the entire day. Luckily, the police know better than to pull anyone over on the roads- they have no place to safely do so! The only time we saw any police was when a safety hazard was forthcoming; they would park on the shoulder with their lights flashing if a dangerous curve was ahead to warn drivers to slow down, which was really helpful.

We finally hit Matamoros around 9pm although the signs did not clearly direct us towards the border so we got lost and did not actually arrive at the border until about 9:45pm. We turned in our car permit and actually made it across pretty quickly. But we still had a 40 minute drive to the island before our travels for the day were over! Since we had not eaten all day, we stopped and picked up Whataburger on the island as our first meal back in the US. How American... burgers and fries.

The best part of the evening was a hot shower when we got to my parents' condo (the campsites had fresh water and showers but never hot water!) and we went right to bed, having the best night's sleep we had had in 10 days! Phil is usually an early riser but it was almost 8am before he even opened his eyes. I think he may have even woken up in the same exact position he fell asleep in! Same for me, but that is nothing out of the ordinary in my case... :)

Day 10 - Home Again

This day I drove for the first time since we had left San Antonio to give Phil a break from being behind the wheel. We made it back to San Antonio around lunchtime and unpacked and started the unwinding and chores that come with returning from vacation, and preparing to return to work. That evening we drove to pick up the dogs half way between SA and Austin where Brad and Stacy met us for the exchange. It was great to see Cooper again (oh yeah, and Sam/Henna too) and with them back in the house, back into the swing of things we went.

All in all, the trip was wonderful- very relaxing, gorgeous views, with really no problems or stress. I decided that all our vacations need to be international so that we really are able to get away without access to phones or emails. We plan to return again on this type of trip to Mexico many times in our lives.

Did we mention the whole trip cost us less than $700 for the entire 10 days?! I think we can definitely afford to do this again!

What's in that tube?

Phil reminded me of an exciting event from our vacation that I forgot to mention during my recap of our time in Ticla. As dentally hygenic individuals, each night before bed we would brush our teeth before climbing into the car. However, by this time of the night, the sun had gone down and it was dark, and we either usually could not find our lantern. So one of the evenings, I divied up the toiletries and headed up to the bathrooms to shower. Mom and I went to the women's bathroom and Phil went to the men's and of course he was finished sooner than we did. Later, when we arrived back at the campsite, Phil asked me what I gave him to brush his teeth with. I told him it was the Colgate that we had gotten from our dentist as a sample. He said that no, it was not toothpaste... it was the other similarly-shaped and similarly-sized tube of Cortizone that we had bought to help soothe the itching of bug bites. Unfortunately, Phil did not find this out until it had been spread across the bristles of his toothbrush and lathered up his teeth with it! Oops!

(I told him to look on the bright side-- at least his mouth was not itchy afterward!)

Day Five- Tizupan

The next morning we packed up our campsite and headed south for our next destination, a beachfront town called Tizupan. We arrived and pulled up under a palapa where my parents have stayed in the past.




There was a guy named Gregory who was staying in the campsite next door and packing up his gear to continue on his trip south. He was from Boston and was traveling on just a motorcycle, hoping to end up south of the Panama Canal if he could figure out how to get his bike that far south. We chatted about his trip and our experiences and my parents recommended some other spots for him to stop during his travels.

We set up camp and had a quick lunch, then Mom, Dad & Phil all decided to head out surfing!



The beach was rocky so they walked down to the shore with their shoes and then I retrieved them and brought them back to the campsite while they surfed. The waves were not too big and perfect for Phil to learn on and Mom to practice on. Dad stayed farther away in areas where he could get slightly larger waves and would not be in the way of the other two.

They spent about an hour in the water and when they came in, their shoes were brought to them so that they would not have to endure the rocky shore on their bare feet.

After the surf session, Phil and I took a long walk on the beach. First we walked left to the end of the rocks but the walk was short and there were some fishermen catching bait in their nets and we didn't want to get in their way, so we decided to walk back past our campsite and walk all the way to the end of the beach in the other direction. During our entire trip, I was searching for heart-shaped rocks, and this walk was no exception. I even had my parents searching while they walked the beaches! We found a few good ones and also some really beautiful shells that we brought back with us- they were bright pink and they are kind of like a clam since they fold inward toward each other, and both sides of the shell are identical. The animals were already gone from the shell so we picked them up. We probably came back to Texas with 20 of them!

We returned to the campground and showered and got ready for dinner. As with every night, we watched the beautiful sunset.





We grilled game hens and had salad and toast with it, which was delicious. Afterward, I toasted marshmallows on the grill for dessert! This night was probably the most beautiful of them all- it's hard to tell from the photo but the sky was orange near the horizon but the moon and some stars were already visible, so the contrast was gorgeous!

I even pulled Mom away from doing dishes for a few minutes to enjoy the beautiful view!

Day Three - Relaxation

Dad went out fishing and then surfing. When Mom had returned from her long morning exercise walk with her friend, she accompanied me and Phil as we waded across the river (the water was waist high and cold in the river!) to watch Dad surf. He had gone around the point to get better waves which seemed to be what most of the surfers were doing. As we walked over, we passed a surfer who was bleeding from the head because of a surfing injury! This was not the only time we saw this type of injury at Ticla so I am glad Phil did not decide to try surfing here.

We found a log to sit on and watched Dad surf while basking in the morning sun. After about half an hour, Phil and I decided to take a walk farther down the beach. It was rocky where we were, so we wanted to get to the sandy part of the beach so we could more safely go for a swim. Mom decided to head back to the campsite so that she could get together with some friends for yoga, so Phil and I walked to the very end of the beach together. Where the beach ends, there is a cliff and Phil climbed up to explore. I climbed up just a few feet, not all the way, but the view was beautiful from that height.

We came back to the camp after our walk and hung out in the hammock for a while and read. It was very relaxing and the weather was nice and warm.

Later, we had a snack of guacamole at the restaurant in our campground, and then walked up to town to use the internet to email and let Phil's mom know we had made it safely there. We hung out some more and later my parents grilled pork tenderloin for dinner with salad and toast. They say that they usually become the envy of the other campers at their campgrounds because they eat "real" food (as opposed to canned sardines and such) and I can understand why. Dinner was delicious!

Day Four - Day Trip

Phil woke up early and went fishing on the beach with my Dad. The evening before, they had spotted a fishing hole in the ocean and put a stick in the sand-dune to remind them the following morning where it would be. Mom and I woke up and took a walk on the beach (with mom calling out exercise moves and tips like "Suck and Smile" which translates to suck in your stomach and smile while you walk, despite what it might bring to mind otherwise) and we joined the fishermen to see how they had done. Unfortunately, they did not catch any fish so we had to go to the taco stands for dinner... (and we promise this was not sabotage on Phil's part since he doesn't eat seafood!)

We decided we wanted to see some other beaches in the area and we had heard from the other people in the campground that the beach at Maruata was great even though Mom had not been impressed with it in the past when she had been there. We decided to pack up and drove our vehicle back up to the highway to head South to some different beaches.

We first stopped in La Manzanillera. The beach there reminded me of the beaches in Cabo San Lucas. It was very pretty and the big rocks on the shore were remniscent of the ones we posed by just a few years ago. We did not stay much longer on this beach because we were anxious to get to our other destinations.

Next, we drove farther South to El Faro (which literally translates to "the lighthouse" so there are more than one El Faro beaches in Mexico). We had a nice time at this beach. We arrived and there was basically nobody there yet which was great.

We took a swim in the ocean and then Mom and I decided to lay out and do some reading on the beach while Phil and Dad went snorkeling. While they were out in the water, a bus load of people showed up at the beach and the beach got super crowded, which was to be expected since it was a Sunday. These people had obviously been to this beach before because the teenager and 20-somethings of the group quickly climbed up on the rocks in the water and as a wave would come through between the rocks, they would one at a time jump off the rocks into the water below. All of their friends and family in the water closer to the shore would cheer them on each time. It was pretty fun to watch, although I figured it had to be kind of dangerous if it was too shallow to jump into the water before the waves came through...

Soon thereafter, the ice cream truck showed up! Similar to an ice cream truck in the US, except it was a jeep and it drove right onto the beach!

We all mused at first that this guy must be money laundering or something because there was no way an ice cream truck could bring enough revenue in to be able to afford a brand new Jeep in Mexico, but then as over 30 minutes passed and every single person on the beach (other than us) had purchased in ice cream cone and the line was never-ending, we realized we were very wrong and this ice cream business was quite lucrative actually!

We also entertained ourself on this beach by playing with a golden retreiver who had come with 2 people who were staying back at our camp-site in Ticla and picked a spot on the beach right next to us. The dog was so well-behaved and loved to fetch anything. Phil and Dad got roped into the stick-throwing but it was relentless after a while when the dog couldn't get enough. It was cute, though, because the dog would bring the stick right up to our chairs, and when we didn't pick it up, the dog would pick up the stick and actually lean it up vertically against the legs of our chairs so that we didn't even have to lean down to pick it up and throw it. Wasn't that thoughtful of him?

We ordered Limonadas and a plate of Camarones de Ajo for lunch and ate and drank on the beach and under the palapa, although the plate of food was kind of weird in that the shrimp needed to be peeled when they arrived at the table, shell and little bitty legs and all. I wasn't expecting this and it kind of made it less appetizing. But I ate it anyway, and my mom helped shell and de-leg the shrimpies like good mommies are supposed to do for their daughters.

Next we got back into the car and drove to Marueta. This is where we kind of got lost, although it turned out to be a wonderful thing! We drove into town and there was this big new building that was not there last year, so my parents did not have any recollection anymore of how to get to the beach. We drove down one street but there was lots of construction and rebar in the road on one side while the other side was torn up with piles of bricks. We turned around and drove down the next street over, which was a dead end. We went down a third street which led back to the first street. We had not yet seen a glimpse of the ocean! So we drove back to the closest road to the highway and turned down it, which led us to some sort of landing strip for airplanes, again not the beach. So we decided to go around the other side of the building and take a new road. We decided to follow the car driving ahead of us just to see where he led us, and it actually led us down a dirt road toward the beach! We found a camp ground and turned off to the side of it and I decided to just get out and see what the beach looked like before we left altogether and headed back to our camp. We walked up over the sand-dune and saw the most beautiful beach!

From the top of the sand-dune, the beach sloped down and rested between tall rock cliffs on either side, so the water was crystal clear and the waves were not too big. The ocean just rolled in and out so it was perfect for swimming! I stripped my cover-up off and ran into the water for a swim! It was wonderful to see a beach that was not rocky and easy to enter/exit. After my swim, I just laid directly on the sand and sunbathed. Phil and my Mom decided to go over to the rocks to the left of the beach and it turned out that there were caves that you could walk all the way through to another secluded beach just like this one! They came back and told us how cool it was so we all went to take a look for ourselves. It reminded us of two years ago on our trip to the Virgin Gorda where we were able to explore the caves.

On the right side of the beach there was another set of rock caves. The only other people on this beach were some older Canadians and we asked them if the caves led anywhere, but they had not yet entered them. We learned that they did go through and we were able to find yet another gorgeous and isolated beach! This was such a cool spot that we decided was our favorite beach of the trip and would love to return to and spend time camping there. But it did not have any good waves for surfing, so my Dad wasn't as enchanted as we were.

After enjoying Marueta we decided to drive down another dirt road and we ended up at a dead end road. We got out of our car and walked up to the beach over the hill and found that we were on the back side of the part of Marueta that my parents had been to before, where there was more of a surf spot. We ran into our neighbors from the campground who had been out surfing there. As it turns out, they drove straight through the road construction to get to this beach at the spot where we turned around due to the piles of rebar and construction materials in the road!

That evening, we had dinner at 2 taco stands in Ticla and went to sleep after a long day of beach-going and driving. Count: Taco Stands #5 & #6.

Days 5-10 to follow; stay tuned. This is where I stopped writing in my journal during the trip so the remainder of the posts are bound to be less detailed and shorter entries!

I figured my posting the photos on Facebook would tell a good enough story of our trip to Mexico but apparently that is not the case and people want a narrative. I even tried to get Phil to do this blog entry but he opted out and here I am, blogging instead of making my Christmas list on a Friday night, just days before Christmas... so here goes!

Day Zero- Trip to Valley

We woke up at 4:30am to pack the car and I had to get dressed for a meeting at 10:30am in Edinburg while trying to keep Sam & Henna's snouts & fur off of my outfit. We were on the road by 6am, right on schedule, so we felt good. We stopped for powdered donuts on the way for breakfast of champions before my meeting (if you are wondering why I was worried about dog hair on my dress when I was just going to get powdered sugar all over it, you would be smarter than I was at the time...). Phil was a trooper and hung out in the car while I went to my 2 meetings in Edinburg, but we were done with both and headed south by noon. We stopped at Whataburger for lunch (guess whose decision that was?). We arrived at my parents' condo and ate lunch and hung out for a while before getting back in the car and heading to Wal Mart in Port Isabel to try to buy an iPod dock/alarm clock and a GPS navigational system. We had a hard copy of a 2008 Guia Roji map of Mexico but Brad insisted that a GPS was the way to go. When we got to Wal Mart, however, we found out that none of the navigation systems come with Mexico maps loaded on them and we would have to pay over $100 extra to get a map of Mexico for it, so we opted out and stuck with our hard copy of the map!

That evening my mom made a turkey meal so that we wouldn't feel like we totally missed out on the Thanksviging celebration all together. We had turkey, stuffing, rolls, cranberry sauce, brocolli, and the next day we had turkey left over for sandwiches on the trip! We headed to bed early so that we would be well-rested for the trip.

Day One- Driving, With Stops

We woke up at 5:00am and packed up our last minute things so that we could be on the road by 6am, following my parents in their camper. We stopped at the corner store for energy (Rockstar for Phil and fountain soda for me) and ice and headed towards the border (Matamoros)! We had a little hiccup at the border because we tried to get the car permit in Phil's name since he would be driving, but since my name is on the title of the 4Runner, we had to re-do all of our paperwork and resubmit (to another person at the counter) in order to avoid having to present our marriage license which was back in San Antonio! We were probably at the border for almost an hour which was longer than my Dad had planned, so he started to get antsy and pace around the place. He told us that the first thing we needed to do when we came back to the states after our trip was to change the title into Phil's name... don't tell him but we won't be doing that. It costs $35 or something and for what? It works just fine the way it is!

We headed out from the border around 7:30am after getting our visas and car permit and by 9:00am my parents were already making a gas/bathroom stop! (I think I forgot to mention that we all went to the bathroom before leaving the house and again at the border.) They proceeded to make another stop that morning for a bathroom break, and then we stopped for lunch. With all these stops, we figured we made up for the lost time at the border!

For lunch we stopped in the mountains and had a beautiful view as we ate our turkey sandwiches.

Phil was getting over 26 miles per gallon during the drive so we were very excited to have brought his car and not carry too much heavy luggage! We continued to drive through mountainous terrain and as we got close to the end of our travels for the day we got stopped and searched at a checkpoint. The officials were so professional and nice, and it was very quick and easy, so we felt completely at ease. We made it to Lagos De Morenos by 6:00 that evening and checked into our hotel which was only 260 pesos which translates to $20 per night! It was a very small room which fit just the furniture- a bed, TV, bedside table, and small desk and chair. There was a closet and a bathroom which was all open without a door to the shower so that when we took showers, everything in the room got wet! Luckily, my Mom had warned us not to leave our toilet paper in the room while showering because it would not be usable afterward since it would be soaking wet!

We walked down the main street and had tacos from 2 taco stands for dinner and were very satisfied. We decided to start keeping a count of our taco stands visited on the trip, so here were #1 and #2 already on the first day! After dinner, we read our new books that we had picked up before leaving SA and went to bed early. We were tired after a long day of driving.

Day Two- Our First Glimpse of the Ocean!

We woke up early again so that we could be on the road by 6:30am. We hoped to avoid traffic in Guadalajara but ended up making it there just at rush hour. As we drove into town, we noticed a brown cloud of smog covering the city, so combined with the crazy traffic, we didn't get a good impression of the city. Although we are told that there are very nice parts of the city with museums and such, we just didn't visit those parts as we drove through. It was not very easy to follow another car (my parents) in the heavy traffic, and the exits and road signs are not the easiest to follow, so it was certainly an adventure. Phil saw a car next to him get rear-ended, which didn't help because it made us think how terrible that would be to have to deal with that on our trip! Luckily we made it through town and didn't even get lost. We stopped for breakfast tacos on the other side of the city at the same place my parents stop at every year (have I mentioned yet that my Dad is a big fan of routine and basically every stop we make is one that he makes every single year?).

My parents needed to stop for propane for their camper so we found a re-fill station and stopped. The tank, however, was frozen to the camper (or rusted to the camper?) and neither Phil nor my Dad could get it loose. In the midst of trying, Phil sliced his thumb open... at least we were able to figure out that the location of our first aid kit was not very handy since I couldn't find it in time to help! Luckily, my mom knew just where their first aid kit was located so she was able to get Phil a band-aid and Neosporin quickly. But anyone who has cut themselves like that knows that this type of injury is painful and can easily open back up while it's healing, so it was too bad it had to happen at the very beginning of our trip!

Around 1:00pm, we finally started seeing signs of the coast! We came across these huge fields of palm trees which were planted in perfect rows and they were so tall! Some of them were stripped of their coconuts which we could understand but some of the others had the entire tree cut down which we figured was for wood, but we did not know what coconut tree wood is used for... the trunks are so small!

And shortly thereafter we saw the ocean! We arrived at La Ticla in the early afternoon at the campground where my parents have stayed for over 25 years. (When my parents were dating they took a trip together to Mexico and came to La Ticla. They realized when they could travel on a trip like this together that they were compatible and decided to get married when they returned! They have a photo of their 30-ish year old selves at sunset on the beach in Ticla that has been framed in our house forever.) Over the past few years since my parents have been traveling together to Mexico, they have made a group of friends whom they see every year in Mexico on these vacations. So when we showed up, they basically knew everyone there and every came out to greet them! We got introduced to their friends and then set up camp under a palapa on the beach. We took a beach walk first thing- the weather was a bit cloudy but pretty warm so it was nice, definitely a change from the weather we had been experiencing in SA the week before.

We watched the beautiful sunset...

...and then walked the short 5 minute walk up to town for tacos. Count: Taco Stand #3. We sat at a table right in front of the lady preparing the tacos and Phil unfortunately had his back to the lady as she chopped the meat and he kept feeling it hit the back of his t-shirt. Finally when he got hit in the back of the head with chopped pork, he decided to move around to the side of the table... The pork tacos she served, though, were delicious and ended up being our favorite tacos in Ticla. We joked later that we could always eat the pieces on the back of Phil's shirt if we needed a taco fix!

We slept on our bed that night for the first time in the 4Runner which consisted of 2 layers of egg crate, a feather comforter, a regular comforter, and 2 sheets. It was actually very comfortable! We had rolled down all the windows to let a breeze through and put up mosquito nets on the outside with magnets. It got so cool during the night that we actually had to use a blanket, which was just perfect for sleeping.

Days 3-10 to follow... stay tuned!

He Did It- 26.2!

Today, Phil ran 26.2 miles in the Rock 'n Roll Marathon!

The day started out at 5:00am with a shower, breakfast, and getting dressed in lots of layers. (Last night the temperature dropped down to freezing!) We pinned on his number to his bottom layer shirt, attached his D Tag (disposable tag for timing his run) to his shoe, and left the house around 6:15am.

The website stated that we had to drive down Hwy 281 to the participant drop off area, and by the time we had sat in traffic for 30 minutes and were still probably an hour away from the start line and not moving, Phil decided (along with hundreds of others) to hop out of the car right on the freeway and walk to the start line which on foot was about 1/2 mile away. He made it there in time to check in his gear (his jacket and pants) which were transported to the finish line for him. The gun went off to start the race at 7:30am, but Phil was in corral 15 so he did not start running until about 8:00.

After dropping Phil off, I went straight to a friend of mine's shop on Main Street where I parked at 7:00am and waited until Phil ran by (around 9:00).

He picked up his sunglasses and dropped off a layer of clothing (his long-sleeve running shirt) and picked up a Gatorade and kept on running. Can you spot him? With 30,000 runners I thought I might miss him, but luckily I was able to spot him (plus he knew where I would be so he was on the right side of the road).

My aunt Carol also ran by about 5-10 minutes later so I was able to cheer her on and pick up a layer of her clothing as well so she could continue on her 1/2 marathon journey. By then, she was half way done so I made sure to remind her of that!

After the two of them ran by, I left Main Street and went directly to the Alamodome to stake out my spot at the finish line! I made sure to watch Carol run across the finish line and cheer her on and then had to find the best spot to watch Phil cross the finish line. I waited for about 2 hours at the finish line to get as close as possible to the runners and finally made my way all the way up to the gate so I could basically touch the runners and give some of them hi-five on their way across the finish line. Finally, when Phil came across I cheered for him and took pictures, although come ot find out he was so focused he never even saw me!

He says around mile 20 he got really nauseous after drinking 3 of the gel packets and had to slow down and walk to avoid getting sick on the course. His last few miles ended up being slower than his first 20, but he finished at 4:31 which we are so proud of! He didn't stop and walk until he got to mile 20 which is a personal best for him.

After he crossed the finish line, we found each other and quickly found a spot to sit down so Phil could cool down and let the nausea pass.

But after about 20 minutes of resting, he switched into flip flops, hydrated and was ready to walk to the car (another 1/2 mile at least).

Will he run another marathon? Probably so, but not just yet. He might try a 1/2 marathon next so he can work on improving his time and endure a less rigorous training course, but I'm sure this isn't the end of his running career. Just time for a little break.

Now, we get to pack for our Mexico trip! We leave in 11 days!

YES WE CAN

Go Vote!

Here's our life, in a nutshell

Usually when I post on the blog, I can either think of something witty or at least post some photos to compensate. In the past month as you've noticed and *ahem* mentioned, we haven't posted anything on this blog. Really, it's just because our daily lives don't seem to be exciting enough to blog about. But here's a recap for those of you who we don't see or talk to frequently:

There was that weekend in September where we celebrated Katherine's birthday by starting to drink at 5:30 with dinner, getting to the bar downtown by 8pm, and ending the night by midnight passed out in bed because we started too early, all with me wearing the skimpiest dress I've ever worn in public. But it was fun and we swore we were too old for this.

Then there was the weekend when we headed to Austin to Chuck-E-Cheese for Logan's birthday party. First we met up with Freddy for lunch and he showed us the greatness that is the reality TV show Tabatha's Salon Takeover. Such a guilty pleasure to watch and now we record all the episodes. We have "paid it forward" so to speak because we got Maria hooked when she came to visit!

There was also the Valero Texas Open that consumed Phil's life at the beginning of October. He is a co-chair of the Admissions & Will Call committee so he was heavily involved in the tournament preparations and actually spent most of his days there for about a full week. But really this just involved sitting in an air-conditioned RV where they had cable TV, free food and beverages, and free access to watch live golf at the tournament at any time.

The same week of VTO, my aunt and uncle came into town at the last minute on a Wednesday night which also happened to be one of the VTO events. So they joined us for that along with my other aunt, Carol, and then we all went to dinner at a new restaurant in town. It was so great to see them and we are actually headed to Port Aransas this weekend to spend more time with them before they sail away to the Bahamas for a few months on their boat.

The weekend of VTO this year also happened to be Alumni Weekend at Trinity so my friend Maria from college came to stay with us. We went out for lunch on Saturday to Beto's which became my new favorite place for Tacos Al Pastor! I also had a mojito with lunch which subsequently, combined with the massage chair and pedicure, made me very sleepy in the middle of the afternoon. Guess this is why we save our drinking for evenings.

Then there was two weekends ago when we went out with our friends Katherine & Jack to The Bonham, a gay bar downtown where one of my friends is a bartender, and he gave us a few too many free drinks and shots, making us again realize how we are getting way too old to take shots and drink this much.

So last weekend we played it low key and stayed in and watched the UT game at our house. Katherine and Jack brought their Chihuahua, Martini, over to play with Cooper which provided plenty of entertainment, rivaling the game actually.

I also got to see my friend Lena twice in the past few weeks which was so great. She was my college roommate and one of my closest friends but she moved back to Kuwait last year to be with her family. She came for just a few weeks and had to divide her time amongst all the many people who wanted to see her but I got her all to myself for a few hours one day at lunch and we had a mini-reunion with one of our college suitemates another night. I hope one day to go visit her so she doesn't always have to come here to see us!

Phil is still training for the marathon which is now less than a month away. He runs many times a week but does his long run on Sundays. He ran 22 miles last weekend on Sunday after running 5 miles the day before. I am so proud of his drive and determination to do this. Can't wait for race day!

I have been working a lot lately, either going into work early, staying late, or working weekends. Sometimes I come home from dinner and go back to the office and work into the evening. It's a good thing to be busy right now with the economy slow and people losing jobs so I am grateful to have the work and job security (knock on wood). Plus, the more I work, the more money I make so that is always a plus... and pretty good motivation!

This weekend we are headed, as previously mentioned, to Port Aransas to spend some time at the coast and with family. My parents will be joining us and we are staying at a condo that my aunt and uncle have reserved. Another aunt and uncle who live in Corpus are going to join us so it should be great. On Sunday we will drive to Houston to pick up Sam & Henna and bring them back to our house where they I am sure will be so glad to see Cooper and run around and poop in our back yard. We are happy to have them here and I am sure their owners will soon come and scoop up the back yard, right?!

So that is a recap of the last month and a half of our lives. We'll try to remember to take more photos to capture the events in our lives so our friends and family, avid readers of our blog, do not feel neglected anymore. With the election coming up, the marathon, and our trip to Mexico all in November, we should have enough going on to blog about!

Are we officialy OLD?

So this weekend we were making dinner and as I pulled out a salad dressing bottle I happened to notice that some of the other dressings were almost empty, so I pulled the Thousand Island out and noticed it had expired in 2005. What?! That was 3 years ago! I'm thinking, "this is weird, let's check the balsalmic", only to find that it expired earlier this year. On to the ranch dressing, barbecue sauce, whole-grain mustard, and on and on we go- ALL EXPIRED. Now let it humbly be known that both Phil and I on multiple occasions have made fun of people with expired condiments in their fridges as old, and that only old people keep expired condiments past their expiration date! Yet who pulled approximately 25 expired containers out of their refrigerator door this weekend? WE DID!

Four More Years!

I've had my wonderful Acura 3.2 CL sports car for 4 years now, and it has been such a joy to drive. This summer it was starting to show some signs of age so we spent this weekend giving it a little TLC to get it back in tip-top shape. Saturday morning we took it in to get the A/C re-charged (no more getting out of the car and my back being so sweaty that the back of my shirt is soaked). Then to be extra sure, we got my windows tinted! I knew they figured out I was from the valley when they offered me the metallic finish... but we ended up deciding on the middle darkness and middle price-point yet still keeping with a 3M product with a lifetime warranty. Then on Sunday we changed my air filter and (Dad, stop reading here so you don't have a heart attack) I put the new registration sticker on my windshield that had been expired for over a year! Now I am legal and hopefully should stay cool and maybe even get some better gas mileage! Phil says I have to keep my car until it has at least 150k - 200k miles on it, so here's to another 4 years together, Acura--- cheers!

Just a quick post to pay homage to and honor one of the most delicious desserts I've ever consumed. On Carol's birthday this weekend she had a group of people over for dinner. We had chalupas for dinner which were yummy of course, and some home-made margaritas on the rocks which also held their own, but the real star of the show in my opinion was the s'mores cheesecake! With a graham cracker crust, chocolate cheesecake filling, and toasted marshmallow top, each bite was nothing less than heavenly. It also needs to be mentioned that Carol made it from scratch! (We definitely discussed how the cooking genes must have skipped a generation... but luckily I have all these great cooks around me who can take care of me with delicious creations like this amazing dessert.) We took leftovers home and there is an amazing slice in the refrigerator right now calling my name. At least I have something to look forward to this evening - a night on the couch in front of the women's gymnastics finals with my slice of deliciousness. I can't wait.

Is there such thing as Olympics Fever?

For the next two weeks, we plan to be watching the Olympics, and not doing much else. Well, there is our 8-5 work schedules, running (for Phil), eating (me), celebrating Carol's birthday, and dinner next weekend with Jennelle & Greg, but that's all we will commit to.

The opening ceremonies last night were awesome. The "Birds Nest" stadium is a beautiful piece of architecture and the Chinese display of entertainment was fantastic.

I don't really consider myself an extremely patriotic person, but when an American is participating in virtually any event, you just have to cheer for them... whether you know the rules of the game, or have ever heard of that person before or not. Luckily, Team USA tends to be pretty strong in the events we like, so that helps.

Favorite events of ours include gymnastics, swimming, beach volleyball, water polo, track & field, basketball... luckily this only happens every 4 years because it's almost* enough athleticism to make me want to get off the couch, put down the ice cream, and exercise.

*Note the use of the word "almost".

Chicken Fight!

On Saturday after lounging at the pool and drinking a few of Randy's pineapple-sugar-rum concoctions, Felicity and I decided it would be a great idea to get on our husbands' shoulders for a good-natured chicken fight!

We made it up on their shoulders and were so proud of ourselves.

The next thing you know, my competitive side came out...

...and Felicity's competitive side was under water!

A winner was declared (I think it still counts if it's self-declared).

We decided to do a triple decker next, but Drew just didn't enjoy it as much as we had hoped.