Bluebonnets and Birthdays

This week and weekend was crazy busy (anyone else noticing a theme... I think we are too busy!)

We had something every night this week from Family Dinner to Bible study to sewing class to Brittney's ladies night to The Hunger Games premiere. And we didn't rest much this weekend!

Saturday was the Chappell Hills training ride. Please note the word "hills" in the name. It did not disappoint! Our organizer said this was our most challenging ride and he was right!

Jason, Doug, and I braved the 44 mile route and made a few extra rest spots to take pictures of the gorgeous blooming Texas bluebonnets. There were fields of the blue flower complimented with a mix of orange and yellow flowers as well. It's one of the prettiest things in Houston. Oh wait, we still weren't in Houston... ;-)

The weather was absolutely divine and I love riding out in the hill country away from the city. It's the best reminder of just how perfect God's creation is and I feel closer to Him in those moments.

After the ride we hurried down to League City to celebrate Miss Sydney's 2nd birthday with friends and family. I can't believe our niece is two already!! She gets more and more adorable (if that's even possible!) every time we see her!

Let's ignore my face in this one...



Here's her gift from Mom and Dad - a fun sand and water play center.





And here she is with our (boring) gift - clothes (which I got a great shot of her tossing behind her, hehe) and a stuffed bunny that's wearing a shirt that says "Somebunny loves Sydney"






Sunday we were signed up to ride in the Bluebonnet Express to prepare us for riding two days in a row, which we will be doing in the MS 150. Jason wanted to take it easy and rode 35 miles while I met up with my old riding group which did 55 miles.

The weather was perfect again but it should have been called the faux Bluebonnet Express. We didn't see near as many as we saw yesterday. (Although perhaps I can get pictures of them in non-biking gear at some point...)


Now we are finally relaxing and I'm getting excited to see my mama tomorrow night when she's in town for work!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Read more...

The Hunger Games

You might recall that I spent a week engulfed in The Hunger Games series of books (read here when my original intent was just to read the first one before the movie came out. Since then, Jason has not only finished the first book but also the second. Apparently he does know how to read and is (almost) as addicted as I was. Go Hunger Games!

The movie premiere was yesterday and while I could not convince Jason that a midnight showing was a fantastic idea, he did compromise to seeing it Friday night with our friends Kyle and Meredith. It was a fun double date night with dinner and the movie.
We headed to the theater early (7:30 for an 8:45 showing!) and the lines were already forming -


The movie itself was great! They did a decent job with the editing and stayed true to the book for the most part. Now I can't wait for the second and third movies to come out! (But like Twilight and Harry Potter, I still love the books more!)

Read more...

Brittney's Alaska Survival Kit

My friend Brittney is moving to Alaska. When she told me it was a strong possibility she would be moving, I told her I was 95% happy for her and 5% mad at her for missing part of sewing class. ;-)

In all honestly I am very happy for her. It's a great opportunity for her husband Duncan and Alaska will be a great fit for them lifestyle-wise. I am sad though because she and I have started to become very close over the past few months since working together. Now I have an excuse to go visit her in Alaska though!

Tonight Brittney had a ladies fondue party at her house. She only has a couple weeks left before she'll be moving so it was a last chance to get most of her friends together. We decided we should do something fun for Brittney and  I proposed to the rest of her girlfriends that we make an Alaska Survival Kit.

We put together quite the list of items for her "survival kit" -

And we purchased a basket to arrange all of her goodies in -

Additionally, our group at work has a T-Rex (named Rexie) as our mascot. We even have these sweet matching shirts from Urban Outfitters -

(In case you can't read it, the shirt says "T-Rex Hates Pushups")

So when I was out shopping for Brittney, I had the idea to print a group picture in a frame and see if I could find a wooden T-Rex at Michaels to glue on. Score! I found this awesome frame below and the wooden T-Rex already painted and ready to be glued on the frame. (You better put it on your desk at work Brittney!)

Here's the awesome picture that got put in the frame. It's our group participating last week in Cretaceous Cowboy Week all wearing our sweet shirts. Yep, we're a really nerdy bunch here in the Reservoir Characterization team. But we have fun!!!

Brittney was completely surprised by our gift. It made her cry. I call that a success. :-)


I'm going to miss you Brittney!!

Read more...

Too Obsessed with TV Lately...

So Jason and I didn't use to watch a lot of TV...for whatever reason though, this semester we seem to be addicted to a few too many shows. (See how I speak in semesters now?? Only a few more weeks until Jason graduates!!!)

Lately, we find ourselves sitting on the sofa eating dinner or staying up late during the week or spending our Friday nights catching up on shows (yeah, we are really cool - we like to use the excuse that we are getting up early to ride). The advantages of having Hulu don't help either since we can watch on the iPad.

However, I will say that it seems like there are more good shows to watch than there were before. I mean we still have our classic favorites -

And almost anything on

 Storage Wars anyone??

This year a few additional ones have made out list...

 And after a couple season hiatus, I started this one again

But I am seriously considering implementing a no TV-one-day-a-week rule in our household. We are getting ridiculous!

Read more...

MS 150 Training/Fundraising Update!

Please check out my latest MS 150 training and fundraising update letter! I am over halfway to my goal! Please consider joining my team by donating - no donation is too big or too small. They all matter!!

You can go to this link HERE or click on the button on the far right side of the blog to go to my fundraising page.

Thanks!

Mar Fundraising Letter

Read more...

Jason's Birthday Weekend!

This past weekend was another busy one. We relaxed Friday night catching up on emails an reading. Then Saturday Jason headed off to our training ride and I skipped to attend my friend Meredith's wedding shower. It was a blast and I'm so glad I could be a part of her celebration!

In the afternoon we got ready for dinner and headed to Pappa's Steakhouse to meet some of our family. We had a delicious dinner of steak and potatoes and enjoyed Jason's fabulously delicious cake from Ooh La La!

Afterwards we braved the bars during St Paddy's Day festivities and met up with a group of friends from our church. (Don't judge, we all attended church this morning! :-) )

It was packed but a blast. And since we don't go out to the bars very often it was enjoyable.






Today was Jason's actually birthday. He took advantage of this fact as an excuse to eat cake for breakfast...



And opened his gifts - a pizza cookbook for Friday Night Pizza Night (click here) and a Kenneth Cole leather briefcase.


After church we got ready for the Houston Rodeo!!



And it wouldn't be the rodeo without something fried... Fried cookie dough on a stick. Not that great... :-/






Alan Jackson!! :-) He did amazing and we knew almost all of the songs he sang.



It was a fabulous weekend. Happy Birthday Jason!!


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Read more...

The Maverick

Tonight Jason said goodbye to an old friend. One he's had since high school. One that included fond memories and hours spent in the garage. Tonight Jason said goodbye to his 1974 Ford Maverick. :-(

Here are the after and before pictures of the Maverick. You can see some of the exterior changes Jason made to the hood, bumpers, and grill. And check out those sweet wheels!

After

Before

Jason purchased the car right after his senior year of high school. He dreamed about restoring the car and I have no doubt he can picture in his mind the final product that he hoped to achieve. He spent hundreds of hours working on the car during high school and throughout college. I remember fondly when he brought the car up from home and took me for a joy ride.

Here's a picture of the Maverick alongside some of his father's cars. He also took it to a few other car shows in Colorado Springs. On the right you can see the Mustang taillights that Jason and his father installed on the car. He had to cut the sheet metal to retrofit the lights in the car. A unique addition that I bet no other Maverick can boast!

Alas, Jason made the decision to sell the car. I encouraged him to think long and hard if that was really what he wanted to do. I know he loves that car. He felt that since the car had been in Houston (almost three years) that he had done little to no work on it. I reminded him that he's been in school practically that entire time and perhaps when he finished he'd be able to work on it more. He weighed this and more and in the end decided that he wasn't sure he wanted to put the time and money into restoring the car the way he'd dreamed.

Jason put the car on Craig's List and at the Marketplace of our offices and finally decided to put it on Ebay a week ago. Fortunately Fred the winner of the auction is a Maverick junkie. He just finished restoring one and promised Jason the car was in goods hands. He also ensured Jason he would send pictures of his progress.

The two of them spoke on the phone to make payment and transport arrangements as well as car specifics after the auction ended this past weekend. I swear they were speaking another language as I listened quietly. Even after 7.5 years my husband still surprises me and I loved seeing Jason speak this other language with someone else fluent in car.

Tonight the transport came to ship the car to Georgia. As Jason started the car and unhooked the battery charger, Maverick decided he wasn't quite ready to go. And stalled. We (me, Jason, and Ibo  - the shipping driver) spent the next hour trying to jump the car before Jason sent me to the store to purchase a new battery. We were able to get it installed and get the car running. Ibo asked Jason if he wanted to take it for one last spin around the block and he excitedly obliged.

Goodbye Maverick! We will miss you!

Read more...

Hunger Games - my excuse for being MIA

3 books. Hundreds of pages. 7 days.

All of free time has been spent pouring over my iPad, iPhone, and even Kindle Reader for Mozilla in order to feed my latest addiction- The Hunger Games Trilogy by Suzanne Collins.

I read every evening, on the way to events (while Jason drove of course), in the church pew before service began, and the best was probably when I strategically placed my iPhone on the handle bars of my spin bike using a towel for our two hour class (alternative to our cancelled training ride due to rain).

And today during my lunch break I finished the third book. And am now ready for the first movie in a couple weeks! I asked Jason if he planned to read it. He retorted "Why? They made a movie I can just go see." Very literary appreciative.

Yay Hunger Games! :-)

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Read more...

Exhausted

Jason and I are ordering pizza for dinner. Or Chinese. Something with no effort required. We are both exhausted from this past weekend!

Jason noticed in Friday afternoon that Discount Tire failed to tighten the lug nuts on his new tires and even noticed one missing! Jason has a personal vendetta with lug nuts from an experience back in college...

**FLASHBACK**
It was our one year anniversary dating and Jason had planned a romantic evening of dinner and dance lessons. On our way home after the dance lesson we noticed that Jason's lifted truck was making an odd sound. He slowed down to ~10 MPH and we watched in amazement as the front left wheel bounced off the truck. Yes, you read that correctly, the wheel came off the truck.

We got out to investigate (and obviously move the tire out of the road) while Jason consulted with his dad on what to do. He suggested going ahead and moving it out of the traffic lane by driving lopsided- the damage had already been done.

As we got in the car and buckled up I looked in the rear view mirror and screamed. Despite having our hazards on there was a truck behind us that was not slowing down. Bam. We got rear ended. Let's just say it was a memorable evening we won't ever forget, Jason is a fan of locking lug nuts now, and that was the first time I'd ever seen Jason angry (trust me, it's rare).

So Jason spent the weekend fixing the lug nuts and then taking apart the engine. And no those two things are not related. He just took advantage of me being out of town to get a lot of work done!

And he is still working on it as I type this...

My weekend was a little more relaxing but still long. I was blessed to attend our church's women's retreat in Round Top, Tx. It's a beautiful small town out in the hill country.

The weekend was filled with laughter, lessons, and new friendships over delicious pie at Royer's, rounds of Banana-grams, and a heartfelt look at Jonah and God's plan for his life.

Nicole Unice was our speaker and she was vivacious and humorous. She did a great job discussing Jonah- all of Jonah (since normally chapter 4 is left out of children's stories).

Here are some of the key takeaways I got this weekend:
-God is going to accomplish His purpose with or without me
-God is relentlessly pursuing us and our call to serve Him
-What are your Tarshish's (things/places/people you run to for escape) and your Nineveh's (the things/places/people we run from that are so bad we want to turn away from God)?
-If you miss a turn on your path, God is great at placing another intersection along the way for you
-Trust God in the storm and surrender to His will for your life instead of asking Him to fulfill the plans you've made for your life



On my way home I stopped in Bellville and got in a 46 mile ride. It was a beautiful weekend and I enjoyed being out in God's creation reflecting on the lessons I had learned over the weekend.

Now I'm exhausted and about to start looking at take out menus...


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Read more...