family thanksgiving part 1

For the past several years we have all met up in Houston (Rebecca, Michael, myself, and now Miles) and then would drive to Shreveport Wednesday morning. After pigging out, watching football, and a night of recovery, we would drive to Austin on Friday. From there everyone else figures out how to get home, either driving to Houston with my parents and then flying home, or flying straight from Austin. We did it again this year, and had to rent a huge car to accommodate the family which now includes a baby. Babies sure need a lot of crap when the travel. Fortunately, we have had a lot of practice packing up and I think we outdid ourselves.

Ready to go!

My parents stayed with my grandparents, and the rest of us stayed at my Aunt's. She has a bunch of grand kids and has a pretty sweet set up upstairs with TONS of toys. (More on the toys in another post.) It couldn't have been better for Miles! He LOVES balls, and was thrilled that he had so many at once. So we thought it would be a good idea to put him in the container of balls. You know, like a mini McDonald's ball pit.

My cousin and her son stayed with us as well, and boy oh boy did Zachary LOVE Michael! When Jennifer, my cousin, told him he would be sleeping on the floor with her and myself in beds, he had a better suggestion. He thought it would be better if there was a boy's room and a girls' room so he and Michael could stay together. 

Just waiting around for food to be ready.

The best part about this picture is that it looks like Rebecca is feeding Zachary.

After pigging out on delicious food and watching hours upon hours of football, some of us got ready for bed, and we went upstairs to play some more!

Michael and Rebecca made up a great game called Peoples. They of course didn't tell Zachary it was made up, and he really wanted to play. Michael would never deny someone to play something ridiculous he made up that makes no sense. Enjoy the video of them playing Peoples. Can you guess the rules? Don't worry if you can't. I'm pretty sure they were made as he went in order to make sure he won. You can also hear Miles making his favorite noise in the background.

Of course Miles wanted to play. He watched how the game went and totally thought he could take on his dad.

After Miles went down we all went down to watch the Texas vs. A&M game. And that, readers, is where I will stop for now. So far we were off to a great start! Great food, family time, Peoples, what could go wrong?

happy thanksgiving!

Let me start of by saying, yes, I am aware that I haven't been around for 20 days. Have you missed me? I bet so. Well I am currently lying here on my couch figuring out the best way to blog about our Thanksgiving. It was...memorable to say the least. Check back over the week for all of the installments. While I get everything figured out, I will start with a fun activity I found on Pinterest that I did with my class. We discussed writing how-to's, and wrote our own! We created our turkey feathers by coloring on a coffee filter with markers and then dipping the filters in water to make the colors spread. It turned out pretty cute!

This poor turkey had a little trouble...

I love how happy he is to catch a turkey and how terrified that turkey is after being caught.

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! Check back for the saga of our Thanksgiving trip.

training has begun

Everyone should know training has begun again for me. I signed up for the 3M half that's at the end of  January. This is the one I found out about last year AFTER I signed up for the Livestrong half. This one is mostly downhill which is amazing since the first half I did was designed by a masochist. Hills the entire half, and a huge one the last mile. Seriously? Anyways, training is in full swing. I got another new pair of shoes (I think this is now the 4th pair I've bought since I started running.), a new running watch, and am in the market for some better cold weather running clothes. 

Yesterday I did my long run, only 5 when I was supposed to do 7. It was a hard run so I cut it short. My legs were tight, my stomach wasn't cooperating, and it rained the entire run. The rain I kind of enjoyed, it's the other things that stopped me short. Having hard runs sucks. It makes me worried that I won't be ready for my half. I know I will be, but having tough runs makes me wonder why I decided to sign up for another half marathon. Amy is already trying to convince me to sign up for another half that is for women only a few months later. Maybe I'll do it to keep me in top shape for the Run to the Sun again this year. Either way, I know it will all be worth it as I run across the finish line with a huge smile across my face. 

1 year anniversary

Well, it's officially been a year since Luna went missing. I totally figured she would show up by now. I guess I was wrong. You always hear these amazing animal stories, they rescue their owner from a fire, alert Timmy someone is stuck in a well, etc. I guess Luna isn't as cool as those animals. The best thing she could do was snag crickets in her mouth, sit next to me if she felt I was good enough, and occasionally pee on my bed, in the sink and in my papasan chair.

Oh Luna, you have been missed. Maybe it's time for me to get a new, non-peeing on furniture, cuddly cat. Maybe not. What if she comes back? I know she would totally hate having another cat to have to deal with.

In memoriam.

i heart college football

Another one of my awesome parents gave me tickets to our game this past weekend. The seats were awesome! Not only were we on the 40 yard line, and in the 38th row, but we were on the for real seat sides! I've only experienced bench seating when watching college football. Well, no longer. I was in seats with a back and arm rests and everything! This must be how the rich live. The downside to sitting on the fancy side? It was so quiet! I'm used to screaming, chanting, singing along, high fiving strangers...I guess yelling isn't something fancy people participate in. Something they do participate in? Sitting quietly and watching the game. It was strange. I still had a blast though!

The alumni band was there playing at half time, along with alumni baton twirlers! Watch to the end of this first video, I like the booty bump the old lady does with her baton.

This dude tried over and over again to throw his baton super high and catch it. His old hands must be out of shape because he missed it more than he caught it. The people on the fancy side were more into the baton man than the game. Way more yelling at this old dude. 

All in all it was a great time. Hook em!

the power of iphones

I have had a cell phone since I was 16. In those 11 years I never have dropped my phone in water or the toilet. Well, my 11 year streak just ended. Last week I dropped my phone in the toilet! The second it fell in I pulled it out, and that's when the ridiculousness started. Since I have never dropped my phone in water I didn't really know what the best next step was. So obviously I turned off my phone and then shook it really hard to get the water out. That would totally work right? I then put it in a cup of rice to try to get more moisture out. 

Well....I got bored and about 2 hours later I took it out and turned it back on. It worked! However, I noticed certain sounds weren't working. Hmm...instead of turning it off and putting it back in rice like I should have, I started texting Wes asking him what to do. I also googled it and it said to plug and unplug headphones while music is playing and that might fix the problem. I tried that, but unfortunately there was rice still in the headphone outlet thing and I totally smashed rice into it. Oops. My next brilliant idea was to get a toothpick and start picking the rice out. It kinda worked. But no sound. I decided to leave it alone and hope for the best. 

Most of the sounds are working now, but I for sure shorted something out. Do I live with it randomly working and then not working, or splurge and get the new iPhone? Decisions, decisions. Also, how in the hell is my phone still working? I bet the ghost of Steve Jobs is looking over my shoulder protecting my phone. I'm sure he doesn't have anything better to do wherever he is and is watching out for my phone.

jealous faces

I went shopping over the weekend and stopped into Payless. Typically there aren't many shoes worth even trying on. But I hit the jackpot! I tried on some awesome green snakeskin stilettos. Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture. But fortunately, I took a picture of the best shoes ever! Of course I had to buy them!

You are seeing pure amazingness! Gold heel, gold zipper up the front, and covered in black...fur?...Mohair? (What is mohair?)...Who knows. I zipped them up, and walked out of the store with my head held high wearing my new favorite shoes!

Ok seriously? Obviously the only part of that that's true is I put them on to send a picture of them to Angie. Please, I am not Jenny from the block (although let's be serious, she isn't anymore either). Seriously Payless? I  really will be so happy if I see someone wearing these out in public soon.