Stayin busy

So the past two weeks have been like a whirlwind, super duper busy, but very fun!!

We started of this craziness by going to Vegas March 23-25 (a tuesday through thursday) we went for my birthday just me and the hubby. It was so fun, The Venetian was having a special when we booked and we were able to upgrade to a suite for free.

This place was glorious mainly the shower is what exited me it had the rain shower head thing plus the body jets, I could have lived in there!! The bathroom was about as huge as the living space and it was all marble and very pretty. We were slightly disappointed by the comfort level on the bed though we would have thought they would have invested in some softer sheets or something.

We didn't do alot of gambling actually we just stuck to the penny slots. I have not the slightest clue how to play any of the card games but we decided when we go back we will study up on some of them so we can participate. Mark likes blackjack but decided not to make me sit around and wait for him even though I said it was ok I didn't mind. We really just did alot of walking around but thats fine by me :)There is so much to see in Vegas that thats all we really had time for.


For my birthday we went to eat at this super fancy restaurant and had one of the best meals I have had in my life!! I got the Kobe beef flat iron steak which came with a small dallop of mashed potatoes and one carrot haha and then we got a bowl of sauted serrano peppers which I was hesitant of at first but they were so amazing not the slightest bit spicy. I also ordered this sushi that had pop rocks in it!! It was quite the delicious experience and I would have never thought to put pop rocks in sushi but it totally rocked!!! Then after dinner we went to see a Cirque du Soleil show "O" It was fantastic and think everyone should get a chance to see it!


Then we came home thursday and friday I left for Austin to run another 1/2 marathon with my mom. This one was the best it was the ZOOMA womens race series in Austin. The course was beautful, lots of clean porta potties with TP and then after the race we got free massages, free beer and wine, free lunch and lots of other free goodies...because you know thats totally why I run for the free beer and goodies at the end!!



I beat my last time by 24mins!! I did the race in 2:03 which now makes me want to beat my time and do it under 2 hours!! I know if I train I can do it because I really didnt train for this one I admit it! My mom was a total rockstar too, she had a pretty serious calf injury about 9 weeks ago and was instructed by her doc not to run, but shes too competitive and did anyway and actually beat her last time by 4 minutes!! The picture above is actually her crossing the finish line.

The weekend was a great girls bonding time with my mom hangin at the pool and chattin it up!!

Then I worked during that next week and headed back to Austin last weekend for my sweet friends wedding shower and bachelorette party she is such a sweet girl and we had an amazing time and I am so excited to be in her wedding in May it will be my first time as a bridesmaid!! Her shower was like one out of the movies. It was so much fun and so amazing I am going to dedicate it to a post by itself!!

Now I am back home trying to get my life back into routine and back into the daily grind, but man the last two weekd sure were a blast!

25

I turned 25 on Sunday, I am a quarter century old!! So much has happened in my 24th year of life!! I would say it was defanitly a fabulous year!

My 24th year started off with a trip to Belize with my mother and Grandmother and Dos Amigos a group out of Slidell, LA that does dental/medical missions in Belize. It was my grandmas last year and the first year there were three generations of us there together, It was an absolutely amazing trip and I want to go back again some time.


Then not long after Belize I got engaged!!!

The rest of the year was a whirlwind of wedding planning, we moved out of our ghetto apt and into a much nicer apartment in the medical center which I love!

I also went on my first cruise with my bestie Erin we went out of Galveston to Grand Cayman, Cancun, and Jamaica, we did so many fun things and it was such a fun and relaxing trip


I ran my first Half Marathon!! The San Antonio Rock and Roll it was so much fun and defanitly spurred my passion for running and stirred up my competitive side, I beat my time by 24 minutes 4months later the day before my birthday this year (more on that to come)

Then later in the year I had an awesome bridal shower and bachelorette party thrown by my amazing bridesmaids

I then was married on January 16, 2010 the most amazing day my wedding was perfect and I couldnt have asked for anything more!! I promise I am going to have a post about the wedding but I want to wait till I have the pro pics as mine really dont do the day any justice!!!


After the awesome wedding we went on our honeymoon it was to Antigua the sandals resort there and it also was so perfect I debated whether I would come home or not!! The all inclusive route was defanitly the way to go!!



And that concludes the highlights of my 24th year of life it was a really good one and I think my 25th year will be just as good with much in store I cant wait to see what God has in store for me this year!!

Pan Grilled Veggie Pasta Primavera

So lately we have been trying to eat a lot healthier more veggies and fruits less simple carbs and sweets. The sweets one is hard for me because I have such a sweet tooth lately like the past three months all I want is desserts and to bake and candy and chocolate, but I must control myself as all is well with moderation so I just keep that in mind.

I wanted to try this new recipe that was in My Womens Health Magazine

Pan Grilled Veggie Pasta Primavera
my adaptations in parenthesis

Ingedients:
8 oz. dry whole grain linguine (bow tie pasta, I realized we had run out of the healthy linguine)
1 small zucchini, sliced
1 small yellow summer squash, sliced
1/2 medium red bell pepper, sliced
1/2 medium red onion, sliced (used regular onion)
PAM Olive Oil No-Stick cooking spray (used regular olive oil)
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
1 14.5 can diced tomatoes with Basil, garlic, and oregano, undrained (Used HEB Diced tomatoes with sweet onions)
1/4 cup Parm Cheese

1. Cook Pasta; Drain and keep warm in pan

2. Place Zucchini, yellow squash, bell pepper and onion in a large bowl. Coat with Olive Oil and sprinkle oregano, salt, and black pepper; toss (I didnt add salt and pepper here)

3. Heat Large skillet over high heat. Add vegetables; cok 6 minutes or until crisp tender, stirring frequently. Remove from pan and keep warm


4. Add undrained tomatoes and vegetables to pasta; toss until well mixed. sprinkle with cheese, serve warm (I did not use nearly as much cheese as they say just a dusting of cheese)


Per Serving Calories 254; Fat 4g

I thought this had such good flavor, I was a little unsure at first but its so good and so healthy for you!! This would probably be good as a cold pasta salad too.

Ten on Tuesday

ok so I have been a hrrible blogger lately, I was actually waiting to get my picture cd from the wedding to do that and I still dont have it and then every time I think of something to blog about I feel it might be too boring. But, I have decided to write what I feel like writing and if your bored then don't read it.

But to get myself started up again I am going to start doing this Ten on Tuesday thing where you answer a list of ten questions every tuesday


1. Of your current hobbies, which would you choose to spend more time, money, and effort on? Why? Running. I have been so very bad about running lately and today had a very frustrating realization that if I dont get my arse in gear I am going to be very miserable and frustrated in about 2 weeks when I run my next 1/2 marathon. I love running but its one of those things where once you get out of the habit its so hard to get back, and I used to use my mom as my motivation and since she got injured it has made things very hard for me to get motivated, and then the weather has not been stellar lately it seems its beautiful on the days I work and rainy and cold and thunderstorms on the days Im off. Running long distances takes a lot of time and I just need start being more diligent about it.

2. List the two other hobbies/habitual activies (not chores) besides the one listed above that you regularly do now and didn’t choose in question one. Cooking, Reading.

3. Why are you spending time on the above two hobbies/habitual activies at all if you really wanted to spend your time on the first one you chose? …or to put it another way, what are these two hobbies/habitual activities fullfilling that the first one doesn’t if you don’t want to put all your effort into the first hobby? LIke I said I need to rerganize my priorities and I love cooking and reading they take little to no effort where as running is very taxing on my body and mind

4. Ready John 3:16 in the bible… In what way does this passage affect you? What are your feelings towards these words, positively or negatively? This passage is one of my favorites, to imagine that God would sacrifice his ONLY son so that I can have eternal life and no suffering makes me speechless

5. M&M’s: nuts, no nuts, or peanut butter? no nuts or peanut butter but defanitly not with nuts EEW, oh and I LOVE the dark chocolate ones

6. Putting away the feeling of pride being a bad thing; what secretly/openly are you proud about yourself? I am so proud of the fact that I have been able to run a 1/2 marathon and that I am able to do what I do at work and have a great job which I love

7. Given one room in the house to do with what you want, not changing the actual size of the room and with all the money you would need, what would you do, and be specific? (this can range from bouncy floor,walls & ceilings; to hard wood floor with wood paneling and purple ceiling with a chair; to nothing) Well If I had a house I would remodel to kitchen to be huge with a huge island and tons of storage and pantry space, it would have granite counter tops and dark cherry wood cabinets a huge gas stove with one of those ovens like Paula Dean has and a french door fridge and also dark wood floors and a pot rack, the backsplash would be like and ivory colored rough stone in a cool design ...you said be specific

8. What’s the next movie you’re going to see? Not what you’d LIKE to GO see, but the next movie you realistically are going to watch. No clue, saw Alice in Wonerland last night and that was the one on my list I wanted to see

9. Use the keyboard only and make your best smiley/funny/cool face –> like this! 8^) @:o

10. What makes you cry? What makes you pray? What makes you laugh? Lots of things can make me cry a sappy commercial, a very sick patient at work who I put lots of effort into caring for who then goes to be with the angels, weddings and new babies. I pray constantly about everything I would not be as happy as I am in life and would not be where I am today if it were not for prayer. I laugh about alot too stupid things make me laugh, I am easily amused

Im a bride!

So two weeks ago I ventured out into the freezing cold...It really was like 30 or 40 some degrees, and took my bridal portraits. My dear mama came to be my dress wrangler and funny face maker. We went to this place called Dunvegans Keep its just south of Austin, TX and its actually this guys house, and it is AMAZING!! When we pulled up we slightly freaked because we thought the GPS took us to the wrong address or something as we were in a neighborhood. But alas, when you go around back its like a medieval wonderland. We didn't use a lot of the Medieval notions but there were some beautiful spots where we did take pictures. I was a little nervous as I did my own hair and made the bouquet myself, but I think they turned out fabulous and actually on the wedding day my hair will be mostly down unless its raining and I will NOT be making my own bouquet!!

Here you go enough talking, these are a few of my faves. ENJOY

seperation anxiety

So I sent out my wedding invitations last Wednesday.

Why does putting 140 envelopes in the mail make me nervous? It is such a simple thing and one would think it was a huge stress off my shoulders but no it wasn't, at least not for me at that time it wasn't...

It was kind of silly that I was so nervous But I slaved over those things all the cutting and gluing and stressing and averting minor crises. I finished them all and then I had them weighed and bought stamps and then I was worrying that maybe they were heavier than that post office worker told me. I have heard you should go to several different post offices to get them weighed but I didn't have time for that so I just bought the stamps the lady told me to buy.

Then I was worried that all the glue would come apart and people would open the envelope to a mash of random papers since I did not have them hand cancelled like you hear you should. But I figure ok, so I spend an hour hand canceling them myself and then the post office lady puts them in a bin and at the next point on their journey they are thrown in with all the other envelopes and go through the machines like all the other envelopes. So I didn't have them hand cancelled and I was worried that now Im a bad bride and allllll the time and energy and stress I put in to them was for nothing and people will receive a crumpled and smashed envelope

Well apparently at least some of them arrived in one peoples hands in one piece. But now I am nervous because I made them and the invitation is the first impression of what this wedding is going to be and OMG IT SHOULD NOT BE THIS BIG OF A DEAL!!!

But alas they are out and now I just have to wait for the responses and non-responses and the time that will come to hunt people down to see if they are coming or not.

None the less a weight is lifted that now every waking moment is not spent working on my precious babies and I am now an Empty Nester...tear. Call me crazy but there was a twinge of separation anxiety... and I did hang on to a few just so I can look at them.

13.1

I did it!! I ran my first half marathon.

When this whole thing began a few months ago I had the notion that I would complete the half marathon with no intentions of running the whole thing, just completing it. Well I guess I am too competitive for that. I started out with all my training on the treadmill. I still remember the day when I ran 5 miles and thinking what an accomplishment it was. I was just thinking holy cow I ran for an hour straight and I actually ran 5 miles! Then I moved to the medical center, an area more conducive to outside running. With the move, about half of my excuses for not running very much went out the window. I still continued to run completely on the treadmill and I remember the day I did 8 miles it was such a great feeling, I got in my zone, I was focused and I actually enjoyed it! After that I realized this half marathon is real and I liked how running made me feel, it was an escape I could clear my mind and I prayed alot.

My mom told me about and then everything changed, I started to run outside and OHHH EEEEM GEEE running outside is so much harder than running on the treadmill. I mapped out my course and took off. I set out the first day to do my 10 mile run. Being new to the area I made a wrong turn and ended up running about 11 miles on accident, The next week I did 11 on purpose and that was the longest I ran....Until Sunday...Race Day

I was so psyched, My uncle who I would consider an expert gave my mom and me a pep-talk the friday before and I couldn't wait till sunday. On saturday we went to the Expo to pick up our race packets and tons of free goodies, tasted several samples of milks, protein drinks, goos and bars of all sorts. It was so fun almost a whole new world I never knew existed, or I did but didn't care because it never pertained to me but now that "I AM A RUNNER" it was enthralling.

Sunday morning although I woke at 4AM I was pumped not tired in the slightest. We got to the parking lot and had to walk what seemed to be about a mile to the gear check where I had to part with all my belongings, including my jacket...it was a teensy bit chilly. We got into our corral and waited to get to the start line after about 38 minutes or so we started.

Two hours and twenty seven minutes and a potty break later (So mad that I had to stop and pee at mile 0.1) I finished. It was so exhilirating!! People cheering you on passing up people and at about mile 7 thinking oh seriously I have a long way to go still!! At mile 11 it got real tough I could see the alamodome but new I was still 2.1 miles away!! I kept telling myself I had already come this far whats two more miles!! Before I knew it I was crossing the finish line and being handed my shiny new medal!!


I did it and I kind of still cant believe it, I enjoyed myself and had fun. I am most certainly doing more and I must have got the crazy bug or something because I want to do a full marathon next year. I hope to stay inspired and not let the novelty of it wear off. Once the wedding is over and I can stop working so much I can start to train more seriously, and I should probably buy some "real" running shoes not my $30 New Balance from the discount store.

I saw in March there is a Disney Princess Half Marathon I thought would be cute and in Sept I want to do the Virginia Beach Rock aand Roll with my Family but those are just a few beacons I look to for the future. I will be doing some more close to home and if Im really really lucky I will get picked for the Nike Womens Marathon in San Francisco but its by lottery only so like I said only if Im really really lucky but who knows.