Cancun, Mexico!

My wonderful sister Jeanie won an all expense paid trip to Cancun, Mexico through her work and she was kind enough to invite me to go with her. I drove to Wichita November 10th and the next morning we were on our way. We were staying at the Mariott Casa Magna and after checking in we headed out to the pool / beach patio area for a drink. I think any good trip to Mexico should include at least one drink with a piece of fruit on the rim and we managed to enjoy several of those on our trip. After settling into our room we spent the evening at a sponsored happy hour and dinner.

Thursday we went on a sponsored tour to the Tulum ruins and then onto a resort for snorkeling and relaxation. Our tour guide made the trip so much fun. H was very knowledgeable about the Mayan history and on top of that he was pretty funny! Here are the pictures from the ruins.

Thursday night we took the bus down to the bar area and had Hard Rock Cafe for dinner. We had a slight detour on the way back (bus was going the wrong direction!), but eventually we made it back to the hotel.

Friday was a free day, so we decided to check out the Mercado 28 to see if we could find any good deals. I wound up buying a few things and got a pretty good deal on a pair of earrings. After our shopping adventure we headed back to the hotel to have some lunch and head out to the beach. We played in the ocean for a bit, laid out in the sun and then had another drink with fruit on the rim!

Friday night we had a planned dinner with the group. Dinner was fabulous, we had lobster bisque, grilled shrimp and creme brulee for dessert. The restaurant was very nice, located right on the water. After dinner we went out to the deck to enjoy the view. While we were standing there a crocodile swam right up to the edge of the deck! Apparently there are three of them that come up in the evenings and the employees at the restaurant feed them. It was pretty cool to watch.

Saturday we went on a jet ski "Jungle Tour". There wasn't much jungle, but we did have a good time riding on the jet ski. We went out about 45 minutes and then got to snorkel for about 30 minutes. We saw some beautiful fish and even a squid while we were snorkeling. After the jet ski tour we went parasailing. It was pretty amazing getting to see the hotel area from up in the air. Here are some pictures from parasailing.

After parasailing we cleaned up and went to the local sports bar for lunch. We had one of the best burritos I think I have ever had! Jeanie decided to grab a quick nap after lunch while I walked down to one of the shopping center. I found a few more souvenirs and then headed back to the hotel to sit on our balcony and enjoy the weather while I read. Saturday evening was the going away beach bash, but the weather didn't really cooperate. It was really windy and we wound up leaving right after dinner.

Unfortunately our trip had to come to an end on Sunday. After breakfast we boarded the shuttle to the airport, had a quick lunch at Johnny Rockets and then were off to Wichita. It was late when we got back, so I spent the night in Wichita and headed back to Oklahoma Monday morning. Jeanie and I had a fabulous time!

Putnam City Classic

On November 7th Wendy Zach and I participated in the Putnam City Cancer Classic 5K walk at Lake Hefner. This walk is a fundraiser for the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation. It was a beautiful day and we had a great walk. Our friends Dan and Susie were also out there, but they decided to show off and run! Here are some pictures from the day.

Halloween 2009

Yeah, its been a long time since I wrote anything. I'm going to do my best to catch up by the weekend.

Halloween came quick this year. About two weeks before Halloween we decided to hit the pumpkin patch for some fun and to find some prime carving pumpkins. We went to TJ Farms and enjoyed feeding some ponies, a pony ride for Zach, a quick trip through the corn field maze and a tractor hay ride. After that we ventured out to the pumpkin field to find our pumpkins. Carving pumpkins is always fun. This year Wendy and Zach decided to design their own while I went with one of the stenciled designs. They all came out great. Afterwards we baked some pumpkin seeds for a snack.

Zach thought he might be too old to trick or treat this year, so we decided he could have some buddies over for a Halloween party. Nathen and Jason came over early Saturday afternoon and we started the festivities by going to see The Vampire's Assistant. This movie is based on a series of books that Zach has been reading. All the boys dressed up and wore their costumes to the theater, which was pretty funny.

After the movie we picked up the pumpkin shaped pizzas from Papa Murphys and headed back to the house for dinner. After dinner the boys decided to trick or treat for a bit and went out for about an hour. They came home loaded with candy and settled down on the couch to play the video game they had rented. All in all it was a successful party. Check out the funny pictures below.

October 2009

In Honor of Bailey

For those of you that don't know, my great niece Bailey was diagnosed with Cystic Fibrosis when she was about a week old. Luckily her symptoms are relatively minor so far. She is now almost four month old and doing great. Because of this, I am doing the Great Strides walk in Stillwater, Oklahoma on October 31st. This organization raises money to fund research for this disease.

I would appreciate any donations you could make. Please check out my donation page. Thanks!

Great Stride - Grace Ebaugh

Aaron, Amanda and Bailey - I love you guys!

Weekends of Running

Running events have been key parts of the last two weekends. October 4th was the Spirit of Survival race in Lawton. This is the half marathon that I have been training for. I was nervous going into this race because I hurt my knee in the last half marathon in April. Unfortunately the weather was not the kindest to us and we ran almost the entire race in the rain. At some points it slowed to a drizzle and at others it was definately harder. By the end of the race I could barely keep my shorts up because they had gotten so heavy from the rain! My time was about four minutes better this race, but not under the 2:30 mark that I was shooting for. The most important thing is that I felt great after the race, my knee didn't bother me at all. Noel and Dan both had personal bests for that race too.

This weekend Dan and I did the 5K Race for the Cure here in Oklahoma City. This was a great event and a huge crowd showed up to participate. There was no rain, but man it was cold! I was shooting for under 30 minutes and wound up just under 29 minutes, so I was really happy with that. Dan had an awesome time, just over 25 minutes. He told me that the older he gets the faster he gets! lol

The next event will be a Cystic Fibrosis walk/run in Stillwater on Halloween weekend. I'm participating in that one in honor of my great niece Bailey. I'll post my link for donations in a few days and I would appreciate any donations.

The next big running milestone will be the full marathon at the Oklahoma City Memorial run in April.

Hope everyone is doing well and staying warm as winter starts to sit in... Obviously this doesn't apply to you Cora! I imagine its still plenty warm in Tucson!

Dallas Weekend

Did I mention September was a very busy month?? A couple months ago they had a raffle at our headquarters and I won a two night stay for a hotel in Grapevine, Texas. We decided to take advantage of this last weekend. We left Bethany about noon, again Zach was really broken up about missing two hours of school, and headed out to Texas. We met my niece Amy and her husband Dayne for the game. Our seats were great and we had a good time even though the Rangers didn't win the game.

We had planned to go to the water park on Saturday, but we decided the weather wasn't the best for it, so we headed to the Grapevine Mall instead. We had a very successful shopping day, finding new shoes and jeans for Zach. We hadn't done much school shopping for him yet because he is growing so fast and has still been wearing shorts and sandals to school. I can't imagine where he gets that from...... (If I ever have to work in a real office and dress up again I'll cry!) We also found some new books for all of us at the bookstore, so it was a great day for all.

After we finished at the mall we headed out to the Grape Fest to meet Wendy's Aunt Jenny and Uncle Kelly. There were lots of craft booths, wine tasting and bands to listen to. After spending a couple hours wandering around we decided to head out to dinner at Chuy's (Mexican food, go figure!). After dinner we headed back to the hotel and played some card games and read until it was time for bed.

Sunday morning we slept in and then headed downstairs for a leisurely breakfast and some time in the hot tub. It was a perfect relaxing morning. After our hectic travel schedule, it was nice to just be lazy and have some down time. On the way home we stopped at Gainesville at the outlet mall and this was a really sad stop. The outlet is almost completely empty, but I found a running shirt at the Reebok store and we got some chocolate at the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory. I guess I can't complain about that stop too much!

Sunday was wrapped up by watching the Cowboys lose. Always a good way to end a weekend.

Introducing Bailey Marie Burns

On July 4th my nephew Aaron and his wife Amanda welcomed their baby girl Bailey Marie. Life has been so busy since then we hadn't had a chance to go see them until a few weeks ago. Finally timing worked out that Aaron and his family were going to be at my sister Jeanie's house in Andover, so we packed up the Blazer and headed out to see them.

Bailey is simply precious and Aaron and Amanda seem like natural parents. We got to hold her and spoil her lots. Zach was a little more nervous around her than India, probably because she is still pretty little. The fact that every time he tried to hold her she was fussy probably didn't help.

The weekend was spent relaxing and catching up with the family. We also got to meet Tyler my niece Melissa's boyfriend. This was great, we have never had a chance to meet him either, since he is living back in Canada now. Jeanie had a BBQ Saturday night and my other sister Marj and her kids came for dinner. It was a nice time just catching up with everyone. Here are some pictures from the weekend.

Labor Day

Labor Day brings our annual ritual of going to Albuquerque for the Bernallio Wine Festival. This year was a little different because my brother by another mother Noel and his family decided to join the festivities.

We left early Friday morning and yes, Zach was crushed about having to miss a day of school. After we got to Albuquerque we ran a few important errands, such as buying salsa and Pinon coffee. After checking into the hotel we headed out to Ragin' Shrimp, one of our favorite places to eat. We had planned to ride the tram to the top of Sandia, but the weather did not cooperate. After dinner we decided to call it an early evening because Saturday was going to be a full day.

Saturday morning Noel and I got up early to do a 10 mile run. I was in the middle of my training for the Spirit of Survival 1/2 marathon and I didn't want to get off track. Noel was nice enough to accompany me on the run. Let me just say, there are a lot of frickin hills in Albuquerque and there is not as much oxygen in the air!

After a quick shower and some breakfast we headed out to the Albuquerque Zoo and Aquarium. The weather was perfect, not too hot and a slight breeze. We hadn't seen the zoo in a few years and it was a really nice day. Zach and Wendy feed the birds, and it was the funniest thing. Both of them wound up having birds land on their head, but neither one got pooped on, so life was good! I will say, the train between the zoo and the aquarium is quite possibly the slowest moving train ever. If you happen to be there, either drive between the two or get a snack and a drink and sit inside one of the covered cars. We had lunch at the Shark Reef Cafe at the aquarium and I was nicely surprised. The food was really good and the prices were reasonable. It was a very cool set up, one wall is the back side of the big tank, so you can watch all the fish swimming around while you eat.

Zach was really cute with Noel's kids, Tristan and India. He is very intrigued by India and wanted to push her stroller lots while we were at the zoo. He did a great job playing with Tristan throughout the weekend and we couldn't have been prouder of him. Tristan wanted to ride with us all weekend so he could hang with Zach.,

After the zoo Zach rode back to the hotel with Noel while Wendy and I ran some more important errands such as buying green chile and more wine. We also hit up Buffalo Exchange, which is a used clothing good store. I have the best luck finding stuff there! I got a like new peacoat for only $25. Sweet! The evening ended up at Los Cuates, a yummy Mexican food restaurant. Wendy's best friend Kim joined us for dinner and good times were had by all!

Sunday started with a great breakfast at Wecks. If you ever go there, the "little burrito" on the kids menu should really be called the plate size burrito and the three pancake plate is enough pancakes to feed two grown adults! The entire table shared Zach's pancakes and I think Tristan only ate about 1/3 of his burrito. The food was delicious and prepared us all to enjoy lots of wine later. After breakfast, we picked up our friend Kat and headed out to the festival.

We were blessed with another fabulous day of weather, although a little cooler would have been ok. The kids got to do some rides while the grown ups got to taste some wine. Overall, I think a good time was had by all. About half way through the afternoon Noel took the kids and relax on the blanket (ie play video games!) while the girls continued the wine tasting. After the festival closed we headed to Sadie's for more yummy Mexican food. It was a perfect ending to our great weekend.

Final Days of Summer

I can't believe how fast the summer seemed to go. About a week after we got back from vacation Zach come home from China. Larry's TDY back to the states did not work out, so Zach flew back home by himself. He had to change plans in Chicago, and I was super nervous about it, but he did great. We paid the unaccompanied minor fee and an airport employee helped him get through customs, took him to the room to wait and then made sure he got to his plane on time. He said it was a little scary at first, but mostly just long. There was another boy by himself on the plane from Beijing, so they sat together and chatted some.

Zach was home for about three weeks before school started. He filled his time playing with friends, swimming at a local park in Bethany and selling lemonade at a stand in our front yard. He was very cute with his stand. He sold lemonade and trading cards to people walking by. He might be a great salesman some day, he wasn't scared at all to ask everyone who was going by if they wanted to buy something. Here he is hard at work.

I hope everyone's summer was filled with just as much fun time with family and friends as ours was.

Wrapping up Vacation

After our amazing trip through the bottom of the Grand Canyon we finished out our time in Vegas playing Blackjack and going to a show at New York, New York. When we first booked our vacation I thought we would have plenty of time in Vegas, perhaps too much for the amount of money we were willing to spend! On our last night, however, all I could think was that it sure would be nice to have one more day.

Friday morning we got up relatively early and started out towards Farmington, New Mexico. Both of Wendy's parents birthdays are in July, so we were heading to take them to dinner and spend the night there. On the way there we stopped at Four Corners where we stood in four states at once. We drove a northern route, through Utah and Colorado and it was a very pretty drive. Dinner was great, went to Outback and had steak followed by a trip to Dairy Queen for dessert (This was a request by me since we don't have Dairy Queen in Oklahoma City). It was a nice evening and I know Wendy loved spending the time with her parents.

Saturday morning we headed out to Albuquerque to spend some time with friends before we had to face the real world and head back to Oklahoma City. We ate some great food, did some shopping and had some time to relax. Sunday came all to soon and it was back on the road. Although, like all vacations it ended too soon, we had a great time and were able to not leave too much money in Vegas!

Here are the last of the pictures from the rafting trip.

Vacation Day 5 - Grand Canyon Rafting

Our 5th day of vacation started early.. I mean EARLY! We had to be in the downstairs lobby by 330am to catch our ride. This ride turned out to be a questionable driver in a van. We picked up several other passengers, stopped for a question coffee / breakfast and then we were on the road. Little did we know that this drive was a three hour tour (During which the drive took out a pair of binoculars to use to look for cops as he was driving) to the Reservation where we would transfer to a school bus with 40 of our closest friends to ride another 1.5 hours down to the bottom of the Grand Canyon. Now, had this expectation been set by the tour company it wouldn't have been so bad, but an unexpected ride of this length at 330am was not very pleasant.

About 1/2 through the school bus ride the scenery started to get pretty and this made the the ride more pleasant. Once we were finally at the bottom we were divided up into groups and assigned to a boat. Now we thought this was going to be boats that we had to paddle in but as it turns out we were actually in motorized pontoon boats. This was probably a really good thing since we had to go through rapids rated up to 7+. After getting our life jackets on and loading up the boats we were ready to start the day. Now I realize that the water in the Colorado river is run off from the mountains but... We were in Nevada... It was like 110 degrees outside... Never in my wildest dreams would I have imagined the water would be that cold! We hit the first rapid and holy cow! Water came all the way over the top of the pontoon and we were instantly frozen. This continued off and on for about the first two hours of the trip. The rapids were cool and fun to go through but man the water was cold. It wasn't as bad after the initial shock, but still cold.

The scenery was beautiful on the trip. We made two stops along the way. The first one was at a waterfall that you can only see from the bottom of the canyon. The guides had ropes set up along this path so you could climb up right by the falls. It was amazing. The second stop was for lunch where we got to get out of the boats and find a place in the warm sun to eat lunch. Again, when you stop to think about it it was completely amazing. Here we are at the bottom of the Grand Canyon having lunch. How many people can say they have ever done anything like that.

The second half of the trip was just floating down the river. During this time it would have been really nice to have had some of the cold water splashing up on us. It got really hot and we did our best to continue to enjoy the beautiful scenery, but I have to admit the trip could have been over about 1-2 hours before it was and that would have been fine with us. Once the boat ride was over we were scheduled to take a helicopter ride back to the top of the canyon. Again, the tour company could have provided more information here and it would have made for a more pleasant experience. Because of problems with one of the helicopters we had to wait about two hours for our ride. I would have paid hundreds of dollars for a pair of clean shorts and a book.

The helicopter ride was a great way to end the trip. We can now say that we saw the Grand Canyon from the top, the bottom and from a helicopter. Amazing. Here are our digital photos of the trip. I'll have a few more once the CDs from the water proof cameras are done.

Vacation Days 3-4 Las Vegas!

After going to UFC 100 we had no plans but to hang out, gamble and be bums for the next two days. On Sunday we slept in a little and then enjoyed a nice champagne brunch at the MGM. After brunch we decided to walk down the strip and check out some of the sites that had changed since we were there last. Man.. its hot in Vegas in July! We had to stop a couple times for an adult beverage and a little gambling in the casinos.

We wound up at Circus Circus, which now has an indoor amusement park complete with a roller coaster and water ride. We decided to try the roller coaster, which turned out not to be such a good idea for me. I wound up sick to my stomach (apparently going upside down four times is not my idea of fun). We got a cold drink and a pretzel to try and help my stomach. We found a relatively cold area to sit in Circus Circus and decided to gamble a little while I was resting and before we tried to walk back to the hotel. Gambling that night turned out to not be any luckier than the roller coaster for me, but Wendy won a little money.

Monday we decided to do a little shopping and hit the M and M store, the Coke store and bought tickets for the Titanic exhibit at the Luxor. If you get to Las Vegas in the next 10 years, I highly recommend seeing this exhibit. It was very cool and they have the largest piece of the Titanic that has ever been pulled up on exhibit there for the next 10 years. After the shopping and exhibit we decided to do some gambling and wound up gambling at the Party Pit in Excalibur. This was a really good time, basically loud bar music playing while you gamble. I won a little money that day and Wendy won a little more so can't beat that.

Here are some random pictures from Vegas.

UFC 100!

After enjoying the morning at the Grand Canyon, we headed out for VEGAS BABY! We had tickets for UFC 100 and I was so excited. There were some great fights on the card and I couldn't believe we were actually going to get to see it in person. We got to Vegas in time to check in to the New York, New York hotel, get cleaned out, grab a slice of pizza for dinner and then off to the fight. We had so much fun! Frank Lester, one of the fighters from the latest Ultimate Fighting Championship show was in the crowd right in front of us and I was able to get my picture taken with him, which was pretty cool!


The fights were awesome, especially getting to see Dan Henderson knock out Michael Bisping. I really wish Frank Mir would have beat Lesner, especially after he was such a jerk after the fight. But we had a really great time and are excited that we get to go to another fight in Oklahoma City later this year. Here are some pictures that I was able to get.

Patio the Interuption

Man, and I was doing so good posting updates about our vacation and then I got distracted! While we were on vacation, we stopped by Wendy's parents house to spend the night. Dan, Wendy's Dad, was working on putting in new patio pavers and doing some other improvements in their backyard. I have been wanting to redo our patio in the backyard for awhile, but have just never gotten around to it. After seeing how good his looked, I decided to redo ours when we got home. So the Saturday after vacation Wendy had to work all day and Zach wasn't back home yet, so I decided to stop delaying and put in the new patio. In my mind, it was a job that I could finish in a day. Oh how wrong I was!! A week and a half later, I finally finished the patio with some help from Wendy and Zachary. We put in 2500 pounds of pavers, I don't know how many pounds of sand and assembled new patio furniture. Even though it turned out to be much more work than I expected, we are really happy with the results. Let me know what you think!

Here is what it looked like when I started.

After I pulled up all the pavers.

Pavers are all in and sealed.

Patio furniture set up.

Vacation - Grand Canyon Day 2

Our second day of vacation started very early.. like crazy early. We decided to get up in time to take the bus to the eastern edge of the south rim to watch the sun rise over the Grand Canyon. This meant a 330am alarm to allow us time to get up and catch the 4am shuttle. It was painful, but the beautiful view made it all worth while.

After watching the sun rise we took the shuttle back to the lodge just in time to see five beautiful elk hanging out having some breakfast. It was amazing how close we were able to get to them. They basically just stood around looking at us as we took picture after picture. It was unbelievable. They finally laid down to rest, so we walked over to the lodge and have a yummy breakfast. After a quick shower it was time to start the drive to Las Vegas! Saturday evening was spent at UFC 100. It was very cool! Frank Lester from this season's Ultimate Fighter was sitting in front of us for awhile, so I was able to get my picture take with him. The atmosphere was really cool and just all in all a good time. After the fight we went to the Rok club in our hotel (New York, New York). It was supposed to be Frank Mir's after party but at 1am he hadn't shown up so we decided to call it a night.

What a crazy day... Sunrise at the Grand Canyon in the morning and UFC fighting at night! Wouldn't have changed a thing! Here are the pictures from day 2.

Vacation - Grand Canyon Day 1

It has been way too long since I have posted, but things were just crazy getting things ready to go on vacation and then I did my best not to touch a computer the entire time we were on vacation! In order to catch up I'm going to break the vacation down into segments to tell you all the fun we had.

Thursday the 9th we started driving as soon as I got off work. We drove as far as Albuquerque and then stayed with Wendy's friend Kim. Friday morning we started our actual vacation by driving onto the south rim of the Grand Canyon. We stayed a Bright Angel Lodge where our cabin was about 20 feet from the canyon. It was pretty amazing and I highly recommend staying there if you are visiting the canyon. After checking into the cabin we took the shuttle bus to the points on the west side of the canyon. We walked between some of them and stayed on this side of the canyon until sunset. It was simply amazing. Here are the pictures from Friday, including sunset.

Fun Times

For those of you that haven't heard, Zach and Larry made it to China safely. They turned right around and got on another plane to go to a beach resort for a week. I haven't talked to them, but I'm sure they are having a great time.

The weather here has gotten extremely hot this week. Today was our first day over 100 degrees and they are predicting it will be above 100 the rest of the week and through the weekend. Glad the A/C at the house is working!

I believe Emma is feeling equally as hot as the rest of us, if not even hotter. I was watering the backyard and she snuck out the door. Take a look at the videos! Everyone should take at least 5 minutes each day to have this kind of unadulterated fun.

Progress

Finally! I feel like I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. I have been doing physical therapy for several weeks and resting my knee. My therapist had me get a brace and said I could try running again a little at a time as long as I didn't have any more pain. I decided to try a short run for the first time today and I was able to run 1/2 a mile with any problems today! woohoo! I'm only allowed to try every other day, so I'll bike tomorrow to try and get my cardio back in shape and then do a short run again on Tuesday. I'm still going to physical therapy and not really sure how long they will have me continue that.

Ok, on to funner things. Last weekend Wendy and I drove to Kansas for my niece Amy's wedding. We had such a good time catching up with everyone during the reception. Amy's wedding was beautiful. Here are some pictures I took during the reception. That's all I have for today. I'll try to write again tomorrow to catch up on everything else that has been going on.

Summer is here!

I can tell by the craziness of last weekend that summer is officially here. Zach has been out of school for a couple weeks now and sometimes I think he is already already bored. Luckily his dad arrived on Monday and they started their world tour yesterday. They spent today at Worlds of Fun in Kansas City. I think their next stop is back in Wichita to see Sharon and Ronnie.

Last weekend we drove to Wichita to hang out with my sisters. Saturday started with the Victory in the Valley cancer fundraiser walk. My sisters and two of my nieces all came out for the walk. The highlight for Zach was breakfast. They flipped pancakes at you and you had to try to catch them on your plate. It was a great morning and it was nice walk with my family.

After the walk we went back to Jeanie's house to shower and get ready for Amanda's baby shower. Aaron and Amanda are getting very excited for little Bailey to get here. She is due on July 10th, so it won't be very much longer. While we had the baby shower Grandma Sharon picked Zach up and took him to a movie. He thought that sounded like more fun than a baby shower! After a short nap Saturday evening was spent grilling burgers and hot dogs with all the family. Here are some pictures from the weekend events.

I am still fighting some pain in my left knee. I started physical therapy last week and what can I say but it sucks. lol I have Illiotibial Band Syndrom (ITBS). WebMD has a great article if you are interested! I have been banned from running for at least two more weeks and I am doing physical therapy two times a week. I am doing stretches and some strengthening exercises to try and help. I'm pretty sure I won't be able to run the 1/2 marathon in August, but I'm hopeful to run the 1/2 in October. Who knows, maybe I will have a miraculous recovery and still make the race in August. Anyhow, I think thats all I have for today. Happy Wednesday everyone!

Camping Out

Nothing like the start of summer to bring the first backyard campout. Nathen is spending the night tonight and they decided to pitch a tent and sleep in the backyard. Well... they decided to sleep in the backyard and I pitched the tent.. they did help some though! As you can see from the pictures, they are all set up and ready to go. I even fixed Zach's telescope so they can try to look at some stars while they are out there. Last time they camped out in the yard the wind blew the tent down.. hopefully they will have better luck tonight.

Emma apparently thinks the tent is a scary monster. She stood outside barking at it for about 10 minutes. My main goal is to keep her from knocking it down before morning.

Fantastic Weekend

What a great weekend we had over the holiday! The fun started Saturday when we went to The Lion King play at the Civic Center here in Oklahoma City. I had bought Wendy the tickets for Christmas and she was very excited to go. The show was great and the costumes were phenomenal. Some of the movements the actors do make the animals they are portraying seem very realistic. If this show comes to a venue near you I would recommend going to see it. Saturday evening we relaxed at the house with a game of Scategories.

Sunday we went to church, out to lunch at Spaghetti Warehouse and then off to the movies to see Night at the Museum 2. This was a very good show. The animation was amazing. If you haven't seen the first one, go rent it and then go to the theater to see the second. It is worth the ticket price or your money back.. not from me mind you! Sunday evening we decided to get out and enjoy the beautiful weather with a game of tennis at the park. The weather was beautiful, probably much better than our tennis.. but we all had a good time.

Monday we went to White Water Bay, the water park in OKC. We bought season passes for unlimited visits to both the water park and the amusement park. Again, the weather was great and the park wasn't too crowded, so we basically didn't have to wait in line for any of the slides. After about two hours we decided to head out. We picked up one of Zach's friends, took a quick shower and headed over to Frontier City, the amusement park to ride some rides. They have a new show, Survivor Live and I got picked to play but I did not win. The jury picked the darn little boy to win instead of me! I still had fun playing. After we had ridden all the rides we could stand we came back home, sent Nathen and Zach to the back room to play and we watched Lakeview Terrace with Samuel Jackson. Excellent movie and again, highly recommend watching it. Jackson plays a very convincing bad guy!

Monday was also Emma's birthday, so we bought her two new toys and some treats to celebrate. Here is a picture of her with her new dragon. Zach was too cute, he was very excited about her birthday and buying her presents. Hope all of you had as much fun over the weekend as we did!

Lord Help Us

It's official. Zach survived the 6th grade. Today was his last day of school. I can't believe how fast this year has gone. He had some struggles at the beginning of the year, but wound up doing a great job. We are very proud of him and all the achievements he made this year.

Now for the funny Zach moment of the week. We were talking about something.. I honestly don't remember what and Zach gives Wendy and I a fact about something. I said, oh that's interesting, where did you learn that. He tells us, I'm not sure... That's what happens when your almost in 7th grade, you just know things and you don't know how you know them! Took everything we had for Wendy and I to not burst out laughing.

The other thing that we will need help with is the fact that Zach now has a cell phone. He is going to be flying back from China by himself in July and I wanted him to have a way to call us on his layover in Chicago, so we bit the bullet and bought him a cell phone this week. I made sure we have unlimited texting in case he gets started with that and increased our minutes. Hopefully we won't have any cell phone horror stories at our house! He has been very excited about using it this week, so don't be surprised if you get a call this weekend!

Hope everyone has a safe and fun holiday weekend!

The Weekend

The weather over the last several weeks has been less than desirable... Well, for me anyway. I like the rain ok, if it rains and then clears up. Unfortunately the last couple of weeks have just been rainy all the time. Seriously I think we went seven days without ever seeing the sun. This weekend, however, we finally had nice weather. I mean, Saturday and Sunday you really couldn't have asked for much better. Low 80s so not too hot but warm and sunny. It was so nice. We took advantage of the weather by getting out and doing some spring cleaning yard work. Zach mowed while I picked up trash, the annoying spike ball thingies the neighbor's tree drops in our yard and did the trimming. It felt good to be outside working. Orin also came over and helped us do some improvements on Zach's fort.

Zach is very excited that there are only three days left of school. He has about two more weeks until his Dad gets here. He is getting really excited about his trip to China. Wendy and I are getting very excited about our trip to Vegas while he is gone! He is convinced he will have more fun in China though. I am excited for him that he will get to spend that time with his Dad.

Ok, Terry came by to visit for the night, guess I better go bug him while he tries to do his homework.

Frustration

Ok, so its been a little over a week since the 1/2 marathon. I took the next week off from the gym because at the end of the race my left knee had gotten pretty sore, so I thought I would take a rest. Wednesday morning I decided it was time to get back into the routine. My knee was feeling pretty good and I needed a run. After just 1/2 mile on the treadmill my knee started aching again. I stopped after only one mile, did another ten minutes on the elliptical, lifted and called it a day.

At that point I decided maybe I should get it looked at to make sure nothing serious was wrong. I headed to the doctor and was told that I have bursitis in the tendons on the outside of my knee. Apparently this is much better than something being wrong in the joint, but it doesn't really feel better at this point. I am on limited activity (ie no gym) for one week with instructions to ice it and take ibuprofen every four hours. If it is not better after a week then I have to go to physical therapy to see if they can determine what is going on.

This whole thing has been super frustrating.. I mean, I thought I did everything right to prepare for this race... I trained, I bought good shoes.. all the things that you are supposed to do and this still happens. I really hope the week off takes care of it. Noel wants to run another 1/2 marathon in Dallas and I would like to be able to join him. Think happy thoughts for me over the next week.

Happy Birthday Zach

I still can't believe that Zach turned 12 this weekend. I'm certainly glad he is getting older but I'm not! Saturday was a busy day, breakfast at IHOP, volleyball game, party and sleepover. I think I need another day off to recover. The birthday party was great though. We had it at Cactus Jack's and if you live in the Oklahoma City area, I think it was a great option. You can take in your own food, so we ordered $5 pizzas from Pizza Hut, took in our own sodas and then the kids got to play video games and trampoline volleyball after pizza, cake and ice cream. There was no charge to reserve the party, you just had to buy at least $75 worth of tokens. All in all I think a good time was had by all. Here are some pictures for your viewing pleasure.

Misson Accomplished!

My goal for the last several months has been working towards running the half marathon in the Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon. The race was Sunday and I'm happy to say I reached my goal! I finished the 1/2 marathon in about 2 hours and 38 minutes. I was shooting for until 2 hours 30 minutes, but I finished without having to walk, so I'm happy with that accomplishment. Noel and Dan both finished under the 2:30 mark, so I'm really happy for them. I think I am going to run the 1/2 marathon in the Spirit of Survival race in October and then go for the full marathon next April in Oklahoma City. But for this week... I'm just taking the week off!

Hope everyone had a great weekend.

Student of the Month!

I think I posted awhile back that he was student of the week the week before spring break. I had heard a rumor from one of his teachers that he was going to be nominated for student of the month and it was officially announced today that he won student of the month for March. He has been working really hard at school and we couldn't be prouder of his accomplishments.

Zach told Wendy his reward was "horrible". "I have to have lunch with the principal!" Mind you he was giggling while he said this. I think if they get to go off campus to McDonalds or Braums his opinion about that might change.

Here is the star student practicing his self portrait techniques. Hope everyone survived Monday!

Happy Easter

I want to start by saying I hope everyone was as blessed as us this Easter. We got to have some great family time, coloring eggs and having egg hunts at our our house. Saturday evening we had a fabulous time with our adopted family, The Noel's and The Orin's for a great Easter dinner. We couldn't have asked for the weekend to have been any better.

Other than that, the weekend was really busy. Friday evening we colored eggs. I'm really not sure who enjoyed it more, Wendy or Zach. Next to Christmas, I think Easter is one of Wendy's favorite holidays. She has some really found memories of time spent with her Dad during that time. Saturday morning I got up bright and early (6am ewww!) and went to Lake Hefner to run with Noel and Dan. The loop around the lake is 9.5 miles and we made it in pretty good time. I stopped once but other than that ran the whole way. I was tired, but it felt pretty good and was a nice warm up for the 1/2 marathon on the 26th. We are going to try to do that one more time next weekend to prepare.

The rest of Saturday morning was spent hiding and hunting Easter eggs at the house. We had a great time. Who know there were so many tricky places to hide eggs in our house! After a quick lunch we were off to Seth's (Orin's son) birthday party. It was an afternoon of paintballing fun. Zach and I had never been before, but we had a really good time, as did all the kids out there. It seems like kinda of an expensive hobby, but we would like to go again sometime.

Saturday evening was dinner and games at The Orin's house. Can I just say, Catch Phrase is a funny, funny game to play. If you have never played it, I highly recommend it. If you have played it and weren't that impressed, play it again with a bottle or two of wine! That is always sure to help. I think by the end of the night almost all of us had laughed to the point of crying at least once.

Easter Sunday brought Zach a basket full of goodies and a delicious breakfast at Cracker Barrel. After our tummies were satisfied we headed off to church. Unfortunately after church Wendy had to head to the airport to go to Tennessee, but luckily it is a short trip and she will be back on Wednesday. The rest of Sunday was spent mainly relaxing. Zach played with some friends, I finished my book (The Black Ice by Michael Connelly), and then Zach kicked my butt in a Bakugan battle. It is almost time for Zach to crash, and I think I'm going to curl up and either watch Heroes or start my next book (The Concrete Blonde by Connelly).

Happy Easter to one and all. Enjoy the pictures. Love, Grace

Spring Blizzard 09

I think when I grow up I want to be a weather reporter. I mean, seriously, how many jobs can you be wrong more than 50% of the time and people still think you are good at your job and still listen to you! Last week they started predicting that we were going to get a blizzard starting on Friday and going through Saturday. Initial reports were for 10 inches or more. Friday came and it rained off and on throughout the day. As the temperature got colder it turned to a "wintry mix". By the time the 10pm news came on, the predictions for accumulation were down to 1 to 3 inches. When we woke up Saturday morning there may have been two inches on the ground, but that was about it. By Sunday all the snow was gone and it was in the 60s again. So much for the spring blizzard!

Zach had his second volleyball game on Saturday. The Bethany team looked a lot better and we won our first match! Zach is improving each time and seems to be enjoying himself. After volleyball we did our weekend shopping and came home. Zach's buddy Nathen spent the night, so Wendy and I watched a couple movies. First it was Zach and Miri Make a Porno. It was ok, some funny parts. I know I am getting old because movies with an endless amount of the F word just annoy me instead of amusing me. Second was Nick and Nora's Infinite Playlist. It was cute and less annoying.

Sunday I went to the hospital to see Noel, Dollie and India. India was diagnosed with meningitis on Saturday, so it has been a scary weekend for them. She seemed to be doing much better on Sunday. They will find out the type today when they get the culture results back. Extra prayers for them would be appreciated.

Sunday while Zach took a nap we watched our third movie of the weekend, The Secret Life of Bees. Its a bit of a chick flick, but it was good. We finished up our weekend by walking to Brahms after dinner for ice cream. Now it is back to the grind. Hope everyone has a great week.

Spring Break

Spring break week went too fast. Wendy was not able to take time off from work, but Zachary and I made plans to go see my close friend Cora in Tucson. I haven't seen Cora for about 6 years and it was fantastic to see her. When I lived in Tucson, Cora's family basically became my adopted family. If Larry was out of town for holidays or any other special occasions I spent that time with Cora and her family. We had lost touch for a few years, but were able to reconnect around Christmas time. I was sad to find out her Dad had passed away about two years ago, but he will always hold a special place in my heart.

The weather in Tucson was wonderful. Zach and I went to the Desert Museum, Pima Air and Space Museum, Old Tucson, Funtastic and took a drive up Mt. Lemmon. Zach had a great time panning for gold at Old Tucson and soaking me with the squirt gun on the bumper boats at Funtastic. We also had dinner with some of Cora's family to help celebrate Willie's birthday. I can't believe he just turned 24. I also introduced Cora and Rob to Papa Murphy's pizza. If you haven't tried, you should check it out.. it is YUMMY!

Catching up with Cora and Rob was wonderful. We have plans to see each other again at the Wine Festival in Albuqeruque over Labor Day weekend. Cora, I miss you. You are in my thoughts everyday.

Hope everyone enjoys the pictures.

Training

For those of you that don't know I am training to run a 1/2 marathon (13.2 miles) in April. Fridays are my distance day and today I ran 12 miles. Granted, I had to walk some, but I made it. I'm not sure I'm going to be able to run the whole thing. The longest I have ran without walking is a 10K (6.2 miles). I know it will be a little easier running outside on a course instead of on a treadmill at the gym but man. I read once that 90% of running is mental and only 10% physical and I can totally see that. More than once I have psyched myself out about being tired. I just wish I knew what to do to convince myself that I can do this no matter what.

My long term goal is to run a full marathon next April. I guess we will see how the 1/2 goes this year and then go from there.

Hope everyone has a great weekend.

Stressful Week

Let me just say the last week is kind of a blur. About a week ago my sister Jeanie called me and said our Mom was having chest pains. Her doctor in Garden City referred her to a heart specialist in Wichita for more testing to see if they could determine what was causing the pain, including looking for a blockage in her heart. Scary is all I can say.

My parents drove to Wichita last Thursday. I drove up to Wichita last Thursday to be there because we thought they might need to take her to the ER immediately. Since she wasn't having any more chest pains, they decided to wait. They tried to get into the doctor sooner, but he was out of the office so they had to wait until the scheduled appointment on Tuesday. Being in Wichita was good, however, because if she started having chest pains again they were close to a large hospital.


After spending Thursday evening visiting with my family I drove back to Oklahoma on Friday morning, picked Zachary up, took him to a doctor's appointment for his allergies and then drove back to Wichita to spend the weekend with my family.

My sister-in-law's Mom had passed away that same week, so Saturday Jeanie, Melissa and I headed out of Wichita at 530am to be in Garden City in time for the funeral at 10am. This worked out ok since my Mom seemed to be feeling fine. After the funeral we visited with some family for a bit and then headed back to Wichita so I could pick Zachary up from Sharon's house and spend some more time with my Mom. I can't thank Ronnie and Sharon enough for watching Zachary so he didn't have to spend so much time in the car over that hectic weekend.

After lunch on Sunday Zachary and I headed back to Oklahoma. My Mom had a heart cat on Tuesday and the news was great. They found no blockages or any other issues with her heart. He said any number of more minor things could have caused the chest pain, especially since she only had one episode. She is going to follow up with her regular doctor in Garden to see if they need to do anything else. Needless to say it was a stressful week until we got those results, but I am extremely thankful that it was good news.

Here is a picture of me and four of my siblings.

Lazy Day

What a nice lazy day! I was lucky enough to have the day off and the house to myself since Zach had school and Wendy had to work. I started the day with my normal trip to the gym, came home to see Wendy and Zach off for the day, and then took a short 30 minute power nap. After that I played one set of World Tour, watched some TV and then went to Blockbuster. I rented the first DVD of Dexter season 2. If you haven't seen this show, you should check it out. It is on Showtime, which we don't have so I just wait for it to come out on DVD.

After watching two episodes of Dexter I decided to play another set of World Tour. I am having so much fun playing that game! OH! I forgot the other thing Wendy got me for Valentine's Day... A package of Snowballs! I enjoyed the first one today and saved the second one for tomorrow. You just can't beat love like that!

This evening I had a Bakugan battle with Zach and now I am contemplating whether I should watch the last episode of Dexter, tonight's episode of Heroes or both. Decisions, decisions, decisions... I'm leaning towards both, but it depends on how tired I get after my busy day. Tomorrow it is back to the daily grind. Man, I need to win the lottery!

Happy Valentines Day

It has been a busy fun weekend. I am really glad I am off tomorrow for President's Day. This year instead of flowers and chocolates for Valentine's Day, Wendy and I went more practical. She wanted to go to the PBR show this weekend (bull riding) so I bought us tickets for the finals on Sunday as her present. I have been wanting Guitar Hero World Tour since we played it New Year's Eve and I found it on Ebay for about $80 cheaper than Wal-Mart, so she paid for part of that for me for Valentine's Day. Works for us! The guitar they shipped was the wrong one, but they shipped a replacement and it should be here soon.

Saturday Zach had his last basketball game. He has improved a lot over the season and really seems to enjoy it. He is going to try volleyball next, hopefully he will enjoy it too. After the basketball game we went to Irma's for lunch. If you ever get to Oklahoma City you have to go to Irma's for a No Name burger. They are excellent.

Saturday evening Jim came over for dinner. We ordered heart shaped pizzas from Papa Murphy's and then played some cards. Zach had a friend spend the night, so they played some video games while we played cards. After Jim left Wendy and I played some World Tour. I played the drums while she sang and we rocked the house if I do say so myself.

Sunday morning we slept in a little, cooked some breakfast and then we were lazy for just a little bit before we started the weekend laundry. After lunch Wendy and I were off to the bull riding. It was a really good time. We capped the evening off with a little bit of TV and quiet time before Wendy has to head out of town tomorrow. Hope all of you had a wonderful Valentines with your family and friends.

Weekend of Fun

We had a fun weekend at our house. Friday night Zach and I planned a nice dinner and dessert for Wendy since she had a rough weekend at work. I found a new recipe online, http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=521621. It came out really good and we will definitely be cooking it again. After dinner we went bowling. No record scores were made, but we did have a good time. After bowling we headed back to the house for Chocolate Fondue for dessert. Zach made Rice Krispie Treats to dip and we also had a variety of fruit. All in all a very nice evening.

Saturday Zach's Grandma Sharon came to visit. They braved Incredible Pizza (Think Chuckie Cheese on steroids) for lunch and then we went to Zach's basketball game. Zach got his first basket but his team lost by two. After basketball we came home to get ready for a night on the town. We headed out to a Blazers hockey game. It started out crazy, four major fights in the first six minutes. After the fourth fight they ejected two players and then there were no more fights the rest of the game. Unfortunately the Blazers lost 3-6.

Today has been a pretty relaxing day. We had a nice breakfast and then just chilled some before we started the laundry. It has been a rainy day here, so a perfect day to be lazy. Jim C. is coming over for dinner and games, so should be another fun filled evening. Hope every had an equally enjoyable one!

Holy Crap!

Is it really February? Has it been a month since I wrote anything? Damn, I have been stinking at this.

Things around here have been hectic and a little rough over the last month or so. I found out last week that AOL is not giving raises or bonuses this year. I'm trying to look on the bright side that I still have a job... Sometimes that is easier than others. One of the saving graces is that I truly respect and enjoy the people that I work with. That goes a long way in keeping me happy. And the fact that I work from home doesn't hurt!

Wendy's work is going on as usual. She was supposed to be home for the next 12 weeks but one of the Instructional Designers at her office gave notice this week, so that didn't work out quite as planned. She will be heading to Maryland for two weeks on February 16th.

Zach is still playing basketball. He had a great game last Saturday when Grandma Sharon and Grandpa Ronnie came to see him play. You can really see that he has learned quite a bit since the season started. Sharon is coming down again Saturday to take him to lunch and watch him play. He loves having her come to visit.

Zach had some struggles as baseball practices started this year, so he will not be playing. I am sad about that because I really enjoyed coaching, but maybe it will be for the best. After basketball is done he is going to try volleyball at the Y. I think he picked that because he thought it would be less running than soccer!

I got to go see Orin's brother Brad this week. He was transferred to a facility in Oklahoma City about three weeks ago. He is talking and able to get around some. It is awesome to see how much he is improving and hopefully he will continue to do so. Seeing the reality of all this makes me appreciate how lucky all of us are. Take a moment and tell those around you how much you love them today.

Anyhow, I'm gonna close for now, but I promise to try to be better about posting. Have a great weekend everyone!

Christmas Break

Wow how time flies. I swear it was just yesterday that I was starting my two week vacation and doing some last minute Christmas shopping!

We had a fabulous Christmas vacation. Beyond the presents we got to spend some time catching up with family and friends. I hope all of you were blessed with these specials times as well.

Santa was extremely good to all of us this year. The family got a PS3, Santa brought Zach a fort (A Rubbermaid shed that will convert to a storage shed when he outgrows the fort. Thanks for helping put it together Larry!) and an iPod Nano, Wendy got a new cell phone and tickets to the Lion King which is coming to OKC in May, and I got a gift card for a new grill and fabulous new slippers to wear to work! It was all perfect!

New Year's Eve was spent with our close friends at Noel's house. We played Guitar Hero World Tour (I love playing the drums!) and ESPN Trivia. Again, a fantastic time with great company.

On New Year's Day Zach and I made the drive to Garden City to spend some time with my Mom and other family there. I got to see my new nephew Brayden who was born the day after Thanksgiving. He was premature and weighed only 3 pounds, but is doing great. He is already up to 5 pounds. We had fun spending time with Mom and two of my brothers. It was nice to relax and catch up with everyone.