Weekend Fun: Phive-K Run for ALS

I took a quick little trip to Baylor last Saturday.

Why?

To participate in the Phi Delta Theta (Baylor Chapter) Phive-K (get it?) Run for ALS. Why would I do that?

Because my baby brother, Kyle--a freshman at Baylor, asked me to.
Here is Kyle trying to look like the cool frat boy he thinks he is--ha!







Well, really, my mom asked me to because Brad, my stepdad, was supposed to be in Russia (that's just a whole other story) and she didn't want to walk alone, but then his flight was cancelled due to the volcanic ash from the volcano in Iceland (no news link--watch the news, people). But, since I'd already said I'd go and I had been wanting to get down to Baylor, I went.

The only shot of me (a "lovely" self-portrait B said I should put on here) from the day.

Speaking of B. He had to stay home. Poor guy just still isn't quite up to even walking a 5K after the blood clot in the lung. His lung capacity is slightly diminished right now, but hopefully that'll get better soon!

So, Mom, Brad, Alex (really baby brother), Alex's friend Gabe, and I took off Saturday morning in the very gloomy, rainy weather to go walk a 5K.

Mom and Kyle. Mom needed to take a picture in her UNT Health Science Center T-shirt for work. I guess they do that when they go places.

Kyle and his girlfriend, Kirstin, before we got started. Hmm . . . does this boy ever smile?

Oh, hey, there's the smile. Dad got it out of him!

Alex and Gabe, high school seniors, walking around like they are right at home the college campus.

Sorry, but isn't Alex just the cutest?

After a few words from the organizer, Anthony, we were off.

Now, Kyle and most of his fraternity brothers took off on in a mad dash, leaving the rest of us--mostly family and a few friends of the brothers--to make our way along the course.

The course followed Bear Trail, the walking/running trail around the Baylor campus. The trail appeared to be 2 miles. We followed it around once, went another quarter mile or so around the trail, then cut across campus back to the start to complete the 5K.

Because I have not quite been keeping up with my workouts, I was not prepared to run this 5K, so I walked it. Now, I'm a powerwalker. A seriously, freakishly fast walker at times. And I figured if I was going to go all that way and walk 3+ miles, I was going to make it worth my while. Unfortunately, the rest of my group did not feel the same.

Look at those stragglers!

These two strapping young boys were not much better, goofing around on the trail.

So, I led the group even though I had no idea where the heck I was going. See, the trail is only marked at the start, the 1 1/4 mile , 1 3/4 mile, and the 1/4 mile (I think). And we did not start at the start. And since the guys putting this thing on took off in a run, most of us walkers had no clue where we were going, so we just kept walking.

Well, Alex did run for a minute. Yeah, cause that looks real!

See those lovely ladies up ahead of me on the trail? They were the only two anywhere near us the entire walk. Every time they got to a possible cutoff on the trail they looked back at me to see if we were going the right way. None of us had a clue.

Funny story about these women. Toward the end, we had no clue where we were going, so we called Kyle (who had finished) to ask where we needed to cut across. Once we found out, I ran ahead to tell these two so they stayed on the right path. Once I caught up with them and relayed the message, the one on the left introduced herself to me and the mom of one of Kyle's fraternity brothers.

And asked if my son was in the fraternity.

I so could have been offended here, but she quickly said I didn't look old enough. Couldn't really blame here. I am 13 years older than Kyle and I clearly didn't look young enough to actually be a student, so if I looked a couple of years older than my age then I could have been a young mom to a college freshman.

But still.

Anyway, really good time. The weather cooperated, thankfully. We had been having quite a rainy day up here if Fort Worth and even down in Waco, but the storms stopped just in time and we had lovely walking weather.

Can't wait to go back and visit Kyle again and see more of the campus!

Happy Tuesday!

Shopping Alone

What do you do when you are shopping alone and can't decide which size of something looks better on you? Step out and look at the three-way mirror? Nah. Ask another woman in the dressing room who is sure to understand your problem? Of course not. Whip out the cell phone and take pictures of yourself in the mirror to compare the two? Hey, that's a great idea!

Yep, that's how big of a dork I am.

I went to Target after work today to find some pants to wear tomorrow. My little brother's fraternity (at Baylor) is sponsoring a 5K walk/run and I'm going with my mom and stepdad to walk it. I do work out, but have slacked a little in that area of late and put on a bit of weight (can't believe I just admitted that, but it's not like you can't tell by looking at me), so some of my nicer workout attire is a bit on the snug side. Also, I work out at home, so my workout clothes don't exactly need to be presentable since only B and the pups see me in them.

So, I needed some presentable pants (read: pants without holes in them) to wear to this event. Target is a pretty great place to find affordable, but GOOD, workout clothes. So, off to Target I went. Love me some Target. Probably a good thing we don't live across the street from it any more!

Anyway, pants. Found some pants that said they were looser fitting, picked them up in two sizes--no, I will not be saying WHICH two sizes--to try. Then I noticed some capris that looked really cute, comfy, and exactly what I was looking for. Problem: they were tagged as fitted. I'm, shall we, um, say on the curvy side? Okay, I have a big butt (there is a reason "Baby Got Back" is B's ringtone for me) and larger hips and thighs. All of this basically means that fitted does not really work well for my body type. I have accepted this, but there capris were really what I was looking for. So, I went ahead and grabbed two sizes of those too and off to the fitting room I went.

Decided to try the capris on first, in the smaller size. To my surprise, the fit rather nicely. I'm not going to say I looked great or thin or anything, but I didn't think I looked like a big, fat cow either. I thought I'd go ahead and try on the larger side just to make sure those didn't look a little better. Well, they actually made me look bigger because they were a bit baggy--until I turned around to look at my rear. Whoops, knew I forgot something. Cardinal rule of trying on clothes:  look at yourself from all angles. I hadn't looked at my butt in the smaller pair. So, I quickly switched pants again and thought my butt looked too big in the smaller ones. Went back to the big ones. Couldn't tell if I could see a difference, but I didn't like how the bigger ones looked everywhere else. I told myself to remember what I looked like in those and then tried the smaller ones back on. Couldn't remember. Great. I just knew I was going to be there for 30 more minutes and still end up with the wrong ones. This is why I need a shopping partner. Then, it hit me. Camera phone!

I whipped that bad boy out and took picture from the side and back (that was fun, I'll tell you) in both pants and took a look. Decision made. Smaller pair it was! Butt may look a little bigger, but overall, I looked better in the smaller ones.

Now I never need a shopping partner again. B will be so happy!

Happy Friday!
A

Taking It on Tuesday: Gardening

This was not what I was planning on taking on this week. And, really, I probably get to any actual gardening and planting this week, but I'm going to start the planning process.

I have not had the best luck the gardening department. The lovely summer-in-Texas heat usually bites me in the butt.

We've been in our house for four years now. The first year, I got super ambitious and we bought all kinds of flowers to plant in our the bed under the front windows, which only held the itty-bitty, newly planted standard new house shrubs. I thought I'd just plant some flowers around them and also around our lone little Charlie Brown tree in the front yard. I encountered a few problems. First, I did not pay attention to the sunlight our yard gets. The tree gets quite a bit, so the beautiful begonias dried out and died. The bed, however, gets very little sun at all, which was not conducive to wide variety of flowers I planted there. Not to mention the fact that those lovely shrubs grew. I did fair a little better with the flowers planted in a few pots around the walkway, but eventually the heat got to them too. So, overall, big fat fail.

The second year, my grandfather, who has one of the best yards ever, asked about my attempts at gardening. He suggested I try only planting in pots and perhaps buying hanging plants and transplanting them. Sounded like a good idea and I certainly couldn't argue with his success, so that I did. I had a really pretty landscape:

Pretty, huh? And look at that lawn! I take no credit for that. The lawn is all B's baby.

So, that's how the front of the house looked for, oh, a month. Then the heat hit again and my beautiful flowers started to wither away, no matter how much (or little, as the case may be) I watered. The next year, much of the same.

Last year, I just never got around to it. I had a lot going on and I just couldn't bear the thought of spending money on flowers only to have them die away again. Actually, I did plan on planting. I even bought some books about Texas flowers and planting and such. But, life got in the way of on my planning and we went flowerless.

So, my plan right now is to plan and get to planting. My goal for this week is to study my yard. I'm still going to stick with pot planting. I'm cracking myself up right now because it sounds like I'm going to plant weed. Hehehehehe. No, no weed for me. How the heck would you say that? Anyway, I'm only going to plant in my pretty pots. Seriously, I love my pots. Got them at Garden Ridge. They are all a heavy plastic, but look like ceramic. Anyway, I'm going to place the pots where I want them and then spend a day studying the shade and sun patterns.

I already know the front of the house, especially right next to the house where the pots will go, does not get a whole lot of sunlight. But, I want to know for sure what gets sun when so I can plan my plants accordingly. Since I work from home on most Thursdays and plan to this week, that's the perfect day. I'm going to draw a diagram of the house (please stop laughing at the thought of me drawing a diagram; it's not that funny) and then write up a timeline. I'll go check every hour, I think and note where the sun hits or doesn't hit.

Now, all of this planning will not solve the lovely problem of the "awesome" Texas heat. But, the only thing I can do there is really know my flowers. Know how much water they are supposed to get and try to keep up with it. And also, know which of them are meant to last through summer and not just spring.

I know I do not have a green thumb, but damnit, surely I can keep a few flowers alive through summer. I hope so anyway.

Happy Tuesday!

A

A Week (and more) in Review

I've been a bad blogger. Just lots going on and then I hurt my back and sitting in a chair (or even upright in bed) to use the computer was just not happeing for me. But, lots of stuff did happen (not exciting to most, I'm sure; but exciting in my little world), so I wanted to share in pictures and, hopefully, few words.

On April 1st, we had a new back door (frame and all) and a storm door installed. Can I just tell you how much I LOVE my storm door. It has a window that can be pulled down to have it open with a screen, which is awesome for getting some air in the house.

My little sunbaby, Dash, loves the new door too:

Let's see, last Sunday--Easter Sunday--was Brad's birthday.

Oops, I don't think I was supposed to take a picture with his glasses on--hehe! This was actually him telling me not to take a picture with his glasses.

We had his birthday dinner with family the night before at my Uncle Jimmy's house.

Yummy spaghetti with ribs (my favorite--I should make and blog that one these days) and I made Brad's favorite cake--Boston Cream Pie, which also happens to be my favorite dessert.

Let's see, no pictures or much else from Sunday.

Monday, April 5 was Opening Day at the Ballpark. My company/department has been going to Opening Day to see the Rangers since long before I ever started. Two years ago, the Rangers asked if we would like to be a part of the Opening Day ceremonies by helping unfurl the giant American flag on the field during the National Anthem. We, of course, jumped at the chance and while it was a bit hot and humid and a lot of fast, hard work followed by a lot of standing around, it was a LOT of fun. We got to see a bunch of old players while we waited in the tunnel to go on the field. We stood on the field for the entire ceremony, so we got to see the opening lineup up close and personal, got to see pitching legend Nolan Ryan throw out the opening pitch. It was just an awesome time. We were asked again this year and had a much less awesome time.

This happened to the flag (which is made of a parachute-type material) during rehearsal, which led to us unfurling an 11-striped American flag on the field:

Yep, that would be a very large rip.

Along with some smaller rips.

We attributed this to some not so good direction this time around in the whole flag unfurling thing. The people running it did not seem to be as good as last time, so we were really unprepared when we got to the field.

But, it all turned out okay (except for the two missing stripes) and we did have time for pictures on the field since we smartly decided to be on the end and, therefore, did not have to stand there holding the flag before it got unfurled:

I think this on the left was supposed to be an attempt at a picture of Rusty Greer. He's a coach now, but back when he played, he was by brother Kyle's favorite player, so I had get a picture.

However, the un-fun continued when we got to our seats. We first went to the pro shop so B could look around. By the time we got to our seats, others had occupied them (too long of a story for here), so we found other seats.

Here was our view:

Outfield: 

Home Plate:

TV in case we couldn't see all of the field:

We left early. Went to visit Scotty P's dad in the hospital. Lots of thoughts and prayers for him right now.

When we got home, I thought I would continue my sewing endeavor by finishing up mending some of B's pants. Um, that didn't go as planned as the brand new sewing machine decided it didn't want to work anymore. Pretty sure this one had been opened and returned to the store. So, I did that as well.

New sewing machine:

A "few" more bucks, but lots more bells and whistles and I think it will last better in the long run.






Tuesday morning while brushing my teeth before my shower, my back went out. This is not something new to me. It happens every few years. That laid me up for the day and I was still in lots of pain for the next few days. But, we learned that B follow directions very well as he cooked me dinner Tuesday night from a recipe that he had never seen before. I was very proud! (And the recipe will be blogged later!)

Thursday, we had the carpets professionally cleaned. We bought our own machine a couple of years ago, but our carpet, 4-years-old like the house, was looking pretty bad what with having the two little munchkins and all. Dalworth came out and did a fantabulous job, so we think we'll get some more years out of this carpet.

Yesterday, we trekked out to Kelly & Bernie's house in Frisco for a surprise party for our friend Jerry. The party will get it's own post since I took lots of pics of the evening.

So, that's where I've been for a week. I'll be better at blogging this week--I hope!!

Happy Sunday!

A