P.S. Look how cute my baby boy is all curled up with Daddy :)
Saturday evening, we cooked and had our next-door-neighbors over for dinner and games. (This pic is a week old but I didn't take one on Saturday night). It was so much fun to hang out with them and when Karen won (that's right I announced it for the world), I think all of us ended up clapping in celebration!! I had Sunday lunch with this cutie this weekend. Her dad is my dad's Godson and it had been 4 years since I saw Isabella. Last time I saw her, she was half this size and hadn't lost ANY teeth yet (notice that little gap on the bottom of her smile? She lost that tooth while we were at lunch). I love seeing her family and it was great to see her again! Thank you to my friend Kristen for letting me use her picture :) Sunday night was filled with amazing Texas thunderstorms. I didn't want to go to sleep because I just love the sound of rain falling. It was wonderful This was the precursor to the full family-snuggle-during-a-thunderstorm time. After this, we had all the animals on the couch snuggling with us while we turned off the TV and just listened to the thunder crash and the rain hit our roof. I didn't want it to end. P.S. Look how cute my baby boy is all curled up with Daddy :) I hope all of you had a lovely weekend! Can you believe the year is half over?? Where does the time go???
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This week I am thankful for my dear friend Maria. It is her birthday today and what better day to celebrate her than today? I am so lucky to have her in my life and to share all of our excited and eventful times together. Thanks for being such a wonderful friend!! I received this book from my sweet sister Cate and I have been reading it in the mornings on the way to work. What a wonderful reminder to give daily thanks for all of my blessings. It is a beautiful written book and I'm lucky to have a sister who wants to share this wisdom with me. Saturday was Max's 2nd birthday and my mother-in-law decided to throw him a birthday party. It was so much fun to spoil him and shre his day with 5 of his dog-cousins. I'm grateful to have a family that can have fun and celebrate little things like my dog's birthday. Dad's birthday was wonderful this past Sunday. I was thankful for an evening of delicious food and board games with my family. More than anything, though, I'm thankful for my dad and all her has blessed me with.
I was having a bum day on Monday and I was really down. My ridiculously supportive husband sent me a text with a bunch of pictures and told me to see all of the things I had to be lucky for. Instead of the usual Thankful Thursday post, I thought I'd share those pics with you! I am so thankful for the support I have from my husband who would send me texts like this!
I'm sooo glad I found these little trouble-makers when they got out yesterday. I got home to find that Mr. Max had learned how to open the gate in our backyard. Maggie, who will never turn down an opportunity to go exploring, had followed Max out and they were nowhere to be found! I had no idea how long they were out and began driving around neighborhoods looking like a crazy woman as I screamed their names. After 40 minutes of driving around, I came home and started screaming to them from our deck. I look down the golf course to see Max's head pop up from the pond and Maggie just staring at me. Apparently, they had found a swimming hole and decided to cool off. I was so mad and happy at the same time that I sprinted through the golf course to them. I don't know what I would have done if I hadn't found our babies! Thank goodness they stayed together!! After the dog drama, I was exhausted and hot from frantically running around trying to find them. The last thing I wanted to do was work out even though I had planned all day to pop in my Yoga for Runners video. Husband convinced me not to let the dogs dictate my workout schedule and I decided to listen. Today, I'm so sore from the video and so glad that I listened to Husband. I know my sore back and shoulders (yes, these are the areas I seldom work out and need the most), are proof that I did something worthwhile yesterday. Hopefully, I'll soon be able to do the video with ease and not feel so sore the next day, but until then, I'll be grateful for the soreness and thankful that I pushed myself to devote an hour to my body. This past weekend was tough. We weren't sure we would still have the beautiful Carrie after her battle last week. When we packed for the weekend, I made sure to bring a few extra outfits in case we were forced to stay longer when visiting my in-laws. Husband and I were so relieved to hear that Carrie was released from the hospital and back under Hospice care at her house and, Saturday, we made a trip out to see her. When we got there she was sleeping and looked to be in a lot of pain but when she woke up and realized Husband and I were there, she was overjoyed. Somehow, we managed to perk up and even came into the living room to joke with us and eat for the first time in over a week! She was awake for a few hours and it was amazing to see her true personality making an appearance. We don't know how much longer she will be with us but I cherish every moment I shared with her over the weekend and I'm so thankful for the little miracles I see in Carrie. I'm so glad that my Why Run? post from Monday encouraged my friend Jennifer to run 4 miles! It's great to know that people are reading my blog and that I'm even encouraging some with it!! I'm so proud of Jennifer and her pup Grover! We are both encouraging to each other when it comes to running and this is one more opportunity to see that I'm helping her out. It's also great to know that others may find my blog encouraging. I'm grateful to have an impact, no matter how small it may be :) So as you may have seen, last week I signed up to run a 10K with my sister, Cate. We are both running the Run 10 Feed 10 this October to raise money for local children who can't afford to eat. (If you'd like to donate, please help me by clicking here!) Anyway, I have mentioned before that I was put on exercise bed-rest (EBR) after I injured my IT band a couple months ago. The EBR coupled with a general sense of laziness has gotten me very out of shape. I haven't really run in MONTHS and jumping right in would NOT be a good idea considering my IT band is still suffering. I've looked up some advice on getting off the couch (so-to-speak) and out the door and I wanted to share it with you! Here are some great links to check out! Hopefully they will help motivate me and encourage me to get moving without re-injuring myself! I mean, I did run 2 miles on Saturday morning so I haven't been COMPLETELY lazy but since the race is in less than 2 months (and I want to keep up with Cate!), I need to step it up a bit! :) Getting Back Into Running After Injury or Long Time Not Running - great tips for how to come back from an injury and not hurt yourself again! 5 Ways to Get Back into Running 15 Tips to Restart the Exercise Habit (and How to Keep It) - maybe not running specific, but good tips! Running Tips: How To Get Started 9 Tips on Getting Back into Running after a Break And if you really need some motivation, find a friendly canine to help push you! Took my little (big) guy running with me on Saturday and he made me feel bad every time I wanted to slow down! He'd look at me with his sweet eyes and then pick up the pace! I couldn't say no to that!! This week I'm thankful for the chance to participate in a great cause. I just entered the Run 10 Feed 10 project to run a local 10K to raise money to help feed starving children living close to home. My sister Cate is going to run with me and I'm pumped to share such a great opportunity with her!! We are both raising funds for this and your support would be GREATLY appreciated. Even a $10 donation will feed several starving mouths!! Please check out my fundraising page and help me raise this money! Doing something like this is so fulfilling, I feel like I'm feeding my hunger to give as well as feeding children who can't afford meals!! Try it out! Giving really does feed the soul!! Visit my page here and you can donate a meal or 10!! I'm so thankful for the woman who found our dogs when they got out two days ago and then kept them safe in her backyard while Husband and I traveled from downtown all the way over to her house to get them. Our pups have been super sneaky lately and they love getting out and getting into trouble. Here is a picture of them plotting their next escape! I love my German Shepherd tumbler that my best friend gave me this week. I've been bringing it to work every morning and whenever I use it, I think of my baby Max and my bestie Salice :) Thanks so much, girl! It's perfect!! I'm thankful for love. I have been thinking about love a lot this week. As I drove past a place that always reminds me of Hurricane Ike, I remember how people banded together to help others during the crisis. I think people are good deep-down and during hardships, that love really shows. People are already donating to my fundraising site and I just launched it an hour ago! People are supporting others that they don't even know and that is truly love. I've also noticed that one of my strengths is that I have so much love to share. I absolutely cannot get enough of sweet babies and children or sweet pets/animals. I want to love everything around me and I want to share it with the world. Love is truly something to be thankful for and I can't even begin to explain how much I really just love love! Remember to show someone you love just how much they mean to you this week!! MUCH LOVE!!! xoxo, ME! This weekend was my grandpa-in-law's 85th birthday so we went up to Husband's hometown to celebrate. We had a party for him on Saturday and then another mini-celebration yesterday. It was an eventful weekend, and I got very little sleep, but it was great to see everyone. Along with the birthday celebrations, we had an adventure during a thunderstorm yesterday! I thought I'd give you a good laugh for this Monday morning and share the adventure with you. First, there 8 dogs at my in-laws house. Most of which are extremely afraid of thunder!! Then, part of the gutters fell off on the back deck because of the heavy rainfall and wind! The gutters had a tarp covering some roof leaks so as soon as the gutter fell, two rooms started leaking! This is all happening while we have 18 family members at my in-laws's so it was a little crazy to begin with! After we got some buckets under the leaks and my cousin's husband was enlisted to try to fix the roof (he does this by trade), we saw the power lines outside swaying. Worried about what happened, my father-in-law opened the front door to see what was happening. Apparently a huge tree branch had broken and fallen on the line. As we congregated by the front door to look, we saw the line start smoking. Then, it caught fire and we watched a mini-explosion as the line blew! Then, we road was blocked by the power line and tree so we had to call the fire truck and the power company to clear the street because everyone was blocked in! Needless to say, we had an eventful and adventurous weekend. It was fun but I was definitely ready to get home last night! Think I'll be catching up on some rest this week! Today I am thankful for Max's birthday. He is one year old today and I'm thankful that we have him in our family and that he is growing into such a good dog. We still have a year or so to go to deal with some of his puppy traits (like getting bored and wanting to play with things he shouldn't play with) but he's becoming so well-behaved and protective. Just what we wanted him for. Not to mention, he gives us so many laughs and is great to snuggle with! The pic to the left was taking on Christmas morning. He got to hang out with me on the bed for a bit :) I'm thankful that the Texans are still in the playoffs this weekend. I'm not a huge NFL fan but Husband is and he's pumped to cheer on the Texans this Sunday. I'm glad he gets to watch his team play this weekend and I hope they win on Sunday! I'm thankful for my ridiculous cat, Meg. Last night I was laying on the floor with my heating pad on to try to work out some of the tightness in my back. I got up to feed the dogs and came back to this hilarious sight. Meg had discovered the heating pad and passed out on it. I got more pictures of her curled up on the entire pad but this one shows off how funny she is. Two very close friends of mine, Kim and Cate, are in the homestretch of their pregnancies. Both are under 100 days of their due dates and I couldn't be more excited to meet Baby Kash (hopefully the end of February!) and Baby Claire (due in April). Since we aren't ready to have kids yet, I love being able to share the experiences of my friends who are expecting. I'm thankful that I can be a part of their lives while they go through such an exciting time! Happy Thursday, everyone!! I hope everyone is having a great week! Sometimes I think my "Thankful Thursday" posts are my favorite part of my blog because it really makes me look past the little things that may be bugging me to find the things that truly matter in life. This week I'm thankful for: I LOVE this picture from our honeymoon My wonderful husband and his patience and kindness this week. We are getting back into the working groove after a couple 4-day weekends and it's taking some getting used to haha. Husband has been so grateful in the morning when I make his coffee and when he gets home and I have dinner ready. Even though this is what I usually do, it's great to be appreciated. And he's been supportive of my stressful periods and let me vent more than my fair share. Thanks, sweetheart! Coming home to this ADORABLE face every single day makes my heart smile. Max is always ready for us to come home and the second we put our car in park, he jumps up to great us. How can you ever get tired of seeing something so sweet and welcoming? My beautiful present from Salice and the time we spent together this week. We have been best friends for 12 years yet still can't seem to coordinate our schedules very well so we almost never get to see each other. For my Christmas present, she took me to dinner because she felt that quality time together (or time together in general) was the best present. We had a wonderful dinner and she gave me my birthday present while we were there. (Yes, my birthday is in August but giving presents 6 months late is fairly common for us lol). This vase says "Friends are like flowers, you get to pick them" and it's perfect :) So are the flowers she put in the vase for me :) I'm also thankful for the time I get to read each day. I get to read on the bus and lately, I've had more time to read at home as well. Even though Husband isn't really a big reader and doesn't quite understand what I find so fascinating by it, he has become very supportive of my hobby. For Christmas, he got me The Hunger Games trilogy and made sure I also got The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets Nest. I finished American Wife this week and now I'm getting started on my Christmas presents :) I loved American Wife and Husband even let me read some parts to him as I read it. Now I'm starting The Hunger Games and I can't wait to get deeper into it! I woke up in a good mood today! I'm not sure what it is but everything seems to be making me happy this morning!! Husband put out the pups for me this morning so I could get an extra 20 minutes of sleep (which was very needed). Max made sure to give me a quick puppy kiss goodbye on my way out the door (his kisses are so sweet!). On my drive to work, it was cold and there was mist over the railroad and lake as I crossed it. It truly felt like November and looked like it as well! I love the morning mist in cold weather! And I may or may not have popped in a Christmas CD to listen to during the drive.... When I got to work, everyone seemed to be happy and Husband invited me on a coffee date and then my boss bought us breakfast tacos. Sarah is currently on a flight to Texas and I'm looking forward to a great weekend!! I know it's only 8:40 in the morning but I truly hope the rest of the day goes just as well! Oh, what do you guys think of my new layout? I thought I'd try something new. Here are a couple adorable pics of Max that I took this week. He was napping while I read in bed and when I got up to use the lint-roller where he had been sleeping, he decided to take my spot and make himself comfortable. Looks like he owns the place doesn't he? I'd also like to thank all the veterans who have served our country. Especially my family members and friends who have put this country first so we can have a better place to live. Happy Veterans Day to all! Here is a link to some information about the history of Veterans Day. And a shout out to all of my Gamma Phi sisters out there! Happy Founders Day!! Thanks to the four women who worked so hard at SU in 1874 to create a sorority based on higher principles and sisterhood that we can celebrate today!
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