A Little Fun on the Farm

Today we went over to my uncle's ranch to celebrate my cousin Allison's first birthday party. They went with a farm theme complete with a cow pinata, hay rides and even lessons on how to "show" a pig! I grew up not too far from his house, out in the country, but for Robert it's always an experience to go out there. Although we've been out there before he had never really gone out and spend time with the animals. I somehow convinced him I was like a horse whisperer and could get the horses to do whatever I asked. Luckily for me when I asked Spirit to smile for me and show me his teeth he did! Robert had so many questions and finally just admitted he's just a "city boy." Here's some pics of our adventure on the farm:

Bring on the Rain

As I walked out this morning to head out to the run I was welcomed by drizzle. Awesome I thought, what's a little rain during a run. Once we started running the drizzle seemed to get heavier and heavier, then the wind picked up and all of a sudden it felt like 50 degrees. What in the world? At one point the water stations they had set up were falling apart, the cups were flying into the streets, the trashcans were rolling around the course. Luckily, I managed to finish under 30 minutes with a time of 28:17. I was glad it all over and am excited about next weekend's 5k.

By the way, my dear husband never even made it out of bed so I guess that counts as me beating him! :)

TGIF!!!!!

Yay!!!! It's FINALLY Friday! Only 7 days till the next one! I guess it's pretty evident we're all feeling the stress at work because my principal came over the intercom at about 3:15 and said "It's Friday, it's hot, let's go home." The parking lot has never cleared so quick. Tonight will be low key,maybe dinner at home and a movie. Hubby he doesn't know I'm dragging him out and I are both running a 3 miler tomorrow as part of Fiesta Edinburg. My one goal: TO BEAT HIM ACROSS THE FINISH LINE! It never fails, I can run and run and run while he stays home and plays XBOX and he still manages to finish before me! We'll see what happens tomorrow.

Date Night Plus 1, 000 People

Part of the Valentine's Dinner Package I won a few weeks ago included two tickets to thr RGV Vipers game tonight. We had never never been to one and decided it might be fun to watch. As we made our way into the arena, Robert runs into a friend of his who happens to work for the team, he hands us some VIP bracelets that will get us into the courtside bar. For us this was already an upgrade, then as we are waiting to order a drink we see our friends Marcos and Erica waving from courtside. I head over to say hi and she informs me they have two extra seats we can have. Well, we took them and it was an AWESOME game! Here are some pics:

40 Days

Today officially marks the beginning of Lent season. I got a text from my friend this afternoon asking what I was giving up for 40 days. Well, here it is:
Soft drinks
Chips
Sweet tea

also, making a pledge to make it to church more often, workout at least four days a week and stay in for dinner more.

Not a Fan of Inclines

Ever since the Edinburg 10k a few weeks ago I've been toying with the idea of attempting a half marathon. I've looked into a couple but still haven't decided whether or not I'm ready. Regardless though I do have a 10k planned in Austin at the end of March. To prepare I'm following a plan that was in the latest issue of Fitness magazine. Today's workout called for 4 miles with HILLS. Uh hills, here in the Valley? Where do you find those? Luckily they included instructions for how to do this on a treadmill: Four to eight uphill sprints: Run uphill (or at an incline) for two minutes as a 5k pace. I made my way dragged myself to the gym and got started. As long as the treadmill was flat we were great. Then I decided to attempt the first HILL. It was no fun and never were the other three. Lesson learned: The treadmill is only my friend when it's not at an incline.

Giving Up Wine

In my inbox from Stacy:

I was walking down the street when I was accosted by a particularly dirty and shabby-looking homeless woman who asked me for a couple of dollars for dinner. I took out my wallet, got out ten dollars and asked, "If I give you this money, will you buy wine with it instead of dinner?" "No, I had to stop drinking years ago," the homeless woman told me."Will you use it to go shopping instead of buying food?" I asked."No, I don't waste time shopping," the homeless woman said. "I need to spend all my time trying to stay alive." ''Will you spend this on a beauty salon instead of food?"I asked."Are you NUTS!" replied the homeless woman. "I haven't had my hair done in 20 years!"''Well," I said, "I'm not going to give you the money. Instead, I'm going to take you out for dinner with my husband and me tonight."The homeless Woman was shocked. "Won't your husband be furious with you for doing that? I know I'm dirty, and I probably smell pretty disgusting."I said, "That's okay. It's important for him to see what a woman looks like after she has given up shopping, hair appointments, and wine."

Happy Monday!

Spring is Near

I was so excited to see this in my inbox yesterday from Sephora. I've been riding the dark nail polish wagon for a while now thinking it made me closer to all the celebs in LA. Here I am four months later no closer to being famous than I was before and finally ready to brighten up my hands and feet with some fun polish. After my run yesterday I stopped by JcPenney to see if Sephora already had them in but no luck. I was however able to snag another fun color by OPI called Koala Berry. It actually looks pretty similar to the first one (top left) in the picture. I tried to make it to the nail place to get a mani/pedi but they were already closed. I must have been pretty excited because as soon as I showered and changed and attempted my own mani/pedi to try out the color. Love it! It's still a little strange to see something so bright and vibrant on my nails but it's just another sign that spring is near!

Fun Giveaways

Seaside Prep is hosting a fun giveaway. Stop by and visit her blog for your chance to win all of this:

Another great blog to visit: Life of Single Girl. She is also hosting her own giveaway with some great things (a clutch, Starbuck's set, robe, lots of other goodies).

Yay! New shoes!

Finally got to meet our new nephew in person today. He's so small, cute and cuddly. He was asleep the whole time we were there and just looked so peaceful. We left around noon to go have something to eat at Cheddars--possibly our new fave place. After lunch today we went out and finally got myself a new pair of tennis shoes. I had been putting it off for a while and decided today was the day. My last pair were Asics and I loved them so I decided to go with them again. Here they are:

I took them out this afternoon to break them in and they felt great!

Girls Night Out

Counting today we have been in school for about 6 months now and as one of my coworkers said during lunch it's about that time of year when margaritas, wine or whatever you like to drink sounds really good on Fridays evenings. Tonight another coworker invited us to her friends house for chili, cornbread and some drinks. Her house was BEAUTIFUL! A true hacienda, with all the bedrooms seperate from the main house, 16 foot ceilings, splashes of color and five great dogs. We had three different chilis to try from each equally delicious and it was great to sit, chat, laugh and relax. I'm looking forward to a nice weekend, relaxing with Robert and Charlie and recharging for the week. Going to try and get a long run in tomorrow, if not it'll have to wait for Sunday!

Happy Birthday!

Today my Dad turned 52 and our new nephew Ethan Michael was welcomed into the world. Happy Birthday! As I talked to my dad this afternoon he said he had a great day. Since he's on vacation from work he was able to sleep in, spend time with my grandma and family and of course his favorite BBQ with a nice cold drink in his hand. During my jog this afternoon he was on my mind a lot. Some of my favorite memories of him are watching him come home from a long day at work, quickly change into his shorts (which I think now were WAY TOO SHORT) and tennis shoes and take off down the road for his nightly run. I always wanted to go with him and he would try to explain to me I couldn't keep up and he would be right back. I told him about this during our conversation and he had the cutest reponse, "Jen, that way a long time ago. I'm sure I'd be the one who couldn't keep up now." So sweet. :)

A Free $30 in Gift Cards???

Do you love Starbucks, Kohl's or Victoria's Secret? Stop by and visit Kristen's blog and enter her great giveaway!

By This Tomorrow I'll Be an Aunt

Robert's sister will be going into the hospital early Thursday morning (1:00 AM to be exact) to have her baby boy Ethan. It will be her first and the first baby boy in the family. Everyone is anxious to meet him. We had dinner with the family tonight and most of the conversation was about the delivery or the baby. His sister's doctor told her that an average time to be in labor is about 15 hours. What? 15 hours? Good Luck! At one point Robert's dad even makes a comment about maybe there being three babies at the table. Let's see one for his sister, another one for his other sister and ????? Oh, are you talking about me?? No, no , no not me I said. I'm an only child, didn't get to be an aunt until we were married and for right now I'm happy being just that. :)

Great Giveaway

Susie Bettenhausen is hosting a fun, super cute giveaway. It's a custom, hand-painted sign similar to the one above. The contest will run until Wednesday, Feb 25th so you have plenty of time to enter! Swing by her blog and enter : http://myflipflopz.blogspot.com/

Up Too Early

Since I knew I had PTO tonight the only time for a run was going to be in the morning. When my alarm went off at 4:35 I hit snooze only to be reminded by my lovely husband that I had told him before going to bed not to let me do that. "Jen, aren't you getting up?" "You said you were going, I'm just reminding you." Thanks honey. It was hard to run this morning, not used to it but definitely glad I got it over with. Things got better after school when I stopped by the post office and picked up my new (RED) IPOD! I've been borrowing a friends but it's just not the same. I got a really good deal on EBAY and was surprised when I turned it on in the car and there was still music on there. Weird how somebody across the country could have a very similar taste in music. I'll get all straightened with playlists and such tomorrow.

The Bachelor + The City = No Workout Monday :(

I really did have good intentions. Come home, change, then head back out to get a running workout in. Well, here I am a little after nine and workout never came and I never got up to just do it. :( Figured out if I'm going to fit it in after work and tutoring, I must have clothes ready to go in the car. Otherwise I get trapped. On a brighter note did anyone watch The Bachelor? It was sooooo good and the next two weeks look even better. I'm hoping he'll pick Melissa in the end. Now I'm on to The City. Really do need to get to bed early, must get to the gym in the AM otherwise we might have a repeat of tonight!

P.S. Got a phone call from the radio station I won the Valentines dinner package from bright and early this morning (6:40 AM). They just wanted to see how things had gone Friday night at Lansky's. Seemed a lot of people I work with were curious about it too --- It was PERFECT!

Last Day of the Weekend

We had a good time last night downtown at Rhythm and Brews. The band was really good and everybody seemed to be out. We made the mistake of leaving that place and heading to the Boiler Room. Nice place, good musis but WAY TOO PACKED. They usually have their nice patio open in the back but last night it was closed for remodeling. Too bad, that led to people trying to squirm through to get to their designated standing only spot. Oh well. The hubby is out to play golf this afternoon and I'm about to get ready to join the girls for lunch. Sure I could go up to school and catch up on work, but that's what tomorrow is for!


Oh yeah, our friend Erica from college station was telling us pictures like these are all the rage up there:

A group pictures of everyone's feet whose out with you. ?????????

I Love You Now Like I Loved You Then

I saw this really cute idea online that I said I would try and make for Robert, a deck of cards titled 52 Reasons i Love You but I find myself here on the evening of Valentine's Day with no deck of cards. So what's my solution?

14 Reasons I Love You

1. You LOVE me for ME.

2. June 28, 2008 - I Love You Now (More), Like I Loved you Then

3. For that funny, uncontrollable laughing that only happens in rare occasions.

4. For being able to explain things to me using the craziest ANALOGIES I have ever heard.

5. For the drive you have to make our lives the BEST they can be.

6. For your LOVE to travel.

7. For being a RISK-TAKER, because I am not. (at least not as big as you!)

8. For Believing that I can do ANYTHING I set my mind to.

9. For your chicken KISSES.

10. For your LOVE of GOOD food.

11. For wanting to LOOK your best every morning. (spending lots of time in front of mirror!)

12. For always asking "Right Jen?"

13. For our summers at the Beach.

14. For being YOU.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Well, we had an AWESOME time last night on our little adventure. The limo picked us up about 7:45 and drove us to Lansky's. They had a nice booth set aside for us and provided EXCELLENT service the entire night. We started off with some calamari, then a couple of ceasar salads and for our main entree the 32 oz PorterHouse for two. The wine was perfect, the mariachis were "romantical" and it was a great end to our hectic week. We left feeling like royalty, they did a fantastic job.

This morning we both had to be up early for inservices. I got back around 1 and started to do the one thing I don't LOVE ---clean! The rest of the afternoon we spent watching TV, drove around looking at houses--which I do LOVE and are now getting ready to go out downtown with friends. We had a great time last time we were out there and are looking forward to hanging out with our friends.

Funny How Things Turn Out

Every morning I try and get to school by 7:25. Well Tuesday I was running late and was just turning onto the street that leads to my school when I heard the DJ on the radio announce it was time to play something like Name that Tune. I heard the first few notes and knew the song immediately--If You Ain't Lovin' by Mr. George Strait. I dialed the number to the station and was surprised when the DJ answered. I gave him the answer as I drove up to the parking lot. He congratulates me and informs me I'm the winner of two tickets to see the Vipers play (arena basketball), a dozen chocolate covered strawberries from City Cafe (yummy), and a couple of Cd's. That's fun, we have yet to make it to one of the games and chocolate covered strawberries are always nice. As I'm getting off the car, he's telling me something about another giveaway but I'm so focused on hurrying to the door I'm not paying too much attention. Well this morning I get a call from the station saying that I've won their Valentine's Dinner Package. Uh, what package? Turns out when I won on Tuesday they entered me into this dinner package giveaway and when they drew names this morning I won! Great, since Robert and I didn't have any solid plans for V-Day. Where to I ask. The lady tells me a LIMO will be at our house to pick us up at 8:00, drive us to the restaurant (Lansky&Brats) where we will enjoy a full course meal, music and then pick us up and drive us back home. As soon as I had a break I called Robert to share the good news, his first response "Jen, is this a joke? Are you sure about this?" Took a couple of hours to sink in apparently because then I got this text "That's awesome, can't wait!" Me neither!!!

Happy Birthday Stacy!

Tonight we all got together and celebrated Stacy's birthday (actual birthday is tomorrow but what's a day early?). We met at Carinos and enjoyed yummy food, good wine and lots of laughs. Conversation topics included work, kids, significant others and even plastic surgery. By the time my husband got home from work I was already starting to get ready and he asks "Am I not invited?" What do you respond to a question like that when you've already planned on a girls night only dinner? I guess he saw the answer in my face because he responded "that's ok, you go." The picture to the right is evidence of just some of the damage we did. Always amazing how when we all get together we manage to talk ourselves into committing to something that might seem a little over our heads. Tonight it was this:

It's a six person relay marathon on May 16th in Corpus. There's no way I'm letting forget about this one. I've been wanting to do now for a couple of years and this might finally be the year it gets done!

What Will I Do?

Today was an eventful day at school to say the least. We benchmarked all day and I really do feel bad for my little ten year olds who have to sit there all day long trying to finish up their 44 math problems. Just doesn't seem fair. Witnessed two events today with parents that really made me ask myself what will I do if my children are ever in that situation.
Event 1: Student has hard time staying quiet while testing. Student is talking, humming, being disrespectful to others and at times walking around. Rest of class is losing focus. Teacher asks student several times to stop, others are testing, not another word please. Student responds "word" and smiles. Again teacher asks for no more noise to which student says "noise" and smiles. During break teacher calls parent, parent talks to student. Some change in behavior but not much. Parent comes to pick up child and class can hear the yelling outside. What would I do?
Event 2: Seems student forgot to do math homework. Parent comes to pick student up and asks teacher if all homework was turned in. When teacher responds no, all can see anger in parents face. Parent yells at student in front of all which then leads to argument between mom and dad again in front of all. What would I do?

It's a tough question, but I hope I always remember to be respectful and make sure that my kids really understand why I'm disappointed or upset. Should they be afraid of their parents? Events above just didn't seem right.

Suupppeer Excited about my First Giveaway Win!!!!

So today started off like any other manic Monday. Rushed to get to work, taught all day (no breaks, other than PE), tutored for an hour, came home, changed, went to a spinning strength class (30 minutes straight high level instensity, note to people who make spinning bikes--why aren't those seats more comfortable?), cooked dinner for Robert and a friend and then finally was able to log on and check my email and blogger updates. Things turned around when I visited Nina's page and saw this:
Jen from Jen & Rob is the winner of the Big Time Giveaway — I know she’ll look great sporting that adorable green watch by Pedre.
What? I won??? Needless to say I was supppeerrr excited. Can't wait to try it on! Thanks for hosting the giveaway Nina! Here's a picture of it:

I then went out to throw the trash and remembered I hadn't checked the mail. My pendant from http://reminisceheirlooms.blogspot.com/ had arrived! I loved it and know I'll definitely be ordering more for myself and others in the future. This is what the final product looks like:

Birthdays All Around

Seems February is filled with many birthdays for friends. Last night we had a good time at Dolly's birthday party, this afternoon was fun at Peter Piper for little Emma and I'm looking forward to winding down on Wednesday at Carino's for Stacy's birthday. It's hard to believe Sofie's twin girls will be turning one this month too! Cake, cake and more cake --love it!

Things to do in 1 hour 7 minutes

Well considering it was a Saturday morning I could have :

a. slept in
b. watched Oprah, The View on DVR
c. gone out to breakfast with the hubby
d. RAN my Personal Best in the Edinburg 10k.

I chose D and am so proud of myself. My only goal this morning was to get through the whole thing without stopping and improve my time from the last race. I did both! I had fun out there, there was thousands of people and at times the wind was horrible but the sense of accomplishment is worth it. Mariana did awesome too, all 6.2 miles without stopping! Next big race the Statesmen 10k in Austin!

On the Eve of the Edinburg 10K

So tomorrow will be exactly four weeks since I ran/walked the 10k at the beach. How do you celebrate that? By running another one and finishing with a BETTER time. Mariana, her dad and I will be part of the thousands of people running through the streets of Edinburg in their annual 10k. Last time I went out to run was yesterday and it was a 5 miler so we'll see if that helps or hurts tomorrow. Tonight I had some pasta for dinner, and just relaxed. Although I know I won't be anywhere near these guys in the picture, I will finish and without stopping. (Hopefully!)

Date Night Debut, Week ReCap

After browsing several blogs, I thought that maybe Robert and I should try date night. We are so busy with work that even when we do stay home for dinner all we seem to talk about is work. Then its a little TV and then sleep. We made a promise to ourselves that from now on every Thursday (may switch to Fridays once Robert is done reffing basketball) would be our "date night." A night where we go out, have a nice dinner. couple of drinks maybe and really focus on each other and things besides what happens between 8-5. So tonight was date night debut. We had dinner at Logan's with our friends Ernie and Brenda. Food was good, conversation was fun and I'm glad we did it. Looking forward to our next one.

So tomorrow is finally FRIDAY!!!!! It seems that the deeper we get into the semester the longer the days and weeks get. This week was hard. Harder than many in the past. I remember yesterday as we were warming up for spinning the instructor saying "Is anyone feeling stressed?" I was quick to say yes. He said well hopefully this class will help relieve some of that. I spent the rest of the class thinking about my answer (and in pain). Am I really that stressed? Should I be?
The CORRECT answer is NO. I have a job that enables me grow everyday as a person, am married to someone who loves me for ME, have friends I can always count on and a family like no other. So am I stressed? No, I'm grateful. :)

Installing A husband

In my inbox today:

Dear Tech Support ,
Last year (7 months really) I upgraded from Boyfriend 5.0 to Husband 1.0 and noticed a distinct slow down in overall system performance, particularly in the flower and jewelry applications, which operated flawlessly under Boyfriend 5.0 . In addition, Husband 1.0 uninstalled many other valuable programs, such as:
Romance 9.5 and Personal Attention 6.5,
and then installed undesirable programs such as :
NBA 5.0, NFL 3.0 and Golf Clubs 4.1 .
Also Conversation 8.0 no longer runs, and Housecleaning 2. 6 simply crashes the system.
Please note that I have tried running Nagging 5.3 to fix these problems, but to no avail. What can I do?
Signed,
Desperate

DEAR DESPERATE ,
First, keep in mind, Boyfriend 5.0 is an Entertainment Package, while Husband 1.0 is an operating system. Please enter command: ithoughtyoulovedme.html and try to download Tears 6.2 and do not forget to install the Guilt 3.0 update.
If that application works as designed , Husband 1.0 should then automatically run the applications Jewelry 2.0 and Flowers 3.5. However, remember, overuse of the above application can cause Husband 1.0 to default to Grumpy Silence 2.5 , Happy Hour 7.0 or Beer 6.1.
Please note that Beer 6. 1 is a very bad program that will download the Farting and Snoring Loudly Beta. Whatever you do, DO NOT under any circumstances install Mother-In-Law 1.0 (it runs a virus in the background that will eventually seize control of all your system resources.) In addition, please do not attempt to reinstall the Boyfriend 5.0 -program These are unsupported applications and will crash Husband 1.0 .In summary, Husband 1.0 is a great program, but it does have limited memory and cannot learn new applications quickly. You might consider buying additional software to improve memory and performance. We recommend · Cooking 3.0 and Hot Lingerie 7.7.
Good Luck! Tech Support

More Great Giveaways!

Nina, at accordingtonina.com is hosting some great giveaways this week. If you haven't visited her blog go by and take a look at all the fun things she's giving away.

Hanky Panky & Valentine's Day

Don't these two things go hand in hand? The Blue-Eyed Bride at http://akincarroll.blogspot.com/ is hosting a great giveaway for Valentine's Day. Swing by her blog for your chance to win this awesome Hank Panky gift set from Nordstroms.

SHUT UP!!!!! Love you KTEX!

Got home today and found this in my inbox:

Congratulations, you are one of our qualifiers to meet George Strait in San Antonio, courtesy of Rivera's Machinerey in Donna. Please print this email, bring it with you and your ID the day of the drawing. The complete list of rules will be available the day of the drawing for your review. All qualifiers MUST check in between the required time.

Keep your fingers crossed for me to get up close with him:

Stationary Giveaway

Just recently, I've become addicted to stationary. Who doesn't love monogrammed stationary? Go visit this great site http://jeffandmandyrose.blogspot.com for your chance to win 20 monogrammed flat cards in the color of your choice and the file on CD for you to print out more!

Mrs. Mojito and Valentine's Giveaway

The first blog I started to follow was this one http://makemineamojito.blogspot.com. She's having a yummy Valentine's Day giveaway with brownies from Fat Witch Bakery in NYC. Go visit her site and enter!

Pre Superbowl Warm-Up

My husband, like thousands of others today woke up very enthusiastic about the Superbowl this afternoon. As soon as he opened his eyes this morning he yells from the bed (I was already up and cleaning up the kitchen) "Jen, are you ready?" "Ready," I replied. "Yeah, today is the biggest game day ever Jen, what are we doing, should I bbq, where do we go?" Obviously my excitement level for the big game wasn't quite as high as his. So he gets up and starts planning his day: shower, change, get a haircut, buy meat to bbq, bbq, sit in front of TV and watch game. As lovingly as I could I reminded him of something he forgot to include in his little agenda: help wife clean up and put away laundry. He did and while he went out on his merry little way, I went to the gym to run 4.5 miles on this:



because I knew I would be eating this for dinner: