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. :)