La Isla Bonita

Robert, Charlie and I all love the beach. We met there 6 years ago, have spent the last five summers there and were married there last year. For the last month we have been trying to get out there for a weekend but it hasn't worked out. Today it finally did. He had plans to play basketball with friends and I wanted to get a long run in today, but instead we decided to drive the hour out to the beach and are so glad we did. The weather was great, the food at Daddy's was delicious and we beat the Spring Break crowd! After lunch we drove by our reserved spot at Isla Blanca Park for the months of June & July:


This is where we park our RV for the summer and leave all others worries behind. We also had to stop at the old Radisson Resort, where we got married 8 months ago for a drink at the:

I really believe these are the hands down the best margaritas around:

On our way home we made a stop at our actual wedding ceremony sight, the historic Port Isabel Lighthouse:

One more pic before leaving:


Can't wait to go back!

W.O.W 5K and Fun at the Carnival

Despite staying out a little late last night to celebrate my friend Mari's birthday downtown, I dragged myself out of bed this morning to run in UTPA's annual Working on Wellness 5k. The winds were horrible but the race itself went well. It's basically a run around and through the university. I finished under my goal time of 30 minutes with a time of 28:12. This afternoon we drove out to Hidalgo to go to Borderfest. I swear I felt like a little kid again. We had so much fun riding the carnival rides, loading up on funnel cakes, tacos and other stuff that's not so good for you and watching some fun entertainment. Best part was probably standing in the line to ride one of the rides and having a 12 year old ask me "Are you in line or just waiting for your kids?" What??????? "Yes I'm in line for the ride." I looked for her when we tried the bumper cars but she wasn't there. Oh well, took out my frustration on one of Robert's friends instead!

Totally Became this Person Today

That's right, that was me just now at HEB. I really was only going in quickly to grab something for lunch tomorrow. They only had three registers open, there's at least three people behind me and when the cashier runs my check, it won't read it! He's looking at me like don't you have a debit card or something? Yes I do, but there was this security breach thing at my bank....So embarassed! Can't wait for my new check card.

No Chewing Paper

Every day is a new experience with my fifth graders. Today on the way to Spanish somebody rushes up to me and says "Mrs. Lopez, so-and-so is chewing gum." I turn around and sure enough so-and-so is chewing something but she kindly takes it out and holds it out for me to show that it's not gum she's chewing, "it's only paper." Nicely I remind her there is no chewing gum or paper in class, we just don't do that. One student is quietly listening and comes up to me before entering the Spanish classroom and says "Uh by the way, you do know there are some people who put grass in paper and then smoke it, so technically some people do chew paper." Always an experience I tell you, always.

Thankful Tuesday

On the first Tuesday of March, one third of the way through 2009, I'm thankful for
1. Round 1 of state mandated testing is over! Can't tell you how much we dread this as teachers. Poor kids who have to sit through it all day. :(
2. Being able to run just over 100 miles since January! This started off just me trying to get out and do some physical activity. Now I look forward to it just about every evening. It's amazing how you push yourself to new limits.Next goal:200.
3. Spring Break is now only 8 school days away! At this point it doesn't matter if we go anywhere or not, it will just be nice to relax.
4. My husband who knows what those red lights mean on the dash of my car. I worried yesterday on my way to school when one of those came on. All he had to do was look at it to see that OBVIOUSLY it means the air pressure in the tires is low.
5. It's already March---only two more months in the school year! Not sure who will be happier that last day me or the kids.

I Waited 6 Days & 2 Hours for Him to Do That?????

I've been waiting patiently all week for tonight's finale of the Bachelor. While cooking dinner I would glance back and forth at the TV hooked on his every word. I even ran to Wal-Mart mega quick to grab some goodies for my kids tomorrow. After rushing back home I started watching again only to get to the end and for him to dump Melissa, the girl he proposed to????? I went from loving him to really disliking him!!!! I just wanted to scream!!! Can you tell Molly wasn't my favorite? Honestly, how do you fall in love with two people at the same time?
On a brighter note dinner turned out great. I tried slow cooking baby back ribs in the oven and they turned out great. Robert kept checking up on me the whole time they were cooking. He didn't seem to believe I could get them done. Well I did and he loved them!

UPDATE
Here's the recipe:
http://recipe.aol.com/recipe/tyler-florence-s-bbq-ribs/79964

Let's Get Physical...Physical

Not sure what got into us today but we were up early, had breakfast and visited with family and it was only 10AM. Robert decided he was going to cut the yard (a workout in itself) and then join some of his friends for a few games of basketball. I'm trying to save my long runs for Sundays so I had prepared myself mentally all weekend for a 7 miler today. So while he was away playing BB I headed to the gym. I surprised myself and was able to get through the 7 miles without passing out. By the time I got home Robert was almost done with dinner and it was nice not to have to worry about that. Needless to say that with all this physical activity we were just a little tired this evening. He played a couple of games on the XBOX while I watched Brothers & Sisters. Before he went to bed he mumbled something that sounded like I Love You. Apparently even his mouth is too tired!