White Rock Marathon

My parents came out to visit me this week and weekend, so we could go together to White Rock Marathon in downtown Dallas, TX. This was my first marathon to ever attend. And no.... I was a cheerleader, not a runner. My brother, Brad, ran his first marathon. So.... we got up at 3:30 am and got ready and made the 2 hour drive to Dallas. When we got there the traffic was horrific. Mr. McDermott, Brad's father in law, called us and told us where to meet them. We decided to by-pass the start of the race and catch up with Brad at mile markers 3, 7, 12, 21, and 26. It was neat to see all the people standing on the sides cheering for loved ones and complete strangers. There were cow bells, pom poms, signs, live bands playing, and lots of cheering and clapping to encourage the runners. We ran into a few friends that had a family member also in the race. (How cool is that?) Brad ran the 1/2 marathon with his father in law last year. He began training for this during the summer. I am so proud of him!!! What an accomplishment!

Here are a few pictures I snagged from my sister in law....






The picture on the left is of a sign Lisa, Brad's wife, made for him. Lots of runners would smile and point out the sign to other fellow runners. Seeing the cheerful face of my beautiful niece, Claire, seemed to cheer everyone up! Lisa, Brad, and Claire are in that picture. It's a photo taken right after the race ended. Thank you, Lisa and Claire, for supporting Brad during it all.... the countless hours of training that took away many, many hours of time with you. My brother is such an amazing, inspiring person. Way to go, Brad! :)

** I know the pictures are very small, I will add bigger pictures later when I snag those from my dad and download a few from my phone. :)

Thankful

Thanksgiving was really special for me this year. I was so happy to host my first Thanksgiving lunch/dinner at our house. It felt so good to be back in Texas where our family could easily come visit us. Robert's side of the family came and joined us on Saturday to celebrate, since he was on call Thanksgiving Day. I am so thankful for family! I cannot tell you how hard it was for me to live so far from family, the past 5 years in Kentucky. I am thankful for that experience.... it taught me to not take family for granted.

I am also so thankful that because I am not working this year... I can be a part of BSF (Bible Study Fellowship.) It is an amazing Bible study that dives deep into the Word of God. The questions you are asked in the study really make you think and rely on the Holy Spirit to help you gain wisdom and understanding from the Bible. My parents have been a part of BSF and I saw how much closer they came to God, and I couldn't wait for that opportunity in my life. If you ever get the chance... you should go to BSF. It has richly blessed me.

What really stood out more than anything this Thanksgiving.... is how thankful I am for my mother. She is fighting stage 4 breast cancer which has spread to her liver and now recently her lungs. I am so thankful that we got to be close friends when I left for college. We weren't always close when I was a teenager, but through both of us being teachers.... it brought us so much closer. When my mother retired from teaching, she started coming once a week to my classroom. She helped me with bulletin boards, art projects, reading to my students... and many more things. It was such a special time for both of us. My students especially thought she was the coolest.... she was Mrs. Parsons and they went to Parsons Elementary. :) I also am thankful for the time mom and I spent together preparing and planning for my wedding. We had so much fun together and spent so much time together and loved being together. I am so thankful that she could be a part of that time in my life. I treasure those experiences. I don't know if she will be here when the moment comes of when I hold my 1st baby in my arms, but I know when that time comes..... I'll know that she somehow knows and is a part of that moment. I pray that she does live to make it to that moment in my life. I am thankful that I have such a wonderful mom who set such a good example for me when my time comes to be a mother.

I'm sorry I don't have any pictures to share.... I decided to share my heart with you instead. I hope you were able to reflect on all that you are thankful for and what God has blessed you with. May God continue to bless you.

Texas Flair

I dedicate this post to all my friends out in Louisville, KY. I loved telling them about Texas while I lived there and they seemed to enjoy hearing about it. My teacher buddies and I would talk about how different things were as far as wildlife and scenery goes compared to KY. So... while I was out-and-about driving all over Texas this summer.... I decided to take a few snapshots of things I find special in TX.

First stop... Sweetwater and Roscoe, TX. You would be amazed at all the windmills in west Texas! It is quite a sight to see.



There are more than 100 windmills on this one hill in Sweetwater. There is definitely wind here to supply power!

























Next stop.... Lubbock, TX where I grew up.





These jack rabbits live on an area near the University Medical Hospital, where Robert trained for medical school. In the middle of the day they hang out under the trees. I love their long ears.

There are lots of prairie dog colonies throughout Lubbock. This colony is out on the land near Monterey Church of Christ's new location. (This is the church I grew up going to.) My dad took these pictures of the burrowing owls out among the prairie dog homes.












There is a little lake in my parent's neighborhood and during the year there are lots of mallard ducks that live there. This picture was taken by my dad this past spring. He told me that he counted 13 ducklings swimming behind their momma. In the fall there are lots of Canadian geese that land here and stay for the winter.








This next picture was taken in my backyard. One night I looked out my back window and found this beautiful moth on my back patio.



We have a lot of lizards around our yard in the summer. This one loved sunbathing out on the birdhouse I had sitting out in my "things to put up later pile." I watched him crawl over to the wing and turn from green to brown. I couldn't resist taking a picture of him soaking up some rays.



These last two pictures are not what I would call anything special about TX. You find opposums pretty much anywhere... but this one was too close for comfort. This one decided to help himself to the cat food I had put out for our cat. I was watching TV one night when suddenly my dogs started barking hysterically at the back sliding door. I looked out and saw her eating from the cat bowl, ignoring my 2 dogs barking at her inches from her face. I ran and got my camera, but she had started taking off toward the back corner of our yard. I was able to snap a few shots of her climbing up onto a storage shed for pool supplies.

Texas Tech's College Gameday

Robert and I decided to buy season tickets for the Tech football games this year, and boy was that a good decision! It has been an awesome season.... the best ever! The weekend of the Texas Tech vs Texas game, we decided to get up at 6am on Saturday and head out to the Texas Tech campus for ESPN's College Gameday. We were so excited that Tech was finally going to host this event in Lubbock. We got there around 7:15 - 7:30am. The broadcasting wasn't going to start till 9am, but we wanted to get there in hopes of being up front behind the platform. We ended up being around 5 people back. There were homemade signs EVERYWHERE!!! The crowd was so pumped up! The whole weekend was full of energy, actually the whole week leading up to the game.... according to my parents, who live in Lubbock. They told the crowd that they had never seen so many signs and that they were impressed with the energy of the fans.















Coach Mike Leach loves pirate stuff.... so there were lots of pirate signs and flags. There were even T-shirts printed with the skull and cross bones for the weekend on black T-shirts. The half time show at the game was even a pirate theme. All the members from the Going Band from Raiderland had pirate scarves on their heads and a few "retired" band members (including my cousin, Kathryn) dressed up like pirates and ran around the field passing out eye patches to fans on the front row. The flag girls held pirate flags while the band played music from the movie "Pirates of the Caribbean." During the show, the band did a skull and cross bones formation and at one point appeared to be "fighting" as they scrambled into another formation. It was a great half time show, to go with the best game ever!




You can see how close we were to the stage.... just off to the left of the back of the stage, near the goal post.











This sign was one of my favorites. It was titled, "Pirates of the Plains." Crabtree, Harrell, and Leach are pictured as the pirates.






Another favorite! It said... "Colt? More like my little pony." Colt McCoy's head was placed on a my little pony toy.






As we were leaving the Gameday event, we had to stop by and take a few pictures of out favorite features on the campus. Here we are in front of Will Rogers on his horse, Soapsuds. Soapsuds rear end faces toward the Aggies' Kyle Field. (One of the bell towers is in the background. You can hear the bells ringing as you leave the game after a Texas Tech win.) The Texas Tech Saddle Tramps decorate this statue before every home game.


This one is in front of the Texas Tech seal. I will later post a few pictures during the game, once I upload these off of Robert's cellphone. It was an amazing game. Our ears were ringing at the end of the game.... it was like we had just come from a rock concert... the fans were so loud! We stood the entire game and I had almost lost my voice... it took a week to get my voice fully back... just in time to lose it again at the Tech vs OSU game. Hope you enjoyed the pictures! It was a BLAST!

Home Improvement of the Upstairs Bathroom

When we moved into this house.... I knew of a few changes I wanted to immediately make. I knew I wanted to change the kitchen hardware and outlet/light covers from brass to brushed nickle (which I've done.) AND..... I wanted to totally change the upstairs bathroom. It was bleeding the 80s! So... this fall I went out and looked for a shower curtain and used that to base all my colors from. I knew this would eventually become a kids bathroom, so I wanted it to be bright and cheerful. Right now, it is the only bathroom upstairs.... we eventually plan to add another bathroom upstairs.

Here is what the bathroom looked like before:

















































I couldn't imagine picking out this wallpaper..... even when it was in it's prime. I couldn't wait to tear it down, so I squirted water mixed with downey and started peeling away the layers. When I got it off, I discovered there was another layer of wallpaper up there, so I tried peeling it off too.... but soon realized that I was damaging the dry wall. I went and got primar to seal it. Then decided I wanted textured walls. SO.... I decided to buy the already mixed up stuff that you just had to spread on the walls. I had never textured walls before... and it wasn't too hard. So after that dried, I painted it with primar again. Yuck.... I hated that stuff and the way it smells and would give me a high/headache. Then.... I decided to paint it this really BRIGHT green.... almost neon green. I felt it was time to have fun and just go crazy with color.

Here is the result:


Oh... first, here is the wall before I added the BRIGHT green.










And here's the crazy green.




I kept it there for a few days to see if the color would grow on me. (It didn't.) I went back to get a different color of green and had Robert come with me this time. I had lost all confidence in my ability to pick out good colors. (Which I now have gotten over.) I went with a bright lighter shade of green.... still bright, but a more muted bright. I loved the way this looked.

Here is the finished product:











I don't know if you could tell, but I changed the hardware on the cabinets to brushed nickle, as well as the towel bars and light switch/outlet covers. I also used a brushed nickle shower curtain rod. I decided to have some fun whimsical fish theme accents, such as a trash can and kleenex box cover. I tried to make this a kid's bathroom that could easily be converted into an older kid's bathroom once they get older. I hope you like the finished product..... we do. :) We plan to take out the shower/tub unit and have the wall tiled and a porcelain tub put in. We also want to change out the countertop to maybe a granite. But that will probably be in a year. I'll post that on here when that eventually happens.

Jacob's Ladder

I hate to admit that my blogging has gotten very lazy or put on the back burner. I've had quite a few projects I've been working on in my house.... so, sorry I haven't been keeping up with this. I plan to get back to business on here.

That being said.... back in August while driving to Lubbock, I decided to make a pit-stop in Abilene. I had heard and read about a beautiful sculpture, titled "Jacob's Ladder," on the Abilene Christian University campus (my alma mater.) One thing that makes this extra special for me, is that this sculpture was made by one of my favorite professors at ACU. I LOVED my sculpture class and loved how fun and care free Jack Maxwell was. If you're ever in Abilene... you should check out this sculpture in person, it is way more amazing and beautiful in person! It's on Judge Ely near the ACU Bible building, right off Interstate 20.





You can see the arches of the Bible building in the background, as well as the tower. I don't know if you can see this in the pictures... but there are words etched in the stones describing God.... pieces of verses from the Bible.





Behind the block in the foreground, stating "Everlasting," there is a small waterfall. It was so peaceful there... listening to the water and reflecting on how awesome God is!














(Below)
If you look carefully at the negative space (the space between the stones), you can see the shape of a cross. Jack is a spectacular artist.... being able to show art even in the form of space. How wonderful to use a talent God gave you to glorify Him!

Tagged

Lisa tagged me to write 7 random things about me. Here they are:

1.) I absolutely detest watermelon. I gag when I see people eating it. I can hardly stand to be in the same room, I hate the smell so bad. I also hate cantaloupe and honeydew.

2.) I have become almost obsessed with having clean hands. I guess it comes from being around 1st graders for 12 yrs. I have been known to have cracking dry hands because I've cleaned them so much.

3.) I am a neat freak when it comes to most drawers and folding laundry. When I fold socks or underwear, if it isn't matched up just right.... I'll start over and fold it again. I also restack the silverware in the drawer if I've found it to have fallen over. I have other drawers that I don't care about keeping organized.

4.) I love nature. I love being out in the middle of nowhere, far away from people and just listening, breathing, smelling, seeing all that is around me. I feel rejuvenated when I escape from my everyday life. I also love watching the birds in my yard. I'll sit at the window with my 2 dogs and watch birds.

5.) I am NOT a morning person. You will never find me in bed before midnight.... unless I am sick. I wish I was a morning person... then I'd be out watching all the early birds out in my yard.

6.) I love candles but don't like to light them. I have a very hard time lighting a candle that has never been lit before, I don't like the way they look once they've been burned.

7.) I lose all control over my emotions during really sad times. I have been known to be crying really hard and then just out of the blue.... start laughing hysterically. I've done this at church, at funerals, and during very sad moments in movies. I know this sounds horrible... but I really can't help it. (Just ask my dad about watching the movie "A Dog Called Skip," I just about embarrassed him to death during that movie.)

Well I hope you aren't too freaked out about my weirdness. Anyway... I tag Michelle and Holly.

Day 11: Dubrovnik, Croatia

When we arrived in Dubrovnik we were surprised to see 7 other cruise ships. This made getting around challenging. Dubrovnik was breathtakingly beautiful!!! I would LOVE to visit here again. The sea and trees were so pretty! The old Dubrovnik was full of neat shops and very friendly people. This was one of my favorite stops for sure! Old Dubrovnik is surrounded by a huge brick wall and is located on the Dalmation coast of the Adriatic Sea.

A close up of the wall surrounding historic Dubrovnik

When we walked up to the entrance to the wall, I felt like we were about to enter a castle.

Onofrio's Fountain, a free public drinking fountain


A close-up to the fountain and a musician playing in front of the fountain

Some of the people of Dubrovnik

Stradun, Dubrovnik's main street

Some of the beautiful architecture:

Church of St. Blasius
The Orlando statue the symbol of a free city

The Cathedral of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary is in the background and Rector's Palace is to the left in that same picture

Another view of Rector's Palace

Dubrovnik bridge of Franjo Tuđman

Some of the lifeboats we tendered in on

A view of the Adriatic Sea.... isn't the water beautiful?

Robert, me, mom, and dad as we are waiting to ride the tender back to the ship.