Think Bigger

Quote of the day,

"I wonder if they'll have an Outback Steakhouse in Sydney?"

~ Charlie

Honestly, I hope not.

Walk About

Australia tickets are bought and paid for.

We leave FRIDAY!

Holy SMOKES, I'm excited.

We'll spend a couple of days in Sydney



A few in Tasmania

and 10 days in New Zealand

I'm praying for travel mercies and good weather.

We can't wait!!

Pick 'Em Up and Put 'Em Down

It was a great day for a race and it was wonderful seeing

so many of your smiling faces on the course.

(Rene and her sweet sister Rose)

Charlie was such a champ and ran along to capture the day for me.

Y'all have seen pictures of our Katy Fit coach, Judy.

I loved her signage for the race:

"Great-grandma has gone wild!" (front)

"This is what a really cool great-grandma looks like" (back)

She kept our time and pace for the whole race and

helped me make it to mile 26.2.

At 71 years old, she is my inspiration to keep on truckin'.

My lovely parents and nephew, Nate, showed up to give their great encouragement.

They truly are my best cheerleaders!

Ms. Renee is definitely a super mom!

She ran with me at three points during the race and always showed up

at the times I needed to see her smiling face the most.

The Holy Spirit hust have had a hand in that :)

Praise God for great friends and family.

The race was a so fun and that's what it is all about.

Thanks and Gig 'Em Houston Marathon!

Just Somethin' Cute

The images are from the 1943 book Stunts and Tumbling for Girls by Virginia Lee Horne.

Trip of a Lifetime!

Charlie and I are probably "blowing this popsicle stand"

in a few weeks for a big 2011 trip.

The choices are:

New Zealand

(just to see where they filmed Lord of the Rings)

Argentina

Basically places that are relatively warm for this time of year.

While I would LOVE to go to Greece or Spain...or even Italy again,

the reality is, those places are flippin' colder than Montana right now.

But we're looking forward to a "fly by the seat of our pants" get away for February.

Suggestions, tips, anyone?

It's Almost Here!

And the forecast is....

 

RAIN and thunderstorms all day on Sunday.

Since I've been a little under the weather lately, I had my doc call in

an antibiotic for me yesterday and I'm already feelin' good!

Well...better, that is.

But I'm nothing but positive about it all and I am praying for a safe and FUN race.

Yes You Can - Team Hoyt

With the marathon only a few days away, I've been trying to think of motivating mental images

to help me get through those last few miles.

I got a little help tonight at our couples bible study when someone mentioned
Team Hoyt.

The lesson tonight was about the heart and what it means to truly have heart in this life.

This father/son team is moving beyond words.

If you have never heard their story, please take 7 minutes and listen to this real life love story.

Forget all the movies and hype...at the end of the day, at the end of a life journey, these are the

accompishments that matter.

 I hope their testimony touches your heart as much as it did mine.

I will have these two amazing men in my thoughts through out Sunday's race.

p.s. we are studying 1 & 2 Samuel Heart of a Renegade King.  It's a pretty amazing study so far. 

People Watching at the Galleria

Charlie cracks me up with his random e-mails through the day

and makes me smile more than he probably knows.

Today he sent me this picture message of a guy he saw in the Houston Galleria.

(Charlie's office is right next to the Galleria so he goes over to the food court for lunch sometimes...no worries, my husband doesn't frequent the cosmetic counter alone).

The sweater reminded him a recent episode of Modern Family where the dad, Phil Dunphey, wears a girly sweater according to his wife.
(I believe Mrs. Dunphey's description was
"it looks like something a teenage girl would wear to the beach")

The episode comes together when Phil takes his daughter's boyfriend to get ice cream because they had a fight and Phil was remembering his own first break-up.

When Phil gets up from the table he leaves the girly sweater at the table.

True to what only happens in T.V. world, Phil's daughter just happens to be walking by on the street,

sees the feminine sweater and thinks her ex-boyfriend was cheating on her.

Pretty hilarious.

Thanks for the pic babe!

Track Me!

So the big day is coming up this Sunday!

I am so excited to complete my second full marathon.

I would love to see all of your lovely faces on race day but if you aren't able to make it

the marathon committee has a great function that allows you to receive

my updates on your phone (like a text message) as I pass each marker:

http://alerts.houstonmarathon.com/2011/cf/RegAthleteAlert/pg_AthleteAlert.cfm?mode=entry&snap=66450297&
My bib number is 9573 and that is all you should need to enter on the site
after you set up a log in to get the texts.

Since I am slower than "molasses in January"

do not be surprised if you are getting updates 5 hours after the start time.

My goal is to finish before the street sweepers come out!

Thank you all for your support these past 27 weeks of training; it's been fun!

81 Years Young

Charlie and I spent a wonderful weekend with family and friends in Austin and Georgeorgetown.

His sweet grandma turned 81 on Sunday and we spent the day before with her

telling stories, eating and laughing.

We swung by San Antonio to see our 'ol pals, the Champans.

Since we saw them last summer they have a fresh new addition to their family.
On our way out of town we stopped by the Alamo.

I wish I could show you all the great pictures we took

but our picture card port on our laptop is giving us attitude.

**sigh**

Hopefully, Best Buy can "fix/replace" whatever's on the fritz.

Paramount Weekend

Charlie treated me to yet another wonderful classic movie at the paramount movie theater

in downtown Austin.

The 1931 showing of Frankenstein was awesome and pretty funny at times.
I shot a couple of pics with my camera phone and I got a kick out of the producer's name:
"Laemmle"
...huh....

This dapper chap did a monologe at the start of the film and closed by saying,

"well, we warned you!"

SO COOL!

Although it did make me sad how the crazy doctor treated his creation.

Thank goodness God loves us even after we go a little nuts sometimes.

I also learned the theater was built in 1913 and actors such as

Katharine Hepburn have performed on the stage.

 

There also is a hole in the ceiling above the stage/screen and a volunteer told me

the hole was drilled in 1916 when Harry Houdini performed one of his illusions.

How awesome is that?!

I totally would too...

Traveling Quote

"There is a romance to traveling. It’s as if, when you leave your hometown, you also leave yourself behind. You are free to become whatever, whoever you care to imagine.

No one can say, “Oh, it’s so-and-so, the mom” or “So-and-so the underachiever” or “So-and-so the not-nearly-as-beautiful-as-her-older-sister.”

You’re a stranger, not just to everyone else, but to yourself.

You are wide open for self discovery.

And, perhaps because of that, you are more open to the rest of the world and its stories."

What's better than a cross-eyed German...

opossum named Heidi?

Ain't she cute?

She reminds me of the opossum from The Fantastic Mr. Fox

Heidi is the best thing to come outta Germany since David Hasselhoff!

Triathlon 2012

Charlie just e-mailed me about this amazing challenge!

  We are always up for visiting new places and our outdoorsy-ness usually takes the upper hand in deciding our activities.

I've always wanted to participate in a triathlon but frankly didn't have the....ehem, "kahones" to try.

A friend who is a triathlete, Ms. Leslie Rasche, once told me she couldn't imagine just running the distance of a marathon but she enjoyed the variety of a triathlon.

She's since run her first marathon and I want to pick her brain about her triseries experience.

I think it would be so fun to do with Charlie and a great way to ease into our first triathlon.

New Memories.  That's what it's all "aboot" as our Canadian friends would say.

We've never been to Canada and we've never run together...always a first for everything, eh?

I guess I'm on my way to completing my goal of running a marathon on every continent!

The Coma Wife

My new name as dubbed by my husband.

This girl has been sleeping up to 14 hours a day

for the past 4 days.

Why am I so flippin' tired?

image

I've Learned...

Remindes me of Tangled...

Charlie and I have been on a movie marathon these past few days.

We've taken in:

The Tourist

True Grit

The King's Speech

Tangled

How do you Know

The Fighter

Lots of movies that begin with "The".

But if I'm totally honest, Tangled ranked at the top of my list; then comes True Grit at a close second.

Tangled was so clever and different from any Disney Princess movie I've seen in a while.

According to Charlie, Disney isn't going to be making princess movies any time soon, so I'm glad

they went out with a bang.
Four thumbs way up for Tangled and True Grit in our "movie goer" book.

photo via

Cookie Run!

Yesterday was the longest training run before the marathon (in 4 weeks, YIKES).

It's called the Cookie Run because everyone brings out treats for our water stations.

Each station has a sponsor and at the end of the race we all voted on the best one.

All of the supporters who come out are full of amazing spirit and there's no way I could

have done the 21 miler without their support.

The lady above in the tu-tu has finished multiple marathons and has had 2 hip replacements.

The lady in green has run 16 marathons, in Alaska, Chicago and New York (to name a few).

The lady in red, Ms. Judy, is one of our coaches and is 71. 

She just started running a few years ago and she is pretty much an anomaly in Katy Fit.

The fun Candy Land group from Luke's Locker had the best set up in my opinion.

I really hope they won the best station.

The best part of the whole day was getting to run in a new place.

The weather was beautiful and I always love those moments when I feel like I'm totally outside of the city.

The views were great to take in!

I feel psyched out to run the big'un in a few weeks and have a great group of coaches

for support along the way.

Tips for 2011

Sometimes a smile is the only makeup you need.

Gratitude is riches.  Complaint is poverty.
~ Doris Day

Your mother was a young adult once upon a time.

She does know what she’s talking about.

Your movie collection should include “Singin’ In The Rain”, “The Sound of Music”, and “Calamity Jane”.

“The most effective way to do it, is to do it.”

~ Amelia Earhart

Finish your last bite before you reach for another.

Don’t forget to floss.  This should be done at least once daily.

Don’t smoke.

“A dress should be tight enough to show you’re a woman and loose enough to prove you’re a lady.”

~ Edith Head

Always do what you feel is right, even if (especially if) it’s not easy.

“Faith is the strength by which a shattered world shall emerge into the light.”

~ Helen Keller

Never esteem yourself above anyone else.

But never esteem yourself beneath anyone else, either.

2010 in Review

We have had a full year of blessings and fun trips and adventures.

From rafting in Colorado

to zip lining in Costa Rica,

camping with great friends,

lots of dinners

A quick trip to Galveston 

Dr. Stagg came to visit and let Trip and Nate beat up on him

I made my first lobster dinner, the lobs were sad to be cooked

but I guess they were already goners anyways

took my mom to a Tyrone Wells concert

got dressed up for Halloween

Went to our first Ren Fest

Saw Ms. Stephanie get married with pre-school friends

 took a Valentine's trip to Jefferson, Texas

This has been a wonderful year and we are thankful for all of our blessings!