Goodbye 2007

Wow - the last day of the year. I can hardly believe it! I would say 2007 was a pretty good year. We had some trying times but hopefully 2008 will bring lots of new additions (or at least one) to our family (and by family I mean our extended family although I am not opposed to making our little family of 2 a bit bigger either!).
oxox

Aack!

I cannot believe the new year is about to begin. Where did 2007 go? I always have so many plans to get organized, be healthy, workout more...the usual. My main goal for last year was to decorate our house. Well...I didn't decorate the WHOLE house, but I did get the living room pretty much finished. I am counting that! This year I would like to BE MORE ORGANIZED and PROCRASTINATE LESS. I think I need to spend less time thinking about doing stuff and more time DOING it. The problem is always the execution, though, isn't it? After a long day of work sometimes it's just easier to just watch some mindless Gossip Girl :) !
I actually am working a bit today - fortunately yesterday wasn't as busy with treatments as I thought it woud be so it shouldn't take too long. We are planning on taking down the Christmas decorations (boo!) and cleaning out our back closet as a start to our organization.
Mom and Dad are supposed to be calling us this morning/afternoon when they get back from their cruise and we will be having lunch with them. I am looking forward to seeing them before the new year!
Joe and I saw No Country for Old Men last night. Excellent movie. Not your typical Hollywood movie at all, which Joe likes. The guy who played the psychopath was extremely creepy and I am surprised I was able to fall asleep without any weirdo nightmares! I guess I am growing up and finally learning to distinguish fact from fiction.

TGIF

Too bad Fridays aren't as good when one has to work over the weekend! That's ok. We have next Tuesday off and then the next weekend off so at least the past couple weeks have been short!
Joe's parents are leaving tomorrow so tonight I think Mom is cooking us dinner and we are going to hang out. We have been playing lots of games: Cranium and Scategories, so I'm thinking we will do more of the same tonight. I need to take a photo of everyone doing their charades for Cranium!

Christmas recap

Photos from the last couple weeks. The holidays are so much fun...I wish they weren't over so soon!
This is Kelly's (alan's sister)tree. Love those CR ornaments!
Here is the ornament I received at our gift exchange. Isn't he cute?
I love this row of wreaths our neighbors have on their fence. What a clever idea!
A photo of our little tree.
The lights we wrapped around the tree out front.
Kachinski men off to the golf course.
Kachinski girls making gingerbread houses.

The finished product

The artists with their art.
Eating the art!


The Kachinskis
Presents!
My favorite present from the sweetest hubby in the world. Love ya Joe Joe!

Back to the grind

The day AFTER Christmas is always the worst, especially if one has to go back to work! Joe's family will be in town for the rest of the week, which gives me an excuse to skip yoga this week. As much as I love it, sometimes you need a break, KWIM? Right now I am just trying to get ready to go back to the office...it's hard...

Merry Christmas

Joe and I are spending the rest of our Christmas afternoon just chillin' on the sofa. We spent the morning with the Kachinski clan, opening presents and eating good food. We got some fun gifts, but my favorite is my new bag! {picture to come soon}
Because I am not very religious (or religious at all), Christmas really means being with family and appreciating what you have. While I love receiving gifts, I really love giving gifts and spending time with loved ones. I miss my Tinger, Mom, Dad and John, but will be seeing them soon!

Winter is here

...apparently! Yesterday the high was in the 70s. We had lunch outside with Joe's siblings at one of our favorite eats, Empire Cafe.
The cold front came through last night. The temperature in Joe's car read 34degrees when we went out to the park to run. I do say that I enjoy running in the cold MUCH more than runnning in hot and humid weather!
Today was pretty much our ideal morning. Wake up early to run, grab some coffee (sugar-free non-fat gingerbread or cinnamon dolce lattes - good stuff!) and bagels for breakfast, rest a bit, yoga (although my right hamstring is bothering me and I was quite uncomfortable during some poses), and the grocery store before coming home for lunch.
The in-laws were supposed to arrive yesterday but their flight was delayed. They are in the air as I type and will be landing around 5pm. Poor things, they spent the whole night at Newark airport. NOT the best way to start a holiday vacation! But they will be here soon and the Kachinski clan will be together for Christmas.
I like not travelling for Christmas but I miss my fam. I am glad we will be seeing Ting, John and Yaya in February for the Austin marathon!

Who knew?

Apparently one of the hottest trends with the under-10 set is Webkins. Yes, they are collectable stuffed animals a.la Beanie Babies, but you don't just play with them, you play online with them.Once you buy one you enter him in your page and create an online world for the pet. You can buy stuff, play games, and even have online friends. It's crazy!

Girls Christmas

For the past 3 out of 4 years (we missed last year), my girlfriends and I get together for an ornament exchange. The 1st year we held it at LK, and the 2nd at TJ. This year we had dinner at Sorreno's, a wonderful seafood and Italien restaurant just up the road from me. I got a cute snowman ornament that I will post if I get off my lazy butt to take a photo of it.
I did make everyone take a group shot at the end of dinner. And if you're pushing and tell the complete stranger taking the photo to come a little closer, your shot goes from this...to this...to this... The moral of this story: always come 10 steps closer from where to are standing to take another exposure. You may be surprised at what you get!

Whirlwind weekend

Our good friend AP was in town from London this weekend so we spent most of our free time with him and our friends. Friday night after yoga we met him, his parents and sister/bil at Segaris, a small seafood restaurant that A loves. Afterwards we met the boys at Meteor for a few drinks.
Last night A had a party at his sister's house for everyone to get together. It was great seeing all our friends in one place! We went to Etro for some 80's music and then habitat for some house music. The party ended, like many do, at Club Rue until the wee hours of the morning!
Today Kirt and Mike (the new/replacement gays) had us over for a yummy brunch and we met everyone at Berry Hill. I just got home because I needed a little break and rest from it all...Meteor is hosting an all Madonna party tonight that I thought I wanted to go to, but I may stay at home and catch up on DDR shows instead...

love this!

two new e's for my collection
Originally uploaded by Bird in the Hand

love this too!

new wall o' art
Originally uploaded by Bird in the Hand

Boston, here we come!

Joe finished his marathon in 3 hours and 10 minutes, which is fast enough to qualify him for the Boston. I think he is going to wait until 2009 to race, but I am so proud of him! All his training has definitely been paying off!

Arlington once again

We are on taking our last trip of the year the weekend! This seems weird to say, yet I am slightly relieved because I feel like I have no time at home in Houston just relaxing. Joe is running the White Rock Marathon and I am running the half marathon on Sunday. Our next trip is not until the middle of January next year, when we go skiing with Peg, Ken, Joey, Linh, Bob and Gyee. I didn't realized how much we travelled until I sat and thought, what did I do all year. Went here or there, when I wasn't working! I guess we should take advantage while we can!
I am glad we get to see mom and dad once last time before the year is up. I would definitely like to visit them more next year.

Lights!

We put up our Christmas lights last night. I need to take a photo, but keep forgetting. Next week, we are getting a tree. I am going to get in the holiday spirit if it kills me!

Back in the swing of things

The last few weeks have been quite the whirlwind, with Thanksgiving holiday, busy work and a weekend in MN. I like my routine and it's hard for me to get back into them when they are interrupted. This coming weekend is our last travel weekend of the year (that sounds so weird to say!) and we will be spending the last 3 weekends of Dec at home. I am most looking forward to that!
This week I think we are going to put up our Christmas lights and try to get into the holiday spirit. Sometimes it gets harder and harder every year. Wish us luck!

Survived the cold

We arrived in Minneapolis to this...and this...But it didn't end up so bad.

Wish me luck!

The high in Minneapolis, MN is going to be 24F on Sat, 27F on Sun and 21F on Monday! I cannot even IMAGINE how cold that will be, especially if you factor in the wind chill factor. I hope my clothes are warm enough - I just didn't want to go buy some winter clothes for 2 days in the cold.
On the up side, I think it will be fun to see some snow (only for a couple days though - Houston doesn't have the greatest weather but I like the mild winters!).

Fun photos from last weekend

We had a great relaxing 5 whole days off with nothing planned over Thanksgiving. And it was still too short!
We shopped at at fellow CDSers store in Fort Worth...

We ran the Fort Worth turkey trot in the cold cold weather on Turkey day...

We ate too much food the entire weekend...

We had fun goofing off with the family...

We learned to cook some Chinese dishes (namely Chinese fajitas!)

We saw the lighting of the tree in downtown Fort Worth (I've never seen so many peeps in FW!)
We ran in the miseable weather on Sat morning.
And we took our traditional family photos.
Life doesn't get much better than this!

Where does the time go?

December is almost here. I am starting to get in the Christmas spirit but sometimes things can become overwhelming. I have all these ideas in my head that I would like to do, but the execution is the difficult part (for me at least!). I have already ordered my Christmas cards, thank goodness, but I haven't even started on my Christmas shopping. That's why I love e-shopping...I don't have to leave the comfort of my own home!
I am a little annoyed that I will be out of town for work this weekend, when it could have been a nice weekend at home, catching up and getting ready for Christmas. I am trying to let it go and not get stressed about it but, again, sometimes I let little things get me all worked up. I think I inherited this personality trait from my mom.
At least I have some new music to listen to

(I wish I could have seen them live! Hopefully they will be touring next year. Simon's voice is still fabulous and John Taylor is still hot!)

Thankful

The last 5 days went by way too fast. We ate way too much and didn't do much of anything but that's the way I like it!
We have a crazy family but I love them!

Almost home

Just one more day of work until we are on the road to Arlington. (The road to Kona somehow sounds cooler.) Five whole days of resting and relaxation with the fam. I cannot wait. If you are reading this post, please be ready to take tons and tons of photos!

It's funny how I refer to Arlington as "home," even though I haven't lived there for almost 10 years (eek - I will have been in Houston exactly 10 years this coming fall!). I guess home is where I feel comfortable, safe and loved, no matter where the physical location is.

I wish I could dance

We had a FABULOUS time last night watching SYTYCD live! They are too cute and it makes me wish I were 15 again! They performed many of our favorite dances and some new ones as well. Now I wish the new season would start soon...

I forgot

how much I miss her...

and her...

and him...

350th post!

I am off to SF in the wee hours of the morning. I don't think I will be able to post over the weekend, so don't miss me too much!

Brrr

The cold front came through last night so it was about 55 degrees this morning while we were running. I love the cool weather, I just wish it would last! Two more days until I am off the the city by the bay to visit my bff, Shaila! (I am lucky because I have 2 peeps I consider my bfs, besides my dh Joe - Tinger and Shay.)

The Kid is 40

Sigh. I can't believe so many of our friends are turning 40! I don't feel that old...can I still be in my 20s, please?

Berry Hill

We spent another afternoon doing nothing but hanging out at Berry Hill. When are we going to grow up?