Freedom!

George Michael is coming to town in July and we just got some pre-sale tickets. I am so excited to see him live! Back in the 80's I thought Wham! was a fun band and all, but in colleg when I discovered Listen Without Prejudice I fell in love. He is such a great song writer. That album has one of the best break-up songs (Waiting for that Day) ever written. One of his most recent albums Patience also has one of my favorites songs, a happy love song called Amazing. So don't judge me when I say I love George Michael. :)

Numero Uno

Joe did a quarter distance triathlon yesterday as a warm up for his IM in Arizona in two weeks. He finished 0.6 miles of swimming, 28 miles of cycling and 6.5 miles of running in just under 2 hours and 15 minutes, which placed him 16th overall and 1st in his age group! I am so proud!

Eat Pray Love

Why have I not read this book sooner? I've heard about it from forever ago. I bought it on Thursday at Borders and just finished it. This is actually the first real book I've read all year, I am ashamed to admit. {No wait, I actually read A Thousand Splendid Suns in January. Whew!} I just haven't found anything that really interests me. And when I read, the book typically consumes me until I am finished.

But back to Elizabeth Gilbert. I have never experienced the despair she did, yet I can still relate to a lot she was going through. Her quest for spirituality. I have never been a spiritual person, but I think one reason I love yoga is that feeling of release of all other thoughts except what you are doing in that moment to get into that pose. I joke sometimes that yoga is my church (especially since we go on Sunday mornings). And I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing.

Her book touched me as I am sure it touched many people. It also inspires me. It makes me feel torn too - kind of like how my sister is kind of fancy pants but wants to be more eco-conscious too. I think sometimes I put too much importance of needing and wanting things, when things aren't really all that important. I would like to work on being a better me. This is what attracts me to scrapbooking and photography - I feel like these hobbies allow me to express myself honestly and appreciate all that I have instead of just wanting more.

I guess that is enough philosphy for one post. Thanks for listening.

Aack!

Reason #23 to color your hair: as I was brushing mine this morning, I saw the glint of something light...something white. No ma'am, that is NOT a white hair growing on me head! Alas, but it was. This short, white, wiry thing trying to pass for hair on my head. I did what any self-respecting person would do - plucked it. Ugh! So my reason for coloring/highlighting your hair: no one will know if/when you are going grey/white because no one will know your actual real hair color!

Mom, please never stop coloring your hair!

Spring

In lieu of working out this morning, I opted to take a walk around our neighborhood and take some spring photos. Living in th city gives us few options of "nature" but I did find some prettiness (and some character) around the 'hood.

Morning drama

As we were headed to the car after our run at Memorial Park this morning, Joe is like, "Uh oh." He lost the key he had and we were locked out of the car. And so began our morning quest to "get into the car." Our house is less than 5 miles from the park so we decided to run home to get the extra keys. We ran to the outside of the park, where we caught a bus that took us about a mile closer to home.

After the bus dropped us off, we began our run towards home. Along the way we ran into Jim, Joe's old running buddy, who helped us laugh about our drama. When we arrived home, Joe decided the fence was too high for him to jump without hurting himself so we woke up our upstairs tenants to let us into the gate.

Luckily Joe has an extra house key hidden under the house so we were able to get inside. Once inside we found the emergency key to my car and the extra alarm key to Joe's car. We took my car back to the park, were able to get into Joe's car so I could get my regular keys and go back home to get ready while Joe drove to work.

So our contingency plan worked. We had a few kinks but all in all we made it out ok and I still had time this morning to blog. Lesson learned, however. Always make sure you have your keys!

frameworks 3

I guess I am feeling extra-inspired today. I get daily quotes in my email and keep the ones that I love. This page uses lots of old products, one newish one (Hambly scroll rub-on) and a photo of myself from 1994. {Ack!}{This class is definitely helping me to stretch my creativity. I love this layering thing, just need more practice!}

frameworks 2

In a creating mood this afternoon. My second layout for the frameworks class is completely out of my box. I used paint and stitching on the page, both of which I love but rarely use because it takes too much time. I wish I has a sewing machine, if only to sew on my scrapbook pages.{This page is a direct scraplift of kerri lynn's page, mostly because I didn't know what I was doing. But I like how it turned out.}

Capturing a smell

The temperature outside is about 50degrees and it feels very very chilly. But the jasmine or something must be blooming because the air smells so sweet! I wish I could capture the smell in a photo, but since I can't I just wanted to jot it down so I don't forget.

Happy Easter!

Weekend update

My good friend Amy was in town for Easter and her birthday, so we celebrated on Friday night. We haven't seen many of our friends for what feels like months so we enjoyed catching up with everyone.

Here are the boys at dinner (El Tiempo)Peg and the birthday girlAmy looking less than pleased at the mariachi serenading her (hee hee)Me and my girls at The DrakeAdmiring Amy's bump (she is about 3 months preggers and having a boy!)Hanging out (Cindy was in town for a wedding so we got to catch up as well)Yesterday was a beautiful day so I recovered from the last's nights festivities at Kurt and Mike's pool while Joe did his day long workout. Darryl brought LuLu over to join in the fun as well.We are going to yoga this morning before having brunch back at Kurt and Mike's with everyone. I am looking forward to another great day, although it feels little chilly outside!

Back in my yoga groove

Last week, after my 9 mile run, I had a hard time getting into yoga. My body, especially my legs, were just uber tired. So I decided to cut back on the running, esp long runs, since I am not really training for anything in particular. The past couple days of yoga have been great and I am really enjoying it again. I guess, like anything, interest can ebb and flow. I like challenging myself with yoga and I also like to see myself getting better. Hopefully the less running thing will help.

Hump day

So the week is almost half over. Yay! This weekend we have a couple things to look forward to. Our friend Amy, who is about 3-4 months preggers, is in town to celebrate her bday so we will be going to dinner with her. And Marc has promised to see Horton Hears a Who with me, so hopefully on Sat afternoon we will do that.

Otherwise daily life has been the same ole same ole. Hopefully I will have something more interesting to say soon.

Frameworks

I am taking this short online scrapbooking class called Frameworks. The instructor, a scrapper by the name of Kerry Lynn Yeary, is very artistic and inspiring. I actually finished the "homework" she gave today, since I had the day off. I am starting to let go of making the "perfect" page and am using favorite things in my stash.

Organize

...is my word for 2008. I am trying to be more organized. Which, for me, is harder than it looks. I have a tendency to collect stuff - clutter. With our house as small as it is, we don't have much room for extra stuff. So I am doing my best to give everything a place and get rid of stuff I don't need. It's definitely a work in progress!

The weekend can begin!

Saturdays at work are usually pretty hectic, but yesterday was just long and boring. I mean who wants to be inside when the weather is 80 and beautiful, with a minimum of humidity. Spring/summer is definitely on its way!

I actually got to the park earlier than Joe this morning, but he's running longer (18 miles to my 6). I decided that I don't want to run quite as long for now, because it really tires my legs out and makes my yoga practice more difficult. I would like to start going back to boot camp to vary it up a bit and work on my abs a little more!

Next week is Joe's last long weekend workout before he starts tapering. His Ironman is 4 weekends away.

Today after I stop in at work for a bit, I plan on going to yoga then coming home to chill while Joe does his swim. Then we may go to the Menil, a free museum here in H-town as well as pick up a movie for tonight. I am looking forward to the day!

Scrappiness

I like that word. Scrapping is my therapy. To escape from the real world a bit and express myself creatively. To relive good times and remember those I love the most. I typically scrap in 12x12 size, but I have decided not to limit myself so I tried an 8.5x11 page today. I love how a 4x6 photo totally fills up the space! I came across this photo as I was doing some organizing and it totally made me smile. I cannot believe I have know my girls from opt school for almost 10 years. 10 years! Where does the time go???

Tired

I wasn't all that busy at work today, but I am worn out! I will probably post photos tomorrow, or as soon as I can.

{I will say I did receive some excellent news today that makes me very very very happy!}

12 on the 12th {ETA photos}

Today is the 12th of the month, which means I need to take 12 photos of our day. I got a couple taken already and will try to post them tonight or tomorrow morning. This is a fun little project; you (and by you I mean Ting, the one of maybe 2 people who reads this!) should try it, especially since you have been taking lots more random everyday life type of photos already.

Shoes that represent our morning run

Our yummy breakfast ofeggs with veggies and steel cut oats with apples, blueberries and cinnamon Joe's always prepared and has his working out and work clothes for tomorrow already taken outMy lunch bag: I wish I could buy everything at NM!Running a couple errands during my lunch breakA bag from one of my new favorite stores: Lululemon. I bought 2 yoga tops and a cute hoodie today.Joe and Kurt trying to figure out how to upload some program onto Kurt's laptop.
The table set up for dinnerSelf-portrait in their fabulous huge mirrorMike looking like a straight boy grilling the salmon (he also has that deer in headlights expression on his face as I surprised him with this photo)Joe anticipating dinnerThe finished dinner: salmon with green beans and rice pilaf. Delish!

We woke up at the crack again to run. I like to get the workout over with so it's not necessarily a bad thing. Tonight we are going to our friend Kurt + Mike's for dinner - they are grilling salmon - yums!

Here we go again

Another work week is starting. Boo! I can't complain however, I just had my 2nd 3 day weekend in a row, which I am thoroughly enjoying.

I spent the better part of yesterday scrapping. I had a request to post photos of the layouts, so here they are. My plan for our 2008 album is to take 12 photos on the 12th day of each month and make a layout. So it's going to be an everyday life kind of album, which has actually been kind of fun. So far I have completed January and February.

I also made a layout about the Austin marathon. I have many photos from that weekend, which I would like to make a mini-album of.
My last layout was just for fun - about a yummy red velvet cupcake I had and my love for all things dessert.
As an FYI: almost all of my layouts are created from sketches or inspiration I find in books, magazines and online. Sometimes I scraplift exactly what the original artist made, just substituting my own products. I have absolutely no desire to be published or discovered in the scrapping world, I do it 100% for myself,which is why I don't feel guilty scraplifting. I am not really all that creative, I just pretend to be. Anyways, my sis is the only person I know who scraps and she doesn't care where I get my ideas!

I will leave you with some photos of the hubs:We got up early to run hills in our gym garage. Laters!

An extra hour?

Technically we lost an hour last night, but we gain an extra hour of sun. I am looking forward to the longer days coming up.

This morning was spent working out - Joe and I ran at the park: him for 12 miles me for 9. Then I went to yoga and he went swimming.This afternoon was spent eating. I had lunch with my good friend Ree and her babies. They were so cute but definitely a handful. She is such a great momma!After meeting up with Ree I met Marc, Darah and the boys for brunch where I just had a plate of fruit and ate off of their plates. Needless to say, I am a full girl.Tonight Joe and I are going to cook some fish (locally caught catfish) and some veggies and just chill. That's all for now!