"Project" Update

Many of you have been asking how the 5K Training is going. It has been going good so far. Every workout is a challenge for me and I thought it might get easier as I go, but that has not been the case so far. I just started week 4 of the training. My sister and I decided to do week 3 twice because it was so difficult. I ran for 12 minutes straight tonight--the longest time yet! I realize that for some this might not be a big deal, but for me it is huge. I run really slow--more of a jog really--but I went a little over a mile tonight. I am very proud because 4 weeks ago, I wasn't sure if I could run for one minute much less one mile. Maybe there is still hope that I can actually do 5K in the end. Wish me luck!

In other news, we had Bobby's Christmas party on Saturday night in San Marcos at the new Embassy Suites convention center. It was fun! We spent the night at the hotel and finished up on our Christmas shopping on Sunday.

Yesterday was the funeral for my friends husband. His name is Timothy Kostelnik. The rosary and funeral were even harder than I imagined and my heart just aches for my friend Jennifer and her two precious little girls. Please continue to pray for them. They will need to be covered in prayer during this difficult time and season.

The week will be busy for us...getting presents wrapped and beginning our many Christmas celebrations. Thursday night, Bobby and I are having his Dad and Mil over and his Brother, Jason and his family over for dinner and to exchange our gifts. With all the places we have to go on Christmas Eve/ Christmas, we always end up missing them and have to get together later to exchange gifts. Friday, I am having my Christmas outing with the ladies from work. We are going to New Braunfels for some pottery painting, lunch, then off to Fiesta Texas for the evening. Hopefully it won't be too cold. Sunday, we are having our Christmas with Bobby's mom and family. Monday, another get together with the ladies from work with our spouses for dinner and a gift exchange. Tuesday, we are having Christmas at my Mom's. Wednesday, with the Billimek's. Thursday with the Schumacher's for lunch and Chumchal's for dinner! Wow..that really sounds like alot when you put it all on paper! Hopefully I will get some pictures put up soon of all of these events and I know I owe you all an update on our FINISHED dining room--Bobby did a great job!

I hope that all of you have a SAFE and BLESSED Christmas.

Please Pray

The husband of one of my dear friends died late last night in a car accident. He was 30 years old. Please pray for her and their two little girls as they deal with this tragedy. I know she is surrounded by family and friends. Please also pray for his family in this difficult time. He was a good man and husband and father and will be missed dearly. Please pray that my friend will be covered with a peace that surpasses all understanding and that the hand of God be over her and their families as they cope.
Melanie

New Project!

Okay...so I know I sort of left you all hanging with my "new project" announcement! I hope that I don't have you all worked up over nothing. To most of you this will be no big deal at all, but to those of you who know me and are somewhat aware of my struggles you will understand what a big deal this is.
It is no secret that I have struggled with losing weight forever!! I actually have never really been successful at it (sadly.) It is very frusterating for me and for those around me. I go through spurts where I am really dilligent about working out, spurts where I do really well with my diet but for some reason I obviously just can't figure out how to lose weight. Obviously (maybe sooner obvious to those around me than to myself) I need to do more. I need to eat better...always...I need to stick to a workout plan that 'works.' I AM trying! I feel like I am ALWAYS trying. When does it end? I have come to realize that apparently it NEVER ends. Once I figure all this out I will have to do it FOREVER! That is a hard realization to get to. Especially for someone who apparently loves food. Nonetheless, no matter how it appears to everyone else, I truely feel like I DO TRY and when nothing ever works I just want to give up. I am tired of being fat. I am tired of weighing myself every week after "Trying" and nothing much changing. Sure I might lose a couple of pounds here and there...but somehow I gain them back and we are back at square one!
Now that you know a little background...back to my New Project--square one if you will. I must preface this with....I am not a runner. Sure...I ran in high school...but I don't think that really counts now..10 years and lots of pounds later. I have been told on numerous occasions by different people, when talking about my struggle with weight...."I bet if you could just run a couple miles a day..you would lose weight." I would say back..."maybe..if I could actually run." I mean...I literally know 'how' to run...but actually running is a different story. I just say I can't do it...well...because I don't think I can. It is very intimidating to me....I am scared to just try it...for fear that I know I can't even jog for 5 minutes without feeling dead.
Back to my project....I was watching the news the other night about the marathon in San Antonio last weekend. I thought to myself..."you know...I wish I could be athletic like that and run maybe a half-marathon one day." So...i started to look up training schedules for beginners to train for a half-marathon. Remember...I can't even jog for 5 minutes...I am definately a beginner. Well the schedule I found started you out at running 2 miles comfortably. Well, Crap, I thought. I can't do that...there is no way. I had to back it up a little...well alot...if I am ever gonna do this. I look up training schedules for 5K runs...that is 3.1 miles. Now this sounds alot more reasonable. I found a few training schedules that interested me. The one I settled on is this 6 week training for beginners from Nike. http://www.nike.com/europerunning/flash/train/pdfs/beginners-5k.pdf
It starts you off with 20 minute workouts--walk 1 min, run 1 min...repeat for 20 min. Now this maybe...just maybe...I can tackle. In 6 weeks I should be able to run 5K. We will see. I started on Monday. The first workout I will say...was embarrasingly hard for me. Before I did it I was thinking to myself that surely I could do at least 30 minutes of alternating between walking a running...surely. I was so beat after 20 minutes. Okay...I tell myself...this is for beginners for a reason. I did the first workout on an old treadmill. Yesterday (Wednesday), I did workout #2. I walked/ran at the track here in Gonzales. I still only did 20 minutes...it seemed a bit easier than Monday...but I am sooooo sore today. I guess I am doing something right. I talked my sister into doing this with me. She lives in Houston and we talk to each other after our workouts. It is nice to have a partner...even if in another city. We plan on doing our weekend/Sunday runs together when she comes home. My sister, April, is getting married in July '09 and we both want to lose some weight. 6 weeks will put us through the week of Christmas. We will try to run our 3 miles/ 5K the Saturday or Sunday after Christmas. At this point we have no time we want to beat ...we just want to be able to finish without killing ourselves. I will keep you all posted on how it is going week by week and I welcome anyone else who wants to try this with us to do so.
After 6 weeks we will see where we are and take it from there...if we did ok..we might start training for a 10K after the first of the year...this is my hope anyway. I still want to do a half-marathon one day. I just have to get there by baby steps.
Hopefully, if I can complete the training..I will have lost some weight and hopefully if I can keep up with running I will continue to lose weight. I have never seen a fat runner! Wish us luck and join in if you like.

Good Weekend

Bobby and I had a good weekend. On Friday night, I headed over to Shiner (well actually Dreyer) to spend some time with my girls from New Braunfels. Kaci's grandmother has a place there. When I got there, Kaci, Ida, Amanda, and Bobbie already had the campfire going strong. Maggie followed me there from Gonzales. We hung out by the fire for a while until the norther blew in. We put the fire out due the the wind and moved our party to the garage. We played drinking games and talked and ate to our hearts content. It was so great to catch up with these girls and to meet Bobbie for the first time. She is awesome just like my friends by the way. Everytime I get together with them, it is like we were never apart. I am sad that Patty and Tami weren't able to come because I miss them too, but I am glad that Saura is ok. On Saturday, Ida and Maggie left early and the rest of us played games (Skip-Bo, Chickenfoot, Phase 10, Asshole) literally all day. We had a blast just chillin with each other.
While I was hanging with the girls all weekend, Bobby was slaving away at our house. He made some great progress on our dining room this weekend. He has the new opening cut in the wall between the dining room and the living room and he had it painted with the color we had picked out. We had a little setback with the paint and we repainted it again today. I don't know what the deal is with us and picking out paint colors...but they NEVER look like we think they will. We have painted almost everything twice since we moved into this house and the dining room proved to be no exception. We were going for a Golden/mustard yellow-ish color and the first try looked VERY orange. Don't get me wrong...I love orange...but not on our dining room walls. The new color is PERFECT and now all Bobby needs to do is to get up the trim/crown molding and put the floor in. Hopefully it will be finished this week.
Bob and I had lunch at Mom's today with my mom and Damon. My mom made meatloaf and that is one of Bobby's favorite things that she cooks and she always invites us over when she cooks it...Yummy.
We are now watching the Cowboys game...hopeful that they will win!
Tomorrow I want to tell you all about a new 'project' I am going to begin. It involves a very personal issue of mine that I continue to struggle with. I am going to blog about it only to help hold me accountable.
I hope you have all had a good weekend too with your families and friends.

I'M BACK!!!

Hello Friends!
I am attempting to get back into the blogging world. I ran into Jenny (Chumchal) Popp this weekend at her grandfather's 85th birthday party. Her grandpa is Bobby's Great uncle. Her blog is one of the blogs I stalk at http://nickandjenny.blogspot.com/ . She reminded me that I need to get back on the blogging horse. Honestly, I have so much fun reading other peoples blogs that I don't remember to update my own. Bobby and I have been very, very busy lately. We have something going on nearly every weekend and, when we don't, we are trying to get our house 'finished.' I am learning that when owning a home, one is never really 'finished!' We have decided to host Thanksgiving at our home this year for Bobby's mom's side of the family. I am really excited. It will be fun to show off our home and host a major holiday. Ok Ok...I know that those of you who really know me are about falling off of your chair laughing so hard at the prospect of ME having any part in hosting a Holiday feast of any kind. Its ok...it doesn't hurt my feelings (too bad). I assure you all that I have it all figured out. I have Bobby's grandma cooking the turkey at her house and bringing it here and Bob's mom Linda is going to make the dressing and bring it here and Bob's grandpa and uncle always fry a turkey so I am sure they will have that under control. I figure Bob and I can handle the rest..we can make a few sides...warm up some canned veggies--green beans, corn, etc.--- in the microwave. My grandma taught me how to make this yummy dessert a few weeks ago--her mississippi mud pie-- so I am certain that I can get that accomplished. I also bought a few desserts from the Schwanns man today when he stopped by the office--a yummy looking chocolate pie thing that I only have to defrost and a pecan pie that I will actually have to bake--but he assured me that I could handle it. (I don't think he knows me very well. See...don't doubt me...I told you I had it all handled right?
In order to get ready for Thankgiving, Bob is taking on one of our biggest remodeling projects to date-the dining room! I am convinced that we need this done before Thanksgiving because you need it to eat in! He really is a good carpenter and I can't wait to show you all the pics when he is done. We bought a new ( to us) dining room table this weekend at a resale shop here in Gonzales. So we are almost all set.
In other news, work is going well. I am really enjoying Gonzales and being so close to our families.
Halloween weekend I went to Canton with my mom, sister, cousin Tiff, 2 aunts and family friends to get started on some holiday shopping. This is our 4th year to do this and it was so fun again. I bought a few Christmas presents and got some cute stuff for the house. I have a few pics from our Canton weekend that I will post as soon as I get them uploaded to my computer.

I am excited for this coming weekend. All my girls from the office I worked at in New Braunfels are coming to Shiner for the weekend. One of the girls, Kaci, has her grandmother's house there and they come down once a year for a 'campout.' I miss these girls more than I can ever express and I can't wait to spend some time with them! I will let you know how the weekend went and hopefully have some pics to share with you! I know, I know....you are thinking...yea right Melanie....you haven't posted in 4 months and now you think we will believe you when you say you will post again soon. I know...you'll believe it when you see it. I promise to keep you updated more often.
Mel

Memorial Day Trip to Fredericksburg!

Ok. NO..I have not forgotten about my long lost blog. We have just been very very busy with moving and fixing up the house. I am going to attempt to catch up on a few events.

Memorial Day Trip to Fredericksburg

Over Memorial Day weekend I went on a little getaway to Fredericksburg to check out some of the wineries and shop with some of my friends from high school. I was lucky enough to graduate high school with some of the most wonderful friends anyone could ask for. A great time was had by all. We should really get together more often because we always have a blast when we do. We all live in different places with our families and different careers but, when we manage to get together it is definately time well spent.

Amy, Mandy, Tiff, Jenn and I take off from Moulton in Jenn's car (thanks for driving jenn) and start our journey to Fredericksburg wine country. You will see why I called it a journey in a moment. We planned on meeting Sherry and Krisie there because they were coming from the Austin area.

A, M, T, J and I somehow manage to stop in nearly every town on the way there. It took a little longer than expected but we were in uncharted territory.

We stopped in Gonzales to pick up some flip flops for me. You see, Bobby and I had just moved the day before and my stuff was scattered among several different locations..with my flip flops ending up in Bob's truck. Then, we decided we should probably have lunch. Opting out of a fast-food type lunch we ended up in Luling at Blake's. It was yummy. Now, with our tummies full we continue on our trip to San Marcos. We all decided it was a MUST that we stop at Wal-Mart there. I don't even remember what we needed; I think someone had forgotten a bathing suit but somehow we all ended up with new ones. Who would think that five 28 year olds would get so excited about buying new bathing suits at Wal-Mart! We again continued on our trip and this leg of the trip we made it a whole 1/2 block to the gas station parking lot where we found a tent sale of sorts. They were selling those cute purses/bags that look like animal print (zebra, giraffe, etc.) with different colors of trim. We looked for a few minutes and we all held off the urge to purchase one of these gems and continued on our way. We ended up on a road that followed the Blanco River. You would think that none of us had ever seen a river at all, much less one with water in it. We finally found a place to stop so we could "step" in. Granted, I'm not sure what town this was but, whatever, you get the idea.

An interesting thing happened at this "stop." Apparently, Amy is a great collector of rocks. While we were all frolicking around in the water, she was on the lookout for a 'great' rock; and boy did she find one. Jenn agreed to let her put it in the car and off we were, with wet feet and a new passenger...the rock.

Ok...once we get that rock loaded we are off again. You would think after all of this we would finally get to our destination, but no. We found one more stop- Luckenbach, Texas. No, no, Waylon and Willie were not there ...but we did find some of "the boys." We also managed to meet up with Sherry and Krisie.

Luckenbach was an interesting place to say the least. We all had a beer and bought some tshirts and koozies and we were on our way again. We finally made it to the wineries. We visited several and had a blast trying most of the wines. Here is a picture of all of us at the last winery we visited. Lots of wine was consumed and we all came home with many bottles.

We stayed one night in Fredericksburg and had alot of fun shopping and eating. Before we headed back home we stopped in for lunch at the Fredericksburg Brewing Company. Amy had a plate of traditional German food that appeared a little "risque" if you know what I mean. We also tried the "sampler" of their beers---YUCK!

We all had a great time! The ride home was less eventful. We were all tired and ready to get home. I can't wait for our next trip!

Gonzales - house progress

Since Mel has forgotten about her blog, I hacked it again and decided to post some things.

We finally closed on our house in Gonzales on May 28th and it has been a construction project since then. How can I be PC about this... the previous owners' decorative tastes were not what Mel and I necessarily like. The first course of action was painting the walls in the bathroom to get rid of the lime green with ladybug trim. Yes...that is correct. We then tackled the kitchen and removed the wall paper and painted the cabinets white with green tea walls. Sounds elegant, but we still have the hideous brown 1975 model sink. I can't believe people back then thought that looked good. I guess in 30 years, they will say the same about our decor now. We disliked the living room walls and the paint scheme in the hallways, so I floated the lines in the paneling making the wall smooth. Next i textured the walls in the living room with my brother's texturing gun. It turned out to be a light Monterrey finish. I think it is ok for my 1st time. We also decided that the carpet in the living room and halls was beyond salvaging, so I ripped it out and we got ole Steve from Gonzales building center coming next week with new tile and carpet. I have to have the walls finished and the entryway that I want to move done by next Wed. so I have a busy weekend ahead of me. Come by in a couple weeks and the house will look 100% better. :)

we'll slap up some before and after pix soon.

bobby

Plookys!!

Hope everyone is having a good week. Bobby and I have been busy getting ready for our move in a couple of weeks. For those who don't know, we are moving to Gonzales, TX next weekend. We bought a house there and are excited about moving closer to our families. I will start a new job as an associate dentist at a dental office in Gonzales the first week of June.

We took some time tonight away from packing to have dinner with Tiffany and our friend Robert. We headed out to Canyon Lake to a place called Plooky's Boiling Pot. I should have taken some pictures of this place. It is an old building with cement floors and no AC. It kind of reminds me of Pavlas Tavern in Moulton. This is what our food looked like when they threw it on the table. This is just one pile of it...crawfish, shrimp, corn, potatoes, and sausage...spicy.

This stuff is so yummy. Tiff an I got a medium batch and Bobby and Robert got theirs spicy. This stuff goes great with a good beer, and when you order a beer at this place, they bring it to you already in a koozie...its wonderful!

When we were all done, all that was left was a pile of shells and trash. After we were done eating, we were all picking on Robert because his pile was so much smaller than ours. He seemed to be eating as much as us though. Then we all realized that Robert was eating the shrimp WITH THE SHELL, so his pile had considerably less shells. I'm not kidding...with the shell! He would tear off the tails and eat the whole darn thing...shell and all. We peeled some shrimp for him to show him how much yummier they were without the shell. I couldn't believe that in all of his 31 years on this earth no one told him to peel the shrimp before eating it! At least he asked Bob how to get into the crawfish. Needless to say, we picked on him the whole way home about pooping out those shells later. It's probably gonna hurt! Before we even got home, he was complaining that he thought he could feel the shells in his intestines. We'll check on him tomorrow....he might be in a little pain. Here is a pic of the final result.

Happy Birthday Baby!

Today is Bobby's Birthday and he is 'stuck' in Holland without me! Here is a picture of him from last year when he went to Amsterdam. He is so cute!

He will be gone all week and I won't get to see him until Saturday night! I miss him terribly and although his Birthday is already over in Holland and he is sleeping soundly in his hotel room, I hope he had a wonderful birthday (7 hours ahead there). He is my rock, the love of my life and my best friend. He makes me laugh more and more every day, and I love him more all the time. He turned 33 today (don't tell him I told you!) and he gets better every year. Happy Birthday baby, I wish you many many more. I love you and miss you and can't wait for you to come home!

How can you not love this cute face!

TDA-Texas Meeting

Yesterday all of us girls from the office (minus Kaci--she is in VEGAS..lucky dog) headed over to San Antonio for the annual meeting of the Texas Dental Association. It is a 3 day meeting where a lot of classes are offered for all of us to meet our CE (continuing education) requirements for the year. Its also a chance to meet up with old friends. The thing that makes the TDA most fun is that we get to hang out with all the girls from the office for a sort of girls night out. We started the night out at Paloma's on the Riverwalk in San Antonio--and the food was yummy. I had some salmon and black beans...yummy.....oh and a few margaritas. Then we all headed over to Howl at the Moon. The place was packed. We hung out outside for a while drinking cheap beer and a few shots. The cheap beer was thanks to Maggie (who knew her old SWT ID would come in handy). I had a Jager bomb for the first and hopefully last time...it was nasty...tasted like cough syrup. After we got tired of Howl at the Moon we all wanted to go dancing. We headed over to Polyesters.....and boy did we dance...all night long till 2 am. We had a blast and it was awesome to hang out with my girls like that before we move. I will definately miss them all like crazy.

Road Trip Across the Pond

Mel is going to be surprised that I hacked her blog... :)

On Saturday, work is paying for me to ride the 747 across the Atlantic to visit Thermon European Headquarters in Pijnacker, Netherlands. I have been over there twice already and have seen and done quite a bit on my trips over there. Partying for the queen's birthday in Den Haag and wearing a lot of Tennessee orange was a riot. We went and ate in the Eurotower in Rotterdam which is a city with a lot of new buildings when compared to other larger Dutch cities because the Germans leveled it in WWII. And, last time, I got pretty drunk in Amsterdam and asked a Red Light District Service Provider how much for some entertainment. Apparently 50 euros will do it. (about 75 bucks) I can afford that but I couldn't afford the doctor bills to pay for the treatments of the things you could catch.

This time, we're going to have some time to spend in Den Haag (The Hague) this coming Sunday and then there are 3 days of meetings. We then get to hop over the North Sea and go to New Castle England for a couple of days. I am looking forward to going to England and drinking some fresh New Castle Ale. If it is the same as drinking Heineken over there, it tastes totally different and is actually not so skunky.

I really enjoy these trips because I get to see the world. I am actually curious to see what the opinion is over there on American Politics. (They all think W is not too good.) It is nice to get out of the surroundings of what one is used to and to experience other cultures and ideals. It enables a person to think outside of the box and to take into account more positions in a particular argument than most individuals would because of environmental/ cultural limitations.

If you ever get the chance to travel, do it. There is an enormity to see and do out there and honestly; you'll have a better view of the world if you do.

Bobby

Relay For Life

Last night, Tiff and I, along with the girls from my office headed out to the Relay For Life in New Braunfels. It started at 7:00 pm with the survivors lap. Dr. Herring took off with Tami for the first lap to kick off the relay with all the other survivors and their loved ones. The rest of our team (P.D.'s Pink Ladies), along with all of the other teams lined the track on both sides and cheered on the survivors. It was a very moving experience. It really put into perspective how many people are affected by cancer in some way. It also reminded me of my dad and how hard he fought, and it made me sad wishing he could have been one of those survivors. We had 8 people on our team and we had planned on walking in 30 min shifts until 7 am. Tiff and I took the first shift and walked till about 8:30, then Amanda and Cara started their shift. At about 9:00 pm, just as they were about to light the luminaria's the organizers come over the mic and said that we all had to pack up our stuff and leave the field immediatly due to an impending severe thunderstorm. We were all just getting excited about the night and now we had to leave!! I think we all stood in shock for a minute and then realized we better get the heck outta there soon. Within 30 minutes all the tents and canopies and decorations and sleeping bags and coolers were packed back in the car and we had to go home. None of us really wanted to go home, so we met up at the office and decided to head over to the 444 Bar and Grill for a few drinks. We watched the Spurs whoop up on the Suns for the 3rd time of the week. We left the bar about midnight and then it finally started to rain. We were safely in bed by 12:30 and thankful for the rain we needed so bad. Just wish it wouldn't have ruined our Relay for Life.

New House is a GO...so far!!!

Today, we got word from the lender we are working with that everything is a go for our new house. Let me just say for the record that buying a house is actually no fun at all...let me repeat that...AT ALL. It is a very frustrating process of ups and downs. The lender has delved into our lives like no one else ever has before. I sure hope that actually owning the house is more fun. I know it will be. Bobby and I have a million things we want to do to the house once we get it. I think all of these "projects" will be fun and also frustrating at the same time; especially with Bobby because he likes to have things his way! I have to admit that he actually has a better eye for home decor/improvement than I do so I guess I shouldn't complain. The closing date is set for the end of May (so far away). I guess we better start packing......yea....let me get right on that!