Good Day Sunday!

Yesterday turned out to be a pretty darn good day! First of all and probably most important in our house right now is that the Cowboys came through with a WIN!! We had a good day lounging around, being lazy and watching football most of the day. I was a little productive when I finished cleaning out the rest of the closets to make room for baby stuff. Next on the agenda is cleaning out the baby room. I don't think we are the only people who have a room that somehow becomes the 'junk' room. At least I hope we are not...please tell me we are not! We have not used this room for much of anything since we moved in except to collect all the stuff we are too lazy to find a place for. With the baby on the way the room is getting a much needed cleaning and makeover. I won't post before pics before we clean because lets face it...it is too embarrassing...and I don't get embarrassed easily. The other really exciting thing that happened yesterday is that I ordered the furniture for the baby's room. I found a set I really loved a while back at JC Penney. We were planning on waiting a little longer to order since we didn't even have the room ready to put it in. However, I was looking online and found out it was on SALE!! We couldn't resist and ordered it yesterday. I am so excited to get it in and to get the room all ready for the little one. Here are some pictures of the furniture...we ordered the crib, dresser and changing table in the espresso (dark) wood color shown. They show the crib with girly bedding but it looks equally as cute with boy bedding depending on what we have! Now we just have to wait untill our sonogram on Friday to decide on bedding!

Big Week

Hi everyone (all 2 of you). It has been too long since my last post. Many of you already know that Bobby and I are expecting our first bundle of joy in February! We are very excited. I have been feeling well and just this past week I have started to feel the baby move a little...AMAZING! This is a BIG WEEK in the Cowan house. First of all the Dallas Cowboys start their regular season today against Tampa Bay. I hope they do well and I really hope they win.. because lets face it....the Cowboys losing makes for a LONG week in our house. The other exciting thing we have going on is that on Friday (September 18th) we will be having our 20 week ultrasound. We are praying that everything will be perfect with the baby and we are hoping to find out whether or not we are having a boy or girl. I honestly don't have a preference either way...we just want a healthy baby. We do have a name picked out either way! We have been working on the house off and on since my last post. We have all of the big projects completed for now. The next project is to get the baby's room ready...it needs paint for sure and we would like to put in a new floor. I have to admit I am most excited about this project than any other. I have been in a mini-nesting mode, cleaning out closets and orgainizing cabinets trying to get things organized before the baby gets here! The Cowboys are about to start so I better get going. I hope to keep you all updated much more often now that I am back!

"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