Injured (and Sad) Ellie

Our beloved Eleanor is injured. We're not sure when it happened, but we know for sure that something's not right. She won't jump on the bed any more (and before I get in trouble on this, let me clarify that she's not allowed on the bed unless we ask her to come up, and we don't do this that often). She's having a hard time jumping up- even in getting in and out of the car and the pool, which she usually does with ease and enthusiasm. She still runs fine usually, but there have been a few incidents where she'll sprint after her ball, stop suddenly, yelp repeatedly, and pick up her back right leg.

I took her to the Vet last Saturday, and they prescribed her an anti-inflammatory medicine. We're supposed to watch her to see if it helps her return to normal, and if not, we'll have to take her back to get sedated and get an x-ray of the suspect leg. Thus far, it's looking like the medicine isn't helping a whole lot.

The injury by itself is bad enough, but to keep her from hurting herself further, we're having to hide all her balls and keep her inside and inactive as much as possible. Hello...this is a LAB we're talking about. ALL she wants to do is play, run, chase, and move...on a continual basis. So, needless to say, she's depressed. The look on her face when we get ready to go for a run and she realizes we're not going to take her with us is SO pathetic.

I'm really hoping this is just a pulled muscle that needs rest, but I'm getting worried. I'll post again when we have an update.

The Big 3-0!

Yes, this is very late, but I did turn 30 on February 15th. I haven't given much thought to the whole "turning 30" part of my birthday. Yes, I realize that's what a birthday is, but it just didn't feel that significant to me. I know I could still pass for 18 in most circles, so it's hard to think of myself as 30. Maybe some day my mind will catch up with my age, but until then, I'll just keep on keeping on (I don't know who says this, but it seems to fit here).

The day itself was very uneventful; I had a really bad cold and spent most of the day lounging on the couch. On Friday (two days before my birthday), we went to one of my favorite restaurants (D'Amico's in the Rice Village) for dinner. My brother David, his friend Abby, and my parents came along. It was great food as usual, but I felt so bad I really couldn't enjoy it. Eating out just isn't that fun when all you want to do is take Benadryl and lay down.

Wyatt surprised me with a purse I'd been wanting but definitely didn't expect to get, and I got a much-needed new briefcase-y bag for work from my family. It was as good a birthday weekend it could have been in light of my icky cold.

The next weekend, Wyatt threw me a surprise party. I won't lie; I had an idea it was coming. It's a long story how I knew, but let's just say I was pretty sure a party was going to happen that Saturday.

That morning, Wyatt arranged for me to have a massage and a pedicure at a spa in the Galleria area. My sister Emily went along, and we had a great time. We shopped around a little bit after we got done at the spa, and arrived back at the house at about 4:00.

I was greeted by a bunch of friends and a ton of food! Wyatt had enlisted the help of my brother and sister, and they did a great job planning the party. There was a donkey pinata filled to the brim with chocolate and an inflatable/bouncy boxing ring (I don't know what else to call it). Wyatt told me later that he was planning on hiring a mariachi band to come and play, but they wouldn't budge on their $400 price, and he thought that was just a tad too much to pay. :)

It was hilarious to see a big bunch of 20 and 30 somethings doing things you usually see at a 5-year old's party. I wouldn't have had it any other way. Wyatt knows me well.

The pinata was especially entertaining; it was totally authentic and nearly indestructible. It was even lined with Mexican newspaper on the inside; that is a real pinata.

One funny story...when the rental company arrived to drop off the inflatable boxing ring, they asked my brother David if the kids were upset that they were late. David responded that he thought they were ok with it. Of course the kids were ok with it; there were only 2 real "kids" at the party. The real upset people were the 20/30ish people who wanted to relive their childhood in the bouncy boxing ring, and do it ASAP! It was a funny moment.

Here are some pictures from the party:

The donkey pinata

The cake

Wyatt manning the pinata

Me trying to hit the pinata

The inflatable boxing ring

Partygoers

More partygoers

Karaoke Fun


Thanks to all who made my birthday so fun, and special thanks to my endlessly creative and sweet husband for planning such a great party. Thanks also to the lady that made the tortillas at Lupe Tortilla. They were delicious.

Skiing Fun

We're back from our ski trip. We went to Angel Fire, New Mexico with a group of friends from our Sunday School class. We had six couples, two condos, four home cooked dinners, a lot of aspercreme, advil, and pepto bismol, and a great time!

Unfortunately, there were some injuries while on the trip. The ironic thing is that most of the injuries occurred while tubing down the mountain rather than skiing. I don't think our group will be tubing down mountains again any time soon.

Wyatt came down with a really nasty cold toward the end of the third day of skiing, so he had to sit out the fourth day, which was no fun. He did great on the three days he was able to ski, though. I was very impressed. He says his method of skiing is "controlled chaos," but I can't confirm this. He was usually so fast that I wouldn't have been able to see whatever "chaos" there was.

I surprised myself by skiing a bunch of black slopes (the hardest level there is) and not killing myself in the process. One slope, called Hari Cari, was ridiculously steep, very long, and covered in huge moguls (the ski term for hills of snow). My legs were literally shaking when I got to the top of the slope. I had to lean way forward just to see where the slope led; that is never a good sign. Thankfully, though, I made it down the slope with only a couple minor falls and no tantrums or fits of crying/screaming. That is a success in my book.

The best part of the trip was the people we went with. Our group was great. It was such a blessing to get to go on vacation with our friends. We learned a lot about each other that we didn't already know, and I heard more "that's what she said" jokes than I can count.

I remember when Wyatt and I first got married and how hard it was to transition from being single and having all single friends to finding married couples to hang out with (especially married couples that lived remotely close to us). I look back on that struggle and my many prayers that God would bring couples into our lives that we could really "do life with"...really be real with, find support in, and be able to be a support to.

I am so thankful to say that God has more than answered that prayer. The friends we have found have demonstrated such grace, love, and support to us that it really does give me a better picture of what God's love looks like. So, in short, I am incredibly thankful for our friends.

And did I mention that I am thankful for my husband? He is so fun to be around and such an encourager. I am a blessed lady!

Here are some pictures from the trip.

Wyatt and I on the slopes


The skiing men- Andre, Brandon, Terence, Wyatt, Josh and Adam

The skiing ladies- Stephanie, Jessica, Me, Carissa, Grace and Gina

The whole crew- Stephanie, Brandon, Me, Wyatt, Terence, Jessica, Adam, Carissa, Gina, Andre, Josh and Grace

One more picture, just for fun

A sad day for Ellie

So, Wyatt and I decided that Ellie could use a hair cut. She's never gotten anything beyond a bath and a furminator treatment (basically a good brushing with the furminator), and we've heard good things about getting labs shaved for shedding purposes.

So, we took the plunge. We took her up to our local PetsMart and left her in the hands of the expert groomers/washers/shavers. They asked me how short I wanted her hair cut, and I had no idea, so I asked what people usually did for labs, and I went with that.

3 hours later, Wyatt picks her up from PetsMart, and they arrive back at home. I catch my first glance of her, and my sweet Eleanor is practically BALD everywhere other than her head and tail. This is not PetsMart's fault; I'm sure it's what I asked for. I just had no idea that what I asked for would look like THAT.

This is what Ellie looks like with hair (the BEFORE picture):

Here's what she looks like AFTER the hair cut:

Poor Ellie! More than that, poor me. I am pretty embarrassed for Ellie and actually have taken to dressing her up the past couple days to make her (well, really mainly me) feel better about her lack of hair.

I think we learned our lesson really well. No more super short hair cuts for Eleanor ever again. I'm just glad dogs don't have the ability to look in the mirror!

My 25

I was "tagged" on Facebook to fill this out, and since it took me so long to do it, I'll repost it here.

Here's my 25:

1. I've never filled one of these out, although I've been sent them many times.
2. I love carbohydrates and am pretty sure I could live on candy alone (if my heart didn't explode first).
3. I was a founding member of "the cool kids club" in high school. Hello Jennifer, Abby & Lauren (can't remember who else was in it).
4. I enjoy listening to Delilah on Sunny 99.1, especially when she starts giving out cheesy advice.
5. I am pretty much always cold. I keep my heater on at my desk at work pretty much all day, every day.
6. I LOVE the movie "The Sound of Music" and can't count how many times I've seen it.
7. For real, when I was a kid, I really wanted to BE Amy Grant. I actually had criteria in my mind that my future husband had to have Grant as his last name so I could legitimately call myself her name. Not kidding.
8. I am EXTREMELY literal. I named a stuffed animal "Machine Washable" because it said it on the tag and so I thought that was the proper name. Seriously.
9. I am the middle child and am pretty sure that I have full-blown middle child syndrome. I always get the smallest piece of chicken (literally and figuratively).
10. I almost got sent to the Principal's office in high school for eating wheat thins in Spanish class.
11. I am an aspiring super-blogger. I just started our family blog a couple months ago and am really enjoying it so far. (In case you didn't know it, you are currently viewing the blog of which I speak.)
12. I love Arbonne and am an aspiring white Mercedes driver.
13. My husband and I started dating in 1995. (Yes, you read that right.)
14. I once had a guinea pig named Iggy. He squeaked really loud when he was hungry.
15. I am NOT a fan of amphibians/reptiles/etc. My most hated animal ever is a snake.
16. I have huge aspirations when it comes to reading books, but I rarely live up to them. It has to be really good to motivate me to finish a whole book (e.g. The Twilight Series).
17. I really enjoy 80s music. The dorkier the better.
18. Flowers make me really happy. My favorite is raununculus.
19. I was obsessed with pink, purple and blue as a child. As far as I was concerned, those were the only colors that existed.
20. I was a Political Science major in college, but before I settled on that, I was a Psychology major, and before that, was gearing up for Biomedical Science (until I realized I don't like blood).
21. I've broken my left ankle twice and sprained it once, all in the span of about a year.
22. I went to Istanbul in 2001 and ate a lot of McDonald's while there (bad choice, I know).
23. My middle name is Louise. I never liked it as a kid, but now I really like it a lot.
24. My choir teacher in high school made me be Cosette in Les Miserables. I was not happy.
25. I know my purpose in life, and am blessed and challenged by that knowledge daily.

A baby shower, a half-marathon, and some advil

This past weekend was really busy, but a lot of fun.

First off, on Saturday I helped host a baby shower for my friend Jaclyn. Jaclyn has been such a great friend to me. Great is probably not the word...ridiculously amazing is probably a better descriptive. But seriously, she and her husband (Blayton) have been such faithful friends to me and also to Wyatt. I have thanked God for them so many times, and I know I'll continue to in the future. They are going to be such great parents, and we can't wait to meet their baby boy in February!

As for the shower itself, there were a couple of recipes that seemed to be hits amongst the shower-goers, so I thought I'd post them here. First off, I made cinnamon coffee (actually Blayton was the master of the coffee maker, so he deserves credit too). This recipe comes from the Taste of Texas, a great restaurant here in Houston, and the coffee is oh so good. Just watch how much you drink. I think I had 3 cups of it, and I was seriously wired at the end of the shower.

Cinnamon Coffee (for drip coffee maker only):
Pour 10 cups of water into machine. Put 4 whole cinnamon sticks and 3 heaping teaspoons brown sugar into the glass pot. Put 1 cup ground coffee (we grind fresh Colombian beans) and 1 teaspoon cinnamon into the brew basket. Brew and stir it well. (The longer it sits, the better it gets!)

The next recipe is for Romanoff sauce, which goes over fruit (traditionally, strawberries). If you've ever had Strawberries Romanoff at La Madeliene, then I think you'll love this recipe. It is definitely not low in fat, but it's a great treat when you're in the mood to indulge.

Strawberries Romanoff:
SERVES 4

Ingredients
1/2 cup sour cream
3 tablespoons brown sugar
1 tablespoon brandy or vanilla
1/2 cup heavy cream
3 tablespoons sugar
4 cups fresh strawberries

Directions
Mix sour cream, brown sugar and Brandy in a bowl.
In a separate bowl, whip cream until starts to thicken and add sugar--whip until thick.
Fold cream into sour cream mixture and blend well.
Serve with fresh strawberries.

On Sunday, Wyatt and I ran the Houston half-marathon. This was the second one for both of us. Overall, it was a great experience. The weather was beautiful and neither of us had injuries to speak of by the end.

The main frustration we had was the start of the race. We were supposed to be in the first "wave" of people to start, but we somehow didn't find our group and so we started towards the end of the second group. That meant that we had a few thousand people in front of us for the first few miles, many of them walking in big groups. As a result, we started off really, really slow, and there was nothing we could do about it. If I was claustrophobic, I might have had a panic attack during the first couple miles. After about 4 miles, the crowd thinned out some and we were able to pick up the pace.

Wyatt ended up with a time of 1:57:53, and me with a time of 2:00:29. My sister, brother, mom and dad came out to support us, and we really appreciated it. We went to Empire Cafe afterwards, and it was a great treat. The rest of the day consisted of a lot of sitting, taking advil, and then more sitting.

Here are a few pictures of Wyatt running:




And me running...



And us running (we didn't smile that much throughout, we just knew our pictures were being taken)...


That was our weekend. I have pictures from the shower that I'll post as soon as I get them uploaded.

Ailments, Injuries, and Prayers

So, I never posted pictures from Wyatt's ski adventure in Winter Park. That's because he got sick and ended up flying home early, so the pictures were non-existant. He did have a great time skiing on his one healthy day there, though. He's feeling much better now, so we're happy about that.

If you know me well, you know I rarely get sick. I do get injured fairly often, though, usually due to my own clumsiness. Wyatt says I am an injury magnet, because there have been more times than I can count where I've been hit by a softball, surf board, soccer ball, or any variation of these. And these hits are usually in the face, which is extra fun.

Well, I've been running a lot over the past year or so, and a lot of it has taken place when it's dark out (due to the joys of it being the non-daylight savings time of the year). In July, I had a complete wipe out while running. I tripped on an uneven portion of the sidewalk, a portion that was on a down ramp, and I completely ate it on the concrete. I was bloodied and bruised on my lips, shoulder, knees, and hands, but proceeded to run home anyway. I figured there was no sense in walking, since that would only prolong the time I was away from bandaids and neosporin. So, I run home looking like I've just been violently mugged, passing neighborhood walkers as I go. That was the funniest part; people just kind of looked at me, registered that I was bloody and wounded, smiled, and kept walking. I wonder what I would have done had I been in their shoes.

Fast forward to yesterday night. I'm about 2 miles from home, passing two ladies on the grass because they are on the sidewalk. I'm feeling pretty good about my run and my pace, minding my own business, when I wipe out on some huge tree roots that I didn't notice until I am face to face with them. I get up, smile at the people I just passed, knowing that I probably freaked them out, and assure them that "I've done this before, don't worry." I feel ok other than one finger on my right hand, which really hurts. Again, I keep running, using the same rationale as used in wipeout sequence #1. I get home, and the finger is beginning to swell and turn blue. By this morning, the finger is almost twice its normal size and almost completely purple on the palm side. My dad, who never tells me to go to the Doctor, says "I think you better get that checked out."

I'm wondering if I need to find a new hobby...

Along with all that, Wyatt and I are running in the Houston half marathon this coming Sunday, me with my swollen and purple finger. Prayers for no injuries and overall health would be greatly appreciated. As you can tell by this post, we definitely need it!