Happy Anniversary Jason!

Happy Anniversary Husband! It's been quite an eventful two years. Three houses, two states, multiple jobs and one cute lab later, things have never been better. Here are a few pics of the last few years. I love you and hope you have the greatest day.

Hey Ketters! It's Been Three Months!

Most of you know by now that my best friend Meredith married her husband J.R. in a surprise wedding ceremony on Sept. 11th...making today their 3 month anniversary. I remember me and the hubbies three month anniversary. We were settled into our 520 square foot Virginia apartment, and I was learning what it meant to live with a BOY! The smells, the dirty laundry and the morning routine of not being able to find anything himself ("seriously...how can you lose something in a 520 square foot apartment?!" I would ask myself everyday).

But back to Meredith and J.R.

So the big surprise was that J.R. had invited all of their close friends and family to a surprise engagement party at the Yacht Club in Marble Falls. There he was going to pop the question to Mere and we would all be there when she said yes. When J.R. told me the news, I almost cried. I thought..."he knows Mere so well...of course she would want everyone there...how romantic...how thoughtful...how Meredith! And the YACHT CLUB! Way to go J.R.!" I emailed him to see how we could help. If I should bring champaign or sparklers or a CAKE that says SHE SAID YES. I was so ready and willing to help keep this secret a SECRET (which is no easy feat for me). This went on for months. MONTHS!!!!

Until one day.

When I received an early morning phone call from the supposed clueless bride-to-be.

"I found the ring," she whispered on the phone.

"WHAT?" I said, trying to act like I knew nothing about a ring.

"Yes...J.R. hid a big, diamond ring in his boot this morning and I found it."

"MEREDITH...PUT THE RING DOWN. PRETEND LIKE YOU NEVER SAW IT."

"I just can't," she squealed. "I'm driving into town and I'm going to pick you up for lunch and show you."

"WHAT! DO NOT PUT THAT RING ON MEREDITH. DO NOT RUIN THIS!!!!!"

click.

Sure enough she showed up at my office, wearing a diamond ring. I was furious with her. But then something happened...something that caught me completely off guard.

In the middle of my lecture, telling her how marriage takes work, and you can't just spoil every thing because you are impatient...blah, blah, blah...she handed me a pink card. I noticed the pink card had her and J.R.'s picture on it. And then I read the card, and what did it say?!

Surprise! Meredith and J.R. surprised their friends and family with a secret wedding ceremony...

So the plan was to tell all their friends and family J.R. was popping the question, when in reality, we were all going to show up not to an engagement, but to a WEDDING! Britney Spears style.

Lucky for me, Meredith couldn't hang on to the secret any longer, and she needed some serious help with all the last minute details, including getting the Twins to sing a very specific song. Since I live down the street, I was the logical choice. It was such a fun time, and a great time seeing everyone's face at the wedding.

So my gift to everyone today, Dec. 11th, Mere and J.R.'s three month anniversary, I give you a few pictures I managed to take of the pre-wedding festivities. Let me stress the word FEW.



Here we are on our way to the final fitting of The Dress.



Meredith posing while she is taking The Dress out of the bag.



This was a very important moment. The Dress was nearly impossible to lace up the right way. We had a couple of trial runs, but this is the best pic of what it was like getting this thing on her.



Here is the then beautiful bride to be.



Here we are on the actual wedding day, before anyone knew what was really going on.



Here are the twins when they found out that we were singing at a wedding, not an engagement!



And here is the hubs and I at the reception.

Mere and J.R, we are so glad to be your friends and your neighbors. We love you both and Meredith, I personally wish you many many years of dirty laundry, empty toilet paper rolls and smelly softball socks. I look back at our years at Tech and can't believe that we are both married, and thank God that we were blessed with amazing men that put up with us. I can't wait to see what the next decade has in store for us!

Finally...a KITCHEN

So I realize that October is almost over, but we have finally finished our kitchen. This project has taken months away from us. We seriously underestimated the difficulty, the time commitment, oh and the number of marital spats involved with a kitchen remodel, but in the end, I would say it was worth it...wouldn't you honey?

Edit: To get a view of what the kitchen looked like before this project, click here

hello?

So, um, yeah...it's been a while since we've posted. Like a whole month. I blame the wife :)

Since then we've both been east of the Mississippi for at least a week, Lizzie got sick and is better, and the countertops were finally installed and there's light at the end of the tunnel of this neverending project that I'm pretty sure is going to be on Renovation Realities next season. At least I have an excuse to buy more tools. Like this which will likely be purchased in the next couple days just because I feel like it. So, now that we're up to speed on the life of the Fentons, let's get on to the good stuff!

Yes, I realize it's probably not normal to call running "good stuff" but there are a few deranged folks out there. My running has gone well so far and I'm up to 12 mile long runs and around 30 miles per week. This week I'm dialing it back a notch to just 3 easy 5-6 milers because I've been completely drained of energy this week, so I'm going to let the body recharge. It coincides well with Gerry taking some time off, though his is due to injury, likely tendonitis. So, if you can throw out a couple prayers for his quick healing so he can get back on the road, I know he'd appreciate it.

The big news, though, is we're less than 2 weeks away from Carmen's big 5K in downtown Kyle. She's been trainig with some folks from a couple area churches and she's ready for her big debut race. I've been designated operator of the "Carmen Cam" so we'll have all kinds of pictures and video to post shortly after she's done. I really wish I'd had the camera on hand about a week ago when she went out for one of her training runs. I ran to the grocery store to grab dinner while she was running, only to leave the store and see a MASSIVE downpour in the area of our neighborhood. I got home quick to see she was still out running in the monsoon so I grabbed a couple towels and headed off in the car to find her, fully expecting to find an upset woman angry at the weather gods. I found her pretty quick, but there was no smoke coming from her ears. In fact, she had a grin from ear to ear in spite of the rain. Since I don't have a picture of Carmen on that rainy day, I found a picture that gets the idea across.


[I promise I checked with Carmen to make sure she thought this was funny before posting it...I'm not THAT bad a husband ;)]

I asked her if she wanted a ride back and she just grinned a little bigger and said "No...I'm having fun so I think I'll splash my way back home!" Glad she had a little fun and now her good attitude helps me push through on runs where the weather doesn't exactly make me feel like staying out on the roads!

Victory!

I got back out for an 8 miler into town and back yesterday and it was GLORIOUS! It didn't seem like it was going to be as I started out REAL SLLLLLLOOOOOOWWWWWW....my body didn't start moving until about the 2.5 mile point. After that, it woke up and I was cooking along faster than my race pace from the half mary back in February. Pretty good feeling. Not sure what the workout's going to be today, but I think it's time to pop the runs during the week up to 6 and kick this training up a notch!

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year...

So I joined up with the Hays Hills Baptist Church choir to sing in their annual Christmas program. So far so good, but I have to confess that I am no choir singer. I can't read music and I am not very good at harmonizing, but hey...it's not about me right. We've been practicing every Wednesday night and will continue to do so until December and since I can't read music that means a lot of memorizing the Christmas CD they handed out...which, much to my husband's dismay, means lots of cheery Christmas music on the way to and from work.

While I do love Christmas and am super excited about the program, I must say that right now...my mind...is on what I, and probably my husband, would deem the MOST WONDERFUL TIME OF THE YEAR. And that is FOOTBALL SEASON.

I am a huge Texas Tech fan, and Jason is a huge Redskins fan...so basically that means we get booed everywhere we go, living in Austin, Texas. I am not really sure how TTU will stack up this year, but I do know one thing. MIKE LEACH IS THE BEST COLLEGE FOOTBALL COACH EVER. And I'm not the only one who thinks so.

And just for the record, I am not giving up on Tech before the season starts like so many will. Is is true that Texas Tech always breaks your heart? Well...yes. See exhibit A. But is it also true that they are the most dramatic team in college football, and just when you've thrown in the towel and conceded to the Longhorn fans of the world, what do they do? They turn around and throw a winning touchdown...that's what they do.

Can I get a Wreck 'Em!!!

I hate hitting the wall...

Well ladies and gents, I had my first discouraging run of the training cycle this weekend. I headed out Saturday for an 8-mile long run and was feeling pumped to pound the pavement for over an hour (seriously...what is wrong with me???) To preface this, I've been out pretty regularly hitting 5 miles with no problem. Even did another 8 miler last weekend. You'd have never guessed that from Saturday. I got 6 miles in and my heart rate was completely out of control. Thanks to a combination of waiting too late in the Texas morning to start, the humidity from the recent rains (which are gone again now, unfortunately), the lack of breakfast, and the idiotic decision to start at a faster pace than I have run in the last couple months, I was left completely frustrated and humiliated over the course of the last 2 or so miles.

Fortunately, there's an upside. It REALLY ticked me off. I've hit the street with a newfound vengeance. I'm lacing up the running shoes with the goal of putting that day as far out of my memory as I can. In the 4 days since the failed run I've had successful runs on 3 days and played softball on the 4th day, so I was still as active as a slow pitch pitcher can be. My goal the next few weeks is to focus on stretching out the distances and getting the heart back into shape like it was post-race this spring. Focusing on running three 5 milers a week now and that long of 8. Hopefully in 2 weeks I'll be at a point to increase that up to three 6 milers and bump the long to 9-10.

On a more fun running note, my running buddy is MUCH happier with the cooler weather because it means I'll take her out for longer distances. Lizzie is very glad to be up and running at 4:45 rather than sitting in her crate waiting for us to wake up and let her outside. After the run, she's usually not so excited about what she just did. In fact, here's the typical reaction.



On that note, happy running to everyone. Until next time, I'll leave you with this little bit of wisdom: if you ever remodel your kitchen, make sure you're not sans-sink for 3 weeks. Just trust me on that one.