So Jason is headed to D.C. for work on Wednesday...wait...did I say for work? Hold your applause until the end. I am so proud to announce that my husband is the new federal liaison for the Texas Department of Agriculture (which apparenly is quite a gig).
Yeah for double income! Boo for not having a stay-at-home husband (trust me girls it is the best thing ever).
He is so happy though, and I am so proud of him. We are even car-pooling again (for all you Carter staff out there). Way to wait for the job you want honey!
So back to the out of town part. I HATE staying alone. I get scared at night, and I don't sleep well, which makes for a cranky Carmen the next day. That is normal in D.C., because a) everyone is cranky and b) the streets are littered with murders and robbers just waiting for young women in their 20's to be left alone...overnight. My husband assures me that Kyle is much safer than Washington D.C., and we now have two guns instead of the typical one. Oh, yes and we have dog...who will bark if there is an intruder.
Yes, the dog. So everynight at about 2 a.m., Lizzie starts wimpering because she needs to go out and potty. So every night at about 2:03 a.m. I roll over and wake Jason up, tell him Lizzie needs to go out, and then go back to sleep. This morning, my husband informed me that when she wimpers early Thursday morning, it will be important for me to remember that he is not there and actually get out of bed and let her out myself. I figure I will be awake anyway, propped up in my bed, with the television on, holding one of the two guns ready to fire at anyone who walks through my door.
So he leaves tomorrow, which means by Friday, I will be drinking double coffee and barely making it.
Fly safe honey. I will miss you and will be ready for you to be home, but make sure you call before you walk through the door.
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Saturday, February 7, 2009
14 miles
14 miles...doesn't sound all that far does it? I mean, I drove 25 miles to Jr. High and High School for over 8 years and never thought anything of it. It's just barely longer than the distance between my wife's hometown and the Carson County seat, a little town called Panhandle. It's also just barely shorter than the distance between White Deer and Pampa. So I guess what I'm saying is I always looked at 14 miles and thought, "you know, that's kind of insignificant." Not so much anymore my friends. A couple months ago my best friend challenged me to run the Cowtown 1/2 marathon with him at the end of February. I was bored from sitting at home the first couple days of my unemployment and decided that anything to give me something to do was a great idea. He did a little research and came up with a plan for us to follow (which can be found here) and off we went. We just completed week 7 which means, you guessed it, this idiot ran 14 miles yesterday through the hills of his neighborhood. If I'm smart enough to have figured it out, you'll see the route right here.
This particular route is 2.5 miles long (it says 2.47 but it cut off the first block of the run for some reason) has 92 feet of ascent over the course of the route, and yes, since it's a loop, what must up, must come down. But let me tell you ladies and gentlemen, this route seems to never stop going up. All of the downhill comes in a 1/2 - 3/4 mile stretch at the end of the loop and it seems the rest of it is all uphill which means that most of the almost 6 laps of this 2.5 mile loop were spent looking up to the sky. Sure, that'll be great come race day, but it nearly killed me yesterday. I ended up running the 14 miles in 2 hours, 13 minutes, and 14 seconds which comes out to a 9:13 pace per mile. More importantly, I finished th 13.1 of the 1/2 marathon distance in 2:04, which means I need to shave off 4 minutes in exactly 3 weeks of work. As we taper down, hopefully my body will recover a little bit to be able to handle that.
So, what has this taught me? Surprisingly, that I love running. Yeah, there are some aches and pains, but I have a new stretching and strength program to help me avoid that as I move into Triathlons and maybe even a marathon. I love the high you get when you're done. About an hour after I finished yesterday I realized that I'd run in just over 2 hours 10 times farther than the average American walks in a week (I know it sounds odd, but think about it, most of us walk less than 20 yards to our car, park as close to the front door of our destination as we can, then spend all day in a desk chair. Kind of scary.) While that number is sobering, it comes with a significant feeling of accomplishment. I've also been logging my runs since the beginning of the year to keep track of how much ground I've covered. Since January 1 alone, I've covered over 115 miles. That's like running from Kyle (15 miles south of Austin for those not familiar with it) to San Antonio and back. I've also lost over 10 pounds since New Years and over 25 since I started running back around Thanksgiving. I feel better than I have in a long time, and I think this running bug officially has a hold of me.
This particular route is 2.5 miles long (it says 2.47 but it cut off the first block of the run for some reason) has 92 feet of ascent over the course of the route, and yes, since it's a loop, what must up, must come down. But let me tell you ladies and gentlemen, this route seems to never stop going up. All of the downhill comes in a 1/2 - 3/4 mile stretch at the end of the loop and it seems the rest of it is all uphill which means that most of the almost 6 laps of this 2.5 mile loop were spent looking up to the sky. Sure, that'll be great come race day, but it nearly killed me yesterday. I ended up running the 14 miles in 2 hours, 13 minutes, and 14 seconds which comes out to a 9:13 pace per mile. More importantly, I finished th 13.1 of the 1/2 marathon distance in 2:04, which means I need to shave off 4 minutes in exactly 3 weeks of work. As we taper down, hopefully my body will recover a little bit to be able to handle that.
So, what has this taught me? Surprisingly, that I love running. Yeah, there are some aches and pains, but I have a new stretching and strength program to help me avoid that as I move into Triathlons and maybe even a marathon. I love the high you get when you're done. About an hour after I finished yesterday I realized that I'd run in just over 2 hours 10 times farther than the average American walks in a week (I know it sounds odd, but think about it, most of us walk less than 20 yards to our car, park as close to the front door of our destination as we can, then spend all day in a desk chair. Kind of scary.) While that number is sobering, it comes with a significant feeling of accomplishment. I've also been logging my runs since the beginning of the year to keep track of how much ground I've covered. Since January 1 alone, I've covered over 115 miles. That's like running from Kyle (15 miles south of Austin for those not familiar with it) to San Antonio and back. I've also lost over 10 pounds since New Years and over 25 since I started running back around Thanksgiving. I feel better than I have in a long time, and I think this running bug officially has a hold of me.
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
25 things...
I am totally ripping off your idea Kathryn. This survey took way too much time to not post it on the blog. This is a facebook "thing". 25 things people might not know about you.
1. I absolutely love pickly juice, hot pepper juice, banana pepper juice. Anything pickled. I drink it straight from the jar.
2. Debbie Gibson was my idol growing up...so much that I dressed up as her three years in a row for halloween. The third year, I spiced it up with an electric blue blazer. Remember "only in my dreams" girls?
3. I own three Debbie Gibson VHS concert videos, complete with the music videos from the "Out of the Blue" alubum as well as "Electric Youth."
4. I was the 2004 Texas Tech Homecoming Queen runnerup. My best friend and roommate Meredith Jumper was crowned queen. She still wears her crown when I come over to her house.
5. I once met Willy Nelson in the Longworth building at the Capitol.
6. Survivor is my favorite TV show. I printed off the application, but have yet to fill it out.
7. Linda Ronstadt's "I've Been Cheated" is my American Idol tryout song. I turn 27 in March, so I better get on the ball. Clearly I love reality television.
8. I hate the feel of cotton towels, especially when they are fresh out of the dryer.
9. I would rather clean the toilett than go to the grocery store.
10. I love love the seat warmers in my car.
11. I hate bears.
12. My first cousin is also my second cousin. It's true huh Amanda...and no, it is in no way insest.
13. When I was little, I wanted to be famous more than anything. I still want to be a country singer, but I think I missed the boat.
14. I love the smell of dust coming out of the air conditioner vents in my car.
15. My brother is a true-blue cowboy. Just like the movies.
16. I broke my arm in fifth grade while practicing a triple lutz on roller skates in my driveway.
17. My husband is the most randomly funny person in the whole world.
18. I love Mike Leach. True, he is super weird, but I love him anyways.
19. I have a horrible memory. So bad, that I carry around these notebooks everywhere I go and take notes on just about everything. I have a bookshelf full of them in my office.
20. I want to write a book about my experience in Washington, D.C.
21. I am really bad about charging my cell phone...I am working on that though.
22. The first rated R movie I saw was Pretty Woman. It was at Hayli Diggs' house and to this day I have not told my mother.
23. I love to read Texas Montly.
24. I always had a crush...from the time I was five until I got married. Here is a shoutout to the first one, Patrick Warminski and the last, Jason Fenton. I love you honey!
25. My husband, my dad, and my grandfather are the best men in the world. I hope to raise my sons up to be as amazing as they are.
1. I absolutely love pickly juice, hot pepper juice, banana pepper juice. Anything pickled. I drink it straight from the jar.
2. Debbie Gibson was my idol growing up...so much that I dressed up as her three years in a row for halloween. The third year, I spiced it up with an electric blue blazer. Remember "only in my dreams" girls?
3. I own three Debbie Gibson VHS concert videos, complete with the music videos from the "Out of the Blue" alubum as well as "Electric Youth."
4. I was the 2004 Texas Tech Homecoming Queen runnerup. My best friend and roommate Meredith Jumper was crowned queen. She still wears her crown when I come over to her house.
5. I once met Willy Nelson in the Longworth building at the Capitol.
6. Survivor is my favorite TV show. I printed off the application, but have yet to fill it out.
7. Linda Ronstadt's "I've Been Cheated" is my American Idol tryout song. I turn 27 in March, so I better get on the ball. Clearly I love reality television.
8. I hate the feel of cotton towels, especially when they are fresh out of the dryer.
9. I would rather clean the toilett than go to the grocery store.
10. I love love the seat warmers in my car.
11. I hate bears.
12. My first cousin is also my second cousin. It's true huh Amanda...and no, it is in no way insest.
13. When I was little, I wanted to be famous more than anything. I still want to be a country singer, but I think I missed the boat.
14. I love the smell of dust coming out of the air conditioner vents in my car.
15. My brother is a true-blue cowboy. Just like the movies.
16. I broke my arm in fifth grade while practicing a triple lutz on roller skates in my driveway.
17. My husband is the most randomly funny person in the whole world.
18. I love Mike Leach. True, he is super weird, but I love him anyways.
19. I have a horrible memory. So bad, that I carry around these notebooks everywhere I go and take notes on just about everything. I have a bookshelf full of them in my office.
20. I want to write a book about my experience in Washington, D.C.
21. I am really bad about charging my cell phone...I am working on that though.
22. The first rated R movie I saw was Pretty Woman. It was at Hayli Diggs' house and to this day I have not told my mother.
23. I love to read Texas Montly.
24. I always had a crush...from the time I was five until I got married. Here is a shoutout to the first one, Patrick Warminski and the last, Jason Fenton. I love you honey!
25. My husband, my dad, and my grandfather are the best men in the world. I hope to raise my sons up to be as amazing as they are.
Monday, February 2, 2009
Meet Lizzie!
Hey everyone...just a quick minute before I need to get back to work. The Fenton's welcomed a new edition into their home this weekend. An 8-week old baby black lab named Lizzie. She is so cute she makes me want to cry.
We weren't planning on getting a dog for at least a year, but on our way to Hobby Lobby we passed a little girl with a "puppy stand." I looked at Jason, and said...no...do not stop. He drove past. Once we got on the main road, he couldn't take it anymore. He flipped the car around and went back to the "puppy stand." He knew that once he got me there and I started hugging on all the puppies...I would not be able to say no. He was right.
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