The Fenton Spot

Big BIG Changes

2010-05-30T19:21:00.003-05:00

So far in 2010, we have completed a kitchen remodel, applied to law schools, was accepted to law schools, decided to sale our first home with our perfect kitchen to pursue law school, bought a new puppy, found out we were pregnant, bought a new BIGGER fixer-upper foreclosure, moved all of our stuff, quit one of our jobs, and started law school.

Needless to say a lot has happened in the last six months. We've been blessed I know, but I can't help but feel a little stressed out.

Did I mention we are having a BABY?! Things are changing in big ways for the Fentons, but I do believe God has an amazing plan for our little family, and while...right now I am feeling a little overwhelmed looking at my growing stomach and all the empty rooms and bare walls of our new home, I know that there are great things to come. Really great things.

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD. "Plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."

Summer Reading List Time

2010-04-22T09:13:00.003-05:00

It is so close to summer that I can hardly stand it! I know that the Fentons have been MIA for a couple of months, but believe me, we have good excuses as to why we have been so preoccupied. More to come on that in two weeks. Anyways, for anyone out there who still reads, I am working on putting together my summer reading list.

So far...

The Heart of the Matter by Emily Giffin

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

Let me know if you have any suggestions.

Baylor is for really smart people...

2010-01-21T20:34:00.000-06:00

Guess what?

Jason got into law school.

Exciting right?

Well, he got into one of the best law schools.

Baylor!

Which is in Waco, TX.

Which means we have to move to...North Austin.

BOOOO!!!

It's no lie, I am very sad to leave our little community, our church and our first home. I like North Austin...I really do, I just really like how South Austin is still small. But I know God has bigger plans for our family and I am excited to see those plans unfold.

And I am really proud of my husband for going after his dream in a big way. And I am really really excited about all the oportunity Baylor will offer him. And I am really really really excited that he is going to a Big 12 school with a football team...even if its not a very good football team. This will double our college sports enjoyment.

I am so proud of you husband.

Can I get a Sick 'Em Bears?!

In 2010 I Wanna...

2010-01-13T18:53:00.003-06:00

Not make any NY resolutions...

because I never can seem to follow through with them. Instead I am going to have seasonal themes. 4 things I want to do (excluding losing weight and working out...because that is an ongoing battle) by the the end of the year. It's going to go something like this...

Spring Theme-Get organized
Summer Theme-Get to know your city
Fall Theme-Become a better baker
Winter Theme-still undecided

For some reason this kind of excites me. This could be a challenge I might be able to complete. And I am going to blog about them...in detail...with pictures. So stay tuned. It's bound to be an exciting year.

I hurt!!!

2010-01-11T14:58:00.003-06:00

Carmen's EDIT: This is the husband's entry. I do not believe in torture. (haha...for those politcos who got my joke)

So, it's been a while since I posted about anything at all. However, this weekend was an auspicious occasion in my training cycle for the marathon, so I figured what better time to get back into the swing of things.

To begin with, perhaps it's time to start coming to grips with the fact that I might just be deranged...or an idiot. Both are probably accurate. On Saturday I ventured off on a 3 hour tour of Hays county as I embarked on the first of three 20-mile runs included in my marathon training. The opening line of this video pretty much sums up how I felt after the run.

How does running 20 miles feel? I don't know that I can truly put that in words. Pain is one of the words that definitely belongs in the description, though. Honestly, other than the temperature hovering in the low to mid thirties for the first 2 hours of the run (yes I just used the phrase "first 2 hours" to describe a run), the first 15 miles wasn't all that bad. My feet and ears were a little numb to start, but my oh-so-sexy tights (yes, men do wear tights) and a couple new Christmas gifts kept me nice and toasty as I started my journey...alone. Apparently everyone else was smart enough to stay inside in such cold weather. While I typically see around a dozen or so runners and bikers on my weekend long runs, I was the lone soul on the roads Saturday morning. I think this is where the "idiot" part comes into the equation.

Like I said, the first 15 miles or so of my 10 mile, out-and-back course were relatively uneventful. Aside from heading downhill at swift pace, that is. Miles 6-9 saw me lose 230 feet in elevation. While this did wonders for my pace early on, the only thing I could think about at the time was every foot of climbing I'd have to do to get back to that point. Fortunately for me, I survived the climb in spite of the pain that I felt. Along the way I saw a bald eagle fly off to the Blanco River where I assume its nest is. That was actually really cool. I had no idea there were eagles in the area, but there it was in full flight as I ran by.

Mile 16-20 proved to be every bit as difficult as the first 15 seemed reasonable. Perhaps it was al the climbing, perhaps it was the cold catching up to me, perhaps it was just running that distance in the first place, but those last 5 miles were pretty tough. My legs and hips stiffened up, I could feel a blister forming on one of my toes, and intentionally depriving my body of fuel took a toll on my ability to keep going, but keep going I did. Just like I will on race day, I kept putting one foot in front of the other and pushed through until I was back at the house.

All in all, the run was a success. I covered the course in 3:06:39 which comes out to a 9:19/mile pace. To meet my race goals I need to shave quite a bit off of that, but I wasn't pushing the pace yesterday as I will on race day. I also climbed more yesterday than I will in the full 26.2 mile race in February which encourages me. The Cowtown course climbs 469 feet total. Saturday's run saw exactly 100 more feet of elevation gain in 6.2 fewer miles. It wasn't the greatest run I've ever had, but I consider it to have been a good measuring stick early enough in the process that I have time to work and meet my goals. At least I have two more opportunities to run 20 miles and push my body even more.

We are LAZY BLOGGERS

2010-01-06T12:38:00.007-06:00

Things haven't been crazy (well except for Christmas) and we've had plenty to blog about, but for some reason we have both been so uninspired. Ugh. I guess you could say we are in a Blump or a blog slump (and yes I invented that word). Christmas was great...we had so much fun. New Year's Eve engagement party for Emilie and Collin was awesome too...and then the Alamo Bowl (minus Mike Leach) was very entertaining. Jason has applied to law school, and we should here from at least one of the schools any day now. He is also training for his first marathon at the end of Feb.

So things are progressing in our life...we are doing fun things, taking fun pics, and traveling to fun places.

We just haven't talked much about it. I've been meaning to make some resolutions...so I guess I can start with our blog. I've tried this before and I failed miserably, but I will give it another shot. Afterall, I know you are just dying to read more about our exciting lives. In the meantime, here are a few pics I managed to post from a few of our exciting adventures. Sorry...no Christmas ones just yet.

Poppy and Wes' wedding

Emilie and Collin's NYE Engagement Party, and the rest are from the Alamo Bowl.

Happy Anniversary Jason!

2009-12-29T07:30:00.000-06:00

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!

2009-12-01T07:50:00.000-06:00

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

2009-10-25T13:54:00.001-05:00

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?

2009-10-08T11:28:00.008-05:00

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!

2009-09-07T08:28:00.002-05:00

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...

2009-09-03T11:02:00.007-05:00

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...

2009-09-02T13:41:00.004-05:00

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.

Completely Obsessed...

2009-08-31T14:06:00.006-05:00

So I am completely obsessed with this bedroom decor. I am thinking for my second guest room...someday, or if I have a teenage daughter, although by that time it will be out of style. It is so charming and girly, yet sophisticated. I love it, love it, love it.

I already have a bench that could be recovered to look similar to this and a desk that needs to be painted. I love the bright white furniture with the deep linens. So after the kitchen...maybe I can talk my husband into some version of this, refurbishing the linens and furniture we already have of course. Thoughts honey?

Oh and yes pics of the fabulous kitchen remodel are coming...eventually. I just can't bring myself to post any pics until I have the final product.

Rabbit

2009-08-26T08:43:00.003-05:00

Before anything else, I need to give a big old Fenton welcome to Ava Grace Huntley. Ava was born perfectly healthy on Friday night and mother and daughter are both doing swimmingly. Justin, however, reports that Ava's little finger is numb thanks to Justin being firmly wrapped around it. Congrats guys!

So as I mentioned in my last contribution, I'm training for a marathon. Training's going pretty well in general. I hit 22 miles last week with a long of 8 miles. Not a bad place to start from, but probably not the best. We'll make it work. Some of my workouts this week have been insane, though. I have a little bit of an agressive rabbit.

No no no...not THAT agressive rabbit (bonus points to any reader other than Justin and Neal that can name the scene and the weapon used to vanquish the mighty beast).

My rabbit is actually my running partner Gerry, a buddy from church that lives in the neighborhood. Gerry's in good shape and loves to run like I do. We meet 4-5 mornings a week to train. However, he and I couldn't be more different runners. Gerry's built for quick, powerful speed. He definitely leans toward the sprinter side of the the runners spectrum. Given my height and lankiness, I definitely fall more toward the endurance side of things. I can still move, but Gerry's going to beat me in a sprint most of the time. It's generally a good running partnership because on the long runs I push him and on the sprints he pushes me. Well, the rabbit took it to a whole new level this week.

We decided to run some mile intervals - mile warm up then alternating mile sprints with mile recovery jogs (3x) and then a mile cool down. For reference sake, when I ran the half marathon in February, I finished the race at an average of 8:45 per mile. The 10k not too long after that I finished in 8:02 per mile. My tempo runs are usually in the 7:30 per mile range. Well, last Wednesday morning, good old Gerry and I took off on our first hard mile and I could tell we were hauling. Little did I know exactly how fast we were moving. When I hit the lap button on my watch after that mile I almost had a heart attack. We had covered that mile in 6:34 - almost a full minute faster than my previous fastest training pace. We both agreed we should probably slow it down just a little. So, Gerry took the lead again after our recovery and we pushed and pushed through the 2nd mile - 6:40. Some slow down. The final mile started up and I was hurting, but there wasn't a chance I was going to let Gerry finish the workout alone. No less than 4 times in that mile did I seriously consider stopping. Through the pain I made it to the mark and put in a final lap of 6:48. I know you're supposed to go negative on intervals and any hard training run, but I'm sorry - there's no way I was going negative off of 6:34.

So, now is the time that I'm supposed to come up with some witty closing to bring this post to an end. Unfortunately I can't come up with anything, so I'll leave you with a tip on slaying the vicious rabbit seen above.

They say...

2009-08-24T20:46:00.005-05:00

That people and their pets start to look alike after so many years. Is that the same for roommates?

I met Ashlee for dinner tonight at Cracker Barrel. She was in from Washington, D.C. for work so we met up in Buda. I mean we lived together for three years, but seriously...this is a little weird don't you think.

Snow Cones for Dinner

2009-08-14T18:42:00.006-05:00

So husband...hmm...what did I do while you were away on your Canadian adventure? Well I was very very busy. I took down some backplash...

Hung some decorative plates above the bar...

I sanded a few cabinets...

I taught our puppy to get on the furniture...

I ate a snow cone twice for dinner...YUMMMM...

And I punched a hole through the wall. Well actually two holes...

Hopefully you'll be overjoyed to see me and not notice.

O Canada, part deux

2009-08-13T22:05:00.004-05:00

So ladies and gents, I've spent the last 4 days here in Canada in the lovely little town of Gimli...

No, no, no! Not THAT Gimli...

There we are...that's more like it! I've been up here for a work deal all week and it's been kind of lonely. It's a sleepy little beach town that's really a pretty place, just not much to do. The only place to do ANYTHING after 9 is in the hospitality room the conference put together. I officially miss my wife (awwwwwww..... :) ) At least I have this guy to keep me company.

While the trip has been a little long, it has actually been a nice break from the heat back in Kyle. While it's incredibly humid, the highs have been in the low 80s. A welcome break from the 100+ degree weather we've had for the better part of 2 months back home.

Now that we're caught up on where I'm running around these days, I have an announcement to make. Justin, Josh, Matthew, Gerry (maybe), and I have decided we're going to test our mettle against all that Mercury and his old running buddies in the Parthenon can throw at us. Foolishly or not, we've decided to compete in the Cowtown Marathon on February 27, 2010. That's right ladies and gents...this merry band of misfits will brave the mean streets of Fort Worth to push our bodies to the brink by running 26.2 consecutive miles. Why? It's not quite as easy an answer as to why I decided to run the half marathon last November (sheer boredom). Something about all that running grabbed hold of me as I trained for that race and continued to run after it was finished. The competition with myself to improve both on the road and physically has proven to big a draw to just quit running. Fortunately the improvement has come. When I started training I ran a 10 minute mile and thought I would die after finishing. This afternoon I logged 5 miles in an interval workout and clocked in at an average speed of 7:13 per mile. I'm pretty happy with that sort of improvement over the course of 9 months.

It's not just the desire for better health and faster times that draws me to the marathon, though. The marathon is hallowed ground of the running community. The biggest of the big, the baddest of the bad (okay, there are ultra marathons out there, but those are for the folks that are seriously warped), the marathon is not for the faint of heart. Which is why this merry band of recreational runners has decided to take it on. The marathon isn't just a physical battle, though there's a reason I'm already training in August for a race the last weekend of February. It's a battle of your will to finish off what you've trained for over the course of months. I've heard people say the marathon has 3 stages: the first 10 miles you run with your legs, the second 10 you run with your brain, and the last 6.2 you run with your heart. I'm looking forward to testing myself against that final, soul-sucking 10 kilometers in just a couple months. So, my contribution to the blog for the next little while will primarily consist of training updates so people that care (all 1 of you) can keep track of how it's going. My goal is to be up to 30 miles a week by November when we start a training plan in earnest for this thing. So far this week I'm up to 13 with an easy 3 or 4 planned for the morning and a 7-8 miler on Sunday morning which will put me in the low 20s. Not a bad position to be in. So, if there's anyone else out there that feels like pushing yourself to the brink and testing yourself in extreme ways, give me a shout and we'll get you in training mode too. And don't be afraid of the marathon. The Cowtown offers up a half marathon, 10k and 5k at the same time, so runners of all distances should get involved. Until next time!

O Canada!

2009-08-10T07:06:00.000-05:00

So husband is on his way to Canada for a week-long business trip, which means Lizzie and I will have to protect our house from murderers and robbers. I don't really hate it when he leaves town...I just hate the part when he is on a plane. Once he lands, I feel much better.

Anyways, on to other things. We had a great weekend. My parents and grandparents were in town. Friday night we returned home from work to find an amazing meal all cooked and ready to eat. It was so nice to NOT have to cook or eat a hamburger. Thanks Mom and Granny! Later we played a Terry family tradition...dominoes. That night it was Mexican Train. Now, you must understand that my family is EXTREMELY competitve...especially my Granny. For one of their wedding anniversaries, my Pa bought my Granny an air-hockey table, because that was her favorite game. She is good...really good. And she doesn't let you win, she beats you. She doesn't even let my two-year-old cousin win. She's hard core. You must also understand that Mexican Train is a very LONG game, so finishing is a feat all in itself. So imagine my excitement when I not only made it to the end, but also WON the game...putting my poor precious grandmother to shame. Did I mention she is competitive?

Granny, Mom and I spent hours in Hobby Lobby on Saturday, before heading to Lowe's to look at our new countertops. I got three new plates to hang on the wall in our dining room. I have been looking for some type of decorative thing to put on the wall in the dining area since we moved in, and these three plates seemed to do the trick. The goal is to get them hung tonight, however...that could be tricky without the husband. If I do succeed, I will be sure to post those pics.

That night we met our friends Scott and Amy at the Oasis for dinner. If you've never been to the Oasis you are truly missing out. The food is OK, but the view...well it is awesome! My parents and grandparents had never been, so we made sure to eat on the patio right at sunset. This pic isn't the greatest, but it gives you some sort of idea.

Sunday was all about church and Cracker Barrel, before they got on the road.

Husband and I were able to spend a few hours hanging out before he jetted off early this morning. I went from having a house full to being home alone...again...for a WEEK! Hurry home husband and hurry back family!

Show Us Your Life Fridays

2009-07-24T08:26:00.007-05:00

So today over at Kelly's Korner, we are showing off our wedding dresses. I have been married for a little over a year and a half and I just can't believe how fast the time goes by. I will never forget the six months of my engagement. It was so fun because my mom and I literally did all the decorating ourselves. We got married on December 29, 2007 right after Christmas in my very small home town. It was super fun, super cozy...and it even snowed.

I bought my wedding dress while I still lived in D.C. My mom flew up and we found it in one day.

I must admit it is a little strange posting pictures of myself...by myself...on my own blog. If I had more of my wedding pics, I would post them too.

Oh, and I had the greatest photographer. Check her out at TwintyPhotography .

2009-07-22T10:27:00.001-05:00

dmrzx8n9ps

Praying for rain...and a cheaper water bill.

2009-07-20T21:44:00.004-05:00

It is so dang hot here in Austin...so hot. And it is so so dry. We haven't had any rain in a really long time. The grass is dying and my plants are wilted, however, there is this really great oasis in my backyard that has seemed to overcome the dire heat and drought...our garden.

Who knew I had such a green thumb? Certainly not me. I was feeling so proud about my keen ability to grow and nurture these beautiful flowers and plants, and during a drought no doubt (try saying that three times fast).

I mean look at these flowers!

When I would go for walks around the neighborhood, I always felt sorry for everyone else's scorched, brown gardens. If only they knew the secret to great gardening...maybe I should tell them. But then again, I don't really have a secret. I guess I am just super blessed and super lucky.

Or super crazy. Come to find out, the sprinklers have been going off everyday...during the day when I am at work. WHAT? EVERYDAY? Yes EVERYDAY. So I do have a beautiful backyard garden...but it wasn't cheap kids. It wasn't cheap.

Is there something in the water...

2009-07-09T14:19:00.005-05:00

So today when I checked my blog updates, I had TWO updates from friends who had beautiful baby girls this week. Is this a sign that I am getting old? Of course such a day deserves a shoutout.
Anyways...Congrats to ~~Bucky~~ Jenni Robinson and the Inmans for their new additions. Jenni, I don't know your husband, but congrats to him too!

More Pics of the New House

2009-07-05T19:58:00.009-05:00

First of all I hope everyone had a great Fourth of July weekend. I am so thankful to be an American and for all the brave men and women who fight for our freedom. Jess was also in town from Washington, D.C. to help us celebrate. More to come on our weekend adventures....

Tonight I am bringing you a few pics of the three bedrooms in the new house. The first is the master. We found this comforter at Pottery Barn for 1/2 off. We bought it before we were married, and finally decided to use it after we tied the knot. It was originally on our queen bed...which looked terrible. Jason is so tall so we knew as soon as we moved somewhere with room we would buy ourselves a nice king size bed. Let me just tell you that was the best decision we ever made.

Let me also warn you that king size quilts are not to be washed in a regular size washing machine. I washed this one, and it was so heavy with all the water that I couldn't get it out by myself. It took 6 cycles in the dryer and still wasn't dry. I am surprised it didn't kill my washer and dryer.

I love this old dresser that Jason had. It was the only piece of his furniture that we decided to keep ;). I think someone gave it to him for free. I hope to eventually put it on the wall opposite of our bed with a few pics and candles and then hang a vintage oval mirror on the wall above it. For now, it is hosting our television which looks strangely HUGE in this picture...but someday I want to get a flat screen and mount it on the wall higher. Maybe get an armoire for that corner for extra storage.

These are three metal square things I found at Hobby Lobby. They worked great on the large and empty wall.

The next pic is of our smallest guest bedroom. It is the "girly" room where I have all the stuff from college I just can't bring myself to get rid of. We bought the quilt at Pier One and then painted one wall chocolate brown to match. The queen bed was mine from college, and the one Jason and I used until we traded up. The furniture is all from college.

Here is a close up of this vintage-like pink chair I found at TJ Maxx up in Washington. Hopefully, someday I will have a little girl's room that I can use it in, because it would absolutely not work anywhere else!

Another shot of the chair with an old bookshelf where I keep a lot of my books...the ones that started the book competition and also won me the prize! Take that husband!

Our third bedroom is all boy. It is the largest of the two extras, but we decided to use it as our office. The paint color is sort of burgundy brownish...as in Redskins burgundy...it was obviously Jason's choice, but I really like it. It is more of a nice red dirt color. The black desk was a total splurge from Walmart. We are missing a chair which tells you how often we actually use this room.

I gave Jason these three magazines when we were dating. They are the Sports Illustrated issues from the Redskins three Super Bowl wins.

I gave him this football signed by Art Monk (Redskins Hall of Famer) for Christmas this year. Jason is a huge fan of Monk...so huge, that he traveled all the way to Ohio to see his induction.

And here is the pic of him in the bleachers at the induction. You can't really pic him out of the crowd but he is there. This pic was in the Washington Post. My mom tracked it down and gave it to him for Christmas.

So those are the three bedrooms. The only things you haven't seen are the living room and the front and back yards. Hopefully I will get to those this next week.

We are making our list of home improvements since the only thing we have done so far is paint. Our house is only 1300 square feet, which is the perfect size for our family now. It also means that we most likely will have to move to a larger home someday. I don't want to pour too much into it, but I do want to spruce it up a bit. I'll be posting on those projects as well. Stay tuned...

Rocky Mountain High!

2009-06-30T17:29:00.001-05:00

So... again I have been bad at updating the blog. I have so much to blog about too, so I guess the only reason for not blogging is laziness. But I am getting over that and making a strong effort to bring you exciting and riveting stories of my personal adventures at least twice a week...starting today.

Last night we got in from a very long, but very welcomed retreat to Red River, New Mexico with the fam. IT WAS AWESOME, partly because of all the cool adventures and great time with family, but mostly because of the relief from the 110 degree heat here in Austin...ug. I will let the pictures do most of the talking. Enjoy.

We will start with the drive down and Lizzie's first big road trip.

She loved the water and all the rivers. We couldn't keep her out of them!

Here is Ava Grace and Lilly Mae taking pictures in front of the "fake bear".

Here is the crew before and during our rafting trip.

The view from Greenie Peak! We took the Jeeps up the bumpy roads all the way to the top. Even Lizzie made it.

Here we are on the way to Goose Lake. It was freezing and their was snow on the ground at the top.

More pictures from the top.

Check back later this week. I am posting pics of the master bedroom and the guest bedroom...and on "Show Us Where You Live Friday," I will have pics of the house from the outside.

Don't Skip Church!

2009-06-22T08:43:00.004-05:00

Yesterday I almost died.

Jason and I went to Sunday School yesterday morning and as I was attentively listening to the lesson, my stomach started growling something terrible. I tried to make it stop, but it just wouldn't. I realized I hadn't eaten anything for breakfast, and since I am trying to give up caffeine, hadn't had any coffee either to mask the hunger pains.

So, during the prayer, I leaned over to my honey and whispered in his ear..."Want to skip big church and go get breakfast?" I peeked over at me and smiled. I proceeded to say, "We can get there before the crowd and celebrate Father's Day...just the two of us..."

Talk about peer pressure. He totally gave in.

So, ever so inconspicuously, we departed from our Sunday School crowd and headed straight to the car. We arrived at Cracker Barrel just in time and had a great breakfast. Since we were in the neighborhood we dropped by Walmart to pick up a few things for the trip to New Mexico this week, and then...of course...a quick detour to Cabellas.

I looked at my watch and sure enough it was only 12:30 p.m. The church crowd was just now getting to Cracker Barrel, and HA...we were already on our way home and thinking about how we would fill the rest of our day. We are such rebels!

So...back to driving home. As we pulled through the four-way stop less than a mile from our house, this young girl in a silver Toyota Carolla comes blazing through her part of the stop sign. She nailed the back end of car.

Jason pulled over, and I began to cry. "If we would have only been a half second later on that, she would have rammed her car right into the passenger, seat where I was sitting," I screamed. "Thank you God! Thank you Jesus!"

A little shaken up, my husband got out of the car and went over to check on the other driver. By this time, four police cars had shown up. Her car was totalled, and ours had signifcant damage...but amazingly, no one was hurt. AMAZINGLY.

Moral of this story is...you really shouldn't skip Big Church for breakfast.

Lesson Learned.

Show Us Your Bathroom!

2009-06-12T07:16:00.001-05:00

Today at Kelly's Korner we are showing off our bathrooms. We have two bathrooms in our cozy home. This pic is of our master bath. As you can see, I need to change a light bulb.

I love our master bath so much because it has a tub and a separate shower. I love having a huge bathtub!

Here is another shot of the tub. The walls were already painted this dark taupe color, so we stuck with the theme, adding only a few chocolate brown accents, and super white and fluffy towels. It is very neutral, but we love it.

I love to monogram, so when I found these towels with an "F" for Fenton, I had to have them.

Now on to the guest bathroom, which is pretty tiny, so kind of hard to get a good shot. We used the same chocolate and bright white theme, only added cool blue walls to give a little something extra.

Here is the guest room shot using the same towel formation as in the master.

This is the best shot I could get of my favorite bathroom item...the guest room shower curtain. I ordered this from Ballard when we lived in D.C. after seeing my friend Julia's. It has been washed several times and still looks new.

Here is a pic of the cute soap dish my mom found at one of her stores. If you look closely, you can see a bar of soap with an "F" on it. Again...monogramming...love it!

For all you Kappa Kappa Gammas out there, this is one of two Fleur-de-lis in my house. I promised my husband I wouldn't flood our decor with remembrances of my college days, but I have to have a few shout outs to my sorority sisters. Go KKG!

And because every good bathroom has a good toilet.

Hope you enjoyed the tour. I promise to update more often and will eventually get all pics of the house on here.

Payless is the New Manolos

2009-05-27T07:52:00.000-05:00

I absolutely love to buy shoes, because a) I don't have to take anyting off to try them on, and b) I still wear the same size that I did when I was 15. For all you shoe lovers out there, I highly suggest you take a quick trip down to Payless and check out their fabulous selection of super cute shoes. PAYLESS...who knew?!I purchased this pair this past weekend for $19. They are navy blue with little pink dots and actually very very comfy.
These little black patent peep-toed slingbacks were also a steel at $19. Super cute for summer all the way into the fall.

And these were my favorite finds of all. I have been looking for a cute pair of bone colored shoes to wear with my greens and blues, and haven't been able to find a pair that didn't look OLD. My luck changed this weekend at Payless (my new favorite store). I couldn't find a good pic online which probably means they are on their way out, but these little beauties were only $17...and they're Dexters. Remember Dexters? Remember Gap Khaki shorts and Dexters? Remember how expensive they were and how you could only get them at Dillards. Crazy how times change.

Show Us Where You Live Friday

2009-05-22T07:12:00.002-05:00

So Kathryn.this friend of mine, has this friend who has been hosting Show Us Where You Live Fridays. Kelly (the friend of a friend) has an amazing blog, and although I have never met her, I feel like I know her just by reading about her and her family...that is a little weird, but hey we are in the 21st Century.

I LOVE houses, home decor, HGTV so you can imagine my excitement to get in on this wonderful idea. I have missed the past four weeks, so I will try to catch up over the next couple of Fridays.

This week is dining rooms. Most of you know that Jason and I moved into a little starter home in Kyle, Texas back in November. There is still some work to be done, but all in all, our cozy "first house" is shaping up quite nicely. We have an eat in kitchen so showing off the dining room and the kitchen is basically the same thing. The pics are a little grainy and dark because I had to use my bberry. Drum roll please...

These curtains came with the house. They are a little matchy matchy for my taste, but they work for now. Any thoughts on what type of window treatments to put on a window like this? Is a valance the only option that would work?

Since the lighting fixture hangs so far down, we really need something lower to the table for a centerpiece. I love fruit in pretty glass bowls, and this worked out perfectly. We received this bowl as a wedding gift and I found these very real looking fake pears at Target for $8. I like to change the fruit out each season.

This chabby chic red china cabinet is my absolute favorite piece in the entire house. We bought it before we were married and Jason housed it in his apartment until I moved in. It originally served as a bookshelf when we lived in D.C., but now I think it is the perfect quirky space for my china!

We also have this bar piece that holds our wine glasses, etc.

The big red berry arrangement is one of the centerpieces from our Christmas wedding. I can't believe it has been almost two years!

And now onto the kitchen...

I would love your suggestions. Can't wait to check out all the other dining rooms!

We've Been Discovered

2009-05-06T16:10:00.003-05:00

It's official. Our blog has been discovered. I ~~googled~~ searched my name on the Internet to see if a specific story was posted where I was quoted, but I came across this! Anne Schroeder is a political blogger in D.C. She did a short story on Jason and I when we were engaged. Apparently she stumbled upon our blog back in February (how did I not see this sooner?). For those of you "outside the beltway" this means nothing, but to those of you in D.C....you know this is cool.

To clear the air, Jason knowingly ran 14 miles, and I want to write a book about MY experience in D.C. And by the lack of comments...we are boring as well.

The couple who blogs together stays together?

Back in January of last year we wrote about a cute CapHill couple both working for Rep. John Carter, who got married: Jason and Carmen Fenton.

And now, they share a blog: "The Fenton Spot: The story of a young, married couple leaving behind the excitement of national politics for life in a small town ..."

She hates it when he leaves and has to stay home alone. He unknowingly ran 14 miles the other day, and she wants to write a book about his experiences in D.C. Etc., etc.

By Anne Schroeder Mullins 02:00 PM
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Texas Top Ten

2009-04-24T17:18:00.010-05:00

Hello Readers! Sorry for the temporary vaca from the blog. I have no excuse, except for the lack of time and motivation to do anything on the computer that I don't have to. (Excluding facebook, myspace, people.com, usweekly.com, popsugar and drudge...oh and the Austin American Statesman)

There is so much to update you on that I don't even no where to start. So we will just fast forward through the past months up until last weekend (I know I am even late on writing about last weekend).

I was in Winnie, Texas Friday and Saturday. Winnie is a small town on the southeast coast (Texas is not landlocked Jess!) and was seriously devastated by Hurricane Ike. There are lots of cattle in this area and so many of the ranchers fences, barns and houses were literally washed away. TSCRA was down there rebuilding some of those fences. I was down managing the press, not building fences. I heard a rumor that Bush Sr. was roaming around the area somewhere helping out too...but I didn't see him. Anyways it was a great event...see more here.

The real prompting for this blog came on Friday's drive. I realized that one of my favorite things about Texas is the speed limit. I was in the fast lane, going 75ish when this dude pulling a four wheeler behind his truck started riding my rear. I moved over to the slow lane and he passed me, but as he passed me, he threw his hand out the window and made some sort of hand motion. At first I thought he waved so I waved back...but the more I think about it, I think he was flipping me off. I thought Texans didn't flip people off while driving...

So in an effort to save time and sum up the last couple of months I have compiled a top ten list of the things I took for granted while in D.C. The first one being...

1. Friendly highway drivers, except for this dude of course...if he was, in fact, flipping me off.

2. The ability to drive incredibly fast on any major highway. (Speed limit in VA...60, and heavily enforced. Speed limit in TX...70, technically making it 75 and not so heavily enforced)

3. A garage for my car, and a yard for my dog who has learned to poop in the neighbors yard, which was great until they realized what she was doing.

4. The ability to attend weddings of college friends. It was so good to see everyone at Katy's wedding, especially the bride herself. Who knew you could lose such contact with people you once lived with.

5. Walmart and its cheap groceries.

6. A good old Southern Baptist Church where we can become members and get involved.

7. Cheap Mexican food...that tastes like Mexican food.

8. Red Dirt Music (courtesy of Mr. Fenton)

9. Being close to my best friend, Jason's best friend, and both of our families.

10. And finally...the ability to go to the White Deer Rodeo (All you bucks out there know what I mean by that).

Clearly we are happy to be in Texas...but I also miss D.C. a lot. I miss my friends, my bible study group and even my job. I miss being in the middle of all things political, but I am also grateful to be more removed, to gain a little perspective and enjoy just being a Texan.

Lizzie the wonder dog

2009-03-21T16:54:00.006-05:00

Well folks, it's been a while since we updated anything. Many apologies.

As you all know, Carmen and I adopted a puppy about a month ago, Lizzie. There's a post about her down a ways when she's all sweet and cuddly and cute. Well, she's still sweet and cuddly and cute, but now she's over 25 pounds instead of 8. Carmen's very upset by this because it's hard for her to sit in her lap and sleep anymore. I, on the other hand, think it's the greatest thing in the world because 8 pound Lizzie couldn't do this.

And for those of you that want video, well we have that too.

As you can see, any doubt as to her lab heritage is officially gone. We headed down to the lake in our neighborhood this afternoon to see how Lizzie would do in the water. She was a little apprehensive at first, but then she found the world's most perfect fetch stick, and all doubts about the water were gone. When we left I had to physically carry her up to the trail to keep her from heading back in. After the success today, I'd say we're all but guaranteed to make many trips down there this summer.

I didn't die!!!

2009-03-02T14:31:00.004-06:00

For those of you wondering about the wisdom of my decision to run 13.1 miles all at one time, I am proud to report that my body is still in one piece and I'm able to sit behind my desk and get work done today. Not once did I have to stop and walk and I was even able to encourage other runners to finish the route. The route is posted here...again, assuming I'm smart enough to figure it out.

2009 Cowtown Half Marathon
Find more Runs in Fort Worth, Texas

The day almost started off with a disaster, and did in fact start illegally. Trying to get into downtown an hour before the race should have seemed like a bad idea to Justin and I. Unfortunately, it never crossed our minds that real runners would show up far in advance in order to park and get a little warm up going. Unfortunately for us, there were at least a couple thousand other non-real runners who were all trying to enter via the same 4 lanes at the same time we were. So what's the logical option? Take the first street out of town, even if that means going the wrong way on a one way street for 200 yards. Fortunately, no one was coming out of downtown Fort Worth, so we were okay. Our next bit of misery was trying to survive the travel to the start line in sub freezing temperatures (or at least sub-freezing wind chills). I'm fairly certain that the reason I didn't have the standard soreness in my knees to start the run is because I was numb from the waist down.

One would think these would be the only problems we would face before the race started. Unfortunately this is not the case. Who knew it would be so difficult for 2 guys that have known each other for almost 20 years to find each other if one went to the bathroom. Our grand intentions of running together were dashed before we even crossed the starting line. In spite of that, I actually had a pretty good run. I almost ate pavement because a teenager that hadn't trained for a 13 mile run (obvious because he was walking before the 4 mile marker) kept weaving back and forth as I tried to pass him but that was really the only problem along the way. I was really nervous coming into the race because my long runs had been cut short or non-existent for the last couple weeks because of travel and a hip injury. Turns out those nerves were unfounded. Not only was I able to run the entire route, but I was able to power through the hills, encourage others that were fading to keep going (it's incredible how important the support of the other runners is...this tight community of people that have never met each other really is amazing and likely the topic of another post), and somehow found the strength to kick through the last quarter mile at a significantly faster pace in order to finish strong and beat my goal time. That's right ladies and gentlemen, this kid beat his realistic goal of a sub 2 hour race by 5 minutes and beat his challenge goal of 1:55 by 7 seconds. And I'm not going to lie, knowing Carmen was somewhere in that last quarter mile ready to take pictures and cheer me on was entirely responsible for my sudden burst of energy...turns out she was right at the finish line so she got to see me cross ahead of my goal!

Now, I'm not going to lie...not getting up to run this morning felt amazing. My body definitely needed the extra recovery, but I can't wait to get out and hit the road tomorrow. If all goes well I'll be able to keep up my 25-30 mile a week base and be in a position to challenge myself for a sub 1:30 on the half this fall and go after a full marathon at the Cowtown next February. So for all those in the metroplex, mark your calendar to come hold signs and scream for me next February 27th, and Justin, check your inbox...there are more race registration dates and training plans waiting for you.

Sleepless in Kyle

2009-02-17T19:30:00.000-06:00

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.

14 miles

2009-02-07T07:50:00.000-06:00

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.

&amp;lt;a href="http://www.mapmyrun.com/run/united-states/tx/kyle/446405381973"&amp;gt;2.5 miles counterclockwise&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;&amp;lt;br/&amp;gt;&amp;lt;a href="http://www.mapmyrun.com/find-run/united-states/tx/kyle"&amp;gt;Find more Runs in Kyle, Texas&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;

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.

25 things...

2009-02-03T11:27:00.001-06:00

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.

Meet Lizzie!

2009-02-02T11:47:00.001-06:00

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.

Pelted with Mist

2009-01-28T09:07:00.000-06:00

It is 9:07 a.m. I am in Austin at my office working (and blogging in between tasks until my 10:00 a.m. meeting). I got here at the usual time this morning. No one else is in downtown Austin today...no one. The streets are empty, the capital is quiet...our phones are barely ringing. Our Fort Worth office is closed and my boss is in Phoenix for a conference. So that leaves me...the only employee at work today.

For the past two days, the local media has been buzzing about this "ice storm" scheduled to hit last night and cause mad chaos during the morning commute. (As I am writing this, I look out my office window and see only sunshine...oh and a bus...maybe Austin is coming to work today) I left my house at 8:00 a.m., which is 45 minutes later than I would normally leave. I figured since the storm was going to be so bad, I might as well wait until the school traffic was over and done with and get those buses off the road. Oh, but wait, school was delayed two hours this morning. So, I left at 8:00 a.m. for no reason.

The high for today is 58. Yesterday in White Deer, the high was 9. My point is...there was no ice storm in Austin last night. Or if there were...there was no evidence of it this morning.

I was raised in the Texas Panhandle, where it gets bitter bitter cold. When I graduated, I moved to Lubbock where it is equally as cold and super windy. After college, I moved to Washington, D.C....where it snows and snows during the winter. Austin feels almost tropical to me. We have had 80 degree weather this January, and haven't seen a bit of snow since we moved here. So I was a little thrown back when all the "ice storm" talk started yesterday. So much, that I even pulled out my ski jacket and wore it to work today.

Last night, KVUE news alloted 1/3 of their entire news cast to the upcoming "storm". 1/3...that is 8 minutes (once you figure in commercials)! Governor Perry gave the State of the State yesterday and it only got 40 seconds on the local news. The sweet reporter covering the story said she was being "pelted by mist." What does that mean? I wonder if the mist hurt as it pelted down. Seriously...mist?

There could have been a storm and I just slept through it. Or maybe all the county salt and sand trucks are just that good. I don't want to discredit them at all because I know they were up all night conditioning the roads for the "ice."

Meredith didn't go to work until 11:00 a.m. They were afraid the "ice" would be too bad, and didn't want employees to be out in the early morning during the eye of the "ice storm."

I just don't get it.

A man of class...and I am not talking Obama.

2009-01-20T17:14:00.001-06:00

It is nearing the end of a busy day in my world. January 20th was not only Inauguration Day, but it was also the day I drove to San Antonio for a lunch meeting, sent PAC letters, talked to a handful of reporters, scheduled interviews and briefed myself on EPA Advanced Notice of Proposal to make CO2 a greenhouse gas under the Clean Air Act, and basically try to tax ranchers on cow farts (they do not have the authority to do that by the way...and I don't believe it will actually happen).

If I was in Washington D.C., today would have been about one thing. Obama. And as much as I didn't vote for him, I would have embraced the fact that America has a shiny new President and watched 24 hours of coverage on "America's News Station" (Fox of course). Instead, I chose to move to the real world where the only piece of the inauguration I heard was in the background of a conference call this morning and on the radio during the drive to San Antonio. Ladies and Gentlemen...there is life outside of Washington, and Carmen Fenton has officially landed there.

So, after all the craziness of the day, I am sitting at my computer (pirating my neighbors connection...thinking to myself I should really stop doing that), and jotting down my thoughts on the broken pieces of the monumental moment in American history that i witnessed and heard today.

Here we go...

First off, I am a Republican. I did not vote for Obama, and did not and have not jumped on the Obama bandwagon. So if you are reading this and are already offended...you should probably read no further.

I do not hide the fact that I am a conservative, but I do not shout it from the mountain tops either. I, unlike many of my friends, am not a radical. I would never picket, throw punches at a press conference (believe me...I have seen it), or interrupt an elected official with shouts of complete hate.

I strongly believe that one's personal convictions about politics stem from their overall view of government and what role it should play in their lives. I also strongly believe that those views should be expressed politely and convincingly when appropriate.

As I said before, I was not an Obama supporter, but I will support and pray for him as the President of the United States. No doubt, today was his day. He has broken the glass ceiling for so many in our country. His presidency will always be full of historical and inspirational value, and no one, no matter how many bad decisions he makes, will ever take that away from him. But while I commend Mr. Obama on his success, this day I could only focus on him and his family for a moment. My real focus was on Bush.

I love George W. Bush, and like many Texans, I am proud of him and respect him for what he has accomplished. America voted him as President two times. We chose him. And I think he did a pretty good job. I didn't always agree with him, but I didn't publicly boo, criticize and ridicule him either. I tell you what...any man, who has endeared the public hate that Bush has endeared deserves all the respect in the world.

I don't feel sorry for Bush because they booed him at today's inauguration, or because Obama chose to "eat dinner" rather than pay him the respect of attending his goodbye speech. Just the opposite...I admire Bush. Through everything, the snubs, the disrespects, he has never been caddy. Not once. Because he knows that his purpose was greater than himself, that he was called on by God to serve his country, that he made decisions no other man could have made. He is a man of God called on by God. He knows that.

And while all the Obama lovers were hating him, Bush made sure that Obama's transition to the White House was seamless, that it was as easy on his family as possible, that it was respectable to the position. Very much unlike the transition the Clinton administration put together for Bush.

If I were Bush, I would have boarded Marine One, looked down on the radical Obama worshippers and the press pool and given them the big middle finger. But not President Bush. He exited Washington D.C. with the morals and values that he went their with...despite the backhanded comments. Bush was never an elitist. He is a typical Texan.

I sincerely hope that Obama is an amazing president. I hope he lives up to the hype that he created. I hope that our country will continue to rally behind him.

I also hope that we teach our children the meaning of true love, pride in our country and respect for our president. You see all the celebrities, the radicals, the Republican haters out there who truly think they are spreading peace, love, and harmony throughout the country by publicly hating Bush and worshipping Obama are wrong. True love, pride and respect breaks all barriers of political parties. It comes together and supports the leaders God chose for our country...something the citizens of this country have not done in a very long time.

Oh Yeah...the Book Contest

2009-01-16T16:09:00.000-06:00

So for all my faithful readers out there, you may recall a certain challenge Jason and I had based on a certain assumption he made about my choice of reading material. I hadn't forgot about it. I just didn't want to rub it in.

Like most of you predicted, I won the contest pretty handily. And I didn't just do it because I read more or am more dedicated. No, I won because I had a good strategy. See, husband thought he could outsmart wife by reading one ginormous book and wiping out her pretty substantial lead. Husband didn't think about the fact that the book was borrowed or the fact that he was moving 1600 miles away.

My strategy was simple. I knew it was probable that husband would finish the book before the December 31st deadline (he is afterall a genious), but it was pretty much impossible that husband would finish the book before moving day. So what did I do? I gave it back to the owner the night before we moved. Done and done. Not only did I keep my husband from being one of those guys who borrow your books, Cd's, and movies (Neal...I still have your Hotel Rwanda) and never ever return them, but I also chalked up a nice victory and proved that just because you read a few nonsense books here and there, doesn't mean you don't appreciate the occasional educational read.

Fenton Victory Talley

Wife 1

Husband 0

Bring on the next challenge! (as long as it doesn't involve running)

So which one is better...

2009-01-10T20:53:00.000-06:00

Every month I get a copy of Texas Montly. It is a magazine, written mostly by crazy hippy Austinites. Although it mostly disagrees with my political views, it is a great magazine with really great writers and great articles about Texas. They do lot's of top 50. Top 50 hiking trails, best places in state to travel, and my fav. top 50 bbq places in Texas. We received this issue of Texas Monthly prior to moving to Austin, and we were excited to see that just outside of Kyle in another small town lies three of the top 20. Blacks, Kreutz and Smitty's. Not too long after we saw this article, we were watching a bbq special on th travel channel. It blew my mind that all three were in the top 10 places to eat bbq in the entire country.

Clearly we must find out for ourselves if they are as good as the media says they are. So today we took our first trip to Lockhart, 23 miles east of Kyle, to begin our journey of finding the best of the best. On the agenda are the top 3, plus an additional place my boss just raves about called Chisum Trail.

Since we have no allegience, we will go down the list alphabetically.

First was Black's.

Black's is famous for their brisket, and is the oldest family owned bbq joint in Texas. Jason, myself and Josh (Jason's little brother who is visiting and will pose as our guest judge) decided we would rate each joint on a scale from 1-5 stars (kinda like star search) in five different categories. Meat 1, Meat 2, Sides, Sauce and Atmosphere.

The brisket at Black's is AMAZING...definitetly five star status. However, Meat 2 (sausage) had a really strange consistency. The sides were pretty good, sauce was great and atmosphere was mediocre. All in all, Black's received a 3.82 star rating. Not the best...but not too shabby either. The real question is "Would I take my parents there." The answer is probably...depending on what else was open.

I'm not obese!!!!!

2009-01-09T11:45:00.000-06:00

That's right ladies and gentlemen, for the first time since I graduated, the number that starts my weight is a 1 and not a 2. Who'd have thunk that a little running (or a lot for a half marathon training cycle) would have such an effect. The true test will be when i put on my oldest suit, but that should fit no problem. I just hope I can still wear all my new clothes!!!!

The Husband

I'm Addicted to Television

2009-01-09T10:10:00.000-06:00

Now that football season is over (tear), you may wonder what I will be doing with all my free T.V. time. Well fear no more my worried readers...January is the perfect time to feed my T.V. addiction.

Originally, I was going to make giving up most non-educational T.V. my New Year's resolution, but once I saw the previews for everything new and old starting up again in January, I said, "I've changed towns, states, jobs, houses...even my wardrobe has changed. I need to keep something consistent in my life." So this year I will not be giving up any of my sacred television shows (or celebrity blog sites...but that is another story). In fact, I may take up a few new ones.

So here is the list...starting with Monday, my favorite T.V. Day. I really don't think it is too excessive:

Mon: The Bachelor, Gossip Girl, The City (aka...spinoff of favorite, The Hills), Samantha Who, and NEW SHOW: True Beauty

Tues: House, American Idol (starts next week)

Wed: American Idol, The Real World: Brooklyn

Thurs: Survivor (starts Feb. 12), Grey's Anatomy, The Office

Fri: There are no good shows on Friday

Sat: And for that matter Saturday

Sunday: Meet the Press, Face the Nation, Extreme Home Makeover (as long as it isn't a 2 hour special), Desperate Housewives and Brothers and Sisters

Combine Fox News Austin every night at 9...and you have a pretty full schedule. Some may say that my brain will surely rot, especially noting the excessive amount of reality television. But for those nay sayers, it is important to note what shows I don't watch. ie: Private Practice, Ugly Betty, Law & Order, CSI, Fringe, etc. etc.

The key here is DVR, which I now have, so I can record all my shows and spread the T.V. time throughout the week (Friday and Saturday).

So what do you think? If we share a common show, I want to know your thoughts...and if you absolutely think I am missing out on a life-changing one, I could be convinced to add another to the lineup. But if you are a hater of anything MTV...keep it to yourself.

I Still Love You Mike Leach!

2009-01-05T14:04:00.000-06:00

I can't figure out how to copy the video directly on the post, so you'll have to click here to see the 60 minute's interview with Mike Leach from last night. He is weird...no doubt about that...

Merry Christmas, Happy Anniversary, Happy New Year, You Have a Kidney Stone

2008-12-31T12:27:00.001-06:00

Happy New Year Everyone! Sorry I didn't write a Christmas blog...I am getting pretty bad at this. Christmas was great though. We spent our first Christmas as husband and wife in White Deer with my family. It was cold and cuddly and it even snowed (you certainly don't get that in Austin). We actually opened our gifts to each other on Tuesday night. Jason was really excited about his table saw and his Art Monk signed football (BEST WIFE EVER!!!) to be placed on the new shelves that he is building with his saw in his man room. But that wasn't even comparable to the excitement of my Christmas gift. Wrapped up in a huge box under the tree were two COTTON BOWL tickets! "YOU ARE THE BEST HUSBAND EVER, I LOVE YOU! WE HAVE TO GET YOU A TECH T-SHIRT! YOU ARE THE BEST HUSBAND EVER!" You get the picture...I was really excited.

Wednesday we were off to White Deer where we pulled into town just in town to make the Christmas Eve service at the First Baptist Church. Luckily we were late enough to miss the handshaking part (I don't know why, but I have never liked the church meet and greet section). Later that evening, we had homemade stew and each opened one present. I got weights from my brother (is he trying to tell me something?). The next day was Christmas morning. I snuck down around 3:30 am to check out the present situation. I wasn't sure if Santa still visited you once you got married...but yes, in our family, he does. My brother, Jason and I opened gifts and then my mom and dad did. We still act very much like we are in elementary school on Christmas. We were off to my grandma's for Christmas Day dinner and gifts. Friday, we went to the other grandma's to meet up with my 13 cousins and open a huge pile of presents.

Saturday, Jason and I went to Amarillo with my mom and dad to do a little shopping and see Marley & Me which I loved. The most exciting part of this day was during the drive home. My mom was a little tired and cranky (no offense mom), and somehow the topic came up of how much the government spends on the little white stripes in the middle of the road. According to my dad is a dollar a foot. My mom kind of shrugged it off and said, "well that is pretty cheap." "Wrong," my dad replied. Each one of those stripes is 10 feet long. "Whatever, there is no way those stripes are 10 feet long. That is taller than the ceilings in our house. You don't know what you are talking about, Tam." And so on and so on. So thirty minutes later, we pull into Panhandle, Texas which is 14 miles from White Deer. My dad tells Jason (who was driving) to turn down this dark road. He did as he was told and took us three miles out of the way down a dark, but paved road. Not only was the road paved, but it had stripes. So dad tells Jason to pull over. Jason pulls over. Mom protests. Dad gets out of the car, tells Jason to lie down on the stripe in the middle of the road. Jason does as he is told. Mom reluctanltly gets out of the car to find my husband's 6 foot 3 body frame lying on the stripe with an extra four feet to go. Mom gets huffy because she is wrong. Dad laughs and says I told you so. Jason (who is from the city) is in total awe because he just laid down in the middle of road and wasn't run over.

On Sunday morning, we left, cats in tow and headed back to Austin. The next day I went to work and remembered...it is our anniversary. Of course my husband had been thinking about it all day. That night we had a great dinner, and although we agreed not to buy presents, Jason showed up with a big bouquet of beautiful flowers. I didn't even get him a card (WORSE WIFE EVER!!!). The other great part about this day is that Jason got his LSAT score back. It was no surprise that he did amazing. I am so proud of you honey!

Now we are at Tuesday. The Cotton Bowl is only 3 days away. We decide we will spend New Year's Eve with friends in Austin since I have to work, wake up early on Thursday and drive to Dallas for the game on Saturday. That way we can spend time with Jason's family since we didn't see them on Christmas. I start to have back pains which get increasingly worse as the night goes on.

Here we are on Wednesday and I spend my morning at the Kyle Urgent Care Clinic because clearly I don'g have a doctor yet. I am there for two hours getting poked and prodded. Finally they take X-rays, and low and behold, there is a kidney stone. And not just a tiny kidney stone like the last one four years ago (remember that Ashlee). This kidney stone is 8 FREAKING MM. To give you some perspective, they usually surgically remove them at 5 mm. The doc tells me it is going to be a rough couple of days. Give me a prescription for Vicatin and Flomax (pain killer and muscle relaxer), tells me not to drive while taking these meds, drink lots and lots of water, and see if it will pass on its own over the weekend. In 5 days, if it hasn't, I will probably have surgery to remove it.

Cotton Bowl is in 3 days.

Hurry up kidney stone! You may be the size of China, but in no way are you going to deter me from enjoying my first Tech game of 2009. I can take the pain, but I can't take missing out on the chance that Tech could beat Ol' Miss on Friday.

Santa Baby

2008-12-17T15:58:00.000-06:00

Here are pics from the Austin Trail of Lights 5K. Note the super sexy Santa costumes Meredith bought for us to wear over our running clothes (who new victoria's secret lingeria could look so good on the outside of your clothes!). Even though we took the 2 mile shortcut, it was a great event. We had so much fun at the run, at dinner and then at our "girls only" slumber party where Meredith and Nicole shared their singing talents with us. Merry Christmas! Love you girls!

Affirmation

2008-12-16T07:18:00.000-06:00

The past two and a half weeks have been crazy (hence the lack of blog entiries). This is the third week of my new job, and it is going really great. I am stealing the title of this blog from a good friend of mine back in D.C. who blogs about her life. She talks about affirmation, and the feeling you get when you know you are doing the right thing at the right time. For me, it is rare to have peace about major decisions, but today I have perfect peace about our decision to move back to Tejas and to take this new job.

I am the Director of Public Affairs for the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association. While I don't really know yet what the title "Director of Public Affairs" ensues, my main job is to bring more public awareness and raise the profile of the association. Basically, I am in charge of the media operation, which means I get to talk to reporters on a daily basis about what it is TSCRA is all about and why it is important. The Cattle Raisers have been around since 1877 so they are a pretty credible group of cowboys and cowgirls.

My dad and my brother are cowboys...and to some extent, I am a cowgirl. I grew up in White Deer, TX (population 1,060), and my family (the Terry's) have a ranch. On the ranch we work around 650 head of cattle. We are stewards of the land, keeper of the cows, and producers of American beef. But maybe most importantly we are a family with a deep heritage. My great great grandfather settled the ranch in the early 1900s. He had 14 (!) children and it was eventually passed down to my grandfather, Ernie Bill. Now, my baby brother is living on the ranch and working the land in the house that my great-grandfather built in 1912. What history!

It is such a privelege to work for an organization made up people that share the same history, work ethics and values as your family. You may not think that agriculture is important to your life until you stop to think about it. Most things you own or eat started on farm or ranch somewhere by a family like mine.

This job is hard. There is a lot to do and working with the press and getting them to write your story is never easy. The organization plays a huge role in the history of our great state; however, we have never sought much press coverage. Enter: Carmen Fenton. Lot's of late nights, early mornings and many miles on the highway are in my future...but that is ok. In fact, I kind of like it. It is really cool waking up in the morning and knowing you are exactly where you are supposed to be.

The pics above are from the Terry Ranch. The mysterious shadowy cowboy is my baby brother and those are his dogs.

Good Luck Fenton!

2008-12-06T08:32:00.000-06:00

Today's your big day husband. No, it's not your birthday or your first day of work. It is LSAT day. You are the smartest man I have ever met and I love you so much. You will do awesome. I will be praying for you all day while I am Christmas shopping. Good Luck!

Cowboy For A Day

2008-11-28T15:22:00.000-06:00

Today OSU plays OU. If OSU wins, Texas Tech goes to the Big 12 Championship. So today I am cheering for the cowboys.

Go Pokes!

Homeward Bound Part I

2008-11-27T09:35:00.000-06:00

So, I have made it to Texas. I fully intended to blog about our trip while we were actually on the trip, but I couldn't find the power cord to the computer the first night, and a major Texas Tech upset left me in no mood for conversing the next night. And we have no Internet at the new house. But now I am in Fort Worth with the Fentons celebrating Thanksgiving, and lucky for me, their neighbor has some powerful service. So I am pirating at max potential (I do feel a little guilty) now and will have to write about our trip in the past tense.

We packed up the truck (with the help of 3 amazing movers) on Friday, spent the night in the hotel, and left before the sun came up on Saturday. I was too tired to be sad. We drove to Dickson, TN (west side of Nashville) before we finally stopped for the night just in time to see kickoff of the OU-TTU game. Mom, Dad, Jason and I made the drive just fine. It was the two cats (Jack and Jake) that had a problem. And who could blame them. The poor things were stuck in kitty cages the entire drive.

The last time the Fentons made the drive to Texas we let the cats roam around in the car freely. Not smart. So this time the good lady at Petsmart assured us that putting the kids in the cages would be safer for them and for the driver. She even talked Jason into buying this Kitty Calming Spray that you spray in their cages to calm them down. I am not convinced it worked, because our cats were super mad at us the entire time (until they finally wore themselves out). They cried and cried, and towards the end of the day...Jack somehow figured out how to open the cage and escaped David Copperfield style. It was quite impressive for a cat.

What wasn't as impressive was the dismantling of my undergrad Alma matter, Texas Tech, by my grad school Alma matter, OU. Even though I have an advanced degree from the University of Oklahoma, I am in no way a Sooner. I really don't know if it is factual to say I even went to school their. OU has a room in a strip mall (satellite campus) in Washington, D.C. (believe it or not) where I attended classes for a year to get my degree. My parents bought me a plane ticket to Norman so they could come see their baby girl walk across the stage, but other than that one time, I have never stepped foot on campus. I guess you could say I am the step-child of OU. I am, however, a die hard Texas Tech Red Raider fan. I love them with all my heart...so much to say that I will be disappointed if my kids decide to go to school somewhere else.

My dad always tells me that Texas Tech will break your heart. And that night he was right. Riding high off of our winning streak, Tech fans across the nation were slammed back down to earth when we were literally creamed by the Oklahoma Sooners...pretty much ruining our chances of winning the Big 12 South. The only slim chance we have left is if Oklahoma State beats OU, knocking them out of the running and leaving it between Tech and Texas. Since Tech beat Texas, we would go.

But back to the road trip. Day two of driving was a little easier because the west side of TN on into Texas is a lot flatter. Jason and I spent most of the day in the Budget Rent-A-Truck, which was kind of fun. Until we got to Arkansas, where the roads are just as rough as the people (no offense to Arkansas folks who may be reading this).

Around 3:00 we finally rolled into Texas (I swear the sun shined brighter and their were angels singing). We spent our last night on the road in Fort Worth with Jason's parents. The next morning we woke up super early, borrowed Jason's little sister for slave labor, and headed South to Austin. That was pretty much out trip, not to eventful, just really long.

But in the present I am in Texas enjoying the first holiday with my new extended family. I am so thankful to be here, and thankful for all the friends I have both in Texas and in Washington, D.C. I am thankful for my wonderful husband who gave up his career to follow mine all the way back to Texas. I am thankful for my family, who is celebrating in White Deer today. I am thankful for our new house and our huge kitchen. I am thankful for Mike Leach, Graham Harrell and Michael Crabtree (even if they did lose last weekend). I am just thankful...thankful for all the blessings in my life and for the plans that God has in store for us here in Texas.

Washington D.C. - Senior Year

2008-11-19T13:04:00.000-06:00

My desk is packed. My inbox is empty. My blackberry is no longer in use (this includes my cell phone and the ability to text), and I am sitting at my empty congressional desk at 2:05 p.m. with absolutely no responsibility.

I could get used to this.

Leaving Washington, D.C. after 4 and a half years is a lot like leaving college or even high school. Just like I did then, I really don't know what to expect now. Of course, now, at age 26 I have a devoted husband, a new job waiting for me, a new house and even a new blackberry, but the uncertaintly of "what will be" comes back strong, just as it did 4 and 8 years ago. I am so excited to be headed back to Texas, my home, my state, my resting place, but part of me is a little sad to be quitting my exciting life. And part of me wishes Jason and I were headed for one last adventure before we settle down.

But deep down I know that this move is what God wants for us, what he has planned for us, and since, after all these years, I still don't know exactly what he wants me to do, this move is a little scary.

In a few hours, I will walk out of the Carter office for the last time. I will say goodbye to all the co-workers I love like family, and will bid farewell to the halls of Congress. In a few hours, I will no longer be able to tell folks, "I work in Washington." In a few days, I will be in a U-haul with the three men in my life (Jason-husband, Jack-old cat, Jake-baby cat) and will be driving down 395 for the last time.

Tear.

I will miss you Washington. All your prestige, all your power, even all your games. I have graduated from this time, this place between adolescence and adulthood and am headed for a new life in a familiar place.

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." (Jer 29:11)

It Is All My Fault!

2008-11-12T12:29:00.001-06:00

I have a confession to make. It is my fault that Obama is President.

You see, the night before the Texas Tech, UT game I made a deal with God. I told him I would trade an Obama win for a UT loss. Of course at the time I wasn't really thinking clearly, and was more wrapped up in the Tech football season then the prosperity of our nation.

Well, if you ever think that God doesn't answer prayers...think again. Because not only did Texas Tech pull up the biggest upset in college football history, but Barack Obama did indeed win the presidency.

As much as I disagree with President-Elect Obama on just about everything, I have made a promise to myself that I will not call him names in public or on my blog. I don't agree with his policies and I truly think he is bad for the country, but he will be the President, and I will respect that.

But enough about politics, let's talk football. More specifically let's talk Texas Tech football. The UT game was huge and the OSU game was equally as satisfying. For the first time, since I can remember, Texas Tech has a 10-0 record. Does anyone know how awesome this is! I am sure those UT, OU and all the other schools who expect their teams to march to greatness every year know what it feels like, but for those of us who have consistently rallied behind a team that has a history of breaking hearts, it is clearly a major thing.

So, for all the Texas Tech fans out there, take the weekend off. Concentrate on the next big challenge (the OU game in two weeks), and let's pray for another Texas Tech victory.

It has certainly been a bad year for Republicans, but I have a feeling it will be a great year for Texas Tech. Wreck 'Em!

We Should Set an Example

2008-10-16T13:36:00.001-05:00

I am really upset. I have a television at my desk, and occasionally, when things aren't crazy around Capitol Hill, I will tune in to the View. I don't know why I watch. Within 15 minutes I have to turn it off. 1 reason why...

Joy Behar

Some of the things she says are mean. She said this about VP candidate Palin: "she overuses her power and underuses her brain." Correct me if I am wrong here, but did she just call the Republican VP candidate stupid?

Maybe you don't like or agree with Sarah Palin...by all means, the beauty of this country is that we don't have to all agree. But have we gotten to the point where it is acceptable to call a governor of our state with an 80 percent approval rating stupid? Or is it just ok for celebrities to say awful things about our elected officials? I may not agree with Biden or Obama, but I would never call them stupid on national television...never. It isn't right, and it doesn't set a good example for our children, especially young women, who, some for the first time, are seeing a woman on the national ticket. Shouldn't we as woman (Joy is a woman) be setting a better example for the next generation of female leaders and rising above the caddiness?

I am not giving Sarah Palin a free pass either. She should also be setting an example.

And while I am on my soap box, I really think people should stop personally attacking President Bush. Maybe he is not perfect. Maybe he has made some mistakes, but like it or not, he is still the leader of our country. There is a reason why God put Bush in the position he is, and while maybe we, as humans, don't realize that now...God doesn't just make mistakes.

When we were little, our Sunday school teachers had us memorize Luke 6:31, "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." As adults we tend to forget these life lessons. But maybe we should work to remember them. I hereby pledge that if I ever become a celebrity, I will never personally attack the President, Republican or Democrat, on national television.

Bona Fide "Nature Girl"

2008-10-14T01:58:00.000-05:00

You will often hear me talk about the bears. A year ago, I went on my first true camping trip with my then fiance, JFent. We went up to the Blue Ridge mountains on two different weekends. I was pretty excited about the opportunity to prove to myself and my future husband that I was indeed one of those outdoorsy types. I did a lot of things like this early on in our relationship... rock climbing, hiking, I bought a bicycle and rode it to the grocery store. I was one with the earth and nature.

But no matter how "one with nature" I tell myself I am, all of that courage comes to a standstill when I run into a bear. Now, you may be asking yourself... who runs into a bear? Well my friends, in the two weekends that I went camping, I came face to face with not one, not two, but EIGHT bears.

Folks come from hundreds of miles around for a chance to spot the rare black bear. Many of them never see one. Oh to be so lucky...

The first encounter happened during an early morning hike. Jason and I were about 2 miles from the campsite, completely alone in the wilderness, when all of a sudden out of the corner of my eye I see these two black bears take off. I expected myself to freak out, but I actually stayed pretty calm, probably because I was in total shock and completely convinced that this was the end for me. Instead of screaming (which is never smart) or dropping to the ground and playing dead, I quickly turned around and began walking ever so quickly in the opposite direction. Jason followed. Eventually we turned around and headed back towards camp but we would have to cross the same spot where we saw the bears. I was so scared that I cried uncontrollably but never said a word.

Obviously I survived, but that would not be the end of the bears for me. During that trip we saw more bears... one roaming around our campsite and the other while we were in the car.

After the "encounter" I had some pretty bad dreams about being dragged to my death by a group of hungry black bears (which is silly, because black bears are really not that dangerous).

I was done with camping... until Jason came home one day with a shiny bell "a bear bell" that you wear on your belt loop to let the bears know you are coming. This way, you won't startle them and they won't eat you. I was less than thrilled, but put on a brave face. I love this man, and if camping is what he loves, than camping is what I will do. So we went on another camping weekend, and another long hike, where we came within feet of even more bears. This time, I had the safety of the bell and I was frantically ringing it.

For all of you first time campers out there... bears are not afraid of bells. In fact, the bears looked at me like I was the dumbest person in the world. Who is this girl, and isn't her arm tired of ringing that bell? Hence another sleepless night in the wilderness... but at least camping season was over. Over the past year, I have prayed and prayed for God to make me a good camper and to keep the bears away.

This was a year ago, and this past weekend the Fentons embarked on their first camping trip as a married couple. And guess what... there were no bears. I even asked a park ranger if they had seen bears lately, and she told me there had been none in sight since August. I was even bell free by the end of the trip. It has taken a year, and although I gave up rock climbing after the first shot, I will say that I am indeed a camper... which makes me a bona fide "nature girl".

And the best news of all... there are no bears in Texas.

Howdy

2008-10-09T17:10:00.000-05:00

i don't have much to say right now, other than welcome to our spot in the ether of the interwebs. as i have more to say, i'll say it :) you'll probably hear a lot about the redskins, my attempt to become an "elite" tri-athlete and the random thoughts that enter my head...most of those won't make sense, though. so...hello to all of you and i'll be back soon.

-J

The Book Challenge

2008-10-09T16:59:00.000-05:00

So JFent and I are having this little contest to see who could read the most pages (not necessarily books) before December 31st, 2008. The winner gets to pick where we go on our next big vaca...a prize I take very serious since my hubby's idea of vacationing is hiking to the top of a mountain and sleeping with the bears (not that I mind the occasionaly camping weekend). The rules are pretty serious too:

Rule 1: The spouse that has read the most pages by mindnight of December 31, 2008 wins.

Rule 2: If you have read 50% of a book at the deadline and finish the books by January 10, 2009, those pages count. If you have completed less than 50% by the deadline or do not finish the book by January 10, none of the pages count.

Rule 3: Winner chooses the destination of the next Fenton vaca.

Rule 4: All books must be acknowledged as "reasonable" by the spouse.

Rule 5: At least 50 % of the books counted towards the challenge must be non-fiction. If more than 50% are fiction, 20% of the pages are lost.

Rule 6: Three books read during the course of the competition will be chosen by the spouse.

This whole contest started because my husband thinks the cheesy girly books I read are total crap, which most of the time they are. But I say, so what if I want to fill my weekends with mindless wonderfulness. Afterall, I read and watch the news all day, every day at my job, so a little R&R for my brain is nice. Anyways, it's not like I don't read non-fiction books...i just don't enjoy them quite as much.

So the contest has been going on now for a couple of months and so far the book count is wife's 5 books (3 Fiction and 2 Non-Fiction..I would highly recommend the Mermaid Chair, and no, I haven't seen the lifetime movie.) to husband's 2 books (1 Fiction and 1 Non-Fiction). Clearly I have the lead right? Well I am bragging all week about my heavy lead, when the husband whips out this huge 1,000 page book that he has been reading called The Prize (Something to do with the oil boom). So he could totally whipe out my significant lead with the reading of this one book.

Damn it husband.

If I lose, I will never hear the end of it, not to mention I will be spending my hard-earned vacation in a tent with a bunch of bears.

CMF

Welcome to our spot in internet history.

2008-10-09T16:11:00.000-05:00

Ok guys...work with me here. This is my first blog, so it is still a work in progress. As most of you know, Jason and I were married last December and are currently living in the fast-paced world of Washington, D.C. Without a doubt, our lives have been very exciting, and we have had the opportunity as young adults to achieve things in our careers that most people only dream about...but enough is enough, and after five years in the city, it is time for us to head back to where we belong.

I wish I would have started this blog (No time like the present thought) my first day in D.C. I was bright eyed and ready to change the world, even as an intern. Washington was what I always imagined it would be, and I would become famous here...working my way to the top, credited mostly to my sharp wit and West Texas charm. That was four years ago, and while the flame of democracy still burns bright in my heart, I am afraid if I stay much longer, I will no longer be fond of our Capitol City. Thus the longing in my heart and the big opened door leading me back to Texas. Thank you God for answering this prayer so obviously.

Many of you will not always love reading this because I will surely talk about politics, (This IS the most historic election of our time) but hey, that is what a blog is for right...to journal your comments and observations and let the rest of the world read what you are saying (or thinking). So to all of you who will stumble upon this space in internet history, I welcome you and wish you happy reading!

CMF