~~ Back to Work ~~

Many, many years ago I worked at UT and I loved it.  I left 16 years ago because I had a baby and I was fortunate enough to be able to stay home and raise that little boy.  Lots of thing have happened to me and my family over the past 16 years and maybe I'll get to some of that now that I'm going to try bloggin' again, but for now.....I'm back at UT!

Going back was something I thought I might do one day and honestly, it happened about 3 years sooner than I thought it would.  I tossed the idea around the last couple of years, but wanted to try to wait until the boys were out of school, but life things (personal and professional) at the beginning of the school year had me praying for a change and He answered with this wonderful opportunity.  My first day was actually March 16th -  the same day COVID turned our world upside down.  Yesterday was the first day I went into the office and worked a full 8 hours in the office.  It was great!!

My commute for the last eight years has been a mile.  One thing I was not looking forward to was the traffic on the way to and from downtown, but this is Mopac at 7:15am!  Traffic was a little heavier going home, but I'll take it while it lasts.

Me at my desk with my Hook 'Em face mask!

UT Tower

Kudos from my boss.

I am thrilled to be back at UT doing something I love and I can't wait to see what the future holds.  I am also excite to be a blogger again.  Hopefully I can stick with it and share all the excitement!

~~ My Marathon Kids ~~

~~ It's Good Friday and I'm Back ~~

WOW!  Can you believe it's been something like 7 years since I posted anything on my blog??  I had a few resolutions for 2018 and one of them was to get back to posting on here.  I loved writing about our everyday adventures and then looking back at the pictures and rereading all my stories.  So....here goes.  Don't know how exciting it'll be or if I will be able to get back into the habit, but I remembered my password and I'm going to give it a try.  Who knows maybe I'll inspire someone to start blogging again.  That is assuming anyone is dancing with me!

~~ Lost: First Baby Tooth ~~

My baby lost his first tooth on Friday! This is both exciting and a little sad for me. It means he's growing up! Too fast and time is flying by too quickly.
But the excitement....
He was so excited to tell me how he lost it on the playground at school during recess and his little friend helped him find it. He was excited about the little green box that the school nurse gave him to carry it home in. He excited when he went to bedding knowing that the tooth fairy would be coming in the middle of the night to trade his baby tooth for cash.
And oh my goodness was he excited when he came running into the livingroom to tell me he woke up and found $5.00 beside his pillow. I love that sweet, innocent, little boy excitement.

~~ Camping ~~

This past weekend was absolutely gorgeous, windy and a little cool, but no clouds and lots of sunshine gorgeous! We were up early Saturday morning and excited about the camping trip that was planned with Jesse's Cub Scout pack. After all our bags were packed and the car was loaded up we headed west toward Enchanted Rock!

Once we were there, it became clear, pretty quickly, that there was a lack of communication and information. We paid ahead of time, but needed to pay again when we arrrived, something about the type of pass our pack bought. Initially we were told no lunch would be served by our pack, so we stopped for lunch on our way there. No big deal. But then, biggest miscommunication was a big deal. This campout was not going to be like the one last fall because it was primitive! That's right, I said primitive. No parking at the campsite and unloading all your goodies, too windy for a campfire, and a good 1.5 miles between the campsite and the pavilion where lunch/dinner/breakfast would be served.

Phillip and the boys getting ready for the hike.

Getting ready to start hiking to the campsite! We found out we would have to haul all of our stuff 2 miles to our primitive campsite. Remember where we are? It was mostly uphill and we had a lot of stuff-tent, sleeping bags, overnight bags, etc. I was NOT a happy camper!

The dads-Phillip and Brett-hauling gear to the campsite.

The back of Enchanted Rock (almost there).

Finally got there and got the tent set up. It was pretty darn windy, but it stayed up!

Hiking between the rocks (2 pics ago), and looking back at our campsite, on our way to eat dinner.

Jesse and Hank

After dinner we hiked back to our campsite. The sun was going down quick. Despite all the frustration with the arrangements the park was beautiful!

I was usually bringing up the rear, mostly because I was busy taking pictures.

Figured I better get one of myself-hehe. By this time we had probably walked about 12 miles and I was still able to put on a happy face!

The backside of the rock at sunset. We made it back to our campsite with about 10 minutes of daylight left. It was dark! No campfire meant no smores and no storytelling, so we were all in bed by 7:30. Not too early considering we were exhausted from all the hiking!

Waking up after a cold, 27 degree, night of primitive camping! At least the boys were able to earn their polar bear patch because the temp. went below freezing. After the last camping trip, which seemed so much colder, we were prepared with sleeping bags and layers of clothes!

We got up early, packed up everything and started our 2 mile hike with all of our gear to the pavilion for breakfast. It was early, but it warmed up quickly so Michael helped me out by wearing my sweatshirt down the hill.

Um, yeah, not smiling like I was the night before. This is my "I am SO over this" picture. See all those black straps around my neck? That would be all the junk I carried down.

Still, it was a beautiful morning and the scenery was amazing!

After breakfast prayer and meeting with the whole pack. Then it was time to hit the road home. We were so sore and tired and dirty, but overall it really was a great experience!

On the way home we stopped outside of Burnet to see the bald eagles. I wish I had taken my other camera with the zoom lens, maybe I could have gotten a better picture. Oh well. The nest was huge and one bird was in the nest.

You absolutely can not see the 2 bald eagles sitting to the left of the nest in this picture because it is so small, but they were there I promise.

It was a great experience and we have a great story to tell because of all the ups and downs (get it?) that we encountered this weekend. I am super excited the boys were able to earn a patch-camping in temps below freezing is a big deal! It was our first family camping trip and we had an awesome adventure getting to know our friends better!

~~ MOVE ~~

I first discovered Third Day back in December 2008 when I won a radio contest and received a few of their cds, along with a few cds of some other wonderful Christian artists!

They are AMAZING!!!

I have wanted to go see them every since the first time I listened to that cd. I couldn't make the show when they were here late last year and I was totally bummed thinking they wouldn't be back for a long, long time. Imagine my excitement when I found out they were going to be in San Antonio on February 20th. One of my best friends gave me their new cd, MOVE, for my birthday. It was just as amazing and that just sealed the deal--I knew I would be at that concert! And who better to take with me, than 3 of my best friends?

These ladies are pretty AMAZING too!!!

Now, there were some potential conflicts that almost kept all 4 of us from committing to making this road trip down to the concert, but finally it worked out. The tickets were purchased, it was written in permanent marker on the calendar and I began memorizing their new cd, cause you know I planned on singing every song right along with them!

Concert day finally arrived and we met up and headed out of town so we could be there when the doors opened at 3:30. Good thing because a *few* other people had the same idea.





It really looks worse than it was. It didn't seem that long of a wait either, mostly because, well, Liz began to hand out the tickets--here is yours, and yours and yours and then.....WHAT THE HECK?!?!?


That's Liz kicking herself for only ordering 3 tickets! Um, yeah, the concert is sold out and we only had 3 tickets for 4 people. Oops! We all remained calm and after the initial shock wore off, we came up with a plan. I found an usher, explained the situation and asked if he had any suggestions about how we could sneak one extra person into a sold out event. He, unfortunately, could not help. I thanked him and head back to the girls and our spot in line.

Then, out of nowhere this girl walks up to me, she overheard me talking to the usher, and asks me if we need tickets. I told her we only needed ONE. She had 2, since her friends got sick and couldn't make it. PERFECT! I swear she was an angel. I should have taken her picture, not really sure why I didn't. Her and her nephew stood in line with us and once we got inside she got her tickets from will call and gave, GAVE, her ticket to Liz. An angel I tell ya! Melissa hugged her, of course ;-), and we never saw her again, although I looked.

Once we got inside the building we had to wait for what seemed like FOREVER before they would let us in the arena/seating area. It was a test of my patience for sure, mainly because it was so hot and we were squished like sardines. They finally opened the doors and off I went, Amy kept me in her sights as I found us 4 seats and then found us 4 more seats 2 rows closer. It was general admission and we scored some awesome seats on the 9th row! ~Aaa-mazing!~

Trevor Morgan is an up and coming artist that opened the show. He rocked it! He played a few songs and they were awesome. His new album will be out soon!

See? We were THAT close! We were on our feet the entire time and I sang EVERY song (I'm sure Amy and the girl on the other side of me loved that.) Love, love, love these guys!

Love these girls too!

It was an AMAZING night! I'm so glad we made the trip down to the concert. Time on the road gave me a chance to catch up with friends. The show, well, that was a chance to see one of my favorite bands, hear some amazing Christian music and sing praise to the Lord!

Of course, since we were in San Antonio, and we hadn't eaten all day, we had to stop for some Mexican food and drinks after the show.

~~ AMAZING ~~
(word of the day)

~~ Mega Machines ~~

I finally recovered from my Saturday running club workout and tonight I finally got to get together with my most favorite personal trainer! She had a fabulous workout ready for me and she didn't cut me any slack. She knows it has been months and she did not hesitate to get on that darn stairmill--first thing! I love her and I've missed her, and even though, or maybe because, she kicks my butt. At one point I had to laugh because she said that the plan was "easier" because of my recovery and not wanting to reinjure myself and well, it was pretty tough. To help keep me accountable and on track, I decided to participate in the transformation contest again.



Workout: Machines (2:11/897)*part of the time was paperwork/measurements/starting numbers for the transformation challenge* Going to have to add a "before" picture (soon).