Weekend Highlights

I've realized that since I started studying, my blog has been somewhat lacking in excitement. Therefore, despite the fact that I spend most of my weekend studying, I tried to take a few pictures of the highlights. So, in hopes of not losing the handful of readers that I have between now and when I take my exam in April, here are some of the fun things that we did this weekend...

We celebrated Ben and Grandma's birthdays. We went to Texas Land & Cattle for dinner, and I made a chocolate cake with cream cheese icing for dessert.I made the trip up to Round Rock to see Charlie, Molly, and Kevin. I had a great time catching up with Molly and loving on this cutie.
Ben made the trip up to Round Rock to climb trim trees with Dustin and Garrett at Dustin's mom's house. Sidenote: I wasn't there when this picture was taken and would not have been okay with him climbing this high.
Ben cleaned the house while I studied at the kitchen table. Obviously mopping is way more fun when you listen to music and dance all at the same time.
Annie and Amos had a pretty good weekend, too. Holly came over yesterday and picked up Annie so that they could spend a little bit of quality time together. They went to the dog park, Holly's apartment, and even stopped by my mom's house to see my mom and G. I thought that Amos would miss Annie while she was gone, but he actually seemed pretty content being the "only child". The huge bone that I gave him as soon as she left might have helped a little though.

Only 6 more weekends of studying, and then I'll have my life back. I really miss it.

Party Time

While most couples went out to dinner for Valentine's Day, Ben and I celebrated his birthday at home and made a pizza from scratch.

We kneaded the dough.Let it rise for a few minutes while cutting up the sausage and vegetables.Baked the crust for a few minutes and then covered it in sauce.Garnished it with the toppings.And then baked it for just a few more minutes.It was so easy, we had a lot of fun, and the pizza was delicious!I also made a birthday cake for Ben and decided to try out a new recipe. I had read about a "Flourless Chocolate Cake" in Parade a couple of weeks ago and decided to give it a try after seeing the words "so easy". I'll admit that it was a lot more work than the cakes that I usually bake (considering it consisted of more than just adding eggs, oil, and water to a cake mix), but overall, I think I did pretty well.

I melted chocolate, butter, egg yolks, and sugar on the stove.Whipped egg whites and sugar in the mixer.And then mixed the two together and baked it in my heart-shaped pan -- because when you have a husband who has a birthday on Valentine's Day, you have to own a heart-shaped pan.Overall, the recipe was pretty easy to follow, and I only had 2 minor issues. First, I had no idea what "stiff peaks" were, so I had to Google that, and second, because I had never separated eggs before, my first one came out scrambled. Not everyone in the family was upset about my mess-up though. There was no sense in wasting a good egg, so Ben threw it in a pan with some cheese and cooked it for A&A.They really are so spoiled.
While waiting for the cake to bake, I snapped a few pictures of my fur babies.
Ben and his #2 Valentine -- who obviously didn't want her picture taken.Annie and Amos also practiced some of their tricks.Annie has known how to "lay" for forever, but Amos just recently learned how. For the most part, he's pretty good at it, but sometimes he gets so excited, he doesn't know whether to lay, roll over, or play dead -- and ends up doing just a combination of all three.As soon as the cake came out of the oven, Ben was ready to dig in -- but not before one last picture.
Happy 27th Birthday, B! I hope you enjoyed celebrating as much as I did. :)

Birthday Boy

Happy 27th Birthday to my Valentine and very best friend.
Thanks for being the world's best husband -- and for "agreeing" to take a picture in front of the Coke display at HEB while carrying 2 very cold milk cartons. You really are the best. :)

1 month down, 2 to go

I've been studying for the P.E. exam for one whole month now, and I'm not gonna lie -- I really want my life back. I feel like all I ever do anymore is work, sleep, and study, and it's really not much fun. Ben asked me the other day if I thought I was studying more than the average person, but to be honest, I really don't know. If I had to guess, I probably am, but I don't think I'll ever feel too prepared. One thing that I have realized since I started studying is how much I used to take for granted all of the free-time that I had. I can't wait to have free-time again. I can't wait to do whatever I want in the evenings after work and to wake up on my own on a Saturday (without my alarm) and think to myself, "What do I want to do today?" One month down, two more to go. I can almost see the light at the end of the tunnel.

I love babysitting.

I babysat the Messerli kiddos last night. Ella slept most of the time that I was there, but Will and I had a great time playing.
We bowled.
We hung out with Woody and Buzz.
We sang several songs and even did the hand motions for "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star".
And, last but not least, we did lots of dancing -- although Will moved around way too fast for me to get a good picture of that. Ella was awake for a little while after I fed her, but despite mine and Will's best attempts, we could not get her to smile for a picture. Oh well -- she's so cute, she doesn't even have to smile.
Thanks again for letting me come over last night, Will and Ella. I had lots of fun and can't wait to come over and play again soon!

If you don't already use coupons...

...you should definitely consider starting. It's been awhile since I posted about any of my deals, but this one was too good to not make the blog. Essentially, CVS paid me $0.93 for everything shown in the picture below.
Here's the breakdown:

Dove Deodorant -- $4.59
On sale for $3.50
$2 off coupon (1/30 RP)
$1.50 after coupon and sale

Dove Shampoo -- $4.49
On sale for $3.00
$1 off coupon (1/30 RP or one that came with free sample)
$2.00 after coupon and sale

And as if these deals weren't good enough, I also used a coupon that CVS had emailed me for $5 off a $15 purchase, and I received $5 in ECBs for spending $15 in participating Dove products.

$4.07 out-of-pocket for 3 shampoos and 2 deodorants -- and $5 in ECBs in return. Pretty good if you ask me. :)

Snow in Austin

This morning I woke up to a winter wonderland -- at least for Austin anyway. Luckily, I didn't have to leave the house at all today since I have temporarily modified my work schedule to four 10-hour days, so after dragging myself out of bed at about 7:00 a.m. to take pictures of the freshly fallen snow, I spent the rest of the day studying at the kitchen table while sipping on hot cocoa. It definitely wasn't my most fun snow day ever, but on days as cold as this one, I'm just thankful to have a house to keep me warm and out of the snow.
The snow wasn't enough to keep Ben at home though. Being the dedicated employee that he is, he decided to brave the icy roads and went into work this morning. Thankfully though, he was able to take a break from work to have a little bit of fun and built a snowman with his parents, Kevin, and a couple of other guys from work. In case you're wondering how they were able to build such a big snowman with such little snow, Ben later confessed that he had used a backhoe to scrape up all of the snow that had fallen in the parking lot and then dumped it in one area. How great of an idea is that? We are definitely taking our future kids to build snowmen at APAC.
As for Annie and Amos, they were thankful that I was able to stay home, too. I tried to get a picture of them out in the snow, but neither one of them really liked it all that much. They were ready to go back inside just as soon as we got out there, and neither one of them really wanted to sit in the snow to take a picture. They did however enjoy laying around the house all day -- and in Annie's case, snoring very loudly.I hope everyone had a wonderful snow day. Enjoy the rest of your weekend and stay warm. :)

Tough Mudder & 3M Half Marathon

This past weekend was a busy one for us -- filled with lots of running and physical exhaustion.

On Saturday, Ben, his cousin Matt, and Robert participated in Tough Mudder -- a 10-mile run with a series of obstacle courses that "tests toughness, fitness, strength, stamina and mental grit all in one place and all in one day". Ben and Matt ordered convict costumes for the occasion, and they surprised Robert with a "Lieutenant Dangle" costume -- mustache and all. Don't they look awesome?!Ben said that everyone loved their costumes and that they probably took about 200 pictures for complete strangers. Unfortunately, I couldn't be there because of my Saturday study date, but thankfully Ben's mom took lots of video and pictures for me.

A little running at the start...
Crawling through mud under barbed wire set only 8 inches from the ground...
Preparing to jump off a plank into a cold pond 15 feet below...
Swimming out of the pond...
Making their way through a series of cargo nets...
Scaling a series of 12-foot high walls...
Carrying a log up and down a set of slippery hills...
A little muddy but still such a good looking group...
Walking across the rope bridge...
Walking across slick boards...
Doing the monkey bars...Climbing the cargo nets...
Running through a field of live wires, some of which carried a 10,000 volt shock...
Running across the finish line about 2 hours and 20 minutes later...
Ben said that this is probably the most fun that he's ever had and is already planning to do it again next year. Considering the fact that he didn't train at all for this 10-mile event, he is a little sore, but it's nothing he can't handle. After all, he is a Tough Mudder now. :)

On Sunday morning, Holly and I ran in the 3M Half Marathon. Overall, it went great! We started up near the Arboretum at about 6:45 a.m. and crossed the finish line at 15th Street and Trinity with a time of 2:06:19. I didn't really have a goal time in mind since I haven't technically run a race since 5th grade track & field (no joke!), so I was very happy about the fact that we averaged about a 9:39 pace per mile.The hardest part about the run was the unusually warm weather. It was 65 degrees and humid, which was very different from our three most recent weekend runs, which were in 30-40 degree weather, two of which included icy cold rain. Holly, being the cold-natured girl that she is, loved the warmer weather, but I was definitely wishing for a cold front.
I asked Ben to take a few pictures during our run, and he obviously took his job very seriously because we saw him about 7 different times along the course. For the most part, Holly and I did a pretty good job smiling for the camera -- aside from the picture below where the finish line was in sight and we were in my concentration mode, and if it weren't for my "tiger paws", I might even consider being a running model. ;)
Running across the finish line felt great. Water and Gatorade never tasted so good, and I don't think I've ever eaten a breakfast taco or a Tiff's Treats cookie so fast in all my life.
Thanks so much to everyone that came out to support us and cheer us on -- Ben, my parents, my in-laws, Audrey, Nelson, and Ralph. It really meant a lot to have all of you out there, and just knowing that any one of you might see me at any point in time kept me from stopping to walk even for just a split second.
Holly, thanks so much for helping me train the past few months and for running by my side the entire 13.1 miles. I really appreciated all of your encouraging words along the way and for agreeing to hold my sweaty hand as we crossed the finish line. I know that you said that I wasn't holding you back, but considering you ran the Dallas half marathon in December in just 1:54:23 (12 minutes faster than our time yesterday), I think it's safe to say that I owe you. :)