Bittersweet Reunion

As usual, it has been a while since I last blogged. Saying that this past week has been CRAZY does not really do it justice. For those of you that didn't know, Todd's grandmother passed away December 10. She had fallen and broken her hip the previous Saturday and then 2 days later suffered a mild heart attack. After much deliberation the doctors decided that it was best to try to surgically repair her hip or else she would be unable to get out of bed and probably get pneumonia. Well, long story short, her weak heart could not handle the operation and she passed away. While it was a very sad loss, she was 94 years old and had lived an exceptional life. She had a huge family that loved her dearly and until the day she died she loved the Lord with all her heart. It was even mentioned several times that she told the doctors at least 3 times that if the Lord came to get her, they'd better not stand in His way! And the last words she ever spoke were asking the nurse before she went into surgery if she loved Jesus. Todd and I were VERY fortunate to have been able to be in Minnesota with almost his entire family to honor such a woman. I, unfortunately never met her in person but only talked to her on the phone one time, but the stories and memories I heard over the past 4 days tell me I really missed out on knowing an amazing person. She will be deeply missed by many.

On the happier side of this past weekend we had the opportunity to see pretty much all of Todd's immediate and extended family. I had never met many of them and it was truly wonderful to get to know and put faces to some of the names I've heard many times and understand more of were Todd comes from. I had an absolute blast with every person we were around this past weekend and I know Todd enjoyed it just as much since it had been 2 years since he had seen most of them. It was a bittersweet reunion because we were not planning of going up north for the holidays but we were blessed with an opportunity to see family this time of year and we will truly treasure the 4 days we got to spend in Minnesota.

PS- I got to see REALLY BIG snowflakes!! AND I got to go the Mall of America! (icing on the cake for the whirlwind trip)

Christmas Time is Here!

So I really haven't been doing a good job of keeping up with the blog lately. Mostly because 1. I've been pretty busy and 2. I don't have a WHOLE lot to say lately. Since I last blogged we spent Thanksgiving with friends here in Abilene which was a lot of fun and then we went to Fredericksburg to spend time with my family which was very relaxing and enjoyable. As of tomorrow I have exactly 2 weeks left in my first internship. I'm actually really sad to have to leave my patients and co-workers. I've been really blessed with an amazing CI that has taught me SO MUCH and I've come to really love hand therapy. I definitely feel at this point that I am ready to be an occupational therapist. I am also excited to start my pediatrics rotation, after all I did go into occupational therapy because of kids with disabilities. I will have two CI's in the spring and will be splitting my time between school based therapy and outpatient pediatrics. It will be very different then what I've been doing the last 10 weeks and I will get to learn from 2 very different therapists so I am looking forward to it. On another good note, the hospital hired me on to work as a technician (assistant) in the Acute wing of the hospital over the holidays and some weekends/late afternoons in the spring. Acute rehab is not my favorite area to work in but its 1. a little extra income for us and 2. more experience for me so I look at it as a win-win situation.

This weekend we stayed in town and went to 2 Christmas parties. Friday night went to my CI's house for our OT Christmas party with my co-workers. That was a lot of fun because we all made appetizers and it was a smaller group and we just talked and played games and relaxed. It was nice seeing everyone outside of the hospital and getting to know their spouses and children. Saturday night we went to Todd's squadron Christmas party which was a "fancier" party at the Officer's Club on base. The food was really good and we got to meet some other people in the squadron. The party was "cocktail attire" but also included a Christmas sweater contest which Todd won 2nd place for his ridiculous Goodwill $1.99 Christmas sweater straight from 1988 that he put LED lights into.(I'll post pics when I get them) The real fun was the after party which was, of course at a hotel bar here in town. I don't really understand why all the good places to go are hotel bars. Anyway, they had a live cover band that was really good and the commander of Todd's squadron came out and everyone had a really good time. Today was VERY relaxing. We really didn't do much of anything and it was nice.

Next weekend we're planning on going to Dallas to see my sister and some friends and cheer on runners at the Dallas White Rock Marathon. Neither one of us has ever cheered on a marathon and some runner's in the runner's club will be running their first marathon. With gas so cheap these days it's nice to be able to get out of Abilene for a weekend and not spend too much money. Oh and in case word has not gotten around, Todd and I start training tomorrow for the Ft. Worth Cowtown Marathon on February 28, 2009!

It's been a while...

So it's been a while since I last blogged. Here is a quick run down on life in the Saksa house of lately. The big Rock & Roll San Antonio Marathon was Sunday November 16. It was a beautiful day and perfect running weather. Todd finished in an impressive 3 hours 27 minutes and I finished in 4 hours 6 minutes. Todd would have liked to run closer to 3:20 and I guess I would have been happier with a sub 4 hour finish but the bottom line is, I was just glad to finish! This past week has been a much needed recovery week. We really didn't do much this week at all, mostly because Monday through Wednesday our legs were still EXHAUSTED from the marathon. But of course, we are crazy and will be starting training for the Austin Marathon tomorrow :) Only 12 weeks of training before the February 15, 2009 race. After that we will most likely be taking off from full marathons until the fall.

This past Friday was "Red Carpet Day" for Todd's squadron. In a nut shell, it's intended to be the Friday that a class finishes academics in the B1 before they actually start flying the plane. Family and close friends get to go to the squadron, hear all about the plane and then tour the simulators and the actual plane. Then there is a little reception at the end of the day where they meet their flight instructors for the next phase of training. It was really nice and a lot of fun to get to see what Todd's been doing since August. I am so grateful to my CI that she let me have the day off of work so that I could be there. Unfortunately, Todd's training is pretty backed up right now so where he would be flying next week he may not actually start flying until late December or early January.

As far as Thanksgiving for us, we will be here in Abilene for the actual day and spend it with friendssince I have to work a half of a day on Friday. Then we will head to Fredericksburg to have dinner with my family.

That's about all that is news around here :)

Two Misconceptions

It's been a while since I've blogged. Sorry, life has been a little busy. Working + running + just not wanting to get on the computer at night = no blogging sometimes. A series of conversations lately have made me want to write about 2 of the common misconceptions people have about my life.

1. I'm NOT a physical therapist.
Shocker, I know. I've been in school for 7 years and yet I still have friends (and I mean close friends) ask me how PT stuff is going. I'm not always sure if it's that people have never heard me actually say occupational therapy, OR they just don't know what it is and it's easier to say physical therapy. So, allow me to clear the air. I am an occupational therapist. The American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA) defines OT as "skilled treatment that helps individuals achieve independence in all facets of their lives. Occupational therapy assists people in developing the "skills for the job of living" necessary for independent and satisfying lives." “Occupation” refers to the individual’s performance role in life. For an infant, that could be managing self-regulation including sleep/wake/feeding/alert/crying cycles. For the toddler it could be learning how to walk and explore with their hands. For the school age child it could be learning and socializing at home and in the community. For the adult it could be returning to work after an injury. For the elderly it could be living independently in their home or transitioning to semi-independent living. Occupational therapy practitioners are skilled professionals whose education includes the study of human growth and development with specific emphasis on the social, emotional, and physiological effects of illness and injury. They work with a wide variety of people, including those with:
* birth injuries, learning problems, or developmental disabilities
* mental health or behavioral problems including Alzheimer's, schizophrenia, and post-traumatic stress
* substance abuse problems or eating disorders
* work related injuries such as low back problems or repetitive stress injuries
* limitations following a stroke or heart attack
* arthritis, multiple sclerosis, or other serious chronic conditions
* burns, spinal cord injuries, or amputations
* broken bones or other injuries from falls, sports injuries, or accidents
* vision or cognitive problems that threaten their ability to drive
OT's work in a variety of settings from hospitals to private clinics, to schools and even in contract consultative work. Fortunately for me it's a profession where it would be impossible to get bored in, there are so many areas to work in. I'm also constantly asked how I got into OT since most people that have known me for many years know that I had every intention of going to medical school. I got involved in an organization at Texas A&M called Project Sunshine which worked with kids with disabilities in the Bryan/College Station area. About the same time is when I decided that medical school was not where I wanted to go and physical therapy was actually looking appealing. A trip to Texas Children's Hospital in Houston opened my eyes to OT and after talking to an OT at my church the next week I was officially in love with the profession and completely changed gears. I went to OT school intending to be a pediatric OT but have fallen in love with just about every area, the most recent being Hand Therapy- a specialized field that requires 5 years of experience with over 5000 documented hours in hand therapy BEFORE you can take the certification test that only 50% pass the first time. Needless to say I am VERY excited to actually graduate, pass the national board exam and become a licensed occupational therapist.

2. I am not a fast runner
I seem to get this one a lot. I like to run, yes. I like to run far, yes. I do not run fast. I never have and I really don't plan to ever be fast. Todd is fast. He works hard to run fast and enjoys it. I run just for the pleasure of running and the challenge of running the distances. For some reason people think that if you run a lot you are automatically fast. This is not the case. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not slow either. I can hold my own- I'm a typical middle of the pack runner. I don't stand out on either end and am pretty much "average" for my age and gender. So next time you ask me about a race, please don't ask if I won, that will never happen. Instead, just ask if I finished and had a good time. :)

End of soap box. Hopefully, even you know me very well, maybe you learned something new.

20 felt gooooood

Yesterday was the big 20 mile training run. For those not very familiar with marathon training it is pretty standard that you build up your mileage to 20 miles than taper down until the actual race. This is because after 20 miles you begin to run at a point where science says the human body should not go. After 20 miles your body begins to take some serious wear and tear and you can easily cross the line from healthy to injured. That's probably why A. The marathon is so elusive to the insane runner such as myself and B. runner's have a lot of knee, shin, calf and foot problems. Because you build up to 20 miles and the actual marathon is 26.2 miles a saying came out that a marathon is just a 10k race with a 20 mile warm up. Now some advanced runners will run programs where you run 20 miles multiple times before the race or build your base mileage to over 20 miles. I personally like to play it safe, build my miles up slowly and not put too much strain on my knees for too long. It's all a matter of personal preference and fitness level I suppose. Anyway, we started bright and early at 5:30am! I ran with a fellow ARC member who runs my pace and Todd ran with another ARC member who runs his pace. 3 hours and 15 minutes later I was done (Todd, obviously done before me) and actually felt GREAT. I can honestly and comfortably say that I am ready for the marathon which is only 3 weeks away from today! Todd felt really good about his run too. He's still hoping to qualify for Boston in the next year or so so he has really been pushing himself lately. I, on the other hand, consider myself a finisher. I'm not looking to run Boston or smash my personal record but to safely cross the finish line, hold my head up and just say that I finished.

So how did we reward ourselves for such a pinnacle of training success?? We went to Buffalo Wild Wings of course :) Some hot wings and beer make running 20 miles WELL worth the work. Then we relaxed the rest of the day and watched A&M BTHO Iowa State with some fellow Aggies. It's been a pretty good weekend. Today after church we ran some errands and watched some more football. Next weekend we will be going to San Antonio for my friend Kristen's wedding which I am very excited about because I know it will be a beautiful wedding celebrating an adorable couple and also because we will get to spend some time with a lot of friends we haven't seen since our wedding.

Sweet Home College Station

This past weekend Todd and I got to go back to College Station for the Texas Tech game and catch up with some friends. Because I managed to work several 10 hour days last week I got off on Friday at 2pm so we were able to start the 5 hour drive A LOT earlier. We made it into CS by about 8pm where we checked into the bed and breakfast we were staying at. (we've never stayed in one together or separate so we were excited about this)






The B&B was really fun to stay at, kind of a home away from home. We paid what we would have paid for a hotel and had all the luxuries of home plus free food and drinks (water, milk, juice) so it was nice.

Driving around Friday night and Saturday morning we had a lot of "when did that get here?", "Look how that has changed!", etc. moments. Needless to say we had our first realization how removed we really are from Texas A&M.

Saturday we went to the game. While we didn't get a win, it was MUCH more of a game then we expected to see, we had really great seats and we got to be in Kyle field :) It was a little sad knowing that we may not be back in College Station for several years.



Sunday we visited two of the places that we frequented while we were dating and got to relive some very fond memories. We first had coffee at Coffee Station, where we used to meet and study, talk or just hang out. Then for lunch we went to Cafe Eccell where we went every month on our anniversary and also our graduation party and got their famous strawberry tart! It's seriously heaven on a plate!

After a long drive back with a stop to see my parents in Austin we made it back to Abilene to start the new week. This week I have a fairly busy week at work and Todd has a pretty slow week. Saturday is our big 20 mile training run which officially peaks or marathon training and then we will be going to the Squadron Halloween party-which is sure to be a great time.

Week in Review

Week 2 of my internships was just as great as week 1. I'm getting more comfortable with my patients and co-workers and learning more every day. A few firsts happened this week. I made my first cast and I debrided a wound (i.e I picked the dead skin and blood off of it) I obviously knew that OT's made custom splints for the elbow, arm, wrist, hands or fingers but I was not aware that we could make fiber glass casts. It's actually easier than making a splint but takes longer and the materials are more expensive (probably why we never made them in school) I will hopefully have a few new patients this week. Otherwise, all is good at HCR.

Friday made me remember how tiring a full work week can be and I had absolutely no desire to go out and do anything. Todd went to church Friday night to help out at 5th quarter for the youth group. If you're not familiar, 5th quarter is after home football games on Friday night so kids can go hang out and play games and not get into trouble. I used to go when I was in high school and always had a good time. So Todd could not turn down playing ping-pong and wii with 16 and 17 year olds.

Saturday after we ran our 18 mile training run for the marathon with fellow Abilene Runners Club (ARC) members we got cleaned up for the simple out door wedding for Allen and Meghan. It was so nice and simple and really sweet. They are still planning on having a big ceremony in about a year with family and friends. Here are a few pics from the day.





Today after church we went to the park with the dogs. Todd played disc golf with a few friends and I let the dogs run around, swim and get just plain dirty. Overall it's been a great weekend but next weekend we're going to College Station where we will stay in a Bed & Breakfast, go to the game and get to see a lot of friends which is sure to make for an even better weekend :)

1 down, 11 to go!

Today officially ends my first full week of clinical fieldwork for my adult rotation. I almost hate to admit this but I LOVED it! I think my calling may be in Hand Therapy after all. My CI (Clinical Instructor) is awesome! She is a great therapist with years of experience, a Christian, eager to teach and very laid back. I really like that because she's not into following a set formula as to when to give me patients but going with mine and her comfort level. She doesn't constantly grill me on my knowledge of something expecting me to know every detail and really encourages my clinical reasoning skills. I work with 4 other therapists, 1 Certified Occupational Therapy Assistant and 2 technicians who are applying for PT school right now. Everyone is really laid back, personable and fun to be around. It's also nice because I don't have to have set hours of 8-5. I'm going to be working some days until 5, some until 4 and I don't have to take an hour lunch so the flexibility of my schedule is really nice.

*** Warning-this next part may be hard to understand for the non-OT***
In my first week I've made 2 splints- a forearm based thumb spica and a wrist cock-up. I was actually quite proud of them considering I had to free hand them and was working with material I've never used. I've seen just about every major upper extremity diagnosis including my very first flexor tendon repair of the FDP on the ring finger (3 days post-op). That was by far the coolest! I've already gotten to evaluate a patient, run 2 full treatment sessions and do a re-evaluation. Next week I get to start my own patient load, some on my own and some with my CI. The documentation system at the hospital is really easy to follow and makes it very simple to do. I'm also REALLY fortunate that doctors out here are also really willing to teach and I get to observe ANY upper extremity surgery that I want to!
**end of nerd part**

It was also a good week because next semester when I switch to pediatrics I'm actually just moving to the opposite side of the building so I've already met my CI for the spring and all the therapists that I will be working with there so it's nice to know that come January there won't be another awkward day/week of getting to know people and how the system works. It was also Rehab Week at the hospital so everyday this week at lunch we went across to the main hospital and got free lunch (that was always delicious) and had different lectures on Rehab. Free lunch and free education! Who could complain? There is also another OT student working in the inpatient unit upstairs who I met on Monday at our orientation. She's actually from Cincinati and went to Xavier and made it to Abilene because she wanted to see animal assisted therapy and there is a therapist here that does it and graduated from her program. She's never been to Texas so I hope she doesn't judge our whole state based on Abilene! It's nice to have someone else around that's in the same boat :)

West Texas is still a funny place to do rehab so here are a few funny things that I've learned this week:
-Every man says "yes ma'am" and "no ma'am"
-Those same men tend to get angry, hit walls and break their 5th metacarpal.
-Flag football can be DANGEROUS!
-Retiring does not mean you sleep late and play golf, it means you work on your farm more.
-The cows getting out can cause you to loose a finger tip...or 2.
-If you get hurt you go to the walk in emergency clinics for EVERYTHING. You only go to the ER if you actually called an ambulance...which you probably didn't.
-Getting married when you're 18 and not pregnant is normal.
-You drove 45 minutes to an hour for therapy because you had to go to the "big city" for rehab.

I'm sure I'll add more to this list. Overall, this week has been great! I've seen a lot, learned a lot, done a lot and can't wait for more!

Time for a relaxing weekend now :)

Birthdays, Balloons & Bling!

This weekend was pretty eventful for us, our friends and family. Friday we learned just how much you have to search for a good time in Abilene. We went to a karaoke bar...that was in a Ramada Inn hotel bar...that closed at midnight... We of course had a blast because we make fun WHEREVER we are but it was kind of a funny where we actually were.

Saturday my parents and sister came over from Dallas for the day/spend the night. After we watched the A&M football game (which we won, WHOOP!) we showed everyone the base, where I'll be working and what little of Abilene there is to see. Then we had dinner at Perini Ranch in Buffalo Gap which is actually a world famous steakhouse. The owner has cooked in the White House for 2 presidents! Plus, has catered hundreds of other high profile events. Needless to say, it was DELICIOUS! The main reasons for their trip over to Abilene was 1. My sister's birthday was today and 2. Abilene had it's 12th annual Balloon Festival! Now, don't get too excited when I say balloon festival, there were literally 12 balloons. But it made for a fun day starting with a 10K Fun Run Todd and I did and a balloon "glow" that we all went to after dinner. It was nice since it was at a park less than a mile and half from our house that we run at several days a week.





Speaking of hot air balloons, our friends Allen and Meghan got engaged Saturday night while on a tethered hot air balloon ride out at the balloon festival. I have to give the boy credit for a really romantic way to pop the question. Allen was one of Todd's groomsmen and he and Meghan have been dating for a little over a year. She recently moved to Abilene to pursue the relationship and now their getting married! We're all very excited for them. They are an adorable couple and great friends. And we're glad Allen is making Meghan a part of our little Air Force family of married couples :)



So tomorrow is the big start of the end of my master's degree! I'm very excited and very nervous to start my clinical fieldwork. I'll be working at one of the hospitals here in the outpatient hand therapy department which is actually one of the more difficult fields of occupational therapy since it's very detailed. I've talked to my clinical instructor (CI) a few times and she seems really nice so hopefully it will be a great 12 week experience. I'm more excited right now to have something to do day to day and a routine to go back to that doesn't include the daytime TV lineup. We'll see how it goes :)

It's not a tumor!

Ok, it really is a tumor, or was a tumor but every time I hear the word tumor I think of that line from Kindergarten Cop which MUST be said with the Schwarzenegger accent. Anyway, Friday at 3pm I had my eye tumor removed from my right tear duct. The doctor said it looked like your average granuloma, completely benign but still has to biopsy it to be sure. I have to honestly admit that I really underestimated how this procedure would affect me. My doctor acted like it wasn't going to be a very big deal and since I've had Lasik I didn't think much worse could happen to your eye. It was a simple surgery- local anesthesia, some numbing drops, about 45 minutes of total time and 2 stitches but I must say I did not expect the amount of discomfort during or after he was done. Within about 15 minutes of walking out of the office the anesthetic shot began to wear off and I felt like I had been given a swift right hook to the eye that left a bleeding laceration. Needless to say, I really didn't feel like talking to anyone or doing much of anything. Fortunately, a few Tylenol seemed to help. Friday night I didn't sleep very well either because every time I brushed my right cheek on the pillow it pulled at the skin causing pain. Saturday I woke up feeling better but as the day wore on I found the pain to my eye increasing, again making me not really want to talk to anyone or do much. But again, Tylenol seemed to help a lot. Today has certainly been better than the first two and I managed to catch the pain before it got too bad. So long story short, my eye is healing well and I will never again scoff at "minor surgical procedures" to the eye. Thank you all for your prayers, phone calls and text messages. I feel loved and blessed every day.

What did I do before HD & DVR??

Seriously? What did I do before HDTV & DVR? For so long Todd and I talked about how TV's weren't that important to us and we didn't need to upgrade from our 32" tube tv (yes, they still exist and we owned one). All of our friends have bought nice, new flat screen TVs with HD with all the bells and whistles but we never got it. Then one Saturday we went to Sam's Club, to buy pickles and beer by the way (yes, I know that sounds odd, but it's true) and right in the front door are all the TVs. The A&M game was coming on TV that afternoon and out of nowhere Todd says, "we should get a new TV to watch the game on". I thought he was joking but there we were looking at all the TVs, sizes, features and ultimately applying for the Sam's Club Discover card that would give us no interest payments for 6 months. The most unconventional, impulse purchase Todd and I have ever made separately or together happened that day. We generally discuss options, shop around, talk to people, try to make an informed consumer decision- nope, didn't happen. After less than 1 hour in the store, we rolled out our new Samsung, 52", LCD, flat screen TV. We had already upgraded to DVR a few weeks before, for the Olympics and couldn't get HD until Monday, but man, when we did! We had seen HDTV and admired it but never realized just how crappy the standard cable picture really is. I don't know if it's because we have more time to watch TV now or if a big, crystal clear picture makes us want to watch more TV but the amount of TV we watch has gone up exponentially. And yes, I'll admit, if you don't own a big screen HDTV, don't invite me to come watch a football game with you, I've now joined the ranks of TV snobs who will only watch Steve McGee & Tony Romo in HD.

Sue me, it's fabulous.

PS- and we did find out that we did get a GREAT tv for a great price and could not have gotten a better deal anywhere else. So sometimes impulse buying does pay off :)

Whole Wheat Banana Nut Bread

My dear friend Stephanie got me hooked on a book called "Small Batch Baking" by Debby Maugans Nakos. I was able to buy it on Amazon.com for $4+ shipping/handling. It really is a great concept and book because who doesn't love dessert but doesn't like making 2 dozen cookies with only 2 people to eat them. I LOVE dessert...Todd, not so much, but he'll usually eat a little bit so small batch baking is great for us. The book has recipes for cookies, cakes, cupcakes, breads, you name it and the recipes are all scaled for 2-3 servings each and most of the recipes call for ingredients you typically have around the house. You can't just take a regular cake recipe and divide it by 8 and make that to get 2-3 servings, so there is a science behind it. Anyway, I got the book a few weeks ago but hadn't made anything yet but Todd and I had 2 bananas that we just couldn't seem to eat before they got too ripe and anyone that knows me knows that I like them pretty brown, but even these had gone too far for me. So I was hoping their was a banana bread recipe in the small batch baking book and low and behold, there was! The only kicker was that small batch baking has to take place in small baking pans, which of course you don't register for at Bed Bath and Beyond when you get married, but who doesn't need an excuse to go to Target?! Well, Wilton makes a whole line of mini bakeware for $6 a piece...mini loaf pans, cake pans, bundt pan, and tube pan! I just got the loaf pan and cake pans because I figure I'll use those more, maybe I'll get the others another time. So after all that I made the banana bread which turned out DELICIOUS!



Here's how I made it...

Ingredients:
Unsalted butter, at room temperature for preparing the loaf pan (I used Pam for baking)
1/4 cup plus 1 tbs. all purpose flour
1/4 cup whole wheat flower
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/8 tsp salt
1/2 cup mashed ripe banana (1 to 1 1/2 bananas) (I used 2)
1/4 cup plus 2 tbs packed light brown sugar
3 tbs vegetable oil
3/4 tsp vanilla
yolk of 1 medium egg (I used about 3/4 of a large egg yolk)
1/4 cup chopped walnuts or pecans (optional) (I used walnuts)

Pan required: 1 petite loaf pan (5x3 inches)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease loaf pan and set aside.

Place both flours, baking powder, soda and salt in a medium mixing bowl and whisk to blend.

Place the mashed bananas, brown sugar, oil, vanilla, and egg yolk in a small bowl and whisk to blend. Add the banana mixture to the flour mixture all at once, and stir until just blended. Stir in nuts if using.

Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan, and bake until a toothpick comes out clean, about 23-25 minutes. (23 was perfect for me).

Remove pan from the oven and let it cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature. Loaf will keep for 2 days at room temperature or for 1 month in the freezer.

Yum!

6 saltines in 1 minute

Can you eat 6 saltines in 1 minute??

Honestly, I've never heard of this so called "lunch time dare" but we were watching Food Detectives on the Food Network today and that was one of their questions. So of course I say to Todd, "I bet I could do it" to which he replies, "No you can't, it's impossible." Sure enough we find ourselves in the kitchen with a stop watch and our box of saltines. I could eat almost 5 in 1 minute and after 2 failed attempts, Todd couldn't do it either, but of course, he still thinks he can.

Oh the things you do on a lazy Sunday afternoon :)

Friday Night Lights & "The Beast"

There are a few things almost all Texans look forward to during the fall....The State Fair and football! I definitely grew up where Friday nights was football night and you were pretty much wrong if you didn't go to the game. Once I got to college Saturday became football day and again, you were wrong if you didn't go. So Todd and I decided to go to one of the biggest west Texas football games of the year last night- Abilene High vs. Abilene Cooper. It was a GREAT game and so much fun to see boys play football who still love the game for the game and not the money and they still have dreams of leaving their small town to go to Austin, College Station or, God forbid, Lubbock to play division 1 college ball. The game was played at Shotwell stadium on the east side of town. The stadium holds 15,000 and was pretty much sold out! We got tickets on the Cooper side and therefore decided to cheer for the Cougars but after a hard 48 minutes, Abilene High ended up with the win. The only downfall of the night was the realization of how much older we are than high schoolers and how different "kids are these days". It was kind of shocking. Overall, it was a great $12 spent.

We couldn't make it too much of a late night since we made plans to run Steamboat Mountain at 6:30am this morning with the Abilene Runners Club. Steamboat Mountain, also known as "The Beast" is an actual mountain (or really tall mesa according to Todd) about 10 miles south of Abilene in Buffalo Gap and is a nice 13 mile route up and back down the mountain. Not having run many hills since leaving San Antonio we were in for quite the climb...a 14% grade for a quarter mile to the summit with a few "smaller hills" on either side. It was quite a run! It was nice to run with about 10 other runners, all training for the San Antonio Marathon, of all different running levels, ages and backgrounds. We think we'll stick with the Club and run with them some more.

By 11:15am it has already been a great weekend.

101 Days

As of today Todd and I have been married for 101 days! Time really does fly! As a tribute to 100+ days of marriage I've decided to start a blog to write about our adventures and my random thoughts...whatever occurs most often :) So here is a run down of the last 100 days...

*We made our first official move to Abilene, Texas and are renting an old house in a quiet older neighborhood of Abilene.

*We made it through our first temporary deployment (TDY) of almost a month while Todd went to SERE in Washington.

*We rescued a 7 year old Brittany Spaniel named Bella from the American Brittany Rescue.
*We went on our honeymoon! An amazing 7 day Royal Caribbean cruise that left from San Juan, Puerto Rico and stopped in Aruba, Curacao, St. Maarten and St. Thomas.

*Todd finally started his last phase of training for the B1-bomber. He's scheduled to finish sometime in the end of February or early March 2009.

*We found out that our next home, for hopefully at least 4 years will be Ellsworth Air Force Base in Rapid City, South Dakota! We'll move in March/April 2009.

*We signed up and started training for the Inaugural Rock n' Roll Marathon in San Antonio on November 16, 2008!

I guess that's all the highlights of the past 101 days. Things are otherwise pretty boring here in Abilene. There isn't a whole lot to do but our small group of friends make the most of it. Maybe the next 100 days will be more eventful :)