Trick Or Treat

Treat! Halloween is so much fun! I love to see all the people in their cute costumes. I saw a couple of doctors, swamp man, spiderman, punk girl, Buzz Lightyear, pumkins, and many more. Tige and Sara brought Faith over in her cute Buzz costume...
Since this is the last day of October, I better catch you up to speed on some other things I've been doing....
RUNNING- Well, I have been running but I've been even worse in my training for this race as I was for 07's Houston 1/2 marathon. Since late August I've been having major lower back issues. I saw a new chiropractor and he told me I have some disc problems and I probably shouldn't be running. I've listened a little but not 100%. Last Saturday I did about 5 1/2 miles and I spent most of Sunday with a heating pad and ice packs. It sucks! My goal is to just finish the race in the max time they give you. I start having numbness around mile 5 and then have to walk. The tightness is intense. I have a friend that is running the full with a leg fracture. She's stubborn too. What's weird is if I skip a day (or 2) and don't run at all the pain is really bad. If I run 3 miles each evening, I feel great.

SPURS- A friend from church that has season tickets stopped by the other day and gave me 2 tickets ROW 10 (WOW). Nathan was working so I asked Becki. We ran into Kyle, Kristy and Bethany (friends from work). It was a fun night even though they lost.
LIGHT THE NIGHT-A fundraiser/walk for Leukemia/Lymphoma Society
Last Saturday I went to walk in honor of Amy! It was a great night downtown. It's a 2 mile walk starting at Hemisfair Park and goes through the Tower, Inst of Txn Culture and LaVillita. After the walk all of Amy's family and friends went to Casa Rio for dinner.

Becki's kids- Kaden and Kate ready for the festivities....

The beautiful Amy and her daughter Addison

One More Thing...

Tonight, Nathans folks and Daniel came over for dinner. We grilled steaks outside and since it was perfect weather we decided to eat outdoors. Before Larry and Sylvia got to our house, Daniel got a phone call and was outside walking up and down our sidewalk. While strolling, he saw something sad and unusual.

I'll give you a hint but I bet you'll never guess what Daniel saw.....
HINT:
Yes, the picture above is of Pooh stuck in the door at Rabbit's house. Well, here's what was stuck at our house...
Not sure how this happened but this frog somehow wedged its upper body through the water cut off valve cover and didn't get the rest of his body through. He's been there for a while because.....well this is gross but his eyes were....um...gone. Also, most of his insides were dried up. I told you it was gross! Poor little frog.

Happy Birthday, Amy!

Saturday was Amy's birthday. We celebrated by going to Austin Friday night to see Tapestry, a 7 person Tap Dancing group. Remember, Amy owns a dance studio and I love her as a friend. That's why I went. :) I was pleasently surprised! The show was very entertaining especially after 2 margarita's from Matt's. Also, I had Jo sitting next to me imitating the dancers "jazz arms". It's so funny to me. I don't know why. Margarita's or not- the show was really great. This tap company incorporates video clips from old movies with Shirley Temple, Fred Astere, Gene Kelly and many other great stars from the past. They also had a jazz trio and they were phenominal. A pianist (Berklee), a bass player and a drummer. After the show we went to 6th street for dessert at Katz's. Holy Cow. All you need to know is "BROWNIE BOAT". Nothing else matters.

We spent the night in Austin that night. Me, Amy, her mom, her sister, Jo and Becki. If I get pictures I'll post later. I didn't have my camera on me that night.

Saturday we came back home and stopped at the outlet malls. White House/ Black Market had great sales. I went to Lacey's birthday party in the afternoon at Clay Casa. Her 9th birthday was on Wednesday. Happy Birthday, sweet Lacey! After her fun party, I went back to Amy's for dinner. It was a great weekend.

Amy is doing alright. She's in the middle of chemo/ radiation right now to treat the lymphoma in her brain. We're praying for God to heal her again. Hope everyone had a great weekend!

STARS 2008

This weekend was Concordia's Stars Women's Retreat. It's the Lutheran version of the ACTS retreat the Catholic church does. We had a wonderful weekend. I went on this retreat in 2006 and for the past two years I've been serving on the team. I've made so many great new friendships thanks to this retreat. Women of all ages and stages in their lives come together and serve God and one another. I'm so thankful to be a part of this. It was beautiful and so meaningful as always.
We got back to San Antonio Sunday morning for 11 o'clock church. It was a difficult day. After being on a "spiritual high" for 3 days we had to come back to a sobering truth. A very sweet and popular 16 year old boy in our congregation died earlier in the week and his funeral was on Sunday at 3. The sanctuary was packed. Students from Reagan and Johnson came by the hundreds, literally. Ian Fincke passed away last Sunday the 5th from a severe skateboarding accident. His father gave the eulogy and did an outstanding job! I can't imagine the pain you feel when you have to give your own son's eulogy. Ian was the kid that everyone loved. He was full of life and called everyone "friend". He served at VBS for many years and was known as a kid magnet. Prayers for the Fincke family and for all the high school friends of Ian that are mourning this great loss. It was nice to hear so many of his friends say that they'd see him in heaven one day.

Air Force One

This morning President and Laura Bush were in San Antonio for a private fundraiser for the Republican National Committee's Congressional Trust and also to honor Sonja McDonald (San Antonio) for raising half a million dollars for the Center for the Intrepid's Fisher House. The center's main purpose is to support military families in their time of need.

Since we live pretty close to the airport Nathan and I decided to drive by there to see if we could see Air Force One. Guess what? We did! It took off right after 11:00. Here's my best picture taken from highway 281...

Interrupted Prayer

Last night I went to dinner with Sara to El Mirasol. We both were wanting a margarita and where do you go in San Antonio for a good one? Well, according to me you go to either El Mirasol or La Fogata.

It was a beautiful evening. We sat out on the patio and just talked and enjoyed our drinks. The poor waiter kept coming over to our table to see if we were ready to order. We were not. We hadn't even looked at the menus. Finally 25 minutes later and 6 attempts to take our order we decided to pause the talking and make a decision.

We finished our drinks right when our food came out. Sara contemplated ordering another one, wondering out loud if they would let her order 1/2 a margarita. I told her that I could share one with her. I mean, that's what real friends do, right?

We ordered one more margarita for us to share and the waiter said, "ok...be right back". We bowed our heads and I started to say the blessing. Toward the end of my prayer, the waiter, who obviously saw that we were praying but didn't care blurted out loud, "Frozen or on the rocks?" I slowly looked up at him and said, " 'on the rocks'. -- ....and thank you, Lord for this time with Sara and this meal. Amen."

Wow, I've never ever said "on the rocks" in a prayer. First time for everything. Thank you, God for Margaritas!