Sweet Soul

Monday was a sad day in our household. Reilly, our 10 year old dog, passed away. As you know, I wasn’t the biggest dog person in the days before D. But Reilly was the dog that converted me to a dog lover. The absolute best thing about her was that EVERYTIME you would say her name she would wag her tail. And it wasn’t just her tail that wagged – it was her whole backside. If she was in another room in the house all you had to do was call her name and you could tell by the thumping of her tail which room she was in. Even on Monday morning when I said goodbye to go to work she wagged her tail for me one last time.

The vet called her a “sweet soul” and we definitely agree.

Race Day

We ran in the White Rock this morning (me the half - Mike and D the whole). This is Mike and D before the race... And me and D before the race...

D nearing the finish line... Me and D after the race...

Mike and D after the race and after food at IHOP...

It was a really fun experience. I don't know that Mike and D would agree because they are feeling it pretty bad tonight but hopefully they will agree once their soreness has eased a bit.

I ran with a girl named Sarah that I met at the starting line for the first 6 miles. It made the time go by so much faster. The race benefitted Scottish Rite Hospital and Sarah had been a patient there when she was younger. She is an inspiration. And she shared some chapstick with me so I will be forever grateful to her. I know that kind of sounds gross to share chapstick but I am addicted to Carmex and I failed to bring any. By mile 6 I really didn't care that much. At least I didn't have to use the gross port-a-potties.

I was a little disappointed with my time but it was my first one so I can't complain too much. I finished in 2 hours 18 minutes. But D did great - he beat his goal time of 4 hours by 18 seconds! I was so proud!

Julie's Engaged!

The big news around the Metz household is that Julie is engaged! They are planning a wedding this summer. We all love Mike and are so happy for Julie. So here's a photo montage of the happy couple...

Instead of Pecan Pie

I went to a Pampered Chef party this past weekend and we had the best snack ever! And even I can make it.

Harvest Spiced Nuts

1 egg, separated

1 package (8 oz) pecan halves

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon pantry cinnamon plus

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees, Line pan with 11 inch piece of parchment paper. Using egg separator, separate egg into large bowl (reserve yolk for other use). Whip egg white until frothy.

2. Add pecans to bowl. Toss to coat evenly with egg whites. Sprinkle brown sugar and spice blend over pecans, toss to coat evenly. Pour pecans out onto parchment, separating into a single layer.

3. Bake 18-20 min or until nuts begin to brown. Remove pan from oven. Let cool completely. Place in serving dish. Serve using tong (its sticky).

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Not Martha Stewart

I've always said that I hate cooking. But I decided to be a good sport and make a Pecan Pie for our anual Thanksgiving Luncheon at work. So I researched recipes and decided to try Pioneer Woman's recipe mostly because she gives step by step directions with pictures. I followed the directions exactly and even made an extra pie for D to take to work. They looked so good last night when I took them out of the oven.

I cooked them for 1 hour (a full 10 minutes beyond what Pioneer Woman told me to do) but when it was time to cut them today before the luncheon I realized that even an hour wasn't enough. The inside of the pie was literally the consistency of Karo syrup - like I hadn't cooked it at all! I just took my pie back to my little cubicle and hid it under my desk. Then I brought it home so I could take a picture for the blog.

And it looks way worse in person! I might try to cook it for a while longer tonight to see if I can salvage it at all because pecans are expensive! And now I'm back to hating to cook.

Before There Was Justin, There Was Jordan

I traveled down to New Orleans this weekend to see the New Kids on the Block concert with my 2 favorite sisters – Dana and Julie. I was a huge fan in Jr. High but was never able to attend a concert. So when I heard they were reuniting, I knew it was finally my chance. We headed down to New Orleans a little early to see some sights and eat some gumbo then we made it to the concert just in time.

It was the most fun I have EVER had at a concert. They played some of their new stuff but it was mostly the oldies but goodies – The Right Stuff, Hanging Tough, Tonight, Please Don’t Go Girl, etc….

My mom made these signs for us to take as a joke.

We stayed at a cool hotel in New Orleans and then woke up Sunday morning and had some beignets from Café Du Monde before heading back to Baton Rouge. It was so much fun. Thank you Julie and Dana for making my NKOTB dreams come true!

Cowboy Wedding

My cousin Dena got married this past weekend in Chappell Hill, TX. It was a gorgeous day and she was a gorgeous bride. The wedding weekend had a country theme to it and was beautiful with all the fall colors.

I just love fall weddings....

and little country chapels...

and wrought iron crosses...
and happy newlyweds...
and my parents...

(Dad went all out and got Wranglers since he was officiating the wedding)

and big brown eyes...
and long eyelashes...
We had a few hours between the wedding and the reception so we stopped by to see Shandra and family. How can you resist these boys? They are really sweet and even though Andrew would not count to ten in Spanish, he was very hospitable and showed us all around his room.

Now back to the wedding...the reception was in Old Town Spring (Shandra, why have you never taken me here?). It was so neat.

I also love wedding cakes...

and D for coming even though his beloved Huskers were playing...

My September Post

I've been meaning to blog for a while but you know how it is when you wait a long time in between posts and then you don't really know what how to catch up on everything. So this is my official Sept. blog. I know you guys have been waiting on pins and needles :)

• Kate turned one! I was only able to be there in spirit but doesn't that big bow just make you smile?

• We are in full swing with football season. This was the scene this past weekend after the Huskers lost (don't worry we always have the LSU game on in the other room).

• Hurricane Gustav has come and gone. I was at my grandmother's house watching CNN the whole weekend with her and her dog.
  



• Hurricane Ike ruined our plans to visit Houston for the weekend to see Andrew and Blake.

• Work is busy but I have found a new friend to carpool with and it makes the drive to downtown a little more bearable. That and our almost daily trips to Starbucks.

The dogs are happy and healthy.

• D is training for a marathon and I'm training for the half marathon. It hurts me just to think about it so that's all I'm going to say about that.




• And I had some lovely fertility tests done. That's all I will say about that too because it wasn't the most fun thing I have ever done. But everything looks good so far so hopefully something will happen soon. And don't think I won't gladly give up the whole half-marathon thing in a heartbeat if that is the case :)

Gatlinburg 2008

We are leaving tomorrow to meet the fam in the Smokey Mountains.
This was a picture from our last trip there back in July of 1999. Back in the days before D and before Ryan and Dana had Cole and Kate. So our lives are a little bit different now but we still love to get together and go on vacation together. I can't wait!

Summer

Kari is my best friend from high school who moved away to Florida a year ago. She was in town over the weekend and we got to hang out at Cracker Barrell. Here are her two cute boys.

Bryson and Austin

Playing checkers

We went out to eat for Mandy's Birthday last night. Here she is hogging all the cupcakes :)

Fun Times

Dog Days of Summer

Here are some pictures of the kids....

Ivan caught barking at the neighbor again.

Emily
All 3 dogs Demian always has some project to work on.
He had to re-route the sprinkler system because of a huge root that busted one of the pipes.
Ivan the Terrible
Sweet Reilly

4th of July

We went to Nebraska for a long 4th of July weekend. It was a blast but I've been hestitant to write about it because I have only one picture from our trip. Pictures are my crutch!

I'll give it a try...We left Thursday morning, drove straight through and got to Nebraska in time for a late dinner with D's family. Then we woke up early on the 4th of July to run in a 10k race. This is where my sunrise picture came in. It was gorgeous.

So after running that gave us the go ahead to eat whatever we wanted to the rest of the weekend and that's pretty much what we did. We stayed with his sister and his mom and other sister and family came in and we had a great time with everyone. This is the point where my camera battery died. We did fireworks Friday night (my first time to actually DO fireworks instead of just watching them at a fireworks display) and thankfully no injuries occured.

Saturday, after more eating, we headed about an hour away for D's 20 year high school reunion (he's old!). It was so much fun to meet all his high school friends and hear stories about him from way back. The reunion was at the VFW so it was very high toned. We showed up a little overdressed but then pretty much everyone is overdressed compared to a tank top. Yes, that is what one guy was wearing.

Then we got up Sunday and started heading back to Texas. We went the long way and saw some more Nebraska towns and lots of hay fields. But my favorite part of the drive home was stopping in Wichita to meet up with Ashley and her family for dinner. The kids are so precious! When we first got there I asked Ashley if I could hold Stahley and she came right to me. Then she looked at her mom and said "bye Mom". I wish I could have taken her home - she was so cute!

So that's the recap of the weekend - a week late but better late than never.

Father's Day

A couple of weeks ago D had the idea that I should go visit my family. I think I was very subtle in my approach...I'm missing out on every major event in my nieces and nephews lives! It could be worse but all the other kids in my family live no more than one hour away from my parents so I was feeling a little left out. Thankfully D took pity on me and sent me off to Baton Rouge for the weekend.
So I flew out on Friday night and because it just so happened to be Father's Day weekend we decided to surprise my dad with my visit. Ryan and Dana picked me up at the airport and we went to meet the rest of the family to eat. I walked in and dad just looked at me like it was no big deal that I was there. Then it slowly sunk in that he wasn't expecting to see me. So it was a great weekend and now I'll leave you with some pictures...

All the kids except Ryan

Cole
And Kate

Couldn't get many pictures without something in her mouth