3 Things I Learned at the 2012 Texas Conference for Women

In October, I attended the 2012 Texas Conference for Women  in Austin. It was a HUGE conference with over 5,000 attendees (everything's bigger in Texas...). There were many "celebrities" there (in my book, at least) like Gretchen Rubin, Danielle LaPorte and Cathie Black. I was also introduced to some new rockstars like Brene Brown and Lauren Berger.

That's a lot of seating!

The conference consisted of a morning keynote address, two breakout sessions (each with about 10 options), a lunch keynote and then many different activities in the afternoon. There was also a Health and Wellness Expo with the conference. It was overwhelming to say the least. I got to Austin at about 7am, grabbed my complimentary French Toast Sticks and coffee from the Peached Tortilla food truck, whipped out my conference program and started to map out my day.

French Toast Sticks and Sbux!

I really think I optimized my experience. I won't give you a blow-by-blow, but here are my top three takeaways:

1) Vulnerability = Strength

I think many people hear "vulnerability" and think "weakness." Brene Brown suggests that is actually shows strength. She currently has the 2nd most watched TED talk ever about The Power of Vulnerability. In her book, Daring Greatly, she talks about how vulnerability (at the right time and place, of course) can really help us move forward in relationships and other undertakings. She talked about how giving good feedback puts us in a place of vulnerability, but often is much more effective and productive. Good communication also requires some vulnerability. One thing that really resonated with me was when she said when you do something brave, your are almost always being vulnerable. Think of a time when you were brave. Were you also at a place of vulnerability?

2) Be Clear on How You Want To Feel

The second breakout session I went to covered defining success in your own terms and included a panel of four women: Alyce Alston, CEO of CultureMap Austin; Laren Berger, the Intern Queen; Danielle LaPorte, author of The Fire Starter Sessions; and Wilka Toppins, attorney and founder of The Corporate Latina. Here are the highlights:

• "If you feel like you're faking it more than not, you're in the wrong place. Don't fake enthusiasm." - Danielle LaPorte
• Alyce talked about she made the move from a really swanky job to a position at Reader's Digest. Some of her friends and family questioned the move, but in the end the position at Reader's Digest  better used her strengths and she enjoyed her work more. Lauren added that she worked for a talent agency in LA which represented many high-profile celebrities. Her friends all envied her job, but all she talked about was how she wanted to be the Intern Queen. Sometimes society's image of success doesn't align with what makes us feel successful.
• Wilka talked about how sometimes we make decisions that lead to imbalance in our lives. We need to forgive ourselves for these decisions, learn from them and then do what needs to be done to regain balance. 

3) Outer Order Creates Inner Calm

I've been a firm believer in this for several years now. Having a neat and orderly home really does put your mind in a better place. Gretchin Rubin addressed this in her keynote speech at the beginning of the conference and talks about it more in her books The Happiness Project and Happier at Home. She suggests making your bed and purging your possessions since the project our identity into our environment. When purging, it's good to ask yourself "Do I use it? Do I need it? Do I love it?" If you don't answer "yes" to one or more of those, ditch it!

Gretchin talks about Happiness at Home

Of course I learned a lot of other great things throughout the day and I took several pages of notes! It was a great experience and I'm so excited to attend the Massachusetts Conference for Women next year!

I'm Not Special: 90 Days of Fitness

Note: This post was written about a month ago and sat in "draft" status until today. I'm not sure exactly why I didn't want to post it right away, but reading it a month later, I know it needs to be shared. 

My name is Veronica and I worked out every day for 90 days.

And I'm not special.

But I am so very, very tired.

Over a year ago, I thought it might be cool to work out every day for 30 days. I even put it on my Vision Board for June of 2011. That didn't happen. After staring at that little post-it note of failure, I wondered if maybe that was too easy. So in May of this year, I decided that my Summer would be quiet enough that I could probably go for 90 days. And so, on June first I very quietly started my journey. I didn't want to tell anyone because I was afraid I wouldn't follow through and then I'd look silly (not that anyone would hold it against me...). After about a week I realized I could do it and started sharing my goals with others.

June

I read somewhere that if you're going to set a goal like this, you should keep a calendar and mark off each successful day with a big red "X" that way it's painfully easy to see missed days. I considered the fact that both July and August had 31 days so I could potentially skip 2 days and still get 90 days within the summer months. I'm far too much of a rule-follower for that, though!

July

I managed to overcome some obstacles like having our niece and nephew here and going out of town a couple times. By working out in the early morning hours I was able to avoid the extreme heat (but not the humidity) and I got it out of the way so I didn't have to think about it. You'll notice one day in July I did "abs and pushups." I had put off my workout until the evening hoping to run/ride bikes with the kids. Well, the atmosphere had other plans and we were stuck indoors. So I just did a small workout at the house.

August

So why am I not special? Because this could just have easily have been you. OK, maybe you're not ready to log 6 mile runs or 1000m swims, but can you take a 30 min walk? Do you have access to a pool where you can walk laps? I'm sure there's a Yoga DVD collecting dust somewhere in your home. Shoot, if you have a Netflix subscription you have access to hundreds, probably thousands, of hours of fitness videos. Here are a few things I noticed were required for this challenge, none of which are "being in shape."

1. Commitment to yourself - Promise yourself that you'll allow 30 min each day for you. Even something like meditating is healthful! 
2. Plan ahead - I was always looking ahead and asking how I would get my workouts in. When we were travelling I made sure I had everything I needed to go for a run. In Wichita, I forgot my toiletry bag at home which contained my hair ties and barrettes, but I made do. Planning is so very key to health. From meal planning to scheduling workouts, it's what keeps me on track. Google Calendar does wonders.
3. It's not about the distance/intensity - The last two weeks of the challenge were particularly rough. It was clear that I was getting burnt out and when I looked at my calendar it wasn't hard to see why. I was starting to think that every workout had to be direct training for a couple upcoming triathlons and a marathon in November. Turns out, rest is also very important!
4. Do it first thing in the morning - I laughed out loud when a friend of mine said how impressed she was that I "got up in the middle of the night" to workout. Ok, so 5:30 am Bodypump classes aren't for everyone, including me, but if you go to bed a little earlier and set the alarm 30 min earlier, you can probably squeeze in a morning walk, yeah? Being summer in South Texas, it's a great way to beat the heat. Also, it's an awesome feeling to get off work and know that I have the whole evening to do whatever I want!

Our Lenten Fast: 40 Days on Minimum Wage

I hope you all had a great Easter weekend! Mine was spent relaxing and getting things done around the house since Mike had to make a last minute trip home to see family.

Mike and I have a very young tradition (2 years) of giving up something for Lent even though neither of us practices a religion that observes Lent. We view it as a good, finite amount of time where other people are making sacrifices, too, and we always like a good challenge. (We've both been known to give things up separately. Mike has given up things like soda and fried food in Lents gone by. I gave up alcohol for 2008.)

Last year we were vegetarian for 40 days. We learned that eating out is very challenging when you're vegetarian and most meals consist of a lot of carbs and a lot of cheese. Eventually we got the hang of it and I would guess we eat a lot less meat than we did before. Well, at least Mike does. I tend to lean towards vegetarian choices anyway.

This year, we considered giving up processed foods, but really where do whole foods end and processed food begin? Is flour processed? Pasta? Milk? There wasn't a clear line. Then our ideas turned financial in nature. I suggested we give up spending unnecessarily, but we agreed there was a lot of grey area there as well. ("Just how necessary is it that we eat out tonight?") So it became clear we'd need some sort of budget. Mike suggested that we build a budget based on us each being employed part-time in minimum wage jobs. To make it more interesting I "worked" at the Starbucks down the street and he "worked" at the sub shop next door. It's highly likely that one or both of these businesses pays better than minimum wage, but let's not get caught up in the details, yes?

Mike did a lot of research and set up the following budget:

Needs	Rent (w/fixed utilities)	$622.
	Health Insurance	$280
	Renter’s Insurance	$20
	Car Insurance	$110.60
	Gas	$100
	Groceries	$360
Wants	2 iPhones (AT&T)	$136.85
	Gym Membership	$101.64
	Misc	$55.79
Savings	Pay of Credit Card	$50
	Emergency Fund	$0
	Save For Retirement	$0
Total Income (after tax)	2 ppl, 34 hrs/week	$1836.88
Total Needs	62%	$1492.60
Total Wants	36%	$294.28
Total Savings	3%	$50
Remaining		$0
Total cash for groceries/shopping/entertainment		$415.79

So really the take away from this is, after rent, bills, and gas, each week we had $103.95 for groceries and whatever else we needed to purchase. But look how responsible we are! We have health insurance and renters insurance and we pay for the gym! Those are all real life numbers that Mike calculated, too. He even identified an apartment complex down the road where all bills were paid including TV and internet. If this had been a real life scenario I would have immediately kissed the gym goodbye. I've been threatening to anyway, but we wanted to continue to go throughout Lent, so we factored that into the budget.

So this was pretty eye opening. I'm used to spending about $100 on groceries each week, and that's in addition to going out to each a few (*coughcough* several) times a week. How were we going to spend significantly less on groceries while at the same time almost never eating out? As it turns out, this wasn't really as challenging as it sounds, which makes me wonder how much we were wasting before.  I got a little overdramatic in the beginning and went to a cheaper version of my favorite grocery store, Central Market. I bought like 3 lbs of chicken breast for $2/lb. That's what those "couponers" do, right? That's when I learned that, for me, grocery shopping was more of an "experience" than I realized. This place didn't have the same "feel" that Central Market does.

So for the rest of Lent, I went to Central Market and just shopped smarter. We at a lot less meat and no seafood. We started making things at home that we would normally purchase, like cookies and bread. We made big batches of oatmeal each weekend and Mike and I ate breakfast all week on $2.50. Of course, we had a good supply of eggs, but they weren't exactly free -- we paid $20 for chicken feed the week before we finished. I also cleaned out the pantry by planning meals around items we already had. I think the least I spent on a week's worth of groceries was $41 and that fed us all week as we never went out to eat more than once or twice in a week.

We started to get creative. Gift cards were fair game. Instead of going out to dinner, a treat at Starbucks using a gift card from Christmas was good enough. Mike had a lot of home improvement items he needed to return to Lowe's and Home Depot. This resulted in over $200 in gift cards. We used that money to purchase plants and other landscaping necessities. We started selling books, clothes, and gadgets on Amazon and eBay and gathered items for a garage sale that we'll have in a couple weeks. We had a Groupon for a really upscale restaurant and we meticulously planned which meal we would share (and pay the split plate fee of $4!) before we got there.

There were some hiccups, too, of course. I went to pick up my specialty plates for the car which I had purchased a few weeks before. The woman informed me that I still owed another $10. Knowing I had to purchase groceries when I was done at the tax office, I hung my head in frustration. On the first day of Lent, Mike forgot to shave before going to work and had to spend ~$2 on shaving supplies at the BX! Every time we encountered an unexpected expense, I was reminded that so many people face these challenges every day and they have no end date to soften the blow.

Here's some other things I learned throughout this process:

• We have awesome friends. We weren't doing this because we legitimately needed to save money, but hey a penny saved is a penny earned, right? We had so many friends offer to cover us in different situations. When we traveled to Fort Worth for a race and stayed with our friends, Grant and Ashley, they provided us with dinner, breakfast AND lunch! During a night on the town with a big group of friends, a couple of the guys each bought Mike a beer. We were treated to gelato more than once by our good friends Geoff and Ellie. Ellie's parents took us to brunch when they were visiting one weekend and my mom sent us a Target gift card. :) I felt kind of bad, because mooching off friends and relatives was NOT the point of this experiment, but then I reminded myself that it just means we have really great friends and family!
• Weekends are freer. We found we had a lot of "extra" time on our weekends. We had time to clean the entire house ever Saturday morning, spend time reading or pursuing other interests, and organizing rooms/drawers/closets that had been neglected. I can't tell you exactly what we would have been doing if we weren't on a budget, but my guess is something like going out to lunch and going shopping. And for what? We obviously don't need more stuff! 
• In many ways, this isn't sustainable for us. I can see how people on a budget like this are tempted to ditch important expenses like insurance. Like I said earlier, the gym membership would be canceled ASAP if this was a real situation. During Lent, I didn't get a hair cut and we didn't buy any cat food (at $1.30/day!!). I had several doctors appointments for my acid reflux that were not counted against our budget. I wasn't willing to compromise anyone's health for this experiment.
• In many ways, it is. We don't need to spend $100 at the grocery store each week and we can certainly stand to eat out less than we were before. Before this we felt like we had to get out of the house on a Saturday, but now we realize there's a lot to be done at home.
• When you're living on this little, it's hard to get ahead. Sure we're making payments on that credit card (Mike made that up because we figured there would be some sort of debt repayment or savings), but it's hard to stock up on items like paper towels or toilet paper because the large packages are so gosh darn expensive, so you end up paying more per unit for a smaller package because that's all you can spare that week.
• My meal planning, ingredient substituting and price estimating skills are now razor sharp. On Saturday I'd plan out the meals for the week using a Google Calendar that I share with Mike so he could see what's for dinner each day. After I planned the meals, I'd enter the ingredients into my Grocery IQ app (if you don't have it, get it!!). From there, I'd do a rough estimate of how much the groceries would cost. My initial estimate was usually within $10 or so. In the beginning I kept a running total on pen and paper as I shopped so I wouldn't go over. That's when I found out there was no tax on food in San Antonio!!!!! The total I'd added up in my head would be SPOT ON with the total at the register. After a couple weeks of this I decided to try out the pricing feature on my app. Mike would enter prices as we'd check items off. Then we'd get to the cash register and announce our total. We never got those numbers to match for various reasons (the app is almost too smart really), but it was always close enough to grab the attention of the cashier. More than once we explained our mission. 
• Everyone thinks it's a cool idea and wants to try something similar. Mike and I aren't special. There's nothing different about us. We see something we want, so we go for it. We don't wait for it to fall in our lap. Sure there's a lot of planning and it's hard work and sometimes frustrating, but it's cool and we're so much better for it in the end!

So, whether by coincidence or circumstance, our calendar for April is extra full. Not a free weekend in sight! It's good to be back on a "normal" budget, but boy will I think twice about spending a dollar!

I Am Thankful

A lot of people have been posting on Facebook one thing they are thankful for each day in November leading up to Thanksgiving. I didn't get on board at the beginning of the month, but not for lack of gratefulness. There are very few days that go by that I don't acknowledge internally how thankful I am for something, so I'd like to put it in writing and, after all, "'Tis the season." There are roughly a million things I'm thankful for, but let's narrow it down to the top 29, seeing as I just turned 29!

1. Mike.
   He makes me laugh. He works so hard for us. He's very kind. He's my favorite!
2. My family.
   You always hear horror stories about this time of year and dealing with difficult family members. My family really is awesome, both Mike's side and mine. I think our wedding best showcased this! :) Thanks for not screwing up the holidays every year, guys!
3. My friends.
   I have some awesome friends, here in South Texas and all over the country, even the world! You're the average of the 5 people you're around the most and you guys make me awesome! Thanks!
4. My job.
   The other day I wrote the phrase "Tornado Debris Signature" just as some less fortunate employee might refer to "TPS reports." I'm lucky to have a job in this economy, especially in my chosen field and especially in my circumstances. I'm grateful to WDTB for letting me work from San Antonio!
5. Our home.
   We have a great little home in a nice neighborhood that's close to all kinds of restaurants, stores and other activities. Mike did a lot of research before we moved down here and it paid off big time!
6. My health.
   So many people have to face challenging health problems every day. I haven't so much as broken a bone. I try to stack the deck by eating healthy and exercising, but I know that there's a chance I may be diagnosed with an unavoidable illness. Until then, I'm grateful for what I have!
7. Financial stability.
   With the economy as it is, many people have to make tough decisions about how to spend their money these days. The holidays can be especially hard on those who've lost their jobs or are underemployed. I'm thankful that we can afford all that we need to live comfortably. 
8. I'm an American.
   With all the talk about the planet reaching a population of 7 billion people, I can't help but think about how lucky I was to be born in America to a nice, well-educated couple who could afford to give me all I needed and then some. What are the odds? Probably not good. There's a lot of frustration in America, today, but at least we can express it freely without worrying about persecution. This happens in many other countries, too, but there are still so many where this is not the reality. We are so lucky.
9. My education.
   My parents started me out right with a great education at a great school. I then continued down that path at OU with a bachelor's and a masters. I'm very thankful that I got both degrees "out of the way" before marriage and kids. I will now have more doors open to me and also have the freedom to focus on raising a family when I'm ready!
10. My kitchen.
    Mike spent countless hours redoing our kitchen. It's beautiful and I love cooking in it. It really does make a difference having the appliances and equipment I need to make healthy meals for us. It also helps that there's an extra mouth to feed!
11. My car.
    The Runner turned eleven this year. Eleven! She runs like a champ, too. She just had her 150,000 mile maintenance and the mechanic and service associate were both impressed at what great condition she's in! She gets me where I need to go and looks cute doing it! My kind of car!
12. Modern day appliances.
    Many times when I throw in a load of laundry or toss a detergent capsule in the dishwasher I think of how these appliances allow me to live my life the way I'd like. Can you imagine if we had to wash our clothes and linens by hand? That would take all weekend!!
13. San Antonio.
    There is always something going on here. When we have friends and family visit, there's always a cool restaurant or attraction to which we can take them. There are plenty of races/triathlons/duathlons/etc. in the area, too. The weather isn't bad either. ;)
14. The cat and the chickens.
    Our animals provide a seemingly endless source of entertainment around our house. Whether its hearing the cat chase her toy mousey down the hall on the hardwood floor or going out into the backyard to be greeted by a bunch of noisy chickens, they'll bring a smile to your face. I've heard that people who own pets are less stressed than those who don't. I can certainly see why!
15. Travel.
    I was able to travel to so many fun places this year: Las Vegas, New Orleans, New York, Lake Tahoe, and Virginia Beach/DC. I was also able to visit friends and family in Wichita and Norman a couple times. 
16. Technology.
    Today's technology (cell phones, web cams, online social networks, e-mail, etc.) have made it very easy to keep in touch with friends and family. I can e-mail pictures to my family immediately after taking them. I can keep track of old friends through Facebook. Of course, it also helps me keep my friends and family updated through this blog!
17. Fitness opportunities.
    By this I mean races, fitness classes, a gym membership, roads and sidewalks to run and bike on, and the like. Being in the Austin/San Antonio area, there is no shortage of races (running, biking, multisport, etc.) Since moving down here I've completed 3 triathlons, 2 duathlons, many running races, and the list goes on. There's always something going on in the area every weekend and with a gym less than 5 min away and a nice neighborhood, green belts, and an ever extending Riverwalk there's plenty of places to train! 
18. Good grocery stores.
    This one seems silly, but it really isn't. When I lived in Norman, the grocery store options were pretty sad: Wal-mart, Target, Homeland. :( When I left there was talk of a Whole Foods in North OKC, but I'm not sure if that's happened yet. Even the Norman Farmer's Market had stuff shipped in from California. Here in San Antonio we're very close to Central Market and several nice HEB's. Food shopping is a lot more fun down here!
19. Good restaurants.
    Since moving to San Antonio, I've use Yelp.com and the Yelp app to discover great new places to eat here in town and when we're on the road. Mike and I prefer to eat a local restaurants as opposed to national chains. San Antonio has a lot of great local places, especially near us! 
20. Weather.
    The weather in South Texas is awesome (well, it is this time of year), but I'll be honest, it can be a bit boring. What I've always liked about severe and winter weather is that it shows us that we're not invincible. It's almost like another frontier to be tamed. We don't need to control it, but we still haven't quite figured out how to keep ourselves completely safe from it. Maybe we will one day, but until then weather (and perhaps climate) is nature's way of keeping humans in check.
21. Our military.
    I'm a very lucky Air Force wife. Mike works long hours (a 12-hour day is very normal for him) and I know it can be stressful for him, but he does come home every night. Many of our service members are frequently deployed and many to very rough locations. Many military families live apart for various reasons. I'm thankful for all our service members and their supportive families! 
22. Animal welfare organizations.
    I'm definitely an animal lover. So much so that I literally can't stand to see an animal in pain. So while I'd like to volunteer at a shelter or go rescue abused animals, I just couldn't do it. That's why I'm thankful for the many organizations that stand up for animals' rights. Sometimes I wish I could save all the kitties out on the streets and in shelters, but knowing that I saved one and gave her a good home makes me feel a little better.
23. Road trip to Wichita.
    I've driven up and down Interstate 35 countless times, mostly by myself. Norman to Wichita. Wichita to Kansas City. Norman to Kansas City. Norman to Dallas. Norman to San Antonio. San Antonio to Norman. San Antonio to Austin. The list goes on... This Thanksgiving, I get to do it with Mike, Geoff, Ellie and my Aunt Rhonda. We're going to be saving thousands in airfare by piling in Rhonda's van for a 10-hour trip from San Antonio to Wichita. Armed with snacks, trivial pursuit cards, iPhones, an iPad and laptops, it's sure to be a fun time!
24. Recycling.
    Mike and I only leave our trash out to be picked up every 2-3 weeks because San Antonio has such a great recycling program. We can throw paper, cardboard, plastic, steel, and aluminum all in one big bin! I hate making a lot of trash and we try to limit waste as much as we can, but it's hard to avoid it entirely!
25. Laughter.
    I laugh at a lot of stuff and I generally prefer comedies to drama. It warms my heart when I make people laugh. Anyone who knows Mike knows I married the right guy. :)
26. Cooking.
    I'm glad I enjoy cooking. I think it might be a control thing. I'd rather have whole, healthy meals than something fast or fancy. 
27. Warm, comfy clothes in winter.
    There are fewer opportunities to dress warmly in San Antonio, and for that I'm appreciative. I've never been a fan of wearing 5+ layers of clothing. However, I do enjoy relaxing on a cold evening in a nice pair of sweat pants, a sweat shirt and some comfy, warm socks and then burying myself under a blanket and watching TV or reading. That's what winter was made for!
28. New media channels.
    This summer Mike and I noticed we weren't watching enough television to justify our high cable bill. We decided that a HuluPlus membership in addition to our Netflix membership would be plenty. The only thing we'd really miss is live sports and we usually went to watch parties for those, anyway. We've saved almost $100 per month and we invested in an antenna that gets all the major networks in perfectly clear HD, so we can still sometimes get OU and LSU football games. Also, in the mornings, instead of watching local news and Good Morning America, I listen to NPR on my phone. It's so nice not to hear the latest on Dancing with the Stars or what Charlie Sheen or Tiger Woods is up to. 
29. My creativity.
    I've never considered myself an artist and I can't draw to save my life, but it turns out all those years I spent playing in Microsoft Paint meant something after all. I've been able to find some creative outlets with scrapbooking and, to some extent, this blog. I've even been able to make a niche for myself at work. Often times people will create content for our training and hand it over to me to "make it pretty." Which I really love doing! :) 

Three Holtzes, One Weekend!

This past weekend, Mike's dad, Tom, came to visit us. He flew in Thursday evening and left Monday morning. Mike had Friday off for Veteran's Day, so we had a nice three-day weekend to host him!

Mike spent Thursday evening showing the house off to his dad. Tom is building a house of his own on his land in Arkansas, and when I say "building a house of his own" I mean he is actually building it - you know, with his own two hands... So he was very interested to see what Mike had done to with our home.

On Friday we left the house about 9am to go to San Marcos. We started the day with a brief stop at the outlet malls. I now know that a weekday at 10am is the best time to visit the outlet mall, not Saturday at 2pm! :) After checking out Restoration Hardware and Pottery Barn, we went over to the River Pub and Grill for lunch. If you're going up to the San Marcos area, I highly recommend you stop here for a meal, especially if the weather is nice. The patio looks over the river and there are kayakers, swimmers, turtles, ducks and fish to observe while you eat! Perfect!

After lunch we went to what I would consider the main event, the Texas State Aquarena. You might recall that my mom, my aunt and I went there a few weeks ago (as well as the River Pub and Grill!).

Ready to board the glass-bottom boat!

That evening we went up to the Tower of Americas for a view of the city at night.

Tower of Americas at sunset. 

When we got to the top and went outside, it was VERY windy and a bit chilly, but still very pretty!

Enjoying the view.

After that, we went to Josephine Street  for a reasonably-priced steak dinner!

On Saturday, we took Tom to the Pearl Farmer's Market. After getting some breakfast from some of the vendors, we went on the Pearl Brewery tour! Our guide was very informative and we learned some interesting things about the Brewery we didn't know, despite having frequented the Farmer's Market there for over a year!

We ate lunch at Rosario's, a favorite of Mike's and mine. We had hoped to visit the Alamo and Riverwalk after lunch, but preparation for the Rock 'n Roll Marathon was well underway and it was just too crowded. On the way home, we decided to go to the Witte Museum and explore their new "Shipwrecked" exhibit.

Tom experiences "hurricane force" winds. 

Mike gives it a try, face first.

You know I won!!

That evening Mike grilled brats for dinner and we watched an awesome game between Texas A&M and K-State as well as the Oregon-Stanford game. After dinner, we took Mike's dad to get gelato with Ellie and Geoff.

Sunday was much more relaxed. We did some reading and watched some more TV. For lunch we went to The Cove and sat outside. We watched Snatch that afternoon and then for dinner I cooked basil pesto pizzas and bread pudding.

Tom left early Monday morning. We enjoyed his visit and hope that he can make it down again sometime or visit us wherever we go next!

A Wild Chicken Chase

I was in Birmingham last week for a conference (on my birthday, no less!). I had a great time and it was fun to meet up with colleagues and hear the talks. Mike picked me up from the airport Wednesday night. After the welcome home hug and kiss he said "I have some bad news, kinda." UH OH! What happened?! He went on, "I can't find Omelet." It was dark and poor Mike works such long hours that he leaves the house before the sun comes up and gets home after it sets. This is not optimal for caring for chickens. He told me about how he'd searched the entire backyard with a flashlight and still couldn't find her, but he was positive he saw her that morning. I told him not to worry about it and we'd look together when we got home. As we were looking, we found a pile of black feathers next to the Fowlamo. Yep, something got her. We weren't sure what, but we at least established that it was Ana who was missing, not Omelet. 

The next morning, I went out to check on the chickens and I heard one squawking that wasn't one of the two in front of me. It was Ana! I ran into the alley behind our house to see if I could tell where she was. That didn't help so I went back into our yard and peered through the fence to the neighbor's yard. There she was! No problem! I'll just go over there later this morning and get her back! Perfect! I rang the doorbell about 10am with no answer. I left a note, "Saw you found our chicken! Here's my number, call me and I'll come take her back."

Hours went by with no call. Of course not. It's Thursday. They're at work. I checked again before heading to a function that evening. Still no answer. Mike left the function early and I asked if he could knock on the door and see if he could get Ana back. 

When I came home, Mike informed me that there was still no answer and our note was still on the door. However, there was a 2nd note from our across the street neighbors saying they, too, had lost a chicken and were wondering if it was theirs (an e-mail had been sent out to the neighborhood saying a chicken was found and being kept at our neighbors house). We really need to get to know our neighbors better.

The next day I tried ringing the bell again, but a bit earlier while I saw a car in the driveway. No answer and I didn't see or hear Ana in the backyard anymore. Around 4pm, I got a call from a guy who said he's friends with our neighbor and he had found and captured Ana.  A woman who lives on the next block over had responded to his e-mail and said she also has chickens and would take ours in until the owner was contacted (the more I think about this the less I understand why he didn't a) call me, b) knock on our door, or c) toss the chicken over our fence). He gave me her number and I called her. Well, apparently Ana didn't get along with her chickens so she put Ana in her neighbor's yard. She gave me her neighbor's number. I called him after running a couple errands to allow him some time to get home from work. He was there and I drove over immediately and brought her home.

Mission: Accomplished

A Family Affair!

In support of my appearance in Happy Days: A New Musical, my mom, dad and our family friend, Terry, all came down to San Antonio for the last weekend of the show. Of course, South Texas has a lot to offer, so we made sure they got to see plenty of other things while they were here!

Mom got in Thursday and Rhonda and I took her to lunch before an afternoon of catching up on housework (Mike and I) and work work (Mom). Thursday evening we all went out for Korean food and then came home to sit on the beautiful new screened in patio and enjoy the cooler weather.

On Friday, Mike had to work so Rhonda, Mom and I headed up to San Marcos for the afternoon. We had lunch along the San Marcos River at the River Pub and Grill.

Our view at lunch

Rhonda and I enjoying the fresh air

Mom and Rhonda in front of the San Marcos River

After lunch we headed to the Texas State Aquarena for the glass bottom boat tour around a spring-fed lake. It was very cool!

When we returned to San Antonio, Dad and Terry arrived and they all went to dinner while I did the 3rd performance of Happy Days.

On Saturday morning we had breakfast at Panera in preparation for a day at Sea World. It was a great day to go and we were very grateful for Mike's military discount! 4 free tickets and the remaining 2 were discounted as well as 30% off food! What a great deal! Thanks, Sea World! (And Mike, for defending freedom!)

First we got to feed and pet some dolphins!

Then we went to the Shamu show.

Baby Shamu with his mamma!

Mike and I wanted to go on a roller coaster. After seeing it go by a few times, Dad and Rhonda decided they would come with us. Mom and Terry passed. We rode the "Great White" inverted roller coaster twice and the "Steel Eel" roller coaster once.

We went on the Great White twice!

The Steel Eel has lots of big drops. No loops though!

It was getting close to the time we needed to leave so we made our way to the exit. Along the way we stopped to say 'hi' to the penguins.

After that we all went home to get cleaned up for the show! I was so happy that everyone could come see me perform. It was a really great show, too!

Mom had to go home around lunchtime on Sunday. After that Dad, Terry, Mike and I went downtown to do some sightseeing. We checked out the Alamo,

And the Riverwalk,

That's us on top of the bridge!

After we all took a well-deserved nap, Rhonda came over to go to dinner with us. Before we left, we checked on the chickens. Dad wanted to give them something to eat so I found some blueberries in the fridge he could use. They ate right out of his hand!

 Of course then everyone else wanted to try it!

We all went to dinner with Geoff and Ellie to Mon's Thai. The original plan was to cook out, but it was over 100-degrees that day and everyone was pretty tired. Eating out seemed like the best option. For dessert, Ellie made everyone little cakes with "Happy Days" decorations!

What a great weekend! Thanks to everyone who helped make it special!!