Gator Bait Trail Run

     Andy and I ran the Gator Bait Trail Run at Huntsville State Park this past Sunday.  We ran in the 5K race, not the 15K.  This was our first ever competitive 5K race as a couple; we ran a half-marathon a couple of years ago.  We had a fun morning, if you choose to call paying to run fun and we do!  The trail was not too difficult... uphill for the first 1.5 miles, downhill for about a mile, and then back uphill for the last half mile.  The course narrowed really quickly at the beginning, so we didn't get off to a good start.  Andy placed 10th in his age group.  The race hosts had placed me in the 60 & over age group for some weird reason, so I would have gotten 1st in that age group.  In my "real" age group, I got third.  I didn't get a medal due to the fact that I was in the wrong age group initially, so I am supposed to receive my medal in the mail - we'll see.  We were not happy with our time (35min 53sec), but we hadn't run in over week and I was battling a pulled tendon in my foot and 2 blisters on my heels (thanks to hiking).  We did get a bunch of goodies for our participation though - 2 mini Clif bars, energy jelly beans, sport drink mix, beer pilsner, and a dri-fit shirt.  We look forward to our next race, whatever and wherever that might be!
      Talking about our race makes me think about just running in general (duh!)...  So many people ask us how we are able to run and then run so far.  Unfortunately, neither one of us really has a satisfying answer for those wanting answers to all of their running troubles.  Andy and I have both been pretty active and have worked out our entire lives.  We have never not run or not been in decent shape, so we don't know what it's like to start from stratch.  Have we been out of shape?  Oh yes, most definitely, but nothing like "I've never run before" out of shape.  For any of you who want to start running to get "in shape," this is what I have to say...  You will hurt but that doesn't mean to quit.  It's running; it's not easy.  If it were easy, everyone would do it and Americans would be fit.  You must experience pain in order to get better.  Run with a partner (or your iPod) - you need motivation and accountability.  Having someone to workout with makes it a little easier and more bearable.  You don't have to run everyday; you can overdo it.  If your pain is so excruciating that you can barely walk, take a day or two off.  If you don't stick with it on a consistent basis, you will never get "comfortable" with running and you will probably end up quitting.  Set goals so you have something to work towards.  I think running is theraputic, so it's definitely worth trying!  Okay, I'm done with my motivational speech - HA!  :)

from Pinterest

Fredericksburg Trip - Part 2

     Well, Andy is playing golf so I thought now would be a good time to finish up the Fredericksburg trip.  Andy and I had such a wonderful time!!  If you have not been, I highly recommend it!
      I left off with Enchanted Rock in the previous blog...  After about 2.5 hours of hiking, we headed back to the hotel to clean up for dinner.  We chose to eat at Silver Creek Restaurant and Beer Garden!  Andy had Maple Pecan Chicken, and I had an 8 oz. Ribeye.  Very delicious!

On our way to dinner

We set aside Thursday for shopping and wine tasting.  We mostly browsed the many shops along Main Street, and of course we had to buy our Maddie Mae something yummy from Dogologie.  After a few hours of shopping, we headed back to the hotel to eat lunch and then head out for the wineries.

Ready for wine tasting!

      Andy is awesome at planning our trips, so we had a full agenda for wine tasting.  Our first stop was Pedernales Cellars.  Not a fan at all of their wine.  Actually, it was rather disgusting.  I am a sweet wine drinker, and they had none.  Most of the wine was red wine, and I have learned that I do not like red wines at all.  The girl that helped us with our wine tasting was rather desperate for someone to talk to because she would not stop telling us her life story.  Compared to the other vineyards, we had an okay time here.

9 wines to taste + 2 glasses = $12.95 per person

      The next stop was Becker Vineyards.  We LOVED this place!  Their wines can be found at some grocery stores, so you may have heard of them before.  The lady that helped us here was awesome!  Very friendly and informative but gave us our space to enjoy the wines.  This place was busier than Pedernales which made it more enjoyable as well.  I think one of the impressive things about this place was the entrance.  On the right side of the road in front of their establishment was the vineyard... Hundreds upon hundreds of rows of the fruit they use for their wine.  It was beautiful!  The glasses we got from here were awesome, and we even bought a bottle of their Muscat (which is sweet so I loved it!).  I highly recommend visitng this vineyard if you're ever in the area.

6 wine samples + 1 free sample + 2 glasses = $10 per person

Inside the tasting room

      The third and final wine tasting was at Grape Creek Vineyards.  We loved this place as well!!  The building for the wine tasting was beautiful.  We got to this place just in time... A bachlorette party was leaving and a bus load of tourists showed up right after us.  The wine here was similar to Becker Vineyards and delicious!  After our wine tasting, we bought some cheese and crackers along with a glass of our favorite wine.  We sat outside in the cool breeze and enjoyed our relaxing time. 

6 wine tastings + 2 glasses = $10 per person

Outside the tasting room
Beautiful!

      After our wine tasting, I needed a nap.  We headed back to the hotel, rested up for about an hour, and then headed to dinner.  This night we chose to eat brick-oven pizza at West End Pizza Company.  Another delicious dinner!  You could pick your own sauce, cheese, and toppings.  Andy had alfredo sauce, mozzarella cheese, chicken and pineapple.  I had a traditional pepperoni pizza... tomato sauce, mozzarella cheese, pepperoni.

      Friday was the day we headed home.  My friends Bradley and Amber had texted me about meeting up with them for lunch because they were coming to Fredericksburg for the weekend.  So, we met them at Mahaley's Cafe for great conversation and fellowship. 

      Before lunch, Andy and I decided to head out to famous Luckenbach, Texas.  If you've never been, it's pretty much a little hole in the wall.  We took the typical pictures outside the post office, bought some shirts, and even ran into a celebrity.  If you've seen Walk the Line (the movie about Johnny Cash's life story), you'll know who I'm talking about... Waylon Payne and he played Jerry Lee Lewis in the movie.  We aren't star struck but thought it was a good idea to get a picture with him.  Apparently, his birthday bash was this weekend which is why he was in town.

 

Andy and I with Waylon Payne

      The last place we stopped was to get fresh Stonewall peaches.  We were going to hand pick them ourselves but decided we were ready to get back on the road and head home.  We bought two kinds - Loring peaches and Cary Mac peaches.  We will let them ripen for a few more days and then freeze them.  I have already told Andy's mom that she'll have to make us a yummy peach cobbler!

Fredericksburg Trip - Part 1

     Today is our five-year anniversary.  Wow, how time flies!  It feels like just yesterday I was finishing up classes at A&M, Andy was finishing his first year of coaching/teaching, and we were definitely ready to be married and finished with wedding planning.  Saturday, June 16, 2007 will always be a wonderful memory for us.
     We haven't ever specifically planned an anniversary trip each year; however, we always seem to take our first vacation trip around this time.  This year Andy decided to plan a trip to Fredericksburg for our anniversary.  We had the most amazing and enjoyable time.  Here are some of the high points of the trip...
      The drive was actually quite long, about 5+ hours.  We aren't too big on "junk" food, but when we travel we become convenient store junkies.  For whatever reason, we just can't pass up that candy bar, icee, or bag of chips when we're on the road.  As we travelled halfway across the state of Texas, we stopped at Bastrop State Park.  If any of you remember the huge, devastating wildfire that killed many and left thousands homeless in September 2011, this was the state park that had thousands of acres of beautiful rolling hills burned to nothing but blackness.  My heart and prayers go out to those families who lost everything and are still trying to start over.  There was a lot of new growth on the ground which was beautiful to see; however, there are still hundreds of trees that are charred at their bases.

All of the trees in the burn section still have
brown leaves or no leaves at all.

New growth among the burned trees.

   

      Finally after several hours in the car, we arrived in Fredericksburg, Tx.  We checked into the hotel, changed clothes, and headed to Enchanted Rock.  When most people say they are going to hike Enchanted Rock, they mean that they are simply hiking up the rock and then back down.  Andy and I, being the workout freaks that we are, decided to hike all the way around the rock and then hike up and down it.  According to the Nike run on Andy's iPhone, our hike was approximately 5.68 miles.  We were exhausted but would do it again!!

Entrance to the park

Map of our hike

E-Rock (Blue dot on map)

Stream next to E-Rock (Green dot on map)

Buzzard's Roost (Purple dot on map)

E-Rock exfoliating (Orange dot on map)

Moss Lake (Yellow dot on map)

 

Echo Canyon Trail (Black dot on map)
It was a beast climbing through those rocks!

View from the top of E-Rock! Beautiful!

 

     I have many more pictures to share, but I am taking a break from blogging.  I will try to post Fredericksburg Trip - Part 2 later today.  No promises though!

Around the House

     We are going on our second week of summer vacation and loving every single minute of it!  Andy has gone on two fishing trips (both of them successful with fish to eat), we have gotten up every morning for our daily workout, and we have started our first DIY project as a couple (more on that when it's complete).  It's been a productive and enjoyable summer so far!  Next week, we have a trip planned to Fredericksburg without Maddie Mae (our Brittany spaniel).  We don't have children, but Maddie definitely feels like one at times.  We rarely take a trip where we cannot take Maddie with us, so it will be great alone time for the two of us.  Unfortunately, I have a few workshops/workdays in the upcoming weeks that require me to be at school, but I get paid for a couple of them and others are my comp time for the year.
     This past Thursday, Andy and I were going to Kemah to listen to live music; however, the weather decided to not cooperate with us (but we are extremely thankful for the rain) so we had to make plans elsewhere.  What did we decide to do... BOWLING at Main Event!  We both have our own bowling balls and shoes, so it's rather affordable fun for us.  We hadn't been bowling in probably over a year, but we had a blast!  Our scores weren't very good... my average was about 110 and Andy's was about 140.  We're usually in the 140s' for me and 180's for Andy.  Then we played some arcade games and finally relaxed in the bar area for a couple of drinks.

     We bought Maddie a ball to play with in the backyard.  Normally she is not allowed to "fetch" unless she's working with Andy to retrieve her bumpers.  However, now with the new backyard she needs to get some exercise in hopes of releasing some of her crazy energy.  This ball isn't an ordinary round ball.  It has edges cut off so that when it bounces it could go anywhere instead of a typical straight line path.  Below are some pictures of our super athletic dog.  And yes, Andy has trained her himself so we are very proud of her!!

 

 

Class Reunion

     Next year will be my 10-year class reunion... Wow, time flies!!  I cannot believe that it's already been ten years since I graduated from high school.  There are days that it feels like just yesterday I walked across the stage to get my high school diploma and then just a few months later started college.  Now I have to plan this "grand" event since I was our Class President; however, my fellow class officers have been helpful in the getting the discussion rolling and offering their help.  We are thinking about two different options - reserving a party room at a restaurant or renting a hall in Shiner and grilling burgers.  I was totally for the second option, but now I don't know.  I just don't know what our lives will look like next summer, and I don't know if I want to be responsible for planning this party and then it not be successful because our other plans get in the way.  There's just a lot of work to preparing and cooking a meal for 50+ people.  So, we shall see what happens.
     Andy took another fishing trip this week and caught a 24" red fish.  I think he's finally getting a hang of this saltwater fishing, and I don't mind because the food is absolutely delicious.

 

Meal Planning

     Do you find yourself buying extra groceries that you don't really need?  Then wonder why you're spending so much money each week at the grocery store?  Well, that's where I have been for the last 3-4 months.  I would go to Walmart one week to spend $150+ on groceries and necessities and then go the next week spending another $100.  I couldn't understand why my pantry was completely full of food yet I was spending so much each week on groceries.  It's just ridiculous! 
     So, I am attempting to meal plan this summer to see if we save any money.  So far, we've spent about $100 each of the last two weeks.  It is summer break which means I have extra time so I am trying new recipes and such, so I think that's why the bill is still a little expensive.  The meal planning has actually helped Andy and I not eat out as much.  It has even saved some headache on arguing about what to eat for dinner.  We simply made a list of main dishes that we like and a list of potential side dishes.  Then I choose on Sunday (before grocery shopping) what meals we will eat for the week.  Surprisingly, most of the ingredients for our main dishes I already have in stock (rice, flour, noodles, spices, venison, etc.).  If you have any tips, hints, or suggestions, please share!
     Below is our most recent "new" recipe called Taco Braid.  Thank you Brittany for the recipe and Pinterest for showing her.  It was absolutely delicious!!!

Ingredients:

1 can Pillsbury pizza dough

1/2 can refried beans

1 lb. ground venison

1 pkg. of taco seasoning

1/2 jar of Black Bean & Corn salsa

Shredded cheddar cheese

Cook meat and add seasoning.  Roll out dough and top with beans, venison, salsa, and cheese.  Slice strips down the side of the dough.  Fold over and bake at 375 for 20 minutes.

Scrapbooking

A few years ago I got into scrapbooking.  Andy had (and still has) tons of hobbies, and I felt that I needed to have a hobby as well.  Something that got my mind off of things but still made me feel accomplished.  Scrapbooking it was.  It's actually quite an expensive hobby, but I enjoy it!  I have completed only two scapbooks at this point.  Unfortunately, nine months out of the year I am swamped with school work; therefore, my opportunties to scrapbook are Christmas break and summer break.  After two years, I have finally completed the scrapbook of our first Christmas in our new home.  I wanted to share some of my favorite pics.  The other scrapbook I made was of our trip to New Braunfels/Gruene, and I will post a couple pictures from that album.  I have recently started making my own cards instead of buying the really expensive ones from the store, so I will share a couple of those as well.  Hope you enjoy!

Christmas 2008

New Braunfels Trip, Summer 2009

 

Cards