One of my favorite things about Texas

We have now lived in Texas almost 5 years. There are a lot of great things about living in Texas but one of my most favorites are the bluebonnets in the spring. They are beautiful and make AMAZING pictures!
There is a field close by that everyone (and I mean EVERYONE) goes to to take pictures. It's sometimes tricky to "crop out" everyone from your pictures but its big enough that everyone can have their own little spot without having other people in your picture.
Here is my favorite picture from last year:

And here is my favorite from this year:

I can't believe how much they have changed in one year. My babies are no longer babies! They actually had fun this year taking pictures except the sun was in their eyes and they kept squinting in most of the pictures. But I did manage to get a few good ones.

Officially a soccer mom!

I'm so proud of L. She played her first soccer game this morning and did a GREAT job! She was running the whole time and for never playing before and only having 2 practices, she looked like she knew what she was doing most of the time. And they won 5-0!
Here are a few pictures from the game:

 With her coach

 Cheering on sister

 The whole team ready to play!

 Throwing in the ball

Go Seattle Green Dragons!

Bountiful Blessings

I have to say, I'm feeling like a pretty lucky girl these days. Yesterday we found out our oldest daughter, who is in Kindergarten, was accepted into the gifted and talented program. We are so proud of her!
We've also been blessed with having my hubby around since December 23rd. He has had to work some from home, but has only had to "go into work" about 10 days since October! I have appreciated having him home so much! He cooks, does laundry and helps out with the girls so much. I really couldn't ask for a better partner.
And to go along with that, we'll be celebrating our 10 year wedding anniversary on Friday. I know everyone says this, but I really can't believe it has been 10 years. We have been through, seen and been blessed with so much over these past 10 years and I am so thankful for all God has done in our lives. We are truly in such a great place right now and have so much to be thankful for.
And now for my newest, biggest blessing: a new job opportunity! I guess I thought I didn't have enough on my plate, but I am so excited for this new opportunity. I am starting my own business and partnering up with my good friend/realtor to begin doing something I love and am passionate about. My dream job!! Its called OSD: Organizing, Staging and Decorating. One aspect of it will be working with Michelle Rowe, Realtor with Better Homes and Gardens, Gary Greene. I will be consulting with her listing clients regarding staging advice, implementing the staging and then taking pictures for her listings. I was blessed with my first job this weekend. She listed the house on Monday and on Wednesday had an offer! Here are a few before and after pictures:

And here are a few of my favorites of the house:

I am so thankful for this opportunity. And not only will I be staging homes, but I will be offering organizing and decorating services. These are all something I'm very passionate about and enjoy so much. Each day I pray for God's guidance and I truly feel He has led me to this amazing opportunity and I can't wait to see what all is in store!

Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever!
Psalm 107:1 

Happy Valentine's Day!

"I really 'DIG' you Valentine!"   

Easy Weeknight Taco Soup

My family will probably tell you I make this way too much, but it's easy, cheap and quick. It makes a great last minute, throw together meal (which is usually how I cook) and only uses one pot. Oh yeah, and it taste good too! Here is the recipe:
2 lbs. hamburger
1 packet of taco season mix
1 small onion, diced
1 can of kidney beans
1 can of black beans, drained
1 can of corn
1 can of diced tomatoes

Brown the hamburger meat in large pot. Add the taco season packet. Combine. Add onions and cook until onions are soft. Add cans of kidney beans, black beans, corn and diced tomatoes. Cook on medium to low heat for approximately 15 minutes or until slowly boiling. Serve in bowls and top bowls of soup with desired toppings. We like shredded cheese, sour cream and crushed tortilla chips. My husband likes to add jalapenos too!

Dry Erase Calendar

 I custom made this cute Dry Erase Calendar as a special request for the store, Belles and Beaus Boutique, that I sell some of my things in. I think it turned out to be one of my new favorite things. You can write on it with a dry erase marker and simply wipe it clean and start over every month (or throughout the month if you schedule is anything like mine.....always changing!)

My husband has a crazy work schedule so I'm always having to cross out things on my paper calendar and re-write them on different dates. This kills my OCD self and I've learned to write it all down in pencil, but you can still see the marks even after you erase it!

And this calendar is 16x20 so there is plenty of room to get it all on there!! You can find more details about it on my Facebook store here. And right now you can enter to win a chance for a $30 gift card! Go to facebook.com/blueliliesdesigns to get more details in how you can enter to win!

My first half marathon is in the books!

I did it!!

With an official time of 2 hours, 7 minutes and 49 seconds I completed my first half marathon! 

Let me start at the beginning. I started prepping a week before the race. My race was on Sunday, January 27th and unfortunately on the Sunday prior to my race I got food poisoning. But I quickly got over it and on Monday I started drinking as much water as I could throughout the day. My tumbler was full of water and by my side for the next 6 days. I knew hydrating myself was going to be crucial. I ran my final run on Wednesday. I ran 6 miles and then rested for the rest of the week. On Thursday I started carbing up. I didn't over do it, but didn't feel bad eating those carbs either. I had pasta for dinner Thursday night, spaghetti for dinner Friday night and then pizza for dinner on Saturday night before the race. So at that point I had the carbs and water covered. I also drank a few Gatorades on Friday and Saturday to get those extra electrolytes. 

The week before my race my friend, who I was suppose to run the race with, decided that for many reasons she was not going to be able to run it. I totally understood, but she was my partner for my first race so I was a little bummed we couldn't run this one together too. BUT, my amazing husband immediately stepped up and volunteered to "run it with me." He had not been training for a race, so I was a little hesitant. But he was the one who got me into running 2 years ago after he ran his first FULL marathon. So I knew he was capable, but still nervous for him. He assured me he would take it easy and start out with me but did not plan on keeping up with me. This meant the world to me! I was already a little nervous about the race and the thought of having to do it all by myself was something I didn't want to do. So I was so grateful when he came to my rescue.

On Saturday my Mom and sister-in-law helped the girls make signs to hold up for us. They were so excited to do this!

Saturday night we went to bed around 9:00, but it was a very restless night for me with not a whole lot of sleep. We had to wake up at 4:45 a.m. We were on the road shortly after 5. I had grabbed some greek yogurt, a banana and some Gatorade to eat on the way there. We had about a 40 minute drive there so it gave me some time to wake up, eat and get my nerves calmed. But honestly, I wasn't that nervous. We got parked easily and headed to the event. I wanted to go ahead and go to the bathroom and thankfully I did because the line was CRAZY and getting through the line took up most of the time until it was race time. 7:00 was race time. I was ready to go! Actually, I was ready to get it over with!! I wanted to conquer this and get it behind me.

We started the race and the hubby and I stayed together for about a mile. It was so crowded and hard to navigate through the people that we lost each other pretty quickly. I was kind of upset because I didn't get to tell him goodbye or good luck, but thankfully in the beginning there were a couple of loops where we got to pass by each other and give each other a high five and thumbs up. It was just what I needed to keep me going. 

 The first 6 miles felt great and went by so quickly. They were also the most emotional. I was so happy and in awe that I was getting to run this race, laughed when I saw some of the amazing signs the crowd was holding up, near tears when I saw the children holding up signs for their parents, and dancing when my girls favorite song "Call Me Maybe" came on my playlist. THEN, I knew my parents, girls and sisters-in-law were right past the 6 mile marker and my excitement was growing. I couldn't wait to see them! At this point I was running a pace of 9:43-9:54. I was so happy with that because I wanted to stay around a 10 minute pace but felt I was going much slower.

Finally around mile 6 I saw my family. What a beautiful sight it was! 

 

(Here are 2 of the 6 of them)

I had originally planned on stopping to take a picture with them, but they were on the other side of the road so I couldn't really get to them. However, the hubby made a stop to get some love.

 I soon after stopped for a quick bathroom break. This threw me off for a little bit. It was hard for me to get back into it. Plus after mile 6 the fans kind of disappeared and the scenery wasn't nearly as great. But by mile 7 I was going again. Then around mile 8 there were 2 slight hills. That was another hurdle, but I got through it. Mile 10 is where I hit my wall. During my training I was only able to get up to 10 miles and my body knew it. Thankfully around mile 10 is where I crossed paths with hubby again. He encouraged me and gave me that fuel I needed. At this point I had not stopped to walk except for 4 water stops to grab a quick swallow of water and a bathroom break and I was not about to walk now! I knew I was about to see my family again around mile 11 so I kept going with the anticipation of seeing my girls. It was amazing how they were at the miles I needed to see them the most. When I saw them I was still at such a great pace I couldn't make myself stop. So I got high fives and the encouragements I needed to get me to mile 12.

 I knew I was so close but I was struggling pretty bad. I kept up the pace, but I was hurting. At the end of the race we turned off of the main road and headed down the entrance to the University of Houston at Sugar Land to the finish line. Once I turned down University Road I started sprinting. It might have been a quarter of a mile, but I ran as fast as my legs would allow me. I crossed that finish line with a lump in my throat. I was first of all amazed to see that the clock said 2 hours and 9 minutes because my goal was to be under 2 hours and 30 minutes and then my second goal was to maintain a 10 minute mile pace for at least half of the race and I knew I was under that for the whole race. I actually ran to the finish line so fast that my family had just made it there when they heard my name announced. 

 

It felt so amazing when they put that medal on my neck. And then to see my parents and girls was such an emotional moment. It was so special to have them there. 

Me and my Dad. (I sadly didn't get a picture with my Mom)

 My biggest fans!

After I finished, stretched and drank some water we headed over to the tents and got some goodies and snacks. Then we headed over to the finish line to wait for hubby to come in. His sister and sister-in-law were waiting at mile 11 to see him and let us know when he was getting close. They finally called and so once we spotted him the girls and I went and ran the rest of the way in with him. 

 

His time was 3 hours and 3 minutes. I was so proud of him and amazed that he ran a half marathon with no training! And I am even more thankful we got to do this together.

 

 

I am so thankful God has given me the ability to run because 2 1/2 years ago I would have told you there was no way I could ever do it. And I am also thankful for my amazing family. They truly made it an amazing experience.

 

 

What makes me happy?

 

Vacuum lines in the carpet and the fact that my parents are on their way from Alabama to support me in my first half-marathon and celebrate L's 6th birthday make me happy!

Am I the only crazy (OCD-ish) person that thoroughly enjoys a freshly vacuumed room?

Another one bites the dust!

 

I can't believe this baby is about to turn 6 in 2 1/2 weeks and just lost her 2nd tooth tonight.

Where in the world does time go? It really is true that the older you get, the faster time goes. And although she is not a baby anymore, it still makes me smile when she says "Mom, do you 'dial'  your hair?" (dial=dye/dyed) It is the last "baby word" she has and I can't dare correct her. She'll learn sooner or later what we dye our hair and not dial it, but for now my baby can say whatever she wants!

5 days until race day

Only 5 more days until my first half marathon. I'm a little bit excited, and a little bit nervous. I am so excited to finally be able to check this off of my bucket list and add that 13.1 sticker to my car that my sweet sister gave me for Christmas. And I'm mostly nervous because I haven't been able to train like I had intended.
A couple of weeks ago I started getting these weird "spots" on my skin that you couldn't see but felt like a burning rash. I had just talked to a lady about her husband having shingles and it sounded very similar to what I was experiencing. So I kept waiting on these horrible rashes to appear and nothing ever did. It started with one on my stomach and then one on my back then those went away and I had a spot on my arm, then my hand and then my leg. They were uncomfortable, but not unbearable so I just waited and waited for them to either go away or turn into something more. Nothing every appeared, but one day my body just hurt. I felt like I had the body aches you experience with the flu but had no other flu symptoms. I called a few doctors to see if I could get in to see what was going on but since I had never gone to the doctor in the 4 years we have lived here no one could take a new patient until Monday and it was a Thursday. So I took the next available appointment for Monday morning. The next day it was even worse. I felt very fatigued as well. After laying in the bed all afternoon my husband decided I needed to go to Urgent Care. It was a Friday and he didn't want me to be in pain all weekend. So off we went and after all of my bloodwork came back clear and she insisted it couldn't be shingles because of the patterns of my "spots", she wrote me a prescription for an antihistamine and steroids.
It seemed to be helping because I felt much better the next day, but Sunday experienced the soreness again. So I kept my appointment for Monday and went and saw another doctor. He asked me a whole slew of questions and looked me over and determined that my symptoms weren't really pointing to an obvious problem. So he sent me up to have some extensive bloodwork done......9 different panels of bloodwork! But I was feeling so good I decided I would wait until my medication ran out and then determine if it had "healed" me or was back to square one. That Thursday was my last day of medication and spent the whole day in uncomfortable soreness and pain in my muscles and joints. I decided at that point it was best to go ahead and get the bloodwork done to help figure out what exactly was going on. And that is where I am now. I had the bloodwork done Friday and I am now waiting to hear back.
All of that to say I haven't been doing a whole lot of running the past couple of weeks. On top of not feeling good, it seemed to constantly be a dreary, drizzly (or pouring) rainy day around here. But after going to the doctor on Monday and getting the ok I knew I didn't have a choice. I was going to do this race one way or another. I had been planning for it, training for it and determined to "get 'er done!" And actually the runners block had disappeared and I was itching to get back out there. So on Wednesday I told my husband I was going to go on an easy 2 mile run but it felt so good I ended up running 3 miles. Then on Friday I ran 4 miles and Sunday ran 5 miles. After my run Sunday I quickly determined I had my first case of food poisoning. I will save you the details, but it was not pretty. It kind of set me back again, but tomorrow I am determined to get in a good 6 miles and then I think I'm going to take it easy until Sunday. I've been hydrating up with lots of water this week and I have my outfit and new running shoes ready to go. So I think I'm going to be ready to go. I have to go pick up my race packet this week and then keep hydrating and carb up the few days before the race. I am ready and I know I CAN DO THIS!

My running mantra:
I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. -Philippians 4:13