Run, baby, run

On Sunday, January 18th, I participated in my third half marathon! I ran the whole time and finished in 2 hrs and 20 min, and considering how little I had been running, I was very pleased with that! A bunch of my friends ran in various events too, including Charlie with 1 hr 46 min in the half, Nujoud with 4 hr and 25 min in the whole, and Josh with 31 min in the 5k. Great job everybody! Let the countdown begin until next year... :) Here is a picture that Jaime took of me, about 0.2 miles from the finish line. I was hurtin' pretty bad, but still managed to eek out a sweaty smile.

Next year I'd really like to have a time goal for myself in the half. When I signed up for this year back in the fall, I wanted to do it under 2 hrs. But I had to let go of that when I didn't really train at all. I did however, meet my new goal, of finishing the half before the woman winner of the whole. Go me!
I thought it would be interesting to look back at my results from my past races, and being the nerdy engineer that I am, I made an excel spreadsheet to keep track. Plus, I like to have it all in one place. I think when I'm old and creaky (like I felt on Sunday after the race!), I will really appreciate knowing that I accomplished this. Here it is (you can click on it to see it bigger):

Catch-up Blog - Christmas and New Years

I really suck at keeping up with this thing, so here is a recap of the last month for the Sholls.

We left for PA on the 19th of December, and after an 8 hour flight delay we finally made it to my parents house at 3 in the morning! We had lots of fun with my family, enjoyed lots of good food, and most importantly, lots of good drink ;) We mostly relaxed and just enjoyed each other's company and played some cards. We play Progressive Rummy whenever we're together, and I won one game, go me! I got to see some of my extended family, too, which was really nice.

That Monday all six of us (me and Cory, my parents, and Heather and Aaron) met up with an old friend of me and Heather's, Maria. Me, Heather, and Maria were the best of friends in high school, but we grew apart when we went to college. We recently reconnected through Facebook, and our families got together at a local Italian restuarant that we love for lunch. It was really great to catch up, and it was like we'd never parted ways. I can't wait for the next time we can get together! Sadly I have no pictures of this, because I think it would have been fun to put a 'then' and 'now'!

Mid-week we went to Cory's parents houses to spend sometime with them; we were there for Christmas. I got some Bed Bath and Beyond gift cards from Cory's parents because I wanted to get some items off our wedding registry that we hadn't gotten. Which I already did. Hello ice cream maker and new bake wear! The ice cream attachment for the Kitchen Aid mixer is my new best friend and also my worst enemy. More on that later.

We had fun spending time with Cory's parents and his sister and her family. Our neice (yay I can say 'our' now!), Jayden, is 6 months old now and she was so smiley and happy! Almost makes me want one of my own. Ok, just kidding, we're not there yet ;) But she was so sweet and I loved holding her! We also got to see Cory's friends from high school, who I can happily call 'my friends' now too. I love them! Much fun was had by all, like usual.

We flew back to H-town shortly after Christmas because Cory had to work the week of New Years. I worked a couple days and decided to take the rest of the week off. We had a New Year's Party at the Sholl house and it was lots of fun! Just a few of our closest friends hanging out, eating, drinking, dancing and ringing in the New Year together. Cory ended up getting sick (not from drinking), and stayed home from work the rest of the week. We had a relaxing weekend and then it was back to work...

I'm still in denial about being back at work, but we're getting by. Cory is finally better, and I caught his cold. We've started some house projects and bought some new furniture, and I'm gearing up for the half marathon that I've barely trained for this weekend. More to come on all of that in a new post, very soon. I promise :)

Doggie Central

The Marshik's are in Cancun with Jaime's family, and one of their dog's, Sammie, is staying with us. Which is awesome, because Cosmo and Sammie, are like, totally bff's!! They get along great, and it's nice for Cosmo to have someone to play with. Cosmo also likes to hump Sammie, which is weird, but also slightly hilarious. Here's a cute picture I shot of the girls watching a squirrel out the window the other day.

When Cory and I leave for PA on Friday, Sammie goes to the kennel for a day or so until the Marshik's get back, and Cosmo goes to the Parris's to play with her friend Lola! Then when we get back, the Parris's leave, so Lola comes with us back to the Sholl casa. It's great to have friends with dogs so we can all help each other out!

Snow Day!

Seriously! In Texas!! Last Wednesday, it was really cold, and not just cold for Texas, it was in the low 30s on the way to work and it didn't really warm up like it usually does. On the way home it started raining a little bit, but as I sat at a traffic light, I noticed this 'rain' kind of bouncing off my windshield. It was actually sleeting!! Then in the evening, Alicia called me and told me it was snowing at her house, but I looked outside and was sad to see it wasn't snowing at ours! I forgot about it for a little, and then Cory and I went to deliver some holiday goodies to the Marshik's, and it was snowing!! And real snow! I wouldn't call it a 'snow storm', but it was real honest to goodness snow, that even stuck on our lawns and our rooves! Of course it was almost all gone in the morning, and they tried to ruin my good mood by closing the bypass that I take to work, because it's pretty much all elevated and they have no way of salting roads here because it just doesn't snow! But that night I was just so happy, and so was everyone I saw! Snow just brings out the kid in everyone, and it was really neat to see here in Texas! Here are some picutres that Cory took!

Holiday Baking and Cooking

My kitchen has been a busy place the past few weeks, I've been baking up a storm! Last year I started a tradition of giving goodies to my friends for holiday presents. I love to bake, and who doesn't like extra treats at the holiday's? This year they got homemade chex mix, fudge, and chocolate snowflake pops. I thought it all turned out really cute!

I also recently made a pecan pie and oreo truffles for a friend's holiday party. I was so happy with my pecan pie because last time I made it, it didn't set up and it was runny. This one was perfect!

This past weekend I did a lot of baking and cooking. I went to Beth's on Saturday to help her make 8 zillion dozen cookies for her friend who was in the Dickinson Tour of Homes (kinda like an open house thing). We came up with a new cookie variety, the Peppermint Butter cookie, let us know if you want the recipe, it's sure to be famous. (For serious, we put way too much Butter Flavored Crisco in them, accidentally, not knowing that butter and crisco do not have a 1-to-1 substitution. But seriously, they tasted fine. Just ignore that coating on the roof of your mouth, ok folks? We worked hard on those!)
I also made a Thanksgiving feast on Sunday and the Wilke's and the Woods's came over to help us eat it! We got turkey dinner on the cruise, but it just wasn't the same as all my mom's traditional recipes, so I bought a turkey on sale after Thanksgiving, and made that, stuffing, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, and cope's corn (a Lancaster county dish)! Oh and a divine chocolate pie, if I do say so myself! Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of that; or maybe fortunately, so you don't drool on your keyboard ;) Everyone loved it and Wilke even said I am, and I quote, "one of the best cooks I know". I really do enjoy cooking and baking, but it's even better when my friends enjoy it too!

Cruisin' for Turkey Day

I'm a little behind on blogging, please forgive me! I have a hard time keeping up.
Over Thanksgiving, Cory and I were lucky enough to go on a cruise with my parents and my sister and her husband. A few years ago, my parents had the idea that instead of exchanging presents for the holidays and birthdays, we should take a trip together each year instead. We all easily agreed, as time together is hard to come by these days, especially with me and Cory living so far away. Well this is the first year we made it happen, and we all met up in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, on Thanksgiving Day! We cruised with Royal Caribbean, on the Navigator of the Seas, which was a huge, beautiful ship. It was a great time - we had lots of sunshine, lots of good food, and most importantly, lots of good drinks. I mean, most importantly, lots of quality time with my family! Thursday and Friday we were at sea, and the ladies sunned on the top deck of the ship with several pina coladas, while the fellas headed to the Casino. Saturday we were in Cozumel, where we did a jungle hike excursion and got to see some Mayan ruins. They were really, well, ruined, but our tour guide was awesome, and it was really neat. Sunday was pretty much a repeat of Friday. It was a great little vacation!

Our Little Sholl-Devil

Get it? Sholl-devil; she-devil? I'm so clever.

Cosmo has been a bad girl lately. She's been eating our blinds :( We don't know what started it, but we haven't enjoyed it. Here's a picture of her handi-work.

But ya know what? We still love her. Cuz right now she's playing with three of her toys at the same time and it's the best thing ever in life. And cuz just look at this face:

How could you not forgive that? Honestly, I don't know how she lives with her own cuteness sometimes. I just don't.