Day 1

Hello everyone! I decided to take the plunge and join facebook and I have not been doing my blog but big news....We are at day one of the USA National Track and Field Championships!!! I am so excited....First timer! We will be at Hayward Field all day today....we are in Eugene, Or. More posts and stories to come.

Lifetime Accomplishment

Last Wednesday I threw the shot put and had a lifetime personal best of 38 feet 7 inches. My previous PR was 36'7" set back in 2007. I can't tell you how excited I was. Every Wednesday, the club that I run for hosts a track meet. I threw jav and obviously shot. I am planning to compete in New York for our Club Nationals in July where I will be running the 100m H and 200m, throwing the shot put, javelin and high jumping. I am trying to qualify this Saturday in the 200m and hoping to continue to better my shot. Hope all goes well. I wish Raul was going to be there but he is at NCAA Nationals with the University of Washington making a huge presence as a Husky! Good Job Raul, you have had a great season and it really isn't over yet!!! USA's baby!

Tune in for Saturday updates!

My Project

I have been itching to paint my plain Jane kitchen. The kitchen/house is a remake of 1970's Brady Bunch. With wood paneling and linoleum flooring you are almost taken back in time when peace signs, cannabis and orange shag carpet were the talk of the town. I did a lot of research on what I wanted to do in the kitchen. Update the hardware, paint the cabinets and bring life back to the white washed walls. So I spent all Memorial day weekend PAINTING!!!!! Dark colors do not take as well as lighter paints so I had to put on a few coats for the cabinets. But wait until you see the difference.


Yuck!



This is me cleaning the walls. I think one night Raul and the spaghetti sauce got in a fight and I had missed some remains from the sauce. Gross!





So excited to get rid of the white.



I love you painted Kitchen!

And look who I found taking a break in the bedroom!!!!

This project was lots of work but I am so happy with the result.

I'm In!

Hey ya'll! Just wanted to let you know that I am officially a student again. I am registered, "back to school....got my shoes tied tight....hope I don't get in a fight!"

I am taking Anatomy and refreshing on a Nutrition class.....Homework, tests....here I come!

HGTV Seattle Style

When the weather is nice in Seattle, people come from out of nowhere. It is like a holiday b/c we are so sun deprived. Raul and I had this great idea to build a seating area for our back patio. We also wanted to dress up the backyard a bit with some bigger bushes. So hope you enjoy some of our HOME improvements.

Me, digging a trench for the lattice. Notice I still have my sweatshirt on....Its May!

Ah....so pretty and clean. In the corner we planted a honeysuckle vine that is doing really well and the purple plant is a salvia. She is cute!

About the first of May we went to a plant sale and got a strawberry plant(Sally) and a tomato plant (Tommy). We were keeping them safe and warm until we could figure out what we wanted to do with them. Raul suggested planting Tommy upside down. Doesn't he look healthy?

All the blood is rushing to his head.

Backyard before Raul went to work on it.

Preparing the planter box.

Planting some flowers.

So close!

Instead of helping, Wilson decided he was going to sit in the car and watch out the front window. I came back twenty minutes later only to find him snoozing.

Obviously our biggest helper....Suggie.


Masterpiece! Great job Raul. We have a few more finishing touches but I would say we are about 75% complete.

Three weeks due

Gosh, it has been three weeks since I last posted....where has the time gone? We have had lots of adventures since.

(April 26th) It was a nice Sunday afternoon and Raul and I wanted to go buy a lawn mower and get some Mexican food. As we are traveling through Seattle laughing and enjoying each other's company the Avalanche starts acting up and dies in the middle of the road...on a HILL! Keep in mind the we lose power steering and power breaks...on a HILL, with Traffic. Some how Raul maneuvers the truck to almost fit on the side of the road out of the way. We start trouble shooting the situation and all of our options. After four hours, hungry tummies and a new oil filter, the truck still doesn't start. We called Will to see if he could help. Luckily him and his wife have AAA. So they came and picked us up and took us to the house for further investigation of the broken truck. During those four hours I did a lot of car watching...which is even more fun than just people watching b/c you have both....but I kept thinking, as all these junker cars drove by, "Why are these cars making it up the hill and ours wont even start?"...sigh....belly rumbling. So that Sunday was fun! NOT.


Two days later Raul, Reedus and Will got the truck back in ship top shape. The fuel pump had gone out. Raul and Will were amazing, along with their super electric sarcasm, they had that truck revived in two hours. To contribute, I made dinner and muffins.


(Saturday 5/2) The following weekend, I had my first Junior High Track meet. For those who don't know, I coach at Seattle Country Day School....a school for super smart kids...GIFTED as they like to call themselves. I have about 12 kids on the team and they are tonz of fun. Anyway, of course the weather was typical Sea-Town, Rainy! But my kids were troopers. The meet was pretty big, there were over 600 kids that participated in the meet...from grades 4th-8th. Lots of munchkins running around. The concession stand was a huge line for the entire meet. I guess sugar keeps the little people going.

(Sunday 5/3) We went to the Vault/Multi coach's house and played beach volleyball in his back yard. Now when I pictured Pat's house I thought a little net, in the grass by the BBQ with the net doubling as a badminton net. Boy was I wrong. This was the King of King's court. They had sand brought over from the OR coast, tons of AVP balls, a super awesome net and it was surrounded by a batting cage net so if balls flew, they didn't fly far. It was a blast! We played for about 3 hours and then roasted "Healthy" hot dogs and s'mores on the fire. I felt like I was back with the Girl Scouts.


(Sometime in the last two weeks) I decided that I was going to do something nice and surprise Raul by mowing the lawn. I walked over to my neighbors house and borrowed his mower well it was super low on gas. I went and got a gallon of gas and started filling it up...only to notice that I was not putting the gas in the right hole...I was putting it into the OIL....crap! So as I frantically start running around the neighborhood like a crazy lady "Screaming, I broke Micheal's mower" my neighbors (three of them) come over to help me. We dumped the mower upside down and drained it, put new oil in it, gas in the gas tank and the mower worked like a champ and my lawn was nice and short. What an idiot. Raul was golfing so when I called and told him I'm sure he thought to himself.."How has my girlfriend made it through life this far?" I just think it builds character. Lots of it! So....that was fun! NOT.


And yesterday I had my first track meet....for those who don't know, I am competing again. I ran hurdles and did high jump. It was a great day. The sun was shinning, I made it through ten hurdles (I was really nervous about that, its been two years) and I cleared 5'1" and had great jumps at 5'3" from a short approach. Plus I got a bunch of new gear from Club Northwest (the team that I am on) and sported it at the meet. My next meet is going to be May 27th....that is the start of the 47th annual All-Comers Meets.


I was waiting to post some pictures with this but I have to get it up...sorry. Just use your imagination.

Bangs and Cutting the Habit

Bangs:
Do you remember Ben Stiller's Heartbreak Kid? One of my favorite parts on the movie is when Mac (the wife controlled "cool" best friend) talks about why he grew out the "bangs." Now that I am working, I have to go downtown for one of my jobs and I do a lot of people watching while I am sitting in traffic. The one thing that I have noticed on white middle aged men are bangs like Mac's. What is that about? It is like the lone island up there with lots of breathing room. So keep your eye out for those Bald Bangs. It is my new favorite thing to look for.

Cutting the Habit:
For those of you who don't know, I love coffee and flavored creamer. When we go to Idaho we always have a nice supply. I usually have about two- three cups of coffee every morning. About a month ago, Raul gave up drinking coffee every day because of the negative health benefits and his back just wasn't feeling too good but I persevered and kept on drinking pretty much for the both of us. This was actually not helping me out. I would drink six cups or so during the morning and if I skipped a day, I would go through some pretty nasty with drawls...headaches mostly. So for the past two weeks, I have been on mostly coffee. I bought some vanilla chai tea and I have been drinking that every morning. We did this last summer and it worked out pretty well. We usually try to cut back when it warms up. I did cheat last weekend when we went out for breakfast, but we had company so it was ok. It was like a special treat along with the very unhealthy breakfast to go along with it. I have to be at work at 6:30 so it is super convenient to pop some water in the microwave and tea it up with a touch of skim milk and a tsp of sugar...just to get me going. There is no caffeine in the tea so I need some kind of jolt. I can honestly say, I feel better and have no problem getting up at 5 to go to work. Thanks Raul for being my motivation.