Thunderclouds Turkey Trot

On Thanksgiving Day, hubby and I volunteered at the 19th Annual Thunderclouds Turkey Trot. It was a really early morning, we got there at 6:20am, and lasted until around 1pm. Although we were exhausted when we finished, we had a really good time. We helped with setting up the volunteer booth, hubby helped hang banners since he is so tall, we made sure the port-a-potties had plenty of toilet paper, handed out water, helped crowd control at the start/finish lines, and helped clean up. They were expecting about 10,000 runners this year, but ended up having well over 14,000 attend. It was a lot of fun and we will definitely volunteer to help again. This picture is from the start/finish line before well before the crowd arrived.

Mentally Beaten

Do you ever have those days where you are just mentally beaten? Even more than exhausted, you are simply beaten to the point of feeling battered almost. I am having one of those days. I just feel mentally done. No emotion, no thinking - just done.

Happy Thanksgiving

I want to wish everyone a very Happy Thanksgiving. Although there are times when my life seems more difficult than I would like, I truly do have a lot to be thankful for..... a great husband, a house, a good job, and of course my friends and family.

Learning Spanish

My husband is fluent in Spanish, but I can't seem to remember it to save my life (at least not the words that are useful in every day life). Since I am a very visual person, hubby came up with a fantastic way for me to learn Spanish. He has put sticky notes all around the house on everyday items with a word in English, the Spanish version and the the pronunciation. I think I might have a chance of learning Spanish now!

NCIS and Bones

While finally getting around to watching the latest episode of Bones, I realized that Seely Booth on Bones and Jethro Gibbs on NCIS must be related (in tv life, not real life). Here is how I came to that conclusion.... The man who plays the father to Jethro Gibbs (who also played John Walton by the way), is the same person who plays the grandfather to Seely Booth. That would mean that Gibbs would be Booth's uncle.

Nash

Every morning when I am getting ready for work, Nash comes up and scratches the back of my leg so I will pick him up and hold him. Of course I pick up him and hold him for a couple of minutes. I am thinking that he must just love me so much that he wants me to love on him a little each day. He is thinking...... "Look at the handsome little doggie in the mirror." This whole time, he has been snuggling me and crawling up on my shoulder to get a glimpse of himself in the mirror!

Temperature Change

The temperature has finally dropped down to something other than shorts and t-shirt weather. I am so happy. Yesterday and today the highs are in the 60's and the lows in the 40's. I even had frost on the windows yesterday. I know it won't last, but I am liking it while it is here.

Time to Pick Peppers

Today was the day to pick peppers again. We got 14 bell peppers and 2 finger peppers. We still have tons more in various stages of readiness. These pepper plants are amazing. They are very sturdy and take little care. We did notice today that it looked like an animal of some kind had also helped themselves to a few peppers.

Project Completed

I finished one of my two projects that is due for school. I had to complete a workbook about me and my leadership style and abilities. It had to be bound and is due on Tuesday. Now I just need to complete my self-running PowerPoint presentation with audio on..... wait for it..... me. The preliminary is due on 12/1 and the final is due on 12/8.

Suicide

I found out yesterday that a family member committed suicide. It was a cousin that I hadn't kept in contact with and honestly hadn't seen her since I was a kid. I kept up with what was going on in her life through my mother. I knew her life had not been the easiest, but from what I had last heard, things were okay. She was married and had 2 great kids. Then yesterday, I got a call from my mom that she had taken her own life. I simply don't understand what drives a person to such deep despair that they feel like the only way out is death. This is something that I have always struggled with and would honestly like to understand. My cousin left behind two children (both under age 10) who will now have to live with the trauma of losing their mother at an early age.

I know she had her issues she was dealing with, but I honestly don't understand why suicide would seem like the appropriate answer.

The Forgotten

Have you seen the new show called "The Forgotten"? It is a new series on ABC with Christian Slater about the volunteers who search to find the identities for cold cases. I think it would be so rewarding to be a volunteer in a group like that. Does anyone know if such a network truly does exist?

Irritable Mood

Today I am on edge and in an irritable mood. It is nothing in particular, just everything in general that is irritating me.

Celtic Festival

This weekend is the annual Celtic Festival at Fiesta Gardens. I have had this marked on my calendar for a couple of months now. There will be great music, cool little booths, demonstrations, mini highland games, and of course festival food. If you are in the Austin area this weekend you should come to Fiesta Gardens and check it out.

The Tomato Plant That Refuses to Die

During the summer I had a beautiful tomato plant that produced a lot of really tasty tomatoes. After it stopped producing fruit, I decided to stop watering it and let it die. I set it to the side of the porch for several weeks and watched it slowly dry up. Just about the time I was going to pull the plant out of the pot to discard it, I noticed some green spots on the plant. I was a little shocked because I had not given this plant water for weeks and it had been really hot during that time. A few days went by and I noticed more green spots, so I pointed it out to hubby. His response was "sometimes I toss the left over dogs water in that pot". Seriously? This plant came back to life with a little bit of left over dogs water? Trust me when I say little bits; my dogs rarely leave any water in the bowl.

After that I decided that if it could survive the hot Texas sun on small amount of left over dogs water from time to time, then perhaps it deserved to live after all. About that time, we started getting some rain so I still never watered the poor thing. After a few more weeks of surviving on left over dogs water and now a little rain, I noticed the plant was putting out blooms. Low and behold, over this past weekend, this little plant now has a small tomato. I cannot believe this poor neglected plant is actually producing more fruit. Clearly this plant is meant to live. Now I will have to start giving it more attention.

Gutters

Yesterday we had someone come out and give us an estimate on putting gutters on the house. We ended up going ahead and purchasing them. Every place we lived before had gutters already so we never really had to think about them. Without gutters there are already little valleys starting to form around the house where it runs off the roof. We don't have any trees tall enough to worry about leaves getting in the gutters, but it will definitely help the rain run off. We will also be able to get a rain barrel now to capture water for the plants. They are set to be installed the last week of November.