Lots and lots going on!

Yikes...it has been forever since I blogged. Here are some highlights...

USA Space City 10-Miler - I finished this 10-mile race in 1:41:43, which is just over a 10:10 pace. My goal for the half-marathon in January is to finish at a 10:00 pace, so this is promising! Now I get to work on speed for the rest of the year...yay!

Ruston visit - I got to go back to Lousiana Tech for my annual recruiting trip. This year was, thankfully, uneventful. Last year, a member of our team (the only other girl) was killed in a car wreck on the way there, so I was a little apprehensive about my drive this year. But, I survived it. We saw some good candidates. I love Ruston so much. It's so small and quaint and beautiful. As requested by Michelle, here are a couple of pictures...

Alexandria visit - After my trip to Ruston, I headed to Alex for the weekend. I met my Dad for lunch on Friday, and we wandered around all afternoon. Friday night, I went to a wedding with Missy. This was, without a doubt, the oddest wedding I've ever been to. And I've been to weddings in New Orleans!! This was in a little town about 45 minutes from Alex, for a girl that Missy works with. Here are the high (or low) lights: the priest sang along to the solos into his microphone, the couple's dog made an appearance dressed in a bride's costume, all children were out of control, and the soloist was dressed like a scary vampire with lots of black eyeliner (I gasped when she turned our way). We had to leave because we were laughing too hard! Saturday morning, I got to see Mia "play" soccer. I use quotes because this is a very loose soccer game during which the children run on and off the field at will. Mia was pouty, but still beautiful! We celebrated Mom's birthday that day for lunch, then all went our separate ways. I got to go see Missy's new house on the way out of town.

Rachel's Birthday - Her birthday was September 17th, but our prayer group just now is getting together. We had a delicious dinner complete with a free piece of cake and serenade in Italian by the waiters...much fun! Rachel enjoyed it, I think.

Heather's New House - Heather and David finally closed on their ginormous new house. I got to go over and help paint the garage floor, including sprinkling it with paint sprinkly things...so much fun!

More running - I ran an 8-miler this Saturday. It was slow, but I finished. The weather was gorgeous...it was only 70 when I finished the run at 8:30!

Perfect day - This past Saturday (after my run), Maradee and I headed downtown to the Houston Museum of Natural Science. I have always loved this museum. This past weekend, we went to see the Shanghai exhibit that is a special exhibit there right now. It was really cool. There were pieces there from 8,000 BC...that is 10,000 years ago. How are they still held together? It baffles my mind! After the museum, we went to Pappadeaux because I had a gift certificate (thanks, ExxonMobil!). We sat outside and enjoyed the wonderful weather. Then, I went to get a pedicure...I'm so spoiled...then went home to get ready for our...

Halloween party - My roommates and I hosted a Halloween costume party. It was supposed to be a backyard bash, but it was too chilly. Although it got warm in the house. Anyway, this was by far the best party we've ever hosted (and we host a lot of them!). At one point, you couldn't really walk through either of our living rooms or the kitchen because it was so crowded with people talking...I love it!! There was quite a diverse crowd there, which is normal because Jill, Michelle, and I have a lot of different friends. It was so fun and everyone dressed up and looked great and had a good time. The last guest left around 1:30...did I mention that it was so much fun? I'm just attaching a couple of my favorite pics. Enjoy!

New Babies, Greek Food, LSU Football, and Wings Over Houston

On Thursday night, I got to meet little Miss Madelyn Avery. She is the daughter of one of my oldest and dearest friends, Shanna. Despite not letting anyone else get any rest, Madelyn seems to be getting HER beauty rest because she is beautiful. Here are a couple pics. Apparently, she always sleeps with her arms straight out to the side. So cute! Also, two people I work with had babies last week and one other co-worker is due this Tuesday...it's an epidemic!

My weekend was fantastic. A group of us ate dinner at Taco C, then came back to my house with the intention of watching a movie. Instead, we watched three episodes of What Not to Wear. The lone male of the group left during episode 2 (sorry, Jim!). Saturday, I set my alarm for 6am with grand plans of running the Race for the Cure. However, it was storming outside and I happily snuggled back into bed. I got 2 extra hours of sleep and boy did I need them!

Maradee picked me up mid-morning and we headed downtown to the Greek Fest. This is the second year we've gone. Last year, we got there late and there weren't any festivities...just a bunch of people and food. We enjoyed the food and ended up hanging out with some of her friends, but didn't get to soak up the full festival experience. So, this year we went early in the day...very early, apparently. There weren't many people there at all, which we enjoyed. We got the same food as last year (funny, huh?) and enjoyed the festival atmosphere by shopping and watching a Greek dance exhibition. The kids from the local school did lots of different Greek dances and they were great. We both liked these dances because it seems like you don't have to be very good or precise at them and everybody just kind of goes with the flow. Neither of us are headed for Dancing with the Stars!

We left Greek Fest with the intention of going to Wings Over Houston, which we had already bought tickets for. Only it was raining when we got back to Clear Lake. So, we headed to my house...no need to stand in the rain and stare at nothing (no planes flying in the rain, you know). We were watching football when we heard the planes over my house. The rain had stopped, so we ended up walking to a local park to watch (OK, I made us turn off before the park, so we were actually on a dead-end street along with about 30 other people). We talked to this nice man who had been in the Air Force during the Korean War, so he knew lots about planes and told us all about the formations. We had a great view of the feature flying act, The Canadian Snowbirds. They were very cool and I tried my best to take pics of them. Between the glaring sun and their speed, I got a lot of pictures of the pretty blue sky. I did manage a couple with planes actually in the picture. The funniest part of this adventure is that the cotton candy man and the ice cream truck came to our street, just like we were paying customers at the actual air show. We were hot, so we bought treats from the ice cream truck. So funny!

LSU played last night, so Maradee hung out and we watched the game. We were both very tense the whole game, but in the end they won...whew! Geaux Tigers! AND USC LOST!!!!! Yay!!!!!

Today, I actually made it to the airshow (wanted to use those tickets I'd already paid for!). It was even cooler than yesterday's vantage point. There were lots of cool planes on display, including one that was trapped under a glacier in Greenland for 50 years and one of the Hurricane Hunter planes and 2 NASA planes...so neat! However, my camera batteries were dead, so I didn't get any pictures : ( . But I did have fun! The rain came again, so the Snowbirds were cut short, but it was still a great show. They had a truck race a plane...this truck has 3 or 5 jet engines on the back of it and kind of scared me. Everybody in the crowd really liked that part, but I was more fascinated by the airshow itself. And all of this was 2 miles from my house...I love living here!

Oh yeah, I ran 9 miles this morning...yay me!