#81 - Donate blood (7/9)

What a great way to contribute during the holidays, by donating blood and saving a life!  Not to mention Amy's icecream will now give me a free pint.  :-)

#15 - Cook home meal(s) (76/143)

I made green chili mac 'n cheese casserole last night for dinner.  Accompanied with ground beef to mix in the mac n cheese, mediterranean salad and garlic bread (Malek made the bread).  Excellent flavor!  Barely anything left over.

Signing Book finished!

Today I ordered our signing book for the wedding.  It contains many of our wonderful engagement pictures taken by Randy Tinney.  We left enough space on most of the pages for our wedding guests to sign.  Ah the memories.  Can't wait to see the book, it will arrive by Christmas!  :-)

Our Signing Book

Woohoo, this also contributes to #39 - make a photobook!

Eventful weekend

Friday we stayed in and relaxed and caught up on some DVR'd shows.  Malek wrapped the White Elephant gifts.

Saturday we drove over to Malek's dad's house to set up his Christmas tree.  Currently Al is in China and doesn't return until the 20th.  Sara and Dana brought us all Torchy's Taco's for lunch. Yummy!  After a couple hours there we came back home and I worked on our photo album while the kids played Wii.  Malek took Emma to her girl scouts parade in Pf at 5:30pm and then around 8pm we were heading out to the Cox's White Elephant Party.  It was a great night with lots of 'stolen' gifts.  We all wore our holiday finest, I love dressing up.  :-)  I was very sad that I couldn't steal back the white elephant that I brought as a gift.  It was super cute!

  

  

Sunday we slept in since we didn't get home till 2am.  Then we gathered up the kids and headed downtown to climb Mt. Bonnell (#85).  And by climb I really mean walk up 99 steps, which was much quicker than we thought it would be.  It was a beautiful day to be out and about.  The weather actually got up to the high 60's with nice, clear, sunny skies.  Mt Bonnell was beautiful and we spent about an hour there.  Then we headed to Crescent City Beignets (#90).....or what was left of it.  I'm sad to report that it actually closed back in 2008.  I was so bummed, can't believe I missed it.  So instead we decided to find the 'Greetings from  Austin' sign.  I had to call Monica for directions, but we eventually found it.  By this time it was 2pm and everyone was starving so we ate lunch at Huts Hamburgers and then head home.  We did stop by HEB to do some grocery shopping on the way home (we were sadly out of everything!).  Then it was back to work on the photo album followed by a late evening volleyball game.  I couldn't wait to hit the sack, man was I exhausted.

  

  

The Holidays are upon us!

Wow how time flies.  It's December and just keeps getting busier and busier.

• Boot Camp is in full swing, we had our 4th class today.  The coldest morning yet (32 degrees or so)!


• All my xmas gifts are wrapped and under the tree.  Go me!


• My work Holiday offsite was yesterday (Wed), we had a wonderful lunch at Fogo de Chão (#65) and a white elephant gift exchange.  Man was I stuffed after sampling all the meats.


• Tonight I'm heading to Renee's Shop, Sip & Share, to help local women going through breast cancer treatment.


• Malek and I are currently going through all our engagement photos, trying to narrow them down to 25 or so to create a photo book (#39) before the end of the month (free if we get it done before Dec 31st).


• Saturday we are going to Malek's dad's house to put up a Christmas tree, then Emma has a Girl Scouts parade followed by Jenn's White Elephant party that evening.


• Sunday the plans are to climb Mt. Bonnell #85, enjoy a beignet #90 and possibly hit up the Trail of Lights.

#40 - read more

Finished book 9 of the TrueBlood series.  Found out there's a book 10, sigh, never done.

Next up is Eclipse!

Engagement pictures are ready!

Our engagement photos are now posted on Randy's website.  Check them out!

Randy Tinney Photography

Click on Recent Weddings --> Christina & Jonathan - Engagement

This will take you to Randy's Photos page.  We are listed under Recent Photos:  Christina & Jonathan Engagement 11/29/09

Boot Camp has begun!

This morning was the first day of boot camp and it was invigorating!  Malek and I woke up at 5am to get ready and were out of the house by 5:30am.  We had gone shopping the night before and bought new warmer workout gear for the event so we were prepared for the 44 degrees weather.  We arrived right ontime, 6am, and found our group.  Since most people were still on vacation and only 5 of us showed up, we did a 30 min workout instead of a full hour. 

We started with 15 (3 count) jumping jacks, then 2 laps around the soccer field, followed by lunges up a hill!  Then we did 2 sets, 15 reps each of pushups, tricep dips and step-ups....then back to more lunges up the hill and ended with 15 more jumping jacks.  My arms were killing me after all the pushups and tricep dips.  I can already tell I'm going to be sore. My upper body is definitely my weak link. I really enjoyed the workout this morning and I'm looking forward to more!  Since I was so close to work I brought all my stuff with me to get ready at the Dell gym.  I also did 100 crunches at the gym before my shower. 

Next session is Thursday morning!  Bring it!

This will help with #44 and #45.  Not to mention get me in shape before the wedding. :-)

Busy Thanksgiving!

Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Tuesday morning Malek and I flew up to MI, we arrived around 1:30pm and went straight from the airport to a bridal consignment shop.  Poor Malek, he made do by finding a bar down the street while I tried on dresses with my mom.  :-)  For dinner we went to an celtic pub where we enjoyed a large pizza and pitcher of beer for only $10!
Wednesday morning I put in a quick 1 mile run.  Then my mom and I went back out to two more consignment shops.  And yes I found a dress and I LOVE it!  Super excited.  :-D  We finally made it back home around 4pm and started making pies and other food for Thanksgiving (#15 - cooking!).  Stephen and Christina showed up around 7pm, just in time for dinner.  I finally gave everyone their Alaskan gifts that I had brought back from my trip in July...yes yes a little late on my part.  Malek and I also gave our xmas gifts to Steve and lil'C since we won't see them at xmas this year.  Afterwards we played some cards and relaxed.
Thursday - Happy Thanksgiving!  This day was filled with cooking, eating, napping and football.
Friday morning mom, lil'C and I all went to David's Bridal to try on dresses.  I'm a bridesmaid for my brothers wedding and was determined to get all the dresses out of the way by the end of this trip.  :-)  So glad I found a dress, now just need to order it here at the Austin store.  We made it home for a late lunch before heading back out to the airport for our 5pm flight home.
Saturday was a very busy day.  We started the morning off with a 5k around the neighborhood.  Then Malek and I went to Home Depot to buy xmas lights and various other household items we needed.  Then we stopped at HEB for some groceries and our storage unit for a mattress.  Once we got home the Christmas decorating commenced!  Malek worked on the outside lights while I set up the tree and decorated inside, even got out the xmas dishes!  This completes # 9 - xmas lights for the house!  By 4pm we were exhausted and had to rest before getting ready for Karen's bday celebration.  For Karen's bday we dined at Z'Tejas downtown then hit up Max's Wine Bar.  After several glasses of wine we headed to Maggie Mae's rooftop bar and danced until 2am!  I think we finally made it to bed around 2:30am.
Sunday was a late start.  I was up around 9am but Malek didn't move until 10am (late for him).  We had lunch at Pluckers and then went to see 2012.  I liked it.  When we got home we finished up the decorations and caught up on a few DVR'd shows.  Then it was off to see New Moon with Amanda and Jenn.  I thought it was much better than Twilight and Taylor (the werewolf) was totally buff and made us girls drool!

What a great week/end!

I also finished reading 1.5 books (Sookie Stackhouse/Trueblood series) on the trip (#40)
The Christmas cards I ordered arrived in the mail as well!  Planning on mailing those out this week (#99)