Happy Birthday Bestie.

Saturday was Laura's birthday.  After work we went to dinner with the birthday girl and some of our friends from church at Arkansas Burger Company.  Following dinner, we took the party to the Gunnels' house for Dance Central on the X-Box.  I only danced one time, but I had a ball watching everyone else show off their moves. 

Laura loves owls, so our friend Jessica made her this adorable owl cake.  Laura is also the "Martha Stewart of North Little Rock", so I gave her an owl flower pot filled with all the spring gardening essentials.

 

Laura has now joined me in being closer to 30 than 20.  I'm so thankful for friends and fun memories.  Hope your birthday was a happy one Laura. We love you!

A Wonderful Weekend!

This weekend has been great! I got to spend time with two of my favorite OBU friends, Laura and Tate (although not at the same time). Friday night I went over to Laura and Caleb's house, and Laura and I cooked dinner. We made Mexican for dinner. Then for dessert we made a cheesecake! It all turned out wonderful, we were so proud. We intended to share and copy recipes from each other, but we were having so much fun just relaxing, that we never got around to that.

Saturday after work, Tate came in town! We met up and had dinner at Flying Burrito in the River Market. After dinner, we headed over to the Taylor Swift concert! She put on an amazing show! Tate spent the night and we got Cinnamon rolls from McDonald's like we use to do in college. I miss those days, and that girl so much!

Today I went to church with my mom. Gary and I started visiting New Life church. We love it. I feel like we have found the place God wants us to be. Gary was in Dallas for the weekend visiting his friends for Stephen's Bachelor party weekend and Dad was at his last day of Real Estate school, so mom came to visit too. If you are looking for a church home, I would encourage you to check them out. God is doing some really great things. Tonight we went back for their fall women's event. Priscilla Shirer was the speaker. She is awesome! She spoke on Ephesians 3:20-21 and how we serve a God who can do so much more than we can imagine. I left feeling so encouraged.

Today I ran 5 miles. Well, I say ran... I walked a lot. Gary and I have been running after the sun goes down, when the temps are in the 70s. Today I attempted to run mid afternoon, and it was hot. 91 to be exact. The heat killed me! I was feeling discouraged, but I did manage to finish in right at an hour. Only 5 minutes past my goal of finishing in 55 minutes. I won't be attempting my long runs mid afternoon anymore.

Tomorrow is a big day for me... deep breath.

Running My Little Tail Off!

So much for trying to update my blog more often huh? Well, here's an update...

After registering to run the St. Jude's Memphis half marathon, I have finally gotten serious about my training. I went and bought a Nike+ to run with, and that has really helped. It clips on my shoe, and the other part plugs into my iPod. While I run it tells me how far I have gone, and what my time is. I have been running 4 days a week, and strength training on the other days. I also purchased a new pair of running shoes at the Easy Runner store. I am up to 3 miles in about 34 minutes. I would like to shave off about 4 minutes, so I can run my next 5k in 30 minutes. I am registered to run the Easter Seals Walk With Me 5k on Sept. 12th. If you would like to support me in my run and help the children at Easter Seals who are living with disabilities you can donate on my Easter Seals webpage.

In other news, Laura started at the salon this week. She is doing a great job and providing me a lot of help keeping the salon clean, answering phones, and making appointments. I feel so lucky to have her and Kate as my co-workers. I can already tell she will fit right in!

After several weekends of digging up monkey grass and dead bushes on our flower beds, Gary and several other guys got started tilling our yard and laying sod yesterday. They worked from 7am till 8pm! 4 pallets of sod, 2 tillers, and 2 boxes of pizza later, it looks amazing! Today we got supplies for the flower beds, and got 2 of the 3 planted. We are almost done, come tomorrow evening, everything will be finished! All their hard work has paid off, it makes our home look so nice. I am so proud of all the weeks of hard work he put in to finishing this project. Maybe I will have some good before and after pictures to post soon!

Today we enjoyed the new setup at the salon. It still feels a little weird, but I think it is going to be more functional.

Tonight after work I went to the beauty school and let Laura practice on me. She waxed my brows, trimmed my hair and gave me a conditioning treatment. It was nice to be in the hair for once. She did a fantastic job!

We watched Idol at my parents house tonight with my mom. (My dad is in China for the next 2 weeks.) Kris had another stellar night! He is doing Arkansas proud. We are still ready to see Lil go home, and hopefully Anoop.

Packed and ready!

BUSY day at work today. Afterwards I went to the beauty school and had Laura practice her facials on me. She did a wonderful job. I am so looking forward to working together!

Jessica is in town. Tonight the fam went to dinner at Riverfront Steakhouse for her birthday. They have the best steak I have ever had! Following dinner the extended family came over to my parents house for cake.

After the big birthday bash, I cut John Allen's hair in a Mohawk for the ski trip (the picture is not the finished product). Dad was not happy...

I did 3 loads of laundry today. We are all set to leave for Colorado tomorrow!