The Mathers
Sunday, November 27, 2005
Saturday, November 26, 2005
Quick as lightning
Tom ran in the Northern Central Railroad Trail Marathon (that's a mouthful to say) today and did A-MAZING!!!! He finished in 3:13 (3 hours, 13 minutes-constantly running, that's nuts!) which was 11 minutes faster than his next best marathon time just a month ago at Marine Corps. He was really happy with his time and the whole run and is already talking about the next one. We celebrated in style with Pizza Hut and then drove back home. He's now soaking in the tub and just drained a blood blister-which he's proud of as well! He is getting so very fast. I'll put pictures up later when I can!
Friday, November 25, 2005
Mall madness!
Well, I did it. I don't know what came over me, but I went day-after-Thanks giving shopping today. What a mistake! People are CRAZY for sales, parking was manic, and the lines were massive. BUT, I did get some really good deals, especially new flannel sheets and duvet cover(pictured) that I've really been wanting (60% off!! sale). Christmas presents are really, really done now, so I'm happy about that as well. Oh, and we went tonight and got the whole Harry Potter series at Target for only $18.00-unbelieveable! So we're all geared up for Tom's marathon in the morning...projected temp of 27 degrees-brrrrr!
Thursday, November 24, 2005
Thanksgiving Day
We had a fun Thanksgiving Day together and ate lots of food. Tom got roast potatoes rather than mashed (he says they're rubbish) and we had turkey courtesy of Rachel Ray's recipe, then ended it all with Abby's great pies! We somehow manged, without much convincing, to get Dennis out in the cold to go on a walk at Huntley meadows. As it's now in the freezing temperatures, it was pretty cold, but a nice way to walk off some dinner...or make room for more! It's so nice having Dennis and Abby here-who would've thought we'd all end up in DC??!!
Wednesday, November 23, 2005
SNOW!!!
We got our first beautiful, lovely, white, heavy snow tonight! Tom and I had a long dinner at Montana Grill and went on to see the new Harry Potter. As we walked out of the cinema we were very excited to find a blanket of white snow (light nonetheless) on the sidewalk. We celebrated with a little jog, more to work off the apple crisp from dinner and to enjoy the snow than anything else. Well, Happy Thanksgiving to you all...hope it stays a white one for us. P.S. Harry Potter was fantastic, I think my favorite one, although I don't think kids should go as it might be a bit too much for them. Oh yah, the cats are quite intrigued by the snow too, it's their first that they were allowed to play in.
Tuesday, November 22, 2005
Updates
So it's been a busy few weeks. Tom has been working hard to finish up this semester, he stayed up until 4 am the other day to finish a paper, but just a few more weeks and he's there!
We're both excited that we get to go 'Home for the Holidays'. We'll be in Oregon from Dec 20 until Dec 26...just time enough to see everyone and celebrate Christmas. We'll head back to DC for a few days, then take off to England from Dec 30 until Jan 8th. It'll be nice to not only see Tom's family, but have a look around at our new 'home'. We're planning to spend a day in Watford, where we'll most likely be living, and look around at the area. We're both definitely looking forward to a break and seeing our families. It's hard being so far away, but thankfully they're just a plane-ride away!
We've managed also to finish our Christmas shopping which is a relief. Tom actually spent a whole day shopping with me, including a trip to Michael's craft store and the mall (with a stop for a root beer float and another for a hot dog). He did it mostly with a 'happy heart' and it was nice to not do it all alone!
I saw my first Christmas lights of the season tonight on the way home, along with the cold weather that blew in, it all feel quite Christmas-y now. Just a few more weeks and we'll be on our way! We'll be going to the National Cathedral on the 4th of December for Handel's Messiah, a youth choir that is meant to be great. That'll definitely put us in the spirit!
Colin and Basil are mostly sorted now for the big move. They understand and absolutely hate their crate now, which left me in tears last vet visit as I wrestled and chased Basil for 20 minutes and finally got him in...only to have Colin escape! Oh well, only 1-2 more trips to the vet and we will be on our way.
So our apts have sold-out to a new company and have turned into condos-so basically we have the option to buy if we want. So we went to just get the info about it, not really thinking we would buy it, but can you believe that they want to charge $410,000 for our 2 bed/2 bath apt!!!! We are absolutely shocked and cannot believe that people are actually willing to spend that much. Good grief, how would a young family ever get started here? Well, I guess we don't have to worry about that, but almost 1/2 milllion dollars for an apt??!!
Thanksgiving will be at our place this year with Dennis and Abby and Colin and Basil. I'm using Rachel Ray's turkey breast recipe, so hopefully it'll work out. Tom has decided he needs to do another marathon, so Saturday at 9:30 he'll start yet another one, called the North Central Trail Marathon. We're going to head up and stay the night on Friday and thankfully it's a later-in-the-morning start to the race, so definitely liking that! On the other hand, I'll be competing in a big time 5K with my friend Pamela's daughter, Sebastian. It's with a young girl's running club and I'll be Sebastian's 'Buddy' runner, but am honestly worried that she'll beat me! I know, it's no marathon, but it'll still be fun.
So that's our latest update, lots going on, lots to finish up before the end of semester, and loads of plans to make for the future!
Happy Thanksgiving to everyone.
Sunday, November 06, 2005
Weekend in Phoenix
I had such a fun long weekend! I stayed with Julie and Dan and their new baby Lucas...well, he's two months old now, but new to me! We visited Ajo Al's and met up with April and James which was nice to see old faces! We went to dinner and Julie's parents house which is always fantastic! Then we went to Mike and Rachel (Quezada now Sands) wedding on Saturday which was beautiful. I saw some friends from nursing school and got to catch up on the last two years...hard to believe we've been done that long! It was so much fun seeing everyone and especially cuddling Lucas, rocking him to sleep, and just being there with everyone; the only problem was that it went all too fast! Looking forward to the next trip!