30th Birthday Fiesta

I (with lots of help from Tara, Kelli & Lill) decided to throw a surprise 30th Birthday party for Joe & his twin Jeff. I'm pretty good at keeping secrets, but unfortunately Joe and Jeff work at the same place. AND the day I wanted to throw the party happened to be the ONE day they both work together. So, when they both found out that they were both asked to get the day off, they knew something was up. Joe would say, "so, what time is the surprise birthday party at my parents?"...he is such a stinker!! The day of the party he said to me, "so, why does Tara (his twin's fiance) have chicken in the crockpot?" It just makes me laugh. He may have known we were having a birthday shindig, but he didn't know the details...  :)

I of course, love themes, and thought what better "theme", than a Mexican Fiesta! We could do a taco bar, chips & salsa, Mexican beer, pin the tail on the donkey, sombreros, and a Mexican Fiesta must: mustaches!  {the staches never seem to get old!}

The front of their Birthday invite I sent out :)

~The Birthday Boys!~

Jeff, their cousin Jim, & Joe

Joe & his older brother, Derek

~Las Senoritas!~

Baby Reegan

Joe & his Mom 

a game of cornhole...

 

Jim, Elissa, & Uncle James

 

When your 30, old man glasses are a must! hehee :)

HaPpy BiRtHdAy JoE!

Bridal Shower Invites

I don't think I have mentioned yet, but my sister is getting married this July!!! I'm so happy for her and I'm so excited to be going home in a month!

A couple of weeks ago my mom & sister-in-law threw Felicia a surprise bridal shower. I was sad because I knew I wasn't going to be able to go. It would be too expensive and too hard to get the time off work for both the shower AND the wedding a month and a half later. So, knowing I wasn't going to be able to make it home for the shower, I wanted to do something special for my sister. I would have loved to help out with decorations/planning, but when your 2000 miles away, it's a little hard to help plan a party, especially one that you can't make it to. So, I decided to design & create her some really special invites:

I even learned how to use a sewing machine!

12 Dates -May

I must say, I'm really behind on posting!  There is so much I want to share with you, but this month has been so jammed packed with events that I just haven't had an opportunity to sit down and catch up until now. So, before the month is over I thought it would be appropriate to start with our "May date".

For our anniversary in March I made Joe a book of "12 DATES". Before I explain exactly what it is, let me tell you the reason behind it. We both have pretty busy schedules. Joe more so than me. He is crazy and between his two jobs, has been known to work 100 hours a week. On a regular basis he probably works 80 hours a week. Plus he is taking a class, so the time he does have off, you'll find him studying or doing homework. Or just relaxing, which he definitely deserves! And with my schedule of working mornings at Starbucks (sometimes having to get up at 4am), I get tired pretty early (9pm). Just about the time Joe is getting home from work. So needless to say, we don't go out and do much. Which quite honestly is ok with me, it saves us money, but a girl needs some quality time with her man every now and then. So that is why I decided to create a book of "12 DATES".

I wrote down 12 fun (mostly inexpensive) things we can do together. Some things we have never done before and some things we have. I made sure they were very specific and then put them in 12 different envelopes. The instructions are very simple: we have the whole month to go on the date. To simplify things, I included a checklist to each date, and every date we must bring a camera. (To document these monthly dates of course)

The month of May:

This month, for our date I thought it would be fun to go to Manito Park. I've been to Manito, but usually in late summer/early fall. This time I wanted to go when I could visit the Lilac Garden (since Spokane is known as The Lilac City). And since the Lilac Parade is always in May, I thought it would be an appropriate month to go. 

But, with the late start of spring this year, the Lilac Gardens hadn't even started blooming yet!

And unfortunately the little hut we were going to grab ice cream at, was closed for the season until May (???).

 

So no Lilacs, and no ice cream, but we still had lots of fun together!

We are so different, yet so much alike...

Independent 

Stubborn 

Hard Working 

Funny

Caring

Genuine

Smart

We both love to do puzzles,

yet I can't do three in one day like you can.

We are both thrifty,

you more so than me.

You collect postcards,

I collect tomato pin cushions.

We both like to clean more than we like to cook.

I love spicy food,

you think pepper is hot.

We both go long periods without getting a haircut,

you much longer than me.

You haven't worn makeup in years,

I can't leave the house without mascara.

You don't like to have your picture taken,
I take my camera everywhere.

When your tired you get slap-happy,

I just get crabby.

We can both fall asleep VERY quickly.

You are always hot,

I'm always cold.

You like to turn the lights off,

I say, turn them on.

You're afraid of heights,

I love roller coasters.

You have no problem handling frogs, fish, or worms.

Me, not so much...

I don't mind catching lightening bugs :)

Your hands hurt because you're such a hard worker,

mine hurt when I craft too much!

We are both very organized.

You give the best gifts,

I make the best gifts ;)

We both love spending holidays with family.

You miss me,

I miss you just as much, if not more!

a little rain never hurt anyone...

I took some really fun pictures of our Starbucks crew the other day. And with all the rain we've been getting I thought it would be fitting to use umbrellas. I wish I knew how to really use my camera, because a lot of the (jumping) pictures turned out blurry. I tried using the sport mode, but only a couple turned out semi-focused.
Here are some of my favorites:

Bloomsday 2011

It's hard to believe to Bloomsday has come and gone already. This means our 1/2 marathon is right around the corner!

Anna & her husband Brent ("Coach B")

Brent is a stud!

~He placed 63rd out of 50,611 people!

Right before we crossed the finish line, courtesy of photographer Joe :) I didn't even see him standing there, all I heard was, "Good job girls!"

We were hoping to break an hour, but 1:05 for nearly 7.5 miles is still pretty great :) 

It ended up being such a Beautiful day!!

Hopeful thinking...

With all this rain & snow we've been having it's hard to believe spring is near, or should I say here? We did however, have a beautiful Easter weekend. It was so nice and sunny, I was outside in just jeans and a short sleeve shirt! I had to work most of the weekend, but I was able to soak up some sun with Joe as we sat out on our balcony Saturday. {We really need to get a little BBQ!} Oh how I can't wait for summer! (or spring for that matter)

My flower frog & nozzle collection :)

above: one of my favorites!

eleven

So as most of you know, I've been training for a 1/2 marathon in May. The same race I did last year. Although I was satisfied with my time, I knew if I trained harder I could beat it. I set a high goal of wanting to beat my time by eleven minutes. (weird, that's not why I titled this post eleven, but we'll get to that shortly) So yeah, eleven minutes will put me at 2 hours. Some days I think we can totally do it, and some days I just get so discouraged. I say we, meaning Anna & I. I work with Anna at Starbucks and three months ago I suckered her into running the 1/2 with me. We both wanted to start working out again, and I just happened to have a 1/2 marathon in mind. She skeptically said she would join me. And I AM SO GLAD SHE DID! I tell her everyday that I wouldn't be training so well if it weren't for her.

Let me just brag about Anna's background for a bit. She comes from a huge track family. She ran track in high school, broke records, still holds records, and went on to become a collegiate sprinter at Seattle Pacific University. Her Grandpa is a track legend here in Spokane, (you can read about Grandpa Tracy Walters here if you'd like; second article from the bottom). He now helps coach track along side Anna's Dad, who is the head track coach at North Central H.S. Anna's husband also helps coach, and last year he placed 3rd in the Spokane 1/2 Marathon with a time of 1:18! He is the one who has been putting our running schedule together. What a blessing!

And what a blessing Anna is! I LOVE running with her. We run 6 days a week and probably 5 of those together. It is so therapeutic. We talk, we gossip, we laugh, I've even cried on a run! It has been so nice to share this journey of really getting into shape with someone else. We hold each other accountable and push each other when needed. We are so competitive, that when we don't run together, there have been times that we'll txt the other our time, and it will push the other to get their butt running and try and beat the others time :) When I'm having a down day, or I'm just tired, or the weather isn't that great, along comes Anna and makes me run. I'm always telling her I wouldn't be doing this it weren't for her!

I believe I told her that just today (monday).

Today we had our eleven miler. This will be our longest run before our race. Our plan was to do part of the Bloomsday course and then some. I must say when I woke up today it was so beautiful out. The sun was shining and it made me a little excited for our run. By the time Anna picked me up at noon, it was thundering. We contemplated wearing our capris or full length pants. By the time we made a decision it was lightly snowing. (We opted for the pants) As we drove to the start of our route, it began to snow very heavily. Borderline blizzard. We looked at each other and thought, "maybe we should do this tomorrow", but we just wanted to get it done. We parked and decided to wait it our for a bit, for there was a glimpse of blue sky peeping through the clouds. Could it be? Sunshine? We have been so blessed with great weather. Even the gloomy days we've had this spring, it always seems to clear up for Tabitha & Anna to run.

So as we started our long eleven, it was beautiful! The air was crisp and the sun was shining. At one point I had made the comment that I could have even worn shorts. That was until the temperature dropped about ten degrees in a matter of ten seconds, and started snowing blizzard-ing again. And I don't think it could have been any windier! It was snowing so hard that my face was dripping wet and at times I didn't know if I were wiping off snow or snot. And let me tell you, I've never had a snowflake fall into my eye and blind me for a split second.

Trying to see as the snow dumped on us was hard enough, but now it was starting to stick, which made reading street signs almost impossible. Did we miss our street? Where were we? UGH, as if the elements we were enduring weren't enough, now we were lost. We decided to just head down a street and hopefully figure it out. We were relieved that Summit turned into Broadway...the street we were looking for this whole time. Perfect! However, just about this time all I could think about was how miserable I was. Everything about me was wet at this point, including my feet. I just wanted to quit so bad, but I knew we were quite aways away from the car (and of course I couldn't quit with Anna by my side). So, this is when I went into survival mode. I just wanted to be done. Be warm. And the only way that was going to happen was if we didn't stop and just pushed it.

And pushed it we did. I'm so proud of us! And honestly, running eleven in a blizzard was a bigger accomplishment for me than running 13. I wish you could have heard me when we were done. My face was so numb that I couldn't even smile or talk without slurring my words. We felt like studs!