Mid June

Today is my sister's 29th bday. It is also the day my mother in law is getting her gland removed. They only found cancer in that one gland so good on that. There is a major facial nerve through that gland so as long as the docs don't hit that the surgery should be no big deal. And MIL is thrilled that this will all end with her getting a face lift. So go plastic surgery.

I finally got Chris to start swimming with me. I've been trying to convince him that swim workouts are the way to go but he wasn't having it. Until now. We spent at least three hours in the pool over Saturday and Sunday. For every hour I have him swimming laps I owe him 30 minutes of pool play time. It's a good trade off that makes us both happy.

I finished the entire Twilight series in a week and capped it off with the movie last night. I really enjoyed the series even if it needed to be severely edited down. The movie was alright. I didn't like some of the parts they added and I found Bella incredibly annoying. I didn't picture Edward as Robert Pattinson but I did like how he played the part.

Also saw "The Taking of Pelham 123" and "Away We Go". "Pelham 123" was good but not worth going to the theatre for. "Away We Go" was wonderful. If you haven't heard of it this has Maya Rudolph (SNL alum) and John Krasinski (Jim Halpert from The Office) staring as a couple preparing to have a baby and looking for where they want to live. It's funny and touching. There's one scene with a little boy that just absolutely cracked me up for it's sheer shock value. Unfortunately it doesn't seem to be showing on many theaters but if you are in Dallas or Houston go see it.

Wednesday morning (bright and early)I will hop on a a Jet Blue flight to go to DC. Lindsay Hoefer will pick me up at the airport and somehow we will meet up with my college friend. Then Thursday morning college friend and I will hop on a bus and ride to NYC where we'll stay with her high school friend. I'm super excited. We're going to see "Guys and Dolls" (currently starring Oliver Platt and Lauren Graham). I'm excited. I'm looking forward to our girls trip.

Extended family

My mother in law has a tendency to share information in ways that we find strange. For example, we frequently get emails clearly written to other people that contain important information (surgeries, moving, international travel, etc.) written to her boss, or other people we don't know. We are cc'd on the email and that is the only way we are informed. Then we get the lovely conversations between these random people and her because apparently they aren't familiar with the differences between "reply" and "reply all".

Since these, frequently dramatic and over exaggerated, emails come often we tend to not pay much attention. So on Tuesday when we were cc'd on an email she wrote to her boss letting him know she would take that afternoon off to go to the doctor about some swelling on her neck we weren't concerned.

Yesterday she got diagnosed with cancer in her parotid gland. They will remove the gland sometime in the next few days and then we'll see if that's it. Worse case scenario we think is lymphoma. Best case is this is all. We'll see how it works out. Of course she is now angry at all of us for not rushing to her side but when you cry wolf people don't know when to take you seriously. Hopefully this will all be taken care of by next week and nothing more serious is happening. We'll see.

Memorial day weekend and beyond

This week has been the busiest yet at the Chao Center. We hosted our first international conference. Between flying people in from China, India, Japan, Italy and a few US colleges we had to get them transported to the hotel and, well, everywhere all week. Not to mention providing meals, getting them around campus, rushing the schedule (academics are typically not known for their punctuality - that is why they have staff run the conferences), and just generally making everything look like it is effortlessly appearing and being perfect. I drove. I purchased power cords for profs who flew from China and forgot their laptop charges. I ordered food. I complained when the food was late. I praised when the food was early. I changed flight schedules. I figured out when the bathroom break would be on our bus tour of Houston. I boiled water. I recorded conferences. I read and edited papers. I maxed out my university credit card. I worked at least 12 hours a day. But it was a success.

The weekend before this madness my parents came for a visit. We had a fun weekend full of museums, movies, musicals, and a baseball game. They arrived late Friday night. We got up early and walked around Rice. I showed my parents the Baker Institute for Public Policy and all of the neat things on display then. Didn't go to my office since it was locked up for the weekend.

Then we went to the Houston Museum of Natural Science to see Terracotta Warrior exhibit. I have been looking forward to this for months and it didn't disappoint. After leaving the museum we hit up Angels and Demons. Liked the movie, need to read the book. That night Chris went to a friends wedding. My parents and I were supposed to go see "Happy Days the Musical" but dad got sick so it turned into a girls night.





Next day we went to watch the Astros get beaten by the Rangers. The stadium is beautiful. We hadn't been before.

Chris and I revisited the stadium this past Saturday to run in the Astros Race to the Pennant 5k. I was really glad Chris was willing to do the race with me although I think the free baseball tickets were the kicker more than anything. Our time was pretty bad but we had a lot of fun. The race course was a lot of fun. They shut down part of a high way so we could run on it. On the way back to the stadium we had wonderful views of downtown. The final tenth of a mile was a run into the stadium. After that they opened some of the food venues and had a band for the post race party. We finished the day with Terminator Salvation and a nap. Good day.

1 month in pictures

Well, I have seriously slacked on this blog so here is a quick post with what's been going on this past month.

Last month I got to attend a meeting at the Baker Institute called "America and China: The Next Thirty Years". James Baker and Henry Kissinger were featured speakers and were amazing.





I ran my first 5k. My friend Cathie ran too. In the finish picture you can see that my red face matches my clothes. Cathie doesn't sweat so she still looks gorgeous.




Chris finished his first year of dental school! Three more to go!





And last night I got to meet one of my favorite authors, Jen Lancaster.



Of course more has happened but there is a quick summary. Boot camp has ended. I have started a belly dancing class. It's fun but I feel ridiculous. More later.

A conversation with myself

I find that I don't understand people who truly enjoy working out. I mean, I sort of enjoy it but overall I think I would be just as happy sitting on the couch. But I like how I feel after it's over and how I feel more comfortable in my clothes now.

But everytime I hop on the treadmill or start a boot camp class the conversation in my head is something like this:

"Hmm, this isn't so bad. I feel good today. I can do this."

fast forward about 5-10 minutes depending on how intense the workout starts out

"This has to be about halfway over. What? It's only 5 minutes. I cannot do this. I should just go home/get some food/lay down."

few minutes later...

"Well, it's really not that bad. I'll make it through, but gosh this is boring."

and then...

"Ok, I'll do X more minutes/X more distance and then I'll let myself stop."

a few minutes before my assigned distance or time...

"Hey, I'm almost done...maybe I can do a little more. This isn't terrible."

And when I'm done I feel great and am glad I did it. But I know the next day that same conversation is waiting to travel though my head.

This past Saturday I ran/walked a 5k (not a race, just the distance) to prove to myself I could. It went pretty well. I did it again yesterday. I have a nice blister on my left foot and the start of shin splints in my right leg due to a weird gait I developed trying to ease the pain of the blister. I'll take a couple days off of running to recover. I'm trying to convince myself to sign up for Rice's 5k this Saturday. I need to overcome my fear of running in public.

Next post - Henry Kissenger and James Baker at Rice.

It's been a while

I haven't updated in a while. Here's the summary -

-Chris had spring. He slept a lot. We had the mantel my parents gave us for Christmas installed (finally).
-I got sick.
-Went to three different McDonald's on St. Patrick's Day and they were ALL out of Shamrock Shakes. Completely disappointing. Yes, I could have gotten the vanilla shake, added green food coloring and peppermint extract myself, and made my own. But that is no fun. Calories saved, frown created.
-I took Wednesday off and we went to the driving range. That was fun.
-I went to Abilene this weekend. Saw a lot of family. Went to a wedding. Carpooled with Fowler.
-Am back at work; Chris is back at school.
-Am still coughing from my sickness and that is getting old after a week.
- Tomorrow I am going to see Les Miserables and am very excited!

Upromise

I have been meaning to write a little post about Upromise for a while but keep forgetting. I have been signed up with Upromise since 2002 but kind of forgot about it. I rediscovered it late in 2006. Since then we have saved more than $500. This money is transferred quarterly to my dear student loan company, Sallie Mae, to help pay down my loans.

The service is free. We have had the Upromise credit card for about a year and half and this is were the bulk of our savings has come from. (The card is in the process of switching from Citibank to Bank of America so I am not entirely sure if you can sign up for it right now.)

For those of you with kids of your own you can put Upromise funds in a 529 plan to save for your own kids college. Or pay your own student loans. Or save for your niece or nephew's college. The money can be transferred to anyone.

Upromise is a program that has been very beneficial for us and since it is free to use I encourage others to try it out for themselves.