Merry Christmas!

Yes, I have been missing in action, but I have had a lot going on that really does not involve swimming, biking, or running and I have been taking care of a sick kid. He is not letting the coughing pestilence get in his way though. He woke me up at 2 am to let me know that Santa had come and when I went downstairs at 4:45 I was shocked to see that my family room looked like a tornado had hit it. He did not wait and unwrapped all of his gifts and some of mom and dad's as well! It was kind of funny, but now I have a messy house. He only got 5 things from Santa, but when three of them are huge Lego sets it makes a colossal mess. Santa was very good and brought at trip to Disney World in March and an entry into the Princess Half Marathon for me, YAHOO!!! It is good to know that 10 and a half year-olds still believe in Santa.

I have put in my favorite Christmas TV special moment about what Christmas is really all about.

Have a wonderful time with family and friends and have a blessed day,

Coach Liz

I'm a Good Ag...

Yesterday was a fun day! The weather was sunny and rainy, but it was 77 degrees and I was able to wear a tank top. Only in Texas can you wear a tank top in December. I'm sure you would be able to do it in Key West or Arizona, but hey, I LOVE TEXAS!

I had been working hard over the weekend baking cookies. My idea of a good time around the holidays is making sugar cookies. I started the first of many batches that I will be making for the teachers, coaches, friends, and others. The first round in the oven is always an experiment to see if I have the temperature and the baking time correct to make any adjustments. I had the baking time off by a few minutes so that meant that there were cookies for me to munch on. I should not be eating them with my food allergies to wheat, but I would suffer the itching. It was a sacrifice I was willing to make. I had the dough chilled, the colored sugars ready and the cooling racks spread out around the kitchen. The first tray to go in the oven was for Buddy's Kindergarten teacher from 5 years ago. Buddy loves his Kindergarden teacher and he always wants to get her a Christmas gift. Ms. Donnan loves flamingos so...I made some funky flamingos! These little guys were a bugger to make because if the dough warmed up too much then the neck or the legs would break off when I transfered them from the counter where I rolled them out to the cookie sheet to be baked. I got it done and a baker's dozen of pale and hot pink flamingos reside in my freezer right now.

My next batch was a labor of love. As a graduate of Texas A&M, I had it drilled into my head from the first day of Fish Camp that people who attended the University of Texas were not to be trusted and overall, they were crazy t-sips. Well, as you grow up, you realize that not all Texas-Exes are bad people. A little misguided in their youth, but generally good Texans. So I made the purchase of a special cookie cutter that caused my kid to flip his lid. "MOM! WHAT IS THAT??!!??" he exclaimed and pointed. "What is what?" I replied. "THAT!!!" he shrieked as I saw where he was pointing to. He was pointing to the Longhorn cookie cutter. Had I gone to the DARK SIDE is what my kid wondered? I told him that the cookie cutter was for cookies that I was going to bake for Miss Lauren for her birthday. Buddy loves Miss Lauren and always asks me if she is going to be at TNT practice. So we went to work rolling dough, cutting out longhorns and getting them ready. I let some cool and frosted them. Mixing up the perfect shade of burnt orange icing was tricky.

I texted Lauren yesterday morning and wished her Happy Birthday and asked if I could run the cookies by her school for her. She had some time and she suggested that we go for lunch with our good bud Ryan. This would be FUN! Ryan and I got to the cafe before Lauren so we were excited to see her big smile when she came in. Lauren was blown away by the cookie and by the spectacular scrap book of all the stuff Lauren had done over the last year that Ryan had put together for her. Ryan did a spectacular job on the scrapbook and Lauren was crying.

Ryan is also a Texas A&M graduate, so like Good Ags we had to "Saw Varsity's Horns Off!"

Good Times! Later Gators,

Liz

Success with the dress...

Well, I pulled it off and got rave reviews from El Esposo and from friends that I have not seen in a while. I was really worried about my hair so I contacted a local radio personality who is gay and asked him for a good referral for a stylist. He came through and I was given a new hair style and I love it!
Here is a pic of the "old hair". It was ok and not ok. It was casual and everyone said it was cute but it was a pain because it was not long enough to pull back the long bangs in a pony tail for work. My pig tails were getting long and my hair was at that stage that I had some of it in my collar and some of it outside of my collar at all times. Now it is in a sleek and polished bob.

On Saturday morning I went for a run with the TNT group that is training for the Houston Marathon and I was thinking that I would get in 11 miles or so. I ran 17 and it felt great! I did have some pain in my lower left leg like I have been having in the past, but it was not causing other parts of my body to hurt. I kept on top of my hydration and calorie intake and I was going strong at the end. NO WALKING!!! Now why can't I have those kinds of day when it comes to a race day? I wanted to get a good run in so that I could eat whatever I wanted at the party later that day. I held to my word and ate whatever I wanted. I do not want to go anywhere near a scale because since I have started lifting weights and running again I am always hungry and shoving food in my mouth. I know that the weight gain will be temporary until my metabolism kicks in and things get back to normal after having 3 weeks of taking it easy.

We had a nice time at the party. I got to see some good friends of mine from college. El Esposo works with his college roommate, the guy who lived across the hall way from him and the guy who lived down the hallway from him as well. There was another one of the "guys" from the hall, but he and his wife moved to Australia this summer. So it was good times catching up with everyone.
This is a pic of me and my girlfriend Tanya who was the Matron of Honor in my wedding to El Esposo 16 years ago. She is married to El Esposo's friend who lived across the hallway from him at Aggieland.
This is a picture of me and my girlfriend Tauri who I have known for 20 years. We lived in the same dorm all through college until she married El Esposo's roommate.

The evening was fun and my kid had a great time going to the Movie Tavern to eat pizza and watch BOLT with my TNT Tri friend Norma. Buddy then talked Norma into taking him to Toys R' Us to go buy Legos. Sneaky kid! I will get a pic up with me and El Esposo as soon as we get it back from the photographer.

My next post will be great fun for all the Texas Longhorn fans out there, but I cannot post about it until after Tuesday when another one of my TNT Tri friends, Lauren, has her birthday.

Later Gators!

Liz

ARGH!!! I hate this!!!

I thought that I was off the hook this year. El Esposo has been in Dominican Republic for work for the last two weeks and he was unsure of when he was coming home. That meant that we would be missing his company Christmas party. It is a great party and they really pull out all the stops but I HATE having to get ready for it. For many years when we were still poor, living in an apartment, and paying off school loans I had my standard holiday outfit. I had found a black stretch velvet skirt at Old Navy in the kid's section that I swapped out a different top each year. I did that trick for about 6 or 7 years. Then the party organizers got too creative. One year it was "Country Christmas" and we had to wear country western dressy clothes. It is not hard to find that kind of stuff in Texas. The next year it was "Black & White". I have worn that black dress to lots of events and weddings. And I only spent $21.99 on sale at Anne Taylor Loft. Last year I wore a beautiful leaf green suede leather jacket with western fringe and stitching on the shoulders with a dark green velvet skirt. It was what I wore to my Dad and Val's wedding and it is distinctive enough that if I wore it again "The Wives Club" would be wagging their tongues.

Well, I got the call that El Esposo was headed home to attend the share-holder's meeting and that we were able to go to the Christmas Party. AAAAHHHHHH!!!!! In the last 36 hours I have been to four different department and clothing stores, conferenced with El Esposo over the phone and laptop so he could see the choices, conferenced with my bud Johnny Tri to get a second opinion, and then traveled to three different Banana Republic Stores to find a dress that fit.

Today I had to go get the nails done. This is a once a year event for me. Maybe twice if I am lucky. Manicures don't last long in the pool. I can paint my toenails myself but usually I won't put some poor gal through the mess of marathon feet. I had to get the eyebrows waxed. Yeowch! I can tweeze and keep them at bay, but sometimes it is better to let a professional handle that. Since I have been growing my hair out, it looks like C.R.A.P. and I have no idea what to do with it. It is usually pulled back with a headband or under a Head Sweats cap of late and I don't have a curling iron or hot rollers. So I had to go buy hot rollers. Gads, at least I had a $5 off coupon. My TNT buddy Norma was kind enough to agree on short notice to take Buddy to The Movie Tavern to go see BOLT and have a burger. The college age gals that normally watch Buddy are all employees of El Esposo's company so they are unable to babysit since they will be at the party. Did I say that I hated all of this???

The bad part is that I hated laying down two hundred dollars for a dress! Other women do this all the time without a thinking twice and I stood around in the store for 30 minutes before I could take the dress up to the counter to pay. Now it if was a new pair of carbon fiber cycling shoes, or a Blue 70 swim skin, or two new pairs of running shoes I would not blink an eye as I pulled out the cash or the card. Does that make me weird?

Tomorrow I have to mess with make-up and I am dreading it. I have a feeling that I will end up either looking like Tammy Faye Baker or Cindy Lauper. Well, check back later for pics and hopefully I won't look like a dork in this dress.


Later Gators,

Liz

Where's Coach???

Well, I am back in H-town for now. I needed a well deserved break from training, cleaning house, work, and blogging. Here is what I was up to while I was away...
I made a lot of pumpkin bread to give to teachers, coaches, and neighbors for Thanksgiving...

I made candied citrus peel for my kid to take to school for Colonial Day...

I sewed up a costume and a nifty tri-cornered hat for my kid to wear for Colonial Day...

I worked on my knitting and crochet...

I read the entire Twilight series of books and a few others to boot...

I hung out with relatives and went and saw the holiday lights in the town square in New Braunfuls, TX...

and I put in one 11 mile run "Turkey Trot" on Thanksgiving morning in the hill country of central Texas to make up for the stuff I would eat later that day.

I am back to work, back to training, and back to eating clean. Buddy is back to school and hopefully El Esposo will be back from his two and a half week work trip to the Dominican Republic on Friday so we can attend his office Christmas Party. Yeah, he was stuck at a 5 star resort in the Dominican Republic forced to play golf for Thanksgiving. What a shame...

The big news is that the countdown has started! I have 365 days until Ironman Cozumel!!! This time next year I will be finished with the race, purchasing FINISHER's gear, and laying on the beach. Whoo Hoo!!! This is going to be a fun year for training.

I hope that you all had a great Thanksgiving.

Later Gators!

Liz