Happy 28 Years Jarrod!

What a great birthday weekend for Jarrod. It started with an awesome couples massage at Massage Envy. It was the first time for both of us and after all our running man did it hurt! But in an oh so good kind of way :)

Then it was off to several stores to make sure we were set for the nights dinner. I think we cleaned up pretty good....

Mmmmm dinner. I surprised Jarrod with reservations to Americas in River Oaks which is a place he's been dying to try. The setting is soooo cool and the food is amazing and boy did we eat! To end the amazing meal Jarrod had a flaming creme brûlée that tasted like the best campfire ever :)

On Jarrod's actual birthday (today) he just wanted to go to brunch and have a relaxing day. Of course this wouldn't do for such a great guy so I asked a
bunch of friends to show up and surprise Jarrod for brunch. He had absolutely NO idea they were going to be there and didn't even see them until we were at the table haha :)

As we grow up we keep trying to focus on the time together rather than the gifts we give. We've started planning days rather than moments and we've made sure to share some amazing meals together. As corny as it sounds it's been wonderful to grow older with Jarrod. Every year we grow closer and grow as a wonderful family. It's never been easy, but it's been so worth while and I can't wait for next year already :)

Enjoy the photos from the weekend!
Happy Birthday Jarrod!!

And now it's Jarrod's Turn...

I was looking forward to writing this post to tell you all about Jarrod's half marathon.  Was... being the key phrase there.  I was certain (why Im not 100% sure) that my half marathon time would be equal or faster than Jarrod's.  Alas, on Sunday, during Houston's huge half marathon Jarrod beat my time by about 5 mins! Yay for him... grrrr for me haha.  Ok time to get over myself and congratulate Jarrod on such an awesome job!

He really did great! Especially for the work schedule he has and just coming off the holidays he definitely did not have as good of a training period as I did.  He had to get to the race at 5:30AM for a 7:00AM race! So many people... not to mention all the marathon runners as well.  This marathon is one that people can use to qualify for Boston and Chicago so it draws a lot of people to Houston.  Of course 2 Ethiopian runners won both the marathon and 1/2 marathon...such is the case in the running world.  This was such a huge race they even had the technology to text me to tell me when Jarrod was at various parts of his run. Super appreciated when I was running around Houston trying to cheer him on in various places.  I was able to see him around mile 7 and then with a sprint downtown I got to see him finish!  His official time was 1:46... so great!!!

The whole atmosphere of the race was awesome and so many people come out to support the runners.  I love the feel of people supporting road races its such an awesome energy and even a bit emotional to see moms and dads running past their kids, or various other love ones.  Makes you want to just cheer everyone on and tell them they're great!

Here are the photos I took from that day.  I tried to get Jarrod of course and also the sense of how big the race was.  Of course there were a few costumes along the way :)

First... Meet Jarrod's new bud, Charlie! He belongs to Crystal and Ed and was quite taken with Jarrod when we went there to watch football one weekend.  It was quite the cute encounter :)

Lots of marathon runners!

 

Look at all those people!!

Blowing a kiss to the camera!

So awesome!

Teehee

 

Finished!!!

The texts I got during the race :)

So proud!!!

Now on to our next 1/2 marathon...Together! We'll be running the Sugarland 1/2 in March.  I'm glad we did our first ones separate, but now it's time to kick his butt!!!! :)

It's the End of the World as We Know It...

Thank you thank you... As if you didn't see that blog title coming.
Moving on... 2012 is upon us and Jarrod and ushered it in with some great Mexican food and a party in the city park.  While it turned out to be more family fun, the last 15mins were really awesome and 2012 arrived with great music and fireworks!

 

 

 

Clearly we had to include the pups in on the fun...

2012 is looking to be a pretty awesome year.  Jarrod assures me we will see 2013 and seeing as he's been right from time to time (it's taken a lot for me to admit that clearly) I guess I have to believe him.  If he turns out to be wrong, then at least it sounds like we're gonna have a pretty great last year on earth!
Hopefully this spring will be the last we ever spend in an apartment.  Jarrod and I plan to start looking for a house sometime in April and if all goes well we'll have the summer to move, paint and enjoy our first home.  It's both scary and exciting to think about buying a house.  It's so... well, permanent.  Can't go where the wind blows you (that did not work out well for that witch in Wizard of Oz, clearly).  At some point I guess it was bound to happen, putting down roots and all and I think Houston is going to allow us to be pretty successful at doing so.  Don't worry, I'll blog about the search and what not as much as possible... Or you know, you could just come see it after we move in :)
This year will hopefully bring a better work schedule for Jarrod too.  Crazy to think that ever since we said I Do we've either lived apart or he's had shift schedules.  If he get's a regular schedule at some point we'll be a couple of regular old Jones's... and I don't think I'll mind that a bit.
Hopefully this year my sisters will get to travel to Texas for the first time and just in time before they both are in college.  UGH They make me feel sooooo old! I tell you what though, as they have grown up I can't tell you how awesome they have become.  Each year they become more and more awesome and it's so great to spend time with them.  It's nice to hit that age when our age differences don't really matter and we can all have fun and hang out together.  Of course I'm not looking forward to going out with them and having to show my ID when they'll just slide on through.  Let's not pretend that's not going to happen....

Of course 2012 (being the possible end and all) will bring about a lot of other exciting times as well.  I can only imagine what owning a house will have in store for us or what crazy times we'll have with friends here... and only someone somewhere knows what my job will have in store for me!  If the world is going to end, at least I'll be in my own house with my husband and my pups and know that at this point Im pretty content with how things have turned out.  You know if the Mayans end up being wrong though... that'd be cool too.

Let's Back Up A Bit... Christmas 2011

Please allow me to back up a bit and write a few posts about past events.  While I don't blog as often as I had always hoped I do think it important for future me to be able to look back.

Christmas 2011: Hampton NH

While last year's Christmas in Texas was fun, there is nothing like being home with family for the holidays.  We were very lucky to have the time to drive home (yes drive) with the two pups and still have enough time off to spend a whole week in New Hampshire.  We spent the first part of the week in Maine having our family photos taken, visiting with great friends and adding to my every growing collection of body artwork.  We were very lucky to have a friend who was very flexible in her photography career to make a photo session work for not only our wallets but the short time we had up north.

Here is a look at just a few she took, and dare I say we have some pretty good looking fur kids :)

And once again I was able to visit my favorite tattoo artist Matt in Portland.  This time it was to add to my left arm where there is already 603.  My left arm is quickly becoming the story of my life and so with last year marking the 10th anniversary of September 11th, I felt it only fitting to add that to the story.  Above that is the phrase La Mia Famiglia.  With losing post paternal grandparents in the past year and a half and adjusting to being so far from my own immediate family I wanted a permanent reminder of where I have come from.  I have plans to honor both grandparents in a separate piece and I am working with my sisters to come up with something we can all get together.  Here is my latest and certainly one of the greatest: 

And as if all of that wasn't enough... it was the holidays!!! It was so awesome to see my family and spend time with everyone.  The dogs couldn't believe that houses existed with multiple floors... Smokey (my parent's dog) couldn't believe that his parents could like any other dogs.  This photo would prove otherwise, sorry Smokey:

As one can imagine there was lots of holiday fun to be had. Cookies, J-Dawgs birthday party, Christmas Eve Chinese food and of course... Christmas.  I think you'll get the gist of how great our time north was with the following photos:

Time with family was the best gift... All corniness intended...

Until June when we celebrate Mariana's graduation (What the ??!!!) Thanks Family :)