Rodeo

One of our customer called and gave us tickets to the Rodeo Finals. We were all super excited to go. Then our neighbors invited us to go to the grounds for the day. It made it a super long day but we had a blast. Our first stop was the cows.

Then Gavin had to try out every tractor in sight. He is displaying his Vanna White pose.

Roy jumped in on the action.

As we were checking out the grounds, the beautiful Clydesdale horses trotted by. They are absolutely stunning.

We donated to the Frontier Club at the Rodeo. This goes directly to students scholarship fund. The total was $14,000.00. In return, we got a advertisement displayed on the wall of the Club. We are big time I tell ya. Way to go Gate Services, LTD. Keep doing our thing... I need some shoes!!

The neighbors got the boys Cowboy hats.

Roy had tons of fun going on lots of rides. We acted nervous to go on each one but with a little nudge he was on his way. That is him in the orange next to the girl in the white sweatshirt.

We had a few melt downs but then finally we had the best seats in the house. What a show!!

Lots of Bull Riding and Calf roping to be seen. Finally, Gavin passed out and we headed home. Not without a little drama. Bill dropped his phone and we went on a hunt for it. I called it and it just so happens a girl answers and says I think I have your husbands phone. (It comes up "Wife" when I call.) She was extremely nice and came and met us and returned his phone. We were quite lucky. Also, when Bill returned to our seats to search for our phone there laid a $50.00 bill. Wow!!! What luck!!

Results!

Summer Elizabeth Allen
Chip time: 2:46:32
Overall Place: 6966/8492
Gender Place: 3929/5092
Division Place: 935/1172
5K Time: 34:18
10M: 2:02:29

William FL Pearce III
Chip time: 2:37:19
Overall Place: 6381/8492
Gender Place: 2874/3400
Division Place: 413/513
5K Time: 33:49
10M: 1:54:15

Kudos Babe! We did it!

My knees...

So I am in complete pain. The whole left knee thing is no joke. I am on Ibuprofen every four hours. I cannot walk without a hilarious limp. If you are looking at this picture below the right side of my knee is what I am trying to show. I am not fancy to wear I can add graphics but it is right at the middle of the knee and it is not suppose to be swollen out like it is in the picture. Yes, I totally have skinny funny legs but there is some serious distortion going on here. I am scared for tomorrow because everyone says the second day is worse but at this point, I cannot imagine it getting any worse.

Every part of my body hurts right now. I held my Ipod the whole 13.1 miles and even my arm is sore. But all in all, I did it!! This pain is worth it. I just hope I will return back to normal. My mom is hoping I didn't do permanent damage. Me either!

MIND OVER MATTER!

4:15am came extremely early this morning. I woke up and took an extra long, hot shower that got me ready to go. I made some waffles and began packing for our day. We found a parking lot that was free and began the long hike to Congress Street. I snapped this photo to get me in the mood. It says "Run Austin"! As we approached the start line, I snapped a picture. We had to go all the way to the end to get in our spot.

We took one quick shot together before we checked in our bags. I was nervous to do this but everyone else seemed secure and I was confident they had done this a time or two. We took off our sweatshirts and began to freeze waiting for 7:00am. We put our chip on our shoe and began to hop around to stay warm.

I took this picture with my IPhone at 7:00am when the race began. We began walking forward. We finally made it to the start line at 7:12am and began to run. As we started out, Bill and I began dodging walkers. Walkers? That's right, people were already walking after 1 mile. The first three miles were a straight shot and went pretty smooth. Bill right away took off in front of me and left me in the dust. Every now and then I could see his bald head bobbin'.

Here is the 13.1 mile map. Doesn't look like much....

So I felt good. No stomach problems. No aches. Feeling this run! I got to the mile 8 mark and felt my energy getting zapped. I took a GU that Bill and I bought for energy. It worked!! I was so surprised. It was a thick nasty gel of strawberry banana but seemed to help me get moving. At this point, I still hadn't walked.

AND THEN... I began to ache. My left knee felt like someone had stuck a screwdriver in the side and wasn't going to stop. I hurt so bad. I tried modifying my run and made my groin hurt. I was limping and wasn't sure how much more I could take. I pushed myself as hard as I ever have in my life. I made it to about 9.5 miles and felt my world about to crash. I began to cry and moved to the side to walk. I didn't do it! Sadness fell over me as I began to limp. Walking became a strain. I stopped. I was leaning over massaging my knee when my legs went numb. I thought I was going to fall over when I got it together. I began to pray asking God to make the pain go away so I could finish the race but I began to doubt. I couldn't walk. Then a man came over to me and asked me where the pain was. I explained to him what I was feeling and he asked me to walk with him. I began to wobble along side him. The pain was unbearable. I began to run and felt the pain every step. This began my walk/run the rest of the way. I told myself I had to finish. Once I got to mile 11 I knew I was going to make it. A little girl came running at her dad screaming, "Daddy, what took you so long?" I began to cry again. Such emotions were going through my head but the pain never stopped. Finally, mile 12 and it was all up hill. I walked up the steep hill and began a small trot through the stop lights. I could hear the music. I could see the capitol. My dream was about to be fulfilled. As I rounded the corner on Congress and was faced with the back of the capitol, I began to cry again. I had to suck it up because as a came around to the front their the people were, cheering and yelling for us to finish strong. I was going to do just that. I crossed the finish line at 2:56. My goal was under 3 hours. I did it!!!!

I couldn't take it all in because as I stopped running my knee tightened again and I could no longer bend my knee. I grabbed a water and a banana and looked for Bill. I found him and we began to trade stories. We kissed and said Happy Valentine's Day. This will be one day neither one of us will ever forget.

Now for those of you that don't know my husband. He will stop dead in his tracks, ANYWHERE, to pick up coins. He thinks it is bad luck if you don't stop to pick it up. So my honey was so proud because on this day he earned $0.27! He couldn't have been happier.

We snapped a post race photo. As you can see, it is now light outside.

Here I am cheesing with my new diamond. Wait, my new piece of hardware.

I had to get a shot of this. Male and Female port-o-potties. Finally, someone got smart. We headed back and as we got closer to SA our bodies began to ache. In a way that I can't even describe. We stopped by my parents house and ate pizza. Then we got in the pool up to our knees. HEAVEN!!! It felt so good. Now we are at home and sleep is calling our name. I am so thankful we got through it. It was a goal I had to accomplish. I never fully understood the term Mind Over Matter. After today, I know exactly what it means.

Our First Expo

So we set out for Austin to go to our first Marathon Expo. I was so excited I could hardly wait. The traffic was awful. I mean I understand it is Austin and you got to expect this but really it was not fun. It took us forever to get there and park. Once we got inside, as I had butterflies in my stomach, I see a sign for us to pick up our packet. We stepped in line and what else was there to do than to size myself up with these other runners. I couldn't help myself. That guy in the red shirt had the biggest bubble bootie ever. :) I kept saying, "Summer, if he can do it, I CAN!" I thought when we got up to the front the person would small talk and give me some directions. WRONG!! She took my ID, sent the girl to get my bib and sent me to the left to stand in line for our backpack.

We picked up our packs, which I know the boys are going to love, and began to look at all the booths. We found and bought ear buds that seem to fit in your ear. Bill and I have both complained that our earphones hurt our ears and don't stay in very well. We will certainly put these new ones to the test tomorrow.

Finally, I stopped a volunteer and asked him to take our picture. I asked him all of my pre-race questions that have been lurking in my mind and I think I am now ready to go. I am off to bed. I need some prayers for this one tomorrow. Say a few for Bill too. He is dreading this one. I think this could be his last. I am hoping this will spark a new hobby for me and be the beginning of something fun. Let me make that decision tomorrow though. Good Luck to all the runner tomorrow. See ya at the finish line!

Birthday Weekend

This weekend was Bill's birthday. He is all of 38 years old. We got a call from Ash to meet them at the park on Saturday. We had a picnic with the kids. Gavin and Jillian are all smiles. Rocco is definitely in his own world. He likes to watch the kids and be involved but he is not afraid to do his own thing. All the adults were spread out trying to keep up with all the kids.

On Sunday, I planned for everyone to come over and celebrate Bill's birthday and watch the Saints win the Super Bowl. My mom came over early and gave Bill a new shirt and tie.

Roy and I worked hard to put this roller coaster together before the party. We succeeded. He was so proud.

Everyone that came brought such delicious dishes. Here is the feast. Bill was out back cooking burgers and hot dogs on his grill. I think he was in heaven.

The hit of the night was my mom's banana pudding and Candace's white cake. We all stuffed our face. I even heard someone walked in on my dad licking the pudding bowl.

We hadn't had a get together in awhile so it was nice to catch up with everyone.

The lovely Pongrass Family

George and Candace/ Brad and Amy

For the First Time Ever....

We have curtains in our living room. I must say it turned out fabulous. I am not the decorator but my mother is awesome. She wanted to spice up the rather bare house that Bill and I live in. We just hadn't done much to the house. We slowly started projects like the floors but mom always can find more to do. She had this great vision for our curtains in the living room. She did an awesome job with the curtains in the bedroom so I was all for it. My Aunt Sherry is a mastermind when it comes to decorating and executing our thoughts and visions. They were both so nice to come to our house and hang our new curtains. Brown stripes with a touch of a red orange stripe. It turned out AWESOME!!

Thank you to mom and Sherry for helping with the house. It completely changes the living room. It looks much more elegant.

Weekend with the Boys

If you didn't read Yahoo! on Friday then you would have never known that the biggest brightest moon was on January 29, 2010. But I was all over it. I thought this is a perfect teachable moment. I printed the article out and took it home to the boys. They are very into science so I knew it would be a success. Roy was all over it! And of course what Roy loves, Gavin LOVES! We went outside in the freezing cold and began a photo shoot with the moon. Roy ran and found a little telescope and we checked it out. Poppy called and we all discussed the different parts of the moon. Then we looked to the left and saw a red burning star. This turned out to be Mars. We could never get it to come out in a picture but you can just imagine the boys excitement to see a planet. Saturday we had big plans we were headed to Cabellos and then back down 35 for the bday party. Bill said that he had to do one smaaalllll service call. NOT!!! The service call took 3 hours. Bill was busy working on the gates while I was in charge on entertaining the boys.... in the car. REALLY??!? Yes, Summer you are in charge of entertaining to children under ten in the space smaller than a closet. WHAT?!?

So we began to surf the radio. We found tons of songs and began to discuss why we like different songs. Gavin liked to discuss why he liked to listen to songs very loud. He thought that the louder it was the better it sounded. Mr. Drums sure does have a knack for music. He began dancing and jumping around.

It was the perfect thing because it led into our discussions of the GRAMMY'S. We all ended up watching them on Sunday night. Who knew I was so with the times.

All that singing and dancing sent Gavin dreaming!

Well Cabellos didn't happen because it was time for Jillian and Rocco's big birthday bash. Now, most of you know my sister, right? This girl does nothing low key. She goes above and beyond and leaves nothing out. Her theme was RAINBOW! She hit the nail on this one. It was the best bday party we have ever attended. Look at these decorations.

Then I had to show you the outfits. These are rainbow numbers that Rocco sported. He liked watching the big kids outside.

The I had to get a picture of this kid. I mean the bows, the pants, the shirt and the TUTU. Ash I am not sure I can even come close and the boys bdays are a month away.

Katie is one of Gavin's favorite playmates. They started at the table and painted their names.

Then they noticed the big kids were outside painting on the fence and that is when the fun began!

Before I could monitor the situation this is the little guy's face!

Once everyone left, the boys should Jillian that they colored them a pretty card and gave her their presents. By the time we got home that day we all crashed! What an awesome time. Off to bed because we have to get up for church to go see Timothy get baptized.