When It Rains...

It's been a bit rainy around here recently. While for the most part I've been able to avoid riding to class/work when it's really coming down, a good ole' Texas pour hit right before I was supposed to leave for class on Tuesday. You may remember my post a while back about how super cool I look on the way to class in the winter time. That may tempt you to believe that I couldn't get any trendier, but just to prove you wrong, here I am in all my awesomeness in wet weather:

It's a little blurry, but you get the idea. I'm not sure exactly where that rain coat came from, but it's big enough to fit over my back pack (keeping my change of clothes dry) and, provided I have not eaten too big a lunch, still button in the front. I delayed a little leaving that day (I had to get all geared up) so by the time I left, the water was no longer coming from the top down. But since so much came at once, I got hit with PLENTY'o'water from the ground up the whole way to class. I think the water was several inches deep in a few places. Despite the discomfort, though, there's something about getting soaked that just makes you smile. :)

Update

Well, blogging is going to be a bit slow this semester, if you couldn't tell already. My schedule is filled to overflowing. I pretty much have meetings, class, work, and my internship all day Monday through Friday, starting between 8 and 8:30 am and ending between 7 and 9 pm (later on Fridays, but I have a 2 hour break from 5-7 that day). It's been pretty hectic...in fact when the director of my office asked me if I needed anything from the supply office last week, my reply was "only if they have speed...I'm TIRED!" Thankfully my internship hours will be finished at the end of the month, so I think that means time will free up a little. Anyway, since my group project meeting got cancelled tonight, I figured I'd give a little update post.

A few weeks ago, Jason and I pulled up the sweet potatoes. They had kind of taken over.

They would have been even better if we'd waited a few weeks, but we were ready to plant fall veggies. Here's what we harvested (minus a few I'd made into sweet potato baked "fries" earlier that night).

I really wanted to post a picture of our fall garden, but it's dark outside, so that will have to wait for another day. :)

Last weekend, Jason and Bryan started a remodeling project that Jason envisioned before we even moved in. Here's the before...

And the almost-after (it still needs paint, trim, and knobs).

You can't really tell by my "before" picture, but where there now are cabinets and counter, there used to just be an empty space where we kept our trash can (my camera died before I could take a second picture). The space was designed for a stackable washer and dryer, but Jason--realizing that those do not belong in the kitchen--worked HARD to get the hookups for those moved. (See THIS post.)

I'm always amazed by how Jason can just think of an idea and do it. I might have thought, "a counter might be nice here," but never would I actually take out a wall and put one in. Already it has made the kitchen feel much bigger. This was also his first tiling job ever, and it looks awesome! Have I mentioned before that my husband is wonderful???

Grandparents

Growing up I thought grandparents were the greatest people on Earth. I remember being really jealous of my friends who had grandparents living in the same town because they got to see them ALL the time. I had a couple of sets in Iowa and one in Florida, so each visit was a treat. Every summer my family would drive up to see my mom's parents (Grandma and Grandmpa Thompson) in Okoboji, IA, and every winter they would come to Plano "on the way" to snow-birding in Florida. I loved every second we got to spend together. My grandfather died in 1999 (when I was a freshman in highschool), and I was heartbroken. Up to that point, he was probably my favorite person in the world (Jason has replaced him as number one, but he's still a close second). A few weeks ago, my grandma also passed away. She was 91. I thought it fitting to devote a post to her, and really to both of them since most of my memories involve both grandparents together.

Since visits only happened a few times a year, we wrote letters back and forth a lot. When we were in Okoboji last weekend for my grandma's funeral, we found a scrapbook where she had saved a lot of letters from grandkids. I remember one time writing a letter, putting it in an envelope, and writing "To Grandma and Grandpa T. From Darlys" on the front. I became VERY upset when my mom told me that the mailman wouldn't know where to take it. I HAD after all specified which grandparents it was supposed to go to! I think I found that letter in the scrapbook (judging from the date, I was almost 6 at the time):

Another fun find was my grandparents' emergency cell phone:

But back to the letters. Sometimes the handwriting was difficult to read, but I always knew who was writing because Grandma would sign "Grandma and Grandpa T." while Grandpa would sign "Grandma and Grandpa Rufus." They would also send items in the letters at times, some of which I still have. One time my grandpa sent a stack of pictures that he'd taken of the park across the street as it was being built and to show what it looked like covered in snow. Each one had a sticky note attached with a caption. We also got lots of pictures of the fish he caught. Another time he sent a Hug-o-meter card with a spot that changed color when you put your thumb on it (like a mood ring), and whatever color came out told you how many hugs you needed. My grandpa also had a really old green truck with a covered bed that we would ride in to put the boat in the lake. He always refered to it as his "red truck" or "blue truck" or some other color, but never called it green. Once when it was in the shop, he wrote to me that it was in the truck hospital having an operation.

Whenever we got to Iowa, my grandma would have the cookie jar full (as many grandmas probably do!). She also made the best fried chicken we'd ever eaten (though now that I think about it, we never had homemade fried chicken except when she made it, I don't think). One morning each visit, they would also go get donuts for us because, as my grandma liked to tell me EVERY time we visited, one day when I was little, they picked me up from daycare and I refused to get out of the car. I kept saying "Donos! Donos! I want donos!" until they finally figured out I wanted donuts.

My grandma was a big swimmer up until the last several years, so when we were at the lake she'd always go in with us. My grandpa, on the other hand, didn't like to get wet. He always wore knee high rubber boots if there was the slightest bit of moisture on the ground. Whenever we'd head to the lake he'd say, "Be careful. You're going to freeze your tail off!" I'd say, "But Grandpa, I don't have a tail!" And he'd respond, "Well, that's cause you already froze it off!"

I could probably go on for days with memories, but I won't. :) The last several years were different with my grandma. She didn't remember as much and wasn't quite the same without her husband. But I am really grateful for a few good conversations we had over the past year, and one last letter, that have allowed me to have a lot of peace these past few weeks.

What sticks out most in my mind whenever I think of my grandparents are their huge, genuine smiles, my grandpa's laugh, and lots and lots of hugs. I am so thankful to have had them in my life.

(If I find a good scanner, I can post some pics of my grandpa later. I don't have any digital photos.)

Taco Bell by Candlelight

Thursday night is date night at the Werner household, so this week we decided to go for a bike ride and out to dinner. As we were preparing to go, I looked out the back window and noticed that the tree limb seemed much closer to the house than I remembered...and much closer to the elictric line (our electricity connects to the house above ground from the city electric pole to the roof). I checked it out to find that the tree had broken close to the base and was dangerously close to falling through that live wire, as well as through the cable line that's attached in the same place. Jason called the electric company, and we left for our ride. Since a similar incident occurred while we were in negotiations to purchase the house (though that time the branch ripped the electric line off the house...along with a small piece of roof/siding), we expected similar results - the electric company comes, removes the branch, and power is restored (or in this case, saved, since it was still on).

When we returned, it was dark...outside AND inside! Apparantly the electric company came and took the power line away to prevent the tree from pulling the line off the house (and taking a chunk of house with it). They're actually not supposed to deal with the tree, afterall. We would have to get it out of the way before they could restore our power. Jason called a tree removal service and found out that they are fined if they remove trees after dark, so we would have to wait till morning for both.

Just after our candle-lit showers (yay for gas-powered water heaters!), there came a loud crashing noise from the backyard. And shortly after that, louder crashing against the back of the house. The tree finished its fall without the aid of man or saw. We went out to survey the damage and found that...there was none! The tree scraped along the side of the house and the back windows, but didn't break any, and, even more happily, didn't come through the roof! Even the cable had been reattached the last time in a way that it wouldn't cause damage.

Jason called the electric company (again) since the tree so kindly freed space for the line to be returned. Someone needed to wait for their arrival, and we couldn't open the fridge, or use the stove, oven, or microwave, so I headed down the street to pick up dinner (Taco Bell for Jason and Schlotzkys for me), which we ate by candlelight. So romantic. :) And by about 10 pm, the wonderful after-hours guys from BTU had returned us to lighted, AC-ed bliss for a much more comfortable night sleep.

As an added bonus, we no longer have to pay for the tree to be cut down. :) The Lord worked it all out PERFECTLY! Jason cut the tree up this morning, and we hauled it to the curb. Here's a shot of some strong, hardworking men.

We even came out of it with some nice firewood.

More Hawaii

Since our trip is getting farther and farther away, I'm just going to do one more post covering the highlights from the rest of the vacation, starting where I left off last post...

After our long hike, several of us went to the top of a mountain to watch the sunset. We didn't quite make it to the top in time, but we did see a little of the end:

We had a GREAT time up there...mostly due to lack of oxygen (we went from sea level to 1300 feet in a very short time). Here's a picture of the moon through the telescope:

The next morning, we went to church right by the ocean before heading to south point for some cliff jumping...

and then to a blacksand beach for body boarding...

and turtle viewing.

Here's Stacey and Oliver at the black sand beach.

By Monday, we were ready for vacation from vacation, so we slept in, went to the market for some fresh fruit, and then to a beach for more snorkeling.

Tuesday, we went snorkeling from Carl's boat (Carl is Jason's cousin Stacey's new husband). It was awesome, and I didn't even get seasick!

Jason jumping off the boat:

Wednesday we went snorkeling at night with the manta rays (check out the wet suits!).

Thursday was market day and ate shaved ice (five of us shared this one and still didn't finish it!).

That night we went to a cookout on the beach and played sand volleyball with all the people in town for the wedding.

Friday we went fishing, but didn't have much luck.

We DID get to swim with a huge group of dolphins, though, which was incredible. There must have been hundreds of them!

That night was the wedding rehersal and luau/rehersal dinner. Here's one of Carl and Stacey's friends fire dancing at the luau.

Saturday was wedding day!

Like the sunburn? Fresh from that morning. :)

Sunday Jason and some others went fishing, but I stayed back at the house and relaxed/packed. I did want to get one last trip to the ocean in, though, so I went for a walk. I thought I knew a short cut back to the house, which ended up making my walk/jog about 8 miles instead of 4. :)

And Monday, we left the house around 10 am and arrived back in College Station at about 1pm the next day. We slept hard that first night back!

And one last pic of Daphne and me in the sarongs Debbie had waiting for us when we arrived. I'm pretty sure I wore it almost every day (we pretty much wore swimsuits everywhere we went...and apparantly I didn't do much with my hair, either!).

Tabata

I've been wanting to get some variety to my workouts lately. I jog pretty regularly and can go for a while once I start, but that works the same muscles in the same way every time. Thanks to Jason and Bryan, I've started adding some resistance training in a few times a week as well, but I had been thinking I'd like to do some more interval training.

Yesterday, my friend Serene told me about Tabata, an exercise style where you do short, intense intervals of...basically anything! You are supposed to do 20 second intervals followed by 10 seconds of rest, then repeat 7 more times. I tried it out this morning. I started with a warm-up jog (which got me sweating pretty good with this sweltering Texas heat and humidity...maybe we should just MOVE to Hawaii!) and then tried Tabata sprints. 10 seconds of rest is NOT very long when you are not a sprinter! (And I am NOT a sprinter!) Then I came inside for some squat/shoulder presses (squat down with light weights in hand and extend your arms above your head as you come up). After that, my quads felt like they were about to pop, so I nixed the idea of doing lunges and moved on to bicep curls. After three 20-second sets, I had to drop from 5lb dumbells to 3 lbs (I use 10 lbs when lifting normally). I couldn't believe how sore and tired I was already...and with so little weight!

This method is definitely a keeper. Hopefully I'll be able to work up to doing more than three moves a day! Any suggestions for exercises to try with Tabata?

Hawaii Part 2 - Waipio Valley

On Saturday, a group of us went on a hike in Waipio Valley, which was my favorite activity of all. Here was the view from the top:

And the road we hiked down (I think it was about a mile).

Then we walked through the valley, where we saw all kinds of beautiful flowers...

a really colorful tree that looked like it was from a fairy tale...

waterfalls...

horses (that I can't find a non-blurry picture of) and the ocean.

We then sat down by a river to contemplate how to get across without getting all our stuff wet. Some walked, some swam (which is a LOT harder with tennis shoes on!), but we all made it across! Here's a picture of us walking across on the way back (which was a lot easier).

We hiked about a mile up the Z trail (you can kind of see the Z in this picture)...

enjoyed the beautiful view (the long trail you see is the road we came down) ...

then hiked back down the trail, across the river, and up the road back to our cars. In all, I think it took about 5 and half hours (someone can correct me if I mis-remembered that!). One thing that made this valey trip extra wonderful was that all the scenery reminded me of India, with all the green and the waterways and the open spaces. I half expected to see women washing laundry in the rivers (but they weren't)!

As if that wasn't a full day on its own, Jason, Bryan, Nick, Colleen, and I went to the observatory and summit of one of the mountain/volcanoes to watch the sunset after our hike. Stay tuned for that post. At this rate, it will be time for another vacation by the time I finish posting about Hawaii! :)