Fun Activity #4

Run a 5K

I am extremely late in posting about our 5K run from April 6. However, we did it! We ran our first 5K. Although to some it is not that big of a deal, it was a huge accomplishment for us me. It is extremely embarrassing to admit that we had never been a part of any type of running event due to my inability to run. The reason behind my inability to run are my crazy knees. Yes, my knees are crazy I tell ya. Every time I bend my legs a crackling crack crickity crack sound can be heard for miles away. 

When we started the 8-week-prep-for-a-5K training program, I was terrified. My first day was awful. I stomped on the ground dramatically, could not control my breathing, my whole body was itchy and red, and we won't even talk about the stomach/leg cramps I experienced after 3 minutes of TRYING to jog. We stuck to the program and every other day we were either at the park or in our neighborhood "jogging". Nowadays, I can jog nonstop for 30 minutes. *Applause. Oh why thank you!

Because we are overachievers, we registered for the 5K Foam Fest, which is a 5K that involves mud and multiple obstacles. We invited family to join us and we came up with this great team.

We needed a name for our team and therefore we were the Skull Crushers. 

Side note: we really don't crush skulls. We just wanted to intimidate the other teams.

My little sister spent some serious time making our shirts.

We had a blast!!!! We laughed so hard and got super duper muddy. We cleaned mud from inside the truck and house for days!

The obstacles were a lot of fun. Note to self, never try to jump over a fence if ever being chased by a person or thing. I found out I cannot climb much less jump over ANYTHING. One of the obstacles we encountered was the death drop which is the largest inflatable slide in the world. We also had to crawl through a mud pit under electrical wires. Of course, I was the only one in our team that had to be dragged out of that obstacle because I kept getting shocked...on my behind. Good times, good times.

See why I kept getting shocked? Enough said.

We had such a great time and now we are hooked. Our next 5K is in July :).

Twenty Months

Months on the wait list:

Yesterday was the day we finally hit the 20's :). I was so excited that I could not wait to celebrate. I can't believe we've made it this far! 

I had a doctor's appointment at 4 so I was able to get home home a bit earlier than usual and start cooking roasted vegetable quesadillas for dinner. The plan was to head out and celebrate right after. Well, Rob got home and we ended up watching a movie while we ate dinner. When the movie was over and it was time to head out to do something, ANYTHING, we realized we were too tired. By 9:15 pm, I was washing my face and Rob was brushing his teeth. 

So Sad.

Today however, we decided to go to the batting cages because neither one of us had ever been. It was fun but a little awkward since everyone else was about 9 years old :-). 

Somebody please help! We need an Ethiopian baby boy ASAP to keep us young!

Happy twenty months waiting!!!

Nineteen Months

Months on the wait list:

On our nineteen month waiting anniversary, we went to work and cooked Ethiopian food for dinner. I made Ethiopian green beans with carrots, split lentils, vegetable sambussas, and Ethiopian coffee. I must say that everything was extremely delicious.
Our son would be proud :).

Ingredients:

Everything cooking away.

Rob was in charge of roasting and grinding the coffee beans.

Dinner!

We were so busy cooking that we forgot to take a picture of us holding our traditional monthly finger pose. You know what I'm talking about. The picture that is taken by a nice stranger and right when they do the 1-2-3 countdown we hold up a random number (to them) with our fingers and smile. (These nice strangers have yet to ask us what in the world that random number/symbol means.)
I did however capture this cute guy giving me an "are you serious?" look after I asked for 1/4 tsp of ground cardamon.

Happy nineteen months waiting!!!

Fun Activity #3

Trip to the Zoo

On our original list, we stated we would call in to work and go to the zoo. We decided not to call in and rather ask for a day off like "normal", "responsible" adults that request a random day in the week to go to the zoo. Seriously, who does that?

Today was a  great day to go though! The zoo was empty and the 65 degree weather was perfect. We woke up early and made a quick stop for breakfast at our favorite taco place.

At the zoo, we made sure we read all of the animal's descriptions and learned as much as we could about them. Whoever writes those things has a great sense of humor. We were able to take our time and observe every single living creature in that zoo.   

Here we are in front of the spectacled owls. The description starts with a "do you like my glasses?". See what I mean? Hilarious.

We stopped by the petting zoo.

Rob's favorite animal was the rhinoceros. It's usually the elephant but we had too much fun with the rhino. The rhino stared at us and would point his ear in our direction when Rob would whistle.

Although I really enjoyed looking at the birds, the two that made my list were the sun bear and the hippopotamus. I will show you why. 

This bear sat in what looked like the most comfortable position ever and slept. Every now and then he would open one eye and drool. We sat on a bench and ate a snack just to watch him. When he was done with his siesta, he slowly got down from the tree trunk with the most aggggg-do-I-really-have-to-wake-up attitude. 

I mean really, how cute is he???

Even though the hippo was in desperate need of a dentist, he was outgoing and ENORMOUS.

"Doo too too, what a wonderful day"

"Wait, are those the Delgados?"

"It is, it is!"

"Let me say hi"

"Cheese!!"

Here are some more animals.

And now I leave you with a picture of how Rob and I sleep every.single.night. 

BTW, I am the black monkey.

Fun Activity #2

Candlelit Dinner

Rob and I are not big on Valentine's Day. Don't get me wrong, we used to go all out. We would spend hours waiting for a table at a restaurant and too much money on flowers and chocolates. These days, we use that day as an excuse to cuddle a bit tighter and eat sugar cookies. This year however, we decided to have a candle lit dinner at home.

I chose three recipes from Pinterest. The menu was as follows:

Entree: Sweet and Sour Glazed Pork Chops
Side: Oven Roasted Potatoes with Bacon, Garlic, and Parmesan Cheese
*Served with a dinner salad

Dessert: Strawberry Cake Mix Cookies

After a long day at work we started cooking our meal. I tried my hardest to keep track of time so every dish would be ready at the same time. It was not as easy and romantic as it sounds. I made a huge mess in the kitchen. Rob was chopping, stirring, tasting, and picture-taking while I took food in and out of the oven, gathered my ingredients, seasoned the food, and kept looking at my phone for more guidance. We both worked in the restaurant business so there was a lot of "right behind!" and "hot plate!" yells. 

We set the table, turned on the candle, and took a deep breath. We thought we would have to listen to Delilah but luckily Rob found a "romantic" internet radio station, 181.FM The Heart. Thank you George Michael for making our night extra romantic. After we ate, we watched The Notebook for the 35th time for me and 1 1/2 for him. Yes ladies, my husband is a keeper.

I hope y'all had a great Valentine's Day :).

Eighteen Months

Months on the wait list:

Current longest waiting family has been waiting for (months):

30

We are about #52 on the list and #42 on the single child list.

On our eighteen-month waiting anniversary, we went to work. We got home, changed, and went to the park for a nice 30 minute jog/walk combo. Alright, alright, it was more of a walk/jog combo. We got to see many rabbits, deer, and even heard some coyotes nearby.

We really wanted to do something exciting but figured it would be best to take a quick, much needed trip to the grocery store. Then I made an extremely cheesy chicken and broccoli casserole for dinner :).

Happy eighteen months waiting!!!

Fun Activity #1

Camping

Rob had to go to Oklahoma City to pick up some things for work this past weekend. We had already requested Friday off from work so we decided to make the trip into a camping trip to Chickasaw National Recreation Area. 

Wednesday night we had our bags packed.

Yes, we went extremely overboard but we had never been to Oklahoma and I had NEVER, ever, been camping. You see, I have a huge fear of spiders. I am that girl that screams, no matter where she is at, and yells for assistance when she sees a spider. Then when someone runs to my rescue it turns out it is a microscopic spider that no one can see but me. Any who, we also knew it was going to be cold so we took our sleeping bags plus all of the blankets that we own. And let's not forget the guitar that Rob got for Christmas. Can he play the guitar? No. 

I was about to pack my clothes in my cute zebra print suitcase but Rob forbid it.

Thursday right after work we headed out on our 7.5 hour drive to Oklahoma City. We decided to stay at a cheap hotel in OKC on Thursday night since the park is close to 2 hours away from the city. We took plenty of food for the trip to save money.

About three hours from the city I asked Rob how much the hotel cost. His answer: $40. Mmmmm why so inexpensive?? I decided to read some reviews about the hotel. These were some of the things people had to say:

"Do not stay here! In shady part of town!"

"Blood splattered on walls"

"Be ready to share parking with the bar next door in bad part of town"

"Stay here if you want easy access to meth"

"Door would not lock and heater did not work"

I immediately started crying. I called Expedia to see if we could cancel the reservation but it turns out there is a 100% fee to cancel or change since it was passed check-in time. Rob calmed me down by saying we could just stay somewhere else, but I refused to spend more money at another hotel. We decided to begin our camping experience a day early and head out to the city early the next morning.

We got lost for an hour trying to find the campground. By the time that we arrived to a site, it was close to 2 am and we were tired. It was dark. It was scary. It was cold. It was freezing cold. We were the ONLY ones there. Rob set up the tent and we each grabbed our sleeping bags and a blanket. Again, it was cold. It was freezing cold. I could not sleep. Every little sound would wake me up which I ended up waking Rob up with a "did you hear that? what was it?!" I finally fell asleep and after 20 minutes, my fallen-asleep-can't-feel-my-hands sensation woke me up. I immediately began yelling "frostbite!! help me! frostbite!!". I thought I had lost my hands until I got the pins and needles sensation...phew! Let's just say that it was not the most romantic night we have had thus far.

(Rob took a picture of me waking up but I look like Big Foot's wife so I decided not to post it.)

Morning finally arrived, we got ready, and headed out to the city. Rob did his thing in the morning, we ate at an Ethiopian restaurant for lunch, and then headed back to the park. It is so much prettier and less scary during the day. 

We were able to pick our site and calmly set up our tent.

We were also able to make dinner.

And s'mores for dessert.

I promise that white speck you see is a marshmallow.

We relaxed by the fire as the sun set.

Friday night was so much better. It was still uncomfortable but not as cold or scary. A group of young guys picked the site less than 30 feet from ours and decided to have a few too many beers. As the night went on, their laughs and voices grew louder and louder and LOUDER. Around 2 am, I awoke to the sound of one guy vomiting. Then a raccoon messed with our cooler which of course, scared the gagizzeers out of me. Now imagine Rob yelling in a whisper throwing the tiniest twigs he could find right outside our tent with a country accent. "G'on, get out-a hea! Shuu! G'on!" The whole time the raccoon just stared at him in confusion while I asked why he was talking funny. 

We woke up on Saturday and made breakfast.

We went for a walk.

And then...rain. Lots of rain. We ended up hanging out in our tiny tent reading our books and taking random naps for about 5 hours. It would stop raining, we would get ready to go outside but nope, mother nature was not done. It rained and rained and in the meantime it got colder and colder. My phone had ran out of battery and Rob's iPad did not have reception. Finally, he was able to pull up the weather and it said:

 Winter weather advisory. Current weather: 33. Feels like: 17.

Above it had a statement about tornadoes being reported and then BAM! the iPad lost signal again. We. Panicked. It was time to go. We waited for the rain to stop which was about 7 pm. We had already packed everything from inside the tent to get out of there. (We later found out the tornadoes were reported in Kentucky.) Since we had taken hour long naps we decided to head back home. We stopped at a Waffle House in Fort Worth since San Antonio does not have one and ate breakfast for dinner.

We arrived home at 3 in the morning. Our small house had never looked and felt so big and warm...EVER! Although I had never been so cold and afraid in my life, we had fun. We laughed the whole drive back in remembering the many, small events that we experienced. This was definitely an adventure. One that we will never forget.