A Winning Weekend

This weekend was great, from start to finish. On Friday, Ryan got home from a dive job in Houston just in time to make it to his company Christmas party. They had reserved a room at Walnut Creek Country Club, which was really nice. I was just excited that there was a "no jeans" rule mostly because I couldn't wait to see some of these guys dressed up! Most divers aren't exactly blessed with, uh, let's say, "social graces." It was great to meet a lot of the people Ryan has been working with these past 4 months. They are so laid-back and nice...and they know how to party. When we got there, we were each given $250 in fake money to play blackjack. When they closed the tables, we went and turned our winnings in for tickets. Then, we took our tickets over to a table with a bunch of stockings laid out. On each stocking was the name of a prize...things as small as Chick-fil-a and Target gift cards to big prizes like IPods, GPS, and a Nintendo Wii. Ryan and I didn't exactly "hit it big" at the blackjack tables, so we put one lousy ticket in the Nintendo stocking, 2 in the IPod stocking, and crossed our fingers as everyone put their TONS of tickets in. Let me just say, it only takes 1 ticket to win because I got myself a new IPod thank you very much. I was super excited! At least, I think it's mine...Ryan hasn't exactly let go yet. Anyway, that wasn't the biggest winning of the night. At the end of the party, they started handing out annual awards for the company. Since Ryan has only been there 4 months, we didn't figure the awards pertained to him. But lo and behold he won the "Exceptional Performance for a Newcomer" award! The plaque is nice and all, but what it really means is that he got an awesome evaluation which equals (here's hoping) a big raise! WOO HOO!! I was so proud of him. They only gave it to 2 people, and the other guy has been there quite a bit longer than Ryan has. He's also become one of Ryan's really good friends, so they were pumped to win it together.

On Saturday morning, we slept in, and then headed to Dallas to pick up Ryan's packet for the White Rock 1/2 marathon. On our way back to Fort Worth, we passed through Arlington in perfect time to meet up with the Camps for lunch. It was so fun to see them (and Thompson's cute little pooch) for a little while. After that, we went furniture shopping because I've been looking and looking for a chair for the living room. I finally found one, so we bought it, drove home to get Ryan's truck, drove back to almost Dallas to pick it up (who wants to pay a delivery charge?!) and drove back home. When we got home, I absolutely hated it. I was SO bummed! So we returned it, and now I'm on the hunt (again) for a chair for our living room. Sigh...

On to Sunday...we woke up bright and early, bundled up, and headed to Dallas for Ryan to run the 1/2 marathon at White Rock. It was COLD and drizzly. We found Molly & Peter when we got there, and Molly and I sported our t-shirts in support of our hubbies. We couldn't show them off for too long though because it was freezing! The more layers the better. We sent the guys off and went to the starting line. Somehow, amidst the mob of people, we missed them taking off. So we hiked back to the car, grabbed us some much needed Starbucks, and headed to the 6 mile point. Luckily, Ryan & Peter had a pretty similar pace, so we were able to catch them both within about 5 minutes of each other. It was so fun to cheer them on as they passed by! I felt like they were going really fast...especially with 7 miles left! We attempted to see them one more time at around the 9 mile point, but we got nervous that we'd miss the finish, so we drove back to the AA Center. I'm glad we did too, because after we parked and walked/ran back to the finish line, Ryan came flying by (shirtless, in 38 degree cold) just a few minutes later! I was so proud of him!! He finished his 13.1 miles in 1 hr 38 minutes, which was better than his goal. I was definitely glad it was him out there and not me. I couldn't believe how many people were running...registration maxed out at 15,000 runners, which was a record. So crazy.

Here's Peter close to the 6 mile mark. I nearly missed Ryan and didn't get the camera ready in time.

Ryan about to cross the finish line.

Yeah, my husband is the naked one (from the top up) running in the freezing cold.

And here's Peter at the finish!!

We came home in time to catch most of the Cowboys game and relax a little. Then I went to church to play for the Children's Choir program. The little ones were SO cute, and we made it through the program with minimal catastrophes. All together, it was a successful weekend!