Hello Sunrise

Have you ever noticed my obsession with the sunrise pictures

 I take when I run in the mornings?

Morning run in Dallas

Taken during my morning runs at work.

Maybe because I don’t post allllll of them.

The sunrise is just such a beautiful thing to me, I guess it represents a new start, a fresh beautiful new beginning.

Coming from me – a runner and battling the weight loss thing, new beginnings are important to me. After a whole week of not stepping foot in the gym or not being able to go for one run and being emotionally and mentally exhausted at the end of the day a sunrise is promising to me.

This one reminds me of cotton candy which reminds me of my little bear... 

The morning of my friends breast cancer benefit - I love the hues of pink that filled the sky.

When I  go out early enough the neighborhood "lakes" are still. 

I know that at the next sunrise I will have to chance to lace up and get out there again.

I know that at the next sunrise everything is just new again and I am back on track again. 

DIY Picnic Table- The craftier side of me :)

Last year I got the crazy idea that I wanted to expand our outdoor living space. Our house was built with a small patio in the back yard and that was great and all until our regular crew of people started filling it up and spilling into the yard. There we would be all huddled up as much as we could in this small space grubbing on wings and bbq! I know! Just imagine that dreadful sanario! LOL

So as luck would have it my wheels started spinning and my husband started grumbling… and I came up with the idea that we needed to extend our patio and make a larger space!! So we did. The work was mostly completed by my husband, my son and my brother – although I am very handy with power-tools and I was always ready to pick up slack when needed – the guys wanted yummy food when they were hard at work and I was always cooking up something to entice them to keep going!

By July 15^th we had finished our project and soon celebrated with a birthday party for my hubby  :)

Since then we have enjoyed our backyard more and more especially now that the winds of the seasons are changing and warming us up more and more. If and when we have a chance to relax outdoors we take it!

Table comes in box with all the pieces pre-cut and hardware included 

Recently my wheels started turning again, my husband started grumbling…hehehe :) and I figured out I needed a table to go in our new patio.  I also knew that we don’t have $$ to buy a nice fancy outdoor table. So after a little research I figured we could buy a wooden picnic table that would fit comfortably in our space. My hubby was not so happy with my new idea, especially not with the DIY involved.  My plan: Buy the table un-assembled , this way we could sand down the rough edges and splinters (we have tons of little girls playing in our yard all the time!)  and then we could stain it so it would look pretty and put it together - TADA! Easy! 

When Jose seemed not so excited with my master plan and we ate our lunch balanced on our knees or make shift tables (dreadful I know)! I did what any wonderful wife would do!! I took my husband table shopping where out door table would cost us some $500.00 bucks or more :) Suddenly my idea grew on my hubby and we went to work!!

What you will need:

• Wooden Picnic Table from Home Depot or Lowes ($99.00)
• Outdoor wood stain/paint ($35.00)
•  *Electric Sander and Sandpaper 180 grit (lots!)
•  *Paint brush and roller
•  *Drill
•  *Screwdriver (per instructions for table)

*we had these supplies at home already

Being that this is not an expensive table and based on the reviews for the table I knew it would be rough and sanding was going to be a must for us. So we sanded all the pieces that we would come into contact with on a daily bases real good making sure no one would get splinters or snags. Thankfully it was a pretty day with a nice breeze and sunny, when we got to painting the drying time was quick and easy.  Again we did our best painting on all the areas that would been used the most (two coats on these) and a quick paint job on the underneath parts.

Assembly was fairly easy, I had that sometime the pre-drilled holes might not match up or align so we had the drill ready and ended up having to re-drill a few holes as we assembled the table.

Our little project took us two days but it turned out really nice! Given that it will be under a covered patio I am crossing my fingers that it’ll last for quite some time, we ate dinner outside last night per my little girl’s request! I foresee lots of dinners outdoors, as well as picnic lunches! 

Spring Forward + Gloom

It has been quite gloomy around the Houston area lately… when is the last time we had sunshine? Did I see some on Saturday? I don’t think I did... maybe Friday a little bit. I guess the rain for days around here is not that unlikely. Remember this is South Texas we catch the rain from the north one week and then catch it from the south the next week – that’s how we roll :)

My guess is that the loom and gloom has been magnified because of the time change! The whole SPRING FORWARD! Of it all without the “Spring time Spring”. I worked on my yard a garden this weekend in between the chances for rain. Much of my mission was accomplished only to be rained out, literally. My husband – the morning person out of our little family- has been dragging this week big time.

I love Daylight savings time – even though it takes away an hour. It promises me that Mr. Sun will be around when I get home in the evenings. Our house faces the sunset and for a certain time during the year we sit down and have dinner while the sun sets…ahhhhh my favorite time of year! Minus these past couple of days, I am all like “Hello I gave you my sacrificial hour!! Where is my Mr. Sun!!!!!!?”

I have been a little MIA lately – a combination of small issues that will sort themselves out soon enough.  Last week I dealt with my first ever root canal :( I was in pain and running or working out was not helping the pain. My running shoes quit on me – nothing new so I ordered a new pair from Amazon like I normally do – they never made it to my house! They claim they got lost twice! I had to get a refund and have now ordered them once again. A few other little things here and there and before you know it craziness has run away with my time!

Next week will be Spring Break for us, so I am hoping to write to you from the hills in Austin, TX soon enough! My runs from there are normally awesome :)

As far as the SPRING and the GLOOM – I ask you to give it one more day and maybe a few more cups of coffee and I am crossing my fingers for sunshine tomorrow! Maybe when it’s evening time and Mr. Sun is shining down on you the time change won’t feel so crappy. Hang in there my friends!