Thursday, May 20, 2010

Doctor's Report

Great news today! Derek was officially cleared by his doctor to take the boot off! Needless to say, we are pretty excited, and to celebrate, he is going to buy a new pair of running shoes this weekend (both the left and right foot :)

Sunday, May 16, 2010

Slacker

Well, I have been putting off the blogging long enough. Things have been quite eventful in our house over the last two and a half months, and frankly, I just haven't had the energy to blog. But I'm making my comeback, and be warned, this post is kind of long:

1. Brad Pitt, David Beckham, and Derek Prosser

These three guys have something else in common besides their good looks. Brad Pitt played Achilles in the movie Troy, David Beckham tore his Achilles, and alas, so did Derek. The last week of February, Derek was playing basketball with some guys he had met and after taking a shot, took off to get the rebound, and well, let's just say he didn't go anywhere. Apparently, your Achilles is kind of important for purposes of walking (or pretty much anything). Long story short, he was diagnosed with a fully ruptured Achilles, had surgery, and then began the 6 to 9 month (yes, I said month) process of healing. This started with two phases of a splint for 2 weeks each, two different casts for 2 weeks each (all of which on crutches), and then finally a walking boot. Did I mention that we live in a three story townhouse? Awesome. The good news is that he has officially graduated from crutches and has started therapy, which now includes doing short amounts of walking (not to mention the fact that he can now make dinner again :) He goes back to the doctor this Thursday for an update and (fingers crossed) hopefully he can begin the phase out of the boot.


Phase 1 - Pre-surgery.


Edible Arrangement from his work.


Phase 3 - First hard cast.

2. Run On

I've officially been keeping up with my running now for almost a year. A friend of mine from work and I ran the National Half Marathon in March, and it was awesome. It was a pretty quick course, and the weather was absolutely perfect. My dad, brother, Adai, and I all ran in a 5K in Frisco when I was visiting in April -- the best part of which was having breakfast tacos after. My dad and I signed up for the Marine Corps Marathon in October, so I started my new training program last week. I have a feeling that there will be some tough long runs this summer, but it will be worth it.

3. 1 Year Ago

Well, it has officially been a year since we moved into our townhouse (and a year since I started this blog). After taking a little time off of on the renovation front, we picked it up again -- this time with landscaping. We (read Kirk) tore out a bunch of old broken shrubs, and planted 20 new plants/bushes, laid down new edgers, and covered it all with 123 bags of pound pebbles (each weighing about 40 lbs a piece). Loree was here to help us pick out the right flowers (since I have no idea what I'm doing). I've actually done a pretty good job -- nothing has died yet. We also painted our living room and entry way, so I think we are ready for another break for a while.


The brains and the brawn.


Derek and Reggie supervising our work.

4. Family and Friends

March and April were full of family and friends. Kirk came back out here in March (Reggie is very excited) and Derek's mom came to visit in April. As usual, we put her to work on landscaping. Luckily, she got in some good sightseeing at the annual Cherry Blossom Festival and hang out time with everyone. Derek's brother Blake and his girlfriend Anna came to visit for a weekend, and at the same time, Derek's good friend Grant and his wife Katherine were visiting. We had a lot of fun grilling out, drinking margaritas, and listening to music.






Grant and Katherine.


Anna and Blake.


The Brothers.

5. Food

Here's a little view of what we've been cooking the last few months:


Egg, bacon, and cheese sandwich.


Pork chop with beer pancetta gravy and rosemary roasted red potatoes.


Apple pie for Kirk's birthday.


Lobster tails for Valentine's Day.


Bread pudding with bourbon caramel sauce.


Mint juleps for the Derby.


The best dessert on Earth -- aka Kentucky Derby Pie.


Bobby Flay Mesa Grill Margarita (watch out these are strong).


Bobby Flay Mesa Grill burger with grilled sweet potato fries.

Ok, well congratulations if you made it this far. I will try to do a better job of staying up to date.

Sunday, April 4, 2010

Happy Birthday Mom!

A Big Happy Birthday to my Mom today. Can't wait to see you and celebrate next weekend!


My favorite picture ever.



Senior Tea in High School.


Rocky Mountain National Park for Tom's graduation.


Our girls-only trip to Montana.


A&M graduation

Monday, February 8, 2010

Update on the Blizzard of 2010

Well, things haven't exactly been exciting here over the last three days. Here are the big events of Saturday-Monday:

1. We have a clean (snow-free) driveway.

2. We made it out of the neighborhood -- to the grocery store, Walmart, and Kohls -- it was nice to get out of the house for a while.

3. The highlight of my day on Sunday was taking a shower and putting on non-snow shoveling jeans.

4. Today, we learned that another storm is headed our way and will dump anywhere from 5 to 16 inches of snow.

5. Work is closed again tomorrow (is it sad that I actually want to go into work so that I can get out of the house?)

Here are some new pictures...


The snow on our deck (doesn't it look like someone is sitting on our chair giving a gig 'em?)


Derek cleaning off his truck


Mom earning her keep (just kidding...kind of)


Our deck mid-shoveling

Derek had to clear the way to put food out for the birds (red bellied woodpecker)

Cardinal


And this morning...our street actually goes another 15 yds or so to the left, but the snow is plowed almost up to our driveway (and it's as tall as our trash can)

Pics from our mini-Super Bowl party

Saturday, February 6, 2010

Just the beginning...

Well the Snowstorm of 2010 has officially begun. It started snowing here on Friday at 10am, but it didn't start sticking until about 5pm. My mom was in Baltimore for a conference but she missed her flight due to the weather, so she took the train to hang out here with us for the weekend. As of this morning, I think we are at about 15 inches. Derek shoveled the driveway last night, and then we were all out again this morning, and it is now completely covered again. It is supposed to snow all day today and even into tonight, so it looks like we could get at least 20 inches. Here are some pics...


Yesterday morning


Yesterday afternoon



On the way home from happy hour (yes we still went despite the snow)


Derek's new truck


Grandma and Reggie staying warm


Derek's truck this morning


Starting to shovel this morning


Our street (after the plow came through)


Our deck after I shoveled to put some bird food out


And...just for fun...Reggie smiling (he loves the snow)

Thursday, January 7, 2010

Happy Birthday Dad!

A BIG Happy Birthday to my dad today! Hope you have a wonderful day -- wish we could be there to celebrate with you!

I've picked some of my favorite photos in honor of the big day:


On top of Flattop Mountain in Rocky Mountain Nat'l Park



On our way to the Loch to do some fishing.



Outside the Today Show on my first trip to NYC.



After the Turkey Trot -- one of the many races we've run together.

Sunday, January 3, 2010

Merry Christmas From The Family

We escaped to Dallas for Christmas this year...although we just barely made it out of DC. We missed a massive snowstorm that hit our route directly by about an hour and a half -- apparently, our house got about 20 in. of snow -- crazy! Our cross-country drive was fairly uneventful, and we made it to Dallas just in time to grab Freebirds for lunch.

We had an awesome time hanging out with my family and friends, and we even had a white Christmas in Dallas (first time in like 80 years). I'll let the photos do the talking:

Reggie had a ton of fun hanging out with Uncle Hobby and Aunt Kora.



Kate and I had a day full of fun -- went to the Galleria, ate Five Guys, watched people ice skate, came home and made a cheese ball, and painted our nails green and red for Christmas.



My mom and I made "the cake" otherwise known as the Blackberry Jam Cake with caramel frosting -- this thing is huge -- and delicious! (We had to use almost every bowl at my parents house to make it.)





We made waffles for breakfast



Ate lots of good food on Christmas Eve and got to spend some QT with the fam.













Got lots of fun presents on Christmas morning.