Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is an odd holiday for me. Out of the last 6 Thanksgivings, I have only spent one with my family. My Thanksgiving tradition is that all day I am overwhelmed and humbled by the love poured out on me by the people the Lord so generously puts into my life. For the past 6 years, every Thanksgiving has looked completely different then the one before, but all have been special, and every year, the Lord provides.

This year, the day started with the Turkey Trot - a 5K race hosted by the local YMCA. I ran it with Natalie, a friend from work and one of my very few female allies in the IT Department. I have no idea what our time was, but I felt like we did pretty well.

Right after the Turkey Trot, I headed to the park for the 2nd Annual Alethia Church Turkey Bowl. One of the awesome things about being a part of a new church is building traditions around the things we love. So far that has primarily been eating and football. Clearly I picked the right church.

Last year, about a week before Thanksgiving, one of the pastors sent out a church-wide email with an open invitation to play football on Thanksgiving morning. We basically had just enough people to play a game. Even though it was literally zero degrees, we had a blast. I don't know what exactly it is about sports, but it's such a great way to form quick bonds with people. Plus, the war stories are phenomenal. I mean a whole year later I'm still that girl who accidently broke a guy's nose at the 1st Turkey Bowl. Oops.

This year when I arrived at the park, our church had 4 teams on 2 different fields. Now that is something to be thankful for! If our church keeps growing like this, we may actually have to put a little bit of organization into the 3rd Annual Turkey Bowl.

Next on the day's agenda was a quick trip home to shower, change clothes and get my Thanksgiving dishes. This year I was only responsible for green beans and a dessert.

Question: If you are eating Thanksgiving dinner at your pastor's house, how inappropriate is it on a scale of 1-10 to bake a cake with Kahlua in it?

Answer: It doesn't really matter as long as it's tasty - even though it kind of capsized.

Thanksgiving 2011, the Lord blessed me once again and I ate dinner with the Bhatt family. Sam is the head pastor at my church and so much fun to be around. I met him in the summer of 2008 and never would have imagined that a few years later I would be "aunt Dani" to their kiddos and celebrating Thanksgiving at their home. Thankfully, Amber is not your typical pastor's wife and is quickly becoming one of my closest friends. Izzy and Liam are two of the cutest kids in the world. I think these two just ignored the memo that I am not a kid person and found their way straight into my heart.

Izzy is really outgoing and loves everyone, but she just has this way of making me feel so special. She is probably the most complimentary pre-schooler in the world. Every time I see her she has something sweet to say about my hair, clothes or accessories. That particular day she loved my red necklace and went upstairs to get her red necklace so we could match.

Liam cracks me up. Even at one year old, it's blatantly obvious he is the introvert in a household of life-of-the-party, extraverts. When you are as adorable as Liam people just want to hold you and play with you all the time - every week I watch complete strangers try to hold him and he just screams his head off. Then there's me, I just could care less about the cute pastor's kid liking me. The irony though is that Liam LOVES me and wants me to hold him all the time. I'm not kidding. When he just sees me in the room, he makes a b-line crawling right toward me, climbs up my leg, and yells until I pick him up. He followed me around all day and I just couldn't say no to that cute face. Lima already knows I'm a sucker for him and Izzy.

One of the things I love about Sam and Amber is that they always push me to do things I wouldn't normally do. They are the ones who call you at 10:30pm on a weeknight and tell you to get out of bed and meet them at the movie theater. That being said, I think Amber is the only person on planet earth who could convince me to take part in the Black Friday madness. We went to Kohl's at midnight and had to stand in line just to get in the store. Once we found a few bargain items, we headed to check-out, which was an hour long line by the way. As far as Black Friday shoppers are concerned, I thought people at Kohl's were pretty polite and nice. It was a rat race for sure, but a friendly rat race. I didn't find any sale items I just couldn't live without, but decided to buy a $15 Christmas sheet set. I mean who doesn't love flannel Christmas sheets? What better way to get into the holiday spirit?

Around 3am I headed home. What a day! There was so much to be thankful for just in those 24 hours. Thank you Lord for your many blessings! You are so kind to this sinner saved by grace.

Keep Austin Weird

Planning a weekend vacation around a sporting event is very typical of the LaSelva clan. In fact, when I was growing up, if the vacation destination was not chosen for the sole purpose of a sporting event, we found one to go to when we got there. Needless to say, I've been to a lot of minor league baseball games.

This year my baby brother Josh's Birthday present was a trip to Austin, Texas to see his beloved Longhorns play in person. I have no idea how this kid picked the Longhorns but he has been a fan since he was probably seven or eight years old, long before I even thought of moving to Texas to attend the most amazing university on the face of the earth...aka: Texas Tech.

My parents decided to entice me to come along by choosing the Texas vs. Texas Tech game. I hadn't seen my parents in 11 months and I had some vacation days stored up, so taking a free trip to Austin was a pretty easy decision.

My parents and my brother flew into Austin a few hours before me so by the time I got there my dad had already traded in a sporty Mercedes rental car for a Ford SUV. He tried to be a Mercedes sports car kind of guy, but he quickly found out it's just not for him. It was probably the shortest midlife crisis in the history of the male population. He also managed to get a parking ticket in less than four hours after arriving in Austin.

Friday we took an unofficial tour of the Capitol building. My mom was impressed by the state pride.
This is one of the many door hinges in the Capitol. You know, just in case you forget where you are.

I was impressed by the architecture and attention to detail. This is the dome when you are inside of the building looking up.

My brother kept trying to look for the Occupy protestors. And my dad complained the whole time about how much it cost to build such an elaborate building and about the amount of tax payers' dollars spent on furnishing the over priced building. According to him politics should be cheap. According to me, political buildings should not look like an IKEA showroom.

Seriously, one of my top three dream jobs is to hold an office at the Capitol and call one of these fancy chairs mine.

Next it was off to lunch. The only thing more important than sporting events on a LaSelva family vacation is good food. We have a gift for finding and consuming the best food in any city we visit.

Next on Friday's agenda was a University of Texas campus tour. For me, it was like walking straight through the enemy's camp. I don't know why anyone would ever choose that place over Texas Tech. UT's campus sits right in the middle of the city and there is traffic and one way streets everywhere. Everything is dirty and loud and just feels old, except for the new building for the Longhorn Network. You better believe they showed that thing off on the campus tour. Talk about controversial. Just as an FYI straight from the lips of the campus tour guide, you can't even get the new network on campus. No one has showed any interest in carrying it. Ha! Serves them right. 

For me, my favorite part of the tour was getting to hear my parents' constant flow of reasons they liked Texas Tech and Lubbock so much better than UT and Austin. It just warmed my soul. Josh liked the campus, but repeatedly said, "Where are all the hot girls? There were so many hot girls at Texas Tech." Forget the education, these are the priorities of a 15 year old boy - hot girls and a good football team. 

Saturday was the big game. The stadium was pretty impressive and Texas' offense wasn't too shabby that day either. However, I think my whole family, including Josh, was a little disappointed in the fans. Who thought 100,000 people could be so quiet? There was little cheering or screaming at any point in the game.

My dad expected it to be like a Gator game because the schools are comparable in size and notoriety. Poor Dad got a rude awakening when he realized the SEC and the Big 12 are two totally different worlds. Nothing can compare to the fan fair of an SEC game, especially at the Swamp.




I managed to find a little taste of Lubbock while in Austin - our marching bands' bus.

The Goin' Band from Raider Land!

Saturday night we went to a hole in the wall for BBQ and then walked around all the crazy stores. Austin really is a weird place. It's like the Boulder of Colorado or the Key West of Florida. I was excited to see my family and my team, but I was really disappointed in Austin as a whole. I think it was because Austin is nothing like the rest of Texas. There are no huge, gas guzzling trucks, big bleach blonde hair, holes in the ozone thanks to all the hairspray, hats and boots on every corner, beef for breakfast, lunch and dinner, or sweet Texas accents made complete with words like "mam," "y'all," or "howdy." No one opened doors for me or started up friendly conversations. Basically, I was excited to go to Texas and I ended up in some crazy, over priced, liberal town full of people who look homeless. Austin, you stay weird...and I'll stay in Colorado.

All in all, the best parts of Austin were the things that weren't from there - like the Texas Tech football team, my family, and my friend Lisa (in no particular order). 

It just so happened my friend Lisa and her husband Griffin were in Austin for a weekend getaway. We couldn't not have planned it better if we tried. We found out we would both be in Austin quite literally when I was in the terminal of the Colorado Springs airport about to board my flight (and minutes before I spilled hot coffee all over myself). Plus, I was stranded in Austin alone for most of Sunday because my family had a much earlier flight. That meant one thing...quality time with two wonderful friends before I headed back to Colorado. 

Honey, I'm HOME!

Finally, I'm back to my home, my routine, and most importantly...my bed! So far the month of November has been a blur thanks to a long weekend trip to Austin followed by a grand total of 30 hours back in Colorado Springs only to get on a plane to Louisville for a 7 day trip. Somewhere around my second night in Louisville I hit a wall - possibly because my body had been through three time zones and a time change in just three days. Sorry internal clock. My bad. Anyway, I promise there are posts coming on my recent adventures. Stay tuned. 

Until then, I thought I would share a few personal revelations that were a direct result of my recent travels. 

1. Somewhere along the way I became a home-body, introvert. I don't know when this happened, but upon reflection I have to admit I'm not surprised. In the last five years I picked up and moved to Texas, moved back to Florida, and then picked up again and moved to Colorado. I think I've had five different addresses in those five years. Oh, then there were those months with Student Life thrown in there where I quite literally took a tour of the United States by 15 passenger van. All of that to say, now that I have a steady home (and one that I own none the less) I discovered I just don't like to leave it and constantly being surrounded by people is no longer my cup of tea. 
2. It's nearly impossible to abide by a strict running schedule while traveling. Don't ask me why, it just is.
3. There is no need to freak out when you miss a few days on your running schedule. Just because you miss a few days or even get a week behind doesn't mean you are going to completely lose the strength and stamina you've built up over the past few months. I may have had a brief freak-out session in Austin.
4. Hello my name is Danielle and I'm addicted to running. Is this because I realized that I just absolutely love running? Nope. It's because my body literally started revolting against me after about five days without a run. I couldn't believe it. My back started aching. I was constantly tired and sore. After a few days of misery, it dawned on me that this was not just because of the travel. After a three mile jog by the river in Louisville I was good as new. Unbelievable. I get it now. Runner (and I'm not calling myself a runner) don't necessarily run because they want to. They run because their body will start to revolt against them if they don't. 
5. No matter how much time goes by, some things never change.
6. Holy cow, next week is Thanksgiving! 

So how did I spend my first weekend home in the entire month of November? Well, first of all I slept in!

Then when I finally descended from my bedroom around noon, I went for a 10 mile run. You know what? I'm just going to go ahead and toot my own horn here...I finished the run in two hours and that was with 60mph wind gusts that resulted in a loss of feeling in my limbs for the last three miles. Toot toot.

After the run and a long, hot shower I crashed for a few hours. 

Then it was on to a little weekend project. I kept my number from my mud run and I have a lot of great photos from the day. It was my first race ever so I wanted to do something to put the memory on display. I've been wanting to use one of those clear, shadowbox-like frames for a while and I saw this as my opportunity. 

 I arranged the photos and the number to my liking, and then got ready to hang it in my office.

It was then I realized...I have no idea how to hang this thing. For real, does anyone know how to easily hang this sucker?

Now if someone posts an answer to the above question I'm going to feel really stupid. But because I'm not patient and didn't feel like calling or texting anyone, I took matters into my own hands, which is rarely a good thing, but always ends up working out. I made a few trips to the garage and found a saw hook and a few nails that were small enough to nail into the back of the frame without shooting out through the front. After a few minutes I had frame I could actually hang - novel idea. At least I was smart enough to take the glass out...just in case the hammer got away from me. Yeah, that's how much faith I have in my fix-it abilities.

Finally I was able to put the glass back in the frame and hang it. Project = Done!

 I know the wall looks a little bare, but I'm hoping to add another frame with my number and pictures from my upcoming half marathon along with mementos from future life adventures. 

I think later tonight or tomorrow I'm going to try out paint colors for my living room. That will be the Thanksgiving weekend project. Get excited - I am! 

Turtle Power

Let me be upfront and honest about the sole reason for this blog post - to show off my Halloween costume.

I don't typically do Halloween. I'm really into friends and parties and candy, but I'm just not into dressing up. Costumes are so uncomfortable. They look cool for a while, until you decide to sit down or walk more than a few feet. Plus what if you have to stop for gas or run a quick errand? That "awesome" costume you spent weeks putting together seems like pure genius until you actually have to walk outside with it on.

Anyway, at my Dirty Girl Mud Run I saw this girl with an awesome Ninja Turtle costume and I knew right then I wanted to be Donatello for Halloween. When I was little I LOVED the Ninja Turtles and Donatello was my favorite, first of all because he sported the giant "D" which was conveniently the first letter of my name and second he was the purple one, so that made me an instant fan.

Now that the hardest part (figuring out what to be) was out of the way, it was time to actually make my costume. First I had to fight every urge in my body to NOT put on my Tim Tebow jersey and a giant fake diamond ring on a certain finger on my left hand and say I was Timmy's wife. Make no mistake, that would have been a totally acceptable costume and one I am keeping on reserve for next year.

Second, I spray painted one of those pans you roast a turkey in - does that have an official name? Once I had my green half shell, I poked some holes and used some string so I could wear it as a backpack of sorts. Then I cut a circle in a piece of paper, painted it silver, and drew a big letter "D" in the center. I then took my homemade belt buckle and taped it to one of my thick belts. Finally I threw on spandex, black running shorts, a green shirt, and a purple headband. Unfortunately I couldn't find a giant stick.

I went to a costume Bunco night a few days before Halloween, so thankfully I got to wear my sweet costume twice! This is me and my friend Megan. She is an "owl." I know, just let her have it...

Next up was Halloween at the farm. My friends the Clark's threw a giant party in their barn. They had a little haunted maze and plenty of food and candy. The adults all put their cars in a circle, decorated their trunks, and gave out candy to all the kids. We were supposed to have games for the kids at each car, but I just don't believe in making kids work for candy on Halloween, or ever. I mean they are already dressed in these crazy costumes, and it's Colorado so they are running around in literally 30 degree weather. In my mind, they have more than earned a fun size candy bar.

Me with Mandy (Princess Leia to go with her family's Star Wars theme) and Kaci (who just grabbed camo from her husband's half of the closet). This time next year Kaci will have a little baby GIRL!

Me with the party's host Kacy Clark

I'm sad I didn't get any pictures with my little friends, meaning the kiddos. They had some pretty impressive costumes this year. Plus, if you're going to buy candy anyway, it's kind of nice to get to hand it out to kids I actually like instead of the random ones that come to my door. I see Halloweens at the farm becoming a tradition among my group of friends and I'm pretty ok with that.

Happy Halloween friends! 

Turtle in a half shell...TURTLE POWER!