My legs are numb, but not as much as my bum!!!

Well, I did it. I completed the American Diabetes Association Cycle-A-Thon!!! It was 2 hours of spinning class and it was no easy task. During the last 20 minutes, I began to seriously doubt if my legs could take anymore... but I was SO close, I just kept spinning!! :o)

Originally, I was really in this for the fitness aspect of things and to ride in honor of my Mother-in-Law, Pat, who was diagnosed with Diabetes a couple of years ago. Little did I know that Pat would be joined by other people very close to me.

In my family, my Granddaddy had Diabetes and although he died when I was fairly young, I have lots of memories of him. He battled this disease and it really took a toll on his quality of life. Believe it or not, the very week I announced that I was doing this event, my Uncle Brad was diagnosed. Then the following week, another person very close to me was diagnosed!! So, I did this event in honor of these 3 people. Hopefully the donations you all contributed will help my family in some way.

One of best friends, Kara even has a Diabetic cat. I doubt that the ADA works with felines, but just for you Oliver, I also add you to the list of honorees!

Thank you to all of my sponsors... you contributed $280!! I raised the MOST money of any individual participant!!!

Jason
Bernadine Ward (my Grandmother)
Tim & Marge Crowe (my parents)
Ed & Pat Koliba (Jason's parents)
Brad & Camille Ward (my Uncle & Aunt)
The Weigle Family (my sis-in-law and her family)
Amy Stanley
Colleen Martin
Kara Hines
Kasi Acevedo

The new Koliba...

It is a girl!!! Well, at least I think she looks like a girl- don't you??



After 7 years and 110,000 miles, my sweet Ford Escape had to be traded in. Gone are the days of gas under $2/gallon and filling up my tank for $20! It was a tough decision but a smart one. Jason and I feel like we did the right thing and we got an excellent deal on the car.

I was very attached to my Escape. I always said, "Once you go SUV, you never go back." I never had any intention of having anything but a SUV forever, in fact, I had even said that when this one died, I would get another Escape! That truck has been through so much with me and it was my first (and only) "brand new" vehicle. It has moved me to numerous apartments. It moved belongings and cats from Austin to Dallas, Dallas to San Antonio, San Antonio BACK to Dallas and then Dallas to Austin. It drove Jason and I on our first date, to a Koliba family reunion so I could meet his family and then was our getaway car at the wedding. That Escape has carried around the dogs every day to work and throughout all of it, I was safe and carefree. However, it was time to move on to better gas mileage (stupid economy) and trade in the Escape.


So, the new addition is a 2005 Chevy Malibu. I loved her right away... she has every single option I could possibly want- including the sunroof that I always regretted not getting in the Escape. It will get great gas mileage and she is my favorite color (light green)! I am very excited about the new car and feel like it will be a great vehicle. Ironically, when we turned over the Escape... the gas light was on!! Our salesperson said we were SO smart for doing it that way. :o)




Here are some pictures. You can click on them to make them bigger.

About our trip...

As I mentioned in an earlier post, Jason and I will be heading to the US Virgin Islands in June. It is a very exciting trip for many reasons. First, we are actually going because our friends Shaunna & Heath are getting married there!!

Second, this is by far the most exotic trip Jason and I have taken together and in many ways will be a second honeymoon for us. We have saved and saved, made payment after payment and we are sure it will be worth every penny! So, here is what we have to look forward to...



We will be staying at the Wyndham Sugar Bay Resort & Spa on St. Thomas. (That's the beautiful hotel shown in the post below.) The resort is located on the Southwestern side of the island. Its an all-inclusive resort with balconies in the rooms that have stunning views. The photo below (thank you Kristin) was taken by someone that was there last year... this is the beach at the Wyndham... makes you relax just looking at it, huh?



We will arrive around 2pm on Thursday (June 5th) and spend the day/night hanging at the resort and enjoying great food, drinks and some beach time!

Friday morning we are getting up and catching a 20 minute flight to St. Croix (southern island). We are going on a group tour for most of the day that will cover all of the historical and significant places on the island. This includes the Cruzan Rum Factory, which Jason is particularly excited about! They have been producing Rum there since 1650!! Then that afternoon, we will fly back to St. Thomas and join Shaunna, Heath and the other wedding guests for a Welcome Reception.

Saturday is a day in St. Thomas. There are lots of fun things to do around the island and the resort. We will stick close because this is the big wedding day!! We look forward to being part of an intimate beach wedding and reception that afternoon and evening. Shaunna has said that this is a "sandals required" wedding... how nice does that sound!?!

Sunday we hop on another plane for a 40 minute flight to San Juan, Puerto Rico! This is part of the trip that I am really looking forward to. I have often wanted to visit PR and have heard many wonderful things about it, particularly Old San Juan. We are going on a guided tour for most of the day.

Monday we fly back to Austin, leaving St. Thomas around 4PM. So, we will spend this day hanging out at the resort (maybe get a massage??) and maybe going to St. John (short ferry ride).

These are just the highlights! Those of you that know me, know that I have been pouring over travel books and websites trying to gather every bit of information about our destinations! Jason has had to pull me back a little and remind me that this is a vacation... so we need some down time too. I am really excited about every bit of the trip... even the sitting on the beach relaxing bit (which I usually don't do very well).

Cuteness alert!!!

I had the joy of hanging out with Kasi (aka Supermom) & Little Miss Troy the other night. Troy is getting so big!! She is sitting up and smiling like crazy! I took a few pictures and even got a cute video. Enjoy...

She would be smiling at me but whenever I would push the button on my camera to take a picture, that anti-red-eye orange light would come on and totally blow her mind. So, it went like this...

Smile, smile, smile... [orange light] Whoooaaa...



Smile, smile, smile, [orange light] What the... ?



This was some cute play time right before bed. Even the dogs Sampson and Gracie got involved!!

Whew!!

Most of you know that next weekend I am participating in a Cycle-A-Thon benefiting the American Diabetes Association. Many of you are my sponsors!

This morning I did a "test run". For the event next week, I signed up to do 2 full hours of spinning, so this morning I went to the gym and attended 2 spin classes back-to-back. WOW... it was definitely a challenge! I made it through the first class but only made it through half of the second class. So, next Saturday will really be tough. Of course, this is for charity, right? So, its not supposed to be easy!!

My legs were wobbly and my face was all red, but it was a satisfying feeling to "feel the burn". I went straight to a cycle shop and bought some stuff that was recommended to me. Its called "Butt'r" and it is supposed to help ease the friction of cycling & clothing... let's hope it helps!! :o)

The Power of the WWW...

Periodically our boss sends out an email that includes the map below. It is a software that we use that shows, worldwide, where all of our website hits come from. Pretty interesting stuff. The dots represent hits on our website. The bigger the dot, the more hits from that area.

Its is amazing how limitless the web has made communication. My favorites are the hits that are out in the middle of the ocean somewhere... in places where its seems land would be impossible!!

1 month, 2 weeks & 6 days...

We will be here... St. Thomas, USVI. Ahhhhhhhh.....

About my job...

I work for an interesting company which leads to lots of questions. I thought I would take some time to explain it and tell you a little bit about the awesome company I work for!!

We are called PetRelocation.com and you can check us out at... PetRelocation.com (go figure). Basically, we facilitate the moves of people's pets! When people are relocating domestically or internationally for business or pleasure, we make all the arrangements for door-to-door service and safely get their pets from point A to point B. Its not as simple as it sounds... trust me. We don't physically touch the animals. We have a worldwide network of other animal movers and transportation companies that we use to set-up the moves. Its a fascinating industry that I never knew existed!!

Although the majority of what we move are dogs and cats, we will move ANYTHING. Just since I started working here, we have moved 50 Dart Frogs, a Beta fish, lots of horses and exotic birds. I even heard a rumor we may be moving a couple of alligators soon!

We don't really use titles but my job is easier to explain if I use them!! So, basically I am the Accounting/Office Manager. I L-O-V-E working with this group. It is a small company that was founded 7 years ago and has grown into a multi-million dollar company. It is owned by a fun couple named Kevin & Angie. They are my age and awesome bosses. Kevin acts as the COO or Sales Manager, while Angie acts as the CFO. The coolest thing is that they don't even think of themselves as the Executive Branch of the company. Then there are four Pet Shippers- Rachel, Matt K, Matt J and Marcus. They each handle different parts of the world when it comes to the relocation of animals. Then we have one sales person- Casey.

Our office is located in Spicewood, Texas. Spicewood is located West of Bee Cave towards Paleface Park (its about a 45 minute drive each way for me). Its the home of Willie Nelson. In fact, his picture is hung in just about every restaurant out here. One place even has a reserved parking place for him!! We are out in the country and about 10 miles from the nearest fast food joint or shopping center.

Our building used to be a 4-plex and I have my own office. (Such a nice change from the cubicle hell of Samsung.) The building sits on 4-acres of land and is all fenced in, allowing the dogs to run free all day. As I mentioned in the previous entry, we all bring our dogs to work with us!! Between all of us, we have... 1 Black Lab (Cephus), 1 Lab/Golden mix (Tucker), 1 Beagle (Tucker), 1 Hound Heeler mix (Cheyenne), 1 Heeler (Hollis), 1 Basenji (Petuy), 1 Stratfordshire Bull Terrier (Bruno), 1 Rottweiler (Rocko) and 1 Heeler mix (Maddie). It can be quite a crazy day around work when everyone brings their dogs!

Here are some pictures...

The Building


The view outside my office door every day around 3pm... "Nap Time".



Bruno, Tucker & Cephus all trying REALLY hard to get me to let him in...


Cheyenne & Tucker resting in my office...



The back part of the property (& view of the Hill Country). If you look VERY closely, you can see Tucker out sniffing around.



Here's the gang...


L to R: Rachel, Kevin, Matt J, Marcus, me, Matt K, Angie & Bella (Kevin & Angie's daughter).

The dogs in action...

Here are a couple of fun videos of the dogs... The first features Tucker showing his true "Beagle-ness" and howling! Our friend AmyS came over and brought her Beagle, Bevo (and Chi, Pepe). With a little coaching from Amy, the two Beagles sang away!


This next video shows Cheyenne enjoying a brisk morning out at my office. I am fortunate to work for a company that allows us to bring our dogs with us. Our office is out in the Hill Country and sits on 4 acres of land. A good portion of it is wooded. On any day we can have 5 to 8 dogs around! Cheyenne gets lots of running in every day and is usually exhausted every day when we get home... that's a good thing!!

The animals in my life...

I feel introductions are in order!! Everyone needs to meet our animals...

Tucker


He was our first dog, in fact, we are coming up on his 1 year "birthday"- the day we adopted him (April 28th). He is a Beagle (then named "Lucky") that we adopted from the Williamson County Humane Society. He is an older guy- we think about 7 years old. He takes life one step (or nap) at a time and truly stops to smell the roses... or anything else his Hound nose finds interesting. Jason grew up with having dogs, however, this was my first. Tucker was the perfect pace for a new dog owner.


Gypsy & Zoe


After a heartbreaking loss of my 10-year old cat, Puck, our house just wasn't the same without a cat running around. Jason may tell you that he thought it was a GOOD change, but I felt something missing. I had my heart set on a Tortoise cat or "Tortie" because they looked nothing like my precious Puck. Last September, we responded to an ad on Craigslist for a 5 month old Tortie. When we got there, she actually had TWO of them (sisters). The second one had lost an eye (we don't know how) as a young kitten so she hadn't advertised her thinking no one would want her. Well, of course, she is the one I fell in love with. We loaded her up and she was terrified. We got out to the car and Jason KNEW I wanted both of them... the car had barely moved when he put it into park and let me go claim the other one! So, we now have Zoe (our one-eyed sneak) and Gypsy (the bossy purr machine). They are very rarely ever apart from each other, so I know we made the right decision keeping them together.

Cheyenne


She is our most recent (and hopefully last) addition. We NEVER planned on having two dogs so I take ALL the blame for this one!! I began to think that Tucker might like a friend. I also knew that Tucker didn't have quite the activity level that Jason had hoped for in a dog. :o) So, once again... Craigslist came through. Cheyenne (then named "Tish") was a stray that had walked up to the house of a nice couple. We think she is almost 2 years old and a Hound/Heeler mix. They took her in, got her healthy and happy, however they had a house full of ferrets and cats already, so they didn't plan on keeping her. Plus, she is a very active dog and needed more attention than they could give her. We took one look at her and loved her. She got along with Tucker well and Jason was smitten right away. Finally a dog for him to wrestle and play with!

Jason


Jason is a stray that I found over 5 years ago at the University Bowling Center in San Antonio. :o)