Survival Race 4-28-12

One of our friends found a groupon for the Survival Race in Forney this year so a group of us all decided to do it! I had signed Colt and I up for one of these in Roanoke a year or two ago and we ended up not doing it because of school and the fact that it was so far away. This one was great for us because it was right down the road. I thought it was a ton of fun and I would definitely do it again, especially if we can pay 1/2 off our entry fees again! Here are some pics from the race. 

Ryan, Lainie and Josh all met at our house and we rode out there together. 

Josh, Colt, Me, Ryan and Lainie before the race

The BEFORE pic of the whole group

Ryan, Lainie, Colt, Me, Garrett, Garrett's sister, Kelsey, Kathleen and Josh

Garrett's mom was there to take pics so we got some action shots. 

Colt and I before one of the first obstacles

On the last stretch

I told him he could go ahead and leave me but he stayed with me the whole time.

The final mud pit

Colt dove head first which is why you can't see him directly in front of me.

And that is my husband's back covered in mud!

And the group's AFTER pic!

All you can see is Colt's teeth!

Josh after he took over the pull up contest

Ryan and Lainie

Colt and I

Our time could've been better but it wasn't too bad!! I do need to start running more though regardless. 

New Car - April 21st

We had been talking a little about getting a new car for a while but I would always end up saying that we should just wait because it was nice not having any car payments. In the past few months, we had started mentioning it a little more and more though. I really liked the look of the Infiniti and the small Lexus. Initially, we had talked about possibly trading in the Honda, but then we decided with Colt and me both driving in to Dallas and the fact that his truck was worth more, that it would be smarter to trade in the truck. 

On Saturday, April 21st, we were debating on whether or not to go look at cars that morning or head to the Terrell to grab lunch and meet Colt's parents at the Terrell Jubilee. We ended up scratching the car idea and went to Terrell instead. However, when we got home, we started looking online at cars in Dallas and saw a used 2012 Infiniti online with hardly any miles for a great price. We called and at that point they thought the car was still on the lot but were verifying. Instead of waiting for the call, we went ahead and drove in regardless to look around. By the time we got there, it was already gone but we kept looking. We looked at several of the cars on the used Infiniti lot, mainly silver and white but I still had my mind made up on white. They had a couple that were within the mileage amounts that we wanted. We ended up test driving a 2011 G37 with about 19,000 miles. Someone else was looking at it too. We really liked it so we felt like we needed to make a decision or it would be gone soon. We ended up getting a good deal on Colt's truck and trading it in for the car that day! Colt definitely has made decisions go a lot quicker for me!!  

It looks great and drives great. I love it! We really didn't realize how big of a motor it had until we left the lot after we bought it. It drives like a little sports car. I didn't realize how much I would like the get up and go but I do :)

We took it down to my dad's to let him look at it since he knows a lot more about cars than I do. He gave it the ok and liked it so that made me feel even better. 

The next day though I started second guessing myself (as usual) and Monday morning when we took it in to get detailed, Colt and I stopped in and looked at Lexus again which ended up making me feel even better about our decision!

Since we initially bought it, I have found a few stains in the carpet that I can't get up but they are all underneath the floor mat. It is used so if that's the least of the damage, then I'm good. 

When we bought it, it had silver trim on the inside and it was a little scratched. In part of our closing, we had decided to get a new woodgrain kit installed through the dealership. 

We got it installed the week after we bought it, and when I went to pick it up, there were scratches all in the woodgrain. They had also scratched the interior by the glovebox (because they had left screws out when putting it back together), scratched the shifter and put their feet on the door when opening it. You could tell it was just a careless, sloppy job. I went back in and got our sales guy to come look at it. He took pictures and told me he wasn't' sure what they could do since it was through a 3rd party. 

When I got home and Colt looked at it, he wasn't happy with that answer. He ended up calling and set up a meeting with the 3rd party vendor the next day. In the meantime, Colt's mom had called the manager and he was aware of the situation as well. When we got to the dealership the next day, Colt told our salesman that he really didn't want to talk to the 3rd party vendor that he felt like it was the dealerships responsibility since they contracted it and he wanted to speak to a manager. 

The manager came out and said he would do whatever was needed to take care of it. He went and looked at it and couldn't believe how many mistakes there were. He said it was just a bad job and they were going to replace everything. As Colt walked off he heard the manager asking the 3rd party vendor how long they had been using their company. It was a bad job and it's hard to believe that we're the only ones that have complained. 

When we got the car back the second time, it looked great! It looked better than when we bought it!

Here are some pics right when we bought the car before Colt took it to get the windows tented. 

And here are some more pics after Colt got the windows tented

Here are just a couple of pics of the woodgrain when we were headed out one day. 

What is so bad is that as soon as we got the car back after having all the work done, I drove it to work (on my birthday) and had a little accident in the parking garage. I was going up the parking garage one morning and both the truck in front of me and me had went around a car that was backing in. Well then as we were going around the corner, the truck in front of me starts backing up to back into a parking spot. If I hadn't moved , he would've hit me. I quickly trying to get out of the way without thinking, started backing up so I didn't get hit and I backed into the person behind me. Both me and the lady got out of the car. I told her I was just trying to get out of the guys way and she said she knew. There was no damage to her car so she told me not to worry about it.  The guy that was in front of me was just sitting in his truck staring at both of us. I barely tapped the lady behind me but you can see a little imprint where her license plate and my car connected. Ugh! I was so disappointed. So much for the backup camera because I wasn't listening to it beeping at me!! Colt said it could've been a lot worse and it could have. You can barely tell if you don't know that it's there, and he even had to look for it when I got home that afternoon. It's definitely not enough to worry about getting fixed right now.  

Colt says the accident was my fault, but I still say it was the guy's fault that was in front of me!

Colt Health Expo - April 14th

Colt did the Health Expo again this year with United to Serve. His group had built a mock house last year for the event, and this year they added to the house. He had built some cabinets at home to add to the kitchen this year and I'm not sure what else got added.  He ended up being there all day that Saturday for clean up etc. which was actually convenient considering it was my last Saturday of spring busy season so I was working all day too. 

I  am going to try and get some pics and videos off his phone to add to the post later. I know for a fact he has a video at least because him and Josh did flips off the house onto a bean bag during setup, and I'm really surprised Colt didn't hurt himself. 

I will say though that I thought this mock house was a tiny little dollhouse type thing but it was actually pretty large and pretty impressive. 

Rangers Game - April 9th

We went to the Rangers game on April 9th with a group of Colt's friends from med school and their wives. 

It was a Monday night so Colt picked me up from work and we headed to Arlington. We ate at On the Border by the stadium before the game. 

Our seats were split up before the game so after the game had been going for a while, we all moved to a spot so that we could sit together. 

It was Yu Darvish's first night to pitch. It was a rough start in the beginning, but the Rangers ended up winning 11-5. 

Group pic - minus a couple of guys that are in the next picture that were at the concession stand

Ryan, Adam and Refugio with their huge chili dog

It was pretty gross looking 

Fun times!

Easter - April 8th

We went to my parents for Easter. Heath, Jennifer and Tenison didn't make it, but the rest of the family were there. After lunch, the guys hid eggs for Lily and Logan to hunt. 

Lily with the bracelet that we got her. 

Lily and Logan

Joe and Logan hunting eggs

Lily, Joe, Logan and Nadine

Colt giving him a little hint

Lucky barking at the cows like he was really going to do something!

Glad we got to go down for Easter. It was good to spend the holiday with family. 

bunnies

Colt was mowing a few months ago. It had been a while since he had weed eated so it was a little grown up on the side of our fence. When he was weed eating, he found some bunnies. The mom left them, and one bunny immediately went across the street. Two were still in the back when he came and got me. One was hiding in the corner of the fence and the other one was just sitting in the middle of the grass being as still as he could. Our dogs kept walking right over them and never even saw them. Then I found another one in the front corner of the fence huddled up. The next morning, I let the dogs out to go to the bathroom and Alex immediately chased something. There had been a bunny behind our grill on our back porch. I called the dogs back and assumed the bunny had time to run off. I went ahead and let the dogs out to of the bathroom. After I got out of the shower and lets the dogs back in, Alex brought in a dead bunny in her mouth. I started screaming and made Colt come get it out of the house. I was almost crying. Poor thing. Alex probably tossed it around like one of her stuffed animals and just crushed it. I felt so bad especially since Colt kept rubbing it in that I went ahead and let her out even though I knew it was back there. I really hope that the others were old enough to survive without their mom and that they didn't suffer the same fate as the little one that morning.

Tornado - April 3rd

On April 3rd,  a tornado hit Forney. They ended up saying that it was an EF-3. The worst of the damage was in the neighborhood right next to us, Diamond Creek. We were literally right across the pasture from where the majority of the damage was so we were very lucky. I think overall around 75 or so homes were damaged and around 25 were severely damaged. Some of the houses in Diamond Creek were completely flattened with maybe one little wall standing at the back, some were missing the entire top floor, and there were a lot that were still standing but were not livable. There were cars blown into homes and one lady's car was blown across a pasture. You could see the car from the highway on the way to our house and it looked like a flattened piece of metal. Luckily, no one was seriously hurt and it was in the middle of the day so most people had a good warning. 

The night of the tornado, a curfew was implemented and only residents were allowed in the areas that suffered the most damage. The community immediately started responding. They were taking donations at a local church and relief efforts were in full swing. We went to the church to drop off money and it was crazy to see how many people were donating and helping. I think Forney ended up with so many donations and volunteers that they had to send items and people to other cities to help with additional relief efforts. My work and several of my co-workers gave me money to take to the church as well, and I know that it was definitely used and appreciated. 

When you drive through the neighborhood, you can still see all the devastation and work that is left to be done. My heart goes out the all the families that were effected. I can't imagine coming home to what some of them came home to, and I also can't imagine the feelings of those that had family members at home. 

Before the tornado hit, I was at work and was actually out of the office at a business lunch and had no idea we were under tornado warnings. When I got back to work after lunch they asked if the sirens were still going off and everyone was watching the weather and news videos. My family and friends started texting me and asking if everything was ok. It looked like the tornado was  going right around Forney at first, but then an updated report said it was heading right at us. Colt was at the med school debating on whether we should head home or not. Our dogs were outside so he called the neighbor and she went and put them in the house for us. Then we heard that the elementary school right next to us had taken a direct hit and the high school right on the other side of us had been hit. We were right in the middle so we were thinking the worst since it had hit on both sides of us. Colt came and picked me up to head home. He was driving like a mad man the whole way home and there was traffic of course. On the way home, our neighbor quit answering her phone. We also talked to another neighbor and asked how everything was and he said he didn't know that he hadn't been out yet but he thought it hit our neighborhood. Colt's stepdad was a few minutes ahead of us so he got to our neighborhood before we did and called and told us everything at our house was good. It was very nervewracking though and it was such a relief when we got home and saw that everything and our dogs were safe. 

This is a pic that one of our neighbors took. Our house is up and to the right towards the tornado. 

Our neighbor that put our dogs in for us that lives across the street said she saw it touch down in the pasture about 100 yards away from her house.  

 Events like this makes you realize how much you take little things for granted and how you could instantly lose everything. This was the second tornado in two years so we were joking that it may be time to get out of Forney. I know that tornados definitely make me a lot more nervous than they used to.

Here are a few pics from the internet of some of the damage in Forney.