Running Army Wife

Monday morning, my 21-year-old, mildly autistic brother Richard was missing from his bed. He didn't mention to anyone that he might be leaving. All we knew was that we said goodnight at 10pm and he wasn't in his bed at 6am. As far as we knew, something terrible could have happened. There were police officers, detectives, inspectors, bloodhounds, helicopters, guys searching through our whole house, including my room. A dozen police cars in our street. Questions asked again and again. It would have all been very exciting if it wasn't so terrifying. As it started to get dark out, I had to remind myself to breath. I felt constantly nauseous. I felt petty and shallow for bawling my eyes out about missing my husband just one week before. My best friend Kelly stayed the night. We finally decided to rest our eyes a little after midnight. It was strange to go in and out of sleep, having to remind myself that the nightmare was real. I worried for him being out in the cold every t...

Today I attended the Lululemon Warehouse Sale in Chicago ! It's actually the first one that they have had in the US, so it felt pretty cool that they decided to have it here. I went with a few friends and we waited over an hour to get it. I was specifically looking for astro yoga pants, and I found them! Good thing I liked the color, because it was the only one I could find in my size. Here's the damage! Kinda cool how it all matches. So.. I'm not normally a huge shopper. I just really really love lululemon clothes. And I already wanted my astro pants. Retail price for those babies are $98.. I got them for $55! Also some capris, running shorts, and two shirts. That pink shirt almost got taken from me.. the "dressing rooms" were basically one big room for girls and one big room for guys. I noticed this girl watching me try it on and I was a little suspicious that she wanted it. After all, I did grab the last one on the rack. Then when I was putting my origin...

I've had my Garmin 405 a little over 2 months now. I love it. It maps my workout for me. It graphs out my pace and elevation for me. AND it's got this little virtual running partner guy that I can set to the pace I want. This is probably old news for a lot of runner folks out there that have had these watches for a while. I'm a little behind. I'm still super-excited about it. Yesterday, my training plan called for a 400m (quarter mile) repeats workout. It wasn't that cold out, so I decided to try out the "workout" feature for the first time. The Garmin connect website has this sweet little interface where you can build your workout.  So I did my little workout. I left through the garage and my poor dog was like "oh no! she forgot me! and took off after me. So those spikes in the beginning are me getting her back in the garage. Sorry, Moka, I'll bring you next time.  If you look at the graph, it's kind of cool to see when I sp...

Just in time for Happy Picture Wednesday.. my hubby sent me an email entitled "Just in case you were having a bad day." "These guys, well technically one guy and four girls, are being picked up to be sent back to the states soon. A guy is paying to have it all taken care of. We got them all vaccinations so we didn't have to worry about rabies, but Army rules still say they can't be here with us. So it was either get them out of here or put them down. Rumor has it they are being sent into the military working dog program. So those are possible future bomb sniffers and bad guy catchers..." That's right.. puppies! So cute!! Some guys in James's base found the mother when she was still pregnant and adopted them. These pictures definitely made my day. <3 Amy

I probably shouldn't be listening to songs like this so early in the deployment. Still, I can't help myself. My friend invited me to see this band, Drew Holcomb and the Neighbors, and I teared up a little bit when they played this song.

I had kind of a bad experience at yoga class last night. It was my first night class and it was right after everyone's dinner time. Yeah. I'm pretty sure everyone in my vicinity went to Chipotle. There were like 3 farters near me (that I could hear). #wasntme We started off with the usual warm-up poses. This was great. Downward dog. Cat stretch. The usual.  Then it started to get a little weird. She had us do a "Breath of Fire" exercise where we breathed in and out very fast out of our nose for 30-45 seconds from different positions. I actually thought she was saying "rapid fire" for a while, since we were breathing so fast, it seems to make sense. I've hyperventilated before (not in a yoga class) so I know what it feels like, and this started to make me feel like it was going to happen again. Then at the end, she had us hold in our breath for 10 seconds to "hold in the prana energy we just created." I don't get that. Maybe it...

I decided to post a picture that makes me happy every Wednesday. Here's number one: This is at IBOLC graduation. Hubby got the Company Ironman award that day, plus we were just both happy he was done with it. It was a good day. :)

Alright. Starting to get back into gear. Recently celebrated 6 weeks down of this deployment (thank God!). Still don't know about whether the deployment will be shortened or not. So I can't make plans yet about Chicago Marathon. However, I did sign up for my first half marathon of the year! Woot. So April 1st will be my first half of 2012. One of my 2012 goals is to finish 6 half marathons, so this is a start. It's actually the first race of the Chicago Half Marathon Series . If you do 4 out of 6 half marathons, you are automatically entered and you can get points by how you place in your age group. Sounds awesome, right? 'Cept they haven't updated their website for 2012 yet. So I don't actually know if it's happening. I'm all about it, if it is though. I started this half marathon training plan . I've also been going to my local YMCA for pilates and yoga. It's been a humbling experience. Sure I can run, but I have no upper body streng...

I'm not with the Army wives community right now, since I chose to move to be with family during the deployment. I have no doubt that it would have been a terrific support system if I had stayed. However, I know that Army wife communities can sometimes become rumor mills , especially during deployments. This is something I thought I would not have to deal since I moved away. However, apparently rumors exist among the soldiers overseas too. The registration for the Chicago Marathon (which is in October) is about to open. When I told James I was thinking about registering as soon as possible as it's supposed to fill up pretty quick, he told me to wait a few days. What?!  He wasn't going to tell me because he didn't want to get my hopes up, but there have been rumors that their requests for R&R leave were denied, because it is switching to a 9 month deployment*.  Rumors.  So that means I need to wait on Chicago Marathon, since we would be back home in Washington at...

"I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances." - Phil 4:11 Do you ever feel like maybe God is trying to tell you something? Like when idea or suggestion repeatedly keeps on revealing itself to you? Like a gentle nudge toward something?  Well. This time, I'm pretty sure God has been slapping me in the face trying to get my attention. Everywhere I feel like I'm getting the same message. Be content with where you are.  My parents got me the book Faith Deployed . That book, Power of a Praying Wife , my journal, and my Bible have all been my go-to books lately.  And I feel like God has come at me from all sides. I heard it in the scripture I read, the Faith Deployed  devo I read just yesterday was about Contentment...I went shopping at Lululemon today and even my bag was telling met to live in the moment.  Here's the thing. As I've been going through The Power of a Praying Wife , I'm realizing that I'm praying more for ...

I got to talk to my man on skype this morning. Of course we already celebrated AnniversaChristmaGiving , but getting to see him and talk to him was a nice little extra gift. Today we can also celebrate just about 1 month of this deployment behind us. Praise God!