Life Goes On... (Even when my blogging doesn't.)

I haven't been keeping up with my blog. I feel guilty about it. Truthfully, I'm at my computer 8 hours a day, and getting on my laptop when I come home at the end of the day isn't all that appealing to me. I miss blogging sometimes. It was something I needed during all that training and the deployment. Now I've got a job I love and a husband that loves me (that is actually home!) and there's just not a lot of extra time to blog.

However, I do continue to have people that keep on stumbling to my site from pinterest or from googling about Ranger School. I really do appreciate getting comments and tweets from you. And there are those couple blogger friends that I made when it was hardest. I thought I'd give you all an update. :)

On April 26th, James and the rest of his brigade competed for the Expert Infantry Badge. It's a little backwards, because a lot of them, including James, already have the Combat Infantry Badge, which basically means that you've been shot at and returned fire in combat. The CIB is normally worn instead because it outranks the EIB, but it's still always good to have another badge under the belt. Only about 10% of guys that try for the EIB will get it.

To earn the EIB, the soldiers had to do a series of events to show their expertise at being an infantryman (makes sense, right?). One of the events was a 12-mile march with a 30+ pound ruck on their backs. James, being the competitive runner that he is, decided he wanted to win this. So out of his whole brigade, James finished first after running the 12-miler at a 9 min/mile pace.* Only James and one other guy in his platoon made it to the 12-miler event so the rest of their platoon skipped breakfast to be there to cheer them in. I'm pretty sure James's platoon was pretty proud of him as their platoon leader.

The general that presented the awards in the ceremony actually shook his hand after the ceremony for doing so well on the ruck. I had to be at the ceremony, because I couldn't resist another opportunity to pin another badge on my husband. It's probably one of my favorite things about being an Army wife.

Then not long after that, I ran the Tacoma City Half Marathon with my friend Chrissy and James ran the full. I ran a 2:01, which I was pretty proud of, considering that I haven't been able to run as much as last year. James ran his first regular (non-Army-ruck) marathon at a 3:15. He started at the same time, so it was kind of cool to get done and then find a place to cheer him on.

So those are the two major events that have happened since I talked to you last. On the weekend, we try to take advantage of living in this amazing state with lots of outdoor-sy things to do. Like kayaking, biking, and camping. Our church has a bike club, which is pretty dang awesome.

My job is also really fun. I am doing even more programming now and I love it. I think it's a good sign when the day seems to go by fast because you're having fun doing what you're doing.

Alright. Well there's my update. I update twitter and instagram (both @runningarmywife) way more often these days. Follow me on there and I would love to follow you back!

Much love,
Amy

*Which is actually around the speed that I would have run it with no extra weight.

PS: A couple months later, and James's eyes are perfect from the PRK. Thank you, Army!