Running Army Wife

James has only been active with the Army for two years, but in those two years we've learned something very important. When he finally has time off, milk it for all it's worth. Since my last update, we've had family visit for 2 weeks and then we went off on a cruise together for a week after that. At the top of Crystal Mountain for our 3 year anniversary! Crystal Mountain had a military appreciation day on our anniversary so we got to ski for half price! That's one awesome thing about living in Washington. We are about an hour and a half away from really great skiing. We went two different days with James' family that came to visit us. I love skiing.  Then the day after his family went back home to Chicago, we left for our cruise. Let me just say this... a cruise is wonderful for a post-deployment vacation. We had no phones or internet (well.. we could have but it was really expensive), which was amazing after being attached at the hip to my phone for th...

I haven't been a very good blogger lately. James is still in "redeployment mode," which means he goes to work early for PT and then is home somewhere between 12 and 2pm. It's amazing. I could seriously get used to this. He's got a few more days before leave starts for Christmas and we have a whole bunch of family coming. So we've been trying really hard to get the house ready. I did get Christmas cards done though. I just love shutterfly. Although, I did have to edit it a little so I could post it on the blog. I really wanted to have a family picture with Roxy too (I seriously love MrsMollyP's family Christmas photo ), but our puppy was a little too crazy. I'm not gonna be too awesome about updating for a while. So here's our Christmas card to you. In case I don't check back before Christmas, have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! <3 Amy

Well. I tried. Kind of. I will say I tried about as hard to continue train as I tried to relax. I knew I wasn't going to be able to totally keep up with the schedule , but I didn't know what to expect so I didn't have a set mileage goal. The vaca was just under two weeks long. Total mileage that I was supposed to do: 51 Total mileage that I actually did: 24 Yikes. Less than half. Florence The excuses: It was crazy hot.  I was staying in close quarters with my family, which made it pretty impossible to go to bed early so I could get up earlier.  Not all the areas that we stayed at were safe for me to go running by myself.  I wanted to enjoy my vacation without having to stress about centering it around running.  One of the two weeks was a "recovery" week with only 6 miles as the "long run." So I kind of just extended the recovery week to two weeks in the plan.  I still have over 3 months til the Marathon so it's still pretty da...

First day we woke up in Rome, my little brother and I said "Let's run around the Colosseum and back." Next day, we ran to the Vatican. This is how we like to tour. On the way to the Colosseum. In the morning solitude.  If you look hard, you can see me.  On the way to the Vatican Vatican Square Basically we woke up at 6am with a map in our pocket and ran out the door with the camera in hand. We handed it off to each other during the run. It's super hot in Italy right now, so early is the only time that you can really run anyway. There was hardly anyone at the Colosseum except a few Italian guys sitting on some steps and enjoying their papers, cigarettes, and espresso. Later that day, we went by and there were hundreds of people. It's kind of hard to take a bad picture in Italy, but there's no way these pics would have been as cool with lots of people around. Seriously, one of the best experiences  ever . 

The good: I got all my miles in this week. Including Saturday's run, which was a first in a while! The bad: the next two weeks are probably not going to be as good (from a training perspective anyway). My family is going to Italy and it's probably going to be really hard to run. I know though! Italy! I'm pretty sad that James can't join us, but I can't deny that I'm still pretty fracking* excited. Also, just so you know. My family is not like super rich or anything. My dad has a conference over there for work and they figured that this might be the last chance at a full-family vacation (since I'm like.. married now and all). It's kind of a fluke that I'm living with them this year but deployments do funny things to the norm. So I had to get a good week of training in since who knows what's happening once I get over there. I got to go 6 years ago (another conference) and I remember it was really difficult to find safe places to run. My littl...

Well. R&R is over. The second goodbye was a little easier than the first. I think maybe just because I was a little more prepared than last time and I know what's coming. Although it's not easy knowing that I'm not going to see him for 7 months.. I dropped him off at the airport and they gave me a pass so that I could wait with him at the gate. I did a lot better about crying. Probably because it was a very public goodbye (very busy area of the airport) so I didn't exactly want to lose it in front of a crowd of strangers already staring at me as I kissed my soldier goodbye.  The two weeks was everything I hoped it would be. We decided to run away for a week of it to a little rental cottage in Wisconsin on a lake. Best. Decision. Ever. It was amazing. We kayaked, went to this little winery for a wine tasting, cuddled in a hammock, relaxed in our own little hot tub at night, watched Doctor Who (yes, I did succeed in getting my husband addicted!), went running...

Holy cow, it's been a busy week! We've had family in town so we've done a lot of sight-seeing. I feel like I've hardly been at home. My poor cat is probably really lonely (or really happy to have the apartment to herself, who knows?). My favorite was Kalaloch Beach. I think it's probably the most beautiful beach I've ever been to. My dad flew in yesterday, and we all went to see Lincoln Brewster in concert. He's is definitely the most amazing guitar player I have ever heard live. My favorite song of the night was "Today is the Day." Even though I've heard the song a million times, it didn't really mean that much to me until last night. Funny, how that happens sometimes, isn't it?  Today is the day you have made I will rejoice and be glad in it And I won't worry about tomorrow I'm trusting in what you say Today is the day Maybe that can be a mantra for when James is gone. Today is the day you have made, I...