Brian was out of town last week for three days for work. He flew to Seattle to pick out a laser...some engineering thing that's over my head. Before he left, he gave me one task: "Please remember to feed the fish. Try really hard not to forget."
I got it. "No problem," I said.
What did I do? Ate popcorn and ice cream for dinner every night and watched Friends. Late into the night. Every night. It was lovely. I finished season 1 and season 2. Awesome.
It was day three, Brian would be home in a few hours, and I noticed the fish were acting strange. About 2 hours later after walking past them again and thinking they were not being their normal selves, it dawned on me that I hadn't fed them yet.
We had two babies. Now we have one. Sorry, Brian!
the baby is in the center of the photo - in front of the purplish/pink rock
again, the baby is in the center of the photo - next to the castle
I couldn't decide if I should break this up into two posts or not, and I didn't. Consider yourself warned
This weekend was awesome. Seriously something we've been waiting for since we moved here nearly two years ago. Why was it so great? Because we did something TWO nights in a row! (cue choir of angels) Hallelujah!
The following is a background to the point of this post:
When we moved here from Rapid City on Monday, August 30, 2010, we had been married exactly one year and eight days and were ready to start our post-college life together. We were extremely reluctant and hesitant to move here because we both swore we'd never live east river South Dakota again. However, we both felt extremely led to move here - like it was meant to happen. This was the only job B was offered (after numerous interviews all around the U.S.) and his sweet mother was just beginning chemo for her rare and aggressive breast cancer. We thought this was the perfect chance to be closer to loved ones and couldn't pass the up opportunity. Since we both felt so certain this was where we were suppose to be, we thought it'd be an easy transition.
It wasn't. Everything about moving here was extremely difficult. It was all I could do to not cry when we pulled away from our first apartment together. When we were only 1 hour from Yankton, I hit a pothole on the interstate - leaving the car with significant damage and undriveable (yup, made up that word). I cried some more. It set us back three entire. whole. hours. I cried some more. When we fiiiinally pulled up to our place with both cars being towed, I dreaded the idea of unloading everything. I thought this move was suppose to be grand? I thought it was suppose to be easy? After all, this was B's first "real world" job and I was certainly going to find something within my degree soon, too, right?
Damaged tire and the bottom side thingy
It complete bent the rim. We had to get 4 new rims so everything matched and a new tire (we just got these tires before we left Rapid City)
Wrong. I didn't start my job until January 10, 2011. No joke. Four and a half months of sitting on the couch, looking for jobs and wallowing in my own misery...oh, and watching Little House on the Prairie on PBS. Just when I was about ready to give up on a job within my degree and settle for flipping burgers, I found a graphic design job. Phew! But why is this adventure so hard?
Then came the issue of friends. In Rapid, we honestly did something at least five nights a week with friends. Ample friends. Some really good, really close friends that we couldn't imagine leaving. But we did. We didn't think making friends here would be so hard, but it was. We didn't have any and weren't making any and didn't know how to get connected in the community. Then in November 2010 we started to hang out with this amazing couple from our church that has the sweetest, most adorable little lad (that was actually born the weekend we moved here!). It was beyond awesome - truly so good for us!
I'm going to get a little personal here and confess that in our weakest points that first winter we moved here, we both contemplated having a child. *Shutter* We figured we were the closest to home we'd ever be (we're both from the same town), so it'd be great for our families since it'd be the first grandchild for both of them and we weren't making many friends, so maybe it was time to move on with our lives? Now I progress to my point: kids - we aren't ready.
We absolutely love kids and love our friends' little boy, but I'm so glad that neither of us actually desired to have a child at the same time.
This weekend was awesome. It was completely unplanned and everything happened on a whim. Friday night I did nothing but watch two and half discs of Friends. It was awesome, but B decided it was pathetic and said we were getting a fire pit so that never happens again...so he promptly bought one the next day. Saturday evening/night we went out on the boat with a FRIEND and went wakeboarding and just had a great time. Then we came home and had a fire in the new fire pit - it was awesome! Sunday we floated the river with more FRIENDS and it was the absolute highlight of my entire time here so far...seriously! I love that a NEW friend asked us the day before if we wanted to float the river, and we were able to just accept with nothing to worry about. After we floated the river we asked them to stay at our place and eat dinner with us (completely unplanned), and then we had a fire again, this time with our friends. It was wonderful.
So we aren't ready to settle down and enter the "real world" (what we call having children). We still feel young (and absolutely are!) and carefree and love the idea of being able to pick up and go boating or float down the river whenever friends ask!
This is what we've been praying for since we moved here two years ago. So friends, please continue to invite us to spend time with you. You have no idea what it does to our heartstrings and it is music to our ears. Also, even if you invite us over to your home to do nothing, we will accept. We love spending time with people and developing meaningful relationships. So let our phones ring!
note: I don't want to belittle any of our dear friends and family that have children or are pregnant. you guys are absolutely wonderful for pursuing what you feel is best for your family. we honor and respect that about you guys. you are truly amazing and a heck-of-a-lot more daring then we are! keep on having them babies...after all, I need to be an auntie somehow ;)
I was able to check an item off my bucket list that I've had on it for quite a few years and have attempted a few times in the past. On June 3, I ran my first ever half marathon! Yup, believe it, baby! Without too much thinking ahead of time, I signed up for the Minneapolis Half Marathon about 3 months ago.
Running a half is something I've wanted to do since high school and my sophomore year of college I decided I was absolutely going to do it. At that time, I didn't have a particular race in mind, but I started training. I was up to 6 miles, which isn't a ton, but for me that was the furthest I had ever run before. It felt like a huge accomplishment. For some reasons that I can't remember anymore, I stopped running. Just stopped. Went cold turkey.
That was the end of my running "career", but I still had that half marathon written on my list of things to do before I die (I seriously have a list), and it was staring me in the face. May of 2011, my friend Rachel and I started running together and we ran a 5k in town. It was anything huge, but it was my first race and again it felt accomplishing. Again, for some reasons that I can't remember anymore, I stopped running. Just stopped. Went cold turkey.
This year, Rachel and I signed up for Grandma's Marathon (we were going to do the half) and were super excited for it! It's held in Duluth, MN...can you say gorgeous?! It's a lottery drawing and they would be picking something like 6,000 people, so we thought for sure our names would get drawn. They didn't. We were devastated.
Rachel found the Minneapolis Marathon, and it isn't a lottery, so we signed up and paid the fee. The fee is the real kicker here, guys. I don't think I could have continued my training if I hadn't forked out something like $70 just to enter the race. I persevered through the training with just 12 short weeks to go from running 1 mile to running 13.1 miles. I had to wake up at 5:50am during the week to get my longer runs in before work and to stay clear of the insane spring heat. I stuck to the training schedule and pushed through lots of knee pain at times and I made it. My longest run was 12 miles and I felt MORE than prepared for race day and couldn't wait to kick it's butt.
In the corral waiting for our turn to start
Race day came and it was awful. It was honestly one of the hardest thing I've ever done. By mile 6 I was feeling exhausted and by mile 9 I felt defeated. It was hot and I was tired. I could have probably walked just as fast as I was running, but it was my goal to not walk...no matter what. Somehow we made it to mile 13 and when I saw that finish line, I wanted to be DONE! I bolted for that line and could hear my sister cheering my on and calling out my name to look at her and her sign, but I couldn't. I couldn't do anything other than cross.that.line.
Off we go!
About mile 2 and feeling wonderful! Feeling like I could do this all day
Mile 5ish and slowly starting to feel the drain.
Mile 12 and feeling defeated. I could not pick my legs and was dragging.
We made it and found shade! YAY!
He's always been my biggest fan.
I'm toying with the idea of running another half this fall and really working on getting in shape throughout the summer. I want to work on building muscle and doing some cross-training help prevent injury. I'm not completely committed to the idea of another miserable race (hopefully the next one wouldn't be so bad since I know what to expect), but I would like to see how it compares to this one. I also am hoping to participate in the sprint triathlon in Yankton this fall.
So I realize I haven't written in a really long time...like a really. long. time! and kind of apologize for it, but I know no one really follows this anyway so I don't feel too bad. I want to try to get back in the swing of things.
I was going through photos on my computer and found some topics I've been meaning to blog about...they're all on things I've sewn or baked, yay!
In the meantime, I hope you all are enjoying the start of summer! I know we are! Here's a picture of B and I last night at our Hobie Cat sailboat having a little picnic date (dates are something we manage to never do...maybe that's because it's always just the two of us already? Maybe we should try double dates?) Our date was complete with wine, Subway and sushi. It was lovely.
It appears as though one of us wasn't ready...despite the red flashing light!
Okay, so I'm not one for being big on new year's resolutions...in fact, they really irritate me and I think they are so overrated. I do not understand why we, as a society, feel the need to pressure each other into making resolutions that we all know we will have broken by the end of January or February. I think it's highly discouraging.
However, I do believe in always bettering yourself and striving for something more from life and yourself. So this year I made a list of things I would like to work on for myself and get control of in 2012. (yeah, I know, sounds a lot like a resolution, right? well, it's not. it's just a list/set of goals to become a better person and there's no pressure if i don't succeed because becoming a better person is a LIFE process people...so back off)
The list is in no particular order, as I just wrote down ideas as they came to me, so I will type my list in the order I wrote it:
- more organized ~ this is huge for me because I am an extremely busy person with a full-time job and literally three part-time jobs. B helps a ton and is saint-like. - less anxious ~ also important to me because I am a very anxious person...could it because because I work 4 jobs, plus play on the church worship team, plus help out with youth group? Anyway, this is really important to me because I feel like anxiety runs in my family and it's a character trait I don't want to pass onto my children. I want them to be able to see how to handle life and all it throws at them. I also don't want to be an anxious, psycho pregnant woman. I think it would be bad news for B and the baby. disclaimer: i am not pregnant. there has been some confusion. - find more about my passions & develop them ~ I'm 24 and don't know what I want to do with my life. No surprise there, right? I mean, who does?! I have a college degree in photography and graphic design, but I want to take that to the next level. I've had this fire raging inside me for something more and I don't know what that is or how to develop it. Thus, 2012 goal. *focus less on me & more on B ~ (that's literally how I wrote that one) Brian is my personal cheerleader and supports me in everything I do...I mean everything, people. Because he's so good to me, I constantly find myself in a state of not being good enough to him. I know I shouldn't be treating him like he treats me and comparing my support for him from his support for me, so this year I intend to learn how to support him how he needs to be supported. Sound confusing? Too bad. It makes sense in my brain. - read more ~ books. I love books (we have two bookcases full of books) and I love reading. It comes from my mom. She was ALWAYS reading when we were growing up (which would also lead to her using complex words that our tiny brains couldn't understand. therefore we learned fast how to use context clues to determine a word's meaning). Although I love books and love reading, I haven't done it in a looooong time. I need to make time. - simplify ~ ok, this one I have circled on my list, but I can't do that in blogger, so just imagine I circled the word "simplify". We already have a pile of stuff to put on a rummage sale in May that we're having with our friends. Not only do I want to simplify the junk we have, but I want to simplify our lives and minds. This will prove to be the hardest goal.
I know most of you don't care about these, but it feels like more of a commitment to bettering myself when I type them out for the world to see.
On a side note (because I feel bad not giving you a photo), B built a cajon (a wooden box drum that even has a snare head inside) and I designed this little "logo" for him to burn into the wood on the bottom right corner. I included a YouTube video below for you to see what a cajon sounds like and how to play. One of us will do a blog post on the cajon later.
So it's been a very long time since I last wrote...like almost a year! But it's a new year, and with new years come new goals and ambitions, so here it goes again.
This Christmas was wonderful. It was only a four day weekend for us, but it felt like a week. It was well-needed, to say the least.
This is the third year we've sent out Christmas cards. I just love it. It seriously makes me so happy to send them out. For me it's a little reminder to all our friends and family saying, "Hey, we're thinking about you and love you! 'Tis the reason for the season!" p.s. I designed this card, so if you ever want any design work done, it's what I do so get a hold of me, please!
The back side reads, "wishing you hope, love, joy and peace this 2011 holiday season"
Because we went to see family over the weekend, B and I had our Christmas at our place before we left for the weekend and again after we got back (one of us ordered gifts late and they didn't get here until after Christmas...)
I absolutely LOVED our tree. I called it our "homemade tree" because B and I made popcorn garland, I made the paper star for the topper and it was filled with ornaments from our childhoods and our life together. I completely adored it!
Well, I actually had more photos for you, but for some reason they aren't uploading. I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas with family and friends and be sure to start 2012 off right with lots of love, laughter and fellowship!
