I’m having sort of the best night ever.

One of these kinds of nights.

Brad’s out with the boys; and I’m home with my wine and bubble bath, currently rockin' out to my beloved Eminem’s “Beautiful” on pandora.

This is happiness.

The Jingle Bell 5K

In the past month or so, I’m going to guess that I’ve gained about 5 lbs. I’m not sure exactly how much weight I’ve gained, but all I know all of my jeans are giving me serious muffin-top these days. So, on tuesday, I heard about this jingle bell 5K to benefit arthritis and thought perfect! I love any good cause that gets me a free teeshirt. So I signed up for it with a few friends.

Here’s the thing though, I absolutely abhor running. I only do it once a year because the Air Force tells me too. I believe that whole “runners high” thing is a conspiracy. I have not actually ran since my annual PT test in July, and I haven’t ran a 5K since SEP 11th, 2008.

Oh I work out some… I like yoga. It makes me physically and spiritually happy, and it makes my muscles strong and flexible. Swimming is my cardiovascular exercise of choice (although I haven’t done that lately either) because it doesn’t hurt and I don’t feel myself sweat in the pool. I consider myself a basically healthy active person. I’m just not a runner. However, I’m a relatively stupid impulsive person, so I layered up, tied some jingle bells to my shoe laces and joined my much healthier friends for a little run along the coastal trail in 27 degree windy weather.

I actually did really well considering my lack of any preparation whatsoever, and honestly, it didn’t completely suck. My run time was 30:29 (I have my awesome pacer Nali to thank for that) and I didn’t stop and walk once. I managed to sweat through 2 layers of clothing and I actually passed quite a few people. I forgot about how cold my lungs were, or the frozen buggers in my nose (TMI?) and I listened to the jingle bells ringing on my shoes and the snow crunching with every step. Fun fact, I love the sound of snow crunching under my feet, sometimes I find my self accidentally stomping in public just to hear it. Not so fun fact, running on snow is much like running on sand. It takes twice as much effort to get where you need to go. But I digress. 30 minutes and 29 seconds later, I was a bit excited to finish. Running is awful but finishing feels so great.

our “after pic"

Anywho, I went home feeling oh so healthy and productive. I gave Brad a bunch of crap about how lazy he is (even though the only reason he didn’t come was that I complained he’s too fast for me) and pretty much danced around the house in a mood of euphoria.

But I forgot to stretch.

I didn’t do it immediately after running because it was too cold. As soon as I stopped running the wind just cut through my wet shirt. So I took that picture with the girls and hurried home.

And so the dramatic ending to my saga.

Upon waking this morning, I discovered that I have lost the use of both my legs. Every muscle/joint from my butt down is stiff and aching. And it’s not just my legs; my abs, mid-back, and both thumbs (yeah thats right) all hurt too. I’m walking like an 88 yr old lady with a bilateral hip replacement. I can’t walk up and down the stairs and I’m holding my pee because it hurts to sit down, and once I’m down it hurts to stand back up. I may be exaggerating just a little bit, but I swear, I’ve never been so sore in my life. I’ve been painfully stretching all day, I chugged some muscle milk, popped some pills, and I took a hot bath, all with no improvement. I even tried calling my parents who are both psycho long distance runners, but they didn’t answer because they obviously don’t love me.

And so I am reminded why I hate running. And as far as my dilemma with those love handles, I plan on throwing up my food until they disappear (kidding people!!!).

Thanksgiving 2011 (a.k.a longest post ever)

We had a quiet Thanksgiving this year. It was just myself, Brad and my bro-in-law Jeremy.

A quiet Thanksgiving is always kind of weird to me.

I always get a sense of nostalgia this time of year. I used to spend all the holidays at my grandparent’s house. With aunts, uncles, cousins, nieces, nephews and all of my 11 siblings there. The house was full of NOISE. Children running around playing. People talking over one another. Beer. Football. Laughter. Disfunction. Chaos.

I miss every detail.

However, I do not want anybody to think I am unhappy this year. I was unhappy last year because I had to spend the holidays without my beloved. No, I am nostalgic but very very happy.

This is our 4th Thanksgiving together and my first time cooking a legit Thanksgiving dinner.

And. I. Rocked. it.

I spent all day cooking in sweatpants and a yoga top. I didn’t put on normal clothes until 5 minutes before the turkey came out of the oven. The only sounds were my music in the kitchen and the football game in the living room. I delegated all the tedious tasks I usually dread to Brad. Every few minutes I took a cutting board out to the living room with instructions on how I wanted the fruit/vegetable cut, and he brought it back a few minutes later done exactly as I had asked. It was completely stress-free.

Everything turned out great.

Behold….

...my excitement over my first turkey ever...

...my turkey-carver husband and me...

...my brother in-law looking like he wants to start without us...

..my little Alaskan family...

… and my turkey-eating husband :)

The day after Turkey day (or recovery day as I call it) we went skiing.

Saturday was a bit lazy for me. The boys however, stayed busy building a snow cave.

After the snow-cave, they apparently still had a little energy left over because they wrestled for like five minutes. I should have taken some pictures, but I was just sitting on the stairs watching it, afraid to get in their way. I saved Jer’s glasses that were hanging off his face but was unable to save him when they rolled under the table and a chair fell on his face. By the end, they were sweaty and breathing heavily, and smiling.

The battle wounds.

Here’s just a few more random pictures of...

Jeremy shoveling my driveway.

The Charlie Brown Christmas tree on our trail.

Nali’s big stick.

And the view from my street.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

Bouldering

This is one of our favorite hobbies for when the weather is absolutely miserable. We also belay some, but don’t have any of the gear and don’t always feel like spending the 30 bucks to rent it all. Obviously, we're amateurs and should probably have something holding us up besides our weak spaghetti arms (I’m actually just talking about myself there). I had a few videos but couldn’t get them to load. A sad story really because one of them was quite funny. Lets just say it’s about 2 minutes long and Brad is trying to tell me where to put my left foot. He’s as hopelessly impatient as I am confused. Anywho, all I have are these regular pics. Enjoy.

Our climbing styles couldn’t be more different. I climb slowly and meticulously. Note that in most of my pictures, I am staring at my feet. Brad's like a little spider monkey. Seriously, I can’t get any good pictures of him because he’s so fast!

I have discovered the internet...

And how I love it.

I have discovered that the world wide web is actually the entire world in my computer. Full of brilliant things, countless of recipes, amazing pictures, witty quotes, how to guides, anything you could ever want. Usually, I am too ADD to remain stimulated for any prolonged period of time. Seriously. Just try watching a movie with me. I will get distracted, do something else for a while, then come back and try watching again; only now with tons of questions because I just don’t get it anymore. And I don’t understand why you’re yelling at me to shut up and WATCH. But I digress.

I joined that site stumble-upon a month ago (I know, it’s like 500 years old in internet years but that just shows how much of a novice I am with cyberspace) and it has quickly started sucking hours out of my life. It’s awesome, you simply save a few of your interests and click stumble. If you like what you see, click like and eventually it adapts its webpages for you. Stumble upon over-stimulates me. Every time I start thinking that I should stop and tackle those filthy dishes, or fold that pile of laundry that literally covers the entire queen mattress in our spare bedroom, or think I should go for a run, or do some yoga, I then think to myself, what if this next stumble is the greatest thing I have ever seen? And thats it, the suspense hooks me. All those other things can wait.

This is my world right now. Stumble. Like. Stumble. Stumble. Stumble. Like. Stumble...

Brad keeps makin' fun of me, calling me an addict, but you know what? All he does with his time is channel surf (thats right he doesn’t even watch TV) and play his new batman game, which honestly looks a little lame. But he doesn’t even know… I’ve been way more productive than him, I just learned a new use for lemon rinds, an awesome recipe for white cheddar mac and cheese, and the Dalai Lama’s 18 rule for living… So he can suck it. I’m sorry Brad, that was rude. What I meant was, you’ll shut up if you want any of this awesome mac and cheese that I’m totally planning on making just as soon as I can get up.

However, I can’t get up right now because I have a beautifully hideous, stinky, old, cancer ridden boxer that I’ve had since I was 14 years old sleeping (and snoring really loud) on the couch next to me, her head in my lap. And I have my laptop balanced on that head. And I'm totally enjoying this moment with her.

Anywho, I am planning on limiting myself to 15 minutes of stumbling each day. So I can spend my time figuring out pinterest. Just kidding… Not really.

Have a good day internet world.

The Assignment

The long awaited email finally came this morning. Our assignment, where we will be moving in March. And the winner is...

Drum roll please...

Colorado Springs.

We didn't have this on our base of preferences list. We didn't even really think of Colorado as an option. We wanted to be on the coast. I miss the beach so badly. Also to be near family. We had Virginia Beach, Las Vegas, Northern California, Southern California and Florida on our dream sheet. So this is a bit of a shock, but you know what? We're absolutely thrilled about it.

Colorado Springs is an awesome city. It has everything we love about Alaska but with better snow, less extreme winters, more things to do, more sun, and it's not so isolated.

We're really excited to start our next adventure.

TALL shadows!!!

Random I know, but I love these.

(btw I wish my legs were that long in real life)

Incidentally though, we snapped a picture of probably the last truly green grass we will see in this state. We have just over four months left and yet we're still anxiously awaiting word on where we will be moving next…

We are starting to stress out a little bit. I check my email incessantly and Brad even called AFPC once or twice. We're told that we should find out before November 15th and as soon as we hear anything we'll update you guys. But anyways, look at our shadows. They're so cool!

Hakuna Matata!!

It means no worries...

Who Wore it Best?

Me?

Or Nali?

By the way, I am acutely aware that Brad and I are those lame people that talk about their pets waaaaay too much. We don’t care. We love this animal :)