Anniversary Trip

It just so happens that the 2nd week of Kyle's block leave this summer falls on our 5th wedding anniversary. He will be in a class the 1st week so going anywhere for the whole time is out. We finally came to a decision as to where we want to go for at least a few days. We are going to San Antonio! We have plans to go to these 2 places while we are there:

Thanks to the Hero's Salute we were able to get 2 free tickets.

Sclitterbahn is an awesome water park in New Braunfels, which is about 30 minutes from San Antonio.

I'm excited to get away for a few days, it is much needed for both of us. It will be fun to explore the area and see other parts of Texas. I am taking advantage of our time together because he will be knee deep in training after block leave gearing up for the dreaded "D". 

Do you all have plans for the summer?! 

Happy Tuesday!

another week begins

I can't believe we are only a few days away from May! The last weekend of April was pretty good to us.

Saturday we got up bright and early to get ready for the Ultimate Gladiator Dash in Las Cruces, NM. It's roughly a 45 minute drive to get there so it's not too bad. We started the run at 10am and finished in about 35 minutes. It was another 5k with roughly 20 obstacles, it was a blast! I don't have any pictures yet because it's hard to take your own pictures haha. Once the photographer posts their picture I will hopefully find a few of us. Since we were already in Las Cruces, we went to the farmer's market afterwards and got burrito's from our favorite truck. We walked around and enjoyed the gorgeous weather. We headed home after about an hour and laid around the house the rest of the night. 

I woke up yesterday morning completely sore lol. My legs were killing me and it sucked walking up and down the stairs. Thankfully they are much better today, hopefully I can get a run in this afternoon without falling apart. This week is going to be busy, I have something planned everyday:

Monday: Oil Change (my car)
Tuesday: Oil Change (Kyle's car)
Wednesday: Lunch/Meeting with Kyle and his soon to be 1SGT
Thursday- Care Team training class
Friday: Hair Appt and Jason Aldean concert

I do secretly enjoy being on the go all the time. I can't sit still for more than 5 minutes anyway. This week is tame compared to the rest of the month.

Hope you all have a great Monday but to ensure you get a large dose of cuteness I will leave you with this picture of my niece and nephew:

:)

Sunday Social

I love the questions for this week's Sunday Social so I'm linking up with Ashley and Neely!

1. Did you sleepwalk as a child?

I don't think I did, at least my parents never mentioned it.

2. Did you ever try to run away or sneak out of your house?

No, I never tried to run away or sneak out. Thankfully I had a pretty good childhood and rarely fought or got annoyed with my parents or siblings.

3. Did you have any imaginary friends?

I sure did, I think every kid had an imaginary friend. I had an imaginary dog too lol.

4. Did you ever go toilet papering?

Oh I sure did! The youth group that I attended was big into toilet papering. It was anything malicious though. Any new person that came in as a youth leader was subject to toilet papering. We had so much fun! My house even got toilet papered when I became a youth leader.

5. Did you ever sneak tv shows you weren't allowed to watch?

We weren't allowed to watch Beavis and Butthead. When my parents would go to dinner or something my older brother would let us watch it. We finally got caught when he forgot to change the channel back and my parents turned on the tv and found it on MTV. Yup busted big time.

 I hope you all have a great Sunday! I am permanently affixed to the couch because I can barely move after the mud run yesterday haha.

 

A Little Old School Blogging...

Yesterday I was tagged by the awesome Misty from Monkeys and Tutus to answer these fun questions. So here I go:

1. How did your husband pop the big question?

I knew it was going to happen so it wasn't a surprise, I saw the ring beforehand and everything haha. He was in Vegas on leave and we went to this place called Town Square (it's a big outdoor shopping place) to see a movie. After the movie he took me to a really pretty bridge and got down on one knee. It was really sweet! We celebrated by going to Del Taco, our favorite fast food place haha. 

  2. What are the 3 most surprising things about married life?

1. Since I had been married before I thought that all relationships were one sided and I was so shocked at how different and amazing mine and Kyle's marriage was and still is. 

I can't think of any others lol.          

3. How did you find out you were pregnant for the first time?

The first time I found out I was pregnant was very exciting. It was February 2009 and I had missed my period and figured I would take a test. I was shocked when I saw the plus sign. Needless to say we all know how that ended.

4. How did you choose your first babies name?

Even though we don't have children yet, we do have the names already chosen. We had them chosen shortly after we got married. We did alter the girls middle name to honor my mom after she passed away. The boys middle name is after my uncle who passed. 

Zoe Kay

Connor Jennings

5. Describe where you see yourself in 10 years?

Oh gosh 10 years?! I know that we will still be living the Army life and hopefully still loving it like we do now. Praying a few kids are involved and that we are happier than we have ever been.

6. Describe how you find bliss using words or images?

I find bliss in the way my husband looks at me, the giggles of my niece and nephew, and being with my family and friends. 

The rules for this were to tag 5 amazing bloggers, but I don't want to choose just 5 so I am going to leave this open for anyone to do this if they want.

Have a great day!!

feeling better...and a few other random things.

Thanks everyone for the well wishes yesterday! I'm feeling much better today. I did go for a short run yesterday morning and that ended up not being such a great idea. I thought I felt good enough but no such luck haha. I'm trying to stick to my workout plan of 3 days at the gym, 3 days of running and 1 day of rest. Maybe yesterday should have been my rest day. :)

I did however get a welcome pick me up when this showed up in my mailbox:

My FRG planner! Yay, I love Erin Condren planners and this one is perfect. It's already starting to fill up.

Still on my to-do list is finding Kyle a birthday gift. It's so hard to find something for a guy who has everything. His birthday is next weekend and we are going to the Jason Aldean concert on the 3rd and then The Killers on the 6th. It's going to be a great weekend but now I just need to figure out the perfect gift. Fingers crossed I can come up with something. Since his birthday falls on Cinco de Mayo, I'm sure there will be mexican food involved and I'm very ok with that. I tried to talk him into having a get together with friends but he just wants a low key evening together. I can't say that I blame him.

I hope you all have a very great day, I'm off to the gym to make up for my almost non-existent workout yesterday. :) 

Oh Wednesday...

I have felt like this for the last few days:

So until this upset stomach goes away I am going to camp out in my room and watch Netflix. Maybe go for a short run this afternoon if the queasiness goes away.

I must feel better by Saturday, I don't want to do this mud run not feeling 100%. Fingers crossed.

Enjoy your day!

Don't be Silent: NIAW

For those that don't know this week is National Infertility Awareness Week. Kyle and I have struggled with infertility for the last 4 1/2 years. We have been blessed to be pregnant 4 different times but each ended in a miscarriage. We are struggling to get pregnant again and it has been nothing short of heartbreaking. We have not lost hope and will keep on trying. :)

You would be shocked to know how many people actually suffer from this and that it's not as easy to get pregnant as people think. We choose to share our story instead of struggling in silence, but there are those that don't want to share. People need to be educated on infertility and know that it is a disease and it needs attention.

Here is a wonderful website that needs to be shared:

Resolve- National Infertility Awareness Week

Hugs and prayers to all those suffering!

Another One Done

Saturday we completed our 2nd mud run in a row. This one was held on post and was called "The Old Ironsides Mud Challenge". Instead of the normal 5k it was a 4 mile run with 13 obstacles. It had a few muddy obstacles but the reason we look so clean in the end picture was because of the 30 foot ice water trench. Haha. To say that water was cold is a complete understatement, it was frigid! The obstacles were no joke either, they used the Air Assault course and used/or modified some of the obstacles. There was one called the "Barricades of Bliss" it was 50 barricades that you had to climb over. Ugh that was brutal.

Since this was the first annual event instead of medals they gave out t-shirts to the first 500 finishers. We finished in a little under an hour which I thought was pretty good.

My adrenaline was still going when we finished so I didn't notice this until we got home. Yeah my knee is a little sore haha. It was worth it though, we had a great time.

 

Next Saturday is our 3rd and final mud run in Las Cruces, NM. 

I am starting to realize how much I love running. It's relaxing and something that I can do whenever I feel like it. Since doing these mud runs hasn't quite been crazy enough we signed up for the Fort Bliss 10 Miler in August. It gives me plenty of time to train and get where I want to be. I'm not aiming to be the fastest, I just want to keep a good pace and finish. 

The rest of our weekend has been relaxing and low key which has been great. We did some shopping after the run and had a yummy lunch at Olive Garden, can't go wrong with soup, salad and breadsticks. Yesterday, we were completely lazy which is just what we needed.

I hope you all had a great weekend!

Sunday Social!

Happy Sunday everyone! I'm liking up with Ashley and Neely for some fun questions.

 

1. What is your shopping weakness?

My shopping weakness is Old Navy. Anytime I'm out shopping I always have to stop there, I usually find a few items I like.

2. What is your food weakness?

Pizza! I love it, there is a place called Ardovino's around the corner from the house and they have some of the best pizza. 

3. What is your go to movie to watch when nothing is on?

It has to be "Office Space", I'm obsessed with that movie. We watched it last night and it never gets old. "Dazed and Confused" is also another favorite. 

4. What is your go to breakfast food?

It has to be cinnamon crumb cake! This is my favorite recipe: Cinnamon Crumb Cake

5. Do you drink coffee? If so, how do you take it?

I don't drink coffee very often, but if I do it has to have cream and lots of sugar haha.

I hope you all have a wonderful day! 

A Few Tidbits

For the past few weeks we have been waiting for a concrete date for Kyle's Change of Command. Well, yesterday we finally got it. Kyle will become the new Bravo Company commander on May 16th! He has been waiting for this moment his entire Army career and we are excited for this new adventure. Now I can really start planning the reception and put all my ideas in motion.

We are gearing up for another mud run this weekend. This one will be a 4 mile course on post at the Air Assault Course. I'm significantly more intimidated by this one, especially the 30 foot trench filled with ice water haha.

 I don't have much else to share so I will leave you with these pictures of Emma and Fishy.

Fishy obviously wanted to camp out in Kyle's gear.

Awkward?!

 

 Emma was not happy about me taking her picture.

Happy Friday!!

My Favorite Things

I haven't done a post like this in a while so I figured I would share some of my favorite things lately:

I am obsessed with this show haha. It's so ridiculous but it's hilarious. Si is definitely my favorite.

My Garmin, I LOVE it!!! I have used it all week and I'm so happy I got it.

I LOVE this perfume, I'm not a fan of most but this one isn't overpowering. I'm running low which makes me sad haha.

My TOMS! I'm so glad I bought them.

This OPI color, it's not very springy but it's always my go-to color.

Kyle in uniform....this is an older photo but I just love it. He is so handsome.

I hope you all have a great Thursday!!

Random Wednesday!

It's official, we have vegetables that are growing! We are so excited.

 

I also got my Garmin in the mail and I LOVE IT!!! It is everything that I wanted and I'm glad that I got it.

I realized yesterday that not a lot of people who follow me here know that I also have a food blog that I run called Army Wife in the Kitchen. I started it about 8 months ago to share all the amazing recipes that I had stored up and new ones that I was trying. I post recipes 3x a week with step by step instructions along with pictures.

Here are links to both the blog itself and the FB page that goes along with it:

Army Wife in the Kitchen Blog

Army Wife in the Kitchen FB Page

Hope you like it, I really have a great time sharing all these recipes. :)

Happy Wednesday!

5 years ago...

This week 5 years ago my relationship with Kyle became official. We had been talking off and on for a few weeks and during this time he came to see me while he was on leave and that was it! I knew without a doubt that I would spend the rest of my life with him.

Our first picture together

Going out on the town with my sister 

2 months later we walked down the aisle

There is no other person that I would rather be with or do crazy stuff like this with.

I love you babe!!

Jailbreak 2013

Saturday morning Kyle and I got up bright and early to head off to the Jailbreak 5k Mud Run.  We were part of the 9:30 wave, there was a total of 10 with about 150 people per wave. We started right on time and the first half was the longest part of actual running. We got sprayed down several times with ice cold water haha (thanks to the fire department next door). The obstacles were awesome and the most intimidating for me was the tire climb which was about 15 feet high. I did it though! The 2nd to the last obstacle was my favorite, it was a low crawl through nothing but mud, it was hilarious.

We finished in about 45 minutes which I thought was pretty impressive considering all the obstacles. The awesome Brittany and her husband from Aviation of Love came out to cheer us on and take some pictures. I'm still waiting for the event photographer to post their pictures. Here are a few:

 
I was not expecting to get a medal but I'm really proud of it. I'm really glad we did it and now we have 2 more to look forward to. I caved and signed up for the 3rd one. If you ever have a chance to sign up for one DO IT! I can't wait until the Old Ironsides Mud Challenge this weekend. :)

Have a great day!

Mission Accomplished!

We did it! We finished our first mud run! I will post a full recap tomorrow. :)

Happy Sunday!

Racing..it's what I love.

My whole life I have spent around drag racing, my Dad has been racing since I was 4 years old (so almost 24 years now). It's what I love and what we loved to spend our weekends doing as a family. To read more about my love for it check out this post I'm A Tomboy. My Dad has always been known for his car, it's called Part Time Mistress:

The car has been painted this way for quite some time. My brother is an incredibly talented artist and painted this whole car himself. Well, the time has come for a change and my Dad wants something darker. My brother did a rendition of the change and here it is:

Amazing, right?!?! On the trunk lid there will be a tribute to my Mom in the form of her favorite movie: The Nightmare Before Christmas. My brother will paint this on there along with her name somewhere:

It will be a few years before he will debut the new car design but I can't wait!!!! My sister and I always joke that our brother took all the artistic genes in the family haha because we surely don't have any. I can barely draw a stick figure haha.

Enjoy your day everyone!

It's Getting Closer!

Tomorrow we will be participating in our first mud run, The Jail Break.  To say I'm nervous is an understatement haha. I mean I know I will be fine but as of right now the obstacles are very intimidating to me. 

I'm thankful that Kyle and I are doing this together because there is no way that I would do it by myself. I even told him that if he wanted to go ahead of me that would be perfectly ok. In his sweet nature he said "I think it's awesome that you are challenging yourself to do this so there is no way that I'm leaving you behind." Seriously!? How amazing is he? It means a lot to me.

The following weekend we are participating in another mud run:

This one is on post and of course if I survive the 1st one (fingers crossed lol) I will be there. 

It's fun being able to do these things with Kyle, it definitely brings us closer (if that makes sense). I did conquer my first 3+ mile run on Sunday after a very long hiatus from running. It felt great! Kyle is crazy and will be participating in a 3rd mud run on the 27th, I politely declined and said 2 is my limit. haha. We are also getting a team together from Kyle's company to do the color run in September, it will be awesome!

I can't wait to post pictures from this weekend!

Get The Word Out

Yesterday I had the privilege of attending a town hall meeting on Fort Bliss with special guest speaker, Holly Petraeus. For those of you who don't know who she is, she is the wife of former CIA director and retired 4-star General, David Petraeus. For the 37 years that she was a military spouse she was an advocate for military families and soldiers. She still continues to work and lobby for military families to get the help and support they need especially financial help. She has testified in congressional hearings 5 times on behalf of military families.

She currently is the assistant director of Service Member Affairs for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. It helps protect military families from being taken advantage of by banks, student loan companies, credit card companies, etc. She gave great tips and tricks to help military not get stuck in a financial predicament. If you are involved in your FRG make sure that this information gets to your leader and commander because the more people that know about it the more help we can give our families and soldiers.

 The great thing is the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is here to help everyone not just military. Please don't get taken advantage by financial institutions or businesses. If you feel that you have been taken advantage of go to their website and submit a complaint, it will be seen.

Here are links to the websites:

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (service members)

I really hope this information can be passed along and helps at least one person. 

A Little Update

 Yesterday afternoon I was getting ready to prep dinner when Kyle called. Now he normally will text me throughout the day but only calls if it's an emergency. He proceeded to tell me that his car was acting up and he was taking it to the dealership.We've never had any issues with it but it's giving me slight anxiety thinking about possibly having to get a new car for him, since both of our cars are paid off. Hopefully if it is fixable it won't cost an arm and a leg...just an arm would be ok. ;)

I had to take him back to work after we dropped his car off so it gave me a chance to meet with the Battalion FRSA (family readiness support assistant). I was able to get my paperwork in order to become the battalion treasurer as well as the company frg leader when the time comes. She is such a sweet lady and really helpful. I know that things are going to be great, everyone is so incredibly nice. I have a great rapport with the battalion commander as well as the command sergeant major, I can tell that they are interested and involved. It will make my life easier in the long run.

We still have a tentative date of May 29th for Kyle to take command, I can't wait until we get 100% confirmation so I can really start planning and setting things up. We have ideas for food and I know what I'm doing for the cake. I know Kyle is anxious and we will start change of command inventories next week so it will be a lot of late nights. I foresee watching a lot of Netflix haha.

Oh and I'm super excited because my herbs are starting to grow:

Yay! Here's hoping they stay alive, lol.

Happy Wednesday and I hope you all have a great day!!

Flashback: The Beach

Every now and then I will go through pictures on my FB and this is the one I found yesterday. 1 year ago today I was enjoying this gorgeous view:

This was taken at our hotel in Myrtle Beach, SC. From 2009-2012 we spent Easter there, it became our tradition. Oh how I miss this place and really want a beach vacation.

Anyone else need a beach getaway?! :)

Have a great day!

Trinity Atomic Bomb Site

Saturday morning Kyle and I got up bright and early to drive the 3 hours out to the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. We were going to see the Trinity Atomic Bomb Site. On July 16, 1945 at 5:29am the first atomic bomb was assembled and tested at the Trinity Site. Less than one month later on August 6th the 2nd atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, Japan and the 3rd on Nagasaki on August 9th.

Being able to stand in the place where so much history had been created was incredible. We were able to step foot in the building where the plutonium core was assembled. Here are pictures from our trip:

1. This is "Jumbo". The bomb was supposed to be placed inside but they decided against. It was 800ft away from the detonation site in a steel tower and it survived the blast. In 1946 they filled it with 8 500lb bombs that blew the ends off.

2. Us standing inside "Jumbo"

3. The monument that stands at the detonation site

4. Us next to the monument

 1. This structure is the only piece left of the tower that the bomb sat on

2. A replica of the "Fat Man" bomb casing that was dropped on Nagasaki

3. An aerial view of the trinity site after the bomb exploded

4. A picture of the mushroom cloud created by the bomb

1. McDonald Ranch- where the plutonium core was assembled

2. The exact room of the house where the core was assembled

3. a timeline of the bomb's creation and detonation

4. Us on the bus ride back to the main site

 1. The crowd from the 1965 open house

2. Newspaper article announcing the bombing on Japan

3. The bomb completely assembled at the top of the tower

4. "Jumbo" being brought in on a rail car

This was one of the most incredible experiences that I have ever had. I'm so glad that we had the opportunity to go, especially now since it's only open twice a year (1st weekend in April and 1st weekend in October). If you are ever in this area during the times it is open, definitely go. You will not regret it!

Hope you enjoyed my pictures.

Have a great day!

I changed my mind

At the beginning of the week I received my Polar Watch heart rate monitor in the mail. I was so excited to use it and was really impressed with how easy it was to set up. This is the one I got:

The transmitter strap you wear to track your heart rate was really comfortable and I didn't even notice I was wearing it. Overall I was really impressed until I started to notice the little things that bothered me. For one it didn't track distance, now that I am more into running this is a huge issue. I really didn't think it would bother me so much. You also can't upload your information online to keep track and the biggest downfall is that you can't charge it. If the battery goes dead you have to send it back to have the battery replaced and that could cost upwards of $25 + shipping. 

I soon realized that this watch was just not for me. I got a great price on it through Amazon and thankfully I am able to return it. After talking with Kyle and a few fellow bloggers I decided on this one instead:

Garmin Forerunner 10. It has everything that I want, it tracks heart rate, calories, and distance. I also can upload everything online and it's rechargeable. 

So all in all, the Polar Watch is not a bad product, it just wasn't for me.

Happy Sunday!

it never hurts to be prepared

For the last few years I have been talking about getting CPR/First Aid Certified through the Red Cross. I kept putting it off but once we moved here and I knew that once again I would be really involved with the FRG I knew I needed to do it. A few days ago I registered for the Adult and Pediatric CPR/First Aid class in May. I'm really excited about it and I figured since I would be dealing with people in social situations/big events you can never be too prepared. I'm also doing it for my own personal benefit.

It was pricey but I know it will be well worth it and the certification is good for 2 years.

I feel like lately all I have been doing is taking training classes but I know that it will only benefit me and I can help those around me as well.

Are any of you CPR/First Aid certified?

What's In A Name?!

I normally don't post twice in a day but I thought this was appropriate. Most of you have commented before on how funny you think it is that our cats name is Fishy. Well he wasn't always named that. When I found him 5 1/2 years ago (He was only 4 weeks old) I decided to name him "Lucky" because he was certainly lucky to be alive. Well when I loaded he and Emma up to move cross country with Kyle his personality started to show more and more.

One night in our apartment Kyle and I were talking about his favorite episode of Sesame Street from when he was a kid. Here is the clip:

Haha! Kyle started doing the fish call and the cat came running into the room. We thought it was a fluke so he did it again once the cat left the room and sure enough he came running again. Since that day he has been Fishy.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Fur-Baby Friday

It's no secret to anyone on here how much we love our fur-babies: Emma and Fishy. Here are a few fun pictures I have taken recently. 

Fishy apparently wanted breakfast last Saturday and sat himself at the counter haha.

Emma enjoying the sun with Kyle while we grilled.

He looks less than thrilled that I'm taking his picture haha

Emma decided yesterday that she wanted to lay on the rocks instead of the grass. Silly girl.

I'm off to the gym in a little so I get to test out my new polar watch. Once I get used to it I will be doing a full review. 

Have a great day!!

Oh Thursday..

I can't believe that it's already Thursday, this week seems to have flown by. Not that I'm complaining or anything. We were supposed to be going to a formal tonight but unfortunately it was cancelled, not that I mind. Formals on Thursday's aren't nearly as much fun. The last few days I have been taking FRG training classes, I have taken them before but it's always nice to have a refresher. You never know when information might change.

On another exciting note, I did receive this beauty in the mail yesterday:

YAY! I got a great deal on it from Amazon and I can't wait to try it out on my workout tomorrow. I have only heard great things about it.

Another reason I am glad that this week is flying by is because we get to go here on Saturday:

This is the Trinity Atomic Bomb site where the first atomic bomb was dropped and tested on July 16, 1945. Only twice a year they open this site up to the public and we are really excited to see this piece of history. I can't wait to share pictures.

Well I better get going, have to make it to my class and then lunch with Kyle (which rarely happens). :)

Have a great day!