It's Friday!!!

Let me just say that having two mojitos last night at dinner is most definitely my limit. Yes, I am a lightweight haha. It was nice that Kyle was home at 1:30 and we were able to have an early dinner together. We spent the rest of the night relaxing, he playing video games and me laying on the couch half asleep. :) We are party animals I tell ya! However, we did indulge in this amazing s'mores pizookie at BJ's, good gracious it was good.

 

 

Yesterday afternoon was yet again another Change of Command ceremony for Kyle's unit. Let me just say that I am not an overly emotional person, but for some reason it got me thinking about when we will say goodbye to everyone in less than two months. It looks like Kyle's color casing ceremony will be the beginning of October and having to say goodbye to the soldiers/families of the company is really getting to me. They are an amazing group and I will miss them tremendously.

I have 2 midterms that I need to work on today and tomorrow so I can get them submitted before heading up to Arizona early Sunday morning. Let me just say that midterms that consist of all essays is not fun! Remind me again why I am going to school at 29?! Haha. Just kidding, I am loving every second.

 

 I found a few more races to register us for in Louisiana, thank goodness Kyle just nods and smiles. :)

I hope you all have a great Labor Day Weekend!

There Is Good In Everything

Since our time in El Paso is coming to an end I wanted to do a recap post of sorts. Before we moved here we had so many people tell us what a horrible place it was. I compiled a list of all the things people said and my thoughts after living here for almost 2 years.

1. You are close to Mexico and the violence is really bad.

Ummm yea no. El Paso has been named one of the safest cities for the last few years. When you have a high concentration of 3 letter agencies the crime tends to stay pretty low.

2. The dry desert climate is not enjoyable and it's too hot.

You are talking to a person that was born and raised in the dry desert heat of Las Vegas. I'm good.

3. The people are not friendly at all.

I have met some of the nicest people while living here. The locals love the military and are incredibly welcoming.

4. There is nothing to do.

This is the one that made me laugh! We have visited more places, been to more concerts, seen more sporting events, ran more races and gone to more festivals than I could have ever imagined or hoped for.

5. The shopping is bad and there are no good restaurants.

While I don't care too much about shopping, we have a Target and that is good enough for me. Oh and we have a Jason's Deli and bitchin' Mexican food, I call that a win.

 

6. Fort Bliss itself is a horrible post.

Now let me just say two words, Freedom Crossing, if you have not seen it look it up. It is absolutely amazing. How many posts have a Buffalo Wild Wings, Irish Pub (the only one in El Paso mind you), Under Armour and a plethora of other stores in one place. While there are things that I might have changed about the units on Fort Bliss (but that can be said about any unit in any place) overall it has been an amazing place.

7. The medical care at the clinics/hospital is not good.

I have to say that I have had a great experience with the doctors here, of course there are those I had differing opinions with but the overall care has been stellar.

8. El Paso is an ugly and dirty city.

Every city is dirty lol. There is nothing like the El Paso sky, it is stunning and our mountain view is amazing.

Of course everyone's perceptions are different, we do our best to embrace everywhere we go. We have loved our time here in El Paso/Fort Bliss and we know that we will embrace our new adventure at Polk as well.

We will miss you El Paso/Fort Bliss, thank you for the amazing memories!

A Gift

For the last few months I have been trying to come up with a gift to give Kyle after he cases his company colors. Thankfully a friend of mine and fellow senior advisor is amazing when it comes to painting and crafting. She makes lawn flags and these really neat painted metal buckets:

Jess Army Crafts

She can create them in any color/design and I knew this is what I wanted to do for Kyle. His will be MI (military intelligence) blue and will have his company logo on it:

It will have Stalker 6 and CPT Smith above and below the logo respectively.

She has started working on it and I am really excited to see how it turns out. I have plans to fill it with his favorites things when I give it to him, to include beer of course. ;) 

I really hope he likes it!

Happy Tuesday!

It Was A Good One!

As usual this weekend was pretty awesome.

On Friday, Kyle cooked us dinner, he is such a sport and has no problem doing that after working all day. The rest of the night was spent lounging on the couch. I love nights like that.

Saturday morning we were up bright and early for the Rhino Run 8k. We ran this race last year and loved it. All of the money goes to helping out the local El Paso hockey league. It was the same course as last year which was nice but it was really humid.

I started out at a much faster pace than I wanted to but I slowed it down and just enjoyed the race. To my surprise Kyle and I both placed in our age groups. He took 3rd in his and I took 1st in mine! 

My goal for a race is always to just finish so placing is an added bonus. We had such a great time.

Once we got home and showered we were off to run some errands. We had to pick up some moving supplies and opted for lunch at Buffalo Wild Wings, we earned it lol.

Sunday was more relaxed as usual and consisted of laundry, grocery shopping and studying for my finals this week.

I hope you all had an awesome weekend! Here is to a great week.

Some Things You Didn't Know...

I have been working on this post for a few days and to be honest it has been fun thinking about things that some people may now know about me. 

Here we go:

I have a really hard time keeping my opinions to myself. I do however try to remember that there is a time and place for everything.

I went skydiving in 2006 with my sister. I have been wanting to do it again ever since. 

I was born and raised in the same house my entire life, my Dad still lives in that same house. It's pretty awesome.

I used to be really involved in Church...however I was soured on it for various reasons and have found no reason to go back.

My first concert was Nine Inch Nails and A Perfect Circle, I was 12 years old and my Dad and brother took me. It was AMAZING...well until I got pulled into a mosh pit and my brother has to fish me out. :)

I don't like wine...I have tried all kinds and nope not liking it.

I have an obsession with slipper socks, I have roughly 25 pairs and they all correspond to holidays. Yup, thanks Target.

When I was growing up I wanted to be an architect, not sure what happened to that dream. Oh yeah I can't draw and I hate math. lol.

I have never seen any of the Stars Wars movies, Kyle is trying to change that haha.

I have never broken a bone but now that I have said that I might have jinxed myself.

I hope you enjoyed these! Have an amazing weekend everyone!

...It's Only Wednesday?!

This week seems to be dragging on...I was sure it was at least Thursday when I woke up lol. Anywho..

One of the things that I love the most about military life are the ceremonies. Even the smallest ceremony has so much meaning behind it. On Monday, we celebrated our brigade mascot, Chester's, 2nd birthday and his promotion to SGT. We are one of the last units to have an actual living mascot.

It was so cute seeing him wander around in his vest and enjoy his birthday cake. He has such a sweet personality and I always look forward to going to brigade events because he is more than likely there.

Kyle has started packing up his office, taking things off the walls and boxing it all up. I have to say it is really bittersweet. One of the cool things though is that no one else will command this company. Kyle will be the last Stalker 6 for Bravo Company.

We had our pre-move inspection yesterday with the moving company and we are set for the end of the September. Time is moving fast for sure!

Happy Wednesday everyone!

Running and Beer...Yes Please!

This weekend we had another race. This time is the Fort Bliss 10 Miler in the Heat. We ran this race last year, it was actually my first official race that was a significant distance.

It started at 7am and to be honest it was perfect weather, it was overcast somewhat humid (it got worse as the race went on) and we even got a few sprinkles along the course.

I was happy with the pace that I was running at, I was not going in to break any records haha. I was keeping a slow and steady pace and still managed to best my time from last year by a few minutes so I was happy. After the race we had our traditional Starbucks which there happens to be one right across from the gym the race was held at.

We got home and showered then headed off to Las Cruces for the Tour de Beer festival. I am normally not a beer drinker but I did find a few that I enjoyed. We had a blast, we got our commemorative glasses, beer tickets and listened to live music. It was a great way to end the day.

Sunday was a bit more low key, I made homemade cinnamon rolls for breakfast, we did some shopping and looked at new dining room tables. We are toying with the idea of getting a new one but we will see.

I hope you all had a great weekend!

I love Friday!

We have made it to another Friday! And to not bore you all with a lot of words I am going to kick this weekend off with pictures of the two cutest fur kids out there.


Emma decided that she needed all of the pillows on the couch to be comfortable.

This was Fishy's way of telling me to stop doing school work and pay attention to him haha.

I hope you all have an amazing weekend!

Thoughts on Thursday

I love these posts where I just sit down and write out my thoughts and recap what is going on with us.

*I am in the middle of writing 3 papers...my brain is fried. I am sure it is only going to get worse. But it will be worth it in the end.

*We pushed our packing days back by 3 weeks for various reasons. To be honest I am much happier with this choice.

*Kyle will officially case his company colors at the beginning of October. It is such a bittersweet time but he joked that he will just take his guidon and run.

*I am heading back up to Phoenix at the beginning of September to look after my niece and nephew for a few days. I am really looking forward to it. :)

*We are running the Fort Bliss 10 Miler in the Heat this Saturday and as a gift to Kyle for running all these races with me I bought him tickets to a beer festival in Las Cruces that afternoon. He will be a happy guy.

*I am redeeming the other half of my birthday gift from Kyle today. Manicure and Pedicure here I come! My feet especially take a beating from the all the running, I can't wait.

I hope you all have a great Thursday!

A Long Journey

When Kyle and I got married, I was happy with my 115 pound frame. Over time I sort of let myself go, I was comfortable in my life and it showed. Then came the fertility treatments, they wreaked havoc on my body. The hormonal changes were a nightmare, I was an emotional eater and with every setback it just got worse. I gained 45 pounds in a matter of a year and I had no idea how I was going to fix that. I was just plain unhappy.

I was never a very active person and I knew that this had to change. Once we moved away from North Carolina I gained a new outlook on life. I started walking a few days a week and started to really watch my portions. To be honest, I never eliminated anything from my diet (with the exception of soda) and I started to see changes.

When we moved to Texas I finally said okay to giving running a try and boy did it change my life. I felt energy that I hadn't felt in years! Over time I successfully lost that 45 pounds and have kept it off for a year. I did not want to lose it quickly, but I wanted to do it the healthy way. Even during these last few rounds of clomid, I was able to keep my body in check and I did not experience any weight gain from it. 

My advice to anyone who is looking to lose weight, do it the way that is best for you! Don't let anyone talk you into a diet that doesn't seem right for you. Take your time, there is no reason to try and lose 50 pounds in a month. 

I don't want to be skinny, I just want to be fit and healthy.

November 2010-August 2014

Rio Grande Half Marathon

Saturday morning we hopped in the car and headed up to Albuquerque for another half marathon. We decided to go up a day early, pick up our packets and stay in a hotel. This was such a smart move on our part.

The race started promptly at 6:30am and it was a gorgeous run!!! I wish I had stopped to take a few photos but I was focused on not tripping over myself haha. Part of the run went behind the Albuquerque zoo so we got a nice view of the Elephant enclosure, it was awesome.

The rest of the run was primarily along the Rio Grande (hence the name of the race). It was absolutely gorgeous, it was only 66 degrees and it barely reached 70 degrees by the time we were finished.

My knee and ankle started to give me fits around mile 12, my entire goal for the rest was to best my 10 mile time (since we have the 10 Miler in the Heat this weekend), I shattered my previous time by 10 minutes. 

I was only 1 minute off my fastest half time, given my knee/ankle issues I was happy with that. As with any race our goal is to just cross the finish line (Kyle runs ahead of me so his times are stupidly fast lol).

We had a great time and can't wait to come back to Albuquerque in September for another half.

I hope you all had a great weekend!

It's Friday!!

In an earlier post I mentioned that I wanted to have the items from Kyle's Change of Command put into a shadow box. I went and picked up the one that I liked and did it myself. I love how it came out!! Now I don't have to worry about the movers crushing the flowers or losing the other things.

Yesterday I had my 90 minute massage that my sweet husband got me for my birthday. It was heaven! I had so much built up tension in my shoulders/legs from all the running. I need to do this more often.

We have a half marathon this weekend and I can't wait! To run in a new place and see new scenery will be amazing.

Oh and on an exciting note, Kyle got his orders on Monday! We scheduled transportation yesterday and if they accept our dates the movers will be here in 3 weeks!!! Ahh! :)

I hope you all have an amazing weekend!

Wordless Wednesday

I love this man!! I love an excuse to get dressed up and snap a photo with him.

Happy Wednesday!

Thoughts on Tuesday

*If I hear one more person say that they are sorry we are going to Polk, I'm going to punch them! If you have nothing nice to say don't say anything at all.

*Daily I search and look at houses in LA...finding a good house seems promising. We will see how it goes when I visit at the end of September.

*The Army thought it would be funny to give Kyle his ranger school spot back after wait listing him...umm yeah can't go now.

*I finally got my running mojo back! For the last few months I have been slacking but now I am back and better than ever.

*I am ready for our mini-trip to Albuquerque this weekend even though it means running 13.1 miles haha.

*I bought tickets to Oktoberfest on post....yay for German food and beer!

*Michael's wants to charge me $125 to frame my flowers, program and napkin from Kyle's COC...yeah I'll do it myself.

*I am starting to panic a little that we are moving in a few months...time to kick operation PCS into high gear and prep things.

*I start 2 new classes yesterday...back to five. I often wonder if I am a glutton for punishment. My head wants to explode on a daily basis. :)

Have a great Tuesday everyone!

Weekend Snapshots

Friday night was pretty low key, it was spent drinking tea and playing Super Mario Bros. Pretty awesome if you ask me.

Saturday, we spent the day running errands an enjoying the crazy rain that we were getting. It was so nice to have to cooler temps.

I changed my mind on the dress I wanted for the Change of Command tomorrow. I found this awesome dress at Dillard's and knew I had to have it. :)

A little baking always happens and I made some delicious Margarita cupcakes! OMG! So good! I'm making oreo cookie cupcakes this afternoon.

Sunday, we got up bright and early to run the Spartyka Fallen Heroes 5k. It was a great race, but just really humid. I had another PR so I was happy.

I hope you all had an amazing weekend!

Hello August

I can't believe that it is August 1st! This year is flying by and there is no sign of it slowing down, which is both good and bad.

Here is a snippet in bullet points of what is going on with us lately.

*We are holding off on doing round 3 of clomid for various reasons. It will be nice to give my body a little bit of a break.

*We have had a few showings for the house...we have an interested party so hopefully they come back with an offer!

*The Division Change of Command is on Tuesday (thankfully Kyle doesn't have to march so we can go together), and I'm in desperate need of a new dress. I'm going to the mall today with something like this in mind:

*I am knee deep in classes for school...I start two more classes on Monday and it just has me one step closer to graduating.

*I scheduled my massage for next week...my body will thank me since we are running a 5k, half, 10 miler and 8k this month haha.

*FRG stuff is really starting to ramp down and it makes me sad. As of today Kyle only has 16 people in his company and the battalion is dwindling as well.

Well that's about it! I hope you all have a great weekend!