My Heart Still Hurts

Today marks 4 years since I said goodbye to the most important woman in my life. As I sit here typing this I cannot believe that it has already been 4 years. Some days I feel like it was just yesterday and others I feel like it has been much longer. There is not a day that goes by that I don't miss her and wish dearly that she was still here with us.

When a hear a song, smell a particular smell or watch a certain TV show I can feel her presence. I know that she is with me everyday and that does give me a level of comfort.

I hope that I have made her proud over the last several years, I hope that we all have!

I miss you and love you, Mom! Always!

A Little Weekend Fun!

What a great weekend we had! Friday, we attended the post change of command. I love military ceremonies, I know some people think they can be a bit boring but I love all the pomp and circumstance.

Saturday morning we got up and headed off to Anacoco (about 20 minutes from us) for the Tail Twisting 10k. This race was supporting the local Lions Club which does a lot of great community service acts to help their local area.

It was an out and back course that took us the whole length of the town (it is a tiny tiny place) and the views were amazing. We ran parallel to Vernon Lake and the weather was absolutely perfect! Even with the crazy hills I knew I was a little faster than normal, and was surprised to see that I shaved off 4 minutes from my last 10k. I was even more surprised to see that I placed 1st in my age group and was the 2nd overall female!

We had the best time running this race and can't wait to participate next year. The best part was how nice the people were, that is one of my favorite things about living in the South.

Afterwards we headed off to Lake Charles to have lunch and do some shopping. My wardrobe has been lacking lately and I found some great sales at Target, Khols, Gap, Old Navy and Maurices.

Sunday was more low key, it was spent doing laundry, grocery shopping and getting things ready for our trip to Florida this weekend for Easter! :)

I hope you all had a great weekend!

What I'm Loving!

It's finally Friday and I couldn't be happier! We are attending the post Change of Command this morning and running a 10k tomorrow, that's about all we have planned for the next few days and I am perfectly okay with that.

Here are a few things that I am loving lately.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Dream Bars. Oh good gracious this is the most amazing dessert, you cannot go wrong with chocolate and peanut butter. It is worth every single calorie.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Dream Bars

This Nirvana t-shirt from Target, it's super comfortable and has quickly become a favorite.

I recently purchased this crossbody bag from Harveys and it's amazing. I have always loved their seatbelt bags but this is the best one yet.

I am loving the weather we are having! Despite rain here and there it has been warm and awesome.

This spanish steak salad! It has quickly become a staple in our house because of how easy and delicious it is.

Spanish Steak Salad

What are you loving lately?!

Have a great weekend!

A Little Throwback: 7 Years

7 years ago my world turned upside down. I began dating the man that would change the rest of my life. I was in Las Vegas and he was in North Carolina...we spent a total of 2 weeks together before we knew that we wanted to get married.

I am so glad I took that leap of faith with him!


Look how young we look?! :)

Have a great Thursday everyone!!!

Changing My Routine

I feel like lately I have been in a rut in both daily life and working out. My daily life is consumed with school and the winter just really got me down (I was a cranky mess yesterday lol). I am so glad that we are having more sunny days and I can spend more time outside, especially with it getting darker later now.

When it comes to working out I really slacked on keeping up with running. I knew that something had to change and thanks to Kyle I finally figured it out. I was focusing too much on running and not getting a full body workout. On Monday, I was up at 4:30am to go to the gym with him. His current job doesn't have standard unit PT (Physical Training) so he does it on his own. This means an hour at the gym and a run afterwards.

I felt fantastic afterwards!!! From now on I will be at the gym at 5am 3x a week and then focusing solely on running 3x a week. I always feel the best when I workout and I'm hoping this causes a shift for me. I have the time to do so I just need to buckle down. 

Do you change up your routine when you are in a funk??

Happy Wednesday!

Finally A Weekend Together

On Saturday our plans got pushed back because of rain...go figure. I did however finally cave and go to the gym with Kyle so he could teach me how to properly lift (I'm not a fan of weights) and let me tell you parts of my body hurt that I never thought possible lol.

We made the most of the rainy day by picking up some amazing cajun sausage and grilling. Apparently rain does not stop him from grilling haha. 

Sunday morning it was overcast but not raining so we headed off to Toledo Bend to check out the recreation sites and the cabins. It was gorgeous! We can't wait for better weather so we can fish and kayak.

Our next stop was Vernon Lake, this place is only 25 minutes from our house and it was amazing. They had a sand volleyball court, fishing and boating. I can tell we will be spending a lot of time at both of these places this summer.

We ended the day with a long walk for Emma and lounging around the house.

It was an awesome weekend and I'm looking forward to my last week of my current classes. Only 4 classes away from graduation! 

I hope you all had an awesome weekend!

Weekend Plans

This weekend Kyle will finally have 2 days off so we can actually do some things together. Let me tell all my fellow milspouses that if your soldier ever says they have orders to Polk to be a part of OPS Group, just be prepared for crazy hours and barely seeing them. :) It's a great job but man I'm happy to have a few days of his undivided attention. 

We are going to head about an hour way to Toledo Bend Reservoir on Saturday.

There is a part of it that is exclusively owned and managed by MWR (morale, welfare, and recreation) and it has campgrounds, cabins and yurts. We aren't staying the night but we have plan to go hiking and enjoy the beautiful sites. 

I am sure we will also make our way to a few historic plantations. We plan on hitting up a specialty meat store to pick up some stuff to grill.

Sunday we may venture out to Kisatchie National Forest. It has nature trails, ponds and places to go off-roading:

It's going to be a really nice weekend to just hang out and finally visit some beautiful places.

I hope you all have an awesome weekend!!!

Semi Wordless Wednesday

Exactly 5 years ago today Kyle came home from his deployment to Haiti! 

He deployed very very quickly after getting notification of the earthquake so we had virtually no time to prepare. What a rollercoaster it was!

He and his unit did a lot of amazing work there and I believe they made a huge difference.

What a crazy 1st deployment for us.

Happy Wednesday!

Back to Reality

Another week in Florida has come to an end! It was a great time as usual. 

It was full of gardening, hanging out at my brothers, holding chickens (yes my brother and sister in law have chickens), running, playing with the kiddos, lazy puppies, girls day with my sister, and a get together with my sisters neighbors.

I made it home yesterday afternoon and picked Kyle up from the airport last night! It's nice to be with family but it is always nice to get home. 

I also spent some time searching for a few more local races, it gets difficult driving 2+ hours in the morning for a race. Here is what I have found and registered for so far:

Tailtwisting 10k: 3/28

Dye Hard Warrior 5k: 4/11

Reallity Mud Run: 4/18

Armadillo Stampede 5k: 5/2

Contraband 5 Miler: 5/9

I'm sure I will find a few more to add to the list, we are not trying to kill ourselves this year we just want to have fun and do more races closer to home.

I hope you all had a great weekend!

The Meaning Behind The Ink

Any time someone sees my tattoos they always ask me the meaning behind them. 

This was my first tattoo...I had went skydiving with my sister that morning and at the last minute we decided to go get my first tattoo done. I was very involved with my church at the time and I thought this tattoo was very fitting.

My second one I got done after my divorce was final, it was my gift to myself after putting up with a lot of bad stuff. It was a new beginning for me and this tattoo represented that for me.

This is the chinese symbol for Faith...I had Faith in myself to walk away from a bad situation and not look back

Chinese symbol for Strength. I had the strength to walk away from the bad situation and stand up for what I knew wasn't right.

When my Mom was diagnosed with cancer my sister and I wanted to do something special. The ribbon is the pancreatic cancer ribbon and the monarch butterfly is very special because my sister saw this the morning my Mom was diagnosed. She said she still sees one flying around outside every now and then.

I got this tattoo done when Kyle was deployed. I wanted to do something to honor him and show my never ending support and love. 

In 2014 Kyle and I ran our first full marathon, we knew that we wanted to get something to commemorate the event. We both ended up getting tattoos and it is an awesome reminder of what we accomplished.

 

 Going through the miscarriages and infertility journey I knew that I wanted a tattoo of some sort to honor those sweet babies that we have lost. I came up with this tattoo design and I love it. It is the pregnancy and infant loss ribbon with 5 small hearts representing the babies that we have lost.

 All of these tattoos are incredibly special to me and I have never been one to get a tattoo on a whim. They will be with me for the rest of my life and I want them to mean something.

Do you have any tattoos with meaning? If not, do you want to get one?

Monday, We Meet Again!

I have to say that despite not doing much this weekend it was really nice one. Kyle was off Thursday and Friday so we decided to just hang out together and not venture to many places.

On Thursday we woke up to this, yes that is a very light dusting of snow haha. We had 79 degree weather the day before and it was comical seeing this.

Friday we opted to go bowling, since the majority of everyone on post was working it was empty. We bowled a few games and headed home to just relax and watch some movies.

Saturday was a gorgeous day! We started the day with a run and then spent the majority of the day outside. Emma enjoyed the sunshine and Kyle opted to have some fun with his practice golf balls. I'm not sure how many he lost but I'm sure our neighbor will find them haha.

The rest of the weekend was spent hanging out well at least for me. I was unable to run the half yesterday due to when I had to have Kyle at the airport, but that's okay I have a 13.1 mile run scheduled for later this week. I also finished paper #10! I have no more papers left to write for these classes. I am relieved.

I hope you all had a great weekend!

Friday Favorites

I love these Friday Favorite posts! Here are some of my favorite things lately.

I love the new swimsuits I ordered! Target was having a BOGO sale and I couldn't pass it up. I'm not big on bikinis so these are perfect for me.

I love this running trail in our neighborhood, it's beautiful and quiet.

Soothing eye gel and Timewise eye firming cream have become my saving grace. I was struggling with bags and dark circles under my eyes and these have worked wonders over the last few weeks.

Ipsy bags! My sister got me started on this, for only $10/month you are able to get different brands and types of makeup to try out. They aren't trial sizes either. I have received many different things that I wouldn't normally buy on my own. It is definitely worth the money.

Virtual races! Since we are limited here in Louisiana when it comes to races I have come to really love virtual races. We can still be a part of a race even though we aren't in the same place. We can run it however we want to and I enjoy that freedom. Can't go wrong with still getting a medal too. ;)

What are some of your favorite things lately?

Have a great weekend!

A Few Things

Happy March everyone! I cannot believe that it is already March 4th, it's crazy to me. This month has already been weird when it comes to weather, our high today is 77 and then tomorrow 39! Really?! We really do have some of the most bipolar weather. Oh well, it could always be worse. ;) 

Here is a quick rundown of what is going on in our neck of the woods:

*I have 10 papers that are due over the next 3 weeks, I have written 8 of them already and it feels good to have such a huge burden lifted. 

*I made my second pioneer woman recipe, lasagna roll-ups. It was a hit! I even had extra sauce and roll-ups to freeze.

*In a few weeks we are heading to Florida for Easter, it will be nice to celebrate the holiday in my sisters new home with some family and friends.

*My best friend, Kristina and her family are going to be stopping at our place in early May during their PCS. I am ridiculously excited, it has been far too long since we have seen each other. 

*I am supposed to be running a half marathon on Sunday but it's up in the air because of Kyle's travel schedule. No matter what happens I won't be upset, worse case I'll just run 13.1 on my own. :) 

*My sister and I are in the early stages of planning a girls trip to New Orleans in September. We have not gone on a trip like this in a few years. It will be awesome. 

*I binge watched House of Cards last Friday and now I am sad again that I have to wait another year for a new season haha. It was an awesome season though.

Not much else is happening in our neck of the woods, hope you all have a great Wednesday!

New Recipes

Lately I feel like I have been making the same old things, there are permanent staples in my meal rotation but I am ready to change it up some. These recipes aren't fussy, they are simple and that is what I look for.

I have pretty much become obsessed with the Pioneer Woman, and have 5 of her recipes ready to go for this week. Here is what I have chosen:

Lasagna Rollups

Roast Beef Sandwiches

Oven Roasted BBQ Chicken Thighs

Tequila Lime Chicken

I also have been looking for an easy muffin recipe that I can make in bigger batches and have all week. I made them over the weekend and they are delicious!:

Good Morning Muffins 

I can't wait to try these recipes this week and let you know how they are.

What are some of your favorites recipes?