Post Holiday Catch Up

You know what the sign of a good weekend is!? When you have very few pictures because you were too busy enjoying time together.

We spent Thanksgiving with my sister and the kiddos in Florida and we had the best time! Here is a quick run down of our time:

*Cooked all day Thursday and enjoyed an awesome meal, followed by yahtzee, football, relaxing, and my sister and I venturing to Target to check out the chaos haha.

*Friday we are pizza, watched football, took Christmas pictures,  Kyle put up my sisters Christmas lights, the girls went to the movies (to see Mockingjay Part 2 so good!) , and Kyle and Grayson surprised my sister with a birthday cake after we got home from the movies.

*Saturday we all took Kylie and 3 of her friends to Panama City Beach for lunch at Red Robin and then to have some fun at the Ripley's Believe it or Not Odditorium for her birthday.

It was a great weekend spent with family and now it's back to normal, well at least for 3 weeks until we head back down to Florida for Christmas! 

In the next few weeks we have 2 races, a military ball, dentists appointments, and other things that scream being an adult haha. 

I hope you all had an amazing holiday weekend!

It's Turkey Time!

As you are reading this, we are on the road to Florida for the holiday weekend. We are very much looking forward to spending Thanksgiving with my sister and the kids. We will also be celebrating 2 birthdays, our niece and my sister. It's going to be a great time!

One of the things I am most looking forward to is having our Christmas photo taken. My sister's backyard is the perfect backdrop, she is going to decorate her little garden house with lights and all things that scream Christmas. I normally don't plan outfit since it's usually spur of the moment but this is what I plan on wearing:

I can't wait to see how they turn out. 

Overall, I am just looking forward to time with family and it's even better that Kyle gets to come. He doesn't get much time off so it's important to make the most of the time together. 

I hope you all have an amazing Thanksgiving, eat lots of food! ;)

Who Doesn't Love A Turkey Trot?!

Bright and early Saturday morning we headed off to Lake Charles for the Rotary Club Turkey Trot 5k. We ran this race last year and enjoyed it, the course is more like a trail type run which is something we don't do much of. It was a great time despite the fact that it down poured when we got there and continued to rain through the race. I joked with Kyle that we got more muddy in this race than we have in most of the mud runs we have done haha.

We usually stick around for the awards ceremony but this time we were anxious to get home because of the weather. As we were walking away we heard Kyle's name called for 3rd in his age group! He was definitely pleased and then they called my name for 1st in my age group. I was honestly shocked.

This is one of the coolest medals we have received to date, the turkey makes me laugh.

I probably shouldn't have been running (I was diagnosed with an upper respiratory infection on Tuesday, oops lol) but I felt great that morning and felt even better afterwards.

One thing I have been putting off for months is finally happening. I have a ridiculous amount of race shirts that are collecting dust in a plastic bin. I contacted a good friend of mine on Saturday and she is going to turn them into a t-shirt quilt! I have an American flag quilt she made me years ago and it's my favorite. I'm excited that the shirts will get seen on a regular basis. 

I would say that we had a pretty successful weekend. We even got school work done and some trips to the gym happened.

I hope you all had a great weekend.

Friday Favorites

Happy Friday, everyone!! This week went by really fast and we are officially less than a week away from Thanksgiving. Let that sink in for a minute, time is flying!

Since it's Friday, it's only fitting that I share some of my favorite things as of late.

The Fort Polk wild horses, they normally stay in the training areas but lately they have been venturing out onto main post. While they can be stubborn and in the way it was neat to see them in person.

My training shirt for the Pixie Dust Challenge! I got it on Wednesday and I can't wait to start wearing it. Isn't it cute?!

This cardigan from Target. It is so comfortable and if I could wear it everyday I would.

Mini funfetti cheesecakes! I normally don't like cheesecake (it's a consistency thing) but these morsels are delicious.

Teapigs everyday brew tea, I received this in the swap I did and I'm addicted. I enjoy a cup every night and I plan on buying more before it runs out. If you haven't tried it, you must.

Kyle and Emma! Haha this picture cracks me up, she always gets after dinner pets from Kyle. They are the cutest.

What are some of your favorite things lately?!

Hope you all have a great weekend, we are running a Turkey Trot 5k tomorrow so it should be a lot of fun.

What Does Our Future Hold?

A few weeks ago Kyle and I were talking about what our future looks like in terms of the Army. He was asked by a coworker if he had plans to stay in and his response was exactly what it always is, "As long as Jen and I are having fun I will stay in." It really is funny to see the looks on peoples faces when he says that. Some wouldn't necessarily associate the Army with fun, but that's how we see it, of course there are some not so fun things but overall we have a good time.

We have been pretty lucky in terms of assignments so far, Kyle has been given jobs that have checked off the necessary blocks for his career progression and believe me we are both thankful for that. Of course when it comes to the Army nothing is ever certain nor set in stone, that is why we both are also putting a lot of focus on our education. Kyle is almost finished with his Master's program, and I will be done with mine hopefully by 2017. 

We are hopeful however that Kyle will stay in until he is able to retire at 20 years (or longer than that if he chooses). We will find out on Thursday if Kyle made the MAJ promotion list, this is his BZ (below zone) look and not likely he will get picked up (he feels that way, I think he has a good chance of getting promoted now) but it should happen for sure next year which would likely mean a move to Kansas in Summer 2017. After that we are hoping for Germany or Italy, it would certainly be amazing.

There has never been a time in his career where he has questioned his decision to stay in, with the current state of the world, he is even more determined to stay in and serve. 

We have been extremely lucky and we will continue to ride this wave until someone says otherwise. I am excited to see what the future holds for us but in the mean time we will enjoy the present.

Have a great Wednesday!

Weekend Wrap-Up

Saturday, I ran my 12th race of the year! It was the Cowboy Gallop 10k in Lake Charles. This was the first race we ran in Louisiana last year and we loved it. However this year I had to run it solo because Kyle was at work.

I knew the minute the gun went off that I wanted to push it as much as I could. I am not a naturally fast runner, it takes me a while to gain momentum and I never really push myself to go faster. This time it felt different and when I crossed the finish line I was shocked to see that I shattered my previous 10k time by 10 minutes. It felt amazing! I am noticing a huge difference in my running since I started marathon training, I am more focused and just feeling strong.

The rest of the day was spent relaxing and spending time with Kyle, I did a little shopping and found these amazing booties for 50% off and I had to have them haha.

Sunday we met up with a good friend of ours that Kyle worked with at Bliss (as well as Bragg years ago). He is here as an augmentee helping with the rotation so we picked him up for dinner and then watched football back at the house. It was nice to reminisce and catch up.

Kyle is off today but I am pretty sure both of us will be spending the day writing papers that are due at the end of the week. :)

I hope you all had a great weekend!

A Few Things

It's Friday already!? I feel like this week just started, the days are flying by a lot faster the closer it gets to the holidays. 

Here are a few things happening in my world

*Emma's appt went really well, she has inflammation in her bladder and had we not taken her in it could have turned into a really bad infection. She is on a few different medications so hopefully it clears everything up. :) She goes back on the 24th for a followup.

*I am finishing up week 3 of marathon training and it's going really well. I am feeling strong and that is always my favorite part. 

*I'll be running a 10k tomorrow and I'm really looking forward to it. This is the first race we ran in Louisiana last year and it was a lot of fun. 

*Kyle's last rotation of the year ends in a few days and I am so excited. It will be nice to finally have some quality time together especially during the holidays. He has been working so hard and definitely deserves a break.

* We will be at my sisters for Thanksgiving and I'm in charge of desserts (shocker I know), and I have apple pie cupcakes and pumpkin pie cupcakes on my menu, I can't wait to share the recipes.

*Oh and probably the biggest piece of news, looks like I will be getting braces after the 1st of the year. I have always been unhappy with my smile, particularly my two front teeth that turn in. I am excited and nervous all at the same time. However, I never thought I would be 30 years old and getting braces haha. 

This gave me a good chuckle.

I hope you all have a good weekend!!! :)