Real quick

It's late, but I just wanted to post real quick and say that tonight was awesome! My feet are killing me and my back is achy, but I had so, so much fun! I don't even have a clue how my pictures turned out (hopefully well, but I probably won't know for awhile!)...Thanks for all your prayers :) I'll update more tomorrow.

What's wrong with me?

I can't really figure out what's wrong with me. I've been in such a funk lately about running. I haven't run for over a week (which is going to KILL me when it comes time to run 12 miles on Saturday...I can feel it). I just can't seem to get myself motivated to actually go out there and run. It's always been something I've enjoyed doing, and I'm sure once I got out there running I'd be fine. But it's the actually getting my butt out the door part that I've been having trouble with lately.

I really want to get in 3 runs this week so that I'm not absolutely dying on Saturday. I can't tomorrow because I work all day and then we have COM group. Wednesday I WILL run in the morning, Thursday I WILL run after work, and Friday I WILL run after class.

Please hold me accountable.

On another note...please say a prayer for this family tonight. I've been following their saga (it starts about three pages back) for a few weeks and I just feel awful for them. I know that since I don't know them personally, I can't say that they're definitely innocent, but I feel in my heart that they are (and I can't imagine anyone taking the time out to write about such a hard topic if they were guilty). So just keep them in your prayers tonight.

I will run. I will run. I will run. I will run.

House Hunters

Happy Saturday!

Greg and I looked at homes today...actual homes with real furniture, painted walls, more than one bedroom, bathroom, lots of counter space, a garage and a yard. I'm hooked. I've never been one to enjoy the whole apartment thing...I mean, we pay every month and what do we get? Well...yes, we do get a roof over our heads and everything, but we don't own anything. We have to deal with workers coming into our apartment whenever they want (which in reality isn't all that often...but still!) We have to deal with noisy neighbors and taking Riley down the stairs every time she needs to pee (which seems like it's every 10 minutes). I'm so ready to be in a house.

Granted it will probably be August before we're in one...but it just seems so much more real when you go look and can imagine yourself in one. We'll probably go to Leander or Cedar Park because the houses are significantly cheaper for the space than they are in Round Rock or Austin. I am in love with the Plantation homes. They're a bit more expensive than D.R. Horton...but so, so nice! This one is my favorite in pictures - they didn't have a model of it, but it seems like a nice fit!

I haven't run all week...That's not going to be fun tomorrow when I have to make up a 5 mile run that I intentionally missed this week. I just really haven't had any desire to go run at all. Like it's been the farthest thing from something I've wanted to do all week long...and that's really strange for me. I think part of it is because I was sore until Wednesday from my ten mile run (and my toenails STILL hurt if you push on them hard!)...I got fitted for new tennis shoes today and they have lots of room in the toes...So hopefully that means no more bruised toenails ;) I'm going to work really hard on getting my runs in this week. 13 miles on Saturday AND then a wedding from 3-11...yikes.

Pictures from Yesterday:

My pretty new car






The only hint of fall Texas will see this year

It's been a long, very fun, "last" Saturday for me :) And now it's time for bed!

Ten

I don't think I've gushed enough lately on how much I love my church. We had this thing tonight called "Dinner for Ten" where ten people gathered at our pastor's home and hung out, talked, and ate good food. I can't even begin to describe how connected I feel and how many prayers of mine are being answered by God. I have longed for community for the past year or so and I just have felt like it's no where to be found. I prayed and prayed and prayed that God would lead me to a group of friends that were like me (and liked me!)...and I had resigned myself to thinking that God's answer to that prayer was "later" and that I needed to draw closer to him and lean on him to fulfill my needs...and then something drastic happened, we switched churches, and I'm experiencing an abundance of blessing from the Lord. It is amazing and I am so thankful for each and every second of it! I had started thinking that Greg and I were the only young married couple out there...and come to find out, we're not! Not only are we not the only young married couple, there are four others in our COM group and we met two others tonight! God is SO good!

I ran ten miles on Saturday...TEN! 10! DIEZ! I'm still finding it hard to fathom that my body can run 10 stinkin' miles...that's like my apartment to my parents house...and that's just crazy! I'm not gonna lie, I spent the better portion of Saturday sacked out in bed and complaining because my toenails hurt (yes...I'm serious. My toenails hurt SO bad), but I did it - I ran/walked for 2 hours and 40 minutes. And if we're gonna get technical about it, it was actually 10.69 miles - not just 10. I've now reached a new place in my running where I'm discovering new things. Like my size 8 running shoes really needed to be a size 8 1/2, and even though I just bought them in August, they are getting replaced this weekend so my toenails don't get smashed in the bottom of them. Or that seams on sleeveless shirts can be the most painful things in the world and cause gaping sores on the insides of your arms from chafing. Or that Gu is super nasty and sport beans don't really work. Or that Accelerade may give you more energy, but it tastes like dirt. Or that my Galloway group is amazing. Or that God can give you strength to run 5 more miles when you fall in a hole and roll your ankle on mile 5. Lessons learned are great :)

Ten days until my first wedding with Allen! I'm so excited, so nervous...I feel like it's almost too good to be true. I was talking to my mom on the phone this afternoon about how I feel like I'm just waiting for something to go wrong with that whole thing. I'm not sure why. Maybe it's because something has gone "wrong" in every single job I've ever had and I've come to realize that people don't really keep good on their promises. But I feel like God is stretching me to trust and to enjoy hard work. I trust Allen completely and I trust that he is going to teach me more than I can imagine. I trust that God has plans that are SO much bigger than me...and that he's given me talents that I can use in spiritual ways. A few weekends ago a passion that I didn't even know I had hit me in the middle of church...whenever I get good at photography, I want to find a way to help people with it. Before you say that sounds silly, it's not. I want to use my gift to go to NICU and take pictures of premies who may or may not live. I want to go to the children's cancer center and give the gift of memories in print to parents who may lose their children. I want to give people the gift of amazing pictures who otherwise can't afford it. And I'm not sure where this desire is coming from (well, I'm pretty sure it's from God) because I've never had this thought before. And it makes me get so excited thinking about it :)

Tenth of the month...we've been married for seven whole months! Seven glorious, challenging, beautiful, surprising, exciting, take-my-breath-away months. And I couldn't be happier with my husband :) It's still sometimes weird to think that we're actually married. I know it's been 7 months and 200-odd days of it, but it seems like we were engaged for SO long and all I wanted to do was be married that it still sometimes seems surreal and dreamlike. I remember after we checked out of our hotel the day after the wedding and were on our way to Galveston that everything seemed like this huge dream. I was still operating on about four hours of sleep in 72 hours, so everything was kind of fuzzy around the edges...but it literally took weeks for the reality of everything to hit me. We got rushed into this whirlwind cruise where it seemed like we were playing house (or maybe that's what the anti-dizziness drugs did to me! ;)) And sometimes I wake up and feel like we're still just playing house...and then I get to smile and realize "hey...I have a husband!" and it's exciting :)

I pray that God will be big in your life, that he will answer prayers and give you passions that you didn't even know you had. I am praying for you today!!
Faithfully His,

Baby Rabies

I have my longest run to date tomorrow...10 miles! I'm excited, but nervous for some reason. I guess part of it is that my group leader is running the Chicago marathon and she is so motivating...it will be weird to run without her! I've got my water, gatorade, and "sport beans" all ready to go. We're required to have some form of nutrition on this run...I was going to use Gu, but I tried some of my dad's and I thought I was going to throw up. It's so thick and...well...gooey (hence the name, right?). It's definitely not for me. We'll see how these jelly beans with electrolytes in them actually work on a long run.

I had a bad dream last night...well, it was actually a really really good dream. But bad that I was dreaming it. I dreamed that I had a daughter, like a two day old infant. And it was such a wonderful feeling! Greg wanted to name her SaraLee (like the bread!) but I kept telling him no - we'd already decided on girls names for the baby and we were going to name her Charlotte. But he wouldn't listen and was ready to put SaraLee Johnson on the birth certificate ;) It made me laugh when I woke up! But now, this darn dream has unleashed this feeling inside of me that says, "You're married now! Time to have babies!" And my logical side is going, "Uh. No it's not. You're only 22. The 'ten year plan' says you have to be 26 before it's time to have babies." Why do babies have to be so soft and cuddly? And they smell so good! (well, most of the time anyways). I have baby rabies.

I made bread today!! Like, old fashioned, kneading the dough, yummy, delicious bread! I think I ate half of it...lots of carbs...I need fuel for my run tomorrow though, right? I think I'm going to buy a lot of yeast and just start baking all my own bread. It's fun...and the smell of bread baking in the oven is sinful. And delightful. And it makes me happy.

I took a really cute picture of Riley a couple nights ago. I'm very proud of how my photography skills are coming along! I'm going to go to a horse show tomorrow and take some pictures - I'm so excited!



Have a happy weekend...Oh yeah, and Hook'em!!

Dear Car-Honker,

I'm so very sorry that I gave you the wrong impression this morning while I was jogging. You see, three or four times a week, I put on my tank top, my running shorts, my tennis shoes, and my blue watch. And I go outside and I proceed to jog (and walk every three minutes, but that's beside the point.) And somehow, today, I gave you the impression that I was outside to do your eyes a favor. I'm so sorry for misleading you.

But while we're on the topic, I just thought you were oh so clever yelling, "I'd tap that ***" out your window while slowing down to watch me run. And for the record, I would like you to know, I want nothing to do with tapping you. Not even with a 10 foot pole. You can pass this message along to your friend who was nailing shingles onto a roof...His grunting at me and making obscene gestures really made me want to climb up his ladder as quick as I could, throw myself on him and have his babies. No really. It did. [please note my sarcasm - I actually secretly hoped that he would fall off the roof and break his arm].

You probably didn't notice it in all your haste to honk, whistle, yell, and do anything in your power to get my attention, but I wear this tiny little thing on the ring finger of my left hand while I'm running. It's got little diamonds on it and I'm actually quite fond of it. Now I know it's not exactly recognized in this day and age as anything of importance, but it is quite important to me. It means faithfulness. It means trust. It means love, hope, endurance, mercy, forgiveness, blood, sweat, tears. It means hard work. It means compromise. It means staying up until 3am to resolve an argument. It means sacrifice. And it sure as heck does not give you the right to hit on me while I am running. I am not eye-candy. I am NOT there for your pleasure. I am out there for mine. And I refuse to let YOU take the pleasure out of running for me.

So pick a different girl to hit on. Because you are getting nowhere with me. I'm devoted to my husband and more than that, I am devoted to GOD. And right now I'm praying that God will work in your heart in a severe way, because you need it.

Signed,
The blonde that you pissed off today.

It's October!!

I'm so excited that it's October. And it's officially fall - my favorite time and month of the year! Greg and I were at Target on Friday night and we saw all these cute costumes in the Halloween section at the back of the store. They even had costumes for dogs! I really was hoping that they'd have a hot dog...I'm the mean mom that wants to put my "weenie" dog in a hot dog costume for Halloween! She would be too precious in it though. I may have to go search some more for one :)

This weekend was really fun. But definitely not long enough (are they ever?) My run on Saturday morning went REALLY well. We only did 4 miles because it was a track workout. The exercise we did was called the Magic Mile. You basically run a mile as fast as you can (but still stopping to take your walk breaks) and it tells you what a realistic time goal is to run the marathon in. My magic mile pace was 10:14 and according to that, a realistic time goal for me to run the marathon in is 5 hrs 44 min. I'm really not focused at ALL on time...just on finishing. But it was cool to think that if I do everything right in my training I could run a marathon in under 6 hours relatively easy.

I baked, took pictures, and cuddled with my husband pretty much all weekend. It was wonderful and SO relaxing! I was planning on making fall sugar cookies...but did you know that it's nearly impossible to make red icing? So I have yellow cookies, orange cookies, and pink cookies...and then since I couldn't make red I decided to just make a pretty blue instead. Greg says they're Easter cookies now. I say I don't care what they are, they're yummy! I'm really starting to understand settings on my camera well and it's becoming more "instinct" than me having to sit there and think "hmm...which way do I need to turn this dial now?" We watched Knocked Up too...which was funny. But had a lot of bad language and several scenes that definitely did not need to be in there! I really like Katherine Heigel...she's also on Grey's Anatomy (she plays Izzy) which I also really like.

I've been doing much better with contentment these past couple days. Every time I catch myself thinking, Ahh, I just want to be in a house already!! I think of how much easier it is for us to live in an apartment right now. There is no lawn to mow, no mortgage to pay, more reasonable electric prices, and our puppy can pee on the carpet and shred the carpet without us being too distraught over it all. Life is good and so is God!

Class is getting ready to start...I found out that I made a 94.8% on my first test (yay!!!) and I'm waiting to see what I made on my second. I think I did alright, but I definitely did not put 100% into it.

You are all in my prayers!