Rants, Recipes, and Running

I call this phase "Round 2". I survived Ryan being gone for 6 weeks during his AMS (Academy of Military Science....aka Officer School....aka Pinning on the Butter Bars). It was the longest we've ever been apart since we met back in 2007. He came home for 1 crazy week (it really was a crazy stressful week). And then packed up and left for Colorado for his first round of Pilot training. Which will be 6, 7, or 8 weeks (still to be determined...) As I look back on the 1st 6 weeks, it went really fast! But I kind of planned it that way. In fact, I over booked myself with craziness. I worked tons of overtime. I taught fitness classes. I trained for my Ragnar race. Any day off I had -- I planned some sort of social event. By then end of it all, I was exhausted!! Now it's Round 2. It came so fast (he wasn't supposed to leave until April 4, but that changed.) And several things are different this time around........ I quit being a fitness instructor. I know, that ...

Well I am back in Tucson with my better half! However, he's home for only less than a week - so it's a little bit more of a stressful week than we'd like. Rushing to get his uniforms and flight suits ready, getting our taxes filed, setting up a pool man (because I was an epic fail at managing the pool while he was gone).... But we are loving every second we get together, I must say! Even picking weeds yesterday was a blast. (We got a lot of rain while I was in Montgomery, which produced a lot of weeds). It's just good to be together. I am joining in on Lisa's fun with the 11 things on the 11th - so here goes. 1.  If you could live in any other city besides the one you currently live in, which one would you pick? Both Ryan and I have our eyes on Macdill AFB -- which is located outside of Tampa, FL. That AFB happens to house his dream job -- and being I can work just about anywhere, this works. I just love the ocean, and I love Florida. Maybe some day.....:-) ...

Wednesday I "celebrated" my birthday. Let's just rephrase that, and say I turned 25. I worked on my birthday. I should've known it was going to be brutal. I tend to be the "black cloud" of my ER -- and sure enough, it was a "black cloud" kind of day. It was a wild and crazy day -- but I am thankful that my job never leaves me feeling bored! I was very blessed with love that day, however. My husband even sent me a present (which he probably had to set up before he leave for officer school)-- I got a brand new GPS watch. And it has more bells and whistles than I know what to do with! My coworkers gave me the sweetest card, and a fruit tart (they knew the health nut in me wouldn't get excited about a cake). I left work and went out for drinks and appetizers with 3 of my dearest girlfriends. The night was filled with laughter that left me with sore cheeks from the smiles. It was bittersweet, as all I really wanted was a birthday hug from my hus...

Run, Drive, Sleep, Repeat. As I reflect on the last weeks race, I am feeling inspired from running my first Ragnar relay. “What exactly is Ragnar?,” I have been asked many times over the past few weeks. In fact, I was asking myself that many times too. The website is somewhat vague. You sign up, pay, and attempt to train for a race that pretty much tells you “200 miles, 12 runners, 3 legs”. The rest is left to your imagination. It all started Friday morning. Alarms went off at 4 am – and the first van was off to the start line. We drove 1 hour from out hotel out into the desert to a random town called Wickenburg, AZ. The closer we got to the race start, the colder the temperatures dropped. I knew I was headed for high elevation. I was the team’s first runner with an 8.5 mile run. The starting line was crowded with hundreds of creatively decorated vans, some people in costumes, some elitists ready to sprint their 202 mile relay!  I slapped on the “paton bracelet”, ...

What does February 14th mean to you? Is it a day of celebrating love? Do you spend lovely night with your significant other celebrating your love? Do you spend the day cursing lovers, wishing dead flowers and moldy chocolate on others? Is it simply a day that passes? I will enlighten you that around A.D. 496, goats and dogs were sacrified. And people celebrated purification and fertility where you they dipped sheeps wool in milk. I think I'd take the modern-day roses over the milky sweater, personally.  Before I met Ryan.... Valentines Day was a day of anticipation, followed by devastation at the end of the day when you had that final epiphany that, "Okay, clearly I am not loved. I have no flowers." It was also disappointing to me as a young child, as I wasn't very creative about making the "Valentines Day Boxes". I'd work hard the night before, wrapping shoe boxes in construction paper. I'd feel so proud and excited. Then I'd get to school...

Well, two weeks have past and I have 4 weeks to go until I get to see Ryan again! I must admit that the time is flying. I often say "time flies when you're having fun". That's not really the case. Time also flies when you're working your a$$ off! I purposely signed myself up to work over time during this time. I purposely have been teaching a lot of fitness classes during this time. I purposely have been signing up for additional projects at work. I purposely have myself super busy to distract me from missing Ryan. The end result? I'm kind of tired! When I came home from work last week one night with a 101 fever and a massive headache - I realized that I needed to rest a little. So I listened to my body and slept from 7:30 pm until 5:30 am the next morning. It was glorious! One thing that has dawned on me during this time is, although Ryan used to travel quite a lot for work before, I've never really lived alone. I went from living with my parents, to ...

I've had some deep posts lately, so I'm going to lighten things up today and talk about what has made me smile lately. Pomegranates . They're in season, and they're delicious. They are great with feta and spinach. This is the 1st year I've started using them. And oddly enough, I find cutting a pomegranate kind of relaxing.  Cold temperatures . Everyone else in my town is miserable, and I'm smiling ear to ear. I love soup, sweaters, warm pajamas, and hot tea. Running . Cool temps + training for a Ragnar race = lots of running. Makes me smile. Blissful last evenings. Ryan will be leaving soon -- and we both know that. So every moment we get together is savored, pleasant, and happy. Teaches me a little lesson about "savoring the moment". Incense . I've been on an incense-burning kick lately. It makes me feel calm. My days off . The ER's across the country are insane right now. Flu season + post-Christmas season (people try to wait through...