11 Excellent Years

Matt and I have made it to 11 years married! Everyone is shocked that we have been married for 11 years. I think for 2 reasons, Mason is so young and they assume that we were just recently married since we have only one and he is only 2 years old. The other is apparently nowadays it is not normal to get married young. A lot of the kids are getting married latter in life, or remarried. So we are pretty proud to have made it into the next decade of our marriage!

Matt and I had an amazing evening together, without the kid! But first I got uber pampered! I had an 1.5 hour massage. Then went to get an eyebrow wax and haircut (the haircut came out just a tad shorter than I was expecting but it will grow back), then went to the mall for a makeover for fun. The best part, 4 hours of me time. No thinking just relaxing! Then I got home and we left straight for our date to our favorite Afghan food restaurant! And then to the Melting Pot for dessert! OH MY GOODNESS! I love chocolate but WOW that was a lot of chocolate! I did get an extra serving of strawberries and bananas! OH and the virgin Miami Vice is really good. It is a layered strawberry daiquiri and pina colada! YUMMO!

Came home to a sleeping baby boy and I felt like I hadn't seen him all day (which I hadn't). I missed him. I needed the break and so thankful for it! I love Matt so much and Mason so much! My men in my life! I am thankful for Matt to support all of my crazy adventures and never question then just support me! I am thankful for the kindness and amazing father that he is! I knew I married a good one! Love you Matt more than words can express and so excited that this truly is only the beginning of eternity!

4 Miler Race Is In The Bag

Finished my 4 miler race today! I have been working all summer long training for it and it is done and over with today! So sad :( But this is not the last of my running days. I found another race to run in mid October. A 10K (6.2 miles). And with that distance I will be able to have proof of time for Disney so that I can get in a higher/faster corral and be in front of some of the pack. After today I know I will be running faster in general by then. I can only get better! In the last month alone I shaved a minute off my miles and that is pretty good! Even with hills. So now I am in 10K training mode and I am going to have a huge boost in my weekly milage! Check out my running blog (link is on the right) to read about today though!

~Pre-race pix~

 ~Me in pink! WHO WOULD HAVE THOUGHT THE DAY WOULD HAPPEN!~

 ~My cheering squad!~

Weekly Catch-up

Saturday is the big day. My first 4 miler race. I am so excited. I have made a huge change in my lifestyle to fit in running/exercising. Now only if my eating would follow suit. ARGH! If it isn't one thing it is another. I love food I really do. I have learned to eat within reason though. So instead of 10 cookies, I will allow myself 1 or 2. And try not to come back to it later. But it is a work in progress.

~Mason passed out while shopping. Only about 20 min in by the way~ 

I feel ready for the race. I went running at 4am this morning because my legs were wondering why I didn't go yesterday and they were and are feeling very good after the run.

~Silly boy!~

Mace, well Mace is doing well. He is a child that loves to play with other kids. He will be a great older brother when we are blessed with another child. He can be such a good, kind, and loving little guy. Other times he can be a mean little boy. When I say, "NO!" he will then proceed to complain and protest to me by hitting or throwing things around. He inherited my flare for dramatics. His 2nd molars on the bottom are completely in and I think the tops are starting to come in, hence the reason why he is so grumpy!

~Mason loves his new piano that Aunt Marie, Uncle Cliff and the kids got for him for his birthday!~

~Loves to sing into the mic now!~

Matt is doing well. He is keeping an ever watchful eye on the news though with what Syria is up to. NOT GOOD! We do not need another war. We just got out of Iraq. He loves his job and is really excelling there. He does daddy day care for me while I teach. On Monday, during a lesson my student and I heard a large BANG! and felt the floor shake from something hitting the wall. Latter I saw that there is a slight dent in the corner of the drywall. Mace loves to rough house and Matt loves to too!

 ~Hey there good lookin'!~

A Second Blog

I totally will not forget this blog! I PROMISE! I have created a new blog. If you haven't already heard about it, it is called Connect The Dots: A fair skinned ginger's journey to connect her freckle line into a tan line.  And for your viewing pleasure I have included the link so that you can check it out.

So why the second blog. Well I wanted to chronicle my journey. I want to motivate other people. I want to push myself harder and be more accountable for what I am doing. I love writing. So please check it out, follow me if you want, like me on Facebook. Let me know you are reading along so
that I am not just writing to the air. If I can do the things I am doing I know anyone can. Running is hard. But with the right people to help and having a support system it can be amazingly fun! I loved the training program I was with and I have made so many friends because of it. I will be running with friends over the next couple of months in between training programs just to keep pushing myself. Then come Oct. my 10 miler/ half marathon training begins! All for this...

FEBRUARY 23, 2014- Disney Princess Half Marathon, Here I come!

Join me on my journey. I could always use a couple more running buddies even if you are on the other side of the country. We can still do it together!

Mason's 1 year photo book

Click here to view this photo book larger

Turn your favorite photos into a photo book at Shutterfly.com.

It has been an EVEN LONGER WHILE

I will try to be back and I think I am going to fork over the money to keep the blog so that I can still post pix and stuff on here.

I went to a RS activity last night and they talked about journaling. This is my electronic Journal. Has been for a while now but due to the new restrictions I got out of habit. Facebook though has been my cost effective outlet. But yeah. I am back. Time for some cold hard truth.

Things are going great now. Mason is 2. My studio is starting to boom, thank goodness, and I am running again. Long story short, which I might post the whole store not sure yet, debating, I had my second miscarriage the day before Mother's Day this year. I was nearly 12 weeks along. It broke me. Broke my heart, my faith and broke my own belief that, yeah we might actually be able to get pregnant on our own and not have to pay thousands of dollars to get another baby. I am still hurting from it. I am still angry, confused, upset, hurt. I felt blindsided. I have accepted it. And I accept that regardless of what I do I am not in control. Never have been, never will be. We knew that things weren't going right, from the start. I went in almost every other day for testing. Some days the tests would be great. Others not so much. It put so much stress on me. Plus Matt was in AZ the entire time we knew I was pregnant. REALLY SUCKED BY THE WAY. I was alone. I felt abandoned most nights by Heavenly Father because things weren't going easily. Thursday before Mother's Day I had an ultrasound that confirmed that there was nothing in the gestational sac and that it was starting to collapse and that I would miscarry soon. We did get my progesterone under control which is why I carried for so long more than likely. Day before Mother's day, talking 24 hours before Matt arrived. I had the miscarriage. Took 4 hours. Mini labor I went through. Thankfully Mace was asleep for most of it and I know that was help from Heavenly Father. I went through the whole ordeal without Matt. SUCKED! And still angers me today that I had to go through that. Let alone I still didn't really know anyone here in C-ville. Needless to say I haven't wanted to get pregnant again and don't want to at this point. (part of me does but it is such a sliver sized part that it just creeps in my thoughts for a second then I just feel upset again and slightly sick to my stomach with fear of having to go through it again.) I don't want to go through this again. I don't think I could get through this again. So my new outlet is running.

2 weeks after the miscarriage I participated in my first 5k. Did another one a month later and was enrolled and actively participating with the Charlottesville Women's 4 miler training program. The 4 miler race is Aug 31 which I am signed up in, and I also will be checking an item off my bucket list in Feb when I run in my first DISNEY HALF MARATHON! Come hell or high water, pregnant or not I am running in that race! Then 2 weeks after that is the Charlottesville 10 miler race. I gained 12 lbs with the 12 week pregnancy. Stress related. Now I am having the lovely opportunity to lose that plus the remaining I had to lose from Mace still. Currently, haven't lost 1 pound, but I have lost inches. So it will happen soon.

Like I said things are going. At least my business is taking off here in C-ville. After months of trying to get it to it finally is. Just a couple more students and I will feel comfortable, and know that I am holding up my end of the bargain to moving here. Sorry this was a debbie downer post but I had to write it. It needed to be written. It is done and hopefully now I can get past my grief and continue to grow and learn.

Soon I will post some pix, when I pay the money but I have lots of pix to load up for everyone to see.

Did you guys miss me?

Life in the new year!

We have settled into our new life here in C-ville. We love our new home. Almost everyday we tell each other how thankful we are for our amazing house and location that we are in. It has really been such a blessing. Matt is done with work at 2:30 everyday. Who gets that much family time everyday? WE DO! and I love it. It allows me to teach a couple of days a week, well one day right now, working on 2 days, and allows Matt to have some quality alone time with Mace. And Matt and Mace are buddy buddy. Mace loves his daddy so much. Copies Matt with his actions, like placing a pillow on his lap, watch cartoons together, eat popcorn. This kid loves his Dad, and I couldn't be happier. He copies me too by the way, the way this kid climbs up onto the piano bench and plays on my piano and sits there and just has fun. So cute!

I am playing with the Charlottesville Symphony again right now as my schedule allows me to. I am thankful that they want me to play. It is a fun and exciting thing for me to be back in the saddle again with making music. I am so truly thankful for this amazing talent that our Heavenly Father has blessed me with. My talent for music. The ease it is for me to remember how to play my instruments no matter how long of a break I have had from playing. It is just easy for me. And I am so thankful for that. I am also teaching again which I love! I am excited to grow my studio out here. I am excited for the amazing young people I will meet along the way and pray that I am a good influence on them that they desire more out of music and strive to gain a love and appreciation of music.

Matt is still working hard. He is in the Army reserve still and drills every month with them along with working 5 days a week. So one week a month he works 7 days straight then right back for another 5 days without taking a break. He is such an amazing man. He takes care of us. Provides for us and loves us! I am so lucky to have him in my life. Matt loves his "man cave" and loves to share it with Mason and teach him the "cool" shows to watch. We have also started playing a game on our PS3 with Mace, Jetpack Joyride. If you haven't tried it, it is great, addicting, but great. Thanks Cliff and Travis for showing us the game. Mace will play it too, but he just loves being allowed to hold the remote and push the buttons.

Mace is a strong walker. That is what the Doc said. He is amazing at walking. He can walk backwards, climb, tip toes (he lost a toe nail from all his toe walking). His gross motors skills are just amazing. She was very impressed. Mace weighs a whopping 26 lbs now and is 32.5 inches tall. He is in the 75% for both areas now. He is an eater, as I said earlier. This kid can eat and eat and eat. We have no idea where he puts it all but he is an eater. He is just now starting to expand his vocabulary. This morning he finally started saying, "Mama" but not to me but just in passing. He already says "Dada" but again not to Matt just all the time. The way he calls for me is pretty funny, he does call for me and we finally figured out what it was. he just does this "Ahhhh" with the tone going up, almost like a question but also a statement. If that makes any sense. Hopefully he will start to associate Mama to me and Dada to Matt soon. He definitely knows how to say Archer, or sometimes, Archie he will say. He knows exactly who that is too, wonder why he knows association with the dog but not mom and dad? We have heard him say Thank you as well. And Agua for water. He is a smart kid. He understands way more than he can say. I love this kid so much. I am so thankful he is in my life and even though some days can be really hard, like today was, I know I will never forget these days. The good and the bad. He is such a great little guy and I am so thankful he is here!