one year

Okay, it's been a while.  I can't believe how busy things have been lately!  With my new job I've been working a good 30 hours a week as well as continuing with my full-time classes.  It's been extremely busy and sometimes I feel like I'm just constantly trying to catch up.  But most of the time, I love it.

Sunday was our first anniversary!  We celebrated by staying at an amazing bed&breakfast in Sacramento, going out to dinner at the Melting Pot, eating banana splits, and enjoying bubble baths & cuddles & the like.  I suppose I'm going to use this post to look back on the first year of our marriage.  I can't believe how incredible this year has been, and how quickly it flew by.

In 2012, we:

-Moved to California.  Our first military PCS (what a fun time...) and our first home together!  Spent a good month eating our dinners off of a 1-square-foot end table while we unpacked our lives and bought furniture :o

-Adopted our darling pomeranian Sheba.  We love her so much!!!!!!  She is our baby...we are so obsessed with our little pup.

-Got to know the wonderful area of our new home.  San Francisco is absolutely amazing, and our surburb isn't so bad either. :) Thank you husband, for being amazing and earning his top pick for duty station 0:) My hero!

-Found a wonderful new church to call our home, and new friends who we can grow with and enjoy life together!  So thankful...God completely delivered on my longings for community and friendship in our new city.

-Rick graduated from his tech school and did absolutely amazing!  Through all the stress of the Air  Force, working more-than-full-time while also going to school full-time to finish his degree, and continuing to train like crazy physically for his future job, he still has the time to love me, give me hugs, watch movies and cuddle with me, and treat me like a princess.  And I'm so happy I am here to support him and give him help when he needs it to get through all that stress!  He is awesome.

-On a more personal note, there has been so much growth in our marriage in just a year, and I'm so crazy thankful for it.  I cannot wait to see what God will do with the rest of our lives, if he could do so much in only a year.  I'm so glad God entrusted me with Rick's heart and I love how I can completely trust him with mine as well.  I cannot believe how blessed I am to have such an incredible husband--and to have been given him so early in life, so we can enjoy so many of these wonderful years together.  Life is so good.♥  Here's to the next, oh, 60-70 years :)

♥Samantha

cute clothes & working on it.

Sooooo, I dislike running.  I just get bored so easily.  But it is slowly getting better.

A couple weeks ago I saw some suuuper cute Nike leggings, but feel that I do not work out hard enough to deserve expensive/good workout clothes, haha (I usually just buy them from forever21 or something instead).  I told myself I couldn't buy them until I could successfully run a 5k without stopping, which would mean I was actually making progress.  So Rick and I went home that night and went to the gym, and surprise!  I made it through my goal of 5k.  What the lure of cute workout clothes will do to a girl......

FAIR ISLE PRINT THANK YOU VERY MUCH.  I knew these were going to come home with me sooner than later.  (I earn some nice Brooks shoes at 10k...that's going to take a bit longer!)

It made me pretty excited as I realized that, yes, my body actually is capable of running longer distances, and it is just my distaste for the amount of time it takes, that is making me want to stop earlier.  Haha.  And for the first time in my life I have started to actually enjoy running, and actually find myself wanting to make time in the day for it.  GASP....I thought it would never happen.

I started running more and trying to run at least 3 miles every time I worked out, but then I started having awful pain in a specific spot on my right knee.  I can barely walk on it for the night after and the next day as well.....I suspect that it is some IT band muscle that I am straining or hurting??  One of the reasons for that pain is upping training too quickly, and I basically started running 3 miles (every day or every other day) out of nowhere.  I am dialing back on my distance for a while and working up slowly now, which is a bummer because I just started actually enjoying running for a change.

My goal is to run the San Francisco Women's Marathon (the HALF for me, thank you) next October :):):)  I have almost a year to get from 3 miles to 13......I am optimistic.  I think it can happen.

Any more seasoned runners out there have some tips?  I am quite new to distance running!!

♥Samantha