Friday photo

This is what Oscar wants to be when he grows up ... and to be honest, I think there's a lot of similarity. :)

Happy Friday, y'all! Any fun plans? My parents are coming into town late tonight and we are headed to the Michigan v. IU game tomorrow. Cannot wait - this will be the first time I've been able to get to a Michigan game since college. I've never been able to afford it! But since nobody cares about football down here in Bloomington, I snagged game tickets for $20. Gotta love it!

Anyway - head over to Fantabulously Frugal today to check out this week's Target post and shop for a good cause!

Up North!

Happy weekend, friends! I didn't get quite as many posts up this week as I wanted to - I had a busy week full of work, a terrible migraine that ruined my entire Wednesday, and packing/getting ready for my VACATION! Tomorrow morning, Oscar and I are taking an eight hour road trip to northern Michigan, where my parents rented a lake house on this lake:

Isn't it beautiful? I am really looking forward to relaxing and spending time outside in a place that isn't 100,000 degrees. I finished my class tonight and, in celebration, went to the library and checked out about 5 books. Yayyyyy reading! It has been really hard for me, not having time to read stuff for fun the last 6 weeks. I will be starting with The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest - soooo excited!

Anyway, while I'm up north I will get to reconnect with an old college friend I haven't seen in about 5 years ... she has THE most adorable 16 month old son, Sam, and I can't wait to meet him!

I was going to do some scheduled posts for next week, but it just didn't happen. I'm not sure if I'll have internet or not - if I do, you'll hear from me! If not ... well, have a GREAT week and I'll be back next weekend!

Deployment in Review: Month 5

I have been in what seems like an incredibly long blog funk. I'm sure I'll snap out of it ... eventually. I think. I hope. I just realized that this is only my 2nd blog post for June ... and it's already the 18th! Oh dear. I told Matt the other day that I didn't have anything to blog about ... his suggestion was to "make some shit up." I feel like that seems just as difficult as having real, actual blog fodder, so ... I promise everything I tell you is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Etc. :)

So without further ado ... can you believe Matt has been gone for five months? I can. It feels like the first few months flew by, but lately it's just been feeling slower and slower and slower. Maybe that's because nothing much has happened?

I have very little to report for Month 5.

-I went to Michigan for Memorial Day to celebrate my Mom's birthday

-I celebrated the last day of school and am currently enjoying my summer schedule (I only work 24 hours a week over the summer)

-I went to Michigan this past weekend to celebrate my Dad's birthday (late) and Father's Day (early) and to see my Granddad and his lady friend (they were in town visiting)

-Aaaaaand I guess that's it. Hmmm. Oh, also Matt moved to Baghdad a couple of weeks ago and is currently at the Embassy.

Clearly, it's been boring around here. Sorry!! So instead of talking about stuff I've done, let's talk about stuff I'm looking forward to:

-Lisa is coming to visit today! We have a fun weekend planned.

-It's almost July!!!! If things worked out as kind-of-planned, I could be seeing Matt in 5 months! Oh dear. That means we're only halfway. Okay. Stop thinking about that.

Hmmmm okay, that's all I can really think of. My official 1/2 marathon training starts on Monday - up to now, I've been working up a baseline through 5k training. I've really been enjoying it, although I basically took a week off from running this week. It's been so hot and humid - even at 6am! - that I just ... let myself have a some days off from running. I've been doing lots of walking to try to get used to the humidity (seriously. weather.com says we have 99% humidity right now! blech!!!) and then I'll get back to running on Monday. I am a little intimidated about next week's workout - just because it is a definite step up from what I've been doing. Here's the plan:

Monday: Stretch and strengthen (I'll do yoga and strength training)

Tuesday: 3m run

Wednesday: 2m run or cross (I think I will go for a bike ride)

Thursday: 3m run and strength

Friday: Rest (yay!)

Saturday: 30 min cross

Sunday: 4m run

Whoa - did you see that?! 4 mile run! I have never run more than 3 miles, so this will be a pretty big deal!!! I will try to keep you posted. And until then ... I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

Weekends!

Happy Thursday night, friends! I am really looking forward to the weekend. I ended up staying home sick today from work ... could not wake up this morning (after 11 hours of sleep!) and had some migraine/sicky feelings. Just could not shake it. This morning, I woke up and then went back to sleep for another 3 hours. Craziness. I lazed around all day and am feeling better tonight, so staying home was definitely the right call. Lots of kids to see/things to do tomorrow, though.

And then - off to Nashville for the weekend to see my friend Jenn! Can't wait. The weather is supposed to be great there (55 and sunny!!!) and I can't wait to spend some quality time with her. Then ... only one week of work left until spring break! Whoo! I am going to Michigan for a few days to celebrate my birthday with my parents, see a recital my parents are playing, and visit with some friends. And then I'll be driving straight down to Charlotte, NC to visit my friend Anna and her new baby Mae! Lots of driving involved, which I'm less enthused about, but excited to see everyone!

What are you all looking forward to in the next few weeks? Anything fun and exciting?

A few items of business

First and most importantly...Michigan football was amazing today!!!  I haven't seen that suspenseful of a game in a long, long time.  The best part - WE WON!!!  Against Notre Dame!  Have I ever mentioned that Matt is a big ND fan?  We are "a house divided" whenever Michigan plays ND.  Thankfully...I usually end up the happy one.  :)  I think that Fortier is really going to pull our boys this season...whew!!!

Okay, sorry.  I had to get that out there!  Second...I hate hate HATE our new neighbors.  They started moving into the apartment directly above ours three days ago...but I've never seen them.  Why, you may ask??  Because they only move in around 3am.  This is not an exaggeration.  Wednesday night/Thursday morning, some loud moving noises woke me up.  I looked at my phone - it was 3am.  It went on for FOREVER...going up and down the stairs (which are oh-so-inconveniently located outside, right on the other side of our bedroom wall), jumping around upstairs, moving furniture, the whole nine yards.  Whatever.  Thursday night/Friday morning...the same damn thing.  3:15am.  Running up and down the stairs, banging crap around upstairs, everything.  Ridiculous.  Today, they let me sleep in a little longer...the moving noises started at 5am.  What the hell??!  Who moves in solely in the middle of the night??!  I don't want to make an enemy right off the bat, but I would also love to inform them that some people work and need their beauty rest.  UGH.

THIRD...I went running yesterday!  You were probably wondering what's been going on with that, right?!  Well, yeah.  Not much.  I realized yesterday that it had been about a month since I had gone running, and that was clearly way too long.  And then...I sat and thought about it a bit more.  I hadn't been running since Matt got his deployment orders.  To be honest, my body has really reacted far more than my mind, if that makes sense.  To his deployment, that is.  I think everything is fine, but I feel terrible.  And for some reason, I have really been deciding to curl up on the couch and cuddle with Matt when possible instead of going out running.  

So, then I realized that Matt got his orders right before my cousin Julie's wedding...which was on July 18th.  I hadn't been running in TWO months, not one.  Oh dear.  I couldn't believe it had been so long.  And then, yesterday, the weather was perfect.  Warm and sunny, without humidity.  It was beautiful.  I got home from work and curled up on the couch with Matt, like every other day, but then...I got up!  I changed, and I went outside.  I decided to start slow, with the Couch to 5k program.  Yesterday, I successfully ran Day One of Week One and I felt fantastic.  Tomorrow is Day Two!!!  Wish me luck!