Veteran's Day

“We remember those who were called upon to give all a person can give, and we remember those who were prepared to make that sacrifice if it were demanded of them in the line of duty, though it never was. Most of all, we remember the devotion and gallantry with which all of them ennobled their nation as they became champions of a noble cause.”
-Ronald Reagan


Today is Veteran's Day. I am so thankful for all the veterans who have previously served or are currently serving our country.  I am so proud to be married to a hard working, loyal, soldier.  I respect his love and duty for his country...even though I curse it at times :).  


Being a military wife comes with its ups and downs.  Today, I won't get to see or even talk to my husband on the phone.  He is in Louisiana for a month training for deployment and phone calls are few and far between.  It's days like today that make me extra proud of him.  We are celebrating a day to remember our soldiers....soldiers just like him who are working sun up to sun down today while we are enjoying the sweet taste of freedom.


Some pictures of Josh's homecoming last year:

5k Mud Run

September was a busy month....with very little time for blogging.  I'll give a fast re-run of the month, but more importantly, talk about a mud run I did (yes, the run even trumps our vacation).  As everyone already knows, we moved into our house at the beginning of September.  I would just like to add that we've only been here for a month now and I've already locked myself out of the house twice....TWICE, I tell you.  The last time I did it, I waited outside for three hours until Josh came home. I had a lot of thinking time in those three house (most of which I spent deciding where I was going to hide our extra key).

Josh and I traveled to Naples, Florida and the Florida Keys for our one year anniversary.  We were accompanied by some friends who also were celebrating their one year anniversary.  Between swamp tours, alligators, manatees, and sunburns, we had a great time. I think our friends finally realized how old (lame) Josh and I really are.  Even on vacation, we still managed to be in bed by 10 p.m. most nights.  I snagged some alone time with Josh one morning when we ran 2 miles to the beach and picked up a cup of coffee on our run home.  I'm not going to lie, I crave these times with Josh especially now that deployment is creeping up on us.

On a more melancholy note, my grandmother passed away the day before we left for vacation.  I was blessed to have seen her only a few months earlier.  I am also so grateful that I left with such happy memories of her.  We didn't do much together - just talked a little and played some games - but I'm thankful that she was so bright and cheery for the little time that I was there.  She will be missed, but I'm happy knowing that she is in eternity with God.  One of my favorite verses is Rev 21:4. "And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away."

At the end of September I ran a 5k mud run.  I was on a team with a few other army wives.  I'm only writing about this so that I can post pictures, more than anything.  I'm proud of my army crawl through the mud leaving me dirty from head to toe.  The course was a pretty easy run (some uphill) with about 10 obstacle courses.  These courses ranged from wall climbs to mud pits.  Why did I pay $65 to get dirty?  I'm not really sure, but it was worth it!

Pictures from the Mud Run:

Josh and I on the pier in Naples:

Downtown Living

We moved into our new rental last weekend.  Thankfully, with all the help, we were able to move everything from the apartment to the house in three hours!  Josh and I spent the four day weekend moving, painting, and making our house a home.  It was tiring but nice to get things completed efficiently.  Zoey is thrilled to have a backyard and spends a lot of time running from one end of the fence to the other or carrying sticks around (we have a cute dog).  I'm enjoying having skylights in my office so that I can work in natural lighting instead of using electricity.  I'm not done decorating, but have added some pictures of the current state our house is in. It's frustrating trying to decorate on a budget.  This is why I watch "Design on a Dime" every Saturday morning.  Plus it's fun to drink coffee, snuggle on the couch with the hubby, and watch home decorating shows.

This is our storage room/Zoey's room.  We don't have any kids so of course she gets her own room.  Duh!  Zoey's bed cover is currently being washed.

 This is one view of the kitchen...

 And this is the other view.

 Living Room

 Living Room (I intentionally left out the TV view.  Not the prettiest view, in my opinion.  Josh would argue this).  Don't forget to check out the cute dog in this picture :).

 Stairs and small bathroom underneath the stairs.

 Master bedroom (a little bland at the moment).

 Guest Room.

 My office.

Zoey's 8 month update

Zoey is officially eight months tomorrow and I'm feeling somewhat guilty for not writing updates about her since we first brought her home.  If it was up to Josh, we'd be writing daily Zoey updates.  He thinks she's his daughter and I often find him cuddling in bed with her instead of me (no joke).  We've now come to the agreement that Zoey can sleep in the bed on weekends, which obviously only confuses her more.  Poor dog.

Quite often, I find myself wondering why I chose such a hyper breed.  Zoey NEVER slows down.  She loves people, which is only adorable until she starts jumping all over them (we're still trying to figure out how to train her not to do this).

She's on the smaller side for her age and her ribs still jut from her small frame (I swear, we feed her)!  Our monthly Wag N' Wash bill will attest to that.  It's amazing how strong she is though.  This definitely comes in handy when I'm running her and only have to exert about half the energy I normally would exercising.

And to conclude, I've added some pictures of our adorable, crazy, sweet, overly-friendly puppy.

Cheyenne Mountain Zoo

As much as I cringe at spontaneity, Saturday actually ended up being surprisingly fun.  We really had no plans which was kind of nice!  Josh and I got up and went to Monument Park for a four mile run.  We then went to American Furniture Warehouse and bought couches (ouch!).  I'm not sure we needed to spend as much on them as we did (Dave Ramsey probably wouldn't be too happy about the purchase).  As we were driving home, Josh decided that we should go to the zoo.  We figured after living in the springs for a year, we should go check it out.

It's in a beautiful area snuggled in the side of a mountain (thus the name).  I quickly forgot about the beautiful area when we arrived to pay for our tickets.  $17.00/person??  Really?  Thankfully, our military discount helped but not by much!  While I lived in St. Louis, the zoo was free and in Albuquerque it's on a few bucks.  I've never been to a zoo that cost so much for admission.  Anyway, I digress.

Besides the cost, it was probably the nicest zoo I've ever been to.  There were lots of opportunities to pet animals.  The giraffe exhibit was probably my favorite.  Apparently it's the largest giraffe exhibit in the U.S.  Check out the picture below of me petting one.

 Josh checking out the giraffes

 Do you see the little animal on my shoulder (photography by my clever husband)

Army Life

Oh the joys of being an army wife...

If it isn't your husband being gone for weeks or months on end, it's "management" deciding to switch up plans last minute. I have a list of complaints but I won't go there (for now).  Army life can definitely be frustrating at times, but I'm very proud of my husband for being an amazing soldier who loves his job.

Part of the "fun" of army life is always having huge quantities of army gear everywhere.  We have a closet and a storage room filled.  I hear it only gets worse the longer you've been in the service. Good thing we don't have kids.  We would have NO room for them. :)

Currently, this is how our house looks:

I figured I should throw in a picture of my adorable puppy, Zoey. 

New House

I'm so excited to announce that Josh and I are FINALLY moving out of our apartments.  I really don't have a lot to complain about, but the combination of no privacy and pot smoking neighbors was getting a little annoying.

We found a cute victorian house downtown with lots of character (and by character, I mean it's old) :).  I'm thrilled to be in the downtown area mainly because there are lots of areas to go running and adorable coffee shops.  I'll be posting pictures once we've moved in and I've completed my decorating.  For now, here's a picture of the outside.