A Happy Thought in The Midst Of...

 (last year)

Its been a rough week. Like, test who you really are kind of week. Like, if it don't kill ya, it will make you stronger kind of week. And I really believe those things, that when times are tough, one can take great pride in never losing a certain optimism. And when its over, when you overcame, when you look back with the knowledge that you actually smiled and enjoyed moments of the journey because you knew what a funny story it would be to look back on how laughably bad things were, that sense of accomplishment, that pride in yourself will move you up a few notches in the got-this-life-figure-out pole. And that kind of confidence boost is priceless. And when a person gots confidence, a person can do anything. 

I believe that life is like a muscle, lets imagine our life is a bicep. And if you want a stronger, more awesome bicep, you can't just go to the gym everyday for 10 years and lift 10 lbs for a half hour. The strength will remain the same, and it will be easy. You know what you gotta do, you have to increase the weight. You have to push your limits. Because right when it starts to burn. Right when you want to stop because it hurts so bad. THAT is the moment when you grow. 

In short, I truly am grateful for when life teaches me a lesson. I would never give up the rough times I've been through to make my life easier. Looking back at who I was five years ago, I can't believe how little I knew about life! This, is a journey. An Adventure. What adventure movie can you think of where everything went right and easy? (booooooooorrrring!)

I can't wait to see what kind of person I am ten years down the road, with ten more years of muscle-growin under the belt. 

Here is us last Christmas, after the most grueling 3 months of my life (I really think so). Moving from the west coast, leaving all of our friends who had become like family, ditching so many of our loved things that we couldn't bring along, to a scary new, lonely place, with no job. And look at how good things turned out! (I will not allow this week to taint the past year as we come upon our 1 year anniversary here!)

p.s.

To those who are aware of the plumbing incident, that was definitely the straw that prompted this post, but not the only straw on my back at the moment! Thankyou for everyone who has expressed their prayers and concern during this issue and during our flu sufferings! Love you all <3

For Me

I really do want to blog regularly.
But I get so caught up in getting caught up with pictures and cuteness of the kids that just MUST be documented and how-dare-I blog about “whatever” when I HAVEN’T . EVEN . POSTED . THOSE . HALLOWEEN . PICTURES . YET . !?!?!
BUT I have two quotes that keep ringing in my ears:

“DOUBT KILLS MORE DREAMS THAN FAILURE EVER WILL.”

and

“WHERE PERFORMANCE IS MEASURED, PERFORMANCE IMPROVES.”

I need to remember that a blog post doesn’t have to be perfectly worded, formatted, pictures processed to the perfect black and whiteness, DOUBT or fear that I don’t have time to make it PERFECT stop me ALL the time.
AND I think this blog would be a great place for me to talk about how I’m trying to be a better person and all that...
So I’m going to give this a shot, just blogging, for me.
Not blogging to show the world that I have the CUTEST kids ever made (which, ahem, I do…and umm I still will blog that…), and not blogging to declutter my hard drive by deleting pictures that aren’t good enough to make the blog cut, and not blogging to try and help others (I don’t even know how I’d do that anyways…), but just writing because I love to write and because I need to spend some time on me right now.
In general, I’m trying really hard to take more me time. As per my husband’s insistence.
I feel that I have made great progress in life lately. And its an amazing feeling. A big part of this was getting into running.
In the last three months I’ve gone from two extremes-

Who I was:

I hate running so much, but I know its good for me so I’m going to do it, I’m going to get all dressed in fun running clothes with my cool headphones, I’m pumped I’m so ready for this run!! And after running for 5 minutes I lay flat on the ground gasping for my life and I just let all the passersby assume that I just finished running a secret marathon. (I could really only run for about .20 miles)

Who I am now:

On days I don’t run, I’m an irritable Debbie downer. I crave a good run. I run 5k (3.10 miles) every day, no stopping to walk, a steady half hour every single time. Once a week I do an hour run, this usually gets me about 5.5miles. I’ve even gotten to the point that I can have a good chat with a friend while running!

What I’ve Learned

I’ve learned that when things get hard, like, really hard, you just gotta push through and it will get better. Have I been told that my whole life, uh, YEAH, but I thought that everybody was just saying that so that I’d keep trying! But guess what…its true!

At first it was literal – the route I run is slightly uphill for a small part. For a while I would run hard and stop right as I got to the top of the hill, thinking I deserved to rest now since I made it to the top! Makes sense right? Well one day I decided to keep running after I got to the top…wow! It was amazing! I pushed and pushed and made it to the top and then kept going!  And guess what…it got easier!! This simple, silly little hill on the path that runs past my house has taught me so much about life.

“The harder the battle, the sweeter the victory.”

The first time I ran the 5k loop without stopping, the accomplishment that I felt and the utter joy and self satisfaction ranks right up there with some of the happiest moments of my life.

And since I can’t bring myself to do a post without pictures, here are some strait from my phone- untouched! Most from Memorial Day weekend, some just from life lately.