October 8, 2012-My First Quarter Marathon…

     When I was in high school, I ran Cross Country and a little track, mostly hurdles.  Our Cross Country meets mainly consisted of 2 miles runs every weekend through a wooded area around my hometown in Alabama during the season.  Two to three miles is good by me.  I can do that, even now, but more than that, I’m not usually that interested in.  I know people on the island who run marathons and talk about regularly running 20 miles around our 3 mile long, ½ mile wide piece of coral, and I cannot imagine that, and I will probably never achieve such a distance in my own running experiences. I admire those who do, and I have always enjoying running to a certain extent, just not that extent. J  At any rate, until today, I have never run farther than a 5 K, which is 3.1miles, and that was when I was in high school, and my running buddies and I entered the Monte Sano Mountain 5 K run up one of our local “hills,” as nothing in the valley where I grew up is tall enough to be considered an actual mountain. Today, I ran (and I use the term ran very, very loosely-it’s more like using the running motion, but only going the pace of a brisk walker) 6.52 miles in the Columbus Day Runabout ¼ Marathon. You could also choose a length of a ½ marathon (13.2 miles), but I thought for me, that might be a bit much (ha, like I could even survive that at this point in my life).  Anyway, I decided to start out in a jog and figured when I got tired, I would stop running and walk until I felt like running again. I knew I could easily jog ½ the distance, but never thought I would job the entire 6+ miles.  My oldest son helped out with the water stations as part of his Boy Scout troop, and at some point, I decided that I’ve run this far, I might as well at least run until I reach the 2^nd and last water station where my son was waiting with a cold cup of water for me…then maybe I’d walk the rest of the way. Well, the second water station was right about the 5-mile mark, so why stop at all now!  I basically finished last behind the 2 men who were walking/jogging the entire race in front of me, and beating the times only of the other ladies in our age category who walked the entire race, but that’s okay. I am proud to have finished it, and to even be able to do it at all cold turkey like that. I didn’t train for it, and really haven’t even been able to make time to go out an run regularly lately, so it was an accomplishment for me, and maybe it will even motivate me to get out there more often and do so physical training, so I can improve upon my time next year, that is if my first ¼ marathon doesn’t also end up being my last. J    

July 20-Now (October 7, 2012)-The First Three Months of Married Life

     Looking back at my blog today, I realized that August and September escaped  without my written notice. Sorry about that for those of you who check in at my blog now and again to see if I’m still around. J  I’m alive and well, praise the Lord, but it’s definitely been a very exciting three months starting with my children almost leaving to go live with their dad and step-mom in Alabama and eventually working something out with my ex, so that they all stayed, at least for another school year, I think. Then with the start up of school, busy days at work, volunteer duties picking back up (yes, I’m still teaching Sunday School, serving on the board of the PTO, and helping out with 4-H clubs here on island), I don’t really even remember September, although I will say the honeymoon continues.  My husband and I are transitioning from being weekend warriors, so to speak, to being together 24 /7, but we couldn’t be happier to just be on the same island and in the same household, finally!!  We’ve been through so much as a couple and a family already, that it only seemed natural to unite our lives even more fully to tackle the challenges and experience the joy of living in this world together for the rest of our lives. Unfortunately, we haven’t had a chance to go on that honeymoon yet, although just living in the same house often feels like a honeymoon to me. Previously, we only got to be together every day when we were on vacations, so I guess you could say, we have remained in a mini-vacation mode the past 3 months. During that time, we’ve cleaned out and reorganized the house, making room for my husband’s stuff due to arrive on the barge from his island any day now, we hope, and we’ve attempted to begin figuring out a family budget, particularly in the area of food purchases. My magnificent chef of a husband has worked hard on a rotating menu plan, which cut our grocery bills by at least a fourth. Knowing what exactly to buy, according to the menu for the week, and not overbuying on things we end up not eating before they go bad made a bigger difference than I ever realized it could.  As we all learn and grow together as a family, life moves on. The boys both have birthdays coming up soon, and they will be 9 and 11. I can’t believe it. The summer itself has shown how much they’ve grown in maturity, not needing my help as much with school work and being old enough and responsible enough to hang out around the island with friends and needing minimal adult supervision.  Most importantly, they are both healthy and happy, which is a very big deal, considering all they have been through the past several years.  One thing I have learned through it all is to take it one day at a time and enjoy every moment possible in the now, not worrying about the future until it comes. I’ve said this before in my blog, knowing it was right, but allowing myself to worry anyway, so now I am learning to really let go of that worry and fear about what might happen in the future because when I think I know what’s next, everything changes, and that’s okay…God’s in charge, keeping His children’s best interest always at heart.  

Evening of July 7th-July 19, 2012-The First 12 Days…

     Just like waiting for Christmas morning or gearing up for vacation, once the big day arrives, it always goes by too quickly, and you’re left with simply the clean-up before life moves on.  The big day has come and gone, and it was more than I ever could have expected because of the hard work and generosity of our family and friends. Thanks are definitely in order for all of those in the family who helped fix up their places for the occasion so that they looked more beautiful than ever.  Without a wedding coordinator, the matron of honor, my now husband, and his wonderful family divided up and took on all the tough tasks of putting together everything from the rehearsal dinner to setting up the sound system, making the centerpieces and setting the tables for the reception, putting the coolers together, and so much more! While my best friend and matron of honor assisted me with my hair and make-up back at her hotel room, my sweetheart and his family made sure everything was taken care of back at the wedding and reception venues.  The ceremony and reception itself was beautiful and went by without a hitch. Of course, there are always those little things behind the scenes that come up last minute, but thanks to our fabulous “venue crews,” the guests never knew the difference.  It was an honor to have my cousin officiate and to have a whole table of Kwajalein residents at both the wedding and reception.  We feel so blessed to have such a supportive base of friends and family from around the world really. My family traveled from North Carolina, Missouri, Alabama, and Texas while many of our friends and my husband’s family traveled from as far away as Kwajalein and as close as various spots throughout Oregon for a total of around 40 guests on that sunny, warm evening. Yes, the worries about rainy weather were unnecessary. In fact, we delayed the ceremony and such because the sun was so bright, and it was so warm that we needed to push back the time in order to make it more comfortable for everyone and allow the sun to set a little further behind our archway where the ceremony took place.  J   

       Since that lovely day and our wedding weekend at the Holiday Inn in Albany, it’s been a whirlwind of activity for our first 12 days a married couple.  It started with a day trip to Newport with the family and friends who were able to stick around for an extra day or two, and then a longer road trip to various spots throughout Oregon including McMinnville to see the Spruce Goose (www.evergreenmuseum.org) and have some fun at a water park and to Seaside and Cannon Beach to enjoy another quaint coastal town and the amazing sight of Haystack Rock. (http://ci.cannon-beach.or.us/~Natural/hrap.html). We spent the night in Seaside, so the boys started their day dipping their toes into the icy cold waters of Cannon Beach and ended it throwing snowballs at each other on Mt. Hood at the historic and absolutely breathtaking Timberline Lodge (http://www.timberlinelodge.com).  Another honeymoon treat we were blessed to receive occurred when my parents offered to treat us to a night at the lodge, so we returned the favor and treated them to a gourmet dinner at the Cascade Dining Room within the lodge itself.  It was one of those surreal moments when you are taken back in time to the days of Franklin D. Roosevelt who provided the work force for the handmade wood lodge through his Works Progress Administration program (http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/fdr-creates-the-wpa ). The next morning it was off to the High Dessert Museum (http://www.highdesertmuseum.org) near Bend, Oregon for a fun and educational end to our 3 day road trip. 

      The remaining 6 days were spent relaxing with family back at the Oregon homestead, going to the dirt track races, supporting the family by attending the 4-H County Fair, and taking care of business, such as starting the long process of changing my name on everything from my social security number to bank accounts and so much more.  I wish we had more time to just be with everyone and catch up because once a year is never enough and with preparing for and executing all the wedding events, we had less time than usual to devote to all those important people in our lives and especially those who were visiting us from afar. 

     Now that we are headed back home, I have very mixed feelings about leaving. Oregon is becoming my home, and I look forward to having a chance to be a more permanent resident there some day.  Sitting at the airport, typing this, I am missing everyone already. It’s been a wonderful wedding adventure, and I can’t wait to see what the rest of our lives have in store!! 

July 5th-the morning of the 7th, 2012 Pampering Time and the Rehearsal Dinner

     The only bad thing about planning a wedding to take place back home with family and living all year in a home 7,000 miles from your family and the wedding site is that you don’t get to spend all that quality time together with your family and friends who are going to be such a huge part of your day much beforehand. So, to at least try to get some of that much needed bonding in that we missed out on being back in the islands, I decided to pamper the bridal party a bit. There are many, many people who have made this once in a lifetime event for my fiancé and me come together so perfectly, and even though it was not possible to do something for everyone all at once, I did what I could to get in the majority of the ladies together on Thursday for some distress and fun time with an appointment for manicures and pedicures at one of the local nail salons in the mall, Excellent Nails.  The all-Vietnamese staff did a fabulous job of massaging our hands and feet, cleaning them up, and painting them with gel shellac, white flowers, and glitter. (The gel shellac was the big selling point of the day-“You want shellac?” “Who wants shellac?” we were asked as soon as we arrived. Apparently, when you put on the shellac-at a $10 extra charge-your nail color will not chip for 2 weeks as opposed to chipping the first few days without it. Anyway, I was sold on it, and so far, so good-No chipping…) While they were fabulous at doing nails, we were fabulous at having a really good time together. I giggled as I watched my soon to be sister in law make funny faces in the massage chair while soaking her feet, and we all made jokes when my fiancée and his nephew happened by shopping for rehearsal dinner clothes and teased us about our giggly bodies in those same chairs. That’s the problem when you decide to get pampered in a mall with everything open for the world to see, but it was the only place close by that we knew could handle all 7 of us.  After all the funny faces, giggles, and extra charges for flowers and shellac, we headed out to lunch at the Red Robin by my 2 flower girls request.  It was so great to be with everyone at once.  I wish all the rest of the ladies from my family could have been there, but there’s more time for that now after the wedding. 

     Last night was the rehearsal dinner hosted by my fiancé’s family at their lovely home (which is also the site of the actual ceremony) taking place today.  After gathering everyone together, which took about a hour longer than expected as we were working all day to take care of last minute details and running late with that (or at least my fiancé and I were-everyone else was ready) and deciding that the sun was still too high in the sky to do the rehearsal at 5 pm (at least the sun was out, and the rains have stopped-Yea!!), we were ready to begin around 6.  Or so we thought...Having been married before (as my son so aptly and with a confused look on his face pointed out to me as we were waiting to do our practice walks down the isle when he asked me about some small detail of his duties, and I answered that I didn’t know because I hadn’t done this before), you would think I would know wanted for the actual ceremony, but I never had a rehearsal dinner or a rehearsal before and neither has my fiancé. Thankfully, my cousin (our minister) has attended and been the officiate for many weddings, so he took the reins and led us through it all, sorting out how we wanted it to go and before you knew it, our wedding party consisting of my matron of honor and the best man, my two ring bearer sons, and our two flower girls took off down the aisle.  Next, it was time for me, in my gold Jessica Simpson skinny heals with my dad by my side as I tried NOT to catch one of those heals in the slats of the decking I was walking on, to head toward my honey. It was the most fun I have ever had rehearsing anything. We made jokes while my brother took pictures to catch all the candid moments, and then it was time to eat! 

     As far as I’m concerned, I couldn’t be marrying into a better family. We just go together, “like peas and carrots” as Forrest Gump would say.  They planned an entire dinner with an Oregonian theme and special dishes (our favorites that we have had over the years with them) made by each family member. From a yummy start of Tillamook cheeses and crackers, fresh corn salsa w/chips and vegetable crudités to the McMenamin’s Brewer Salad and Mediterranean Pasta salad and a fruit platter to the main course of Marinated Grilled Steelhead “locally landed” by our best man and one of my fiancé’s brothers, it was truly gourmet!! For dessert there was Marionberry pie w/ Tillamook ice cream and strawberry delight w/ local Oregon strawberries.  I’ve said it again, and I’ll say it many times over, I am so blessed and lucky! After dinner and dessert, my fiancé and I took a moment to say a few words and present a few gifts to each other and our best man and matron of honor, and I was very surprised with a photograph of the actual bride and groom coconuts which will be “racing” down the Kwajalein lagoon by the Roi-Namur Surf Shack later today competing in the annual “Coconut Cup” fundraiser for the ECCF (Enniburr Children’s Christmas Fund) as we tie the knot as well as a beautiful white gold and pearl necklace just like the one painted on the coconut.  We met at the Coconut Cup 5 years ago today, so it was a very sentimental and meaningful gift as all the gifts my fiancé has given to me over the years.  In turn, I presented him with framed versions of the Balinese batiks we bought on our first trip together and will soon hang in our “new” home back on the islands.  And my matron of honor and I, we will be drinking Oregon wine out of our hand painted Oregon wine glasses in just a few hours.  The best man was given a new filet knife, so he can “land” us some more of that delectable steelhead to eat next time we are here! And with that, the evening began coming to a close, as much as I didn’t want it to as there was not enough time to chat with everyone and catch up, not enough time to share the experience….there’s never enough time, but I will treasure the time we had and look forward to more to come tonight. I can’t believe the day is finally here!!   

June 29th -July 4th, 2012 Three Days to Go…

     Three days before the big day, I titled this entry and then I had to put the computer to sleep to leave the house and go take care of last minute preparations for the wedding, so here I am now ON the big day wondering what I was going to write about back on July 4^th?  The main thing I remember is shopping for my ring bearers wedding day clothes, and even though it took us the better part of one whole day and a lot of driving around and searching through the tiny boys’ sections of several department stores, we finally found something that I think is going to work.  As I wrote about in the last blog entry, many of the details of getting ready for this day have taken on a life of their own and decided they needed to be more important tasks which took up copious amounts of time and energy which we didn’t expect. Boy am I glad we arrived almost 3 weeks before the event as it has taken ever bit of that time to get everything accomplished!! The good thing is we had most everything done by the time the houseguests started to arrive on July 3^rd.  On the fourth, my matron of honor and her daughter (one of my flower girls arrived), and we started off the festivities with a few balls of fire at the fantastic fireworks show down at Cheadle Lake.  And it’s been a whirlwind of activities since then…