Piles and Smiles

There's something different around here.



There are man things around.



Piles of man things.

I'm really happy about it.

My Favorite Veterans

I don't talk about being an Army wife or an Air Force brat a lot on this blog.  I'm not sure why because the former certainly affects my life in a gargantuan way.

My father served as a pilot in the United States Air Force for 20 years.  He retired when I was just a kid but you can tell he's a military man.  On clear days with blue skies he still says to me, "Today would be such a good day to fly."

My grandfather, who unfortunately I don't have any digital pictures of, served in the United States Army during World War II.  He fought in France along side his bother, my great uncle, who didn't make it home.  My father is named after this uncle.  My grandfather died when he was 87.

My husband is an officer in the United States Army.  He's currently serving a 12 month deployment in Afghanistan.

Side note: He's coming home so soon!  Hopefully in the next few weeks I'll have the welcome home photos for you.  Squeal!

I wish I was close enough to one of my favorite vets to give them a squeeze today and say thank you in person.

Happy Veterans Day.

Vicenza Sotto'Aqua

It's been raining non-stop for 3 days straight.  I'm starting to understand a little how Noah must have felt on that ark of his.  I got off work yesterday because the post closed at 1200 due to flooding there.  I haven't left my house since Saturday.  It's a good thing I'm a homebody or I'd be going crazy.

As long as I have the internet I feel connected to the outside world.  This morning my internet was down for a few hours (probably because of all the rain, since I have satellite internet out here in the boonies) and I started pacing and panting and panicking and doing other outrageous things that start with P.  I'm plugged in now.  Whew.  If I wasn't I would have had to do something else like fold laundry or do schoolwork.

This post brought to you by the letter P!

**Update**
The flooding has gotten so bad they have closed the autostrada.  Post is still closed and I just ran out of sour cream and salsa.  How will I make my I'm-staying-home celebratory nachos?

Hello, November.

November is for NaNoWriMo.  It's for running as fast as I can for as long as I can.  November is for eating pumpkin in my morning oatmeal.  It's for studying hard.  November is for planning and praying about the future.  November is for husbands coming home.  November is for making chili and cornbread.  November is about doing things that are hard, but that are totally worth it.

Do I still journal? Why yes, I do.

I just wanted to share a few of my recent art journal pages with y'all. I went through a dry spell for a while but have really found a lot of inspiration from flickr.  I just found Anna Denise through flickr and think her work is AMAZING.  I hope one day my pages can be as beautiful as hers.



This Sunday it poured down rain all day.  Usually I love rainy days but I had my heart set on a run outdoors this day.  I stayed in and sipped tea instead.



Lots of different lists of different things I love.  This page was one inspired from Janel's iheartfall art journal class.  I only did a few of her prompts and really need to catch up.  I really love her pages too.



Another iheartfall class inspired page.  I cut this picture of a tree out of my Joyce Meyer magazine (her magazines have such beautiful pages in addition to meaningful articles).  The quote at the top of the page (also from the magazine) reads, "We all want to be able to look back at the previous year and say, 'I've improved.  I'm more patient.  I'm more giving.  I'm less selfish.'  If we have the Word in us, we can do that."

Advice please!

Ok, so.

I think I might have found a new goal, but I don't know if I'm being over ambitious.  There is a Verona marathon in February that I want to participate in.  Now don't get too crazy, I'm going to run the marathon.  They are offering a half marathon as well.  

That's 13.1 miles.  More than quadruple my huge goal I just accomplished last month.

It's going to take a lot of hard work.  No one is disputing that.  But, I do have more than 4 months to work toward this goal.  That's something, right? 

Please, if you know anything about running tell me now if I'm being an over anxious beginner or if I really have a shot at finishing this thing.  I'm going to keep my eyes peeled for a 10k, which would have been my next race or preference.  Maybe if I find one I can get rid of this crazy idea.

I was checking out Runner's World online and they had a training schedule for half marathons for beginners.  It was an 8 week schedule.  Surely I can stretch that over double the time for a slow increase to what I want to accomplish?  This way there's no injuries or heartache over a missed run.  

I'm not going to lie, when I saw that in week 1 I'd be running 19-21 miles instead of my usual 6-10 I had a little panic attack.  But as soon as I calmed down and stopped hyperventilating I realized I had more time than the average bear.

Here I go, getting excited again.  

Bloggers, either talk me off the ledge or encourage me to take the leap.  I'd love your feedback.

The Fitness of Nikki to Date

After completing my 5k (and the biggest athletic accomplishment of my adult life), I kinda went into a fitness funk.  There wasn't really a need to get those 2 miles in before work in the morning.  So in my mind there wasn't much of a need to get any miles in that day.  It might have had something to do with going on this to see this:



But!  There was a gym on the boat and I worked out twice.  On vacation even!  When did I become one of those people?  One day I ran for 25 minutes on the treadmill.  Another day the gym was full so I ran up and down the 10 flights of stairs on the ship for 20 minutes.

Which, by the way, if you ever get the chance to do that while you're on a cruise?  Don't.  Especially not on the first day of the cruise when you have days and days of sight seeing to do after.  Your calves will hate you and be very vocal in letting you know their sudden want to be liberated from the rest of your silly legs.

Despite the 6 course meals every night and all-you-can-eat all-day-long buffets I managed not to gain any weight.  I did not, however, manage to find a new goal to replace my 5k goal.  Not yet anyway.

This new found strength in my body is so invigorating.  I no longer find eating healthy a chore, but a way to get my body the best fuel possible to run in its most efficient state.  I don't think of exercise as something to do to loose weight but to get stronger and faster.

Now I feel like I need to put a disclaimer here: I still eat lots of chocolate and burritos.  I still talk myself out of going for runs sometimes.  I still get disappointed when I can't quite button my skinny jeans and have to go for a size up that day.  I am still my fantastically flawed self.

But I'm stronger too.