Oops, Six Things on Saturday

Sorry for the lack of posts this week. Those 16 miles all around wore me out. I think I have been focusing all week on mentally preparing myself to run 17 tomorrow. I am crazy, I know.

1. We often offer to pet sit for our friends. Even though Aspen is rather mean to other dogs, with careful introductions she can get to the point of tolerating them. It turns out our friends love labs. The labs never exactly behave for us. Between the incessant search for food, the whining at 1am, 3am, and 6am, and the constant pacing, we have concluded we will never be lab owners. The lab we so kindly offered to take care of this weekend, has an additional annoyance to the above list, humping (I wish I could think of a more creative term, but it is what it is). He has attacked Aspen to the point she no longer fights back and is also quite fond of me. I was sitting next to Aspen when my attack occurred. I have never felt so violated or helpless as when that dog wrapped his legs around my shoulders and went to town. Here is a picture of the aftermath...

Looks can be deceiving....

2. I purchased my first pair of knee high boots. On sale and with a gift card, good deal all around. I am not sure I love them because my height causes the boots to hit me a little higher than knee level.

3. My mom is coming in less than a week! My mom is coming in less than a week! Actually both of our moms are coming in less than a week!

4. On a not so happy note, my dad just had major surgery. Of course he is making it seem as if its no big deal, but hello, getting a tumor removed from your heart is a big deal. I am worried about his recovery, and possibly planning a trip to go take care of him... ( I know you are reading this dad, so here is my shout out at how much I think about you!)

5. Will and I decided that we were spending too much "nothing" time in front of a computer screen so we went to the public library. I checked out two books on adoption. My desire right now is to some how "acquire" a child. Adoption could take forever and pregnancy, um not now, please.

6. The job market here is awful. The jobs listed consist of manual labor, child care, or nurses. It is frustrating because the manual labor jobs usually require some associates degree, a degree that costs less and took less time to complete than mine. I have made fliers for house cleaning and dog walking, both of which require no high school or college education. I have to keep telling myself that our time here is short and I will be back in school soon.

A Miserable Sixteen

This week in training I had to run 16 miles. Will dropped me off 16 miles outside of town and I ran back. I was feeling pretty good up until the one hour and forty five minute mark, then I just crumbled. Will met me at mile 12 and ran the last 4 with me and had to put up with my crying (literally, I was weeping). It was by far the hardest run I have ever done.

I knew it was going to be a rough run because I started late (9:30 am), I woke up with knots in my calves from backpacking, and I did not get much sleep this weekend. I think this is the part of training where one realizes they are absolutely nuts for wanting to run a marathon. Well at least I feel that way.

I decided to ice my feet and knees because they always seem to hurt the most. The feet ice bath felt not so great, but hopefully it will help me to walk tomorrow.

Even though it took me a billion hours, I can now say I have run 16 miles.

We are off to eat at a Chinese buffet. Being able to eat whatever I want is one of the best things about training for a marathon.

Just in case there was a bear...

Will found this video a while back and we often exchange quotes from its ridiculousness. I am usually not a fan of watching videos other people post, but this is great.



So basically Will and I decided we would just take his advice and fight off a bear by saying, "Get away from here! I say, get! get!"

Back Packing

We successfully went on our first backpacking trip. I really like being able to go out into the wilderness on a whim. I have grown to not so much dread camping in the mountains (it is freaking cold up there), but get a teeny bit happy about it (the sleeping pad Will bought me plays a huge factor in this). Yet, there is always a brief moment of panic about an hour after we are snug in our mummy bags, and I think, "what about the bears?" Luckily, no bears last night!

On our way up to the lake... Everyone kept commenting on how "hard" Aspen was working with her pack on. She was carrying a cup of her food and a pair of sandals. So really, she was only working hard at looking cute.




Finally, me made it!The hike was 5.5 miles. The picture on the left is the view from our tent.



On our way back home. We had to cross several waterfalls and creeks. Overall, it was just gorgeous and I achieved my "adventurous badge" for the weekend.

The trip apparently kicked Aspen's butt because she has been sleeping since we got home. I like to think its because she was up all night standing guard.

Five Things on Friday

1. My watch is about ten minutes too slow. It seems to get increasingly slower each month, strange. This really bothers Will and he insists I should set it on the correct time, which makes sense. My hesitation is that I have grown accustomed to adjusting to calculating the right time whenever I glance down at my watch. This is great at work. I see my watch says it is 1:09, but wait, it is really 1:19 and I will be off in ten minutes. I am pretty sure time goes faster this way.

2. Witnessing a three year old nursing while I am talking to the mother makes me really uncomfortable.

3. My housemates who live across of the hall have picked up singing. It seems they enjoy belting out songs for five hours at a time. They literally sound like screeching hyenas. Will gets embarrassed when I try to sing back to them to give them a taste of their own medicine, he is the polite one.

4. This photo makes me laugh. If you look hard you can see Aspen staring down the cat. It is also funny because Will does not like cats, yet they always make their way into his lap.

5. We are going camping tonight. We are hiking up five miles to some lake on a mountain, camping, and then hiking up the rest of the way to the peak tomorrow. I get to use my backpack Will bought me for the first time. I am sure I will take lots of awesome photos of it.

Well I am off to pack my pack, ha. Have a good one!

High Waisted

One more post for today because I will probably be exhausted tomorrow. I will be at the track at 6 tomorrow morning to run 800's. Brings back such sweet memories, you agree Claire? They say speed work will really be beneficial come marathon time, but I still feel rather nauseous just thinking about it.

As many have observed, high waisted attire is quite in style. However, most fashion trends are set for women by women, and men often struggle to understand the appeal. I have attempted to pull of this look by wearing a skirt my mom made a little higher than my waist line, but Will only attempts to pull it back down. He wanted to show me how silly I looked by pulling his pants higher than normal. Here is the result...

Bozeman Bucks

Have you heard of them? Ya, well I had not either until we went to their game on Tuesday. The team consists of boys that look about Sophomores in high school, and weigh a total of 180 pounds. We got more enjoyment out of watching all the moms and their teeny bopper outfit selections. I wanted to tell them, seriously, cubic zirconium sparkles are not necessary on every item you own.

We took only a few pictures. Me with my Root Beer (it is a rarity to find Dr. Pepper here) and microwaved popped popcorn. I took a picture of the field because it still amazes me that those mountains are the back drop of our life here. You can see them from literally every part of town. I wish I could emphasize to the kids how lucky they are to be raised in an environment that consists of things other than concrete.

The Weekend

Will and I had a pretty relaxing weekend and got to be outside with out a jacket, woohoo.

On Saturday we hiked up to a small lake in Hyalite Canyon (about ten miles away). It was pretty warm and we had Aspen practice carrying her "fanny" pack that Will bought her. Will has hopes of backpacking and Aspen carrying all of her supplies for us. She only growled at one bouncy golden retriever, so we are slowly making progress on her aggression.

On Sunday, Will ran 14 miles while I only ran 7 (it was my off week for training, but 7 was still awful). Went to church, had lunch with our mentors, and then floated the Madison River with Will's sister, Erin.

Will then decided that blueberry pancakes sounded great for dinner and made those. In all honesty, Will does the majority of the cooking as well as the dishes (I just enjoyed a delicious serving of Pad Thai he made). I know some couples like to take turns, one makes dinner the other does dishes, but Will just does it all. He also mopped today and made the bed. So basically, I do nothing. I am still trying to figure out why he keeps me around.

P.S. We officially booked tickets to D.C. and get to hang out with the brother for almost a week :)

Five Things on Friday

1. Will came with me to work today for a bit. It is neat to watch how much the kids love him. Daniel's whole face lights up when he sees Will.

(I promise the kids are laughing, even if Will looks like he is about to eat them. And ignore Will's shorts that are pulled up, he likes to tan those upper thighs.)

2. I have started watching yet another dramatic teenage television show, Pretty Little Liars. All of those shows that leave the audience with cliff hangers get me every time. Will says that screen writers are paid thousands of dollars to do that, but I wish I did not get so easily sucked in.

3. Several hippie moms put on hula hooping lessons at the park this morning. We got to watch them shake their things while twirling a hula hoop from one appendage to the next. I was also given the chance to reminisce about winning the hula-hooping field day events in elementary school.

4. We are attempting to plan a trip out to D.C. in August to see my brother. He is scheduled to leave for Hawaii in October to train before being deployed to Afghanistan in April. Has anyone else been catching the newspaper articles about the amount of troops being killed in Afghanistan? Well, I have, and it is a bit worrisome.

5. I have a tendency to like name brands. Since I am living in the mountains, Patagonia is my new brand of choice. Their clothing is extremely over priced, so I do my best to find them discounted. This means I sometimes end up with stuff that is circa 1980. Just take a look...

We are going to be hanging around town this weekend. Possibly building some lawn chairs and floating the river.

Marriage Mentoring

Will and I signed up with our church to have marriage mentors. We both filled out a pretty extensive questionnaire/analysis and then we were paired with an older couple. Our hope was to get to know each other a little better, improve on our marriage, and engage in conversation with someone other than each other.

We were paired with a couple that has been married for 25 years with children our age. Their role is to lead us through the results of our analysis and offer lessons they have learned while being married.

Each time we receive the computer generated results of various topics. So far they have included strength and growth areas, relationship dynamics, and our various types of stressors.

Our Relationship Strengths:
Financial Management (Will does the managing. The whole number, balancing, checking bank account thing is something I would rather not partake in. I am aware this could be problematic if anything should happen to Will.)

Parenting Expectations (umm... not really sure. Maybe it is a strength because we do not have kids and we have not had the opportunity to fight over them yet.)

Spiritual Beliefs (I was not surprised by this strength because our "spiritual beliefs," our belief in a forgiving Father, is what brought us together. We want our marriage to be centered around a purpose other than just ourselves, even though we have a difficult time doing that.)

Family & Friends (Another thing that makes us work, is that we both really enjoy the others friends and family. I fully approve of his friends and very much lucked out in the in-law department.)

Leisure Activities (We do almost every leisure activity together. Hiking, running, rock-climbing, camping... We sometimes have a hard time knowing that it is ok to do things apart.)

Growth Areas:
Forgiveness (When we argue Will really wants to make up quick. He is always the first to ask, "Will you forgive me." I am impressed with his ability to do this because I just want to stay mad. I really struggle with forgiving him fully and I hold grudges. Those things do not result in anything positive.)

Roles & Responsibilities (I think that this one fell into the growth area because I have had a hard time "just being a wife" in MT. I miss the independence of college, my own schedule, my own classes, my own everything. I am still trying to figure out the balance between sharing everything and maintaining parts of who I am.)

Communication (This is probably our biggest growth area. However, I mistakenly prided myself in our ability to communicate. I thought that since we got to know each other so fast then we communicated effectively. Will reminded me that we got to know each other because I asked him an incessant amount of questions. This spilled over into marriage... Me telling him every last detail of my day and then getting frustrated when he would tell me one sentence about his and I would have to pry to get anything else. We communicate quite differently and we need to work on how to make it work.)

Partner Style & Habits ( I believe this one is only on here because I most likely was answering the questions when Will was eating a bowl of cereal or something. I become very bothered with all his noises sometimes.)


I am sure most of the people who read this could care less about the ins and outs of our marriage. I just feel that we have missed out on having people be apart of our marriage because we live so far away. I want to present a realistic view of our relationship. I will try to do a couple more posts covering the other aspects of the questionnaire. I know so many words can be rather boring.

Missoula Half-Marathon

This was me at 4:30 in the morning.

This was me sometime between 6 and 8 in the morning.

Will was such a fantastic supporter He probably rode his bike about 23 miles to take pictures of me and make sure I was still trucking along. I am thankful we are able to support each other in our hobbies. I can not think of many people who would be thrilled to wake up at 4 in the morning to ride their bike in the dark to watch someone run.

I felt like I tried to really run this 13 miles instead of just casually jogging. My legs felt as if they were shredded once I crossed the finish. My time was about 8 minutes faster than the race in Denver.

We had another nice weekend get away, but we are hoping next weekend we can just relax.

Friday Night

Don't you worry, the wine bottle is about a month and a half old and Aspen was just merely posing with the bottle. We did finish that bag of cherries. It was finally a beautiful night and I enjoyed being outside without a jacket.

Oh, and Will built me that bike I am riding. It has served me well. Except for that time I popped my tire (yesterday) riding home from work and had to walk the rest of the way. Other than that, it makes me feel like I am doing my part to help the good ole' environment.

Five Things on Friday

3. I think Aspen looks absolutely smashing in her red bandanna.

4. Even though Montana is beautiful in the summer, a part of me (well, large part) wishes I did not have to spend the Fourth of July looking like this...

5. We are heading back to Missoula tomorrow for the Half-Marathon. Will decided he just wanted to cheer me on. I am actually scheduled to run 15 miles on Sunday, so I might just tack on an extra two miles to the race. I will keep you posted on how the race turns out.


We are going to be strolling the Art Walk downtown tonight and possibly going to the Farmer's Market tomorrow morning. Should be good.

For You Mom

The new haircut...

Almost Wordless Wednesday

White Water Rafting

The in-laws came in town for the Fourth of July weekend. They gave us many things like great company, delicious meals, and a trip to white water raft. I had never been in Montana and it was quite chilly, yet fun!

The paddlers are (from front right) Travis (Will's younger brother), Nick (Erin's boyfriend), Will, Bob (Will's Dad), Yours Truly, Becca (Will's younger sister), Erin (Will's older sister), and our lovely guide.

P.S. Sorry the pictures post so small, but if you click on them they will expand. It is worth it, especially on these pictures to see everyone's expression.

Another Thirteen Miles

This thirteen miles was almost as much fun as an actual race. Except for the lack of other runners, sweet t-shirts, aid stations, and fancy finish line. Here is the break down of how the run went...

Mile 1-2: Everything hurts. I begin wondering why I am even running . I also wonder why none of those cars driving 60 mph move over for us.

Mile 3: My right foot falls asleep. While running, you ask? Ya, I am not really sure, but it is lovely.

Mile 3-4: I am enjoying not feeling any pain in my foot, but a bit concerned that losing feeling might not be a good thing.

Mile 5: I regain feeling! I also finally find my groove. We are running down a road that has nothing but fields on either side and wonderful views of the mountains.

Mile 6: We have a follower. A sweet hunting dog decides he wants to trot along right behind us. He eventually gives up and goes back home.

Mile 7-8: All down hill. I could get used to this.

Mile 9: This is the point where Will had left some gatorade for us to drink. I have two sips and we are off again.

Mile 10: I am pretty much ready for the run to be over.

Mile 11: Another gatorade bottle. Two more sips and we take off again.

Mile 12-13: So close, but so far away. I am barely shuffling my legs at this point.

Yay! We finished. We usually end up quarreling over something during our long runs. This time it was because I felt Will was not sharing the gatorade and running too far in front of me to grab it. So we were not in very happy moods when we finished.

I am still worried I will not be able to run much more than thirteen. I know if I keep following the training program I should be fine, there is always doubt though.

We are contemplating signing me up for the half-marathon in Missoula next weekend. It was rated the Best Marathon in the country. How could I not run it?

Happy Fourth of July

Let's celebrate with fireworks, bar-b-que, and by hugging a soldier..

Preferably my studly brother.

From Montana to Washington

Will had a Statistics conference in Seattle two weeks ago and we set out for a road trip. We stopped in Missoula the first night and then camped the next night in Washington. True to Washington's character we were rained on from 4 am until we arrived in Seattle.

Once we arrived in Seattle we had 11 miles to run. Will found a route along Alki Beach. The run started off with down town Seattle in the background and ended up in the middle of multi-million
dollar homes over looking the beach.

We went to a hidden park with lots of trails. We stumbled upon a couple of people whom I am sure were taking full advantage of their medical marijuana cards. We also saw the biggest slugs I have ever seen.

We then did some of the more tourist stuff. Such as seeing Pike's Place market and the original Starbucks.

I am thankful for this time to be able to just up and go somewhere. We have not decided yet where our next trip will be, probably back to Grand Teton National Park.