Life

Has gotten ridiculous lately... I keep having these fly by thoughts of things I'd like to post, and then I don't make the time to get on here and write them.

Like this past weekend, I ran my first Ultra-Marathon.

It was a 50k.

As in a little over 31 miles of running trails... It took my BFF and I just under 8 hours to do so. And I can't begin to tell you what happened while running. 8 hours of talking, laughing, sharing secrets, stories, bits and pieces of our past that we've never gotten around to, God, life, future plans, people we love, people we can't stand (in general and in specifics), motivating each of us through our "walls" that we hit... And guess what?! When we got done we both looked at each other and said

"Well, we could have done that faster!"

But we still had gas left in the tank which was perfect considering we had a 6.5 hour drive home still to do. Oh! The race was right near Oakland, CA so its not like it was in our backyard...

I woke up Sunday morning scared to move... I was afraid if I moved the wrong way, stretched the wrong muscle, or blinked that I might turn into one gigantic muscle cramp. Surprisingly enough I was more tired than sore. Granted bits of me let me know that they hurt, but nothing was so much that I couldn't function. Monday morning was a little bit of a different story, second day soreness kicked in full-force, but I'd committed to going back to my old job in Irvine and covering a shift for another MT so as long as I kept moving I did alright.

So besides the ridiculousness of the fact that I just ran a 50k - btw, outside of the Tough Mudder I've NEVER run a sanctioned run (other than a 5k). No 10k, 1/2 Marathon, 30K, or Full-Marathon... So instead of dipping my toe in the pool, I jumped in head first into the deep end!
And the fact that I think we will be running another 50k in the near future, and talks of doing a "Rim to Rim to Rim" run at the Grand Canyon has been tossed around...

The other ridiculousness in my life includes, Steven hopefully starting Pre-school this year, Matthew leaving the end of October for a year to Japan unaccompanied, and me balancing all my jobs! First I say hopefully because apparently my procrastination didn't get the memo that if you want your child on the "definitely" list you've got to get them signed up practically a year in advance (or maybe its because I'm not from California and I've never had to deal with their system yet)... So we are on the "wait and see" list, not that I'm not stressed out by that at all :-/

Now I've been getting two reactions from people when they find out that not only is Matthew going to Japan for a year, but he's going without us. Either its very blase (because they are Marines, or married to one) or they get all up in arms. Let me set people straight. I'm NOT happy that he is leaving for a year without us. BUT he isn't deploying to a war zone. We did a 12.5 month deployment to Iraq the last time he left, and I was 7.5 months pregnant with Steven... He didn't have a chance to meet him until he was almost 5 months old. He lived on OP's that didn't have real chow halls, showers, or shitters. His life was on the line every single day that he was deployed. This time around he will be on a set base, no one will be trying to kill him, he'll have a room to himself, real food, real showers, real bathrooms (no piss tubes and wag bags).

How we'll handle this year apart is up to us. Feel free to inquire if you feel you have a right to know our private life.

My biggest concern is Steven. He's been going through a clingy phase and as it is some mornings when he wakes up and Matthew is already gone to work he's distraught. I know we'll survive it, but I don't look forward to trying to have to explain to a 4 year-old why Daddy isn't coming home tonight, or tomorrow, or the next day.

As to my jobs, I'm in the process of trying to figure out how to condense them... For a while it felt like I wasn't hardly working at all, but within the last 3/4 weeks its definitely picked up... I've got the spa, DrS's, private clients, FRS, Cyclist Massage... And still trying to balance everything so that I actually spend time with my boys. While I love all of them, I'm going to have to change a lot of this once Matthew leaves because I wont have the luxury of knowing that he'll be home with Steven while I'm off working crazy hours.

I really need to get the materials together that I need to study for my Nationals, because I really like the idea of trying to get hired with the Wounded Warriors on base. If I can find something that is Mon-Friday set schedule, making enough $ to justify childcare costs then I'd be all for it.

We'll see where the next couple of weeks finds us. At the moment I need to jump off of here, and turn on some music and start doing a deep clean on our place. I was spoiled in the 12 days that my mom came to visit and the fact that even though I was crazy busy our house got cleaned up everyday! Plus if I turn on some music of my own maybe I can block out the OBNOXIOUS base line from my neighbor across the street.

Blessings all.