25 25 25

I've been pretty anxious about turning 25.  It is such a milestone birthday, and I'm feeling it even more than I did 16, 18 or 21.  Plus, Marcel says, "you're practically 50 now!"  His reasoning is that 25 rounds to thirty which clearly rounds to 50.  

I woke up to Marcel singing me happy birthday with a big glass of orange juice and a pancake!  If you don't know Marcel, me getting a pancake is celebration enough.  I love pancakes and tell him every time I make them that I could eat them for every meal.  But they are not his favorite, either to eat or to make.  So we made a deal that if I craved pancakes while I was pregnant he'd have no choice but to make them because that would be what my body needed to help the baby grow.  He did say, "I know you are not pregnant, but it is your birthday! 

He is VERY accurate in saying that we're not pregnant.  No Bailey Baby for us just yet.

We had a great time at church and finally used our free drink coupons to the coffee-shop.  I even officially registered for our Sisters group, the new Women's ministry which was so wonderful a few weeks ago when it debuted!  We stopped by a Redbox on the way home so that I didn't have to watch football all day,  but here we are still watching football, but only because it is the Cowboys which is the team I've grown up watching, because they are my mom's favorite!  It even looks like they might hold onto win the game!

After church I got to open my big present that I saw wrapped last night.  All I told Marcel I wanted was for him "to go into as many stores as it takes for you to be inspired by something that you know I'll like."  Very clear, huh?  Well, he majorly succeeded.  I got a 3 drawer storage bin for my scrapbooking stuff.  He noticed on his own that I had paper just in a pile under my crafting table because I didn't have a big enough drawer for my 12x12 paper.  He told me that he almost picked another bin until he realized it wasn't big enough.  He knew it was 12x12 paper, how he knew that I'm not sure but he did.  I also got 3 new sheets of paper, which are beautiful.  He may have just nominated himself to pick out all my new paper!  He did say, how come that paper is so expensive.  It was 30% off but still some of them were going to be over $1.  Do they have magical powers or design the pages by themselves or what?  I also got a gift card to go get a manicure and pedicure.  I'm thinking I might just get 2 pedicures :)

Marcel spent the afternoon going through his pile of stuff in an attempt to clean up our house and is now doing our huge pile of dishes.  We could really use a dishwasher but for now I just try to remember that we have dirty dishes because we had food to eat.  Some people don't even have that!

Marcel was so set all morning and afternoon that we had to get our car washed today because it had to be clean when we got to my mom's for dinner at 6pm, which he told me in a half-sleep state.  I didn't understand but I went with it.  And he told me that we had to get Blizzards even though there would be cake & ice cream at my mom's because we needed something just for us.  Off we went in our shiny car to Dairy Queen.  I instantly noticed that we knew the lady at the counter ordering food, but made no second thoughts about it.  Marcel then MADE me look at the book of cakes you can order and I said, "No I don't want Lightning McQueen, no not Hannah Montana...." then he turned me around and there was Megan, a best friend from high school.  I think that is when Marcel spilled the beans that my day was actually the surprise day at Dairy Queen.  There were so many wonderful families from our WONDERFUL home group there, with their girls who we love (and are going to babysit soon!), both my mom and dad, my cousin Joey & his family (their youngest and I share a birthday and just turned 1 today), Megan, Astin...just missing my sisters, oh and taking pictures!

After hanging out for a long time that went by super fast, my mom, Marcel & I went to Applebee's and enjoyed a delicious dinner, most of which I brought home.  After dinner, Marcel and I watched Amazing Race which premiered tonight.  We reminisced about how my birthday is prime for fall show premieres. On my 21st birthday, Gilmore Girls had the season premiere, my 22nd birthday Grey's Anatomy, and now my 25th and Amazing Race.  And probably my top 3 shows of all-time.  I also got to talk to Amy, who I miss dearly.  She is always full of entertaining stories and an hour on the phone goes by so quickly.  I love that our friendship is the kind you dream of having, the one where you could go months without talking and still pick up like you just talked yesterday.  I'm actually pretty lucky that all my closest friends and I are that way!

I had a great first day as a 25 year old, even though many people told me that 25 wasn't their favorite because it is so much pressure on being a real adult now!

The Last Day

Yesterday was my last day as a 24 year old.  I grew quite fond of being 24.  It was a great year, but I've said that about all of them for the last 5 years at least!  23 may have been my all-time favorite though.  I had a great birthday weekend celebration at the beach with Marcel, then 3 days later we got engaged and a long 9 months later we were married...

Yesterday, I woke up as Marcel was getting ready for a short Saturday class.  After a small breakfast, I went on my last long run in my training.  I was only going to do 11 miles after last week and failing to do 11, but I ended up doing 12.  Just like the time I was only going to do 9 but ended up doing 10, yesterday stopping at 11 left me 1 mile to walk home.  While I have been especially cautious of giving myself cool-down time, 1 mile was too far!  I wanted to run!  I have never wanted to run like I did then, even though I had to get my butt up that MONSTER hill.  I spent 2:14:56 running, which I rounded to 2 hours 15 minutes to make it 11:15 miles.  Not too shabby for me!

Marcel and I then spent the afternoon with a lovely couple from church, Chad & Ruth.  Marcel happened to be their saving grace because he volunteered to start running the sound board as Ruth was just weeks away from having a baby and Chad had no one else on his team.  It was a great afternoon spent playing games they had never played before, which didn't stop Ruth from winning big time!

I then went to Famous Footwear for a night of work.  When I told my dad I'd take the shift I didn't realize it was the night of a BSU football game.  I wouldn't have said no simply to watch the game, but I should have known how dead the store was going to be.  Truly, after 6pm (kick-off) we had a small handful of people come in and made a lousy $100.  Not worth 2 employees being there.  Oh well, a paycheck is a paycheck to me, no matter how slow we were.  Plus, it was nice to be in jeans & a BSU t-shirt (not the normal dress code!)

Just Us

I just finished another post on my running and realized that I have posted about life in awhile, so here goes nothing!

We are BUSY!  Well, maybe I should say Marcel is busy.  He started school the first week of September and is enjoying his pedagogy class, especially since it is just him and his teacher in class.  He also also been spending a lot of time volunteering at Skyview High with the marching band.  That is the school for his primary student teaching, come January/February (dates haven't been finalized yet).  His mentor teacher and band advisor asked for his help because he is the lone guy to run marching band.  Marcel is LOVING it!  It is his dream.

It has been so fun for me to hear all the stories he has when he comes home about his future students.  Like how they didn't respect him as a teacher the first day until he played all the pieces for them, or how they get angry when he makes them practice the same little piece that everyone trips over, over and over but yet when they finally get to play the whole piece that same tricky piece goes so well and at the next practice they make suggestions of parts they need to go over.  I'm so giddy just thinking about how awesome he is as a teacher.  All his future students are so lucky to have him!


He is also subbing a fair amount.  Not as busy as he was last year, but last year he subbed at the end of the year, so he's understanding.  He also has observed at a different high school with his pedagogy teacher and has to get in 3 observation days in his secondary site (the one he does first) before November 1st.

Add in that he also runs sound and plays drums for church which require Wednesday night practices and of course Sunday morning commitments.

On to MaryBeth, the one with hardly anything to talk about...Still running (obviously, as you can see by the blog) and counting down until 10/10 when I can cross the finish lane.  Lilli still comes to my house for fun everyday.  We have so much fun together.  She's still not walking but her first birthday is right around the corner and I'm getting excited for it!  I'm still working at Famous Footwear with my dad on Monday nights.  Lilli goes home around 5pm and I leave for work around 7:30pm.  We usually work until 2am.  It makes for a long Tuesday but Lilli is scheduled here so I join in on 10am naptime.  It seems to be working quite well and it is a nice little extra money to help our budget.

I'm also looking into getting a part-time job during the holiday season, which means I need to go and get some applications this week.  We'll see what comes of that, but I'll have the time to do it more than just 6pm and later, because there are a few weeks around the holidays that I won't have Lilli.  Plus it is what I need to do for our family to help get us through this season of Marcel being in school.

Oh, and I'm just 5 days away from being 25 years old!

Redemption

Saturday I was supposed to run 11 miles.  Marcel taught me a cool thing about mapquest (something I wish I would have known about weeks ago) to find me an 11 mile route, because it is a waste of gas for him to drive me 11 miles from home and then back again.  I was upset when he said that, but it is true and gas is an expense we can't seem to cut back on, even when we try diligently!

We had spent the day at my mom's so I drove home and got changed and ready to go and headed back to my mom's, where my route started from.  Once I got there I realized I had forgot Marcel's watch (he calls it the watch).  I went on my way.  Oh, I should go back a few hours and say that I hadn't been feeling 100% and had been very sluggish all week.  I had NO energy to go out and run 11 miles, but I was supposed to, so I did.

Well, I tried.  I got 3 miles down the road and called Marcel to come pick me up.  I was hurting.  Weird stabbing pains, but not like normal side-aches.  I don't know what my problem was.  It was disheartening.  I felt like a failure.  It made me question my ability to succeed in my race.

Sunday, instead of trying again, I did my mom's elliptical.  It was a nice change.  It still kicked my butt, but gave me a nice break from the running.  Plus, I should also mention, that when I sacrificed my time on the 10 mile run to fix my knee brace, it may have come too late because my knee hurt the next day, like try with every fiber of my body not to limp.

Today I am back!  I ran my normal 3 mile route, actually my old route because I don't know the last time I did my 3 miles over that route.  If I remember back to when I did run it more frequently, I believe it is a little short of 3 miles (I'm thinking 2.8) but either way I'm still so proud of my time: 21 minutes 36 seconds.  I'm not trying for a time on 10/10/10 but to see so much improvement in my "sprint" times was the motivation I needed after Saturday!

And just one lesson learned today, more like an observation made:

I am so excited to not have to run with my cell phone and house key on the day of my race

Double Digits

I remember the days approaching my 10th birthday and my dad continually reminding me that once I turned 10 I'd be in the double digits for the rest of my life.  I cleverly responded, "Unless I live to be 100!"  But nonetheless being double digits was very exciting and last night I relived that moment.

I ran 10 miles!!  I was only scheduled to do 9, since I did 8 last week, but my schedule is a week off because I missed a week early on.  I left the house secretly hoping I could get 10 miles out of my body but still knowing that 9 miles would have been a huge accomplishment.  My saving grace in being able to get 10 completed was that finishing 9 miles left me just 1 mile from home.  I had to get home one way or another and I figured since I was finally in the shade (maybe just a little dark too) it would be faster to just run! 

My time was 1:50:03, which is just about exactly 11 minute miles.  I still don't care about my time, but will say I would have been faster if it hadn't taken so many adjustments to get my knee brace where it felt comfortable.  I kept telling myself, "Stopping to fix your brace isn't going to help your time, but not stopping is going to hurt my chances of finishing on 10/10/10" so I sacrificed my time in order to stay injury-free.

Today marks 4 weeks from my race (2 weeks from turning 25!) and I'm getting more and more excited with each long run I complete.  My first 3 mile run to start the training, I ran to my mom's house (door to door is 3 miles!)  and it terrified me to think I'd have to get to her house, go back to mine, back to hers and then back to mine and I still wouldn't even be to the distance of a half marathon.  Also, the training schedule I've been following never has you run more than 12 miles.  At first I was scared by that because how am I supposed to run it in a race if I've never done it in practice? But last night, I was only 3.1 miles short of the official distance and believe that my endorphins and adrenaline would have gotten me through each step if I had just continued!

To continue with some lessons learned during my run like last week

• It doesn't matter to me if you live in the country, if your house is directly off the street and you have dogs, you better have a fence or another way to keep them from attacking people who may walk/run by.  I have never been more scared of a dog than I was last night.  The way the guy chased after his dogs to keep them from me (which didn't work, because they BOTH touched me) made me feel like they were dangerous and may actually attack!
• Even if you have a piercing ache in your side within the first half mile, if you keep going, it goes away and you still have the energy to finish.
• Within the depths of yourself is something magical and something I can't explain about being able to accomplish your goals!

Picking Up The Pace

My 8 mile run didn't have a good pace, close to 11:30/mile, so today I decided to pick it up, and boy did I do that!

Today I ran 4 miles in 32:43!

That is 8:11 per mile!  I am not hoping to run that pace for 13.1 miles, I am actually just hoping to finish (with a secret goal of 10 minute miles) but now that my short runs are getting faster and faster I feel so optimistic about having it in me to complete 13.1 miles!

Our Reward

When we had Snoh with us, we went to the zoo and managed to drive right by PF Changs and we got so excited to go there.  Then a few days later we went to the Discovery Center and it happened again, only this time we decided that once he went back to Washington we were going to reward ourselves with a date day/night to PF Changs as a reward for surviving the entire 31 day period of being pseudo-parents.

I'm proud to announce that 15 days later, we finally made it on our date!  It was a date day to be more specific.  We headed to downtown Boise for the wonderful cuisine, only after taking our beautiful, yet dirty, wedding rings in to be cleaned and inspected.  We're always disappointed in this Jared shop, but the food was delicious!

After lunch (which is what we decided to call our 3:30pm meal) we headed to my dad's house to watch the BSU & Virginia Tech game.  I haven't ever really been a Bronco fan, mainly because I wasn't in high school, since I had no real reason to be, and then they got good while I was in Oregon.  And now that we are living in Idaho, near Boise specifically, it seems we have to be part of the Bronco nation.  I think we are fitting in quite nicely.  Either way, though, the game was wonderful and even though I told Marcel I wanted nothing for my birthday except to not watch football until after my birthday (meaning the games on my birthday could not be watched) I was happy to have watched that game.  Now if it could only feel like football season is really upon us.  Where did the summer go?

We were pretty lame on the picture department on our actual date, but we did manage to take a few before heading out as a child-less couple!

Married life is treating us so well

the one we took for my sisters who always say "your heads are always touching in your pictures"
I definitely like the first 1 better :)

8 Lessons Learned In 8 Miles

Tonight, I ran the 8 mile run in my training for my half-marathon and instead of driving myself 4 miles from home and knowing I'd just have to run there and back, I had Marcel just drive with me until we got to 8 miles.  It worked pretty well and I was happy with the route, but boy was it long.  You don't realize how far things are when you travel by car, but when you have to run it, it takes on a whole new perspective.

I learned many things on my run tonight:

• Make sure the person you are going to call in case of emergency has their phone set to ring, not on silent.
• Even if it feels like you just did it yesterday, charge your ipod the night before your long run.  This is especially true if you have a shuffle and don't have a display for your battery level.
• You CAN run without music but it won't be as fun and you'll find yourself dragging.
• Hydrating 90 minutes before running isn't enough time to fully empty your bladder pre-run.
• A knee brace saves you if you have previous knee problems
• If it seems like a hill in a car it is going to be a MOUNTAIN after already running 7 miles.
• You do eventually get good at deciding what to wear on a run: shorts, capris or pants and tank top, shirt, or sleeves.
• A slower Christian song is far more motivating than any fast, upbeat, pop or country song on your entire playlist.  (That's how I got through my entire 7 miles last week, also)

As soon as I got out of the car behind the start line so I would have time to do a warm-up walk, I turned on my ipod to hear "battery low."  I could still see Marcel and I know he had his ipod so I called him to trade me.  After 2 missed calls, I gave up.  I also realized right before getting out of the car that I forgot my knee brace.  Not good.  As soon as my walk was over and I started to run, I realized how badly I needed to go to the bathroom.  Also not good, but my run took me by a local park, so I stopped for a bathroom break, which added a bit of distance to my run.  I went from minute 22 to approximately 72 without music, which I'm extremely proud of!   My time, however, not so much, until you consider everything that I had going against me on this run.  I ran 8 miles (and I'm guessing a little more than .1 mile, that's not much, but it adds up!) in 90:56, which is about 11:22 per mile.  I've been averaging about 10 minute miles, but nevertheless, I never walked and I finished, which are the only 2 things I care about for 10/10/10!!!  Only 5 weeks away!

My Dork

My husband is a dork.  Don't worry, most of the time he doesn't take offense to me calling him that.  After almost 4.5 years, he's more than used to it.  Plus, like I tell him everytime I use that term of affection, his being a dork is one of the reasons I love him so much.  He keeps me on my toes.  I hope I always find fun and laughter from it.

Most recent case in point:

MaryBeth: I am not taking a key, but I have my phone.  I'm headed to Indiana.
Marcel: (after I've left the room) Enjoy your flight.
MaryBeth: my what?
Marcel: Your flight.
MaryBeth: what?
Marcel: Your flight.  You just said you were going to Indiana.

In all actuality, I was headed to the street named Indiana approximately 2 miles from our house so that I could run 4 miles.

I LOVE MY HUSBAND, ESPECIALLY SINCE HE'S A LITTLE DORKY!!

**I wanted to abbreviate our names like I did for the conversations Snoh & I had, but our initials are too similar.  On things in our house it is labeled as MB for MaryBeth and MD for Marcel, because his middle name is Drew, a name we'll be using for one of children if God decides in fact that I could enjoy a little boy!

Back to School

Marcel left just a few minutes ago for his last first day of class, as a student that is.  His program was so generous to give him the month of August off, which sounds lovely, except when you think they only go once a week anyway, so it wasn't too much of a break.  I guess the no homework thing is the nice part!  He has hated reading on facebook about everyone packing up to head back to school and not being able to do it too.  I told him he could if he felt like it but I was staying here :)  He reasoned his rearranging not only the living room, but also our bedroom and his corner of the hobby room, by saying "well it's like getting a new place like I've been doing at this time of year for the last years."

He gets to meet his pedagogy teacher tonight.  That's the guy (maybe girl, I don't really know) that is going to teach him specifically about teaching music.  He is STOKED to finally be in a class more directly focused on what he wants to do, but that doesn't mean he hasn't thoroughly enjoyed all the other general classes.

He only has 2 more months of classes before getting in a classroom to start student teaching.  He is in an elementary school from November 1st until whenever the school breaks for Christmas and then in an high school for the spring term. 

He's very excited for the schools he was placed in and I'm counting down until June to see him look so handsome in another cap & gown!  And for us to be able to spend a Thursday night together.  And to know where we are going to live.  We're 100% open to searching in all 50 states to find a job, because graduation means student loan payments which can't get paid without a job.  A job is very important!

Speaking of that, I'm still in search for a job.  A few months ago I was totally sold on trying to find a full-time job and give up Miss Lilli, but now it just about breaks my heart to think about not watching her anymore.  I have been very surprised about how much I've enjoyed her baby stage (I knew I could handle watching her, but I've always been a little afraid of babies!), but she is just about to the age I just absolutely love.  I can't give up now :) so I am now open to find a part-time job for the evenings.  Just something to make up the difference of Marcel not working as of November 1st. 

I'm off to do some shopping to help me feel better about being alone for the first time in quite awhile, at least with school being the reason!