Time for Some R&R (&R&R)

This blog brought to you by the letter R!


Running:
I'm back to having a routine with my running. I know, I know, in the course of this blog I've stopped and started 2-3 times, but I'm back in action and getting my butt kicked by my treadmill every other day (which comes to 3-4 times per week). My shoes and I have now logged 344.6 miles together. I logged into Nike+ for the first time in a long time (I've been uploading runs straight from my iPhone) and checked out my status in both my "Run Across America" challenge and progress to Nike Level Blue. Using my friend Google, I saw that I am almost completely across Washington and will be entering Idaho soon :)Doesn't seem like much when you zoom out and see the whole USA, but that's pretty far on foot! I am also 276.5 miles away from the next level, which means I'm over halfway there. It's the small victories.

In addition to running, I've been dabbling in yoga and pilates on my off days. I haven't been as dedicated with those since returning from Spring Training but it's been easy to get distracted with Rockies games on and a cute husband to cuddle. He's been working more mornings, so he's home when I get off work. A blessing to be sure, but it's hard to turn down cuddling on the couch in favor of exercise.

I have also been making an attempt to eat healthier. I'm watching my calories with the Loseit! app/website and eating a whole bunch more fruit. I love fruit, so I don't understand why I didn't eat more previously but I love my breakfasts of Cuties clementines, strawberries, raspberries or blackberries. So good. I've lost a little weight, which is always a welcome side effect. Nothing to write home about, but people are noticing a little bit of a slim down (Stephen & coworkers). That's nice :)

I'm also looking to start trying new recipes including more healthy ingredients such as quinoa. I found a black bean and quinoa chili recipe online as well as a quinoa & tomato salad that looks pretty good. I located it at King Soopers and will hopefully be trying it soon. We've got our meals planned for the next two weeks (we're trying to save money and waste less) so perhaps after that.

Reading
Thanks to a snowy day last Sunday, some relaxing evenings at home and Stephen closing two nights this week, I made it through three books this last week! How crazy is that? Totalling about 1500 pages, I read The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Redeeming Love & The Unnamed. The first I found disturbing, the second I found redeeming (appropriately named) and the third I found interesting/odd.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo was for my Colorado Book Club. The book was interesting as you follow the mystery plot, but call me old fashioned, reading about rape, sadism and murder are just not my cup of tea. I felt that the detail given to these sections of the book were excessive and that I wanted to know more about the family mystery than the sad society that exists in Sweden. Each section began with a depressing statistic about the amount of sexual assault in Sweden (I'm not naive enough to pretend there isn't plenty of sexual assault here in the US, but it makes me sad to think about, much less read about in detail) and every person in the book has had an unfortunate history with sex and it is largely portrayed badly or without importance. People in Sweden apparently give it away like it isn't a big deal (yes I know that happens here too, doesn't make it a good thing). Maybe I'm just a big old prude.

Redeeming Love was everything a girl could hope for out of a Christian historical fiction novel depicting the story of Hosea & Gomer from the Bible. Not going to lie, I couldn't remember the story of Hosea off the top of my head (for shame!) but this book does contain elements of sadness and forced sexual relations but the story also helps the character involved to deal with it. Whereas those who suffered in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo were not given any help following their incidents (unless death counts), this story follows a "soiled dove" as she is shown God's love through a man who, knowing her past, is willing to love her no matter what. A solid depiction of a man being "Jesus with skin on" as Pastor Ben used to say.

The Unnamed was an odd book. The premise is that a man has an unnamed, undiagnosable disease that causes him to walk without stopping until he reaches the point of total exhaustion. He has no control over this and it often occurs when he would least like it to. It follows his struggle to handle the illness, his wife and daughter's struggle to help him as well as understand it themselves, and his undying love for his wife, no matter where the disease takes him. He struggles with thoughts of suicide, questioning the existence of the soul/God, how to "beat" the beast, how to keep his job as a lawyer and how to be there for his family. It sort of reminds me of The Time Traveler's Wife in his inexplicable disappearances and waking up in random places. It wasn't a bad read, though I'm not sure it lived up to the acclaim it received. Here I go being a prude again, but I'm not sure that the F-bombs dropped throughout the book or the descriptions of sex acts between him and his wife helped advance the story. It sort of reminded me of The Human Stain in that respect. Swearing for swearing's sake annoys me. It only makes you cool if you're in junior high and think you're a rebel. And even then it doesn't make you cool, it makes you an idiot.

Reflection
Stephen and I are one week away from hitting our First Wedding Anniversary. It seems crazy that it's been a year and I've spent some time thinking about the days leading up to our wedding. I laughed to myself this morning thinking about my obsessive compulsive need to check the weather forecast for our wedding weekend literally every thirty minutes leading up to the big day. Having an iPhone is a blessing and a curse sometimes :) I was thinking about how many incredible people were praying for that weekend to be great... it was amazing to have so many people speaking into our lives in such a positive way. I thought about my amazing bridesmaids who threw me an incredible bridal shower, who helped me with invitations and favors, who gave me advice and love throughout the planning process, who are the best friends a girl could ask for. Man, I miss being close to them. I was thinking about how I wasn't nervous about marrying Stephen one bit before or on our wedding day- I was nervous the day of about the ceremony and things running smoothly, but never once did I get nervous about marrying Stephen. That was the easiest and best decision of my life. I was thinking about how extremely blessed we were by the people who came from all over to be there for our wedding-- family & friends poured out their love to us in person and through cards and gifts. I was thinking about how this is the first of a lifetime of anniversaries for us and how each year we'll be more in love and have more reasons to celebrate as our little family grows.

We'll be going to my first Rockies game at Coors Field to celebrate our anniversary. There's nothing I love more than experiencing life with Stephen by my side.

Really Exciting Upcoming Events:
April 18- Our Anniversary!
April 21-25- Mom is here to visit!
May 6-9- Gram and Grandpa Tom come to visit!

A Ma Vie De Coer Entier

It seems to me that this year has seen a boom of engagements and weddings among the people that I know. And really, who can blame them, 2010 is a great year to get married :) Not that I'm biased or anything. And of course, I wish them all the best-- though most are acquaintances, it is impossible not to be happy for people as they begin the next and best chapter in their lives.

In the last couple months I have had some time to talk to friends about relationships and love and it really gets me thinking about how beautiful it is to have found the person God intended for me. I feel truly blessed and can only wish the same happiness for all of my friends.

I recently spoke with Chris and Stephen about how we have these amazing single friends looking to find a quality person. And not to say that I did everything right in my dating history, but we talked a lot about how the most crucial part of dating is to present yourself in a way that shows the core of who you are. Instead of focusing on the external things that make you attractive or "exciting," to find a person you could spend the rest of your life with you have to focus on what are the non-negotiables of who you are and what you believe and showcase those. And if there is one true blessing of having a long distance relationship, it's that Stephen and I were able to talk about all of the truly important things VERY early on in our relationship. And that's how I knew within months that I could spend the rest of my life with Stephen. We talked about our faith, our families and what we wanted from the future. We talked about how we both want kids and how we want to raise them in a Godly home with love... and discipline. We talked about the roles we see in a relationship and how Stephen and I are both very traditional in that regard. He is the leader of our home and that's exactly how we both want it (and how God intended it). He wants to be the provider and I want to be a wife and mother first and foremost. We talked for hours on the phone every night--- he heard me at my best and at my worst. We had a family situation within the first month we were dating and I called him in tears and he took care of me in just the way I needed from 1200 miles away. I knew from that moment I could count on him to always take care of me, come what may.

Another time, another conversation: a group of friends was discussing what it means to love someone. Most said that when you can truly put the other person before yourself and strive to do so, you love the other person. And that is such a beautiful and crucial part of relationships. I try really hard to keep in mind what is important to my husband and how I can make him happy. Being mindful and thoughtful of this really helps me to put him first. And he does the same for me. I know he does things I want to do that he isn't crazy about (watching Glee with me, for instance) and I really appreciate that selflessness.

There are a lot of things that we both enjoy and that helps too. But being willing to try things the other is interested in or supporting each other in what we choose to pursue strengthens our relationship. I just love Stephen's writing. He is very talented and very witty. And I try at every occasion to encourage him because he really enjoys it. From Fantasy Football posts as our league commissioner to his Tebow editorial on Facebook, I just LOVE when he writes. And I feel like he is always encouraging me with my photography. I'm not trained in any way, never took a class or anything, but I just really enjoy it. And he encourages me, doesn't get annoyed when I stop every 5 seconds to take a picture of something and on day 18 of my Photo A Day project when I was already in bed and hadn't taken a photo, he helped me to think of one to take and made sure that I didn't miss a day of my commitment.

We are blessed to be surrounded by married couples-- family and friends-- who we can look up to as examples of a Godly relationship. We're still new to this whole thing, but we have people around us to give us inspiration to keep Christ at the center, love each other unconditionally, respect each other, always work on communication, and strive to serve each other in the ways God intended. And I hope that for those friends we have navigating the dating scene that we can be that for them some day.

I am blessed and I am grateful.



For those wondering, the title is French for "My Whole Heart for My Whole Life." :)

Married Life

Photo by Charlotte of Charlotte Geary Photography

According to my Facebook, we've been married now for 3 weeks, 3 days. And let me tell you, married life is awesome!! I know they say that this is the "honeymoon phase" and that we'll grow out of it, but I sure hope not! I just love being Stephen's wife. I love being able to call him my husband and take care of him and be with him every night. I love having things that we can call "ours."

Like our last name, for instance :) I went to Social Security today and my new SS card should arrive within ten days! I'm legally a Rabon now!! I still need to change it on my driver license, but the soonest appointment they had was May 25... that's quite some time from now. I might drop in after work one day and see if I can get in sooner. I even looked up Davis and Fairfield DMV, but it was just as long. They should give preference to newly married people since we're an excited bunch.

I was asked if I had come across any things about Stephen that surprised me since we've been married and now live together. I can honestly say that I have not been surprised. He doesn't leave the toilet seat up and neither of us like to make the bed. We both leave clothes around a bit. And none of those are problems. When I cook, he volunteers to do the dishes. I have cooked...yes, I can sense your shock. I truly fall in love with him more every day. Mushy, I know, but we can be sitting on the couch watching Bones and all I can think is how crazy about him I am and how much I love being with him. I get all aflutter.

I love our little apartment. Photos can be found here: My Flickr Page

Pictures from our honeymoon in Kauai can be found here:
Also Flickr

We had a wonderful time. The weather was great, the food was also good (I highly recommend the kalua pig burrito at Olympic Cafe in Kapa'a if you're ever there) and it was super relaxing. We spent a lot of time just enjoying the time together instead of going on excursions to kayak, zip line, movie tour, etc. It was just what we wanted. Stephen made me Dirty Shirleys throughout the week (a spiked Shirley Temple- we used Cherry Vodka) that were delicious and we watched a lot of ESPN. We also rented 3 movies (State of Play, Sherlock Holmes and Valkyrie) and sipped champagne on our balcony. It was lovely.



As I said in the previous post, the wedding went amazingly. The weekend was beautiful weather wise and also beautiful to be surrounded by family and friends on the biggest day of our lives. Every time I look at pictures I fall back in love with that day. And I can remember all of these incredible moments thanks to the photojournalistic style Charlotte and Mike used as well as lots of pictures from family and friends. I get giddy thinking about our wedding. It was just so perfect. I was so happy to see all of the hard work we put into it come to fruition, we couldn't have picked a better wedding party (this group is truly our closest friends and family and are amazing together) and we could feel God's hand on the day as well as the entire planning process.



Stephen and I are reading the New Testament in a year together to be sure to keep God/Jesus as an integral part of our marriage. It's something that we both look forward to every week night and we're looking forward to getting a weekly newlywed devotional book to supplement on weekends. Marcie (my mother-in-law, how fun is that to say!!) gave me a book called "Created to Be His Help Meet" to read. It's about the role God gave to women in marriage. I'm probably 2/3 of the way though and have been able to glean some useful knowledge from it. It will be helpful to make me a better servant and better wife for Stephen.

We are living a truly blessed life.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to my few devoted readers :) New Year's is particularly special to me as it is the day that Stephen and I had our first kiss and started the relationship I have with my future husband. You can see in the above picture the recreations of our midnight kisses from 2007 and this year. It's interesting to see how we've changed physically (my hair was so long!) as well as to think of how much deeper our relationship has become and how much more I love him each and every day. We'll be going out to Cheesecake Factory tonight for dinner like we did last year :) I love him so much. And you know the best part?

WE GET MARRIED THIS YEAR!!!
That's pretty much my new favorite phrase now that it's 2010.

We rang in the New Year with Sandi & Chris, Nikki & Aaron, and Carmen over at the Ady/Glass Compound. We played Wii Sports Resort and Progressive Rummy, as well as enjoying some Asti and Bean Dip (The Truth- because chips just can't handle it).

Despite the fact that I have still been unable to kick this cough I've had since right before Christmas, I went for a run today. It was just one of those things where I just had to start the new year off right. So, I went and ran a couple miles around my neighborhood. It felt good. It felt right. I just had to do it. I've taken too much time off for this cold and I just can't keep being sedentary. If I do, it increases the chances that running won't stick. And it has to stick. I've quit after 3 months before and I refuse to do it again. I don't do New Year's resolutions, but if I did, this would probably be it.

So, beginning 2010, here are my totals:

Since 4.10.09: 173.23 miles
Since 10.20.09: 78.79 miles

Here's to a year full of love, laughter, running, and a new adventure for Stephen and I :)

Green at last, green at last, thank God Almighty, I am green at last :)

In case the title didn't give it away, I finally reached Nike Level Green!! The last 15 miles seemed to drag out forever (and having to take 3-day breaks because of the rain didn't help) but I have finally reached 155 miles on my NikePlus shoes/sensor. I was so excited and love the new Mini background!

Only 462 miles until I reach Nike Level Blue! Crazy to think about but I'm running so often now that I'm sure it will come sooner than I'd have thought a long time back. I'm trying to do two days on and one day off, but sometimes life gets in the way (mainly because of my work schedule and the sun going down not being compatible right now). I've run Monday-Thursday this week to make sure I got in those last few miles to green and to allow for a night off with friends tomorrow night. Stephen, Sandi, Chris and BWW? Heck yes!

Totals:
Since October 20: 64.91 miles
Since April 10: 159.32 miles (not bad for taking July 24- October 20 off...)

Christmas is a week from tomorrow, which is crazy! December has just flown by and I feel like I haven't had a moment to take it all in. My birthday (which was only a week ago as of yesterday) feels like it was a month ago. Work has been busy with the 3rd graders choosing their instruments this week and Christmas programs in Early Education. Looking forward to 3 day work weeks the next two weeks :)

I've been reading "The Year of Living Biblically" by A.J. Jacobs. It's pretty funny. I really like the outsider looking in perspective. I really enjoyed "The Unlikely Disciple: A Sinner's Semester at Liberty" by Kevin Roose so I am excited to see how this one ends and how the experience and immersion in the Bible changes Mr. Jacobs.

Stephen and I will celebrate three wonderful years together two weeks from tomorrow. He's so incredible and I am so lucky to have him. He gives me more reasons every single day to love him and be thankful for him. We've been counting down the days to our wedding by reading the Psalms backwards from 150. It's so awesome having that time together as he tucks me in for the night and he reads them to me. We read those and the daily Proverb. It's so wonderful to have a man like Stephen as my future husband :)

Speaking of which, I've been trying on the new last name a bit lately. As in (to Sandi) "Is it just the Adys and Rabons going to BWW or are the Glasses coming too?" I rather like it :) Plus it's like a million times easier than "Is it just the Adys and Padilla/Rabon faction going to BWW..." I can't wait until it's official. (Then I can change my blog title to "Quote the Rabon" officially too!)