Coming to a fridge (or holiday card pile) near you.

When I ran my first marathon in 2007, I was so proud of my accomplishment and wanted to share it with my friends and family. I was at a friends house, showing off my medal, and she suggested that a Christmas photo card would be a fun way to do it. We went online, found a card that I liked at Shutterfly, uploaded a few pictures of me on race day, added a catchy little greeting and called it good. The process took all of 20 minutes, and a few days later I was on my way to showing the world how amazing I was. (I'm so humble.)

As you know, we're moving overseas next year, and I think that sending Christmas cards would be such a fun way to stay connected, especially to those who don't read my blog and know what I've been up to all year. I don't know about you, but I absolutely love reading the family updates that many people include with their cards, especially when they're clever and funny. I'm not so much either of things, and I don't really think Mister and I would have enough stuff to fill an entire page, so I love the idea of these holiday story cards. You get to include a little bit of what you've been up to, but don't have an opportunity to get long winded. 

 Christmas Letter Christmas Card

Love 2010 Christmas Card

I thought that it is never too early to get in the habit, so Mister and I have decided to send cards out this year too. Shutterfly has TONS of options. Thankfully, you can easily narrow them down based on your preferences. Here are some of our favorites for this year:

Scrapbook Style Blue Christmas Card

Cinnamon Sweet Stars Christmas Card

Gifted Tag Christmas Card

Charming Holly Wreath Christmas Card

I think we've figured out which one we'll use, but the trick will be finding a picture of the two of us that doesn't emphasize my mullet non-haircut. Cross your fingers for me!!


Hey bloggers...would you like 50 free photo cards? Check out Shutterfly's cool promotion here!

Catch-up

I guess it's time for my bi-monthly recap. I'm not quite sure why I'm having such a hard time blogging...I basically spend all of my time watching TV in my pajamas. Well I guess we have the problem and the answer all wrapped up in a pretty bow. Actually I have done some things worth talking about lately, but I had a busy week going to classes at the Foreign Service Institute. If you are a foreign service spouse I highly recommend taking advantage of them. I've learned a whole lot about what I'm getting myself into.

Well, let's back up a week or two. Veteran's Day was such a beautiful day here in the greater DC area. I grabbed my awesome new (very old) camera, and Mister and I went to Arlington Cemetery to honor our Veterans.

I love that place so much. We were able to watch the French lay a wreath at the tomb of the unknown soldier and Mister recognized a former Secretary of Defense in full dress uniform as we were leaving.

On Friday, my friend Abbie and I drove down to Richmond to participate in their marathon series. Abbie ran the half marathon and I "ran" the 8K. We had a great time checking out the expo, watching a girlie movie, enjoying some good old fashioned girl talk, and of course running the race.

 (not Abbie)

Mister and my anniversary was on Sunday. We celebrated the day largely apart thanks to a work outing Mister had in the morning. The rest of the day was lovely though. The darling kids we teach at church wrote us a big note on the chalkboard, and then we had a delicious and very fancy dinner at Kinkead's. If you like seafood and feel like splurging on an amazing meal, you should go. We had the crabcake appetizer and the cod topped with lobster and crabmeat as our entrees. It was amazing.

We tried to incorporate a bunch of things from our wedding day into our anniversary. We had the same caramel apples we gave out at our dinner (thank you Betsy!), I wore the perfume I got specifically for the big day, I wore my something borrowed and something blue (my grandma's brooch), and Brian was sick. At least this year it was just a cold sore (so no kissing...boo) instead of the swine flu. And actually...I wore one of our wedding colors too. Unintentional, but totally appropriate.

The classes I've taken at FSI really have been so informative, learning the in's and out's of moving overseas. I really feel like I'm better prepared to go now, even though I still have a lot to do! Two tidbits that DIDN'T make me feel better about going? Seeing Conakry specifically named in a slide during the post evacuation session, and the Med Unit suggesting we all consider being part of the DNA identification program. You know, just in case.

On this day, exactly one year ago

Happy Veteran's Day!

I'll admit, in years past, I haven't given Veteran's Day a second thought. All it meant to me was a day off, or when working in the private sector, a day I wished I still worked for the government so I'd have a day off. You see, I've never really known anyone personally who had served in the military. Well, that's not true, my grandpa did serve in WWII, but I had never heard him talk about it. And, being the self-absorbed person I am, if something isn't affecting me personally right in the moment, it isn't really on my radar.

Then I met Mister and heard his stories about the many years he spent serving in the Army, how proud he is of the things he accomplished during that time, and learned how his experiences changed him as a person. I came to understand the sacrifices he made to serve our country and the sacrifices that his family made by sending him off to foreign lands with hopes that he would return home safely.

Now I better understand the importance of today; to honor those among us who have sacrificed so much to protect the freedoms that we all enjoy. From the bottom of my heart, thank you.

Happy birthday?

My 30th birthday last year was a quiet one. Mister and I had just moved to the area a few weeks before, so we had a nice dinner out (complete with a flaming orb of cotton candy for dessert) and went to see a movie afterward. While I had a great time with my favorite person in the world, I was a bit bummed that we were so far away from all of our friends and family (we hadn't yet met our favorite Houston friends) for my big 3-0.

If all goes as planned, we will arrive in Guinea one day before my birthday next year. Being in a strange country is not how I would prefer to spend my day, in fact I'm kind of dreading it. (I'm predicting I'll spend it in shock and/or tears.)

I know it's still 9 months away, but any ideas as to how to make the day a good one?

This time I'm serious

I've posted several times in the last year or so that I'm getting serious about running again, only to not get serious about running again. Well this time I'm actually serious. How could I not, with the fabulous W&OD trail (second only to the Mt. Vernon trail on my list of favorite running trails) a measly 1/2 mile away from my apartment?! Unfortunately it's at the bottom of the hill that leads to my complex, making that final walk home quite dreadful.But add to that the cutest cool weather running shirts and the *cough* 70 dollar custom made insoles and brand new shoes I just purchased, I'm ready to forget the dreaded climb. I even have some races in the pipeline that I may or may not be ready for, like the Richmond 8K this weekend, the Jingle All The Way 10K December 12, and possibly the Quantico Turkey Trot 10K on Thanksgiving. Right now I'm up to 4 miles of walking/a motion slightly faster than walking intervals. Not too bad of a starting off point. Things can only get easier right? Bring on the blisters and shin splints!

Utah

My fam, minus Matthew and Mister

One of the great things about having literally no responsibilities (and one final paycheck to burn) is that I could just drop everything (or in my case nothing) and fly home for important events like my dad's surprise birthday (the big 6-5) and Caroline's 3rd at the age appropriate Bouncing Off the Walls and celebrating All Hallow's Eve with a barbie, a sassy cat,

nacho libre, a sumo wrestler, hermione granger, harry potter,

a hippo, a monkey and two other costumeless kiddies. I especially enjoyed teaching the art of candy sorting and trading to Abby and Thomas. I couldn't let them go one more year without letting them know that bartering is so much more fun (and rewarding) than just giving their candy away.

I loved running errands with these little guys and contorting myself so they could each hold a hand on the drive. We have come a long way from past trips when they would burst into tears just by looking at me.

I'll never forget the "trick" this iguana played on us at the zoo. We were just minding our own business, checking out all of the birds and turtles when all of the sudden, THUD! this not so little guy drops out of the sky, missing Ab and Thomas by mere inches. We're laughing about it now, but it scared the crap out of all of us.

I got to catch my 8 year old nephew Jake's soccer game while we were there. I tell you what, I can't handle things like that. The anticipation, the excitement is just too much for me. I told Brian that our kids will only be allowed to play organized sports if he'll take them to the games.

It was a great trip. I can't wait for Christmas to do it all over again, this time with Brian in tow. I know the kiddos missed him. (I think they like him better than they like me. Probably because he gives them cool things like badge pins and teaches them all of his fancy handcuffing techniques.)

And in other news, I've lived here for three weeks now and this is the state of my freezer. Can someone PLEASE teach me how to grocery shop? I'm hopeless. Too bad I can't include ice cream in my consumables shipment. It's the only thing I know how to buy.