Ploopsta

Guess who's home from college (summer school)?  My coolest brother ever! I'm so proud of him and so glad we get to hang out this weekend.  Love you, Ploops

Running in the USA

 Brian and little sister Becca obviously take their runs very seriously.

Remember when I talked about how stinkin hot it was running in Saipan?  Well, I sure do miss those sunset runs down Beach Road with the ocean stretching out beside me, and that cool ocean breeze... but it's so much easier to run in the midwest!  I've been staying on track with running during this last month in the states, and it really does feel cooler to run here in the midwest even though the temperature is actually higher than in Saipan.  It's the dry heat here that is much more enjoyable to run in, in my opinion, than the humid, swampy heat of Saipan. (Saipan, I love you so much, even with your humidity :)

 Brian, Becca, and I took a 3.5 mile run in Ft. Hood, Texas.

In the post linked above, I also made a goal to run a half marathon in 2012 and I'm going to do it!!  I found a race in mid October that I am planning on signing up for, although I'm waiting to see exactly what area we will be in at that time.  I've also chosen my 12 week training program.  Want to see it?

Week	Mon	Tues	Wed	Thurs	Friday	Sat	Sun	Total Miles Run
1	Rest	2 miles	Rest	2.5 miles	Rest	3 miles	2 easy miles	9.5 miles
2	Rest	2 miles	Rest	3 miles	CT or Rest	4 miles	2.5 easy miles	11.5 miles
3	Rest	2.5 miles	2 miles	3 miles	CT or Rest	5 miles	2 easy miles	14.5 miles
4	Rest	3 miles	Rest	4 miles	CT or Rest	6 miles	3 easy miles	16 miles
5	Rest	3 miles	3 miles	3 miles	CT or Rest	7 miles	3 easy miles	19 miles
6	Rest	4 miles	3 miles	4 miles	CT or Rest	8 miles	3 easy miles	22 miles
7	Rest	4 miles	Rest	4 miles	CT or Rest	9 miles	3 easy miles	20 miles
8	Rest	4 miles	3 miles	3 miles	CT or Rest	10 miles	3 easy miles	23 miles
9	Rest	5 miles	3 miles	4 miles	CT or Rest	11 miles	Rest	23 miles
10	3 easy miles	4 miles	Rest	3 miles	CT or Rest	12 miles	3 easy miles	25 miles
11	Rest	4 miles	Rest	3 miles	CT or Rest	5 miles	2.5 easy miles	14.5 miles
12	Rest	2 miles	20 minutes	Rest	20 minutes	Race Day! 13.1 miles	Rest	15.1 miles + 40 minutes

via Fitsugar

I've never really gotten nervous over 5k's or my 10k last year, but I'm nervous about a half marathon!  It seems like such a longer distance.  I'm a little scared that I'll run out of energy and just want to walk it.    My 12 week running schedule starts next week, and I think it will help to just get into it and see how my progress is going. As we were looking up races this morning, I asked Brian, "do you really think I can do this?"  He answered, "Oh yeah, you can!  No problem."  So, let's get started!

via 

Here's my running inspiration for the week.  Sometimes I'll go online and look up pictures of running to get myself motivated for a run- it really works!

Family Time Part 2

Alright here come a bunch more pictures from our time in OKC and Texas. Above are Brian and his brothers, Luke and Eric.

Brian and his siblings

Eric and Kristy with their baby Cambria.  She's working the camera with that little smile!

Brian, Kim, and Eric

The group in Eric and Kristy's backyard

Me and Luke at dinner

We love Aussie!!

Roadtripping!  Me and Bec shared the backseat on the way to Oklahoma.

Hey babe what's up

Playing bocce ball in the backyard

Intense game faces

Brian with his little niece Cambria

Ok I know there's a lot of these with Brian and Cambria but I don't usually get to see Brian holding babies so I just kept taking pictures.  He's going to be such a great dad someday!

We miss you, Cambria, and can't wait to see you again!

Brian and I have been working hard getting things ready for another garage sale.  When we collected our things from the storage unit we had kept while overseas, we realized that we had a bunch of stuff that we really didn't want anymore.  After three years my taste in clothes has changed, and would you believe that we had 4 huge boxes full of only books? So... out with the old and in with the new! 

Family Time Part 1

We loved spending time with our family in Texas and OKC!  In no particular order, here are a bunch of pictures from our time with them, with even more to come later. 

 Above:  the family at Eric and Kristy's house.  They bought their first home last year and have spent many hours and lots of hard work fixing it up.  It looks great, and now Brian is really excited to work on a house of our own someday.  We also go to meet our 4 month old, a-dor-able niece, Cambria.  She is the happiest baby ever- so cute!

 Brian and his mom

 Eric and Luke, Brian's brothers

 riding the rabbit statue

 Out at the Riverwalk after dinner

me and my man

Brian with his dad and brother... Luke cannot take a serious picture :)

 Edie and I before church

 me and Brian's younger sister, Kim

 Brian and little sis Becca

The girls on Cambria's baby dedication day

Such a sweet little girl!  Going swimmin!

Hanging out at the house

"Back in America" discoveries so far:

- Julian Smith YouTube videos.  Funniest videos ever and I'm obsessed.

- Brian's exclamation at the first restaurant we went to (Sonic) was, "There are so many choices!!"  I may or may not have made fun of him the rest of the trip for that.

- I really missed Capri Sun more than I knew and drank lots and lots of packets while at Edie's house.

- You really can buy a gallon of milk for less than $12 dollars.  Saipan, you're so silly.

- It's so much less humid in the states, which makes the weather here feel really nice to me- even if it is actually hotter than in Saipan.

- It's so great to have Sammie dog back and we really missed her.  Also, the dog parks in the Kansas City area are awesome, especially the Shawnee Mission one.

-  It was a little scary to drive 70 mph on the highway after Saipan's slow island roads, but you get used to is really quickly.  It was also so nice to get our Isuzu Rodeo back, and to not have to worry about buying a new car when we got back.

- Uhauls are really expensive.  So it moving, in general.

- But it is so worth it, and we're loving being close to family and friends again.  Also, I'm grateful to have great friends here that you can pick up right where you left off with.

- Sonic Ocean Waters and Quick Trip fountain drinks where you can add the flavor- missed those so much.

Inks Lake in Texas

We went to Texas and it was awesome!

Near the end of June, Brian and I flew in to Dallas, and spent the next week and a half in Ft. Hood Texas with his family.  We had the most wonderful time catching up, cooking and eating delicious food together, and spending lots of great family time.  One of our favorite days was spent at Inks Lake, a place that we had all gone to together a few years ago, when Brian and I were dating.  

We rented a kayak for a couple of hours to explore Inks Lake

Here's Rebecca and Luke, Brian's little sis and bro.  They're awesome.

 Setting up our spot

 Just hanging out back in the States ya know

 hahaa

Can you tell we like to take jumping pictures with our camera?  Here's Brian launching Becca into the air.

Superman Luke

The cannonball

Before we went home, we went over to the devil's water hole to swim.  Here's Brian and Bec jumping off the rock ledge.  More pictures of our trip to come soon- we already miss our Texas family like crazy!