San Saba, Texas - GO ARMADILLOS!

Well folks, it's real life now. We are moving to San Saba, Texas! Pecan Capital of the WORLD

With beautiful pecan orchards all around us

with UNLIMITED water! Rivers EVERYWHERE! Seriously, It looks like Colorado.

Who even knew this place existed?!

And their colors are PURPLE (go ACU!) and gold and their mascot is an armadillo! All cool things.

Now here's the story of how this all came to be and how God is SO crazy faithful.

We have been job searching since late February/early March. It has been stressful, to say the least. A lot of wondering, a lot of anxiety, a lot of stress. We would fill out applications, for the both of us (usually about 8 pages or more EACH) stuff them in an envelope and pray over them that God would put them in the right hands and lead us where we need to go. The start of April we started to finally get responses to all the applications and resumes we were sending out. Buuuuuuut we are a package deal so it would usually be that Judson would go in for an interview but they didn't have a job for me or vice versa.

THEN San Saba contacted Judson about coming in for an interview. As always he told them that his wife is an elementary teacher and would need a job too. They responded with a "Awesome! Both of y'all come in for an interview!" WHAT! After our interviews and the warm welcome we received we left knowing/hoping that would be the place for us.

Days went by. Judson got called in for another interview with an excellent school that had no openings for me except for an aid position. Things started to look unfortunate again and I was really sad at the thought of yet another year of not having my own classroom.

Last Tuesday as I was driving to school I began to listen to a worship song (Not For a Moment by Vertical Church Band. LISTEN NOW.) and praying that God would shape my heart to be happy in whatever circumstance He calls me to be in. If it was His will for me to be an aid, then help me keep a positive... *RING RING RING* yes, during this prayer my phone began to ring. Who was it, you ask? SAN SABA. Offering me a full time teaching position for 5th grade math! And the 5th grade is at the middle school. Which is where Judson's teaching position would be for 7th grade (Texas history. Coaching middle school and varsity football, assistant basketball, and the spring sport is still up in the air). WHICH MEANS WE WILL WORK DOWN THE HALL FROM EACH OTHER EVERY SINGLE DAY. MY HUSBAND AND BEST FRIEND. Then, they told me not to give them an answer right now and that they wanted Judson and I to talk about it and PRAY about it, and call them later with an answer. As soon as I hung up the phone I just started crying.

GOD IS SO FAITHFUL, Y'ALL. He cares about our happiness.

We got our sweet little house that was built in the 1930's. It is full of character and horrid wallpaper. We just absolutely love it. 

Even the street name is cute - Storey street.

So we will start the moving a whole house/painting a new house process. Oh, and a quick intermission for our vacation to Las Vegas starting on Sunday until Wednesday. OH, and we haven't even finished THIS school year yet. COME ON FRIDAY.

Here goes nuttin'!

terrific #tuesday

I have said "Happy terrific Tuesday!" every tuesday to my students. And every tuesday I've said that has been just a normal ol' day. I have also had an inside joke with my sister-in-law, Christie, about how people use stupid hashtags all the time like "#tuesday" that don't really have a purpose. But today - TUESDAY - has been a terrific day worthy of a hashtag!!!


First - 
After months and months of applying, interviewing, stressing, searching and praying; Judson and I have ACCEPTED JOBS! and we're MOVING from Abilene! But since we haven't signed contracts yet (even though there is a minimal possibility something could happen between now and then) I'm going to be conservative and not give any more details until it is officially official.

Second -
WE HAVE A NEW NEPHEW!!! Judson's sister, Jana, gave birth to a beautiful baby boy today. Meet Jett Foster Justice! Who looks so much like Judson it's crazy!

Third -
My running goals for this week are to run a total of 10 miles, cross train 1 day, and to have a fastest mile of 10:20.

So after school today, I went for a run in the hot, hot, hot and windy, windy, WINDY Abilene climate. aaaaaaand…………

Fourth - 

There is only ONE more Tuesday left until summer break! (All the teachers said - AMEN) And the Tuesday after that, Judson and I will be in VEGAS!

Fifth - 

Judson took me on a fro-yo date to get the totes best hun cal fro-yo. Are Harvard sailing team references still funny?

hot pink cup with a yellow spoon. hello perfection.

Sixth -

My mom said "amaze-balls" today.

Seventh -

We made the most delicious Mediterranean pizza for dinner. Thin crust, olive oil, grilled chicken, mozzarella cheese, sun dried tomatoes, and spinach. I may or may not have had 5 pieces. 

#tuesday - am I right!?!

Run For The Children 5K RECAP

If you don't want to hear all sorts of details about my running - then let me just stop you right here and tell you that this blog post will bore you out of your mind.

Today we (Judson, my mom, and I) ran the Run for the Children 5K in Graham. And it was AWESOME. But, let's back up a little first.

We had been registered to run this race ever since I first began being inspired to be a runner again, so I have been anticipating it's arrival. This past week I was starting to get worried that I wasn't going to be ready enough for it, but on Wednesday I ran my 3 mile hill route WITHOUT stopping and walking at all. I'm not even exagerating, that this route is 75 % uphill and so hard. Once I conquered that and with a fairly decent pace, I knew I was ready!

I also read this book for the 3rd time in my life last week, for some added boosts of inspiration, while icing my knee of course.

This was the first race I had run since my half marathon two years ago. It was the first time my mom had run at all in weeks. It was the first race Judson had EVER run, but he has been running a lot with me. Needless to say, our expectations weren't very high we just all wanted to finish without being completely humilated.

I know, I know - high maintance runner

I really thought that when my alarm went off in the morning I was going to have to do some convincing/begging to Judson to plleeeeaaaassee get out of bed and come run this race with me. Instead, before my alarm could even ring at 6:45, Judson was already jumping out of bed and getting dressed in his racing gear! We drank some coffee (duh.) and ate a banana and headed to Dowtown Graham ready to go!

It was a great atmosphere and really made me realize how much I missed it all! It was also perfect weather. A little overcast and 65 degrees - A runner's dream.

As soon as we started Judson took off! I kissed him before they blew the horn and then saw him as a little purple dot up in the distance for about a minute before he completely disapeared out of my sight. I was really trying to focus on keep a good pace and not get burnt out. Luckily, I had a running buddy with me the first mile. Am I embarassed that she is 6 years old? No, because this girlfriend was bookin' it and bless her heart was completely exhausted by the start of the second mile. But together we PRed my mile time for the week!

I was really excited, pain free, and happy the whole race. There were people cheering all along the whole route, and since this is my hometown 85% of them were people I grew up around, which was comforting. Also, Graham is beautiful so it was just very enjoyable. I kept looking at my Garmin and being shocked at how fast I was going and telling myself to slow down some so I can finish this thing strong, but I just couldn't help it! 

The last .3 stretch of the race, what do I see? My adorable husband, who has already finished, running back to run with me. I teared up a little at first as he was running toward me and telling me I'm almost finished and then I quickly switched gears to just wanting to run run run as fast as I could. 

Turns out - we all did A LOT better than expected! My mom got 6th place for her age group! I got 4th place for my age group! WHAT! I have never ever placed in a place worth telling about. And just to make sure that I wasn't 4th out of 4 or something like that, I went and counted all the women in my age group and there were 21! So YAY! 

Judson got 3rd for his age group and got a medal!!!!! 

I'm so proud. 

When we were walking around for a cool down he said to me, "Maybe we could run like a half marathon or something together." I think I started jumping up and down and screaming YES! I'm sure people thought he just proposed to me. I think I got him hooked.

Of course, double knee icing was in order afterwards. I think I just about have this knee pain under control, though. 

And then, you know, FOOD. 

and NAPS

It has been a great day. I can't wait to sign up for another race, then next one will be a 10K though! I'm also so happy that I have made it to a place again where I can say - I love running.

Judson and me have some other exciting things in the works in our lives right now, but we'll talk about that later. God is good.

We're goin' places!

This past weekend was Judson's graduation!!! I can't believe we are officially finished with our relationship with ACU. Don't even get me started, or I'll get really emotional about it. I've pretty much been in denial for a year now. We both have job interviews on Thursday so shoot a prayer up for us! So. Many. Applications. And. Interviews.

I am SO proud of him! I think my wifey pride was beaming all over Moody all the way up from the tippy top of section K under, what I can only assume, was a heat lamp. He has worked so hard this semester and taken more teacher certification exams than any human ever should. This boy is a rockstar.. Excuse me, this MAN - COLLEGE GRADUATE.

Also my roommate of all 4 years of college graduated! She too, is a rockstar. Here is our transformation from freshman passport. Two words - Khaki. Diaper.

This girl has been by my side through the good, bad, and ugly (see above picture for proof). I love her so.

We've also experienced every season in our first home now! Because we've been married for 9 months already!! WHAT! Time is passing so quickly but also so very wonderfully. I wish I could video tape everything so when I'm old and pooping in my own pants I could see how FULL my life was.

He also still does things like this which gives me butterflies. It is a known fact I am a very NOT CUTE sleeper due to nasal congestion. I love him.

Here is my running progress so far.

I set running goals at the beginning of last week and almost met them!

Shut up at what my fastest mile goal is. I'm telling you I'm starting from rock bottom!! I ended up only getting a 10:36 as my fastest mile and I was short of my 8 mile total. I have good excuses okay? Mostly, it's because the weather was like this every. single. day. at every single hour. And I wanted to die.

Another is because for some reason my knees are killlllllling me. I know its because I'm probably running on the smallest sliver of leg muscle ever known to woman. 

I have new goals this week and a 5K race scheduled for Saturday. Even though I am icing my knees this very second, I am optimistic about my progress because tonight I met my fastest mile goal!!

BAM!

I hope this is encouraging to someone who is trying to start from the bottom, too. I also hope that if you are in shape you aren't making too much fun of my baby goals! I'll race you someday!!!

inspiration is hard work

here's some things that spring has brought:

 bluebonnets and job interviews/1,280,745,462 job applications

Yeah, pooping on bluebonnets. I've seen it.

track meets with Coach Foster

garage sale MADNESS. 

My parents getting snapchat… 

 Easter

AND LASTLY/MOST IMPORTANTLY

it has brought INSPIRATION 

I'll start with my tree growing inspiration. One beautiful spring day I got in my car to go to the grocery store only to find that my windshield was covered in maple tree seeds from the tree in our front yard. I cursed them, got out and wiped them all off, then went on about my day. The next day the same thing happened and I thought "UGGHHH how many frickin' seeds are even up in that tree!?!" (yes, I realize I sound like a grouchy old lady. yes, I'm going to blame it on the stress of newly obtained adulthood.) SO I decided to get out of my car and look up into the tree branches. I was immediately inspired and awestruck. Wasn't it just a couple of days ago that this tree had no leaves at all and now it is sprouting leaves AND seeds all over. This tree gives so much to us and I just act like its a burden. Hippie talk much? It was then that I decided that I wanted to take what the tree was giving (the seeds) and spread them to new places! Specifically, but not limited to, new homes Judson and I will move to in the next couple of years. 

So I collected about 30 of them and looked up directions on how to grow a tree. It was SO COMPLICATED. I mean, these little guys have to germinate underground, a boy tree has to give the girl tree the right pollination for the seeds to be ones that can reproduce (not even kidding. look it up.), they have to be temperature controlled and planted in certain materials, and all this crap. So desperately wanting my dream to become a reality I followed all the instructions on a hope and a prayer that at least one or two would sprout to life for me! Then one morning I walked into my kitchen to see that TWO were coming to life! I was so excited like I had just created a baby or something. Seriously.

THEN a couple of days later 21 seeds were popping up!! AMAZING. Look at that little tiny leaf that is the exact shape the huge leaves are. How do people not believe in God?

This inspiration inspired new inspirations and somehow I ended up ordering like 10 different kinds of oak tree seeds on amazon.com and acquired a baby pine tree too… So.. More details on that later on (I know you are all DYING of anticipation about my tree stories and inspirations). But for now, I am a mother to 38 baby trees.

Okay, if any of you have even stuck around long enough to hear my tree talk, then here is the other inspiration spring has brought to me. The other day I was thinking about how Judson and I have been together for two whole years now. That's a big deal for me! I know we're married so we're gonna be together for a million years, but in my small 23 years of life I have never ever ever never been with a boy for two consecutive years without break ups/"breaks" or really just longer than a couple of months period. I was feeling really great about life. I started being nostalgic about when we started dating. I realized when we started dating I was training for a half marathon! I remember telling him "I'll meet you in like 2 hours because I have to run first" and I would literally run for like an hour and a half OR LONGER.

 

All the sudden, I started to feel really bad about life because I couldn't remember the last time I ran a full MILE as I reminisced about my 13.1 mile race. I wondered why the heck I ever let myself stop running because I truly loved it so much. Then I remembered oh, yeah, I broke my foot running that half marathon because I picked shoes that were super cute and not shoes that had good arch support.

That set me back a couple of months. I ended up getting engaged and married and never really got back around to running.

BUT

I've been newly inspired.

And not just the inspired that I am usually to be healthy and active but inspired to be a RUNNER.

Therefore, I began running a few weeks ago. It was preeeeeettttyy ugly. A lot of slow jogging with walking mixed in and huffing and puffing. I kept at it. Every time I started my legs would start hurting. Not just muscle hurting, I mean my BONES hurt. Everything in my body tells me this is unnatural and that I need to immediately stop. Soon my lungs start feeling like I'm in high altitude. I literally start wheezing (combination out of shape and seasonal allergies). My heart is pumping blood so fast I feel like it will just give out. Then the stitch in the side starts, OH the stitch in the side. Painting an appealing picture, eh? After days of this, I started to get frustrated because all I could think about is how easy and enjoyable this used to be… uh.. two years ago.. 

Here's the thing about running. It's hard. No matter who you are or how long you've been doing it. It's hard, because it is as mentally exhausting as it is physically. The whole time half of you is trying as hard as it can to keep going while the bitch half of you is coming up with a million reasons you should stop. 

And that's why I love it. I got myself a new running toy and a fierce new attitude. 

Y'all, stop being jealous of my "longest run" so far with my Garmin. 

To be continued!