Tender Mercies

If you are wondering how to love someone more, be it your spouse, family member, or coworker, try serving them. Finding ways to serve my husband in creative ways is one of my favorite things to do, and the results are even more rewarding. My husbandry  has PT (physical training) every morning with either his squad or platoon, so at 5:30am the alarm goes off, and he is out the door by 6. It doesn't really phase me however, because growing up I went to skating practice at 5 or 6am regularly. Well, on some mornings he drops me off at the gym on his way to PT, other days I go running on my own while he is gone, and some days I am just way to tired to do anything but stay right where I am in our warm bed! Well, this morning I planned on going to the rink for the morning freestyle session to skate, but that meant I had to leave the house by 7:30, which meant I wouldn't see Marshall when returned from PT. It also meant that I wouldn't be there to make him the breakfast of champ

Please see the following equation below: Day off from work + Sunshine + living in Alaska = Go outside and explore! I absolutely LOVE the scenery behind us: the seemingly endless view of mountains! After a fun day camping at Chena Lakes for the 4th, Marshall and I went out to Granite Tors on Thursday to go rappelling.  We hadn't planned anything for Thursday, but when I woke up to the sunshine, I knew we had to get out.  We also needed to break in our rock climbing equipment that Marshall had purchased last November, but hadn't used yet.    I had a hunch that Marshall wanted to stay home and work on the kayak, but he didn't say one word about that when I brought up rappelling.  I love how he puts other people, especially me, above his desires and comforts. I do not ask him to do so, but I suppose I do the same for him, so it's a win-win sort of situation.  I had only rappelled three or four times in my life, so I needed a refresher course when we got to the cli

Since Fairbanks winters are so long and cold, there is always so much going on in the summer. Hence the plethora of races here. Yesterday, there was a 5k on post that we decided to run in. The best part was that we were able to run it together--well, we didn't run together, but we got to participate together.  My goal was to break 20 minutes because my personal best had been 20:25. Unfortunately, my muscles were still very fatigued from last week's 10k and this week's training, so I finished in 21:47. Not exactly what I was hoping for, but I did my best for the day! But lucky for me, my off day was on a race that only had 150 participants. So I ended up being the first girl to finish, and 7th overall. And I even received my first trophy, which I was secretly kinda excited about, because it fulfilled a childhood wish :)

I LOVE to spend time with my hubby!! For the past 5 months, he has had 24 hour CQ/Staff Duty 2-4 times a week. And if you don't think that is bad, imagine having to stay up for 24 hours straight without doing anything. Then when you come home, you fall asleep for 5 or 6 hours, and then have to go back to sleep at night, only to wake up again and do it all over.  Marshall was a good sport about it, and I did my best to help him out! Finally, he changed troops after the one he was in originally was disbanded, and he got released from having to pull CQ for at least 2 weeks! Needless to say, it was so wonderful to have him home, to myself, for this entire weekend.                              During a bike ride after lunch at a Hawaiian barbecue restaurant.