Tender Mercies

 World records. Childhood dreams fulfilled.  Athletes surpassing the unthinkable.  The thrill of victory.  Winning by one one-hundredth of a second.  Need I go on?  They only come around every two years, but each time, the Olympic Games have me glued to the TV for two weeks. The news commentators may go over the top in their dramatizations of the US athletes' stories, but I love every one.  I love it even more when the athletes are humble about their accomplishments, giving the praise to their parents, their god, and their own hard work. It is for this reason that I have more respect for Michael Phelps at the London games than in Beijing.  He matured a lot between Games and has become a more likable athlete.  Below are a list of some of my all-time favorite Olympic moments (in no particular order): 1) Beijing 2008: Michael Phelps beat Cavic in the 100M Fly by the narrowest of margins. I remember watching ...

July 20th marked two months of me living in beautiful Fairbanks, Alaska. And in all honesty, you could say it was my two month mark of being a wife (since I spent the majority of the first 6 months of marriage away from my husband).Needless to say, it has been a little tricky getting into the swing of things. Before I moved to Alaska, my life was like a pile of dirt that hadn't been moved in a while - all the dirt was settled and the pile was compacted and easy to manage. I had a wonderful group of friends, lived with my sister and cousins, loved my job as a figure skating coach, was a full time college student who knew the drill, and loved Missouri. But then I graduated college and left everything to become an Army wife in a state that is 3500 miles away from everything familiar to me. It was as though my neat a tidy pile of dirt was thrown up into the air. I have had to readjust to being a wife, not having a job, not having my close friends, and relying on faith and patienc...

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 r...

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. 

I am enjoying the Fairbanks summer while I can!  It is definately about 70 degrees in this picture AND about 12am. Love it. After being in Fairbanks for a week or two, Marshall and I realized that it would be a good idea for me to work towards something. Like a race or something that would challenge me and help me feel good about myself. (But don't get the idea that I was depressed or anything, I just needed a concrete goal to focus on). I had heard about this 10k that was coming up, but I hadn't signed up for it because I was nervous about running a 10k. I love 5ks and I have done a half marathon, but I had yet to do the "in-between." Then my lovely sister told me she was doing a 10k on July 4th, so I was motivated to sign up. I enjoyed training for this race, though I didn't have much time. I run regularly, so it wasn't too hard to push a little harder. Marshall was a great support to me. He would either run or bike next to me, and would push me to d...