A little getaway…….

For those of you that don't know, Josh and I's birthdays are two days apart.  Since we have been together for four of our birthdays now, and we always try to do something special.  Instead of just birth"days", we turn it into a birthday week.  This year we decided to go to Vegas for our birthdays.  Due to my work schedule, we had to take this little vacation before the actual week of our birthdays.  We decided to make it easier on ourselves, and fly out of Vernal instead of Salt Lake.  This would save us 4 hours of driving time, and paying for parking.  We flew from Vernal to Salt Lake, and then had a layover before flying to Vegas.  Once we got to Vegas, we took a shuttle to our hotel.  
We didn't really have too much of a plan once we got to Vegas.  We figured we would just play each day by ear, and do whatever we wanted.  On our first day there, we decided to stop at one of the half price show ticket booths.  The only show we were really interested in seeing was Boyz II Men.  Yes, we're that old!  

We were actually excited to go see them!  And guess what?!  It was even better than we expected it to be!  We sang along to every song we knew.  Definitely worth going to.
The next couple of days we walked up and down the strip.  We went into the different malls and saw different things as we walked around.  It was nice to be in the nice warm sunshine, instead of the cold wind of Roosevelt.  
On our third night there, we were eating at a little restaurant in the hotel we were staying at.  A couple of ladies came up to us and asked if we had plans for that night.  We said no.  They then asked us if we wanted their tickets to the hypnotist that was in about an hour.  They were too tired to go.  We said sure and took the tickets.  It was a comedy hypnotist show, and it was pretty funny.
We had a great time in Vegas.  I didn't want to come home.  Most of all, I was happy to finally have some one on one time with my honey!  We are both always so busy, and always seem to be on opposite working schedules.  I don't know what I would do without Josh by my side.  He is my rock, and is always there for me no matter what.  I love him more than anything in this entire world, and would do anything for him to make him happy.  This was a much needed vacation and I'm so glad we were able to go!

Finally…….Feeling Complete in Roosevelt!

Finally after 4 months of being in Roosevelt, I am starting to feel more complete!  We had been living with some friends of ours, for the last 4 months.  Finding housing in Roosevelt, is next to impossible.  We knew it was going to be difficult before we moved here, but we had no idea it would be as bad as it is.  Most people living in Roosevelt, have built their homes.  There is hardly anything available to rent.  The homes that are for rent, are super expensive.  There's also very few apartment complexes and things like that around here.  We began our search and came with up absolutely nothing.  I was really beginning to doubt our decision to move out here, when we couldn't find anything.
When we had first made our decision to move to Roosevelt, I had talked with my younger brother Tyson.  He had let me know that he had a friend that lived in Roosevelt.  So when our search of finding a place to live turned up nothing, I talked with Tyson.  I asked him if he would ask his friend if he knew of anything to rent in Roosevelt.  Tyson was our good luck charm!  Tyson's friend, just happened to be building duplex's that he was planning on renting out.  We were beyond excited at this point.  We talked with Tyson's friend, and set up an appointment to come and look at the duplex that was being built.  It was still in the early stages of being built, but we knew we had to have it.  A few weeks went by and I had contacted the landlord several times.  We were willing to do anything to make sure that the duplex was ours once it was done.  Finally, after a few weeks, and paying the deposit, it was guaranteed to be ours!  Then the waiting began.  At first we were told it would be completed by the second week of December.  The second week of December came and went.  Then we were told January 1.  January 1 came and went.  Finally on January 6, we paid the rent and were given the keys to our new place to call home.  We couldn't wait to begin moving in.  Josh moved all of the boxes and smaller stuff, in his Durango while I was working.  Then on that Friday, our moving crew (family and friend) thankfully came from Salt Lake to help us move. It was such a happy day!  First thing I did when we had everything in the house, was make the bed so that we could sleep here that night.  All of our belongings have been in a storage unit the entire time we have been here.  It is so nice to finally have all of our things under one roof.  I have never been so grateful to sit on my own couch and sleep in my own bed.  Every day since moving in, has been great! We love our new place to call home!

Half Marathon October 26......Hardest one of my running journey yet!

I completed my third, and toughest, half marathon on October 26.  For those that don't know, a half marathon is 13.1 miles.  Whoever mapped out the course to this half, must not of known this.  According to my Nike+ (a running device that tracks distance), the course was 14.44 miles.  In the running world, an extra 1.34 miles, is alot when you're already exhausted.  The even worse part about it, is that the last 7 miles, were pretty much up hill.  That should not be allowed in a half marathon!  I finished in 2:17:32 and placed 374 out of 1328 runners.

I have the most supportive husband in the world!  He has gone to the majority of my races.  For this one, he took me to the bus pick up at 6:30am, hung out in the parking lot and at the finish line for several hours, and then was still excited for me when I crossed the finish line.  Combined that was about 5 hours, of I'm sure, pure boredom for him.  I love knowing that at the end of my run, he'll be there waiting for me.  I couldn't ask for a better and more supportive husband!

I also have an amazing group that I do my runs with.  It's great to have such a good support system when it comes to our crazy running goals.  We push each other to new levels all the time.  We started out doing 5K's, then we moved onto 10K's, and now we're doing half marathons!  I know that I never thought in a million years that I'd be able to say that I completed three half marathons in 2013!  Below is a picture of a few from my running group of friends that did this half marathon.  Love these guys!

Idaho Travels....

We went to Idaho for a family get together, a couple weekends ago.  It was really nice to get away, and be around family for a little while.  We took a four wheeler ride up to the basin, and got to enjoy all of the beautiful views of Clifton, from the mountains.  It was so much fun!

Clifton is the smallest town ever, and this picture proves it.  Everyone always wonders why I have to describe where Clifton is, and this is why.  Very few people in my life, have had any clue where Clifton, Idaho is.

I love seeing all the fall colors, but I'm sad that winter is right around the corner.  We are glad we made a trip to Idaho before the snow comes!

Finding a new "nOrMaL"

I've officially been in Roosevelt for two weeks, tomorrow.  The past two weeks have felt like I'm just on vacation.  One of the hardest things for me, is finding a new "normal".  I am very much a routine type person.  I do certain things routinely.  Josh can tell you all about this, and it drives him crazy most of the time.  Since everything here is new to me, I've been trying to figure out a new routine.  So far, it's not really working.  Everything here is so unfamiliar to me.  
If anyone has ever been to Roosevelt, you should know that there isn't much here.  One of my big cons in moving to this small town, was not being able to do what I want to do, when I want to do it.  Living in cities since I graduated high school many years ago, has kind of spoiled me in a way.  If I want to go to Target, I just go there.  I don't have to figure the next time I'll be going to Salt Lake, to go to Target.  There isn't a whole lot to do here, and I don't really know anyone besides our friends that we are currently staying with.  I have definitely caught up on some much needed sleep in the last two weeks.  That has felt nice, but also makes me feel a little lazy at the same time.  
On Monday I will be starting my new job.  I am going to be an administrative assistant, for the Duchesne County School District.  This will be something totally new for me since all I have done is retail the last 12 years.  Josh went with me to my new office last week, and helped me organize it and clean it.  I'm excited to start something new, but scared at the same time.  I'm looking forward to being able to actually enjoy Thanksgiving and Christmas this year.  In the past, I would of had to be at work at 10pm on Thanksgiving night, to work overnight.  I could also never really enjoy Christmas, because I always had to work the next day at 6am.  Josh and I are both looking forward to being able to enjoy the holidays, even if we are snowed in.  We have to go through two canyons just to get to Salt Lake, so who knows how many trips we'll actually be able to take, once it starts snowing.
So here's to finding a new "normal" for me.  I really hope to find this balance in my life soon!

The fun in moving.....

Over the past month that Josh had been gone to Roosevelt, I had been working on packing up the house.  What a project!  You don't realize how much "stuff" you have, until you have to pack it up and move.  As I packed up the boxes, I tried my best to either give things away, or take them to the D.I.  Even after my efforts, we still have too much stuff!  We rented the largest UHaul they have, which is a 26 foot truck.  I thought that this would be plenty big.  We do have a house full of stuff, plus a basement, garage, and shed.  I figured that we probably don't have that much stuff compared to people that have kids, so this size of truck should be plenty of space.  I was wrong.  On Sunday, September 15, we asked a few family and friends to help us move.  We filled the entire truck up, and then still had about half of our garage left, with odds and ends.  So on Sunday, we took the first load of stuff to our storage unit in Roosevelt.  The drive to Roosevelt went really well.  When we got to our storage unit, that was a different story.  It had rained quite a bit in the past week.  There aren't any paved roads at the storage unit.  The "roads" are all gravel and dirt.  Josh was driving the UHaul.  He did his best to avoid the standing water and the obvious areas where other people had probably gotten stuck at already.  Even though I think that Josh did the best he could, he got stuck too!  We were about 100 feet away from our storage unit, and stuck in the mud!  So close, yet so far away.  There was no way we were going to attempt to carry everything off of the UHaul and to the storage unit.

Luckily, the friends that we are staying with for a little bit, knew someone with a heavy duty truck to pull us out.  He did it no problem, but then we got stuck again.  This whole area was pure mud, and no way to avoid getting stuck.  He pulled us out again, and this time we made it to the storage unit.  An hour later, and we had the whole thing unloaded.  Thank heavens!  
We went back to our house in Magna, again on Wednesday, and got a 10 foot UHaul.  We were able to get the rest of our stuff in this trip.  Even though pretty much our entire house is sitting in a storage unit, I'm so happy this part of moving is over.  Moving is no fun, and I really thought we were done moving when we bought our house a year and a half ago.  I have been graduated from high school for 14 years, and I've moved 11 times.  That is way too much for one person!  For a few months we're staying with friends until we figure out where we want to live.  Then we'll be moving again.  Lucky us!

Half Marathon......COMPLETE!

On Saturday, September 14, I completed my second half marathon.  My first one was on April 21, of this year.  Since that race, I had knee surgery.  I wasn't able to run or doing anything too active, for two months!  That is a super long time in a runners mind.  After those two months, and several physical therapy visits, my doctor finally gave me the okay to run again.  Greatest day ever!  The next day I started training for my half marathon which was four weeks away.  I felt like I was starting over on building up my endurance and strength to run again.  Since about the time I found out I needed to have knee surgery, I went back and forth on deciding if I should cancel my registration to run the race.  I knew it would be a challenge for me, and I didn't know how my knee would do running 13.1 miles.  As soon as my doctor gave me the okay to run again, I decided I was going to do the half marathon, and wasn't going to focus on my time or placing.  I was just going to do it to the best of my ability, and as long as I crossed the finish line, that's all that mattered.
During those four weeks of building my strength back up and my endurance, the most I ran was 10 miles.  Even those 10 miles had walking stretches in them.  I didn't feel like I could push myself the way I wanted, because of my knee.  When I had originally registered for the race, I had convinced my brother Shane to do the race with me.  I'm not quite sure if he said yes because he really wanted to do it, or if he got sick of me asking him about it.
Bright and early Saturday morning, my alarm went off at 2:55am.  I woke up, showered, and got my running gear on.  I was super anxious for the run, since I wasn't sure how my knee would do.  I met Shane and his friend in the parking lot of Cottonwood High School, around 4:30am.  It was freezing, and we all wondered what we were thinking!  We had to take shuttle buses to the starting point of our half marathon, which was 9 miles up Big Cottonwood canyon.  We got up there, and had to freeze to death until 6:40am.  It was beyond freezing cold!
As soon as the race started, I decided I wasn't going to push myself too hard, but I wasn't going to walk, if possible.  As long as I could jog, and my knee didn't hurt, that was my goal.  2 hours and 1 minute and 24 seconds later, I crossed the finish line!  I did it!  I ran 13.1 miles, didn't stop, and beat my time by one minute from my previous half marathon in April!  I placed 971 out of 2112 runners, and placed 608 out of 1524 female runners.
The feeling that I get every time I cross the finish line, is priceless!  Knowing that I'm accomplishing a goal I set for myself, and doing something I thought I'd never do, is an amazing feeling!