Thankful

**Disclaimer: I started writing this over Thanksgiving weekend (just didn’t finish gathering
all of the pics and posting until now… sorry!)**

As I sit on the couch writing this, Martin is sitting next to me on my left, our Christmas tree
lights are glowing on my right, ornaments are shining and sparkling, a fire is burning in the fireplace in front of us, and a Toll House Chocolate Pie is baking in the kitchen. Need I say more about being thankful this season? :-) I apologize for my, umm, neglect of this blog over the last two months... life has just been so busy (in a good way) since Martin got home from
deployment that I haven't had time to write about it!

Since this is Thanksgiving weekend, I thought it would be most appropriate to bring you up to
speed with a list of things I have been thankful for over the last two months, with a picture for each one (because it may be a long time until I get all these albums on Facebook, haha). In
chronological order, here we go!

Thankful List:
1. Sep 26: Martin returned from his 5-month deployment!!!!! :-D I don't have a picture of us from
his homecoming, but here is the welcome home cake I made for him:

2. Oct 2: I ran the Loch Ness Marathon in Scotland. This was my third marathon, but due to my move and long work shifts, my training had gone down the tubes. The longest run I had done was a half-marathon (13.1 miles), 6 weeks earlier. I mentally prepared myself for a run-walk race: running for as long as I could, then taking walk breaks as necessary for what I expected would be the majority of the race. I told myself I would not care about time, I would just enjoy the scenery and look for Nessie (haha). I was thrilled that Martin got home in time to travel to the race with me, and our friend Laura was also along for the trip to run the 10K race.

Race day started miserably: I had to walk through a muddy field in my running shoes to get to the bus, then once we arrived at the start, it was raining steadily and frigidly cold. I have (self-diagnosed) wet shoe phobia, so I was a mental mess. It rained continuously for the first 6 miles, and it took about 3 miles to regain feeling in my frozen hands and feet. Once I got warmed up, however, things started to look up. After the rain stopped, it was still foggy, and running through the cool fog kept me from getting sweaty or overheated. The fog lessened around mile 8, and I could see the Loch, which was beautiful… it was the kind of day you could expect to see Nessie poke her head out of the water! Miraculously, I was able to keep running until mile 17, when I stopped at a porta-potty. After that, I took a few walk breaks, but once I got into the town of Inverness (just past mile 23), there were spectators lining the route cheering, and I could actually hear the announcer at the finish line on the other side of the river loop. That gave me the last mental boost I needed, and I said “let’s finish this.”

I ran the last 3 miles, smiling and waving at Martin and Laura as they cheered and took pictures on one side of the river, then crossed a bridge to watch me finish. I have no idea how this happened, but I finished my third marathon (the one I felt the least prepared for) in 4:37:11, a personal record by 21 minutes.

3. Oct 8-10: Dublin re-do! As you may remember, a group of friends and I had planned to go to Dublin for St Patrick’s Day back in March… but had to give up the trip when we were called to support military operations in Libya. Well, we finally made it up on a 3-day weekend in October. We toured the Guinness Factory, rode through the city in a horse-drawn carriage, and took a bus trip into the beautiful green countryside.

4. Oct 23: The Chicago Bears and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers came to play an NFL game in London, and the NFL gave 1000 free tickets to the Air Force bases at Lakenheath and Mildenhall. Martin and I were lucky enough to be given 2 of them, so we got on a bus with the rest of the crowd and spent the day at Wembley Arena. We participated in the pregame show by standing in a formation on the field holding up foam tiles to form the American and British flags, then watched the game from our (nosebleed section) seats. I got to see former Penn Stater Robbie Gould kick for the Bears!

5. Oct 29: A couple friends joined us for a concert and 10K run in Nottingham, one of our favorite English cities. Funny story about the run, however… it was Halloween weekend, so we wore costumes for the race. The start was at a sports center outside the city, and due to traffic from a soccer game letting out, our cabbie told us “just walk straight down this road…” Well, after 45 minutes of wandering and trying to follow signs, while being honked at by passing cars who appreciated our costumes, we never found the sports center and missed the race! We made up for it by running our own race back into town, and celebrated with a trip to Hooters for yummy chicken.

6. Nov 1-15: Mediterranean Cruise!!! Our long-awaited vacation (had been planned since June) to celebrate Martin’s return was everything we dreamed it would be. The destinations were incredible, the ship was fantastic, and we had so many amazing experiences that we will remember for a lifetime. I can’t decide on one favorite port, but the most picturesque was Santorini, Greece, with its stunning whitewashed houses and blue-domed churches… I had dreamed of going there ever since I saw the movie “Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants”, and it did not disappoint! Our most adventurous port was Corfu, Greece, where we took a bus to the other side of the island, found a beautiful deserted cove, went snorkeling, and took pictures of fish with the waterproof camera Martin gave me for my birthday.

7. Nov 25-26: After a relaxing Thanksgiving at home, we went down to London for a couple days. On Friday, we ate at Chipotle (a treat since it is the only location in the UK), shopped at our favorite 5-story toy store (Hamley’s), and enjoyed the Winter Wonderland festival in Hyde Park with some mulled wine, candied nuts, and carnival games (Martin won me a stuffed penguin!). The next morning, we went running in Hyde Park (something I needed to check off my “England bucket list”), then ice-skated at the Winter Wonderland rink. That afternoon was the Top Gear Live show at an arena just outside the city, with stunt driving, shiny expensive supercars, and the famous show hosts/comedians Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, and James May.

That’s all the big events, but I’ll finish out my Thankful List to 10…

8. Christmas decorations! Thanks to Martin (I am a procrastinator), our tree is up and decorated before the end of November.

9. Christmas parties. We have two this year (my squadron and Martin’s), and I am excited to dress up and celebrate with our friends.

10. Wedding planning. Yes, this news is somewhat buried at the end of the post, but… we finally picked a wedding date! =D Martin and I will be married on July 21, 2012, in my hometown of Hampton, VA. I now have about 25 million things on my to-do list, which is slightly overwhelming, but I am so excited to finally have a date on the calendar! Many more updates to come, but for now I am thankful for the help of my parents, maid of honor Lisa, and bridesmaids Carrie and Jamie. Church is reserved, reception site is being investigated, and bridesmaid dresses are being considered. Yay!