we had guests!

 the norrick's!!!!

they have recently made a huge life altering decision and it moved them from yuma, az to jacksonville, nc with the marine corps! they drove alllllll the way through and made a stop in san antone just for us! and maybe the alamo:)

 we love having them come visit us because they love being tourists like we do. we toured the alamo, spent a significant amount of time in the gift shop and walked along the river walk before getting rudy's bbq for dinner. they stayed for two nights and we couldn't have been happier! only really good friends can share a bedroom together (us on our bed, them on the futon) and not think it's weird. 

 

another couple reasons why we love them: they love cats and board games as much as we do!! 

whenever we hang out with them, i can't help but think about how grateful i am for the marine corps for helping us find friendships like this. brandon and jon shared a barracks room in school back in 2009. we would have never met them if not for the marine corps and i'm so grateful to have them in our life. i'm so excited for their next adventures (!!) and can't wait to go visit them in NC!

merry christmas.

christmas card made by my best BIL, sam.

he's amazing at all things photoshop, fonts, calligraphy and anything else creative and technological.

if you're interested:

sam (dot) grigg (at) gmail (dot) com

if you close your eyes, does it almost feel like nothing changed at all?

its been a rough few months here, as was expected. moving to a brand new state is hard, moving in with parents is hard, leaving the military for civilian life is hard. bundle that all up together and its a lot of challenging changes. 

amidst our struggles, we really have had so many good times together in the last six months. life isn't so bad, is it? especially when you're surrounded by 5 loving adult puppies, beautiful scenery and giving parents.

the first few months here i was so sad that in the morning when i'd wake up, i'd keep my eyes closed and pretend i was in my bedroom in san diego and jon was just at work on base. 

a couple weeks ago i made the decision to change my attitude and it's helped so much. i've seen the beauty in the slowly changing san antonio weather, the smiles texans give you before looking away when you make eye contact with them (southern californians never did that!), and our big room that we so meticulously fixed up. i promise i'll post pictures of it soon; it's our little sanctuary. 

 melissa took this photo of jon and i today and i love it so much. i had no worries at all the moment she took this, i didn't even care that i had to be at work in less than twenty minutes. just me, my babos and the doggies. 

JW Marriott San Antonio Hill Country/Illuminations HALF!

We had our second 1/2 marathon on Saturday!!! we have been slacking in our training since the last one, not running more than 6 miles at a time since. so we were kind of nervous…we were really excited though because the half was being held at the local and very new JW Marriott! they offered us an awesome rate for the night, so we splurged and reserved a room the night of the race.

 over the course of our 24 hour stay, i probably took four baths. heavenly.

 teehee.

 this was the view from our room. isn't is beautiful to just see horizon? it always blows me away how truly big the texas sky is, it just goes onnn and onnn….

 we checked in at about 2pm on saturday. the resort is literally a 5 minute drive from our house and is visible from our neighborhood. (it sits up on a hill and its HUGE)

 we found a BOM in the nightstand with a bible!!!!

 we toured the hotel lobby, picked up our race packets and drank our complimentary hot chocolate. i didn't finish mine, but jon did haha, not the best idea pre-race. jon was stressing me out way bad because he started getting ready like an hour before the race started and i just wanted to lounge and not let my nerves get the best of me. we were mostly nervous because it was 30 degrees outside. maybe that wouldn't sound that bad if the weather had been gradually decreasing over the weeks, but no. it had been 84 degrees the week before. it was quite a severe drop in temperature….

 i thought i was really prepared with my running leggings and sweats on bottom, compression shirt, hoodie and windbreaker on top with a beanie. once i started my run i realized that yeah, i was hot, and also the only one wearing sweats on top and bottom and a non-running beanie. amateur. 

 we stretched inside right before the race started. see those hoards of people? we could all see our breath. it didn't really matter if you were inside or outside, it was so cold!!!

(also look at my socks. while i was stretching i kept getting a glimpse of them and thinking i was really tan. they're just socks. ha.)

the race was awesome!!!!!!! (it was 27 degrees when we finished) i was way bummed out when i started because i realized my nike+ wasn't working and wasn't going to help me during my 13 miles. i left without jon, thinking i'd see him in a few minutes when he passed me. i turned on my music and the stopwatch on my phone (lammeee) and ran for about 3 minutes before jon caught up to me. i turned off my music and we talked for a few minutes. i kept telling him he could go on without me, but he decided to stay and run with me. wow, i can't tell you how great that was for me! running is definitely a mind game and when i was by myself on the last half, my loneliness got the best of me and i struggled the whole race. this time, with jon talking and laughing with me, we were just going out for a casual run together! it made the whole race so much fun. it was pitch black, the trail only illuminated by tiny LED lights. almost the entire run was through the golf course and i kept thinking about how much my dad would love to golf there. the trails were very windy, so when we'd turn around at a bend, you'd look back and see hundreds of little lights running along the trail behind you. it was so pretty. we nearly froze, i remember being so so cold at once point and jon, who is never cold, would casually put his bandana up over his face haha. because of jon, i finished 20 minutes earlier than my last half at 2:26.45!!!!!! i still can't believe it and keep trying to figure out how that time could be wrong, but it isn't. the temperature actually helped me a lot, my body really didn't hurt that much. because it was a night run, i had time to eat and hydrate all day long which was another enormous improvement from the rock'n'roll when i was starving to death! jon and i laughed a lot during the race and it was really fun to hold hands and cross the finish line, he is the best. another great part about the race was….our family came to see us! john, kathy, and melissa (jon's step sister who just moved in with us! with her dog!) came to see us cross the finish line. we finished way earlier than expected and parking was horrible so they didn't see the real thing, but they were there and that's all that matters. we got to show them our room and share our race winning food with them. after they left, we took hot baths/showers and ate until we fell asleep. then we woke up and immediately started eating again. 

(if i told you i started eating potato chips first thing in the morning, would you be upset?)

 

the people at the marriott were all so professional and sweet, it was really great. right before we left for the race, we called the front desk and asked them to turn our bed down while we were running. so when we got back, our bed was prepared for us to fall into it and eat our tiny chocolates they left us! they also gave us complimentary late checkout (1pm) so that we could rest up after the race. that meant we could hot tub when we woke up!

texas is the best, its so fun to live here and love texas like everyone else does.

i thought the picture of the longhorn in our room and the cowhide ottoman was pretty texassy, but i think the enormous scale of the hotel overall was the most texassy of all. i'm not sure these pictures accurately show that, but the ceilings were so high and the light fixtures were gigantic. while jon walked out to the car to bring it around, i sat at the top of these stairs and just looked at the fixtures. i think they were 10 feet from top to bottom.

all in all, it was a fun and exciting weekend! 

oh, i forgot to mention this:

we booked the room at a rate of $119 for the night (before taxes and all that jazz). the night before we checked in, we called to get the total for the stay. $189!!! we seriously contemplated not going because it was much more than we were expecting. we have been so excited about staying there and knew it would be very convenient after the cold race to just go up to our room and warm up, so we went for it. we have been saving our change since we got married (along with my tips from when i worked at stouts). we filled up our little tube so we cashed it all in and got $139 out of it!! we planned on paying that with cash and the rest of the stay on our card. 

when the guy checked us in and told us the price, our jaws dropped. he said "the total for the room will be $138.93." we did not ask any questions and let him keep his 7 cents!!!! isn't that amazing?? we don't know what happened, but we are very grateful!

reasons to be happy

My cat fell off the third story balcony on Monday. He didn't die.
A handsome, beardless husband.
A job I like.
A new queen sized bed (so long, full)
A horse and riding arena in our backyard.
My trusty 10 year old car that I love.
My cute 12 year old puppy who acts exasperated every time he lays down.
A big bedroom (and closet) that we so lovingly cleaned, painted and tiled.
A bathtub. And a smart phone. So that I can blog while bathing.
An able body that can carry me 13 miles.
In laws who feed us and our dogs and do it without complaint.
Old friends who text out of the blue asking how I am.


I'm having a tough time over here in San Antone, hence the lack in blogging. I'm looking into doing something drastic that'll pull me out of this weird funk and bring back the old happy-go-lucky A.J. I'm not sure what it is yet, but hopefully I figure it out soon. Sad is not a good look for me.

san antonio rock 'n' roll half marathon

 we ran our first half marathon today!!! yesterday we went to the expo center and shopped 'til we nearly dropped/until i had to go to work.

 i impulse purchased these tattoos that help you monitor your pace and i loveeddddd mine even though i continued to be off another minute each passing mile, haha. my expectations for my time were a teeeeeny bit unrealistic. jon put his on upside down and i got a good laugh but he definitely didn't. it actually didn't matter because we tried going to bed last night and jon said "it feels like there are 1,000 ants on my tattoo". turns out he was having an allergic reaction!:

we signed up for the race in april and started training pretty seriously in july. the first few months of training, we ran first thing in the morning. we signed up for a second half marathon on dec. 7th that is a night run so we decided that we should probably try to run in the afternoons and that ended up working better for our schedule anyway. i think that hurt me during the half today. i have been so used to eating and hydrating all day before the run that while i was running today i was soooo thirsty and starving even though i thought i had planned pretty well the days leading up to it.

jon and i parted ways about .01 miles into the race and it started out okay for me even though i knew i had picked the wrong tattoo very early on.

my first layer of KT tape wore off at mile 2 and my right leg KT tape wore off at mile 6. When i got halfway, i was already pep-talking myself. i couldn't believe how much more difficult this was compared to our 9, 10, and 11 mile runs that we did at home in the afternoon. i was soooo thirsty but the more i drank, the weirder it felt on my stomach. luckily i packed four power bar energy blasts (with no caffeine) and they helped a lot. the longest i've ever run is 11 miles so when i passed that mile marker i was pretty proud of myself! i was definitely counting down the minutes and miles at this point and was really trying not to walk. at 12 miles i started taking walking breaks. my breaths were so shallow that i got a painful side ache and starting walking soon before the finish line. an angel sent straight from heaven pushed on my shoulder and said "c'mon baby girl." i groaned but started running and crossed the finish line at a run. i don't think i could have pushed myself, she's just what i needed and i made sure to thank her afterwards.

jon was waiting for me at the finish line looking wayyyy better than i felt! he finished in 2:22! I am so proud of him! my legs and feet actually held up pretty well. my biggest problem was my lower back (which started hurting pretty bad at mile 11) and my hunger/thirst. i couldn't stand up for very long after i finished and had to lay down for quite awhile before i got the courage to make the trek to the shuttles to take us 15 minutes back to the car and then drive 35 minutes home, ughhh. the drive home was unpleasant and i truly thought i was going to throw up. i felt better as soon as i showered and took a bath. i've been a bit queazy today but i'm not as sore as i expected (tomorrow should be fun).

i finished in 2:46 and am pretty proud! we have another half in three weeks and we are both excited and not excited. my goal is to finish that one in 2:45 and jon's goal is 2:20. the best part about our upcoming race is that it is at the brand new JW Marriott just up the street from us. they're nightly rates are usually $250 and up, but they offered us a ridiculous deal the night of the race! it is a night run through their property decorated with christmas lights and after the race we can go straight up into our luxury hotel room. 

we are so proud of ourselves for finishing today! it took a lotttt of time and dedication to get us to this point that we never thought we would be at. it was awesome to be among 25,000 people who were all making themselves proud and succeeding in such a difficult thing (especially the full marathoners). 

it's a late afternoon, on a hot texas day.

my outfit includes: a shirt i got a couple years ago from F21, Kate Spade pants i got on our first trip to the outlets here for $23, jon's church socks and my new cowboy boots. jon got me my michael kors watch when he got his associates degree. isn't that backwards? he got money for 'graduation' and went straight to the store to buy this for me. he said he wanted it to remind me of all the 'time' i spent encouraging and supporting him. very best husband. my pave´ link bracelet was given to me by my cousin bev when jon and i hung out with her and scott in february, and i love it. jon gave me my kate spade bangles when i graduated in may. when amanda came to visit i got us both arrow necklaces and we each got one of those adorable phone cases. i will never go back to using a phone case that doesn't look like a clutch and doesn't have a handle on it.