Adam is going to be home soon!

Adam is going to be home next month! We don't have specific dates and ever if we did, we wouldn't believe them, but we do know that Adam should be in Eugene and done for good in the middle of April. He is currently packing up his stuff in Iraq and will be moving out of his trailers and into tents in order to make room for the new guys who are taking their places. Right now they are training the new guys and after a few more weeks of this, Adam will head to Kuwait and then on to Washington (state) for a week or so and then back here for good!

In order to speed up the demobilization process in Washington and Fort Lewis, family and friends aren't allowed to visit while they are there like in the past. Instead, they are going to get them in and out of there in about a week and then bus them back home.

I am so excited for him to be here! It is awesome to be know that in about a month we will be able to put this whole mess behind us. Lately I have been thinking about how a year ago we were just beginning to cope with the reality that Adam was going and we were just beginning to make all arrangements for while he was gone and now I am making all these plans for when he gets back! It feels great!

I got us a two bedroom, two bathroom apartment at Crescent Park Apartments behind Shopko in Eugene and have slowly been moving our stuff over there. I have had the keys for two weeks so it is a little frustrating that it is taking so long to move. It is definitely hard to plan moving days when people can help and find a truck to use. I have done a lot of moving by myself so far, but I have had a little help. I love un packing boxes and pulling out all our belongings, knowing that we have a home and Adam will be here very soon to be with me in our home.

A great memory that I have with Griffey was the first day that we got the keys to the apartment two weeks ago on Monday. I just opened the door and walked through it with Griffey with a great sense of calmness, relief, anticipation, and excitement. I showed Griffey all the rooms and told him this was our new home and then we both just laid on the ground of our empty front room together. It sounds so silly that this was a great memory, but with this experience are all the feelings and realizations that this crazy, hard, horrible year are over and Adam and Griffey and I are going to be a complete family again and this is where we are going to make that happen. I think of us laying there together in that big empty apartment and I think about how happy I was to know that Adam and I won't have to be apart much longer and we finally have a place to be a family together.

So right now I am working on moving and setting up the new apartment and I am also finishing up this term at school. I have one 8 page paper left that is due on Thursday and then I am free for Spring Break!

Another thing that I have been focusing a lot of energy on recently is running. My friend, Brittany, and I started running together a few months ago, I think in November, and we are helping each other train for the Eugene Half Marathon. I first got interested in running the Half Marathon through my friend, Laura, who sadly just moved away but will be back to run another half marathon in the fall. Anyway, she has been training for the half marathon and I decided to join her and now Brittany and my mom want to do it too. It is 13.1 miles and it is on my birthday, May 2.

Brittany and I have been slowly increasing our speed and distance thanks to a training schedule we found online and just this morning we completed our longest run yet- 9.5 miles! I am so proud of us! I never in my life thought that I could run that far and by actually doing it, I really feel empowered and like I can do a lot more that I previously thought I could. My goal and hope is to be able to run a full marathon this fall. I would like to do the Portland Marathon. Even though I like to tell myself that I can't do it while I am running, somehow I keep going and it is such an awesome feeling to achieve all these running goals I have been setting.

Brittany and I have been great running partners because we both started at the same place- hardly any running experience and the same kind of mindset about running. We also have a pretty similar pace ( I think she is a little quicker) and we motivate each other because when I don't want to run or I want to quick a run she encourages me and when she wants to quit a run, I encourage her. I am very proud of us! I already know I am going to be really sore tomorrow, but I don't care because it is really fun to tell people that I ran 9.5 miles!

So, to sum it all up: Adam will be home soon, I am in the middle of moving, and I ran really far today.