the race

Well, I'm sorry to say I didn't achieve my goal. My ONLY goal was to run the entire race...but when around mile 4 my knee felt like it was going to cave in and I was going to collapse on the side of the road, I thought I should walk. Walk, run, walk, run, walk, run...for 9 miles. All in all, I think I ended up walking between 3 and 4 miles total. And I am pretty disappointed.

I struggled about whether I should suck it up, or be careful and save my knee. I'm glad I didn't push it because I was limping for two days. Today is the first day I can't feel my knee when I walk. Ugh, it is frustrating. I'm more proud of my 11 mile run than I am of the race, and that is sad. I'm supposed to run another one the end June with my sister Hillary. I'm going to take the training a little easier towards the end so I can hopefully run the entire thing. So, after a week off, we'll see how my run on Saturday goes. I will keep running these races until I do the whole thing RUNNING!

But hey...I FINISHED!

this weekend

This weekend...

-I run my first half marathon! Whew! I'm excited and extremely anxious!

-we leave our two girls for two days with Jason's cousin. The longest we've been away from them, and I'm nervous about how they'll do and how I'll do.

-we're taking a 13 hour road trip to Virginia. Our little family loves road trips, especially in our new car!

-Jason has a second interview with a practice in Fredericksburg, VA. His first was on Skype a few weeks ago. The practice seems great, they seem excited for him to come, and we're praying we get the job!

With so much excitement in the air, it's hard to sit here and do laundry.

being a runner

I am so grateful to have such faithful running companions! This morning Rachel Hite and I ran 10 miles, about a third of it in the rain. It was cold and soggy, but overall, I enjoyed it! This begs the question: At what point can you call yourself "a runner?" Is it when you've trained hard for a race? When you get out jogging three times a week? When you've burned 1000 miles in one pair of shoes? Does being a "runner" have more to do with athleticism, commitment, or sheer determination? A combination of all three? Or something else altogether?

I still don't know the answer, but I do know that today, I AM A RUNNER. And it feels pretty good.

sisters & PIG

Addie is becoming quite the little artist. She drew these last week.

The first is a picture of Addie and Macie. The antennaes on Macie's head are her pony tails! I love it. She is always concerned about getting the eyes correct-- pupils and everything--and it makes Jason pretty proud. Ha. If you look carefully, you'll see she wrote Macie's name around the page.

This second one, obviously, is PIG. She's been practicing her letters, too, and she'll write out names and words as I spell them outloud. She's getting to be pretty good!

niners

I ran NINE MILES on Saturday! Woo woo! Still hard, but not as hard as eight. Hopefully that's a good sign.

stress!

So, our updates. Jason applied to one residency and we found out two weeks ago that he didn't get it. He decided against trying to get the remaining residencies, he just wanted to get a job and start working and earning real money. Since then our days are filled with job searching, sending resumes, and chasing every available lead. It's been exhausting and very very stressful. VERY. I'm so grateful to have a husband who never just lets things happen to him, but is proactive and ambitious and makes things happen.


We've looked into buying practices, associate positions, working for Indian Health Services in Alaska...nearly everything. He's had a couple phone conversations with doctors, but those ones want someone to buy their practice. We'd prefer just to have a regular job first, and then in a few years buy. I don't know if we're in a good position to buy a practice right now, and Jason would like a few years experience before having his own. He's had a couple practices want to interview him, but we don't have the money to just pick up and fly him to VA or NV for an interview, so we've asked for phone interviews first and are still waiting to hear. We still could do a retail chain somewhere, and we will if we have to, but that's our last resort. We may need to expand our search of locations, but I feel it's fairly broad as it is. Ugh.


Long story short, we're tired of not knowing. It's hard. We're scared. In my heart I know we will be taken care of, but it's easy to get stressed and worried when we're looking over our finances, or looking at the calendar and wondering what will happen in two months. The Lord has blessed us so much, and I know He won't stop now, but it'd be nice to have some asnwers now. So, please keep us in your prayers. We need them! (Wow, I am a downer...)


On a lighter note, Carson is 4 months old! Wow, time is flying by. He is such a sweet baby, so good natured and handsome!

new favorite photo

Gotta love these kids!