Seven Years

Sometimes it just hits me. Six and a half years. Just months away from the seven year mark. I don’t know why, but for some reason knowing Thomas and I have been married for almost seven years seems like a really long time to me. There are times in my life when it certain things suddenly hit me. And this is one of those. I have been married almost 7 years. 

And that is weird. 

Not a bad weird. Just weird. And long. Again, not a bad long. Just long. I have loved every second of it. There have been hard times and amazing times. 

And it all comes back to almost seven years. A lot of life in seven years. Just the other day Thomas said he liked our random dates. We had just gone to Boathouse 19. And I have to admit. I love them too. And he also said he loves to just hang out with me. Ditto. We truly have a blast together.

There are still moments when I just want wrap my arms around him and just curl up next to him. Just be next to him. Even when I am sitting 3 feet from him. It just isn’t close enough at times. So I scoot on over.

I look back on the past nine years of knowing Thomas. A year of friendship. A year of dating and engagement. Four years of the military. A year of unemployment. Two years of trying to grow our family. Wow. That is my adult life summed up.  

And yet it is so much more. I wouldn’t change it for anything. Because sprinkled in those major life events are the games of cribbage, farkle, and settlers. The movies we cuddled up next to each other and watched. The places we have camped. The meals we have eaten together. The friendships we have cultivated. All the countries we have explored. The letters we have written. The dreams we have dreamed. We are so blessed. So dearly blessed. 

Seven years. The more I think about it, the more I am excited for the next seven. What on earth could I imagine them to hold? More games, more friends, more dreams, more exploring, more life lived. 

Together. Happy.

Content.

 

The day after Thomas proposed. Seven years ago.

 

Friend's Giveaway!!!

A friend of mine just reached 500 followers and she is doing a give away!

And she asked if I would include something from Calia's Cottage, so I have contributed some reusable baggies! So go on over to her blog to enter and win lots of fun stuff!

Storybook Reality is my friend Laura's blog.

Enter to win some of these!

How does your Garden Grow?

With silver bells, and cockle shells,

And pretty maids all in a row.

Right?

Or with sunshine and water. Well, as much sunshine as the Pacific Northwest will give us anyways. Because water is clearly in abundance, especially after the past few days.

Each year, our yard has started to look a little better.

You can see what it looked like last year in this post here. 

Our very own rosemary bush.

I have absolutely loved rosemary in food the past year. After a friend gave me a few branches and I discovered how delicious fresh/frozen rosemary was, I decided to buy a bush. Apparently they are hard to kill and take over! Hence being planted in a pot.

I took pics to post about when we first planted, and then life happened. So now you get to see the before and after being grown for some time pics. This corner is Thomas' wild plant/flower area.

We decided to move our pots and multiply our gardening area.

We bought an apple tree that has 4 different types of apples on it! Can't wait for harvest next year!

I stole the brick planter idea from pinterest of course. I mean really, do I do anything original?

A few views of the back of our house.

My indoor herbs. I have oregano, green onions, and basil.

I also tried to re-grow my own lettuce. It worked! Although, this is as big as it got. :)

I made all of my plant labels with the seed packets laminated.

And my three favorite plants that we added this year. Raspberry plants (thank you Sundin's and Johnson's), a kiwi plant, and I also got a rhubarb plant! In front of my raspberries I also planted lemon mint and spearmint. 

So excited to see what all we get. So far we have harvested lots of spinach, strawberries, rosemary, lettuce, and beans! Can't wait for the zucchini and the broccoli!

And these are all plants that grow in the Pacific Northwest with very little other then consistent watering! Because that is all we do.

5k Is Finished!

And we did it!

Another check off of the Bucket List.

After weeks and weeks of "training" we did a little 5k running action. 

My training consisted of running a total of 6 times over 5 weeks, a 5 mile hike, 4 over 3 mile walks, a 2 mile bike ride, and tons of little 1 mile walks. The training schedule that Emily made for me did not happen. The moral is I didn't really train. But I had committed, so I ran.

This is our motley crew.

Emily, Nick, Me, Erin, Larry, Thomas, and DJ

 The starting line was right behind all of us. The first half of the race is down hill, which naturally means that the second half of the race is all up hill.

And 3.1 miles later....

 The finish line.

Everyone was an awesome help.

At work I would have conversations with Emily and DJ about when we would work out. 

Thomas and Erin ran with me and pushed me by talking and keeping me distracted the whole time I ran although it literately hurt Thomas to run as slow as I do.

After crossing the finish line, the first thing I said was...

"Yeah, I am never doing this again."

Although I enjoyed the experience, maybe if I had different events through out the run I would be more encouraged. However just plain running is not my thing.

I was never inspired by the "race" and all the "hype" of the day. 

After mile 2, it never got fun.

I am not "hooked" and have not already signed up for my next 5k. 

Although a few positive things did happen. I am excited to be back in shape some what. At least to be working out multiple days a week. 

I know that I love walking and can walk 3-4 miles without a moment of hesitation. In fact I do that twice a week. I don't need to run to prove anything.

I am thankful that although Thomas loves running, he could care less about races. Less money we spend on that.

Post race with Courtney who ran the 5k before us.

And now I need to figure out what I am going to check off of my bucket list next.