Well, for those of you who use my blog as the main source of information from me you will be disappointed to find out that I did not find out our picks yesterday. :( There had been some miscommunication with Kevin's class and the instructors, so we will not be finding out our picks (or better phrased, options) until NEXT Monday! December 30th will be the day though...and with how fast this week is already flying by, hopefully I wont die from anxiousness. We have both tried sitting down and talking about where we would like to go, and we both are stuck. Obviously Texas would be nice, but there is still that tiny little piece of me that wants to pull away and go somewhere new and exciting. Plus we don't know if Texas will even be an option, so my next choices consisted of Florida and California (someplace WARM!). To my dismay, Kevin told me Florida is pretty much out of the question since there are so many people in his class who will be picking that as their first choice. The whole "picking" process is very weird and random to me, but basically the whole class is on a point scale. The longer you have been in the Coast Guard, and if you have had at least 6 months of sea time you get more points. Kevin has more than several people because he has already been in a year, but the people who have been at sea will dominate and pretty much get whatever they pick (which seems to be FLORIDA!) And I really am torn as far as California goes just because it is so expensive to live there! So, we are basically back at step 1, where we are still asking each other where would we like to go. It is probably silly and a waste of time to even think about this, because we don't know what will even be available for us to choose from, but its still fun. Kevin has yet to throw out any ideas or suggestions, so I have no clue where he would like to end up, but I think his heart belongs to Texas, and that is where he wants to stay.


In other news... I started my PRE half-marathon training. haha. I know what your thinking...pre? Well, the program I found to help me train is a 12 week program that begins the first week in December. I wanted to make sure that I could even handle the 2, 3, and 4 mile runs that are in that first weeks program so I decided this week would be used to push myself and get the habit of running going. Yesterday my sister Lauren and I decided we would run to the Sam Houston Campus, and by the football stadium there are huge sets of stairs that go up the hills, and we would run a few sets of those. Mind you...I ran cross country, played soccer, and I did swimming (all of which ended my sophomore year of high school). I went into this thinking that somehow, by the grace of God, I was still in the same shape I was in when I was 16! I mean, of coarse I would be... even though I have gained 50 pounds since then! So we began, and it really wasn't that difficult (in the beginning!) The night before we had traced the route with my mom's car and it was just a little over 3 miles to run to the campus and back to our house. I must have gotten 3/4 of the way to the campus before I started feeling like I was going to DIE! But Lauren was my version of Jillian from the Biggest Loser and pushed me and made sure I didn't walk. We ran the whole way to the campus (1.5 miles), got some water, caught our breath, and then started the stairs from hell! We did ten sets (10 ups, and 10 downs), which doesn't sound like a lot unless you have seen these stairs! I will have to take a picture to post on here so you can feel my pain. Lauren pushed me the whole way through those as well, constantly saying, "just one more set..." Once we finished those we drank some water, walked through the campus until we got to the main road, and ran back to our house. I could have died after all of that with how worn out I was, but waking up this morning I feel so accomplished! Today our goal is to just run 2 miles. I am basically following the training program for next week, so I know that I can do this. As we were ending our run yesterday and I felt like I could collapse on the ground, I kept thinking, "there is no way I am going to be able to do a half marathon" but then again I never would have thought I could run 3 miles again. It was a breaking point for me. I want to accomplish this, I want to do it for myself, and I will! It is going to take a lot of courage, determination, sweat, tears, pain, and support but I will get through this! I am on my way to a new and improved ME and I can't wait!