Lately

 Kevin has been working so hard lately (well, always).
Recently he spent hours upon hours working on his Statistics homework.
He's a champ through it all! I'm blown away by his tenacity to not give up.
Knowing myself (especially with school), I would have thrown in the towel a long time ago.
He's pushing through his PhD like nobodies business while maintaining a 4.0!
I can't even express how proud I am of him. 
I have seriously cried a few time now when thinking about the day he defends his dissertation.
What a moment. What an achievement.
It will be such a monumental occasion. I plan on throwing Dunks the biggest party he's ever had.
  This process of working through his Doctorate has caused me the utmost respect for those who have already been there and done that, but even more so, utmost respect to him.
Countless papers, countless reading, countless dedication, countless planning, countless sacrifice...
This is what it takes. 
On top of all this, he still works, he still loves, and  he still gives during his free time. 
I don't know how he manages. 
God has given him the grace and the strength every single step of the way.
 


CARPE DIEM
Something I'm trying to get better at, instead of allowing fear to control me.
Bought these TOMS at the Catalyst Conference &
got to meet the founder of TOMS there [picture below].
We met in the elevator, and he was a SUPER nice guy. :)

Our air-conditioning upstairs went out, so we slumbered downstairs for a few days.
It was kind of fun, because it broke up the monotony of life.   
I was having some fun with Bailey. I gave her a piggy-back ride.
She just sat calmly as I walked her around downstairs and upstairs.
She cracks me up. I then tried it with Mr. Leonidas, but he was NOT having it.


Someone looks grumpy. ;P
 
Beautiful sunrise as we ran. 

Dunks, super happy to now have his coffee.
And obviously wanting to go back to sleep. ;)
 
On our way home the sunrise over the mountains looked so pure and pretty.
The picture doesn't do it justice at all.

Here I am up and ready for my 2nd longest run ever.
:: 8 miles ::
I could tell both Kevin and I weren't feeling it that day, but we pushed through
and made it happen.
**Kevin is training for a marathon, so I've been trying to train alongside him
to see if it's something I could even begin to think about doing**
 
Here we are on the home stretch of our 8 miles that day.
Funny thing, we ended up crossing paths with the Lynchburg half marathon & 5k.
As we passed the photographer I told him we weren't in the race, but they still posted pics and we got tagged.
So now I have proof of our run! ;) It's fun to have it documented. 
 
On our way home we stopped off and enjoyed the sunset together.

Fact: when I'm rushing out the door to meet the girls for our morning run,
I always grab a jug of water from the fridge.
A lot of times I'll end up with a ton of these hanging out in my car.
I've gotten better lately about bringing them back into the house though ;)

It's always a beautiful view when driving through Candlers Mountain.
I love that I get to drive through it daily.
The lush green and view of the city always take my breath away.
Driving through the mountain after work, helps to put the long day at ease.

This is life lately.
I'm trying to be better at documenting it along the way. 

My Saturday

 

Well here I am, up bright and early about to try something I've never tried before. 

:: 10 Miles :: 

The longest run I had done up to this point was 6.2 miles. 

I've been running consistently since February. 4 miles most runs. 

Kevin has caught the bug and has begun running more. 

He recently did his first 10 mile run and inspired me to go for 10 too.  

It was time. Time that I pushed myself to another level. 

 

Dunks, driving us to our running destination. 

:: Downtown L-burg ::

Here we are at the start of the run. 

The trails were beautiful which allowed for some good distractions.  

I really had no idea what I was actually getting myself into. 

I just knew I needed to try. 

 

:: 10 Mile Recap ::

My breathing was good the whole run. 

I never really felt out of breath. 

It was my legs that were feeling it the most. 

Dunks ran slightly ahead of me most of the time, which for him I'm sure felt good, 

because I've been running faster then him lately.

[tee-hee, sorry babe, just had to put that out there] ;-P

If I recall correctly, miles 5 to 7.5 were the toughest for some reason. 

I'm used to stopping at 4ish, so I think at the 5 mile mark

my body began to wonder what in the world I was doing. 

It felt SO GOOD to hear my phone call out mile 8! 

After 8 I knew I could finish. 

Although mile 9 started to get a little rough, I couldn't even imagine not finishing at this point. 

Ironically, the worst part of the run was when we finished.

My legs were jello, my head was delirious, and about 30mins after, 

I started to feel extremely nauseous. 

I ended up feeling nauseous for at least two hrs after the run. 

The breakfast I tried eating after the run did not help my sickness.

I ended up throwing up three times [not fun].  

I couldn't get over the nauseousness so I took a nap

and thankfully when I woke up, I was back to normal again! ;)

 

After our nap we headed straight to Starbucks. 

I needed my coffee fix. asap. 

We sat at the bucks, and read our Bibles 

and talked about some stuff currently happening in our lives. 

I love when I get the chance to really connect with my Dunks. 

Apart from "marital" intimacy, 

there's a very intimate secret place that we experience together.

I'm sure we aren't the only couple with this secret place. 

What I mean by this is that we share conversations that I feel no one else on earth 

could really appreciate and connect with like we do together.  

When I was reading today the passages above really caught my attention.

God has that secret place with us. 

A place that is like none other.

Just Him and I. Our secret place. 

He has one for you too. :)

Some days I feel like I'm searching for this secret place 

and just can't find it [just like in marriage too].

Other days I feel like I couldn't be more hidden in there. 

I've found it, and it is good. Bringing peace to my soul.

Here's a creation I created today. 

The lines aren't perfect, but that's OK. :)

:: What's for DINNER ::

This meal is a new favorite of ours. 

It's delicious in so many ways. It's super cheesy, which we like A LOT. 

It's been a great weekend. 

Full of good challenges, good conversation, 

good creativity, and good food!