Recapping 2011

The Good:
April: GOT ENGAGED!
May: Successfully completed 2nd year of university
August: Graduated Basic Military Training
September: Started 3rd year University, made some new friends who love history as much as I do.
October: Turned 21, started crossfit!

The Bad:
May: Lost some friends. I list it here because there were good times, but for the most part cutting these people out of my life was a GREAT choice and I'm a better person for it.
August: Bad news about stress fractures
October: Fiance missed my birthday because his unit went to the field for a month. Hate long distance.
November: Got really bad strep throat the day of a ball that hubbys unit hosts. He HAD to go so I had to stay in the shacks, alone, with the beautiful 200$ dress that I haven't gotten to wear at all this year. Shown on the right, but mine was red.
December 1st: My dog Gracie died. She was over 14 years old, had been with my family over two thirds of my life. I'm still incredibly choked up over it so thats all I'm going to say here, until I'm ready.

The Night:
Hubby and I spent the night in flannel pajama sets, mine purple his blue, and housecoats. We watched Jaws on Spike, which I had never seen before and so I was yelling the whole time (GET OUT OF THERE!!!!!). For supper fiance made home style breaded haddock and steamed vegetables - amazing. I wish I had taken pictures. And although I was expecting a lot worse we only ate a half bag of chips with dip.
Perfect night spent with my perfect man, I couldn't be happier :)

It's Ten O'Clock in the Morning..

My fiance and I decided that from this point on in our break we're going to go to the gym together each day. Yesterday I did a 5k (I know you could just scroll down and read that but it feels nice to say). He did some running, lifting and the jacobs ladder machine but then we ducked out early because his knee hurt.
About a month ago now he was playing flag football with his unit when he was hit (funny, I thought the point of flag was no contact? not how he tells it). It got worse for a week until he had to go to the doctor who gave him a chit to last until christmas holidays. It scares me that it's still bothering him despite how long its been, especially since I just found out my dad will probably need surgery in his knee after hurting it in a badminton competition about a month ago.
So the injury is the reason that I am letting Mat sleep in despite it being 1040 in the morning. Maybe some rest will make it feel better and then on top of that I can convince him to hit the elliptical or the stationary bike instead of the treadmill.
Another thought: I've seen a lot of runners call the treadmill the 'dreadmill'. Anyone know why? Just curious, I love the tread.

Since I have some time to kill waiting on my sugar bear I'm going to share my injury history.
Two summers ago I was doing my basic training with the army and I had to stop midway through because of severe pain in my feet. It took them a while to find the stress fractures and by the time they realized what was causing it they had spread to my shins, as well. Stress fractures are a bitch. There really is no treatment except to get off of them for.. oh one to ten months. You heard me right. I left basic to go back to school for the year and TEN MONTHS LATER I have healed up a LOT but still not 100%. So I've been off training for almost a year. On top of that the only way to prevent stress fractures is to do the exercise that causes them, slowly building up, as STRESS fractures are caused by EXCESS STRESS on the bones from jumping into training to fast. So when summer came around this year and it was time to go back to basic, I finished it this time but with.. you guessed it.. MAD STRESS FRACTURES! My last x-ray is in august and I took it easy for a month (I'd pushed through on SF for four months that summer, I really felt like taking a break). Then I got back to the grind. I have CAP next summer which I hear is much more demanding than basic. I will not make the same mistake I did last year, babying myself and then going into training in terrible shape.

PAIN IS WEAKNESS LEAVING THE BODY

Today when I'm on the 'dreadmill', I'll be picturing this, which is by far my favorite:

photo credit: reasonstobefit.tumblr.com/