It's been sooooooooooo loooooong!

New posts coming soon. Stay tuned.

Here’s to… right now

As yet another year has gone by and we’re still beginning the new year, I can’t help but reflect on the previous 12 months and start hoping for the year ahead to go as planned. 2011 is a year that began, for me, with a string of rotten luck; my car was stolen, my purse was stolen not long after, my new car got damaged in a car wash the week after I brought it home, then it was damaged again on the interstate when some road debris hit my car during a crazy wind storm. I seriously started fearing for my life and was certain that I had pissed someone off so much that they had placed a curse on me. With the change of the season, from Spring to Summer, my luck changed. My long-distance relationship with Troy took an advance in an unexpected direction. While on a hike, during one of his visits to Colorado, he stopped me just as we were coming to a breathtaking view, he dropped to a knee, presented a gorgeous ring and asked me to spend the rest of his life with him. I of course said “yes” as he attempted to place the ring on my finger… but at 9,000 ft my fingers were a bit swollen and the ring wouldn’t pass my knuckle. It ended up being just the right size once we returned to the car. [Troy’s favorite part of this story is that we had no cellular service for the entire trip so I was unable to make any phone calls to my friends or family to share the news. He was able to enjoy my excitement all to himself for two hours.] In the Fall, things got even better as I was transferred to San Angelo, TX to become an Intelligence student at Goodfellow AFB. Although still long-distance, Troy and I are able to spend every weekend together since I am only 3 hours away. And just when I couldn’t expect it to get any better, I got an assignment to Lackland AFB. Yes, it’s true I am not a big fan of Texas, but it was really important for Troy to stay close to his children and he already has a really good job. There are also several opportunities for me in San Antonio once I retire (4 years.) Florida or Georgia would have been great too but Texas was best for everyone. This year holds several thrilling adventures (and expenses) for Troy and I. We have started building our home in San Antonio, with completion expected in early Spring. The “big day” will also be this Summer, along with a much anticipated honeymoon. So, a great year behind us and another one ahead of us, I am thankful for where I am right now. I have a wonderful fiancé, an awesome job, great friends, and a loving family. I can definitely say that I am one happy gal.

Birthday Treat

I have been in intel school for a little over 3 months now. If you look on a map to find San Angelo, TX, you’ll see it’s a small town, quite a ways from anything else. I no longer have my running clubs or hiking trails, and I’m prohibited from taking college courses while in training status. I’m not very good at just sitting still. So to keep me occupied when I’m not on shift, I have discovered the joy of baking. I grew up with a very creative mother who designed… still designs, cakes and baked goods of all sorts. Until recently, Jen + oven = disaster. Just ask my niece and nephew about the gingerbread men I attempted to make last Christmas. Brianna and I ended up on the floor in tears of laughter at their final appearance when I mistook gel food coloring for gel frosting… the poor things looked as though they had been brutally murdered. When Sean tasted the first cookie, his exact judgment was: “hmmm… tastes like chicken.”
During my first month in school, one of my young Airmen was celebrating her birthday. After watching a couple of episodes of Cake Wars, I boldly decided to try the latest trend in desert culture with my attempt at cake pops. I don’t know what I was thinking. I didn’t even have a recipe. I just called my mom from the grocery store and asked her what ingredients I needed and for a quick run-down of how to put them together. The cake baking part turned out quite nice but it quickly turned into disaster once I mixed in the whole container of frosting and couldn’t figure out how to melt the candy. I tried to make a double boiler and ended up with the water boiling into the candy… which of course, ruined the candy. After a few runs to the store I finally figured it out and began to stick the cake balls. That didn’t quite work out either. I missed the step of dipping the stick in the candy first, letting it dry then dipping the pops into the melted chocolate. The cakes just slid right down the popsicle sticks. After about 4 hours, I gave up and picked up a couple dozen donuts on my way in to class for the Airman’s birthday.
The next birthday, I just baked a cake, frosted it and threw on some sprinkles. Although I wasn’t satisfied, the Airmen loved it. Lately, we have had a birthday just about every week. Since I refuse to give up on what I would like to call my new hobby, I have remained simple, with mini cupcakes, brownies, and cookies, all of which are devoured within the first hour of class so I must be doing something right. I am slowly working my way up to the second attempt at perfecting the cake pop. Yesterday I got one step closer by baking a red velvet cake, crumbling and shaping with cream cheese frosting, dipping my cake spheres into white chocolate candy, then sprinkling them with crushed peppermints. Not quite a “cake pop” but I’m almost there and they were delicious.

Sole Mates

As most of you know, I am preparing for reassignment to Texas. Over the past several months I have been upgrading my home in hopes of making it more appealing to the potential renter. In a fit of my obsessive compulsive disorderness, I decided to organize my belongings to make it easier on the movers to pack my crap. And like the average woman, I have a fair number of fancy shoes in my closet. I’m no Imelda Marcos but I do have quite an assortment of lovely footwear. In fact I recently made a discovery about my sole obsession and it ties in perfectly with my love for the outdoors. I own over 10 pairs of activity-specific shoes. I found this fascinating as it never occurred to me that my collection, outside the bedroom closet, was so large.

Here’s what I found:

• Merrell hiking Shoes: Super comfy. I’ve put a lot of miles on these. I wore them nearly every day in Iraq and they accompanied me to the top of two 14ers last summer, to include Mt Elbert. I also own a pair of Solomon hiking shoes.
• Asics running shoes: As a runner, I go through these semiannually but I stick to the same brand and style. They just got me across the BoulderBOULDER 10k finish line! I’m thinking about trying the FiveFinger barefoot shoes though.
• Diadora Soccer shoes: I haven’t played soccer in years but I can’t bear to part with them. They got a lot of field time in 1998 when I made the All Air Force Women’s Soccer team, San Antonio, Texas, 1998.

• Brooks trail running shoes: I don’t do a whole lot of trail running but they come in handy on incline days when I run the 4 mile trip back down the Barr trail.

• The North Face show shoes: Perfect for snow tubing or shoveling the driveway.

• Flip Flops: Being from Florida, flops are a must. I own several pairs and have a variety of brands: Rainbow, Teva, Sanuk, Havainas to name a few.

• Golf Shoes: I went through a short phase in the late 90’s. I think these actually ended up in the yard sale sack.

• Solomon Snowboarding Boots: For my new obsession. I moved to Colorado in 2007, learned to board in 2008 and I’ve hit the slopes just about every free winter weekend I’ve had since. I think it may be time for an upgrade next season.

• La Sportiva Rock Climbing Shoes: My new favorite summer time activity. I haven’t spent as much time on the ropes as I would have liked but these shoes assisted me with my first successful lead climb last summer. Hope to get more use out of them before I leave.

• Diving Boots: I’ve had these since my days in Okinawa. I think it’s a mandatory item for every islander. They now come in handy for rafting and kayaking.

I do have my combat boots and various casual shoes but I didn’t want to push it. So there you have it, Jen’s activity-specific shoe inventory. Does anyone have me beat?

Now that's what I call high quality H2O

My water bottle is undoubtedly my best friend! I’m not much of a soda drinker and I don’t drink as much juice as I probably should. My routine liquid intake usually consists of 1-2 cups of coffee, lots & lots of water and perhaps a glass of wine or a good beer every now and then. I used to be super picky about my aqua. No way was this gal going to drink water from a faucet. I used to purchase bottled water by the case and even had a bottle water dispenser delivered to my apartment when I was living in Florida. Well, at 6, 000+ ft, your water intake tends to be more than the average 8 glasses per day. It didn’t take me too long to realize after moving to Colorado, that I was paying more for bottled water than I was for gas. So, I decided it was time to give tap water another chance. Add a water filter and wah-la great taste, good for you, and much cheaper than the stuff in the plastic. In order to enjoy my new found adventures here in this glorious state, I must always have my water close by. I own a few durable water bottles & a couple Camelbacks, but my most favorite and most used, is my powder blue stainless steel water bottle that a good friend bought as a gift for me in Alaska and it appropriately says “Making the Moose out of Life!”

See Jen Run

As soon as I adjusted my clocks to fall back for daylight savings I entered lazy winter mode. The sun started to set at 5:00 p.m. and the weather started to turn cold… really cold… like below 0 cold. Well, these are not my ideal conditions for outdoor running. I’m not much of a treadmill fan, and I attempted a few laps around the 1/8 of mile indoor tack inside the gym but it just made me dizzy. The base gym offers spinning classes throughout the day and I even thought I’d give that a shot but apparently you have to know the secret handshake or something to get in. If you’re not there at least 30 minutes prior, forget it, you’re not getting a bike. Needless to say my winter did not include a routine aerobic workout. Although, I did visit the slopes a lot this winter, the results from snowboarding are not the same.

Jack Quinn’s is our local Irish Pub that holds a weekly 5k with a free t-shirt after your tenth run. I became a member late last summer but I didn’t quite make it to run number ten before the early evening darkness came. Now that we have sprung forward I’m back on track and should have my t-shirt (and my figure) in 2 more weeks. I have decided to treat myself with a new pair of Asics to start the season off right.

2011 Colorado Springs 5k/10k’s that I plan to participate in:

March 12, 2011 - 5K on St. Patrick’s Day [31:36]

March 26, 2011 - Running for Rachael [X]

April 9, 2011 – Tortoise & Hare [29:29]

April 16, 2011 - 5K Run/Walk for April Autism [28:22]

May 7, 2011 – Take 5 in the Garden [31:20]

May 14, 2011 - Armed Forces Community Run [X]

May 28, 2011 - Stop, Drop, & Run [X]

May 30, 2011 – Boulder to Boulder 10k [1:05:07]

June 18, 2011 – Sailin’ Shoes 5k

June 25, 2011 - Salvation Army Run for Hope

July 2, 2011 - Veterans Home Run

July 23, 2011 – Classic 10k

How puzzling all these changes are!

This past week has delivered some major transformations. The most notable change is my new car. As most of you know, my RAV4 was stolen during the holidays. Although it was recovered, I just didn’t feel the same about driving it. So, I went car shopping last week and brought home a 2010 Subaru Legacy. So far it is a great vehicle. With all wheel drive, heated seats, great gas mileage, and tinted windows, I am very happy with my choice so far.

I also started a new quarter at school, with Linear Algebra. I was certain that Calculus was going to be the most difficult of my 5 math requirements but it seems I’m quite mistaken. Positive note: Only one more math class after this one. Study time for the big promotion test has also begun as I will be testing for Master Sergeant in either February or March.

In efforts to save a few bills, I have decided to move out of my house and into an apartment. My house will be on the rental market next week. Along with that, I have turned off the cable and created a Netflix account. I’m not sure if that was a smart move or not. Yes, it saves money but I’ve never been a couch potato before. In fact, my television’s power was ever only turned on whenever I had company. Now I find myself addicted episodes of 30 Rock. I haven’t even had this network media device a week and I’m already in season 3. Yikes!

Another recent change in habit is putting together puzzles. I bought a puzzle at the Hobby Lobby a little over a year ago and it collected dust in the closet until just before Christmas. After school had finished and I didn’t have any homework or exams to study for, I pulled the box out spent the next few days putting it together. Once it was complete, I took a picture of it and immediately took it apart and put it back in the box. Not long after that I went to Hobby Lobby to look for a new challenge. This one is kicking my butt. I’ve been working on it for 2 weeks now. It’s funny to think about the cliché that life sometimes feels like a jigsaw puzzle. Sometimes pieces fall right into place and others just don’t make sense at all and you wonder if the piece was put in this box by mistake. But all are part of the “big picture” and can’t be complete without the easy and the difficult pieces. Seems appropriate at this time in my life.