Help me decide!

K and I are running the a 10-miler on April 10. We're planning to run a 14k (which is just under 9 miles) on Feb. 13.

My problem is what lies in the middle. There's a St. Patty's Day run, and we're there. I have a choice between a half-marathon, which I've done before (and blogged about it here and here and here), and a full marathon.

I had planned to run a full marathon last April, but it turned out to be a pretty hectic year, so I couldn't do it. I had planned on training for 3 months. If I start training immediately for this full marathon, I'll get in 2.5 months. Considering that the 3 months is supposed to work even for beginner runners, I could be fine in 2.5 months.

I have to register by midnight on the 31st to avoid a higher registration fee.

So it's time for a vote: Should I do the half-marathon, or the full?

The father-in-law

K's dad is a special guy. They don't make many like him anymore. He's not Italian (it's K's mom's side that's Italian), but K commented this week that his dad is probably more Italian than his mom was. He loves to talk to you like he's got some kind of contraband that he wants to share with you: "Hey, come here a sec." He motions with his head, then says quietly, "Do you like corn? They had it down at the market for 30 cents a pound. I bought a ton. You want some?"

Don't forget that my FIL is actually a year older than my grandparents. Either K's selective hearing is genetic (quite possible), my FIL is a terrible listener, or he just plain can't hear a word we're saying (maybe it's a combo of all three), but many times when I'm in the middle of a sentence, he'll interrupt me with that old man version of, "Huh?" which somehow winds up sounding more like, "Haaah?"

The man gets up every day at 4:30. What he does in that time is beyond me. But that early rise causes him to want to eat dinner at 5:00 every night. And he also wants to cook for us. We convince him to wait until 5:30, but I always wind up hungry again at 8:00.

He buys things in bulk, and he likes to label things with a special lettering code so he knows when he bought things. Why it's important that he's the only one who knows that he started using that country-sized roll of foil back in 2003, I don't know. He buys five jars of peanut butter at a time. He buys two of everything else as well. When he opens something at home, he buys a new one so there's a replacement ready and waiting for when the open container is used up in 3 months. (I, too, hate running out of things, but I just buy another when there's about a third left. That seems to work for me.)

As much as my FIL likes to buy things in bulk, he really doesn't like replacing things before he has to. So the shower curtain liner, while completely intact, is a bit moldy at the bottom. And the "fitted" sheet on the bed in K's room (where we've slept this past week) is probably older than me, so the elastic was probably shot at least 10 years ago. Now, it's just nonexistent. Every morning -- and even sometimes in the night -- we wind up having to fix the sheet so it covers the mattress again.

What's funny is that K's dad has gotten into trying to pare down some of the things in the house. And he needs to. He could have the garage sale of the century! He's got sleds (yes, that's plural), a humidifier, a microwave, a refrigerator, ski gear, books, books, an encyclopedia set (I didn't even know people had those anymore!), and many jars of peanut butter. He's got an entire enclosed porch full of who knows what. What I do know is there is a small path in the items that allows you to get to the back door; otherwise, it would be a complete war zone (which my FIL would probably be able to survive thanks to everything inside the room).

My FIL's method of getting rid of the excess items is by adding to everyone else's clutter. At random times of the day, he'll ask us, "Hey, do you guys need dishes? How 'bout pots and pans? I got a leaf blower. Ya need a leaf blower? Haaah?"

From Christmas Day to Groundhog Day

I really believe what I said in my last post about Christmas Day -- that, when it comes down to it, Christmas is just a day on the calendar that can be celebrated any day your family chooses.

My first Christmas away from home didn't feel like Christmas at all. For starters, the food: K's Italian family eats ravioli each Christmas. My family has switched up our main course a few times over the years -- from turkey before my dad bought his store, to brisket, and even an entire luau pig before we settled on prime rib each year -- but we always have the same staples: a small ham, some kind of fruit salad, mashed potatoes, and most important, deviled eggs. We've never had ravioli. And instead of pecan pie and my grandma's fudge and legendary peach cobbler for dessert, there was some kind of white cookie that tasted like licorice (ew) and a pepper cookie (pepper? in a cookie??!).

I realized that we had all the same people there for Christmas as we did for the ravioli day three weeks ago. The only additions were K's brother, who'd been hunting the ravioli weekend, and K's 13-year-old nephew, who wasn't there since his dad didn't come.

Christmas Day in K's family wraps up around 6 or 6:30. (Everyone was actually trying to leave even before that, but we had to take take the annual family picture.) My family Christmas lasts until 10 or so. We spend the whole day together!

The thing I liked about K's family's Christmas is that everyone puts money into a bucket, and each person writes down a charity of his or her choice on a piece of paper. We draw two slips from a hat, and the money is split between the two charities as a donation from the family, rather than us buying presents for each other. Very cool.

At about 7:30 Christmas night, instead of devouring leftovers from our yummy feast, I fixed myself a sandwich for dinner. Then, K and I headed over to his friend's house for the rest of the night. Definitely not my normal Christmas.

We slept in on the 26th until about 10:30. I hate sleeping in that much. Yesterday, we ran some errands during the day, then met up with K's friends at a bar around 8:30. We were out until about 1:30, when I got to play DD and drive us home. It's 11:30, and K is still sleeping. I slept on the couch because drunk K is even more stubborn than sober K, so he refused to not take up the entire bed and get in the covers.

I'm guessing tonight will offer the same. That's all there is to do here. Even K was bummed about it yesterday, talking about how depressing this place can be. (Side note: He actually said he might feel better if there was snow on the ground. Yet, when I checked the forecast 10 days before Christmas and it showed there was a chance of snow, K had no reaction. He said he's used to white Christmases, so he didn't care. Yet when he doesn't get one, he gets all moody.)

Ugh. I reeeeeally want to be in Oklahoma right now.

Merry Christmas!

Go figure: I've spent every Christmas of my life until this year in Oklahoma. I've never seen a white Christmas.

This year, I'm in Pennsylvania with K and his family. There's snow on the ground, but it's all left over from last weekend.

And Oklahoma gets a ridiculous blizzard. My hometown got 10 inches of snow.

My family actually had to postpone Christmas until Sunday, since the weather was so bad. All the highways in OK were actually shut down yesterday evening, so my uncle was stuck in Kansas, and my aunt & uncle & cousins couldn't make the hour-and-a-half drive to my hometown to be with my dad, brother & grandparents.

I think it might make it a little easier on me that my family Christmas isn't taking place today. So while I'm spending time with my new family, I won't be missing out on my family's Christmas (well, I will, but it just won't happen today).

It also proves that Christmas really is just another day on the calendar. True, it's a very important date as far as religion goes, but what most of us look forward to most is celebrating the joy of the season with our families. When I go to Oklahoma in January, most of my family who will gather this Sunday will be able to join me then. There won't be a Christmas tree, prime rib (which became our preferred Christmas meal after my dad, mom, brother, grandparents & I couldn't take the thought of looking at another turkey or ham after all the ones we saw at my dad's store), or Christmas movies on TV, but the part that counts most -- my family members -- will be.

So today, I'll be counting my blessings. My family members are healthy and happy. My friends are well. My husband is home.

And although it may not be fresh snow, I've technically got myself my first white Christmas!

A less fun first

Although K and I have been together for 4 Christmases, we've never spent Christmas Day together. K was in Pennsylvania for the first two and Iraq for the last two. Naturally, since it's been a while, K will be spending Christmas with his family ... and so will I.

This will be my first Christmas away from my family. I've known it would be this way for several months, but it's really started hitting me lately. I've felt myself becoming more and more anxious, and I'm dreading leaving for PA.

Today is my last day of work (yay, I'm done here!). When I get off, I have to rush home to finish packing, and we'll head north. It'll be a long drive, surely full of lots of traffic, and I'm not looking forward to any of it.

As I started thinking about all of it this morning -- particularly about being away from my family for the holiday -- I actually started crying. At work.

I didn't realize it would hit me like this. I've already warned K and asked him to be patient with me. With PMS, my first Christmas away from home, and spending several days with K's dad (which always leaves both K and me ready to rip our hair out) all coming at the same time, it could be an emotional week for me.

I just have to keep remembering the important things: I'm blessed. I'm with K. It's Christmastime.

And I will get to see my family in two weeks.

One man's tacky is another man's awesome

On our way back from the Army-Navy game, K and I stopped off to see a few light shows that are so huge we learned about them on national TV. We were excited to learn these Griswold-on-steroids houses were in Richmond, just over an hour away, and completely on our way back home from the game!

There's a website devoted to these extravagant Christmas displays, and there are tours that take you around to the biggest of the big. When we were on the main road outside the neighborhood of two homes on the tour that are actually side by side, we could easily see the glow that awaited us. And when we turned onto the street, we had to park and walk half a block for all the traffic. There were even limos and buses!

Once we got to the houses, we could understand why!

These homes are owned by a mother and her son. On the website, their display is in the lead for "Most Likely to Be Seen From Space."

There were fun, silly signs, and several varieties of scenes in the displays.

There was even a dog peeing on a snowman!

A modernized pinwheel of lights ...

And even some patriotic displays.

There was even something for those who prefer a much more modest display of festivity!

From the looks of the crowds of people seeing the houses, the line of traffic just to get into the neighborhood, and even the group of carolers who randomly showed up to serenade the home owners while we were there, I think the "bah-humbug"gers are few and far between!

Why, yes, I'm biased, but at least I was rooting for the classy side

Two weekends ago, K and I went to the Army-Navy game with friends. Two of K's close friends are Army grads, and one of them even played football while he was there. We made plans to go to the game together back in August, so we'd been looking forward to it for a long time!

Evidently so had the city of Philadelphia (where the game was held).

The game is one of the biggest rivalries in college football -- and some would even say it's the biggest rivalry. There are so many neat traditions involved in the game, so it was really cool to see them ...

... like how (similar to OU-texas) the fans are divided at the end zones, with one team on the left and the other on the right ...

... and watching the Cadets march onto the field. First Army ...

... and then Navy.

The West Point Cadets were very intimidating in how structured and serious they were. They chanted and sang in unison once they were all on the field.

Navy, on the other hand, was much more relaxed. They found ways to get little jabs into their portions of the ceremony. (As you can see, the Cadets on the front row had letters that spelled "BEAT ARMY" as they faced us. When they did an about face, the letters on their backs read "GO NAVY.")

The photo below was taken just before the game started. Navy had won the game the last 7 years in a row, so they were eager to rub in the past and their prediction for the day's result. As you can imagine, it got quite a cheer when they turned their backs to Navy's side. The second photo below shows the West Point Cadets staying classy, with nothing on their backs.

Instead of marching onto the field the way they marched off, the Naval Academy Cadets broke rank and ran.

Evidently another big tradition with this game is the game balls. There are two -- one from each school. Every year, the marathon team from both schools runs the ball from the school to the football field. It takes several days, and each member of the team completes a part of the run. Unfortunately, I didn't know about this tradition until game day, so we missed the running of the ball. The marathon team members were brought onto the field, though. I couldn't believe they had them run onto and off of the field. I'd be sick of running by that point!

One of the final big events (probably the biggest) before the game was having the Golden Knights land on the field. Very cool!

There was a flyover, of course.

Then, it was finally time for the game.

And unfortunately, we saw a lot of this.

West Point was leading 3-0 at the half. It was along first half, so we definitely didn't feel relieved, but it was nice to have the lead.

Halftime was a little different than what I was used to seeing. Navy's band was just a little bit smaller than the band I was in at OU (I'm pretty sure our clarinet section alone wasn't much smaller than this). What's funny is their band performed "Batman," which we did when I was in band at OU!

I couldn't believe it in the 4th quarter when the West Point male cheerleaders started benching the girl cheerleaders. Evidently that (like pretty much everything in this game) is tradition, too. Impressive!

Unfortunately, this silly mascot fight was the closest Army came to winning (well, aside from the coin toss).

When the game was over, Navy's bold pregame prediction proved true. A final tradition of the game involves each team standing behind the other as a sign of respect as both school's song is sung at the conclusion of the game. First, the winning team waits for the other to sing in front of their Cadets. Then, they all go to the other side of the field to sing to their Cadets. It was a display of sportsmanship that was really neat to see.

This may not have been the most interesting game I've been to sports-wise, but it was definitely one of the most memorable.

Feelin' that holiday frenzy

I have been a busy girl lately! It's finally my last week of work, and it couldn't come at a better time. Things have been sooooo slow. It's been maddening. I spend my days surfing the web for news stories, trying to find something to make the day go faster. I wind up spending more time on facebook than I care to, since I manage to work my way through the day's headlines pretty quickly. By the time I get home, I want nothing to do with the computer.

Anyway, I meant to do this a couple weeks ago, but I wanted to share our fun Christmas cards. We made two versions. It started out as a joke: Once we had selected our cards and chosen our photo to go on them, I asked K what he wanted them to say. He blurted out something silly, so I put it on the card to call him on his saracasm.















We thought it was so funny that we went ahead and ordered it! We got the minimum amount (12) and sent them to friends we knew wouldn't be offended or worried about having to hide it instead of putting it out with their other Christmas cards.

Everyone else got the standard well-wishing card.

We were very, very careful to make sure we sent the goofy card to the right people. I told K we'd never do the dual-card thing again, since I was worried we'd mess up.

The comments we got in response to the silly card, though, were pretty good. Maybe we will make it an annual thing!

You did NOT see this post

This has been a hectic week! K and I went to PA last weekend, and we chose this week to begin 5:30 a.m. workouts. It's been nice to have the evenings free to do nothing (without feeling like a bum for it), but it's also meant I've been a little more tired and haven't been on the computer so much. This too shall pass. :)

So we were in PA last weekend for a nice family tradition of K's. It was actually his first time to participate and mine.

K's grandmother came over from Italy as a teenager. She died when K was stationed in Korea in 2000 or 2001, so a few years before I came along. I've heard lots of stories about her, though, and most of them have been about how amazing of a cook she was. She did it all with her hands; she used no measuring cups or measuring spoons. Her food was authentic Italian, and its legend lives on in the family.

K's mom continued making her mother's recipes. The one she stuck with most was her mother's ravioli. When K's mom passed away in 2006, her sister and her husband (K's aunt & uncle) carried on the recipe. It was just the two of them the first year, but the next year, K's other aunt & uncle joined, along with K's dad. It's grown each year since. And so has the amount of ravioli they've made.

This was the first year K wasn't deployed during the ravioli fest, so we were excited to join in on the fun.

We made 1,124 individual raviolis.

The pictures I'm sharing now were met with quite a bit of protest from K's uncle. Since this is a family recipe, we have to make sure the secrets aren't compromised. I assured him that these photos wouldn't give away what goes into the composition of the ingredients. Only the assembly is shown here.

The most sauce I've ever seen at one time, and the biggest bowls and pots I've ever seen. They don't mess around!

Getting set up. We had two tables, with 4 people working at each. The other 2 people were cranking out dough as we turned it into ravioli.

Let the assembly begin!

The finished product! (Well, almost. We still had to cook it.) :)

We enjoyed homemade red wine while we made the ravioli. After a couple of glasses, I was feeling a bit tired and laid down. I wound up taking a quick nap, which meant I got teased quite a bit for falling down on the job. I assured the family that I was just using my time wisely while we were waiting on more dough. I told them I'd put so much energy and passion into the ravioli I'd made that I needed to rest to continue. Hopefully I didn't manage to get myself removed from future invitations!

After we had used up all the filling, we took a nice break to enjoy the snowfall that had started while we cooked. Piper had a blast playing in it with K's aunt & uncle's labradoodle!

Most of the ravioli went into bags and then to the freezer. After it froze, we divided up the bags among those of us who had made it so we can enjoy it throughout the year. (We already cooked some this week!)

But before we all left, of course we had to enjoy the fruits, er, pasta of our labor. Delicious!