“M”LS…and running

This morning I ran the half marathon I’ve been training for.

I was worried about rain but the weather was great!

A little humid in miles 1-3 but I settled in and we had a great day.

I have been sick all week so I was worried about how I would hold up but it was actually a great run!

sure, I’m sore now, but I also feel proud and strong and happy.

Plus, I got to spend time with my friend jill, who came up from springfield to run it, too.

And now we’re tailgating… in the rain… (Well, I’m in the car blogging on my phone while the boys stand out in the rain…) before the sporting kc game.

We sure do love soccer!

I love seeing him so passionate. It’s part of why I fell in love with him. It’s why I’ve liked soccer since I first saw him play…and first saw him run across the field to dive in a giant mud puddle after a rainy soccer game.

I think Hubs likes seeing me passionate, too.

That’s why his face lit up when I surprised him by making it to the finish line this morning about 10 minutes before he expected me to. And why he got so excited when I was smiling and waving at him.

It’s awesome to have someone to be passionate with. To have adventures with.

Well, I’m off to go have fun in the rain. Let’s go SKC!

Tonight we went out to dinner…and other thoughts…

When I got home from work tonight, I was hungry. And craving fried chicken. (I was craving it last night, too, but didn’t give in, so it carried over.) All of our chicken was frozen in the freezer. So I sweetly suggested we go out.

So we did.

And we went to “Restaurant A” and sat down and remembered their chicken wasn’t so hot. And they didn’t come greet us for almost five minutes (and they weren’t busy…) so we left and went to “Restaurant B.” We’d never been there before but didn’t go in there because we looked in the window and didn’t see what we were in the mood for from the car. We’ll try it another night. So we went to, and ate at, “Restaurant C.” What a perk of living in the city! All those places were within five minutes of our apartment.

Then we came home and Hubs helped me get the invites for my best friend’s bridal shower all trimmer, stuffed, and addressed so I can mail them tomorrow. Don’t worry, it wasn’t too much of a job for him, and he got to play some video games and watch TV for most of the time I was working on it. Still, I was super thankful for his help.

Also, our new neighbors have a huge pile of trash outside their door. It’s been there since last week. We don’t want to be bad neighbors, but we’d like to have the trash not there…when is it okay to call the office? Hmm….

And, I have a pretty big day tomorrow, work-wise. So be watching for an update there soon.

Oh, and we made about 100 meatballs together yesterday before the Super Bowl party we went to with friends. We don’t cook together all the time (a lot recently, but still not as often as we’d like)because it’s not that often we’re both free and home to work on meals. Plus, there’s not a ton of room in our kitchen for two people. But we managed to be good partners for the meatball adventure. And though he “forgot” to wash the dishes while I was at work that afternoon and he was at home on the couch, and while I went to work and had to listen to people say, “I smell sausage or something…” whenever they were standing next to me…it was a grand success.

And we have the leftovers to prove it.

Overall, the Super Bowl party was a fun way to top off our fun weekend. We had a visit from my friend Liz and her fiance, Matt. It was great to have a “double date” for dinner that night and we stayed up way too late on Friday playing games and talking. I’ve missed her, and everyone! Moving away from friends and family is the only negative I’ve found from marriage so far. And it’s a great excuse for fun visits like that, so I won’t really complain. I love our home here, and our new life together.

As a side note, thanks to a message from a friend, we spent the last part of our night on the couch eating a small bowl of ice cream and watching the Diners, Drive Ins, and Drives KC BBQ episode. Great way to end a night.

Five loads of laundry later…I had plenty of time to think about this…

I didn’t have to work today which was a huge blessing because I really needed to get motivated to get back into the swing of housework. Hubs and I had a great little staycation and restful couple of days over the long weekend and our apartment certainly showed evidence of the lazy nights we had spent at home enjoying the coziness of our couch instead of folding and hanging up clean clothes or sorting the mountain of mail on our coffee table.

Oops.

But as important as it is to me to have our little apartment neat and clean, it’s more important to me to enjoy the time at home with my Hubs. I just had no idea how much I had gotten used to my time at home during the day during the months I wasn’t working!

Don’t get me wrong, I was bored at times and I got tired of sitting on our couch feeling worthless because no one would hire me. (Yes, I admit I had a few pity-party-like moments…) But, the truth of the matter is that I was able to really work on making and keeping our apartment like I wanted it to be.

I have a theory that I’m not very productive around the house at night because Wyatt and I dated long distance so long. When we hung out at either of our houses or apartments at night, we absolutely were not going to waste time doing anything but soaking up every minute we had together.  (We were so cute, right?)

I think that’s why I have trouble working around the house once Hubs gets home at night, (or now that I’m working, when I get home and he’s already there…). I also sometimes get annoyed when he plays video games or all we do is sit around and watch TV. We dated so long and saw each other only one or two nights a week, sometimes less than that, for several years, and we learned to do a good job of really focusing on each other in the time we had together. Now that we’re together so much more, it’s easier for Wyatt to relax and just chill out, not necessarily doing “date-like” activities.

And that’s fine.

Really it is.

Sometimes.

We don’t have to have a date-like activity to do every night. (However, continuing to date each other is a key aspect in marriage, I believe, and one to not overlook, no matter how busy life may get!) And yes, “QT” will always be something that’s important to me, and us. I’m just learning to see it a bit differently.

I need to learn to appreciate the time we have together doing everyday things like folding laundry and washing dishes and watching American Guns on TV as much as I appreciate the time we have to do other, more date-like things. I can’t always just focus on why we don’t have “QT” (Quality time) as much as we used to.

The fact of the matter is that we DO have as much QT. More even! We have QT every day when we greet each other after work, every night when we’re holding each other tightly before bed, every morning when we’re struggling to open our eyes and get out of bed, every time I lay my head on his shoulder and close my eyes because I’m a bit bored by whatever show we happen to be watching on TV.

I sometimes just have a hard time seeing these moments as quality time when I’m too busy pouting because we aren’t playing a game or going out to a really nice dinner or having a long heart-to-heart conversation or sitting silently staring into each others’ eyes for hours on end…

..Okay, I don’t really want us to do that last thing…I got a bit carried away there.

But you know what I’m trying to say, right?

I just need to do a better job of seeing things his way…in this instance. At least sometimes. Wyatt is so wise, isn’t he?

What about you? Is this something you understand and can relate to? How can I work to overcome the disconnect I sometimes feel when my idea of QT isn’t the same as Hubs’s?