The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

We are moving to Colstrip by the end of the month. 

 It's still a little bit weird and surreal. 

Honestly, this new job of Michael's comes with a measure of sadness.  I feel like if I don't acknowledge the sadness it will eat me.  And frankly, I don't want to be eaten. 

So, here's why I'm just a little sad:

1. We just moved in to our house and now I'm supposed to pack it up and leave.  This is our first home, and I love it.  It's nothing special, but it's mine.  And the last 6 months of living here have been awesome.  Not to mention we fixed things up so that someone else can move in and enjoy. Boo.

2.  I'm scared of changing everything again.  Scared of how my kiddos are going to adjust to the new place/people/life.  Scared of trying to make new friends.  I'm not great at it.

3.  We are just becoming comfortable in Billings.  Ya know the point where you know your neighbors?  And you can take the back roads without getting lost?  And your ward actually starts feeling comfortable?  Well, we just got there- and now we're leaving.

But, with the bad there is an overwhelming amount which both Mike and I are grateful for. 

Count your blessings, right?

 Here's the good stuff:

1.  We have a job!  A GOOD job at that.  And holy bad economy batman, are we ever grateful that 2 days after getting the news of being let go, MSV got another (better) offer.

2.  We are able to rent our house and we found really great renters.  They are people we know who are honest and won't have any crazy parties in our basement or anything.  And the best part is, they are EXCITED about our house.  I am grateful that it will be loved, as nuts as that sounds. 

3.  Colstrip seems to be a really nice community.  They have 3 power plants and one coal mine, all of which pay extremely high property taxes.  This is GREAT for the citizens! They offer a free rec center for anyone who lives in the town, plus really well funded schools.

4. Speaking of schools.... I am getting my educator licensure in MT and will hopefully be able to get a teaching job there.  I'm still not sure about daycares or whatever for my kids, but we'll see.  I'm excited to have the opportunity to use my degree and get some experience in a place where they hire 1st year teachers. 

5.  We will have the opportunity to pay off debt.  There's not much (read: absolutely not a bit of) shopping, so no "retail therapy" for me.  Unless I road-trip it to Billings......

6.  God is mindful of us and our needs.  And of your needs too.  And He helped Mike and I to know that a little better than we did before.

The good most definitely outweighs the bad, as in most situations if we look carefully enough.  Thanks for letting me put my feelings out on the internet :) 

You know my life is an open book.

August Miscellanious

We're already a week in to September? Huh?

August was just full of randomness for the Vincent household. 1 simple layoff and 1 simple job offer can throw a wrench in to the best laid plans :) More about that later. Anyway, here's all the random stuff we've been up to:

I re-apholstered this little chair for CJ. 

Nolan has developed an obsession with shoes.  He has to have them on at all times or (as you can see) he throws a fit.  He even wants Mike and I to wear shoes.  All. the. time.  

We went to Cabela's a while ago (Papa Lay's favorite store) and I thought this pic was cute. 

This little birds nest fell out of our tree in our front yard.  It's in Cecily's hands in this picture. It was really cute until all the birds started crapping on my car. 

This is my favorite cell phone pic of the summer.  Me and my kiddos enjoying the back yard.

Then there was the day we went to the Montana Zoo.

Nolan saw a Clydesdale horse.

Then he got to feed some goats.

Then he jumped in to this pond. Not kidding.

AAAAnd, then he resembled swamp thing.  This picture was taken after we had cleaned most of the algae-seaweed stuff off of him and off of my jeans, since I was the one who jumped in after him.

It didn't spoil the day, though, and Cecily got to ride a giraffe.

 And Nolan rode an elephant.

 And Cecily and Lily hopped on the back of a zebra.

And then after the farm animals and plastic animals were done, we saw some siberian tigers.  Yes, Montana is just full of clydesdale horses, wolves, bald eagles, and siberian tigers.  What the???

It was fun to see them, though!

Not a Natural Runner

So, my older brother Russ was a runner in high-school.  He is 4 years ahead of me in school, so we weren't in high-school together, but nonetheless and I ADORED and looked up to him. He ran Cross Country, therefore, when I got to high-school I ran Cross Country.  Honestly, I didn't particularly like running, but if Russ did it then it must be cool.    My running career lasted one season, cut short by shin splints.  In summary: I sucked at it.  Plus, I lacked the discipline and motivation (and shins) to keep at it.  My dad used to say "You're not really a natural runner, honey."  He didn't mean it in a derogatory way, just that my gate and stride were not naturally built for running.  I was ok with it, and went on my merry, cheerleading way.   

I've run on and off since then to keep in shape and because I don't really mind it as a quick way to get some cardio in.  A few months ago I signed Mike and I up for a half marathon at the end of October.  We are both out of shape and in need of a goal with an end date.  We ran a 5K as part of our training on the 6th of August and I got exactly one picture:

See the yellow tag on my shoe?  It's my timer from the race.  I know, the pic sucks.  I don't know what I was thinking not bringing my camera.

I finished with a time of 33:34, which was better than I expected.  My goal was under 35 minutes, so I felt I did well. 

August since then has been........(how shall I put this)...... stressful. 

I haven't been keeping up with my running like I should, and I've been allowing my body to get chubby and out of shape again. 

So, for any of you that are runners... Can you help me?

I have 7 weeks to whip my buns back in to shape and I'm wondering if you think I'll die? Maybe?

I don't feel like it's enough time. 

The longest I've run yet (this go-around) is 4 miles. 

I know, it's not exactly 13.1

I'm not giving up, but I wondered if anybody has any speedy training tips for me.

Also, the last few times I've run I seem to get a pain under my ribs that feels like muscle is pulling away from bone.  It's different than just "side aches."  I've WebMD'd it and came up with nothin'.

Am I dying?

Kidding.  I won't die. 

But if any of you know what it is, let me know.

If not, sorry I made you read this long, uninteresting post :) 

Hugs!