Eight Years

Eight years ago today, Billy and I started dating (officially).  I feel like, on one hand, it was just yesterday, and on the other I feel like we've been together a lifetime.  Funny how that works, right?

The past eight years have been a whirlwind....the time has seriously flown by.  Back in 2004 (so long ago haha) we were in our junior year of high school, and now we're married and have two kids.  We've experienced so many life changes together, which is truly a blessing (although it gets a little overwhelming when I think about it too much).  We graduated high school, went off to college, got married, went through multiple family dramas, job loss, had two "unplanned" pregnancies, one traumatic birth and hospitalization, moved to a new city...all of those experiences we did together.  We've made dreams together, and seen some of those come to fruition while others have been set aside for something else.

We've also changed a lot.  When we started dating, Billy was what I would describe as a goofy-class clown type.  He was always cracking jokes, making people laugh, and was very extroverted and self-confident.  He could make friends with anyone, and was also pretty involved in high school sports.  Me, on the other hand...definitely a shy, introverted nerd.  I had VERY few friends outside of my classes, and even those were mostly through church youth group.  I rarely talked to people I didn't know and never did anything spontaneous, and I was very self-conscious of everything I did.  Basically, back then we were opposites.  I'm still kind of surprised that we ended up together.  Anyway, I would say our personalities have really blended now.  Billy is more reserved than he used to be, and I'm more outgoing.  I have become less nerdy (especially since I'm not in school anymore!) and Billy is the studious one now.  I would also say that Billy has helped me overcome some of my shy tendencies.  Because of his encouragement, I am now more outspoken and less of a people pleaser (although I still really struggle with that).  He has helped me become more assertive and confident, when before I was VERY passive and lacked self confidence.  Obviously a lot of prayer went into those things, too, but Billy really helped motivate me to work past those issues and I think I'm a better person for it.

I am so grateful that eight years ago I had a momentary burst of spontaneity and showed Billy that I was interested in him.  I had just gotten out of another relationship, and one Saturday night I just decided to go to the movie theater...by myself.  Who does that?  I probably seemed kinda lame going alone, but I had an ulterior motive, because Billy just happened to work at the movie theater.  So I went, on the off chance that he was working (which he was!) and got in his line at the concession stand (even though I didn't need to buy any food, since I snuck in some juice and cookies from my Nana's house haha).  Anyway, I talked to him for a few minutes (which was out of character for me anyway, since I was so shy) and went on to my movie.  After the movie was over, I saw Billy as I was leaving and hollered bye to him and walked out.  Billy says that he knew I was interested in him because I made the effort to say goodbye to him on my way out.  How random is that?  And a couple weeks after that (and after we had our first couple of dates) we decided to be together.  And the rest is history...

My BHAG

So I finally have a BHAG (Big Hairy Audacious Goal).  For years it was always to finish college and get a teaching job, and then we were blessed with Ellie and my future plans kinda changed.  The past two years as a mom have been wonderful and challenging, stretching me outside of my comfort zone and making me grow.  However, the whole time I've been a mom, I've put goal-setting aside.  As a student, I was always very product-driven, motivated by getting good grades and being a good student/teacher.  But there's really no grade system for motherhood, or homemaking for that matter.  So I've kind of become an unmotivated, passive person in the past two years.  Sounds depressing, right?  

Billy has asked me on and off for the past couple of years what my goals are and I never have an answer.  Obviously I want to be a good wife and mom and do well with what God has given me for this season of my life.  But specific goals?  I can never come up with anything.  

This past weekend we went to Busch Gardens and had a day of fun for just the two of us.  It was so good to get away for a day and be "Billy and Kristen."  Sometimes I get so caught up in being "Mommy" and being an adult that I forget about just being me, the girl my husband fell in love with at 16.  Anyway, while we were in line for one of the Haunted Houses for Howl-O-Scream, I saw a guy with a Tough Mudder t-shirt on and just offhandedly asked Billy if he would ever do one.  Then we got to talking about it and thought it would be so cool to complete a Tough Mudder race.  We decided it would be really cool to do that as a couple someday, but that it would take a lot of hard work and training from both of us to be ready.

On Sunday, Billy started looking into the Tough Mudder events for next year and they just happen to have one in Denver the weekend of our anniversary.  So one of the places we really would love to visit on our anniversary?  It sort of feels like it's meant to happen. =)

We haven't signed up for it yet since that would be a huge commitment for us to make without ever having run a race of any kind before.  So we signed up for A Hero's Run, which is a local 5K mudder race on November 3rd.  Definitely not as hard core as the Tough Mudder, but still a huge challenge for us and a good way to gauge whether it's realistic for us to do a Tough Mudder in the future.

So...neither have us have ever run a race.  I don't even like running all that much.  And neither of us is ready for a race of any kind today.  But we decided to just go for it.  So that's my BHAG.  I'm going to run a 5K mud race one month from tomorrow.  

I'm excited about it, but also kinda wondering if I'm crazy for committing to it when I have no experience and I doubt I can even run a mile without stopping...yep, after admitting that I think I'm definitely crazy.

However, I'm trying to look at it this way....I'm not in it to win it, I'm in it to finish.  I don't care at all about my time or who I beat, I'm really just interested in seeing myself finish a race, especially a race with obstacles and other challenges, which is something I NEVER planned on doing in my life.  So I'm committing to training and working out at least 5 days a week to get ready for it.  I don't really have a specific plan at this point except that I obviously need to start doing some running and I really need to work on my upper body strength.  I can definitely do the 30 Day Shred DVD here at home which will help with my strength, but the running thing might be a bit more challenging.  I don't have a jogging stroller or a gym membership, so I don't foresee myself being able to run with the girls during the day, so that kind of limits me to early mornings or evenings when Billy gets home.  But I will make it work, somehow, because I'm actually really excited about doing this and it's high-time for me to have a huge goal and actually accomplish it.

So that's where I am right now...I would love some suggestions from people who are more fit than me, haha.  Or maybe some encouragement that I can do this?  =)