Day # 1

So even though this is the second day of separation, it only counts as Day 1. You see, the Army does this silly thing where they count the first day as Day 0. It makes sense. If you think about it, Day 1 doesn't start until 24 hours later. Makes sense. I'm sure more organizations other than the Army do this, but for all intensive purposes, we'll just say that this is the Army's silly thing.

So today started off pretty wonderfully. Mr. Bear left around 5:30am for the unit. I woke up a few hours later for class with this on my finger:

new wedding band!

whole set

                                                                                                                                                                     
It's a brand new, platinum channeled diamond wedding band! I love it! But what I loved almost more than the ring itself was where it came from. When I called Mr. Bear and asked him where he got it (I was too excited to ask how he managed to slip it on my finger without me noticing this morning), he told me to look on the couch. And there it was. The blue box...

Screw Jared. He went to Tiffany's!

I've never owned anything from Tiffany's. I've always said that all I want is one thing from there. Well, this is a pretty nice "one thing" to have. Good job, Mr. Bear!

After admiring my new addition to my left hand, I decided to buck up and start my exercise routine. So my work out went as follows:

Workout Type: Run

Distance: 1.07 mi

Duration: 12:28

Average Pace: 11:45 min/mi

Calories Burned: 101

Now, mind you, I haven't run in over a year. I have a back injury so I'm trying to take it slow...oh who am I kidding, it just sucks. But, you know what? I have to start somewhere. I use iMapMyFitness on my computer to plan my route and then use the application on my phone (I refuse to call it an "app") to map my progress on my actual run so I get the most accurate data...even though the very accurate data is very unforgiving. I'm kind of embarrassed that it took me that long to run that, but I'll get over it. 

I finished my run with a big bottle of water, some stretching, and a bowl of homemade Chicken and vegetable soup. To drink I had an Ocean Spray Sparkling Cranberry Juice. I gave up soda months ago, so this is a nice alternative. It has the fizz of soda, without the bad stuff (I think?). It has sparkling water, vitamins, and no added sugar and only 90 calories!

Delicious and Nutritious

I hope by the end of this week I can post my "before" pictures. Mr. Bear won't be here to take them, but that's what self time is for, right?

Buenas Noches,

Ms. Bear

Day # 0

400 days starts now.

My husband, hereafter referred to as "Mr. Bear" (which makes me Ms. Bear!), started his orders today. Thankfully he doesn't leave for training until Thursday. So he gets to come back tonight! I'm glad to have him a few more days...but I hate prolonging goodbyes. We're both terrible at it. I also just hate this waiting game. I'd almost rather have him gone so I can start the countdown of when he comes back. I hate waiting for him to leave.

We tried to live it up as much as possible and be spontaneous leading up to this. One Friday we realized neither of us had ever stepped in the Pacific ocean. The next day we were on a flight to California.

Tuesday, 17 January 2012
Santa Monica Beach, California

So we fixed that pretty quickly.

We had a blast being spontaneous and slightly reckless. It wasn't all because of the Pacific Ocean...we pulled a pretty wicked surprise over on our best friend who we'll call Mr. Ranger. He was stationed in Korea and home on leave. Mr. Bear and I surprised him at his house! So awesome. It was the perfect way to send Mr. Bear off to the Middle East. I'll have that memory forever.

Now, back to present day...I unfortunately have to delay my exercising a few more days. I hadn't realized how much we had left to do before Mr. Bear left. On a positive note, I've only drank water today! I don't know why this is so big for me or why I'm even mentioning it, considering I'm not limiting myself to just water for 400 days...but I felt it was a healthy thing worth mentioning. I also have gotten rid of all of my bad snacks. I didn't really have any to begin with so that's good. That means when I'm sad and alone, I can eat a ton and not feel TOO bad about it.

Anyways, I have tons to do today, and we have dinner reservations tonight at the Melting Pot. We've gone there before for cheese and chocolate fondue, but never the whole shebang. I'm really looking forward to the meat plate.

I know he's going to be so tired when he gets home after starting his day at 5am. I wish we could stay up the whole night and talk...but he has to get up at 5am to leave for work. That's definitely one of the things I'm going to miss the most.

Off to take Mr. Bisbee out. I've been delaying it because the next door neighbor's ballerina dogs are out. The ballerina dogs are a story for another day.

Ciao my loves,

Ms. Bear