i run for.. wedding registries!

94 days and counting until Luke and I's wedding. It's coming so fast! I remember when he left for Japan back in August and I felt that this time apart would never end. I was apprehensive how we were going to make such a long distance relationship work with so many odds against us. It was our first year out of college, my dad was really sick, I was beginning a new job, he was living away from Indiana for the first time, and I was going to have to plan the wedding by myself.

I remember the last day that Luke spent time with my family before he left. There was an eerie feeling that although it wasn't certain, we figured that it might be the last time that he would ever see my dad. Aside from some Skype hospital visits, we were right. These past 9 months without Luke have been difficult and I can't say that either of us has always dealt with it gracefully. Between working full time, planning a wedding, traveling to and from Japan, dealing with the logistics of having a long distance relationship, and experiencing the death of my dad (especially with Luke gone), I've been stretched.

But 9 months later I've found myself wondering where all the time went. Wow, I can't believe we've almost made it through! Luke comes home 2 weeks from today! (1 week if they don't do well in the playoffs!) It seems so surreal that he will actually be in the United States. What will it be like to actually have him around? I joke to my friends that there will probably be days that I will want him to go to Japan because we've seen each other too much!

Even though he comes home shortly, my bridal showers are coming up quickly so I had to register for our wedding without him. I was so grateful to have one of my Matron of Honors, Kristin, go along with me to tell me everything I needed. She got married almost 4 years ago so she was great at telling me what I needed and what I could skip over.

8 hours, 3 stores and over 700 items later WE ARE REGISTERED! Both Luke and I are starting from scratch so we need EVERYTHING and we registered for it! It was so fun to think about what life would be like once we were married and pick out the things that we would be using in our "new life."

Speaking of "new life," week 2 of 5k training has started out rough. The rain and cold do a number on running outside with asthma. Thankfully Luke (a.k.a. my running sponsor as he likes to call it) has offered to pay for a gym membership for me so that I can get a break from extreme weather when I need it. Running on a treadmill is much different than running outside, but it's better than not running at all.

With all the this running, I'm still searching for the right cancer organization to be running for. I have a couple that I've been looking at but I'm definitely open to suggestions if anyone knows of any. The couple that I've looked at have an option of creating a "team." I like the concept of creating a team to work together, not necessarily for everyone to raise money but more importantly to bond together in an awareness and partnership of finding more treatments and cures for cancer. I want to be able to make a decision in the next couple weeks and I'll keep the blog updated on which organization is chosen. Until then, all suggestions are accepted and appreciated.



PS- Thanks for joining me on my journey- I've received some great encouragement through this process and I've loved to hear the stories about cancer that I've received. As the weeks progress I hope to continue to be so encouraged as the workouts get tougher and the cancer awareness begins. Your encouragement is what has kept my motivation up! Thanks for reading- you ROCK!