Encouragement

Those who know me know that I go through some serious ups and downs.

Over the years I have had some amazing friends who have helped me through the lows by encouraging me. Rox, Lara, Lauren, Bucket, and Constance to name a few (but most definitely not all).

I have been in a low for about two weeks.

My sweet hubby doesn't understand how I could have a low.

He thinks I'm amazing.

He sees everything I refuse to see.

I've signed up for two marathons. The Houston and The Woodlands.

These will be my first ever full marathons.

Since I've been in a low it's been really hard for me to motivate myself to run.

I tell myself "You won't finish anyways and it's only 4 miles" or something similar.

Today was a particularly bad day.

To help encourage me my amazing hubby surprised me with a brand new iPod shuffle!

My old iPod weighs probably around 5 pounds and takes up pretty much my entire right arm.

I can't tell you how excited I was (am)!! I just lost five pounds and gained about 2 minutes a mile just from losing that massive thing.

notice the size difference.

Woot!

So I quickly added all of my favorite running songs, charged up my Shuffle whilst the hubs took me to sushi (yum), came home... still wasn't charged... took a nap (yes, at 6:00 pm), woke up, watched Obama lie to the country, and then went out for a 35 minute run.

Background story:

Rob is a groomsman in his close friend Sloan's wedding.

The bachelor party was this past weekend.

They played basketball and paintball, they swam, they did all sorts of manly things.

Rob came home EXHAUSTED, incredibly sore, and a little beat up.

For some reason it really encourages me to have Rob there while I run.

He likes to do sprints and doesn't enjoy the slower, longer runs.

He wants to go fast (to semi-quote a young Ricky Bobby).

So he'll run every other lap with me.

I knew that he wasn't going to want to run with me because of how sore he was so I asked him if he'd just come, sit, and watch me run.

Weird.

I know.

But it helps me for some reason.

He was DEAD asleep when I woke up from our nap so I decided to leave him and not wake him up.

He ended up waking up while I was feeding Wyatt.

I told him I was going out for a run and he said that he was too exhausted to join.

I 100% understood.

Out I went for my run.

About a mile and a half into rocking out to my new iPod Shuffle (and running) guess who shows up!

My sweet, amazing hubby!

Even though he has a GI-NORMOUS blister on his foot, incredibly sore muscles, a penchant for running fast, and an insatiable need for a nap... he came out to run with me!

I finished up STRONG. And it felt GOOD.

My handsome hubby was there to encourage me because he loves me :)

Thank you, sweet husband, for your continual encouragement :)

You're amazing.

And I'm the luckiest girl in the world :)

Oh. And he drew this adorable picture on the wrapping paper :)

And some how even IT encouraged me to run! She just looks so happy whilst running! :)

... yes... whilst.

Say what?

I haven't posted anything since Christmas.

Don't get me wrong - I've had some fantastic ideas and I've really wanted to... I just haven't.

I am so mad right now I HAD to blog. So You Think You Can Dance is on and I'm not even watching it.

I'M MAD.

Today our President held a Twitter Town Hall.

Twitter account holders wrote the President questions with the #AskObama tag on it.

The questions were given to the President based on how much internet traffic it rendered.

I submitted 5 questions:

1. Why have your polices failed to improve unemployment? #AskObama

2. It's been nearly 3 years since you took office and the American quality of life is worse in virtually every category. Can you provide insight about what you feel is better since 2009? #AskObama

3. You voted against the debt ceiling in 2006. Now you predict economic disaster if the debt ceiling isn't raised. What's the difference between 2006 and now? #AskObama

**If you'd like to read his statement about raising the debt ceiling click here. It's quite interesting. He says that a failure of leadership is the cause of having to raise the debt ceiling. The last 2 paragraphs are also interesting.

4. Where did the stimulus money go? We spent almost one trillion dollars - surely there's something to show for it? #AskObama

5. What exactly is a "Job Saved" and how do you determine how many jobs have been saved? Why has nobody ever heard of this term until you? #AskObama

Anyways...

During the Town Hall he stated that White House staff had had their salaries frozen and had not received a salary raise in 2.5 years. Watch this video but hit pause after 18 seconds.

So he says that they have not seen a pay raise in 2.5 years.

Here is the Annual White House Salary Report from 2009.

Here is the Annual White House Salary Report from 2010.

Here is the Annual White House Salary Report from 2011.

All you have to do is look at the first employee (he is the second employee in 2009) Adam Abrams.

He goes from $65,000 to $70,000.

Gawker has published an article and a photo (below) of the top 20 White House raises. Two White House employees saw a more then 80% salary raise.

(click to enlarge)

EIGHTY PERCENT.

Un-pause the movie and watch the rest.

Oh c'mon. It's 20 seconds.

He. flat. out. lied. to the American people. He didn't fudge the truth. He didn't stretch the truth. He didn't speak in "PC."

He. Lied.

What's more disappointing ...

is that a lot of people are going to believe him.

I need a glass of wine.