Archive for the ‘Adventures’ Category

Good News.

Tuesday, June 7th, 2011

So it looks like I have some new friends! I was a bit surprised when I checked my email this morning and saw all the notifications, but trust me it was a very pleasant surprise :) Nice to meet all of you, I’ll be checking out your blogs as soon as I’m done with this post!

Here are some photos that were taken at an amusement park in Virginia. It’s definitely no Disneyland (What can I say, I’m a spoiled Southern Californian!), but it had a Starbucks and I thought that was pretty sweet.

Seriously, who looks that peaceful when they sleep? He was knocked out and in deep sleep mode there too. When I sleep, my mouth is wide open, drool is dripping down my mouth, my hair is all over the place..it’s just not pretty.

Anyway, this post is titled Good News because we found out yesterday that Jimmy is finally free and gets to come home! Granted, I’ll be coming home with him since I am still in Virginia, but my medical clearance finally went through and we are going to Alaska after all! We will be arriving there in around two weeks so yeah…pretty dang soon. Which is not a surprise when you are a Military family, but still, we’re so excited that he’s not stuck there anymore and playing a waiting game. This week will consist of preparation and looooots of paperwork. Then we will be flying home this weekend, spending time with loved ones, and packing up to go! So if I’m absent for a little, that is most likely the reason why. But I’ll try my hardest to post at least once a week.

God is so good and we are so excited to finally begin this new chapter and settle in to our new home!

Virginia part II.

Monday, May 23rd, 2011

Here are the rest of the photos from my trip to Virginia. Although I took a lot of photos, There were times when I put the camera away and simply let the memories that Jimmy and I made be just between us. And I was glad I did, because I got the best of both. I was able to capture memories that make my heart flutter again when I look at them (which is every day since I’ve been home) and I now have private wonderful memories to think and talk about with my husband. Enjoy!

Lately we’ve been hearing friends and family saying, “There is a reason why God has you in this situation.” (I’m looking at you, Momma Hammer) And after thinking about it for a while, it seems that they are so right. One of the reasons we know this is because of the people in these pictures. Meet the Gallipeau’s. Jimmy became really close with another Airman who was in the same position as him and was unable to go home to his wife and beautiful little girl. When I came to visit, we found out that it was the same weekend his wife and daughter were coming too. We spent most of the weekend with them and got to know them and hear a little bit about their story, which is absolutely beautiful.

It was a huge wake-up call for me as well, because to put it bluntly, I was thinking that I had it so hard. But I can’t imagine what Falon, Cameron, and their daughter Ariana must have went through. It also felt SO nice to be able to talk about how things have been (and yes, including our frustrations with our husbands being kept away for silly reasons). I know now that if Jimmy got to go home on time and when he graduated tech school, we would have never met them and became such good friends. Fortunately, Cameron was released recently and is now reunited with his lovely family. As for us, Jimmy is still there, and I am still waiting. But as challenging as this time is and will be for however much longer we need to endure it, I’m pretty confident that even if he’s stuck there for another month, I would do it all over again.

Thank you Lord, for giving us the strength to be apart and giving us blessings such as great friends and memories to make this time a little more enjoyable :)

Virginia Love.

Thursday, May 19th, 2011

Oh Gosh. Where do I begin?

What started out as an unintentional hiatus from the blogging world slowly became intentional. Both mine and Jimmy’s worlds were turned upside down as soon as I came back home. But before I make it sound like I’m throwing us a pity party, I’ll share a little bit of our trip with you all. I took way too many photos to post in one entry so you’ll be seeing some more in the future…

As soon as I got there, he wanted to run a couple errands around the base so I tagged along while he did that, then we had dinner, and back to the hotel to relax. We took a million and a half pictures

We went on walks almost every day and talked for hours,

I DID get a little bored when he had to work…

(only posting this because seeing our toothbrushes together again makes me VERY happy)

And on one of my last days there we sat outside on a picnic bench and enjoyed Swedish fish and coffee, and mainly talked about the week and how great it was to be together again, even if just for a week.

He always has food in his mouth when I take pictures of him.

I think I beat my record on most pictures posted in an entry. Sorry, but I had to!

The trip out there was simply, amazing. There are no other words. We were like newlyweds all over again. When I first pulled up in the backseat of the cab and saw him standing outside waiting for me, I began to feel nervous, weak in the knees at the sight of him, and those fluttery feelings in my tummy that are all too familiar came back, full force. I’m so glad that I lugged around my camera because looking through the photos of us has helped me deal with the pain of going back home without him.

Getting back into the swing of things when we said goodbye was much harder than we thought it would be. We knew saying goodbye would be difficult, but neither of us were expecting it to be THIS difficult, since we had done it before. I found myself not wanting to get out of bed every single morning and asking God if I could just sleep and hibernate until he comes home. Meanwhile, Jimmy was getting more and more responsibilities thrown on him and his 8 hour work days slowly turned into 12, then 16 and so on. With both of us being overwhelmed at how quickly things changed and the sadness of having to be apart yet again, things got really, well…painful. But after some long talks and tears, we are both slowly starting to feel better and trying to make the best of our situation.

We also got some news a few days ago that was hard for us to swallow. The Air Force base in Alaska that we were assigned to go to pretty much got tired of waiting and without sparing you all the boring technical details, told us that we will not be sent there after all. So Alaska will no longer be our home for the next few years. Since February we had been dreaming of what our lives would be like there, so yes…that was indeed sad news. But, we are picking ourselves back up, detaching ourselves from Alaska, and in the midst of all this confusion and uncertainty, trusting that God will put us where we are needed and that there is a reason for all of this.

So maybe you didn’t see this post going in that direction. I hope it wasn’t too Debbie Downer-ish. But really, we’re doing okay now! We were left with amazing memories to hold us over a little bit longer until he returns home for good. And who knows where we will end up? But that is something else for us to look forward to…a whole new life, in a whole new place and a whole new adventure to look forward to! Here’s to knowing what we signed up for, tackling the many more curveballs that will get thrown at us and handling them with grace, and to growing as a Military family. And don’t worry, I’ll be keeping you posted whenever we find anything out :)

another day at the Happiest Place on Earth.

Wednesday, April 13th, 2011

For those of you that have been reading for a while, you probably know by now that I post pictures of my trips to Disneyland. My husband and I have annual passes and have had them since we first started dating. I’ve been born and raised in a city very close to the park, but never had a pass until 2008 when Jimmy bought us passes as a birthday gift to me. It’s pretty safe to say that I’m in love with the place. I love going just for an hour to have lunch and walk around for a bit, I love going when the sun sets to catch the fireworks…ahhh…I just love it. I’m so excited for us to start over in a whole new place, but Disneyland is so close to my heart. I have so many amazing memories of that place and I’m going to miss it so much when we move. And sadly, our passes expire this coming Monday, which also happens to be mine and Jimmy’s 2 year wedding anniversary! I’d love to make at least one more trip before it expires, we will see! Anyway, here are pictures from the last time I went, with my best friend Ashley and her fiance Adam. We went so they could activate their passes and hang out for the last few hours that the park was open.

Getting their pictures taken! We joked that this was their Disney engagement session. It’s not, but how cool would a Disney engagement session be?

I can’t believe they’re getting married soon! They’re so wonderful together. This weekend is their engagement party and although I’m back home now, I’ll be going back to my hometown for their party and I can’t wait.

As for me, sadly nothing new. As I said early on, Jimmy and I’s 2 year wedding anniversary is this coming Monday. While I’ve pretty much accepted the fact that we most likely won’t be together to celebrate it, I’m still praying for some sort of miracle. We don’t have any plans set, but we definitely want to celebrate somehow when he does get to come home. And I’ve been working on a little something special to share soon and it’s helped me feel a lot better. It’s honestly nothing outrageous, but it’s sort of a leap for me and a step out of my comfort zone and I’m excited to bring it out in the open. So stay tuned!