As the title of this post states, these photos are a bit old. But I figured I’d post them anyway. It’s weird to look at them because I can notice how much the scenery has changed since then. The trees are no longer that vibrant green and are pretty much bare, and most of the leaves that have fallen on the ground are dead. And I’ll state the obvious…it’s flippin’ cold! Yes, I am a wuss, but seriously…the first snow fall is due any day now. While most of you are welcoming Fall, we are preparing for an early Winter!

Having Jimmy take my photos has been loads of fun for me cause I get to sneak in some mushy pics. But nonetheless, I got a Gorilla Pod to hold me over until my tripod gets here with our stuff. It’s for me to use on those days when my begging and puppy dog eyes won’t work

Well technically, to some of you, I didn’t. But as long as it’s the 17th here, it’s still my birthday. And I’m still milking it. (and also being the nerd that I am, was rushing to make this post before midnight so that it still counts)

Today was all in all, amazing. I am quite surprised that I didn’t crack and shed some tears over the fact that I’m in my mid twenties. I just simply enjoyed it. Got treated to a manicure by one of my besties here in Alaska, then came home to my sweet and selfless husband who is still recovering from his post wisdom teeth surgery and in a good amount of pain, who was determined to make sure my birthday was a memorable one. We went to a relaxing dinner, I got spoiled with some presents (a new lens that was used to take the pictures above and some home decor goodies) and came home to set up our new things. A great day indeed. I am thankful for my 25 years of life, my wonderful husband, the amazing friends I’ve made in our new state of residency, and most importantly, my God, who gave me life and well, everything.

So yes, today I turned 25.
But I still don’t look a day over Sixteen

Will you look out your window to find a Moose happily eating off your neighbors tree. No big deal. We’ve been here about two months now and never tire of seeing Moose outside our backyard gate, on the side of the road, and walking around the commissary parking lot. I’m sure I can think of more places, too. My record so far has been 4 Moose sightings in one day.

For the first month after we arrived, we would see only cows and occasionally their little ones. You gotta watch out for those ones though, they are protective of their little Mooselings. For the past two weeks, however, there have been more manly bulls roaming around with their growing antlers. While it’s quite obvious that you shouldn’t walk up to one and try to be it’s bff, they’re actually peaceful animals and don’t seem to get phased by 10+ cars pulled over on the street to take their picture. They pretty much mind their own business. And on days like today when I have somewhat of the Weather Blues and I look out my window to find a little fella grazing on the grass, it always makes me smile.

And yes, I just dedicated a blog post to Moose. Is it obvious that I’m in a bit of a writer’s block?

Pretty simple, yes. But there’s nothing that relaxes me more than sitting down with tea or coffee, reading, writing down thoughts and prayers, and maybe swooping in on some cuddle time when that strapping husband of mine comes home from work (asleep or not, but usually…he falls asleep eventually. See last post).

Simple is never boring for us.

…less than 15 minutes from my house.

The fact that I am lucky enough to be making a home with the love of my life and sharing this journey with him. A journey of unmade beds, piled up dirty dishes, and leaving lights on. But also a journey of slow dancing in the kitchen (yes, we ARE that couple), decorating with what little we have, and quality time in the AM before he goes off to work.

Getting encouraged by some wonderful wives here and my sis-in-law back home to pursue my love for photography further…(not to mention having them be my guinea pigs and pose for me so I can get the experience!)

and last but not least, taking full advantage of it when the sun does decide to pop out and say hello.

By the end of the day, I realized that this won’t be the last time I’ll get the weather blues. But God will remind me once again, how good He is and how much He has blessed my tiny family. So once again I will say, we are blessed. So. Incredibly. Blessed.

Bring it on snow and darkness, I’ll be welcoming you with open arms.

our backyard at 11:48pm

Today we purchased our first car together. Our time over these past few days and basically since we’ve moved in has been spent accumulating the food, supplies, and important things we need to be on our own. We are learning, taking the steps, and going through the motions…newlywed status. Although we have been married for two years we are finally on our own for the first time. It’s scary, exciting, stressful, overwhelming, thrilling, and absolutely wonderful. Being here has made me realize how blessed we have been throughout our marriage and how thankful we are for his family providing us shelter. Now that we have left the nest and built our own, things have definitely changed. Petty disagreements, staying up late making budgeting lists, fighting over who does the dishes only to make up with kisses and tickle fests minutes later, getting blessed with pans, plates, and cups from our new neighbors. Yeah…I’m lovin’ it here. Absolutely.

As we drove home from the dealership in our new car, Switchfoot’s “This Is Home” came on the radio and as I stared contently out the window I thanked God silently for a roof over our head, food in the fridge, and now a car. When I turned to glance at my husband, I saw that same content smile on his face. Life is good. This is home.

a celebratory batch of cookies i made after dinner tonight.

The next time I blog, I will be blogging to you straight from Anchorage, Alaska! I can’t believe how fast time flew by in a span of 10 days. Please keep Jimmy and I in your prayers/thoughts for a safe flight(s) within the next few hours (I get uneasy and jittery on planes) and smooth travelling. The time has come to say goodbye to sunny Southern California and say hello to snow, hours of daylight and darkness, and definitely a new adventure.

There are so many things and people I’m going to miss. Starting with family. I’m going to miss my mother-in-law’s selflessness and wise words when I’m caught in a bind, my father-in-law’s teasing and stealing food off my plate, spontaneous photography adventures with my sister-in-law Jhen and talking in blog language, My brother-in-law Jon who NEVER fails to crack me up and has perfected timing for “Thats what she said” jokes, shopping trips with my sister-in-law Jacky and her voice of reason (mostly when it came to purchases, but so many other things too) and last but definitely not least…my sweet niece, baby Josselyn. The little girl who could instantly cheer me up during all those times when I was missing her uncle. I know that if it weren’t for her, it would have been much harder to get through these last few months. As much as leaving everyone is hard to think about, tears well up in my eyes within seconds when I think about saying goodbye to her.

But I’m certainly not intending for this to be a sad post. Bittersweet, absolutely….but my heart is SO full and the timing is so right for us to finally leave the nest my in-laws have so graciously opened up to us and begin making our own. God has been so good to us this past year and for a while I wasn’t able to see that. Oh my, so much has changed. We are so blessed. SO blessed!

Be back soon!

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

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

Because of my situation, it’s been a hard month overall, but I have found so much comfort in my two best friends who have listened to me in all of my blubbering, crying, mess. My sweet husband has been as comforting as he can be too, considering he’s struggling just as much as I am. God bless that man. I have been a VERY difficult wife this past month, hahah. So things are okay. Not the best, but okay. My friends and husband have been so good to me, and although today is the official two week mark on when he was supposed to be home and I’ve felt just about every feeling there is to describe, I’m still okay. And yes, God is still good, even when we tell ourselves lies and try to convince ourselves that He’s not. So, I will continue to wait.

And take pictures of plants, apparently!