Mi Familia!!!!!

The countdown has come to an end!! Tomorrow morning my hubby and I will leave to go pick up my family from the airport for a week with us!! I am so excited that they will all be here and we will get to have a family vacation. This will be the first family vacation we have done since the summer before we came here to Germany. This will be the very first family vacation we have had where i get to enjoy having my hubby there as well. Jonathan was gone when we went a couple years ago so I am really excited about having everyone together and getting to see and spend time with everyone in one place rather than having to drive around and split up time between everybody like we do when we visit home.

We have a lot of excited things planned and I can't wait to write to you about all the wonderful adventures we are going to have. They leave sometime tonight, their time, so please keep them in your prayers as they travel. My sister is a little nervous about the long flight with the boys so I pray the boys do ok for her! YAY!! So excited!!!

Couch to 5k

One of my goals this summer is to become a better runner, okay a runner in general. Let's face it, I grew up and my metabolism was left behind in college. My days of tennis and soccer and intramurals are mostly behind me and without staying active my metabolism moved on to bigger and better things. I am out to prove to my metabolism I can do what it takes so it will make a re-appearance. 

I was given this couch to 5k idea from a fellow milspouse blogger. She is an avid runner and thus in much better shape than myself. I have never been a fan of running. I started reading about ways to get into running and I kept reading about how starting slow and steady can be the key. I have tried getting into running in the past and always took the method of pushing myself as hard as I could until my body just adjusted. I understand, now, that I never really gave myself the chance to enjoy running to get in shape. So I looked up this couch to 5k to start off a new start. 

I started my first week of couch to 5k this week and it has been surprisingly refreshing to get a start on what I hope to be a new lifestyle.

Pop Rocks!

No I am not referring to the candy~ even though I love the watermelon ones! It is a tad bit delayed since I was not home for father's day but I have yet to post about my wonderful daddy for belated father's day! My dad is lovingly called "pop" by my nephews and will one day be called that be our children as well, not anytime soon though. So here as some things I want to share with you about my dad:

1. He loves to make you laugh. My dad has a large sense of humor and is the type of person who lives to make other people laugh. My dad loved, well loves, to tickle me into fits of laughter. My dad loves to try new things and if he is not good at them, he laughs his way through it and has fun anyway. This picture is from a few summers ago when I was trying to teach him how to swing dance, let's just say I almost got dropped! :)

2. My dad's arms were always the place I felt safest. I always felt that when he was holding me, nothing in the world could get to me. He loved me and protected me from all that he could; all the while letting me live my life and learn from my mistakes.

3. He pushes me to be a better person. My dad taught me the values of a strong relationship with God when he sought after Christ in his own trials and tribulations. He pushed me to be closer to God by modeling what that looked like. He pushed me to be a better student which led to graduating college with honors and being able to get this picture at Awards Night. 

4. My dad is a writer. My dad is the type of person who can read three or four different books at the same time and know what is going on in all of them. My dad loves to read and he instilled in me a love for reading as well. Every night when I was a little girl he would read with me at night before bed, if he got home in time. Our go-to-book was Alice in Wonderland. I think about that now and I looked forward to that time so much with him that it helped me love reading as well, which eventually led to me wanting to be an elementary school teacher. The picture above is from a book signing my dad did after finishing a book with Vince Dooley about the Georgia Bulldogs. I am so proud to know my dad played a big part in writing that book and it was a wonderful read! Vince Dooley's Tales from the 1980 Georgia Bulldogs.

5. He is a servant. This picture shows my dad serving dinner to some ladies at our church at a ladies dinner. While this picture shows him serving literally, I mean so more figuratively. My dad is a servant in every way that matters. He is one of the first to volunteer to help out and he is willing and ready when you need him. He is a selfless person who always puts others before himself.

6. He is patient. My dad is one of the most patient men I know. He has put up with a lot of fits over the years, between the three women in his life! I always knew when I had absolutely crossed the ultimate line when my father yelled at me because it took a lot. I don't vividly remember him yelling at me but one time and it was to teach me a lesson I never forgot- accept responsibility for my actions! He probably does not remember teaching me that lesson but he did!

7. He is one amazing pop! He loves those boys so much. I have only seen my dad shed tears when holding his grandsons for the first time. I am sure there were other moments that I missed but those are the ones I remember. I look forward to being able to give him more grandchildren some day down the road because I will be able to show them how lucky I was and how lucky they are!

8. Last, but not least, he is a rock! My father is so much more than the man who taught me how to ride my bike. My father is so much more than the man who did not get angry when I couldn't figure out how to stop said bike and let it run into his car. My father is more than the man who was there with a belt when I got out of line. My father is more than the man who took me to church every time the doors were open so I could grow to love my Savior. My father is the man who gave me away on my wedding day knowing he had done an amazing job at being a dad. My father is the man who danced with me at the reception knowing my husband was a man who would love and care for me just as he had done. My father is the man who hugged and held me as we cried when we left to PCS to Germany for three years. My father is the man whose "I love you" said so much more! I love you dad and I am one of the lucky ones!!!

Happy Flag Day...belated

I am a little late but wanted to wish everyone a happy flag day!

Downward slope

Oh my goodness, with the school I work at closing and ending the school year last week, packing up the classroom this week, and trying to find energy to clean at my own house I have been very distracted. Apologies, I hope to catch up on my June pictures soon. Until then, I wanted to leave you with some different pictures. My dear sweet dad surprises me every now and then. My dad is a super busy guy and I do not get to talk to him near as much as I would like to in an ideal world. A few days ago I posted about how one of my favorite places was my grandfather's pond, but I did not have any pictures of the pond on my computer. My dear sweet dad read that post and sent me some pictures! I was so surprised and pleasantly surprised that he took the time to do that. So, here are some pictures of this sweet place.


The dock over the pond.




This is where I used to just sit and pray and relax and get away!



It looks even more beautiful during the fall!

Homecoming and Friends

Oops! Got preoccupied yesterday with watching my guilty pleasure tv show, not saying what it is! We also got a chance to talk to my sister-in-law on skype so the computer was being used for better purposes! So, that being said, I will combine yesterday and today.

Yesterday's word was homecoming. Homecoming to a military family means so much more than a dance you went to in high school. It means you have reached the end of a chapter, probably a hard chapter at that. I am very blessed in that my husband's job does not require regular deployments. He has a slightly different type of deployment that is a piece of cake compared to what some of you awesome spouses endure. I think the hardest part of my husband's year away was the timing. My husband went to basic and AIT, came home, we got married, and a week later he left for a year. It was tough because it was hard to truly feel like I was married when my life went on just as it always had. It was also difficult not having a support system of people who knew what that was like. I had my family and they were amazing but none of them had ever gone through missing their husband or wife for that long. So, while I was never worried about my husband getting hurt I did miss sharing the first year of our marriage with him. All our first had to wait around for another year. Anyhow, I love to think back to that day waiting, impatiently I might add, for him to get there!!



Today's word is friends. This has meant a lot more to me since spending two years in Germany away from family on the holidays. I am a still a rookie in military spouse terms I think so the holidays without family still see ma little strange and empty. It doesn't help that my husband works a shift job and I always have to choose whether I want him on Christmas or New Year's. Since we do not have any kids yet I usually choose New Year's! Anyhow, we have made some awesome friends while living here and it is wonderful to know that they become so much more than friends, they become family!

Favorite Place

This one was a sort of difficult one because I have lots of favorite places. When I was younger, in middle and high school my favorite place was a small pond on my grandfather's land. It was right off this little road in this little town across the street from the cemetery. It sounds creepy I know, but it was just so peaceful. It was 2 minutes down the road from where I went to church all my life and every now and then I would drive down there when I was in high school and just sit in the grass and just talk to God, listen, pray, sing softly, and generally just enjoy the calmness when my life seemed to be trying to tie me down! Unfortunately I do not have a picture online of that sweet place.

One of my favorite places I have ever been was this place with my parents:

This is the western most point of Europe and is located in Portugal, close to or in Lisbon. It is hard to tell from this picture alone but the place was just absolutely gorgeous! It was this HUGE drop off into this beautiful water! I would have stayed out there for hours and hours had my parents and uncle let me! Unfortunately, the name of this particular location has escaped my memory but I will never forget its beauty and sincerely hope to take my hubby back to this place so he can witness it one day as well.

On of my favorite places to be figuratively is anywhere with my husband! It is what keeps me going as a military spouse! I was always very close with my family growing up and never imagined I would be jetting around the world in a totally different time zone than the rest of my family! Being with my husband makes that all so much easier. I still miss my family dearly and miss going to Easter, family reunions, Thanksgiving, Christmas, etc. but having the love of my life by my side the whole way through makes the ache a little more bearable and allows me to push through until the next time I see them and hug them...which will be in 26 days!!!!!!!! :) YAAAAAAAAAAAY!!!

#3 Words

The subject for today's photo was words. Unfortunately I discovered last night that my camera died or I would have taken this picture myself. I thought the most appropriate way to show words would be to show what passage we read from this morning at the chapel service. We read from Psalm 1:1-3. While I am very familiar with these three verses it is always nice to have a reminder of what God wants for us in our lives.

He wants us to be involved in the lives of others but as the same time not to partake in their wicked ways. I know that can be such a tricky thing sometimes. We are to be in the world but not of the world and I know we all have times where it is hard to see the difference. I know I have been through times where I convince myself I am doing things the way I am supposed to be doing them, only to find upon further observation that I am going about it all the wrong ways! I am certainly not perfect but I love that God reminds us to be trees firmly planted by a stream of water so that we may always bear fruit and our leaves never wither. 

Father, please allow me to take those words and apply them to my life daily so that I may always bear fruit in your name and never let the leaves wither.

#2 Family

So I have a little catching up to do: today is family, yesterday was actually uniform...please don't tell on me!! Haha! I love track of the days sometimes, despite the fact that I work in a kindergarten class where we do calendar everyday! HAHA!

This man is my family. He is my heart and my soul. I go where he goes and we make the best of what we have. I love spending time with him and I can never get enough of him! He makes me smile, challenges me daily to be a better person, and compliments my cooking! He knows my love language and thus leaves me little notes of encouragement and sweet words often. He also knows my favorite place in the world is in his arms and keeps me there often! I love my family and look forward to it growing in the future!

Of course I have another family, that I miss day in and day out. This picture was taken at my brother's birthday celebration the summer before we left for Germany. I am on the right with my nephew close at hand. These are all the wonderful people that will be visiting us in less than a month and I could not be more thrilled!!!! I miss them all dearly!

Photo Journey

I saw this military photo a day for June for instagram. Since I am not fancy enough for instagram I thought I would blog the photo for the day! Today's photo is uniform!

The first uniform my husband wears involves these~ soccer shoes. My husband was a soccer player long before he was a soldier so I think it is only appropriate that his soccer uniform be included for the photo(s) for the day! He loves soccer and it makes him so happy to play. I love supporting and watching him play or coach whenever I can!

 Of course my husband also wears this uniform, as do I- when being silly around the house. I believe this was one night before the hubby left for training of some kind and we were goofing off! That stuff is heavy!! Haha!

My hubby's uniform does not make him an adult, however. This particular night my hubby was coming home from working swing shift, that means he got home around 11:30. What does he do when he gets home? He build a snowman in the parking lot because he is that much of a little kid at heart! Haha! I love that man and his uniforms!!