Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Oh my, it's been a while...

Oops! I have obviously let this blog go to the wayside a bit. Oh well, better late than never. Not making any promises, but I am going to try to revive this thing. Starting with...

I am now a California girl! And no, I do not wear Daisy Dukes with a bikini on top. I just threw up in my mouth a little bit! We have made it to our next adventure in our Air Force life. Aaron is now stationed at Los Angeles AFB in El Segundo. I am quickly falling in love with this place. It is absolutely gorgeous here! We can see the water and Catalina Island out our back door--amazing! This was a hard move to make considering we are Texans and always will be, and we made such a great life in League City. But I have felt God's presence comforting me throughout the whole process of getting here. Before we moved here, I had never even visited California, so this was quite a scary jump. And I'm still scared, but it has been such a great experience thus far. We have absolutely wonderful neighbors! We live in a cul-de-sac, and literally within 30 seconds of us driving up to our house when we rolled into town, our kids were playing with the neighbor kids. They've been having a blast.

Our trip out here couldn't have gone any better. The kids did great on the road--such little troopers! And Boone did great too! We left our house in League City on March 11 (after a good cry) in 2 separate cars and drove to my mom's in Celina. Trent rode with me, and Drew rode with Aaron. We spent the night there and the next morning, a lot of our family members came over for breakfast/brunch and to say our goodbyes before we went further on our journey. A great time was had by all, and the only time I cried was when my sister and my new brother-in-law had to leave to go meet with their realtor. They just got married on February 25 after being together for 5 (or 6?) years, and I am so saddened that I can't be right there close to them to share in this special time in their new life together. They are currently searching for a house to buy, so keep them in your prayers. We do get to Skype with them frequently so that helps!

We took off from my mom's some time Saturday afternoon (this time, both boys rode with Aaron so I could get some quiet time!) and headed for Lubbock to stay with our best friends, Laura and Kyle (and Garrett and Carson). We stayed there a couple of nights because we wanted to take our boys to the Tech campus and take pictures. I really envy Laura and Kyle being in Lubbock and getting to take their boys to games. All 8 of us went to eat lunch at Spanky's on Sunday and then we went over to the campus and walked around to all the different landmarks that Trent has read about in his "Hello, Masked Rider" book. He knew what all of them were. The weather was perfect! We took tons of pictures, and it was one of the best days I have had in a while. To be able to walk around my alma mater with my best friend and watch our kids play together...wow. That's a memory I will always cherish. We went to Red Raider Outfitter to see if there was anything we just couldn't live without (Trent got a really cool hat), and then we went to The Arrogant Texan (quite appropriate--love it!), which is a candy store right across from campus. They have Amy's Ice Cream, which is made in Austin, and they have so many awesome flavors--even Shiner Bock and Guinness! Aaron got the Shiner ice cream and I tried it--I am not a beer drinker, but if Shiner tasted like that ice cream, I would drink the heck out of it!

Monday morning, we got up and headed for Albuquerque. Both boys rode with me that day. As soon as we got there, we headed for Aaron's sister Jenn's new kid's play club, Red Light Green Light, so our boys could play with their cousins. The place has really turned out great, and I am so proud of Jenn for having this vision and making it happen! Trent, Drew, Kody, and Jaxson had a great time together. We had good old Dion's pizza (Aaron's absolute fave) for dinner, and Jenn made us "Bull's Eyes" for breakfast Tuesday morning--yum! We weren't there very long, but we packed a lot of fun and catching up into that very short time.

After breakfast, we got in the car to head for Florence, AZ (Drew with me, Trent with Aaron), where Aaron's mom just built a house. Literally--they just moved in March 1st, so we were their first guests. The house looks amazing, and they have a great playground in their neighborhood that we took the boys to Tuesday evening. Again, we weren't there very long, but we had a great time, and we are glad we are a bit closer to Sally and Dennis so we can visit a little more often!

Wednesday morning was our last and longest day of driving--450 miles from Florence to San Pedro. Whew! I sure was glad to be out of that car!

So, 1800 miles later, we are now living in California. I never imagined I would live in California, but I am so glad to be here! Come to think of it, I also never imagined I would be glad to be here! Aaron and I have talked about how much League City meant to us. So much about who we are was formed in League City. We bought our first house there, had our 2nd (and probably last) child there, we found and fell in love with our church and both grew in our relationship with Christ, Aaron was diagnosed with and overcame Stage III melanoma...the list goes on and on. Yet here we are on the next leg of our journey, and we're so happy to be here, and I am so glad I have him to do this with! More soon...