Welcome to Travis!

After months of waiting Jake and I finally got to Travis together last Sunday! I took the above picture from outside our hotel room. Isn't it just gorgeous?! It's so beautiful and green here. I just love it! We've had such a great time getting to explore our new base over the past week and it is a completely different world than Columbus!

Travis AFB is like a perfect little town that is safe and clean and has everything you might need right inside its gates. There are tons of different food choices on base (Subway, Taco Bell, Godfathers Pizza, Burger King, and on and on), a Wal-mart sized BX for shopping (that sells Apple products -yes!), a full-sized Starbucks, a huge gym, hospital, bank, auto shop and gas station, post office, dry cleaners, movie theater, hotel, bowling alley, several different churches, community pool, a duck pond, a dog park, and the biggest commissary (grocery store) that I could ever even imagine. And then there's all the planes! We have the C-17, KC-10, and C-5. This base is massive! But even though it is so huge everything is laid out really well so it actually feels pretty small and not at all overwhelming like I thought it might be.

The great news is that if there is something that I can't get on base, we are just minutes from all the good restaurants and shopping I could ask for! Actually its kind of dangerous how good the shopping is out here... Vacaville outlets anyone? Yeah... AND we're less than an hour from San Francisco, Sacramento, and Napa. Should I say it again? I love it here!! And even though it feels like a city (a huge city compared to Columbus), the base and town are surrounded by gorgeous rolling green hills. Leaving the back gate of base actually reminds me a lot of the beautiful green hills of Austria! I hope it will stay this green for awhile and not turn brown as soon as the weather gets hot...

Now let me move on to the topic of finding a house. Back in August when we found out our new assignment, Jake and I researched and asked around to AF friends to see whether we would want to live on or off base. We both decided hands-down that we would live on base because you get so much more for your money (Vacaville is an expensive area), we wouldn't have to worry about my safety when Jake deploys,  we would be in an all-military community, and the housing is BRAND NEW!

As soon as we decided this we called to get our name on the housing list (back in October 2010). We entered the housing list at #20 but I thought it was sure to go down by the time March came around. Well, when we checked into the housing office on Wednesday we were disappointed to find out we were only #15 on the list. The housing lady basically told us to not get our hopes up for getting a house anytime soon. Bummer.

But in an unexpected turn of events, we got a call on Friday morning saying that they had a house for us! How we moved up 15 spots overnight is strange to me but, hey, I'm not complaining! I think I shouted "We'll take it!!!" before she could even finish her sentence. We immediately went over and signed the papers. Woooo hoooo!! And the really awesome news is that we get to move on the 28th, which is just a week from tomorrow!

After we signed the paper work, we went over to check out which house was ours. The current occupants haven't fully moved out yet so we tried to be sly as we drove by snapping pictures :) Check it out...

It's a one-story, 2000 sq ft., 3 bdrm 2 bath house and it was just built in September so it's completely brand new! And yes we have a palm tree in our front yard - sooo California :) Although Jake was really hoping for the 2-story model, I was beyond thrilled to get the one-story... I got SO tired of vacuuming dog hair off the stairs in our last house and having to go up and down the stairs every time I forgot something. Another nice thing about the house is that it already has a privacy fenced backyard that is move-in ready for the pups!

After getting this exciting and totally unexpected news about our house I couldn't focus on anything else so I talked Jake into going furniture shopping. We've been slowly saving up for a new living room set for almost 2 years now and decided it was finally time to buy! We shopped around at a bunch of furniture stores and then went back and looked at some more stores online. We came to this unanimous decision...

What do you think? I'm just in love with the whole set! I'm so excited about the ease of cleaning leather (no more vacuuming dog hair off couches every time we have guests over!) and the light color of them will definitely brighten up the entire living room. It will all be arriving just a few days after we move in and I can hardly wait! 

So there you have it. What an amazing past week I've had! The housing situation was such a huge answer to prayer. Getting the house means that in just one week I get to be reunited for good with my husband and we can officially be back to life as normal. I've just felt so blessed this week and so thankful for the wonderful things God has given me - I stress about the details of each move we make (5 moves in 2.5 years!) but He ALWAYS takes care of us and blesses me beyond my expectations.

Get ready for a whole bunch of new house/decorating posts!