When I last wrote, it was mid-July and I was heading into my birthday week, so I suppose I'll pick up there: My "Quarter of a Century" Birthday! I wanted to do something really fun and special for my birthday this year (my birthday's have been very uneventful the past few years), and I knew I wanted the beach to be involved. I assumed that Jake would be gone on my birthday (and rightly so, haha) so I planned out a fabulous girls weekend trip to San Luis Obispo and brought along 3 of my best friends.
The entire trip was AWESOME! We laughed and danced and ate (and ate, and ate some more) and soaked up the sun at the beach. It was completely relaxing, refreshing, and the perfect way to say "hello" to 25!
Oh and one other fun birthday surprise was this gorgeous bouquet delivered from Jake with such a cute note...
The following weekend, Jake's mom, aunt, and cousin came down to visit from Oregon and we had a great time catching up. Funny story... On one of the days they were here, my mom drove up to Sacramento to meet us for a shopping day. While we were walking through a store, I looked ahead and (no exaggeration) saw a mannequin dressed IDENTICAL to my mom! It was so hilarious! See the photo below for proof, plus a few other fun photos from that week...
The following weekend Jake's squadron hosted a camping trip at Lake Berryessa, so we packed up our tent and the dogs and joined the group. And it was really fun! Tons of good food, floating on the lake, boat rides, nice weather, and the dogs loved it! There were 7 dogs there total and they spent the entire time running along the shore, swimming around, and just loving life. I've never seen our pups so tired... EVER!
The next week I decided to head home to Turlock to spend some time with my family and friends. Allison's due date was also that week so I thought it would be great to spend some time with her and hopefully still be there when baby Joshua decided to make his grand appearance :)
The whole week I was there was SO fun! I got in lots of "pool floating" time at my mom's house, enjoyed some tasty meals with my grandparents, and took a day trip with my dad and brother to Capitola. The day trip was a ton of fun and I finally got to try paddle-boarding, which is something I've wanted to do for a long time. It was a gorgeous day relaxing with my toes in the sand, eating salt water taffy and Pizza My Heart, reading, and enjoying some much needed time with my family.
The highlight of the week is easy to pinpoint though - the arrival of sweet baby Joshua Combs! It was so awesome to be in town to experience all the excitement surrounding his birth. Leading up to his due date, Allison and I got a chance to hang out a lot and catch up, which was really nice. And then after the due date had come and gone, we decided to try and "walk the baby out"... and what do ya' know, it totally worked!
I was so excited to hear that he was officially on his way, and even more excited when she wanted me to come to the hospital to keep her and Tyler (and the rest of the Smith family) company during her labor. I'll always remember all of us just sitting around in the labor/delivery room, laughing, talking, eating Taco Bell (sorry about that Al!), and soaking in the excitement of it all. There was just so much JOY! And during all of that, and while in major labor, Allison looked completely gorgoeus and calm, ready to finally meet her baby boy. It was beyond amazing to see my best friend, who I've known since age 5, become a mommy :) And that little boy is just so special to me! Love at first sight for this auntie.
Some photo highlights from that trip to Turlock...
The following week brought us into September (Labor Day weekend) and I got to enjoy a nice 3-day weekend with Jake home. I also finally cashed in on my birthday present from him: an hour-long Thai couple's massage! I've never had a full body massage before and, wow, it felt AMAZING! It would've been completely perfect... if only the lady massaging me wasn't breathing super loudly like a freight train! Seriously though, Jake could hear her from across the room and it was so hard not to burst out laughing. A pair of earphones and some Michael Buble would have been perfection :) Better luck next time, haha! After the massages Jake decided to make it a "Thai themed" date and took me to a great Thai restaurant in downtown Sacramento. Such a fun day!
We also went to Napa with some friends later that weekend and it was absolutely beautiful! We went to a few different wineries, walked around enjoying the scenic views, did a few tastings, and then stopped by Gott's Roadside (soooo yummy!) for some burgers on the way home.
The next weekend, Jake headed out on a trip and I headed back down to SLO for Cassie's birthday celebration. It was such a fun girls weekend and really nice to see Cassie's new place :) I love SLO!!
And so that brings me to this past weekend... On Friday night my mom and I got to go see the USA Olympic gymnastics team perform in a show! It was such a neat thing to see! My favorite part was watching the girls do their floor routines that they did during the Olympics and getting to clap along with the audience to the music in person, as I had done while watching them on TV at home :) If they come to your town, you should definitely go the show! It's called the Kellogg Tour of Champions. So awesome!!
On Saturday Jake and I headed back to Napa with our good friends, the Crawford's, and had a great day catching up and enjoying the beauty. We went to Rutherford Grill for lunch, then on to Frog's Leap Vineyards, Mumm, and ended at a cupcake shop :) AND we ended up getting an unplanned private tour of the wine being made at Frog's Leap and got to try the process ourselves! Perfect way to spend the first official day of fall.
So now you're basically caught up on all the main events of my summer (although I'm sure I've left stuff out that I'll remember later) but I feel like I should make an important side note/distinction... While I've done so many fun things over the past few months, I haven't just been floating around on a constant vacation, as I'm sure it seems. I've also been working my butt off every single weekday and honestly loving every minute of it :) I relaunched my web design business back in mid-July and (PRAISE GOD) business has been booming ever since! I'm actually already booked through the end of the year which is really exciting.
One thing about working from home is that I absolutely HAVE to get out away from the house and do things at night and on the weekends to stay energized, inspired, and happy... which is why my I try to pack my schedule with lots of fun events :) I am absolutely loving my job though and am so pumped about the new direction my business will be taking at the New Year. More on that to come...
On top of work and weekend fun, my week nights have been equally busy with activities as well. On Wednesday nights, Jake and I have gotten involved in the high school youth ministry at church, which has been great so far. I am so excited to get to know these teens more and be able to encourage and support them on their walk with Christ. On Monday nights, I'm still a part of my awesome ladies Bible study (all of which are fellow Air Force spouses who totally can relate to this often-crazy lifestyle) and we just started a new Beth Moore study together. I've also been keeping up with my favorite new hobby of line-dancing at least once a week (love it!) and then I throw in a trivia night, girls night, AF spouse social, or date night anywhere else I possibly can :)
And one more quick update before I close... as a lot of people have been asking me for an update on my health. Well, if you can't already tell by how I've been living these past few months (a.k.a. full-speed, lovin' life), I've been feeling great! Yesterday marked 12 weeks since I've had one of my stomach pain attacks... 12 WEEKS PEOPLE! A year ago at this time, my pain attacks were happening every 7 to 10 days and landing me in the hospital every single time.
It's amazing that I've finally gotten to the point where I don't consider myself a sicky anymore, and that I've managed to stay out of the hospital since January (which again is HUGE!!). Even if I wake up to a stomach attack tomorrow, 12 weeks of being completely pain-free is monumental in my life and I am so very thankful. I can now make plans, set goals, and live life to the fullest without my health issues holding me back.
Thank you SO VERY MUCH to all of you who have been praying for my healing for the past (almost) two years. God has heard our prayers and has been so faithful! Yippeeee! This is one of my favorite verses right now...
And on that oh-so-happy note, I think I'll close for the night. Thanks for caring enough to read this ridiculously long post about my life :) Love you all!
0 comments:
Post a Comment