This is awesome...

Everything is new and exciting.

As you can see I've cleaned up quite a bit around here.. how do you like the new look? I'm loving it! I got the title from a photo I saw the other day. I thought it was a great quote and kind of reflects my optimistic outlook on life :)

I've been really itching to sit down and blog lately. All these exciting things are going on and in the midst of them I find myself writing blogs in my head about everything I want to say but then I never actually make it to the computer to write them down.

Last time I wrote, I mentioned that we were moving into our new house. Well, we've been in our house for about 3 weeks now and are LOVING it! This house is gorgeous inside and out and we feel quite spoiled getting to call it ours. I've been busy busy busy getting everything unpacked and settled. I can't wait to show you pictures! We are getting the rest of our new furniture and area rug delivered next week so maybe once those get here I'll start posting some photos.

It's kind of funny because every other time we've moved I've had the house unpacked and decorated within 2 or 3 days but with this house (knowing that we will be here for a few years) I am really taking my time and getting everything just the way I want it. I just can't say it enough - I love it here! It's new and exciting and somehow already feels like home. I already find myself thinking that 4 years isn't going to be enough time here.

Annnnyways...

Last weekend my lovely bride-to-be sister came down from Seattle for her first bridal shower! I had such a fun time throwing it for her and it all went so well. I haven't loaded all of the photos yet but here are a few to start...

Bianca and I with the Bride-to-Be!

Me, Mama, & Jaclyn

The girls

Well I'm sorry to cut this post short but that's all the time I have for updates today! 5 o'clock on a Friday night means it's officially the weekend and I'm looking forward to spending every minute of it with that handsome guy I get to call hubby. Happy weekend everyone!

This is just ridiculous.

I have so much to write, so much to say!!! I'm in a horrible blogging rut and I need to get out of it because there are so many exciting and fabulous things going on in my life right now and I want to (NEED to!) document them all. Every time I get in a rut with blogging I give my blog a nice makeover and that usually does the trick. My goal for the next few days is to redo my blog, get myself motivated to write, and get you all caught up on our wonderful new life here at Travis AFB! Stay tuned...

It's Time!

Just wanted to stop by and say that moving day is tomorrow!! I'm so excited I can hardly stand it!

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!