I didn't mean to take a week off...

I can't believe I didn't post for a week! Each day I thought about blogging and had stuff to write about but for some reason something always got in the way. Let's see if I can remember what I did all week....

Friday was a lazy day and Jake and I just rented a movie and relaxed. Saturday was a lot of fun; we went with a group of about 8 people to Starkville, MS. Its a little college town where Mississippi State is located and is about a half hour away. We went out for pizza and went to the Miss. State vs. Vanderbilt basketball game. It was a ton of fun!

After the game, we went over to one of the couple's apartment and hung out for a while. It was nice to get out of Columbus for the night. Sunday we went to church and the went out lunch with some good friends of ours. Monday was our cleaning day. The house had somehow gotten so dirty without us realizing it so we did some major cleaning. That night I cooked a huge dinner and we had our neighbors over. It was so great!

The rest of my week has not been very exciting at all. My online classes have started so I surprisingly have quite a bit of school work. For those of you who don't know, I am taking 12 units online to finish my degree. I will transfer those into Biola in May and fly out to Biola to graduate at the end of May. It's so nice to almost be done with school! The classes are very challenging though and I find myself having low motivation after the last semester I had. I also started going to the fitness classes at the base gym this week and found out that they are really fun. They have all sorts of classes: dance, yoga, pilates, cardiokickboxing, aerobics, and on and on.. I did a core class today and I don't think I will be able to walk tomorrow. It's a good pain though because I am getting in shape!

Basically my typical day is not super exciting. I usually sleep in until about 9, take the dog on walks, work on my classes, go to the gym, clean, cook lunch and dinner, talk to the neighbors, knit, scrapbook, watch tv, and anything else I can do to fill my time. It sounds great right? I mean it is but it is already starting to get old. I don't get much interaction with people or have any big challenges during the day which is something I really need. I know I should just enjoy this period of my life, seeing as how I may never get this much free time again, but I am itching to find a job or something new to do. Jake and I are definitely still adjusting and I think we will be for a while still. He is doing good at taking care of me though and makes me laugh when I get lonely or homesick.

I am very excited for this weekend though! Tori comes out to visit on Saturday! We probably won't do much but it doesn't matter because we have so much catching up to do. Tori is my best friend and when we get together we can talk for hours. I haven't seen her since the wedding and am beyond excited!

Hopefully I will get back to my normal blog posting schedule again. Hope everyone had a great week!

Our first house.

Well I am finally posting pictures of the house and base. The house is pretty much done being set up. There are still some decorations I want to buy and more painting that I want to do but that will have to wait a few months until we have some extra money. For now, we are very happy with our little house and the setup. Alright here comes a lot of pictures. I will write a little caption above each one.

Here is the sign in front of the main gate entrance

Driving on the main street coming into base

On the flightline

This is our house! Its not really anything special but its great for a first house. Starting in the spring we have yardcare people that will take care of our lawn and trees and bushes. They don't come in the winter because it gets so cold that the grass is dead most of the time.

This is the entry way into the house. I still want to put a mirror or some decoration on the right wall to finish it off.

Here is the living room before and after:

Here is the kitchen before and after. We love everything about it except for our old stove.

Now down the hallway...

The first door on the left is the main bathroom. Its the one I wrote my "Paint Fiasco" blog about a while ago. I wish I had taken a "before" picture but here is what it looks like now.

At the end of the hall is the master bedroom (which is really the same size as the other bedrooms, but it has a small bathroom attached to it). Here is the before and after:

So anyways, that is our house, well, most of it anyways. We are very happy in it! Its so wierd what a difference it makes moving from an apartment to a house...its great! I will continue to post changes as the house improves and I can't wait to see how green everything is outside come spring. I plan to turn the walkway to our door into a nice garden! Well, that's all for now. Let me know what you all think of the house!

7 Months & Counting!

As of today, Jake and I have been married for 7 months! We didn't really celebrate because its not a "big" anniversary or anything. Actually we did go out to dinner so I didn't have to cook, but because of our "budget restraints" our luxurious dinner was held at Taco Bell (HA!).

It's wierd to me to think of how much has changed in the past 7 months. I mean, everything has changed with us...where we live, what we do, our relationship with eachother, and on and on. To be honest, 7 months ago I had this fairytale idea of what being married would be like. I knew it would be SO happy and SO much better than anything I could imagine. It's funny because I was definitely right but not in the way I was expecting. In our short marriage, Jake and I have pushed eachother and grown eachother in so many ways. Marriage hasn't been easy though at all and definitely not what I had imagined. It changes your whole life when there is someone else that you make all of your decisions with and has an impact on even the most private areas of your life. You don't have the ability to make some of the selfish decisions that you would have done before marriage. Everything about you becomes linked to another person. It's strange and I feel like no one could have prepared me for it. When we were dating I felt like we could never be any closer but marriage brought something totally different into our relationship.

But really, wow! This marriage has been wonderful! We've both grown up so much. I really believe that we've helped eachother become better people because we have allowed eachother to see the bad things in our lives that no one else ever sees. And when we do see those areas that maybe need some refining we have the safety of marriage to work through those things and be real. And through all of it, we are best friends. We've moved to a new and different place and don't even feel lonely because we have eachother and have so much fun with eachother. There have been so many times these past months where we have laughed so hard that we cried. Jake never fails to make me laugh.

Since our wedding, God has challenged me with bringing about one of the most stressful times in my life. With a heavy work load at school and a new marriage, I was really challenged these past months. I don't know if I could have done it without Jake. It's so wonderful to have a husband that supports me in every way and empathizes with me when I need it most. He brought home flowers after my important days at school and cleaned the house when he knew I had no time or energy. He took care of me and constantly told me that he loved me and was proud of me.

I cannot imagine being blessed with a better husband. God has taught me so much these past 7 months through our marriage and I know this is only the beginning of an amazing journey!

Jaclyn's visit to Mississippi.

Jaclyn came out to visit this past week and we had an AWESOME time! Most of the week we just relaxed and watched movies while we caught up on eachother's lives. One day we drove into Alabama and spent the day in Birmingham which is a beautiful city. Here is my first picture post that shows pictures from Jaclyn's visit!

This is a picture of the town of Columbus where I live. These are the downtown buildings. They are so cute!

Jaclyn in front of one of the old buildings:

After exploring downtown Columbus, we left for Birmingham, AL. This is the classy house that we saw on the way. Sadly, I have actually seen much worse...

Downtown Birmingham:

It was a great day. We found a Starbucks in Birmingham which made it even better!

A lot of the week was also spent playing with Bailey. I was so happy that Jaclyn got to meet the newest member of the family :) We had a lot of fun!

Pictures of the house and base are next!

Just a quick post.

Hello! Jaclyn is here this week so that explains my lack of blogging. Considering I only see her now a few times a year, I will probably not post a real blog until she leaves on Saturday. I do have few more updates though real quick.

First, Jake and I found a church! I can't believe we already found one! I love it! Our neighbors across the street invited us to go with them last Sunday and its seriously just what we were looking for. Next week we are going to start going to the bible study thats right before service too. Apparently there are a ton of Christian air force couples that go to the bible study so it will be a great way to meet people too.  I am very excited about it! It's been so hard not to have a home church lately and I can't believe we already found the right one. In LA it took us almost 2 years to find our church! Second piece of news, I got my grades back and I can't believe it but I got a 4.0 this semester! What?! I mean I took 23 units! I am kind of shocked that the best I have ever done in college was during the busiest semester of my life (not to mention taking all my senior classes). I don't say this to brag but more so just because I did something that in August I didn't think I could ever get through. God was faithful and never gave me more than He knew I could handle. It's such a wonderful feeling to be done with the semester and know that I finished well.

Anyways, I have more updates but like I said, Jaclyn's here so I'll post more this weekend. Hope everyone is having a great week!!