Cross Country Trip

I did my best to try and take a few pictures of each state as we drove through them... of course, this dedications/motivations dwindled the further into the trip we got. Amazing how spending 2+ weeks in the car can ruin the excitement of a road trip!  


The cats survived... barely.  There were a few days when we considered strapping their carriers to the luggage rack.  Okay... not really but their howling (like we were skinning them) did where us down.  Fortunately after a few days on the road, they would give up their protest within 10-15 minutes of our return to the car.  


With our drive through the South came the return of summer thunderstorms!  Wahoo!  I love watching thunderstorms building... and after 2 years in California, it was a beautiful sight!


Sorry that a few of the pictures are blurry.  All the photos were taken from the moving car.  We weren't stopping for anything (other than my frequent potty breaks ;).


We've been here 6 weeks and after almost 2 weeks of waiting, our HHG (military term for Household Goods - aka all our stuff) was finally delivered.  Turns out it had been put in storage in Richmond (2 1/2 hours away) so we had quite the wait.  


The house is unpacked... which I guess means I should start posting pictures.  We still have some organizing to do but I've been focusing my energy on the nursery!  SOOO excited to finally be able to set up the nursery!  Baby Boy's dresser should be delivered by the end of the week... and then I'll be able to post pictures :)

Bye-Bye Monterey

They say the few certain things in life are taxes and death.  For military families, there's one more thing we can add to that list... moving.  Almost like clock work, every 2-3 years our homes are put in boxes and loaded on a truck.  I'm amazed at how quickly moves can roll around.  20 months ago our house looked similar to this... only we were moving in.  I forgot the mixture of dread and excitement I feel (in the pit of my stomach) when I hear the rumble of the moving truck and see it stop in front of our house. 

Monterey has far and above been our toughest duty station.  There were countless months last year when I cried weekly that I just wanted to leave Monterey.  Our move seemed so far away at the time.  Amazing how the Lord has brought us friends who have helped heal the wounds incurred during our time here... making it somewhat bittersweet to leave.  I'm excited to have survived so many tough times here... but it's hard saying goodbye to friends and wondering if we'll see them again this side of heaven. 

Last week Justin received he's Master's Degree... or more accurately he received his "Certificate of Completion".  LOL.  I hear the diploma will be coming shortly.  I'll post more about that once I find a thumb drive to dowload the graduation photos from his laptop onto mine.  Our family left Saturday evening (for the most part) giving us 1 full day to finish preparing the house for the movers.  Yes, we can say it's been busy and fairly stressful.  In the middle of juggling so much family in town, our van broke (and the car has already been shipped to Virginia).  The van went from getting 25 mpg to 12 (don't tell the tree huggers out here ;).  Today is day 4 of the van at Midas and we're told it should be ready for pick up this evening. 

We're so thankful for friends who have lent us their truck while they're out of town, for friends who have cooked us dinner, and for friends who have left us the keys to their house so that we can do laundry or heat up food.  We're thankful that the multiple emails about our rental property in FL having "issues" have resulted in cheap repairs... and we're praying that a major hurricane levels that house this year (and ask you to join us in this prayer... oh yes, we're serious :).  This is my 4th summer praying for a hurricane to level that house... and I'm thinking it might be our lucky year!   It's so tough to find the blessings when our days are plagued by activity and stress but the Lord has been showing us how He's providing.

Friday morning we will officially depart Monterey for good... and we're very excited to be moving on to the next duty station.  After 6 years of training and studying, Justin is looking forward to having a "real job" in the Navy (after 5 more weeks of school in Pt. Hueneme).  We're looking forward to returning "home" to Virginia where so many dear friends are... and we're especially looking forward to this fall when we'll welcome Baby Boy into our lives.

Another Page Turns

Greetings all,
A momentous ocassion has come that I (Justin) am actually writing a posting for your perusal. Up to this point I have generally left the blogging to Jen, but as I am temporarily separated from my wife I find my brain deviously sneaking off on me to pursue odd new diversions such as- blogging.

Three weeks ago today Jen & I left our home in Chesapeake to drive cross country to Monterey, CA. We then returned to the house, picked up our GPS unit and then started our journey. Down through South Carolina, Georgia, to Louisiana we went. We stopped for a short while in Slidell, LA which is located just northeast of Sodom...I mean New Orleans. An interesting city that evokes many emotions, none of them mild. Jen took me on a tour of the downtown and despite leaving our armored-up Humvee back at her parent's place we, with God's angels guarding us, survived. After a couple days we headed off to Texas to visit Jen's brother, as well as her alma mater