Journey Part II/ We Have Arrived!

Our last few days have been centered on driving. Friday we took off for Oklahoma City. Knowing we had a shorter day of driving, we stopped by the Penske truck shop to check out the air-conditioner that was acting up. I am so thankful we did. The man fixed our air-conditioner, a fan problem, and as we were driving out of the parking lot the anti-lock brake light came on. After the mechanic fixed that problem he noticed a flat tire on our trailer holding our car. Praise the Lord we stopped by that shop. If we had continued we would have been stuck with a couple of bad problems most-likely on the side of the road in the deserts of Arizona. There are very few and far between stops in the southwest. Believe me I had to limit my liquid intake drastically just to make it to our next stop. God had His hand directly over us the entire journey. Here is Archie, our mechanic, and Daniel after everything was fixed.



Saturday night was Albuquerque, New Mexico and Sunday night was Barstow, California. We stayed on military lodges all three nights and had three great stays. I am always thankful for the military.

Monday morning we left Barstow early and arrived in Monterey early afternoon. It is beautiful. I cannot wait to explore more of it with Daniel. All the anticipation and dreaming of what it will be like and here we are getting ready to start this ride.

Daniel is doing all his checking in and military requirements this morning. I decided to stay here in the room. I knew I would have just been in the car most of the time while he filled out forms and such. We have a third floor room with a gorgeous view of the bay and the weather is cool 63 degrees. The windows are open and it feels wonderful knowing we don't have to drive a long distance today. I was very ready to be done with the Penske truck rides. It has been a good truck for us and Daniel handled it well. He is an excellent driver and remained alert on the road the entire trip from coast to coast. We just have to get into our home and drop it off to be done with it. Whew! DITY moves are a lot of work with this distance. I am thinking it will be worth it in the long run though.


Thank you again for all your prayers concerning our journey. We are safely here. Now I just can't wait to get some photo shots of this lovely area.

We are running errands this afternoon and then sharing dinner with my friend Jo and her family tonight. The Marine Corps brought Jo and I together in Hawaii and it has brought us together again. I look forward to spending time with her here in California.

I plan on posting some pictures soon. Thanks for reading all this. I know it was a long couple of posts.


Much Love

Journey Part I

Thank you for your many prayers and phone calls over the last couple of weeks. We are now in Monterey staying in temporary quarters until the house we have pre-leased is available. The lodge is great and we are thankful the driving is behind us.



It has been quite a long past two weeks. We had several goodbyes and lots of tears as we left New Bern. It had become quite a wonderful home for us and we already look forward to returning to live as well as visit. Moving week went smoothly due to all the helpful hands and words of advice given to us over the whole ordeal. Many thanks!



Our journey began on June 1st and took us to Crossville, Tennessee where my Daddy's side of the family was joining for a summer reunion. Daniel and I timed our trip across country just right. (Well, we know it was the Lord's timing.) We spent three nights in a rustic cabin with my parents, aunt, uncle and cousins. It was a refreshing time for us after the hectic process of vacating our home. I sadly do not have any pictures to upload at this time because they are on Daniel's phone and we have not made them available quite yet. Nonetheless, we had a wonderful time with family and of course it was hard to say goodbye there as well.



June 4th, our 4 year anniversary, took us on a road trip to Missouri to stay with Daniel's parents for a week. It was a sweet day together despite the 12 hour drive to Centerview. We were together for our anniversary this year and I am very thankful for that. Daniel has become an even dearer friend to me over the last year. I am so thankful for his time home from deployments and I look forward to this time here in Monterey where God can continue to grow us in our marriage.



Our time in Missouri was sweet and productive. We were able to spend a great deal of time just enjoying the company of family. Mom planned a barbecue on Sunday with her side of the family and the rain storm held off that day for a perfect afternoon under the giant elm tree in their back yard. Thank you dear family for the wonderful gifts for our baby girl. I cannot thank you enough for thinking of us and our new family member.



We were able to help Mom continue to prepare her shop. She is opening an antique store and there is so much to be done. She purchased several beautiful display units and Daniel and his muscles were very helpful in placing as well as transporting them to the correct place in the shop. I was able to help with light lifting and organizing. It is going to be a wonderful store when it opens.,Mom!



On Wednesday we took a break from the shop and headed to Branson to visit Silver Dollar City, an old west themed amusement park. Daniel and his family went to SDC several times when he was growing up so it was neat to go with the family this time. I look forward to going again...to experience even more than one day can show, but I really wanted to ride the roller coasters. For baby girl's sake I refrained. We were able to get an old-timey photo taken and it came out pretty good. I will have to scan it in in the future to share.



Thursday night we went to Dolly Parton's Dixie Stampede. Basically, this is an excellent dinner theatre with yummy food and fantastic entertainment. The show is centered on Civil War era North and South competition. The audience is split in half and participates with stamping on the floor and cheering through out the night. There are horse stunts and several other live animals doing amazing tricks in a dirt-floored arena. It really was a fantastic sight to see, well worth the visit. We had a great time with the Good side of the family in Branson. Great idea to end the visit in Branson, Mom and Dad. We loved it!

Moving Week

It has been awhile, but it hasn't been due to my laziness. It is moving week here...well it has been moving month here, but that is beside the point. We have been finishing up our packing this week and just have a couple more boxes to go.



It is hard to believe we are leaving already. I am preparing myself mentally everyday, but things keep creeping up on me and making me sad, like my hydrangea bush in full bloom making me already miss working in the the yard this year. I know there will be another flower bed to work on in California. I need to focus on the right kind of thinking. God has this planned for us and He is in control.

Well, now that my personal pep-talk is done I will fill you in on the past few weeks blessings.

Daniel had a change-of-command at work and I was able to attend. He spoke to his unit and here are a few pictures from the day.




And one of us afterward:



Later that weekend we enjoyed the Cherry Point airshow with Jim, Jenny and David. Jim flew in the airshow as part of a demonstration so we wanted to show our support.





I was spoiled rotten on Sunday when the ladies from Berean threw our family a baby shower. The theme for the shower was children's books and Melia decorated with a bedtime story theme. It was very cute.



I didn't have any group photos but this weekend we will be having a potluck after church so I will be sure to take some photos of our church family there.



The LINKS ladies also threw me a wonderful shower at a local Mexican restaurant. They know me well. I love Mexican! We had a special time playing games and sharing childhood memories. Thanks Maria for all your work put into it!

Here are some photos from the night.










Before:









After:



I was overwhelmed by every one's generosity. I really was not expecting such an out pour of gifts. I had figured it would be a great get-together/send off. The ladies blessed us immensely.



We have had some other good times with friends the last couple of weeks. Game time at the Steels, pizza night at Bill and Sandy's house, last Sunday night at the Paynes, all these great friends we look forward to seeing in the future on earth as well as in heaven.



I am meeting some ladies for one last hoorah at Baker's Square for breakfast tomorrow. I know it will be a sweet time.



I hope to write again soon, but I do not know for sure when. I will continue taking photos and post eventually. Thank you for all you support and help these last few weeks as we have packed and prepared. You all are so special to us both.

Here She Is!

Here is proof that she is a she. It is basically like Daniel says, she is sitting on a Xerox machine. Her two legs are the white V in the image. She wants to make sure Mom and Dad knows she is a girl.




Here is her head and the top of her belly. The white spots are either bone forming or cartilage so you can see her skull is not fully formed and firm yet. The black space is just liquid and/or organs forming.


As I said before, the technician said everything was appearing to be forming correctly. Praise the Lord! So far healthy kidneys, brain development and heart rate. We will know more at our next ultrasound.


Here is one last image from the other day:


She is giving us the thumbs up!

Love Ya'll!

It's a Girl!

We went to our ultrasound appointment on Friday and were delighted to find out we are having a little girl. What a blessing!

When the technician announced it I immediately started crying with joy which included laughter and definite belly movement thus the visual image started bouncing. My cries were disturbing our baby's picture. Ha! I composed my self enough to breathe softly, but it is such a delight being able to see the baby in motion while she is still inside .

I was not expecting a girl. I know everyone says it is always a 50/50 chance, but I had really thought it would be a boy considering the male dominance in Daniel's family. We had narrowed more boy's names down and I had started thinking nursery colors and themes. It was a great surprise to have to shift my thinking.

I was especially thankful for Friday because my Dad and sister were able to join us in the ultrasound room to view the baby girl. My Mom, Dad, Sarah and Andrew were all able to come down here on Thursday night to spend the weekend. It was a dear time. It was relaxing, yet we got a great deal of packing done. We also were just able to enjoy each others company with some game and movie time, two of my favorite pastimes. Thank you for making it down here family!

Well, Daniel is off of work this week so we are packing in as many projects as we can. He is currently working on some small electrical things around the house that needed checking on. No need to worry. He is incredibly cautious and has labeled everything correctly on the breaker box.

We are currently thinking of names for our baby girl, so feel free to comment and share some names. It may help us out...even the goofy ones. It may get the wheels in our head turning a different way. Yes, I know our last name is fun one to play with as well.

Ya'll have a great week. I will post pictures of the baby soon.