My first car!!

Today was a momentous occasion because we bought me my first car!! I've never had a car that I can truly call my own so this is very exciting. After a lot of research and family advice, we headed over to the local Toyota dealership looking for something more along the lines of a Corolla... But while we were there we saw this used 2005 Subaru Forester that was in our price range and thought we would test it out. Since we don't know where we will be going next, we thought it would be smart to get something with all-wheel drive incase we need to go somewhere with snow. Also, since it's a small SUV, James felt confident that I would be safe in it. I enjoy driving it because it's got some kick to it and reminds me of my parent's Jeep that I used to drive while I was home. It's a pretty shade of dark green, with a light brown cloth interior. It's automatic, which is good for me since I have not yet learned how to drive a stick, and it comes with both a radio and a CD player! The trunk is nice and large, and the back seats fold down for extra storage space. All in all, I think we got a good deal and I know I'll enjoy zooming around Phoenix in my new ride!! B^)

Our New Home

Well, we've been in Phoenix for about a week and a half now, and I'm glad to say that we have found a house to rent near the base and are almost completely unpacked. House hunting was a much more time consuming and stressful process than we anticipated, and so it was a huge relief to find a place that suits our needs and was available to move in immediately.

Of course, there were some benefits to our week of homelessness... While we were driving around exploring neighborhoods, we really got to know the area around the base. Since we didn't have the ability to cook for ourselves, we sampled several different restaurants - some of our favorite chains that we missed while living in Del Rio, as well as a few local places that we can hopefully take friends and family to when they visit. We also got to see some of the sites here in the "West Valley", namely the University of Phoenix Stadium where the Arizona Cardinals play. Turns out there is a big shopping center out there next to the stadium, complete with fountains, shops, and a big movie theater so we spent an afternoon out there enjoying the not-yet-too-hot Arizona sunshine.

It was a huge blessing to find a house so quickly, but in rushing the process we created/encountered a lot of unforeseen problems that have made the last three or four days pretty difficult. Because we visited the house while it was vacant, the living room wasn't very well lit and we didn't notice that two of the walls in there are not the nice, neutral tan of the rest of the house, but a distasteful shade of mint green that doesn't match our furniture at all. We really weren't planning on painting while we were here so that's kind of a pain. Another thing we were really excited about was finally having our own garage. However, upon pulling in for the first time, we got a nasty shock because the garage door closed on the back of the truck and scratched up the bumper. Turns out the garage is inches shy of being too shallow!! The truck fits, but we have to pull so far forward that we can just barely get in and out of the house. We also discovered, to our extreme annoyance, that we get almost no cell phone service in our neighborhood. Thus, in addition to paying for cable and internet, we had to add a home phone line to our cable bill. Around the time that we were dealing with that, we realized that our air conditioner is broken. We called our land lady and hopefully that will get fixed tomorrow afternoon. Thankfully it's been a relatively cool week in Phoenix (only in the 90's) so we've survived with ceiling fans and open windows...but it's been hardly comfortable and unpacking has been very sweaty business.

I really think that moving here and renting this house has been a rite of passage for us. We learned a lot of valuable lessons the hard way, and while the stress and frustration has not been fun, I think it has been good for us to work through a little adversity. Short of some minor health problems, our marriage has been smooth sailing so far (something that always kind of disgusted our more confrontational friends). Thus we got to learn a lot about each other and the way we handle tension and disappointment this week.

Of course, there are a lot of great things about the house too, and I'll be posting more pictures later this week once we get more organized. It's only 3 minutes from base so James no longer has to make long commutes in to work and back every day. Even though we're so close, we're ideally located so that we're spared most of the jet noise (A big plus because they only fly fighters at Luke and they are LOUD!!) We have nice landscaping with flowering bushes in the front yard, and a moderate sized lawn with a patio out back. The kitchen is spacious and came with all of the appliances we need. The living room is almost too large for what we have so we are looking into getting some more seating. (We're hoping to do a lot more entertaining here than we did in our apartment since we have finally the space.) All of the bedrooms and bathrooms are a good size. We now have the master bedroom (with an impressive walk-in closet), an office, and a third bedroom for guests. Oh - and the washer and dryer are separated in their own little room by the garage so we no longer have to shout over the noise every time we need to do laundry!

I think that, after we get settled in and learn to deal with some of the slightly problematic quirks, this house will make for a very nice little home. We're very close to a lot of shops, parks and restaurants too so I don't think I'll be complaining about being bored anymore. We've moved on to the next chapter in our life and look forward to seeing what else God has to teach us while we're here!

Leaving Del Rio!

Well, the time finally came for us to move out of our apartment, leave Del Rio, and head west to Phoenix!! It's still kind of hard to believe that the first phase of our life as a military family has come to an end and we are well on our way to beginning the second! Everything with the move (so far) seems to have happened really fast and it all seems like a blur...but I will try to give you a general idea of all we went through and got to experience on our way out to Arizona.

Even though we were not planning to leave Del Rio until Wednesday morning, the movers came to take all of our things on Monday. We got up early to make sure that everything was ready and then sat down on the couch to take a last whistful look around at our first home before everything disappeared into boxes. Luckily we did not have to wait long. The movers arrived at 8:30 am, had everything boxed up by 11:00 am, and then carried it all out to the truck by 2:30 pm. We were very impressed with how quickly and carefully they packed all of our things up. It definitely would have taken us much longer. After they left, we spent a couple hours cleaning the apartment before we turned the keys over. Before we knew it, we were officially homeless with everything we would need for the next couple of weeks in the back of our truck!

James had one last flight and all of his out-processing meetings to take care of on Tuesday so we stayed at the hotel on base until we were ready to depart on Wednesday morning. Both Monday and Tuesday night were spent with good friends, trying to enjoy a few of the things we liked most about Del Rio as a ceremonial farewell. Below is a picture of the two of us taking our final first bite of some Rudy's BBQ. We often met our friends there on Monday nights since they have a 20% military discount.

I think I handled leaving Del Rio pretty well. (I'm usually very bad about good bye's.) I wasn't sad at all about leaving our apartment, although there will always be some sentimental value attached to it, and it finally leaving the Del Rio city limits was very exciting. The only tears I shed were after saying good bye to our closest friends on Tuesday night.

Our first day on the road took us from Del Rio to El Paso, TX. It was a pretty uneventful trip. West Texas does not have much to offer in the way of scenery. We killed the time by listening to music and discussing all the things we were looking forward to doing once we arrived in Phoenix. The second day was much more exciting. There are all kinds of mountains and interesting rock formations in southern New Mexico and Arizona. It was also nice to feel like we were really getting somewhere instead of spending hours and hours driving in the same state. (Can you tell I'm excited to no longer live in Texas??)

It was particularly exciting crossing the Arizona state line. After a couple of hours the landscape began to change and we got to see more cacti. We had fun trying to be the first to see a saguaro, which was surprisingly difficult. We didn't really get to a place where they were prominent until we reached the far side of Tucson. This is one of the first good pictures I got of one:

Arriving in Phoenix was so exciting! We kept pointing everything out as we drove past - taking in the sites of our new home. The city gave us a rather rude reception though, with bumper-to-bumper traffic just south of downtown. It was pretty shocking since we are no longer used to driving in heavy city traffic like that. Being in a big city will definitely take some getting used to...

We spent the afternoon trying to find our way around the base and starting to look at the surrounding neighborhoods to help with our house hunt. I am very glad we did not commit to a house before driving around because there are always things that you can't see (or smell) on a map. Turns out one of the neighborhoods we were most interested in is right next to the city landfill. However, we found some other areas that we had originally written off that are actually really nice so hopefully we can find a great place pretty soon.

It's funny what things have been the most exciting about exploring the city. Some might think we would be most interested in the sports arenas or cultural sites, but I got the biggest surges of joy from seeing all of the different stores and restaurants they have here. I must have wiggled for 5 minutes straight after we passed a Target last night. Then this morning we stopped by the Commissary (on-base grocery store) and James and I did a little dance in the middle of the produce section because there were so many fresh things to choose from. I will definitely enjoy cooking while we are here!

I'll keep you updated on our adventures in the next couple of days. Hopefully we will have pictures of a new house to show soon!!

Easter Sunday

Happy Easter, everyone! Hope you all had a lovely day!

Despite our crazy moving schedule, we made a genuine effort to celebrate Easter today. We got up a little earlier than usual so that we could get all dressed up nice for church. I was excited to see James in a suit again for the first time in a long while. O=^) This morning's service was very bitter sweet because we knew that it would be our last one at Del Rio Bible Church. I was excited because they used an Easter video I made as a way to transition into the sermon this morning. I haven't really been able to do much in the way of church leadership since I graduated, so this was one small way I got to contribute to the worship service before we leave. Then at the end of the service the pastor called us up to the front and presented us with a picture frame that our friends signed and prayed for us as we are heading out for new places. They do this for everyone on their last Sunday, but it was still very meaningful and now we have something tangible to help us remember our time there.

When we got home, I made us a nice Easter brunch of chocolate chip pancakes and scrambled eggs, and we watched the DVD recording of New Life Church's passion play called "The Thorn" as a way to further meditate on the meaning of Easter. It's a bit cheesy in parts, but I love the music and enjoyed telling James all about it since he had never been to see the play live while he was at the Academy.

After that was over we dived back into packing and have been doing that ever since. However, I wouldn't say all the work has detracted at all from the meaning of the day. I enjoy doing somewhat mindless tasks with my hands because that always gives me a chance to think. (That may be why I enjoy arts and crafts so much!) It really is amazing how much Jesus was willing to endure in order to repair the bond between us and His Father, and I am so thankful!!

Good Bye Party

I don't have much time because we're busy packing up our apartment, but I just wanted to let you all know that our good bye party last night was great! We decided to hold it out by the apartment pool, which is always beautifully lit at night. We provided lots of pizza and some side dishes and everyone else brought dessert and beer and we all had fun just hanging out in the warm Spring weather. It started out a bit slow because most people wanted to go to the drop on base which overlapped with our party (a "drop" is an assignment night for the graduating pilot training classes.) However, after everyone moseyed on over to our place we had a blast. We had hoped to actually get in the pool and swim, but apparently it's not a heated pool and no one seemed excited about diving into the freezing water. Oh well. It was a great way to say good bye to our Del Rio friends, and we look forward to hosting more parties in our new house in Phoenix!

Lent

Being a practical Presbyterian, I've never really been serious about participating in the season of Lent. Growing up, I always heard my friends say they were giving up chocolate or drinking soda/pop/coke/whatever-you-call-it or instant messenger and then break down and partake of their sworn-off pleasure a few days later. It just seemed like an outdated practice that no one ever really took seriously, and since my family doesn't do it I never felt the need.

In fact, I can only think of one person whom I have ever seen really put their heart and soul into it. My friend Kelsey from SIU is a very committed Catholic and I always took an interest in what she chose to give up each year because I knew that it would be something really difficult, but she would somehow muscle her way through it. (Apparently this year she chose to give up eating in front of the TV, which struck me as a very strange resolution until I really thought about how frequently we young people do that. I don't think James and I have even used our dining room table in the last couple months... =^/ )

However, a thought struck me around the time that Lent began that I took to be a very appropriate challenge, and I'm proud to say I've made it all the way through to the end! (Well...I say that with confidence that I won't break it before Sunday...) I thought about how I have been spending a large amount of time over the last several months indulging in fantasy novels and other pleasurable fiction, and how that volume was very disproportionate to the amount of time I spent reading my Bible. SO - I resolved to only read faith-related books for Lent. Initially I meant that I would only read my Bible or other Christian non-fiction stuff...but one of my mentors from Seekers saw something I had written about that on facebook and reminded me that there are some great works of fiction that focus on faith as well. Thus, I branched out a bit and enjoyed reading through some of my favorite Christ-infused novels as well. Obviously, there were C. S. Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia, which James and I both read all the way through. But I also revisited Little Women, which is essentially a story of the spiritual growth of four sisters as they try their best to "shoulder their burdens" and follow Christ in their own unique ways. This was one of my favorite books growing up, but somehow I missed just how much the author discusses faith throughout the story. It was also interesting seeing how my reaction to the characters has changed now that I am much older. The parts where the girls are adjusting to married life were particularly touching. =^)

A few days ago I was faced with a dilemma. I had been enjoying reading through some quality non-fiction writings from C.S. Lewis, but felt like I wanted something a little less analytical. However, I wasn't sure what other novels I could justify reading before Easter. Finally, I decided to pick up a book that I have owned for quite some time but have never attempted to read, and that was Ben Hur. I had seen parts of the movie several times and knew that it was supposed to take place during the time of Christ so I figured I would give it a whirl. I was pleased to discover (after getting through the first chapter which is really dense and slow-moving {and quickly reminded me why I hadn't read that book yet}) that the story has a lot to do with Christ and even begins with a unique account of His birth. I'm only 10 chapters in but already I believe that I have chosen the perfect literary work to round out this season of meditation on faith. I doubt I'll finish it before Sunday (what with all of the moving stuff we've got to deal with), but I look forward to gaining a new perspective on the crucifixion when I do.

The Good Byes Begin...

This past weekend was the beginning of our transition out of Del Rio. We drove up to San Antonio on Saturday morning to spend a couple days revisiting some of our favorite places and spend time with our friends one last time. We saw a movie at the Alamo Cinema Drafthouse where we got engaged, which was very bitter sweet. Then we checked into our favorite hotel at Randolf Air Force Base for one last night of discounted luxury. Finally, we went to a wedding shower for our good friends Caleb and Jordan who are getting married in June. It turned out to be a big engagement fest as our other good friend Ryan Worrell had just popped the question the night before. A bunch of our Air Force friends were there and so we had a wonderfully crazy time enjoying the food and the fabulous spring weather!

Sunday morning we all met for brunch before James and I made our final trek home to Del Rio. It was hard to hear things like: "Well, I probably won't see you again until June, so take care!" and realize that we are really leaving. I still don't think it has really set in just yet. Maybe on Saturday when we start boxing all of our stuff up... James says it won't be real for him until Del Rio is in our rear view mirror on Wednesday morning.

Sunday night we went to our last Bible Study. That was hard for me because I think meeting with that group has been one of the highlights of my time in Del Rio. We have really benefitted from the fellowship and wisdom of the other couples there, and will miss them a lot! At the end of the meeting I made sure to take a big group photo so I can include them in our Del Rio photo book.

Tonight we are driving in to the base to spend some casual time with some of our closest friends, kind of as a final bonding experience. Then on Friday night we're throwing a big good bye party out by the pool. It's really hard to get definite answers out of a lot of our friends as to whether or not they will show up, but hopefully the lure of free pizza and beer will be enough to help draw enough people to really make an event of it. Plenty of pictures to come from that, I'm sure!

Spontaneous San Diego Vacation

James and I are definitely the type of people who plan big trips and events well in advance. However, a few weeks ago we found out that his older brother Jon and his wife Claire were going to be in San Diego visiting family at the end of the month and they wanted us to be there as well. We rarely get to see them as Jon is also a fighter pilot and has been stationed over seas for the past few years. This is a rather hectic time for us as we're getting ready to move, but we really didn't want to pass up the opportunity to have the whole family together again. So we bought some plane tickets and headed out there this past weekend for a spontaneous California get-away.

The festivities started immediately after we landed. One of my best friends from college, Erin, is currently living in San Diego so I gave her a call and let her know we were going to be there this weekend. She's getting married in June but I'm not going to be able to be there, so I thought it would be nice to at least see her again and congratulate her in person. James and his parents have a tradition where they get some In 'N Out Burger as soon as he arrives, so we all met there and enjoyed some great conversation and good food under the warm Southern California sun!

After that was over, it was time to finally go see the rest of our family! It turns out they were all catching some rays at the beach so we drove up there to meet them. I was a bit apprehensive since I was not at all dressed for a trip to the beach, but that didn't really matter once we got there. Sure, I got some sand in my shoes, but we really enjoyed ourselves so it was all worth it. James' brothers Jon and Sam were out surfing so we had fun watching them attempt to catch some waves. Their wives, Claire and Alison, were just hanging out on the beach with our little niece Madison so they were there to welcome us when we arrived. It was definitely a fun place to start getting reacquainted.

It turns out that this weekend was not only a family reunion, but also a time for celebrating multiple birthdays. Saturday (the day we arrived) was James' step father Bob's birthday so we all decided to go out for a nice dinner that night. James' family is really big on only taking guests to local places where you can really experience something that is uniquely Californian. So, for dinner, we went to a big brewery where you can eat, drink, and enjoy the weather all at the same time. The food and conversaion were all really great. However, I was having a really hard time because I was really worn out from all that we had already done that day. By the time we finally got back to our hotel that night, I was fully prepared to just crawl into bed and not move for a very long time.

Luckily, everyone else felt similarly so we all decided to sleep in on Sunday morning and all just congregate back at Alison's parent's house later that day for a big BBQ in honor of Claire's birthday. It was a very large, but relaxed event - complete with everyone from James immediate family, plus Alison's family and Claire's parents and friends who all came down from Santa Barbara for the day. We played plenty of outdoor games in the back yard while the meat was cooking, and then feasted on the back deck as one big happy family. After that we were all too full to do much else and so we just hung around the house and visited and all participated in everyone's favorite activity - playing with Madison.

Madison is a truly adorable little baby. She's only 7 months old, but already she can crawl around and stand up with a little extra support. She has a BIG personality and always has everyone laughing. I'm usually not very comfortable around babies because I am afraid of doing something wrong and hurting them. However, all of the time we spent interacting with her this weekend helped me to relax and have fun with her. James was a particularly big hit with Madison. He played a ridiculous game of peek-a-boo with her, making a crazy face each time he showed his face, which made her laugh really hard. From then on, every time she saw him, she would suddenly bend over and try to hide her face for a few minutes before popping back up and giggling like mad. Apparently she has never acted like that before so clearly this was an exclusive reaction to James. It's crazy to think that she can already recognize people and remember them for very specific things! I think James is in serious danger of becoming the family clown just like my dad. I can just hear all the future nieces and nephews saying: "Do something funny, Uncle James!!"

Monday was a pretty laid back day. Alison is in the middle of getting her nurses' certification so she was gone most of the day. Claire went with her so she could take the car and visit her grandmother who lives in the city. So I hung out at the house with the guys, playing with Madison while James and his brothers played video games and talked about music, flying and sports. This may seem uneventful, but it was great because we all had time to really catch up and get reacquainted. I have never really had much opportunity to spend time with Jon in person so it was nice getting to know him better. James said it was interesting for him to see the ways in which they had all changed, and what had stayed the same.

That night the young people all went out to dinner while James' parents ate dinner with Alison's parents and - of course - Madison. I think Sam and Alison really appreciated having a chance to get away from their parenting duties for a night and just be "normal people" again. The next morning we were all going to have to go our separate ways - Sam and Alison to work/school, Jon and Claire up to LAX so they could fly back to Japan, and James and I were flying back to Texas later that day, so this dinner was a great final bonding opportunity for us.

The next morning we checked out of the hotel, said good bye to the family, and James and I hung out at the house with Madison until it was time to head down to the airport. In some ways, the trip seemed very short. However, I think we did enough to make it feel like a fun get-away, without a total over-load of activity which would have made the weekend very stressful for me. I often feel like vacations wear me out more than daily life, so I really appreciated all the down time we had to just enjoy each other's company.

Now we have less than two weeks to enjoy time with our friends in Texas before moving to Phoenix on the 15th!!