Happy New Year!

Every time I think about updating my blog, I get overwhelmed by the sheer amount of stuff I could write about. Being home in California for the holidays has been pretty awesome so far (we still have like 2 more weeks!) although a bit of a whirlwind! Here are a few of the highlights:

- Our trip out was a little more eventful than we planned. We got to the airport bright and early with both dogs for our nonstop flight from Austin to L.A. Unfortunately, the plane was "very broken", according to the airline and we had to make alternate arrangements. We miraculously got an awesome customer service person (shocking!) and ended up flying through Dallas with both dogs in tow. It was a stress-free, if long trip- ended up getting in to California about 5 hours after we were originally supposed to.

- We almost immediately proceeded to celebrate Christmas with my family when we finally got to California. Although we were missing a few family members because my sweet little baby nephew, Luke was in the hospital for a respiratory infection. He got to come home on Christmas Day and is holding strong, praise God.






-Although we were sad to miss Luke, we loved getting to spend time with the adorable Danny & Katie

- Probably the most eventful part of the trip so far was a visit to the vet. About 2 days after we got here, Rufus was acting really lethargic and wouldn't eat. He's always been a bit of a finicky eater, but the lethargy was definitely abnormal (he's still a puppy after all). We were wondering if he was just out of it from the stress of traveling, but we ended up taking him to the vet, and he took a few x-rays and said it looked like an obstructed bowel. We left him there overnight, and they did the surgery the next morning. We were at Disneyland celebrating Nick's birthday (sooo fun!) when we got the phone call that the surgery was a success and Rufus had eaten (drumroll please....) women's underwear! We finally got the pictures last night and we're pretty sure they were mine, although it was a little hard to tell because of the discoloration. It definitely would've been more amusing if they weren't though. The vet bill was a little painful, even with the significant military discount we got. Needless to say, we will be investing in pet insurance very soon.

- We got to spend a night all by ourselves at the awesome Madonna Inn in San Luis Obispo. We wandered around town and went out to dinner and a movie. Then we got awesome massages the next day too at a local hot spring. We've had a great time with family, but it was very nice getting a little time to ourselves.

-Otherwise we've watched a lot of football, played a lot of Wii, eaten tons of tasty food, shot some guns, and relaxed with family and the dogs, who absolutely love it out here at my in-laws:






- Oh, and we've driven Nick's gorgeous new truck as much as possible.

Happy New Year! I know I'm ready for 2010. It's been a heck of a year, and I'm hoping a new year will bring a little less chaos (because it sure hasn't lightened up yet).

Oh No Not the Reindeer!!!

My mother-in-law reminded me tonight of a Christmas tradition that I'm shocked we forgot. In Nick's family, they have a little stuffed reindeer that they throw at each other and yell "OH NO, NOT THE REINDEER!!!" I don't know how we could possibly forget that tradition, although I knew I was forgetting something!

We'll have to figure out a good way to adapt that though, as our dogs enjoy ripping up stuffed toys entirely too much. And I can only imagine how they would react if that stuffed toy was flying through the air.

I also think we should adopt my friend Rachel's tradition of giving each other ornaments every Christmas. We've just barely outgrown our Charlie Brown Christmas tree, but we could still definitely use some ornaments, especially once we eventually get an actual tree.

We're off to California tomorrow, woohoo!!! I think we're about as prepared as we're going to get, and we just have to load up the dogs and their stuff tomorrow morning, bright and early -we're leaving the house at 7am, goody. But we're both really excited to get there and see the fam and celebrate our 2nd of 3 Christmases!!!

California, California, here we come!!!

Christmas Traditions

So technically this is only our 2nd Christmas together- unless you count last year, but Nick was gone 2 weeks before actual Christmas. So, we have been thinking a lot about what Christmas traditions to adopt as our own. Here are some of the ones we are thinking of stealing:

- Gifting a pair of PJs on Christmas Eve (which you, of course, wear to open presents the next day)
- Hot cocoa with a candy cane melted inside (and maybe a little Mint Chocolate Baileys)
- Making and decorating a whole lot of really tasty Butter Cookies (and apparently failing horribly with the cookie press)
- Going to see a light display (hopefully there will be ones as cool as he one we saw this year at our future posts)
- Christmas movie marathon- A Christmas Story, Love Actually, Christmas Vacation, It's a Wonderful Life, Nightmare Before Christmas
- Pancake breakfast
- Yummy smelling Christmas candles
- Lots and lots of Christmas music
- Opening stockings before presents (of course)
- Disneyland Christmas

Oh and I really liked making stockings, so I'll probably keep that tradition as well for our future children. For now though, I still have to finish both Nick's stocking and mine (which I haven't even started yet). The goal was to get Nick's done in time for our Christmas celebration. But that didn't happen, unfortunately, despite hours and hours of working on it. I'm pretty sure I can get them both done in time for next year though- fingers crossed

What are some of your Christmas traditions?

- Posted from Court's iPhone

Crazy Busy

I've been a really bad blogger lately. There hasn't been a lot of downtime between social events, getting ready to go home for Christmas (Saturday, woo!), and just enjoying time with Nick. :) I'm so enjoying all the little things. As fortunate as we were with communication during the deployment, nothing can quite compare to live and in person.

Nick had a 4-day weekend this weekend, and we were busy! Friday involved helping my friend Alice put up Christmas lights on her house and then an awesome ugly sweater party with people from Nick's unit. People really went for it with the ugly sweaters, and I was thoroughly impressed with the creativity, especially from the single guys. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves though and ended up staying until past midnight!

Ugly sweaters, yay! And yes, Nick's does have a moose on it

On Saturday, we had a few people over to watch the Army/Navy game. Unfortunately, Army lost...for the 8th year in a row. It was a pretty decent game though, at least. And watching the 2001 game (the last one Army won) that we TiVo'd helped lessen the sting a little bit. We were also going to go to a potluck with the Newly Married group from church that night, but we were way too exhausted.

Yesterday, we celebrated our Christmas together and opened presents and stockings!!! We got the dogs a couple new toys (a hopefully indestructible Kong and a new tire toy for Rufus), and made a delicious pancake breakfast. Nick was very generous and got me a fire pit for the backyard (yay!), an silly dog calendar, and an awesome How I Met Your Mother book! And we still have 2 more Christmases to celebrate at home!

Opening presents!

The weather was absolutely gorgeous (low 70s), so we busted out the flip flops and shorts and spent as much time outside as possible. It was a good thing too, because we are back to weather in the 50s today! Brrr. Alas, such is the life of a Texan. Shorts weren't really that festive anyway, ha ha. Anyway though, we took advantage of the lovely weather and set up our new tent that we got with some Christmas money!

Our gorgeous new tent!

Nick & Rufus checking out the inside

The dogs really enjoyed checking it out. We're really excited to camp now!

Somehow, we're almost ready to go home on Saturday! Not too much left to do- only a few things left on the to-do list and one more gift to buy. Can't wait for Disneyland, In-n-Out Burger, and the Pacific!

The Countdown is On!

So I realized that we're leaving for block leave in California (a month, woohoo!) next weekend! Um, when did that happen? I'm not stressed, but there is a lot of stuff to do before we go home for the holidays, and it is sneaking up on me! Because, of course, most of our Christmas shopping needs to be done before we go home, plus we're going to celebrate our own Christmas, then, of course, we need to pack.

Not to mention, we have 2 parties this weekend (an ugly sweater party & a potluck with the young marrieds class at church), plus 3 hours of church on Sunday, and the Army/Navy football game on Saturday (which involves 3 friends coming over to our house). Phew! Should be lots of fun! We will definitely be ready for relaxing over the holidays! Can't wait! We will definitely need it- especially after flying 3 hours with 2 dogs. Thank goodness it's only one-way as we'll be driving back in Nick's new truck!

Wonderful

He's home!!!

Nick went back to work today, so it's back to the routine, and the blog updates. We just found out he has Fri-Mon off though too, so that will be sweet!

But he's HOME!!! Unfortunately, I don't have pictures of homecoming yet, as I had my photographer friend take them for us and she's making them all pretty and stuff. I'll post them as soon as I have them though (which should be this week). I can't wait to see them myself! The homecoming itself was totally surreal. Texas randomly decided to spit out a freeeeeezzzing day, and his unit does their homecomings on a field, so I was all bundled up in my parka, scarf and gloves.

All dressed up, driving to the homecoming ceremony!!!

Thankfully we didn't have to wait too long in the cold before the buses pulled up with their police escort. It was totally exciting and crazy to hear everyone cheering for our guys and to see all of the families reunited. There was even a proposal! Silly us though, we didn't come up with a game plan of where to meet (which is totally out of character, seeing as we're big planners), so we spent about 5 minutes trying to find each other. Although someone told me he was going to be wearing his stetson and didn't actually end up wearing it, ha ha. I, surprisingly, didn't cry, but I think that's because I was just excited to have actually found Nick after wandering around for 5 minutes.

It's been so great so far to have him home, I can't even tell you! Obviously, there is some adjustment on both of our parts, but thankfully we have only had some slightly frustrated/annoyed moments so far. He's been a huge help with chores and the dogs, who are definitely excited to have him home too:

Welcoming Nick home

We've done a lot of relaxing at home since Nick has been back, but we also:

- Drove around the Christmas light display at a local lake- SO cool!

One of the cool light displays

- Ate lots of good food including Rudy's BBQ and Chipotle (two of Nick's favorites)

A very happy Nick with a big beer

- Celebrated our 2 1/2 year anniversary

Celebrating

- Went to church (YAY!) and tested out the new married's class (which we really like so far)
- Had another freezing day where it actually snowed, but didn't stick, unfortunately
- Took a trip to "Man Disneyland" (a.k.a. Cabela's)

- And even got a bunch of errands done including getting Nick a new phone & some new clothes

Did I mention how awesome it is to have him home?! It's definitely going to take some time to get used to this new normal, but so far, I absolutely can't complain.

Tomorrow!

Well, the day is finally here! Nick is on his way home and will be here tomorrow morning!!! I don't even know how to react. I doubt I'll sleep much tonight. It's still a little surreal, but I know tomorrow is going to be insane. Thankfully there are only 2 things on my to-do list, and I'll be waking up early enough that I won't be stressed about getting to post on time/early.

Of course, things had to be somewhat dramatic. I anticipated getting the official call from his unit (telling me they had left Kuwait) sometime this afternoon. People were updating their Facebook statuses saying they had received "the call"...then a few hours went by...then a few more...finally, I realized that a lot of time had gone by and I still hadn't been called. Knowing that I really couldn't stand it any longer, I called the unit and got my confirmation that he was on the flight, woohoo!!! I pretty much assumed he was, since I hadn't heard otherwise, but I really needed that confirmation. That's when it started to get really real and I let myself get excited!

So, here we are, a matter of hours away from homecoming!!! It felt like this day would never get here- especially in the past week with delays. But my husband is really coming home! I will see him tomorrow! Insert ridiculously huge smile!

Nick will have 4 days off when he gets home, so don't be surprised if I don't update very much. Eventually though, I will have pictures (thanks Mallory!) and joyous updates, including a "deployment in review". I've been thinking about the past year a lot lately. It was really rough at times, but I know we wouldn't be where we are in our marriage and in our walks with God without this deployment. But I'm way too distracted right now to put it all into words.

My husband is coming home!!!! Commence happy dance!