November Festivities

I have become the world's worst blogger. Maybe it's night shift with a mix of not a lot of exciting escapades around here.

Lets see last weekend the weekend of the 20th we celebrated my sister's birthday. Had a nice little dinner at my mom's I think my mom got all the cute pictures on her camera but I got a few.





I have been enjoying my every other Tuesday's with my nephew Porter. He is getting so big he is 4 1/2 months now. He is strong and stubborn, but quite a happy boy, who does not like naps. :-)




Chad and I spent Thanksgiving at my dad's house this year. It was nice and quiet Thanksgiving. Just my parents, sister, brother in law, the baby, and Chad and I were there. The food and the company was great. I think Porter kept us entertained most of the time. Our friends Josh and Jen came over later that evening to hang out and say goodbye. They just got married Nov 7th and Jen is finally able to move down to Arizona. They are both stationed down there in the Air Force. Chad and I are going to miss them both very much.

Here is a funny video of Mimi (Michelle/Grandmimi) reading Porter a Thanksgiving Story. She edited the book a bit to talk about butter. For those of you who do not know Michelle, she loves butter, I do not remember how the conversation started or why she started adding it into the story but it turned into a thing and it was hilarious to us all.

This says it all

http://bethanymurphy.net/
Please go see this. Bethany was the photographer at Josh and Jen's Wedding and she did and AMAZING job. I am not sure that anyone else could have captured them better.

The Downing Wedding and Events

So since last Thursday Chad and I have been busy with our friends Josh and Jen's wedding. Chad and Josh met many years ago when they were stationed at McChord. I became friends with Josh years ago as well, and met Jen a little bit after Josh met Jen and she and I became friends quickly. It was evident for them and anyone who knew them that they were meant to marry each other. Chad and I both felt very blessed to be a part of their day. They are both so dear to us. If you knew them you would understand why. Jen has a heart of gold. She is the perfect encourager a true woman of God. She has brought out the best in Josh. And Josh well he is one of the most passionate people you will meet. Chad and I tell each other we think he was born to be a worship pastor who knows maybe he will end up there someday. We love you guys!

Thursday was the bachelorette/bachelor parties. Friday rehearsal and rehearsal dinner and Saturday wedding.















So the photographer for the wedding was my dear friend Bethany. She did an AMAZING job as you will see. I will post a link to her web page when she has pictures up she has one picture up now that is phenomenal. I'm so glad she came up to do the wedding. I got to see some of the pictures and I know once she is done they are going to have more pictures then they are going to know what to do when but so many good ones that they will have forever. :-)

Sailing Day

So I mentioned that we woke up this day at 2am and all that jazz. We explored Venice a bit more. We did find this little cafe. Chad tried Cappuccino for the first time and I had Italy idea of hot chocolate .


Then Chad and I found the correct dock to dock us to the ships and there was the neatest couple there that we shared the taxi boat with.



So we arrived at the pier and they made everything so easy. We go went through all the hub bub go to the ship, hung out, had some lunch, explored, and pretty much remained in awe of the ship for the rest of the night. We stayed out on the deck for most of the evening until I was frozen to the core so we could watch the sail away part which was really cool. We got to see more of Venice that way too. We ate our first nice meal on board that night, well every meal we nice on board haha.

Venice Day 1

Chad and I headed out on October 15th for Venice for the start of our Greek cruise. Which was mostly a HUGE gift to us. Lets just say we have a little angel who helped us with this wonderful trip that we will remember forever. Unfortunately, I had had a little cold that I thought I was over and then I got the H1N1 nasal mist two days before we left and then BAM the night before we left I got the aches, low grade fever, dry cough, all the symptoms. Thank goodness it was just the side effects from the live vaccine and not the real H1N1 but on the plane ride over I was feeling pretty crummy.

We got to Venice and we had been up for about 18 hours already but with the time change it was only 11am there so we found our way to our hotel, got a map and walked around the entire island. We couldn't afford other transportation so we just walked. You see Venice island is VERY expensive. What you would pay in dollars is what they pay in euros and you still have to multiply that times 1.5 not fun. But we found our way around and got quite a lot of exercise in. It was a fun adventure. We saw St. Marks Basilica, and so many other churches and places I can't even tell you the names. Our hotel we very old and dingy looking but worked.

Then next day we woke up by 2am because to us it was so make later it was ridiculous. I think we gave up and took showers and left the hotel by 6am and then at the continental breakfast by 8am. Then walked around the city once it woke up at 9am. We found a little post office and Chad learned enough Italian that morning to ask for some stamps to mail his mom a post card that I found that I loved so much. It was pretty fun. We ended up sharing a water taxi that morning we a neat couple that was trying to find their way to the pier to because the correct water buses were not running until later and we would have to transfer and pay for regular buses as well and it would have been a hassle, so we finally got the experience of riding on the canals. It was so fun. I cannot post enough pictures here so I posted all of the pictures in the album to the left "Our Antics"

To come...

Just a heads up...

A blog update will come including:

Chad's flight progress

Our BIG trip

The Downing wedding

And other small life tid bits

Stay tuned.....

Sorry I'm slow :-)

Quick update, not much new

Happy Boy~~

Uncle Chad and Porter!!

Well life has not been all that exciting I must admit. For me it has been rough. On the 15th I got a really bad migraine I had had a few previously but after that one I had neck pain and headaches everyday this Wednesday night. I had seen the doctor multiple times and finally I called back again and told them how frustrated I was and how sick of taking medicine I was so they got me in VERY quickly. That night I got pretty bad and I was on the bed crying and Chad came in and started praying over me and I kept saying these words "Jesus I claim your healing power" now I have never said those words before but ever since that night the pain has been pretty much gone. And then Carol my wonderful mother in law also prayed with me on Thursday the day I got my MRI. I'm sure all my tests will be normal since we prayed before we got them :-) God is good!! We are continuing to pray for relief and healing. I cannot even tell you how terrible it is to live with a migraine everyday. But I was able to go to work through it Praise God I think I only missed one day total.

Last Sunday my mom, step dad, sister, brother in law and nephew came up for "dinner." For my mom's birthday. It was the first time having any of them over for a meal since I've been married so that was exciting. Porter did really great, and I love being able to see him.

Chad School:

Chad has only has Oral and Practical left for his instrument rating YAY. And this week he is helping out with in and annual inspection on an airplane and is getting paid very well to do that so that's a blessing. The VA is still very backed up so they have not started reimbursing him for flights yet so he may be delayed in starting his commercial rating which is very unfortunate. Once we have the funds training should go quickly. We have another update letter ready to send out so be looking for that very soon.

Love you all.

Salsa fiasco, and Lincolns favorite place

So last night Chad was being a wonderful husband and was cooking us dinner while I rested and recovered from my migraine. He was making the Mexican casserole that I make. Well he went to add the salsa and UH OH!!!



Lincoln cleaned up most of the mess... well at least on the floor. I was shocked that he liked salsa but then again the dog used to eat poop (thank goodness he grew out of that).

Also Chad and I recently discovered this awesome dog park up here. It is a huge fenced in area where dogs and run and play, there is even a separated gated play area for older dogs. PLUS there is an off leash walking trail through the woods too...totally awesome. There are usually plenty of dogs there and Lincoln gets himself good and tired. He usually lays down and has no energy to chase anything by time we leave. We also go there to work on training...he's getting better :-) yay!