greetings from OKLAHOMA!!

Our drive from Rhody to Oklahoma took four days and was UNEVENTFUL. Praise the Lord for that! The worst weather we had were a few cloudy days. It was definitely an easy drive compared to our last move.

My favorite part of our drive was getting to stop in PA and so we could visit with our friends Jessica and Chris. We met their family when we lived in Athens and I really miss getting to see them often. We got to stay in their new house which I LOVED. I could have moved right in! It was great being able to stop for the night somewhere other than a hotel so the kids could get to play. They have two boys too and they all played great together.

I really might need to rethink taking picture first thing in the morning without a lick of make-up on . Yikes!!

We stayed in OK over Christmas and then on New Years Eve we drove twelve hours to Colorado to visit Ben’s sister and her family for a week. It was a much needed break from moving and the stress of everything.

In case you can’t tell from this picture Noah was SUPER excited to be with his cousins. He was headed out to go sledding with the older cousins that day. Him and Coop are only four months apart.

The boys were glad to re-unite with their cousins after the fun beach trip we all took together this summer. Somehow we lucked out and had lots of 50 degree days. There was snow on the mountains and in all the yards but none on the roads. They live in such a beautiful town surrounded on every side by mountains. It’s very picturesque! I’m kind of kicking myself for not even taking my camera on our trip.  I’m hoping we can maybe make it back there this summer!

My friend mentioned the other day that we had been in OK for a month. I immediately thought,  ”Really? That can’t be right!” I guess between moving, Christmas, our trip to CO, and then have a stomach bug for a week it has been a month in a half since we left Rhody. We’re settling in at the in-laws. Noah loves being here. Graham loves it too although he tells me a couple of times a week that he wants to go home. The other day he was crying and said, ” I want to go home. I can’t find my home. I lost it!” Poor kid. I think he is too young to understand that we live here now. Maybe getting our own house will help him with the transition, although that will probably be a few months off.  Ben and I are loving being here and staying with his parents. I actually get sad at the thought of moving into our own house. That probably sounds weird but since we’ve been away for so long it’s just nice to be around our family. I enjoy eating dinner together and having breakfast together on the weekends. It’s very nice to have an extra set of hands around to help with the boys. I am sure Ben’s parents will be looking forward to quiet dinners when we leave and not stepping on legos whenever they walk through their house! ha!! They have been very gracious hosts and I could definitely learn a lot from them in the hospitality department.

Every time I drive out of the neighborhood it hits me that we live here now. Such a good feeling! I love pounding the pavement of the city where I grew up. I went for a run this morning and I just kept praising the Lord over and over for this opportunity to come home. We have so many unknowns right now that makes life really overwhelming. But God is good and things are s-l-o-w-l-y falling into place. I’m trying to keep my focus where it should be and not let my mind wonder down the road of “what if’s?”.

“For I know the plans I have for you, ” declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

hello goodbye

this post was inspired by the lovely v & co.

*hello to our hometown.
goodbye to our last duty station Newport, RI.

*hello to a super target just minutes away.
goodbye to taking day trips just to get to our favorite places.

*hello to Goodwill. Oh how I have missed u!
goodbye to Savers. I’m forever grateful for all the Jcrew you added to my wardrobe.

*hello to running around the campus of my alma mater. Boomer Sooner!!
goodbye to running buddies and getting to run on the scenic cliff walk.

*hello friendly people where ever you go and southern hospitality
goodbye to people cutting you off in traffic and flipping you off while they do it.

*hello to living close to our family
goodbye to probably never getting to live in the same place as all of our dear military friends again.

*hello to camping and hikes at the wichitas
goodbye to going to the beach whenever we want and taking drives along the waterfront.

*hello to bunking with the in-laws
goodbye to base housing

*hello chick-fil-a, braums ice cream and good mexican food.
goodbye to fresh seafood, frosty freeze, and mike’s pastries.

By the time you read this we’ll have already crossed the Pell Bridge for the very last time. Our first stop on our four day drive will be PA. We’re staying with some of our good  friends from GA. We’ve never had the chance to stay with somebody on our cross country drives before. I am grateful that we get to stay with friends and family this time as we make the journey home.  Makes it a little more fun to know at the end of your eight hour drive you aren’t just checking into a hotel.

Please pray for safe travels for our family. If all goes accordingly we’ll arrive HOME on Sunday. Catch ya’ll on the flip side!!

Running:: fall 2011

My {running} goal before we left New England was to run six miles. I wanted to know I could run about half of a half marathon before I started training for it next year. That might be kind of silly but it’s just something I wanted to do. Running is really mostly mental and I just needed to know I could psych myself up enough for half of the real deal. A week ago Saturday I completed my goal! Running one mile outside used to be hard for me so it kind of blows my mind I was be able to run six straight miles-consecutively-on the same day!! If you are an experienced runner {as many of my real life friends are} you might be laughing that I think six miles is far. Remember I am a newbie! Makes me feel like the whole 13.1 miles is a little more doable now.

Running goals: Keep running over Christmas {the month of December} This will be a little tricky since we are moving and will be in transit starting next week. I might have to settle for two runs a week at the most. I guess any running is better than no running right?

Favorite running gear: Merrell Glove running shoes. I have been wanting to try a minimialist/barefoot running shoe for a while now. I snatched these up at the Navy Exchange on black friday. Can’t beat $40 off and no tax! So far I really like my new shoes.

This is my friend Laura. She and I have run together four times a week for the past five months. This morning we went on our very last run together. So sad! Her and her family left today to move back to Virginia. I am so grateful that we are leaving within a week of each other and that neither of us are left to run in cold/windy Rhody on our own. What the heck am I going to do when I have to run by myself in Oklahoma?!? I’ve been pretty darn spoiled to have a friend who lives one block away to run with. I know I might never have that again. I am so thankful that God crossed our paths this summer when we were both in need of a friend. We were both praying for a new friend around the time that we met. I not only gained a friend and a running buddy but our kiddos also gained little buddies too. We met up at the playground usually three times a week in the afternoon to let the kids play.

Laura gave me a little farewell gift yesterday. She {knows how much I love coffee and} really wants me to run the half. Wish we could do it together friend!

the year of rhody

This week we hit the one year mark of living in Rhode Island. In a lot of ways I feel like this has been the longest year of my life. But then again maybe it was just December through May that crawled by annoyingly sloooooooooow? Thank you old man winter! This has not been my most favorite place to live {just being honest} but I have enjoyed our time here. It was fun to get to live in a place where people come to vacation. I’m grateful we could experience New England even if it wasn’t exactly how I imagined it would be. I do hope we’ll be back up here one day to show the boys Newport when they are older. Ben would love to qualify for the Boston marathon in a few years and I would love to vacation at the Cape again so I think we’ll have a few excuses to return to this area.

Since my old blog is no longer I pretty much lost all of my posts about Rhody this year. So I’ve pulled a few pictures that capture my favorite Rhody memories to post here. Enjoy!

lately

A few days before Thanksgiving we went to a Lantern Walk at Noah’s pre-school. His teachers had placed tons of bags with lights all around the church property to form a path. Each child had a lantern {a jar decorated with tissue paper with a tea light inside} that they carried. All of the families walked through the lit path to the playground where the kids sang a few songs. It was supposed to be a quiet time for each family to reflect on what they were thankful for. I spent the whole time trying to make sure Graham didn’t drop his lantern and catch the grass on fire. The whole time he kept hollering, “Micah! Micah! Where are you?!” Awesome. Graham really likes one of Noah’s friends and he kept trying to find him in the dark as we walked.  I am sure the people walking in front and behind us found that to be enjoyable! ha.

I know it must have taken the teachers a lot of time to set up and take down the lights but I am grateful for all the effort they went to. The kids loved it and thought it was so special! Graham was so happy Noah’s teacher let him have a lantern too. He really just wants to be one of the big guys.

Did you all have a good thanksgiving? Ours was really low key and to be honest it didn’t really feel like thanksgiving. We’ve spent many a holiday without our family around and somehow I am still not used to it. It always feels a little lonely and sad no matter how fun we try to make it. This past week my great Aunt passed away and I really just wished I could be at home with my grandma. {It was her sister and best friend that pass away.} We’re two weeks shy of being at home. We’re so close! I wished we were already home so I could have gone to the funeral.

Back to Thanksgiving.. Thankfully we had sunshine {that makes everything better in my opinion} and we just relaxed and spent the day as a family. I was felling extra grateful that Ben was home and that the four of us could be together.

 We had filet mignon {by choice!} and the only “thanksgiving-y}” food we ate was pumpkin cheesecake that my Laura made and shared with us. Thanks Laura!! We’re not big fans of Turkey so we made a dinner that we liked.

I’m grateful for the downtime we had this week and for the time we got to spend together. We went on lots of walks around the neighborhood and went to the park so we could soak up a little sun. We’ve been spoiled by the fact that we can walk out our door and pick which one of the six parks in our neighborhood we want to go to. One park is literally our backyard.  I think mommy might miss that more than the boys once we move!

We’ve walked this path to the park more times than I can count in the last year. And I’ve run on it many a time too.

We had originally wanted to have surf and turf for Thanksgiving being as we are about to leave New England and all the yummy seafood. Unfortunately we couldn’t get steamed lobsters anywhere on Thanksgiving so we had our Lobster on Saturday at our favorite local seafood restaurant. We love Anthony’s! We’ve had lobsters several times from there and they’re great every time. ha! I totally just noticed Noah was holding up his ear of corn for the photo. Wish I had thought to stick my real camera in my bag!

I hope you all have a great week. My week involves starting to say goodbye to friends and moving prep. You should see the number of lists I have going right now to stay organized. Might need a list for all my lists.

thrifted shirt:: refashion

Remember this top I found last year at Saver’s? I loved the fabric and the doily-esque detail at the top but after I wore it a few times didn’t love the length. It bugged me that the shirt wasn’t lined and that you could see my jeans through it. This fall when I put it on for the first time I had a brilliant idea. Why don’t I get it taken up a couple of inches and make it more of a blouse than a tunic. I took it to my favorite local seamstress and told her what I was thinking. I took one of my other shirts with me that I wanted my thrifted top to look like, that way she could get an idea of what length and fit I wanted.

I picked the shirt up recently and I love how it turned out. My only regret is that I didn’t get it altered last year! One of my reasons for shortening it was that I thought it would make it more versatile {ie. I could wear it all year round.} The shirt is sleeveless and I figured I could wear it without a cardi in the summer if it was shorter. Also now that it is {four inches} shorter I can tuck it into my trouser jeans easier for a dressier look. I am sure I could have done this refashion myself if I knew how to sew but for the time being I think it was worth taking it to an expert to get the look I wanted.

Learning to sew is on the top of my to do list once we get to Oklahoma. My MIL sews and since we’ll be staying at their house I’ll have access to her sewing machine and her sewing skillz. I think we should have “Sewing Saturdays, what do you think? I have been pinning beginner sewing projects for a while now. Click here to see what I am thinking of making. Do any of you have any favorite sewing sites that you like? I would love some fun and easy tutorials to begin with.

fill in the blank friday {11.18.11}

It has been FO-ever since I linked up with Lauren at Little Things We Do for Fill in the blank Friday. Thought I would play along today!

1.   A nervous habit I have is picking off my nail polish when it starts to chip. Not sure that it is a nervous habit but maybe more of a ” I am too lazy to go upstairs and grab the nail polish remover” habit.

2.   Something that makes me sad is  the fact that I don’t know when I will see some of my friends again. While in the Navy the chances that our paths would cross is pretty good. Now I don’t know if/and when I will ever get to see some of our friends again. 

3.  Today I am thankful for my friend Lindsey. She’s faithful to pray for me and check in even when she has so much going on in her life right now. 

4. My favorite room in my house is  not sure I would use the word “favorite” about any room in our base housing. I guess our ginormous closet because I have never had a walk-in closet and this one is practically a whole room!

5.  I can’t stand Rhode Island drivers. THE MOST INCONSIDERATE DRIVERS I HAVE EVER SEEN!!! I have to be honest and say that I almost said “I can’t stand Rhode Islanders” but that seemed a little extreme. 

6.  If I had an extra $100 to spend on whatever I wanted today I would send Ben to get a massage. He has too much on his plate right now and most of it I can’t even help with at all. He could use a little de-stressin.

7.  The last person I hung out with was My friend Mackenzie. We had a playdate with our littlest people while our biggest little people were at school/pre-school. SO relaxing and fun with just the younger guys.

 I’m so glad it’s Friday. These week hasn’t been my favorite. Glad to have some fun things on the agenda fro the weekend. Happy weekend ya’ll!