On the Road Again...

Its been yet another busy week for us. Christmas was GREAT since all of our family was in town (both sides); we enjoyed getting to spend time with all of them on the day our Savior was born. Then on Saturday we hoped in the car and drove down to Southport, NC for the wedding of one of Garin's good friends from college, Peter C. Hoffman. The wedding was on Sunday and was beautiful. The only hitch happened before the wedding when a cat decided that he/she wanted to attend the wedding too and Garin had to chase it up the aisle until he caught up with it at the front of the church...I sure wish I had gotten a picture of that one...it was HILARIOUS! After the wedding we hung out with Aaron and Kristin Byrum for one LAST time (until they come see us in March ;). On Monday we got up early and headed to Emerald Isle to pick up most of our stuff that has been stored there for the past couple of months. The morning started off with some pretty hard rain but it tapered off by the time we started to move things into the truck (I'll have to praise God for that one because we were praying that He'd let it stop for us to get our stuff packed up!). Oh and on the way to Pete's wedding the power steering in my car decided it wanted to go out. So while we were packing the truck, my car had the power steering pump replaced (not a cheap fix!!!). Ugh. Oh well, its all fixed now. So then after my car was finally fixed we headed back to Charlotte and got here at 11 last night. Whew, what a whirlwind weekend. Today will consist of packing up all the stuff from our house here and giving the house a good scrub down. Oh what a fun day...

Sorry there are no pictures, I have some but just haven't had a chance to download them! Have a great day ya'll!

We found a house!!

This past week Garin and I took a "short" road trip down to Pensacola to check out houses for us to rent while we are down there. We looked at about 20 houses and toured about 10 in 1.5 days. It was a whirlwind! Nonetheless, we did find one that we are are super excited about.

The great part is that it is a BRAND NEW house! We kind of "happened" upon it. There was this neighborhood in a location that we were interested in that had a lot of houses up for sale. Since the market isn't that great right now I had this bright idea that they might be willing to rent us one of the houses since they couldn't sale them right now. Well my idea wasn't that great because they said they weren't willing to rent them, but the sales agent did know of an older lady that had recently bought one of the houses for an investment property and was wanting to rent it out. He gave us her number and let us in to see the house and we were hooked.

We are pretty pumped about getting to live in a rental house where no one else has grunged it up (all the other rental properties we looked at were pretty run down from all the wear and tear). My favorite part is the master closet...it is HUGE!!! It could seriously be a small bedroom. All my clothes will finally fit in the SAME closet...and Garin can fit his in there too :)

We also have a spare bedroom so start making your plans to come visit!!!

The Front

Half of the Back

The Living Room

The Kitchen

The view from the back porch...not so pretty...they've stopped construction until the economy gets a little better.

UNCC's newest MBA graduate

That's right...today I FINALLY graduated with my MBA degree from UNC-Charlotte (yes, I'm probably one of the youngest looking MBA graduates ever...I was just looking through the pictures and thinking about how teenagerish I look...one day I'll grow up!). After 2.5 years of homework, reading, and writing papers, I'm not sure how I'm gonna handle my freedom. Whew, I can't believe it is over...sometimes it seems like it was yesterday when I started and then other days it seems like I've been doing this for the past 10 years. Either way, I'm glad its over. Now I'm just trying to figure out what degree I want to go after next ;) hehe.

Thanks to Garin for all of his understanding and love through this whole ordeal. He had to spend a couple evenings alone each week throughout the years and had to deal with a stressed, crazed, anal retentive wife. Thanks for your patience and support sweetie!

New England Road Trip

While we were up in Connecticut waiting for Garin to graduate, we took a road trip up to Newport, Rhode Island and out to Cape Cod, Mass. We really enjoyed Rhode Island, the coast is BEAUTIFUL and there were soooo many mansions with breathtaking views. I think we missed all the charm of Cape Cod, because we pretty much just saw a bunch of trees as we drove through the middle of the peninsula. The one beach we did visit was very pretty and Provincetown was very...unique....

Newport, RI coast (Garin had to get a closer look...the water was REALLY blue)

This is one of the mansions on the coast. This one is called "The Breakers" and was built by the same guy that built The Biltmore House in Asheville, NC.

Cape Cod Lighthouse

Provincetown, Mass (on the tip of Cape Cod)

Christmas decoration in Provincetown? (I think those are lobster cages)

Just a cool picture of buoys

17 weeks down, NO MORE TO GO!!!!!!!!!! Its OVER!

(He got a sword...and he knows how to use it!)

Well we are FINALLY home and I FINALLY have my baby back with me again :) I really can't believe it is FINALLY over! Four months down!!! Thanks to everyone for their prayers and support through this crazy time in our lives. Hopefully we won't have to be a part for this long ever again! (But it IS the military so you never know!).

Well I just wanted to take a moment and brag about my husband, I'm so proud of him!! He graduated #2 out of a class of 86 and was elected to the position of Honorary Executive Commanding Officer of his company. He also was awarded the Commandant's Leadership Award at graduation (the commandant is the head of the coast guard). He did an OUTSTANDING job and I'm so proud of him and so proud to be his wife :) (okay, I'm done with the bragging now :)

The night before his graduation we got to go to a ball to celebrate their accomplishments. We had to sit at this table and talk to some Captains and Commanders for dinner, but then we had a blast dancing the night away (okay, well I had a blast dancing...Garin did his share of dancing as well, I was very proud of him!).

This is a picture of all the wives (and one mom) I talked with on a forum while the boys were away. I had a blast hanging out with them while I was up there. Such fun people! Fortunately 4 of them will be coming to Florida with us for flight school!