Happy New Year!

In the highly unlikely event that anyone is still actually checking on my blog: HAPPY NEW YEAR! Seriously, I don't really blame anyone for not reading my blog anymore...I mean, really--what is more boring than a blog that only gets about 2 or 3 posts a year (sorry about that!)? Ha ha!!

 Anyhow, we are no longer in Alabama (where we were living the last time I posted). We arrived in Colorado back in October after a 3 day (1,500 mile) drive. It was my first time hauling a trailer...wasn't as bad as I was expecting it to be. ;)

I wish I could say it was a horse trailer, but due to unfortunate circumstances (a.k.a. no longer having a horse trailer of our own, being financially strapped, and not being able to find a place to rent with a pasture that was within our budget....), we had to re-home my husband's horse before we left Alabama. That was a difficult decision to come to as Ice would have been the perfect horse for our Munchkin as he was bomb-proof and very good natured.

Anyhow...my husband and I each had to drive a vehicle and haul a trailer on our drive out here. Munchkin rode with Daddy because he thinks our truck is WAY cooler to ride in than our Jeep. No, really, ever since the first time he rode in that truck he thinks the Jeep is second rate. Such a boy! Our cat, Penny, also rode in the truck as there was more room for her in there than there was in the Jeep. That left me with Peeta. HALLELUJAH!

In case you don't realize the significance of a 3-day drive with just Peeta for company, let me just say: it was 3 days of PEACE AND QUIET!! It was almost like a mini-vacation. Sure, I was kind of sad that we weren't ALL able to ride together, but considering that was technically the first time I have EVER been away from our Munchkin for more than a few hours a few times since he was born, it was kind of nice to be able to have a bit of a break and a chance to hear myself think. :-p Plus, I was able to play a playlist of about 7 songs on repeat and listen to about 4 of the Focus on the Family Radio Theatre: The Chronicles of Narnia books without driving my hubby crazy or putting him to sleep. ;-p

Anyhow...we are getting settled in here in Colorado. It snowed the night we arrived and has snowed 3 more times since mid-November--which we LOVE. I have to admit though that I am homesick for my beautiful, GREEN Appalachian mountains. I am trying to be content here though as I know God has a plan for our being here currently...I just sincerely hope He has plans for us back in my beloved mountains over there on the East Coast next. ;-p

Thought I'd go ahead and share some pictures from the past couple of months....

My guys on our favorite hiking trail.

This is the BETTER side of the mountain...it's greener than the side we live on, lol.

Part of the view from the summit of our favorite hike.

A friendly Gray Jay on the trail.

A small Mule Deer buck.

View on the way back down our favorite trail on a snowy day. :)

Munchkin loves, loves, LOVES the snow!

Peeta on Christmas day. :)

Oh, so I totally forgot to continue my yearly tradition of posting pictures of Munchkin from each month and writing him a letter on his birthday.... Bummer!!! We were still in the process of unpacking and getting settled in and it totally slipped my mind. :-(
 

I'm back.... *maybe*

Soooooo, long time no write...not that I was doing very well at actually posting on a regular basis during the past two years anyhow, ha ha. I've been trying to decide whether or not I am going to keep this blog and try to start posting again--or if I'm going to delete it. I still haven't decided either way just yet, so in the meantime I'm going to do a trial run of getting back into blogging again.

The Munchkin and I moved back to Hawaii at the end of November last year--with the help of my mom, thanks Mom! :) The month of December DRAGGED by for me--as I'm sure it did for all of the other deployed soldiers' wives. ;) But, finally, on December 30th my hubby came home safe and sound. HURRAY!!! It has been wonderful having my best friend home again--and nice to not have to snuggle with a body pillow every night while I am sleeping anymore, ha ha. :)

We hosted a belated Christmas dinner at our house for a lot of the single soldiers in our company (as well as a couple of married couples :) towards the end of January. So. Much. Food. I think I made over 300-400 cookies in the week leading up to the dinner. I kept finding new recipes I wanted to try and figured it was the perfect opportunity to do so. ;-p Not to mention all of the REAL food we made as well. Let me tell you...it was super yummy--and everyone enjoyed it, so it was a success. Going into it we wanted it to be a blessing to everyone who came, and I think it was as one of the single soldiers commented on how it felt like it was a real family gathering. I hope seeds were planted that will grow and bear fruit at some point.... Can't wait to do that again with the single guys at our next duty station after we get established there.

Speaking of which...I can't remember if I've already posted about where we are going next or not, but just in case I haven't...we will be heading to Fort Carson in Colorado towards the end of October! We can't wait to have a snowy winter this year. I keep wishing it was fall already, ha ha.

In the meantime...we have already PCS'd (Permanent Change of Station) away from Hawaii. Man, was that bittersweet! We were ready to leave--having been there so long and not really being the island/beach/city kind of people, but after you live somewhere for a while it becomes a part of you and you have memories associated with things and places there. Letting go and saying goodbye--not to mention saying goodbye to the people you've come to care for there!--can be challenging. We did our best to wrap up our time on the island by visiting all of our favorite spots (like Turtle Bay resort--where we spent our honeymoon)...and eating our favorite local foods one last time. I am grateful we took the time to do those things as I truly think it has helped with the transition back to the Mainland (we experienced some culture shock immediately after arriving back on Mainland U.S. soil and for the following 24 hours at least--it was a very odd feeling while it lasted).

So, anyhow, that was back in May. After a bunch of driving here, there, and everywhere (or so it seemed, ha ha) during the first week and a half of being back on the Mainland, we ended up back in Alabama--in our own house. My hubby has a course to do here at Fort Rucker before we head to Colorado, so here we are. :) It was nice to be able to come back to a familiar house--though we've had to make quite a few updates/repairs since we've been here--thanks Dad for coming and helping us with those after the hubby started his courses!!!! Hopefully we'll be able to finish those up soon and get the house back on the market--and then *hopefully* sold.

Oh, one other bit of news...we are getting a puppy! Hopefully we will be getting him sometime this next weekend or the week after--we are still working on the details currently. We are super excited and can't wait for him to arrive as we have missed having a dog something fierce! It came down to us realizing that we were going to HAVE to get our next dog as a puppy in order to make sure it is socialized with all of the animals and situations we need it to be able to handle without aggression...I can't lose another dog after getting attached due to it not being compatible again for one reason or another.... I'll post pictures of our new little fella soon. ;)

So, that's what has been happening in our lives lately. We'll see how this 'experiment' with blogging again goes.... I can't make any promises at this point though. I'll just have to take this one post at a time. :)