Blessings {Days 31-60}

Blessings of Day 31
~hugging my grandma
~It's Thanksgiving in the Martin house!


Blessings of Day 32
~mailing packages to Nathan
~decorating the house as a family all afternoon
~It's Christmastime!!!

Blessings of Day 33
~talking with Nathan
(every day really, but this morning was just extra good)
~cleaning with the fam
~cooking for the fam
~watching The Book Thief with my mom

Blessings of Day 34
~finally found the perfect canisters for our kitchen (I've been hunting for foreverrrr!)
~starting Kelly Minter's "What Love Is" Bible study
~watching The Office with Matt

Blessings of Day 35
~getting my nails done with my mom
~helping set up drinks at the SA Aggie Moms meeting
~driving to Galveston with my parents
~reading "A Lineage of Grace" by Francine Rivers

Blessings of Day 36
~hanging out with my sis & her bf all day and seeing where they go to school
~passing out goody bags to students at TAMUG
~eating at The Original & Mario's and walking along The Strand
~walking through Moody Garden's Festival of Lights

Blessings of Day 37
~care packages arrived!
~seeing Allison & Dylan before we left Galveston
~stopping at Holocaust Museum Houston
~being "home" again

Blessings of Day 38
~20% done!
~getting a massage this afternoon
~FaceTime with one of my besties

Blessing of Day 39
~getting a haircut!


Blessing of Day 40
~putting my purging/organizing skills to use

Blessings of Day 41
~laughing AND crying while talking to Nathan this morning
~making plans with my college besties for the weekend
~watching The Voice with the 'rents

Blessings of Day 42
~more cleaning!
~having THE best sub at work, meaning I don't have to worry while I'm gone
~watching The Hundred-Foot Journey with my mom

Blessings of Day 43
~Nathan got the Christmas present I sent
~getting a big, new oil order from doTERRA
~getting some Christmas shopping done (and a little for me too!)

Blessings of Day 44
~"But as for me, I know that my Redeemer lives, and He will stand upon the earth at last. And after my body has decayed, yet in my body I will see God! I will see Him for myself. Yes, I will see Him with my own eyes. I am overwhelmed at the thought!" Job 19:25-27
~It's my mom's birthday!
~driving to Houston, listening to JT, Taylor Swift & Maroon 5
~hugging my college besties

Blessing of Day 45
~hangin' with my homies

Blessing of Day 46
~hangin' with my homies, pt. 2

Blessings of Day 47
~having another day with the Culkins
~knowing I'll see Sarah again soon when she comes to visit

Blessing of Day 48
~1/4 done!
~laughing with my fam all evening

Blessing of Day 49
~Life is hard, but God is good, merciful, and gracious.

Blessings of Day 50
~wrapping Christmas presents
~watching Michael Buble's Christmas in New York & The Sing Off

Blessing of Day 51
~my sister is finally home!

Blessings of Day 52
~shopping with my sis
~dinner & The Hobbit 3 with the whole fam (minus Nathan)

Blessings of Day 53
~working out with Matt & Allison
~Jamicures with my sis
~painting with my bro
~putting together a NYE package for Nathan


Blessings of Day 54
~driving to/through Abilene, remembering numerous drives to/from/through over the last 12 years
~hugging Nathan's family
~great dinner followed by watching The Goonies (my first time!)

Blessings of Day 55
~going out with Shannon, Ashleigh & Grandma Motz this afternoon
~running into Cassy N Scott & Baby K at lunch!
~playing Phase 10 & watching Frantic with Ashleigh, Matthew, Tacie & Randy


Blessings of Day 56
~Christmas with Nathan's family
~a little sweet tea & fried okra on a beautiful drive through the hill country on my way "home"
~watching Madea's Christmas with the fam

Blessings of Day 57
~30% done!
~Christmas Eve Candlelight Service at Grace Point
~dinner, wine & presents
~watching The Grinch in our jammies
~opening my gift from Nathan while FaceTiming him


Blessings of Day 58
~Nathan's presents arrived just in time!
~stockings accompanied by coffee, fresh-squeezed oj, scones & orange muffins
~beginning the Marvel movie marathon with Iron Man 1 & 2
~Christmas dinner with Grandma


Blessings of Day 59
~looking at new flooring options with Mom & Dad
~playing Pirate Fluxx & Man Bites Dog after dinner with the fam


Blessing of Day 60
~family "git 'er done" day

Blessings {Days 1-30}

Blessings of Day 1
~having someone who makes saying goodbye so hard
~having friends who have kept me company all day long

Blessings of Day 2
~things working out smoothly for once in this whole ordeal
~friends who came over to keep me company/help me eat my groceries

Blessings of Day 3
~snuggling sweet Hunter
~delicious sandwiches from AJ's

~cool, rainy weather

Blessings of Day 4
~drinking coffee I didn't have to make this morning
~hangin' with these cool kids this evening


Blessings of Day 5

~our church (serving, cuddling sweet babies, learning about what God says about being rich)

~lunch, manis & pedis with my nail buddy
~FaceTime with Nathan

Blessings of Day 6
~Romans 12
~improving at Body Pump
~time to catch up at work

~someone's about to be on his last flight

Blessings of Day 7
~a great Bible study co-leader
~two roommates for a few nights
~a growing Tribe

Blessings of Day 8
~the wonderful women of PWOC
~God's whispers of affirmation
~lavender/Epsom salt/baking soda baths

Blessings of Day 9
~seeing my love first thing this morning
~training my awesome Alternate to the Account Manager (The Office, anyone? haha)
~laughing with friends

Blessings of Day 10
~knowing when to expect a FaceTime call
~Coffee Friday!
~dinner with friends I don't see often

~knowing a God who cares, redeems, loves, forgives

Blessings of Day 11
~freedom! ; )
~eating a good dinner with good friends

~serving a God who invites us to be part of His work
~special service at church for volunteers

Blessings of Day 12
~having a husband who leads us well in acknowledging that everything we have is God's
~naps/a day of rest~dropping off a meal for friends with a new baby turning into a long chat with glasses of wine
(In case you haven't picked up on it yet, I have THE best friends here! They have made everything more bearable in so many ways.)

Blessings of Day 13
~being able to say I'll be in Texas next week!
~having a mom I can talk to about anything

~reminiscing about our trip to San Diego & Palm Springs while catching up on our blog
~having friends over for dinner

Blessings of Day 14
~phone dates with good friends who live far away (I've been thankful for these on other days recently too.)
~a day off from work
~the constant reminder I've received today that I can be and am blessed, or fully satisfied, despite my circumstances

Blessings of Day 15
~words of affirmation (my love language) from Nathan
~a friend's husband giving me a ride home
~being able to contribute to the hoodie drive at church, which will benefit kids at a nearby low-income school

Blessings of Day 16
~Beale's Home for the Holidays with friends--I won a free car wash and left with lots of other freebies!
~my standby ticket arriving in the mail from one of my generous BFFs
~a good friend bringing over a yummy dinner, laughing with me, and helping me prep for a party


Blessings of Day 17
~a trip to Target for a few more new dishes
~Coffee Friday! Always.
~PWOC Board Party
~being less than a week away from going to Texas

Blessings of Day 18
~sleeping in a bit

~time to lounge in my pjs and do some work around the house
~hanging out with the coolest Burdge boys again this evening

Blessings of Day 19

~10% done

~annual training at work is complete until next year

~friends having me over for dinner & laughing
~Nathan's evening call was a little longer than usual tonight

Blessings of Day 20
~getting adjusted at the chiropractor
~hanging out at three friends' houses this afternoon into the night
~our replacement couch cushion arriving in the mail
(To be honest, yesterday and today were a little crappy at certain points. But, tomorrow is a new day!)

Blessings of Day 21
~a productive day at work
~Tribe night with more new people
~"Scars and struggles on the way,
But with joy our hearts can say,
Yes, our hearts can say,
Never once did we ever walk alone,
Never once did You leave us on our own,
You are faithful, God, You are faithful" ~Never Once, One Sonic Society

Blessing of Day 22
~Even though I'm super excited to be in Texas soon to see family & friends, I realized today how much I am going to hate leaving all my people that are here! Trying not to think about how hard it's going to be to PCS from here...
(And yes, that's definitely a blessing!)

Staying in Texas for six weeks and this is all I'm bringing with me! This is either the smartest or the absolute dumbest idea I've ever had... Shopping trips, birthday & Christmas presents will provide supplemental items though.


Blessing of Day 23
~having awesome friends who helped me out with leaving
~making it to Texas, hugging my mom and dad!

Blessings of Day 24
~a fairly chill day
~eating bean and cheese tacos
~hugging my brother

Blessing of Day 25
~laughing with my family over the pictures we took with CamWow









Blessing of Day 26

~cooking with/for my family
~FaceTime with one of my BFFs

Blessings of Day 27

~shopping with my mom for my birthday & for Nathan's care package
~opening my birthday present from Nathan (a cashmere cardigan) over FaceTime with him
~margherita pizza & Moscato at Dough


Blessings of Day 28
~finishing up care packages for Nathan
~making a good dinner with my dad
~watching Saving Mr. Banks with my mom

Blessings of Day 29

~finally getting my watch battery replaced
~hugging my sister

~eating a dinner of tamales, beans & rice

Blessings of Day 30
~eating a Thanksgiving breakfast
~road tripping to College Station with Matt & Allison
~meeting up with Dylan for dinner at Double Dave's

~standing in the student section of the A&M v LSU game

Last Moments

Tuesday early in the afternoon, Nathan called me at my office and said he was going to stop by to see me. He does that on occasion when he's nearby for standup. When he got to my office, he sat down and said, "Well... I'm leaving tomorrow morning." I had a moment of shock and then started crying. I was so unprepared. We both wrapped things up and went home. Nathan finished up his packing and I cried a little more. We were both relieved it was finally happening though.

Nathan's requested last meal on Tuesday night was, of course, Pizza Rock. We stopped at Barnes & Noble on the way home to pick up books for both of us.

We left for the airport in the morning. It wasn't crowded, so I parked next to the curb and we had a few minutes to hug and say our goodbyes.

These words helped me get through the first day.

Gearing Up

Nathan's original date was the 16th. We prepared for his departure, and then found out 24 hours before that nothing was booked correctly and therefore Nathan wouldn't be going anywhere tomorrow. It was really hard to wrap our minds around.

nights out

wine from Stephanie & Brenner

packing

And this evening, after finding out Nathan wasn't deploying the next morning, we booked our flights and overwater bungalow in BORA BORA!

The Knee... Again?!

Nathan went out to the park near our house to kick the soccer ball around last Sunday afternoon and ended up hurting his knee pretty badly. He put his weight down on his left foot and felt something pop out of place. After all the surgeries he's been through, we are hoping nothing serious happened, but he's had a lot of swelling and pain.

Memorial Day Weekend in Idaho

We had a 4-day weekend for Memorial Day, so we drove up to spend it with Ashleigh, Matt and the kids. We had a great time hanging out with them and are so glad we live close enough to see them more often now!

On the Run

Nathan has mentioned a couple of times in the last few years he thought it would be cool for the two of us to run together, but both of us always shrugged it off because we thought it would be impossible to actually do. Nathan really got into running in Heidelberg, where his squadron regularly ran about 15 miles every week, and I literally never run. The two of us trying to run together sounded like a recipe for misery and disaster.

Fast forward to MLK Day this year. After we dropped Sarah off at the airport, we were talking about how our pastor and his wife run together and had just finished a race that weekend at Disneyland. Nathan reiterated he thought it would be cool if we could do something like that and I agreed it would be fun to find a way to exercise together. Nathan said he would be willing to start slow and go short distances with me if I would really commit to it, so we grabbed our tennis shoes and decided to try it out. We ran half a mile into our neighborhood, then walked three-quarters of a mile back home. It wasn't a bad as I thought it was going to be, and we ended up going out again twice more that week. On the third day, I ran a full mile without stopping, something I never thought I could do. Since then, I've downloaded mapmyrun on my phone and we have plans of getting me some new running shoes soon. I bought my current ones in 2010...

So far, the furthest I have run is 1.5 miles and my fastest pace is 10:05 min/mile. 

SoCal

Saturday, March 8th: We left in the morning for San Diego, stopped at In-n-Out and Starbucks on the way, and arrived at our hotel in the late afternoon. We ate authentic Neapolitan pizza and tiramisu with glasses of Riesling at Buona Forcetta for dinner, an amazing Italian restaurant with outdoor seating. There was a bit of a wait for a table, so we had glasses of Moscato in the restaurant across the street. After dinner, we drove through the Gas Lamp Quarter. That night, our sleep was interrupted by partying kids yelling and banging on doors. No fun. Yes, we're officially old.

Sunday, March 9th: We grabbed Starbucks and had a difficult time trying to get out to La Jolla. Just about every street we tried to take was closed off due to a big race being run downtown. We made it to La Jolla in the late morning and just walked the streets and part of the coastline. It's beautiful there. We spent some time watching the seals on the beach and in the shallow water. 

We had a mediocre lunch before heading to Coronado Island. We got a little sunburned walking around Hotel del Coronado, which is a really cool piece of architecture. 

We had a little bit of time, so we drove over to see the USS Midway.

Then, we made it out to Mission Bay Park to take a sunset cruise, which I found discounted tickets for on Groupon. It was fun, but not quite as awesome as we had hoped, making us glad we had not paid full price for it.

For dinner, we ate burgers and fries at Hodad's. We had to wait in a long line to be seated in the tiny restaurant but it was a really good meal with a fun atmosphere.

Monday, March 10th: We spent all day at the San Diego Zoo and had the best time. We saw just about everything. We skipped the Reptile House though. I refused to go in there.

above: Mom, these "flingos" are for you : )

above: This bird was watching me intently while I ate my pastry from Starbucks. Freaked me out a little.

These birds were just running free. Also freaked me out a little.

below & following: Nathan really enjoyed hanging out in the special aviary that housed hummingbirds.

above: We rested on a bench in the afternoon. I fell asleep and Nathan watched/took pictures of hummingbirds on this tree.

We then went back over to the big cat area to catch a glimpse of the tiger. We waited around forever with a group of people.

We rested in our hotel room for a little bit before having dinner at an Irish pub in the Gas Lamp Quarter. It was a nice walk there and on the way back, we stopped at the Ghiradelli shop and Nathan got a milkshake.

Tuesday, March 11th: We had a late morning and then drove down to eat lunch at Lolita's, which was recommended to us by friends who were stationed with us in Heidelberg. Thanks, Bill & Jen! 

We walked around Seaport Village after that and then up to the USS Midway again. Later that afternoon, we drove to Corona to stay with Candace (Nathan's cousin), Andrew & the kids. We went to dinner and then watched Dallas Buyers Club and Blackfish. We had so much fun, we didn't think to take even one picture with them.

Wednesday, March 12th: We had breakfast with Candace & Asher after Andrew left for work and Madison went to school. Then we made the drive to Palm Springs, stopping at In-n-Out on the way. We checked into our hotel, I got a massage at Massage Envy and signed up for a membership. Before eating dinner, we hung out in front of The Coyote Inn to watch the swarm of hummingbirds on the feeders.

Thursday, March 13th: Nathan got up early and went to spend some time at Tahquitz Canyon. He came back and got me, we ate lunch at Panera, walked through a botanical garden, and then headed back to the canyon to hike the trail, which turned out to be rather short. We walked around a little downtown, then hung out at the pool for a bit in the late afternoon. We stopped at The Coyote Inn again before eating dinner.

above: Nathan noticed a baby hummingbird as we approached the end of the path in the botanical garden, so we watched and waited.

above: He spotted its hatch mate. 

above: Hatch mate cleaning his feathers.

above, below & following: mom & baby
We got to see THE coolest thing: a mom feeding its babies!

aove: Palm Springs really is an oasis in the middle of the desert.

Friday, March 14th: We made the long drive back home.