Wow.

Well, as usual it's been a long time :) But hey, I'm trying!!!
Where to even begin... I just finished up my church history class (woohoo!!!) and do not have any other classes beginning anytime soon. The class only ended yesterday, but I already feel like a whole new person. It is wonderful to have my life and my time back! I also started selling Pampered Chef. I am super excited about the prospect of working from home on my own schedule. Plus, I really love Pampered Chef! So it seems like the perfect time to start.
Ben has been incredibly busy. Seems like I hardly see him anymore. He has been working 14 hour days on average, plus continual phone calls at any hour of the night (last night it was approximately 4am and 5:30am) ARGH. But he is doing an amazing job of managing work and trying to spend as much time as he can with Hunter and I. He is also super excited because Brutus (our 4runner, trail rig and adopted child) is in the shop getting a solid front axle. I am glad to be finally getting this done, but I sure am ready to just be DONE with the whole project. This weekend Ben has been working on rebuilding his transmission, with a couple of AMAZING friends, and Hunter and I have been completely on our own. I hate that :( But, such is life!
Hunter is doing great! He is growing like a weed and as crazy as can be. Every day is a new adventure with him. Right now he is learning about sea life in preschool and he loves it. His favorite is orca whales since we went whale watching last year. I am so amazed at how much information he can take in! He now knows all of his uppercase letters, most of the lowercase ones, and he is quickly learning the sound each letter makes. Wow!
In the past week or so we have had the amazing experience of watching two amazing families bring home their newly adopted children. We are soooooooooo humbled by this experience. What an amazing God we serve! Welcome home, Mercy girl and Ella Grace! You are both so loved!!!
Well, I have lots more thoughts bouncing around in here, but I also have a sleeping child and Ben is still out working on his truck so I'm going to take advantage of the peace and snuggle up on the couch with my nook and a cup of tea. Sounds like a glorious night to me!
g'nite!

Homework...

I feel like homework is defining my life right now. I wasn't planning to continue on into the spring semester, but here I am! This time it's church history. Let me tell you how excited I am about this one! :) If you know me very well at all you certainly know that history is NOT my favorite subject (ironic since my hubby has a degree in history!)
Anyway, as much as I am really enjoying working on this M.A., I have to admit that I am ready to be done with homework for a while. I had a month off over Christmas and it was glorious. Let me tell you, it is amazing how much free time you have after being a full time grad student and getting a break. WONDERFUL! And I'm pretty sure that this will be my only class this semester, so at least I can look forward to that.
In other news, Hunter is doing great in school and learning soooooooooo much. He knows the pledge of allegiance and is working on learning the Lord's prayer now. How cool is that? He makes us laugh all the time and has quite the personality. It's amazing to watch him grow and learn. I really love this age! I would keep him this age forever if I could :)
Ben is still working hard, but he wouldn't have it any other way. At least he will not have to worry about us next week since Hunter and I will be in IL visiting my family for our very late Christmas!
Guess that's all for now. Sorry about the super boring post, but I'm trying to get better about updating this thing. And besides, I don't have anything better to do except homework!

New phone...

It's time for new phones for our family. As we were agonizing over the Droid X versus the Droid pro and all of the millions of other choices, it began to occur to me that maybe, just maybe, it didn't matter. I mean, do we REALLY need to have the latest and greatest phone? Is it honestly that important if we have the ability to check our email every minute of the day, and facebook, and the millions of other distractions? So, my dilemma is this... what kind of phone?

Part of me really wants to just go back to the (gasp!) simple, non-internet friendly phone. Yes, I will miss being able to catch up with facebook when I'm bored and waiting in line somewhere. But seriously, is it going to kill me? I might have to strike up a conversation with a stranger who may just need someone to listen to them for a minute! Or maybe, just maybe, I may find myself interacting with my son instead of checking to see what junk email just hit my inbox. And just think of the money I can save as well! There is a world of possibilities there too! I could sponsor a child from Ethiopia, I could buy a new shirt, take a friend to lunch, spend a day at the zoo with Hunter... the list goes on!

So.... what kind of phone do you have?

A new year...

So, is anyone surprised that it has taken me this long to update my blog? :)

The holidays are always such a crazy time, and this year was no exception! With finishing classes, Ben's BUSY work schedule and Hunter in school as well our family was non-stop this Christmas season. I hope that everyone had a wonderful holiday, we certainly did! This time was the first time, in six years of marriage, that we have been at our own home on Christmas morning. I'm sure all of our military friends can relate. Holidays usually mean packing up EVERYTHING, heading to the airport (or a super long car ride), running around from place to place to visit everyone in the family all while trying to adjust to a different time zone... it's chaos! We always love visiting family and have a wonderful time, but this year it was amazing to just have a relaxing Christmas morning in our house, in our time zone and in front of our own tree :) It even meant that we could get Hunter a BIG present since we didn't have to transport presents between our house and our family!

This past year has taught us so much about how to adapt and plug in. Being so far from family has really forced us to create our own "family" here in Washington. We have been soooooooo blessed by the amazing people that God has brought into our lives here! We were able to spend Thanksgiving with some wonderful friends, Christmas with our incredible neighbors, and had three invitations for New Years eve! God has truly been teaching us what it means to live in community with those around us and we are enjoying every second of it! Don't get me wrong, we miss our families and love spending time with them, but we can't dwell on the fact that we don't get to see them as often as we might like. Instead, we have to enjoy the "family" that God has made for us here and visit with our real family whenever we can :)

This past year we also had our first family vacation. Yet another crazy thing about living away from family...you never have a vacation! Any time that Ben takes off of work is spent travelling to either one of our families and while it's always fun, it was wonderful to actually have a vacation to somewhere new! I have resolved that this is going to have to be much more of a priority for our family! Well, maybe after this job is over for Ben :) He has been doing an amazing job as the commander of the 66th MP CO, but it is quite demanding. Most days he leaves the house by 5:30 am and doesn't get back home before 7 pm. And that doesn't include the phone calls that he receives at any hour of the night and on weekends, as well as the paperwork that he usually brings home! He is certainly working hard, but keeping up wonderfully!

We have certainly had a wonderful 2010 and we are looking forward to what God has in store for us in 2011! Please join us on our journey :)