Continued...

OK, so I know I said I would post the next day but I had some Internet problems.
Wednesday I hung out with Heather and it was SO fun! We went to so many places, first she took me around to some scenic areas, then we headed to this really cute dutch town called Solvang. We had lunch there, went to the Farmers Market for food for dinner, and went to a Dutch Bakery. Boy it was hard to not have sweets in there! I compromised with a Banana Nut Muffin and it was so good! Then we headed to a Vineyard. There are so many Vineyards in the Santa Barbara/Lompoc area. Its not grape season so it wasn't nearly as pretty as it would have been, but it was still pretty. Then we picked up Shannon after his training and headed to Heather's house to make dinner. Before we started dinner she took us on a walk on a trail behind her house. It started out fun but when she told me there are Mountain Lions I about freaked! She has 2 big dogs that we had with us, but still! Mountain Lions?? In Florida maybe you would run into a Alligator... but nothing like a Mountain Lion. So after I about ran back to the house we had dinner and hung out. It was so nice to catch up and talk. I didn't want to leave! When we got back to the hotel it was so late I didn't want to blog.
The next morning was the last day of training for Shannon. He was getting off at 12noon so that morning I packed up our stuff and we headed to Santa Barbara. Shannon's co-worker flew out of Santa Barbara airport Friday morning so we spent the morning in Santa Barbara, then headed to Santa Monica, then we headed to LA. Santa Barbara and Santa Monica by the way is so pretty! I am still amazed at the scenery over there.
Here are some pictures of those 2 days. I will post more later. There is so much to say about vacation, I don't know how I will fit it all in!

















Scenery

















A little street in Solvang

















Me and Baby John

















Heather and John

















After dinner

















Amazing bread we bought at the Farmers Market

















On the road to Santa Barbara from Lompoc

We Made It

We made it!! The flight was so long but not too bad. Shannon did really good for it being his first plane ride, didn't get sick or anything! We boarded the plane at 7am and arrived in Phoenix, AZ 5 hours later, then jumped on a plane to Santa Barbara, then drove for an hour to Lompoc. It was about an 9/10 hour total journey. We are in Lompoc for Shannon's training.



















Today I was pretty bored in the hotel all day but tomorrow my friend Heather (who moved here last year) is picking me up and we have a fun filled day! I am SO happy to be able to see her and and her new baby! God is so kind to put us in the same area. Its weird getting used to the time change. Right now its 7pm but my brain and body says its 10pm.

It is so incredibly beautiful here. I cant get over it! Heather told me I will see more beautiful places tomorrow, cant wait! I will try to post more tomorrow.

I had a great time working with Uncle Randy last week. Its hard work but its fun to spend time with my family. Its also nice to make some extra money! Here are a few pictures.























We leave tomorrow for California! We are so excited. I will try to update while we are out there.

We are packed and ready to go..


















I have already signed us in online so tomorrow we just need to check our bags in...


















Pray that we have a safe trip out there!

Im so excited, I just cant hide it!

I'm so excited, Uncle Randy is in town for a packing job in Oviedo and he asked me to help! For those of you who don't know Uncle Randy now works for Budd Van Lines and packs and moves rich people. I love helping him with these jobs because I don't see much of my uncle anymore and we have so many laughs when we're together. Plus the extra money is good! :) So I will be gone for 3 days... hopefully I will have time to take some pictures to show you what life is like for movers! But we are usually kept VERY busy so I cant guarantee anything.

And... Shannon found out that Lockheed is sending him to California for training, and I get to go with him! YAY! We leave the 16th and come back the 22nd or 23rd. He will only train for a few hours Mon- Thursday, so I will need to entertain myself then... but that's OK! After he is done training in Santa Barber, we will head to LA for the weekend. I have never been west, so this will be a fun experience. God has blessed us so much with this job!

And pictures to come... I have been lazy in getting them up!

Wow

OK... so I know its been a really long time since I've posted... and I know I will hear it from some people ;)... but life has been crazy!

I feel like this past month has be a total whirlwind! To sum it all up:
Christmas- very fun! We went to 2 places Christmas eve, and we went 5 places Christmas Day. We enjoy that now but we are prepared for that to change the day we have kids! Our families were SO generous to us and we so appreciate everything!! Shannon and I bought a Wii for each other for Christmas, we love it! Shannon has definitely "bonded" more with his friends over Wii games!
Shannon and I both had off the whole week of Christmas and most of the week of New Years, boy were we spoiled when reality hit and off to work we went!
New years was fun, but it just flew by! Our good friends came over to ring in the new year with us.
We have been doing little projects in the house that turn out to be BIG projects! (another post on that later :))
One of my dear friends got engaged! YAY Becca!!
And I've had to face some challenges with my health... God has blessed me through that by giving me an amazing doctor that helped figure out what was wrong with me and he has me well on my way to getting better. God is faithful!

So there it is in a nutshell and I have more posts coming soon... lets just say God gave Shannon a knack for computers, not plumbing!

What's this?

The true meaning of Christmas?

Ugh

Yes, I was doomed... doomed to get sick.

All from accidentally drinking out of my moms straw :(

Quote

So I found this quote in my desk today and cant remember where I got it from...

"Right now I'm living in the desert catching scattered droplets where I can. There are small tastes of God to be had on this world. But my thirst for God is a reminder that this land isn't my home. There are whispers of a land where water is abundant. That's the land I long for. Until then I'm waiting for the rain."

Yup, I've been tagged

So I have been tagged...
The object of the game is to go into your picture files & post the 5th picture in the 5th folder... so here is mine...














Its me and Ashley and her bachelorette party. I love that girl! :)
So now I have to tag 5 people... So I tag Lena Diaz, Katelyn Merwin, Bekah Walsh, Britani Lockhart, and Megan Reily.

Fun in St. Augustine

So this past weekend Shannon and I went away for the weekend to St. Augustine with our dear friends Jason and Ashley. It was great! We had a great time and I want to start planning for the next trip! We rented scooters and went all over town on them, walked everywhere in the historic downtown area, shopped, ate, and laughed. Here are some pictures:

Now you see it... now you don't

Sometimes it is nice to have things done for you...
When we bought this house we were told that the grapefruit tree in the back was alive and kicking. Well after being in the house for a couple of weeks it was very clear by the bark falling off and no leaves that the tree was very much dead. So we have been talking about what to do with this dead tree and a stump that was next to it. I wanted to just be done with it but it didn't seem to bother Shannon to have a dead tree in the back yard. So anyways it was an afternoon and someone knocked on the door and said he was in the tree cutting business and "noticed" our dead tree in the back yard and wanted to know if he could cut it down! Shannon walked around to the back yard with him and he said he would normally charge $80 to cut down the tree and stump but he would do it for $40 if he could do it right then. Shannon came in to ask me and of course I was like "YES!". So in 20 min our dead tree was gone. I love looking out there and not seeing that ugly thing! In my opinion it was so worth getting it done by someone else! Who knows how long it would have been in our back yard...

K-Mart... again

So my local K-Mart was having another double coupon week so I went and got some really good deals. I also got some deals at Wal-Mart, 2 box's of hot chocolate and 4 cans of tomato sauce for .02! So for everything that you see in the picture I got for $21.46. I was pretty happy... :)

My "little" Brother...

Well, its official... Justin is no longer a teenager. Its so weird to think that my little brother is now 20. I am so proud of the person he has become and I am so excited to see how God is going to use him in the future! Next to Shannon, he is my best friend! Justin has this gift to be able to cheer me up/ encourage me when I'm down or struggling with something and he also knows exactly how to annoy me when I don't need it! :) I couldn't imagine my life without my brother.

Justin, I love you and I am always praying for you and Gods plan for your life. Even through your struggles I see God working on your heart and I see your struggles to do what is right. I love that we can talk for hours on end and not get sick of each other- that is only by God's grace! You are such a gifted, loving, passionate, sweet, strong ;), and godly person. Keep God first in your life and trust him through the hard times. I love you so much and thank God for you EVERY day!
Well, excuse me while I wipe my tears! :D

Last night we had dinner at our house to celebrate Justin's and my moms birthday. It was great! I LOVE having my family over and being able to hang out with them and spend that time with them. And best of all we eat, eat, and eat! I'm still full... :)

Well, I done with rambling for now. Here is a picture of Justin in one of the shirts we got him... I wish I got more pictures of last night but I didn't think about it until everyone left! Oh well... I will get used to thinking about blog stuff one of these days.














And excuse the quality... its from my phone...

Random...

Well I didnt do so good on the garage sale. I was able to get ride of some junk (its amazing what people buy!) but I didnt make that much money- only $36.75. Oh well, maybe next time! I have a few pictures I will put up later...

And on another note, i'm sitting outside on my back porch amazed at the weather we are having! It is in the 70's and breazy- I love it! Im able to sit out here and not sweat to death! Now its finally starting to feel like Fall... my favorite time of year.

Oh and here is a fun little quiz you should take... http://www.fireworkspop.com/colortest.htm

Garage Sale

Im having a garage sale! This Saturday from 8 - 12ish.
Come on by if you want to!

KMart

So my friend Lena and I went to Kmart yesterday. I thought I would just run in grab a few things with my coupons then leave... well we spent 3 1/2 hours there! I was very happy with what I got. The total before coupons was $132.50, and I only paid $50.50, thats saving $82.00! Now considering that, I had to get somethings that I didnt have that good of coupons for. For example, I needed to get bar soap (we were on the last bar) and I only had a small coupon for Lever2000 so I still spent 4.99 on that. Same with some other things we needed. So I would have spent less if I didnt need those certain things. And also with all the stuff I got, I wont need to by any toilet paper, paper towels, shampoo, deoterant, and so on for a really long time! I would encourage you to go down to Kmart if you have coupons and check it out! Make sure you look in the clearance isles too!
Here is the stuff I got:

Yesterday I babysat the Dunlop kids, they were great!
Here are some pictures I took of them:










Also, just in case you didnt know, Kmart is having a Super Double Manufacturer Coupon Days from yesterday until the 5th! Go here to see some of the deals from the Money Saving Mom blog.