House Update

So, Josh is in El Centro this week on detachment, and I've got some time on my hands, so I thought I would update the pictures of our house. Of course, we'll be going by again this weekend after church, so I hope to see even more finished. Looks like they don't have much more to go before it will be ready!





We have a driveway & sidewalk! They've also put up our shutters, front door, and outside lighting!






We love the granite we picked out for the countertops! It goes so great with our cabinets! Now we just have to see how the tile will pull everything together...stay tuned :-)






Josh has a funny little grin on his face...is he imagining a bear-skin rug in front of that fireplace??? Ahhh...just like a man!






The deck off our bedroom - we were so happy to see that they used recycled materials for the floor of the deck!







Tiling in master bath is finished!




I also thought I would post some pictures of Liam after his surgery. He's actually doing really well...the swelling in the joint is still there, but the vet said it will take some time to heal if he did pull a tendon (or possibly both tendons). He's probably the only one in the house who doesn't mind that Josh isn't home this week...he is getting to sleep in the bed with me every night, and he LOVES it!








This was the day we brought him home - the tranquilizer pill hadn't quite kicked in yet...












"Now, this is how you recover from surgery!"

This was one week after the surgery when our local vet changed his bandage. He no longer has a bandage, and his stitches have been removed...now to get him fully recovered!



While I was on here, I thought I would post some other pictures that I've been meaning to get on here. Just some random things...



We spent the day at Del Mar Beach with our friends Nathan, Nadia & Brian. I love capturing pictures of the waves breaking over the rock wall...










I've mentioned all of the squirrels here on base...there are lots of rabbits too. This one was sitting in our front yard one morning...isn't he cute?





Vega really wanted some of my bath bubbles so...I let her have some! Hee, hee, hee...





"High-five Mama! Daddy's out of town and I get his spot in the bed...at least for one more night!"






Look, Mom! Something that I haven't killed in the flower garden! Yes, this came from my semi-green thumb! I've got them growing all along the side of my house!






We hope that everyone is doing well! We miss you all very much!

Until next time...

Love & Blessings to All!

PS...Josh will be returning from El Centro tomorrow. Please pray for a safe flight home for all of the guys!

House is coming along great!

Thought I would post some pictures of the progression on the house! The on-site sales manager says we may be closing one or possibly even two weeks early! That would be fantastic considering we want to have the back yard sodded before we move in (the builders will only landscape the front yard and the back yard is left as is, so we definitely don't need the dogs carrying dirt in from the back yard)! We went by last week to check how things were going, and they have installed all the cabinets throughout the house and have also finished the stucco on the exterior. They also have all of the bath inserts completed (they still have to tile and install our shower). We will probably go by again this weekend coming up to see how things are progressing.







Stucco is done! We went by on a Monday and there
were LOTS of people working! They're getting the
job done FAST!





I just love the hard hats we have to wear when
visiting the site!






We'll have PLENTY of storage space - we have
additional cabinets in both the downstairs &
upstairs hallways! YEAH!!!





Our fireplace which we will probably never have
to use since we live in Southern California!!!





Our master bathroom - finally a separate tub
and shower! Yippee!



Much love and blessings to everyone!


PS - Liam is recovering from his biopsy so well. Thank you again for all of your prayers and support. I'll post some pictures soon of him with his bandaged leg...he definitely played the sympathy card a few times during his recovery to get extra belly rubs!

XOXO

Our day at the San Diego County Fair

I started this post well over a week ago, but with everything that's been going on with our dog, Liam, this got put on hold! Now that he is recovering from his surgery, I thought I should really get this finished! These are pictures from our day at the San Diego County Fair - it's a rather long post, but I had a tough time narrowing down the pictures I wanted to share...trust me, I took many more pictures that I just didn't have time to include. Enjoy!

The first set of pictures are some general pictures of the fair...some were taken from the Sky Ride that Josh and I took so we could get a "bird's eye view" of the fairgrounds (fun, but a little scary!)...

Posted at the entrance to the Race Track - thought these were really cool!

Entrance to the Fairgrounds...this year's theme was centered around music!

Sky Ride - weeeeeee!!!

View of entrance from Sky Ride...

They have dog races & horse races here - Josh and I

are thinking of going to the Del Mar Horse Races - I can't wait!

High above the fairgrounds...little scary!

Nice view out to the ocean while up in the air!

I think I was most captivated by the Flower & Garden show. There were the most amazing specimens of flowers I've ever seen! Here are some of my favorites...

The BIGGEST sunflowers I have ever seen!

The one in the top photo was over 10 feet tall!

Beautiful magnolia - makes us miss home!

Really creative arrangements celebrating the 4th of July!

DAHLIAS, DAHLIAS EVERYWHERE! AND THEY WERE ALL BEAUTIFUL!

Interesting plant wall or "vertical garden"

And, of course, we had to visit the Livestock exhibit...you'll notice one little guy that didn't seem to fit in with the other animals, but he was so cute, I couldn't resist adding him along with the rest!

Llamas - contemplating life...and a bad haircut!

The first picture I took of this very large cow was from the other side of his pen - when we got to the other side, we realized just how BIG this guy was. I could barely fit just his head in the frame when we were standing next to him!

Isn't he cute???

BIG OLE PIG! Another big guy that I had trouble fitting in the frame!

Cute, adorble bunnies!

Biggest turkeys I have ever seen! Big pigs, big cows, big turkeys and...










...then we have this guy!!! Not sure how pomeranians contribute to life on a farm, but this guys was just too cute not to include along with the other "farm" animals!



Hopefully, this week I will be able to get pictures of our house posted...it's coming along really fast and the property manager says she thinks we may close 1-2 weeks early! We're very excited!



Love and blessings to everyone! We miss you all!

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!

Josh and I are enjoying a long weekend to celebrate the 4th of July. Today, we're heading to the San Diego County Fair - we hear it's huge! Can't wait to see what's in store there! Tomorrow, we're heading over to have a BBQ with some friends we met here, Nadia & Nathan, then probably going out to the beach to watch some fireworks...let's just hope Liam doesn't hear them because he is terrified of fireworks. He is totally fine with all the big "booms" from the training exercises that take place here on base, but is so scared of fireworks...go figure!

Sunday we will be going back to San Diego to have dinner with our friends Summer and Gene for Summer's birthday! They will be leaving for Okinawa on the 8th so we wanted to be sure to spend some time with them before they set off on their new adventure!

Josh has his first detachment next week - he'll be heading to El Centro with some other Marines from his squadron for some training. So it will be just me and the furry kids - of course, the dogs will be happy because they'll get to sleep in the bed with me until Josh returns! Please pray for a safe trip and safe training for Josh and all the Marines going on this detachment.

I'll take some pictures of our long weekend and hope that Josh will be able to take a camera with him while he is in El Centro - I'll get them posted as soon as I can. I'll also load some pictures of the house...we went yesterday and saw some great progress...the framing is complete, stucco is almost done, all the dry walling is complete, and all the electrical and plumbing is finished. We also have tubs/showers in all the bathrooms...they still have to tile ours, but the infrastructure is there! We're getting really excited!!!

Everyone have a safe and happy 4th of July! We love and miss you all!!!

A very brave 10-year old girl

Hi everyone - I just wanted to let all of you know about a 10-year old girl here in Southern California. Her name is Hannah Powell-Auslam - a beautiful and vibrant 5th grader...and she is battling breast cancer. I can't imagine a girl so young having to confront such a scary disease. She is truly amazing and such an inspiration! I have linked her family's blog to the right under "Blogs I Love." I invite you to read about her or you can click on the link below to watch the Good Morning America feature about Hannah . Our prayers are with Hannah and her family for a full recovery!

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/OnCallPlusBreastCancerNews/story?id=7739714&page=1

Finally A Few Videos

Finally figured out how to upload these videos - the trick is you have to wait a really long time! This was the best video we shot for the day - we were pretty far from the course, so we really had to zoom in. This guys finished 3rd overall - not too bad!

I figured since I was at the computer I would also include a video of some of the "wildlife" that we have encountered here. The last video is of some squirrels my mom and I came across during our visit to Oceanside Beach. On the east coast, we're much more accustomed to tree squirrels. Here, they are ground squirrels - much to Liam & Vega's amusement, but also to their angst since they can't get to them...the wiley squirrels never venture into the yard, but scavenge the area just outside of the fence. Drives Liam & Vega nuts! This particular squirrel in the video is obviously comfortable around humans as you will see from the lady feeding them...not so with the squirrels on base - they scatter any time the dogs are let out into the back yard! Also, notice how the squirrel "chirps" - this surprised me the first time I heard it - thought it was a bird!

Much love and blessings to everyone and have a wonderful Memorial Day!

PS (as usual) - We have some friends getting stationed in Japan very soon. I mentioned Summer & Gene in my last post - they will be heading over in July. I also ask that you pray for our friends Luke & Tracy and their two girls Brianna & Samantha. They will be leaving for Okinawa in about three weeks. We will miss them terribly! Please continue to keep all of them in your prayers! Thanks!

Red Bull Air Race & Building A House!!!

MEMORIAL DAY IS MONDAY, MAY 25TH

THANK YOU VETERANS, ACTIVE DUTY & RESERVISTS

FOR ALL THAT YOU HAVE DONE & CONTINUE TO DO!

Josh and I are getting settled in here in California. We are really enjoying ourselves! Training has been challenging for Josh, but well worth all of his hard work. He will have his first flight sometime this week - I told him not to tell me what day that will be because I will be nervous the whole day until he comes home!


Even though there have been lots of studying for Josh's training, we have managed to get out and see some of the surrounding areas and enjoy some time with our friends, Summer & Gene. We all went to the Red Bull Air Race at the San Diego Bay on Mother's Day last weekend. We had a blast! It was awesome watching those guys and seeing how much control they have of those planes! We got some great video of the race, but for some reason, I can't seem to get them uploaded, so I've posted some pictures below (once I figure out the video upload, I'll post those):







Our friends Gene & Summer - it was a little cool in the morning,
so they took the opportunity to snuggle up and get warm!







There were planes that were "skytyping" -
they were so high in the sky you couldn't even see the planes!












Playing of the National Anthem before the race began








The Red Bull plane

Awesome!

We also have some news to share...we're building a house! We went into contract over the weekend and have an estimated closing date towards the end of September. The house will be in a town called Wildomar that is located off the I-15. We originally began looking for a house in the immediate area, but the home prices are still a little high in San Diego county. It will be about a 45 minute drive for Josh, but he thinks it's worth it - we are getting what we were looking for in a house. The dogs will have a bigger yard to play in, and there is an equestrian trail that surrounds the neighborhood that we can also use for hikes with the dogs.


Even though we were a little hesitant about this move to California, we feel the Lord has truly blessed us, and we know that this is His plan for us! We'll continue to keep everyone updated. Love and Blessings to all!!!


PS - Our friends Gene & Summer will be moving to their next duty station in July. They will be stationed in Okinawa. We ask that you pray for them to have a safe journey and a safe tour in Japan.