It's Finally Finished!

The house is officially finished! We had our final walkthrough on Friday, and with only a few touchups, it's ready for us to move in! We are so excited! We should have our keys on Friday, then the moving begins...











Josh is checking out all of the appliances...wondering if he's thinking of cooking me a gourmet meal sometime soon?






The only thing missing is the refrigerator, but that will be delivered and installed soon!






We've been told it's only cold in this part of California for about two months of the year...usually January & February - but we'll be ready to snuggle up by the fireplace when it does turn cold!





The master bedroom looks great with the new carpet...we can finally envision ourselves living here!






We've been packing for about the last month. With Josh's schedule being so hectic, we thought we should get a jump on things. Which was a good decision, because Josh now has two weeks of training from September 13th - September 25th...and we're scheduled to get the keys on September 18th! Not to worry though, we've hired some movers to help - and I have no doubt we'll get it done since the movers we hired are former Marines! Ooh Rah!











Lt. Joshua Smith...fantastic husband, proud Marine...and MASTER PACKER!



Some other good news is that Josh is now officially a co-pilot! He finished his Level 100 training, and will be finally checking into his new squadron on October 5th. He's happy to finally be a part of the fleet!

Josh flying back from El Centro, CA




The training squadron that Josh has been with had Family Day last month. I didn't get a chance to take many pictures because we were busy having fun, but here's one of the Tug Of War competition that took place...

The Officers lining up against the Aircrew Students - the Aircrew Students outnumbered the Officers three to two...and they had the advantage of age...young age, that is! Needless to say, the Aircrew Students took the win, but the Officers put up a good fight!

Josh's Uncle Terry and Aunt Joanne were in San Diego over the weekend! His Uncle Terry served as a Navy Corpsman during the Vietnam War, and each year his unit gets together for a reunion. This year it was held in San Diego, so we were so happy when we got to spend the whole day with them on Saturday! I also finally got a chance to meet Aunt Joanne's sister, Dotty, who is now officially a new member of our family! We love you Uncle Terry, Aunt Joanne, and "Aunt" Dotty!

After seeing our house on base, Terry, Joanne & Dotty then got a tour of the hanger at HMMT-164 and an up-close peek at a CH-46. We then drove them up to see the house, and finally we enjoyed the best BBQ in Temecula!


Wendy's mom (aka Mumsy) will be out on the 23rd of September to help with the move - we're so grateful to have her out to help with everything...don't know what we'd do without her! Please pray that she has a safe flight. We also ask that you pray for Josh while he is training over the next two weeks - we're both fighting some kind of sinus/cold bug, so he could certainly use some extra prayers.

We're looking forward to having friends and family out to visit! We've got plenty of room...so start packing your bags!!!

Much love and blessings to everyone!

They Bring Us Joy...

Just some random pictures of the dogs. Life is so much sweeter when there's a wagging tail in the family!






You know when you were a kid & you had a favorite blanket?
I guess that's how Vega feels about "Big Bear"
She just loves him!















All puppy parts are beautiful!
Liam's paw & fluffy tail...

In Rememberance...

I want to take a moment to remember those who lost their lives on 9/11/2001. We must never forget and will hold you close within our hearts. God Bless the USA!

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!