Honeymoon

Its been a while, but with the Honeymoon and moving this past week, I haven't had the chance to blog. I've been dying to tell everyone about our honeymoon... so here goes.

It snowed the Monday we were supposed to leave St Louis. We were prepared, as there was a second flight that we had for back up later in Atlanta, that would get us to Jacksonville  in time to board our cruise ship. We had boarded our plane when the pilot announced that we had to go to the deicing pad. After two hours, and no movement, we were informed that our plane would not be taking off from St Louis that day. Reason being, "Delta has no deicer. Don't plan on trying to book with another company, as all of St Louis is out as well." I was crushed. Realizing that we wouldn't make that connecting fight in Atlanta and wouldn't be boarding our cruise, I started bawling... right there in my seat. Josh continually tried to convince me that we would figure it out, but it wasn't working. Being the amazing husband that he is, he was able to get someone from Delta on the line and rebook us a flight straight to Nassau, Bahamas where our ship would be docking on Wednesday. This still meant that we had to stay in St Louis that Monday, leave early Tuesday, fly to the Bahamas, stay overnight there, and then get on our cruise. At that point, I was a basket case.

Josh's dad picked us up and took us back to their house. While there we booked a room at a hotel in the Bahamas, which wasn't actually as bad as we though. Our Honeymoon was moving in the right direction. No snow Tuesday morning, and our flight went off without a hitch. When we landed in the Bahamas convinced that we could only go up from here. That was until we watched everyone on our flight get their luggage from the carousel and leave. Realizing that we didn't have luggage, I again broke down. Bawled in the airport. Josh laughed, filed a claim, and we went off to the other side of the island to our hotel.

So, we are in Nassau, with nothing. I had a tank top and a pair of shorts in the carry on, but poor Josh had nothing. No soap, razors, toothpaste, contact solution, or bathing suits... We walked to the tourist area and bought some stuff, including two bathing suits. Back to the hotel we went to change and get in a few hours at the beach, and then it happened. You know that moment when you hit your breaking point. That happened when Josh "tried" putting on his swimming trunks and they were too small. We laughed so hard, so hard we rolled on the floor, so hard that my stomach hurt from laughing so hard. Poor Josh layed on the beach in his long pants while I basked in the Caribbean sunshine.

The next day our ship came in, and we boarded. Eventually our bag came and the rest of the week was amazing!! Looking forward to our next Carnival Cruise, and never flying Delta again. Sent out a nice letter today to the Delta CEO explaining the situation, and looking forward to getting something back. I'll post pictures soon, Josh is still editing.

Downsizing

Its official, we have listed our house on Emily's Rentals. To all of you, this is a shock because you know how much time and dedication we put into the house, not to mention that most of our memories are in this house. 

Months of discussions and weighing our options has lead us to believe that this is the best choice for us.  I LOVE our house, but its house is huge, 4 bedroom, 2 1/2 baths, 2 car garage, about 1/4 of an acre, and with the deployment (much too) quickly approaching it would be a lot for me to handle on my own.  So, its a done deal. We really think we will get a renter in quickly, because...

 Who wouldn't want to cook in that kitchen?           

  Or spend holidays with their family in this awesome dining room?

Or wake up in this huge master bedroom?

Or pull into that driveway ever day? 

 We love our house, but this seems like the best option...After the deployment (regardless of staying in or getting out) we won't stay here at Ft. Hood, meaning we would have a few months to sell our house, or rent it, before moving onto somewhere else. This way, we won't have to rush into making a decision in such a short amount of time.

I'm sure you are wondering, "Where will Amanda live?" and that brings me to the next section of this blog. "Where will I live?" We signed a lease today at an apartment complex here in Killeen called

The Bridgemoor at Killeen. They are really cute, and more like garden homes than your conventional apartment.  We liked them because they have real hardwood floors, granite counter tops, and real wood cabinets, plus there is only one floor so NO walking two dogs up and down tons of stairs every few hours! 

Apparently, there are some pretty awesome tax advantages to the renting of our house, and with following our Dave Ramsey guidelines, we are all about saving money and making money anyway we can. That's all for now. I'll update on the progress of finding a renter, moving, and trying to figure out where to put all of our stuff!!

Our favorites...

Trying to be creative and entertain myself (while Josh is playing COD and talking to someone via headset), I decided to compile a list of our favorite things to do together.

-- Saturday morning biscuits and gravy.  Josh lives for this Saturday treat, and since we don't usually eat breakfast together, its a nice treat for both of us. Josh usually takes care of the sausage, while I get the table ready and throw the biscuits in the oven. He is very particular about the process (that I think he stole from his mom), and I usually forget to add pepper, so he takes the lead. Its a great way to spend our Saturday morning together planning the day.

-- Going for bike rides. Last summer we spent most weekends taking our bicycles out for 15-20 mile rides. As long as we have enough water and the wind isn't blowing like crazy we are good. Hopefully we will be able to take advantage of our nice weather and bikes before the deployment.

-- We love doing projects together. Painting, organizing, planning...  You name it, we can do it. Occasionally I step in paint and get paint on the floor, or Josh measures the crown molding the wrong way, and we have to take a break, but for the most part its awesome. We spent a lot of last summer and the fall improving our already nearly perfect house. We painted most every room, added crown molding and chair rails in some rooms, and organized the garage. We are so proud of our accomplishments.

Talk about busy...

This week has really been crazy. In addition to 18 hours of classes and studying/homework time, usually an hour and a half at the gym a day, keeping our house relatively clean, and making sure the dogs get their social time, I've decided to help Josh's troop's FRG by being a co-leader. We love our current leader, but with the guys deploying soon she could use all the help she could get.

So this week, I had training Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, & a meeting on Thursday. Also, had my regular couple of college classes a day too. It was nice though, because I was already on post, I got to eat lunch with my husband 3 out of the 4 days.  Plus, I really learned a lot at the trainings, so it was worth the added busyness.

Also, I picked up my reception gown today. I have started referring to it as "the reception gown," because I got tired of explaining that we are already married, but I'm wearing it to the reception. Its perfect, and I love it! The only person who has seen it is Laura (be jealous)!!!

All for now...