FAIR WEEK!!!!!

It has been a super busy week! Not just because it's Fair week here, which also means every school in the county is on spring break, which means more time to spend with my parents (who are teachers) and my siblings (who are students). It's been a great week so far.

 Saturday we ended up going back to the mine and we climbed to the top of a mountain! (I'll put up some photos later!) We went inside the mine a little further, it was SOOO dark! I didn't like the fact that I couldn't see my feet so I got out of there a little sooner.

Sunday we went to Ronnie's family's church in the morning and had a great potluck lunch, then I spent the afternoon relaxing with my mom, and in the evening we all went to a birthday party for Ronnie's mom.

Monday was probably my favorite day this week! I learned how to bake bread and cinnamon rolls! It's a top secret family recipe on from my mother-in-law's family, she taught me what HER grandmother taught her. It is really special that I get to be a part of that tradition, and that I have the relationship I do with Ronnie's family, you hear so many "horror stories" about in-laws!

Tuesday we went to the Fair! I took a few chances and went on some rides I never went on before, since I don't know how much I should trust rides that are trucked in and pieced together by drunken carnies (true story! we saw a TON of beer cans under some of the rides!) BUT I didn't die, and we are going back tomorrow!

Today (Wednesday) My parents painted their bedroom, I baked birthday cakes for my Grampa's birthday tomorrow (he and my Gramma just got into town today!) I washed the paint off of Charlie's paws, broke the faucet on my parents' sink, sprayed water all over the kitchen, painted my toenails (really badly), had a Nerf dart war with my little brother, and ate dinner watching Survivor and drank fruity drinks with my mom!

Thursday (Tomorrow) We will be going to the Fair again, celebrating my Grampa's birthday, and who knows what else!

Friday, WE MOVE INTO OUR HOUSE IN SAN DIEGO!!!! I'm so excited! :]

-Kristin

Playing in the Backyard

Well...sort of.

It's been a busy, yet uneventful couple of days. I should be hearing back any day now from the school in San Diego I went to before I moved to Charleston, to see if I have been re-accepted for the Fall 2011 semester or not. I just hope my wonderful (sarcasm) school in Charleston came through and did what I needed them to for once. I'm pretty anxious about the whole thing and I just wish I'd get that letter already, because I really would just like to finish college...WITH a degree.

To pass the time, I've been illustrating a few things to personalize my blog a little more, and make it pretty! I figure if I have the 3 years of graphic design skills to do it myself then I don't want to use something somebody else created, besides the fact that I can't find EXACTLY what I want and I don't want to do this thing half way. I'm VERY excited about it! :]

I also have a couple of other things I'd like to start adding to it when the design is all put together, basically I have big plans.

Speaking of plans...

We explored the Kofa National Wildlife Refuge today...which is just a few miles North of our hometown...basically our backyard.

Originally, the plan was to hike this mountain...Castle Dome.

But it was a WINDY day and we didn't think it would be a good idea to try and make the climb. There is a "ghost town" at the bottom of this mountain that we toured for awhile. The lady working there told us about a few different trails you can take through the Kofa mountains and old silver and lead mines that are scattered throughout the desert.

So what did we do?

We asked for a map, and changed the GPS icon from a car to a hawk.

And our day began with a 15 mile off road, 4WD, trek down dirt trails like....

This one! It was a rough ride but it was SO MUCH FUN, not to mention beautiful! A lot of people think the desert is just a bunch of dry, flat land covered in dirt, but there is so much more to see than that!

I was just bummed that I left my Nikon at home! We'd been planning on a rocky hike and I didn't want to risk dropping and breaking it!

Another view of Castle Dome

Ronnie's Cousin

Me and my sunglasses

Ronnie "This is serious business...We ARE the HAWK!"

We pulled off the trail and stopped to look at anything we found interesting. We hiked a short distance to a few mines we could see off the road. Most of the abandoned mines in this area date back to the late 1800's and are just really, really deep holes in the ground, but a couple are actually carved into the mountain and you can walk inside them.

Part of the "Tin Cup Mine"

Us at the entrance

A view from the entrance

Our goal was to go up to a bigger mine called "Big Eye" we drove until the trail ended then started hiking. It ended up taking a lot of hiking around to actually find it, but we did!

There was a neat little cabin you can stay the night in (for free, if you can find it!) an old shower house along with rain water retention tanks, a couple old collapsed cabins, and a few entrances to the mine. We didn't want to go too far into it because it was getting dark, so we signed the guest book in the cabin and headed back down to the truck.

 Eventually we made it back into town, but not before seeing a, much missed, beautiful Arizona sunset.

 We have talked about going back to see more tomorrow, but we are pretty exhausted. I know that IF we do go back I will be taking my good camera, so keep looking for some more photos of this amazing place...unless you absolutely HATE the desert...then you can skip over the pictures and just read the words...but even then what is the fun in that? ;]

-Kristin

I Heart Weddings!!!

I really do! And it's even better when it's the wedding of two good friends!

AND I realized this weekend that I am now at the age where friends (and not just military) will be getting married, since this wedding makes #2 I have attended so far in 2011! And it's only MARCH!


This weekend the Hubby and I celebrated with our friends Mike and Nicole! Mike and Ronnie were in bootcamp at the same time (but not together) but met in A-School in Charleston! The wedding was small but beautiful, Ronnie was a groomsman, it was really great that they asked us to be there on this special day. What is even more exciting is we will all be in San Diego together really soon! I'm really looking forward to having Nicole there!

I took this with my phone because I frequently forget things, like hair brushes and cameras.

I finally have some internet now, SO no more posting via phone for awhile! :]
So I'm sitting here typing away while the Hubby is playing Black Ops on xbox Live.

This is us in the car on the way to Phoenix this weekend, Ronnie isn't looking at the camera because he is DRIVING!

I am very excited for this week! We finally get to relax, and spend time with our family and friends we haven't seen in awhile. Tomorrow, we have NO PLANS...

Funny, as I typed "NO PLANS" the Hubby looked away from the video game and asked me "What are we doing tomorrow?"


I guess we will see...
:]

The end of the tunnel!

I feel like every time I post lately I'm starting off with "it's been a few days..."

But!

We are definitely seeing the light at the end of this loooong dark, moving, broken down truck, housing mess tunnel!

Ronnie's truck broke down AGAIN on Sunday 80 miles out of town...so that was a big mess, luckily he has friends and family with big trucks too!

Tuesday we went to San Diego to go to the housing office to get on a waiting list. We got there as they were closing but someone was nice enough to stay and help us! And she didn't just help us...

she FOUND US A HOUSE!!!

it was pretty amazing, I definitely believe God has a hand in all of this, He shows us over and over again "I'm here and I love you, just trust me."

So that brings us to today, we are on the road to San Diego to sign the lease! I'm so excited for our new home. I think I'm going to like living in housing, I'm looking forward to the community. We drove by the house the other day just to see the outside, when I saw signs reading "welcome home daddy!" over doors, I knew we were home.

The road trip continues...

Well at least for my husband and his friend! The truck was fixed today and they are on their way. Somewhere on the same highway my mom and I traveled down, almost to Mississippi, headed for Dallas, was what he said on the phone a minute ago. I'm so excited for him to be here!

And as excited as I am right now, I know others in the world are less excited about their situation. My prayers are going out to the people in Japan. The whole disaster and everything those people are going through is really humbling to me I guess. After my whole post last night about being "homeless" and all my whining I feel a little foolish and I realize now how lucky I am. So many people lost EVERYTHING and I am sitting here with my family in a house that is standing, dry, with food to eat, water to drink, and a place to sleep. I have nothing to complain about. Nothing.

This all also got me thinking about things, some questions I had for Ronnie on the phone tonight were:
"What is going to happen to the reactors at the nuclear power plants in Japan if they can't cool them down?" (He gave me a looong detailed answer that used a lot of terminology I know I've heard before when he's talking with other Nukes but I'm not sure EXACTLY what it means...but I got the jist of it.)
"How is a sub affected during a tsunami?"
He assured me like he normally does when I have questions that relate to his job and his safety, that the Navy plans for every situation and is prepared to handle just about anything that may happen. Sometimes I don't know if he just doesn't want me to worry, or if I really should trust the Navy that much. I try not to ask really hard questions, I don't want him to think all I do is think about everything that could go wrong, because I don't. I'm just curious, but I know it will ease his mind about leaving me to do his job if he doesn't have to answer all of my deep, dark, serious questions. So I pick and choose which ones I ask and most of the time I'm satisfied with the answers I get.

Speaking of safety, I was looking at the "stats" tab on the dashboard for the blogging site today. It tells you how many times your blog has been viewed, the different browsers used to view it, and a bunch of other neat stuff. What really got to me though was where it shows what countries your blog has been viewed from, mine had views from China, Russia, and Iran.

It really makes you think twice about what information you post!

Home. Homeless. Houseless.

So, I know it's been a few days but it's been a busy and exhausting few days.We saw Texas the other day, some parts are really pretty, and some are just...not. You could say that about any place you go to though. It's impressive how flat it is, how you can see for miles and miles. We spent the night in Pecos the other night, there were coyotes outside the hotel. And El Paso, not somewhere I'd be too happy about living.

I just thought I'd let everyone out there know my mom and I made it to Arizona...since the last time I posted anything we were trying to out run tornados and make it across Texas in eleven hours.

We made it.

It was 90 degrees today and it was BEAUTIFUL. A big change from the 43 degree weather we left in South Carolina! Poor Mr. Charlie must hate me though, he's got SOOO much fur right now, and he just looks at me like he's saying "I'm so hot". He'll be getting a haircut soon.

My mom and I spent today making two different kinds of enchiladas for dinner tonight since we have both been REALLY wanting a home cooked meal. They were delicious by the way! I'll have to post the recipes some time in the future...like when I'm not posting from my phone. ;]

The husband's truck's part should be in tomorrow! That means he will be on the road and making the trip out. He is very excited to finally come home. And I am excited to be home with him when he gets here! There is still a lot to do before we can have fun and enjoy leave with our families though, because that's what grown up responsible people do?

1. Get our stuff to storage in San Diego
2. Find a place to live in San Diego.

I guess it's not too much to do if you write it out like that. It is just a really big thing, finding somewhere to live.

Somewhere along the way I've decided that home isn't the place you live, it's the people with you. Right now I'm home because I'm with my family, but I also feel like I won't really be home until Ronnie gets here, because he is my home...especially when we were so far away from home. Then this other word comes into play, "homeless" how could I ever be homeless unless I was completely alone?

Right now I am home.
And to anyone else I'd be considered "homeless".
But what I really am is just houseless.

I know it's all going to work out, but with everything that's been going on lately it's hard not to worry.

Our old-school-homeless-road-trip Part 3

Well my mom and I have been on the road since yesterday morning. We had to make the decision to go on ahead of Ronnie since the part for his truck won't be in until later this week. And my mom needs to get back to work.

I could tell he wasn't too excited about letting us go ahead without him, and he's frustrated because we should have all been in Arizona yesterday, but he was a good sport about it. He knows I can handle it but I think he wanted us to all go together. He figured out distances and had hotel reservations for us within minutes, gave us the GPS with updated maps and made sure everything was good to go, which was so nice of him!

Yesterday we drove through Atlanta, Birmingham, and Jackson. We crossed the Mississippi river at night so we didn't get to see much of it. Currently we are driving through Louisiana, trying to beat the thunderstorms coming in with high chances of tornados. I think it would be neat to see New Orleans, especially on Fat Tuesday (not that I celebrate Mardi Gras) but we have to make it through most of Texas today!

We have seen a lot of interesting things, and will probably see a lot more. I decided that one day I want to take a long time to do this drive and adventure off the highway and see more of the country, instead of just driving from point A to point B as fast as possible. Sometimes that is okay but everyone needs to not rush around all the time, I think American stress levels would be lower if people would just take time and explore the world around them.
:]

Our old-school-homeless-road-trip Part 2

So we are still in the middle of nowhere SC. We didn't end up making it to Memphis.

The problem with the truck is bigger than we thought.

Now we are sitting in a motel waiting for Monday. The mechanic was trying to find a transfer case used so we could save about 1700$.

So we might not be out of here and back on the road until Tuesday...which is when we were planning on being in Arizona.

But it's okay. We are going to Augusta tomorrow to hang out and get Ronnie fitted for his tux for our friends' wedding later this month!

So I'll write more later when something is actually happening. ;]


Sent from my Verizon Wireless Phone

Our old-school-homeless-road-trip

We are on the road.

We said goodbye to Charleston a little later than planned but it was okay. Now we have issues with the truck and are currently sitting in "El Creep-o-ville, SC". And the GPS is el-dumbo. But it's a good thing I bought a 2$ Road Atlas so we can do this thing old school. Our goal for this hour was Augusta. Our goal for this leg...Memphis. Now the goal has shifted to get to the auto parts store to buy the tool we need that we have that's packed in the back of the trailer in the toolbox before it closes. Oh and we all got about 2 hours of sleep last night.

We have our walkie talkies and our road map and our snacks so this should be fun right? Haha

It will be. :]

Oh and I realized that as of this afternoon we are homeless...it's kind of exciting!

Another update when we get to Memphis.

It's nap time til the truck is fixed. :]

Sent from my Verizon Wireless Phone

Just a few more days!

I'm sitting here watching American Idol, which is really weird for me because I almost never watch TV! But we watched the guys perform last night so why not watch the girls perform while I wait to switch the laundry over tonight? This is probably the last time I'll do laundry here which is really exciting! Tomorrow I pack up the kitchen, then it's time to attempt to fit all of our stuff into the u-haul trailer, truck and the car!

I really hate commercials...

I've been SOOO tired this week, I'm ready for this moving stuff to be over, and we haven't even started driving yet! My mom gets in tomorrow night, Friday morning is Ronnie's Prototype "graduation ceremony"(We've heard it isn't really much, but I went to his A-School and Power School ceremonies so I really want to be at this one too!) Then hopefully we have some time to eat some good food and show my mom Charleston before we are on the road!

I think the laundry is done! Yay for sleep!!! :]