Weekend Recap: Friends, Dogs, Date Night, Furniture, and Baby Moving!

Happy Tuesday!!!!  Today is my Monday, but also my Thursday because I had yesterday off work for MLK Day and tomorrow is my last day of work for the week.  Holla!!!  (Do people still say that???)

I'm here today to give you one of those weekend recaps, but this is going to be a photo heavy post.  People really only care about photos anyway, right?  So let's jump right in to this random, pointless blog post!

Friday evening started off great as my husband walked in the door holding this box of donuts.  Let me tell you, this man knows his pregnant wife well!  Husband award right here for not only thinking of me, but for getting Dunkin even though he prefers Krispy Kreme.  (I prefer KK glazed, but Dunkin iced donuts.  And as you can see, I couldn't hold off on eating one before snapping a photo.
Then Nick made dinner while I sat on my tush and watched.  He even did the dishes as he went along which he normally doesn't do!!!  It was a great and relaxing Friday for me for sure!!!

Saturday morning, we lounged around awaiting our new furniture.  We ordered a new couch for the living room.  We also ordered a china cabinet and hutch but we're not using it for china.  We're using it as our bar.  Call us lushes, but it is what it is.  We have far more barware than we know what to do with and we have an abundance of liquor.  On Black Friday we got an awesome deal on the two pieces of furniture so we jumped on it and had to wait what seemed like forever to get them in!

That is the before and after.  Let me also let you know that Nick set up this entire bar.  I will be making it look much more attractive and appealing.  But I didn't want to leave you hanging without a photo.  So you get's Nick's set up.  We'll call this the before and trial photo.  Stay tuned for the final after photo.

Likewise, this was our living room as awaited the new couch.  I couldn't help Nick move the couches this go around so they sat here until a friend came over to help move them upstairs to the loft.  We love the new couch! (it's not positioned in the bottom photo; it doesn't overhang the wall as it appears there).  It's so comfy and gives us a little more seating.  I can't wait to get our tables build, buy decor, and hang curtains now!  This place is finally coming together!  About time since we only have 4 months until Baby Obie arrives!

This weekend, I also took quite a few belly photos.  I feel like it's really out there now.  No hiding this preggo belly!  Vino even got some cuddles in with her brother.  

My belly is growing so much in fact, that my t-shirts are a little snug and stretch uncomfortably.    And this is why I have begun wearing Nick's shirts.  Size small t-shirts just aren't cutting it anymore!

Saturday night we had some friends over for game night.  We played Settlers of Catan (we bought the game and expansion pack over Christmas), Telestrations, and ate far too much food.  I also sipped on some non-alcoholic wine and pretended it was the real thing.  (Only 19 more weeks!)

Sunday late morning, we had a dog party.  Three of our neighbors brought over their dogs and we spent the next hour and a half wearing them out.  It was awesome to see three Vizslas together since they're not all that common.  Below you'll see a little game of Vizsla keep-away, led by Cayenne, followed by Riley and Vino)

As if the dogs weren't spoiled enough with the doggie playdate, I finally got Nick to agree to let the old couch, now moved to the loft, to be the one piece of furniture the dogs are allowed on.  I finally get to cuddle with my dogs somewhere else besides the floor!  Vino was all about it.  We didn't have to ask her twice to get up there.  Yadi, however, had to be pulled on the couch.  But most the time, not matter how much "come" we say, she refuses to get on the couch.  She might like to test her limits most days, but she really is a great dog that knows the rules. 

Sunday night, we had date night in and made dinner together (Mongolian beef with carrots, broccoli, green beans, onions, and red peppers over rice) and cuddled up on the new couch watching a movie.  Of course, picky ass Nick had to pick out everything except the beef and green beans.
This couch, because of it's giant ottoman when pushed in the corner, creates the perfect scenario for the ultimate cuddle session!  We watched "When the Game Stands Tall" and I really enjoyed it!

Monday, we woke up around 10am and oh.em.gee it felt so good to get that much sleep.  Little man was doing some serious gymnastics and Nick was able to feel him.  In fact, Baby Obie was kicking up a storm for 45 minutes straight.  We just laid in bed for those 45 minutes, Nick's hand on my belly, feeling this little guy having a blast in there.  I love being able to share this with Nick.  It's crazy to me that just one week ago, his kicks weren't hard enough for Nick to feel them and now not only can Nick feel them, but we can see our hands move from his strong kicks!

We took the lazy route the rest of the day and laid on the couch watching "Jersey Boys" (thank you Red Box for one buy, get one free!).  During the show, our attention whore Weim was so frustrated that we wouldn't pay attention to her, so she began throwing her ball at us.  And it landed right in our popcorn bowl.  Well, I guess we're done with that.  Thanks a lot asshole.

We ended the night with some cleaning.  And by we, I mean Nick because I can only work for 5 minutes at a time before my body tells me to sit down.

Also, being a homeowner sucks at times.  Saturday, I opened the dishwasher, apparently Hulk style, and pulled the dishwasher from the cabinets.  Not much, just at the top.  But anytime you opened it and pulled the drawers out, the entire thing tilted out of the cabinets.  Nick wasn't too happy with me so last night, he pulled the entire thing out, diagnosed what the hell happened (which was just lazy installation) and then fixed it.  Thank goodness for a handy husband!!!!

And then I ended the night in bed, reading about my 21st week of pregnancy, while watching Fresh Prince, making a to-do list for work.

Speaking of work, did I mention that I only have two days of work this week??? Because I do!  Thursday, I will be on a cruise ship with my husband, headed to the Bahamas!!!!!!!

We Are Homeowners!!!

We are officially no longer homeless and we are officially homeowners of a gorgeous home!!!

We kept the news quiet with only very, very few people knowing we were buying.  We didn't want to jinx anything because there are sooooooo many things that can go wrong when buying a house.  We didn't want to share exciting news that we were purchasing a home, for something to go wrong (inspection, government shutdown affecting loans, issues with the seller, etc) and then turn around and tell everyone it didn't work out.

But it is official!  We closed on the house Thursday, and got the last of our stuff moved into our home yesterday!! Now the tedious task of unpacking and setting things up!!

I'm writing this from my phone which is rather annoying, but I will be sure to give you all more details about everything soon!

Life Update: Packing and Moving

Life has been CRAZY!!!!  So crazy that I have yet to blog anything about Nick's Winging week festivities!  It was truly one of the most exciting times in our lives together and I have never been more proud.  But those posts will have to wait.  I promise to blog about them after we leave Pensacola and life slows down just a little.

This moving thing has taken up all of our time.
Nick winged, family left, we packed for 5 days (and by we, I mean me since Nick was still working 12 hour days), headed to Jax to house hunt for a week, came back and have been packing the past 3 days.  Only two more days left to pack, one day to load the truck, one day to clean, then we leave to start our new chapter!

Here is just a a quick update for you all:

• We are beyond excited for this move.  At first, Nick was pretty bummed to not be flying the MH-53 but it didn't last long (as we all knew would be the case because Nick is truly incapable of being in a bad mood or being a glass half empty kind of guy).  Virginia was most absolutely NOT our first location choice (or second...or third...or fourth) so we're happy to be in Jax, our first location choice.  I know some think we're insane for wanting Jax and being excited about it, but I cannot express how excited we are.  All of Nick's sadness has left and he's stoked about this next adventure.  Every time we talk about our new home and life, we find more and more reasons to be excited.
  We're happy to be in city larger than Pensacola with a lot more going on.  We're happy to be in a location that still does not get winters (well, not cold winters).  We're happy to still be a day's drive from St. Louis.  I'm happy to start volunteering at the Mayo Clinic.  I'm happy to still be near beaches.  And we are beyond thrilled to be near so many friends!!!  Nick's best friend from enlistment, stationed at Kings Bay, lives in Jax, not far from our (hopeful) new home.  Our best friends from Pensacola are there (in the same neighborhood!).  My other Navy bestie is there and has offered us so much advice (as well as letting us crash with her the past week while house hunting).  Not to mention we are so close to Charleston and we have LOTS of really good friends there and plans to go visit them all are already in the works.  We also plan to take mini-vacays to Savannah and of course next spring we'll head to Jupiter for Cardinals spring training!!!

• I'm still having a very difficult time with Grandpa's passing.  Luckily I've been kept very busy and this has helped keep my tears at bay.  But when I do finally get some down time, I can't help but cry over how badly I miss him.
• I'm really annoyed that I've yet to update my resume from my previous job.  (I'm so bummed we're leaving so soon because I truly loved my job, the kids, and my co-workers and I was looking forward to working with them all again for a little bit longer.)  But moving, house hunting, and all that comes with that has taken up every free second so the resume and job searching will have to wait until we're there.
• We're eating the oddest combinations of meals as we're trying to clear out as much from our fridge and freezer as possible.  We've eaten an insane amount of fries lately.  I'm sure we won't succeed and I'll be calling friends to see if they'd like to take any of it before we toss it in the trash.  As for the pantry, that's a lost cause trying to consume it all.  We (Nick) keep far too many things in there!  He has so many bags of chips, boxes of Rice-a-Roni, cans of Steak n Shake chili, tons of cereal, Pop-Tarts, etc.  The kid loves his (pre-packaged, pre-bagged, processed) food.  We will have many, many boxes of food.  And I'd say maybe one box is my stuff (and it's primarily baking ingredients).
• I'm doing my part to minimize the bottles we need to bubble wrap and box by drinking wine each night (and during the day...no shame).  I'm just looking out for what's best for us...saving money on packing supplies and saving space on the truck ;)  Nick has no complaints as the wine helps my anxiety and therefore he's not as tempted to use the packing tape on my anxious, whiny, bitchy mouth.  I will not deny I'm an unpleasant packer.  I'm constantly complaining "I hate this" (or "I hate you" since Nick is the one strongly against letting the military move us and he hoards and owns more than half the shit we're packing) or I'm worrying "We're never going to get this done!" and "All of this is not going to fit on the truck!"  And then the bitching "Get off your phone and pack!  What are you doing?  You're wasting time!"  Surprisingly, Nick stays calm and keeps his eye rolling at a minimum (which is really in his best interest.  Sometimes he even makes us a drink (the best move for both of us.)
• Sadly, this move has not prompted Nick to purge any of this stuff as I had hoped.  Nick is a certified hoarder.  He has so much shit he doesn't need (ie.  pogs...a massive amount of pogs and slammers.  And, a UNICYCLE!  Really?!  C'mon!  We aren't circus performers).  But would he part with any of it?  NOPE!  Now, there are times during this packing process where he's said "Let's sell this."  Yeah, good call jackass.  Let me go ahead and list it on Craigslist considering we have two days left here.  Or he'll say "Let's go through this box of papers." (Yes, he has boxes upon boxes of nothing but papers.)  Um, we don't have time for that!!!!  And the same with clothes.  He has an insane amount of clothes he could easily donate if he had the time to go through them (not kidding you, four 44 gallon tubs of Banana Republic slacks, hundreds of Express button down shirts, etc.  It's sickening.)  But because we have limited time, all this shit has to go with us.  The good news is Nick is crazy motivated to have a nice and organized garage in our new home which means he's willing to finally go through and purge this stuff.  Unfortunately, it can't happen before the move.  Why couldn't he have decided this in the past two years we were here?!  

• Our dogs are so confused as to what is going on.  Dogs thrive off a routine and normalcy, and life has been anything but.  I was gone for 2.5 weeks.  They drove 12 hours to STL and stayed for a long weekend.  They drove 12 hours back to Florida and I was gone from them for another week.  I returned but that same day so did a lot of family and friends (for Nick's winging).  They left and the house began being tore down.  Friends and their dogs came for a weekend.  They left, and we followed, to Jacksonville where they stayed in a new home, with new dogs.  We returned and the house became even more of a disaster as everything they know is being packed up.
  Sadly, this chaos won't be stopping anytime soon.  We pack them up and move them to Jax where they'll live in another new house (a friend's house) for a week.  Then we go stay with my sister for two weeks.  Then we return to Jax to stay in that new house again for another 2-ish weeks.  Then we finally (hopefully) move into their new home and their belongings, the things they're familiar with, return.  I cannot wait for this.  The girls anxiety is driving me nuts.  The constant (more than usual) need for attention and their utter confusion makes packing so much more difficult!  I just wish I could explain to them what is going on!!!

So that's our life update.  Nothing exciting and almost all of it revolves around this packing and moving ordeal.  Hopefully next week I can work on Nick's winging post (once I get all the photos together)

Breezeway Home Anniversary

Two years ago, at 5:30am, Nicholas, Yadi, and I pulled up to our new home here in Milton, Florida on Breezeway Circle.

This might sound crazy, but we quickly came to love our new home of Milton.  I know a lot of people hate it here, but honestly, it is what you make it.  If you keep telling yourself you hate it and it's awful here, then it will continue to be awful.  That's not how Nick and I live life and that helped us to come to love our last two years here.  Life is an adventure and it's all what you make it!

One of the reasons we have loved our time here is because of this house.  We truly spoiled ourselves here.  There were so many things we loved about our home, that we added to our "must have" list for our new home in Jacksonville. (Which made house hunting in Jax so much harder.)
This house has no carpet, all hardwood and tile.  It has three bedrooms and two bathrooms.  A separate office space.  A ginormous walk-in pantry.  An open floor plan with a huge living room.  A two car garage.  A huge, privacy fenced backyard.  A fantastic neighborhood with a really convenient location.
We learned that finding all of these things in a new home was difficult.  We are truly going to miss this home.

Just as we reached this two year mark, we're packing up our belongings and getting ready to say goodbye to our first real home.  I'd be lying if I said I haven't teared up as I've pulled photos off the wall and taken down curtains.  We have thoroughly loved this place.  If these walls could talk, they'd have stories full of love and laughter.  Our marriage started here and flourished!  We added our second "child", Vino, to our family in this house.  We learned what a marriage is all about, growing together as husband and wife, but also continuing to grow individually.  We grew stronger in friendship and love inside these walls.  I can still vividly remember the giddy, newlywed bliss as Nick carried me over the threshold, saying "Welcome home, wife" when we arrived that early morning on September 11, 2011.  I wondered how long that "honeymoon phase" would last.  I'm happy to say that after over two years of marriage, we're still in the phase.  And I don't see it fading anytime soon.
Of course these walls didn't always see perfection.  We faced some difficult times with illnesses, military stress, homesickness, and general uncertainty of life, but together we overcame them.
This house will always hold some of my fondest memories and I know I'll cry when we say our final goodbye and drive away from Breezeway Circle.  But I'm happy to have so many memories  and so many pictures, of the last two years here.
We moved into what was just an empty house, but it very quickly became a home.  These have honestly been two of the best years of my life.

We met the new family moving into our home; a husband, wife, and very young girl.  I can only hope these walls provide as much joy to them as it has to us.  I hope they too leave this house with deeper love and understanding of each other and themselves, just as we have.

I'm going to miss you Breezeway Home.  Thank you for all the amazing memories.  May you continue to bless each new tenant with the same wonderful experience we had.

One Year in Florida

One year ago today, Nick, Yadi, and I arrived in Milton, Florida.  We pulled up to our house at 6:30am, left Yadi in the car and walked up to our front door.  Nick swooped me up in his arms and carried me across the threshold of our first home together.  [We don't really count Annapolis as the first "home" because we were only there for 9 weeks and we never really unpacked anything except our kitchen supplies.)

But now, where we live, here in Florida, this is our first home.  It's the first place we settled into our new sense of "normal".  It's where we became fully comfortable with this new life.  It's where I finally stopped crying every night over moving away from St. Louis.  It's where I finally felt like a true military spouse; adjusting to the ever changing schedules, the uncertainty, and the fear every day when Nick left for training.  Where I learned the military doesn't always play nice when it comes to my future plans. It's where I learned how to deal with those struggles and turn them into opportunities to grow and learn in this new lifestyle.  This is the home where Nick finally started his dream career.  It's where we completed our little family (for a few years at least) with adding Vino to the mix.  It's where I found my first group of military friends; friends I know I'll cry when we part ways and friends I will cherish no matter where we all move to...hoping to be reunited sooner rather than later.  It's where we were finally able to experience life as a "normal" couple, seeing each other every day, eating dinner together most nights, and sleeping next to one another every night.  It's a place we learned and grew together as Husband and Wife.  Where we learned how to overcome and compromise in new ways we never had to prior to marriage.  It's where we spent our first year of marriage, combining family traditions and creating new ones.
It's the first place that we turned a house into a home.
We've created so many wonderful memories in this home.  It hasn't always been easy and it hasn't always been smiles.  But it's our home, our life, and it's filled with more Love and laughs than I could have ever imagined.  Even exactly 15 months after our wedding, I still feel like we're in the newlywed/honeymoon phase.  Part of me feels we might be that disgusting couple that never truly outgrows that phase.  And I'm 100% okay with that.

We love where we live.  We live in a fantastic neighborhood in a pretty decent location.  As for Milton/Pensacola, Florida?  I know most here hate it.  Most want to leave.
I can't really say I'm in the same boat as them.
Don't get me wrong, I do not love it here.  But I don't hate it.
I believe I've written a similar post to what I'm about to say but I'll reiterate it.

I am not a negative person.  I'm happy about 99% of the time.  I see the good in most things and most people.  I have to look hard to find the negatives.  I'm a firm believer that things are what you make of them.  So while Milton and Pensacola might not be the best of places, I choose to overlook all the awfulness.....okay, well I don't overlook it.  I just laugh at it and let it roll off my shoulders.  But still, I don't let the awfulness get to me.  I have many, many reasons to absolutely love life here in Florida.  And I can say that honestly.  I do love living here and will be sad when our time here comes to an end...I might be the only one but so be it!

Here are the reasons I'm loving life:
-  I have an absolutely amazing husband so really, being anywhere with him automatically makes the place not suck so badly.  We are fortunate enough that right now, his schedule isn't too demanding (I'm sorry I haven't posted a flight school update.  I will try to do that this week.)  I get to sleep next to him every night.  We get to eat dinner together most nights (even if sometimes it is past 9pm).  Almost 90% of the time, he has weekends free, which means lots of date nights.  When he does have things scheduled during the week, his training only takes up (usually) about 5-6 hours of his time.  I've heard from some wives that their husbands spend all their time at home studying.  I'm very fortunate that this does not seem to be the case with Nick.  He studies most nights, but not all night.  Every night, in addition to dinner, we're able to catch at least an hour of television or a movie, go on our nightly walk with our pups, etc.  I know to take advantage of this now during training because things will not be this way for the next 8+ years so I'm enjoying it.  In addition to this, seeing how incredibly happy flying makes my husband takes away a lot of the craptasticness of this town...knowing this town sucks is a sacrifice I'll gladly do to see that smile and giddiness he possesses while he pursues his dream every day.
-  I have made some absolutely amazing friends!  We have a core group of friends (6 to 8 of us) and another additional 14 or so.  Some of these friends we knew prior to moving here through USNA but some we've met down here.  They have become family and I am forever grateful for them.  We get together at LEAST once a week, but a lot of the times, twice a week.  We gather during the week and rotate between each other's houses with the women sitting and drinking adult beverages while talking and laughing, (and thankfully not gossiping about others because that's not what we do or who we are), while the guys play poker or video games and be our designated drivers ;)  On weekends, we head to the beach, a bar, or again, someone's house and hang out.  Life here is never dull and I always have someone to hang out with.
-  Having this many friends also means our dogs have many doggie friends.  Thankfully all our dogs get along really, really well.  They love each other and play (and cuddle once they're tired) together.  We get together very frequently with our friends who have dogs.  It might be a trip to the dog park, the beach, or the river for some swimming.  Sometimes we all gather at one couple's house.  We hang out while the dogs run and wrestle and play together.  It's a win-win.  We have fun and our dogs get to release some energy.  Vino & Yadi get SO excited when they realize they get to play with the Pensacola Dog Pack.
-  We are so close to (St.Louis) home.  Never in a million years would I have considered a 12 hour drive "close to home" but now I do.  We can easily drive home in one day (it's actually only 10.5 hours but with the stops, it becomes 12 hours).  It makes holidays doable since we're able to make the drive and not fly.  I know we will not always be so lucky as is most the time, we'll be at least a 16+ hour drive away from St. Louis.
-  I absolutely love this weather.  I know some are ready for fall but not this girl!  I am a summer girl through and through.  I absolutely loathe cold weather.  And to me, anything below 70 is chilly.  Below 65 and I'm cold.  Below 60 and I'm freezing!  People complain about the humidity, but to be honest, I don't notice it.  It's because I don't know any differently.  Missouri gets very, very humid so I'm very used to this.  Summer is my favorite season so I love that we get summer from March through early November.  Mid-November through February are our spring and fall.  We get rain but the humidity does die down a bit.  However, we do not get freezing cold temperatures.  We just skip winter.  Last year, the average temperature was about 60.  I can totally handle that being our fall/winter/spring in those few months.  I'm happy having the majority of the year being 70s to 90s.  Like I said, I love summer!
-  How you can not love these beaches?  I love beaches in general.  The breeze blowing off them, the smell of the salt water, and the relaxing crashing sounds of the waves.  Being at the beach is my happy place.  And you cannot beat these beaches here.  Powdered sugar white and just as soft.  The water is an amazing blue/green!  It's just gorgeous.  And the water is so warm.  I could just float on a raft in that water all day long (minus the fear of sharks).  And seeing dolphins jump and play out by the pier during almost every trip is an amazing sight too!  Every time we're at the beach, I just cannot believe it's my home!  I never thought I'd call something that gorgeous home.  I will surely miss these beaches.

So yes, I have many, many reasons to love this place.

Today, we resigned our lease for another year.  Nick is nowhere near finished with Primary training so we know we'll be here for a few more months.  And if Nick chooses helos (something he is leaning towards but is not certain of) we'll be here another 6-12 months (again, dependent upon a lot of things.)
I'm happy we're staying.  I love this house.  Not just because of everything I listed at the beginning of this post or because of the memories we've created here (or because I loathe moving).  I love this house because it's awesome!  We have zero carpet and all hardwood and tile floors.  We have three bedrooms and two bathrooms, one being a huge and awesome master bath with a big walk-in closet.  We have another separate room for our office, a large living room and an open floor plan.  We have a two car garage and a huge privacy fenced in backyard.  We are lucky and we realize this.  We love this house and our dogs love it.  I will definitely be sad to leave it.
I'm also happy we're staying for all the reasons I listed why I love it here.

Maybe I'm just being too positive but I'd rather be this way than look for all the negatives and be unhappy here.  We're here, we can't change it, and we many things to be thankful for.
(Although, I wouldn't complain if jobs paid more....or if there WERE any jobs here.  And if people de-rednecked themselves a little bit.  Some days....most days I feel like I'm in an episode of 'Here Comes Honey Boo Boo'.  Although, it makes for good stories!)

So here's to many, many more months here in Milton/Pensacola and hopefully our friends will stay just as long! (If they don't, I have NO idea what I'll do!)

****************

For a flashback:
Click HERE to read about Journey from Maryland to Florida.
Click HERE to read about Our First Day in Florida
Click HERE to read about Our Florida Home -- (and as an update, we ditched those nasty washer and dryers to the garage and we bought a pretty new and nice set from neighbors that were PCSing)

Florida: Our New Home

Well, today marks one week since we've been in our new home.

I love it.  The house is better than I expected it to be.  We're still trying to set things up and make it more homey.  There's a lot of wall space so we're trying to figure out what all we're going to do with it.  On one wall, (the hallway wall), we're going to do a wall gallery of various framed things.
We also have a giant plant ledge and I'm not sure if we'll put anything up there.  I'm not a huge plant person so although it's made for plants, I don't think we'll put those up there.
If you all have some suggestions for things that would take up a lot of wall space, send them my way!
The other issue is money.  We aren't the richest people so we don't want to go out and buy a lot of new things (especially because we've had to buy various new things we NEEDED for the house).

Here are my current thoughts on the house:

It's great having a separate room for an office.  And even better having two extra bedrooms.....just because of the two extra closets ;)  (Nick and I both have a lot of clothes and shoes)

Yadi loves her yard.  The first two days, she wouldn't go more than 10 feet away from the patio.  But now she roams all over the thing.  The only bad thing about the yard, which is apparently just a Florida thing, is we don't have dirt. There is sand with grass growing in it.  Which really sucks because it's tracked into the house SO easily.  And our entire house is hardwood and tile.  So it constantly feels like there's a light layer of dirt/dust on the floors.  I'm going to be sweeping almost every night it appears.  BUT I'd rather be sweeping every night than vacuuming.  We're more than likely going to buy a vac & steamer in one appliance.
The sand also stinks because Yadi has discovered her love for digging.  And sand makes it so much easier for her to dig =/  So word to the wise....or really just anyone who might walk around our yard, watch out for holes.  I'm warning you, so don't blame me for broken ankles.

We've met a few neighbors.  The couple across the street from us are really cool, but unfortunately are moving to Japan in 3 weeks =(  The guy is a Marine recruiter and he was nice enough to help Nick carry in the furniture that was just too heavy for me.  He also gave us great advice on things and places.
We also met the old man next door.  Our first evening in our home, he came over with a tupperware full of dinner, some dessert bread, and things to eat it all with. How incredibly nice!

The neighborhood is perfect.  It's very quiet and all families living here.  There are about 40 houses in the neighborhood, and easily 7 cops or Sheriffs living here.  Which is reassuring for the days/nights when Nick will be away from home.  One of the Sherifs actually lives DIRECTLY behind us...we share the back fence.  He is really nice and has a wife and two small children.  When standing on our front porch looking out, another Sheriff lives directly to our left AND diagonally across to our left =)  I like that!

I've only had three complaints with the house thus far (well 4 if you count the sand issue).

• One being, we were told this place had a washer and dryer.  And it does.  But they look as if they were the first washer and dryer ever made.  We haven't used them yet.  I'm scared.  The washing machine doesn't close properly and it has a lot of rust at the top on the inside.  I'm nervous to wash our clothes and have it ruin them!  We're thinking about purchasing our neighbors when they move in 3 weeks.  They're MUCH better and they're selling them for $150 (together, not each piece.)  This will also help when we move and don't have to search for places that have a washer/dryer.  Now we'd have our own.  But what do we do for these next 3 weeks??
• Two being,  we don't have a garbage disposal.  Not a HUGE deal but it's hard to break the habit of rinsing food down the sink, to then remember and have to fish it all out.  Gross!
• Three being the tile.  We only have tile in the kitchen and bathrooms.  But the look of it, it's like a beige with splotches of gray in it.  It looks dirty all the time!  Anyone who enters our house, I promise you that our kitchen floor isn't dirty, it's just the dumb coloring/pattern.

Now the review of our town:

We live in Milton, which is a little ways away from Pensacola.  We chose to live here because Nick will spend much more time at the base close to our house as opposed to the shorter amount of time at the base in Pensacola.  

Pensacola and all the surrounding areas, such as Milton, are very country.  It's definitely more of an Alabama feel than a "Florida" feel.  But I like it.  It reminds me of a home a little bit.  It's redneck but not white trash redneck.  It's a good down home southern country feel.  There's really not a lot to do in the area.  There aren't many bars or things of that nature, but at the same time, even if there were, I don't see Nick and I doing that a lot.  We're almost 27 and a little out of that party stage.  Yes, every one in a while would be fun, but we're totally over the going out every weekend and partying.  We're more of the go out with friends and have some drinks as opposed to partying.  And there's plenty of bars/restaurants to enjoy a great with friends =)

And obviously there's the beach....of which we've yet to visit and I am HIGHLY upset by this.

Milton actually doesn't have much.  There are a LOT of dollar stores, pawn shops, and coin shops.  There is also an insane amount of churches.  Seriously.  There is easily 3 churches on EVERY single corner.  And most of them are Baptists, Church of Christ, or Assembly of God.  I havet yet to see a single Catholic, Methodist, Lutheran, Protestant, or non denomination Christian churches.  However, there are two Catholic churches near me, and one was highly recommended by two friends so that's where I plan to go.
My county (Santa Rosa) does not sell alcohol on Sundays.  LAME!  Nick had to run to the store tonight and when he came back, he said he tried to get us some wine to drink tonight for our first week in our house (surprised he thought of that) but wasn't able to buy it.  (But the county over, just like 10 minutes away sells it.).

Overall, I love it here.  The people are ridiculously friendly!  In our 9 weeks in Annapolis, we met 3 people in our apartment complex...who we lived so close to.  We met two neighbors in a matter of 5 hours of being here.  And we've met more since.  The cashiers are so friendly and strike up a conversation with you.  Strangers smile and say hi.  THIS is what I'm used to and what I like.  

I think I will enjoy my time here, but I know after about 2 years, I will be ready to leave this small town and experience something new.  Like I said, I like it here, but couldn't do it for more than a few years.

Stay tuned as I will eventually take you on a tour of our home =)