2014

2014... A year.  Not a good year or a bad year, but a year.  It feels like we only really lived half this year.  Brandon did a six month deployment to Guam.  It was the first deployment that he had ever done.  Brandon and I are the type of couple that are totally content doing everything together.  If one of us needs to go to the store we all load up, as a family, and go to the store.  Brandon and I watch all of our TV shows together, eat as many meals as possible together, take baths/showers together, go to bed at night together.  It's just the dynamics of our marriage that we have created and love.  So when he left for his deployment it literally felt like half of my heart had left with him.

During the six months the boys and I sent lots of letters and packages to Brandon.  He sent the boys lots of shells and rocks.  They loved it.  We traveled to Montana twice.  Once for Easter and another to see Brandon's mom.  Both visits were enjoyable.  The drive was long, but bearable.  We spent our days gardening, playing with friends, playing at parks, hosting Friday night dinners, and going to the zoo.
While Brandon was gone I lost 22 pounds.  I ate mainly grain and sugar free and ran 3 miles daily.  After his return

This year we started attending a church called The Pursuit Minot.  Our whole family is thriving there.  The boys love to go to the Kids Pursuit. Afterwards they tell us what they learned and show us the craft they made.  Through the Pursuit I joined a Community Group.  We meet every Wednesday evening and do a bible study.  We also do community work.  Through the church I feel connected and loved and am growing spiritually.

The boys and I attended a few months worth of MOPS.  MOPS (Mother's of Preschoolers) is a Christian based mom's group that would meet twice a month.  The boys would go to rooms with other kids their ages to play, do crafts and have snacks.  I'd have brunch with other women and there would be a topic each week that we would learn about and then afterwards we'd break into small groups to discuss the topic and do crafts etc.  We missed more meetings than we made it to.  The colder it got outside, I found myself wanting to just stay home, or I'd get to MOPS and would want to chat rather than to listen and learn.  We may try it again in the fall of 2015.

After Brandon's return from Guam, we started house hunting.  We are not comfortable living on base.  All the rules, living in a duplex. Brandon says living on base he never feels like he truly gets away from work.  We were driving around a neighborhood, writing down an address to a house for sale when a man walked up to our vehicle and asked us if we were house hunting. He explained that he was a contractor and wanted to know if we wanted to look at some lots and some floor plans that he had in mind for the lots.  We chose a lot corner lot with a floor plan we liked and will close on the house February 2nd.  The process has been relatively easy.  There have only been a few things that we have needed to pick out like exterior siding color, cabinet color/design, light fixtures, interior wall color, brick to go both on the interior and exterior.  Brandon and I redesigned a few things like the laundry room, and the master bathroom, and the entry way.  The little custom touches that will make it feel more like ours instead of another cookie cutter home.

My sister Ember, her husband Neil and their kids came to visit for Thanksgiving. They stayed for 3 nights. We had a great time visiting, eating and playing together. It wasn't long enough.
For the Christmas Holiday we went to church on Christmas Eve and then followed that up by going to our friends the Blier's house for dinner. Christmas day we spent on our own. The boys loved opening gifts and Brandon and I loved watching them.
I know that 2015 is going to be filled with change, new adventures, seeing lots of family and friends, meeting new people and that we will LOVE.