deployment

Caleb is now off to his "paid vacation in the desert!"  I just got back home from dropping him off at his squadron, where they had a farewell party for all the Marines who are deploying. We really enjoyed our weekend and even though we had some teary nights, I'm so thankful that God has blessed us with so much time to spend with each other this month. One thing about being in the military, we never take anything for granted. Every kiss, every car ride, every movie-night on the sofa, or dinner night out, we really cherish each special moment because it just means so much to us. 

A family from church invited me to dinner at their house, so I'll be spending some time there tonight. Angel has been such a sweetheart and is the best company I could have ever hoped for in Caleb's absence. I'll be taking her out on a long walk this afternoon before I head out. Just wanted to share some pictures that we took over the weekend as a family: 

We went to the big dog park on base on Saturday. Angel just loves to fetch and we love seeing her run...she is so athletic! 

My handsome husband driving us home from the park. 

Angel in the backseat, tired out! 

We threw some more Frisbees out in our backyard...

I love watching her catch it! 

Just a funny one =) 

Last night, Caleb and I took some time to really pray for his upcoming deployment. Praying for each other, our marriage, and for the awesome and wonderful opportunity of growth that both of us want in our personal relationship with Christ. I had my first batch of tears during this time, which is why my eyes are glistening in this picture! 

Caleb, getting his bags, and about to head off to the squadron. 

Putting on his shoes...

Saying good-bye to his Angel for 7 months. 

A picture with his boss, Capt. Bataglia. 

My hero. 

I will try my best to keep everyone updated with how things are going for him. I have the address to the base in A-Stan if anyone is interested in sending him care-packages, so please email me so I can send it to you. 

Love you all and please continue to pray for him and his squadron as they are on their way to do their mission! 

best buds

It's so amazing how strong of a bond you can have with your pet. We have grown to love our Angel so much over these past 5 months. Caleb and her have such a special relationship. I think she sees him as her boyfriend because of how much she fancies him =) I also have noticed how sad she is when he goes to work nowadays, and I honestly think she somehow knows he is leaving. She mopes around the house and whines. She won't eat her food until he comes back home. And she lies down and gives me the saddest face that makes my heart break for her! 

This is how she looks like during the day =( 

Her eyes are so sad! 

I know she will miss going on a bike ride with him. I have tried biking with her and failed miserably (the result had me off the bike and on the street!), as well as running 5-6 miles with him too! She LOVES exercising with Caleb! Here are some pictures from yesterday that I took of them together and of her being absolutely exhausted after a fast bike ride! I'll post a video so hopefully you can see it. Just click here to see the video on the blog: http://www.calebandnancy.blogspot.com

Angel and Caleb about to go for a bike ride! 

She's happy now! She knows when he puts on his running shoes that she'll be going with him.

Here's a short clip of them together. 

This is Angel. EXHAUSTED after the bike ride. They usually bike 3-4 miles. 

She flopped right on the floor and drank SO much water! 

We finished packing all his gear last night (almost til 12:30am), and he is all packed and ready to go. He has to turn all his gear in tomorrow morning at 9am and hopefully he can come home soon afterward so we can enjoy the rest of afternoon together.  Here's a picture of a bit of gear that was in the garage!

Caleb and I had such a great time last night at dinner. We went to our favorite restaurant, Amos Mosquitos, where we both agreed is the best seafood restaurant we have ever been to.  Here are some pictures of our night out together: 

At the bar, waiting to be seated. 

We munched on the most incredible lobster dip while we waited. 

About to enjoy my meal. 

I had the local fresh catch of the day, a Wahoo fish topped with mushroom and bacon with a side of cheesy potatoes. YUM!

Caleb asked if I liked my dinner. This picture says it all! I loved it!

 

Caleb's dinner: the mixed seafood grill with scallops, shrimp and a hunk of seared tuna! 

Enjoying the last of his shrimp! 

I love him. What a great night! 

We love you and miss you all and hope everyone is also enjoying the week. 

XOXOXO

Mid-week

I am waiting for Caleb to come home so we can go on our date. Hurry home honey!

Yesterday I had a desire to bake, so I looked around at what I had at home and made some homemade traditional chocolate chip cookies!

They turned out great, but I think I should have taken them out a little sooner from the oven as they weren't as soft and chewy by the end of the night.

I just got done teaching piano and I'm so blessed to have the cutest and sweetest students! One of my students, Isaac, told me that his teacher at school is mean because she probably has hidden "horns" on her head. I asked him if I have horns on my head and he contemplated for a second and said, "No. Ms. Nancy, you have a halo." Aw, how he melts my heart!

The garage and the guest bedroom are now completely filled with Caleb's gear and clothes and equipment and sea bags. He has to turn everything in by Friday so we'll have to finish packing tomorrow night. I still can't believe that he's leaving so soon...doesn't really feel quite real...

and...I just wanted to post how sweet our dog is. She has so much personality and just wants to love and be loved by you. I usually open the front door in the late afternoon around the time Caleb comes back home from work, and she loves to sit right by the door and wait for him.

She is barely tall enough to peer through the window...

She can sit for such a long time waiting for him. It makes me sad thinking about how much she will miss him when he's deployed. 

Even though I know this deployment will be hard for the both of us, I feel so blessed that God has given me such a sweet and loving man who is my husband. He is so aware of my feelings and loves me for who I am and my heart has never felt more protected or more loved by any other.  

"Every good thing bestowed and every perfect gift comes from above, coming down from the father of lights in whom there is no variation or shifting shadow."  James 1:17.

quick update

AH! April has been such a busy busy busy month. It's crazy how fast time flew. Caleb is scheduled to deploy at the beginning of next week. =( It didn't really hit me that he was leaving until the end of last week while I was shopping for groceries. I was in the dairy aisle at Walmart when I looked at the expiration dates and read 4/28, 4/29, and 4/30. I realized the next time I buy milk, he'll be gone. My lips trembled and I had to hold back tears as I didn't want to have a breakdown in front of other shoppers. We'll have to finish packing for the deployment this week, but we have really been blessed with all the time we had these past couple weeks. We'll also have a date night at my favorite seafood restaurant this week, so I'll be looking forward to that. =)

I wanted to post a couple weeks ago to show our landscaping and gardening skills! We had a HUGE meadow of weeds in front of our house. The base provides landscaping, but they only mow our lawns and leave us to do the gardening. I've never been much of a gardener, but our house really needed some tending to. I wish I could post a before picture of the house with all the weeds growing wildly, but we forgot to take one. We spent literally 10+ hours pulling weeds all around our house, running to buy mulch, and running back to buy more mulch, and carrying the piles and piles of weed and pine needles to the trash. It was quite a day!

Here's a picture from a couple of proud gardeners after a hard's day work. (I even trimmed the little palm tree in front of the door) 

 We had family day with Caleb's squadron last week. Caleb's marines pooled together $60 to put him in the front running to be in the dunk tank at family day. It was pretty fun to see him get dunked!

He also collected the most money from people purchasing turns to dunk him! Is that a good thing....or a bad thing....? haha! 

One of the people who dunked him! 

Last week we drove to Jacksonville, which is a little over an hour to do some shopping and to meet up with friends for dinner at a sushi place.

Our friends, Lucy and Robby. 

Caleb and me. 

We stopped by a frozen yogurt place called Brrrberry for dessert! 

I also forgot to post pictures of my birthday! I felt so incredibly loved by all the wonderful wishes from family and friends. My sister surprised me with a HUGE bouquet of pink and lavender roses from a local shop here in Havelock! 

That night, we went to bible study and one of my friends made a really delicious carrot cake for me. It's a secret family recipe, but I'm trying very hard to get her to share it with me =) 

Happy 27th Birthday! 

Our friends' two adorable girls from small group. They love dressing up in princess costumes too Laura! =) I wish they could play with Sal, Daisy, and Taylor! 

Making my wish! 

Hope everyone had a great weekend. We took some family pictures with a local photographer this weekend so I'm really looking forward to sharing it with everyone. 

Love and hugs to all.  

March Madness

Caleb and I got back from our vacation in Myrtle Beach last week. We had such a great time together, growing closer to each other, being able to relax and enjoy each other's company, and explore another spot in God's awesome creation. We took this vacation because he'll be deploying this month for another 7 month deployment, so this blissful stress-free time together was just what we needed before he goes.

Here are some of the moments that best capture our trip:

This is the Grand Strand. There are so many hotels lined up right next to the ocean...our's is the copper one in the distance if you can spot it! Caleb and I walked along the beach every day to get to the boardwalk where all the restaurants were located (probably a mile down from where we stayed). It was quite the workout! 

Caleb bought tickets to the Carolina Opry. It was a night full of performances by really great singers...the host was a finalist from American Idol. There were also performances from America's Got Talent. 

I love seeing the sunrise. This is a picture from our balcony one morning. 

I REALLY wanted to go on the Ferris wheel on the boardwalk...we kept on postponing it, so we had to ride it the morning we left! 

On the Ferris wheel with the love of my life. 

View from the top of the Ferris Wheel. 

My handsome husband! 

This pretty much sums up our trip! We were on the beach every day, enjoying the weather (although there were days the wind was quite chilly!), reading, going to the pool and hot tub, dining out, and just realxin' in the good ol' South! 

We loved our vacation and we will definitely be back here again. There were so many things we didn't get to do that we would love to on our next trip. 

I can't believe how fast March flew by. I'll be staying here in North Carolina the majority of the time Caleb is deployed and I know that God will use that time to grow and stretch my reliance and faith in Him. I'm still enjoying my Thursday morning bible study with the women at the church, loving my AWANA tweens that make me laugh on Sundays, humbled to be the pianist on our worship team that really seeks my opinions, and still working and training Angel to be the angel I know she is.  A lot of my neighbor's will be leaving this summer, either because they are moving or visiting their home town. I'll be looking forward to reaching out to some other new friends that I have that are coming here in the summer and looking forward to the times that I'll be visiting San Diego to see my family. 

This is a picture of us yesterday after a grueling workout. Caleb has his PFT (Physical Fitness Test) tomorrow which consists of a 3 mile run (perfect score is doing it in 18 minutes!), 20 pull-ups, and 100 sit-ups in under 2 minutes!

Hope everyone is having a lovely start to the week so far. We love and miss you all. 

~Nancy