Getting back to the world...

So! I'm going to try to get back into the blogging world to keep people up to date.  In other words ... I need another thing to keep me busy :-)

In late March, Chad finished qualifying for his program.  We pretty much spent the month of April traveling.  First, we went to Boston, which was awesome!! Thank you Nate and Casie for letting us crash at your place and for showing us around Boston.  Mainly, for showing us really good food, like the Gas Lamp Bistro/Cafe, whatever it was, and Mike's Pastry.  We loved it!  After Boston, we needed to get ready to be packed by the navy (thank you God that we had this option) and moved to Washington state.

We drove ourselves across the country, which for the most part was pretty fun.  For fun, we decided to call it "Adventures with Yoda".  We encountered severe thunderstorms from Georgia to Louisiana.  Since we were driving with a load of stuff in the bed of the truck we were thankful that we had a tarp...which we destroyed over the course of the next few days.  Ripped right down the middle with the eyelets ripped out from flapping in the wind.  We were incredibly fortunate to be invited by our very good friends the Darlings (no joke, that's their name!) to stay the night with them in the Dallas area one night. After Dallas, we did have a bit of trouble with our transmission from West Texas to California.  Something was going on where it wouldn't shift into overdrive, but we luckily seem to have resolved  the issue since then.  After 4 and a half days of driving we finally arrived in California.  For a week we were able to visit with family, catch up with friends, attend The Well, which we have truly missed.

After making the final leg up to Washington Chad and I finally signed the lease on our new home.  We are in a 2 bedroom, 1 bathroom, 900 square foot apartment, with a garage, and a yard.  Our things were delivered to us a week later, after a weekend diversion where I went to Lansing, MI to see my best friend graduate from Michigan State with her DOCTORATE IN VET MED!!! I'm so proud of her.  Back to the apartment.  I've been unpacking our things for a little more than a week now and I'm almost done.  It's getting a little difficult to find where to put things since we are downsizing by 300-400 square feet, but it's been a good opportunity for me to sort through our things and make a fresh start of it.

        

Chad has checked in with his boat, the USS Nebraska, and met his crew.  Everything that we have learned about this boat and this crew makes us very optimistic and excited about our time here.  The wives have been super welcoming to me and I've been enjoying learning about what the area has to offer.  We are looking forward to sharing our new adventures with everyone!