It's the most wonderful time of the Year...Christmas!!!

It's that time of year again. All the excitment builds up and everyone is ready to go home and visit family and friends. At least I was. It all started out not so good. We were supposed to leave on the 23rd but my car was not wanting to make the trip. On Monday the 22 my car broke, the exact same part that broke last year the exact same time! Well the first thing I did was of course panic and cry because I didn't know if I was going to make it home or not. It was after 5:00 and EVERYTHING was closed. I talked to my parents about all the possibilties, dad coming and getting us, flying, renting a car. But for some reason I thought it would be best to wait til Tuesday and see about getting it fixed. So first thing that morning Aaron and I got up and I called this small local car repair place right off post and told the lady I needed my car fixed because I just wanted to go home and see my family for the holidays. She was so nice and told me to get up there and they would take a look at it. So we jumped in the car and headed off. As soon as we got there her husband (the owner) took a look walked to the back of the shop and made a phone call. She came out only to tell us that it was defintely the part I thought it was and there was a new part but it was in Lake Charles and wouldn't be in until the next day (Christmas Eve) and they were going to be closed. See this is where you think it gets worse but it's the opposite! She said her husband said he wanted us to go home to see our family and that he would come back early the next morning when the part arrived and put it in for us! BUT that's not all, he only charged us their price, nothing extra AND he kept our car over night so he could take the old part out and have the car ready to be repaired the next morning. I asked for a phone to call a cab and she wouldn't let me. She put us in her car and drove us to our house. And said I will be back first thing in the morning to get you and take you to your car! Needless to say she made me cry. I asked her if she was always helping people like this and she said her and her husband felt like this was the right thing to do. Their older daughter was gone, maybe on bad terms I don't know the whole story. But they wanted me to be home for the holidays just like their daughter should have been. The next morning she picked us up and I could not thank them enough! She hugged me and said tell your parents how much you love them when you see them. And that's something I will NEVER forget! This was truly a Christmas Miracle!!!

We finally made it home on the 24th! Just in time for good (haha) food and LOTS of presents! First we went to my grandma's house and had dinner and presents there then headed to my parents to open even more! I loved everything I got and I'm sure Aaron did too! We ended up staying up most of the night into the morning playing RockBand with Micah. She got so many things, mainly games, Wii, RockBand, Nintendo DS! Then Christmas Day we got up and had a nice huge breakfast and of course nice HUGE lunch to follow. So we spend a little time eating when we go home! Nothing like mom's cooking! Later that night we went to the movies, it was a fun family outing. The rest of the trip was filled with hanging out with family, shopping, eating, and playing with all our new toys! I don't want everyone to think I forgot about the Kimmel's. Last year we spent Christmas with them so we decided to go to Missouri this year. Next year I'm sure we will be back in Ohio. It seems like every year gets better and better. It's so different from being a kid. When you're younger you think of everything you are getting and how excited you are to open presents but now that I'm older I love watching my parents and everyone else open theirs. I had so much fun this year and I can't wait til next year! I'm so thankful for my family and miss them so much already!

Aaron & I. We got so much!!!


The Mom & Dad

The Girls


She got everything she asked for and more!!!

The Boy and their toys!

hmmm Leaving!?!?

Being in the military has its ups and downs. Moving to new places, seeing things you would never have before, meeting new people and making great friends. Those are the things I love about it. Although I haven't been all over the world yet and seen a lot, I have made some great friends. Monique and Adam! Adam just got out of the Air Force in December and is moving on to much better things! They moved to Idaho where he will be going to a school to fly helicopters and Monique will be getting a job with her degree somewhere amazing I'm sure. We had a lot of fun times here. Going on a cruise would be on the top of the list. We had so much fun and made so many great memories! Then there's the parties, 4th of July (yay both of our cars made it out ok :>) shopping, RockBand (at the tacp house of course) game nights which will be really sad not having Adam and Monique there enforcing all the rules! I will never play Taboo and not think of them. And the CrAzY trip to Lafayette---helicopter, train, hookah bars... We had so many fun times and I'm sure we will be seeing them, maybe on a cruise! I'm sad they moved away but I'm so happy for them!

Cruise to Mexico! Going away party...Adam did the Buffalo

Wild Wings Challenge Blazin...

This is the "real" Adam & Monique hair twirling and all!

Christmas Party!

This year the Christmas party was at Tunks in Alexandria. We had a lot of fun hanging out with friends and playing dirty santa. We got a movie and some kind of tool. It was "supposed" to be formal I guess you could say. Everyone looked very nice in there dresses/skirts and suits. Umm well some of the guys didn't have any so they made a trip to the store and got some fancy outfits!

Bartle, Collins, Lake & Cisco

Getting ready for Christmas

With only a few weeks to go Aaron and I decided to go to Shreveport to do some shopping and have some good food. haha that's hard to come by down here. We started out shopping close to Barksdale and ended up downtown with some of the guys and girl that he works with. We had a lot of fun and ended the night with a lot of craziness and caaa awwwing....haha! The next day was beautiful. We went down to the River Walk, had lunch and shopped some. After all that excitment we headed back to DeRidder where we went to the singing Christmas Tree. It was so cool. It was like 10 levels of people and the church was huge, we were on the 3rd balcony. The lights lit up and changed colors with the music. The next day we went to church on post and had lunch and went to get our Christmas tree. They give them away on post I believe they called it Trees for Troops! It was very nice and I love the smell. We got it stuffed in the car and went to the house to decorate! It was a lot of fun we watched Christmas movies, decorated the tree, hung the stockings (from the counter top) and put out the nativity scene.

Taa Daa!!!!

Bellydancing...WhAt?!?!?

OK SO I have been wanting to do some sort of exercise but I'm not sure what yet. One of the other Air Force wives, Laura asked me to go to a bellydancing class with her. Doesn't sound too bad, right? Of course I agreed. So I talked Jennie into going with me. We arrived at the gym a little early only to hear people inside screaming like they were in the worst kind of pain. Come to find out it was a lady I know who's boyfriend is a TACP at the other Air Force office on post teaching the class. She had invited me before but I didn't know if I could handle it. It looked very intense, but maybe I will give it a try. Should know it would be it's called Bootcamp! It was finally 6:00 and time for class to start and we had no idea what to expect. The first 45 minutes we got through fine, with only a few giggles. We did a warm up and started different dance moves, simple enough. It's when the running, jumping and spinning started that we decided maybe we should sneak out the back. But we decided to give it another chance. Half way through the class they took a break and the teacher told us that the class had been going on for a month and they were doing a show. And that we were more then welcome to stay and "dance along" but it might get a little more challenging for us. We gave it a shot and left after the first dance. It was like something you see in the movies. We were running, skipping, jumping, shaking things, it was crazy! AND the teacher gave us some of her skirts with jingles on them to wear! I was laughing so hard I could barely stand much less dance! Needless to say I think we are going to wait until the next one starts and go back at the beginning! Maybe we should stick with Salsa lessons!

Thanksgiving

I love Thanksgiving. Sometimes it seems to get overlooked. This year we decided last minute to go to Missouri to visit my family. AND we took along some friends! Tim & Jennie and the girls were planning on staying here but the holidays are times to be with family, friends AND go shopping haha. So the Tuesday night we called them up and the next day we were on our way to Missouri! It was such a good time! We left out around 3:00 Wednesday and got there a little late. Only running into what could have been a major accident. Some idiot lost his homemade looking trailor with beds on it! This is not a joke. It was 3 lanes of traffic going one way and Tim was driving all of a sudden we see metal and beds flying all over the road. Thank God no one was hurt and nothing was wrong with the car. We did pull over to check it and help another guy get a bed out from under his truck! So Thanksgiving day we had a HUGE meal of course. We hung out that night by the fire and played games. And of course the next day all the girls (me, Jennie, Mom, Christina, Leslie and B.) went shopping! YAY for after Thanksgiving Day sales. We had so much fun! Even if we almost got ran over trying to fix Jennies phone. And standing in line at Kohl's that wrapped all the way around the store. All that aside I had a wonderful time! I'm so glad my friends and family were all together. I think I take forgranted sometimes ok more then that, family. They are the most important thing to me, and when it's all over they are always going to be there for me. Thanks for letting us all come and stay Dad, Mom, Christina and Micah! Can't wait til Christmas!

Micah, Kailey, Alexis, Megan & Zoey

Zoey....being good as always!

Me & Jennie went for a ride...I think she was a little nervous!

Nothing like a nice campfire!

It was a little cold that night!

Riding the golfcart

My Parents back yard. I miss that place!!!

Pre-Thanksgiving

Tonight was Aaron's work Thanksgiving party. The food was great and the company was fun! It was a great start to the holiday season. And just a few weeks before we welcomed home Bartle and the Captain from Iraq! It was so much fun going to the air port in the BIG van to pick them up. Even though it wasn't the "perfect surprise" we still had a lot of fun! I was so excited! Probably more then they were. Afterwards we headed over to The Mallory's (the Major aka Aaron's boss) for some Gumbo!

Some of the kids at the 21st made them signs!

~Little Terria & I~

Good&Bad

Everyone says things happen for a reason. Well I'm still trying to figure out last weekend. Aaron and I were planning to go to Missouri to see both families. His was driving down from Ohio and we were meeting up at my parents. This may not make any sense....feel a little out of it! Anyway Wednesday Aaron wasn't feeling well and finally decided to go to the doctor. 9:30 Wednesday night I was sitting in the very scary waitingroom while he was having his appendix removed. Thank God it wasn't too serious, it hadn't exploded yet. Of course they gave him 2 weeks off work but wouldn't let us travel. Aaron felt so bad because I was so excited about going home and seeing everyone. Honestly I was a little or maybe a lot but I was mainly glad that he was ok. Just another lesson on being thankful. It could have been so much worse but it wasn't. Aaron's parents decided to still come down. Once they got to Missouri they decided to come down even farther! haha. All the way to Louisiana, yes they are crazy! They left the 3 younger girls with my once again brave and wonderful family. We had lots of fun, walking, visiting, and having some very delicious steak! So glad they got to come. And thanks so much to my parents and Christina for watching the girls. They had a blast! Hopefully I will be seeing you guys soon! Thanks for all the prayers and calls everyone.

Where did Thanksgiving go?

The month of October flew by. And thank God the election is over. I don't want to talk about it right now. I do want to talk about Aaron's birthday. We didn't do anything too exciting, we both worked that day. I invited some of our friends over for dinner and of course cake! Thanks to Jennie for the delicious jello cake. And we played some games. I couldn't pull off a surprise like he did for me but I think he enjoyed it! I would like to know what happened to Thanksgiving. Do people not celebrate that anymore? I just went to Wal-Mart and there was Christmas stuff everywhere! It seems like people forget about it or something. Maybe they're just not thankful anymore. Sad. Aaron and I are going to my home next week to visit both our families. I can't wait! It's funny that Missouri is almost exactly halfway between here and Ohio. Which makes for a great meeting place. We will be celebrating birthdays and Thanksgiving! See you guys soon! Bye for now...

October

October is here but I don't think Fall is...at least it doesn't feel like it. Not too much exciting events to occur this month. I did have another birthday. Or as my friend calls it, the anniversary of my 21st birthday! It was just the big 2-3. Nothing too exciting. I did get a very nice set of pots and pans, and wedding picture of us from my parents! AND Aaron had a surprise party for me. Acutally Christina had a part in it too! He had Shera sneak around and get me to go coffee table shopping while he got everything ready. We had all our friends there. And the little girls. They are so cute. I really did not think about it until I walked in the door and everyone was starring at me. haha. I guess that's what's supposed to happen huh? It turned out really good. We had grilled out and had a very delicious cake thanks to Tim & Jennie! Then later that night, went to there house and played games until the lights when out. That's when you know they want you to leave.haha actually we never figured out what happened. Just another wonderful thing about living at Polk! It was one of my best birthdays yet! Thanks Everyone!

SURPRISE!!!

This is how Aaron will look in a few weeks for his birthday!


I had the best cake! Thanks Tim & Jennie

The Girls


Me & Jennie

Stay tuned, I think I'm caught up now. So everything will be posted by event! Hope you enjoyed!

September

The month of September has finally rolled around. It's time for nice weather, wait not here. We just got done with the hurricanes! September was another exciting month. We made it through Gustav and Ike! We camped out at the weather building for a while. Someone forgot to tell us there was a curfew so we drove home, but everything is ok now! Except Galveston. That's where we left for the cruise and we spent some weekends on the beach. They got hit hard. But are building back and we will be going back there asap!

Wait, Eat, Play Cards That's all there was to do.

Waiting...

This is what happens when you get bored.

It's here!

Aaron's new girlfriend...

Marian left this month. Throy is retiring from the Air Force and they just bought a home. I'm very sad they are leaving. But I'm happy for them. I'm going to have to find a new bowling partner. But on a happier note. I got Aaron's birthday gift early. He really wanted to go to his cousin Lexi's wedding in Ohio but didn't think we needed to spend the money. So I surprised him with tickets to go there and Cedar Point. The wedding and of course Lexi was beautiful. Oh yeah we surprised his family as well. We got to see Melissa & Gary's new house, which is really nice. I think they were all surprised! Even Lexi and Jeff! Cedar Point was amazing as always. We went with a couple of Aaron's friends. Then had the wedding Saturday. Then back to Louisiana Sunday. It was a short trip but very worth it. Can't wait to see the family again soon!!!

*Disney World*

Aaron has never been before and I don't know who was more excited, probably me. The mission was to surprise Micah. And it was completed. Aaron and I drove down or maybe it's over anyway, Micah thought she and Christina were flying to Polk to see us. So we met them at the airport and you could tell she was a little confused. We had my mom on the phone and she told her she was in Disney World...I don't think it hit her until the next day when she actually saw the castle. It was a great week, not too hot and not too busy. And I only almost hit one person. But she deserved it. There was a rude lady that tried to cut in front of everyone with NO kid by the way just to get on the bus. But this is a happy blog I don't want to talk about her. OMG I just remembered this guy at the waterpark...he had some weird toes. I wish I had a picture but I didn't have my camera at that park. Aaron almost punched him too. haha. We even had dinner at Cinderella's castle. Saw Tinker bell fly from the castle and lots of fire works. Mine and Aaron's favorite part of it all was the Fantasmic show at Hollywood Studios. It was a night show and they had videos and music and fireworks and water, it was just amazing. So much to do there. I can't wait to go back. Good idea Christina, I hope you are planning our next trip....

JuLy

I was really excited for the 4th this year. We had everyone at our house and grilled out. And if you know Aaron there were fireworks...and lots of them. But before the fireworks we went to the concert and fireworks show that the base had for all the families. As always I was a big baby and cried when the music played and they started the fireworks. Who wouldn't cry? Really obviously I love my country and I'm very senitmental when it comes to it. But seeing all the kids there with one parent while the other was deployed was really sad. I know, I can't help it. Oh yeah so we went with the group there and Jennie & Tim's kids who I don't think I have talked about yet where also there. Oh man I think I left out when they got here. So Jennie and I have become very good friends. She and Tim are always doing something crafty or saving us off the side of the road when my car breaks down then feeds us dinner. Oh what would we do with out them....I guess I will find out when she leaves me for the Air Force! Gee that's a whole different blog. Back to the 4th after the show we went to the TAC-P house. That's where some of the single guys Aaron works with live. That's where it got interesting. Once again it was just me and Monique the only girls and the guys. We tried to stay out of the romancandle wars but still had to hide out in the jeep. Then someone got the bright idea to light AND THROW the big ball missle ones....not a good idea. While trying to make sure the car, house, yard AND people didn't catch on fire I was dodging sparks. It was crazy. Oh yeah thanks for the clothes Gates and Smith. They were getting ready to move to Korea and we found some clothes they were getting rid of and we didn't want ours to have burn holes in them so we dressed ourselves right up. Obviously not safe enough for a camera so I had to steal some pics from Jennie. Oh the memories...
Lake was teaching the girls to throw the poppers at people!

At the TAC-P House

And the fun begins!

We were scared!

Awww Our first 4th of July!