2014: A year of stability and change

I know we are halfway done through January, but it's never too late for a new years post right?!

We are so excited, nervous, giddy, hesitant about 2014. We know a lot will be happening this year. A lot of change. A lot of new. But also a lot of stability. A lot of the same.

CJ and I are God's children. FOR ETERNITY. CJ and I are married. TILL DEATH DO US PART. The two most important things in our lives will not be going away. It's incredible how much peace being in a covenant with God and in a covenant with CJ can bring in the midst of uncertainty.

I don't think ever in my life have I been as content as I am right now. We love our new marriage, we love our new friends, we love our new church, we love our apartment (minus the bathroom), we love this area of Virginia, and we (for the most part) love the Marine Corps. None of these things are perfect by any means, but we could really care less about the imperfect parts...because the whole is so good.

With that being said, everything mentioned above will be drastically changing not just once but most likely twice in 2014.  Assuming all goes to plan (big assumption) we should be leaving Virginia sometime in May, moving to a new place, and moving again 2-6 months after that. The obvious will be changing: apartment, church, and the people we see on a daily basis. We will of course still be married and we will of course still be apart of the Marine Corps, but we have only been married in Virginia, while at TBS, and our only (active duty) Marine Corps experience is TBS (which is apparently very different than what the rest of CJ's career will look like). In deed it will be a lot of change.

Though we are growing sad about the changes (well I am growing sad. Marines are too busy to think about next week, let alone months ahead), we are also ready, even excited, to face these changes together. We were dating and engaged while we were preparing for the move up here. While those were sweet and thrilling times, I am so thankful to go through all other changes as one.

Here are a couple pictures for rewarding your reading :)

Our New Years Eve group! We went to a great hibachi place and then back to our friends house for some drinks, desserts, games, and fun.

They had this adorable set up for  everyone to write their new years resolutions. Can you guess which one ours was? Two hints 1- CJ wrote it, so look for good handwriting 2- we did NOT write baby :)

HAPPY NEW YEARS FRIENDS AND FAMILY!!

New York, New York

CJ and I had the greatest two weeks together filled with lots of relaxation and FUN! Most of our couple friends stayed in Stafford for the holidays so we thoroughly enjoyed hanging out all together...usually we just hang out as wives since our husbands work together from dawn to dusk- and later.

We went to NYC with one of our best couple friends the weekend in between Christmas and New Years. It was an incredible time and best of all remarkably inexpensive considering it was New York at Christmastime. We took one car (about 7 hours because of HORRIBLE traffic),  brought breakfast/ snack items, and even split a hotel room in New Jersey! That is how serious we are about saving money! It was totally the way to go!

It was CJ's first time to the Big Apple, and I realized NYC is actually the city I have traveled to the most...This was my 5th trip, which really surprised me since I don't at all consider myself to be big city enthusiast. But it was nice being able to remember where all the big landmarks were in relationship to each other.

I will now take my dad's advice for this blog: more pictures, less words :)

Ellis Island 

 central park, notice ice skaters in bottom left :)

 maybe CJ's next career...

 Tiffany's windows

 love our friends, the Naves

 we met up with our other great friends, the Santos (how do I make that plural?), for dinner one night

 HELLO! 

Notice I was wearing the same clothes in all of those pictures! Those were just from ONE day of our trip! Other highlights include frolicking through all the vendors and shops in Bryant Park, Ground Zero Memorial, M&M store, lots of Subway and train rides, and delicious NY pizza and cheesecake!

We are so glad we were able to take advantage of our geographical location and make a trip to NYC. CJ will have one or two 3 day weekends this semester, but I don't think we'll be making another trip of this magnitude. There are a lot of places in Virginia I am wanting to see, and I am getting nervous we are running out of time! CJ graduates The Basic School 4 months from yesterday, so I know I'm getting ahead of myself.

It's the holiday season

So today is officially 2014, but in my typical blogging fashion, I need to recap the end of LAST YEAR!

Without any farther to do, here were some highlights of our first married Christmas season!

Our Christmas corner! CJ and I are adamant about two things: pinching every penny and not accumulating much before we move again. When my mom sent us the candy canes (from her and my dad's first Christmas together!), we did buy a 3-foot tree to display them on. We were happy to hang up our seashell ornament from our honeymoon too!

CJ's platoon at their Holiday Social, a chili cook off!

The wives of 6th platoon! It has been so neat to experience the instant, deep bonds created by being Marine wives.  I am so thankful for their friendships.  I was shocked (HA!) I didn't win the chili cook off, but a fellow Texan and AGGIE did, so that was fun!

The last week of training before break, I hosted a cookie exchange at our apartment.  It was simple and sweet, but I had a ton of fun playing hostess for the first time!

We made enough treats to make little goodie bags for each of the Marines in our hubbies' platoon.

My attempt to be cutesy and pinteresty: a hot chocolate bar! ...mugs, hot cocoa, caramels, peppermint bark, marshmallows

We spent Christmas Eve and day just the two of us.  We volunteered at two Christmas Eve services as a greeter and an usher. It felt great to serve, even in the smallest way, and we really enjoyed getting to learn more about our church home through volunteering.  After church we ate my attempt at a nice Christmas Eve dinner: a ham, green bean casserole, rice, and homemade bread. My husband gave his usual praises, but let's just say I was happy it was just the two of us.  I will be trying a new ham recipe for sure! We then watched White Christmas, a tradition we'll be carrying on from my mom and Nana.

Our Christmas day was spent opening a few gifts, eating yummy pancakes and (not so) yummy leftovers, working on our 1,000 piece puzzle, and preparing for our upcoming NEW YORK CITY trip!!!

Our Christmas was simple and sweet and special (3 words that define our stage of life very well). We talked about how there is a really, really good chance we will never spend another Christmas just the two of us again.  It is amazing how perfectly content I am being with no one but CJ. It was a very blessed Christmas in deed.  I do think we both felt a twinge of Texas-sickness at different points. We were able to facetime with CJ's younger siblings on Christmas Eve, and I hated to miss the Locklear sibling/ grandkids Christmas weekend.  We are hopeful to be able to go back to Texas next Christmas, but we wouldn't have wished our first one together any different!

Up next: NYC and NYE post!!!