New Life & Old Friends

Well folks, as promised, I'm now updating you on our life events from the oh-so-sunny state of Florida! That's right, we made it! After a 14 hour car ride with my wonderful mother-in-law, we arrived in the sunny, hot, and humid city of Panama City. The PCS (permanent change of station) went surprisingly smooth. Not only were our movers on time, but very few items were broken or damaged which is nearly a miracle from what I've heard. We feel very blessed to be back in a "real" home and to finally put down some roots again, even if it's only for a short time.

Home Sweet Home

I'm absolutely in love with our new home. After our previous 1950's box dated home, this is a HUGE upgrade. Not only are we no longer conjoined with another home, but we have two stories and you guessed it....a garage (heaven)!

I'd like to offer a huge shout out to my amazing in-laws. Unfortunately my sweet husband wasn't able to be there the day we moved in, signed the lease, and ran around base like chickens with our head's cut off and almost got pulled over by Security Forces while trying to navigate. However, my amazing in-laws spent 48 hours hanging, fixing, cleaning, and unpacking almost our entire house. I feel so incredibly blessed that even though I don't have my own sweet mother here with me anymore to help in times like these, I have some awesome new family members who are always willing to jump in and help last minute. 

Winston was clearly the
most helpful mover/unpacker!

I can honestly say that I get more and more excited with each passing day about being here at our new station. The #1 best part so far...already having a sweet sweet friend that lives down the street. We were actually duplex partners at Laughlin and were so blessed to have gotten to know this incredible lady and her husband while we were there before we all went our separate ways. As fate had it we ended up at the same base and in the same airframe. Just knowing that I had a close friend here in this big city, was the most comforting feeling one could have when moving somewhere new.

Before I left her house after a short "hello" visit filled with lots of hugs and giggles she said something that really stuck with me. She said, "having you here and seeing you again makes me so happy, it feels like you brought a little piece of home with you". That's what's so amazing about the Air Force, and the military in general I'm assuming, especially the pilot community. You get the opportunity to meet some incredibly amazing people and you make lasting friendships in such a short amount of time. And even though you have to say goodbye eventually, it's more of a "see you later", because you never know when God will place you together again. I think that each military spouse carries around a "piece of home" with them wherever they go and when we meet those special friends again down the road we get to share that familiarity and know that our home, although it physically changes often, is spread out all over the world in the hearts of those we love and connect with on this journey in the Air Force. So far I love this journey we're on and wouldn't change it for anything. Feeling extra blessed these days.

Love,

The Etheridges

Last Hoorah In Texas

First off, I hate to admit this but of course we forgot to take our brand new (totally awesome) camera with us this weekend on our adventures. I know, major fail on my part. What's the point of a shiny new camera if you don't drag it along on fun adventures with you? Trust me though, I learned my lesson and from here on out you'll be sure to only get the best quality photos on the blog here, pinky promise :)

My sweet sister-in-law came out to visit us here in Texas for the holiday as well as our friend from UPT, so we had a full house for a few days. We started off the holiday right by heading to downtown San Antonio for some fireworks in Hemisphere Park. They shot them off behind the giant space needle, which I'm sure you've seen if you have ever been anywhere near downtown San Antonio. They also had music hosted on one of the local stations that you could listen too that paired with the show. I would highly recommend it to anyone who is in the area and wants a place to park their foldable chair for an awesome show for 20 minutes! The boys got in for free since there was no charge for military which was awesome. This was our second time celebrating the 4th of July in Texas, San Antonio in particular, and we yet again were not disappointed.

Hanging out before the show.

Before the fireworks started,
love this man to pieces.

On Friday we headed to a Justin Moore concert at a local dancehall which was a total blast. The hubs and I have never seen him in concert and it had been AGES since our last country concert so we were both very excited to see he was coming to town the weekend we had guests and jumped at the opportunity to go. I can honestly say that's one our absolute favorite things to do as a couple. We are blessed to share the same taste in music (for the most part, Eminem makes my skin crawl but hubs loves his stuff, ick) so country concerts of pretty much any kind are always a golden date night opportunity
for us!

Justin Moore was an incredible entertainer. If there are three things that I can tell you about this man it's that he loves God, his wife, and his guns, in that order. At the end of the concert he took a few minutes to tell the audience about his abundant love for Christ and how he chooses to use his fame and platform as an entertainer to preach of his love for Christ. The hubs and I were both blown away and instantly in love with this man. It's not often that a celebrity uses their place in life to profess their faith and share the gospel with their fans.

Before the concert with this stud ;)

Saturday we floated the Comal river, which is generally always a good time minus what I like to refer to as the "death shoot" which is meant to be entertaining and fun for floaters. I on the other hand had a near death experience almost drowning a few weeks ago going down this shoot, so I chose to forgo the shoot and sun bath ahead of the group for a few minutes while they tempted fate ;)

This weekend was a total blast and we were all very sad to see it come to a close. However, we have some awesome things to look forward to in the near future, such as moving to FLORIDA!

On the subject of those darn wisdom teeth I had taken out, I'm almost completely healed. Yes, even almost two weeks after surgery I am not totally back to 100%. I've still got some healing to do and some soreness by the end of the day but I am eating solid foods now and can eat pretty much anything but popcorn (boo, it's my favorite). Thanks so much to everyone who checked in on me via phone calls, texts, and sweet cards that week. I can't even begin to tell you how much it meant to know I was loved and being prayed over during my recovery.

A few minutes after I got home from surgery.
Clearly NOT a happy camper

I'm super excited to announce as well that my next update will come from the sunny state of Florida! That's right folks, we are moving THAT SOON! I hope everyone had an incredible and blessed holiday.

Love,
The Etheridges