First Week Without Isaac

Isaac left for his first mini underway last Monday. I've missed him so much, but all my friends have been wonderful at making sure I've had stuff to do to keep my mind off him not being here.

First my Aunt Bec Bec and Uncle Chuck came to visit and brought their friend Cheek. Uncle Chuck was stationed here 48 years ago when they first got married, so they were excited to get to see their old home and all the places that meant so much to them. First Uncle Chuck took me to the shooting range, it was so much fun! It's been forever since I've been shooting; I was a little out of practice, but I really enjoyed getting to spend time with him. The we went down to Ocean View where they used to live. We saw their old house and old church and told me stories of when they used to live there. It was such a great afternoon with them, I'm looking so forward to when they can come up here again; hopefully Isaac will be here then.

The next day, I took off for my trip down to Charleston. I made a quick stop in Benson to stay with my friend Karlie, she was so kind to let me stay there. The next day, I headed to Charleston, where I got to stay and catch up with Michelle and Wendy. I got to go to their White Christmas party, eat way too many sweets and cookies and go to Kaminskis. One of the biggest highlights on the trip was my photoshoot with the Seaver's. It's been about a year (I know, way too long) since my last photoshoot, so it was a lot of fun for me, plus I got to spend the afternoon with my favorite second family.

I got home yesterday, and now am hanging out here in Va beach, waiting on Isaac to get home. They come in on Friday, I absolutely can't wait to see him. The past week has been fun catching up with old friends, but I have missed my husband so much. Friday will be a very happy day :)

Here are some of my favorite pictures from the photoshoot. I love how silly the Seaver girls can be. This was definately one of my favorite photoshoots I've done.

Peaches Norman

This is the newest member of the Norman family, Peaches. She is a rescued Beagle, a very sweet, shy little dog. When I met her, I immediately fell in love with her and new she was the one we were suppose to bring home, luckily Isaac agreed with me :) I picked her up on Thur, so she's had a few days to get used to me. The first night I had her, she stayed in her crate the entire night, I'm pretty sure she was too afraid to come out. She's been a little more active since then, knocking down the fences that we thought would keep her in the kitchen, but other than that, she's been very good. She listens for the most part, doesn't bark, doesn't jump on me and pretty much is all around my favorite dog ever :) I am very thankful we were able to adopt her.

This is where she stays most of the time, although every now and then she will come out to the living room to sit with me

This is how she walks most of the time, nose to the ground, hunting for something

And here's her sweet face, how could you not love that?
She had just alittle time to try and get used to Isaac. For the most part, she wasn't sure about him, but he drew her out a little bit. I think it will be much easier when he comes home and can spend a little more time her, but it was a lot of fun watching him with her. I think she started liking him by the end of the night

Thanksgiving Week

Thanksgiving week for us was a busy week. First, some of our best friends from Charleston cameto visit so they could look for a house. They were our first overnight guests, it was a lot of fun! I was able to see and play with my goddaughter some, and catch up with Vic. I also got to go along with them on their house hunt and see a lot more of my new home city than what I'd been able to explore before.

Thanksgiving was also a wonderful day for us. Isaac had the day off (his first holiday off all year, i think) so we didn't plan a lot, cause it was also his only day off that week. We slept late, he cooked french toast for breakfast, then we started making food dinner that night. Yes, I said we...I love that I have a husband who likes to cook and is more than willing to help out in the kitchen :). He introduced me to some of his family food traditions, his chicken spread and cranberry mold. I was very skeptical of both. The chicken spread smelled like tuna, so I had to get over that, but once I tried it, I was very surprised that I like it a lot. The cranberry mold...not so much, but we have some improvements to make on it for Chrsitmas. We were also able to have some of Isaac's friends over for dessert. It was a lot of fun getting to have his friend's over and meeting some new peope!

This is the chicken spread that Isaac loves so much...it doesn't look great here, but it was actually really good and we've eaten off of it all week.

This is Isaac's normal look in pictures, he absolutely hates being in pictures, but every now and then he will humor me

Here is our pumpkin pie for the holiday. It was my first ever that I've cooked. I used My mother-in-law's recipe and it was absolutely wonderful :) I'm looking forward to hopefully making it again next year

Saturday afternoon, we were able to decorate our house for Christmas. It was a lot of fun to finally be able to do this with someone. Last year, it just wasn't quiete the same to decorate my apartment, by myself, so having Isaac to help was wonderful. I was so surprised, he was in a decent picture mood and actually smiled for this one.

And he even posed for this one...

Isaac was real proud of our mantel, he had fun figuring out where to put the snowmen. The right side was his side that he decorated.

Here's the finished product of our tree. We got the tree from Grandma Creed's. I've used it the past 2 years, and love having such a cute little tree. I also love that Isaac wanted to use the colored lights on the tree, I like colors better than plain for the tree.

The next 2 pictures were taken by Vic. My camera was hijacked while I slept. On their way back from Jersey, they stopped in to sleep, getting to our house around midnightish. Isaac and I had been asleep for atleast 2 hours when they got there and wouldn't have even known they were there had it not been for the pictures she took and the extra shoes in our foyer when we got up that morning. I can't wait till they are up here permanently and I get to see this sweet little face a few times a week :)

The Honeymoon

Isaac and I got married a little more than a month ago. I finally finished the pictures from Key West. It was an amazing week, so wonderful to finally get to be together, uninterrupted, knowing that he wasn't going to have to leave in a few hours to drive back home. The first year we spent together, we never lived closer than 3 hours from each other, and most of the time, we lived half a world apart, so not having to say goodbye at night was the greatest thing ever. I'm definately enjoying it while it last, because in about a week and a half that will change as Isaac will have to leave for 10 days.
But enough about that, here are some of the pictures from our trip.

The first 2 nights we stayed in some wonderful cabins at the foot of Pilot Mountain. It was wonderful to be able to rest and take it easy after the past few months of wedding planning, and constantly being on the road.

Our first few days in Key West were spent in a down pour of rain, so much so that the roads flooded, which were kind of fun to drive through. We were still able to go out some and enjoy some wonderful restraunts and a fun little coffee shop where Isaac tried to teach me how to play chess. he definately dominated so we then played scrabble so I could beat him. It was a fun afternoon. When the sun finally began to come out we ventured again to our favorite breakfast place, Pepe's. The food was so good, they always had some type of french toast, which is one of my favorites, and some type of omlet, which is one of Isaac's favorites. AND they had the best coffee, it was so good and right up there with the other country coffee we've both tried. One thing about the restraunt was we always ate outside, where the birds enjoyed trying to streal our sugar packets...probably not the best thing to be eating with the birds...but it was very entertaining.

I always enjoy trying to take pictures of Isaac, but he on the other hand hates me taking pictures of him. Most of the pictures I take consist of him either sticking his tongue out or hiding his face. Every now and then he'll give me a nice smile, but this was not one of those times. I think after this one, I stopped taking pictures for a little while...just till he was done eating...


After breakfast on the first day the sun came out, so we decided to take a walk. I had seen this tree earlier during the week and really wanted to find it and take some pictures. It was huge and had all the different branches and vines going through it. It fascinated me, so we set out to find the tree, luckily, Isaac humored me till we found it.

Later that day, we decided to take a short walk on the beach. I had forgotten my sunglasses and sunscreen, so the walk was not very long, but it was a lot of fun and allowed me to get a few pictures for the water :)

On our last day there, we decided to drive the over seas highway and see some of the other keys. part of this highway is a 7 mile bridge. I have a fear of bridges, so this was not a very easy thing for me to do, but it did turn out to be fun, and beautiful.

The trip was wonderful, but it was nice when we finally got home. We both had been on the road for a while, neither of us sleeping in our own beds for almost 2 weks, so it was wonderful to be home and start learning our routine. Getting back to the real world was a little hard, but it's been a great adventure this past month. This week is Thanksgiving and we are also having our firsts overnight guests tonight, so there may be a few more posts soon :)