Ups and Downs and Ups and Downs

Real Talk. Life lately has been emotional to say the least. Highs, lows, and everything in between. 

The ship has been busy, which means Gabe has been busy. A crazy schedule that changes almost daily. My planner personality is not a fan. Pretty much anything involving Gabe's schedule is written in pencil because it will change. It's basically guaranteed.

Let's go back to the beginning of the year, when we got to go home, to both of our homes for some fun, family time! We flew into San Antonio to celebrate New Years and then we headed down to Portland for a few days! After time with my family we flew up to Dallas to spend some time with Gabe's family! We got to go to our nephew's soccer game, and even made a day trip down to Waco! It was a great time overall, and the most time in a row Gabe and I had spent together in awhile. I mean 24 hours together for 10 days in a row. That's a big deal! 

After we got home we got our sweet pup Nala! We have been wanting to get a puppy pretty much since we got married so she was the perfect 6 month anniversary gift to ourselves! ha

I mean look at that cutie! She is 9 months old and is the sweetest, snugliest (it's a word!), cavapoo you will meet! We are pretty smitten with her. 

Thankfully I had Nala because pretty much right away Gabe's schedule got busy. He was here and then he was gone, and then he was back, but had to work late. It was never ending. We thought we were going to have a long weekend so we planned to go somewhere... but surprise surprise it didn't happen. 

We have learned how to make the most of the time we do get together though. We did a stay cation that weekend (the one where we thought Gabe was going to get some extra time off), and still sent Nala to boarding. We did some fun things in Jax one day and had an extremely lazy day the next!

Some nights dinner gets planned and then postponed and taco bell gets picked up. You just never know. We are getting the hang of it. I think. But really we are just getting better at scrapping plans and making stuff up along the way. 

A huge win for us was being able to celebrate our birthdays together! (Early yes, but we still got to celebrate them!) For Gabe's birthday we went and saw The Phantom of the Opera and it was incredible! Then for mine we took advantage of a full weekend and went to Jekyll Island! It was beautiful and oh so fun to get out and explore! 

This is our life now and even though it can be super stressful, or we don't know what to do, we are in it TOGETHER. We are figuring it out TOGETHER. We will get through it TOGETHER. 

ALSO: Let me add that this is truly where we feel God has called us to be. Even though we are away from family, we will cling to Him and trust this is the best place for us to be in this season of life!