2013 In Photos

 Couch time with Mama at her and Dads new home in Joplin.

 I just love these chickens!

 Parents version of a "selfie"

 Shelly with her purple hair!

 Mom and her new do

 Jack frost made his debut on the farm

 I mustache you a question...

 Shelly with Pugs!

 "Presidents wife hair"- Shelly

 Flying high baby.

 Sisterly love

 Equestrian lover

 Dad and Rocky at Zios

 New specs

And last but not least... Our new puppy! She is waiting on us in Mo. See you in December sweet baby!

Leap Year, New House and Visitors

Happy Leap Year!

We moved in to our new home on 2-1-12 and I haven't yet told you anything about it. I'm a bad blogger due to my business! So let's remedy this...

The basics are: It's a 3 level, 3 bed, 2 1/2 bath, town home with a back yard! 

I cannot tell you how nice it is to have grass and trees around your property after 3 years. I will give you pictures and a tour once I feel it's more "presentable". Let me just say the colors/wall paper throughout the house are... atrocious. My parents came to visit us for a week so they helped me paint my two spare bedrooms. One was bright blue and the other was red! Okay maybe I will show you one or two pictures so you can understand the gravity of my situation.

I told you it was atrocious! But thanks to my awesome parents, we got both of these rooms painted a lovely gray color and it looks 200 times better. Since the red room was painted so poorly, I have to Kilz the base boards also because they didn't tape them and the room now has red and white base boards with pretty gray walls.Ay yi yi!

Other than painting, we also got my patio area cleaned and ready for warmer weather, did some front landscaping prettiness and got my garden ready for planting! I'm so ready to get back into gardening. I plan on doing a lot of canning too. If you've never had "fresh" salsa in the winter time, your missing out! It's like summer in a jar, I swear. We, of course, drove my Corvette. They really loved it and my dad was very impressed. He gave me an awesome Vette parts book so I can put some more love into it. I'd love to do some headers and an intake manifold to really make her go! We did the usual site seeing, tourist stuff and went out to eat. My parents haven't been to the East coast much and had never seen D.C. so they really loved seeing the WH and all the historical building and monuments. I promised mom some great photos of the cherry blossoms for her dining room. It was really nice to have people come to visit us for a change as well. Though, they're getting here is a story itself! But I will shorten it for the sake of your attention span; They decided to do a 40 minute layover to save $500 but that 40 minute layover turned into a 3 hour one because some idiot on the plan was smoking dope on board! Mom said they had to of taxied for 5 miles because they were waiting for the cops to show up and as to not raise suspicion for the, I'm sure, already paranoid man. They did finally arrive to arrest the man and got to D.C. at 1am. That was a long night! I dropped them off yesterday and it doesn't get much easier to say goodbye even when I know I will see them in April. They gave me lots of direction on what to do, project wise, for the house. I hope I can gets lots more done with my new found second wind! 

Other than fun-filled week, I have had a few promising jobs come my way and I hope to be employed soon. Kind of nervous but I'm sure I will do great. Shelly is coming here for her Spring break! She's been under a good deal of stress lately and I'm so happy for her to come here and have some much needed sister time. She's my best friend and I miss her like mad. She's only flown once before, so this will be another worldly experience under her belt. Tyler and I have tossed around the idea of her spending summers with us. He has so much he wants to show her and teach her. He is the best brother in law!

It's raining here today and I have a ton of neglected housework to do. Reality is calling....

37 Year Old Valentines Day Present

My 1975 Corvette Stingray L-48. No words can express the love I feel for this car or my incredibly amazing husband for getting it for me. I just looked at him and said, "Well I guess this is better than candy..." and then proceeded to hug him way to tight! I am all too excited to begin "working" on it! Not that it needs much, I mean look at it!

And I promise to blog about what has happened since we moved to DC... Just, after our household goods finally get here tomorrow.  I am a happy girl and my life is way more fulfilled than I could have ever imagined. My only problem now seems to be what to name my "new" car :)

John 1:16

Since being home I've had the opportunity to go to my "home" church and be around all the people who've watched me grow up the Christian faith and it became so clear to me how much I had missed attending. I know so many wonderful, strong Christians and felt so overwhelmingly happy to hear them speak about all the events that happened to them in 2011. As we left church I began to think about my 2011...

Of course it had it bout's of bad: Missing family milestones, parents being ill/surgeries, ect. But for most part, my year was full of blessings. I prayed, what seemed like a ton, more than I had previously. I fully believe my prayer "vigils" helped both me and my family through those bout's of bad times.

My blessings are too numerous to count but some of my 11' highlights were: Beginning and ending the year in Mo, surrounded by our wonderful family, growing and learning in my marriage, not getting strep for a whole year (first time ever!), being healthy, exploring Seoul more on my own, being monetarily secure/debt free (no more college loans!), sister graduating high school and completing her first semester as a college freshmen, along with buying a house, leaving her loser boyfriend, working and getting her CNA, brother and Marissa remodeling their house and Rocky getting a management position at his job, our nieces and nephew all growing up and still loving us from an ocean away, Tyler being my rock and loving unconditionally and for being so patient with me, getting the White House job, moving internationally for the second time without any hang-ups, and SO much more!

Wow, seeing that all written out is almost exhausting! 

Anyway, all that made me want to read my Bible and learn more about my Lord who has blessed me with such a wonderful life! One verse, John 1:16 really stuck out to me:

"From the fullness of his grace we have all received one blessing after another."

I'm just about as happy a person as you can get! I have been to busy to post but now I guess you understand why :) I can't wait to see what He has in store for us in 2012!

Duty Station Declaration!

Finally it's time to fill you in on our next duty assignment! This entire process has taken us about a year to accomplish. Much paper work and hoop jumping were needed but I can fully say it was worth the wait.

Our report date: Jan 10, 2012
Destination: White House Communications Agency, Washington D.C.

Told you it was worth the wait! He will be on whats called a Presidential support team. Lots of traveling of course. Tyler has worked very hard to get to this point and I couldn't be more proud. He is completely humbled at this opportunity and cannot wait to serve his commander in chief.

There are a few hang-ups of course. As of right now we are trying to get home before Christmas. Pushing for around the first of December but I am not holding my breath. I've told our families not to expect us. The Army is supposed to give us 30 days in between duty assignments. While we would certainly love to get home to our families, just being stateside would be fine for now.

I am researching neighborhoods trying to find the best fit for us. We are sure of one thing, we aren't living in an apartment if it can be helped. We miss the quiet, having a back yard, porch swings, and having a place all to yourself. There is a ton to do in and around the D.C. area! I was afraid that if we didn't get this wonderful assignment, we may miss the culture and business of Seoul. This will not be the case!

 I am ready to explore our new home of the next 4 years, ready to meet our president,first lady and members of congress, ready to eat fresh seafood, smell the ocean everyday, go fishing with my dad, buy a boat, go to the Smithsonian and every other museum and show they offer, be surrounded by english speaking people on the subway, take a train to NYC, take Missy to the ocean, drive the coast...

This is such a blessing for us. We honestly couldn't be happier or we'd be sick! I will of course keep you updated on the Hammond Happenings. For now I've just been putting things away slowly in boxes, purging rooms one by one, and trying to plan out how to live in a suit case again after 2 1/2 years here in Seoul. Thank you to all of you who helped and encouraged us along the way. And if your ever on the east coast... :)

New Blog

I have started using tumblr! I am sorry for not posting this sooner but I wanted to give tumblr a test run :) Hope to see you there!

The Future

I am so blessed to have someone that when I look at him, I see the future!

I’m tired of talking about the past
Time to take these stones out of my pack
I’ve been walking way too long with all this weight here on my shoulders
Hard to move while you’re looking back
You, you’re like a light in the darkness
You, you got me on track

Now the future is a big wide open highway
I wanna drive it our way
Just keep rolling all along, rolling along
Oh, the future is a wind that keeps on breaking

So hold my hand, let’s dive in
Into the blue
Cause I look at you
And I see the future

No ropes, no strings to tie us down
Nothing to keep us on the ground
I don’t need to know and I don’t care just where we’re going
I just dont wanna turn around
Don’t wanna turn around

Cause the future is a big wide open highway
I wanna drive it our way
Just keep rolling along, rolling along
Oh, the future is a wind that keeps on breaking
So hold my hand, let’s dive in
Into the blue
Cause I look at you
And I see the future

I don’t wanna miss another minute
And now that I’ve got you by my side

In the future there’s a big wide open highway
I wanna drive it our way
Just keep rolling along, rolling along
Oh, the future is a wind that keeps on breaking
So hold my hand, let’s dive in
Into the blue
I look at you
I look at you, girl
And I see the future
Tired of talking ‘bout the past