March - the first month!

Only one more month until James is home! I can’t believe that we have gotten through the last five months….and are less than 30 days away from seeing each other. For those of you who are on Facebook, you know that James has had some incredible experiences in south America so far, including white water rafting in Brazil, food poisoning in Brazil, and watching an Orca eat a seal. I can’t imagine how cool that must have been! And he has promised to bring me home lots of wine from Chile, so I am definitely looking forward to that. I think the months have gone by so quickly because I had the opportunity to visit James four times. I figured I might as well take advantage of him being on American soil! In March, I flew down to see James while he was still living in his two bedroom apartment that was twice as big as our apartment here! That first trip to Mississippi really made me realize that I’m a southern girl. While I absolutely love southern California, it is not the south, and I want to be a southern belle, not a bikini blonde in SoCal. (Where I come from….it’s corn bread and chicken!) But, I’m definitely enjoying Cali! I mean, what’s not to love about a beautiful place, perfect weather, and more things to do than I have time for! Now If only I had a husband to enjoy it with! James’ apartment in Mississippi was really adorable. When I got there, he was staying in a hotel still, and I was there for less than 5 minutes when we packed to check out. I’m positive that it was full of mold, since I couldn’t breathe the moment we walked in! And it’s my second time making James check out of a hotel I wouldn’t stay in, so I think he’s getting used to it. I realized I’m actually pretty picky about where I sleep…if I can’t breathe, I can’t stay! And the apartment was so much better, although hard for James because he didn’t have a car. Thankfully, there were lots of guys from the ship who lived there, and he could catch rides to work until he moved onto the ship. At first I was devastated about the apartment, because it made it seem like we were really living away from each other. And either way we were, but while he was living in the hotel it seemed less permanent. But an apartment? That was pretty permanent. But when I showed up and saw where he had been staying for a week, I knew the apartment was a must! Even though James had only been gone for a week at this point, it seemed like forever since we had seen each other, and it was such a refreshing weekend. I am seriously not good at this whole being alone Navy wife type of life. James and I do love to experience places and travel, and we have enjoyed so many places we otherwise might not have ever visited, like Rhode Island and Mississippi, so I am thankful for that. And who knew that Mississippi has beautiful beaches? It was quite eye opening to me, and made me realize how judgmental I can be. I guess I just didn’t associate southern Mississippi with resort casinos and miles of beautiful gulf coast beaches. It is sad to see the amount of devastation that Hurricane Katrina caused almost four years ago. Four years have passed, and there are still buildings shattered, hundreds of empty foundations, closed restaurants and businesses, and empty fishing boats washed up on the shore. It’s eerie and makes me sad that so many people’s lives changed so abruptly. It reminded me about the importance of giving to those who have lost all that they have, for the Lord has blessed us so that we may give to others. I am desperately wanting to find an opportunity for another relief trip, as an entire year has gone by since I have done anything. Working makes it so difficult, but it is not an excuse to not volunteer and help others. I just need to find an opportunity out here. Despite all of the devastation though, life is coming back to the Gulf Coast. A few Casino’s have come back, and thanks to the help of the Smithsonian, the Jefferson Davis Presidential Home, Beauvoir, has been restored. It was severely damaged by the storm, as it sits right on the gulf coast, but they have been able to secure funding to preserve American history. In fact, they had just received restored paintings that same week we were there. I think my favorite part was sitting on the balcony rocking in awesome rocking chairs overlooking the gulf. They had amazing plaques on them reading: “For your rocking pleasure.” I definitely think that James and I are going to be old one day sitting in rocking chairs overlooking the water (or mountains) just enjoying every day. If it weren’t for real life like bills and work, we could be enjoying that right now! The funny thing about the Beauvoir is that we didn’t even know it was there. James and I have become non-planners, which is so unlike us. But since we’ve gotten married, we’ve just kind of enjoyed ourselves and stumbled upon places and opportunities. We were just driving and taking in the scenery when we saw the sign for the Jefferson Davis home, and we thought…why not? We also watched a speed boat race on the beach, drove for miles to find amazing seafood, and made late night Wal*Mart runs for Blue Bell ice cream. All it took was one trip to the gulf, and I was hooked. There was no way I wasn’t coming back to visit! And I did…in June and July!