new cities and old friendships.

One thing that is super difficult, being over 2,300 miles from our hometown, is maintaining relationships with people who we were close to back home.

Entering a life with the military means that we will consistently be moving new places, becoming parts of different communities every few years, having to say goodbye to old friends and go find new ones in new places, while friends back home grow distant to us and closer to each other.  It's definitely something that took a while to adjust to, especially for someone like myself who thrives on relational and emotional things.

Praise God though that there are some relationships in our lives that have not changed with the distance.  Rick has a couple of awesome best friends from home, who may not be able to spend as much time together now--but when they are together they pick up as if zero time has passed.  And it just so happened that one of them, Andrew A, had a show with his band out here in Santa Rosa this weekend!  This show was on a Sunday night right before my husband had to wake up at 4am the next morning...but we worked our butts off on Saturday to get everything done ahead of time, and ended up driving out to Santa Rosa after church in the morning.  And the reunion made it totally worth it!

 (Missing a bro, sad day!)

It is just funny how little inconveniences in our life make things seem so difficult.  On Saturday night we were so stressed out and frustrated with the timing of things, and it didn't really seem plausible to make it out to Santa Rosa; but yet on the drive home Sunday night we just talked about how thankful we were to have made the time to get out for the show, and how happy it makes my husband to get to invest in his friends' lives.  The earlier frustrations were totally worth it, and yet we didn't fully understand that until we sucked it up and chose to make time where we thought there wasn't any--and remembered that there are some friendships in Christ that don't fade.  And that in turn makes for a successful weekend :)

The band is We Are Leo, and they are totally awesome.  They always put on a stellar show and their music is amazing.  Check them their latest video RIGHT NOW! 0:)

 

That's all for now, I suppose.  Talk to y'all soon :)

-Samantha

A brief (well, it was originally) introduction to my favoritest person in the world.

The other day I saw my brother's absolutely lovely girlfriend Lauren write a post introducing my brother (her boyfriend, duh) on her blog.  And it was so funny and cute!!!  So I decided to do a similar thing about my cute hubby :)

This is my husband, Rick...

(He took me to the San Francisco Ballet and he actually enjoyed it with me!!!!  I could stop right here and you would already know that he is the most perfect kind of man.)

He is many wonderful things.  Including the following:

-Freaking gorgeous.  I mean, COME ON.  Just look at the guy.  It's kind of ridiculous, actually.  But for real, your spouse is always your standard of beauty and that is so, so true in my case.  ;)  Total perfection!

-A really amazing man of Christ.  He has the most encouraging faith and grounds me in so many ways.  I am such a worrier and a lot of the time he just brings me back down and reminds me of God's grace and provision.  He has this super sound trust in God, a huge amount of spiritual maturity and wisdom, and a honestly humble spirit about his life and the seasons he has gone through.  He is super duper patient with me, constantly shows me so much love through his actions and words, but also loves me enough to kind of give me a (metaphorical) kick in the butt when I need it.  Haha.  He is really inspiring to me :)

(He is also a tattoo enthusiast, three of which you can see here while cuddling Sheeby :)

-A sports star.  Haha, for real though, and he'll never tell you that himself, he's way too humble.  Try going to the gym with this guy, and you'll feel real pathetic real fast.  Haha...  (but, yknow, he also encourages me through my lack of athleticism, which is great!).  Besides being amazing at every sport he's ever played, he was also this ridiculous hockey star in high school.  He was was on the USA team for like, whatever the world-tournament-for-under-age-hockey is called...I have no idea...all I know is that he was totally awesome.  And that he runs like twice as fast as me, which makes me feel sad when I am on the treadmill next to him at the gym.  Hahaha.

-Super smart and ambitious.  My cute hubby has goals to become a doctor or a PA in the Air Force.  So much so that, even though he was offered multiple full-ride scholarships to universities for both hockey and football, he chose to turn them down, because he wouldn't have been allowed to be a pre-med major (they wanted him to have an easier major)...seriously, intelligence is sexyyy.  Now he's working towards going to IPAP at Fort Sam Houston Texas, where he will then be commissioned out as an officer and masters-degree-holding PA for the Air Force!  That's really cool.  I'm excited for his (and our) future and it's super encouraging to me, to see him just have a spirit of excellence and hard work in everything that he does. :)

(I like hugging him!)

-A total family man.<3  Seriously, everything he does makes me melt when I think about what an amazing dad he's going to be someday!!  I can't wait.  He is so caring and totally silly and sweet, and the most loving, giving person you could ever meet.  He has the biggest heart, especially for me and our future family.  I know it's going to be stellar. :)

-He is also my perfect & destined best friend.  Haha, but for real.  I was reminded of this fact after one thing he said maybe four months ago (and if you know me at all, you will understand):
         Rick: "Remember when I lived next to Texas Roadhouse?  Well sometimes I would just order
         a big order of the rolls for like $2, and take them home and just eat them all."
         Me: "WE WERE DESTINED TO BE BEST FRIENDS."

0:)  Haha.

I love him so dearly!!!  It still amazes me the way that God brought us together and is growing our marriage and our love.  So, yey hubby!  Yey for him being wonderful in so many more ways than I could fit on this page!!!!!

(P.s.- now that we are together here in CA, we get a takeout order of 2 huge salads & rolls from Texas Roadhouse nearly every weekend.  We've sadly become regulars...)