More pictures

Here is my sister's wedding while I was home in June. We had so much fun and it was a very emotional time for me to watch my little sister get married.
This is how curly Jaelyn's hair was for the wedding! Of course by the time the wedding started, the curls had relaxed some.

My handsome husband and me! I don't know what I would do without this man and I don't think I tell him enough. He ran around like a chicken with his head cut off the whole time we were getting ready for the wedding. I just couldn't be more grateful everyday for the blessing of having him as my husband.

This is my dad after the wedding. We are both smiling so big because all though we were so excited for Holly to get married, we were so glad it was done and we could enjoy ourselves! I miss my dad so much and cherish each moment I get with him when I am home. I miss him so much and can't wait to live closer to home one day....

This is the city of Sevilla- well one part of it. If you look closely you can see the pools on the roofs of the buildings. I would think that is awesome to have a pool on top of my building! It sure is a beautiful city and full of lots of History.

This is Christopher Columbus' tomb. I learned this from a friend AFTER we had this picture. I plan on going back to the Cathedral in Sevilla and listening to the tour, so I know what all everything is. It was a beautiful Cathedral and I can't wait to go back!

We got to witness a Spanish wedding while we were there that day. We didn't see the actual wedding, but when they came out from it. It was a gorgeous Spanish dress and the wedding looked very traditional.

Here we are on top of the cathedral and behind us is the city of Sevilla. I can't wait until the weather cools down and we get to discover more of Sevilla!

This is just one of the many stained glass windows in the Cathedral. I can't imagine how they even did this so long ago. The whole cathedral was just so majestic and full of history. I could just stand all day long and look at all the detailing of the place.

It's hard to tell from the angle this picture is taken, but it is about the whole length of the wall of the Cathedral. It was HUGE and beautiful.

You can really tell here how grande' the Cathedral is just by looking at the doors going in and out of it! Just amazing! Of course I wouldn't want to pay the electric bill in the winter here!

Steve and I sitting on a King and Queen's bench- this is what we called it at least.

Poor Jaelyn was so shocked by this display. She kept asking me"Who is that?" and didn't understand why a head was in the display case.

Catching up..

This is our newest member of our house, Loco. He is a kitten we rescued out of a tree on the 4th of July. When we first got here, our neighbor told us about four little kittens a mama cat had up in a tree in our back yard. Well, you know the kids and I were out there right away checking it out and sure enough there they were. It was so high we had to use a tall ladder just to get up to them and then of course they did NOT come willingly. We only got two that night and had to leave the other two up there. Eventually the base caught them and took them to a vet that visits the base here and they were treated and released. The Spanish like to keep the wild cats around the base, so they keep the rat population down here on base. Yes, you heard me right, I said RATS! So here is Loco, he lives up to his name and fits into this family just right. I love having him and he helped me keep my mind off of missing Samson while he was at Grandma's house.

So I am sitting here at my desk (at home) at 5Am and getting ready to start my day, my first day back to work. My desk faces my two back windows out of my dinning room and it is actually thundering and lightening pretty good. If you know me at all, you know I love thunderstorms. In California we didn't ever get thunderstorms at all. I would have to look forward to going home to Ohio to get a good thunderstorm. We have been here since June 17th and this is the first storm and the first "real" rain we have had here. Boy is it pouring down too.

So I decided to put some pictures on here and trying to catch up from the time we got here. I was looking back at some past posts the other day cause I was trying to remember something we did and realized how much I use to enjoy blogging because it's almost like scrapbooking and keeping memories somewhere when you can't find them in your head anymore (not cause I am getting old either).

I hope you enjoy the pictures as much as I have enjoyed taking them. We sure have hit the ground running here in Spain and I don't plan on stopping anytime soon either. There is so much History here and so many wonderful little towns and cities to discover and I plan on sharing all of them with you.

This was at the beach in Rota where the kids had a blast! We went with a couple of friends of ours and found out this day that Chelsea was having her tonsils taken out the next day. From left to right is Little Tyler, Jaelyn, Big Tyler, Tripp, and Chelsea.

Chelsea started High School this year as many of you know, so of course I had to take a picture of her on the first day of school. She isn't as excited about the first day of school pictures anymore, like she used to be. My little girl is growing up so fast. I get sad thinking that I only have a few more years left with her and then she will be off to college. Hopefully Ohio State!!!

They just look like they are having so much fun in this picture!

Tyler and Jaelyn's first day of school. Jaelyn was so excited and did so well that day until she realized she had to continue going back each day. The second day of dropping off to school didn't go as well as the first day did. Luckily, I was prepared!

My wonderful and handsome husband making sure to be there for Jaelyn's first day of school. He was at Chelsea's first day of school, but of course that was many moons ago, missed Tyler's first day of school, and made it for Jaelyn's. She was so happy to have him there too!

We finally received Samson via Air Cargo!! We left Samson behind at Grandma's house in June and due to weather had to wait to get him on September 3rd! That was the longest I had been without my dog! I missed him so much and as you can see, so did Steve. He had to endure a long flight and long hours in his kennel, but he finally made it here to Spain. My girlfriend Stephanie and I got up at 2AM to drive up to Madrid, a 5 hour drive there and 5 hours back, just to pick him up. It was a lot of traveling and a lot of money, but it was worth it! He is so happy to be back with his family again. I can't thank Mike and Diane enough for taking such good care of him while he was there. I also have to thank my Aunt Linda for picking him up and running around like a mad-woman for two days trying to get all of his paperwork for the flight in order for me. Thank you so much!

A JOB!!!

Ok, so I really thought I would have way more time to get on here and blog....boy was I wrong! I can't explain why I am so busy all the time, but I really am! I am always on the go and really there aren't many places TO go here on the base. I did develop a wonderful relationship with the donut shop in Moron. Oh man, I wish you could taste how divine these donuts really are, there just aren't words to describe them! I had to end that relationship quickly for fear of having to buy another new wardrobe from an expanding waist line. My husband already thinks I gain and lose weight on purpose, just so I have to buy new clothes for each size. So, I ended my donut fascination and moved on to other things. We were spending lots of time at the pool, but once we finally got our stuff- YES, we FINALLY got our things, we were hanging out at the house more often. Mostly because I had more things to do around here with trying to get settled in. Then we were very close to moving again, this time off base, but we chose to wait until the Spring at least. We had actually looked at a 5 bedroom house with a pool and was about to sign on the dotted line, but we talked it over very thoroughly and decided to wait. I freeze ALL THE TIME and the heating is not the same in the houses over here off base like they are on base or in the States. It was fun to look at the house and think about it though. The kids were all ready to move due to having a pool right in our backyard. We'll see how the winter goes here. It doesn't snow, but I hear these houses get cold and I am sure the Spanish tile is not very warm!
The kids started school and they are doing great! Jaelyn has a total of five GIRLS in her class. Poor Mr. F- her teacher. He is great, but boy do I feel sorry for him. She finally had one litte boy start two days ago and two more boys start tomorrow. Yes, that is how small the classes are here, there are only 8 kids in Jaelyn's class and that is Kindergarten and 1st grade! Tyler has the biggest class of course, but is still very very small. Tyler has 11 kids in his class and that is 2nd and 3rd graders put together. I am sure you are getting the idea of how small of a school it is here. I am actually thrilled with the idea because they get alot more one on one with the teachers and more time to do more work. They both love their teachers and enjoy going to school each day. Jaelyn is slowly adjusting and still has trouble leaving me in the mornings. She is getting there though. Chelsea is doing well too and loving High School. Those words still don't roll out of my mouth very well. It's so weird having a High Schooler now and all that it entails. She is doing great and she doesn't even complain about the bus ride to school at all. It could be because she has a boyfriend on the bus....nah...that has NOTHING to do with it at all! She learned the hard way about how things work at a small base, such as this one. I knew before she even got home from school that she had a boyfriend. I love that about this place.
Oh one more last thing, boy this is a long post- but I GOT A JOB!!! I am so excited and I start on Monday. The application process was a long one, but finally I found out the other day I got the job! Today they called me to offer the job (the Dodds school district in Germany) and told me I would start on Monday! So you are wondering what I will be doing for the next two years here at Moron AB? I will be the school secretary at Tyler and Jaelyn's school! It is only part time, which is perfect for me because I can still have a couple of hours to myself to do some homework while the kids are in school. It will keep me busy while we are stationed here for the next two years. The family is just as excited as I am and I am looking forward to working out of the home again and feeling like an adult! It's been too long since I have worked out of the home. Of course, I had to get a new wardrobe for my new job too, so that was just as exciting as actually getting the job!
Off to enjoy my family! If you want to see pictures of Spain, just go to Facebook! We went to Sevilla this past weekend and went to the Cathedral there and to TGIF's!

It's been a while....

Well, here I am! It has been too long since I have had the chance to sit down and blog at all. Things have been crazy since we left California and they still are crazy here in Spain too! Yes, we are finally in Spain and have been here for about three weeks now. It seems like we have been here forever cause we have met so many friendly people and they seem like they all have been our friends forever now.
Our time in Ohio was great! We spent lots of time with friends and family and was so happy with the way we spent our time. My little sister got married while we were home, so it was a busy week during the week of the wedding. I didn't mind one bit though cause she would have done the same for me in a heartbeat! I am so glad she found a great guy to spend the rest of her life with. The wedding was beautiful and went by so quickly, after all that time spent planning. I am so excited for my sister to begin this new journey in her life. Best wishes Holly and Aaron! Now I am ready for another niece or nephew!!!
When we left Ohio, we had to leave Samson behind with Grandma and Grandpa. The weather has to be under 85 degrees in all cities that the plane lands in and with it being summer, that hasn't happened yet. We are waiting as patiently as we can to get him here. I miss him like crazy and my house isn't complete without him in it. He is having lots of fun at Grandma and Grandpa's though and getting very spoiled by everyone. Leaving Ohio, we drove to New York and stayed the night there and left out of JFK to fly to Barcelona, Spain and on to Seville, Spain. Our sponsor was waiting for us at the airport with a big van for all of us and our luggage. After arriving here we were soooo jet lagged, but had to stay up to try and adjust to the time. We hit the ground running. We went to the housing office and checked out some houses off base, but unfortunatly they didn't have any four bedrooms available at the time, so we took the 4 bedroom on base they had waiting for us. I am glad we took this house because everything is so close for the kids. The park is right across the street and the pool is one minute down the road. It has been great! I feel like we are on vacation or something here. We have been to BBQ's already, fireworks, joined the Library Reading club, I go to the gym almost everyday, we went to eat at a Castle this past weekend, I have joined a Bunko group, we both are getting invloved in the Church here, and hopefully this weekend we are going to go to Ikea in Seville. I also want to plan a day trip sometime soon and go do some sightseeing!
I have posted tons of pictures on Facebook, if you want to go there and check them out. The upload so much faster on there than on here. That is the place I am hanging out still. It's just easier to chat with people on there.
I will blog more often now that we are slowly getting settled. Our SUV gets here on Thursday and we are still waiting to here when our household goods is suppose to get here. Right now we are just using loaner furniture and let's just say it isn't the greatest stuff. We have an air mattress blown up on top of the mattress to the bed we are using. It just isn't the most comfortable bed at all!
Hope all is well all around the world with everyone else! I really think we are going to enjoy ourselves here alot. The weather is HOT and gorgeous, the house is a great size for us, and the kids are enjoying the neighborhood already.

A little tired....

So I am a little tired and put the pictures first and wrote last....lol. These aren't exciting pictures, but at least I put some up here. I will have more after this weekend, so come back to visit soon...

The packers have arrived!
Ready to go to the Hotel!

It's almost all packed and ready to put on the truck..

More packed stuff. It sure does make you look like you have alot when it's all in boxes.

Back at the hotel playing in the hot tub!

The kids are loving being in a hotel. My kids have to be the best kids ever when it comes to traveling. They love being in a hotel, flying on airplanes, and even living out of a suitcase! I don't like the suitcase part of it...at all.

I am sitting here in a hotel room just exhausted from all the work this week. It has been a busy, non-stop week filled with packing, moving, cleaning, and emotions. It is so hard to explain to people how stressful a move is on a person.

Monday night was our last night in our house. It was kind of sad trying to sleep that night, knowing that things were going to be crazy from that next morning on. I will miss that house so much, but am ready to move on to our new adventure. That is what we have been calling it lately, our new adventure.

Tuesday we moved into a hotel room on base. They were pretty nice living arrangements with two bedrooms, a kitchen, and living room. We weren't there at all during the day due to the movers packing at our house. Once we arrived there and it got darker outside, a bunch of bugs started coming out all over the place inside! It was horrible because if you know Jaelyn at all, you would know she has a huge fear of bugs! Tyler and Jaelyn were crying and couldn't sleep, Chelsea was complaining that they were everywhere, and I was not sure how well I would sleep with the bugs crawling all over the wall. We were going to try and stick it out until the next day, but by 1030 that night I had had enough! I started packing our stuff and we called the desk to get a new room. Unfortunately they didn't have any for us and we then had to move off base to Vacaville. It worked out really well though cause this place has a pool and is closer to all of our friends and our church!

The movers were at our house for three days and they finally packed the last box on the truck on Thursday. It was a long three days as they packed and moved our stuff, but we found things to keep us busy.....like cleaning. Boy was that house a mess! Places you don't think to look and clean on a daily basis were just filled with dust bunnies.

So we are now going to hang out here at this hotel until the 1st. We then hop on a plane and head out to Ohio to visit friends and family and watch my little sister get married. I am now able to focus more on the bridal shower, now that the moving part is over. I am excited to spend time with my family and friends.
I will have plenty of time now to update my blog, so I am sure you will be hearing from me plenty. Oh yeah, did I mention I went back to school in the middle of all of this? Yep, online. It isn't my first choice of how to get my education, but with our situation of going overseas, it is my only option right now. This is what works and fits for ME and for MY family. I am so excited and have been trying to keep up with all of my homework in the middle of all of this chaos. I like to be busy and so far I am doing a good job of it.
I will be posting lots of pictures over the weekend of all the events we have going on! So stay tuned....

Stressful Times...

I don't even know where to begin how stressful these last few weeks have been for not only me, but my whole family. Moving isn't easy, but moving out of the COUNTRY is an even more difficult task. We are making it work though. Just when we think we have things planned out and in writing, it changes. Not too many things have gone according to our plan, as of yet. Hopefully that will be changing soon.
It's been a while since I have updated my blog, but I will re-cap our life as best as I can. We finally got our orders to Spain. We couldn't do a thing without this one piece of paper. When we finally got our orders, the ball really started rolling with things. We had to make travel arrangements, set up a pack date/shipping date, set up shipping our car, and lots more that I won't bore you with. It's a lot of work, that's for sure. So we have most of those things done. We will be flying home to Ohio and then driving from Ohio to New York to catch our flight to Spain. I am excited about spending a day in New York. I have always dreamed of going there and seeing the "big city" and wasn't sure it would ever happen, well now it is going to happen!
The movers are coming in a week and a half to pack our stuff up and ship it off to Spain for us. At this point we move into billeting, which is a temporary living facility. It's pretty much a small furnished apartment. We will be living there for ten days, then we fly out to Ohio. In the midst of all this, we have had complications with travel arrangements for our dog, Samson. We found out a few days ago, that we will have to leave him behind for a week or so with his Grandma in Ohio. This was a very, very hard pill for me to swallow. I said from the get-go, that Samson was going with us no matter what the stress, no matter what the cost. Well, it turned out the airlines had a different plan for me. There isn't much we could do, since it was up to the airlines. It will be ok though because I know that he will be following us a week later....just tell that to my heart as I drive away and leave him behind.
We have had some exciting things go on in the midst of all of our chaos. My mother n law came out here last Thursday to help us with our move. We had a great time putting her to work. We spent all day Friday setting up for the garage sale for Saturday. We woke up to rain, but it didn't stop us from making some sales. Then Saturday afternoon we had Jaelyn and Tyler's b-day party together. Tyler really wanted his b-day party before we left and with all of his friends. His real birthday isn't until June 12th. We had a blast. It was a little crazy and loud- the place is called "Kidz Gone Wild", so use your imagination. The kids had fun, the adults were happy when it was over. We then woke up Sunday and went to Church, watched some movies, and shopped. It was alot of fun having company for the last time in California. We were really sad that Mike and the kids couldn't have come too.
I think that about covers it all. I have tons of pictures to share. Some may be boring to most, but I enjoy looking at the pictures too! I will be blogging more often now, since I am officially unemployed. I am ok with being unemployed right now though, trust me, I don't have time to work at this point in the move.
I will probably be blogging tomorrow as well because it is my baby's birthday tomorrow! Jaelyn Kaye Ousley is turning 5! I can't believe how fast the time has went. More tomorrow...enjoy the pictures.

This is my little man Damon! He was my youngest and my most attached. This little guy was so much fun and I am going to miss him terribly. He was calling me "nanny" with a long A sound. It was so cute.

Chelsea up bright and early for our garage sale!

Grandma freezing her boody off!

Steve waiting for the customers...

Jaelyn trying to stay dry.

Steve putting Jaelyn's training wheels on her new bike she got for her birthday.

KIDZ GONE WILD party...

Tyler is wild....LOL. This is a huge slide the kids were running down.

Steve and Jaelyn shooting some hoops.

Grandma and Tyler at the bottom of the slide. Tyler couldn't hardly breath from laughing so hard.

Jaelyn and Grandma cooling off in the fan after working up a sweat!

Jaelyn and her twin girlfriends, Hannah and Tess.

Jaelyn getting some much needed rehydration.

Tyler getting a nerf gun for his b-day. This isn't the only one he got for his birthday and I can't even tell you how many bullets and balls were flying around my house this past weekend. Tyler, Grandma, Jaelyn, and Steve had a few shootouts. I would like to think that it was the kids that started it, but I have a feeling it was the adults. So I decided to get involved and went out and bought myself an automatic nerf gun! Jaelyn and I did a sneak attack on Tyler as he walked in the door from school. It was so much fun!

enjoying some cake and ice cream.

Tyler and Grandma settled in for a movie. It was nice to find some time to relax too...

Chelsea ready to watch a movie too...she looks a little shocked here...LOL..

Not sure what Chelsea is doing here. They all look pretty comfy though huh?

We even went bowling while Grandma was here. Jaelyn kicked everyone's butt!

She is one talented little girl! If you look closely at her ears, you will see that they are now pierced! We all went to the mall so Jaelyn and Chelsea could get their ears pierced. Jaelyn did so good and her grandma was so proud of her!

Steve and Jaelyn waiting for their turn to bowl.