Guess What!!!!

Well for those that don't know (and there can't be a lot because of Cole's big mouth), we're pregnant!!!!! We've known for almost 8 weeks now and have told some people (most family and friends around here), but I've been hesitant to tell a lot of people until the risk of anything happening had past. Well we went today and had our first ultrasound. It was so cool!!!! The technician said the baby was moving around a lot (too small yet for me to feel it) and was sucking it's thumb. The heartbeat was 155 bpm. Everything looks good and the baby measured at 13 weeks 5 days. Based of my predictions the baby was only 12 weeks 1 day. So good news for us!!!!!! Below are some pictures from the ultrasound!!! The estimated due date is June 11-22!

Cole's Promotion

Cole was selected to be promoted to Chief Warrent Officer 4 (there's only 5) earlier this summer. We had his promotion ceremony on Monday. General Forrester, the commander of the Combat Readiness Center at Fort Rucker, was the one to do it. He was Cole's brigade commander when he was in Iraq the first time. I got to pin him (it's all velcro now though) with his new rank! Here's a picture!

Aviation Museum

My parents came down the other weekend to bring us a desk we bought on ebay and also to pick up some extra furniture we didn't have room for. We went to the Army Aviation Museum here at Fort Rucker. We had a great tour guide and learned a lot. Here's a funny picture of my parents!

Beach Time

Since Cole and I now live so close to the beach, a little less than 2 hours away, we've been spending a lot of time there. We have taken a few day trips down to Panama City and also taken a couple of overnight trips. This picture was take in Mexico Beach which is just west of Panama City. It's really nice, not too crowded with beautiful beaches.

Going Away Party!

I know this is kinda late, but I wanted to thank everyone who attended my going away party in Killeen. I had a great time and got some presents too!! Thank you or everyone that contributed to my gift! I got a little red wagon and a lot of garden supplies! Here's a picture from the party of me and Helen giving me a CRDAMC framed picture.

Fourth of July Fun!

Here are some pictures from the 4th of July at my parent's new lake house in Georgia! There are also some pictures of us wake boarding (or attempting to wake board). Pictures courtesy of Matt Ross!

New House on the Lake

Becky Wiping Out

Jamie's Commercial for Ski Apparel

Cole Working Hard to Stay on the Wake Board

Fourth Time's the Charm?????

Okay the contract went through and we've gotten the financing part rolling, now we need to make it through the inspection and appraisal. We drove by today on the way to Walmart (where we saw the whole town, jk) and the sprinkler system was being installed. It looked like the front yard has a family of moles living there, lol. But the sprinkler system is actually an added bonus because we didn't even know it was being installed. Below are some pictures of the house off of the MLS site. We're hoping to get in the house before closing, so please pray that everything falls into place for us to do that.

What lies beneath... and above!!!!!!

There have been a few things that have happened since I wrote the last post... We had an inspection done on the house from the pictures below and it wasn't good. There was extensive water damage from all sorts of places, the roof, windows, and poorly designed porches. There was also a lot of sub-flooring problems in various parts of the house. We can't be exactly sure to the amount of time and money the house needs to get it in tip-top shape but Cole and I do agree that we are not in a position right now to handle a project like that. The house is gorgeous and it is a shame the structure has not been taken care of as it should have been. So we had to get out of that contract and move on. So today we placed a new offer on another home in Ozark (yes that's four offers we've put in, I think that's a record of some sort). It's new construction in a nice quiet and wooded neighborhood. It's also super close to where Cole's going to be working. So pray the negotiations go smoothly and we can move on this quickly because the walls are closing in on me!!!!!!
Tip of the day... Always get a home inspection done on a house you are putting an offer on, there are many things that you cannot see!
Cole and I also went up to Atlanta to drop off our cats (it's not fair having them cooped up in a hotel room and now they get to play with my parent's cats) off at my parents' and helped them move some stuff to their new lake house. It is beautiful!!!!!! I can't wait to go back for the 4th!
Without the cats we were able to move on post into a room that is cheaper and has a small kitchen so that's good news.
So keep us in your prayers because it's tough being in a one room hotel with the same person all the time! You really don't know how annoying you are until you live in such close proximity with someone for so long, LOL!
TTFN,
Beth

More Pictures

Sweet Home Alabama!

Well many of you don't know that Cole and I are now residents of Alabama. Cole was given PCS (permanent change of station, military lingo) orders to Ft. Rucker to be an instructor pilot. This is great news because it's an almost (nothing is a sure thing in the military) guarantee he will not be deployed for at least 3 years! Yea! We were planning all along to buy a house and continue our rental house endeavors so we visited the area in mid-April and met with our realtor and looked at a bunch of houses. We went back to Texas with a few promising houses to decide on. Well the next month and a half was full of offers and counter-offers and two failed attempts to put a contract on a house. One family even took their house completely off the market! I guess we scared them with our tough bargaining skills. So we moved down here with Gus and Ginger and no home :( So we started the process all over again. Cole fell in love with this one house in Ozark. When I say fell, he talked about it in his sleep (jk). I liked the house but there were some aspects of it that were not so appealing to me. Well Cole needed some type of closure and asked what price I would be willing to ask for this house. Well I said some absurdly low number and we made up an offer. You should have seen my face when our realtor called and said the offer was accepted! I still can't believe it! So here are some pictures of our new home! We actually bought the house at $50,000 off the asking price (we haven't bought it yet, there is still the inspection to be completed). So we're hoping to be able to move it at the end of this week (we'll have to rent the house back from the original owners until the closing date). So enjoy and we'll have the address out when we know it!

Texas in Spring

I will have to say that I love Texas in the spring. I have never seen as many wildflowers as I have seen here in Texas. They're everywhere, on the side of roads, in people's yards, and even mingled with the goats. So here are some pictures od few weekeds ago as we visited some different location throughout central Texas!

Cole picking strawberries!

Look at all these lovely strawberries! (Watch out for the poison ivy though)

Meet my new friend!

A small winery near our home, very neat to see the whole wine making process!

A bed of blue bonnets, the state flower (I think)!

Christmas or Easter?

Believe it or not this is the day before Easter in Central Texas! Crazy! If you look closely at the first picture you can see my little tomato plant shivering in the freezing weather. Cole and I are hoping for some global warming to come our way soon! I guess we'll just start exhaling more and see what happens!

Inner Space Cavern

Over our long weekend, Cole and I ventured to some caves not too far from us. The Inner Space Caverns were discovered in the 60s when they were building I-35 in Georgetown, TX (that's about 15 miles north of Austin). We took the Adventure Tour that was about 1 hour and led you through the developed parts of the cavern (aka paved walkways and lights). It was really cool but our tourguide was a little goofy. Here are some picures from our adventure!