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!

Paradise!!!!!!

We spotted this beach on the way to Islita. This beach is called Playa Corrillo! We had to stop and take a picture, we just couldn't resist it!

More Pictures from Costa Rica

Honeymoon in Costa Rica!

Cole and I spent the week after our wedding in beautiful Costa Rica!!! We started out in San Jose and stayed at the Orquideas Inn at the start and end on our trip. Here are some pictures!


















We then traveled by car to the pacific coast to Islita. We stayed at Hotel Punta Islita, the most beautiful place I've ever been! We had great meals, our own private pool, and lots of fun events. We went horseback riding, boogie boarding, and got a massage! It is a place we will visit again!!!!!

Cole is Home!!!!

Cole returned from a year long tour in Iraq on November 4th! I am so happy that he's home, safe and sound! Here's a picture from his welcome home ceremony! It's really cool, they have banners everywhere, a DJ blasting songs, and a smoke machine for the soldiers to run through. He had a short, but unexpected, lay-over in Germany so he was a couple of days later than was first expected, so it made the anticipation that much greater.

Pretty flower! I have like a million of these. Again thanks to the previous owner!

Yummmmm, tomatoes!

I'm not sure what this is, but it's pretty! I guess it was planted by the previous owners.

Here is some more squash!

The first fruits! Yea, it's so nice to be able to see the fruits of your labor! This is a squash from my garden. It's almost big enough to pick and eat!

Here is Gus the cat, our new addition to the family! He's a big ole cat that likes to get his belly rubbed!

Cole's Proposal

This was addressed to Brother Randy, the pastor at FBC Killeen. He was the one who read the e-mail and got on his knee for Cole!

I moved to Killeen, courtesy of the Army, against my wishes. Once it became apparent that God wanted me there I embraced the idea. I have spent years praying for, not just any woman, but a woman like Ruth, Esther, or Abigail, a woman like that described in Proverbs 31. That has been my greatest desire. I believe God has used circumstances in my past to show me just what a godly woman is worth, so for that I can be thankful. If you can find one, she is truly worth more than anything else this world can offer.

Once at First Baptist, I got involved in the Single's Dept. and met Beth McLaren. At first I, of course, noticed her and then got to watching her behavior to see if she was consistent. Everything about her just amazed me. I remember being surprised that here was this beautiful, single, young woman who could've been out anywhere else but here and she just always surprised me with her personality and convictions. I had a very specific list of traits I wanted in a wife and she met every one, and them some. God is truly able to give us more than we can imagine.

We eventually started dating and we had to have an honest discussion about where our relationship should head, given my upcoming deployment. This is where I turn into an idiot. We both knew we were interested in marriage and decided to "date purposefully". She agreed to wait for me while I'm deployed and she continues to be supportive of me. I thought I needed to see if she would still be there for me when I got back before I proposed. I was feeling really insecure. I just can't look at her and feel anything but gratitude to both our God and her for her unmerited love and devotion. Part of me has been afraid to really believe in God's answering my prayers, perhaps a bit like some people's hesitancy to accept His greatest Gift of all. How can I claim to believe she is His answer to my prayers and say that I must make her wait? I am now ashamed of my failure. I need her and God's forgiveness.

Bro. Randy, my failure to propose to this greatest of all treasures any man could hope to find now seems like such a denial of God's Grace on my part. Beth and her family have embraced me without cause and she could certainly have her pick of men, but she wants me. I can't escape the example of Boaz with Ruth. Once he was aware of her heart, he didn't hesitate. I want to correct my hesitancy. Beth should've seen me off to Iraq with a ring on her finger and the promise that I would return to claim her.

No, Brother Randy is not proposing to me, he's just standing in for Cole who's in Iraq (that's who I'm on the phone with). It might be a little non-traditional, but I loved it! So that means that I'm engaged to Cole (this is for those that are a little slow)!

Understanding the Left

Here's a link to a great article attempting to get inside the head of a liberal (I know, a scary thought) and figure out why they believe what they do. It's very informative and reinforces my belief that liberals have lost their grasp on reality.