Busy Holidays!

I apologize...I have been a very bad blogger! Most can sympathize however, tis the season for holiday hustle and bustle!

Thanksgiving has come and gone! Nick and I spent the holiday apart this year :( This was the first time we have had to do this since we got married, and it was a bit difficult. However, since this is our last Thanksgiving in the States, my parents made it very clear that I had to be in Texas for Turkey day! I was thankful for the time with my family. I got to do the traditional things I have done every year, which I will not be able to do for a very long time!

After all these years, I have never made dressing (or stuffing, whichever you call it), I have always left that feat up to my mother or Grandmother. But again, since I will be away for the next few Thanksgivings, it was crucial that I learn how to make my Granny's delicious stuffing! On the big day, I helped my mother make the dressing, took pictures of each step, and wrote down everything I must do to make this delicious stuff.

Even though I don't have the antique pan that my mother makes it in, I think I am ready to make it on my own in Japan next year!

While I was home, my mother, sister and I went and registered my sister at Baby's R Us and Target for her baby showers. It was fun, and I was thankful that they waited to do that with me! I got a little carried away with the registry gun and put a bit too many things on Shae's list! It is not every day that my big sister has a baby! (Hello, this is my very first niece!)
So, of course, I had to buy that little girl a few things from her Auntie Britty. I cannot wait for that little Diva to arrive!
Shae is so cute, with her big baby bump! I was so excited to finally get to see it! Naturally, I took many pictures and bought quite a few baby gifts!

The day after Thanksgiving, it is a tradition in my family for the girls to get up (at the crack of dawn no less) to go Holiday shopping! On this day, as most know, the stores have crazy deals and are a blur of people fighting to fill their Christmas lists. We are always right there with them! So this year, was no different, and though it was a very long day, I got almost all of my shopping finished!

While I was away, being busy with my family, Nick was back in Jacksonville completing an amazing feat himself. Nick's schedule did not allow him enough time to make it to Texas and back with enough time to make it worth the drive, so we had initially decided to stay in Florida for Thanksgiving. Since we were going to be without family, we decided we would run a 1/2 marathon on Turkey day instead. I ran my first 1/2 in April, but Nick has never run one before. It worked out because I went home and he still ran the race, so now we both have one under our belt!

Don't worry, he wasn't alone. Another couple from Texas, who are our very good friends, and whom will be in Japan with us for 3 years, ran the race on Thanksgiving with Nick! I apologize because there are no pictures to share of this event. When I ran my race, I carried a camera with me while I ran, just so I could document the event. Nick however, is not as crazy as me, and therefore did not have a camera with him and did not get pictures. However, he did awesome! I am so very proud of him. He would have left me in the dust, had I ran it with him.

All in all, it was a very busy Thanksgiving. Since then, we have both been busy with work, school, holiday parties, and life in general! It is such a busy busy time, but I will attempt to get on here again as soon as possible!

Until then, hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday season!

Halloween with the Holmans

Happy Halloween! Beretta getting her costume on....not really liking it! Kinda mean, torturing our dog to wear a costume, but oh well, it only happens once a year!

Nick and I hadn't dressed up in a couple of years, and due to both of our busy schedules, we had to put together costumes at the last minute. Here's what Nick came up with...

Octo-mom and her paparazzi! Pappa Pappa Razzi!

Where the Wild Things Are!!! Such awesome costumes!

Baaaretta! Such a Lady!

Todd and Stacey, Sexy Teacher and a Red Neck!

Nick just wanted to carry his knife...boys and their toys!

Laughing at ourselves...it's what we do!

(It looks like she is hitting my babies with that ruler)

Please....No More Photos!

Loved it...Snow Girl and her Shadow

The shadow's kinda creepy!

Learning's Hard!!!

I graduated from college 3 years ago this December, but this August I started back to school. Nick on the other hand didn't get a break and went straight into Flight School right after college graduation. Now we are both studying in our free-time, which is no longer "free." We both work and then come home to study! I teach children in the day how to learn, then go home to learn how to teach children! Ironic!

Besides studying to be a teacher (me), and how to be a helo pilot (Nick), we have decided to get ready for our big move to Japan by learning (or trying to learn) how to speak Japanese! And darnit if that isn't a very very tough language to learn! We purchased Rosetta Stone so that in the next few months we can prepare ourselves for life in Japan! I know that you can get around Japan without knowing how to speak Japanese, but how much easier will it be if we at least semi-know what they are saying???!! However, when the computer tells me how to say something in Japanese, I continually mess up the words and they come out of my mouth in a jumble of jibberish! Boo! I must get better! Luckily, we still have several months to keep learning!

So the learning goes on! (and on and on)

Bad Blogger!

It has been a crazy last couple of weeks! It feels like we have been here longer than we actually have because we have been so busy! All I do is work, study for school, and occasionally run (considering Nick and I are running a 1/2 marathon at the end of November, I need to run more, I just don't have the time!). Also last week, I found out who my mentor teacher is for my student teaching! I get to observe a 4th grade class and teacher each week for 7 months. Next Friday I am going on a field trip with them! And I can't leave out Nick, he is still training and studying daily how to fly the HS60 Bravo.

On top of all the above business, Nick woke up sick this Tuesday morning with a fever, sore throat and aches all over! Of course that only led to me getting sick a day later as well! So besides in-taking as much meds and fluids as we could, we attempted to get as much sleep (with NyQuil) as possible in an effort to get ourselves better! Why didn't we go to the doc you ask? Well because they told us they couldn't get either of us in for 2 WEEKS!!! Thank you Navy! Nick even went on base to sick call early one morning to see if he could get in, and after 2 hours of sitting there, he was still number 20 on the list! Needless to say, we are still both sick! Oh yea, and I still had to go to work every day this week and teach kids with germs! Boo for being sick!

On another note, today was OU's big rivalry football game! For those who don't know, (which is crazy cause it's totally common knowledge! Haha...kidding!) our big game is versus UT and it is played every year at the Texas Stadium on the Texas Fairgrounds! Of course we couldn't go this year which is a total bummer, considering so many of our friends and even family were there. But, thanks to ABC, we got to watch it. Beretta watched it too, she sported her OU bandana in support of the SOONERS!!! BOOMER!

She says, "let me in....is it time for the OU game to start yet?"

Such Sooner Pride!

She loves this OU ball! Until today, when you bounce the ball it started playing OU's fight song and then it said, "Boomer Sooner". Beretta loved this, and she would get excited every time the fight song played. However, she got a little too excited and now it doesn't play the song anymore! :(

Intense! Watching the Sooners play some football!

Boomer Sooner!

OKLAHOMA!!!!

Exsausted...it was an intense game! We were up for the first half of the game 6-o. We were tied for the 3rd quarter and then the Longhorns pulled through in the 4th quarter and ended up winning by 3 points. The final score was 13-16! So close, yet no win!

Oh Happy Day!

Last weekend was my 26th birthday, and boy do I feel OLD!!! Ok, so I know that 26 is not really that old, but I wanted to be 22 forever! The years just keep passing me by and I feel like there is so much more that I want to do while I am still "young". So, I am training to run a 1/2 marathon again, so that I can run the Tokyo Marathon when we move to Japan. There is a 1/2 marathon in less than 2 months here in Jacksonville! Nick is going to run this one with me! Yeah! (Technically, we won't be running together, because he is faster than me, but this will be his first, so I am still one up on him!)

Last Saturday we had a BBQ at our house to celebrate both our birthdays. It was exactly 2 weeks since we had moved in to our new house, so it was a house welcoming party as well! We had over 20 people show up...it was a great turnout, considering we just moved here!

Audra and Grant moved here on Friday, so they were staying at our house a couple of days until they got their furniture. Therefore we had some help getting ready for the party, and their dog Bosley was there to entertain Beretta!

Luckily for Nick, there is a little "pedestal" for his grill in our backyard, so the men enjoyed hanging outside while Nick made the burgers and dogs! Of course he had some help! (Look at little Liam Clement, hanging out with the men, being a big boy!)
It was quite a dog party, four people brought their dogs! Beretta was in dog heaven! As my mom put it, it was BYOD (Bring your own dog)!
Mark, such a dog whisperer!
Nick surprised me with a purple cake! Seriously, this thing was PURPLE!
Nick smiling for the camera, and me being shy...I was still shocked that he picked out the cake all by himself, in my favorite color and I didn't know about it!
2 and 6....ughhhh! (Todd called it the Barney cake, but I loved it!)
Thanks Nick! I love you!
Yeah for being stationed in Jax with Stacey for a few months at least!
All the flowers, plants and balloons people brought us for our party! We feel so loved!
Yeah also for Audra being stationed in Jax with me as well! It is so nice to have your girlfriends there for your dreaded birthday! Audra and I went shopping that day and bought our very similar long dresses to sport at the party! We have a Forever 21 here in Jax...whoohooo!
The next night, (my actual birthday) we went out to eat at this delicious little wine bistro called The Grape! It has these mini appetizers and a huge selection of wine, it is very quaint and adorable (and the best part was it was all decorated in PURPLE!)
We ate there with another couple who is stationed in Jax, the Ellers. We met them over 2 years ago in Pensacola, and are stationed in the same place again! Gotta love the Navy for that! Jackelyn and I have the same birthday, September 27, 1983! We had decided to celebrate our twin b-days together! It was such a good time!
Note: I felt the need to post these pictures before I lost them forever! I had a major accident this weekend...I dropped an entire cup of water onto my open laptop! It would not turn on for me for the last 2 days, and I was so scared that I had lost all of my pictures and information indefinitely!!! However, my Engineer hubby took my MacBook apart (and into a million pieces) and we let it dry out all weekend. Luckily, this morning, just before my appointment with the Apple technician, Nick put it back together and it miraculously turned on! I however am so worried that it is not going to stay on, and therefore am trying to back up as much info as possible!

Finally, pics of our new house!

Our house...1607 Beverly Bay Court, Jacksonville, FL 32225Boomer Sooner Baby!
Welcome to the Holman House!
Our room is off of a little hall to the right of the front door. Of course Beretta's kennel is next to our bed, she is still a baby and can't sleep by herself.More of our room...we have a double sliding door that leads to the Florida room. The doors are perfect for letting Beretta out, but we HATE the blinds!!! So annoying!
Double closets!
The infamous Florida room!
Living room.
More of the living room, and entry hall
Kitchen
Other side of the kitchen
View from the hall...and our cute little antique table, it's perfect for when it's just Nick and I
Bar room...leading into the dining room
other side of the bar room