Albuquerque Adventure 2012

           One of the benefits of being a military family is having extra days off around holidays, usually more days than an average working adult gets off from their job. The Fourth of July was a tricky day for many people since it fell on a Wednesday this year. However, being in the military there is always the holiday and a "family" day in which the whole base is closed, but the squadron decided not to fly anyone on Friday either, so Sam had July 4th thru the 8th off. We had many options to choose from for our time off, we could stay in Altus, visit Springfield, or take a trip. Sam didn't want to stay in Altus doing the same thing we already do everyday and remain in the 110* heat. We already have two events in July that will be bringing us to Springfield and I wasn't too thrilled for another marathon race of spending three of the four weekends in July driving to and from Springfield. So we decided to take a family trip. Our main goal was to try and go somewhere cooler, Sam suggested we visit Colorado Springs, but we have pretty much done everything big there is to do in the Springs from my visits there over the last two years of Sam's Academy career and there were also crazy wild fires so we decided it probably wouldn't be safe to visit a place people were evacuating. We did some research looking for cheap flights or cool places to visit. We found that Albuquerque, New Mexico was only about a seven hour drive from here and it was a place that neither one of us has ever visited, so we said LETS DO IT! We had just ordered new tires for Sam's car, which we will be selling next month, and decided to get some miles out of the tires. We loaded up the Santa Fe and set out westward on July 3rd.

Head out on the highway...

Lookin for adventure...

            We were going to drive to Amarillo, TX and stop for the night, but we got their around 8 and decided to keep driving the remaining four hours especially since we were gaining an hour going into mountain time. While we were at a stop light in Amarillo an interesting looking guy in the car next to us started yelling at us. I was of course freaked out, but luckily Sam was there and he rolled down the window and the guy wanted to know where in FL we were from (since Sam's license plates are FL tags) Sam told him Pensacola and they carried on a conversation for a good minute until the light changed. It felt like the longest minute of my life. We finally made it to Albuquerque at 11:00 (12 central time). I sent my mom a text message to let her know we arrived safely and decided to drive all the way, though I am married now whenever we take trips I still feel the need to check in with my mom, otherwise I know she would be wondering if we made it safely, but afraid to ask because I am a grown adult now. I don't think your ever too old to check in with mom and I will make sure our future children learn that too :). Except when we are over seas, you will just have to learn to check Facebook more then, mom, to know we are alive and well. Our hotel in Albuquerque was called the Plaza Inn, which looked nice in the picture on Expedia when I booked it, but when I saw the actual hotel I was a bit nervous. It turned out to be okay and the best part of the hotel was the King size bed that was way more comfortable than our bed on base.

           Sam and I have a tradition of going to a zoo in every city we visit so the first thing we did after breakfast on the fourth was check out the zoo. They even had a bald eagle, which we thought was very American for the holiday. After the zoo we headed to eat lunch at The Elephant Bar, which was a restaurant we liked to eat at in Colorado Springs. Then we saw a Target and of course we had to stop. Sam wanted new shorts, which we learned we have different tastes in fashion when it comes to picking out men's shorts, so against my opinion Sam went with plain ole khaki shorts, and I got a satchel (shoulder bag) which I have been looking for to take to England so my hands will be free to take pictures when we go exploring. After Target we went to a Nuclear Science and History museum which sounded super cool, but I found it to be a bit boring, too much reading and not enough pictures, but they had cool planes outside. After the museum we went to dinner at PF Chang's, another Colorado Springs favorite of ours, and headed out to Balloon Fiesta Park for the biggest firework show in New Mexico. It was really neat to be there, it kind of reminded me of Fire Fall that Springfield use to have the weekend before the Fourth of July. Diamond Rio performed right before the fireworks and I didn't realize New Mexico was such a country music lovin state but I enjoyed it. As we waited for the fireworks it began to rain and the temperature dropped, I was glad we had a blanket. The show was beautiful, they played every patriotic song known to man and then some, I even teared up a bit as I realized it would be the last firework show we would see for a few years, but later that night I saw on Mildenhall's Facebook page that they have a firework show on base, so I was happy to learn that it wouldn't be our last firework display.

It looks like he is giving me the middle finger but he is just scratching his eye

Creepy bird

Trying out the new camera

Peacock

Camel

Just hangin out

'Merica

Trying to stay warm and dry

Happy Fourth of July

Fireworks

Messing with the fireworks button on the new camera

Very pretty

Great show and I love the camera

        On Thursday we decided to go hiking in the beautiful mountains. We started the day at these petroglyphs, where native Americans drew on the rocks, and we hiked up about a mile above sea level. It was around 90 degrees in Albuquerque and we were hiking around the valley so it felt pretty warm. We had a quick lunch and then we decided to head to the Sandia Mountains, which were a10,500 feet above sea level. The trail we were going to had a tram you could take up the mountain or you could drive to the top, but the trail started at the top of the mounatin. As we drove up the mountain the temperature dropped from 90* to 50* and we were both chilly once we reached the summit. We invested in a wind breaker jacket for me, which will come in handy in England, and a Mexican style parka for Sam, which he called his "drug rug", that will also come in handy for England. I also fell in love with another satchel and Sam wanted a buffalo figurine. After getting our treats we started out hiking down the mountain. It was gorgeous! We found the tram station and a place where people ski in the winter. They had the ski lifts running and were giving people rides. We found a trail that went along the cliff of the mountain which we took back to the summit. Every time I stopped to take a picture I felt a little hand grab onto my backpack so I wouldn't fall, it was so cute! We enjoyed the hiked until it was time to climb back to the top of the mountain, by this point we had been hiking for five hours, we were exhausted, and with the altitude well you couldn't catch your breath! We did make it back to the top though and celebrated our victory. July 5th was Sam and I's first date, which was on a Thursday night back in 2007. We went to Ocean Zen in Springfield for our first date and then saw a movie. We decided, in honor of our first date, to go out for sushi on Thursday night. On our way to dinner Sam spotted a Barns and Noble, so of course that is where we went after dinner, and he was so excited that it was two stories. After Barns and Noble we headed downtown for Cold Stone, hey if your going to cheat on healthy eating better go all out right?!

Sandia Mountains

Testing my new camera

Sam's in heaven

Sam in his "drug rug"

Our camera takes panoramic pictures!

We conquered the mountains

I love him :)

The tram

The ski lift

At the summit

Tired from hiking but we made it to the top.

         We both woke up pretty sore on Friday from our day full of hiking. We decided to check out the dinosaur museum that we had read about. It was awesome! It was interactive, short signs to read, two stories of fabulous displays, and mostly all about dinosaurs and other history/science related topics and I loved it. Sam loved it too, but anyone who knows him would not be surprised that he was like a kid in a candy store when we walked into the museum. They were also doing a Blue Star program so any military person and their family got into museums for free until September or something like that. So we didn't have to pay to get into any museum we visited, bonus! After lunch we went to try and find extinct volcanoes to look at, but there was a minor glitch in the navigation system (me) and we ended up driving thirty minutes to the middle of nowhere and didn't find the volcanoes. I am a lucky lady though because my husband didn't get mad or yell at me or spend the rest of the day in a bad mood, he made a joke about it and even stopped to let me go to the bathroom at an Alon gas station (which was yucky). Once we made it back into town we decided to check out the Albuquerque art and history museum. This was my least favorite museum of the whole trip. It was full of crazy art figurines and about two pages of small print to read at every station. From that point on I limited Sam to one museum per day of vacation in the future, unless it was interactive and had lots of cool things I could touch.

Sam loves dinosaurs

This dinosaur moved and growled

        On Saturday we were going to be checking into a Bed and Breakfast. I found a groupon that gave us a room for $77 at this B&B where they usually charge $125 a night. I thought it would be a relaxing way to end our vacation and it was a good deal, plus neither one of us has ever been to a B&B. We had to check out of our hotel at noon, so first thing Saturday morning we headed to find these extinct volcanoes. They were really neat, but luckily we went early in the morning so it wasn't too hot, but I think with all the basalt rocks and desert around it would be pretty hot in the middle of the day. After the volcanoes we got checked out of our hotel and couldn't check-in to the B&B until 4. We went to lunch and then found Kirkland AFB, which I wanted to check out. They had a HUGE base and big Exchange, I was quite impressed. We decided we could totally live in Albuquerque, but we would have to figure out how to get stationed there! They train helicopter combat search and rescue which is what Sam really wanted to do, so I didn't talk much about moving there since not getting helicopters is still a sore subject, but we both decided we would love to move to Albuquerque. After the base we were going to check out one of the many wineries, but it started raining. So we stopped at the Balloon Fiesta Museum, which was all about hot air balloons. I wanted to take a hot air balloon ride while we were in Albuquerque, but Sam told me we could take a balloon ride or get a new camera. I opted for the new camera and saved the balloon ride for another trip. The balloon museum was neat, there were lots of interactive things, basically any museum a kid would enjoy, I enjoy is what we decided on this trip. We made it to the winery after the museum, I was so excited because I have never been to a winery. Unfortunately, there was some big wine festival going on in Santa Fe so they weren't giving tours of the winery when we visited, which I was bummed about but we got to taste some New Mexican wines and even purchased a delicious Riesling (Sarah McCubbins you would love it). We headed to our Bed and Breakfast which was built in the 1800's and it was so cute. Our room was upstairs and Sam was convinced it was haunted, so I had a fun time freaking him out. They provided snacks from 5 to 7 and they had cookies when we came back around 10pm and their homemade breakfast was delicious. I felt like we were staying at a friends house, it was very nice and relaxing.

In front of the B&B. My satchel from Target

Extinct volcanoes

Top of the volcano

At the volcanoes, my other new satchel :)

Sam on the volcano

We went to the top, but native Americans find it offense if you go to the very top, they consider it sacred

Pilot wings for a hot air balloon, looks a lot like Sam's!

I am ready to go up in a balloon

Sam's face is priceless in this picture. "Wanna ride in my balloon...hehehehe"

I found a balloon to build

My finished project

Outside a winery we ate dinner at

A hot air balloon

Ready to fly our own balloon

At the balloon museum

Inside the B&B

Our room at the B&B

           On Sunday we went to church in Old Town, which literally is like stepping back into olden days, we even went to church at a big old church that was also built in the 1800's. Unfortunately, it didn't have AC and got a tab bit hot. We tooled around the town a bit, not in a hurry to leave, and found a place for lunch. Then we started our drive back to Awesome Altus and made it home around 9pm. Yes, I made sure my mother knew we were back in OK (Shauna, I am just trying to become the favorite child and steal your title :)).

In Old Town we discovered a story that sold candy cigarettes

In front of the Old Church

        On Monday, we had to move to a different room. They called and told us we would be moving right before we left town. I threw a bit of a fit to them about how when they moved us from the third floor to the first floor of our building they assured us we wouldn't have to move again before we left Altus on July 30th. Unfortunatly, my fit did nothing, I have learned that they don't really care if you have a lot of stuff to move and you just have to suck it up. I didn't just say "I DO" to Sam on January 14th, I also said I DO" to the United States Air Force and that includes saying "I DO" to moving whenever they asked. We went to get our key's on Monday morning and we were told our room was on the second floor, I had to restrain myself from throwing another fit about being promised a room on the first floor, but after we got everything moved I saw an vacant room on the first floor....those little liars, maybe a fit would've worked that time! Anyway, it took us a lot longer to move this time because we separated out stuff we can live without for three weeks to take to Enid and stuff to move to our new room. We packed two tubs and a big box for Enid that we plan to deliver to our house this weekend, which will make our next move in three weeks easier. The new room we got is a brand new room! I guess this is the remodeling that they are doing to our old building. It has a larger entertainment center, dark wood, a coffee table, hardwood floors in the kitchen, and the best part is they have a pillow top bed, finally a comfortable bed!! I wish they would've moved us here back in May when we moved for the second time, but at least we get three weeks at the Ritz.

The TV and entertainment center

Our new bed!

Sam eating pie. Our living room, love the coffee table and hardwood floor

Thanks for reading!

Love,
Amanda

Marriage Stinks....But Only Because of Sam's Farts!

             I don't have any pictures to share with this blog, since we have been in Awesome Altus for all of June, there really hasn't been anything epic enough to capture in the form of a picture. Thus, this will mostly just be a blog of words, I will try to keep things short and sweet, but much like my stories I tend to ramble and when I get on a role its hard to stop me. Much like some of my statuses on Facebook this past week/weekend, as my lovely friend Stephanie's fiance put it, "A blog post via Facebook status," (once Facebook stopped limiting the characters for each status, well the world was doomed to Amanda statuses), which also resemble my notoriously long voice mails and text messages. You will never receive a one word or one letter text from this girl....unless I am angry. Already I have digressed.

            Well you will all be happy to know that your tax dollars have not been wasted this month, Sam has been working quite a bit. His class finally moved up to top priority this month, since they are suppose to finish their simulators by June 30th. The civilians realized their prior scheduling didn't keep them on track so they had to play catch up. Basically, Sam has had a SIM every Saturday in the month of June. Aside from that, last week he had a SIM everyday except for Friday. It made for a long week for him and for me. His SIMS were from 2 to 6pm so he was gone from 1 to 7pm, which my days pass much slower when I don't get to spend them with him. Plus, it was rainy a few days last week too, which always seems to make a day last longer, but I still brought Sam a snack everyday at 4pm, and then had dinner ready for him when he got home around 7. However, since he was gone in the afternoon I felt like we didn't get much time together, especially because in the mornings he would have class, I missed him....ahhh newly weds, missing each other when you go a whole afternoon without seeing each other for four days in a row! This past Saturday Sam was suppose to have a simulator, that I was going to be able to sit in on for the last two hours. These are full motion SIMs, they even push out from the steps you use to get into them, and the entire SIM moves, so it would've felt like we were in the real plane. I was pretty excited to be able to see Sam in action as well as spend sometime in the simulator, but unfortunately there was a computer issue and they all went down, but it gave Sam a free afternoon, FINALLY! I love spending time with my husband, he is my best friend, we always have a blast together.


          On Saturday, once Sam had lunch, we headed to the pool with Sam's SIM partner and his wife, Kedem and Lauren. Since it was such a beautiful Saturday the pool attracted a lot of people! Our group of four quickly multiplied into a group of ten plus a baby. There are some pretty sweet slides at this pool which we take full advantage of during the fifteen minutes of adult swim that occurs every forty five minutes. We also played an intense game of monkey in the middle. Unfortunately, though we were wearing sunscreen, Sam's back burned and my face got burnt. When we were outside of the pool there was a natural segregation of all the guys sitting in a circle and the four wives laying out on lounge chairs. The boys were discussing pilot terms, while us ladies discuss how much we don't understand their pilot lingo, but they don't understand differentiated instruction or parts of the muscle, which comes from me being a teacher and Lauren being a personal trainer. We also talk about practical things, like where we are going to live at our next base (on base, off base, etc). Saturday night we had a BBQ with the people from the pool plus a few other guys who joined us. It ended up be a cloudy, cool evening and a perfect night for a BBQ. We had a blast! Getting to know each other more, laughing (those boys with leave you in stitches), and enjoying each others company. As the night drew to an end it started to hit me that each one of us are headed in different directions. Some people are leaving Awesome Altus as early as this Wednesday, others are leaving in two weeks, others midway through July, and then us at the end of July. People are going to California, Washington, Hawaii, England, Colorado, and South Carolina. Literally, all over the world. I had a small reality check of military life. I knew we would make new friends and have to leave them, but it seems like as soon as you start getting comfortable, start making stronger friendships, its time to uproot your lives and leave these partially nurtured friendships. However, there is also a pretty strong bond that forms pretty quickly between military friends, though you may have to leave them earlier than your ready to there will always be that connection you made of experiencing similar things. Plus, you can always look them up when you travel and maybe score a free place to stay for a night if you need it and/or good people to catch a meal with later on in life. I have a feeling that by then end of our military career we will have many friends all over the world that will always hold a special place in our hearts. Our future home in England is open to anyone, military or not, who is looking for a place to crash while traveling Europe!


            Sam and I passed our five month mark this passed week. It is crazy how quickly five months have passed since we said "I DO" or "YES" (since that's what Sam said because he didn't know it was the part where he was suppose to say "I DO", we didn't rehearse it he claims). It has truly been the most amazing five months of my life. Making the adjustment into the role of being a wife has been a humbling and fun experience. There have also been some strange and yucky moments as I adjust to living with a boy, man they are just different than living with girls! I will start with the serious part of what I have learned in the past five months then take you through the more humorous part of newly wed life. Learning to be a Godly woman is something I have striven for, struggled with, and pursued my whole life. Being a Godly wife is something I have heard about but now it feels more real to me, even after just five months of marriage. Most of us have probably heard Ephesians 5:22, either at weddings, in church, or even maybe some movies (that might be a stretch) aside from the famous 1 Corinthians 13 (love is patient, love is kind, it is not envious, it does not boast, etc.) and Genesis 2 (A man leaves his father and mother and is joined with his wife and the two shall become one) Ephesians 5 is probably the next most popular scripture you hear at weddings. Ephesians 5: 22-24 states the following:
                                        

²² Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord. ²³ For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. ²⁴ Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.

            I have heard this verse multiple times, but yet the word "submit" never really made sense to me when I was single. I probably never will have full comprehension of this scripture, but I don't think any human will be able to fully comprehend God's word. Anyway, at first I saw the word submit as a literal term, but how do you practice submitting yourself to your husband in today's society? Things are way different then they were back when the New Testament was written. However, I have come to find submitting myself to Sam for me is serving him. We were made to serve God, which it says in verse 22 to submit to your husband as you do to the Lord. I serve the Lord by showing love to his people and serving others. Thus, I should serve my husband. Right now, that means making sure he is well fed, preparing him delicious dinners, cleaning the house, making sure the bed is made, the laundry is done and folded, so he can focus on his training. I love doing these things for Sam, but I am human and at times over the past five months I have gotten tired and frustrated. Tired of cooking, or felt under appreciated, or been frustrated that I have to make a trip to Walmart alone, or gotten irritated with my small kitchen. When I let myself get frustrated, it makes Sam feel bad like I don't enjoy being a house wife, and it puts a strain on the marriage, just as we should serve God with a joyful heart, I should do the same for my husband. I know I will continue to grow and improve on submitting myself, but I also will stumble and fall along the way, just as I do in my relationship with God. Sam is always quick to forgive me and move on when I am less than pleasant to be around. The second part of Ephesians speaks to a husband:  Ephesians 5:25-30

²⁵ Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her ²⁶ to make her holy, cleansing^[a] her by the washing with water through the word, ²⁷ and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. ²⁸ In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. ²⁹ After all, no one ever hated their own body, but they feed and care for their body, just as Christ does the church— ³⁰ for we are members of his body.      

            God began preparing Sam to be a husband long before we were married. He is a very loving husband. In these short five months Sam has already shown me Christ's love. There was never a moment, even when we were dating, that I didn't feel loved by Sam. He is very patient with me, though I know I can be difficult. He is not easily angered. Sam reflects Christ's love, just as Christ loved his church so Sam shows love for me. I know I have frustrated him before, but he doesn't keep any records of my wrongs, just as God forgives our sins and then forgets about them. I am very blessed to have such a loving husband. 

           Aside from our spiritual growth and the growth of our love (which I didn't know it was possible to love Sam more, but I do everyday) we have learned some other valuable lessons these past five months:

1. A clove of garlic is only one small part of the large white garlic. Sam saved me from cutting up five of those big bunches of garlic when a recipe called for 5 cloves of garlic, but I have since learned how to mince fresh garlic.

2. Sam has horrible farts, though I knew most conversations in a Holbrook get together turns to a poop conversation, I didn't realize how rank Sam's farts can be, one night I thought I had to evacuate the bed because he was farting on me in his sleep! (ewwww boys)

3.  It is very easy to confuse fabric softener with laundry detergent. 

4. Glass bowls, if slightly cracked, will explode in the microwave, much like wax paper smokes in the oven.

5. When a recipe tells you to warm the cookie sheets in the oven it does not mean leave them in there for fifteen minutes (Sam did that and they smoked a lot)

6. It doesn't take much to set off a smoke alarm, we now disable ours every time I cook on the stove. 

7. Locking yourself out of your house on base costs $25, after the second time you do it, but the first time is free.

8. Sam yelling from the bedroom "AMANDA!!!!!!!!!!" Yes Sam? "I've been abducted by aliens", in reference to a mysterious bump on his arm.

9. Standing for the National Anthem in your swim suit when your soaking wet is cool, because everyone stops what they are doing and gets quiet, but is also equally awkward.

10. "HELP" "HELP" I cant get my sports bra on! Sam saying, "Oh Amanda, I didn't think I would have to dress you until we were old and grey after many years of marriage." The next day..."Help!" HELP!" Me saying, "Oh Sam, I didn't think I would have to help you put your shirt on until we were old."

            Being newly weds is awesome! We have had a blast and made many lasting memories. I don't think we will ever get tired of the words "husband" and "wife" as we only refer to each other as husband or wife. Every night, before the goodnight kiss, its "goodnight wife"...."goodnight husband". I love it and I love being a wife to my amazing husband.

Thanks for Reading!!

-Amanda

The Key to a Healthy Happy Marriage

Well the Holbrook's survived marathon May! We ended the month by spending memorial day weekend in Springfield. Sam had five days off, which was awesome. We headed to our vacation home in Enid, OK the Thursday before Memorial day weekend. Sam's classes for that day got cancelled so we got to leave in the morning. It was so great to be in a real house, with a full size kitchen, where Sam and I could both cook at the same time and I could turn around with running into the fridge or hitting the counter and it has a REAL oven! Immediately upon arriving in Enid I took to the kitchen for a new experience, making bread. I recently read the book "Eat Clean" by Tosco Reno and she said if your ever going to eat bread then eat Ezekiel bread, which is a pure and healthy bread. The story of Ezekiel bread comes from the Old Testament: Ezekiel 4:9-11-

⁹ “Take wheat and barley, beans and lentils, millet and spelt; put them in a storage jar and use them to make bread for yourself. You are to eat it during the 390 days you lie on your side. ¹⁰ Weigh out twenty shekels^[a] of food to eat each day and eat it at set times. ¹¹ Also measure out a sixth of a hin^[b] of water and drink it at set times.

I used a recipe that didn't use beans, so my bread was not authentic Ezekiel bread, but it was fun to make and tasted pretty good too! I have grown a lot in my cooking skills since being married for five months. I have impressed myself with some of the things I have made, not only in a small kitchen with limited resources, but making things from scratch. I have even ground my own oat flour before. It has been so much fun learning new things in the kitchen and realizing that I can cook! Never in my wildest dreams would I have pictured myself making homemade bread, especially bread that his been around forever. 

My Ezekiel bread dough after kneading it for fifteen minutes

After a night in our house and big queen bed (we sleep in a double size bed in Altus) we headed to Springfield. On Friday we both had bachelor/bachelorette parties to attend for our friends Katie and Daniel. Sam headed out fishing and the girls painted pottery. It was a lot of fun and a great time to see our friends, especially since we couldn't make it to the wedding. I love hanging out with my friends and I always realize how much I have missed them when we are all together and I never want our time to end. Also, I painted a pretty sweet G in honor of Katie and Daniel Galbraith, which I plan to see properly displayed in their house next time we visit. 

Sam and I after the bachelor/bachelorette parties

My sister and brother-in-law came into town on Saturday so we spent most of the day with them on Saturday and had a delicious bbq. We hadn't seen them since the wedding, in January, other than on facetime, so it was a blast to hang out with them. Sunday morning we had brunch with my family, after church with Sam's family, and I convinced everyone to play Phase 10 before my sister and Ben hit the road. If you have never played Phase 10 well your missing out, it is a super awesome card game, but it can last FOREVER, which is why it took a lot of convincing to get people to play. Alas, the morning ended and we had to say goodbye to Shauna and Ben. We headed over to Sam's parents house, where we were staying, and had another bbq on Sunday night, which was delicious. We even played the game Recycle (see previous blog for explanation on how to play that game) which was a lot of fun, glad we could get Sam's family to play our newly discovered and awesome game. 

Bag I made for my sister

On Monday, memorial day, we lounged around in the morning and then  headed to the National Cemetery to walk around with Sam's parents. It was beautiful to see all the graves decorated and take a moment to remember all the men and women who sacrifice daily to serve our country. We headed to lunch with my mom and Sam's parents after we left the cemetery. I went to the pool with Becky, Sarah and Hazel on Monday afternoon, while Sam napped, and then we went and said goodbye to my mom on our way out of town. It was very hard to say goodbye to Hercules, he doesn't quite understand why I come visit and then leave and it hurts to say goodbye to my precious dog. 

We spend the night in Enid on Monday night. We worked out at the Vance gym on Tuesday morning, which is not as nice as the Altus gym, then headed to OKC for the day. I met up with my best friend, Stephanie, to do some bridal dress shopping while Sam went to the cowboy museum.  The best part of the day is that Steph found a gorgeous dress and we got Qdoba for dinner!!! 

OKC dress shopping = success

It took about four days for Sam and I to recover from marathon May. Sam Thurs-Wed off which was nice, but he had a simulation bright and early Saturday morning, which was not very fun. We had a pretty low key weekend, since Sam had a SIM we were unable to attend our California wedding this past weekend. We watched a movie Friday night and celebrated friends birthdays on Saturday night. Sunday we went to Mass and Service (working a two-a-day) then just hung around our little room watching Gossip Girl in the afternoon. The perfect way to rejuvenate from a month full of traveling, we were both ready to be in one place for awhile. We don't have any more plans to travel until the end of June for a wedding in Dallas, which by then we will probably welcome a break from Awesome Altus. 

Many people say that the first year of marriage is the hardest. Some people even go as far to say that the first five years are the hardest. However, I have not found that to be true. Yes, we have had to go through a lot of adjustments and changes in the five short months we have been married, but the changes have brought us closer together and strengthened our marriage. We even have "briefings", yes Sam uses a military word to describe our financial and life discussions. Today, we had a thirty minute financial briefing. I am not sure why the military must use briefing instead of meeting, but it sounds way better than discussion in terms of a marriage.

The pool on base has awesome slides. We spend a lot of free time here

 I would say the number one reason we have had such a successful time adjusting to change is because we have put Christ in the center of our marriage. As most of my readers know Sam and I come from different Christian upbringings. Sam was raised Catholic and I was raised Baptist. Sometimes the thing people neglect to see is that Catholic and Baptist/Protestant are NOT separate religions, they are just different traditions within the Christian faith. I have heard it said multiple times from people of the Catholic faith "Catholic is the only real Christian religion, the first, the only, the best." I have also heard, from a Protestant faith "Catholics aren't real Christians, they pray to Mary not God." Well, let me just say, those are both very naive statements and it frustrates me when I hear people say things like that. I have sat through Protestant services since I was born, and I have sat through many masses over the past four (almost five) years and let me just say, though the information is relayed differently, it is the same message. Before we were married, since we were living long distance, it was easier for Sam and I to do our own thing when it came to church on Sunday, then when we were together we would try to hit up mass and service in one weekend. That works for us for now, perhaps when we have children things will change, but for now we usually go to two services in one weekend, but the reason Christ is in the center of our marriage doesn't come from the church service we are in, though those do play a role in strengthening our relationship, but from our own personal Bible study. Sam joined me in reading through the Bible and that has brought us closer together and to Christ.

You absolutely, positively, CANNOT have a relationship with God with a closed Bible. That is how he communicates to us. We have church once a week to come together corporately in worship, which is a biblical principal, but in the week between Sunday's it is important to pray and read our Bible. Any person who goes to a Christian church knows what I am talking about. Well, when Sam and I started studying together things started making more sense to us. A somewhat taboo subject (since we were raised differently) when we were dating became intimate discussions and explorations of Jesus Christ as we try to understand scripture. Sam reads a lot of books, outside of the Bible, about religion and the church, so his knowledge, especially when we read the Old Testament is unbelievable. He has really made it easy for me to understand the Old Testament and the history of what was going on during that time. I have spent more time than Sam studying the Bible over the years and I taught Sunday school for four years, so I am more familiar with the stories in the actual Bible. It is a great balance of historical and biblical knowledge. You put the two together and we have a deeper meaning, understanding, and desire to know our God more and put him in the middle of our marriage.

It is so hard for me to fathom that the God of the universe, who sent his one and only son to die on the cross so that I can have eternity in heaven, wants to have a personal relationship with me. He wants to talk to me, know me and love me. So why is it that I find it hard to give him 15 minutes out of my day, I mean what is more important than spending time reading the Bible and praying to the creator of the universe? Why do I always make excuses? Well, it is human nature, human selfishness, but we know one day every knee will bow, every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord, we will have an eternity to do nothing but praise our Savior. We wont be married, we will be in new bodies, we will be in heaven doing nothing but praising the Lord. So why not start on earth? It has also been great sharing in reading the Bible daily with Sam because we hold each other accountable, sometimes we turn off the TV just to read our verses and we take turns praying together before we go to sleep. Sure, we can do more privately, separately, to grow in our personal relationship with God, but it has been beautiful to watch our marriage change as we grow together in Christ.

Sam and I also had a strong relationship before we got married, in fact nothing in our relationship, except that we got to actually be together, changed when we got married. If you have a rocky relationship before marriage you will have the same struggles and rocky relationship in marriage. Being married is not going to fix any problems, so maybe that is why people say the first year of marriage is tough, or maybe its just because a girl and guy living together is strange and thus causes problems. All I know is that I am very blessed to be married to my best friend and as long as we continue to put Christ first in our marriage I know we will continue to be content and have a healthy, strong, and happy marriage!

Thanks for reading, sorry for the length of the post, that has all been weighing on my heart for awhile and it feels great to share it with the cyber world.

Amanda

Marathon May

I would like to begin this post by apologizing. I have let this blog slide by and I know it has disappointed some of my favorite readers, but I blame it on the nice weather and traveling. Basically, the word "travel" sums up the entire month of May for the Holbrook's. We may not be keeping up with the Baird's (Sam's sister and brother-in-law) who travel the entire European continent, but I would say we have put a nice dent in the Midwest United States.

The first weekend of May contained a trip from Altus, OK to Springfield, MO. The reason for this trip was to be a part of the proposal of Miss. Stephanie Dawn Spickard and Nathan (insert middle name) Thiry. Nathan sent me a text message at the beginning of April informing me that he planned to ask my bestie (slang for best friend) Stephanie to marry him, but first he had to ask her parents’ permission. I was so excited that I let the fact that he didn't mention asking me for her hand in marriage slide. I woke Sam up and couldn't sleep that night because I was so thrilled for the upcoming engagement. However, this meant that we had to keep our plans to Springfield on the DL (slang for down low) and that I had to limit my weekly one to two hour phone calls with Steph so that I didn't let any of the surprise slip, oh man that was a long month. I also found out in April that my other best friend Miss. Anna Claire Peck (the three of us were roommates throughout college) would also be getting engaged in May. I had to find a way to channel all my excitement because the two people I would dish this all with (through a three way text message we keep going at all times) were the two people that had to be left out of the loop, thus I took up crafting. I decided to make tote bags for both Stephanie and Anna, because Rachel (Sam's previously mentioned sister) made me a tote bag that said Bride and I loved it! The bag really came in handy for all the important planning meetings a bride must attend. I was so impressed by my new found crafting skills that I decided to make a tote for my sister and my two mom's for mother's day. I spent the last week in April and first week in May creating masterpiece totes! They aren't anything you would see on ETSY, which is a handmade craft website you can purchase items from, but for someone who can mess up drawing stick figures I was proud.

My first bag- Made for Stephanie

My first bag- Made for Stephanie

The second bag I made for Anna

I made this bag for my mom for mother’s day

I made this bag for my mom for mother’s day

I made this for Sam's mom for mother's day since she almost has two children in the UK

May finally came, like I said April was a long month of secrets, and we headed to Springfield for the first time ever from Awesome Altus. We left around 2:30pm and we made it Springfield around 9:30pm on Friday night. We were surprised that the drive only takes 6.5 hours with stops, when we thought it would be closer to 7 hours without stops. Steph's proposal wasn't until Saturday night so we spend Saturday with our parents, I went shopping with my mom and Sam went to see the Avengers with his dad. We met with some friends for dinner at Qdoba, I know you are all shocked, and we carpooled down to Branson, which is about 45 minutes from Springfield. Nathan, Stephanie's fiancé, worked for Kanakuk Kamps, a Christian summer camp, which is where the proposal took place. Nathan walked Stephanie through a nice forest at sunset. He brought her up to a clearing, with lights in the trees, where all of their closest family and friends were waiting. He got down on one knee and proposed. I was in charge of video tapping the proposal and Stephanie said when she walked up with Nathan she said "Amanda Lea Henson" out loud! I had kept my Springfield arrival as a surprise and I was so excited to see her, we hadn't seen each other since February, so it was a great reunion for us, and I am so glad that Nathan included Sam and I in that special moment of their lives. After the proposal we headed back to Springfield to celebrate Joseph Peck's 21st birthday (that is Anna's brother) and Stephanie/Nate got to join us later! It was so great to be with some of my favorite people in the world, the posse, which is what we referred to our group of friends when we all lived in Springfield and hung out every weekend. I had missed them so much! We stayed out until 2am catching up, most of which took place sitting in the parking lot of Quincy Magoos. Again, I was so excited to be with them and discussing hanging out Memorial Day weekend for Katie's (a member of the posse) bachelorette party, I couldn't sleep that night either! Sunday we headed back to Oklahoma, but the fact that I only slept for four hours didn't keep Sam from making me drive while he slept!

Waiting for the proposal. Sam had my camera, this is our friend Chad

Waiting for the proposal. Sam had my camera, this is our friend Chad

The proposal. (She said yes-in a manly voice)

The proposal. (She said yes-in a manly voice)

Steph's ring!

The happy couple. Nathan looks relieved it’s all over and Steph is saying, with her eyes, enough with the pictures and I can't believe he actually surprised me.

The happy couple. Nathan looks relieved it’s all over and Steph is saying, with her eyes, enough with the pictures and I can't believe he actually surprised me.

Sam sleeping in the car

Though we enjoyed our weekend in Springfield and being reunited with family and friends we did miss our tribe (Kedem and Lauren) in Awesome Altus. Our second weekend in May wasn't too crazy; I wanted a less busy, lower key weekend. There was a random cool front in Altus, instead of 100 degrees it was 75, but too cold for the pool. They were having an open house on base so we of course went as a tribe. We decided to walk, since it was a nice day, to the flight line where the open house was reportedly taking place. We ended up walking the entire perimeter of the base. The open house was pretty cool and they opened base up to the public. They had an Air Force band, face painting, and some big tankers from Fort Sill, the Army base in Lawton, OK. They also had static displays of the KC-135, C-17, and C-130. It was a lot of fun and big event for a small town. After lots of walking we headed to the grocery store to get supplies for another epic make your own homemade pizza night at the Alon's. We ate pizza with Kedem, Lauren, Ralph, and Millie (who went to the academy with Sam). Ralph and Millie introduced us to a new game called "Recycle" which was a really fun! The game is simple, each person writes down four random words, and the game has four rounds. The first round is charades, where you draw a word, act it out and your team has to guess the word. The second round is taboo, where you draw from the same set of words and you use words to describe the word without actually saying the word. The third round you draw a word and can only use one word to describe it. The final round you use only one sound to describe the word. It is a lot of fun, take the idea to your next party and it is sure to be hit. The boys beat us, probably because I used "shiny" as a sound in one round, but regardless the game is fun and sure to be an icebreaker, leaving most of the players in stitches (a term used to describe extreme laughter). 

Sitting in a jump seat in the back of the KC-135

Back of the KC-135

Lauren ready to pilot the KC-135

Lauren ready to pilot the KC-135

Don't worry Sam, I got this babe, it doesn't seem too difficult to fly

Don't worry Sam, I got this babe, it doesn't seem too difficult to fly

Well...those are a lot of buttons, my guess is Sam only uses like one of them

Well...those are a lot of buttons, my guess is Sam only uses like one of them

Sam and I in front of the KC-135

Back of the KC-135, the boom. We got to step down into the boom operators quarters, it was cool, they get to lay down

Lauren is really excited to see the C-130J

Hmm yes this cockpit looks much nicer and newer than the KC-135. Mostly computer generated. This C-130 plane had only 36 hours of flight time....it’s a baby.

C-130J

Lauren with a gun

Lauren with a gun

Tankers from Fort Sill the Army base in Lawton, OK

Tankers from Fort Sill the Army base in Lawton, OK

Sam filling up our free Army water bottles! Finally no dirt water

Sam filling up our free Army water bottles! Finally no dirt water

KC-135

Last week was filled with more traveling. Sam and I experienced our first night spent apart since we were married, in January, it was strange. I headed to Springfield on Tuesday around 1pm and I got into town around 8pm. On Wednesday I helped my mom score finals, which was fun and made me miss being in the classroom teaching, then I headed to Shady Dale Preschool to see the bestie, and then we went to Norman’s bridal for Steph's first dress shopping extravaganza! She also made the cutest cookies to ask us ladies, who went dress shopping with her, to be a part of her wedding party, it was adorable! The first dress she tried on brought a slight tear to my eye, because she looked gorgeous, so I will probably cry at her wedding. After Normans we headed to Bambinos for dinner, then the mall, and then orange leaf. It was a great day and I am so glad I was able to be a part of Steph's first real wedding experience. I had some oatmeal with my mom on Thursday morning and then made my way back to Awesome Altus. Sam had class on Friday morning, so I loaded the car while he was in class. Once he finished class at 11am we hit the road to head back to Springfield. 

Some people are not sure were exactly Awesome Altus is; well it is that small little red dot on the Texas/Oklahoma line, in the middle of nowhere. As you can see Enid is farther north, which probably explains why it is a 10* temperature difference between Altus and Enid.

Some people are not sure were exactly Awesome Altus is; well it is that small little red dot on the Texas/Oklahoma line, in the middle of nowhere. As you can see Enid is farther north, which probably explains why it is a 10* temperature difference between Altus and Enid.

 We made it to town around 5pm which was awesome, we were able to drop off our luggage and head to UMI for a sushi dinner with both my mom and his parents! Then we got to go over to Sam's parents’ house to have some back porch Holbrook time, which I always love and enjoy. Sam and I hit up Andy's frozen custard and Barns and Noble later on Friday night. Saturday morning Sam got up to go have breakfast with his dad and washed my car. We had lunch with my mom and grandma and then headed to Chad's graduation party a.k.a Anna's proposal. Here is how this proposal went down: Chad brought Anna to the front of the room and started thanking everyone for coming to his party, supporting him through college, and then he thanked Anna, who he had been dating for 5.5 years, and he said "Anna, I want to spend the rest of my life with you".....get on one knee...."will you marry me?” Anna was so surprised she stumbled and stepped backwards because she was taken “aback”, but then she quickly returned to Chad and said yes. Hugs were exchanged and tears were shed from the Grandma’s and bride-to-be, it was beautiful. Chad also had roses for Anna, a dozen pink roses because he had known her for twelve years, five red roses because they had dated 5 and a half years, and one white rose in the middle with some bling to represent the one engagement. After we left Chad’s graduation party we went to Church and then headed out to Sam’s sister, Sarah, and his brother-in-law Tom’s house for another graduation party. Tom had graduated from Missouri State as well, which we are so proud of him for, especially because we know it was hard on the whole family, and he had a huge hurtle to cross, passing college algebra when a crazy instructor (my mom) kept failing him.Okay, so it didn’t really go down like that, but he did briefly have my mom as an instructor his first year at MSU many years ago. After we left Sarah and Tom’s house we headed over to Chad’s house to watch the OKC Thunder beat the L.A. Lakers. On Sunday, after Church, I had a bridal shower to go to and Sam had lunch with his parents, then we headed to our vacation home in Enid, OK.

Chad on one knee...Anna taken aback in shock she isn't even in the picture!

Chad on one knee...Anna taken aback in shock she isn't even in the picture!

Surprise Anna

She said yes-(in a normal girl voice)

She said yes-(in a normal girl voice)

Congrats Anna and Chad

The graduate, Tom, with Sam's sister (his wife) Sarah

The graduate, Tom, with Sam's sister (his wife) Sarah

 

Sam and I like to stop in Enid, which is four hours from Springfield and three hours from Altus, to spend the night in our own bed. The first time we stopped in Enid, over the first weekend in May, we realized we didn't have a house key and had to wait an hour for emergency maintenance to let us into our house. This past weekend we remembered the key, got into the house, unloaded our stuff, headed to Walgreen's to get breakfast food for the next day, and locked the keys inside our house. We tried to pick the lock with a paper clip, but turns out we aren't very good burglars, so we waited about half an hour for emergency maintenance to let us into our house. We are heading back to Springfield for Memorial Day weekend, we enjoy our travel time together and we are taking advantage of every chance we can to go home before we are overseas and can't get home as easily.

Marathon May Facts:

1. By the end of May we will have traveled a total of 3,582 miles. 

2. We will have spent a total of 53.5 hours traveling.

3. We will have spent approx. $70 in toll charges to drive on crappy roads

4. We will have spent three of the four weekends with family, friends and best of all HERCULES in Springfield, MO

5. We named all fifty states, capitals, and played a new made up animal game together in the car. 

Until next time, (hopefully not another month from now)

Amanda