Back to basics

Now that I am somewhat settled and not traveling and doing exciting new things each and every day I am going to slowly go back to the roots of this blog and what I started it in the first place. Why is that you may ask, well it stemed from the inspiration I got from 

And her Gratitude community through that and a few other things coming together last fall I realized I needed to be looking more for the small every day blessings God puts in our path. One way to do this is to keep a gratitude journal and a great way for my to be accountable to do that is through blogging mine. I hope also it might inspire and encourage other as i have been through woman who do the same thing. By keeping a list of things I an thankful for I am looking for them as I go through each day, and the more you look the more you find and the less you seem to have to complain about. It seems simplistic but I have changed my outlook and my inward thoughts significantly this past year and all based on this simple thing. It has become second nature now and I find I will look for things and make mental lists even though I don't list them here for some time, but I love to be able to look back and so I am starting again. I hope also for those of you who are not near my physically anymore, that you can feel near me as you see a list and virtual picture of my daily life. I will still  post on our adventures here also but that will be sprinkled in throughout these posts. 

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Crisp white sheets waving to me in the breeze

The promise of a clean bed, smelling like the fresh river air, with my always wonderful husband to share it with

The last warm days of Summer, even if they are a little to warm at times

The water sparking in the sun

The beauty of evening

Fresh baked bread rising while chili cooks on the first cool day of fall, with rain falling out the window

The smell of fresh baked wheat bread

Welcoming a hard working husband home to a warm meal, I am truly thankful to have food to put on the table, might I never take it for granted

Fresh bread and tea the next day to sooth a sore throat

A roof over my head, for which I am truly grateful

“In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you” - 1 Thessalonians 5:18 

Might I never forget that everything means everything!

Funny thing happened.....

Strangest thing happed today, I went out to get a picture of the rain on the water (one of my favorite things by the way) and it was WARM! So weird! I was only wearing a tank top and I didn't even want a sweater, it was like 70 and raining! Strangest sensation! I also met a new friend who has been coming to drink off the deck and eat our acorns, he has been on the deck to two days now hanging about. What should I name him?

Your room is ready!

Just wanted to let you know that I got your room already! Thats right YOU! We had been unpacking still but this week I got it all put away and cleared out the room. I didn't take a picture but there is a bathroom just off the room thats all yours also.

The view from the chair you see above! :-)

And the view looking right out the window!

We spent the day at the American History Museum today and I will write more about it soon, for not I am going to go spend a nice Saturday night with my sweet husband. 

The Boardwalk!

This is "the village" Boardwalk (its cement actually)

This is looking North up the boardwalk, the building at the far end is some kind of gambling place that in Maryland because its over the water which is Maryland technically. And a restaurant on the left, with a tiki bar

The Tiki bar with nice white sand for the "floor"

Looking South down the boardwalk, you can see the public pier 

The beach looking South, towards the end of the spit of land that is the city of Colonial Beach. I guess they natually has nice white sand here and sold it some time ago. Who knew there was a market for sand! Anyway this is now brought in which is sad, but the private beach near our house has very nice white sand, I am guessing is the natural stuff. 

This Morning

Brian got up early this morning and took some pictures of the Sunrise for your viewing pleasure! These are all taken from no more than 10 feet from the house keep in mind!

This is "our house" looking back from the marina. You can see the deck and dock and gazebo from this shot.

Why are you putting off a visit to see us again?....

:-D

Friday Night on the Town!

Exciting Friday night on the town!
When I wrote about our weekend I left out Friday night, which is just as well as I have pictures again! Yah!
We thought we would spend our first Friday night "on the town" that is to say on base! :-) We got burgers from the bowling ally and took them across base to the docks where we had a nice sunset dinner.

We then went to the movie theater on base and checked it out, very satisfactory for 4 bucks! All and all a great Friday night!

You heard it here first!

And I will just say no I am not pregnant because I am sure you were all thinking that, anytime I announce anything its always what people say, but rest assured if I was you would not be hearing it first on my blog! I mean I am not that bad!




Brian and Rochelle will not have internet! Shock silence, I know! Us of all people! So its interesting in this area, there is not DSL or other fast internet options, very has dishes! Its so odd, but dish only offers slow internet and we would be stuck with dish cable for 2 years and its expensive for bad internet, so in our temporary place it just does not make sense, so not only do our cell phones hardly work, had I mentioned this? But we have no internet at home either. There is a library and coffee shop in town with WiFI and the library on base we have been spending some time, which is where I am now. So if you never see me on google chat, and I am slow to respond to your e-mails, and I hardly ever pick up my phone now you know why. As for the phones we seem to have reception if we are within a block of the water, so on the base some places not others, and in all the Wi-FI places we have no reception, and on all the roads we have no reception. We do end the contact we have on Feb so we will swap then, there are some services that have service all over so it won't last but for now I apologize for "going dark" on you. I will keep tiring to post so at lease you know I am still here when I can't contact you directly.

In other good news today I got my gate pass, so I can come on and off base without Brian now which is a big help! And I have access to the pool and gym.

Also we did find the camera, I knew it had to be right in front of us all alone so that crisis is averted, but as I am on a libray computer today pictures will have to wait.

Weekend

Well sadly the camera has been hiding this weekend so you will get not pictures from me this post. But this is exactly the site I saw when I visited downtown Fredricksburg, so you can pretend I took it, I very well could have. It was a full weekend but I will have to go into details later, for tonight I will just say how it all went. Please note, if you plan to visit me, take special note as I post and explore of all the places you want me to take you back it.
The weekend had great plans all of which we changed in the moment. It was great. We had wonderful plans to explore Fredricksburg Saturday but had a lazy morning where I made my hand working man pancakes in bed, and then we both decided we had been so busy all week we had hardly had any time to just enjoy where we were. So we read on the deck for awhile (this is the only picture I do have and the last that was taken which means the camera is not to far) and then checked out the local State Park which was loverly! We also sopped on the birthplace of Robert E Lee and built in 1770 something, and found out it was 10$ entry and decided to go back when we have visitors, we hear its well worth it, the original house and building for a plantation. And checked out George Washington's Birthplace (all of 6 miles from our house) which is a national monument and free! And it was beautiful and very nicely done, we will go back and see more and take the tour. Then we were home by three (remember this was all just 10 miles down the raoad) and had a very nice evening, I made dinner and we watched a move and enjoyed the view and the not so hot day!
Today we went to two church services, thought we would get a jump on things and one of the churches I was interested in had an early service so I could do both, So we did that, the first was a beautiful old white church with steeple and pews, and was Southern Baptist, it was ok but we were there when they had a visiting singer/ preacher guy come, so there were lots a visitors I guess and it was mostly an alter call so its hard to tell what a usual Sunday might be like, but the Ps. seemed very nice. Its 400 strong on a Sunday  so its doing something right at thats huge in this area. We then we to the only PCA church in the area, Brian grew up PCA, and we liked it allot, but it is very new, there was no PCA church around for a long time so its been a long time coming I guess, and they meet in a rented tin building with no windows, in a field with a gravel drive. It could not have been more different, yet it was nice after so many exquisite churches around, and I have a feeling there are many people who attend culturally so to speak, but not so in this little 100 person congregation, you could tell they were very genuine and where there because its a large part of their lives. I am sure we will go back, but we will also visit more before we settle in somewhere, we might go back to the other one two on a more normal week, we will see.
We then went and saw some of the historic city, and explored a little, I am excited to go back to St Georges in town, its a beautiful sanctuary that they recently did up  I guess and has beautiful windows and they have concerts there monthly. They have an in house orchestra, and sung celtic evensong every Sunday evening I want to go back for some weekend. We then went and found the mall and got Brian some work clothes, which is very nice mall as malls go, with a new outdoor sections like all the malls have now, and costco right attached to the mall! Crazy! And a very very nice new movie, with fancy VIP seats just like in Hollywood, very cool. We saw a movie and relaxed some more and came home and had Mexican food on the end of our dock and listened to the crickets and bugs they are loud in these parts, you never heard anything like it!
And now this is much longer than planed and its much later than planed and I need to iron Brian work things and go to bed. More soon, and pray I find the camera and I can post more pictures too!

I got the camera back so I thought I would add the picture that was the cause of the loosing the camera, ( I dared to remove it from Brian pocket, and it all went downhill from there!) This was Saturday morning!

You can see why staying home sounded nice! Brian whats to go to Virgina Beach this weekend as the weather is still "so nice" read 90! And me without my big beach umbrella, Brian drew the line there when we packed the car to drive across country! :-)

"The Village" A.K.A. Colonial Beach VA

Colonial Beach VA


A little about the small village near us. I like to think of it as a village as its most similar to little seaside villages in England that I know. As far as I have ever seen the NW does not have anything near this in which to refer to it. So its a village. I took pictures of main street, though its not called that. There is another main drag thats more a driving road where the McDonald's, True Value, Papa Johns etc is. But this is the main old downtown where you can walk to things and the city buildings are. On the map this is on Washington Ave between Colonial ave and Boundary. If you look on the map we live in Monroe Bay, just south of the name on the map. Its aptly names as John Monroe was born here in Monroe Bay not 1 mile from the house. I should also say its about a 4 mile drive around Monroe Bay to get to "the village".
View Larger Map

This is the beautiful little elementary school. If I turn around you see the water, over a city part with gazebo, though not this day as there was a circus is town and the big top blocked the view. 

This is a typical sight in town, golf carts are allowed on the road and surprisingly people of all ages use them, young and old alike, and every home has one in the driveway. Also a beautiful old home with old tree's right next to the school. 

Across from the school the park and circus tent, behind it is the water.

Looking down the street with the school on my right.

Ice cream stand, haven't tried it yet but I am sure I will. 

If you turn left at the ice cream stand this is what you see, and if you walk that way you will come to the "board walk" that runs just a few blocks parallel to this bit of the street. From the Park to the Museum.

Down one more block is the only coffee place in town. Its down up super cute and used to be an old Esso gas station, so its has memorabilia from then.

Looking just past the coffee shop is the rent of the street, golf cart sales of course, you can also rent them here. The brick you can just see is the library and town visitor information center, and the museum on the left, nice little house, currently featuring the "Oyster wars" exhibit, which sounds thrilling, but is only open Sat and Sun afternoons so I haven't seen for myself yet.

So thats about it, there are some waterfront restaurants and some marina's. Maybe I will walk the boardwalk and show you that next. Brian and I are headed to "town" A.K.A. Fredricksburg this weekend so I hope to have more pictures to show you of that.

Family Pictures

We had some family pictures taken just a few weeks before we left town, I just got them and thought I would share them with you. Don't look to close though because you might see them again on the Christmas card.
If you are interested these were taken by my wedding photographer who we think the wold of and if a great couple, that work together in the art and home school there kids. So check them out Greg Nye Photography They work in Seattle but live in Bremerton so if your not in the city neither are they and they will come to you.

I like this one, I like to think of it as the "007" shot! :-)