Goodbye Monterey!

 The morning we left my two dear friends came by the house to help load up the last of our stuff.  I was insanely sleep deprived but could not miss up the opportunity for some group shots together.  We had packed up our house, sold off ALL of our furniture and cleaned all weekend long.

After the first big move day (moving the remainder of our wordly possessions into storage) I was exhausted and fell asleep almost instantly....only to wake up two hours later to a flat air mattress.  Every two hours we woke up and re-inflated our mattress.  It was NOT a very good nights sleep!  We had a different air mattress the next night and slept much better!
Our schedule left us packing and cleaning over Easter weekend.  Then we rolled out of town that Monday.

 I met Kristen through Nursery and so appreciated having her as a friend!  I was so lucky and blessed to make friends with a really amazing group of women.  It broke my heart to drive away from them but I KNOW we will stay in contact through our lives and I feel VERY confident that we will see each other again.  My group of gals there were my sanity during long weeks and not seeing Marcus very often.  Our girls nights were the highlight of my week!  Kristen always gave me more confidence about my abilities as a mother and just understood my little Konks so perfectly.  Bianca had an especially trying time that left me feeling really drained and that I was making wrong turns with her left and right.  I ALWAYS left Kristen feeling more uplifted and having more hope in my abilities.

 Christina, Me and Kristen.   Christina introduced me to the world of yoga and we would go to classes together.  Her daughters are ALMOST the exact ages my of girls and we had to much fun getting together and letting the girls play.  Christina is so selfless and was always there to offer help at any hint of trouble or stress.  I always knew I could turn to her for help and she would be there no matter what.  I had so many late night talks with this little lady and will cherish our friendship for life.
My other dear friends Sam and Dani were also SUCH lifesavers to me.  Each of these women brought something to my life that I was desperately in need of.  Their love and support was such an uplift for me.  

 Kristen is pretty much a rockstar and she sewed me this purse for a going away present for me.  It is a "Bowties are Cool" purse a la Dr. Who.  Unless you watch Dr. Who you will not understand.  If you don't watch Dr. Who, you need to drop everything and DO IT NOW.  They have through season 6 on instant watch on Netflix.  Dr. Who was also a wonderful distraction when Marcus was busy studying his brains out.  I LOVE DR. WHO.  I about died when she gave this purse to me.  I had Marcus take this picture before I headed out to my last girls night before we moved.  Rocking my Dr. Who purse and my Harry Potter shirt from woot.  Yes, I am that cool.

 Here is our little car packed to the MAX and ready to trek to Texas.  Marcus said he could gauge how ridiculous we looked by how many people did double takes when we drove by.  Sometimes no one would notice and other times people would just stare at us in disbelief.  Yes, that is a roof top bag for an SUV.  Yes, we put that jumbo bag on our hyundai accent.  Yes, we made it to Texas safely and with no incident even with this beast atop our car!

 This pretty much sums up our three day road trip to Texas.  We drove to Indio CA the first night, the second night we drove to Las Cruces NM and the third day we arrived in San Angelo TX!  We probably stopped a GAZILLION times for bathroom related emergencies.

They were not just for the kids either.  I had a particularly humbling experience on the side of the road in Texas.  Bathrooms are few and far between along our route once we hit Texas and there isn't much for vegetation for cover if  you HAVE to stop on the side of the road.  You are pretty much bearing all to every truck and car that passes by.    Let's just say I had a emergency of EXPLOSIVE proportions that resulted with me beside our car and Marcus holding up a princess blanket as a make shift privacy shield all while I was dying with embarrassment.  It was between a sob/laugh.  I wasn't feeling very well and the whole thing wanted to make me cry but the pure fact of what was happening was also incredibly hilarious and my body couldn't decide if it wanted to laugh or cry, so I did both.  All of this happened just 5 feet off the side of the freeway.  Talk about taking your relationship to a whole new level.

We also drove through a pretty crazy storm once we hit Texas.  It was all blue skies and white fluffy clouds and the next minute there were black clouds with thunder and lightening and hail the size of peas and marbles!  It was insane!  Marcus was feeling a little sleepy but that storm really woke us up!  We drove through it pretty quick and then after that it just rained off and on.  The storm followed us the rest of  the way to San Angelo.  We heard after the fact that there was a tornado warning for that storm, which is crazy because while we were driving through it I kept thinking that this is what tornado storms looked like when I would see them on TV.

One last picture of our little home from CA.  We loved our time there.  Being in that area was a wonderful blessing in our lives.  We were able to learn so much and grow so much together.  I really feel like this step of military life helped to prepare us for the next and I feel the same about this little stint that we will have here in Texas!  The next posts will be all about our new adventure in Texas!