Family, unpacking and catching my breath

Well my friends, one thing about being in the military, is the fact that you kind of get used to being alone, being away from all family members and spending holidays yourself.

Such was our life for a very long time, but since moving to the Texas area, we have been inundated with family and friends who live nearby.

Most of my husbands area are natives to Oklahoma and Texas and so, whichever side of the line we may be on, we are bound to meet up with family and visit.

I can tell you that since setting foot here in our new home, we have yet to have a weekend to ourselves, a moment to breathe or to even catch up from the move, it's been go go go and more go.  Every weekend we have some sort of function that we are required to attend or as we would say in the military "voluntold"  LOL

It's fun but tiring too and I am afraid my body is starting to catch up with me and needing some much needed rest and relaxation, not to mention the fact that we still a house to finish setting up.

Yesterday, I fully intended on posting here on the blog but we left early morning and didn't return until almost 11pm.  We had a surprise celebration party for my husband's aunt and uncle who were celebrating 50 years of marriage.  Such a wonderful milestone and something we were very glad to be able to attend.

My husband was definitely in his element, he is the type of guy who likes chatting and visiting with people and he hadn't seen many of his family members in many years, so he was so happy to be able to catch up and to be there for his Aunt and Uncle's celebration.  Here is is above with his Uncle Richard who was celebrating 50 years of marriage.

Aunt Mickey and Uncle Richard.  We hadn't seen them in so long, matter of fact last time I saw them I was about a month away from giving birth to my Nicholas and we were at my father in law Doug's funeral.

Nicholas is now 12 years old so as you can see, a very long time ago.  We saw aunt and uncles and cousins and little babies who are now grown teenagers.  It was great but also overwhelming and I felt a little out of place, my kids especially who didn't know anyone were a little overwhelmed with it all, but I'm glad we were able to be there and hopefully we'll be attending more family functions and able to mend the gap that has been forged.

In between this, I've been trying to soak in life here in the country.  Mornings are filled with coffee cups and moments watching the sun rising and the world spring to life.

The living room is slowly coming along and it's become one of my favorite areas in the house, I sure do love walking in there and seeing the green minty walls with my Americana decorations and my little pieces here and there.

It is the best part of moving in, isn't it?

Getting to make it your own and given a blank canvas to get to work on.  I admit I'm not exactly the best decorator in the world, I tend to get stuck between a couple themes I like and somehow feel like I throw them all in the same room, or try to.

But it works, at least for now.

This is the family room and it sits right off the kitchen.  I am in love with the fireplace, just absolutely in love with it and I can't wait to do more with it.

I'm not a fan of paneling, at all, but my husband loves it and it's the one room he is not budging on and won't allow me to paint, so I'm going to let him have it, the room I mean....I'm not going to yell at him LOL

I've decided that the only way I can really live with this paneling is to embrace it and try to make something out of it, so I'm thinking maybe a cabin style?  I may need to make some trips to Hobby Lobby because they have SO much I would love to put in here.  We'll see.

I think I also mentioned in a previous post about going to the library?  Or maybe I thought I had, I know for sure I said something on Instagram.

But yes, I picked up a few books to peruse and I'm certainly enjoying them.  Being a huge fan of Phillipa Gregory I just had to grab this one, I haven't read it yet, but plan on starting tomorrow.  If you've read it let me know what you thought.

A very busy weekend we had, and today my brother in law is here with us, he'll be leaving tonight as he has to be back in Lawton tomorrow for work, but we've certainly enjoyed having him so much closer.

This week I have some grocery shopping planned, some more unpacking and laundry and all that fun stuff.  I'm also very excited to be back blogging which means my Happy Homemaker Monday will be back tomorrow morning.

I better get on out of here and go visit with family, have a wonderful rest of Sunday :)