A Day of Thanksgiving!

On this Thanksgiving day, I have so much to be thankful for! This past year has been a whirlwind. I remember this New Years eve we spent in a hotel in Salt Lake City on the way home from California for Christmas. It was finally the year we had been waiting for for 5 long years!

So today I am thankful for many things, first and foremost I am thankful for my Savior, Jesus Christ. I am who I am because of his love for me and can't imagine one minute without him. A crazy thing happened to me earlier this year and it took me weeks to realize it was God blessing my life. As some of you know, I totaled my car in January and it seemed to go from bad to worse with the incident with the test drive of the Mazda where the accelerator stuck and I really thought we were going to die. In the end we ended up making money off my totaled car, and I was able to save enough to go home in March and not have to work until we got here to Indiana. It's so crazy to think that God would bless us in a car accident, but I wasn't injured and He was blessing us financially in the end.

I am thankful for the United States Air Force. Without them, we would never have had a chance to come to Bloomington, Indiana. We didn't know what we were going to find when we got here since we moved here without stepping foot in the state. But what we found here is an amazing church, High Rock, and some loving and wonderful friends. Also, Jason is getting a great education for his Masters in Journalism at Indiana University without having to work and balance a family, work and school all at once. He is able to focus solely on his studies (and me, of course). I have been blessed with a job that is very low stress and I am able to get time off pretty easily. So, Air Force, thank you. (I probably won't be saying it too much, so soak it in haha)

I am thankful for my family. The family I have had for 25 years and the family that I have made this past year. My parents have been my rock through a lot of hard times and they have always supported me in all my adventures. I am sure they never would have imagined their little girl moving 1,000 miles away at the young age of 20 and then another 1,000 miles away a few years later. But they never once discouraged it. I am also thankful for my new family, Chuck and Conni. They are such a loving and wonderful family and I can not imagine marrying into a better family. I look forward to many years of family gatherings and holidays with my new family. This year I also became an aunt! My gorgeous niece, Zoey Ann Whitbeck was born! My sister in law, Stephanie and brother, Craig, brought Zoey into the world and our lives on April 11, 2011. She is the most precious bundle of joy and I am so thankful to have all three of these crazy Whitbeck's in my life (even if we aren't able to see them too often).

Finally, I am thankful for my husband, Jason. We started talking 6 years ago today. He was at home in Washington with his family and I was home in California with mine. The past six years have been the best of my life. Even through the touch times at USAFA and the first year together apart. We made it through the unthinkable and are still going strong! On June 25th I married my best friend. It was the day I dreamed about my entire life and nothing could have made the day better. I love him will all my heart and I can not wait to spend the rest of my life with him. We have a lot of tough times ahead of us like deployments for him, raising kids, moving around the country (or even world!). But I know with him by my side and the Lord at the center of our relationship we can handle anything!

"The riches of Your love will always be enough"

God is amazing! I think about how He has blessed me in ways I can't even imagine. On Sunday, Scott (our Pastor at High Rock) was talking about how God will show you something you want or need that you never even thought of. That happened to us this past weekend. We had a retreat with High Rock on Friday and Saturday and it was wonderful! Jason and I were looking forward to this weekend for a while. The sessions were amazing, but it was fellowship and meeting new people that stuck out to me. Jason and I are planning to spend the Holidays together here in Indiana instead of heading home to either California or Washington. I was planning to make Thanksgiving dinner for just the two of us and spend the day home. Then we met the wife of an Air Force Officer who just moved here to go to school with her husband and two young kids. It was so shocking and wonderful to meet another Air Force couple. The husband, Paul, is an Academy grad and his wife, Lisa, is a former AF officer from OTS, but got out a few years back. While we were at the retreat, Lisa turned to us and said that God was laying on her heart to invite us over for Thanksgiving. At that moment I realized that as much as I had been telling myself I was ok with it being just the two of us for the holidays, I was not. I almost started crying and had to immediately thanking God for knowing what was best for me.

All in all, the weekend was more than I could have ever expected! I got to spend time with some people who I knew but don't get to talk to very often. The camp had lots to do, but we didn't have too much free time to enjoy them. The one thing we did do it find the "jumping pillow" which was this inflatable blob that comes up from the ground. I'll post pictures below.

Jason and I are going to try and send out a Christmas card with a letter on all that is happening here (for those who don't read this... and for those who do). Our lives will be crazy while Jason is still in the Air Force so it will be hard to keep up with all the family and friends on a regular basis. We should find out where we are going next in February or March. It is going to be excited but also really sad when we have to leave our life here. It's something we have to learn to deal with being in the Air Force. It's such a blessing, rather than an inconvenience, to have such a rich life somewhere that it breaks your heart to have to leave.

Jason has been working hard in school and putting out a bunch of news stories! Here is his latest story http://indianapublicmedia.org/news/city-supports-occupy-bloomington-mans-death-23052/ . Yes, there is an "Occupy Bloomington" movement here at a public park downtown...

To end this pretty long blog, here are some pictures from this past weekend at the retreat :)

Bonfire! Cooking hot dogs and smores.

Before breakfast, such a gorgeous morning.

Jumping Pillow!!

Chapel where we had our sessions.

Birthday and Canoes!

I can't believe it has been almost a month since I last blogged. A whole lot has happened since my last update. My birthday was October 23rd and Jason had told me that he was going to take me out somewhere but didn't tell me where. He told me to have my bag packed on Thursday night and he would tell me what I would need. Well I got off work on Wednesday, came home and started to get ready for small group. Jason walked in from the garage and told me that he had to work this weekend and we wouldn't be able to do anything but it was going to be ok because my mom came to Indiana!! Jason had planned the entire thing, got me off of work on Friday and had her fly out for a long weekend. I was SO surprised! I have a really bad habit of figuring out surprises, but I had no clue about this one. We had an amazing weekend together, just hanging out and showing her Bloomington. The only problem was that the time was too short =/ Here are some pictures from our weekend!

Right after she showed up. We celebrated by going to Steak N Shake.

Walking around the IU campus.

School of Journalism.

Oliver Winery.

My birthday dinner at Malibu Grill

Last weekend we had an amazing time canoeing in Brown County with Michael and Bekah! I was a little worried it was going to be a cold day, but it ended up being perfect! We packed a lunch and some wine and canoed down the creek until we found a good place to stop and relax. I had never done anything like that before and it was so much fun! I want to go again before we leave Indiana next summer.

Bekah and Micheal :)

I can't believe it is already November! We aren't going to travel anywhere this Holiday season. We are staying in Indiana for our first Christmas as husband and wife. It is also going to by my first Christmas away from home, but I know we will make it work. Being in the military, I know we will have more of these in the future. Especially with babies in the future ;)

The weekend of November 11th and 12th we are headed to a retreat with our church! I don't know what to expect, but I know it will be amazing. In the short amount of time we have lived here, I have seen God work in both me and Jason in extraordinary ways! I know He won't stop now and won't stop even as we have to move away from all the wonderful people we have met here.

"Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the LORD your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you." - Deuteronomy 31:6

"Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved" Mark 16:16

This past weekend was a very eventful one! Jason's papa came to visit on Thursday and stayed until Monday morning. Saturday we drive 4 hours north to South Bend, Indiana to watch Air Force get beat by Notre Dame. It was such a gorgeous day, we didn't mind losing too much :) Notre Dame is such an amazing campus, there is so much history there. I wish we had more time to walk around, but we drove up and back the same day, so didn't have too much extra time. Here are some pictures from our trip!

Sunday is a day that our family will remember forever. It was the day Jason was baptized! He has been talking about being baptized for as long as we have been together (almost 6 years) so it was about time :) I am so proud of him, it was definitely an emotional moment.

"Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit." - Acts 2:38

Sunday was also the day that my beautiful niece, Zoey Ann, got dedicated. It was a wonderful day here in Indiana and back home in California. I just wish we could have all been together for both events, but pictures will have to do!

Jason's school schedule has become pretty routine and so has my work schedule, we nothing too exciting in that department. Jason is still putting stories out about once or twice a week. I will try and post them on here when they come out. I got the number for a lady who owns a temp service for dental offices, I might contact her so I can work on my days off (Tuesday and Thursday) for some extra money and something to do.

Walks, Serving and Veggie Pizza!

Today Jason and I had church in the morning which was amazing, as usual. After church we went to Which Wich for lunch and then took a nice walk around Indiana University. It's such a nice time of year around here. The leaves are starting to change and it looks so much like fall. It's funny, after living in Colorado for 4 years, 60 degrees is long sleeve shirt and jeans weather. A lot of people out here were in winter coats today. I saw some girls with gloves and winter boots on :) I would have been that way if I still lived in California. It's crazy how your body temperature acclimates itself to where you live. Here are some pictures from out walk today :) I love how IU has so many limestone buildings. They are so old and gorgeous!

The arches that get you to the campus from downtown Bloomington

Such a gorgeous walk!



Tonight we are going to church for Team High Rock where we can learn about serving at High Rock Church. We have been anxious about starting to serve, we just haven't yet. Jason wants to help out with setting up and tearing down for service (since we have church in the convention center) and I want to help out in the children's program. We just need to figure out where we fit and what Sunday's we can start helping out.

I made a vegetarian type pizza the other night and it was delicious. It took a little convincing to get Jason on board with it, but he like it when it was done. I just used mushrooms and asparagus for the toppings, but it would have been great with any veggies. Here is my recipe :)

Pillsbury Pizza Crust

1 jar pizza sauce

2 cups mozzarella cheese

2 packages fresh mushrooms

1 bunch fresh asparagus

Roll the dough out into a square. We rolled the sides up a bit to give it more of a crust to hold onto. Spoon pizza sauce into the middle of the dough, use as much or as little as you desire. Saute mushrooms and asparagus in skillet for about 10 mins. Adding olive oil as needed. Sprinkle cheese on pizza dough and sauce then spoon mushroom/asparagus mixture onto the middle of the dough. Bake in oven at 400 degrees for about 10-15 mins or until crust is golden brown around edges.

I usually don't make pizza, but my two posted recipes were pizza related haha. I made Almond Crusted Chicken this week too, but it wasn't worth posting =/



Hobby Lobby = Love

This week has been very eventful, even though it's only Thursday.  Jason had a story published on the front page of the station he works for website. You can read the story here: http://indianapublicmedia.org/news/fema-compensate-2008-spencer-flood-victims-20972/

I've been working a lot more than I expected to, which is very nice! I'm not working more days, just worked more hours in the days that I am scheduled. I really enjoy my job still :) The two other assistants and I get along really well. It's rare when you put a bunch of girls in a room and have them all get along, but thankfully we do.

We took a trip to Hobby Lobby this week and FINALLY finished our living room. We had a huge blank wall above our couch and could not find anything large enough to fit there... without spend way too much. We are trying to keep with the underplayed American theme in the living room and this is what we came up with for the wall...

Had to get the entire family in a picture :)

Once we put it up, it tied the entire room together. I also had a crafty type day on Tuesday. I made a fall looking wreath for the front window with our initial in it. Here is my finished product! I am so proud of myself :)

Jason and I saw Contagion last weekend and it made me terrified to get sick! In case you don't know what it is about, it's a disease that spreads through the world and kills people within 10 days of catching it. It killed like 60 million people in the movie. It was done really well! But we had a patient at work yesterday coughing a lot and I was standing off a bit ;)

Letters From War

After a long break, I took a trip to Barnes and Noble today to pick out a couple books. One book that really caught my eye was Letters From War by Mark Schultz. It is written about his song that came out back in 2005. The song talks about a soldier who is overseas and writes letters back and forth to his mom back home. Then, she doesn't get any letters for a long period of time from him, but gets one from a man who told her that her son saved him and asked him to write to her telling her goodbye. At the end of the song the son comes home safe and sound. The book seems  a bit different, but I am so excited to read it! Jason and I have always loved that song, so the book holds a special place in my heart already. Here is a link to the video on YouTube http://youtu.be/KRFXXiMxpR4. I also picked up Karen Kingsbury's Take One. I've heard her series' are great, so I decided to give them a whirl!



With the Holidays quickly approaching, I have started my shopping list already! I really want to get done by the day after Thanksgiving this year so that I can get everything in the mail in time for Christmas. It's going to be a tough holiday season this year. It will be my first year away from home and I am not really looking forward to it =/ I know there are MANY family Christmases to come, but this one won't be one of the easy ones. I am still excited for the wintertime and season of love and giving.