The Largaespadas

After 6 1/2 years of being together, today was Steve and my first Thanksgiving together.  We had a quiet day but I did make the whole spread: turkey, sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, grandma's cheese ball, rolls, and pie. It was just the two of us but I do enjoy thanksgiving and I wanted to make a special meal for a pretty momentous holiday for us. After our meal, we relaxed watching movies and shows we like. Days just spent at home relaxing are the best.  I have so much to be thankful for this year and my family is at the top of that list. I am so thankful to have such a wonderful husband who has done so much for me and continues to care for me and our boys every day. I'm thankful to have him as my partner in life. I'm also thankful to have such a loving mother who always is my biggest cheerleader and supporter. This year I am also thankful for having a job that is able to provide for our family. It is by no means my dream job but it has allowed us to get some deb...

Steve and I have been living in Austin for about 2 months now and I have been blessed to have some contract work with my old event planning company that I worked for during college. It has given us enough extra income to keep us sustained up until now. Unfortunately, it's not steady enough o have that be all I'm doing. The job market is still really rough and even though Texas is much better off than most states, it's not a good time to need a job. I have been searching high and low, emailing just about every event venue in town and applying to catering, wedding and event companies but no one is hiring.  I've had a couple interviews but they've all been for sales jobs and most either don't pay enough to live on or are purely commission based which makes me very uneasy.  As I was leaving The Westin's lobby from an interview, a man ran after me to see what I was interviewing for and to offer me an interview as well. So I called him the next day and...

Let me preface this post with this... I welcome any but purely positive comments as this is a joyous time for Steve and I to be celebrating a happy marriage. For those of you who do not know, Steve and I were wed on May 20th, 2010. We decided not to tell everyone because we didn't want the judgement and questions that would accompany our very thought out decision. We handled all the legal aspects of marriage then and waited to do the ceremonial aspects February 10, 2012. May 20, 2010 February 10, 2012 Every single day since then, I have experienced the incredible love that Steve shows me and my heart has grown ten-fold because of it. He is my best friend and perfect life mate. Now let's get on to our trip. Our going to Antigua is in celebration of 3 years of marriage and for our belated honeymoon The trip started with a long, 3-stop trip from Dallas to DC to New York finally ending in Antigua the next day. Any time I ever encounter anything less than comfort...

After a not so long, 23 hour road trip from Southern Cali, up through the Grand Canyon, we finally arrived in Austin, Texas. We usually take the shorter, south route going to Texas but decided to take a little side trip to the Grand Canyon since neither of us had been before. I will say, it was pretty incredible! It is definitely a place we would like to return to some day. We got a little campsite and set up our tent and fire to spend the night. Even though it was April, it got down to 19 degrees; that night so we snuggled up with the boys to keep warm and luckily we didn't freeze to death. So after the 8 hours to the Grand Canyon, we had another 17 to go and made it in one swift shot. Steve was awesome for driving the entire way with me in the passenger seat entertaining him. Once the boys calmed down, they traveled really well. They had their little beds perched on top of our suitcases in the backseat and slept 95% of the time we wer...

Well, we're all packed up and ready to go! It's kind of a bitter sweet day for me. San Diego has been such a big part of our relationship these past 3 years and it's just crazy to think that this part of our lives is over. I've been dreaming of the time that we move to the place we will call home and be free to live our lives together but to think that it's here and happening right now, crazy. The military is moving us so we were blessed to have movers come in and pack up everything for us! They arrived at 8am and were completely finished by 2pm. It was incredible! All we had to do was pack some clothes and such to last us until the rest of our stuff shows up. So we packed the car yesterday and we will be taking off tomorrow. Usually on this kind of trip, we wake up really early in the morning and just GO until we're there. Instead, for this trip, we are going to take our time to get there (kind of) and go a different route. I'll share that with y...

Steve finally made his safe return home on March 6th around 9pm. There are really no words that describe how it is to have him home. Our family is complete again and it's going to stay that way this time! Our sweet reunion Steve has been stationed in San Diego since 2009 and I moved out here to be with him in 2011 but now, our time in beautiful California is coming to an end. In a little over a week, we will be starting a new chapter of our life in Texas, free of the military. It's kind of bitter sweet for me, I've come to know and love this place but California is just WAY to expensive. We want to be able to build a life somewhere and although we both love San Diego, it's not the right place for us to settle down. I came to love Austin while going to UT and Texas puts us very close to most of my family and much closer to Steve's. We're excited to get out there and explore our new home city together as well as our actual home! We found a beautiful h...

Well it is the new year now (okay not SO new but still new I think) which means I survived 4 major holidays without my husband and as painful as they were, they're over and now there is only Valentine's Day between me and our homecoming! It is just about a month away and I am counting the days!! I literally do not know what I would have done if I had not found a job to occupy my time and mind. I've actually been quite busy with work the past few weeks which I am tremendously thankful for as it has gotten me this much closer to our homecoming. I only spent about 2 weeks of this deployment unemployed. Needless to say, I'm very excited to get my other half home and get our relaxation on! It's been quite stressful holding down the fort alone the past 5 months and I know Steve has had a whole bunch of stresses being deployed so we really need a vacation. We still have quite a few decisions to make about what we're going to do when Steve get's out of the Mar...