Since our grand move to Texas we have enjoyed 20 whole days of awesome.  Here are some highlights!

-Karl has worked for 10 of them at a local recruiting office, which is how we were able to get so much time here prior to his upcoming departure.  Those work days won't count against his leave so they have been like freebies for us- totally awesome and not the first (rather the third) time we've enjoyed the perks of the "recruiters assistant program."  He had to wear his blues everyday, which I'm totally not used to seeing him.  He looks handsome, right?  Thank you, Air Force.

-Time with family.  We got to see Karl's dad this past week and have dinner at his grandma's house and it was wonderful!  So so so grateful for all the family time Karl is getting, especially with his own!  We are staying with Callie, Jeremy, & Baby Hannah Bailey and enjoying dinners with them and the rest of the Cuppett Clan and it is all just what I need right now.  I find myself panicking anytime I'm away from Karl or even my family right now.  It is the weirdest and stinkiest feeling ever.  Our time at Callie & Jeremy's is wonderful!  We are like totally loving every second of it and feeling right at home here, they may never get rid of us... just kidding.  Kind of.  However, I will stay here until my parent's new house is ready because all the dogs (Billi + her two) at my Gammy's house make me think I'm dying a horrible asthma and allergy death.

-In Baby Bailey news: Callie is almost 18 weeks and I am dying, DYING, dying to know the gender.  Like, when I think about it I have knots in my stomach.  This isn't a joke.  We tried to listen to the heartbeat with my stethoscope but it was a no-go.  She isn't far along enough.

She literally is loving pickles right now.  This is not a joke.

 -We threw Karl a surprise party to celebrate his big 24th (...3 weeks late.  Call it the most extended bday celebration ever).  It was so great!  We brought in Spring Creek (his fave BBQ), party hats, and ambushed him with silly string

-Our Friday nights (the past 3) have been spent cheering on the Pantego Panthers at football games.  They are a blast despite their recent losses.  It is SO FUN to watch Jeremy coach!

This was at a JV game this past Thursday- SO FUN!

-Karl is working on a huge cardboard dino for his Halloween costume.  Mhmm.  I'll save pictures till I can show you him in the final product...  I will tell you that it was important to him that he use his own arms as "short dino arms."

-Karl & I got to meet our good friends Wil & Kendra from Sumter for dinner HERE IN TEXAS last week!  It was so weird and totally awesome!  They were staying at the Gaylord in Grapevine for a work conference of Wil's so obvi we jumped on that and had dinner with them in Southlake and then did a little Dallas sightseeing!  We will really miss them this next year.  I'm bummed I didn't take any pics but here are a few I never blogged from a little couples day date we took to the gun range several weeks ago in Sumter... OK so mostly Kendra and I just observed.

-We are celebrating Christmas this weekend so that Karl can have a big, wonderful, semi-normal Christmas before he leaves.  And by "celebrating Christmas this weekend," I mean like tonight is Christmas eve, my whole family is spending the night at Callie's, Santa is coming.  Santa. is. coming.  This is my view from the couch at Callie's right now.  So on the actual December 25th, Santa will be bringing stockings to all of us and to South Korea and that's all.  The Cuppetts, Bowen boy, and Baileys love my husband beyond measure and if I think about it too much I will for sure cry.

-Enjoying my role as both onlooker and participant to the normal, everyday, Cuppett life... such as the events surrounding this picture...

My dad.  helping Emma with a photo project

-Last weekend was "family fun weekend."  More on that later as it deserves it's own post.

-Next weekend we're having a Thanksgiving feast so Karl can get all of his Thanksgiving faves before he leaves.  Next week we'll be getting to go spend some time with his other grandparents that live a couple of hours from here, see some of our best friends, and just hopefully relax and relish these last several days together.

I just feel immense gratitude when I look at this post and see everything that we have gotten to do since we have been home, all the friends and family we have gotten to spend time with, and all the fun we have gotten to have.  I am so so so grateful.  I keep coming across verses and church marquis and being nudged by The Lord to remember the choice I have- to choose gratitude during this time in my life.  So that's what I'm doing... or trying to at least.  I am grateful of the bajillion things that are well in mine & K's lives and the fact that there is only 1 thing that is testing us right now- separation.  Just one thing.  So I'm looking forward to silly things that I've never cared about because it makes it seem like the next 12 months are moving on by- like I just saw a commercial for the oscars... that will mean it's January.  And I bought him sunscreen yesterday.  Which means when he uses it it will be summer- halfway through!  And I plan to buy him 24 razor replacement razor blades at Costco next week.  That's enough to get him through his whole time away.  Only 24 blades.  He blows through those so quickly.  We'll blow through this so quickly.

Can't wait to blog about Christmas and the dozen other things I missed here!
Hannah K.C. Burton

hello, Texas!

Well, I'm super behind on blogging but back and ready to catch up- all in the name of my dear friend and blog cheerleader Carly Jackson!  We have been in Texas for almost three weeks now and our time here is FLYING, flying by y'all!  It is so much harder to have time for updates when I actually have some semblance of a life... which I suppose I could say I do here, as opposed to my mundane days in South Carolina.  Anyways.  We are here in Texas and soaking up every minute of busyness, fun, family, and our time together.  I'll back track for my own memory.  My last post was about moving/movers.  Even before that we sold Karl's truck.  Remember when I wrote here about our Craigslist experience?  Well, we ended that note on a great one and sold the truck to a sweet family where it will be driven by a teenage girl who just adored the truck after her first test drive.  I literally cried as we pulled away from it.  First off, it was weird selling it in a McDonalds parking lot.  I mean, what has my life come to?  The buyer literally handed us 2K in cash.  In a McDonalds lot.  Secondly, I used to loathe that thing.  Now I'm crying as we leave it for the last time?  In my defense, that truck is so closely associated with Karl- it's the only car I have ever known him to have.  OK, over it.  Next.  Our 2nd and 3rd day of moving went much more smoothly.  The new set of movers arrived and the first thing out of the mouth of the lead mover was, "We've come and brought God & Jesus with us, we are going to bless your life!"  Done and done.  Karl was able to be home with me for those last two days and it was just much more under control, especially feeling like I didn't have to babysit the movers.  My parents came in on Friday night and stayed until Sunday morning.  It was SUCH a blessing to have them there.  We finished cleaning our empty house, loaded my car (what a joke), enjoyed some local Sumter favorites, and were just pleasantly distracted from the upheaval of our lives by their delightful company.  Sunday morning (at 3 AM) we drove them to the airport, went back to Sumter to fill our car more (ridiculous), and hit the road.  We drove 15 hours and made it to Callie & Jeremy's house at 10 PM that night.  Our first morning here was spent unloading the car and finding a corner, drawer, or space for all the junk we brought with us.  Callie & Jeremy are ridiculously hospitable.  Like, can't even talk about it.  They had emptied a guest room for us, cleared kitchen shelves, garage space, and just made us feel like we were home.  We are loving every second of our time with them and in Arlington and I just wish I could freeze time.  Would you pray for our hearts as it feels like time is spinning out of control and it's freaking me out.  10 days.

Last pic in our room!

This is how packed my car was.  We were holding a suitcase in our laps in the back seat on our way to dinner in Sumter.  We felt super classy.

Please notice the tarped load on the roof.  Awesome.

on the road!  God makes beautiful things in Louisiana!

Proud to say that I drove for like 6 hours.  I'm awesome.

Back tomorrow, dying to get this thing caught up!
Hannah K.C. Burton

moving, day 1

The unaccompanied baggage clowns employees are here right now and I have several thoughts:

-I am holding back the tears trying not to make a fool of myself with the tears; it really feels like they have come to take Karl.  I know that is so weird.  Reminding myself that we are not defined by or found in our possessions.  They can take what they want- Karl is still here.  And even when he is not, The Lord is my strength.

-Why am I blogging right now and not in there supervising?  Why did I choose such a small room for our 'Korea room?' I can't fit in there with them and they are unimpressive.  I opened the door when they rang my doorbell this morning and they just marched right in and into my living room.  No, "Hi, I'm Joe with blah blah blah,"  they literally didn't even give me the opportunity to invite them in and offer them a slice of pumpkin bread.  Their loss.

-Not sad to see Karl's snowboard make it's way to Korea.  Sad to see Karl's favorite flannel shirt and pillow that smells like him go.  And hair clippers that he gives himself hair cuts with because he does them better then anyone else can.  And Glad to send our only good TV that he gave me for my 21st birthday.  Glad to send framed wedding pictures.  Glad to send a new bath mat so his feet are warm and dry when he gets out of the shower.  Glad to send a cookie sheet and spatula so he can make himself slice-and-bake cookies, his favorite.  Glad to send his Skype headphones and glad those haven't been used for the past year and a half. Glad to send bedding that looks like a married 24 year old uses it and not a bachelor that lives in a dorm.  Glad to have the most fitting and perfect stationary to write on and hide among his boxes that reads, "She makes the whole world feel like home,"and The Great I AM who strengthens me to try and do that.

-Trying to stay busy and not let my mind wonder for multiple reasons.  I'm sure you can come up with a few, including but not limited to these movers.

I keep coming back to it... Psalm 118:24: This is the day The Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it
Hannah K.C. Burton

Striped Socks

This is my favorite pair of socks.  Every Fall {and multiple other times a year} my Pa would take us back-to-school shopping in pairs or small groups of his choice {a few sisters or a couple of cousins, a little girl and a big girl or two little ones, etc- I wonder how he decided who would go with whom?}.  Normally our shopping was just for shoes {like, soooo many pair- we are spoiled.} but for some reason my 5th grade shopping trip found me, Pa, and maybe my sister Maddie or London {?} in Gap Kids.  All I know is that Pa bought me my favorite outfit of that year- a horizontally striped sweater with a corduroy skirt and at the checkout he spotted a pair of knee-high socks that matched the sweater perfectly that he added to the pile of clothes and insisted I have... and that just happened to be the year that everyone was wearing skirts with mary-jane shoes and knee-high socks, so I was pretty excited.  I have no idea where that sweater is- probably on the child of a Mission Arlington customer- another of Pa's passions.  But the socks... come every fall and winter they still get worn approximately every time they are clean.  I'm thinking of retiring them before holes are worn in them.  I think about him in literally everything I do.  Fishing alongside Karl this weekend was a big one. Karl going to Korea.  Wearing my Uggs {he thought they were really interesting, haha}.  Every time I write or smile or Karl calls me "Kate."  I could go on... but for all my pregnant and hormonal cousins and sister who may or may not be crying right now, I won't, ha.

Hannah K.C. Davis Burton, always a Davis

Glamping- I am a Cuppett.

So part of Karl's birthday celebration included camping this past weekend.  I had planned everything before I told him about it.  I wanted to do the dirty work so it wasn't like- "Surprise camping trip!!  ANND here, can you plan it?"  So, I spent like a ridiculous amount of time educating myself on state parks and talking to my dad about camping meals.  And then when Karl & I were walking around an outdoor store on his birthday and he was complaining about how we haven't been camping this year I went ahead and filled him in.  Anyways, the weekend was AWESOME!  I do enjoy camping and have never claimed otherwise.  I just like to make it kind of like "glamping,"- glamorous camping.  Like, the most comfortable form of camping possible, well, aside from literally having an RV out there.  So, obviously our car looked like 12 people were going camping for 3 months- Karl is a very patient man and I am very much a Cuppett girl.  Fortunately, we are on the same page with all of this- he wants a comfortable bed (Read: we took a queen size air mattress, 6 pillows, and a ridiculous amount of blankets), good food (ummm, maybe we went and got fast food once instead of "cooking" something), and clearly cleanliness is a top priority for both of us- you are not going to find us in some primitive place- we were a short walk from a fully stocked bathroom that I read reviews on before booking the place.  Thanks.  Anyways, we camped for 2 nights (patting myself on the back here) and it was a total blast!  Completely relaxing, fun, PERFECT weather (like highs of 60, nights in the 30s and 40s)!  We both rated this higher than our bed & breakfast beach anniversary getaway... which is probably why I'm blogging about this one first.  Now, onto the pictures... Which I haven't even had time to edit- the scenery was beautiful!

Karl caught 1 fish and apparently it wasn't one that we could eat...fine by me

That first night was a little rough- too quiet and dark for us and sort of creepy. So scared of bugs.

Our view when we woke up!

I was on the phone with Callie & looked up to see Karl just paddling on out there

Karl wanted to go on a "hike," but that word just messes with my psyche so I agreed as long as we could call it a "nature walk."  It was successful... until I started thinking about all the Criminal Minds episodes I've seen.

Such sweet time with Karl before this week of crazy moving!  Today is our last Monday in South Carolina- bittersweet for sure!
Hannah K.C. Burton