A New Home!

We finally have a new home.  128 Katrina Street, we made it!  What seemed like a long and agonizing process turned into a real blessing in disguise.  Ben and I thought this house was going to fall through and started looking for other homes, however the seller came back and accepted our offer!  We closed on time, and now look at our beautiful home!

Since we have to wait for a few weeks for the Marine Corps to move all of our furniture from Yuma, Ben and I decided to make some home improvements.  We started by re-doing the floors.  Ben's parents Allen and Tracie came down (on their anniversary) and helped install Pergo floors.  They came out BEAUTIFUL!

 In the past few weeks while we waited to move into our home, Ben and I traveled to Annapolis to attend a good friend's wedding.  We stayed with one of my best friends Kristen and her beautiful family.  Her husband Alex and her awesome baby Ryan (pictured below).  I was reunited with several great friends I attended college with.  It was awesome to see everyone again, and be back at the Naval Academy.  I'll take any excuse to go back to Annapolis.

Nat and Caroline (Groom and Bride in the Center)

Kristen and Me

Ben and Me

Baby Ryan Turner

After celebrating Nat and Caroline in Annapolis, my sisters and Marla came down to Annapolis to throw me a sudo bachelorette party.  It was a great time to spend with my bridesmaids in one of my favorite cities.  We ate good food and did girly things, it was awesome to get spoiled for a bit.  

After our day of fun in Naptown, I went back to New Jersey to finish up some last minute wedding planning fun.  I got to see Tilly who has been living in NJ with Aunt Deb.  She was so sweet.  I can't wait to bring her back to see her new home!  She will love her new back yard.  

We're looking forward to celebrating the wedding in June with everyone.  It's less than 2 weeks away!  We've been feeling extra blessed lately, the Lord has been looking out for us in immeasurable ways.  We can't wait to see everyone and share our blessings.  Love you all!  See you in New Jersey!

15 Nights and Counting...

Ben and I love watching HGTV's tiny homes.  Correction, I love watching tiny homes, and Ben tolerates it.  Living in a hotel the past 15 nights has made us come to the conclusion that we would never want to live in a tiny home.  Living out of a mini fridge and microwave is not our idea of enjoyable living.  Though it may be for some people, God has not blessed us with enough patience.  We're on a tight budget, a strict diet, and all we do is come back to the hotel and watch HGTV or Food Network, some nights we even get to do laundry.

Work has been good for both of us.  We are getting in to the groove of things.  On the weekends we explore all that the surrounding areas have to offer.  We've visited many of the cities around Jacksonville: Swansboro, Hampstead, Holly Ridge, and Sneads Ferry.   This past weekend, we visited some great friends that I graduated college with and enjoyed the Kentucky Derby!  Ben and I even won $200 on the race!

We have just five more nights of living in this hotel until they give us the boot, and then we get to live with one of our gracious friends in their spare bedroom.  We were set to close on our not so tiny home on 19 May, but there are some factors that have come in to play that are throwing us for a loop.  We have turned our eyes to the Lord because frankly we aren't sure how this move will turn out, but we're excited to find out where we will end up living!

We are less than 30 days from the Best Goss Darn Wedding Ever and we couldn't be more excited!  Trying to get all of the final details finished has been a bit of work, but exciting none the less.  Looking forward to seeing you all there!

Sorry about the lack of pictures...there's not much to take pictures of when you live in a hotel for 20 days...

Big News!!

This week was a big week for us!! We traveled from Kentucky to New Jersey to meet up with my family and in the mean-time put an offer on a home in North Carolina.  It was sight-unseen for myself, but I trusted Ben because he had gone to look at it on his short day trip down there the week prior.  We offered low, they countered, and we accepted!  We close on May 19th, and we will soon own our third home!  This time in Sneads Ferry, North Carolina!  It's a bit overwhelming and very exciting!

Other big news, we officially rented both of our homes in Yuma, Arizona.  Now we no longer have to worry about those mortgages...at least for a year!  God is good!  Our trip to New Jersey was pretty perfect.  Besides the fact that while we were there we found ourselves surrounded by phenomenal company and amazing food, my family successfully pulled off a surprise bridal shower.  It was beautiful!  There were people there that I hadn't seen in years, and people that traveled from hundreds of miles to attend.  It was a truly special event!

My aunt and mom honestly knocked it out of the park! It was a beautiful party and it was complete with embarrassing photos, and line dancing.  I couldn't have been happier!  Thank you to EVERYONE who made it so amazing and special!! We love you!  

Ben and I left the next morning super early for North Carolina.  It was a super easy drive, and our trip was super easy!  We got down in plenty of time.  When we finally got to Ben's truck....

His tire was flat!  It wasn't so bad...we waited for a guy to fill it with air so he could go get it patched. Turned out he had a bolt and screw in it.  And they patched it for free!  We still were fortunate enough to go explore the beach and go out to a nice dinner before we met up with Katie and Peter Gibbons-Neff for a GOT watch party!! All in all it was a great night!  Today was our first day at the new job.  Ben and I both had a full day and we both enjoyed it.  It will take a bit of getting used to, and we're living in a hotel, so that's an adventure in itself.  We're having fun so far!!  Wish us luck!

Our Kentucky Vacation

After the moving trucks left Yuma and we finally departed, Ben and I started our cross country treks to Kentucky and North Carolina.  Ben and his brother Tim traveled 2,400 miles from Arizona to North Carolina (our future home).  They towed my 1983 CJ-7 and left it in our friend's driveway while they both flew back to meet Tilly and me in Kentucky with the rest of the Goss family.  Tilly and I took about 2 days to get to Taylor Mill, Kentucky and were very thankful that we arrived earlier then expected.  Our one night stay at the LaQuinta in Amarillo, TX was not very comforting.

During our Kentucky vacation we were fortunate enough to travel to Pikeville, KY for Nick and Mollie's wedding!  We stayed with Grandma and Grandpa Goss in their lovely home which was filled with pictures of family and covered in the perfect prints of wallpaper that you'd never find in today's homes.  It was a great feeling to be somewhere so comfortable and filled with so much love.  It was also great to finally meet a lot of Ben's family that I hadn't gotten the opportunity to meet.

The Goss Family

Nick and Mollie had a beautiful traditional wedding ceremony with the most perfect homily.  The priest focused on praying together as a couple and always being brother and sister in Christ.  He also spoke of a deepening love of one another through Christ.  All of it was a beautiful message and a great testament of Nick and Mollie's relationship.  

 Following the ceremony was the reception.  It was a beautiful April day and it was held at a local country club.  There was a lot of dancing and my first exposure to Ginger Iced Tea Bourbon as well as the Goss performance of the Devil Went Down to Georgia--coming soon to our June 4th wedding.

Ben and I were fortunate enough to return back to Taylor Mill after a weekend full of awesome family fun and wedding madness.  We enjoyed our last two nights in Taylor Mill with his family and were able to get a lot of quality Sawyer Anne time.  Sawyer is our niece and Ben's God-daughter.  She is the sweetest little baby girl in the world.  You'll be blessed if you get to meet her and spend any time with her.  Tomorrow we leave for New Jersey to see the Ireland clan, and I don't doubt it will be just as enjoyable of a vacation.  Ben and I are lucky to have this time off of work during our transition so we can visit with both of our families.  Hopefully a lot of wedding planning will be accomplished as well!  

My First 6 Months as a Goss

On October 23rd 2015, I was fortunate enough to marry James Benjamin Goss.  In the past 6 months our lives have changed quite significantly.  We returned from a 7 month deployment that we spent in separate countries.  I was promoted to Captain.  Ben and I moved in together with our giant 130 lb pup Tilly, and we all learned a little more about each other than we thought we would.  We were told we were moving to Washington, DC...then told we were moving to Quantico, VA, currently the moving truck is here and all of our things are heading to Camp Lejeune, North Carolina.  We cleaned out both of our houses in Yuma, and put them both up for rent (we already have a hit on one property)!  In January, before we realized we'd be moving so soon, we signed up to be youth soccer coaches on base.  Meet the 2016 U6 Sharks--

Ben was told that he was no longer going to be a Communications Officer for the Marine Corps but actually a Logistics Officer for the Marine Corps, a completely new job that he had hoped for for a long time.  Ben and I received personal recognition from our command in Yuma for all our accomplishments with Marine Wing Support Squadron 371 and we said goodbye to our SandShark family.

All of this, and we are still in the middle of planning the Best Goss Darn Wedding Ever on June 4th, in hopes that our families and friends can join us in New Jersey to celebrate our marriage.  Ben and I have realized that time slips us some times.  We've been so busy getting this move together, trying to find a home in North Carolina (which we still haven't), school, work, soccer practice (for kids that aren't even ours) it's been a bit stressful.  But we've grown so deeply in our faiths in these past 6 months as a newly married couple, seriously relying on the Lord to take our worries and troubles.  We feel more than blessed and continue to ask for patience and grace when we are feeling anxious and stressed.  I still don't know what the Lord's plan is for us, but I do know it is to do great things in His name.  I decided to get rid of Facebook because I felt it was stealing my time (my own fault due to lack of discipline).  Time that I should be dedicating to more important things such as our move, my job, my school, the wedding, our dog, my husband, and Jesus.  I began this blog as a way to keep family and friends updated on what's going on in our crazy and hectic lives as we travel the world via the Marine Corps, start a family, and discover God's plans for us.