Hey there y'all!! It has been years since I took the time to write a blog post. So much has happened in that time that I felt it was best to start a whole new blog because I have a whole new life now. The last time I made a post on my old blog was 7 years ago....needless to say, there have been a lot of significant changes in my life since then.
I gave birth to my beautiful baby girl Katelyn Irene in October of 2012 and that was the highlight of that year for me. The three years following her birth were not so wonderful. Right before she turned 1, I came to the realization that my relationship with her and Carlos's father was extremely toxic and we either needed to make some major changes or it was time to end the marriage. The next two and a half years would be a time of growth and big changes for me as a person and as a mother. To make a long story short, we finalized our divorce in 2016 and it was the best choice I could have ever made for myself and my kids. The divorce process was long and fairly painful, but luckily for me, I had wonderful friends and family that supported me in any way they could and that gave me the strength I needed to get through that difficult time. One of those friends ended up becoming my very best friend and ultimately my husband. I will have to write a post about our story another time. Ashton had been there for me almost daily to listen to me vent or to put a smile on my face. I gained wonderful new friendships through him and I have stepped out of my comfort zone quite a bit thanks to him haha.
We have done so many things together in the last 3 years and I treasure each moment I have been blessed to call him mine. He watched me get my undergraduate degree from Liberty University in May of 2017 and then helped me navigate life as a working mom, as I had not been employed since March of 2010 before I gave birth to Carlos. Ashton is a man that likes to "wing it" as he says, so in true Ashton fashion, he proposed to me (and suggest we get married before he leaves) two nights before he would move across the country to Bremerton, WA due to orders to PCS. This gave me one day to get our marriage license and then find an officiant to perform a civil ceremony the morning before he would be leaving....I told him he was lucky I knew he would wait until the last minute and I had already bought a dress for such an occasion (I'm the planner in the relationship hahaha).
Then we experienced our first long separation in the 2 years since becoming a couple...6 long weeks of being apart because I needed to stay behind in Virginia while the kids finished up school so we could go on a Summer Road Trip to move across the country...that's a whole other blog post, too. Little did I know just how un-fun it would be once he left for the really long deployment...hint: super duper not fun! Once we got out to Washington, we got to spend 3 weeks with him before he was sent on a short underway (he's stationed as a shooter on the USS John C. Stennis...aka think Top Gun yellow shirt guys) for about 7 weeks...during which I got to deal with movers finally delivering our household goods (only took them 2 months since the pack date in VA)...putting my babies on a plane to go back to VA to live with their dad and starting my Graduate program at Concordia University. Then Ashton was home for just under a month before going on the main deployment....this is by far the hardest part of being a military spouse. We have spent approximately a month and a half of our first year of marriage in the same location...I cannot WAIT for him to get home so we can find our normal again. Then it's wedding planning time! We wanted to have a big celebration of sorts for family and friends to attend since our civil ceremony was very last minute and honestly, I kinda liked it that way. No stress then and certainly no stress now with planning a ceremony other than just setting a date haha. Another not so great perk of being in the military...you never honestly fully know your schedule because it can change at any time! But we will figure it out as best we can once he gets home from this deployment. I pray it will be a very very long time before the next one happens.
Anyways, there's my short update on my life to try to bring y'all up to speed! Like I said, I will eventually make separate posts about the Summer 2018 Road Trip I took with the kids and a post that is All About Ashton and Nicole. I'm gonna go procrastinate some more homework now haha. Bye!
