First Christmas, as well as other Firsts

We celebrated our first Christmas as a married couple earlier this week. It was a crazy few days, between all the Christmases, but it was wonderful. I got K some more coins for his collection, as well as a wood carved displayer for his coins. He gave me my fur baby--and as naughty as she can be at times, I love her dearly.
Christmas day itself was pretty low key. K caught the stomach bug that has been going around so he layed around trying to get better. I spent the majority of the day at the hospital with Grandma.
Our family has our very own case of "Dr. House" going on. Grandma has been sick for about a week and a half, and her symptoms have the doctors baffled. It's actually been a very interesting process watching them try to figure out what is going on. It will all be okay, but it's definately slow going trying to get things figured out.
Meshka is almost fully potty trained. Our baby is already 9 weeks old, and furry as ever. I love her and her adorable self.
We feel very blessed as we go into this new year. We pray the Lord blesses you all as well.

Looking Forward to the Holidays...and Introducing:

We have a new addition :) My incredible husband bought me the world's most adorable (and naughty) puppy for Christmas. Meet Meshka (pronounced Mee-sh-kah):


Meshka means "little bear" in Russian. We figured it fit her pretty well, since she's super fluffy and adorable :) Meshka is 7 weeks old and we knew she was the one for us when we found out her birthday was October 23, 2010--yes, our wedding day! She is half English Shephard, half Belgian Tervuren. And we love her dearly--even when she has accidents on the floor.

K has one more day of work and then he is off for an entire week! It's going to be weird having him home that much! We are looking forward to family bonding time :) There will be a total of 6 Christmases that we get to attend, including ours, so it will definately be a holiday to remember!

Speaking of the holidays, I've done some decorating:


We are having lots of fun adjusting to married life and are looking forward to celebrating our first Christmas together! If I don't post again before Christmas, we wish you the happiest of holidays and a blessed Christmas!
With love,
The Gazaryans

Where to Even Begin?

Well, it's been a while since I last posted, but the last 3 months have been absolutely crazy! I'll do my best to update you with what all has happened and where we are now.
My fabulous car is still (miraculously) running. It wouldn't start from July until the end of October, but for some reason, it's working again. So no complaints. I had to live with Mom and Dad for the last 3 months before the wedding, which was challenging having been on my own for so long, but was also a blessing being able to spend time with the family before I got married.
September was crazy! We had lots of wedding things to take care of and it was time for lots of fun!

Bridal Shower

Kris Perry and I have known each other for quite some time, and she blessed me by hosting my Bridal Shower on September 18th. We did a Garden Party themed brunch and it was wonderful! We had delicious homemade breads, quiche, fruits and mimosas, and felt very pampered!

Here are the cute place settings that were at each table
Kris also did a short Bible study before we started opening gifts, which meant so much to me, as it was a reminder of the blessing of marriage. I was so blessed by all the women who came to the party, and we had a blast! Konstantin and I received so many fabulous gifts and I had a wonderful time putting them in our apartment!

One of the fabulous gifts we got

Bachelorette Party
On September 24th, Kylie and my other bridesmaids hosted my bachelorette party. We wanted to keep things pretty classy and it ended up being a super fun night! Kylie, Sarah and Reagan decked me out pretty well (I felt pretty ridiculous, but it was all in good fun)


Once they were done with the good humored humiliation, we headed out to Gristanti's for dinner. It was scrumptious and I had a blast having all of my ladies there. Our server was hilarious and I even had a little girl come up to me and her mom said "She thinks you're a real princess, would it be okay if she hugs you?" So cute!
After dinner, we headed back to Grandma's basement where games galore began. It was so much fun-we did The Price is Right and made wedding dresses from toilet paper. The girls went all out for that, and that game became one of the highlights of the evening!

Most of the ladies after dinner


Making wedding dresses
We headed out to Whiskey Tango that night for some serious dancing. It was so fun--and there were 3 other bachelorette parties going on there too. However, my ladies got treated the best, getting lots of free drinks and shoutouts throughout the evening. Again, I think a lot of it was because we were keeping it so classy.


Kylie and I turned 22 September 23. Twenty-two doesn't feel any different from 21.

Well, enough for now. I'll post again soon. I can hardly wait to tell about the wedding--it was truly one of the best days of our lives.

So Many Wonderful Things!

There have been so many wonderful things happening lately!
K is home, namely :)

But we got our apartment and he will be moving in within the week. We also got to take our engagement pictures.
Here are the teasers Micalah sent us:



We took this one at Elmwood Park. Here's one more from there:



And, of course, it wouldn't be engagement pictures without a shot of my "bling"



It's crazy to think that in less than 2 months, we'll be married! I am just so excited!

Learning to Wait

This whole process of finding a full time, well-paying job is getting very discouraging. While I know it's only a temporary thing, it's very hard on my self esteeem
You're over qualified
You're under qualified
etc etc etc

It gets old.

But mom showed me an article today that helped put things back into perspective. It talked about how sometimes in your most discouraged state, is when God is planning to work the most.
It used the story of Mary, Martha, and Lazerus in the Bible when Lazerus died and Jesus waited to raise him from the dead. He could have prevented him from dying, but instead, he made them wait--and Mary had to make the choice to continue pouting or to trust her Lord
I want to be like Mary--able to stop pouting and to trust my Lord completely. It's really hard right now, and perhaps that makes me sound like I doubt my Jesus, but I don't....I'm just being honest

I know a job will come in time, but the closer we get to our wedding, the scarier it gets thinking that I will be unable to financially contribute to our marriage
but that's ultimately not what marriage is about
and I know he loves me regardless of what I can pay for

I am blessed to have an amazing fiance. Only 55 days until I am his wife....what a wonderful feeling
I can hardly wait

but again, I am learning to trust the Lord's timing :) 55 days will be here soon, as will a job, and as will a car

Back to "Normal"

What a blessing it is to have my darling home! I can hardly wait to start getting stuff ready for our life together--we're going apartment shopping on Thursday, and starting premarital counseling sometime next week...among other things

I love him so much and it's crazy to think that two months from now, I can call him my husband! What a blessing--I can hardly wait!

On a completely separate note, I can't stop watching this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQp6Weo0JK0

watch that one first. Then this one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=appCtwefTAo&feature=fvsr

I wont' lie, I bought the song on iTunes lol! Too funny

Anxiously Awaiting

My darling graduated this morning from SFOC and is on the road home as I write this. It's crazy, thinking that the "distance" portion of our relationship is almost over (albiet temporarily). Words cannot express how excited I am to have him home again. I'd be lying though if I didn't say I was a little nervous--what's it going to be like to be so close in proximity again?
We'll have to re-build the routine, which hopefully goes smoothly--and I'm looking very forward to it!

Still working on wedding stuff. It's hard to believe we only have 64 days until we're man and wife. It's a little annoying though, not having people RSVP like we asked. It's hard to plan a wedding with that!

It needs to be Sunday---it's time to be in his arms again.

Both Humbled, and Touched

Yesterday was interesting, and God used it to remind me that it is okay to humble yourself and allow others to bless you--even when you know you've done nothing to deserve it.
K graduates on the 20th, and I was greatly looking forward to flying down and seeing him graduate. I like being there for big moments in people's lives, especially when they involve my soon to be husband. Unfortunately, I am also a broke recent college grad...so it was looking as though that wasn't going to happen.
While I was at work yesterday, I was talking with my manager to see about possibly picking up more hours to try and make the money for the plane ticket. We had no hours left to allott, so I figured it just wasn't going to be

Well, while I was working, one of my coworkers who had just gotten off her shift asked me to come over the the counter. I thought nothing of it, and went over, expecting to check her out so she could go home.
Instead, she hands me a gift card and says "You're not allowed to say no. You need to be there to see him graduate"
She had overheard my conversation with my manager and she went and bought me a 125 dollar gift card so I could buy the plane ticket. I was so blessed, and so humbled by her actions. It was truly a blessing and I'm honestly still in shock over it!

I'm still waiting on K to call me so I can get the flight figured out, but knowing that I'm probably going to get to be there now makes me so happy. Call me a nerd, but I will do anything to be there for special moments--especially ones that people work so hard to acheive.

In case you can't tell, I am very proud of my fiance. He works so hard and does such a wonderful job at what he does. Sometimes I get frustrated with things regarding his job, but I also know he's doing what he has to---and I will do whatever I can to support him in that and be his biggest cheerleader!

In other news, I'm working on the job search still. I've applied for 4 jobs this morning, and applied for a few more earlier in the week. We'll see if anything comes of it :) I'm just ready to stop making minimum wage (it's time for a new-er car! D'artagnon has been acting up...silly car)

God's timing is perfect. I have to remember that. In every situation.

Learning isn't Always Easy....Neither is Patience

I know I have a long way to go before I get this whole military spouse thing down....thankfully I have 3 more months until that title becomes official, but even then, there are times when I wonder if I'll ever learn. Patience has never been my forte--even as a child, I was always waiting, anxious about something. It seems as though the last few days, I've reverted back to my childhood attitudes....and I honestly dont' have an explanation as to why.
There are days when having K gone really gets to me. If I said I never missed him being here, that would be a lie. Other days, I'm okay with it--because I know it's not much longer and that his absence is only temporary. I think it's mostly in big moments: vacations, big accomplishments, etc-that really make me anxious for him to come home again.
I've been doing a lot of praying recently. Prayer for patience, because Lord knows I have none. My K will be home in less than 28 days....two days ago, that felt like eternity. We will be married in less than 3 months....to me, that still seems like an eternity away.
Patience is a hard thing to learn. Will I ever master it? Lord willing, yes. But only in His strength.

In other news, I am in the process of putting together a rather epic care package for my sweetie. Irene and I went to Target to get the first half of the mayham yesterday--and came out with some rather random, but excellently awesome stuff. I hope K likes sandwich boxes :)
Working at Walgreens does bode well for making care packages. That discount comes in handy when that bill keeps climbing :) I love doing things like that though. I love to bless people and make them smile....and this is the best I know how to do from 900 miles away!!

Speaking of Walgreens, I work today. I enjoy my job there, I really do. The people are wonderful and make me actually look forward to working. Will I be there forever? Doubtful, especially now that I'm looking for full time work....but I have learned a lot working there--about myself, about others, about work ethic
It's been a good experience.

Well, I probably need to finish this up...but I ask of you that you do pray for me, that I can learn patience and that this whole process of my learning will continue to bring K and I closer and be the building blocks to an incredible marriage :)
Blessings.

You can't have Hello without Goodbye

I'm writing this super early, but it's either do this: spill my heart out to an inanimate computer blog or cry....and I don't want to cry anymore.
K and I said our goodbyes to each other about 15 minutes ago. I've been in San Antonio for about 5 days. And a wonderful 5 days it has been.

I hate how fast the time goes when we are together. The times when we are apart just drag, but once we're together it's over before we know it. I'm already counting down to September, when he gets to come to Offutt and we won't be over 900 miles apart.

I won't lie. I cried when he left. Yes, I'm a pansy. Yes, I should be used to goodbyes by now, but I'm not. The closer we get to our wedding, the harder goodbyes seem to get. It just doesn't seem very fair--but life isn't fair.

I had good practice in "military" yesterday. The unit was told they would have a 24 hour mission yesterday (putting them home this morning and giving them all of today off), which would have been ideal because that would mean one more day with him before my flight leaves.
But in true military fashion, it was a farce--today is the 24 hour. Meaning I had to say my goodbyes far sooner than I wanted to or was ready to.

Does it get easier? To an extent, yes, I think it does, but it also gets harder. There are days when I feel selfish and wonder "when is it our turn?" But I know that time will come. I just need to put on my big girl panties and deal with it.

Last time we said goodbye, he was still in Florida. That one was incredibly hard. I cried, even while at the airport. And I think it's because I realized something: my home is no longer Omaha, or Nebraska, or school, or wherever. The only place I truly feel at home is wherever he is: whether that's in his truck, on base, at his apartment. Don't get my wrong, I love my family. I love going home to their house, but now, that's not my home. My family is there, but I am not complete there. I guess that's part of getting married....

I stayed with him last night, knowing each precious moment was one closer to him needing to report (at 5am!). My sweetheart is NOT a snuggler, but for some reason, last night he held me all night. I felt so secure, even though my heart was aching. I love him so much.

These last few days have been incredible. The moment I saw him, it was as if those 3 months apart never happened. It was as if he had never moved away. As if we had spent this last year together rather than apart. That's what I love about Hellos. For a moment, everything is right again.

We had so much fun this weekend. I met some wonderful people (and their lady friends). Thursday night when I got in we just hung around, it wasn't anything special....but on the same vein, it was special because K and I were together--and that is all that matters

Friday we went to Sea World and it poured :) At least we got wet at the right place. I had a terrible cold from last Tuesday through about Sunday, so that kinda put a damper on things, but we dealt :) That night, we went to a resaurant called something like Fogo de Chao--and I literally rolled out of there haha! It was delicious, and we had wonderful company of Ryan and Stephanie.




We saw the Riverwalk, went to Dave and Busters, saw a movie, went shopping (found out Konstantin's ring size haha).....it was a marvelous weekend.

Do I miss him already? More than you can even comprehend....but the one thing that gives me hope during the goodbyes is knowing that our next hello will be even sweeter than the last. Without the pain and sadness of goodbyes, we cannot comprehend the passion and beauty of the hellos.....

So if all goes according to plan, only 42 days until a hello. Only 42 days until I'm in his arms again. Only 42 days until I am home again.

Waiting, waiting, waiting

I'm currently waiting for our wedding coordinator to call me so I can go down to base and get our deposit in for the reception location. I am so not a patient person.

In other news, I am super excited about where we're having the wedding. It's a lovely chapel with tons of stained glass--which I love!
here's a sampling:


It's definately military, but that's okay, since afterall, it is a military wedding!!

What I have begun to notice is that the longer we are engaged, the less I care about the wedding and the more I just want to be married. I find it funny that we girls spend our whole lives planning a wedding and the actual engagement comes and you just get stressed about the wedding and want to be married already!
haha!

Well, I guess this is starting then

So here's my first Blog post, probably of many, although they will most likely be sporadic as well....knowing how consistant I can be at this things! Even though K and I aren't married yet (124 days to go!) I figured I'd get a head start on our blog, especially considering we are a military couple, and who knows how many times we'll move!?!

For those of you who may only know me, or only know K let me give you a quick rundown:
K is a 2nd Lt. in the United States Air Force. He is currently training in Security Forces and is in San Antonio, Texas until September.
My name is Kim. The last name will be changing here soon :) I am currently living in Gretna, Nebraska and am just working and looking for a more permanent job for when we move to Bellevue.

We met two years ago in a summer school course (he was my lab partner). K proposed a year ago and our wedding day is soon approaching (although not fast enough!)

I am so ready to have my darling home. Although I am also very blessed that he is in a place where we can talk on a somewhat consistant basis. He will be home so soon, and I can hardly wait!!

Well, that's probably it for tonight, I'll try and post some pictures and further updates tomorrow!

Blessings to you all!
Kim

"Coincidences are merely miracles where God chooses to remain anonymous"
~Beth Moore