Rest is for the weak!

Well, it's been awhile since our last post we will catch up a little bit:
Since Airborne we have been in full swing to get appointments made for us to meet with all the people needed to get over to Hawaii. Everything seems to be going smoothly at this point. We ask for you continued prayers as we finalize all the details and work to pack and ship our stuff as well as our car for it all to get there in time of our arrival to the island.
We were also blessed to be able to purchase a new car in May. We bought a Nissian Rogue. We traded in my car because again we can only take one. We were very excited to be able to get this car and with everything we were looking for and in our price range.
On memorial day weekend we were able to go to King's Island of Adventure theme park. It was a lot of fun just to hangout with each other and go on crazy rides and eat park food (which is my favorite). We went to the water park as well, which was amazing fun. We are trying to spend as much time with each other before we go to Hawaii and might not get the chance.
We have and HUGE amount of stuff coming up in the next 3 months! We don't have one free weekend until the end of July. I love having visitors so it will be and exciting time for us to see family and friends before we leave. This weekend is our friend Adam. Next weekend is our Grandparents Balough. Then we are going to the French Lick Resort the following weekend for massages and a night away at the hotel. the next weekend we are off to visit Momma K and Tim in Ohio. Then my mom, nana, uncle, and aunt come for a week to visit...I am SO excited. Then it's packing the next. Then my lovely friends Ali and Maggie are coming to visit for a weekend and then taking our car to Missouri. Finally we get a break at the end of July :) and about 2 weeks later we are off to Hawaii. Ok, that was a way too long run on paragraph!
Nate is about to start up another cycle of basic trainees this upcoming week. I ask that you pray for him and patience with this being the LAST :) cycle he will have to do EVER!!! He will also be showing some new people exactly how to be an ExO of a unit so they can take over when it moves to GA.
We are headed to a baseball game at the end of the week with a bunch of people from the Company so that will be a lot of fun.
Well, that is about all for now I will really try to update more often :)

~The Baloughs~

update

I guess it's time for another Balough update!!!

Nate has been back from Airborne school for a couple of weeks now...NO injuries :). He moved straight into running the German Badge for his Brigade (whew). He was actually awarded the Brigade commanders coin today (which is hard to get) for his involvement in planning the German Badge events. I guess sometimes hard work and REALLY early mornings pay off.

We are planning for a great deal of travel in May. June is a relaxing time then July it's bye bye bye to our stuff, family, and down time. August we kiss Fort Knox goodbye and say ALOHA to Hawaii :).

For me nothing new happenings still trying to find a hobby to keep me occupied. I am working on cleaning out the closets right now and getting things organized.

I will update you all again soon on the Knox Balough clan!

a little update on Nate...

So this is just a quick update on Nathaniel...

As you know he is at Airborne school and they started their jump week on Monday. Only one guy was hurt on Mon. (and it was not Nate). The guy broke his ankle. Nate is doing very well. He has made 3 out of 5 jumps so far and is loving it. He has his last 2 jumps tonight. One jump is a regular on and the other is a night jump so please pray that he continues to be safe and for the rest of the guys. Yesterday they had more injuries...broken/twisted ankles and one guy broke his back. Pray for all the guys as they jump!

Nate gets home Friday!!!!!! We are so excited because then we get to start planning our MOVE :). Thank you for all of your prayers and support of Nathaniel while he is away...and always.

The Baloughs

Happenings...

Well I thought I better do a quick update for everyone on the KY Balough clan. Nate is still at Airborne school. Next week is Jump Week so we will def. be asking your prayers for Nate's safety. Just remember when you put your shoes on to pray that Nate lands on his feet :).

We are going to be crazy busy up until it is time to leave in Aug. Hopefully Nate's mom is going to come visit us for a couple of days in April. That will be nice for us to spend time with her before we leave. Nate then has to be acting commander for all of May for his company so he will be really busy with that. We have a couple weddings in May to go to. in June Nate will start back another cycle of training troops. In July Nate will still be training troops and my family will be coming. I am so excited for my aunt and uncle to come visit for a whole week in July. We also are packing up all of our stuff in July to ship off to the island. We still have to get all of that arranged. Pray that Oreo passes her blood test this time around. Once everything is packed we are off to the island :). We will have to take some stuff to TN bc all of the places in HI have washers and dryers and stuff so we wont have to take those with us. We also have a whole othe sofa that we won't need since we bought our new ones so we are trying to put some of our stuff in storage.

Well that is all for now I will make sure to update again soon and let you know how Airborne went.

It's Official

We have officially gotten our orders for Hawaii. We are going to wait til July to find a place to live on the island. Now we can go make our reservations with the travel people to get our plane tickets and movers set up. We are extremely excited to get things moving. We are very grateful to get away from Fort Knox. We are going to miss a lot of our friends but we will keep in touch. We are probably going to get more visitors in Hawaii than here in KY :).

Nathaniel will be off to Airborne school next week and will be gone for 3 weeks. He is very excited to get the chance to go, it was looking like a no go for a little bit. He is also looking at another course to take in late July. We ask that you pray for his safety while at this course. He will be jumping out of airplanes and doing some crazy stuff.

I am looking at going home and maybe visiting some friends while he is gone. I might stay here for a little while but will make the trip to watch Nate jump out of a plane during jump week and then for his graduation.

We are going out tonight with his Captain and 1st Sargent and their wives so that should be fun and a chance to get to know them better.

Nate's Captain asked him the other day if we had a set date night and we of course don't bc with Nate's job we are never sure when we can have a date night. We have decided that Tues. is our set date night for now and with Nate leaving next week we are going to try to go to our favorite restaurant and maybe go see a movie.

Well that is all from the KY Balough clan....

Happenings

Well it has been a little over a month so I thought it was time for a quick update.

Nate has been approved to go to Airborne school soon so he will be gone for a couple of weeks. We are very excited for him to further his training by attending schools and different classes.

I am still taking class with the Army learning about all the different happenings going on. I am also looking into quilting classes to be able to make Nate and I our t-shirt quilts.

We are expecting a lot of company in the up coming months. Everyone is coming to visit before we move to Hawaii for the next couple of years.

We are very excited about the new adventure of Hawaii. We are finding a Realtor to locate us a place to rent while we are there. I have completed my medical examine, which was the last step in getting our official orders. Our official orders should come in sometime this week. When we get our orders in hand we will then go to the travel people and book all of our flights and the movers. It seems like the process should be easy but stressful, so we ask for your prayers in dealing with all the upcoming moving and packing.

We were able to visit with family this weekend. It was so much fun spending time with Nate's grandparents. His grandmother gave me her old sewing machine to use in my sewing classes and a bunch of books and materials to go along with it. His Dad also gave us a lot of tomatoes and pickles and a bunch of other stuff he canned. We love using those tomatoes in our spaghetti sauce and sure enough when we got home Sunday we made spaghetti.

Well that is enough for now I will update again soon...

Valentine's Day craziness...

This Valentine's Day Nate and I decided we wanted to stay at home and try our hand at making sushi. Nate has a chance of being deployed during the next Valentine's day so we wanted to make the best of this one by just spending as much time together as we could.
We always go overboard with presents and stuff at different holidays so we set a $25 limit for V-day this year. Of course neither of us really stuck to it.
I was having a lot of trouble trying to find something for Nate that was nice and romantic. I finally decided to buy him the camping equipment he had been wanting and promised him we would go camping when it got warmer. I LOVE being outdoors so the present was kinda for me too, that is how I justified going over budget :). He did amazing this year!!! I told him I didn't want anything like dvd's or anything like that that I wanted something meaningful that I could have forever!!! He def. came through. He found this place that does canvas type things and they print your pic on it then you can write a message over it. It was perfect and VERY sweet. He woke me up with flowers then sent me on a scavenger hunt around the house to find my present. At each place I got flowers and a clue to the next location. It was so fun.
After all that we just spent time watching fun movies and spending time with the doggies.
It was finally time to start cooking sushi and we couldn't find the Rice Vinegar that we KNOW we had bought so we ran out to the Asia store and grabbed some. One of our many adventures.
We got back and proceeded to start making sushi.
Let me just say to those who want to make sushi at home in the future that it is quite a fun adventure and just be prepared.
We had so much fun trying to imitate our favorite sushi. When finally finished everything and sat down to eat and found that our eyes were WAY bigger than all of the huge array of food in front of us. We only ate a fraction of all the food we made.
Then for dessert Nate made up root beer floats.
It was around this time I got a call from my friend and she said she thought she was going into labor and was asking if I could watch her children while they went to get checked at the hospital.
I packed a bag and drove over.
There little boy was a hoot!!! He kept getting up every 5 min to tell me hello and that his tummy was rumbly. It was too cute!!! It turned out that she was not in full blown labor so they sent her home.
So all in all it was one of the craziest, awesomest, greatest, and lovely V-day ever and I didn't even really leave the house :).

Busy Couple...

Hello All,
Sorry it has been awhile...Well not too much news to tell you on the home front for the Balough clan, at least this Balough clan ;).
Nathaniel is currently in cycle with a new training unit training more soldiers to go out and fight!
I am still busy with different military classes and learning as much as I can about this thing called the Army.
We are still waiting on the official papers to come in, but it looks like the Baloughs are headed to HAWAII!!!! That is the word that we have gotten from those in charge of assignments. They have put us on the track to Hawaii. In August we will be packing up our stuff and off to the islands. We are very excited to see what God has planned for us WAY over there. We of course are going to miss our families, but we have a feeling we are going to get more visitors by living in Hawaii than Kentucky :). God has truly blessed us with putting amazing people around us that are filled with so much information to give us. My FRG leader was actually station in Hawaii so she has been oh so helpful. It seems that everyone we have met that lived there or were stationed there has nothing but great things to say so that is a HUGE encouragement. We prayed long and hard over where to even request to be station so it is really a God thing that we are headed to the island. We just ask for your continued prayers as we continue to move forward with the move. Some things to pray for are:
1. We can get every thing done in a timely manner
2. Time to spend with family
3. Traveling
4. Patience with the whole moving process

We will update again soon!!!
-The Baloughs

Craziness...

Well...Where do we start? Nathaniel just got through with a Basic Training Cycle and they graduated Jan. 22. I also received an award for volunteer of the cycle for helping out Charlie Company at graduation. It was a lot of fun.
We have found out that we only are here at Fort Knox until August, which is a HUGE blessing. We do have an idea of where they are going to send us, but knowing the Army we are not completely sure. We are also waiting to inform family first and then let everyone else know. If it is where we were told then it will def. be an adventure.
Nathaniel is now applying to go to Airborne school in May which is amazing that he is now able to go where as before we thought his chances were only going to come after a year or two. Nathaniel is also getting a new Commander which is going very smoothly. He only has two more cycles left before we leave.
I will be visiting SC the last couple of days in Feb. into the first week of March. I am so excited to be able to catch up with friends and spend time with family ;).
I am currently taking many different classes trying to learn the business of the Army, which is a crazy one.
I have also decided to start my one blog and see where that takes me lol. I am not one to write things done bc I store it all in my head or speak it out so this will be an interesting endeavor.
I will update again soon with the specifics of our next duty station and the adventure to come!
-The Baloughs

Update...

Okay....so the first post was to get us started and now for an actual update!
Nate and I are currently stationed at Fort Knox Kentucky. It is nice here and not to far from either of our families.
Since we were married in December 2008 we have been busy. Nate finished up his officer training and then became an ExO (executive officer) in a company here at Fort Knox. He is doing exceptionally well and has received numerous awards for all of his hard work.
We finally found a house on base that suited all of our needs and I posted pics on Facebook. We have been trying hard to make this our home.
We have two doggie children as we call them. Baxter is a Yorkshire Terrier and only weighs about 3 pounds. Oreo is a rescue puppy who is a basset/lab mix and weighs a ton. These puppies have definitely blessed our life in many ways.
I am still looking for a job but out here it seems I am either too qualified or need to be in the Military.
In May we were able to go on a cruise to the Bahamas and it was amazing to actually get to spend true quality time together.
This summer Nate was called to go to Washington State to help with training up there so I went back to camp to work for the summer. God taught us both a lot this summer about strength and patience.
We are currently praying and seeking out where God wants us next. We have put in requests to be transferred away from Fort Knox. We will find out our new duty station in a little over 3 months. We ask that you please pray for us as we figure out what the future holds.
Well that is a really quick update about our life together over the past year. We will write again soon.
Oreo and Baxter

The Baloughs

Hello Everyone,
We have decided to create this blog to update our friends and family about our life. We have been married for a little over a year now and are enjoying our experiences as a married couple. We are ARMY strong and are looking forward to what God will do with us in the future. We look forward to keeping you apart of our lives through this blog and hope to keep in touch with all of you as well. God Bless!!!


The Baloughs