Greetings from Albuquerque!

First off, we want to thank you for taking the time to open our blog and read it. I figure I can send out an email to those of you in my address book and if you want to read what we have to say you can just go here!! So anyway... let me begin!

Hello and greetings from Albuquerque, New Mexico!!!

Sorry that we haven't wrote sooner... we have been so crazy busy getting everything all set up in our house and trying to settle in. We moved into our house on November 12th. We were able to get a 3 bedroom, 2 story house with a one car garage. Houses on base are all duplex style and we do have neighbors, but we haven't really met them yet. The first three days we moved in we were both off of work so we were able to get a lot of stuff done. We have finally opened and unpacked the last box!! Well sort of... I have all my craft stuff in one of the rooms. I am still trying to organize it. I tend to get overwhelmed with the amount of stuff I have collected in the last three states I lived in. Plus I was reminded of ALL the scrap booking things I had in storage for three years! It's been fun though.

We aren't decorating for Christmas this year, but I do have 2 things set up. Stockings that we bought at Hobby Lobby that match our living room and a Santa that I got for 5 bucks that hangs on the wall!

The weather is starting to get cold here. We even had a little snow on the mountains behind us the other morning. For those of you that don't know, Abq. is 5,000 feet above sea level. The mountains reach about 10,000 feet. It's a whole new atmosphere here and our first two weeks we felt it. Breathing is a whole new experience as well. We went to the gym on base and our first time running we had to learn how to breathe all over again. I miss Mt. Rainier, and the "mountains" here are nothing like there, but it is a beautiful site to see every morning. I have attached some photos of NM and our house so you can see what I am talking about.

Dexter is fitting right in with his squadron. We have been hanging out with one of the guys who lives right around the corner. When you relocate to a new base you are assigned a sponsor. The sponsor is usually a supervisor in your shop that greets you and gets you all set up. Ours was Sgt. Mantlo and he has been awesome! His wife threw a "welcome Gore's" barbecue for us and invited over tons of people for us to meet. We played games all day and just enjoyed meeting people here. We quickly learned that we are the only couple in his shop without kids. Apparently it's an epidemic down here.

Some of you may know that I transferred down here with the portrait studio. We quickly realized that it was not going to be a good job for me here. First off, Abq is huge, and when I picked the mall to work at that I did, I had no clue that it was 45 minutes away. And I was only working 10 hours a week. So I started looking for a new job and started two weeks ago working for a company called Heel. It's a homeopathic pharmaceutical company. I work with Chiropractors directly and set up sales meetings with them for a specific product called Traumeel. Its pretty neat. I am on the phones most the time or putting together packets to send to chiropractors. I work the same hours as Dexter and we have the weekends off together. It's really great! Plus- I just drive outside the gate and across the street and I am at work. No more driving 45 minutes.

We are LOVING being married!! We rotate nights to cook dinner, we sit at the table every night and just catch up on what happen during the day. Then we usually watch a movie or play a game. In the mornings we are up getting ready at the same time and even walk out the door at the same time. He calls it "living the American Dream." We are both so happy that this day has come and that we made it through the last year. We thank God every day for giving us the strength to get to where we are now!

We have gone to church on base, but are going to look off base for a more contemporary church. The church on base has multiple services to meet the religious needs of each member of the military. The closest thing to what I am used to is Protestant. When we got to church we realized that we were the youngest couple in there. Quite possibly the only couple without gray hair as well! We want to find a church with a younger group base so we can find a group to connect to. So this coming weekend we will try another one.

We were fortunate enough to spend Thanksgiving with a friend I made through the portrait studio. Her name is Jody, and her husband in also in the Air Force. They have six children, including triplets! They invited us over, along with some other airmen that had no where else to go. I would say there was probably at least 20 people that came that day. It was nice to be invited somewhere! After all the Airmen left Dexter and I stuck around and played some game with Jody and her family. Jody is a professional photographer and through talking with her lately she has made me really excited to start school for photography.

This is something that Dexter and I have talked about for awhile now. Me, the most indecisive person, has had a hard time deciding between photography and Education. But spending time with Jody and talking to her about it, and the time spent behind the camera at the portrait studio, I really want to do this. And on base alone there can be tons of connections. It's also something that I will be able to use as we move around the next 20 years. It's also a class that I can take online through the New York Institute of Photography.

Dexter and I will be coming to Washington December 20th through the 29th. We wanted to be sure to be home to celebrate my mom's birthday. And yes... my 25th birthday! Yikes... I can't believe it!

I just wanted to update you guys a little bit ! We will be sure and keep you all updated as more things come along! Be sure to check out my other blog with the pictures.

We love you all so much!

~Dexter and Amber