Memories of 2008

The year of 2008 marked our first year of marriage. My life became enriched as I embarked on a lifelong journey with my best friend and husband, Marcus. Our first year together was filled with smiles, laughter, and carefree timelessness! It began in Disney World. We celebrated our honeymoon there. What a wonderful place full of magic and dreams! The perfect destination for a new couple! All aboard the magic carpet ride....just believe in the Disney magic...just believe and your dreams will come true! They did come true...and I look forward to each new day with Marc. Our first home was in Omaha, NE. We lived in a one bedroom apartment with all of our things stacked up high. Marc worked at TD Ameritrade. He studied very hard for the first 4 months of our marriage. All of his hard work payed off as he became licensed as a Stockbroker. I worked at Offutt, AFB as a dentist in my advanced education residency. On the same day that we were celebrating Marc's accomplishments...we were blessed with more great news. I found out that I was pregnant! How exciting! Our lives were going to change again...we were so thrilled. We celebrated at Red Lobster that night. We went to the wedding of two of our best friends Dan and Laura in May. We told our parents that we were expecting on Mother's Day. Many fun days were shared with Linda, Marc's cousin. We grilled, swam, set fireworks off, went shopping, played games. We also played many slots at the boats in Omaha. We went to one of the best zoos in America. We went to many fine dining restaurants in Omaha. We found out that we had to move to Abilene, Texas due to the military. Marc realized that he had to put in his notice to Ameritrade. We made it back to Lafayette for my baby shower in early August. I graduated from my residency the week that we returned. We moved to our current home here in Abilene. We lived here for a couple of weeks without our things. I was given sometime off of work to move things into our house and get settled. I started working at Dyess, AFB. Marc continued looking for a job in this area, but soon realized that we were living out in the middle of nowhere without much opportunity. We accepted this change. Marc became a great cook...he had my lunch ready for me when I came home in the middle of my work days. He is amazing! My pregnancy went awesome! I remained active all the way until I delivered. We spent our first Christmas and our first Anniversary here in Texas. We had no white christmas...it was very warm! My parents flew in on Christmas Eve. They spent many days with us in hopes to see the birth of our little girl. Marc and I went out to watch The Curious Case of Benjamin Button after a nice meal at Logans for our anniversary. I started to go into labor at the movie theater. We came home and I walked around and the next thing you know we were at the hospital having our first child. Grace Marie Gretencord was born on December 30, 2008 at 1:18 am. She weighed 7 lbs 1 oz. and measured 19 inches...the next few days she measured 21 inches. Giving birth was one of the most amazing experiences that I have ever had. She is such a blessing! My parents were so happy that they got to meet her while they were visiting. I was given 6 weeks of maternity leave and I asked for an additional 2 weeks. My parents enjoyed time at the Air Park looking at all of the planes from the history of the USA. We got ready to start a brand new year together as proud parents of our new baby girl!