party!

Tonight, my small group had a party to see off two of our group members, Jenni and Todd, who are leaving the church next week. Todd was the Community Life pastor at our church and he recently got a job offer to work with Samaritan's Purse (an organization founded by Billy Graham's son, Franklin Graham). We had a great time hanging out and sharing stories and, of course, eating!

I was very excited to try some new recipes I found on Pinterest. the first one is called "Better Than ANYTHING" cake.

Dark chocolate cake, 1 can of sweetened condensed milk, cool whip, caramel, and some skor's bars!

Ta-Da! This was a huge hit at the party! Wasn't even able to bring any leftovers home! 

2 bottles of Sprite, 1 cup of Country time Lemonade, 1 can of Pineapple Juice and some fresh lemon! 

Ta-Da! A great summer's drink. Very tasty and refreshing!

Angel and I enjoy hanging out on the porch in our backyard. It's so nice and relaxing to look out at the water while enjoying a great book with a great watch dog protecting me =) 

Love looking out at the beautiful colors God paints in the sky.

Angel and I wish everyone a great weekend!!! We love you! 

XOXOXO

365

First off....Happy 32nd Anniversary to my beautiful mom and handsome dad!

and secondly...Happy 1st Anniversary to me and Caleb! (It is so cool that we share the same anniversary date as my parents. I love that!)

Even though Caleb and I are over 7,000 miles apart, he sure knows how to make me feel loved from afar! I was joyously overwhelmed by all the wonderful wishes and sweet messages from friends and family throughout the day.  It is so nice to know that our marriage is supported by so much love and so many prayers. It really makes a difference to know that we have great family and friends by our side who are always there for us.

Angel was going crazy from all the delivery men that kept knocking on our door this morning! Caleb surprised me with very special gifts to make this special day amazing.

24 beautiful roses

and a beautiful new watch! 

He sure knows how to spoil me!!! =) His greatest gift to me was a letter he wrote that I received last Friday (but did not read til today. I had specific instructions not to open it until our anniversary!). Caleb really does have a way with words. It brought tears to my eyes and I have read it over and over throughout this whole day. 

We were also very blessed to be able to talk for over an hour this afternoon. We had such a great conversation on Skype and it was wonderful to feel so close to each other across the miles, to pray together, and celebrate this past year together as husband and wife. 

This year has flown by so quickly and I have to say that contrary to popular belief, our 1st year together was absolutely amazing. It is so great to be able to be with your best friend day-in and day-out and to love them more with each passing day. True (agape) love rocks! 

We know the conversation will end when we start making funny faces at each other! haha

We were sad we couldn't physically kiss each other today, so we put our heads together (haha), and came up with this! 

This was so fun to do. It took us about 15 minutes to try to find the perfect angle, and after many attempts and our cheeks hurting from laughing so much, we finally got a good one! 

I had a wonderful day with friends as well. My two friends, Lucy and Jen and I went to Zumba while Angel enjoyed a long and fast run with Lucy's husband. Angel is on medication right now, Clomicalm, to help her deal with her separation anxiety. We're trying it out and praying that it will help her mental state when we leave her by herself. I'm also praying that she'll be okay for the 2 weeks I'll be in San Diego as she will be boarded up in a kennel. Hopefully, the medication will kick in by next week when I have to leave! 

Again, thank you all for being so special to us and for always being there to support us throughout this year. We love and appreciate you!  

XOXO

Seeing is believing!

Recently, I found some helpful tips from a board on Pinterest. Some include, tying a dryer sheet to my pants while I'm outside to keep mosquitoes from biting me (it really works!), making my own weed spray from Apple Cider vinegar, salt, and dawn dish soap (One gallon of APPLE CIDER VINEGAR, 1/2 c table salt, 1 tsp Dawn. Mix and pour into a smaller spray bottle), which works better than Round-Up and is a lot cheaper! BUT, I have to say that tonight I was REALLY blown away at what a little lemon slice can do! I'm not sure if anyone else would be excited about this, but since I like a clean house, I love finding any tips & advice that can help it stay that way...and when they actually work, I'm ecstatic!

I have really stubborn water spots in my shower and my kitchen sink faucet. I read that you just need to rub a lemon and VOILA! It'll go away like magic. Out of curiosity, I took a piece of my leftover lemon that I used from dinner and rubbed it all over my kitchen sink. I'll just post the pictures and they'll do the talking! (By the way, I am very embarrassed to show the 'before' picture, but I want to show how 'stubborn' those water spots were!)

This is the before. I promise that I have tried to get rid of the spots! I should have taken the flash off so you could see how bad it really was! 

After rubbing it with a little slice of lemon! That's it! It's like a brand new faucet! 

The little miracle lemon! 

If anybody knew this before I knew this, then shame on you for not telling me the secret sooner! =) Not only is it a lot cheaper than buying something from the store, it makes your kitchen smell nice and zesty! 

Love you all! Stay fresh and clean! <3 

XOXO,

Nancy