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

Memorial Day

Just wanted to share a few things from Memorial Day weekend before I forget!

On Sunday after church, a few families from church invited me to go boating with them by the river. One of the families has a private dock that is right across from Nicholas Sparks' house!

This is the back of his beautiful home 

It was a beautiful day out. We couldn't have asked for more perfect weather. Everyone had a lot of fun jet skiing, wake boarding, water skiing, laying out, and tubing! One of my AWANA kids took me out on his jet ski. There was a coast guard that was patrolling the river and while I was riding with him, he asked, "Ms. Nancy, are you 21 yet?" HA! I told him I love him for asking that.

I told Caleb that I would LOVE to someday buy a boat. =) Here I am in front of the Nicholas Sparks' home. 

I also wanted to share what Angel does when I get ready every morning. She sprawls out like this waiting for me while I'm in the bathroom doing my hair and make-up. She is such a sweetheart. 

This is after an intense work-out! She was so tired that she had to lay down to drink her water. 

I also wanted to share some pictures that Caleb emailed me. He took some pictures of what his room (called a can), looks like. He's really happy because he just recently got the room all to himself.  Here are the pictures he sent: 

I had a great Memorial Day weekend. Today, I went running with Angel in 85 degree weather and 73% humidity. It was wretched to say the least, but we got through it! When I got home, I was able to Skype with Caleb for a little bit before he had to head to bed. 

I am always so happy when we are able to talk =) 

Lastly, I made a video in tribute in honor of Memorial Day. Our church did a special Memorial Day service on Sunday and the worship team played some patriotic songs. I arranged a Ray Charles' inspired version of America the Beautiful. Here is the link to the video:  America the Beautiful by Nancy Gowan 

I just got back from a Women's Ministry meeting and I'm excited to be a part of the committee and  I'm looking forward to all the events that are coming up throughout the year! 

Hope everyone had a wonderful Memorial Day weekend. 

Love you all,

Nancy

busy body

I can't believe how fast time flies...it's almost June! I'll be visiting my family in SD in just several more weeks! So excited =)

These past couple of weeks, I've been keeping busy by hanging out with friends, getting to know some new ones, church, Awana, Angel, exercising Angel, piano (I have 2 more potential students!), decorating the house, cleaning the house, reading, putting together care packages for Caleb, and working out! Feeling really blessed that God has been keeping me busy, yet allowing me time to rest and drawing me close to Him throughout the day, despite me being a busy body. Here's some pics of what my life consists of these past couple of weeks:

Before Caleb left, he bought Angel a teddy bear to keep her company...

She loves Teddy...

...so much that she ate Teddy's tail, leg, and broke his other leg. Teddy is now resting in peace far away from Angel. 

I've been reorganizing and de-cluttering my house and am very proud to present my new and improved bookshelf! 

One of my projects that I finally finished! It's a photo of me and Caleb during our first dance with the lyrics to our song written around it. I have it hung in my bedroom and it makes me smile every time I see it. 

This was an ALL DAY project! I finally got around to ordering some pictures to hang on our wall. Problem was trying to get the frames even and aligned correctly being a one-man team! I put tape across the wall and taped the cardboard from the frames to measure where each picture should go. 

Finished!!! I am quite the handy-man! =)

My lovely feet! Caleb said I should pamper myself =) My friend Jen moved to NC 2 months ago and we had an awesome girls' day this past Monday by getting a french pedicure, shopped around at the "mall", and enjoyed a nice lunch and catch up! 

Angel had a play date with one of my friends' dogs from small group. I went to her house to have lunch with her and her girls, while Angel enjoyed a nice hot day playing outside with Cali! 

Angel and Cali, trying to get inside the house since it was VERY hot that day! 

Miss Emily and Miss Natalie!!! Two very adorable little girls. 

Accidental Artist is a place downtown where you can paint your own pottery! I went with my friend and made Angel her own cookie jar!

I love the back of it! I can't wait to go back to paint some more...it's really a lot of fun =)

At the end of one of my workout sessions I've been doing at home. Thumbs up for a great month so far. I've had the opportunity to talk to Caleb almost every day and he's doing well. I'm so very proud of him, miss him with all my heart, and loving him through the distance. Yesterday marked his 3-year anniversary with the Marine Corps. Ooh-rah! 

Thank you all for your continued prayers and support, your love and caring thoughts. Hope you all enjoy your Memorial day weekend!

XOXO,

Nancy 

Heroes on the Home Front

President Obama has declared and made May 11th Military Spouse Appreciation Day! I feel special =)

"NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim May 11, 2012, as Military Spouse Appreciation Day. I call upon the people of the United States to honor military spouses with appropriate ceremonies and activities."


The Family Readiness Officer at our unit posted some of the pictures she took the day of the deployment so I wanted to share the ones she sent me of my handsome husband.

In the hallway at the squadron. 

Me and Caleb with his boss, Troy. 

Boarding the bus (Laura, Caleb's using your dad's bag he gave him at Christmas!) 

I went to the Air Show here on base and it was my first time seeing the night show. It was pretty cool seeing the fire bombs being dropped, but I sadly wasn't able to capture it. We skipped the crowds and massive traffic by watching the show across from where everyone was seated (we actually parked at Caleb's work building, VMU-2!), brought some lawn chairs, ordered pizza, and had front row seats! Woo hoo! Here are some pictures I took: 

Enjoyed the beautiful sunset just before the Airshow started. 

First plane

Love this shot!

They played taps for the Missing in Action during the launch as it represents the American flag.

I took a short video recording of the jets flying and you can watch it by going to the website and clicking play on the video. It's pretty cool, so I hope you do watch it! click HERE

I was able to Skype with Caleb last night for a little bit. He's doing well, getting a couple hours of exercise a day, eating healthy, and the most important thing he said was that his Marines are doing SO much better compared to last years deployment. I'm very proud of him and how he is leading them. 

I took a picture of our Skype session last night. Caleb, both of your girls love you very much and we're so happy every time we see you. 

Love you and have a great weekend everyone!