First Awana

It has been an extremely busy day. Church, then lunch with friends (we waited over an hour for our food!), rushed home to take Angel out on a bike ride (I fell down once, but it wasn't too bad!), then had about 15 minutes to get ready to head out again to church for worship practice and Awana! All in all, it's been a very tiring day, but very good nonetheless.

Senior (8th grade) trekkers! They are the singers during the Awana worship.

Pam (our worship leader's wife), the girls, and me getting ready to worship! 

We have about 20 kids in our Trek class this year and I have a feeling it's going to be great. Spoke with the new leader after class and his vision this year will be on service projects for the kids to see outside of themselves and to focus on our church's vision, which is to Win, build, and send.

Small group tomorrow night and it's my turn to bring the snacks! I'm thinking I'll make banana bread and either chocolate chip cookie dough oreo brownies, or a new eclair dessert that I found on Pinterest!

XOXOXO

crash course

Wow. I have definitely been slacking on my promise to update this blog! Another month has passed so quickly. August flew by due to the wonderful visit by my sister, Denise, who stayed for a little over 2 whole weeks. We had a lot of fun together, so I'll let the pictures do the talking for anyone who hasn't seen them on Facebook yet.

She got to meet one of my good friends, Lucy, and we all met up for a nice lunch in downtown New Bern.

This was our last night together at mine and Caleb's favorite restaurant, Amos Mosquitos. 

Denise just fell in love with Angel! 

We took a road trip to Kitty Hawk, NC, which is about a 3 hour trip to the outer banks. We spent the day at the beach and at her friend's parents' beach house. 

Me, Stephanie and Denise. Stephanie has been her friend since middle school and is also one of her bridesmaids! 

Sisters. SO blessed to have a wonderful family. 

It's the start of a new month for me and it's going to be jam packed! For those of you who don't know, I will be starting school on Tuesday, September 11th, to get my real estate license. It's a mandatory pre-licensing class that is 8 weeks long, 3 days a week from 8am-12pm at the community college that is about 35 minutes from my house. After I finish the class, I will be able to take the state exam, and if I pass, I'll obtain a provisional broker's license. I'm really excited about it and can't wait to start the class! 

I also completed a 125 mile run that the CO from Caleb's squadron challenged both the Marines and spouses to do before September 1st. I am very proud that I stuck through it and I'm happy that I have gained the strength and stamina to run 3-4 miles during my workout! I've also joined the OSC (Officer Spouses Club) on base and I'm looking forward to getting to know more of the wives and participate in their social events. I went to the first meeting last Wednesday, and last year, they raised $96,000 which they donated to the community with scholarships for individuals and programs that need financial aid. A couple of weeks ago, some of the wives from my unit got together for a nice dinner: 

AWANA starts this Sunday. I'll be busy Sunday nights co-leading the Trek classes (middle school). We'll be missing a lot of the kids that have moved up to high school, but I'll be excited to get to know the new ones coming in. I'm also on the committee that is planning a Couples Dance at the Barn on September 28th. We're titling it the "Hee-Haw Dance" and have hired a DJ and a line dance instructor for the event. 

With school, church events, AWANA, worship practice, small group meetings, and social events with the USMC wives, and of course, Angel, I have no more time to Zumba! I'll have to try to squeeze in some room for that! There were pictures posted online from a class a couple of weeks ago, and I found myself in it! I'm the girl that's cut off, ALLL the way to the right in the white tank and shorts! Can you spot me?! 

Other than that, I have started my countdown til Caleb comes home! We are almost at the 9 week mark! Only a few more weeks to go! 

Be safe Caleb and we're counting down the weeks! 

XOXOXO

Angel

Angel is enjoying the sunshine and doing a great job guarding our home. The weather has been crazy out here. I've never seen lightening like this before or heard thunder so loud. It's pretty amazing, but it would definitely be more comforting if Caleb was home with me. Although God's mighty power is evident through these spectacular thunderstorms, they are still frightening to me nonetheless. Thankfully, the power has never gone out when I'm home, but always turned back on by the time I get back!

Feeling very blessed this Sunday for family, friends, and for my wonderful husband and our marriage. Oh, and our dog! 

    My husband with his new "do." I love him, nonetheless. =) 

Happy Sunday!

Quick Update

Wow! Has it really been one month since I last posted? It is amazing how fast time flies when you're having fun! I just wanted to post a quick picture of me and Caleb's Skype session so I can show everyone his "stache" that he's grown since he's been over there.

My handsome husband has a caterpillar on top of his lips! Still trying to get used to it! haha!

This last month has been great mostly because of my 2 week vacation to San Diego to visit my family. It was definitely nice to hang out and spend time with them. The couple weeks I spent with them flew by so fast. Here's some pics to recap my time there:

Our special cousins dinner! 

Me and my godsister Allison. She is growing up so fast and becoming such a fantastic and talented ballerina. 

Food tastings and venue shopping for my sister's wedding! 

Got a chance to go to the famous Del Mar Fair! 

And had a great time riding the rides! 

Loved hanging out with my sister while I was there! Wedding dress shopping (she said YES to a dress! Woohoo!!!), hanging out, and just reuniting was definitely a highlight of the trip! 

Me and my lovely mom. 

Me, my sis, and my two lovely cousins at our friend's wedding.

Me and Brandon, my sister's fiance! 

Celebrating my good friend, Mary's birthday!!! 

Hiking up a difficult mountain with my sis and my cousins!

On my way to the top (never reached the top because they were closing the park and we were still too far away from the top. Will definitely come back here on my next trip to finish the hike!)

 God has blessed me with lots of family time with my loved ones. I loved hanging out with my dad, mom, sister, cousins, friends and the rest of my family. It is definitely a huge blessing to be surrounded by wonderful people. 

and on that note, I am SOOOOOOOOOO happy & excited to say that my sister is coming to visit me in August for 2 weeks! I can't wait to show her around and to just hang out with her on my turf! haha! 

Hope everyone is doing well. Will try to update more frequently! Love you all.

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