Crossing My Fingers

So there has always been a slight chance that Nick might not have to go to Louisiana with his unit this June. I'm trying not to get my hopes up too much, but that slight chance is definitely getting bigger.

You see, Nick's unit is supposed to be getting back a whole bunch of vehicles in June. And, being the supply officer (or the tanker in the staff job, as he described himself yesterday), he is the one who is responsible for all of those vehicles, and for making sure they get where they're supposed to go.

Ya, I'm definitely crossing my fingers and praying that this pans out, all the while trying to keep my expectations low.

Yesterday

Yesterday, the director at the pregnancy center asked me to sit in on a counseling session. So, I asked one of the counselors if she was alright with it and went ahead and sat in.

Wow, what a great experience! It made the whole process seem so much less intimidating. So far I've only seen things from the paperwork perspective, but this was a conversation. It was one person caring about another person and listening to what was going on in their life.

I have to admit, I had been getting a little bit anxious about the counseling room since we're so on top of the data entry now. I'm still definitely not anywhere near ready to take on the counseling room by myself, but it was a great opportunity to see what actually happens in there. And it made me excited about it all again.

I kind of wish there were enough counselors to let us go in as pairs and play off each other all the time, but I will be going in with another person for awhile. And I'm sure with time and practice, I'll continue to get more comfortable with the whole situation. And it's all practice with active listening and reading people.

I'm still not totally sure how much training I'll get done before we move in the fall, but I'll definitely keep going on this track and see where God wants me from there.

Marathon Day

I had the longest day ever yesterday! It was pretty much nonstop. It wasn't necessarily a bad day, it was just realllly busy. I barely had a second to relax until I got home that night.

It started out with a field trip with Rachel's Pre-K class. We went to Petsmart & the park & had lots & lots of fun! The kids enjoyed running around and playing and we were all exhausted at the end of it. Totally worth it though!

It reminded me of when I worked full time though (and how much I hated that) because pretty much as soon as I got home, I had to walk to dogs since they had been cooped up all day. I also had to help make one more nametag. It was a little bit chaotic throughout the day arranging getting the supplies and getting it all done, but thankfully, it got done.

Then, Scout had a vet appointment where he was a champ and got like 5 shots. Of course, he loved all of the attention and was an excellent patient, as always. He also got to play with an adorable Great Dane in the waiting room.

Then, I worked out really quick and hurried to get ready for the welcome dinner. I was barely ready when my friend Megan (who helped me with the nametags) came over & then we headed to post to pick up another new wife who needed a ride. Phew.

Finally, there was the actual welcome dinner. It was really great meeting the new battalion commander's wife. She's definitely a character (not exactly what you'd expect from a Lt. Colonel's wife, but in a good way), but seems really genuine and friendly. We ended up leaving around 9pm (after originally intending to leave around 8:30), and I finally got home around 9:30 after dropping people off.

Ya, I was pretty much exhausted. I feel like I'm still recovering somewhat today, but the rest of the week should be fairly normal. And I'm not planning on having a nonstop day like that for a long, long time.

Things I Love...

...about living in the South (and/or Texas specifically):

1- The Spring
It is currently 85 degrees and sunny! Hard to believe it was barely 60 degrees last week, or that it snowed in mid-February! Notice that I didn't say "the weather", because I've never lived somewhere with crazier weather. There are weeks when the weather changes 40 degrees in either direction. It's nuts! Also, in a few short weeks it will be crazy hot again and I will be living in the A/C.

2- Mexican Food
Ya, Tex-Mex is a little different than Mexican food in California, but mmm, it is tasty! And I love me some Mexican food! We only had 1 "pretty good" Mexican restaurant in Kentucky, and man, it was rough. Give me Chipotle or some sour cream enchiladas any day.

3- Hobby Lobby
Only like the greatest store ever! They have awesome weekly sales and I have stocked up on decorations for every holiday imaginable. It is way addicting. I always seem to find something I "need" while shopping there and I've had to restrain myself from checking it out every single week. It also makes me think I'm crafty, although I've made some very cool things from supplies I got there (see Nick's stocking).

4-Thunderstorms
We get some good ones around here! Although they sometimes lead to tornadoes (which I thankfully haven't had to experience yet), they're soooo cool to watch. The other day, in the span of 5 minutes, it proceeded to hail, pour rain, and then become sunny and warm with a rainbow. Nothing cooler than that.

5-Barbeque
Mmmmm! My mouth is watering just thinking about it! It's a really good thing our favorite BBQ restaurant is 45 minutes away because otherwise, we would be chubby from all the brisket. Yum yum yum!

Creativity

So we're having a welcome dinner for our new battalion commander's wife next week and I was asked if I would help out with nametags. Thankfully, one of the new wives was also asked to help too. So, today, she came over and we worked for a few hours on them. Here's how they came out:





I'm pretty excited about the result! Not too shabby considering we had no idea what we were going to do coming into it and were given pretty much free creative control. We were a good complimentary team though. I did the technical stuff (printing, logos), and she did the cutting and layout. Nick said they looked professionally done.

It was really nice getting to know a new person to the unit too. There were a few people who stood out when we were new to the unit, and I'm happy I get to carry on that legacy. She's somebody I just clicked with and we had a good time laughing about my ridiculous dogs (who were actually pretty good) and just chit chatting. I think she and her husband are going to come check out our church tomorrow too! I think our church has become the unofficial church for our brigade, ha ha.

Gotta love that I was slightly stressing about a bunch of our friends moving this summer (like Alice), and now, all of a sudden I feel like we're crazy popular! Yet again, further proof that God is good.

7 Years!!!

Today marks 7 years of Nick and I being together! We started dating oh so long ago when we went on a mission trip together in Mexico.

Us in Mexico

Man, I feel like we look like such babies! But, then again, 7 years is a long time, and I was 17 at the time! I still can't believe it's been that long though.

We're going out on a date tonight to celebrate and Nick already is on his way home from work early! Love it! Happy Anniversary to us!

My Adorably Geeky Hubby

I have freakishly good eyesight. Which is surprising because my dad had Lasik and my mom wears glasses. I honestly freak people out with how far away I can read things. By comparison, pretty much anybody has bad eyesight. Nick's was always decent, but since he got home from his deployment, he's been complaining that he can't read stuff.

So, after much encouragement from me (I try not to nag. Proverbs 27:15 says "A quarrelsome wife is like a constant dripping on a rainy day" and Proverbs 21:9 says "It is better to live in a corner of the housetop than in a house shared with a quarrelsome wife.", ha ha. Can't say I disagree), Nick finally got his eyes checked a few weeks ago. Then these showed up at the house yesterday:



I think he looks pretty cute, especially in this pair. He got a couple pairs for the field and stuff too, but those aren't quite as fashionable.

And I'm just joking about the geeky thing (see title). Glasses definitely do not=nerdiness. Although I definitely think Nick looks smarter with these babies. Plus, there's the added benefit that he can actually see, ha ha. All he kept saying was that everything looked so much sharper.

A-Team

Because I am a complete TV addict and the new movie looks AWESOME, Nick and I have started watching the A Team on DVD (yay Netflix!). Right now, we're in the 2nd out of 5 seasons. We're a little addicted, I think.

Um, how did I miss this show when I was younger?! Nick couldn't believe I'd never watched it. It is sooo cheesy, but soooo good! And you can't help but sing along to that theme song.

All the old episodes are definitely getting me pumped for the movie! I think I'm a little bit too excited for the movie, actually. But come on, doesn't this just get you excited:

Credit

Obviously I haven't seen the movie yet, but from what I can tell from the trailers, I fully support the casting choices.

And as if Nick wasn't already super excited about it, they threw in this:

Credit

Yup, that's a tank. SOLD! Bottom line, we will be seeing this movie, ASAP.

Social Weekend

My goodness, we were social this weekend! I'm actually kind of glad it's Sunday and we can just relax. Since we've been home from church, Nick and I have just spaced out and played video games. Mmm, I like Sundays.

Some couple friends of ours had a get together at their house on Friday night, so we stopped by there for a few hours. It was really fun, but I think we left at the right time because it sounds like it got interesting after we left, ha ha. Good think Nick had to wake up early for hunting on Saturday. Sadly, he still hasn't had any luck getting a turkey, although it was super rainy, so I'm not terribly surprised.

Then, Alice & her husband had a nautical-themed party that was celebrating someone else taking over his job (so like an unofficial change of command). They went all out with the costumes. She was a pirate and he was Neptune- the god of the sea. It was definitely interesting when our pastor (who lives in their neighborhood) walked by, ha ha.

Then, today of course was church and then we went out to lunch with Nick's old West Point roommate and his wife.

Super fun weekend, but I am tired! It was nice to catch up with people though. We hadn't seen the couples besides Alice & her husband since February, so it was long overdue!

I've mentioned before that we've been talking about making disciples in our young married's class and today's lesson was really cool. It was basically what your life should look like as a follower of Christ. It was really nice seeing that concept actually laid out in a practical sense. I'm excited to learn more!

FINISHED!!!

So the stocking I started for Nick way back in October is finally finished, woohoo! I put the final touches on it yesterday. I originally wanted to have it done for Christmas, but with Nick coming home and the amount of work that actually went into it, that obviously didn't happen.

Since I didn't have a strict deadline (uh yeah, next Christmas is a little far away), I've just been working on it here and there when I had some free time. It is definitely a nice feeling to have it finally DONE though! And I think it turned out pretty well, if I do say so myself:

The finished product

A little closer view

Nick is pretty excited about it. And I'm pretty impressed with it, especially since I had no idea what I was doing going into it. Now, I just have to get mine started! Although I do have the entire month of June open now...goody.

Is it bad if I want to bust out my stocking hangers & hang it from the mantel?

Normal Week

It's been a pretty normal week, so not too much to update about. It's been busy, but not too bad.

Our grass is starting to grow in the backyard, YAY! It's definitely green out there. Unfortunately, a lot of the green is due to weeds. So, I've been doing lots and lots of weeding. Not my favorite job in the least. I feel like it's just an endless job. Despite being out there an hour or more, I feel like I've barely made a dent. But, I've taken the opportunity to listen to sermons, and it's nice to be able to spend some time outside with the dogs in the sun.

I listened to a sermon this week from our prospective new church in Georgia & I think it'll be a really good fit. The pastor gets really passionate during the sermons, which is new for me, but definitely not a bad thing. Otherwise I think it was totally on par with what we believe and they aren't afraid to say the name Jesus, so that is always a good thing! I'm anxious to have Nick listen to a sermon & see what he thinks.

I forgot to mention that Nick went out turkey hunting again last weekend (and plans on doing it this weekend as well). But alas, no turkeys yet! He's getting really close though- he keeps hearing and seeing them- so hopefully it will be soon! He's going out again on Saturday, so keep your fingers crossed!

Hmmm...what else...oh the pregnancy center is still good. I definitely still feel like I'm contributing. Yesterday, they had us focus primarily on inputting files into the computer since there is a board meeting coming up. I'm happy to say that we're caught up through the end of March, woohoo! Although yesterday, I found a file from February, so you never know what might sneak through.

Training has been kind of put on hold since they've been so behind on getting the files into the computer. So, I don't know when I'll pick that back up. Not that I'm anywhere near ready to start counseling yet. I still feel like I'm contributing though, especially when I see how essential it is for those files to get into the computer, and how happy everyone is when I show up to do it, ha ha.

Work is good too. The two bible studies (the ladies' bible study and the recovery bible study) both met today and I was anticipating lots of kids. I even tried to get another set of hands for the day, and was a little stressed when it didn't pan out. But, we only ended up having 7 kids total, so it wasn't bad at all. One of the moms even stopped by to give me a thank you note, which was so sweet of her.

Nick is finally on the way home from work, woohoo, so I'm gonna get dinner started.

Lunch Date

This weekend, I saw on facebook that one of my good friends from college (Jenna H.) was in town. She went to grad school in Dallas, but she was actually nearby where we live. So, I harassed her about not coming to visit me! Well, I got a text this morning that she was staying down here an extra day & wanted to see if I wanted to go out to lunch. Luckily, I didn't have anything going on today & was able to drive down to Austin to see her.

We ate a delicious lunch at a cute little cafe (which Austin has a million of) and had some tasty chips and queso. For you non-Texans, queso is just basically cheese dip. Ours had black beans and avocado, mmmm! After lunch, we ended up wandering around the city. Man, I wish I lived closer to Austin! I'd probably be there every weekend. It's such a cool city.

Anyway, it was so nice catching up with an old friend and just hanging out. We attempted to take some pictures together, but she's as bad with a camera as I am and they ended up being of like our feet and stuff. Too funny!

I'm also excited because she might be moving back to Texas this summer, woohoo! Totally crossing my fingers on that one. It would be awesome to have an old friend to hang out with and an excuse to go to Austin.

Double Feature

Yesterday afternoon, Nick and I decided to go to the movies. We saw Hot Tub Time Machine, which was a thoroughly entertaining, if not high concept movie (sarcasm). Gotta love some good mindless entertainment every once in awhile.

We were leaving the movie theater when I got a text from Alice seeing if we wanted to do something. She and her husband wanted to see Clash of the Titans, and seeing as we were already at the movie theater, we said we'd go with them. Which then led to dinner out and then some Wii at our house.

We are normally major planners, so this spontaneity was way out of character for us. I love that what started out as one movie ended up being 2 (adding up to about 6+ hours out of the house), plus dinner, plus some good quality Wii playing. And obviously, we're glad to spend any and all time we can with Alice & her husband before they move. Definitely not a bad Saturday.

A Little Rant

Nick found out yesterday that they're planning on sending his unit to Louisiana for almost the entire month of June. And apparently it's so that they can support another unit doing training. They're not even the ones doing training.

Well, there goes our June. Needless to say, neither of us are very happy about this. He's especially not happy that he has to go to the humid, buggy swamps of Louisiana in June. Most of the guys he knows in the unit will be gone by then, and he's just not really sure what exactly he will be doing for a month. We do have some friends at the post in Louisiana, at least and Nick is excited at the prospect of hanging out with them.

I'm not happy that they're stealing my husband away for almost an entire month. Oh, and thay they decided to let us know about it in April.

If they were the ones doing the training, it would at least be a little more worth it. Not that we'll be here for their next deployment anyway. It's just annoying.

I really don't have a lot to complain about as far as the Army goes. The deployment had a lot of really hard times, but past that, we've had it pretty good. I just hate curveballs like this.

And I just really don't know what I'm going to do with myself for a month without Nick. At least 3 of my friends will be gone, and school will be out for the summer, so no volunteering in Rachel's classroom. I pretty much just have work and volunteering at the pregnancy center, which I might step up to more days a week. Hopefully my new pool buddies will be up for going to the pool a bunch too. I'll be alright, it's just really not how I envisioned my June. And it really came out of left field.

Hopefully, we'll get lots of time off in July like we're supposed to. Rant over.


- Posted from Court's iPhone

Rock Band

Oh my goodness, Rock Band is SO much fun! This past Monday night, we went over to hang out with Alice & her husband. We literally ended up playing Rock Band for an hour. It was awesome!

Nick had never played before, and I'd played once, but surprisingly, we held our own (on easy). I definitely felt like a rocker chick banging on those drums. What can I say; I have rhythm. Here are some pictures (since Alice finally put them on Facebook):

Very focused

Rockin out

Being weird

It was just a great night of hanging out with friends. The pizza, and funny movie (Shaun of the Dead) definitely helped too.

When Nick & I were driving home, all I could think about was how much we're going to miss them when they move. And it's coming up fast! They will probably be taking off at the beginning of June. Thankfully, they'll only be in San Antonio, but still. We won't get to have fun nights like that nearly as often. We can only hope the Army will reunite us again sometime soon! Until then, we will definitely have to have more awesome nights like this before they go.

Captain Nick

The promotion list finally came out today and it is official, Nick is getting promoted to Captain! It came out in February last year, so we were a little antsy for it. We're not sure exactly when the actual promotion will happen, but it should probably be in June or July. And I'll actually get to go to the promotion ceremony this time! I totally missed when Nick was promoted to 1st Lieutenant because of work and poor planning (it was at like noon on a Thursday and we found out about it the day before).

So, now we should be totally good to go to Georgia in the fall! Not that we were really waiting on this promotion list, but it's nice to have it confirmed on paper that he will actually be promoted to Captain since we are going to Captain's Career Course, after all!

I've also been looking into potential churches in Georgia since my friend just moved out there. At first, I googled a few recommendations I got from a friend from the area, and nothing really sounded all that great. Needless to say, a little discouraging. But, I searched again the other day, and realized there were multiple churches in the area with the same name and I was looking at the wrong one. The right one looks absolutely fabulous and has all sorts of great small groups/Sunday schools and is totally on par theologically with what we're looking for.

I really just wanted to go to a duplicate of our church here in Texas and it looks like I found it! Woohoo! All that discouragement was for nothing. Just further proof that God is in control and will work out the details.

The End of Lent

We had a good little Easter yesterday. We went to the sunrise service at church and it was a nice change being outside for worship and the sermon. We were surprised by a little sprinkling of rain and lots of clouds, but it was definitely nowhere near unbearable. A nice sunrise would have been cool though. I was also surprised by how many people came! There were apparently over 100, which is a lot for our little church. Lots of kids too! Nick and I also helped with check in for the nursery for the other "normal services", and although it was a little busy, I was anticipating much more chaos. But, we got to hang out and chat with people and make sure everything was running smoothly. We ended up relaxing the rest of the day (we were out of it after waking up early) and had a tasty dinner of porkchops (the meat market was out of tritip steak, darn!). He is Risen!

Obviously, with Easter being yesterday, it is officially the end of Lent. I'm happy to say that I ended up reading 4 books: Death By Love, Radical Reformission, and Religion Saves, all by Mark Driscoll, and The Problem of Pain by C.S. Lewis. They were all completely different, but I think I got something out of all of them.

Death By Love was a good reminder of what Jesus dying on the cross really meant. It went through different stories of people and emphasized different aspects of what was accomplished on the cross. I started listening to some sermons recently from the Mark Driscoll/Mars Hill Church series Christ on the Cross as well, which the book was written in addition to (I didn't realize this until now). It was a really good series to listen to right before Easter because it kind of put it all (Jesus' death and resurrection) in perspective, and reminded me of the things I read about at the beginning of Lent. Both the sermon series and book talked about how Jesus died: to crush our enemies, for our freedom, to forgive us, etc.

Radical Reformission was great because it helped me think about being a "missionary" to the world. In our young married's class, we are going to start talking about making disciples and what that looks like. And, obviously, sharing the gospel is a big part of working at the pregnancy center. So, it all kind of ties in to where I feel like I'm being led right now.

The Problem of Pain was interesting and was, not surprisingly, about why there is pain in this world and how God can exist through it. It was a little bit heavy in language (not necessarily really easy to read), so I don't know how much I really got out of it. But, it brought about some interesting points and things I haven't really heard before.

Finally, Religion Saves (and Nine Other Misconceptions) went over "tough" topics and questions like predestination, humor, grace, faith and works, etc. It also has a corresponding sermon series which I've watched before. I enjoyed getting a kind of refresher on things like predestination and grace and what those really entail and mean.

I am definitely planning on continuing to read some good books we have like Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis, and Bad Girls of the Bible (which we never finished in that bible study I did last summer), but on a much more relaxed pace. I think that's part of the reason I didn't get a ton out of The Problem of Pain, because I was more focused on finishing each chapter every day than really taking the time to understand what it meant.

I also memorized 5 verses of Scripture, about one a week. Those verses were Matthew 11:28-30; Psalm 23; Hebrews 12:1-3; Philippians 4:6-7; and 1 John 4:7-10. I'm going to continue to review these and make sure I have them down before attempting to memorize any other Scripture. I definitely couldn't just start spouting off each verse off the top of my head at this point, so I need to go over them again. I also haven't been as good at remembering which book and verse (e.g. Matthew 11:28-30) goes with each.

Overall, definitely a good exercise in learning, memorization and discipline. And I definitely feel like I grew in knowledge somewhat. I definitely wouldn't want to be so strict every day though. My brain definitely needs a little break!

Long Weekend

So this is the last of the long weekends for awhile. So sad! A 5 day work week seems so long now.

Turkey hunting season has officially begun, so Nick woke up bright and early and is out trying to get that turkey. Unfortunately, since I haven't heard from him yet, I don't think he's been successful as of yet. The season lasts until mid-May & he's allowed to get 3 turkeys total, but not more than one per day. So I'm praying he gets one today so that he only has 2 more to get and my Saturdays aren't completely dominated by turkey hunting.

Ya, if you didn't realize it before, he's obsessed. He's already picked out a spot in the office to mount his feathers. And, of course, whether or not he gets one today, he's planning on going out again on Monday as well. Lovely.

I'm trying to be somewhat productive while he's out hunting. I'm about to start putting another coat of paint on our master bathroom since I missed a lot of spots the first time. Thankfully, Nick was nice enough to tape off the bathroom yesterday since he is way more meticulous than I am.

Tomorrow, we're going to the sunrise Easter service at church since it is literally around the corner at the high school near our house (not that our church itself is much further). I wanted to go last year, but I woke up to a massive thunderstorm. This year, it should be absolutely gorgeous. We originally intended to have a bunch of people over, since we thought people might not have plans or might not be going home. But, since it's a 4-day weekend, pretty much everyone we know is home spending the holiday with family. Kind of disappointing, but I think we're going to BBQ a nice tritip and relax. Which is probably a good idea anyway, since we're braving one of the main Easter services to help out in the nursery...after waking up for a sunrise service. Ya, we're crazy.