Called To The Crazy

Finishing Strong…

As we get closer to the end of our first deployment (married), I had a hard time trying to remember what all of our goals were…that’s probably not a good sign if I can’t remember my goals ;)

So here they are:

Reading as MUCH as possible

Learn to sew—FAIL!

Simplify our home

Good quality girl time!

Craft room

Lifelong friendships…

I have to say the thing I loved the most about deployment (yes, I said it…love and deployment in the same sentence!), is the time I have been able to spend with the girls. It has been such a blessing to have so much quality time with my girlfriends here… and we have all gotten so very close through this, especially going through deployments TOGETHER! Our deployment started off with a good friend, Emily, living with me and that was a sweet 2 months that we were able to share living together and growing deeper in our friendship until her husband came home! We have done so many fun things throughout deployment! Each week most of us girls have a women’s bible study on Monday evenings, small group on Thursdays, and on Fridays we have dinner swap! At dinner swap we all bring a main dish and Tupperware to take leftovers home…genius right? I didn’t think of it ;) Friday nights are known be our crazy fun night! We have 5-7 girls, kiddos, and any of our 5 dogs that want to join! Here are a few pics!

We have also gone on multiple road trips to Austin, visited different churches on Sundays, went to a Women of Faith conference in San Antonio AND one in Dallas, and spent days playing in Salado together! It has been a blast and I am so very thankful for these ladies and the lifelong friendships we have been given.

Women of Faith in San Antonio!

Thanksgiving 2011

Making our first turkey!

St. Patrick's Day 2012!

Women of Faith in Dallas-- February 2012!

Learning to sew…

There’s not much to say about this…I had ONE sewing lesson with my friend Tori and that was the end of that :/ Epic fail on the sewing goal… Here’s a pic from my first and only sewing experience!

My Love for Reading

This one is sort of entertaining because my hubby has wanted an iPad pretty much since the day they came out…so 2 weeks before he left, he bought one and left it at home. Little did I know, this was just a trick to get my addicted to the thing so he could buy his own when he got home…sneaky hubby of mine ;) And smart…because it worked! I have fallen in love with my Kindle on the iPad and I have read more during the last 6 months than I have my entire life combined! I have even thought about writing a book because I’ve been doing so much reading…no worries though, I think I’ll stick to blogging for now!

Here are some of my favorite books I read:

What Women Fear- Angie Smith

I will carry you- Angie Smith

Holding onto Hope- Nancy Guthrie

Calm my Anxious Heart- Linda Dillow

What’s it like to be married to me? - Linda Dillow

Intimacy Issues- Linda Dillow (Are you noticing a pattern yet? ;))

Kisses from Katie- Katie Davis

Seven- Jen Hatmaker

The Meaning of Marriage-Tim Keller

Life in Spite of Me- Kristen Jane Anderson

Simplifying Our Home

This was a slow process over several months! I slowly went through each room, closet, under each bed, and box in our house and garage! Going through our garage was one of the most physically and emotionally draining project I worked on because it meant continuing to sift through all of my childhood memories with my mama. Over several weeks I went through each box from my childhood (almost!) and consolidated and as hard as it is to even type, threw things away. After it was all over, I had a garage sale and with the money raised, we took all the wives with deployed husbands to dinner at The Melting Pot, which was a blast!

This was a sweet picture I found in the garage of my mama and I...This made my day! :)

Ladies night at The Melting Pot!

Clothing Swap to benefit Amazima!

In the Spring, once I had recovered from the garage sale (lol!) I had a clothing swap at our house where all of the ladies brought their clothes that they no longer needed and everyone “shopped” for new clothes at the swap! Each item bought was $2 and the money was donated to Amazima Ministries in Africa and we were able to raise $150 for their daily feeding program! Check them out: www.amazima.org

Storage Room into Craft Room

This has been a goal since we moved into our house in September 2010… and I am happy to finally say that it has been accomplished! Our master bedroom connects to another small room with another entrance from the hallway and unfortunately when we moved in, it quickly became a storage room because did I mention there is a curtain we can pull closed from our bedroom? Out of sight, out of mind…well, sort of. It still drove me absolutely crazy each time I would walk through the room from our bedroom into our hallway.

Phase 1—Storage Room (specifically ARMY gear storage room)