What I love most about my Hubby

Last Sunday, Hubby & I were the designated “Spotlight Couple” in our Sunday School class.  That means we went up in front of the class to tell how we met, what we do, about our family, etc.  After we tell our story, a few people ask questions.  Sometimes people ask about how he proposed, or about the first kiss…things like that.  

One of our friends asked “What do you like best about each other?”

I struggled to come up with something that I could say in just a few seconds, as I knew we were running out of time.  As I finished, I felt incomplete.  There was so much more I wanted to say about why I love my husband.  So, I’m going to say it here.

 

Why I love my husband:

* He loves me.  Really, really, loves me.

* He loves God.  He reads God’s word, and seeks affirmations from the Lord before making decisions.  He leads our family in worshiping God, praying to him and learning more about him.  He is the spiritual leader in our home.

* He absolutely loves being a Daddy.  He loves cuddling with Bug, reading to her, getting down on the floor and being silly with her.  He enjoys time with her, and takes her on dates.  He has never, ever, complained about taking care of her when I need to go somewhere or do something alone.  In fact, he encourages it.  I pray I never take this for granted! I know so many women who don’t have that support from their husbands, or the dads feel like a babysitter with the kids.  I am so thankful that God gave me the perfect parenting partner for me.

* I love that he works with me to open our home to foster children.  That not only does he love being a daddy to his own daughter, but he wants to be a daddy to these other kids that need that role model.

* He is a hard worker with an awesome work ethic.  He works hard for our family to provide for us.  He works hard at whatever job he is working on, whether it’s mowing the yard, changing the oil, or doing work for one of his clients.

* He loves my family.  He gets along wonderfully with my mom & dad, and the rest of my family too.  I also love his family, and am blessed to call them mine.

* He is my biggest encourager & supporter in all I do.  If there is something I want to do, he does everything he can to make it happen.

* He enjoys going clothes shopping with me :)  In fact, he has great taste and is very helpful in picking out things that look good on me.  He even encourages me not to always buy what’s on sale, as that’s hard for me.

* He is a great cook! I love cooking with him, and we have so much fun working in the kitchen together.

* He looks great in jeans & boots :) The boots were a recent addition to his wardrobe, and hubba-hubba, I like it!

* He is a gentleman.  He still opens my doors, carries things for me, and calls me “bride”. 

* He truly completes me.  When I am too emotional, he is logical.  When I am too quick to make a decision, he helps me wait.  When I’m worried, he is strong.  We balance each other well, and make a great team.

* He is patriotic to the core of his being! He loves his country and the people that fight for it.   He votes regularly and puts great thought into the candidates that he chooses.  I highly respect that.

* He makes me feel safe.  In his arms I feel like everything is going to be ok. 

 

I love you, Babe!  You are the love of my life, and I am so thankful that God brought us together like He did.  I look forward to spending the rest of my life with you!

Let it snow! (Day 2)

Here is what we woke up to on Friday morning! It snowed the ENTIRE day on Thursday, and overnight covered up most of our tracks from the day before.

 

It even covered up our snowgirl we made the day before!  She’s got on a pink cowgirl hat, but you can’t tell!

 

We all (mostly my hubby!) worked hard in the front yard to built a snow fort.  The plan was to make it taller, but Bug and her friend from next door decided it should be a slide, so the plans got redrawn!

 

 

Bug had a blast with her good friend from next door.  We are blessed with some of the most wonderful next door neighbors!  This little girl is their granddaughter, and she and Bug just adore each other.  They played in the snow for hours before I finally lured them in to decorate cookies and warm up.

 

Finally, they wore out enough to sit still for a movie….for all of 30 minutes….before getting back up to play!

 

It was a wonderful day! We are very blessed!

Let it snow! Let it snow! Let it snow! (Day 1)

For many of you, snow is just a given at this time of year.  However, for us in Texas, these past few days have been a real treat!  For an area that deals with temperatures in the 100’s for so many days in the summer, it’s nice to experience the colder side of things from time to time.

DFW just set a new record with over a foot of snow falling in 24 hours!  We built snowmen, ate snow ice cream, snow cones, went sledding, and just all around enjoyed it!

If you aren’t from Texas and you are wondering why we are so excited it’s because it is a RARE treat that we get real SNOW.  Usually it’s this icy, slushy, mixed with dirt stuff that Texans call snow.  But this was white, fluffy, powdery, genuine snow!

Here are some highlight pictures!

 
    

We’ve joined the Army!

The roller coaster ride has begun!

Hubby signed the papers yesterday to re-enlist in the Army! For the past 6 months he has been getting back in shape to join the Army, and now it’s time.  His MOS (job) will be 74D - Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear (CBRN) Specialist.  Get ready to read lots of acronyms as I learn a whole new language!

A little background for anyone just jumping on the ride with us:

Hubby served in the Army for 7 years…and has been out for 13 years.   After he got out, he spent some time as a SCUBA instructor in the islands, then came back home to Texas to continue teaching at a shop here, where we met.  Later, he got into the IT field working with computers for the next several years with a small break while he worked as a manager for Starbucks.  During that time, we got married, had a baby, and moved a couple times locally.

A couple years ago, we considered him getting back into the Army, but we dismissed it without much thought.  However, the idea didn’t disappear as we assumed it would, and this past summer it came back with intensity!  This time, we prayed about it and spent a lot of time seeking God’s will.  After
many affirmations, we knew in our hearts that this was where we were going. 

It’s a huge change from the dream that we’ve always had for our life.  We met while SCUBA diving, and we both always wanted to own a dive shop together somewhere in the Caribbean.  We weren’t sure when, or how, we’d get there, but we wanted to get there.  A couple years ago, we gave that dream up to God.  We prayed about it and told God that if HE wanted us to do that, that we knew He would get us there, but in the meantime, we were willing to do what He wanted us to do.  It really changed our hearts, and opened our minds to a different path that might be in store for us.

I’ve never been an Army wife.  Bug has never been an Army kid.  Hubby has never been a married guy with dependents in the Army.  This is a whole new adventure for all of us! 

We are excited! We know this is where God wants us to go, and my husband is an amazing, patriotic man who loves to serve his country. I am so incredibly proud of him and proud to support him as he serves!


He will be leaving August 30 to start training for his new job.  He’ll be away from home for about 5 months.  We will have limited communication during that time.  Toward the end of that 5 months, we will find out where our duty station will be.  After his training is done, then we’ll figure out where we’re going, and when we will all be moving.  We know we’re moving, but no idea where.  With this job, he could be attached to just about any unit, which means we could end up at any Army post.   It’s all in God’s hands!

Life is a roller coaster ride

One of my closest friends put it this way, “It's like when the cart get's to the top of a rollercoaster isn't it? You know what is coming is scary and exciting but you have no idea what's coming. Just that it's about to start.”


That sums up our life right now just perfectly!  I am so thankful that God is in control!

Our family has some huge changes coming up soon.  Huge changes.  My husband is currently in the process of re-enlisting in the Army, after being out for 13 years.  I will, for the first time in my life, be an Army wife.  We will be moving away from our current home. Hubby has done that before since he served in the Army for 7 years, but I have never in my entire life lived more than 30 miles away from my family.  For the last 30 years, I’ve lived inside the same 30 mile radius.  I’ve always wanted to travel, to live somewhere else, but I haven’t yet.

We don’t know exactly when, or where yet.  Hopefully we will be finding out the *when* soon, ideally this week.  The *where* may not come for a while.

We feel 100% sure that this is a calling for us.  We’ve been praying about this for months and months now, and God has affirmed it for us over and over again.  We’ve been preparing for this for a long time, and the time has arrived.  This is a new adventure for our family.  A chance for us to let go of the reigns and let God use us for His glory.  A chance to serve our country.  To make friends with people we would have otherwise never met.  To see places we would have never seen.  To serve others in ways we don’t even know about yet.

We are excited! A little nervous about some things, sure, but excited! We are walking in faith, trusting Him to lead us and show us where to go, where He wants us.

A long time ago, Rob and I learned that the only way we can get through anything together is by having God as the 3rd strand in our marriage.  The 3rd strand of a rope is what holds it together.  The same is true in our marriage.  We’ve been through a lot together in our 8 years of marriage, and we’ve come out of each situation stronger together, by the grace of God.  We know that this next adventure will be no different!

Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves.  A cord of three strands is not quickly broken. ~ Ecc 4:12


I will be updating here as I know more.  For now, I ask for your prayers as we embark on this new journey together as a family.

January Jumble

A little of this…a little of that.  Here is what January looked like for us.
Playing our new favorite game, Super Stretchy ABC



Playing dress up

Doing yoga with Daddy


Trying new foods (sardines & oysters!)


Earning a FREE PIZZA with the Pizza Hut Book It Program!


Sleeping on the floor UNDER her bunk bed. What kid doesn’t love a good ol’ fashioned “pallet”?



Riding a new bike! Thanks to a great friend, we received a hand-me-down bike for Bug.  (LOVE hand-me-downs!)   Her knees were hitting the handlebars on her old one, so it was time to move up.  This was a huge blessing!

Leaves! Leaves! Leaves!

Emily could NOT wait until the leaves all fell off the tree! I think she asked almost daily if we could rake the leaves “now?”.  She was so excited when Daddy finally agreed to make some leaf piles!  My little “sensory seeker” was on cloud 9!


Hubby filled up the slide for Bug to slide down – Weeeeeeeeeee!


Then he tried it with the cat.  She was not as impressed, but forgave him quickly!
 

Happy Father’s Day!

What an awesome weekend!!
I am incredibly blessed to be married to my best friend.  He is not only a wonderful husband and partner, he is also an amazing Daddy!  He truly loves being a daddy, and loves spending time with his little girl any chance he gets!
This weekend, we had a special Father’s Day camping trip…right in our living room!  It’s Texas, and it’s hot, so we thought it would be fun to bring it all indoors.  It was a super fun time (and still is, since we’re leaving it up till the end of the day)!  

BEFORE & AFTER:



It was interrupted for a few hours in the middle of the night Friday night/Saturday morning when we had to take Bug to the ER because she was having trouble breathing and we were afraid her throat was closing up.  Turns out, she has croup!  A steroid shot in the bottom (OUCH!), and a cool mist breathing treatment later – she’s much better!  Still a bit sick and tired, but better!  Thankfully, I guess, we gave her Benadryl before heading to the hospital in case it was a weird allergic reaction, so she ended up sleeping through a lot of it and was able to remain calm the majority of the time.  That was a huge blessing!!



Back to the camping trip…
We played games, did some reading, worked on a wooden puzzle, had fun with glow-in-the-dark sticks, and just enjoyed time as a family!  We ate all our meals in the tent, cooked Pop-Tarts over a camping stove, ate watermelon, and even had our own version of SMORES!  The smores were ‘fondue’ style – dip the marshmallow in melted chocolate chips, then dip in crushed graham crackers – Yum!  All while enjoying the conveniences of air-conditioning, indoor plumbing, and the microwave :) 
 







R even got to sneak in some quiet reading time while Bug and I made breakfast for him.  Chocolate waffles, scrambled eggs and bacon!
 

And of course – PRESENTS!  We did them a day early because Bug insisted it was Father’s Day already :) 
First, an original drawing of Daddy’s favorite animal!


Then, from Mommy & Bug, a framed collage (click to see it enlarged!)



R,
You are an amazing man, and I am so honored and blessed to call you my husband.  I love looking at our little girl and seeing so much of you in her.  I love seeing how much she loves her Daddy, and I hope and pray that when she grows up she marries someone just like you.  Thank you for loving God, and for loving us, with all your heart!  Thank you for working so hard to care for and provide for our family.  Thank you for always making time for us.  Thank you for working together with me to be the best parents we can be, and always working with me to learn more about how to do so.  Thank you for allowing God to be the 3rd strand in our marriage and for always leading our family in learning more about Him and looking to HIM for guidance. 
I look forward to raising Bug with you, to all the experiences & adventures that God will bring us, and to being married to you for the rest of my life!
I love you with all my heart!  Happy Father’s Day, my love!
Love,
Stacy