January 8, 2014 by Stephanie

30 before 30 Update 2

Here we are for another month’s update on my 30 before 30 list. There is not much to update since we were doing holiday stuff for most of the month and were gone more than we were home for December.

1. Crochet something else besides blankets or scarves-so something that isn’t straight lines.

· This totally happened if you saw my post from earlier this week. Next stop hats!

2. Do a 30 day photography challenge

· I have plans for the timing. Now I just need to find a good challenge. Any suggestions?

3. Visit 3 cities I have never been to before

· Nothing new here.

4. Tour at least one of the distilleries in the area

· Nothing.

5. Send at least 5 snail mail a month

· We sent all of our Christmas cards, so I happily exceeded this!

6. Become a “professional” photographer

· We are coming up with an Facebook ad for the Clarksville area for a promo in February, so hopefully that pans out. I just need to be patient and be ok with the slow start.

7. Run at least 5 races (any distance)

· I have plans in the works.

8. Go camping with Tom

· We have plans for this for next summer for our anniversary.

9. Pay for the car behind me in a drive through

· Not yet. I will be honest, I don’t seem to remember this when I am in the drive through.

10. See Tyrone Wells live again

· Nope.

11. Tour Fort Defiance here in Clarksville

· This is more of a summer thing.

12. Water ski with my dad

· Also summer.

13. Do a 5K with my mom

· We did talk about it over Christmas, but no plans yet.

14. Take a swing dance class with Tom

· I am still trying to convince Tom to do this with me. This may come near the end of the challenge.

15. Read at least one fun book a month and one professional development book every three months

· I caught up from November. I read two books over break. Blogging buddy, Ellen, and I are planning on doing a virtual professional development read. We picked a book yesterday and will be reading a chapter a week, so I may have this done this next month.

16. Take a pottery or stained glass class

· Things have been too crazy schedule wise to make this happen yet.

17. Learn how to make sushi

· Nada.

18. See both a Clemson and UCM football game live

· This will have to wait until fall.

19. Volunteer with MCFOTS and Special Olympics on a regular basis

· I am loving volunteering for MCFOTS. It is a great shelter. And it is super fun to go play and love on dogs that aren’t mine for a few hours a week. (Well most of the time, last night I was not too happy with one dog who wanted to play chase for a half hour in 20 degree weather. She just wouldn’t come back inside from playtime! Also I sliced my thumb open on a dog treat trying to coax her inside. Overall, though my shift are pleasant and tug at my heartstrings. Two of my favorites got adopted this week. (Which is good, because Tom and I almost ended up with a third boxer.) Like I said, this volunteering gig may be a bad idea.

20. Explore Land Between the Lakes

· Summer plan.

21. Ride in a hot air balloon

· Tom is off the hook on this one. My other half and best friend from college and I are going to make plans for this in Kansas City.

22. Go to at least 10 “new to me” restaurants in Clarksville.

· Since we were gone most of December, nothing happened with this one. We still have 8 to go. Any of my Clarksville friends have suggestions?

23. Stay at a bed and breakfast

· We have the place picked out in our old college town. We just have to find a weekend we can do it.

24. Spend a day without electronics (phone, t.v. and computer)

· So this didn’t happen over winter break.

25. Go to the Kentucky Derby

· Ok so reality sunk in that this will not be a possibility financially. However, I do want to go see the museum. And in cahoots with my sister in law, I want to have a Derby themed birthday party on my 30th.

26. Go to non-touristy parts of Nashville

· No time this month. We did find some cool activities though that we want to do in upcoming months. Tom has a lot of ranges coming up so he will be gone a lot, so we’ll see how the plans pan out.

27.Watch at least 10 movies that I have not seen before that won Best Picture at the Oscars and at least 10 documentaries (not necessarily Oscar winning)

· I didn’t watch any of the films, but I did watch a documentary. I watched “Behind the Myth” which is about the myths behind bully breeds and the horrible laws that have ensued because of it. It was kind of heart wrenching to watch, and I may have cried. It is a little outdated, but it does a good job showing the history of the bans and the grassroots efforts that have sprung because of the stereotype and trying to debunk it.

28. Sew an item of clothing from scratch.

· We did get a new sewing machine. Now I just have to figure out my first pattern.

29. Find a church home here in Clarksville

· We did find a church, but we have been the last few weeks with traveling.

30. Become a mom

· We both met with my physician before we left for the holidays. The only thing we weren’t already doing that she suggested was for me to be taking prenatal vitamins. Apparently, you should start taking these before you get pregnant as well as the duration. I had no idea. So we got those for free at the base hospital, score! I also had some blood work done this week to check my hormonal levels. We will also be meeting with a fertility specialist in the upcoming month. For some, I know this may seem like we are being really impatient considering it hasn’t been a full year since we started, but the Army is covering all of these expenses so we figured we would take advantage of it while we know we are both here for a bit. Also my physician said that even with everything perfect, there is still only a 20% chance of getting pregnant, so we want to make our odds as high as possible.

I’d say that is still pretty good progression considering what was going on this month. Hopefully January will prove to be fruitful and exciting!

Anyone want to join me on any of these excursions?

Do you have ideas on how I should accomplish any of these tasks?

January 7, 2014 by Stephanie

JollyVoxBox

I recently signed up for a review box from Influenster thanks to a blog friend Erica. A box is sent to you after doing a survey with Influenster. I was really excited to get the box for my very first product review!

These are not big boxes, but they have around 5 small items for you to review. Just the perfect size to try something new and see if want to become invested in that product.

Here is what was in the box:

Puffs Ultra Soft and Strong To Go Tissue Pack: I love these Kleenexes! These have come at the perfect time since this weather is making me a little nasally. I love these travel packs because it ensures that I have a tissue wherever I go. (I am ready to be a mom folks, been carrying the mom bag for years!)
NYC New York Color HD Color Trio Eye Shadow: This is the item I was most excited to receive. I was waiting until we got back from our vacation to go get some new eye shadow, and this is the palate I always get too. I had never tried this brand before, but I love it so far!
Rimmel London Show Off Lip Lacquer: I am not one to use lip color because I am a chapstick girl for sure. I always feel silly wearing anything else, but I am sure I can find someone to try this out since I won’t use it. It looks super fancy!
Skinny Cow Candy: I love Skinny Cow chocolates, but this is the one kind I don’t like because I am not a peanut butter fan. However, as you know Tom loves PB, so these will be gone very soon in one of his pantry raids.
Ducklings Mini Rolls: This item was fun to see as a crafter. This little roll of decorative duct tape will emerge on some craft or labels of some sort I am sure. I love the splatter paint effect.

I did receive all of these complimentary for the review, and these thoughts are my own. If you are interested in getting a box (you don’t have to be a blogger), just let me know, and I can send you an invite. They are a fun surprise!

This is my first box, but the site seems pretty fun by earning badges of things that you have reviewed and checking in your boxes. You can win prizes the more things that you check in, so there are rewards to be interactive with the site beyond just getting the box. It seems pretty self-explanatory from what I can tell so far. The only thing is that I don’t have a lot of the social media outlets like Instagram and Twitter which can earn you more points, so we’ll see how it goes without those.

January 5, 2014 by Stephanie

Holiday Stats

Glinn Photography

We just resurfaced in Ft. Campbell after 2 weeks on the road. We don’t even know what to do with ourselves.

Here is a recap on how the past two weeks of our travel went.

Basics

14 days living out of a suitcase (or two)
1 state (Missouri) 2 cities (Kansas City and Jefferson City)
2 Christmas celebrations in JC
3 Christmas celebrations in KC
Drove through the town where our undergrad is and revisited old stomping grounds
Rang in 2014
4 family birthdays

We surprised my father-in-law with a 60th birthday party.

The Dogs

Crosby got a new nickname of Hammerhead, to go along with his others of Crosbastic and Crosbilicious.
Neither dog pooped in the house while we were away. Success.
Grace lived up to her name of the Food Ninja by stealing food off the counters.
We saw Crosby in the snow for the first time (with us anyway). He is not a fan. Grace however, thinks snow is candy coming from the sky.
Crosby demolished a Kong toy in the amount of time it took us to open up Christmas presents.

The unlucky Kong and Crosby.

For Funs

We both got to visit with old friends with typical best friend behavior
- My two best gal pals and I downed Chili’s molten chocolate cake under a couple minutes. As our families watched in awe (or horror) at three grown women fighting over cake and ice cream.
- Tom played hours of video games with his bestie.
I went to my first Christmas Eve service that I can remember. Our family lit the advent candles for the service.

My in-laws at Christmas Eve service.

Tom managed to work out every day. He scared a lot of people in the gym with his ranger panties.
On a date with my sister in law, I revisited the winery where we had our wedding anniversary.
I read 2 books and watched one documentary.
The Homemade Christmas items seemed to go over well. More to come on all the crafting that occurred gearing up for the gift exchange!
I got to officially meet the Climes whose son inspired me to run my last half. They are too sweet, except the boys let me die in a nerf arrow fight.
We watched Clemson and Mizzou win their respective bowl games. It is always a good day to be a Tiger!
We gave my parents a Royals neon. So awesome!
My father-in-law works for Budweiser so sometimes we come across gems like these!
We were so excited to give this to them!
Unfortunately, the Chiefs lost by one point in their playoff game. It was a great year for them though!
We only got up before 9am one time. Tomorrow’s 5am alarm is going to be brutal.
I got my brother hooked on the show Castle.
On both the way to Missouri and the way out, we had to stop in the first 30 minutes to search for an open auto parts store in the middle of no where because Tom’s Jeep was acting up.
My dad bought our 3 year old niece a drum set. Bahaha! My poor brother.

Oh grandparents.

Tom got a new gun for his birthday.
We saw snow, ice, rain, sunshine, and temperatures ranging from 4 degrees to 65 degrees.
We told our niece Ava about the Hamburgler, and she went on to talk about the hamburger stealer bad man for the rest of the day. Whoops.
The most played song for us was Miley Cyrus “Wrecking Ball.”
I took about 1,000 photos, but there are less than 10 that I am actually in. Most of them were the family photos we took.

My in-laws

One of the Christmases with my mom, brother and his daughter

We had a great time at home. And we can’t wait for the days when we don’t have to travel so far to have family time.

I hope you all had a great holiday season. Here’s to making new memories in 2014!

December 27, 2013 by Stephanie

Servant of the Lord

I am co-hosting the Faith and Fellowship devotional with the wonderful Susannah from Simple Moments Stick.

I just love her, and really look up to her in so many areas, so you should check her out! We chose to focus on several verses in Luke that focus on Mary’s honor and submission to the Lord. We would love for you to reflect on Luke 1:26-56 and Luke 2:1-38.

I picked out a couple key ones here.

Luke 1:30-31 “But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus.”

Luke 1:46-55 “And Mary said:

My soul glorifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has been mindul of the humble state of his servant. From now on all generation will call me blessed, for the Mighty One has done great things for me-holy is his name. His mercy extends to those who fear him, from generation to generation. He has performed mighty deeds with his arm; he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts. He has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble. He has filled the hungry with good things but has sent the rich away empty. He has helped his servant Israel, remembering to be merciful to Abraham and his descendants forever, even as he said to our fathers.”

Luke 2:19 “But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.”

Can you imagine being told as a 16 year old your fate is to be the mother of God?

Here Mary is 16 and engaged to Joseph who is a carpenter (which was not a high class job back in biblical times). Up shows an angel saying she was going to miraculously become pregnant without having sex with Joseph.

Now let’s look at some of the context:

Mary was a woman, which in those days did not mean much. Women’s rights was not even a thought. So to be the mother of all mothers, just hold on a second.
She was a virgin, so if she said she was pregnant don’t you think most people think she cheated on Joseph? Thoughts of others perceptions would have started creeping in.
She said she talked to Angels. Even for biblical times, most people would think that she was cuckoo.
There was a census going on, which meant some heaving traveling for Mary and Joseph.
The Romans and Jews were not exactly friends. So who would want to raise a child in that madness without the choice to plan for it?

I am sure that these are just some of the thoughts that went through her mind as the angel told her what her destiny was. Not to mention adding on the normal stress that a mother has for her first born and embarking into the unknown territory of parenthood.

If you were to think about all these what ifs that faced Mary, I think it is safe to say that most of us would say “Are you sure you want me? I am not so sure about this God. You must have gotten the wrong lady.”

I am sure that Mary envisioned her life going drastically differently. Raising a humble Jewish family was nothing unusual, right? She had plans.

Then God revealed the plans he had for her life, meaning that Mary’s original plan disappeared.

Mary didn’t put up a fight or rebel against the plans of the Lord. She didn’t just ignore what had been said to her. She said, “He is merciful…and I am blessed.” Her faith was remarkably large.

She prepared herself for the coming of the Lord. She humbly accepted what God planned for her because she knew her heart belonged to Him. She was a servant to the Lord. The ultimate follower.

She recognized God’s love and mercy, and knew that all things were possible through God. She had such unabashed faith that

He would provide despite her seemingly unbelievable situation.

He would provide a baby…even though she had never had sex.

He would get Joseph on board…even though it may seem to others that Mary cheated.

He would help them arrive in Bethlehem safely for the census…even though it meant months of traveling pregnant.

He would make it possible for Jesus to be born in a barn…even though it was filthy and not as sanitary or safe as a new mother would hope.

He would keep Jesus alive…even though there was child persecution going on in the country.

He has plans for us, whether we see them or not. We just need to have faith and trust as Mary did. This is a faith I hope to have, and continue to challenge myself to lift my heart up as Mary did.

Glinn Photography

We have turned Christmas into a stressful, go-go-go, hustle and bustle time. We have also sanitized the nativity scene by making it perfectly pristine. While it is beautiful, it has become easy to forget the details of the story. We often just see the glow and the end result, and forget the most unlikely situations that the Holy family found themselves in before the birth.

I love thinking about these scriptures, and reminding myself that this is supposed to be a holy time and time to celebrate the gift of life. It is a time of hope. While we celebrate the blessing of the birth of Jesus and what his life means to us as followers, I feel that it is important to think about the servant hood of Mary during this time as well.

God shows up in the most unlikely places, and in the most unlikely people to do His Heavenly work.

In my own life when there is much uncertainty, I am reminded to have hope and faith. My life may not look as I had once hoped, but in the moments of “Are you sure about this God?” I need to remember that he will provide.

I want to still be cognizant of ways to be a servant to him for I am still truly blessed. I know He has plans for me. I need to take a cue from Mary and just trust.

“If you are faithful, God will honor you.”

We would love to hear what you have to say in reflection of these passages. Join us for this devotion and link up with us below!

December 24, 2013 by Stephanie

Christmas Tag

Merry Christmas everyone!

I don’t normally do these things, but I figured it would be fun during my holiday travels back home.One of my blog favorites (and also hope to be someday neighbor-Just saying Elizabeth), tagged me in this Christmas fun. Be sure to check her out at Army Ever After.

1. What do you love most about Christmas time? Since I have lived away from home for the last 10 years, I love being able to spend time with family and friends I haven’t seen in a while. The food is always a perk.

2. Do you celebrate the holiday in style or is Bah-Humbug for you? I am kind of in the middle. I love the holiday spirit and decorating, but I am kind of lazy about it right now. I do really look forward to having a place that is stationary where we won’t have to travel so much during the holidays so we could actually enjoy the decorations. So I am sure I will feel different once that happens and we have kids. I imagine we will go full out then. I also don’t like opening gifts in front of other people, so that is always a fun endeavor for me. So the last few years I have really tried to focus on the “reason for the season” instead of all the glitz and glam of the holiday.

3. Are you leaving out anything for Santa this year so he remembers to leave you presents? I don’t even remember a time that I believed in Santa. I caught on real fast when my parents (who are divorced) told different tales of Santa that didn’t match up. My brother, however, believed for years. I will never forget that time when Dad, Risa (my step-mom), and I were in the living room watching through the fire place and using the phone intercom in the kitchen where Randall (my brother) was sitting. My dad pretended to be Santa on the intercom, and Randall’s reaction was just priceless. But I don’t really remember leaving anything out for him ever.

4. What is the one gift you are most looking forward to GIVING? {It can be to your kids, another family member, etc – remember to be discreet if they read your blog!} We have a gift for my dad and step-mom that is going to be ROYALLY sweet. Hint on the Royals part…I will be sure to share at a later date.

5. What is your all-time favorite Christmas movie? Since I talked about Holiday Inn and White Christmas last week, I also love Home Alone and The Best Christmas Pageant Ever.

6. What is your all-time favorite Christmas song? I looooooove “Oh Holy Night.” My dad sings it every year as a solo at church, so it has that special meaning for me. I secretly want to do a duet with him someday on it. My favorite secular Christmas song is “All I Want for Christmas” by Maria Carey. It makes me want to dance and sing into my hairbrush.

7. If given the opportunity would you participate in an “Ugly Sweater” party and what sweater would you wear? Peruse one on the internet or even in your own closet and show us! I have done several of these over the years. But I would have to say this is my favorite because my BF and I made them out of wrapping paper and tinsel…

8. Have you started any Christmas traditions this year that you plan on carrying forward? We have some with our families, but Tom and I do not have any for us. Again, we are ALWAYS traveling so it makes it hard to have traditions when your holidays never look the same year to year. We have some ideas of things we want to take from our families and things we want to start once we settle down somewhere.

9. It’s Christmas morning … what does it look like outside where you live? I don’t know about KY, but Missouri will most likely have snow. Right now there is a thick layer of ice everywhere.

10. You just found yourself standing under the mistletoe … who comes up to give you a kiss first? I would hope it would be my husband! But maybe it will be Crosby. He is always looking to score.

I hope you enjoy your holiday however you may celebrate!
If not, enjoy me humiliating Grace holiday style at the Jingle Job 5K last year at Iowa State!