Simply Us

Life has been fairly slow lately (which is a wonderful thing).  Shane started a new four-week course here at Ft. Benning last week all about Bradleys.  He is really enjoying it, and I am thoroughly enjoying the normal schedule that comes with it!

Leaving for work/school this morning.

Projects lately

I haven't been as successful at my project list lately as I'd hoped to be.  Somehow just feeding myself, and my sweet husband takes a lot of effort these days.  Nonetheless I have accomplished a few things,  I thought I'd share with you (my faithful few readers!).

This is our mantle, and my never ending project.  I have a multitude of neat glass vases (from the wedding), but it takes everything I have to come up with decorative things to fill them with (that also coordinate with the season).  See my dilemma?  I'm anti silk flowers (I think this runs in our family), and not a huge fan of those decorative colored rock/marble things, which doesn't leave me with many genuine ideas.  If you know me well I am also not a supporter of just going to Target and buying vase filler at full price, I just can't, it is not in me.  So Pinterest it is.

Yes, those are Dallas Cowboys Christmas ornaments.  Hey, you can't beat 90% off Hobby Lobby Christmas clearance, and they were just what I needed!  I popped the tops off of them, and went to work.  I covered half in moss leftover from my D, and half in jute, leftover from the wedding.  My trusty hot glue gun and I spent many hours together while Shane was in the field this week.  Lets just say this project wasn't cheap if you calculate the cost of time invested.  However, this week time was something I had plenty of.

The end result.  A word of advice to anyone working with moss.  It sheds, more than a cat.  However, do not try to use quilting basting spray to keep it from shedding, it doesn't work, and only creates a bigger more sticky mess.  Instead simply spray the final product with hair spray. 

My vase filled with little moss and jute covered Christmas ornaments!

Here is my new and as-creative-as-Whitney-can-be "What's for Dinner?" board!  I really liked my menu board, but it was lacking some creativity from when I first made it. 

A very long time ago I saw this post on a blog I follow.  I loved the idea of keeping the keys from all the places we will live.  Since we are probably moving again soon, I decided to go ahead and start it with what I have.  In the end I added my own touch (adding the verse "One thing I ask, that I shall seek; That I may dwell in the house of the Lord forever") and I was pleasantly surprised with how it turned out.  It is amazing what some burlap, spray paint, and hot glue can do for you!

A weekend to....forget

Our little family hasn't caught a break with sickness lately.  For the past week and a half one or both of us has been pretty ill.  To start it off, Shane came home from Ranger School with a stress fracture in his foot.  Then immediately following him showing up at home I decided a proper welcome home (and I love you sweetheart) would be vomiting for a few hours, you know, just to lighten the mood.  I caught it from our neighbors who had the same virus earlier last week.  Luckily, Shane did not catch that one.  Whew.  He was such a sweet helper though.  A few days after I was sick, Shane came down with a head cold, cough, sore throat, congestion overall yuckiness bug.  He was more of a trooper than I've been though.  To follow suit I decided I'd jump in on the yuckiness bug this past Friday.  Hence the title.  Let's just say I didn't handle it as well as he did.  I am pretty sure we have almost finished three different boxes of Kleenex, barely left the house, and not gotten much sleep this weekend.  We have enjoyed lots of rest on the couch, football and a very low-key weekend...to forget.

This was late one afternoon, when I ventured out of pjs...finally.

Shane cleaning guns on Friday night.

My Friday night attire.

Our big adventure of the weekend was driving to Auburn to go shopping and explore campus.

They do have a very beautiful campus.

New Camera

Between Christmas and birthdays we were able to save up for a small cow, oh..I mean a fancy new DSLR camera.  I'm pretty sure it cost as much as a small cow, although let's be honest, I really don't know how much cows cost, even small ones.  We've both wanted a nice camera for a while, but decided there was no immediate need, and so we waited it out.  Well the time finally came, and it is here!  Hopefully, now you will enjoy our blogs even more due to the higher megapixels (because I'm sure everyone notices a difference, ahem!).

Christmas in Texas

This year we were fortunate enough to spend a little over a week in Texas for Christmas.  At the end of the entire trip though I do believe we'd had enough driving, four days total in the car!  We spent a little bit of time at the beginning with Shane's parents in Odessa, and then headed to College Station to spend the rest of the break with my parents and family.  Unfortunately, my sisters sweet family ended up very sick, combine with a lot of rain and yucky weather, which put a few crinkles in our plans.  Despite the sickness and weather, we had a great time being with family and really enjoyed our time in Texas.

Shane and I made these cute gift tags from paint swatches!

My dad's Christmas day schedule, which didn't end up going quite as planned...

Dad showing off the fancy new ear protection mom gave him for Christmas.

Emma and Uncle Joe playing with her new power tools.

Christmas morning together.

Before we left we managed one beautiful day out at the farm.  Picnic on the tailgate included.

Uncle Big with both of his neices who adore him.

Campfire with smores out at the farm on a beautiful night.

We went on a Christmas Eve date before church.

Some of my family Christmas Eve

Blue Cord Ceremony and IBOLC Graduation

Shane recently got his Infantry Blue Cords and completed his Infantry Basic Officer Leadership Course.  These were two important occasions and some of our main reasons for being at Ft. Benning, in Georgia.  Charlie company had their Blue Cord Ceremony, where everyone was in ASU's (the Army's dress uniform), and I was able to present him his cords during the ceremony.  The graduation was a separate ceremony the next morning.  I am proud to say that my hard working husband graduated in the top third of his class of 170 other elite men.  After 11/17 weeks separated in the field, running over a 100 miles, many celebratory welcome home pans of nachos, too many 4 am mornings to count, a all-to-well-known 60lb ruck, more push-ups than you can imagine, over 50 loads of dirty Army laundry, and 5 bucket fulls of tears later we are done with IBOLC!  Praise God, who gave us unimaginable strength to make it through this very difficult entrance into married Army life.  Now onto our next adventure together, Shane starts Ranger School Jan 1st.

Home Sweet Texas Home

While Shane was in the field for his final ftx, I was able to go home for a week.  I was so excited to be with my family again.  I have to say the week flew by, much faster than I anticipated.  We had a lot of fun times together, but definitely missed Uncle big (Emma's name for Shane) [to say she adores him would be quite the understatement].  Several trips to the farm, a lot of shopping with the girls, and some great family memories.  Shane and I can't wait to be back in Texas again next week!

My sweet brother convinced me to hold one of his roosters.  I was thrilled [okay terrified].

Emma the fairy and Aunt Whitney

My amazing sister and I roasting marshmallows

Uncle Joe and his sidekick.  He tells her to hold onto the "handles".

Emma spent the night with us one night and we stayed up late baking. [She loved helping]

Eating homemade cookies on the kitchen floor with Grammy and PawPaw.

Poor girl acting pitiful, icing her wounds from falling off the toilet. [the ice is on the wrong cheek]

I realized when I got home I had no pictures of little miss Cate and I.  See my my sisters blog for more of those sweet pictures.