el dia de gracias

B and I have already started one new tradition for our family. In God's divine providence, He knew exactly that B and I needed to spend the rest of our lives together because we both dislike two things: Thanksgiving food and casseroles.

So, upon discovery of this very rare similarity in our taste buds, we decided to do Thanksgiving a little different and made MeXiCaN food!! After two days of having left over enchiladas, rice and beans we have determined that it was well worth it to change Thanksgiving.

Our menu included:

Appetizers- queso, guacamole, salsa and shrimp cocktail

Entrees- Fiesta chicken enchiladas & turkey cruncy tacos

Sides- green chile rice, black beans and spinach salad

And for dessert we had- Sopapilla cheesecake, mini chocolate ice box pies, healthy bakies, and pumpkin bread (can't break some traditions)

It was really fun to host our first married Thanksgiving with our family. Ben's parents and brother and sister are sooo fun and so helpful. They had to leave this morning, but they were such good sports, staying in our little apartment with us. They were probably getting stir crazy by the time they had to leave. While they were here w=e got to give them the tour of Pensacola- We took them to all the local spots ;)

More pictures and stories of our merry little Thanksgiving weekend to come.

:)

so much to be thankful for...

Yay! we are going home to Pensacola today for a long weekend! B's parents and brother and sister are all driving over to Pensacola today to visit us for Thanksgiving. I have been grocery shopping and getting yummy foods ready all week! We are soo excited and thankful that they can come see us.

We live in a two bedroom apartment (which we just cleaned, so I will post pictures of our REAL apartment soon) and the fam will be sleeping on our blow up air mattresses! Its like staying at a five star hotel in the Carter household ;)

Please pray that we have a wonderful time together and that our focus remains on the Lord. We are so excited to see family and to get to spend a nice long weekend in our home. There is so much to be thankful for.

Happy thanksgiving!

the *temporary* humble abode

some pictures of our little hotel room on base in Alabama. Its quite cozy. :) we have a walkin closet that leads straight into the bathroom! I am also making our first Christmas stockings so here is a picture of them in the workings!

Hemmed In

I just had the sweetest conversation with a junior in high school. It just melted my heart thinking of how much the Lord loves us and pursues us. He has such wonderful plans for this beautiful girl (for all of us really!). She and I have been playing phone tag for a couple of weeks now and finally were able to talk! Her name is Julian and she wanted to tell me about what the Lord has been setting in her heart and calling her to. Since this summer, He has been really calling her to purity. What a beautiful and holy thing that only He can do in us! He makes us pure.

He has taken her through scripture and books and even used our wedding to show her that He was calling her to a life of purity, and not just that but to tell other girls about the FREEDOM of waiting on the Lord. She has thrown away the idea of dating and wants to wait for the man she will marry! How precious! I am so amazed and thankful that the Lord is giving her wisdom as a junior in high school to see that He is what she needs to pursue, not men.

She is so confident that in the Lord's timing, He will bring the one He has for her, but until the day they say "I do". She is set on choosing the Lord and His affection only, and desires to stay wholly pure until the Lord opens those sacred doors of intimacy thru marriage!

My heart is rejoicing to see that just as the Lord's desire is for her, her desire is for Him! I am so encouraged and thankful that He has opened this beautiful, young girls eyes. I am also so challenged by her- as she is already giving testimony to other girls about what the Lord has shown her!! He has mighty plans for her.

I just had to share this. It is so encouraging to me to see people doing what is countercultural, even by the church's standards, and following the Lord. His word truly does not return void. He is accomplishing His purposes in this young girl- what a precious picture of how He hems us in, behind and before us.

I listened to this girl share testimony and saw how much He is using this sweet girl for His glory. My heart just cried, use me too, Jesus! and open my heart to be used by you!

blog makeovers

I am trying to learn how to make my blog pretty so I can compete with all the really cool blogs out there. But I am kind of slow when it comes to computer design and such...

Please note the pretty picture of the fall leaves- that took me like 15 minutes to do....ridiculous.

have a lovely afternoon!

the past three months...in a nutshell

We are now in week two of our stay in Montgomery, AL.  At first we were kind of disappointed to have to leave Pensacola once again. It is a really good feeling to get settled somewhere and to feel like you are digging roots and plugging into a specific place, but the Lord has had a different plan for us during our first 3-4 months of marriage. And even in the midst of all the changes, we can still say confidently that He is faithful- He knows the plans He has for us, and they are good.



A short timeline of the last three months to update some of you:



July 19th- B and I are married! About 4 days later we went back up to College Station to finish up school. We had our first home there, for about two weeks, in Redstone Apts.

August 8th- We graduated TAMU and B commissioned

August 12th- B hit the road for Pensacola, FL, and my mom and I packed up the movers in College Station and headed up to FL.

August 24th- B left by plane for Pueblo, CO and I started the long drive to Colorado Springs, where I would stay with a family for 6 weeks during his training.

October 2- Be finished school & we headed up to Estes Park, CO for a few days of relaxing and mountain hiking.

October 6-we made the long drive back to our "still in boxes" new home in Pensacola.

At this point we joked, because we thought that finally, we would be in one place for more than 3-6 weeks at a time. We were planning to spend the next two years in Pensacola ANNND now we are in Alabama.



This time has already been a blessing though, and we know that it is from the Lord. There are several wives here with their husbands and most all of them are believers. It has been neat to connect with them. There is also a couple here from Puerto Rico. The wife, Francis is just learning English. She is actually really good- but you know how I love those Spanish speakers! She and I have had some great times together already. I don't know exactly where she stands with the Lord, she was raised Catholic, but seems to have a really open and genuine heart toward the Lord. I am praying He will use this friendship however he desires!

Obama and Bama

Nov. 4th- What a HUGE day!



On the same day Barak Obama was declared the new President of the US, B and I set off for Montgomery, Alabama!



On Tuesday evening we were notified that we would need to leave the next day for Alabama.

The military may try to pull some quick ones on us, but praise the Lord- He is good and sovereign!
B and I left for Alabama, not knowing if they would let me stay- just packing our bags and going out on faith. Amazingly, they were able to put us up in one of their married housing rooms! It is kind of like an extended stay hotel room with a little kitchenette and everything. Its not what we like to consider "home", but we are blessed and SO thankful that we get to spend these six weeks together!

If anyone knows anything about Montogomery, let us know!

Our New Adventure

Estes Park, CO

After only 3 months of marriage we have already traveled to and thru 5 different states and have had four different places we have called home!- we are very much so a military family

With the pace our lives are moving, I figured I would try my hand at blogging to help keep friends and family on track with our happenings and whereabouts. I can't promise I will be consistent, but I will try!

We are on a crazy adventure :)