Navigating the Storm

Last week a friend of mine and I went to the park and took the pups for a long walk while we chatted and caught up on each others lives.  This girl friend is someone I've known for the last few years, our husband's have known each other their whole Army career, we were at each others weddings, and so far we have PCSed to the same places.  Even though I've known her for three years, I realized I didn't really know her very much at all.  As we got to know each other, I realized just how much we have in common and all the interests we share.  Thank you Lord for showing me the quality friend I had right under my nose!

Home Is Where the Army Sends Us

Home is where the Army sends us.  Or at least that is the way I am supposed to feel as an Army wife.  We moved in October from our life in Texas where we had spent the last three and a half years building friendships, connections, and careers.  Our small town of Temple, Texas was our first hometown as a couple.  We got engaged there.  We got married there.  We adopted Delilah there.  I graduated with my bachelor's degree there.  We found our first church home as a couple there.  We bought our first house there.  We made our life there.

I know, I know, I know.  My husband is an officer in the United States Army.  What was I thinking making a life somewhere?  But I did, and my heart broke to drive away from that small town.

5 Best Christmas Gifts for the Pup

Since our family is only a family of 3 (Aaron, myself, and Delilah the Dog), I am creating a gift list for her....OF COURSE!  She is actually incredibly excited to be blogged about.  She is laying under my desk loving every second of our "Momma/Baby" time together.

Anyway...we try not to spoil our little girl too much at the holidays for a few reasons.  First, being that she is the only grandchild (human or otherwise) on either side of our family, she does get more than a little spoiled by our family.  Secondly, she is our baby.  She gets spoiled 365 days of the year so I don't feel overly obligated to get her a lot of Christmas presents.

This year I helped Delilah write a letter to Santa (my mother in law) which included her Christmas list.  Below are the things that were both Momma and puppy approved.

 

25 Christmas Gifts for the Women in Your Life (part 2)

Never fear!  Part 2 of my 25 Christmas Gifts for the Women in Your Life is finally here!  If you missed numbers 25-10 check out part 1.  Keep scrolling for numbers 1-9 on the list!

25 Christmas Gifts for the Men in Your Life (part 2)

As promised, the second part to 25 Christmas Gifts for the Men in Your Life is here!  The top 10 gifts are listed below.  For the first 15, check out part 1.

25 Christmas Gifts for the Men in Your Life (part 1)

Ok to go along with my Gift List for Women, this year I am also doing a gift list for men, and coming later this week, one for the pups in your life.  Now, I don't claim to be an expert on what men want for the holidays, but thankfully I have a trusty husband to help me navigate that issue.  These presents have been husband approved.  Disclaimer: he is 27 and we don't have kids so I'm not sure if he perspective is different than the man you're buying for or not.

25 Christmas Gifts for the Women in Your Life (Part 1)

Last year I made a Holiday Season Gift Guide with the 10 best gifts for women.  However, I published it on December 18th.  My husband, the sweet procrastinator that he is was very grateful for the list for ideas, but pointed out that some of those ideas take more time than he had left until Christmas.  So this year I am getting a jump on it!  I know its not even Thanksgiving yet, but my goal this year is to have all our presents at least picked out, if not ordered, by December 1st so I can just enjoy the holiday season with my family.

Speaking of family, my mother-in-law should be given some credit for this post as my in laws have requested Christmas lists for each of us (Aaron, myself, and Delilah the Dog).  So I have decided to create gift lists for each category: husband, wife, pup.  We don't have kiddos yet so sorry, I have no insight for that demographic :/

Quality Time with God Psalm 63:1-5

***Originally posted on cregarstyle on January 11, 2015***

I am back after a short hiatus from the blog due to holiday travels and then being sidelined with the flu for the better part of two weeks.  I am excited to be starting yet another new posting series: Verse of the Week.  As I have mentioned in the past, I teach a wonderful group of high school girls (seniors only on Sundays and a mix of juniors and seniors on Wednesdays) from my church.  Right now I am prepping my lesson for this week and it is on quality time with God.  I am very excited about this lesson for a couple reasons:

-First, it is an amazing topic and what better way to start off the new year than with a fresh outlook and plan to spend better quality time with our Lord and Savior!

-Second, my fantastic husband bought me the most wonderful journalling Bible for Christmas...he definitely saw my Christmas List.  I have been itching to really break it in since I opened it.  The other day I even flipped through every page of one of my other Bibles and transferred all my notes and underlines to the new one!  I'm a little crazy...I know!

Anyway, the lesson for this week is over Psalm 63:1-5 which reads:

O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.  So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary, beholding your power and glory.  Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you.  So I will bless you as long as I live; in your name I will lift up my hands.  My soul will be satisfied as with fat and rich food, and my mouth will praise you with joyful lips. (ESV)

Holiday Season Gift Guide: 10 Best Gifts for Women

***Originally posted on cregarstyle on December 18, 2014***

With only a week until Christmas it is officially "crunch time" for those last minute holiday shoppers!  This is usually the category I fall into each year, but this year, as I mentioned in my Christmas Present Craziness post, I started early and I'm just about done.  That means that nearly all of the presents that Aaron and I are giving as a couple are done.  Thankfully, the only person that Aaron is responsible for shopping for on his own is me.  I don't want this to sound like he has been slacking off and not doing any Christmas shopping.  I don't know.  However, I do know that he works long hours and he has not yet wrapped anything for me.  In an effort to help him out, and any other husbands, boyfriends, fiances, etc out there, I am creating this gift guide of things I would like and some of the best gifts I've gotten in the past.

Guys:  Please note that these gifts are things that I like, so I would like to think most girls would be happy with them.  However, I am not every girl on the planet.  Please use your best judgement when shopping for your significant other or friend because you know them, I do not.  That being said, this should give you at least an idea of where to start.

To start off my Christmas list I am heading to my pinterest boards.  Some of my wish list is made up of tangible gifts, some are single events, and others are on-going experiences.  These gift ideas are in no particular order and will not necessarily work for every couple.

1. 12 Pre-Planned Date Ideas (Photo and concept from Babble):

This gift is pretty self explanatory.  It is a year's worth of pre-planned dates.  I think the draw for me is that these aren't promises of dates, they are already thought out so when date night comes around we aren't staring at each other thinking "I wish we had a plan" because he will have already planned it.  Bonus points to the man who sets dates for things or allocates money for the dates ahead of time.  Some of these dates listed below may not work for every couple, but it is a good start.  This gift is perfect because you can start fresh in the new year!  It could even be a great reoccurring gift.  Maybe each year you and your spouse can trade off who does the planning?

Champion or Chumpion?

***Originally posted on cregarstyle on December 15, 2014***

As a child I was an incredibly active individual, almost without even realizing it.  I swam on a year round travel team from a young age and practiced a minimum of 6 days/week and as many as 10 practices/week when I was involved in both competitive swimming and water polo.  When you are a kid you aren't worrying about counting calories in vs. calories out, or how many steps you've taken in a day.  I wasn't the skinniest of all my friends, but I was fit, active, healthy, and could eat ice cream without worrying.  Ahhh bliss!  Although it wasn't bliss, because silly high school me, and early college me, thought I was fat!

Summer after my HS senior year...about to eat ice cream

Refinishing of an Antique Farm Table and Bench

***Originally posted on cregarstyle on December 14, 2014***

A few months back Aaron and I had a garage sale and coincidentally our across the street neighbors were having a garage sale as well!  It was awesome because two sales on the same street really draws in the shoppers!  After Aaron and I wrapped up our sale we picked up a few furniture pieces from our neighbor's sale for me to update over the following months.  I found a farm table with a bench and a matching dresser and nightstand set.

I decided to start my refinishing with the farm table and bench seat.  The table had years of gunk and grime on it as well as some areas that were missing chunks.  In order to get it started out on the right foot I decided to clean my table and bench with TSP and then once they were dry I sanded them down.

The bench after the TSP cleaning.

Christmas Present Craziness

***Originally posted on cregarstyle on December 13, 2014***

This year, thanks to one of my over-achieving friends, I started shopping for Christmas presents in October.  When I say this friend is an over-achiever, I mean she called me October 1st and explained that she had either bought, or had figured out what to buy, everyone for Christmas, but was struggling with one last tiny stocking stuffer.  I, on the other hand, hadn't even begun to think about who would get what.  That sent me into a panic and I started to think through who I needed to buy presents for and make a mental list.

My husband was easy.  He had been telling me since June that he wanted an Xbox One, and because I am a fabulous wife, I had been at Best Buy weekly looking at their circulars waiting for a good deal.  By mid October, Aaron and I had a "come to Jesus" talk about video game systems.  At the time we were the proud owners of an Xbox 360 and a WiiU, not to mention countless games and a handheld gaming console.  I told him if he really wanted an Xbox One, we needed to cut back to 2 game systems and use the money we got from selling current systems to help pay for the new one.  As an unemployed wife and full time student I just don't have $500 laying around to pick up the latest and greatest game system without some extra cash.  Aaron agreed to sell the WiiU, some games, and the handheld system to GameStop to the tune of $290!!!!  Then one November day I was in Best Buy and saw that the weekly circular had a misprint so I pounced!  The Xbox One bundle that Aaron wanted was normally $500, but they also sold a smaller, but similar bundle for $400.  Both bundles were supposed to be $50 off of their normal price making them $450 and $350 respectively.  But here comes the kicker, the larger bundle that Aaron wanted had been misprinted and listed for the price of the smaller bundle making it $349.99!!!  So with our $290 cash from GameStop, and the $100 gift card to Best Buy that Aaron had been saving since his birthday, we were able to buy the larger Xbox One bundle and still have money left over!

Remington Styling Wand

***Originally posted on cregarstyle on December 11, 2014***

As a child with stick straight hair my mom would curl my hair for special occasions.  She used a variety of tactics all which worked pretty well for a young girl.  It didn't seem to matter which one she used, although I think foam overnight rollers were her favorite, I always looked like Shirley Temple.  When you're young, Shirley Temple-like hair is adorable.  However, as I entered high school and college I wanted to stray from that look for obvious reasons.

I have always had moderately thick hair so thicker foam rollers didn't solve the problem, because my hair was just too heavy to maintain the curl.  I then branched out into the world of curling irons.  My first curling iron was actually one I swiped from my mom before I left for college.  I probably should have thought about what I was taking before stealing it.  It is a 1/2 inch barreled curling iron from my mom's college days.  MAJOR FAIL!  Not only would the small barrel continue the Shirley look, but something that old would probably not be my best bet.  Stupid me, but hey, I was 18 and wanted to avoid buying a curling iron with my own money.  I should have known that if my mom wasn't missing it, I could have done better.  Oh well.  That old curling iron is still in my bathroom nearly 7 years later and it's still got some life left.  I don't frequently use it because it is small, but I have used it maybe every other month, so that isn't too bad.  

Over the last 2-3 years I have been noticing something incredibly aggravating about my hair.  It seems that no matter how much hair spray, gel, product, or hours curling it ALWAYS falls to practically straight hair within 90 minutes of curling!  One year I spent two hours curling my hair for Easter church service just to have it be perfectly straight before I even left the house...cue rage.  

This last spring I was in Maryland for my bridal shower and having given up on curled hair had planned to attend with my regular, boring, straight hair.  However, one of my girlfriends that was getting reading with me, was curling her hair with a strange looking curling iron.  Once she finished her hair she asked me if I wanted her to do mine.  I warned her that it would be a lot of effort for nothing.  She said that her hair was the same way and told me she would try it, and worse case scenario she would encase my hair in a mound of hairspray.

About 20 minutes later I looked in the mirror to see wonderfully curly hair...sans hairspray!  I had intended to spray my hair to hold the curl maybe long enough to get to the shower, but in the hustle and bustle of 8 girls getting ready it slipped my mind.  I drove off to the shower where my mom complimented my hair and it hit me that I had forgotten to spray it.  At this point it was too late and I would just have to deal with curls that would fall throughout the party.  Here I am with my friend Hannah, who curled my hair, after the shower and the curls are still obviously in tact even through several hours of hugs, I might add.

Cregars Do Christmas: Part 2

***Originally posted on cregarstyle on December 10, 2014***

Earlier this week I posted part 1 of this mini series with all of our outdoor decorations and I am loving showing off our Christmas decorations!  Today I am excited to share our indoor holiday spirit.  If my husband is the one who goes overboard on the christmas lights, then I am sure he would say I am the one who goes overboard on the indoor décor.

Cregars Do Christmas: Part 1

***Originally posted on cregarstyle on December 9, 2014***

I am a bit late with the update on our Christmas Décor since it went up the last weekend in November.  However, it seems like our holiday spirit is overflowing and each day we add something new!  Today we are going to talk about the outdoor Christmas decorations and then a follow up post will share the indoor Christmas decorations later this week.  If you ever want to test your marriage, or see if you should marry someone, I highly recommend putting up Christmas lights with your partner.  If you can survive that, you can survive anything!  Its a good thing my husband is so handsome, because we certainly had more than a couple disagreements!  Love you, honey!

TX House: Backyard Overhaul

***Originally posted on cregarstyle on December 3, 2014***

I realize it has been about six months since I finished our backyard, but as y'all know life happened and it slipped my mind.  So let's take a quick look back at what the yard looked like when we bought it.

The previous owners had 5 randomly placed trees in the yard so our first step was to rip them out (the Oregonian in me cried a little) and filled the spots with grass seeds.  We then worked on creating a 3 foot deep flower bed along on the back fence.  Here is what the yard looked like once we removed the trees and created the flower bed. Our grass looked a little sad, but look at all of the room that is available now that the trees are gone!  We have played many games of corn hole and badminton in the yard with the new space.

The EASIEST Homemade Pizza EVER!

***Originally posted on cregarstyle on November 26, 2014***

Making pizza from scratch is something that we do every couple weeks at the Cregar House.  I used to be so overwhelmed by the idea of making pizza from nothing, but this summer I found the greatest recipe in the Daniel Plan Cookbook and I have altered it a little to best fit our family.

Thanksgiving Weekend...aka The Official Start of Christmas

***Originally posted on cregarstyle on November 24, 2014***

It is Monday, yet again!  The worst day of the week.  However, in a week that only lasts 2 days, it could be much worse.  I am so excited to have a wonderful LONG five day weekend with my hubby that includes friends flying in, wonderful Thanksgiving dinner, and the OFFICIAL START TO THE CHRISTMAS SEASON!

The Value of Friendship

***Originally posted on cregarstyle on November 20, 2014***

When you are a child it is easy to make friends.  You have no fear of being socially rejected, you have a group of 20 peers around you for most of your day, and most kids have built in friends with siblings.  I sat down with my junior and senior girls (I teach a youth group for our church) a couple weeks back and chatted with them about what it means to be a good friend.  I was surprised by their maturity and wisdom.  I am constantly learning from these beautiful young women and I hope they learn as much from me as I do them.

Busy Life = Happy Life?

***Originally posted on cregarstyle on October 29, 2014***

I feel like I am constantly apologizing for my tardiness when it relates to the blog.  However, I am going to be done apologizing.  It is just going to have to be like this for now....until I graduate probably.  I have dreams of having this blissful post college life where I have time to write blog posts multiple times a week.  I realize this is probably a pipe dream, because we will be moving, setting up a new house, I will be finding work (UGH), and I will be just as busy as I am now.  Although as Ted from How I Met Your Mother would say: That's a problem for Future Me to deal with.  For now, I will just keep on writing as often as I can and learn to be happy with what I've got.

Today's post is more of a continuous stream of consciousness, rather than a carefully thought out entry detailing my current state of life.  It hit me the other day, that for someone who is not yet a contributing member of society with a career oriented purpose in life, I am busier than expected.  Before 11:30 am Monday I had gone to the gym, forgotten I had a doctor's appointment only to remember and rush out the door, gotten coffee (probably the reason I could be remotely productive), watered the flowers for the first time in Lord knows how long, prepped dinner for my husband to finish later, mentally prepared myself for class, washed a couple loads of laundry, and realized it has been too long since I last posted on my blog.  PHEW!  I know for some people that seems like next to nothing.  I am sure my husband accomplishes more than that before 9 am, but when you start your day at 8:15 am that is a lot to do in 3 hours.