thankful.

I believe you should be thankful always, but in light of the holiday coming up tomorrow, I decided to make a list of all the wonderful things I'm thankful for {or at least everything I could think of at the moment}.

I am thankful for my husband. I love being married. He compliments me in all the right ways. He loves to grill and I love to bake. I love to decorate and he loves to put everything together. He loves to work outside and I love to work inside. He loves to take care of the cars and I love... to just enjoy them. He loves people and so do I. He enjoys serving and so do I.

I am thankful for family. Both mine and his. I love that even though we're currently miles away, they are still the closest people in my life who listen to my woes, encourage me, support me, and love me for who I am.

I am thankful for friends. New and Old. The ones I have been able to stay in touch with over the years and the ones I have recently made here in Wichita Falls.

I am thankful for a new job starting on Monday! Tutoring until Christmas and then Reading Interventionist position come January. And the tutoring is perfect cause it is just in the mornings! Morning is my favorite time to teach.

I am thankful for the opportunity to have subbed these past few weeks. But I'm looking forward to a consistent schedule.

I am thankful for the Air Force. My husband has been given the chance to be a pilot, his dream. We get the opportunity to travel.  We have a beautiful house because of the AF. We get to live on a base, which is basically a city in itself.

I am thankful for driving. Seriously, when I drive, God speaks to me through creation and the moments I reflect on.

I am thankful for finding a church that we love here in Wichita Falls.

I am thankful for good food. Sweet potatoes with brown sugar and marshmallows, smoothies, hot chocolate, apple cider, steak, turkey, and many other delicious goodies.

I am thankful for my education. Biola was amazing! God placed me in the right place and I am blessed with many friends, helpful career preparation, and of course, my husband.

I am thankful for pinterest. Providing me with many hours of entertainment and wonderful ideas.

I am thankful for walks. I love going on walks and talking about life with my husband or family or friends.

I am thankful for pictures. I love how they capture special moments.

Mostly, I am thankful for God. And the giving of His Son to save the world!

{Rainy Day}

I'm staying indoors today and out of the rain.  Reminds me of Oregon. Oh sometimes it feels like forever ago that I lived there. Still can't really believe that we live in Texas now and I have a Texas drivers license. Anyways, this will be my last home post for a little while. I realize I've been monopolizing my posts lately with updates on our home. Guess that is what happens when I'm in the house a lot. We've finished our living room and here is the final effect.

{view from our entry way}

{view from our kitchen area}

{i'm loving these sconces} 

We are thoroughly enjoying our home and love to have an area to be comfy. I've been enjoying lots of hot chocolate and apple cider in our living room lately.

Thanksgiving is on Thursday. Can you believe it? The holiday season is coming so quickly! The Zenks {a couple we've gotten to know through Brian's class} have invited us over for Thanksgiving dinner.  Since they were staying around for Thanksgiving, they decided to have a bunch of friends over to celebrate the holiday. It won't be the same as it is with family, but we are looking forward to a great time with new friends. Oh, and it looks like Brian and I will be needing to go looking for our Christmas tree! Brian mentioned that around Thanksgiving time we would go searching.

Oh, and another exciting thing, Brian is going to try and fix Blaze! Blaze {our Blazer} has been having some issues lately and really needs a new part but the labor is super expensive. So Brian is going to see what he can do. And Bella {our new addition} is a wonderful ride. She has been the perfect car! Especially with Blaze having his issues. And of course, I cannot forget the motorcycle. Brian is happy to have him back in action. I haven't gotten a ride here in Texas but Brian made a ride last weekend to check out the scenery towards Oklahoma. I'm hoping to get my ride soon with Brian and travel to the Oklahoma border.

Recent Moments

After 11 months of having a Crock Pot and never once using it, I decided to bust it out and make a pot roast. Thank you pinterest for the wonderful recipe that turned out delicious and only took five minutes to stick everything into the Crock Pot and press start! Now I'm thinking to myself, if that was so ridiculously easy why have I never used this thing before? So here's to new Crock Pot recipes and easy cooking.

While our meal was cooking, Brian and I made a trip to Kirkland's Home Store, Hobby Lobby, and Bed Bath & Beyond were we found some curtains to complete our living room.   That was our goal: to finish the living room. And now that we have accomplished that, we are going to take a break from the home decorating and just enjoy what we have. I love decorating my home and I'm proud of what we've done so far.  Slowly but surely it will get done.  The sad thing I'm realizing, as I'm visiting with other military spouses, is by the time we finish decorating our house, we will be moving onto a completely different house.  Oh well, we will thoroughly enjoy this house while we have it.

This morning, we have been working on ironing and hanging our curtains. Finally looking like a put together room! Love it.  Then I walked over to our neighbors for some fellowship and I was able to meet a few other wives.  The more people I meet, the more excited I get about living in Wichita Falls, sure there is not a whole lot to do here but people can really make a place. So far I have had some blessed days.

As far as my job goes, I'm just waiting to here about going into HR and then I will start tutoring right away which I will do until January when my job starts! Lots to look forward to and be thankful for!

An Offer

On Friday, I was offered a teaching job!!! Such a blessing. But it was not the Third grade teaching position that I expected. Another lady who also interviewed had six years of experience in Third grade so they are putting her in that position. Thankfully, the school really enjoyed my interview as well so they offered to hire me as their Reading Interventionist for 1-3 grade. It is a fully certified teacher position which is what I was looking for and I plan to accept the offer on Monday morning.  Interestingly, it does not start until Jan.2, so until then they have asked me to be a tutor at their school.  Tutoring means same pay as subbing AND I get to have a consistent place to go to everyday AND it is only 30 hours a week AND I have the opportunity to work with the kids and staff now. How wonderful! Not what I had originally expected or planned, but I'm thankful for this position and I'm looking forward to teaching reading {my favorite subject to teach}.

..Veteran's Day and Some Projects..

After a morning of subbing high school, Brian insisted I leave my schedule open for the afternoon so we could enjoy Veteran's Day and his free entree at the {Texas Road House}. Yum! On top of all that, I came home to a wonderfully clean home. This is one very happy wife. Plus I have an update on our house... our latest project was hanging black picture frames up our staircase.

A sneak peak of the living room, which still has a few details to be complete.

And the start of our kitchen decor.

my camera kept changing the color but you get the idea{purple and silver}

{more to come}

Happy Veteran's Day!

{pinning my home}

Today, I have a mug of cozy cocoa and I'm pinning away my dream home. My interview went well yesterday and I'm celebrating by making more dreams for my home.  Here are my recent pins/dreams:

slanting shelves with a clock in the corner

Link

and a desk to go opposite the shelves

Link

fabric covered picture frames for wall decor

Link

possibly making this canvas for the living room

Link

A mirror with candle sconces on the sides (with mulberry candles)

Link

a necklace hanger for the bathroom

Link {but with a black frame}

A cozy throw blanket

Link {I adore these colors}

Link {I like the idea of sweater like material to snuggle up in}

Link {lovely knitting but I don't like the colors. i would have this blue with a light green and cream} 

pictures to line the staircase

Link

bathroom shelves

No Source {Please let me know if you find it}

Hopefully, I will have a few pictures of our completed rooms soon.  As of now, we have yet to finalize a room.

::Interview::

I mentioned earlier that I applied for a third grade teaching position and I got a call last week scheduling an interview.  My interview is today! Ah! I'm thrilled to go through the interview process and I'm praying hard it goes smoothly. While I am set up to sub, I would much prefer a class that I go to everyday and get to be with the same students.  I love watching my students grow throughout the year! I've missed my first graders tremendously.

Additionally, I applied for a Kinder position in the school district right next to here. It amazes me teaching positions have opened this late into the school year, but it is exciting that more students are registering for school in the area. I figured I would just sub for this school year and hope to get some long term sub jobs, but now there are some possibilities that I could be in a teaching position for the rest of the school year. God is good! He has been building my faith through it all and no matter what comes, I'm glad for the experience and I know he has something uniquely in store for me. And I'm very thankful for Brian and my whole family who has supported me through this whole process! Let's pray this interview goes well.

{Our Car}

So on Saturday, Brian and I planned a little trip down to Dallas to purchase a new-to-us car. Brian has been scoping out many Mazda 6's in the surrounding area and the closest we found was Dallas. I must brag my husband did some awesome searches to prepare for this excursion. At the first dealership, Brian was not impressed with the insides of the car so we moved on. At the second dealership, we found several Mazda 6's but one kept grabbing our eye. So we decided to take it for a spin.  Our spin died shortly when the car decided to stop because the battery had not been charged enough. Thankfully we were not on the freeway and could easily push ourselves to a driveway nearby. We really liked the car, so we decided to give it a second go (with a fully charged battery). We loved the ride and the car... so now we have this little baby setting in our garage: