Oh the day I had...

      Ok so two post in one week, pretty good. I just had to get on here and tell about my adventure yesterday. I decided to go to Target to get so Easter presents for Nate's box I am sending him. He wanted a couple of movies and I haven't been to Target in a while, and now I know why. When I go to Target, I normally go with my friends and most of my friends have children so they drive. I had no idea how to get there so being the smart cookie I am I used my GPS and my phone to get me there...yeah that is a NO NO in Hawaii. Hawaii is like the Bermuda Traingle your devices are no good here ;). I got so lost. I was driving around for a good while thinking to myself, 'how lost can I really get on an island?'. I finally pulled into a gas station and asked a nice local man how in the world can I get to Target from where I was. He was very nice and asked why I was by myself...bc I really wanted to go to Target!!!! Anyways he then told me I needed a nice man (all in good fun I'm guessing) so on top of being lost I got hit on, which always makes a girl feel good haha. I told him I have a very nice man and he laughed and I thanked him for the info. Needless to say I still got lost again. Finally, I called my friend and she got me back on track on where to go. I needed street names (man directions) not landmarks! I am way behind schedule at this point so my Red Velvet cupcakes don't get done in time for my FRG meeting so boo. Anyways that was my little learning lesson for the week (hopefully). Thought it was funny! I hope you all are doing well and write again soon!

Lent? I didn't know you were Catholic...

    Well, that is a catchy title I know right? I start it off with that bc that is what I am doing right now, participating in Lent. No, I am not Catholic nor have I ever been. I am familiar with the practice of Lent though. In my college years I would often join my fellow Christians in participating in Lent (and a much lesser scale than the full practice of Lent). I would give up sweets, sodas or veggies ;). It would last about a week or two before I fell off the bandwagon and swore to myself I needed those indulgences.
     Here I am almost 3 years later reflecting on those times in my life. Nathaniel and I decided that we wanted to praticipate in Lent this year, crazy I know. I let him pick out what our 'sacrifice' would be. He chose fried foods....WHAT???? no way right? I am a girl from the South who has fried tattoed into my heritage and here he is about to strip away my life blood (ok a little dramatic, but if you have ever been or lived in SC you know exactly what I mean). I said yes thinking it wouldn't be a hard task to stick to, only 46 days!!!! If the going got too tough I could quit, right? This set me up on a journey of discovering my meaning of Lent. I know mine is not as strict as the actual Lent, but I am learning so much about myself and my relationship with God. I have been tempted mulitple times to give up, and 3 years ago I would have. I am a different person! I am proud of myself for continuing this journey and so blessed to be able to share this experience with my husband. He has been so supportive when all I wanted to do was grab a tortilla chip!!! I even had to spend 20 mins picking off the batter from my Shrimp Scampi at the Cheesecake Factory (the menu didn't say anything about it being fried...boo). This one event of me picking my food apart taught me a lot!!! Nate said I could send it back and get something else, but I realized NO I will sit here in front of all these strangers and do this bc it teaches me humility and sacrifice and having to 'work for my supper' ;). I enjoyed my wonderful dinner, without batter, so much more knowing I had earned it lol. Jesus had to make sacrifices and faced many temptations far worse than those I endure.
      I am now 5 weeks exactly into this journey and only a couple more weeks to go!!! This has not been easy, but I am so glad we decided to do this. Now, with all this said I do have a standing date with a Large French Fry at McDonalds on the 25th of April and nobody better get in my way! Well, that is it for this post ;) I will hopefully be writing a little more often with Nate gone and a lot of up coming changes ;). I hope you are all well and I will tty again later!
Morgan

The Good the Crazy and a Tsunami?

Oh where to start?

I could probably post a book on all the happenings of the past couple of weeks, but I will try to keep in to a couple of paragraphs...

First, Momma K came to visit for a couple of weeks. We had a good/crazy time doing all sorts of things on the island. Nate unfortunately had to work a good bit, but we made the best of it. We had good talks and good food. We also went hiking, which was pure craziness. We hiked to the lighthouse and then to Manoa Falls we were going to go for strike 3 at Diamond Head, but a sudden  down pour coming down from the Falls def. killed that dream. Hiking, which I love to do, always reminds me of how great God is and how we don't have to travel far to experience His AWEsomness. Long story short we had good times and made good memories.

Next, Nate and I have put off celebrating our anniversary for awhile. We tried to celebrate my bday and if your remember that didn't go so well. The restaurant we were going to had no power and was on a flooded street. How can it get any worse right? Two words Tsunami Warning! LOL. Yep, we were celebrating our first day at our beautiful hotel and BAM! We see on tv that we might get hit with a tsunami. We, of course, have never experienced anything like that before so we check out of the hotel and book it home, since we live on one of the safest parts of the islands and we were staying on the beach that was supposed to get hit with the most tourist. Anyways, we went to check out and God def. answered prayers they didn't charge us a dime! I was so happy bc I didn't want to lose all that money and not even stay at the hotel and I didn't want to stay at the hotel and die (lol insert TOTAL exaggeration here). We rebooked our stay for Mon-Wed. hopefully no tsunami's this time.

That is about it for now like I said so much going on so many changes. I will post again soon and hopefully have more info.
Morgan

Sickness and other news!!!

Whoa is ME!!! I have been sick since the first day Nate has been home (bad cold)! BOO! He has been great at taking care of me and you know me I am in overdrive half the time so I am doing myself more harm than good. I don't know what it means to take it easy these days. Of course, I was like I have to push through bc I have Bible studies to attend, Fundraisers to do, FRG meetings to attend, children to watch and of course a husband that needs to know I am so excited he is home!!!

On that note...NATE IS HOME!!! He was gone for 30days to NTC. I know all of us spouses are so glad to see that they are home safely. Nate loved our bedroom make over, only to point out that I used Michigan colors. Whatever they are pretty together ;). Since I couldn't get them into the wedding as a joke I will just use them in our house. Of course we are  THE OSU fans til death! It will only take 5 mins to change the sheets to red and no more Michigan colors ;). We have been trying to spend lots of time together before he heads out on the big deployment. We are still asking for you prayers for the upcoming craziness.

We have decided to continue with tradition and cook a meal at home and just spend some quality time together for Valentine's Day. We have discovered on holidays like this we just like staying at home ;). What's on the menu you ask? Crab Ravioli in Creamy Tomato Sauce. We tried sushi making last year, which was a blast! We might make one roll for an appetizer. This dish seems like it will be fun because we get to make the ravioli and so on. We are again still planning a getaway in March, which Nate has now taken over planning ;). Nate and I have also gotten hooked on Modern Family, that show is so funny. We def. find ourselves comparing us to the Dunphy's LOL. Anyways, that is about it for us.

Nate's mom comes in 8days!!! We are excited to get our first visitor here in HI while also helping her cross off "go to Hawaii" on her bucket list. We have already made a meal plan out so I get to go grocery shopping soon for that. I love grocery shopping! We are currently making  plans of things to do and things to see so she can get the most out of her visit.

I am staying busy as you can see from above. I am LOVING my Daniel Bible Study and I am learning so much about myself. I attended a book/craft club ran by a lady in the PWOC and I enjoyed it so much. I will hopefully have a pic up soon of the craft we made. Our new book for Feb. month is called '90 minutes in Heaven' by Don Piper. Nate and I are both reading it and are liking it.

The puppies are doing great. They are so glad Nate is home ;)

Well, that is enough of bouncing all around. Hope you all are doing well. I will update again soon.

Getting Set Up to Step Up!!!

       Well, lets just say God is awesome! Today was def. a realization day! Learning things about myself and exactly what I can handle and the standards I should set for myself. I went to the PWOC meeting today and then afterward proceeded to go to the Bible Study "Daniel" by Beth Moore. Nate is my strength and my verbal barrier. I have realized that I count on Nate to be my leader emotionally, spiritually, and verbally. Nate being gone has shown me that without a leader I need to Step Up to the plate and lead myself, which I haven't been doing a great job. I have what is called word vomit. You know what I mean? We are all guilty of it at some points. It is when our life gets to a boiling point that words and frustrations just spill forth spewing from our mouths before we get a chance to grab a waste basket for them to fall into to be contained. We don't realize what we are saying and the effect it has.I on the other hand am also guilty of not turning the mirror on myself. I am eager to point out when others are talking about Me and doing Me wrong, but while talking about what they are doing, I am actually "talking about them". I think they have no idea what I'm going through or they wouldn't be saying that or doing that. Therefore the cycle continues and nothing ever gets resolved. I urge you to take the high road!!! It may be difficult to take that first step of admitting your wrongful doings. The great things is that if things don't change you tried and that is all we can do. God calls us to love one another, now that doesn't mean we always have to like them ;) (j/k), but we should treat others how we would want to be treated. I often forget others are sometimes different from me. I can let things roll off my shoulders, forgive and forget and not care what anybody in the world thinks, but this doesn't mean everyone else is the same way. I am always trying to learn more about myself and others through all the experiences I go through. God has truly blessed me with being able to learn new things through the good and the bad! I am def. looking forward to seeing what God has in store for me through this Bible Study.

I will update again soon, maybe next time about the crafts I am working on ;)

Update!

Well, there is a lot coming up and I am growing more and more excited. I had my first FRG meeting that I organized last night and we had an amazing turnout. I was able to answer questions and update the families on things to come. It is great to know that people (besides family) that count on me and look to me for advice. I am loving being an FRG leader and organizing events and meetings for the families. We have a lot of great ideas for meetings and events. Enough about FRG :).

I bought us new bedding and accents for our bedroom and I am holding off putting them up until Nate gets home. It is a navy spread and we have yellow accents. I also got us a Keurig coffee maker. We have been putting aside money specifically for that and we took the money we got for Christmas and put it towards our coffee maker. I absolutely LOVE IT!!! We are very patient buyer and it took us months to finally decide for sure we wanted one and then hunt down the best deal. I am all about deals and being cautious. I also bought us our "Home is where the Army sends us" sign. It should be coming soon! It sounds like I am been spending like crazy lol but these purchases have been spread out and saved for ;).


Nate comes home in about 10 days and I am so flippin excited!!! Then we have about 2 weeks before his mom comes. I am still trying to get all the details worked out with our getaway to the Royal Hawaiian. We are getting excited to spend some time together before deployment.

I am making dinner for the Scott's tonight. We are going to have fajitas and then watch a movie. Tomorrow I am going to the beach with Chessa and her daughter and then making stuffed shells for them for dinner. I am so looking forward to getting out of the house (not like a spend much time in it anyway) and getting some sun. Well, I need to go prepare the meat for the fajitas and clean the house up some for tomorrow. I will update again soon!

Busy Bee...

Well,
  I have lots going on lately. I am planning my first real FRG meeting for tomorrow. I already have over 30 people coming which is 10x more than the last FRG meeting. I am looking forward to meeting all the new families.
  I am planning our anniversary getaway. We are going to spend a couple nights at the Royal Hawaiian, it is so flipping pretty. We are going to get massages and eat amazing food and just spend some quality time together before he deploys. I am missing Nate a lot, but again I am trying to stay busy.
  I am getting really excited for Nate's mom to come visit. I am planning a lot of stuff and making meal plans and such.
  Well, that is about it for now. Just a really quick update. Hope all is well on the mainland. Write again soon!