Plenty To Be Thankful For

*Dan's family made it into town safely, and we're very happy to have them here.

*We're spending Thanksgiving in our new home...which mean we're no longer in an apartment

*We both enjoy our jobs

*Our health has been great

*I have a friend who has started going to church with me regularly

*We've made a lot of great friends here in Vegas

*The dogs are not getting into any trouble ;)

*With God's provision, we never missed any payments, even with having the burden of paying for the other house

*Dan is leaving soon, but he (with the help of his family) surprised me last night at dinner with a birthday celebration. He bought me this:

So to everyone, I wish you a very Happy Thanksgiving!



A Cheap Weekend

Normally Dan and I can spend quite a lot of money eating out on any one particular weekend. We love going on dates, eating with friends, or just getting out of the house. So when we knew we'd have a four day weekend, I was a little worried about how expensive it would be. All that worrying was in vain (side note; it always is anyway) because we ended up having a very inexpensive, but wonderful weekend.  Here's how it all played out
*Thursday we got up and went to eat at a buffet for breakfast. Military was free and I was only $8. We grilled steaks for dinner. Total with tip: $10
*Friday we both volunteered at the air show. We got bagels for breakfast $2 and Starbucks to warm us up $7. Although I would have rather passed on the food at the air show, we were both starving and needed something to eat. Prices, of course, were inflated like any special event normally is. I got a hotdog $4, and Dan got a rice and noodle plate for $8. We had Catfish for dinner. Total: $21
*Saturday morning I made waffles. In the evening we had people over for a fight on TV and we ordered pizza. I picked carryout so I could have it quicker, but 1 hour later, we were the proud owners of 2 free pizzas, and breadsticks. Total: 0

Today we're eating the leftover pizza for lunch and having porkchops for Dinner. Total: 0

This makes our grand total for the whole 4 day weekend $31. I can live with that

Coming out of the woodwork

Life seems to be flying by. I just noticed I haven't posted a blog since Dan's birthday, but it feels like that was only yesterday! Most of my time is spent in the "normal" routine- working at the vet, cooking, cleaning, taking care of the dogs, etc. We have been doing some work on the house to get it ready for our first company at Thanksgiving. Dan's family will be coming and we're really excited to host it. 

We're making a little more progress on the yard, but I think most of the projects will have to wait until the spring. We did get our last tree in the ground about a month ago, but it's finally getting cold here, and I don't feel confident planting anything else. The patio project keeps getting moved to another month due to limited funds (life, as it seems always has other plans), but we did buy a fire pit last week, and we've already been enjoying it.

We had our first Halloween in our new house. The street that we lived on in Goldsboro never passed out candy, so this was the first time we were able to have trick-or-treaters.  I'm sure you're wondering how we kept the dogs from crowding the door every time the doorbell rang, but the answer to that problem was a baby gate. I sat on one side and waited for the door, and nobody ever made it over (much to their dismay). George did finally climb into my lap with some help from Dan, but that only lasted a few minutes before I set him back on the other side.

On another note, Dan will be leaving soon for another deployment. I'm definitely not excited about it, but  that's life, and that's definitely life in the military. Due to safety concerns I won't be posting anything about where he is and what he'll be doing, but we ask that you keep him in your prayers.  If the time he's gone goes by as quickly as it has been lately, I'll be happy.

And- in honor of Veterans day, here is the most recent picture I have of Dan in his uniform

Handsome as ever :)

And a big thank you to all others that serve or have served (including my pappaw). Your sacrifice and hard work does not go unnoticed