Would you...

Well, we are down to 5 and a half weeks left here! Then we will be heading to our new house in South Carolina...complete with 2 bathrooms and MOST importantly a KITCHEN!!!! Now I am really starting to think about what the future holds for me and Wade. Will we be able to find a great church? Will there be plenty of friends to be made at said church? Will I get a job? What will it be? A full time teacher? A substitute? A receptionist somewhere? Is Wade going on any deployments any time soon? Will Wade's boss be nice? Are we going to like Beaufort, or will we be bored? When should we have a family?

Would you pray with us as we prepare to move to our more permanent location? Would you pray with us for God's guidance and revelation of His will in terms of ALL of these fears and questions? Would you pray that we remain calm as we think about all that our near future holds?

We cherish your friendship and your prayers. We love you.

I'm all FIVE!

I'm trying to figure out my "Love Language". I know that I should probably read the book before I decide this, and I plan to- but it is packed away in one of our thousands of boxes waiting for the move to South Carolina! In the mean time (and in all my free time!) I have been thinking about which type of love means the most to me. In case you aren't all too familiar with the book, these are the 5 Love Languages:

a) Physical Touch

b) Gift Giving (and receiving)

c) Quality Time

d) Words of Affirmation

e) Acts of Service

As I've been trying to think about which of these makes me feel the most loved, it is a really tough decision! What if I'm all 5 of these?! Does that make me the most complicated of all lovers? I need all 5 to feel loved! I need Wade to show his love by holding my hand, by surprising me with little presents, by spending time with me, by telling me how much or why he loves me, and by helping me (like by getting my gas because he knows it's one of my least favorite things to do!). It's true, I need all 5. What about you? What's your love language?

Lately Wade has had incredibly long hours. He leaves every morning around 5:30 and doesn't get home most nights until around 8:00. Not only that, but he also works 7 days of the weeks. They have so many projects that they have to go in on Saturday and Sunday to complete the projects. Even though I know he is learning a lot and preparing for his job, I feel so bad for him having to work so much. I want to do things to make him feel better when he gets home. Normally in this situation I would bake his favorite chocolate chip cookies, or make a special meal for him, etc. Without a kitchen I can't do those things...so if you have any inexpensive ideas for creative ways for me to show him that I am thankful for all his hard work that would help cheer him up after a long hard workday, please let me know!! :)

I'm so excited that my friends Marcy and JT are getting married in April and that I will be going home for their wedding!!!!!!! I can't wait. I love these two people. They are amazingly sweet, funny, awesome people and I called it a long time ago before they were even dating when I thought to my self- "What if JT and Marcy got married? They'd be good together." AND now they are!!!!!! YAY!!! His only fault is that he's an A&M graduate. But I'll try not to hold that against him...

There are a couple of 5K's coming up here in Virginia Beach, and I just might have to run one. Is it bad that I'm nervous to run a race in a military town because I'm afraid I will come in last!? haha

Life in Little Spaces

This weekend Wade and I escaped to the Outer Banks, North Carolina area. We had a great stay at a really nice bed and breakfast type place (minus the breakfast!). We ordered steamed crab legs, shrimp and jalapeno poppers from a local take out place for dinner. It was awesome! The crab legs were perfectly delicious. Although, we

did get back to the B&B and realized we had no way to crack the crab legs! But, we survived using our hands and ended up getting ALL the meat anyway! :) Unfortunately, we did not think to take pictures until we were on the way back to Virginia Beach...but I will leave you with those pictures, along with pictures of where we currently live:

A random telephone booth along the highway to the Outer Banks.

Beautiful day at the beach!


Our current bedroom...please excuse the mess, but it is very small.
My favorite part of our new home, the teeny tiny shower. :)
Bathroom!
I know this has nothing to do with WHERE we live, but here are my V-day flowers from Wade! Didn't he do a great job!!! A week later and they still look awesome!
Lastly, the living room/kitchen.
At least we have a place to live and spend time together every day! :)

Another Go 'Round

Here I am, more than a year later trying to resurrect my blog! Mostly this blog will now be to keep those of you in Texas (and anyone else who cares) informed about the happenings in the "Wevan" life adventures. By the way, if you haven't heard- I recently married the love of my life, Wade!

Two weeks ago Wade and I moved to another base, this time in Virginia Beach. We will be here until Wade's training ends and then we will move to a more permanent home in South Carolina! I can't wait to get there and set up our first house. And we even put a deposit down for a puppy!!! We decided to go with the German Shorthaired Pointer. This is a breed we have been researching for probably more than a year. They are very active and love the water, so the pup should fit right in! I think we are going to go for a boy- and we already have a name picked out...MOOSE! Hopefully it will fit his personality, because I LOVE that name!

Basically right now I am a stay at home wife. It was really fun for the first month...but these last two weeks have been a little more rough. I do not have much to do other than laundry, because at this new place we have no kitchen at all. This living arrangement also has a cleaning service...so I can't cook, and I can't clean. Before, those three things kept me fairly busy while Wade was at work...cooking, cleaning, laundry. But now? I only have laundry. SO in an attempt to not get addicted to soap operas and Jerry Springer, I have been running more frequently. I've been talking to Wade's mom about running a half marathon in May. A hug piece of me wants to do this- if I had a Bucket List, completing a half marathon would be on it. But I am a little scared to go for it. What if I get hurt? What if I just can't do it? Will Wade be disappointed in me? (He has run 2 USMC marathons- really fast by the way PLUS at least one half). But another piece of me says now is the time to go for it. I have all the time in the world to TRAIN. If I am going to accomplish this, NOW is the ideal time to do it. Please, if you have ever done a half...suggestions? comments? encouragement???

Another way I have decided to occupy a little more of my time is to volunteer. I found a horse barn nearby that does horse therapy with special needs children. I am so excited to do this! I've heard a lot about this since college and I'm anxious to learn about it and be able to serve however I can. I will keep you posted on how that goes...I start the training program tonight!

A Fresh Start

I can't believe it's been 3 months since I posted my last blog! So many things have happened since my last post...the only way for me to really say all of those things is to make a list!!! :)

June:
1) Wrapped up the school year. I'm actually going to miss all of my students. You know, I think sometimes teachers bond more with students who they have a lot of problems with...
2) My friend from college, Brandi came to Dallas to visit me!!!
3) Left Dallas and flew to Amsterdam alone! My first time going alone internationally! It really wasn't a big deal...I think I could do it again no problem.
4) Landed with Wade in Nairobi, Kenya. It was so great being back there!
5) Watched a lot of ER episodes with Wade's mom and sister. It reminded me of how much I used to love that show!

July:
1) Spent time being the only girl with the Kreamer guys. It wasn't too bad...they let me pick a chick flick one night...and I chose P.S. I Love You! It doesn't get much girlier than that one! :)
2) Watch season 3 of King of Queens...best show ever!
3) Took Brenda, Belis, and Mitchiel to church and lunch one Sunday. They were hilarious!
4) Went to Turtle Bay in Malindi, Kenya and saw the Indian Ocean, coral reef, wild and out of control eels, got henna, got a little bit of a tan, had the best beach experience in my life. It was truly amazing and beautiful. I want to go back as soon as possible! :)
5) Flew back to Dallas, feeling very sad to leave Kenya and Wade.

Now, some big things that are coming up!!!
1) Start off the school year the right way...
2) My cousin Rebecca's wedding in College Station!
3) Moving Kelly to the apartment next door to her current apartment...haha :)
4) My ex-roomie Brooke's wedding!!! So excited about that!
5) Wade coming to Texas! Yay!!!

A Thought to Share

Once I heard Matt Chandler preach a sermon and he mentioned these verses from a book in the Bible that is often forgotten. Ever since I have heard these verses, I have come to love them and I think about them a lot. Lately these verses have been on my mind, so I thought I would share them:

"Though the fig tree does not bud, and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior. The soverign Lord is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, he enables me to go on the heights."
~Habakkuk 3:17-19

Even though we may having nothing, and even though everything around us may seem hopeless...we still have the Lord and he is what makes us live and breathe and move. We still have hope because we have Him. He is to be praised whether we have all we would ever want and need, or whether we have nothing- which can be so hard to remember, especially in our times of need and in our times of self pity... but He is all we really need, and we should praise Him for who he is...the verse proclaims Him- God my Savior. Savor that thought. It's beautiful.

FYI- Hillsong has a really great song that goes with this whole theme. It's called Desert Song, check it out! It's awesome. :)

Eyes on the prize

For spring break I went to Pennsylvania with Wade for a few days and then we drove down to North Carolina for his uncle's wedding. We went through Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia, Virginia, and North Carolina! Now that's a road trip!! It was a lot of fun! The wedding was outdoors and beautiful (but also a little cold!). That's a picture of us at the wedding. Cute... :)

Things at work have been really crazy lately! I've just been swamped with getting ready for the Math TAKS! On top of that I am trying to do extra things to earn points for a grant we may receive next year. So I've had lots of paperwork and never have any time during the day to get some things done! But I'm just keeping my eyes on the prize- extra money next year! I know it will all slow down soon...after Math TAKS. I told my students that if they all pass I will wear a chicken suit for a day! They are really working hard because they want to see me in that suit! haha

I can now run 2 and 1/4 miles!!! YAY!!! But- my 5K I was training for is on a weekend I will be out of town. So I need to find a new 5K. If you know about one- send the info my way and I'll run it with you!!! :)