me

I like lots of things, but my list of very favorite things is quite short:

My Jesus, my husband, my 4 sons, my friends, and my camera (and all its gadgets).  Oh, and coffee.

Just about every post I’ve ever written has been about one of those topics.  I guess that’s just fine by me!

The above introductions were written in March of 2011.

A few years later I find that it might benefit you to know a little more about me.

I was raised by the best parents in the world and they are still two of my favorite people.

I met my love when we were 17 and we married two weeks after he graduated from college… I had one year left to go before I became a real-live elementary school teacher.  GO RUNNIN’ BULLDOGS!

Two years into our marriage we welcomed our first son, less than two years later, another son, 13 months later a third son.  During this season we were doing life with a fantastic group of people in North Carolina where Matt served as a youth pastor.

He joined the Army as a Chaplain in January of 2006, deployed for 15 months (07-09) and in 2010 we welcomed our fourth son (seen above when he was itty-bitty).

Our Army Journey has seen us in South Carolina, Colorado, Germany, South Carolina, and now, Texas.  We’ve since had a second deployment (in 2014) and we are in a really fun place with our ministries and lives.

My full-time job is homeschooling these young men.  Our goal isn’t to raise good kids, but to raise kids who become great men.  It’s a non-stop job!

As of right now we have one in high school, two in middle school and one in elementary school.  Switching from algebra to counting-by-fives takes some serious brain power, let me tell you!

We are having a blast raising teens.  There are moments that are more fun than others, but overall, we are treasuring each moment.  The thought that we are in the last few years of our daily influence with our oldest keeps me on my toes.  It also reminds me to squish my five-year-old all.the.time because I know just how little time it takes to go from five to fifteen!

I love teaching and, while homeschooling is my number one responsibility and my biggest joy in the “career” side of me, I receive an enormous amount of pleasure from teaching Financial Peace University under the heading of Community Connections here at Fort Hood.

As a hobby and as a way to remain healthy and spend some time alone, I run; early in the morning and I listen to podcasts rather than music.  I love LOVE to learn from other people and I love to share these with others.  If you’re interested in what I listen to, send me a note!  I’ve got some good suggestions!

Before I close, I have to give a paragraph to my love.  Not because I forgot him, but because it all comes back down to him.  Before we were six, we were two.  We are best friends and we enjoy our time together.  I understand that my littles will move on to their own lives in time and our six will once again be two… for a while it’ll be three, though, because Parker is six years behind the others… I’m holding on to that comforting fact at the moment, but I digress…

Without the man I married, all of this I’ve shared wouldn’t exist.  He has committed to love and care for me no matter what and I appreciate that so very much.  One of the reasons I love teaching FPU is because it genuinely helped our marriage grow, and deep down, I pray that other marriages are helped and or healed by participating in the classes I facilitate.  Our marriage is not perfect and we go through our own share of ups and downs but when all is said and done, I pick Matt.  I am thankful God set us apart for one another and that He had in His great wisdom the willingness to let His love reach to me through Matt.