2011 Recap

Let's take a moment to recap the highlights of 2011...

January

We were very thankful for the blessing of Chris starting his job with Blue Cross Blue Shield. Even though it proved to be a rather boring and stressful job, I'm thankful for the Lord's provision and for a husband who was willing to work through the stress to provide for our family. With him working full time, I was staying at home with Grandma and keeping busy around the house. I worked on many crafty projects, including making felt food for a dear friend.

February

The end of January and beginning of February brought a big snow and ice storm to Texas. I felt like I was living in Illinois again, except it was worse! We were stuck in the house for several days. It was fun to watch the dogs run around in the snow, but we were very thankful to see the warmer temperatures after a few days!

March

We were sad to experience the loss of our sweet Golden Retriever, Wilson, in March. He brought us a lot of joy and happiness in the four months we had him. I still think of him often and wish I could cuddle with him again! To keep myself entertained throughout the month of March, I attempted to do Weekly Challenges here on the blog. I spent a week deep cleaning the house, wearing a necklace each day of the week, trying new recipes and giving reviews, and keeping my kitchen clean.

April

April brought much warmer temperatures to Texas, which meant getting the garden planted! Chris worked hard to get the plot ready and everything planted. I worked on cleaning out a flowerbed and planting my herbs. It felt so good to work outside after the cooler winter.

May

May was the month for the kitchen renovation! Chris tore out the old cabinets and counters and put in new in order to make room for a dishwasher! I really appreciate his willingness to make my life easier! Unfortunately, we never got around to finishing the kitchen before we moved.

We also took a trip to Mississippi to visit my grandparents. My parents, brother and sister-in-law also drove down to spend a few days with us. We had a great time visiting, shopping, and going to the beach.

June

I took a weekend trip back to Illinois to attend the annual meeting at Little Flock the second weekend of June. It was wonderful to spend time with my family and to visit with our church family there. We were also busy harvesting the garden throughout the month. We put up a lot of vegetables in the freezer and I tried my hand at canning pickles for the first time.

July

Chris and I celebrated our 3rd anniversary on July 5. We celebrated by spending the day in Dallas before we headed to Florida. This was our first trip together to Florida to visit Little Union. It was during that visit that I fell in love with the church family and felt the Lord working in our lives.

We also welcomed Bailey into our family in July. We are thankful for the time we got to spend with him. Sadly, he didn't work out well in our family, but we are thankful he is happily enjoying his new home with Chris' mom and her boyfriend.

August

We celebrated Chris' birthday weekend with his family in the Metroplex. The weekend was filled with a lot of fun as we went to two Ranger's games and spent a day at a water park.

September

September was a pretty low-key month for us. We made another trip out to Florida together. I also made a trip up to Illinois and Ohio with my mom. I also started subbing part-time, which was full of interesting experiences.

October

October was a big month for us! We found out that Chris was called to pastor Little Union and made the decision to move to Florida. We are so thankful for the Lord's work and direction in our lives. We were also excited to have my friend, Shelly, visit for a few days. It was a great time of catching up, laughing, and working on craft projects together.

November

November started out with Chris and I making the decision to move Grandma to Florida with us, rather than put her in the nursing home. The month was also full of making plans and packing for the big move. We also enjoyed Thanksgiving with Chris' family. The end of the month brought the big move!

December


We welcomed December in our new home in sunny Florida! The move from Texas went very smoothly. We were anxious to get into our house and begin settling in. It didn't take us long to get unpacked and deck out our home for Christmas. We were excited to host our first church fellowship in our home. We closed out the month and the year by spending a week at Disney World with my family. It was a fun-filled and memory-filled week, a perfect way to end a big year!

So Long, Texas. Hello, Florida.

This is old news to my lovely readers, but we are now living in beautiful Plant City, Florida. On November 28th, we loaded up our household of earthly treasures and began the journey to Florida. We were so thankful to have the help of the Cunningham Moving Company (AKA: church members from Little Union Primitive Baptist Church) to help us with the move.

I'm going to borrow a few pictures from Danielle to show the highlights of Moving Day.

The guys and Sis. Sheila went to Abilene to pick up the moving trucks while Danielle and I packed up the last of the house. She was a wonderful help! I was to the point where I couldn't think of packing another box. The moving trucks arrived on the scene around 11 AM and we quickly set to work.

Bro. Gary Sr. was the man-in-charge! He is a professional mover and knows what he's talking about. I quickly learned to say "yes, sir" and do what he said.

We finished loading the first truck around 2 PM. After a short lunch break, we set to work on the second truck.

After we finished loading up most of our house, we had to go to a little house Chris' grandma owns where we had a lot of stuff in storage. It was only about 3 blocks down the street, so Danielle and I just hitched a ride in the back of the truck. I felt like I needed some candy to throw out to the little children. Except there weren't any children around.

Where did all this stuff come from?!?!

As the guys were loading my grill and a few other things into the back of the pick-up, us girls worked hard on making sure the self-timer worked right on the camera. It was a hard, hard job.


Both trucks are all loaded and we're about ready to pull out. I wonder why the men look so much more exhausted than the ladies? We did work hard, I promise!

Thankfully, Grandma and I were able to fly from Dallas to Tampa. I was very sad to miss out on the 22 hour road trip, but someone has to make the difficult sacrifices. ;) Grandma and I left Tuscola around 7:30 PM to drive to Dallas. We stayed in a hotel and flew out around noon the next day. Chris and the moving company pulled out around 8:30 PM. They made it just past Dallas on Monday night. Tuesday they drove to Panama City, FL and finished the drive on Wednesday. They pulled into Lithia around 6:30 PM Wednesday night. I'm pretty sure none of them wanted to sit in the car for a very, very long time.

Visiting with Friends

My good friend from college came to visit last week. It was so much fun to be able to visit, spend time together, and enjoy the little things in life. Shelly is great to just have fun with anything she is doing. We don't leave super exciting lives, so I get a little concerned when we have company. I had a lot of fun and Shelly didn't seem bored out of her mind.

After I picked her up from the airport on Wednesday, we spent some time at the Abilene Zoo. I love our zoo! It is small, but they have a lot of different animals. You can also get really close to the animals. We had a great time walking around, watching the animals, and laughing together. After the zoo we had a yummy lunch at Jason's Deli, then picked up some groceries. We spent the rest of the afternoon and evening hanging out at the house.

Thursday we had to run to town for some errands and also stopped by Hobby Lobby. I had a craft project in mind and needed to get some supplies. Shelly was going to a costume party over the weekend and wanted to make a costume, so we got supplies for her too.


We spent the afternoon working on her costume. We put our minds together to come up with a plan. Then we got busy cutting the fabric, sewing, altering, cutting some more, until we were finally happy.

A few hours later....Shelly is transformed into Pocahontas!

Shelly and I took a break from crafting to make our fried chicken supper. She was a great help and really made the time in the kitchen so much fun!

After supper, we got to work on my project. I saw this idea on Pinterest a few weeks ago and was excited to try it out.

Old tie+beads=new necklace

The rest of the evening was spent watching the intense, nerve-wracking, dramatic 6th game of the World Series.

Shelly had to leave on Friday morning. I was sad to have her leave, but very thankful for our time together!

Photography Challenge: Week 3

The assignment for the Photography Challenge this week is BOLD colors! This one was a bit challenging for me to think creatively. There aren't many bold colors this time of year in west Texas. Everything is brown, brown, brown!

1/750, F4.0

This is a lap quilt that a dear friend from church made when we got married. I love so many things about it. It's just the perfect size, I love the bright colors, some of the squares have Bible verses, and just thinking about the sweet sister who made it always brings a smile to my face.

Just another note about this picture....it's hard to tell, but the quilt is blowing in the breeze just a bit. At the time I was taking this picture, a little cold front was blowing through! The temperature dropped from about 102 to 97!! I could hear thunder in the distance! We're praying hard for some rain and cooler temperatures.

Crouse Family Vacation 2011

We went to the Metroplex this weekend to celebrate Chris' birthday and our 2nd annual Crouse Family Vacation. It was a busy, busy weekend and so much fun!

We arrived in Arlington around 4:30 Friday afternoon, got settled in our hotel room, and headed out to supper with the family. We enjoyed a nice steak dinner at Trail Dust Steakhouse and did some catching up with the family.

After supper we headed to the Ranger's game. Now, I am a Cardinals fan at heart and always will be, but the Rangers are pretty high up there. I just love baseball and especially love going to games. I love the fans, the excitement of seeing and hearing the game first hand, and the smell of stadium food. We had amazing seats for the game and really had a good time.

The game was intense and exciting! The Rangers won in extra innings! Woohoo!

That's a winner! Rangers win!

We watched the firework show as we walked back to our hotel after the game.


Saturday morning we headed out to Hurricane Harbor. It was a good way to enjoy the 100+ degree temperatures we've been so thoroughly loving this summer! We all had a blast swimming and going on the water slides. I was excited that the whitest person in Texas didn't become the reddest person in Texas! I was diligent to apply lots of sunscreen throughout the day!

After spending most of the day at Hurricane Harbor, we all worked up an appetite and were ready for some good food before heading to the Ranger's game again. This time we enjoyed a seafood supper at Pappadeaux Seafood Kitchen. I tried fried calamari, frog legs, and fried alligator bites. I loved the calamari and alligator, but wasn't such a fan of the frog legs. The taste wasn't so bad, but when I picked it up off the plate it just dangled there. It was just like when I would pick up frogs as a kid, except the body and the rest of the legs weren't there. It totally weirded me out!

It was at Pappadeaux that I experienced one of the best meals I've ever eaten. I ordered the Jumbo Shrimp Brochette. It was jumbo shrimp stuffed with Monterrey jack cheese and jalapeno, then wrapped in bacon and grilled. Oh. my. heavens. We all know how much I love jalapenos, but cheese and bacon are two of my other favorite foods. I also had a loaded baked potato, which I love. I wasn't able to eat everything and it killed me! I wanted to keep stuffing my face, but knew I would face serious consequences. We were getting ready to sit out in the 104 degree weather watching a baseball game after all. Please do yourself a favor and find the nearest Pappadeaux Seafood Kitchen and order the Jumbo Shrimp Brochette. It will change your life. Seriously.

My amazing meal....yummmmmmm!

After our lovely supper, we headed out to the game. We enjoyed the same seats that we had Friday night. Chris' dad and sister wanted shirts to celebrate our family vacation and I was assigned the job of shirt designer. I think some of the guys thought it was ridiculous, but I thought it was so much fun! There was no denying that we were together.

A Dad and his sons.

Rangers Ballpark in Arlington

At one point in the game, most of the family left to go get drinks or do some shopping. Chris' niece, Katelynn, and I were left to have fun together!

Katelynn and her foam finger.

Showing off the back of our shirts!

Showing my enthusiasm for Josh Hamilton!

Katelynn told me to have a serious face.

C+L=love (I know, I'm cheesy!)

Me and the Birthday Boy!

The game was exciting, but sadly the Rangers lost. It could have been a better ending to our weekend, but it was still a lot of fun!

Dallas and Florida Trip

Chris had an appointment to preach in Florida this past weekend. Since our flight was to leave out of Dallas at 10AM Saturday morning, we decided to spend the Friday enjoying some sites in the city. My husband is so wonderful to take the whole day off work and spend it together. We shopped, ate lunch together, did some sight-seeing, shopped some more, and enjoyed a relaxing night at the hotel.

One of our stops for the day was the Dallas World Aquarium. Not only did it have aquatic animals, but also some animals from the rain forest and other environments. As with most tourist attractions, it was WAY overpriced, but still a good way to spend some time out of the heat. Chris was a good sport to endure it to make me happy!

This pictures is really dark and hard to see, but it's the tiniest monkey I've ever seen. Sadly, I can't remember the name of it. It was adorable though!

Flamingos! They really are gross birds, but I've always liked them.

The jaguar was taking a nap when we stopped by to visit.

Supper anyone? These were some GIANT catfish!

The cute little otters getting fed.

Thanks to Priceline, we were able to score an awesome deal on a hotel room. We stayed at the Hilton Anatole in downtown Dallas. What an amazing hotel! We loved walking around the grounds and admiring the beautiful artwork, architecture, and outdoor areas. The hotel had the Nana Restaurant on the 27th floor. We treated ourselves to a luxurious supper, which was a lot of fun!

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Beautiful room!

Saturday morning we left for Tampa, FL. I was really excited for this trip and the opportunity to meet blogging friends in real life! It was also a lot of fun for Chris and I to finally get to fly together. We both fly quite frequently, but we had never flown together. I'm sure he didn't find it as exciting as I did! :)

Our time in Florida was wonderful. We enjoyed great fellowship with the members at Little Union and a good time of worship. I loved meeting everyone and quickly forming new friendships. It is always great to travel to a new place, yet instantly feel like you're at home. That's exactly how I felt this weekend.

I had intended to take a lot of pictures while in Florida, but only have theseof Chris and his buddy, Brady, sporting their matching cowboy hats and boots.


All in all, it was just a great weekend. It's been hard to get back into the swing of things this week. I had a hard time with Chris being at work on Tuesday after spending the last 4 days together. We needed a weekend like that!

Garden Harvest

Our garden hasn't done as nearly as well as we had hoped, but we have been able to get a few good pickings out of it. This is the harvest from last Tuesday (6-14).

A few cucumbers, okra, and cherry tomatoes.

Squash - - there was about twice as much already in the refrigerator!

Some of the zucchini were HUGE! I was able to get about 5 cups shredded out of each of the bigger ones.

Mess of green beans

Grandma snapping the beans.

A few of the really long green beans.

Heaping pile of black-eyed peas.

Grandma shelling peas. She couldn't ever remember shelling peas (which she's done all her life) and wasn't sure if she would be able to do it. I showed her how it was done and she got to work on her pile. After she had been working on the peas for a few minutes, I asked her if she was doing alright. "This is the easiest job I've ever had!" she said.

At the end of the day...2 quarts of boiled squash, 10 quarts of shredded zucchini, 10 bags of raw zucchini spears, 2 quarts of green beans, and 1 quart of black-eyed peas. We ate the okra for supper that night.

My first-ever batch of bread and butter pickles! Chris and Grandma gave them the stamp of approval. I don't care for them, so I'm working on some dill pickles as we speak (or write)!