"Every good and perfect gift comes from above" James 1:17

It is finally time for us to make this announcement to the blog world. Allen and I are THRILLED to tell you that we are expecting Baby Cravens to arrive the end of March!!! We cannot explain how excited we are about this little baby! We are almost 11 weeks along and saw a strong heartbeat a little over 3 weeks ago. I have been feeling not so great since about week 6, but know that ii will be well worth it come March 31st!
Other news....we are moved in and settled in Oxford! We absolutely love our new house as does Cuba! Allen is doing great at his knew job and really likes all the guys he works with. I just found out today (officially) that I will be working part time at an outpatient clinic seeing pediatrics. It is a GREAT job and Allen and I feel like God has does more than provide for us. We feel so unbelievably blessed!!!

HOME SWEET HOME!!!

After a LONG vacation from the blogging world, I'm back with HUGE news!!! Allen and I will be Mississippians AGAIN in 2 1/2 weeks. We are making the move to Oxford! Allen was recently offered a new job in Oxford and we thought that this a great time for us to get back to our homeland :) Allen assures me that he will never be seen wearing rebel red :) The house pictured above is the cute rental home we found just outside of Oxford in a quiet, cute neighborhood. It is perfect for us...we could not be more excited about this move!!! Allen and I have a a great summer with lots of "mini-vacations" and my goal is to update all of you on our summer by the end of the week...promise not to take anymore long vacations from the blog world :) Good night all!!!

New York Marathon, Here We Come!!!

Allen found out last week that he made it into the New York Marathon! It is on November 1st (a great trip for our 1st anniversary) and the training has already started. Bad timing with the 105 degree heat index we have had for the past 4 days here in Nashville, BUT that doesn't stop Allen...

Allen is pretty safe in that he wears a water belt to stay hydrated and he always has on his road ID wristband. If any of you out there are runners (or love a runner) this is a must have. It has Allen name on it and my cell phone number so he can be identified and I can be reached if anything were to happen.

So for the next few months, the road may see more of my hubby than I do :)

MOTHER'S DAY WEEKEND!

Mom, Dad, and Cade came up to Nashville for the weekend. The girls had a GREAT time at Signature Nail Spa having a relaxing morning of manicures and pedicures. It is probably a good thing that a place like Signature does not exist in Grenada or Mama would be broke :)


Allen, Daddy, and Cade had a fun filled day of skeet shooting, Bass Pro shopping, and floor buying (for B'ham house soon to be on the market!).
Saturday night the grill master cooked us steaks at Meagan's house for a perfect ending to a perfect day!
The Grill Master...

Enjoying the Grill Master's masterpiece...


It was a GREAT WEEKEND!

If anyone is looking for a new home in Birmingham, a GREAT 3 bedroom/2 bathroom is going on the market this weekend...

RECIPE SWAP!!!

I'm in need of some new, yummy, simple, cheap and somewhat healthy recipes! I am somewhat stuck in a rut when in comes to dinner ideas...I think we have fajitas, tacos, and spaghetti at least once a week (I don't mind, I love all 3, but I think Allen in getting tired of my dinners). Anyway, I ventured out last night with a new recipe (a VERY simple recipe) and it turned out great so I thought I would share.
Teriyaki Chicken Stir Fry:
1 bag of frozen stir fry veggies
Chicken cut into cubes or small strips
Whole wheat spaghetti noodles
Teriyaki sauce (found in the ethnic food section of the grocery store)
pepper

Marinate your chicken in the sauce and put in a large skillet (in hot EVOO)
Cook chicken until no longer pink
Add frozen veggies to skillet and turn to med-low
Add a bit of Teriyaki Sauce and pepper
Cover and simmer, stirring every few minutes
Cook until veggies are cooked (about 8-10 minutes)
Boil noodles and drain.
Mix noodles and stir fry. Add sauce and pepper to taste...ENJOY!

Now for Dessert!!! Orange, Apple, Strawberry SMMOTHIES!

1 apple peeled and cut into cubes
Handful of strawberries cut into pieces
About 1-2 cups of orange sherbert
A little milk
A cup of ice
Mix well in a blender and enjoy and VERY yummy and healthy dessert, snack, or breakfast!
Now I have shared my very easy recipes with you so it's your turn to share some (easy and cheap) recipes with me.

I'm BACK!!!

Sorry about the month delay of posting. I guess Allen and I haven't been doing anything exciting lately :) BUT, we had a GREAT weekend with siblings last weekend so that's what I'm going to share with you. Kyle (Allen's bro) came into Nashville on Friday for a fun filled, somewhat laid back weekend. Friday night we had a great dinner at Blackstone Brewery with the Munselle's. Awsome food and fellowship (as always with this couple). Saturday, Allen, Kyle and I took the top off the jeep (actually I had no real part in taking the top off the jeep) and rode for HOURS around Nashville. Wish I had a pic of what my hair looked like after that ride. Saturday night, we had tickets to the Billy Currington concert...suite tickets! Thanks Kathryn (& Deloitte)! Here are a few pics of the night...
M & T sitting on the railing of the suite...you can't see it, but the stage is directly behind us.

Kathryn and Phillip Spencer breaking it down to Billy!

BROTHERS!!!


We had a great weekend and hope Kyle comes back soon!

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY! Kauai and more...

KAUA'I

Sorry it has taken me oh so long to blog about our trip last week. We got back Saturday afternoon and were welcomed back to the mainland by Allen's family! They spoiled little Cuba rotten while we were gone. I was so excited that they were able to come up and see our little house :) Anyway, I STILL am suffering from jet lag, therefore have put blogging off all week. Enough about that and a little about the trip. We would have stayed forever if we had not missed our little puppy so much! I GREATLY recommend Kauai as a long get away for anyone who is wondering where their next adventure should take place. It truly is paradise! We stayed active most of the time (imagine that with my sweet hyper husband), but Allen did allow me some down time on the beach and by the pool. We stayed at the Grand Hyatt on the south shore and were treated like royalty by all of the staff. Here is a picture of the view from our table at breakfast every morning.

Breakfast was one of our highlights of everyday...it was WONDERFUL!
We never completely got on island time, so we were at breakfast around 6:00 every morning and were able to see the island "come alive". Most mornings after breakfast we walked around the resort or down the beach and then while Allen went for a run I took a good book down to the pool :) We did lots of driving during the day. Here is a picture of Allen is our Mustang convertible (he surprised me with the upgrade to convertible and we both agree it was WELL worth it!).

Most of our tan came from hours spent in the car just riding and looking...anything from a tour of a coffee plantation, watching whales from a lighthouse lawn, checking out the grand canyon of the pacific (Wimea Canyon), hiking to a lookout on the north shore, and eating shrimp tacos at a great itty bitty shrimp shack all came as a result of just "riding around".






The island is truly spectacular in the fact that there is a little of everything! Beaches, mountains, farmland, pastures and of course Allen wants me to mention great golfing. We spent an afternoon on the Poipu Bay Golf Course (home of the Grand Slam) and Allen played great! I was the cart driver and photographer. Here are some of our favorite pics from the course...




On of my favorite activities was the sea kayaking. We went with a group of 4 other people (including 1 guide) and spend about 4 hours in the ocean (paddling about 9 miles) and 2 on secluded beaches! I will admit it was MUCH tougher than I thought it was going to be, but worth it! About 10 minutes into the tour we paddled right into a pod of about 100 dolphins. They surrounded us, jumped out of the water, swam under our kayaks, and pretty much just showed off for about 10 minutes. We got some great pics with out underwater camera, but I will have to post those later since I don't have them on a cd yet. Later in our trip we saw a sea turtle and paddled about a 1/2 mile out, then jumped in to snorkel where a point of volcano comes up (this made me incredibly nervous since we were so far out and I just knew that a shark was probably right behind me so even though this was very cool, I couldn't really enjoy it). For breakfast and lunch we surfed our kayaks onto secluded beaches for an hour of eating, snorkeling, shell finding, and coconut busting...here is Allen eating the coconut he spent at least 20 minutes trying to open on a rock :)

The last 30 minutes of our tour, everyone (except me) saw a little shark swimming beside us. I am glad it happened at the end of the trip. I was a nervous wreck trying to get our kayak in without flipping :) Overall it was a great activity (and I was sore for days after it!)!

Our last full day, we decided to cancel our snorkel tour and instead head out on our own...so glad we did. We found a little beach on the south shore (where some of the tours you pay big bucks for take place) rented $8 snorkel gear and took off. I have never snorkeled anywhere other than Destin, so it was quite an experience. I LOVED it!
There is still so much more to tell you about, but I think I've written enough for now. I'll leave you with my favorite picture of the trip. This was taken at The Beach House (probably one of the best places I have EVER eaten) on our last night.

Hope you enjoyed this little glimpse of our honeymoon!
Look for more pictures of the trip next week on my first "Wordless Wednesday".

Red Sea and Good Earth

Allen and I teach a group of kindergartners and first graders on Wednesday night at our church. We leave every week laughing about a comment made or question asked...kids truly do say the darndest (sp?) things :) Well, tonight we were discussing Moses, the Israelites, and the Red Sea. I thought I had done a fantastic job explaining it in terms for small children to understand, when a precious little girl raises her hand, stands up, and precedes to explain that I told the story wrong and for 5 minutes retells the story of the Red Sea. I really thought Allen was going to fall over from trying to keep the laughter in. This little girl is homeschooled and as soon as we got in the car to go home, Allen informed me that I would be homeschooling our children :) I will definitely study up a little more for next weeks bible story!
Here is a picture of our lovely table set for supper last night...



After being married for 4 months, I finally got all of our Good Earth pottery up to Nashville on Sunday. It looks great on the table AND in the china cabinet. I tried a new recipe to go in the new Good Earth rice bowls... southwest chicken soup (stolen from another blog). It was GREAT!
Well, I guess I should leave you with a pic of Cuba :) This is how I found "my boys" when I got out of the bath last night...Allen watching "Rob and Big" and Cuba just "chillin" :)

Happy Birthday Granddaddy!!!

Today is Granddaddy's 80th birthday! I headed down to Mississippi on Friday so that I could be at Granddaddy's surprise birthday party on Sunday...I'm pretty sure he was surprised when he walked into church and saw his family sitting on his regular pew. We also celebrated the birthdays of cousins Ally (18) and Luke (15). Allen stayed in Nashville for the weekend and attended a Men's Retreat at our church (Cuba and Allen missed me greatly :) I came home to a clean house and clean laundry!!! (of course I can't find half of my clothes because of where Allen chose to put them, but I'm definitely not complaining)! When I left Nashville on Friday morning, I was looking forward to a sunny warm weekend down south, but instead this is what I got...



Here is the latest pic of Cuba at the park. I took him to the vet today and I have to admit that I got a little sad when they told me that he doesn't have to go again until November because he is no longer considered a puppy : (

Hope everyone had a GREAT Monday and again, HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRANDDADDY!!!
-Terra