Quick and Easy Chicken Noodle Soup

Cold weather is here and nothing can warm you up quite like a big bowl of soup. I, personally, am not a fan of canned soup whatsoever. It just doesn't taste like the homemade version. So I decided to come up with my own recipe for my favorite, Chicken Noodle.

You will need:

• 2 Tbs unsalted butter
• 1/4 c sliced celery 
• 1/2 c sliced carrots
• 1/2 c minced onion
• 8 cups of chicken broth (you can use more if you want it more soupy)
• 1 rotisserie chicken, shredded (watch out for bones)
• 3 1/3 c egg noodles
• 1/2 tsp dry basil
• 1/2 tsp dry oregano
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp black pepper

Directions: 

I just wanted to show off the new knife my husband got me with my name on it.

• Melt butter in a large pot over medium heat. Add in celery, carrots, and onion. Cook until tender. 
  

• Add in chicken broth, shredded chicken, noodles and all seasonings. Stir to combine. 
• Bring to a boil, then turn down heat and simmer for 20 minutes. Enjoy!

15 Reasons Why Being a Military Spouse is Awesome

                                       



This morning I was sitting at home after my husband left for pt. I always hate when he has to leave, even if it's just for the duty day. I got to thinking about the different aspects of the military lifestyle. We all have reason why we may not like our spouse being in the military, but no one can argue that there are definitely some great things that come from it.

• The Benefits: Who can really complain about free healthcare? And of course, the housing allowance helps to keep a roof over your head, despite the not-so-good pay. 

• Free Gym "Membership": People are always paying tons of money to get a gym membership. But as a military spouse, you get to go to the gym on post for free! 

• The Commissary: It's great. Do I really need to explain this one?

• Military Balls: I don't know about you, but I love the excuse to be able to dress up nice and go dancing with my husband. 

• The PX: You can get name brand items such as Bath and Body Works, Marc Jacobs, Coach, and Michael Kors all in one place for pretty reasonable prices. 

• Military Discounts: Can you really argue with this one?

• You get to have friends all over the world

• Travel: This is probably my favorite aspect of the military lifestyle. You get the opportunity to live in places you normally wouldn't. You get to experience so many new places. 

• You learn to be very independent: When your spouse is gone for extended periods of time, what other choice do you have?

• You get the opportunity to be super creative: You have all those care packages to decorate and letters to write. 

• Road Trips! Every few years you get the opportunity to take a long road trip that you don't have to pay for! Cheers for PCS season. 

• That uniform! I love to see my husband in his uniform. I think he looks so sexy!

• The Pride: I feel so proud when I get to see my husband in his uniform. It's one of the best feelings in the world, knowing that he is willing to make sacrifices to keep our country safe. 

• You learn to be Flexible thanks to the military's last minute planning and constant changes.

• Tuition Assistance: This is definitely an awesome benefit of being a military spouse. Not only for me, but also my husband.

What are your favorite things about being a military spouse?

So Soon!

I'm really excited. In 9 days we will be heading home to see our family! I absolutely cannot wait. I've gotten almost everyone's gifts finished up. I'm really excited...Minus the 12+ hour drive. But on a happy note, we plan to geocache all the way home.

We had a lovely Thanksgiving with lots of food (of course!). That evening we went Black Friday shopping (it should be called Black Thursday). We grabbed a few Christmas gifts and new Fitbits for us. Our old Fitbits are falling apart. We got in and out and were home by 930.
Saturday we went to our friends' house for Friendsgiving. It was a lot of fun. There were about 12 people there. Instead of the traditional Thanksgiving meal, we had a taco bar. We spent the night playing games such as Concept and Cards Against Humanity. We had a lot of fun. Although, I got called white trash because I don't like the show Good Eats. It's just a very slow moving show  and isn't really my thing.
Now, the rest of the week  I will be finishing up the last of our gifts for our Homemade Christmas. I'm pretty excited about it. In two weeks, I get to see my family!

I'm Blessed

Throughout my entire life I’ve heard people talk about how God has financially blessed them, but I never understood how that made sense. That is, until yesterday. 

They took Cody’s BAS out to make up for when he was gone a few months ago. We didn’t know it came out Thanks to that, we had a check bounce for our car payment. We’ve never had that happen. That meant next month we’d have to pay $600 total (each month we pay $300). We wouldn’t have money to go home for Christmas, or to pay for food. We were devastated and absolutely terrified. 

I called the  credit union we have our loan through. I told them what had happened and that we’d make it up next month by paying double. But we’d have to separate it between paychecks. The woman asked if we were just trying to pay to get caught up. I said yes. She said “Oh, well in that case.. You’re car payment is only $289 a month. You all have been paying ahead every month and that goes towards the next month. So you only owe $72.98. That’ll get you until December 31st.” I was so happy. I knew we could afford that. I got off the phone with her and cried. It was such a relief. A huge weight had been lifted. 

We now didn’t have to worry about next month’s finances. We would be okay. But as I said, this month our account was wiped out because of bills and the BAS pay cut. We only had roughly $30 left in our account to buy food and get gas. 

Right after Cody got home, he started to change clothes. There was a knock at the door. It was a man from a local church. He handed us a huge bag of food and said “We’d like to help you with your Thanksgiving. Here’s a bag of food and a $25 Food Lion gift card.” We have never met this man, and for some reason he stopped by our house. In the bag was absolutely everything you’d need for Thanksgiving dinner. Plus, we now have enough money to last us until next paycheck. 

I honestly believe that God blessed us with all this. We were so scared we wouldn’t be able to afford our bills next month, but now we don’t have that fear.

Just An Afternoon Vent

Have you ever just hated the way your life is going? Or felt like no matter what you do, things just never seem to get better? Well, I'm at that point right now. It's been an awful week. I got some bad news and am currently waiting to see the outcome of it. Plus, I just got told Cody will be working on Thanksgiving. We had plans for the holiday and as well as Black Friday ( I was going to do some Christmas shopping). But now those have been thrown out the window.

It irritates me because they chose him to do it, instead of a single soldier. None of the single soldier's have plans for Thanksgiving, but they choose a married soldier who does. This kinda thing always happens to us. Always. Cody always gets screwed over, thanks to his stupid, spiteful chain of command.

It's times like this that I wish he had never reenlisted. Work will always come before anything, while he's in. And that is a super crappy feeling. I know we'll never be able to have a normal, happy life until we are no longer military affiliated. That's still so far away.

How to Make Cute Washcloth Reindeer

Christmas is approaching quickly. If you're like me, you're trying to find the perfect gift for everyone on your list. Why not make some cute gifts, that are super easy and quick to make?

I think these washcloth reindeer are absolutely adorable. And I'll teach you how to make you're very own!

I think these reindeer are absolutely adorable! And I'll teach you how to make you're very own! So grab a cup of hot chocolate or eggnog, turn on some Christmas music and get crafting!

You will Need: 

• A washcloth
• Brown pipe cleaners
• Pom poms (I chose red. You can do brown or black)
• A rubber band
• Ribbon
• A bar of your favorite soap
• Googly eyes
• A hot glue gun

How to make it: 

Lay your washcloth down so that it's in the shape of a diamond. 

Place the bar of soap near the center of the washcloth, but not quite in the middle. Like this 

Next you will fold the bottom corner up to the middle, covering the bar of soap. 

Fold the top corner down and around the back of the soap. You should see the corner at the top again, but on the back.

Now, fold up the sides so they meet in the middle. Tuck the top corner underneath. Tie with a rubber band, making ears.

Fold a pipe cleaner in half and set it aside. Fold another pipe cleaner in half, and cut it in the middle. Fold one of the halves in half and cut it again. Twist the two small pieces around each side of the pipe cleaner you have set aside, making antlers.

Put hot glue on the bottome of one side of the antlers. Secure them between the two ears.

Now glue on two eyes and a nose and use ribbon to tie a bow, hiding the rubber band. 

You now have an adorable reindeer that you can give someone or keep for yourself!