All about the Crowder's

I haven nothing much to say but I actually have TIME to blog so here's a little survey I stole from my friend, Lindsey's blog. Enjoy getting to know "The Crowder's."

♥What are your middle names?
Renee and Carroll. Guess which is mine and his.

♥How long have you been together?
Married for almost 4...together for almost 7.

♥How long did you know each other before you started dating?
A couple of weeks.

♥Who asked who out?
Chris asked me.

♥Who made the first move?
Chris. Definitely moved in for the kiss after I ate Taco Bell. I'm sure that was tasty.

♥How old are each of you?
I'm 26, he's 28.

♥Did you go to the same school?
The same college.

♥Are you from the same home town?
Nope. I'm from St. Louis, he's from Dallas.

♥Who is the smartest?
That's not a very nice question! We're both smart in different ways. He's a GENIUS when it comes to money and I'm an idiot. We're just different =)

♥Who majored in what?
Me, elem. education. Chris, Kinesiology/Health Science.

♥Who is the most sensitive?
Me FOR SURE. I'm ultra sensitive!

♥Where do you eat out most as a couple?
It use to be Corner Bakery but we hardly ever get to eat TOGETHER now that we're in football season.

♥Where is the furthest you two have traveled together as a couple?
Probably Mexico. Or California. Mexico isn't that far from Texas.

♥Who has the worst temper?
Me. Not good.

♥How many children do you want?
As many as God gives us. I'm hoping that's at least one.

♥Who does the cooking?
Me. Poor Chris can hardly boil water.

♥Who is more social?
We're both pretty social but Chris is a little more than me.

♥Who is the neat-freak?
Me. Chris has no problem being messy.

♥Who is the most stubborn?
Chris. I'm pretty stubborn myself though.

♥Who wakes up earlier?
Me. Not fun. at. all.

♥Where was your first date?
We went to see the movie Signs. Super romantic, huh?

♥Who has the bigger family?
Me. By about a thousand people.

♥Do you get flowers often?
No and I'm not complaining. I would rather have a Starbucks or a little present than flowers.

♥How do you spend the holidays?
We split. If he gets Thanksgiving, I get Christmas. If I get Christmas, he gets Thanksgiving.

♥Who is more jealous?
Neither of us are very jealous people.

♥Who eats more?
Chris. But don't be deceived, I can put some food AWAY!

♥What do you do for a living?
I teach third grade. Chris teaches Inclusion and coaches football/baseball.

♥Who does the laundry?
We share it. But mostly me.

♥Who’s better with the computer?
Me. Chris could care less about electronics.

♥Who drives when you are together?
Chris. Even though I'm usually scared for my life and am a TERRIBLE backseat driver.

♥What is "your" song?
No song. We danced out of our wedding to "Everlasting Love" which was pretty fun. I think that officially just became our song.

Now you know everything you never really needed to know about us. You are SO very welcome.

Kids Say the Darndest Things

Here's how our spelling test went down Friday morning-

Me: Boys and girls, remember our spelling words have an "ow" or "ou" pattern in them. If you don't have an "ow" or "ou" in your word, it's going to be wrong.

Sweet little TEXAS boy: Don't you say "OU" to me...I'm a Longhorns' fan!

I COULD NOT hold it together after that. Only in Texas!

2 years of infertility

I was reminded quite a bit this past weekend about us still not being pregnant. I very rarely check my email at home but I checked it randomly on Sunday morning. Apparently I signed up when I found out I was pregnant on some website that tells you what's going on with the baby/your body and received an email from them. The email title was "Today you're 32 weeks." I lost it. I would be having showers, the nursery would be set up, I would know the sex. I have done SO well at giving that to God but I feel like grabbing it back now, ya know?

I have a friend who has been trying to get pregnant for as long as we have (did I mention this month is our 2 year anniversary of trying?). She is 35 and getting very impatient. This month they did IVF and found out this weekend that she is pregnant (not blood test confirmed yet but positives on 5 HPTs). I was SO happy for her I cried. I've never been so happy for another person in my life. Then the bitterness and greed set in. I now have no one on this journey with me. I HATE being that way because she is my friend and I'm SO happy for her but I want it so badly for myself. The longer I struggle with infertility, the more I see my sinful nature.

After the kids left today, I put my ipod on. A song came on and IMMEDIATELY sent me into tears. It's exactly how I feel about my sinful nature and why God allows us to go through these things. I thought I would post it...maybe it will help you where you are at too.

Let it all out
get it all out
rip it out remove it
don't be alarmed
when the wound begins to bleed

cause we're so scared to find out
what this life's all about
so scared we're going to lose it
not knowing all along
that's exactly what we need

and today I will trust you with the confidence
of a man who's never known defeat
but tomorrow, upon hearing what I did
I will stare at you in disbelief
oh, inconsistent me
crying out for consistency

and you said I know that this will hurt
but if I don't break your heart then things will just get worse
If the burden seems too much to bear
Remember the end will justify the pain it took to get us there

and I'll let it be known
at times I have shown
signs of all my weakness
but somewhere in me
there is strength

and you promise me
that you believe
in time I will defeat this
cause somewhere in me
there is strength

and today I will trust you with the confidence
of a man who's never known defeat
and I'll try my best to just forget
that that man isn't me

reach out to me
make my heart brand new
every beat will be for you
for you

and I know you know
you touched my life
when you touched my heavy heart and made it light

Bad Blogger and CAAAUTE Shoes

I've officially become the worst blogger ever. It's IM-POSS-I-BLE to keep up with it and work at the same time! I'll try harder.

After church this morning, Chris and I went shopping around. I've been eyeing some cute slouch boots for a while now (okay, since the weather dropped below 90 which has only been about a week) so we headed to Rack Room Shoes. Wouldn't you know, they're having a "buy one get one 50% off" sale! So I bought a pair of cute pumps for school and these beautys....

Hello LOVEEEEERR! Obsessed. I love these boots with a cute little fall outfit like this one...

Super cute, right? Now to find the perfect pair of skinny jeans....

No work tomorrow (thank you Christopher Columbus!) so maybe I'll fill you in on the rest of my life then!

Ants and Books

We've been getting a TON of rain here in Texas (hello Mother Nature...my kiddos need to get out and PLAY!!!) and it helped these friends to build a nice new home in my backyard...

Yes friends, that is an ant pile. My camera battery was dead when we first found it so here it is with ant killer covering it. I have NEVER seen such a huge ant residence in all my life (which is saying much because fire ants don't exist in STL....this is big right???)

This gives you a little better idea of exactly how humongous it is. It's nearly as big as our sweet dog. Majorly gross. I'm pretty much like a 5 year old when it comes to ant piles. I like to put a stick in there to get them all fired up and watch them come to the surface. That's why you see all those holes in the mound...I was playing =)

In more meaningful news, I'm currently reading two books.

I'm almost finished with this book and it is hilarious. It talks about all the funny stuff elementary kids do and say at school. One of the stories is the author talking about having an AMAZING lesson planned, executing it perfectly, and then a kid farts. The whole class roars with laughter and you never get them back. SO TRUE! HA!

Just bought this one today and I'm SO excited to read it. I read the introduction today and I think it's going to be awesome. I'll let you know as I read it.

Divine Appointments

This weekend was one of those times in my life that I could just really feel God working. He's such a God of details and this weekend definitely confirmed that. Try to follow along because it's an "all over the place" type story.

This weekend we went to what our church calls Experience. It's basically a meeting for people interested in knowing more about the church and possibly membership (or as they prefer to call it, partnership. Membership is for golf courses, partnership is to stand along side the church). It's kinda a big hoorah because they only have it about 6 times a year. We've been at this church since March and are really trying to get planted and decided it was time to take that step. We tried to go to Experience during "Swine Flu Break" (remember that post???) but they cancelled due to schools closing from the virus. They rescheduled in June but we were on vacation so we signed up for the next available class, this past Saturday. So we get seated at our table and our "table host" as they call it starts chatting with us. Turns out he's a coach turned administrator and she's a SAHM. We instantly connect from being in the coaching field and the boys know a lot of the same people. The next couple that comes to our table is slightly older than us but we make a random connection with them because we're going to the same small group that started the next day (and there were only 5 couples in the small group, 2 of us being at the same table at Experience.). So we all get to talking and somehow get into our infertility struggle. Now this is not information we just share with anyone but we definitely don't keep it quiet either. We need the prayer. Turns out another couple in our table hosts small group went through 4 years of struggling, went to this doctor in the area, and now have a 9 month old daughter (and they live right down the street from us...crazy!). He gives us their number and tells us if we're comfortable to give them a call-if not, us 3 couples would get together for dinner. Chris and I went home really encouraged that God had a plan for us at that table. We felt like God had a definite divine appointment for us there-especially after all the times we were suppose to be there and got cancelled!

Sunday morning we were at church and got to talking to one of the pastors in the atrium in between services. We talked about the connections we made last night and about how we were going to give this couple who struggled like us a call-and that couple "RANDOMLY" walked by right while we were talking with the pastor! So we spent about 15 minutes talking with them and they were SO encouraging. We talked doctors and heartbreak and God's awesome plan. I really feel like that's another relationship that will be blooming soon.

The other couple from our table who were in our small group as well have really been a great encouragement as well. She came up to me before small group started and said with tears in her eyes that the Lord had laid me heavy on her heart last night and that as she was praying He spoke for us to get ready to be blessed. That was one of the first times during this battle that someone had said that and I truly believed it. None of what happened this weekend is a coincidence. God doesn't just lay you heavy on someone's heart or put other couples who struggled in your path for no reason. I know this weekend was full of divine appointments and I'm excited to see what comes from them.

He Loves Us

Love, love, LOVE this song. We sang it Wednesday night at the Back to School prayer service and again this morning. I've seriously been sitting on my couch with my laptop in my lap listening to it over and over again crying. It's UNBELIEVABLE how much God loves His children.

Amazing, huh?