Sweet Sweet Aunt Judy!!!

Hello everyone, I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas! I had a fantastic holiday, I got way too much and I got to skype with my sweet husband for 2 hours and 38 sec. (Yes I counted every second lol and it was by far the best gift I got). I got to have 5 different Christmases this year and each one of them was truly something special, but this post is not about those Christmases. This post is about one special lady who gave me a truly incredible gift tonight.
I know the majority of you don't know who Aunt Judy is, but I would like to tell you about her anyway. Aunt Judy is Tyson's (my brother-in-law) aunt and one of the most creative and remarkable women I have had the pleasure of knowing. I have seen all of the incredible things she has made for my beautiful nephew and niece, little did I know that I would be as lucky as them and receive a special hand made gift from her. Not only can she make pretty much anything with her hands, she can also cook like nobody's business and travels all over the world and tells the most amazing stories from her journeys. If you are ever traveling to a new place, this is the lady to talk to. She can tell you all of the best restaurants, hotels, and shows to visit while there :)
Ok, I got off track a little bit lol. I got a gift tonight from Aunt Judy and it is a hand made quilt she wanted me to have to keep me warm while Eric is away <----- insert tears here (Yes I bawled when I got it). She has been working on it for an entire year and finished it last night. She said, "You can pretend these are Eric's arms holding you and keeping you warm until he returns home". It is truly the most incredible, heart felt, and beautiful gift I have ever received. To think, a women like this cares so much about me and what I am going through. I have never been so touched in my life. The only negative thing about it is, Eric's gonna be mad when I continue to sleep with it every night and there is no room on the bed for him HAHA ;) I just wanted to thank you again Aunt Judy, it means the world to me and I can't even begin to express how breathtaking it is that you did something like this for me. You really tugged at my heart strings tonight and it is something I will NEVER forget. I swear, I could just go on and on about how special Aunt Judy is to me and my family, but now I'll let her work do the explaining ;) Here are a few pictures I took, but no picture in the world could ever do it justice, it is just too divine...

Isn't it one of the most Gorgeous things you have ever seen??? :)

She said the snowman can be Eric and to pretend its his arms keeping me warm :')

Remember, this was entirely hand made and took her a year to make!!!

Like I said, no picture can do it justice, but you can still see how truly beautiful it is :)

Click on the pictures to view them better, the detail is just amazing!


Thank you so so Much Aunt Judy, I can't wait to use it tonight and I can't wait for Eric to see it, I know he will appreciate it as much as I do. You are so incredibly talented and wonderful, and I know I will never be able to find another woman like you. Love you!
Love,
Kyra

COOKIE MANIA!!!!

Alright, so I had this idea for a care package to send Eric for Christmas. He doesn't want anything for Christmas because he doesn't "need" anything taking up more space in his tiny room, plus he doesn't want to have to pack up more stuff for when he comes home. What is a wife to do? I can't just not send him anything for Christmas, right? So I came up with a pretty unique idea, and it was a total surprise to him. Instead of writing down all the details, I thought I would just copy the email I sent to Eric explaining his Christmas gift. I told him to be expecting some care packages for Christmas (I didn't tell him how many), but he was not allowed to open them until he had talked to me. I told him that I would send him a message explaining everything, and after he read it, he was allowed to open them.
Here is the message I sent :)



Okay. So you might think I am a little crazy and you are probably right. I had no idea what to do for you for Christmas this year, so I asked for a little help. I thought that cookies are probably one of the best things about the holidays and I figured you would like a few. I decided it would be a fun idea to do a "Cookie Mania" care package for you so everyone that helps and supports us can show their appreciation and love. This is how it went down lol.

I sent out an email to all of the lovely ladies in our families to ask them if they would like to bake some cookies to send to you and your friends. Then I thought, why stop there? So, I asked your mom to send my email to all of the women that work in the schools to see if they would like to chip in as well. But then I went even more crazy, I thought why not get as many women in this town as possible to pitch in too. As you know, we come from a small town and everyone always asks me how you're doing and if I ever need anything to just ask, so I did. I simply told them that if they would like to make some cookies to send to you and your friends for Christmas that I would make sure that they all got packed up right and ship them on Dec. 5th. I even asked Stacy Conner to make an announcement at church, and you have no idea how many people loved the idea, it was so sweet to see how many people support you and all that you are doing over there for us.
Anyway, I told them to have the cookies at your parents' house by Dec. 4th and we would ship them out the next day so they would get there in time for Christmas. Little did I know how successful this idea would be.

Your mom and I spent all day Sunday and most of Monday putting together these care packages. Let me tell you, it is so much harder than we thought it would be lol. As you know, it takes a few weeks for packages to get there, so it was tricky to pack up baked goods. First we had to individually wrap the cookies, then we had to vacuum seal them into little bags, then we had to put them into plastic or tin boxes with bread in them (The bread sucks up all of the air in the box so none of it can get to the cookies and ruin them..DO NOT EAT THE BREAD!!!! lol it will probably be very stale or moldy haha) just know that it is there for a reason, after all of that we finally got to put them into the shipping boxes : )

It truly amazed your parents and me to see how many people in this town support and care for you honey (your dad volunteered to be the taste tester haha). We got over 2,000 cookies. YES 2,000 COOKIES!!!!!! <--- not a typo lol It took us hours and hours to pack them all up. I'm sure you don't know most of the people, but we put names on all of the bags so you would know who they were from. I asked everyone to leave a note with a name tag, but many people didn't. Just know that the ones without names, are all from the church : ) We are truly blessed to have so many people that care about us baby, I was seriously in shock. I had no idea that my idea would be so successful. I hope you enjoy them, and I hope they get there as good as when they left lol. Tell all of your friends to help you out and enjoy them, lol, and that our tiny little town is supporting them as well, and we love them and can't wait for y'all to come back. I'm trying to spread a little home cooked Christmas love <3 Make sure you open the boxes before handing them out so you know who they are from, and because we put all of your family's (Washington's, Purdy's, Bell's) cookies in certain boxes for you. Your dad even pitched in a little something of his own haha. I think thats about it. I love you so much, honey, and I hope you're not overwhelmed with all the boxes lol. Please stay safe for all of us back home. You have so many people that love and care for you. I'm always missing you and I can't wait to see you again. LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE YOU!!!! MORE! HA




This was his response…


Wow Baby, would you please thank them for all of it? It was a great idea. I opened them and already handed some out. I think next time I'm in a village, we are going to give some out to the kids, they always like getting food from us and i know they'll love cookies (they don't eat much out here, and if they do, it doesn't taste very good lol) so you can let them know most of their cookies are going to go to kids out here. I hope they like that idea. Lol it wasn't easy carrying all those boxes the mile back to my room lol but it was worth it. Thank you baby, I know that must have been a lot of work for you guys and it really means a lot to us. Thanks again baby, that was so great of you to do, I love you so much baby.


We talked a little while longer and he just went on and on about how much it meant to everyone over there and how all of his friends are very thankful. It is so amazing to see so many people come together for the man I love and his friends while they are serving our country. Thank you everyone that helped and may God bless each and every one of you :)


Here are a few pictures of our little adventure :)

Here are some of the cookies after they had been put in to the vacuum sealable bags. There are about 1-2 dozen in each bag.

Here is Lynda helping me pack the thousands of cookies lol

Here are some of the boxes we had already packed :)

And here we are at the post office filling out all of the paper work (There was a TON!!!)

Thanks again everybody, We are so blessed and we love y'all.
Kyra

Reesey Lynn

I know its been a while since my last post, but it has been pretty busy around here. We welcomed a beautiful baby girl into the family on November 11th. She is stunning, oh so sweet, and definitely my favorite new obsession. I had 2 fabulous Thanksgivings at the Washington's and at the Purdy's. I ate way too much and had a blast getting to be around so much family. It was a bit of an emotional holiday for me since the man I am most thankful for could not join us, but all in all it was pretty perfect. Now Christmas is just around the corner, and I have already started my Christmas shopping and have tons more to do.
I started subbing at the schools here in town around the 15th and have only had 2 days off so far. I am really enjoying it and it keeps me pretty busy. The kids crack me up, I guess I had forgotten what is was like to be that age. So far I have only done from 2nd to 8th grade and man is it weird. All of the kids think I'm in high school (one mom even thought I was a student at the Jr. High…Gee Thanks) lol, but I am loving it. So far PE is my favorite, but I have really enjoying each day.
I know I will regret telling y'all this, but it is pretty dang funny. I was subbing for PE and I decided it would be a good idea to help out one of the 5th grade teams during a kick ball game. I couldn't have been more wrong!!! When I got up to the plate, I kicked the ball with all of my might (I got a home run BTW) and I felt extreme pain in my leg. Turns out I pulled my hamstring and I couldn't walk without a limp for a few days. This happened almost 2 weeks ago and it still hurts to put pressure on lol. YES, I pulled my hamstring playing kickball with a bunch of 5th graders HA!!! Can you tell I haven't worked out in a while?
Here are a few pictures of the real reason I wanted to blog. This is our beautiful niece, Reese Lynn Purdy (she is named after me)… can you tell how honored I am? I tell everyone that is willing to listen :)

This was the first time I got to hold our little angel <3

Rylan's first time to hold his baby sister

Our gorgeous girl :)

Don't you just love all of her bows? ;)

Before I go, here is some info on Eric. Mark, Lynda, and I got to Skype with him 4 days ago and he filled us in as much as he could. This was the first time he and his parents had actually gotten to talk. He told us that he did get some turkey on Thanksgiving and it wasn't very good lol, but he got some ham too (it was even worse than the turkey), poor Eric. They have been keeping him pretty busy, so he doesn't have much time to talk lately. All he wants for Christmas is a camera, so his mom and I are on top of that. Hopefully we will get some cool pictures that I can post when he gets back. He guarantees me that he is safe and hasn't seen any action yet, so keep your fingers crossed and hope that doesn't change :) I wish I had a better update, but he doesn't send me many details :(
Hope everyone had a fantastic Thanksgiving. We are so blessed and Thankful to have all of you loving and supporting us.
Love,
Kyra

Keeping Busy

Sorry, but this post is going to be pretty long. October was a very busy month in the Purdy household, and Kayla has been doing a great job of keeping my schedule full. We are expecting my beautiful niece to arrive sometime Friday afternoon, and I could not be more excited. Of course Kayla has kept me busy doing stuff in her nursery. We had her baby shower on the 28th, and it could not have been more of a success or more fun. I was so happy to get to spend time with family. I think Kayla and Tyson got everything they needed and more :) This post will be about all of the stuff I made myself; I'm sure Kayla will be posting plenty of pictures of Reesey's nursery soon. The first thing for our little Reesey was simply her name. The colors in her nursery are red, yellow, brown, white, and a touch of blue. It is BEAUTIFUL!!!

This is not the best picture (it was taken with my phone). It hangs right above her closet :)

My second project for her room was a mirror that used to be in Rylan's nursery. It was black and I just painted it red (figured it would be easier to change later without decorations on it)

It has a little bit of an antique look to it, nothing too fancy. It looks fantastic in her room!!!

The last thing I made for her room was a frame with a quote from her family on it. Kayla and Tyson pick which quote they would like on it and I paint it. I made one for Rylan when he was born, and I will probably continue this tradition with each of my nieces and nephews :) I wish I had a before picture of the frame, but I forgot to take one :( It was baby blue with 3 brown frames on it and it said "Cherish" on it.

Sorry it is a little blurry (stinking phone!!!), but you get the idea. This really gives a good idea of the nursery theme as well.

The last project I did was for my own room. Kayla and I had been looking for a chair we could redo for months with no luck :( After Kayla's maternity shoot, my friend Madison (the photographer) told me she had a few ugly chairs that she didn't need, and we could take one off of her hands if we wanted. DUH!!! we jumped on it, lol. So she gave me a very ugly green chair to redo for my desk.

Here is the beautiful green chair that Madison donated to us haha.

MY room (the basement lol) is red and brown and my new chair matches perfectly :)

Close up of the design.

And here is the bottom of the seat.

I didn't want to go too crazy, so I figured one decorative stripe would be perfect ;) That pretty much sums up my projects around here :) Hope you enjoy.

Before I end this, here is a little update on Eric :)
He tells me that he is doing well and is keeping busy. I usually wake up to a short and sweet facebook message every morning (Kayla makes fun of me because I literally sprint upstairs out of nowhere with my computer on occasion lol). He has been to a few villages, and he said the kids are sneaky. He tells me that the children will wave at them as they go by, but when their backs are to them, the kids flip them off. He also says that when they are in turrets, the kids will throw rocks down at them knowing they can't do anything back, but the parents do get on to them when they catch them doing it. He still loves the food I guess, but he did try camel for the 1st time a few days ago and he said it wasn't the greatest, lol. He really can't tell me much, and when we talk he seems to be more concerned about how I am doing and how his family is. He loves mail, so if anyone would like his address just ask me :) I would be more than happy to give it to you. As far as I know, Eric is doing just fine and is somewhat enjoying his job.
We are expecting our first niece Friday and he seems very excited. He keeps asking me how Kayla is and he wants lots of pictures of our little addition :) We can't wait to meet our little angel and shower her with love. Unfortunately Eric will have to wait a little longer than me, but he looks forward to meeting her over skype :)
Take care everyone, and God bless. I'm sure my next post will be all about our little Reesey Cup ;)
Love always,
Kyra

How To: Get out of a speeding ticket :)

On Tuesday morning I headed to Lubbock with my girls (Dot and Kaydence) because Eric and I decided it was time to get them fixed :(. I had to be there no later than 9am and I pulled into the clinic around 8:30. It took about an hour to fill out the paper work and get them checked in. 10:00 comes around and my phone beeps. By now all of you know what this means :) Eric had commented on my facebook. After my heat stroke settled down, lol, I realize what Eric had just said. He said he could skype and wanted to know if I was near a computer. Usually I start to check my self in the mirror at this point and run for my computer, but this time was much different. I was in Shallowater and a good 50 minutes from my computer. I replied back "can you wait 35 minutes?" Haha as you can tell, I was in a HUGE hurry. Eric tells me that he might get kicked off of the internet and might not be able to skype when I get home. Well as soon as I read that, a flood of emotions hit me. We were commenting back and forth the entire way home so I was hopeful that he will still be able to skype with me. He told me be to be safe and not to hurry. YEA RIGHT!!! Once I get to Sudan, I am confident that I will get home in plenty of time to see my husband. I get about 2 miles outside of Muleshoe when I see the blue and red lights in my rearview mirror :( I was SO close but still SO far away (I finally truly understand that saying lol). Anyway, this poor cop had no idea that when he pulled me over, he would be the one to feel like a Jack@$$ lol. He comes up to my window and I was doing just fine until I had to speak. He says "you were going a little fast back there" (I was going about 85 lol) I just replied with "I know." Well, as soon as the words came out of my mouth, tears started rolling down my face. Let me tell you, these were no light tears either, these were full on bawling my eyes out, nose running, can't breath tears. This poor cop was very sweet and our conversation went a little like this…

Cop- Where are you heading?
Me- Home.
Cop- Where is home?
Me- Muleshoe.
Cop- Where are you coming from?
Me- Lubbock.
Cop- Can I ask you why you are so upset?
Me- I'm just trying to get home so I can skype with my husband.
Cop- Where is your husband ma'am?
Me- He's in Afghanistan
At this point the officer really starting rushing this process.
Cop- Well when does he get back?
Me- In April or May.
Now this is the funny part.
Cop- Alright, well you're only about 2 miles away so you're very close. Let me just go get your WARNING ma'am. (let me remind you that I was going about 85 haha)

The entire process took about 6 minutes lol and after I drove away, I felt absolutely terrible for the guy, but I did make it home in time to skype with Eric so I didn't feel too bad, plus it makes for a pretty funny story.
So, LADIES if you ever get pulled over, sob stories really do work ;)

The most wonderful invention EVER!!!

This morning I was getting ready for church when my phone beeped, this meant I had a facebook notification. Every single time my phone beeps at me, I get a little too excited and most of the time it isn't Eric sending me a message, but this morning was different. I hadn't heard from him since Thursday and I was starting to get worried. Everyone tells me "No news in good news" but those words still have not set in for me. I get a little freaked out when I don't hear from him, even if he just went to the grocery store lol. Anyway I am getting off subject. I checked my facebook and for once it was actually him :) For some reason when I see that I have a message or a comment from him, I get like a heat stroke and my heart starts racing and I get kind of sweaty (HAHA super attractive right?) Anyway, he had asked if I was near a computer, and I replied "Yes, just getting ready for church." About 10 minutes went by, and my phone beeped again. As I checked my facebook again, I saw the 3 most beautiful words I had ever seen in my life "GET ON SKYPE." I literally started shaking (and checking my hair and make up in the mirror lol). I FINALLY got to see and talk to my husband, and it was the best 29 minutes and 16 seconds of these past 2 weeks. I was almost late for church but, honestly I didn't care lol. When I got to church I was in a wonderful mood, the sermon was great, I got to see many people I haven't seen in years, and I was surrounded with love from every direction. Everything was perfect, that is until the end. Stacy Conner (the preacher) decided it would be a good idea to call me up to the front of the church and thank me for supporting such a wonderful man and to ask everyone to pray for our family and his safety while he is overseas. This was by far one of the sweetest things I have ever experienced; however, I ended up crying in front of my entire church family lol. It is so moving to have so many people supporting Eric and his family. I just want to thank everyone again for their prayers and support, and to let you all know how much we appreciate them. You are all such blessings in our lives, and I honestly don't think I could get through this without y'all.
OK on a different note. Here is a little update on Eric. He said he is doing just fine and he is adjusting pretty well. He has met some of the villagers and their children and he tells me they are all very nice so far. He says there are still sand storms all the time and he is down to 1 roommate. I guess the other one got moved to a different room. So the "cargo freight sized room" is a little better now lol. He says he gets bored a lot and has some kind of duty all the time. We figured out that the best time to talk for both of us is around 10am our time and 7pm his time. So now there are about 9 hours difference between us. He isn't able to tell me much about what he does, but he assures me he is safe right now (I don't think he would tell me otherwise lol). He tells me that the food there is awesome and that all of the people that work in the chow hall are from different countries, so all of the food they cook is very different from ours and he is loving it. That is pretty much all he is able to fill me in on right now, but I'll take what I can get :).
We love you all and thank you for your support.
Kyra

Deployment

Hello everyone,
It has been over a year since I have last blogged and I figured now would be the best time to get back at it. Well, Kayla decided now would be the best time lol. My lovely sister told me that I should start blogging as a way to vent and to let everyone know how Eric and I are doing during this deployment. I will be posting updates from Eric as I get them, how I am handling this change in my life, as well as how I am spending these long 6-7 months. LETS GET STARTED!!! :)
As most of you know, Eric deployed to Afghanistan on October 4th. As you know, we took many pictures. Some of which turned out really cute, and most that turned out really sad lol. This has by far been to hardest thing I have ever had to go through in my life and I'm sure it isn't easy for Eric either. We have really had a ton of support from our loved ones and even from people we barley know. I just want to take a moment to thank everyone for their kind words, their support, and most of all, their prayers. You have no idea how much we appreciate and need them. Here are a few pictures that i'm sure most of you have already seen, but I would like to post them for those of you that haven't.

This is probably my favorite picture of the day.

These are our 2 best friends Justin and Lindsey. We are very lucky to have them in our lives :)

I just love this picture of Eric!!!

There was lots and lots of hugging <3

Our "see you later's" (I hate saying goodbye) lasted a pretty long time

Lindsey and I watching them get on the bus :(


Momma took many pictures for us but I only wanted to post a few. Eric arrived safely to Afghanistan and we have realized that there is a 15 hour difference between us, so talking is tough because it is hard to catch each other, but we are adjusting. Eric has informed me that he would like a swiffer lol. He tells me that there has been nothing but rain and sand storms since he arrived. He likes his roommates (he has 2) and he says their rooms are like cargo freight boxes lol but they do have air conditioning. I don't know exactly what he is doing out there right now, but hopefully I will get an update soon.
I have been doing ok. I am living with The Purdy's in Muleshoe and Rylan is doing a pretty good job of keeping me entertained while Eric is away. I am surrounded by many of my loved ones and they have really been doing a fantastic job of supporting Eric and I as well as keeping me busy. Mark and Lynda are just 1.6 miles away (yes I checked lol) so I'm sure I will be seeing them often. Please just remember to keep all of us in your prayers and to pray for Eric's safety. Thank you all for your support!!!