Christmas With the Hubby

Happy last few days of 2011! I have a picture post for you today :) Enjoy! 

Frosted a lot of cookies, for just 2 people. Gave a plate to our furniture movers

Cheesy potatoes, Ham, and Corn bake YUM!

Christmas Dinner :)

Our drive

Thanks to the south we get some great & fast chicken!

It was about 60 on this day, I am very much looking forward to a day with temps around 75!

Love this beach, wide open soft white sand, and an endless ocean view!

Happy 4 month Date at the ocean!

Brr

 From my living room to yours,

Erika Hallbeck :)

Welcome to Our North Carolina Home

I have made it! After weeks of waiting on the timing of so many things, I am here in North Carolina! With DAN! I got here last week and have been busy getting little details done that come with moving across the country and getting your first place as a married couple.  SO I am sorry for such a late post.  We are very much enjoying our little home here. We are in the small town of Hubert, near one the the gates to the base, close for Dan to get to work with little traffic.  There are TALL pine trees and BIG pine cones that I am in LOVE with. Right in my own back yard. There are southern drawls, warm temps, ocean breezes and white sands.  Our house is only about 15 min from the lovely ocean!  Enjoy some pics and Ill be posting more updates regularly!

Much love from my living room to yours ~ erika hallbeck

 

Our very first Living room furniture! Very fun to shop for! It was delivered the day before Christmas!

See my pine cones?!

cute hubby in the kitchen, and our table and chairs, so nice to have a place to sit now :)

Lastly the bathroom. Sorry the 2 bedrooms are filled with boxes and bags and not picture worthy yet. 

 

Thanks for taking a little tour, how we wish you all could be here to see it in real life.  We sure miss you MN and WI family and friends! God is so faithful to us, what we have prayed for we are living out these days, seeing my husband each day, what a blessing!

Speaking Truth to Myself

Hello blog readers,

Today is speak the truth to myself day!

The lie:  You have no gifts, and you aren't really that creative
Truth: The creator of all things has placed specific gifts in my life, I have seen him be creative through me! I do not make my self creative but the LORD does that.

The lie:  I have nothing encouraging to say to anyone
Truth: First off where in the WORLD did that come from! yuck! We as children of God are created to encourage one another! We are being built for it better each day. Also I am a living testimony to the great work of God. I have encouraging things to say! I have the word and works of God to share.

The lie: You are not good enough at any one thing to be able to make an impact or fulfill dreams.
Truth!: God is good enough! He has all the power I will ever need, all the strength and might! The Holy Spirit works in me and through me. I am Gods, I was created by him and for him. To work for my Lord in however he calls me, he who calls me is FAITHFUL to complete it! It is not on my shoulders to carry.

There, much better. I needed to get those things out! blah! I pray for both you and me right now that the truths and promises of God will be clear to us today.  That the things he has told us we will hold on to, and put all other things we hear up to the light of what God has told us. I pray that if any of the above lies hit you today you can speak out what you know is true.  It is crazy to me that I can walk in lies as powerful as the ones above and not notice it RIGHT away. I pray I am quick to notice these next time they come, as ugly as they are they should be easy to see.

much love you to today,
mrs. erika hallbeck, a woman made by and for the Lord, and that is saying something! Thank you Jesus that we can all say that truth over our lives today!

Waiting

Hello to you all,

I am still writing from MN, as I wait.  All of us have stories of how we have had to wait for something to come.  What have you been waiting for? Or what did you just finish waiting for?  For me, I am waiting to hear the word: OK move to NC, time to live with the Hubby!!  My husband has been in NC for almost 2 weeks now, his most direct "boss" is out in the field with the platoon he is joining so most of the answers we are waiting on are dependant on Dan getting to talk with this man.  So I am in MN waiting and Dan in NC waiting.  We were talking the other day about how we are in the "same boat" but feels more like we are in 2 boats waiting in the same big ocean, yes we are waiting together but we are also waiting so far apart from each other. 

Some times when I am waiting for something I forget that God is in the boat with me! He is waiting WITH me.  I do not wait alone, no matter how I feel. I am also remembering not to waste the days I wait. It is odd that in the military you need to "hurry up and wait" I have stuff packed and ready, and one day I'm going to get the call that we have answers and can move.  So for now I am spending time with friends and family knowing I will be leaving soon. 

I am remembering today that I do not wait alone! For the Lord is with me. May the Lord give me strength to be content!  Gods time is the perfect time, he is not forgetting.

~ With love,
              Mrs. Erika Hallbeck

"As for God his way is perfect; the word of the Lord is flawless. He is a shield for all who take refuge in him. For who is God besides the lord? And who is the Rock except our God? It is God who arms me with strength and makes my way perfect!"  from 2 sam 22

Us in Colorado last year, remembering great moments!

Our New News!

Hello blog readers,  Drummm rolll please!

We found out this past weekend that we will be stationed in North Carolina! It is so wonderful to finally know.  What a new thing, living right by the ocean! Getting to LIVE with my husband! new church, new friends for us, and a new job for me.  We are truly looking forward to these next months :)

Dan will be moving there next Tue from Cali.  Soon after that we will find out when I can move and join him, praying it is very soon after.  The town near the base is Jacksonville, if you want to look at it on a map.

With the move, and unknown but soon date, I had my last day of work Friday at PPM.  Ending one season and starting another.  These next X number of days left in MN I will be visiting with family and friends preparing to move to the South :) 

Now for a little from the Word for your day:
Numbers chapter 13 and 14.  This is a good story for those of us walking into an unknown.  While we may not have some of the literal challenges to fight in front of us but there are things that seem that we cant conquer, that would be very hard and impossible. Today we must remember Gods truth. The Lord is with us. It may seem that moving across the country, having your husband deployed, starting a new job, what ever it is that you are seeing in front of you as your "land to possess" is NO SMALL THING! but we must remember more importantly that OUR GOD IS BIGGER, Our Lord is NO SMALL THING.  The creator of all things! The one who knows all the details of each season of your life. The one who was faithful yesterday is faithful tomorrow. Because no matter what changes in your life, the LORD remains the constant, the Ever Present Help. That is our God!

May you have a great day!
I am praising the Lord today for showing Dan and I where we will move, we waited so long for this news, I am thankful that I know!
~ Mrs. Erika Hallbeck

A Post for Pictures

This pink feather friends welcome you to the picture post!

 My trip to see my hubby was wonderful ~ only a few more weeks and we will actually get to live together! Praise the Lord, He has been so faithful to us and shown his blessing to us. We had some JOY over this trip, enjoy the pics.

mom and baby, so cute, so large!

Being by him is like a perfect dream come true!

<3

The silly Lion, he did this like 5 times while we watched him, maybe nap time?

After watching the real lion for so long, we turn to keep walking, I see this and jump, thinking it was real!

He looks just like an elephant don't you think?

so cute! many of them were sleeping but these 2 were up

Time at the beach was rain filled but peaceful

Dan and Erika are in love!

:)

some parkour in the rain

me not doing any parkour in the rain

We had a very wonderful 4 days! Dan has just completed a week of very important tests, and he did very well on them.  We are SOOOO SOOON to know where we are moving!  I will know TOMORROW! after months and months of waiting! Thank you Lord!

Do We Trust God

Happy November to you all!

In ONE week I am going to see my husband again! This time we get more than one perfect day but 5.  I am so excited that I am trying to stay calm and take one day at a time.  I am so thankful that it is November, this is Dans last month of training only 3.5 weeks left. So proud of him. This also means that we will find out where Dan is being stationed. This is such BIG news. It is a hard thing to wait and wait on a decision to be made FOR you. But I know that God is in control of all of these things! The truth makes the "hard" things so much more simple.  Having a perspective of truth sure changes what Dan and I see when we look at things like that. We are not sure, but we think that by Thanksgiving we will know where we are to move.

This past Sunday, yes my hopes was to write this post many days ago haha, in my 3 year old Sunday school we started our new story about Abraham and Sarah.  For the sweet 3 year olds the way we tell stories are simple and to the point, few words, and big picture books.  :) and fun activities that help us learn our lesson. I sure learned some things too.  Our verse for the week was "We trust God." For a craft project I had each kid trace there 2 shoes on a paper and then color away, always adding stickers too! Then we learned as we colored that a man named Abraham trusted God so much that he followed him.  We learned that our foot prints on our paper remind us that we CAN trust God enough to follow him.  Even into a new place, away from things we have been around our whole life. We learned that the man packed up all of this things and took his family into a new land. He knew nothing about where he was going all he knew was God called him.

We did an activity next. Starting at one corner of the room we found a star. We all stood there in a group and saw many color circles in front of us. They didn't seem to make a path but we followed them one at a time as a group.  We had yarn with us and each time we made it to a circle we taped down the yarn. After many spots we came to the end, an X to mark the spot! We turned around and looked, we were all very excited! As 3 year olds are most of the time, at the smallest things, we saw the path, we saw where we walked and where these circles lead us. It was such a perspective reminder for their 23 year old teacher that was not expecting that this activity she made up was going to teach her anything.  I trust God enough to follow him, and one of the reasons I can trust him is seeing the amazing yarn in my life, and in the lives of others like Abraham, All of the places he called me to and was FAITHFUL in!

So today lets practise the adapted 3 year old bible verse, We TRUST God, and we trust him enough to follow him! Maybe you need to even make a foot print craft to remind yourself. :)
Much love, Mrs. Erika Hallbeck
As you TRUST him~
Romans 15:13 May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the Holy Spirit.

Part #2 Our trust in Jesus grows as our vision of Jesus grows!

Hello,
Happy end to the weekend. Or sadly the end to the weekend ;) however you want to look at it lol
This past Friday night and Saturday I was at Women of Faith conference.

One of the speakers this weekend actually talked about the passage my 2 part post is about! Mark 4:35-41
So reminder, we are in a boat, being close to Jesus. While we are in this boat a big storm comes, we are filled with fear and see Jesus calmly sleeping. We wake him up in a panic and he calms the storm, the sea, the wind, the crazy, listens to our teacher Jesus. Then, we are even more afraid, taken aback, "Who is this man?"

By being in this close boat with him we see our teacher in a whole new way, we saw that even the winds and waves obey him.
Last post we learned that the closer we follow the more clearly we see HIM! If we are close enough to him we will see him for more and more, in this example, not just a teacher but a savior! A savior that saves us from storms, that has control over nature!

So tonight I want to talk about point two from church last week, Our trust in Jesus grows as our vision of Jesus grows!


Do you think that the decipels trusted Jesus more after the storm than before?
Do you think they followed him with a new mind set and heart set?
Do you think they longed for him more now then before?

They saw a bigger picture of who Jesus was in such a dark time.  God used that storm to grow their vision which then grew their trust!
Have I ever been in a "storm" and I allowed Jesus to be the one in charge of it? Constantly going to him with it, saying "Jesus do you see I am in a storm?" During that storm was I in the boat with Jesus, close enought to see Jesus clearly work and move? Or was I on the shore wondering what was going on?
Once the storm stopped did my vision of the Lord grow?

What is my life like now that I have been in the boat with the Lord during a storm, not just a sunny fishing day?

Do you have an example of when: because your vision of who Jesus is, grew, your Trust in Jesus grew?



Much love,

Erika

1. Jesus reveals himself most clearly to those who follow most closely!

Hello All,

Like I said in the last post I am going to go over somethings that my pastor said on this past Sunday and also write through my thoughts on it too.

Jesus reveals himself most clearly to those who follow most closely!
In Mark 4:35-41 Jesus was in the midst of a storm with the disciples.  He was calm and resting. The disciples were thinking we are going to die, this is the worst storm, we are in the middle of it, and Jesus is doing nothing about it. THEN they saw a miracle, they saw that this man, Jesus, could even control creation!

"Teacher don't you care if we drown?"
He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, "Quite! Be still!" Then the wind died down and it was completely calm.

They saw a great move of God, a clearer picture of this teacher, of this prophet they have been learning from, they saw more of JESUS, and saw him clearly, vs. 41 "They were terrified and asked each other, "who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!"

At one moment they are getting in the boat with their friend and teacher Jesus, like any other normal time. He had finished speaking to a big crowd and they went with Jesus. The next moment they see Jesus like never before, they learn that even the wind and waves obey him.

Now, the crowed was left behind.  They may have seen that there was a storm out on the water, they my have noticed that it abruptly stopped, but they were not "in the boat" knowing that it was the power of Gods son Jesus doing this work!

There are a million on there things that I could type out in thoughts to this. But what a reminder to us that even if storms come, even when hard times are all around, when we are "in the boat" with Jesus we are with the best storm chaser, the one who is in charge of all things. And the closer we are to our Lord the more clearly we see him. We can TRUST our Lord. Amen!

much love,
Erika


part #2 coming soon: Our trust in Jesus grows as our vision of Jesus grows!

Here I Am

Hello readers,

This weekend FLEW by! I am currently listening to Elizabeth Hunnicutt, song playing right now is 'Here I Am' so of course the title of this blog :)
http://www.elizabethhunnicutt.com/mediaplayer/index.html 
Here is the media player on her cute web site :) take a listen to #5 and you will be on the same page and "song" as me. lol

This weekend my husband Dan had a lot of fire watch. While they do get weekends "off" This means time that he needs to take watch over things, walk around and watch the base, so no phone. We got little conversations in here and there but not lots of time in our weekends that matched up for a good long talk.  This is a very important week coming up. This Friday he finds out his infantry MOS, this means his specific job in the Marines. If you think of it please lift this up with us and for us. Both Dan and I are thankful that this choice, while not up to us, it is up to our Father who wants good for His children! Being part of the military really makes me chose to trust the Lord! There are so many little things that we have no control over, but we can and DO trust the Lord with those things. It is a choice you have to make for each little thing. What are the little things you need to chose to trust the Lord with each day (sometimes many times a day)?

OK so after that little update I want to give you a sneak peek at the next 2 things I want to write through on this blog this week. Today at church our pastor brought up 2 big points that really hit home for me:

READY...
SET...
GO...

#1 Jesus reveals himself most clearly to those who follow most closely!

#2 Our trust in Jesus grows as our vision of Jesus grows!

I need some good writing on these 2 things to help me process what they really mean, and what actions I need to take to be living them out. So visit back this week and lets talk through them together.

much love,
Erika hallbeck <3  

look at this beautiful (inside and out) wedding party! what a blessing to Dan and I :)

A day with the Hubby

This past weekend I got to go see my wonderful husband in Oceanside CA! What a great time we had. Our wedding was 7 weeks ago! Seeing each other was a great 7 week present I guess. :)  The pictures below is our day together that we fully enjoyed each minute of. We did walks at the beach, target trip (felt like a normal married couple) Dan's laundry, subway for lunch, went and saw the great movie Courageous! (see it if you haven't) Then sunset walk on the beach! then some pizza :) we filled our day with fun fun, even normal things are a BLAST with my man. We sure were blessed by our great Lord this weekend.

 We hung out with this pelican for a while

 kids tried to feed it marshmallows

 Sunshine, ocean breeze, cooler weather than back in MN

 Dan by our bird friend

 Laundry time! Smelly yucky cloths from Dans hard week, ready to be Clean!

take pens out of your pockets, get lots of change, pour in the soap, and wait :)  

 Waiting for laundry on a bench in a random parking lot, enjoying our fun day :)

 <3 

the sunset was so peaceful

Thank you Jesus for such a blessing! Thank you that you show your children favor. Father, you are a giver of GOOD gifts :) Dan and I are very thankful!

Much love everyone,

Mrs. Erika Hallbeck :)