Monthly Archives: October 2012

Crossing another natural disaster off my bucket list…

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After a super busy Saturday looking forward to a relaxing evening at home. Nope, minutes after walking in the door a post about a tsunami warning for Hawaii pops up on my Facebook news feed. Thank goodness for social media because I hardly ever watch tv and I couldn’t hear the sirens in my house.

Thankfully we should be fine, in an area that is high enough that we have a nice buffer. It shouldn’t even be too bad because of the type of earthquake that caused it… So while other people are having tsunami parties I am sitting here tsunami cleaning. I don’t know why, it just seems like a good idea…

Kids are passed out so now it is just me, the news and trying to ignore dozens of frantic postings on Facebook (omg! What do I do?! We’re all going to die) waiting out this warning for another 20 minutes.

And really? The news having to warn you to stay away from the water? Seems like that is just natural selection at work.

One Month Down!

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It’s amazing how a month can both fly by and feel like it took forever…
Most people will tell you that it’s the first month and last month that are the longest. The first month is hard because its so fresh in your mind and you have to get into the swing of things and get into a routine. Then then the months start to go by a little faster. The last month is terrible because homecoming is so close you can almost taste it, it’s like Christmas!
So one month down, out of ten. Because this deployment is the longest one we’ve he’s ever done I’m sure there will be some surprises. Just ready to have my man home already!

DIY No Sew Fairy Costume

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Need some costume inspiration? My daughter has been going back and forth on what she wanted to be, a Monster high character, a zombie, I finally got that she wanted to be scary but look cute, too. I asked her if she would like to be a dark/evil fairy. She thought that sounded cool.  I wanted to make her costume because I LOVE to do homemade costumes! Unfortunately my sewing machine is still broken so It was going to have to be no sew!

I am planning on (trying) so do some creepy black and purple eye makeup and cover her with some glittery  lotion.  This was SUPER simple and can be customized with any colors! I’ll take pictures of the wings as well, they were a simple black pair from Target that I painted with some 3D sparkly purple paint.

Image

 

Supplies needed:

Plain tank top

Ribbon

Safety pins

Tulle

I used 2 large (21yard?) black rolls and 1 small sparkly purple one of tulle, but my daughter is really tall and I made the skirt so it’s longer in the back (goes to her calf). Also it’s not super thick so she’ll be wearing some black leggings underneath. 

There are about a million tutu tutorials online but what I did was cut a length of tulle twice as long as I wanted it to be, then folded in in half. I used a length of ribbon as a waistband because I didn’t feel like going back to the craft store and it actually works great. It’s much easier for me to build this on my model. To attach just pull the mid point of your tulle under the waist then pull the ends through. This makes a nice clean look. After you are done you can loop extra tulle or ribbon if you want it to look even more finished.

The corset top is just genius. I love it! Lay your tank on a table and put a magazine or book inside (makes it easier to pin). Just pin pairs of pins down the front gradually getting them closer together. When you are done lace the ribbon through like a shoelace. When you are done have your model try it on and adjust the ribbon tighter or looser as needed.

The wand was some extra ribbon and tulle wrapped around a chopstick.

My daughter loves it and loves that she won’t have the same costume as anyone else. Plus it’ll be fun to play in after Halloween. If you try this I would love to see pictures of your finished product!

Care Packages!

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While I hate pretty much everything about deployment, the one thing I do enjoy is sending care packages to my husband.  It’s been years since I’ve had to do it (5? 6? I don’t remember!) So I’ve been having fun coming up with ideas of what to send as well as making the boxes themselves fun.

This was the first box I sent out. I LOVE these large size priority boxes from the post office. First off, you get a discount if you are sending these particular ones to an APO/FPO. Second a 12×12 sheet of scrapbook paper fits each side perfectly!  I decided to put some pictures on here, just printed them out on copy paper so I could glue them on. I was hoping it would give him a little boost to remember why he is doing this and what he has to look forward to when he comes home.

 

The next box I sent was my favorite and I forgot to take a dang picture of it! I am so mad at myself! I had it all decked out with a Navy theme, that one had the PS Vita he wanted as well as his iPad cover/stand he forgot to take. You’ll just have to picture it in your mind. It’s terrible but it was a good use for the Navy embellishments that I didn’t like and wasn’t going to use for actual scrapbooking but didn’t want to throw away. So don’t throw away your ugly stuff! Just use it on your husband, he doesn’t know the difference!

 

Okay, I normally try to split the box at least half and half between snacks/junk food and meal type food but this one went a little overboard on the junk food. What can I say? I am trying to eat less crap so when I see something tempting I just buy it and sent in off in a box. Seriously, those Pocky sticks were tough, I LOVE them!

 

 

And here is the latest box, just sent this one this weekend and I am a little mad at myself, didn’t realize how late it got in the month! I want this to get there before Halloween but it probably won’t.  This is my first ‘theme’ box.  I didn’t want to just sent a crap load of candy so I sent some other snacks in there too… The little jack o’ lantern tin was in the dollar section of Target, I put some of those single piece candies you see, pumpkin shaped snickers, rotten egg cadbury, etc. Also Target had the crinkle paper filler in lime green so that is in the bottom of the box. Oh and I found a stupid creepy mask at the exchange for a dollar so I threw that in too…

 

There are some things that I know I am going to put in (like the gel insoles, those steel decks are murder on feet!) febreeze to make his rack smell a little nicer and not like ship. Yes, ship. It is a VERY distinct odor. And haribo gummies, his favorite candy (which will hopefully bring back memories of the haribo candy store we couldn’t stay away from in Germany!)

But then a lot of times I just cruise the aisles of the grocery store or exchange and just see what crazy new stuff is out there.

But here is a list to help get started on packing those boxes:

Food – meals

Precooked rice packets

Cup o’ noodles

Microwave soup

Single serve mac & cheese

Tuna steaks

Tuna salad kit

Single serve oatmeal/cold cereal

 

Food – Snacks/Junk Food

Trail mix

hostess/little debbie stuff

Combos

Gum

Mints

Nachos

Pringles

Beef Jerky

Single serve cookie packs

Popcorn (I love the new bowl one)

Goldfish

Energy shots

Granola Bars/Clif Bars

Toiletries/hygiene

Insoles (I bought the ones made for work boots)

Travel size toothpaste, shaving cream, qtips, shampoo, medication (they take up less space and I replenish them as needed. If your husband has hair a full size shampoo may work better for you!

Foot powder/spray (wearing those dang boots)

Febreeze

hand sanitizer

sanitizing wipes

Etc.

Cards, letters, notes from the kids

Entertainment such as playing cards/dvd’s or handheld games

Magazines/books

I do tend to send lots of food, the galley food isn’t the best and I want him to be able to have something to snack on if he’s hungry. If there is ever something he doesn’t like he can just give it away to someone else.  I am going to try to do the cake in a jar, we’ll see if it works and if it is still edible when he gets it however many weeks later!

 

 

 

End of the Season

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So today was our last regular season game. We lost. Again. Really though I had SO much fun learning to play flag football with a great bunch of lhadies. We still have the playoffs/championship but that doesn’t start for a few weeks. Which is great because I jammed the hell out of my right ring finger on the VERY first play of the game today and it is killing me! It’s all bruised and swollen. Fabulous. One of those things that you don’t realize how much you use a body part until it’s injured. I can’t straighten it or bend it without it hurting. Even though I got hurt missing a flag and my hand hitting the ground I am still proud that I went for it. My whole life I have always been the girl that will not sacrifice her body for the ball. Nope, not me. And now I am regularly throwing myself after people and getting injured and banged up. I am loving it! At the ripe old age of 31 I am on a team for the first time in my life. Yes really. No sports really at all for me period. I’ve told people my whole life that I am not an athlete, I am a nerd. And while I am by no means the fastest or strongest out there, I am pulling my own weight and knocking some big girls on their butts out there!

I love being on the other side, I’ve always been the cheerleader (not literally, I mean that I am on the sidelines) of friends games, my husband’s games, my kids’ multiple multiple sports. I love that I have a team that counts on me to play a part. We have fun on and off the field.  It’s an interesting dynamic and I am glad that I finally did it. I have tried recruiting some of the other women I’ve met on the island to come play with me and it’s been a pretty resounding ‘no thanks, I’m not athletic’. But it’s so much more than just being in shape. I think joining a team is a great thing for every woman to try, especially moms because they very rarely ever have time ‘just for them’.

Off to nurse my poor finger and hopefully get a call from my husband! Another port visit equals LOTS of phone calls (ran out of skype credit yesterday, whoops!) I am trying to get him to ‘guest blog’ his port visits but he’s not too thrilled with the idea. Maybe if I can ever get the pictures I’ll post them!

Inadvertent Animal Rescue

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So I wasn’t reaaaaalllly planning on getting anymore animals anytime soon but I kinda stumbled over this guy this morning.

 

Literally. I was out walking the dog this morning after taking the kids to school. On our way back, right in front of our house, I saw this little guy in the grass. It took Bowser a second to notice him and then he tried to eat him.

Couldn’t just leave him there, we have TONS of cats in the area and I couldn’t see a nest (it’s a huge tree). So I brought him inside and stuck him in an old check box.  Found a wild bird rescue place on island but they pretty much just gave instructions and then said if you can’t get him back into the nest or you don’t see the parents, have fun raising your bird!

I did stick him out in the tree for an hour in a makeshift nest to see if mom or dad came and I didn’t see anyone. So back inside he came and I had to go on the hunt for baby bird formula. (Moanaloa Pets FTW!) So far he is eating and hopping around in his box. I texted a picture to the bird people and they think he is a dove.  After looking online I agree, and it looks like he is maybe 14 days old?

Thankfully I have some baby bird handfeeding experience from the old days of working at a pet store.

The kids think he’s adorable and I just have to keep the dog from eating him. Gotta love an unexpected houseguest! Find a baby bird yourself? Take a peek at this chart to see what to do with it!

I found a baby bird – now what?