Monday, March 19, 2012

Pinterest #6

I saw this and IMMEDIATELY wanted to make it. I thought it would be perfect for our vacay for Sydney on the beaches on Cozumel. Last week I stopped by Michael's and picked up a bunch of bandanas for Rachel and myself and made a Bandana Quilt. It was super easy, you basically buy a bunch of bandanas and put them right sides together and sew. I am think after vacation I am going to add a few more squares, I want to make a "quilt" big enough to be a picnic blanket. I think a 3x3 would work... Anyhow, here's a pic of my completed masterpiece.

Pinterest #5

My friend Maggs is getting hitched soon. She comes over one day and tells me about this NIGHTMARE she had about spilling stuff all over her wedding dress. She said she needed me to make her an apron/bib for her big day so she can actually grub at her reception.

We went off to Hobby Lobby last week and found some fabric in her wedding colors. I found a tutorial on Pinterest and then googled some other ideas. So we could make it more tailored to what she needed/wanted out of her very unique "Bapron". I finished up the project yesterday morning.

Maggs in the finished product
pinning the layers
after the layers were gathered to make the ruffles
laying out the top "bib" piece

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Even Timmy's Friends Say Funny Things

Today, while waiting for school to start, I was talking to Timmy's best friend's grandma. I was telling Rose how Timmy told me that Vinny could not say "yellow", instead pronouncing is "lellow" and the other day in class he said "Yellow" so the whole class cheered for him. She and I were laughing about it as Timmy and Vinny came over to where we were sitting.

Rose: he has problems with certain words. Vanilla and refrigerator are 2 that we are working on.
Me: Awww Nik used to call a refrigerator a "fridgey ridgey".
Rose: Vinny, what kind of ice cream did you have yesterday?
Vinny: VUH-NILL-UH
Me: good job dude!!
Rose: and what's the thing called where we keep milk?
Vinny: :::blank stare::::
Rose: you know where the milk and juice is... What is it called??
Vinny: ::eyebrow raise:: Target??
Me: OH!!!! ::::dies laughing::::

I swear I started to cry. I was laughing so hard. Who knew Timmy's friends were funny too!!

Monday, March 12, 2012

Dinner Conversation

Timmy has been watching a lot of Dinosaur Train lately.  "Gonna ride ride ride on the Dinosaur Trainnnnnnnnnnnn".  Apparently he is picking up some great knowledge from the Pteranadon Family. This happened at dinner tonight:



Timmy:  Mom, I have a hypothesis.
Me: A hypothesis?  Really?
Nik: You don't even know what that means!
Timmy: Yes I DO!!!  A hypothesis is an idea you can test!
Nik: :::::silence::::::::
Me: thats right Timmy!  What is your hypothesis?
Timmy: Whales used to have arms, then they got broken off, then they went to the animal doctor and they couldn't fix them, so NOWWWWWWWWWW whales don't have arms.
Me:  that is a GREAT hypothesis!
Nik:  seriously? whales had arms?
Me: :::death glare:::::
Timmy:  I also have another hypothesis.  T-Rex shoots guns and knives.
Me: Wowwwww, that is a great hypothesis Tuney!
Nik: :::eye roll::::
Me: ::::death glare pt 2::::

So my 5 year old knows about hypothesis's...I'm pretty impressed.  Thanks Dinosaur Train!

School Conversation


 This entry is brought to you by the letter F.  Timmy is learning to write his name in school.  So the other day his teacher pulls me aside and says "Timmy said the funniest thing today.  We were discussing the letter F and Timmy shared with the class 'MY BROTHER GETS F's ON HIS HOMEWORK!!!', I'm sorry if your son gets F's but it was really funny!"

Seriously?  Way to dime your brother out Tuna!

Saturday, March 3, 2012

Dear Future Military Husband--

I watch a lot of crap TV. I do. I own that. Wanna know what happened on Teen Mom, call me. Wanna get the run down on Survivor, the Amazing Race or Big Brother, all you gotta do is hollllaaa. Don't even get me started about The Shore. I've been watching a lot of Mob Wives lately. And the more I watch the more I think...these crazy bitches are closer to my reality than any other show.

And I know what you are thinking...seriously Laura, wise guys and soldiers are no where NEAR in the same league. And in some respects that's completely correct. But sit and listen to those women talk about things using "code", listen to them talk about how they live a "lifestyle", watch them cope with marriages falling apart due to distance, see their faces when they get a phone call. Those things, those are MY everyday experiences.

How many of my Army wife friends out there have told their mother "he'll be back from 'blankets' 10 days before my birthday in the month my 2nd son was born". How many have been asked "how do you do that? Be apart for so long?" and your only response is "it's just our life. I choose to be with him so this is what I do".

So that brings me around to the point of all this. Sometimes, when you marry into "our lifestyle", you are completely unprepared. I read a blog not too long ago called Dear Future Military Wife (read it here), and I thought it was brilliant. It summed up anything I could ever think to say to someone marrying a military man. It said things I can only WISH I would have thought to say to some of my newly married friends. But I was also thinking that someone needs to tell those guys, that marry these naive girls, things they should do to help prepare her for what with surely be the best, worst, most awesome, horrific experience of her existence. And since this is my blog, well I'm gonna lay it all out there...



Dear Future Military Husband,

Congratulations! You are getting married!! What an exciting time for you! Filled with love, hope, happiness and...trepidation. It's scary to think that you are responsible for someone else. So it's your job to make sure she is prepared. Educate her.

You have to tell her a few basic things. Starting with your duty station. Explain to her about your division. About your brigade. About your battalion. About your company. Your platoon. Your squad. Your team. Show her where you work. What you do.

Help her make friends. Introduce her to your coworkers. And introduce her to their wives. Encourage her to try out the FRG, even if you heard its awful. Let her make that decision. Encourage her to join the Enlisted Spouses Club. Or the officers wives club. She can have 750 million "civilian" friends but one good fellow military wife will trump all those people in a second.

If you are deployed, teach her OPSEC. Tell her its not ok to put information about you on her Facebook page. That she can't have a countdown that says only 43 more days...only 42 more days...only 41 more days.  Can she say "I love tomorrow" ABSOLUTELY! Can she say "OMG my hubby is coming home tomorrow at 730!!!" No.  But she doesn't know this unless you tell her!!

Remind her that mail service is slow, at best, and the Internet is inconsistent. Sometimes you won't talk to her for hours, days, weeks at a time. make sure she knows you are going to miss Christmas and birthdays and anniversaries and the birth of children.  Its not fair, and none of us like it, but its unavoidable.  Tell her you can NOT spend all day day online waiting for HER to get on.  You have a job to focus on.  And on the other hand, she has a job too.  Whether its an actual working out of the house job, a going to school for a better education job, a managing the household job. Sometimes she doesn't have time to sit around all day and just wait for you to get online.  Life doesn't stop on the home front, just because you are not here.  Let her live, let her breathe, let her be an adult.

Know that "those" wives, the ones that whore around any chance they get, are the exception, NOT the rule.  It takes a pretty awesome woman to marry you.  It does.  Not everyone has the patience for this. But if you married her, you know SHE does.  She is the RULE.  Don't treat her like the exception.

Tell her no matter how many moves, in how many years, home is where you make it.  "Home" is not always where you are from, where your parents live, where granny and gramps live.  "Home is where the Army sends you" was such a major theme of the first 13 years of my marriage.  And its true.  It's all true.  I know women who can make a home of a spacious 5 bedroom single family house on a military installation and I know women who can make a home of a 1 bedroom apartment in a not so fantastic neighborhood.  Every new assignment brings around new places to explore, new food to taste, new friends to find.  Embrace that.  Teach her that moving isn't scary its an adventure!  Plus there is the whole upside of having someone else do all that packing for you. =)

Reassure her that even though conversations may be short, time together may be sparse, that she is always in your heart.  The things your do are for her, to better her life, to better YOUR life.  Never hang up the phone, or sign off an IM or end an email without saying "I love you", you never know when the next time you get to tell her will be, so do it every time.

And I'm sure there are so many more things I could tell you to help her, but hopefully, you'll know what to do.  Maybe you'll even have a more experienced, higher ranked guy around who can show your the ropes.  Maybe you'll have a soldier in your platoon or your squad who has been married a few years and has been right where you are sitting and he can offer a little advice.  My wish for you, as I close this out, is a life full of happiness, short deployments, easy moves, smiley babies, awesome neighbors, great duty assignments and a fantastic slice of pizza =)

With all my love,
A Wife Who Has Been There <3

From Laura

Just a note to thank you for reading and laughing with me at the ones who make my life what it is!