I AM SO OVER IT!

I had heard this before "1st deployment is always the worse, 2nd is the best, 3rd and more just suck" and didnt quite believe anyone who would tell me.  After all, you think the more times it happens, the easier it will be.  Now some cases I would believe that, such as having to take care of children that you didnt used to have during previous deployments but that isnt OUR case so I dont know why exactly that statement still rings true to me.


As mentioned in other posts, 1st deployment was torture...I spent most of my time crying! I was a big ball of pity and was very "woe is me".  In a nut shell, I was miserable and nothing was going to change that until Kale was back with me. This is a picture of a hoodie that I wore all the time...February was (obviously) homecoming

Second deployment was a 180 from the 1st one.  During the 7 months in between him coming home from first deployment to him deploying to Afghanistan, not only had I made a lot of military spouse friends but I moved down to NC.  Moving down and being with people in the same situation as me didnt allow me to pull my "woe is me" crap anymore.  So I stayed very positive, was very busy with school and friends and the months really flew by! I also had Coop, who loved helping me make carepackes!

 When word came that deployment #3 was in the works, I thought "no sweat".  Not only was he going on a MEU which meant he would most likely not have to see combat but I am used to him being gone for long periods of time so it should be just as easy, if not easier this time around.


Nope...I am so over this deployment.  I dont know what it is but I was so proud of how well I was doing last deployment and really surprised myself at how positive and upbeat I stayed.  Now that I knew that I could act that way, I was just expected to.  So now, its almost as if I wont have that major personal accomplishment like last deployment which makes me feel so over it.  Thats the only way I can describe it...I am OVER it!


Now, Im not complaining per say about this deployment but just my attitude about it.  I wish I had a better attititude about the whole thing...but I dont see it changing any time soon but its something that I need to get used to because I highly doubt that will be our last deployment...

Can it be homecoming time again so I can do this...

and this....

and last but not least lots of this...

This concludes my whiney, annoying, complaining post about me being whiney, annoying and a complainer!

Peppermint Trees

My Mom is funny, she always sees really cute crafty things but somewhere between seeing it and executing it, something goes wrong.  She was watching HGTV and saw this clip about how a cute craft project would be to get those Styrofoam cones then glue peppermint candies to them.  It seemed easy so we went and got the cones, peppermints, and Styrofoam glue because that is what the show called for...

She tried, and failed...the glue didn't work, then she tried spray adhesive, again fail.  She then let them sit out for 2 weeks, her 2 rows of gooey gross peppermints and then I arrive in Erie.  My first statement about it wasn't the most pleasant but then I ask "why didn't you just use a glue gun?"...her response? "It would melt the candy!!" I just kind of stared at her and shook my head then after wrapping my mind around her last statement I simply said "no it wont! Ill show you!" 

I went to my car and pulled my handy dandy glue gun out of my glove compartment...yes, seriously, and no I don't normally keep it there but a friend borrowed it and gave it back the night before I headed up to Erie so it never made it back into my house...and within less then 20 minutes, I had one complete.

All you do is simply glue and stick! I think they look super cute too...the ones that Mom saw on HGTV were placed on top of wide candle holders and they looked adorable, she didn't have any of those we still need to figure out where and how to display them.

We ran out of red so Mom went to the store to get more, and came back with 2 other kinds...the green ones and she found red, white,and blue ones so I made a green one real quick and I still need to make our "patriotic" one still.  It takes a lot more peppermints then I expected, the small ones took a little over 100! I didn't even bother to count the bigger ones! 

If you just plan to keep them for this holiday season, I would say you could display right away but if you are going to want to save them and use them next year, I would spray them with a protective clear finish so that bugs wont be attracted to it! 

Fun, easy, and a fast little craft project (if you use the right equipment!)

Favorite Christmas Memories

I was thinking about Christmas pasts and thought I would share some of my favorite memories of all times!

Our family (as in aunts, uncles, and (pictured)cousins) celebrate Christmas on Christmas Eve.  For as long as I can remember, we have had Christmas Eve at my house, we have a big dinner then sit around a fire, and open presents from each other.

When I was 4, Santa called me.  This was the time before cell phones so my Uncle went in the other room, dialed the house number and hung up...once my Dad picked up, my Uncle re-picked up the phone and my Dad told me that Santa was on the line and he wanted to speak to me.  We had a lovely little chat and I so vividly remember that wonderful conversation with a man I was so excited about!

Then when I was 16, it seemed to be the Christmas that everything went wrong.  First off, our oven broke so we had to go to a family friends house to finish cooking the ham.  Then as we were passing out presents, the tree toppled over when my cousin bumped into it getting the presents for my aunt and uncle.  Kale had pink eye, so I couldn't get too close to him! Last but not least, the normal Christmas caroling CD we listen to during it started skipping and stopped playing. 

But you know what, when the tree fell down, so did a lot of ornaments...we then as a whole family decorated the tree together, something we had never done.  Then when the CD went out, my uncle put in the Budweiser commercial CD in (the "real American hero ones, heres to you Mr...") as a joke but we ended up sitting and listening to it for 2 whole hours and laughing until we cried...

Its the special moments that make Christmas special to me...I could care less about what I get as presents.  That being said, I hate that Kale seems to miss Christmas a lot.  This will be our 7th Christmas as a couple but we have only gotten to spend 3 together due to deployments and training.  I cant wait until we can make lots of holiday memories together that actually involve us being in the same place and hopefully with a family (not next year since even if I got pregnant right when they get back, we wont have a bambino by the time the holidays roll around)...

Darn you hot glue gun! Ornament Wreath Tutorial...

Call it stupid, or my OCD when things aren't perfect but when I would hot glue something into place and realize a nanosecond later that it wasn't lined up correctly, I would reach and grab the molten glued mass without hesitating...that is, until my brain registered the burning pain then I would squeal...now, repeat that at least 20 times and you've got what I did last night...

I decided to try my hand at an ornament wreath, Ive read some different tutorials and figured that I could wing it from there so, that I did...

What you need:

- hot glue gun

- ornaments in different sizes

-hanger or thick wire that you can use as the base

* the ornaments I got were from the dollar section in Target, I got 3 tubes of small ones, 4 tubes of medium, and 1 of the BIG bulbs...I didn't use all of them but I was going with a "better safe then sorry" mentality. *

Step One: Fight with Hanger

- Take your hanger and form it into the closest thing that will resemble a circle...I could only manage to get mine into a oval shape, that could be because I am weak and was tired, I would totally make Kale form it next time! Then untwist the top part (I did it by hand, I would suggest pliers).

Step 2: Glue ornaments to the tops

-In order to make sure that the ornaments stay put, I glued the lip/lid/thingy to the ornament bulb.  It made it so then if I put it outside, the wind wont blow the ornament off of the lip that is then glued to the wire...basically, an extra level to preserve your awesomeness....

Step 3: Making the wreath

-Thread the bulbs and glue them, try to position them so that you hide the wire and the glued on bulb tips, this seems easier said then done! It took me QUITE a while to do this so that it looked correctly.  Then I re-twisted the top, bent it so it was a mini loop and covered it with some ribbon to hang it from. (Pictured is the back side)

Step 4: Admire.

- Once your all done and let it dry, hang it up! For some reason it photographs really lopsided looking, but in person it doesn't look like that...

Step 6: Make another for your friend! I used more traditional Christmas colors for hers.

Not too shabby if I do say so myself! Less than $5 per wreath!!! Now to go ice my poor lil burnt finger tips...