Adopt a US Soldier

On Wednesday I was just looking around online and I came across a link to the website for Adopt a Soldier http://www.adoptaussoldier.org/ If it was your blog that I got this from I'm really sorry I'm not giving you credit I just can't remember where I read it! Any who, I think this is such a great opportunity for people to get involved and support our troops especially those who aren't really sure how. I am a military wife but I know my husband will never be deployed to Iraq or really anywhere overseas. The only place he could go is Bahrain and I lived there while I was in high school. I know there is a difference between being a student in the middle east and being a part of the us military...but Bahrain is no Iraq and I'm well aware of this. So, while I will still go through deployments, PCSing, and other military life situations I know I'm one of the lucky ones. I can't imagine right now how it feels to have your spouse so far away for so long. I wanted to be able to show my appreciation for all the men and women all over the world who are standing up for our freedoms. I signed up and after the three days as promised I was given a soldiers information. My pen pal as I refer to him is my age and has a wife and two kids (my heart breaks for his family). Please checkout the website, sign up, and pass it along to anyone you think would be interested. It's amazing how a few kind words to turn someones day around.

For the love of DIY

I love DIY projects. Some people are so talented and can do so much on their own and I am envious of that. Even if I'm not capable of as much as I would like when it comes to DIY I'm working on it. I have only been married for about a year and a half. So needless to say we have a lot of hand-me-down furniture from our parents. I have two dressers from my grandma and before we moved my dad gave me two end tables. All the furniture is old and because my parents are military the furniture was moved around a lot before we took hold. We have been looking at getting new furniture for our bedroom but have put that on hold till I get a job again. So I with free time and a limited budget I decided to repaint all of that furniture. Now the most expensive part was the new hardware. But it would have looked really bad without the new handles.

I don't have a picture of the before for the end tables because

I was just too excited to get started I forgot. Opps!

Here is the before of dresser one

After of dresser one

Before of dresser two

After of dresser two

Know I'm trying to figure out what to do about a headboard. I've read some DIY blogs about fabric headboards made with MDF but I'd really like something more intricate than what I can make. I might just have to suck it up and buy one eventually. This was a great project took a while to sand all the furniture and I would recommend not doing it in the middle of summer in Florida. But I love the finished pieces! And I have left over black paint so I know there will be more projects coming up!

Brownie Experiment

Over the weekend we had a little get together with my husbands friends from work and their wives. I was in charge of dessert. I love to bake from scratch but sometimes it's best to just use a box. So my plan was to make brownies. I couldn't find the right pan for this. (I still have boxes packed from the move) I do however, have muffin pans in the shape of squares. I love cupcakes so I requested multiple cupcake pans on my wedding registry. I figured it was worth a try. So I filled each square halfway with brownie mix and popped it in the oven for half the time. I'm one of those people who will cut into the brownie in order to have a piece without any crust. I was worried that they would come out too hard. So I took them out a few minutes early and just let them cool in the pan. The brownies were amazing. Because they weren't cooked as long they were gooey and just plain delicious! I received multiple compliments on them. Many were very surprised by the shape of the pan. These would be great as a brownie ice cream sundae.

The Sisterhood

While I was reading tonight I came across a button that intrigued me. It said something about shrinking jeans, which made me laugh a little and of course I wanted to find out more about it. So I went to the website, http://shrinkingjeans.net/ The website has a lot going on and I don't completely know how to use it best yet. But it is easy to sign up and seems to be pretty interesting. It has different fitness challenges, such as Wii Fit 30 Day Challenge, 5k challenge, shredding with the sisterhood (30DS), and Fitness Friday. Part of the sisterhood is to weight yourself every Wednesday and to post about successes, failures, anything really about the past week in weight loss. This is supposed to help hold everyone accountable for continuing their weight loss journey. There are also recipes, giveaways, and success stories. It seems most members are very active and encouraging. Because you can never have too many people behind you to encourage your goals. I joined.

If friends were flowers you'd be the one I pick

Anyone who moves a lot knows how challenging it can be to make new friends. Well, this move is a little different from the others I've made because I'm no longer in school. School is the best/easiest way to make friends. This has been my crutch in the past since I can be a bit shy although it is something I have been working on it and I must say I am improving. I still wouldn't be the first person to strike up a conversation with the person sitting next to me on an airplane...I'm a realist...I'm always going to be a bit of in introvert. Anyways, tonight a very exciting thing happened. I made a friend. We bonded over that fact that we don't like where we live, that we will only be here for another six months and that we would love to move back to the city we just came from. As I was telling my better half about this exciting news. I realized that this is a little like dating again. Which is something I haven't done is almost 6 years come November when I first met my husband. Before she left she gave me her number and I got all excited because this is new and will make what I thought were going to be a looong horrible 6 months not that bad. So I would consider today a happy day. :)

Dog Parks

Now that my babies are at officially 4 months old as of yesterday and have had all their shots, they are able to go to the dog parks! There are 3 in the Pensacola area and one is even a beach so the pups can get introduced to water! Very exciting. I love the idea of a dog park because the first trip out on a leash wasn't great. The "little one" as we affectionately refer to our lab/doxin mix can wiggle out of her harness when she gets scared which is pretty much every time the wind blows. So my goal is to take them both by myself tomorrow. We aren't going to the beach I would like to be more confident in their potty training abilities so we don't pull a Marley & Me scenario. ((If you don't know what I'm talking about, in the movie Marley poops in the beach water and that's a big no-no)) Since it is not supposed to rain tomorrow...which is a pretty rare thing on a Saturday in Florida I'm hoping there will be other dogs at the park but not too many that my little one's will hide behind me the entire time. Looking forward to tomorrow!

Moving Again!

When my DH found out about this school he is currently at he told me it was only for 9 months...but that it would be a good move for his career if we moved. So I said my good-byes at work and to friends and we packed up the house and moved 100's of miles to the panhandle of good old Florida. A couple of days ago he brought home the new list of place we could go. This always brings me a sense of excitement and fear. There are some really cool places Alaska, Hawaii, back to Washington DC, and then there are places in the middle of no where that I'd rather not be. There are a few places in Virginia. DH and I are both Virginia Beach, neither of out parents still live there but they are close to that area. So needless to say he would like to move back to the area. I on the other hand want to live in a few more states before going back mainly because my best friends are married to the military also and don't live there anymore. So while I'm trying to decide on the order that I want the potential new homes to be in, my dad calls to tell me that he has received his orders. (I've been a true military brat my whole life) He's going to Afghanistan for 3 years! Whoa. I really wasn't expecting that. I mean there was talk in the past but I didn't know the length of his tour and it was just in passing so I didn't think it was a serious option apparently it is. So now I'm all sad because my daddy is going to be sooo far away for so long...in not the greatest area....doing things he can't tell his family about. Lame. Now my options in the middle of no where don't look so bad. We are putting our lists in a different order now...My sister is in her sophomore year at college so my mom will be pretty much alone minus the pets. The last time my dad was stationed overseas we were in high school and the following year we moved over there with him..to Bahrain. There's no chance my mom's moving this time. So now we are hoping to go to Virginia. DH's parents are going to be thrilled...they would rather have us living down the street from them...but an hour away will be fine too.

UPDATE

So project skinny me...took off to a slow start. I realized that I was too out of shape to complete the 30 day shred let alone try to do some other exercise. So I gave up on that after the first week. I did continue to go to the gym about 4-5 times a week and I lost 5lbs which is pretty good. Like I said a slow start but that is still a loss. So now that I feel a bit more confident I have started the shred again. I am really going to try not to give up this time. I have my sister checking in with me daily to make sure I do. I am also spending an hour doing something aerobic. Tomorrow, will be day 5 of this 30 day shred new beginning. And I feel better about the whole process now.