Refrigerator Calendar

As anyone who has been to my home knows , I am obsessive about my refrigerator calendar. When I paused my short lived career teaching, moved with my husband to pursue his dreams in aviation, drove from Southern Arizona to Southern Alabama, and was about to have our first kid... things began to all blur together. I was very used to my life being planned in my head or in my lesson plan book, no one else depended on me. Even though we had been married for a year at this point, we had our own careers and lives really besides every few weekends not taken up by drill ( 1 weekend a month Army National Guard Duty.)

I remember the day I bought this calendar very clear, as silly as it is. Shortly after arriving in Alabama Steve left for 6 weeks at WOC school meaning no communication, I was 7 months pregnant, and living happily just me and the beagles. Free time was something I had NEVER in my life had so I really enjoyed the freedom of that summer. Just me, my belly, and my beagles in the beautiful south enjoying life. ANYWAYS... enough of the daydreaming of peacefulness.. There I was moseying around Ft. Rucker when I realized I needed to begin keeping track of what events where coming up correlating with Warrant Officer graduation. Wandering through the PX I found a great dry erase calendar that I could fill in monthly to keep track of what is ahead. PERFECT!

The first month filled out was August 2010, a month filled with receptions, graduation, family visits, beach trips, and of course the due date of our first little guy. I remember looking at it filled in thinking HOLY COW how is it possible that so many life changing events could happen in one month? JUST ONE month in our lives.

Quickly it became a great tool for keeping track of the ever so busy days of flight school. Steve could put in his training information, I could put in what days I was running what distances, doctors appointments were documented, get togethers with our new " Rucker Family", day trips , and so much more. I learned to live life one month at a time. Many experienced military members will tell you to live life day to day which is helpful when things can literally change each day, but for an over planner like myself month-to-month is as good as it gets.

Fast forward to August 2012, the month ahead. The Calendar is no longer on our outdated white top/bottom refrigerator but has a new home on a more sleek black side by side version in Arizona. With the move and the end of flight school, the events have most definitely changed. Many more sad faces, more mileage for myself to keep my mind occupied, more time away, and less events together as a family of 4. Filling in this month was something I have been mentally preparing for for years, but last night it became all too real.

The Army  has my husband for the first 17 days of next month . The following two days after that will be filled with our sons' 2nd birthday party, send off party, little brother starting school at ASU, Family in town, and a yellow ribbon send off as we all say goodbye to our soldiers. One day that following week we say goodbye, who knows which day since it IS the Army after all right?  Besides all of this, our perfect angel baby becomes 6 months. 6 MONTHS??? In my head he will always be a newborn, 6 months means he is halfway to a year... that can not be right. The last week of the month will be my furthest distance ever ran as I continue my marathon training. 13.1 miles is my sweet spot, it is achievable yet exhilarating all at the same time. Going beyond that finally seems in reach, but this month I am FINALLY going to do it. un-belieaveable.

All of this realization makes for yet another eventful August. Are we ready for it? Probably not. Will we make it through? of course.

As much as I want to look beyond to September and make some awesome plans for the boys and I , I think I will hold steady in August. I have no idea what life is going to be like for the next 12 months, but I know that even writing this leaves my heart aching.

I know we sign up for this. When we started dating for the second time (we'll save that story for another post ) I knew what we had in store. We probably should have faced multiple deployments being 6.5 years into his Army career, but we haven't. That is not how life has played out. Could it have been easier if he had left as a controller instead? Maybe if I was just his girlfriend? Or maybe if he had left two years ago where I could have simply wrapped myself up into my classroom and pummeled through? Who knows. But I do know that where we are now, Steve flying and myself staying behind raising our two amazing boys, is right where we are supposed to be. I am left with two remarkable pieces of him to keep me company while he gets to fly the most advanced helicopter everyday and " fight the bad guys." God has his cards laid out for us. We really aren't given anything we can not handle, and THIS we can handle.

Not sure how a few words about a calendar could end up into a novel such as this, but I guess you leave me to " talking" and this is what you will get. If you've stuck through this and are still reading THANK YOU FOR LISTENING... seriously today I think I need it.

Here is to August, a month that is bound to be full of laughter, tears, miles, and fears. Ready to live through each day on that Calendar, and soak up every day that we are given!

Have a great Monday friends!

Business in the front, party in the back

and no I am not talking about my husband's hairstyle that he rocked throughout his childhood.

Pretty excited about what our creativity drew us to yesterday, time to share!

One class that I really treasure and loved in college was play education. It sounds silly and my peers always teased us when we would be making toys from household objects and getting graded on them. But as a full time Mama, I now can really appreciate the idea that toys are normally better made than bought.

So I have been trying to figure out a great visual and hands on tool that will help with teaching the basics to our soon to be 2 year old (sigh.. is he really almost 2?) I wanted to combine letters, numbers, shapes, and colors SOMEHOW in one item. We started with a large piece of wood I had leftover from another project, 5 sheets of adhesive vinyl in the colors of the rainbow ( I selfishly left out violet for my own projects) , and my hand dandy cricut .

I made a quick plan organizing an even amount of letters, numbers, and shapes. Put the vinyl on the cricut and got to work, well Mr. Man thought HE was doing the work ..." cricut SO easy a toddler can do it" 

Once the piece were all cut out, we went outside and sanded the board to prevent any splinters. This was the best investment for the types of crafts I love to do. The Black and decker mouse sander, affordable at about 30$ and gets the job done. 

After sanding it I realized that I have a complete empty piece of wood on the back. Remembering some neat pinterest pins I thought what a great ramp for hot wheels off of the couch. THEN I realized I had some black spray paint in the garage, why not paint it black and add some scrap yellow vinyl to make it a road? EASY PEAZY

So Mr. played outside while I taped off and painted the board. Took some scrap vinyl and cut little lines out for the road center. Not perfect, but it IS a kids toy after all right?

Once dry I let him give it a go. Without a word he ran into his room, came out with a shirt full of cars and got to work. It's amazing how little boys' brains work... cars , trains, and helicopters ( at least in our house.) Looking at this I realized the paint job looks more like radiator springs BEFORE lightning Mcqueen repaved it, but whatever boys don't care. 

This is a terrible picture of the finished project. But you get the idea, right? Letters-numbers-shapes-colors ALL IN ONE! We were playing games like put the lego on A and he would have to find the right letter. He is only 1, I have to remind myself, but this is a great learning tool on one side and toy on the other. Best of both worlds! Now we just need to drill a couple holes so that I can hang it on his wall for a combo of decoration and storage for such a LARGE heavy piece of wood. This could easily be made thinner wood too, would probably be easier to work with. It would also look nice stained or painted, but like I said the glory about boys is NOTHING MATTERS BESIDES cars , trains, and helicopters. And their Dad. 

This was so easy we finished it in the time that the 5 month old was napping. 

EASY  as cake and made to last. 

THANKS FOR Checking out our latest project! I will Add a picture of it hanging as soon as I get it up. 

Hope this inspires some homemade toys around your house :) 

HAVE A GREAT DAY! 

OK here it is hanging in the "playroom" part of his room . Love that it is perfect toddler height ! 

Third time's a charm

Well... third time is a charm right? I tried the fitness blog, fun but not enough material.

Tried the family blog, too boring and impersonal as well as being too scatterbrained to keep track.

So here goes. Round 3. All encompassing - life through my eyes- raw written- verbal vomit.

Big events are approaching in my life but it seems like that has been my tagline for a good 26 years though come to think of it. But really, honestly, having two babies and the love of my life about to leave us for a year is going to leave a lot of room for change.

When given alone time we can develop in two ways. The first is to fall into a slump. This would be an all too easy way to go, simply live day to day with hopes of survival. The second, a more difficult option, is to set up a plan to grow upward each and every day. My plan ( which is my only means of functioning)  is to make the most of this next year and focus on growing two amazing little boys while continuing to evolve into the best form of myself.

I am not going to sit here and drag on and on about who I am or what I believe in, the time will come as will the words...

 ...HOWEVER I must say I love this shirt. It sums me up. I love to run, not only long distances but run my household too.

We live a pretty exciting life. Between day trips, homemade crafts, new successful recipes, health and fitness, learning through literature, and of course the everyday roller coaster the Army throws at us... it is bound to be nothing short of exhilarating.

I am not promising that I will continue blogging past this coming year, I hope to, but I make no promises. I love to write, love to take photos, and love my family more than humanly possible.

Writing is a form of therapy for me which doesn't mean that I am even decent at it. Maybe some topics of discussion can help others who may feel alone, maybe I can bring awareness about different subjects, maybe some neat crafts we make can spark others' creativity as well, and maybe I will just continue to talk to a virtual wall and THAT is totally fine...I think by now I am used to that.



Thanks for stopping by, have a great day, and come back soon :)