feeling lonely...

Sometimes I get in those moods where I am filled with sadness and loneliness. I know everyone gets there at times, but it seems like since joining the military spouse ranks it happens more often. I know a lot of it is that I am so far away from friends and family and while they are all supportive its all from a distance. Don't get me wrong my husband is amazing and very supportive, loving and wonderful, I have no real complaints there. 

We moved to a new base in the last year, we thought this was going to be great, he had friends here. Sadly us wives just could not seem to get along. I honestly am not sure what went wrong or why, I know what both men have told me but recently I am coming to believe that at least one of the men in this group wanted this to fail, and wanted it be be the wives fault. I still can't figure out why he was telling everyone things that would make things awkward and uncomfortable but I have given up trying to understand it. I hate it for my husband, and I really hate it for my self and the other wife, we are being blamed for things that don't make sense. I think we could have gotten along with out someone setting it up to fail. Had we been allowed to meet and get to know each other, we seem to have a lot in common. 

I wonder sometimes if this is the same type of things that other military spouses go through with FRG's and support organizations. I was a part of a couple support pages on Facebook but I found them to be more harmful than helpful, which really leaves me out on my own. I want to have friends here, people to go shopping with, I love my husband but really he's not much fun to shop with. People to have coffee with, or just have an adult conversation with! The internet is a wonderful tool but it is no replacement for human interaction! 

Sometimes I just want to talk to other people who understand and are not so busy looking to judge others based on what they have, don't have, look like, political ideas, religious backgrounds. I really like to think I am pretty easy to get along with, I miss my friends back home. I miss the friends I made at our last duty station. I hope we are able to make some here soon. I think the loneliness and sadness is hard on any relationship and I think its worse in a military relationship because it add an extra layer of stress and distance that not everyone has to deal with. 

Chicken Taco Ring ~ Simply awesome!

I found this in a taste of home magazine. It is labeled as an appetizer but we had it as a dinner and it was very filling! I had thought about making rice or beans to go with it but we didn't need it. We even had left overs, granted not much was left but some :)

Prep 25 min Bake 20min Makes 16 servings 

2 tubes of refrigerated crescent rolls

2/3 cup finely chopped tortilla chips

2 cups shredded chicken

3/4 cups shredded mexican cheese

1/2 cup mayonnaise

1 can chopped green chillies

1/4 cup olives (I skipped this part)

1 tomato seeded and chopped

1 tablespoon taco seasoning

1 tablespoon lime juice

Garnish with sour cream, salsa, and anything else that you think sounds yummy :)

Grease a 12 inch pizza pan (I do not own one of those so I used the bottom of a very large cake pan)

sprinkle with 1/4 cup tortilla chips; unroll crescent dough press down gently on chips. Separate into triangles.

Place wide end of the triangles in the center 3 inches from edge of the pan, chip side down. Over lap the wide end slightly. Dough should look like a sun. Lightly press the wide ends together. 

 In a small bowl combine all the other ingredients. Spoon over the wide edge of the triangles. 

 Fold the points over the filling tucking the end under the wide part. Filling will be visible. 

 Bake at 375 for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown. Enjoy! 

So busy!

I don't know about you but the end of the school year is so busy here! My oldest spends the summer with her father in another state which is always so hard. I smile and put on the brave front for her but lets me honest what mother really wants to be away from their child for 2 months? 

Before she left for the summer we went to chuck e cheese for the afternoon, was so much fun! and Spent the rest of the evening until she left playing singing and dancing games as a family. The weekend before she left we had some family in town and had family pictures taken. We got a few good pictures sadly my son was not feeling it. 

Although him not feeling it did lead to one of my favorite pictures which I know most people wouldn't like but for me, its my kids :) 

I have been busy redoing my son and daughter's rooms, cooking, baking, celebrating a wedding anniversary (you may remember we celebrate both the marriage anniversary and the wedding anniversary.) So I have lots of updates to make over the next few days. We also are getting some fruit trees this weekend which is exciting for me. 

End of the year gift to classmates

My oldest is done with 2nd grade this week. Today was the class party so She spent a few hours yesterday getting some small gifts together for the other 19 kids in her class and her teacher of course.

She decorated each bag with a little note wishing them a fun summer and than filled them with a pencil sharpener and eraser tool. A pencil, notebook, book mark and a handful of candy. The teacher got a tea towel she decorated with weekend as well. That was a different project we worked on and she wanted to include her teacher.

Hoping her class likes them. I am a HUGE fan of amazon and all the little trinkets in the bags came off there. There were 12 different little notebooks and 5 different pencil sharpener tools but she got started before I was able to get a picture, she was a bit excited. I like Dr. Seuss for school gifts because I love his stuff :) I think it makes the imagination run wild.

feeling nostalgic, our Wedding 26 - May - 2012

We are quickly approaching our 'Wedding' Anniversary. We were married before, in what I have learned is almost a military tradition, by the justice of the peace and had a larger wedding later with family and friends. 26 May is that second anniversary. I am working on a project for my husbands gift. While working on it I thought I would share some highlights from it. :) I made all the carter pieces, favor bags and really planned everything my self, from a couple states away. We were stationed at Bragg and the wedding was in Ga, where he is from, not me, so that was another challenge. I think it all came together really well. 

 My oldest holding the picture frame, our son wasn't feeling it, we have a copy of this picture in this frame in out living room. It is one of my favorites and of course she loves it. We wanted to involve the kids as much as possible, it wasn't just my husband and I's wedding, it was us becoming a family. She was my maid of honor. Our son who was 1.5 walked with my father and I down the aisle. 

Our theme for the wedding was movies, with some military touches. We are both very big into movies so we picked some of our favorites and made each tables center piece a different movie theme. 

 My husband has been called Jack before so this just had to be a table. 

 We are both big Simpson fans. 

 This was our head table. Got to love firefly

 out door wedding ceremony and reception but they did close the walls off some to keep some of the heat out, who knew end of May in Ga would be so hot ;)

Of course Phineas and Ferb! They not only made it in the wedding as a center piece but as one of the family dance songs and the wedding program. If you do not know this show check it out! Wonderful for children and adults. 

 Clap boards on the chair rows for the ceremony 

 Card box had the movie theme as well

 One of my favorite parts! the program, again with the movie playbill type theme. We had all the people in the wedding write a little something, something really special for us to have for years to come. 

 We had fans because again it was all out doors in the sun, the end of May and Ga :) So VERY hot!

Favors for the adults, the coasters had a lot for a picture which went well with our other favor, we had a photo booth set up for everyone. That was also out guest book so many great fun shots there!

 The gift bags for the kids. The rubber ducks were for all branches of the military not just the Army I believe this one is marines :p

  

 Props for the photo booth

 My husband and I being goofy in the photo booth. 

 We had a small cake for those that wanted cake but as I am not a cake fan, we had a dessert bar as well. 

We even had an ice cream cart! So yummy and fun! 

 And now for the cake, another military touch and the coolest cake topper ever! 

www.favorsyoukeep.com   They make so many very cool things city lines, military, hobbies great quality, taste, and they are so fast! They also do color but the black and white went better with our theme. 

So those are some of my favorite touches from the wedding. I am recreating the wedding cake for our anniversary, I will have to share that when I do make it of course. I love to bake cakes, just not a fan of eating them :) Hope you enjoyed the trip down memory lane. 

My favorite picture from the wedding. I love this man! 

Refinishing a dresser for my daughter

I had taken a picture of the whole dresser before I started but I guess I deleted it on accident. :(

This is what I used as the base coat, worked perfectly! One coat let dry for 24 hours and was perfect for my needs. I just needed a good base. 

After the white zinsser I spray painted it with a high gloss silver, again I didn't need perfect coverage for what I wanted to do but with 1 can I got good coverage. 

 After that I put wall stickers on it...

Spray painted it with a high gloss black, took 2 cans to get a very solid even finish  

After I peeled the stickers off I LIGHTLY haphazardly randomly sprayed purple over it.  

I sprayed the hard wear with the silver high gloss too. 

and tada! Finished, took a weekend from start to finish and I think turned out pretty well. After I repaint the rooms I will do pictures of it in the new room :)

Happy painting! 

Military Spouse Appreciation Day!

It has been a few days since last I posted. I have a ton of new pictures for meals and organizing to post. It has been a very busy and crazy last couple of weeks. My husband is in the middle of a school here on post that has him leaving at 3 am ish which means I wake up at 3am. It has been worse, like when he's gone but still 3 am is early! :)

Today is Military spouse Appreciation Day, a day to say thank you to all the spouses out there who stand by their loved one near and far. Sending wonderful wishes and thoughts to all my friends and family that are Military Spouses. It is not always easy but we got this :)

Hope you have an amazing day!