Super Squid Week Day 1, or Happy Mothers Day to Me!

The Squid didn't have to work on Friday, so Thursday afternoon I wasn't surprised that we happened to hit the hardware store. We go to there so often I think Borders and Joanns are starting to feel neglected. I was surprised however when, after 5 hours, and 2 coats of blue tinted stain, I was presented with this. I still have to go pick out a new knob, and hopefully I can get to that today.

My "better late than never, Happy Mothers Day" gift. How awesome is this?!
I love it!
Thank You Squid-alicious!!

Memorial Day.

When we first moved to our current base the Squid joined the Funeral Detail. We just had our oldest so we would go with him to all parts of the city attending funerals of our fallen, old and young, men and women. I can't tell you how proud I am of him, many a weekend was spent with a duty van and a bugle, because he wanted to honor those who came before him.  

That is what this weekend is all about. 

 (One of the first funerals we went to. Most beautiful cemetery, saddest funeral.)

Happy Memorial Day everyone!

I have been thinking of doing a couple of Squid posts, so I think it is only appropriate that this is the week I dote on him.
This week is officially Super Squid Week!

Weigh-in Wednesday.

The man who can drive himself further once the effort gets painful is the man who will win.

-Roger Bannister

Today's Weigh-in: -4 lbs.

That's right! 4 lbs!

Oh Yeah, Oh Yeah! 

I'm not sure if anyone but me is counting, but that makes a total so far of -15lbs. !

Wedding Wishes.

Latest card, a Wedding Card.
Inside reads: 

Chains do not hold a marriage together.  It is threads, hundreds of tiny threads which sew people together through the years.  ~Simone Signoret

Picture an Upcycled Jar.

Good Monday to you all, I hope you had a fantastic weekend. This is what I have for you guys this morning. I'm so in love with this idea!
I saw this on Pinterest, and it's amazing! It's from Junk Garden.

The baby food jars are filled with wallet sized pictures, and the old spaghetti jar is filled with a 4x6. I am on the look out now for any old jars around the house. I see a pickle jar that is almost empty in the fridge!! I am going to have a zillion photo filled jars around the house now, and I'm kind of excited, they are so cute!

MilSpouse Friday Fill-in #41

It's Friday again. I am at this moment knee deep in kids and paint. The Squid picked up another dresser, (that makes 3) and I am in the midst of helping remodel it. It seems to be a quick fix, so hopefully I'll be able to get it done pretty quick. Head on over to Wife of A Sailor to check out the meme for today. Have a great weekend every body!

What is one of the things you always do special when your husband returns from a deployment?  submitted by Keep Calm and Soldier On ..........We don't have a tradition yet, although, I have made it a point to shave my legs the day he comes home.

What do you do to help your spouse and/or yourself re-adjust after a deployment or long separation?  submitted by Diapers, Dogs and Deployments ................I have been letting him just hang out when he gets home, it has worked so far, so I think I'll just keep with that. 

Are you a crazy coupon clipper (I’m becoming one, so share your secrets with me)?  submitted by Married My Airman ....I am sadly not a coupon clipper. I wish I was! I would love to go to a grocery store and walk out with a ton of food and the store ending up owing me money. 

What’s your most treasured memory of you and your spouse (not counting your wedding – that’s a given)? submitted by Scrubs, ACUs and One Crazy Ride ..........The day our youngest was born was amazing. He missed our first being born and having him there was wonderful for both of us. 

If you could live anywhere overseas, what would you pick and why? submitted by Little Moments Like This 

..........The UK. I love the whole idea of living there.

Rainy Days.

It's been pretty rainy here as of late. I don't mind the rain, but it drives my kids indoors, and bonkers. I used to look at rainy days as blank slates. Reading, sewing, anything really that I wanted to do was possible. But, that was then and this is now, a couple of years and a couple of kids later. It's raining again today and I need to figure out what my little Squidlets are going to do with themselves. I can't wait until they are old enough to pick up projects of their own, and concentrate on then for longer than 3 mins.

For right now though, I'll try to enjoy the dancing, squealing in delight, and nap time, keeping in mind that it won't last long.

On that note, I have been seeing a lot of re-usable workbooks for kids,(here) and since our oldest Squidlet is learning the in and outs of writing and the alphabet and all that, I decided I would give it a go. Plus, what a nice way to spend some quiet rainy day time. I had a folder and plastic sheet holders left over from when I was in college, so I decide to put them to work. I printed off all kinds of things from this website, and took some pages out of one of her workbooks. I haven't showed her yet so I hope she digs it.

I still have some things to do, like decorate the cover and print some other things off, but our ink is all gone and I have to go get more. I think I'll be getting some dry erase crayons if I can find them. Much less scary than markers.

Well Done.

I recently posted about the cards I made for Mother's Day, and I finished up the card for my cousins graduation. He is a gifted thespian, so I tried to make it geared towards him. I think it turned out okay, and the ribbon makes a great money holder!

I am looking forward to the next card giving holiday!

Tea Cups On Display.

I have been wracking my brain trying to find a new and unique way to display my tea cups. I scoured the internet and saw tons of wooden stands, and giant cabinets. I saw little snippets detailing how to use them as candle holders or flower holders, and while those are all great ideas, I wanted something different that no one else has. I had a few ideas, but after seeing an adorable bookshelf made from a pallet, I decided that was the material for me. 

I started with this one, and took it apart. 

I cleaned it up and re-assembled it with some minor tweeks. 

$6.00 worth of silver cup hooks for the cups.

A coat of clear stain, and here is the final product. $6.00 and built all by myself.

Unfortunately, after a little while of using it and flinching every time my 3yr old breathed, I am going to have to find a different way to display them. This is beautiful though. I'm glad I did it. I am thinking it would be better as something else. But, what!?
So, until further notice, this is how and where my tea cups will live.

A Good Dresser is Hard to Find.

As of late, well as of always, we have been in desperate need of at least 1 dresser. A good dresser is really hard to find! I have no desire to pay more than $80 for a flimsy piece of crap. We need something that will last through at least 1 move cross country.

*no offense to all the pieces of crap out there, you have done well in the past.

It's just time to move up.* 

Being the frugal family that we are, we have been scouring the local thrift stores and Goodwill's for candidates to join our eclectic yet, happy home.

We found this lady at the Goodwill near our house and decided, since she was priced at $30, she'd be perfect. 

Here she is before

And, here she is after. In total she cost us around $70. Sweet!! 

Next up.......another dresser. Here is a sneak peek.

MilSpouse Friday Fill-in #40

Thanks as usual to Wife of a Sailor for putting this together.

Which was the best day of your life- Wedding day or Homecoming day? submitted by Pink Champagne, Gatorade & MREs ..................................Um...Wedding...Yep, wedding. 

Don't get me wrong, each and every home coming is a very close second!

Were you a part of the joining the military question or did you sign up for the relationship when your man was already in the military? submitted by Cammo Style Love .....................Neither. We were married for about 7 months when we got pregnant. After working 3 jobs and still not being able to live the way we wanted to, The Squid came home and said he had decided to join the Navy. That was it, he figured that since I was a Navy brat I'd be okay with it I suppose. I don't think that even if I wasn't he would care, he was doing what he needed to do to take care of his family. I don't think I could have been more proud, even if he didn't include me in the decision. 

What is your favorite Disney movie and why? submitted by Raising Roscoe ..............Oh, wow, I don't know. It is tied between Cinderella and Mulan. Oh wait, I love the Rescuers too. Oh, and I really love The Great Mouse Detective. I have way to many favorites. The music in all of my favorites are awesome, plus they are just good movies.


What is your favorite family activity to do on the weekends? submitted by Destination: RN! 
I regularly drag my family all over the place on weekends. Books Stores, fabric stores, anything really, so the weekends that we just hang out at the house are few and far between. I love them though, all of us still in our pj's watching cartoons.


Where do you secretly wish you could be stationed with you/your SO’s line of work (realistically speaking, not everyone can be stationed on NAS Fiji)? submitted by Wookie & Co.
I would love to be stationed in the UK. I think living overseas would be amazing, but the UK is my number one.

I can Hardly Contain Myself: A Garden Story, the New Recruits.

We have some major developments in the garden now. I am loving that almost everything has sprouted, particularly the flowers. The Squidlets have some major flowers going particularly Morning Glorys and Cone flowers. The Bluebonnets and the Grape vine planted by The Squid are doing great! My cucumbers are looking unwell though, so I need to see if I can do some damage control there. Poor little dears.

To all Non-bloggers, Blogger has been unwell and therefore I am reposting all lost and unavailable posts from last week.

Weigh-in Wednesday.

I know I have been remiss in my weigh-in posts, but the fight continues.

You have to stay in shape. My grandmother, she started walking five miles a day when she was 60. She's 97 today and we don't know where the hell she is.

-Ellen Degeneres

Today's Weigh-in:  -2 lbs.

The only reason why I'm not all "Woohoo! I'm awesome!" is that 2 weeks ago I was -1 and a week ago I was +2. Bleh. But still, it's better than gaining more.

My Calendar.

I have a great magnetic/dry erase calendar. I got it for about 10.00 at Target and I love it, it has really helped with our family planning. 

 The only thing I don't love about it, is that it's black. Just...black.

 I got this package of really pretty paper on sale at Joanns and it has been just waiting for something awesome.

I found an old nail file, (The Squid locked the shed and took the key. No sand paper for me) and after a light "sanding" and lots of Mod Podge.

I have a new beautiful calendar!

Mom's Day By Post.

I was supposed to have the car this past week, but due to the Squid having to be at work at an entirely inappropriate hour I didn't. It worked out for the best though, because I then got to be creative with my Mother's Day stuff. I made some Mother's Day postcards. I just used some scrap booking paper, my stamps, some glue and my sewing machine. I think they turned out pretty cute, and I hope the recipients think so too.

I made them so the back is the same color as the small square on the front and I really like it.
I loved the outcome of these so much that when I got a Graduation announcement in the mail from my cousin I decided I'm going to make a card for him too. I'm on a roll! I may never buy another card again.

Monday......bleh.

After taking last week off from blogging, I am back. :) It's Monday, and I am feeling quite bleh. I am not going to let it ruin my day though, so moving on!

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I hope all of you mommies, grand mommies, mommy-in-laws, adoptive mommies, step-mommies and anyone else that steps into the mommy role got some serious love and appreciation. You all deserve it!

I know my mommy is loved and appreciated and I hope she felt it! 

Me and my mommy. circa 1982

My mothers day was great, I got to sleep in, had a lovely breakfast, and some sweet chocolate covered strawberries. The Squid was feeling pretty crappy around the middle of the day, so he says he has some things for me that will have to wait until later this week. Oh well, I'm not going to complain about dragging out Mother's Day! 

Friday was Military Spouse Appreciation Day, which is great! I love that thoughts, issues and praises of the "independent dependents" of our military are coming out into the open. I know that there is still a ways to go, but I also know it has gotten significantly better just since my moms days as a military spouse. Wife of a Sailor has a fantastic sort of Ode to the MilSpouse. It's funny and so true!

Meanwhile, I have been scouring the internet looking for useful things to make with pallets. 

I know, this is not a new concept. 

That being said, I still love, LOVE, the idea of making stuff with them. They are FREE! Our commissary just had a huge case lot sale and their dumpsters are OVERFLOWING with pallets. I helped myself, and hope to have some really neat stuff to show off to you very soon. In the meantime, scour this lovely site. It has inspired me, I know it will inspire you! Happy Monday....bleh.