old man

Last week, Patrick turned 30.  Since we are so far away from home, I did my best to bring home to him.  With the help of a LOT of people, I managed to pull off an American themed surprise party (completed with a burger press shaped like the states that branded each burger with USA).  I started planning back in January, fully expecting the surprise to get ruined somewhere along the way, but it didn't!  And when it came time for the gifts, there was yet another surprise… I had planned a trip to Sydney for us, complete with tickets to an LA Dodgers game.  Yeah, I'm pretty awesome at throwing parties.  Just kidding!  But I did impress myself with this one… there was a lot of crafting involved, and pretty much all the ideas came from Pinterest.  But that's to be expected.

I pledge allegiance...

 This might look like an insincere banner… but it's from an episode of The Office, where Dwight and Jim plan a party, and Dwight makes a banner that says this.  Patrick thought it was hysterical.

Both banners home made with love.  Gunnar even helped, he picked out the letters!

 home made banner turned table runner...

Patrick has been wanting a corn hole set for FOREVER.  I had already decided I would surprise him and make some for his party, then he decided he needed to go to the store immediately to buy materials to make them himself.  I threw a fit and picked a fight about not wanting to go to the home improvement store so he wouldn't ruin the surprise I was already planning.  It worked.  And here they are in all their glory.  Baseball themed, what else?

Surprise!

I had several hundred USA temporary tattoos so everyone got at least one.  The kids loved them.  So did the adults. 

Opening his ticket to Sydney

Sparkler candles!

Happy birthday, hubby!  Hope you enjoyed it!

giving thanks 2013

Only a few months late, but for Thanksgiving, I had the most to be thankful for… a trip home!  I brought Gunnar back to the states for 2 weeks (it ended up being almost a month, but we'll get to that).  We enjoyed our time with family, and my little boy loved running around on the farm with his pups again.

Sisters.

 SciWorks with Mimi and Bepa

 Puppy love.

I knew 2 weeks wouldn't be long enough of a visit, and as it turns out, Delta had the same thing in mind.  To make a VERY long story short… After a series of delays over 2 days of trying to get on a plane back to Australia, I threw in the towel and got rebooked on a flight leaving 11 days after, and 2 states north of when and where I was originally supposed to fly from.  This was because Patrick and I were virtually flip-flopping.  I was scheduled to arrive down under the day before he was to fly to Maryland.  I opted to fly back with him.  I think it saved everyone a whole lot of stress.  Unfortunately for Gunnar and I, our bags didn't get the memo about the delays and ended up in Sydney without us.  After a week, and a few shopping sprees on Delta's tab, we got them back, relatively unscathed.  

We were sad to leave, and are counting the days until we get to go back!  We love everyone back in the US, especially you guys, Jack and Win!

home is where the heart is

Independence Day, The Fourth of July, America's Birthday... no matter what you call it, it all means the same.  Freedom.  And, of course, my favorite holiday.

In this day and age, I don't think there are many people out there who forget why we celebrate today.  But, it's still a pretty big deal.  And there are amazing men and women fighting every day so we can keep celebrating it.  My husband is one of them.

I find it ironic that because he fights for America and her freedom, we aren't in America today to party with her.  His duty has carried us overseas, and we had to celebrate the FOJ all by ourselves.  In true American style, we dined at McDonald's (or Macca's as the natives here would say).

No matter where we are, or who we're with, or what we're doing, this day will always be my favorite day of the year, and we will always have America in our hearts.

And, now I'll close with one of my favorite patriotic quotes, it's an oldie, but a goodie:

"From Berlin, Rome, and Tokyo we have been described as a Nation of weaklings - playboys - who would hire British soldiers, or Russian soldiers, or Chinese soldiers to do our fighting for us.

Let them repeat that now!

Let them tell that to General MacArthur and his men.

Let them tell that to the sailors who today are hitting hard in the far waters of the Pacific.

Let them tell that to the boys in the Flying Fortresses.

LET THEM TELL THAT TO THE MARINES!"

- Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1942

Afghanistan, 2011

not a TOTAL waste of time

So if you haven't heard of pinterest yet, get out from under your rock.  Just kidding.  But seriously it's one of the most addicting things on the internet.  It's an online pinboard; basically a place to give you a billion ideas for the zero time most of us have.  And we have even less time because so much is spent pinning away...

However, I have found a little time to do some projects I have 'pinned'.  You saw this one, but I stepped my game up for this more recent one...

With our ever-mobile baby boy we I have been baby proofing.  One of the worst spots was our fireplace.

Cute upon first glance, right?   Well look closer... biggest problem: no hearth.  AKA straight-on, baby-level entrance to the death trap.  It also features lots of filth and big metal posts capable of pucturing sweet baby skin and organs.

At a loss for how to block it off (glass doors to put in front are still dangerous and expensive) I took to pinterest and found this from apartmenttherapy.com:

So I came up with a plan to recreate it, ran it by Pat, and he shot it down.  He said no way it would work.  I was still convinced I could do it so off to Lowes I went.  My basic idea was to have a board of plywood cut to the size of the fireplace opening, glue some industrial strength magnets on the back (to stick to the metal surrounding the fireplace), paint it with magnetic paint (a chalkboard will be pretty messy indoors) and VOILA! death trap turned kid friendly.

Well I found the thinnest, lightest board I could and had it cut to the size I needed.  Found all the other supplies I needed and off I went.  At home I quickly discovered the saw at Lowes wasn't cutting exactly straight because one side measured correctly but the other side was about a quarter inch wider.  So I had to use a hand saw to to cut a tiny sliver off one side of the board.  It worked well enough, and then I sanded down the other areas that were just a little too wide.

After that was done I glued the magnets to the back to hold the board up.  Big mistake, you'll see why... Then I wanted to paint the board black as a background before the magnetic paint went on.  I figured I would use the spray paint left over from this project.  It was a pain in the butt, and all I'll say is that I would end up with nerve damage from pushing down on the sprayer too hard.  How do I know it's nerve damage you ask?  Well, remember this story?  I still don't have feeling in my left thumb, and now my right pointer is in the same boat.  I digress...

It was all for nothing because I ran out of spray paint before I could get the board coated evenly, so I sanded it down and decided I would make it a magnetic chalkboard, thinking the chalkboard paint would cover any icky areas.  I had to start with magnet paint, since it's a primer.  If you think you want to try a project with magnet paint, rethink it.  Here are my tips if you decide to go through with it:

-Have them shake the paint at the store, otherwise you will spend over an hour stirring it.  All of the magnetic particles glob together and make it ridiculously thick.
-Buy cheap foam brushes for each coat of the paint (you will need at least 3).  I got a bag of 10 for $1.50 (of course that was after I had to throw out our $7 brush)
-Don't try to clean the brushes, just throw them away!  You need paint thinner to clean them properly, and if you think you can just do it your own way you will end up throwing out your adorable watering can that you used to soak the brushes.

So four coats of magnet paint later, I was so over it.  Especially since it clumped where there were magnets glued to the other side of the board.  Ugh.  I didn't even care how magnetic or not the board was... I was done with it.  So I threw on 2 coats of chalkboard paint over top and thought I was done.  Wrong!  I had to take a razor to the edges since the paint dripping over the sides made the board too thick to fit in the opening. 

Once that was done, we had a perfect fit!  I threw some magnets on it, and let the boy have at it.  He liked chewing on them best.  Probably because when he touched the board they all fell down.  That's what I get for buying cheap/weak magnets.  But Guns still had fun so overall it was a success!

Then, I didn't make these, but pinterest did lead me to where I could buy them.  From theyoungbones.com:

Here is my very own pair, love love love:

coming home

Finally!  Patrick is home!  And I am posting it!  It was a great day, filled with lots of ups and downs...  Most people probably don't realize this about the military, but we really have no idea when they are coming home.  When he left, I had no clue when I'd see him again.  Your best guess was as good as mine. 

Eventually you will receive a flight window, which will give you something to countdown to.  A few days before arrival you will get word of the actually day and an estimate on the time.  Now, anything minor can change that in a major way.  When Patrick was coming home from Iraq he was delayed a full 24 hours.  

This time it was a total rollercoaster.  Instead of one big delay it was up, down, and all over the place.  He was supposed to be back around 6 pm.  About a day before they pushed it back to 8 pm.  Then the day of we got word it was back up to 6!  Not even 5 minutes after reading that message from the battalion commander I got a phone call from Pat saying that they hit major delays and the phone went dead.  Awesome.

We came to find out that they hit bad weather somewhere along their route (who knows where they really go).  Snow and fog I think?  Anyways... 7 hour delay meant a late night arrival, sometime around 1 am.  That's what we all prepared for and I didn't even go out and get my nails done until around 6 pm (his original arrival time).  While I was there I heard that they were running early and it was looking like 11 pm!  And the time just kept moving up from there.  So I rushed home and started to get ready, and off we went!  I even managed to remember everything I needed.

By the time we got to base, got visitor passes for family, we arrived at the battalion just about the same time the guys were getting to base!  They had to go to the armory and turn in their weapons (which they did in record time... 200 guys in about 20 minutes) and then they were finally in our arms!  All in all we only waited about an hour outside for the marines to arrive.  Most of which Gunnar slept in my arms for.  Then with all the cheering from the loved ones also there to greet their heroes, he awoke with a start and was screaming his head off...  But when things calmed down, so did he, and he loved loving on his Dad for the very first time.  

We couldn't be more happy to have our hero home.  We are thoroughly enjoying settling into our life as a family of three (or five if you count the dogs, like I do).  And we are looking forward to a good, long time of having Patrick home with us.  Enjoy the pictures that my sister Kelly took (can't thank you enough, Kel!)