To Blog or Not To Blog

Ever since I created this new blog space, I have gone back and forth between whether or not I really want to get into blogging again.  When doing it previously, I did really enjoy it and found that it was a good outlet for me to talk about what I was feeling.  Definitely therapeutic for me.  Then I got pregnant, we moved to Texas, and I began a new job shortly after.  Exhaustion trumped blogging, so I sort of just let my old blog fall to the wayside.

Last year, I began to get the itch and desire to start blogging, so I created this new place for a fresh start.  A way to re-brand myself, if you will.  Sometimes I really want to get back into it, but then at other times I'm either too exhausted (such as when I am single-parenting when my husband is sent off for training, TDY, or deployed) or I feel guilty, as though I should be spending my free-time focusing on something else around the house.

Over the last several weeks (okay, maybe more like last couple months), a growing desire has been brewing inside of me to take more time for myself and try to begin doing things just for me.

One of them is a desire to get back into a good workout routine, especially to take spin classes again.  It's been a good 3-4 years since I sat on a spin bike, and I would love to begin taking classes. While I enjoy doing things with my husband, working out directly alongside him actually stresses me out a little.  Last week, I arranged for my husband to pick up Abby from daycare for me so I could go to the gym after work.  As it was my first trip to the gym in about two years, and only my second in the past three years, I didn't want to push myself too much.  My workout consisted of hopping on an elliptical for 2.44 miles.  It wasn't the grandest workout, but it worked for me.

Another item I have wanted to do for me for a while now is to go back to school and work on getting a masters degree.  I took the steps this past spring and applied, and tomorrow I will officially begin work towards an MBA.

While I have to learn how to balance getting back into a workout routine with starting graduate school, not to mention my full time job, there is one more item I would like to add to the list.  And that is to actually make a conscious effort to blog.  Even if I can simply start off by getting back to just publishing one post a week, it'll be a good start.

Happy New Year!

Goodbye 2014 and hello 2015!

The New Year always brings with it an opportunity for reflection as well as a time to look ahead towards the future.

While 2014 did have some lower points, such as my husband being away from home for over 1/3 of the year due to TYD's and his current deployment, overall it has been a pretty good year.

• Early in the year, I said goodbye to my twenties as I turned 30 years old less than two weeks into 2014.  And it didn't bother me one bit!
• Our daughter quickly mastered crawling and moved on to cruising, took her first solo steps at 9 months old before she began full-blown walking on her own at 10 months old, and turned one year old this summer.  She is now running all over the place and climbing onto everything.  She is also learning new words day after day and trying to her best to begin speaking in sentences.
• My husband and I hit new milestones in our relationship and saw our 3rd wedding anniversary in April, celebrated 7 years as a couple in October, and most notably passed the 10 year mark of when we first met and became friends in August.
• I received a promotion at my job in July (my second there in less than two years) and finally feel like I'm beginning to forge an actual career for myself.
• My husband and I became more involved in our church and began volunteering, putting some of our talents to use to assist the church.  We started to develop relationships with many of the people on staff there and feel more at home.

For 2015, I definitely have some goals set, not only for myself but for my family as well.

• When my husband returns home, I would like for the two of us to spend more time together and work on bettering our relationship.  I do not believe our relationship is bad by any means, but we have definitely shifted the focus from the two of us and moved our priorities to our daughter and our careers.  We do plan to take a vacation together, just the two of us, in order to have some alone adult time and get that honeymoon we never took.  But more than that, we need to actually schedule date nights at least once a month, bringing in a babysitter for our daughter in order to have that time together.  Since Abby was born summer 2013, my husband and I have only been out on about 4 dates without her.
• I would like to lose the final 10 pounds of baby weight I have been hanging onto for the last year and a half.  I have managed to knock off about 4 of those pounds in the last month or so after some dietary adjustments.  While I would certainly like to lose closer to 20 pounds in total, just getting back down to my pre-baby weight would be wonderful!  Before getting pregnant, I was beginning to feel a lot more comfortable with my body thanks to the 5 workouts a week I was putting in while my husband was deployed in 2012.  The biggest thing for me is getting back into a consistent workout routine, which is hard to do when (temporarily) solo parenting a toddler and working a job that typically requires 45-50 hours a week.  As I found the last time I was working out consistently, as long as I keep at it, the pounds will come off slowly & steadily, which is the best way to maintain the loss.
• Work on becoming more focused on the task at hand in an effort to not become quite so overwhelmed with everything on my to-do list, especially when it comes to work and my ever increasing list of responsibilities as I grow in my position.
• Apply to graduate school in order to begin working on getting an MBA.

While I'm not fond of the fact that one of the items on my list for the year includes losing weight (so stereotypical of New Year's resolutions), it really is part of a total picture to become a healthier and happier version of myself.  I spend so much time focused on others that I forget about myself until I hit a breaking point.  That needs to change.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays

The day after Christmas is as good of a day as any to pick this blog back up, right?  While I did have a pretty good Christmas Day, it certainly wasn't the happiest of days.  Remember that post I shared about six months ago mentioning a possibility of my husband deploying?  He wasn't selected for that mission (which is good, as the hypothetical four-month time frame which was being tossed around turned into one year).  But he was picked up for another one which saw him leave ahead of the holidays for six months.

My daughter and I spent Thanksgiving Day home alone with our pups.  I prepared a scaled-down version of Thanksgiving dinner, complete with usual dishes such as stuffing, green beans, cranberry sauce, and Abby's great grandmother's sweet potato casserole.

Before we found out about the possibility of my husband deploying, we had planned on traveling to see family for Christmas ahead of the holiday, returning on Christmas Eve in order to have Christmas morning in our own home, so that Abby could see what Santa brought her under her own tree after waking up from her own bed.  While I know she's still too young to remember it at 18-months old, I really wanted to begin our own Christmas traditions as a family.

Once the deployment orders were handed down, I immediately thought about just staying home for Christmas, but my husband insisted that I still follow through with the plans we had laid out to visit with his family in Georgia and Tennessee.

While traveling solo with a toddler was no easy feat, I'm very glad that I stuck to our original plans and made the trip to spend time with my in-laws.  She got to see her great grandparents, great aunts, one set of grandparents, and two of her aunts.

This wasn't my daughter's first time traveling on an airplane, however I was much more nervous about this trip than I was her first.  First off, I was traveling alone, unlike last year when my husband was with me to assist.  Secondly, Abby's first time flying was last Christmas when she was 6-months old, so I was able to count on her passing out shortly after receiving a bottle on take-off.  This time around, she's much more active and strong-willed.  I wasn't sure that I'd be able to contain her in my lap, let alone get her to be calm and quiet for the duration of the flights from Texas and back home.  Thankfully, she slept for half of the flight out of town (and was reasonably well-behaved and quiet for the second half), and she slept like a rock for the entire flight back home.

Christmas morning proved to be very exciting, with the slew of presents Abby received from Santa and all of her grandparents, aunts and uncles.  She is one very loved little girl.  I just hope she doesn't get used to getting so many presents each year!

The only presents under (or around) that tree that weren't for Abby were just a few gift card envelopes.

She had such a fun time opening her presents that she wore herself out pretty quickly, and I actually had to coax her to open her final few gifts, as she just wanted to curl up on the floor and rest.

It really was an enjoyable Christmas.  And thankfully my husband was able to call a couple times during the day, so I got to hear his wonderful voice.  I just wish he could have been home to share the day with us.

I hope everyone else is having a great holiday season and has a terrific New Year!

Expecting the Unexpected

Learning to expect the unexpected has been the hardest lesson for me to learn after my husband joined the Army. I'm a bit of a planner and not a huge fan of surprises, but overall I think I have handled all of the twists and turns fairly well.

In the less than three years my husband has been in, I've made it through basic training, AIT, a 5 month deployment to Afghanistan, a PCS, a 1 month TDY while 8 months pregnant, a 2 month TDY with a 2 month old, and another 2 month TDY which my husband just returned from a month ago.  Did I mention I also have a full-time job in accounting to balance this all with as well?

When my husband returned home last month, he mentioned several times that he does not foresee any travel for work on the radar for at least the next year.  The next big training course he could be slated for requires he get a little more experience under his belt and likely wouldn't be suggested until next year.  And the unit was not looking at any deployments given the draw-down in Afghanistan.

He jinxed it.

First, we were informed last week my husband is now going on a two week TDY next month.  Okay, that's not too bad, especially considering he'll be heading to a base that's within driving distance.  So if he's approved to bring a POV, he'll be able to come home over the weekend that falls in the middle of the course.  And if he cannot bring our car, it's just two weeks.  No biggie.

At the end of the week, he learned that they want to send a group of 10-15 soldiers on a deployment later this year.  Rumor has it, it would likely last for about 4 months.  He didn't think he'd be as likely to be selected, but he told me about it so I could be prepared for the possibility.  He then learned yesterday that he has one of the longest dwell times out of the unit, so there is a really good chance he could be chosen.  Given how much he has been away this past year, he has already said that he will definitely not volunteer to deploy.  However, if not enough people volunteer, there's a good chance he will be deploying again.  Oh and that 4 month time-frame?  Apparently just a rumor and no real length of time has been decided.

While I obviously do not want to deal with another deployment this soon, I really hope they will settle the who & the how long rather soon so we can be prepared.

The Big ONE: Banner

Last week, while spending time browsing through Pinterest, I saw a couple cute Happy Birthday banners that I liked. However, with my daughter's birthday now less than three weeks away, I knew I likely wouldn't have time to order one from Etsy and guarantee it would arrive in time unless I paid for a rush delivery. So like I did with Abby's tutu, I decided to make her banner as well!

I gathered ideas from various pins and Etsy listings, making note of various elements I liked from various designs. This past weekend I picked up some sheets of card stock in the party colors (50% off the regular price, too!) and began work on the project.

I purchased several sheets of blue, purple, green, pink, and white card stock. I cut one sheet of each color into 4" squares, and then cut a few sheets of my white paper into 3" squares, on which my letters will then be attached.

While deciding how much of a colored border I wanted, I simply cut some 3" & 3.5" squares of regular printer paper to visualize, before ultimately decided I liked the look of the 3" the best.

Next, I glued my white squares onto my colored ones.

For my letters, I wanted bright, block lettering that would really pop from the background.  I printed out the letters needed to spell out Happy Birthday Abbigail onto some white cardstock and then cut them out to use as a template.  After my letters were cut out, I then traced them onto the bright pink cardstock I purchased and cut out each letter (I'm a bad blogger and did not capture photos of these steps, I apologize).

In order to help make the letters pop and provide dimension to the banner, I used a roll of foam double-sided tape to adhere the letters to the background, just to add a little depth.  The next step for me was to then "hang" the banners and ribbon to the wall.

While I had intended to actually thread the ribbon through the squares, I decided to go for an easier approach and first attached the ribbon to the wall with some mounting putty, following behind with each letter square over the ribbon to give a banner effect, without having to worry about actually attaching my squares to the ribbons.

The Big ONE: Birthday Outfit

When I began reviewing items on Pinterest to start coming up with ideas for Abby's birthday, I quickly decided I wanted her to wear a tutu for the big day. When I saw that many are going on Etsy for $30+, I thought I would look into making my own to help save money.

After a quick Google search, I found this online tutorial on how to quickly make a no-sew tutu. It looked so simple, so I picked up my supplies at Hobby Lobby so I could get to work on it. Hobby Lobby and Michael's both regularly have 40% off coupons available, so it makes these types of craft projects more economical/enjoyable.

The supplies for this project are pretty minimal. You need a crocheted headband, which will serve as the tutu's waistband, rolls of tulle, scissors, and a ruler or tape measure. Other useful items to have to make cutting the tulle easier are a piece of cardboard, cut to either the length you want the tutu, or twice the length, as well as some rubber bands.

While you can simply cut pieces of tulle one at a time, per the video I linked above, there is a much easier and more time-efficient way to do so. That's where the cardboard comes into play.

You'll use the cardboard to wrap your tulle around. I found it easier when getting started if I used one rubber band to help hold my beginning piece in place.

Once you have the edge of your tulle lined up with the edge of your cardboard, you'll continue to wrap the tulle around. You can either do this until you go through the entire roll, or just until you have wrapped around the number of pieces you need for your skirt.

If you cut the cardboard equal to the length you want your tutu to be (as I did here) then every full wrap around (front & back) will equal one strip of tulle. If you cut the cardboard equal to twice the length of your tutu, then every full wrap around will get you two strips of tulle.

Once you're done wrapping your tulle, you will want to place a rubber band or two around the whole thing to help keep the fabric in place when cutting.

Next you'll be cutting. If your cardboard is the length of your tutu, you'll make just one cut, along the edge where you lined up the beginning of the roll. If your cardboard is twice the length of your tutu, you'll make two cuts, one along both edges.

When cutting, be sure not to pull too much with your scissors or to veer towards one side or the other in order to keep your tulle lengths as close to even as possible.

Once you're done, you can remove the rubber bands and you'll be left with a neat stack of tulle.

Complete this process again as many times as needed for each color you're using. I am using four colors for my daughter's tutu, so I completed this four times.

Once you have all of your tulle ready to go, you'll simply follow the directions outlined in the video for tying the strips to your headband.

You'll grab a piece of tulle, gather it and fold it in half, then thread the loop through the back of one of the holes on the headband. You'll then pull the ends through the loop on the front side and pull down to create your knot.

Keep going around until you have made a full circle around the length of the headband, and before you know it your tutu will be complete!

I just did one layer of tulle and used the second row of holes (rather than the very bottom row) on the headband to provide a little more strength. And if you want a fuller skirt, you can circle back around with a second row.

This is such an easy project, I created two of these for my daughter. One will be used in the next week for her smash cake photo shoot, and the other will be worn at her party.

The Big ONE: Planning

Now that we're in April, it has hit me that my daughter's first birthday is rapidly approaching. Yes, it's still a little over two months away, but when all of your family lives out of town and has to make travel arrangements to attend, you have to begin planning a little more in advance.

Invites have been sent out. Materials to make my baby girl's party outfit have been purchased. Party supplies and decor are being finalized and I will begin buying items soon as I find deals and coupons. Cake/cupcake designs and recipes are being put together. And I already have the day before her party off from work so I can spend the day baking and decorating.

I have decided to make the desserts for the party. I love baking, but ever since I first became pregnant, that love and desire has been pushed aside between lack of energy and lack of time to play in the kitchen. I am really looking forward to having fun with it!

My plan is to bake a two-layer 6" round smash cash for Abby, and then cupcakes for the rest of us to indulge in, all decorated similarly to incorporate the theme of the party. I just need to finalize the design of the smash cake (cupcakes are all set) and determine what recipes/flavors I want to use!