I'm dreaming...of a DIY Christmas

I am that person. You know, the person who start Christmas Shopping in July and is finished by the first week of December. It gives me legitimate anxiety if I don't have my shopping done early. Plus,  I hate dealing with crowds, especially crazy Christmas shopping crowds. This year was a struggle because Matthew wasn't working from April until September so I couldn't do my normal shopping schedule. Since funds were tight, it was a good year to do a lot of DIY Christmas presents.  I tried to find some great DIY projects, since I wanted to give gifts that were better than something I would have bought at a store. I only made a handful of DIY gifts because they are truly time consuming, but I'm so happy with the turn out of it all. So here they are...

-My step father-in-law has an amazing hunting camp. Hunting camps are extremely popular throughout the south, so I'll give a detailed post of how hunting camps work in the next few weeks. But, back to the gift. This past summer, he finished the inside walls and ceilings of the camp. So I thought the perfect gift for him would be a huge pallet sign to put on his newly finished walls. At the time, it was easier said than done. I received some free pallets from my awesome neighbor down the road from us, so the only cost for this project was for the brackets used to put the pallets together. It took me forever to take the pallets apart. It finally got to the point where I just borrowed a saw from my step father-in-law and cut the pallets apart with the help of one of my good friends.

It took a good few hours to get the pallets apart but the end result was more than worth it. After the pallets were removed, I sanded them and wiped them down with a cloth before staining. I chose a golden pecan stain, and thought it turned out great.

I put the brackets on the backs attaching the pieces, I didn't get a picture this time around but I will be sure to take a picture for the next sign I make. And by I put the brackets on, I mean that I gave up and Matthew did this part! I turned my sunroom floor into a "staining" area because a) the floors are already a golden pecan so spills aren't a problem and b) it was too dang cold to work outside by the time I got around to staining. I did a good few layers of staining and let it completely dry before coming cutting some freezer paper stencils with my silhouette cameo machine. I  used a spray adhesive to attach the stencil and used plain white paint for the words and images I wanted to put on the on the sign. Here is the finished project! I'm going to put up an additional picture when it's put on the walls the camp.

-My mother-in-law is up next because, again, I made something for her to enjoy as decoration at the camp. The one room that is practically finished as far as floors walls and furniture goes, is the master bedroom. So, I wanted to give her something to start making their bedroom at the camp a little more "homey". I found some inspiration on pinterest from here and here and ran with it. I used some burlap fabric, my printer, some old ribbon and some affordable picture frames! This was the end result.

- For our grandmother, great aunt and uncle we decided to make some stepping stones since they have gardens. And by we, I mean I decided to make them and so this project was 100% me! I used the method of making the stepping stones from this amazing website. This was one of those projects that I thought were going to be really time consuming but ended up being finished pretty quickly and was SO easy. The best part? Again, it was a $5 project! This was the finished result

-Levi, the little boy who I was a nanny for, also needed a little something from Mrs. Karen too. I tried my hand at dying plain white onesies, and it didn't turn out 100% how I wanted it to, but it did take on a cool design. Then I picked some fun designs, since his daddy is a hunter, and used the freezer paper stencil method I normally use with my silhouette cameo machine. He looks completely adorable in them!

-This project wasn't a "christmas" project, as much as it was a cool thing I wanted to do for my trip to Disney. I made some shirts for my nephews to wear in the park, as well as some shirts for me and my sister. Again, I used the freezer paper stencil method and they turned out to be fabulous! Not to mention, Mulan said that she love our shirts! I was practically swooning.

 

 

-Decorations are also things that are so easy to DIY! We didn't have the time, or energy, to decorate the house as much as we wanted to this year. But I wanted to share a few of my projects that I came up with.

 This one was so easy, I couldn't believe it. I just printed the image out on pretty scrapbook paper and BAM, instant Christmas decoration!

Okay, so my tree isn't DIY but I thought it was pretty and wanted to share a quick picture!

I don't have a fire place that I can hang my stockings over, and I wanted to make some sort of sign so this is what I came up with. I may try to make another one next year and just make it a little bigger. Overall, I'm happy with it though!


And that's that. I have onnnne more DIY Christmas present but it's doing to have a post all of it's own. I hope I didn't bore you all to death and maybe even inspired some of you to go the DIY route next year. It's a challenge in the best way possible. Until next time..

A Year In Reivew

2013 what such a crazy year for us. So, I thought that with the new year getting started that I would share the top moments that we experienced in 2013!

• We experienced our 2nd wedding anniversary. 
• Matthew was honorably discharged after almost 5 years of service and we relocated to his home state of Louisiana.
• I turned the big 2-1! 
• We've got to take a few trips to Houston to visit are great friends! So thankful they are only a few hours away!
• My family surprised me with a visit when I was extremely homesick!
• Baby Owen was born! I absolutely love being an Aunt to another nephew.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• 2nd Family visit and we got to meet baby Owen!
  
• Matthew went to the police academy!
• Matthew turned 25!
• Matthew graduated the police academy 
  
  
  
  
• Matthew is officially a sheriff's deputy!
  
  
  
  
• I went to Disney World with my sister and her family!
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
   As you can see, it's been one awesome year. It's had it's trials but not without it's rewards! We are looking forward to 2014 and all it decides to bring us!

New Year, New Direction.

Well, since it's officially a new year... I thought I would grace the blogging world with my presence. I know, it's been a while. I'm a terrible blogger. But, I'd just like to say that my hiatus hasn't been by choice, it was more of a need. A lot has happened since we've moved to Louisiana. I decided that until we "settle" that I would hold off on blogging. Honestly? It's because probably 80% of my posts would have been emotional nagging posts, and no one likes a nagging blogger. So here's what everyone has missed in the last few months.

Employment: When we decided to apply for an early EAS date from the Marine Corps, we had a plan. What's that old saying? If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans? I would have to say that we probably provided a lot of laughs for the big man. If anyone has me on Facebook, you'll already know that our original employment plans fell through. We had saved plenty, or so we thought,and hoped to be receiving regular paychecks by early July at the latest. A set in stone job, fell though. Plan B, fell through. This is why we found ourselves in August without Matthew being employed. I was fortunate to have a nanny job lined up to help a little, but it's not a lot. After applying to every police station/sheriffs departments within a hours drive from our house, he finally got a call in the middle of August from the local sheriffs department that he applied to a few months ago. He needed to get POST certified, meaning he needed to go to the police academy. We are blessed enough that the department sent him to the academy at the beginning of September and he became an "official" graduate of the academy in December. He's officially a sheriffs deputy for our local parish.  If you haven't figured it out, it was almost 5 months without a steady income. We're blessed beyond measure that Matthew's family was able to help us in anyway that they could. But it was still a stressful time, which is the main reason for the lack of blogging. My anxiety was through the roof, but things are finally looking up.

Living Arrangements: Again, we are so blessed in this department. Matthew's family owns a house that has been in his family for generations. And when I say that, I mean literally since it was built in the late 1890's. It's a beautiful 4 bedroom former plantation house that has been vacant since my mother-in-law moved out when she was remarried nearly two years ago. There are a million DIY projects I have planned, and will be showing progress as they happen. I'll post some "official tour" photos soon, along with some before and afters!

Change it "Title": The saying goes "once a marine, always a marine". But I don't feel like it's always the same for marine wives. I will always be thankful for my time as a marine wife, and will always support my friends and family who still are marine wives but I don't "feel" like a marine wife anymore. So, that being said, I am officially changing my title from "marine wife" to "police officer's wife". Some things are what I'm used to, such as crazy work schedules but other things are different. Before, I only had to "worry" about Matthew for the 9 months that he was deployed. Now, I have to worry every time he leave our home for his shift. So, please, say an extra prayer for Matthew's safety and extra prayer for my anxiety! It's going to be an adjustment but an adventure all in the same.

So, rather than the adventures of being a marine wive, my blog will now be about my time as a police officer's wife in Louisiana. I'm looking forward to sharing my experiences with everyone, and the recipes/DIY projects I've been working on. So, I welcome you to join me on my new adventure. It's going to be a crazy, wonderful and beautiful ride.

Keeping with tradition..

This post is waaaaay late, but in true Karen fashion, I figured a month late isn’t too bad. On May 6^th, I hit a huge milestone in my life. I finally turned 21! I mean being able to order Woodchuck on draft at Buffalo Wild Wings now is nice, but that’s not the reason I’m excited. It seems that when I say I’m married at 21, I don’t get nearly as many weird looks as I did when I said I was married when I was 18. You’d think I’d be used to it, but I’m not. First question is something along the lines of, how old is your baby. Apparently the only explanation of being married young is because of an unplanned pregnancy. Sorry to let everyone down, we just got married for that whole love thing. So I’m so happy to say that I’m married, and when they ask my age I can proudly say 21!

My day was great in that it was my first birthday evvvvver with Matthew home. It only took 3 years of him either working or being deployed or out of state for him to be home on my birthday! It was also my first birthday in Louisiana! Here is a little Karen fun fact for you guys. Age 18: Lived in Indiana. Age 19: Lived in Georgia. Age 20: Lived in North Carolina. Age 21: Lived in Lousiaian. Yep, how about that for well traveled. It’s nice to know that I’ll live in Louisiana for a while, so this year was the first of many birthdays here.

We live very close to a large casino, literally 1.2 miles. My parent and grandma sent me some cash to have a drink and gamble a little for my birthday. Another Karen fun fact, my maiden name is…. Gamble. I thought the odds were in my favor for that one, they were not…. not even a little bit. So sorry mom, dad and grandma, I lost all of your money.

Matthew took me to my favorite place, Buffalo Wild Wings. I don’t like beer or whiskey. But I do love Woodchuck and Bdubs happens to have it on draft. I was beyond excited. I finally got to taste of Woodchuck on draft, which I have to say, it tastes so much better than out of a bottle. I also took the opportunity to have a black cherry mojitos. It was all right, but I will be sticking to woodchuck.

Now, onto presents! Since I was 16, I’ve rocked out a 4gig IPod Nano literally since I was 15. I never delete music from my iTunes, but as you can imagine I’ve added a lot of music in the last few years. It got the point where I could literally only keep 1/8 of my library on my IPod. Talk about frustrating. Luckily, my amazing husband picked up on my frustrations so that was my birthday gift this year, a lovely 160 gig IPod. I have so much space that I don’t even know what to do with it all now.

As I mentioned before, my parents and grandparents gave me some cash for the casino as my gift. But my in laws got me something I desperately wanted and felt like I needed, a hair appointment.  It’s perfect for summer and I’m excited to see how fast my hair grows now that I have my dead ends cut off.

 Well, there you have it guys, my birthday even though it’s over a month late! Keep a look out for my posts about my parents other gift to me and also my Memorial Day weekend! Until next time!

-K

Finally, an update! Moving Part 3

(Disclaimer, this will be a ridiculously long post. So, I apologize in advance!)
Things these last few weeks have been crazy to say the least. We've moved from North Carolina to Louisiana, stopped in South Carolina on the way, moved into a house that is easily double the size of our old house if not triple, I turned 21 finally, I endured finals week and am still unpacking in the new house to make it feel like home!....like I said, crazy. It's been a crazy ride, but getting somewhere is half the fun! I'm going to give y'all (notice I've picked up a phrase to blend in with my new town) a timeline full of fun stories and explanations.
I believe the last update on the move I gave you was the day before the movers came to pack up the house. Luckily, I had my last day of work so my wonderful husband dealt with having strange people in the house. He just has that ability of making someone listen to what he says, and I do not. So I am so glad he was able to handle it. We had a few minor issues but, from what I understand, it was a pretty smooth move. It was a shock coming home to all of my belongings in boxes even though I was expecting it.

Literally, my entire kitchen in only a few boxes!

We accidentally put the wrong moving day, so our pack up date ended up being on a Friday which means we got to spend the entire weekend with our house full of boxes. But we have an amazing set of "adoptive" parents and a good friend that recently moved away that we decided to go visit for the weekend since it was our last weekend in North Carolina.

 

 

 When we got home that Sunday from our visit in four oaks, we had to still live surrounded by boxes for another day. But we had a little camp out which was nice. 

 

Luckily, the movers came the next day around 2 in the afternoon. The nice thing to do, especially since the military paid for the move, is buy lunch for the movers or just provide snacks and beverages. Let me tell you, I got the funniest looks ordering 13 cheeseburgers and 3 large fries from McDonalds. It was pretty hysterical. But, watching them take away our things was very bitter sweet. It took them only 3 hours to take away what took me months to make a home. I lived in the Carolina house almost a year longer than Matthew between the work ups and the deployment. So, it honestly felt a little more like my home than "our home". It really hit me when they moved everything out and the house was completely empty.

I literally teared up watching this part.

 The next day, Tuesday, was a much needed rest/homework/get everything else we need to get done day since the cleaning company and the carpet cleaners were coming Wednesday. Not only did the cleaning company leave the house spotless, but the woman in charge gave me tips on cleaning my own house. The hardest part of that day was waiting for them to get done!

                                           
That night, we spent our last night in town with a good friend who was generous enough to offer her couch to us. We had our walk through first thing Thursday morning, which we passed and was able to get most of our deposit back! Then we hit the road....

We were very fortunate to be able to stop by Parris Island, South Carolina for a few days to see my sister, brother-in-law and nephew at their new duty station! They moved back in March so it was a real treat to see them again. I can't believe how big Parker has gotten, plus it's always nice to have girl time with my sister and for Matthew to have someone to talk golf with.

Another great thing about our visit is the fact that Matthew actually went to boot camp at Parris Island. It was just fun to look at it as the first stop in his military career and then, five years later, it was the last stop on the way home.

I don't know if anyone is familiar with a TMO move, but we were in Louisiana a good few days before our things arrived. It was nice though because I got to give the house a good cleaning before I had to unpack. It hadn't been lived in for two years, so it took some elbow grease but we got there! We arrived Saturday, April 28th, and our things arrived May 2nd. We got the house livable by that Monday.

Anything that wasn't "needed" was still in boxes until this past week, because on top of moving....i had finals week. Yep, I still had school going on this entire time. Luckily, I ended up with an A in one course but the other course is still pending. Keep your fingers crossed!

I'm still unpacking and getting organized so I promise to post photos soon. Plus, I still have to tell the history of the house! Until then, here is some to keep you interested!

Our Home! It just needs a little love.

The porch swing my in-laws got us as a welcome home gift! 

Step into my office....

 So, today I wanted to share a little bit more of my story when it comes to anxiety ad help to try to remove the stigma that going to therapy has. Not only am I’m going to share more of my story but I’m going to share some of the tips and tricks my therapist gave to me. You can send a thank you letter to Tricare, since this info comes at the low price one hundred dollars an hour! Now, let’s begin.

A while back I shared my story of having GAD (generalized anxiety disorder). You can read all about that here. I have officially been in therapy for over a year, and let me tell you it has been the best decision for me. Therapy isn’t for everyone, but it worked wonders for my anxiety. At some points in my life, I honestly thought I was crazy. Even with medication I felt self-conscious because I thought that medicine made me seem weak. I mean, if I can’t even figure out how to get out of bed in the morning, how will I be able to make anything out of my life. It wasn’t until I went to my first visit with a psychologist that I thought any different.

I’m not sure if anyone out there is familiar with therapy but before you even get assigned a therapist, in most cases, you get sent to your friendly neighborhood psychologist! In my case, I went to see the amazing Dr. E.  We did the typical “why are we here” type chat but my favorite part of the session was when we were walking out of his office. He gave me a hug and told me not to worry and that I wasn’t crazy. It was seriously the greatest thing I’ve heard in my life.  After a series of tests, he set me up with my AMAZING therapist and a psychiatrist to figure out some sort of medication until I could get on my feet.

For over a year I was on a few different types of anti-depressant and anti-anxiety medication. This time frame was from February 2011 in Georgia to August of 2012 in North Carolina. I’m a firm believer that there is NO shame with needing help via medication, but in my case I decided to use it only as a tool and not a crutch. My medication along with therapy really helped me get to a “happy place”. Through therapy I was given tools that really made me need less and less of my medication. I am SO proud to say that as of August 2012, I haven’t been on any sort of medication. It was a personal goal for me to get off of my medication while Matthew was on deployment and really work through my issues.

I found some great visuals that I’m going to share with you guys that are very close to what I learn in therapy week after week. So here we go:

                                                         http://www.innerflowcounselling.com/

I was actually introduced to this as “Square Breathing”. I would complete the steps four times and by my last round I would be completely calm. When I get really overwhelmed or in the middle of a panic attack I would seriously just lay in the middle of the floor and do my breathing. I was once doing my “Kim Kardashian Cry” for a solid ten minutes because I just couldn’t stop. I sat on the floor, starting my breathing and by the time I got to my last round I had completely stopped crying. Not to mention, this technique is just super relaxing.

                              http://www.healthyplace.com/anxiety-panic/articles/coping-statements-for-anxiety/

A BIG issue for me was worrying. I’d have very irrational thoughts  and “what ifs” that stem from my worrying about simple things. An example, I narrowly missed face planting down the stairs. In reality, I only fell down a single step but it doesn’t just end there for me. For me, that one event made me have twenty minutes of irrational thoughts. This is the best recreation of what went on in my head….what if I fell all the way down the stairs…I could’ve broken my leg….we’re moving soon! I can’t have a broken leg…I’m losing my insurance when we move…we’d have to pay so much money…. my leg wouldn’t just be a broken leg…. it’d have to be surgical because that’s just my leg. This would seriously go on until I either have chest pains or end up in tears. It’s awful. This picture is very similar to what I talk about in therapy. I try to address the irrational thoughts head on. First I know that the situation is highly unlikely, and second it was only one step and I’m fine. I try not to “push” the thought aside because they tend to come back worse than ever before, so I talk myself through it. It’s a little silly because if I’m alone I literally have to give myself a little pep talk and point out that it’s an irrational thought. It goes something like “Okay Karen, that is irrational....it is just a negative thought and in a few minutes it’ll be completely gone”. Then I try to do something like read a chapter or two of a book, text a friend, or just something to move on from the thought.

Once I’m more confident that other tips I have work, I’ll be posting them as well. But, for right now those are my anxiety tips for the week. One thing I’ve learned is that having anxiety isn’t the issue most people face, including myself. It is how to DEAL with the anxiety that determines your fate. It’s a scary thing, not to give into my urges or challenging my anxiety.  But, I choose to fight it and face it head on. I hope you all will too.