I'm going MIA for a little while.

Hi lovelys.

I'm in the home stretch with school and the move. I'm also dealing with some personal stuff on the side. The Husband is fine, we're fine, but I just need to handle some stuff for myself.

Hang in there. I'll be back soon. :) Pin It Now!

I hate waiting for orders

Waiting for The Husband to get orders kind of sucks.

It's like Christmas. Except I don't know when it will be and there is always a chance that I will end up with a huge lump of coal by no fault of my own.

Now that I think about it... It's not like Christmas at all. Pin It Now!

Everyone okay?

Can my North Carolina girls check in? Are you all okay? Did you see any damage?

So far, there are 4 confirmed destroyed on base at Camp Lejeune and many injuries. Rumor has it the main gate is destroyed, but nobody really knows since they closed the road that leads on and off the base. We'll find out soon enough.

The Husband is fine. He only saw the rain and wind thankfully. We're only a few minutes from base, so we lucked out. Pin It Now!

That's about right

Now The Husband is being told graduation is going to be May 13th.

Makes sense.

We'll see. Pin It Now!

Coming Home?

Can we discuss this tomfoolery that is "Coming Home" on Lifetime?

Well, it's my blog, so I do what I want, but I figured I would make you feel included too. Anyway...

Like I'm sure 90% of the military community did, I decided to check out Coming Home when it premiered. I was thinking "Well, this should be interesting, but homecomings are fun and amazing and awesome, so why not?"

I can't even begin to explain the feelings that came when I watched that show.

Well, that's not true. I can. Most of them were irritation and confusion.

The ONLY one that choked me up was the boy who was picking which school he wanted to go to and his dad surprised him for the press conference. And the only reason why I liked that one was because it was the least staged and faked one out of all of them.

I get they're trying to film a show, but homecomings are not staged. They do not happen like that. A television host can't just call up the commander of a ship and say "Hey, can you send home this guy so he can spend 4 hours with his daughter?" and the commander doesn't say "SURE! Let me coordinate ships and planes and spend millions of dollars for this E2 to walk around a bar in his cammies!" (Which by the way, apparently there was a Marine on the show this past Sunday who was wearing his cammies out in town in a bar in Oceanside. Another thing that makes me go "Wha?"... I did not watch, this is all information I've gathered from friends).

There was also one that broke my heart more than it warmed it. That would be the one where the two dads surprised their kids during an assembly in front of the whole school. The school put together a whole assembly, with every kid in the school in attendance, in a military town, where there are guaranteed to be more than just these 3 kids with military parents, so that all 200 of those little kids could see their 3 classmates welcome home their dad. What about all the rest of the kids? All I was thinking was that some of these kids are thinking "Is my dad/mom here too?"

That made me so sad.

This show makes me sad. If I wanted to watch a fictional show based on the military, I would watch Army Wives (which I do). This "reality" show is garbage. And I know most are, but at least they TRY to make it look real.

Alert to the civilian population: Coming Home is FAKE! Homecomings are nothing like that. Pin It Now!

What do you mean early?

Last night, I went out to dinner with my two bffs and we went and hung out at bff #1's apartment for a bit. As I was on my way home, The Husband called.

He went in late that day since he was scheduled for a night flight so he was on his way home too. We talked for a bit and about halfway through, he tells me that I'm not going to get to see him graduate. I'm really confused. Why not? I'm getting there two days before your graduation...

He's not getting dropped or anything. They just decided to push up his graduation. To two weeks from now. 

He's graduating almost a full month early. 

What?

Hi, isn't this the Marine Corps? Since when does ANYTHING happen on schedule, let alone early?

Did I mention The Husband had planned on letting me pin his wings? 

::insert sad face here::

I'm bummed out. Super bummed. I've never seen him graduate from any school or promote. I told him he better be in the states when he picks up Staff or I might flip out. 

There is good news: Because of this, he'll be seeing orders MUCH sooner, so we'll know where we will be much sooner. Let's just hope that it's where we want...

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Crisis Averted

Thanks Congress.

I'll take an apology e-mail. I would like a card, but I know how serious we are about pinching pennies and I would hate for you to waste the money on the stamp.

Good Lord. Pin It Now!

Housing and the shutdown

I saw some searches come through my blog for this and realized I really don't have anything so I'll pass on what I do know about it...

If you are living in base housing and there is a shut down you are safe. They will not evict for the shutdown. What will happen is that when the back pay comes through, you will be responsible for bringing your rent up to date.

I'm trying to find the "official" info about this, but that is what I know. You're not in danger of being kicked out, so try not to fret. Just know that you will have to cut a check for the back paid rent.

EDIT:

I've got some information about Atlantic Housing Communities...

"POSSIBLE GOV'T SHUTDOWN STATEMENT We understand the concern around the possible government shutdown and believe it will be resolved shortly.  Once a formal announcement has been made by Congress we will provide further information on how or if it will affect our housing operations.  In the meantime, please know that we are working closely with our Department of Defense partner on this and rest assured no one will lose their home due to any delay in pay." http://www.atlanticmcc.com/news_archive/view/1740

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Shut down?

Yeah, it looks like those in Washington once again are doing the American public a solid and failing to pass a budget. 


In order to avoid a political debate in the comments section, let's just say I'm disappointed in every.single. political figure in this situation. Every last one of them, regardless of my political beliefs. 


Alright...


Since I know not everyone is prepared in a situation like this, I have some news regarding the Navy-Marine Corps Relief Society...


"If there is a government shutdown, the NMCRS will remain open and operate normal hours. In the event there is an interruption to military pay, the Society will be prepared to assist with rapid, short-term, interest-free loans to avoid privation with essential items such as food, gasoline and other necessities. To obtain assistance, the client need only show a military ID card and sign a repayment document."


If you need money, they will offer INTEREST FREE LOANS. Yes, you need to pay them back (duh), but if you're caught in a sticky situation like thousands will be, do this. It's better than defaulting on your bills and going hungry. YOU or YOUR SPOUSE WILL BE RECEIVING BACK PAY when the budget passes, so you won't be in the hole for any money. It'll be even at the end. Interest free is great, so take advantage of it if you need it.

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Homecoming banners 101

Alright. So, I fancy myself quite the homecoming banner maker. I love making them and I love making them well.

I've been asked several times how I do it, so I figure I could go ahead and just share my secrets.

There's really not much to it. And it's really not much of a secret since I've seen other banners that can easily hang next to mine with pride, but for those of you looking for some guidance... I'm here!

The first things I make sure I have are a full sized flat sheet, metal grommets, and acrylic paint. A full flat sheet is the perfect size for fences and I usually get a black one because the colors stand out better than on a white one.

The grommets can be purchased at JoAnn's or Michaels and probably at any crafting store. They look like this...

Source

If it's your first time buying the grommets, you'll need the tool that seals them. I have this one.

Source

The plier is supposed to cut a little hole in the fabric as well, but I find that snipping a tiny hole with scissors is MUCH easier. 

Next, make sure you have your paint. Acrylic works the best as it shows up brighter and better than anything else and won't run in the rain. You can even wash it when it comes down. When you live somewhere as dusty as 29, this is important. There are also a multitude of colors available. As you can see, I've acquired quite the collection. 

Now that you have all your supplies, it's time to get cracking on the banner.

Since I use black sheets, I always lay down a layer of white paint first. I've done 4 banners (I usually do two per homecoming so he has a better shot of seeing at least one of them as they drive on base. Plus they're fun... I doubt I'll do two the next time, however). Three out of the four were free-hand and I draw my letters with a white sewing pencil before I commit with the paint. The fourth one, I printed the letters off on cardstock and made stencils. I'll go over that later... Back to the white paint...

After I do my entire banner in just white paint, I go over it very carefully with the color paint. Luckily, if you're kind of sloppy (like I am when I get tired), the color paint won't really show too well anywhere that there isn't a white primer down. It just kind of seeps into the fabric which is another reason I like the black sheet, it gives you a little wiggle room. 

Now on to the stencils. Since I decided to do a second banner (I was originally going to only do one for his second deployment, but I found a much better "saying" and decided to go for it) so close to his actual homecoming, I needed a way to make it quick. I was in school full time during that time as well, so I really didn't have a lot of time to sit and do it by hand. The Husband bought me an awesome printer for Christmas a few years ago and I decided to take advantage of it. 

I printed up the letters I needed in the fonts I wanted and made stencils. This is a lot easier than it sounds. All you need to do is enlarge the font size enough to fit the page (On a full sheet, that's the perfect letter size) and change the font to "outline". When you print it out, you cut out the inside of the letters. That's the most time consuming part, but if you re-use certain letters, you actually cut a lot of time. 

After that is finished, you line up your letters and go at them with the white paint. Treat your stencils well because you'll want to keep them for the color paint.

On the above banner, I decided that I wanted to use glitter. It was cute, but oh my word... I'm still finding glitter, so be aware of that. 

Once my banners are dry (which doesn't take long at all with the acrylic paint. Maybe about 10-20 minutes), I'll cut little slits throughout the banner. You can't see them when it's hanging, but 29 Palms can get really windy, and those little cuts help keep the banner from becoming a kite. That is totally optional though, and probably not even necessary unless you are stationed somewhere with daily sandstorms. 

After that, I fold them up and wait for banner hanging day! A group of the wives usually goes together so we can help one another and take pictures. 

Here's a couple of the finished ones...

I used stencils for this one.

I did this one free hand. 

So that's my handy-dandy banner tutorial. If you have any questions, feel free to ask me! I would also love to hear your secrets and see your finished products. 

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