THE BIG MOMENT!

AHH!! Finally! The moment we've all been waiting for! Well, maybe not you all, but I know I sure have.  I waited 12 long months and this past Friday finally, FINALLY the day had arrived!  I could not sleep a wink all night (obviously).  I was out of bed at the crack of dawn, despite the fact that his ceremony was not until 5 that evening.  The call arrived around 10:00 am letting me know my husband's flight had landed safely and the soldiers were processing and the ceremony would be on time.   I began decorating the yard and truck.  Next I made the bed, finished cleaning the house, gave the boy a bath, got myself prettied up, and 3 hours prior to the start of the ceremony, I headed to the hanger.  Yes, I was a bit eager!  Despite the fact I was 2 and a half hours early, I was not the first to arrive, so I didn't feel too silly.  I sat down in the very front of the bleachers and assumed the waiting position.  Soon after, my hubby called, "You might want to get there a little early" he says. HAHA.  I inform him that I'm already there and waiting in the front.  A couple hours pass and the announcement is made, the room goes silent and the doors slowly rise.  It was a breathtaking moment.  I nearly burst into tears, the feeling in that hangar at that moment was indescribable.  The stands roared with applause and screams.  It was one of the happiest moments of my life.  The soldiers marched in.  I looked around, there was at least 200.  He could be anywhere. I knew I'd never find him in that crowd.  I looked up and down the isles of soldiers.  Then suddenly, I feel eyes peering at me...eyes of a soldier standing directly in front of me.  Could it be? Could my man be RIGHT in front of me?  It looked like my husband, but skinnier.  Shamefully, I had to get out my lens and zoom in on his name tape. Sure enough, that skinny soldier in front of me belonged to me!  Seconds later they released the formation and this man took a few short steps forward.  We didn't move at first, we just starred and smiled.  Finally, I jumped up for my hug and it was the best hug ever!  Everything was so exciting at that point.  There were tears and laughter and hugs all around...and yet it was so quiet, because we were in our own little world, wrapped up in each other.  I couldn't sleep at all that night, I couldn't believe he was home...I just wanted to lay on his chest and take him in.  I hate that so many people take the little things like that for granted.  At the same time, I feel sorry for civilians.  A redeployment is a truly unique and amazing experience.  I got to fall in love with my husband again.

A Soldier's Welcome

I have been waiting to decorate our home and truck for weeks!  I bought the window paint months ago!  I made a wreath for our door for just this occasion!  Finally, homecoming day had arrived! I was up at the crack of dawn placing little flags along the walkway.  I used my son's sidewalk chalk to write "Welcome Back Daddy" along the path.  I hung a patriotic bunting and welcome home sign along the fence.  Here's a taste of what our home and truck looked like on that beautiful homecoming day...

A Final Care Package

Just kidding...there's another care package to come after this one...

Anyhow, many many months ago when I saw this welcome home scrapbook paper, I decided I would make my husband a Welcome Home care package and bring it to him at the ceremony. Well, I'll probably keep it in the truck and let him open it after...but I digress.  Point is, for old times sake, I've made him one last package...

It's contents are as follows:
1) A welcome home card with a drawing by our son included inside
2) A skull ring he BEGGED for on R&R but thinks I never bought ;)
3) A new pair of Jordans
4) A $22 customized box of Pop-Tarts.  Remember my mention of that in a previous post...well, now you know why it was $22.  (A little pricey, but I think it'll be worth his reaction).
5) Crystal Head Vodka (It's very expensive so he always said he deserved it when he redeployed.)
6) (not shown) A t-shirt that says, "That's what she said". If you know my husband at all, you'll think that's funny.

Redeployment Bucket List

Going with my besties blog idea of a Fall Bucket List, I've decided to put my own together, but with a different spin.  I call this the Stuff I wouldn't do without my husband or did do and now I want him to do it with me and now I can because he's coming home list or the Redeployment Bucket List for short.   I now present you with the list, in no particular order...

(Photo taken of us last fall, before he deployed)

1) Visit New York City for the Macy's Day Parade

(I will do A NYC bucket list later on...)

2) Go Geocaching

3) Visit a farm and pick a pumpkin & decorate said pumpkin

 

4)  Go to a Halloween store and spend half the day trying on costumes which we will later wear to a Halloween party.

5) Go to an Army homecoming ball and FINALLY have our first dance

6) Watch season 6 of Dexter (without missing an episode)

7) Finally take our honeymoon in the Virgin Islands that we've been planning for 5 years
(Also going to create a Virgin Islands Bucket list)

8) Go Skiing

9) Take yet another boat tour in the Bay (I LOVE them)

10) Go to a NY professional athletic event (Giants, Nicks, Yankees, Jets)...I don't care which, I don't like any of them, I'll be rooting for the away team).

11) Go on a shopping spree for an entirely new wardrobe (we've both lost a ton of weight)

12) Join a bowling league again

13) Go to the movie theater and see a movie that's not rated G

14) Go on our first date (again)

15) Make him breakfast in bed

16) Join a church

17) Take our boy to Chuck E Cheese and Toys R Us...give him a day just for him

18) Visit the National Museum of Play

19) Complete this list, take a photo of each item being checked off, blog about them and link the blog back to each number as I complete them :)

Wake me up when September Ends...

First, let me apologize for the lack of posts recently.  I like to blog at least once a week, but I just haven't had the time.  Reason #1, I've had 3 photo sessions and a wedding in the past 2 weeks...it's kept me busy to say the least.  Reason #2, the hubs is coming home VERY soon!! I have soo much to do! I need to finish organizing and decorating the house.  I have a few secret projects I'm working on...can't wait to show them off!  I've got some house work to do...just so much going on!! My head is spinning!  Here's a recap of what I've been doing in anticipation of the hubs return...

Upper Left: Our first date outfit (Skirt, top & necklace: maurices, wristlet: Coach)~Still need shoes!
Upper Right: A peak at my homecoming outfit (Dress: TJ MAXX, Sweater: Charlotte Russe, Necklace: A gift from the hubby for our first Christmas-It matches almost perfectly, just doesn't look like it in the photo, Shoes ((not shown)): DEB, Bracelet ((not shown)): Pandora (my husband mailed the bracelet & charms throughout the deployment)
Lower Left: A tutu made for a friend's daughter for her daddy's homecoming
Lower Right: Our boy got his hair cut like daddy's at the barber on post.  Notice the scar on the forehead?  Apparently, he wanted a scar like daddy's too. He got into a fight with the coffee table a few weeks ago...he lost.  It's slowly healing.

**I also purchased my homecoming ball dress several weeks ago, but again, it's been keep TOP SECRET!**


I have lots more going on, but I don't really want to show much...the hubby still has access to this blog and I have a lot of things I want to keep a secret until he returns.  But I'll be in posting overload in a couple weeks...promise!

Pop-Tarts & Kool-Aid

I love Pop-Tarts & Kool-Aid.  When it comes to Kool-Aid, I like them all, but I LOOOOVEEE the Ice Blue Raspberry Lemonade.  When I found this at the commissary is the instant containers, I hoarded every last one up.  I'm a bit less particular when it comes to my Pop-Tarts.  I like chocolate, strawberry, cherry, cookie dough, chocolate & vanilla, etc.  I love them all & so does my husband.  He actually requested a box of Pop-Tarts with every care package.  I did my best to fulfill this demand.  In fact, this family loves Pop-Tarts so much, I ordered him a $22 box of Pop-Tarts for his Welcome Home care package.  But I'll explain that at a later date. At any given date, my cabinet is full of Pop-Tarts & Kool-Aid.  A few days ago, when searching for a meal to prepare, I noticed my Pop-Tarts & Kool-Aid survival kit and thought, HMM...Clearly, I love Pop-Tarts & Kool-Aid.  What a great title for a blog post!  However can I tie this in??  I've got it! It's a stretch, but here goes...

Yes, I love Pop-Tarts & Kool-Aid, but what do I not love??  COOKIES! At the moment, I LOATHE cookies.  Cookies can bite me for once.  I used to be normal, I used to love cookies like my Pop-Tarts & Kool-Aid.  Macadamia cookies, sugar cookies, oatmeal cookies, peanut butter cookies...cookies in general made me happy.  But not any more!  Well, at least not for another month or so.  As I stated in a previous post, my husband requested one final care package filled with nothing but COOKIES.  Filling a large care package solely with cookies takes a lot of dough (that's a total homonym).  It was $46 for all the ingredients to pull of not 7 dozen cookies like I had previously thought, but 118 cookies!! It was a result of 1 batch of macadamia nut cookies, 1 batch of peanut butter cookies, one batch of Butterfinger cookies, one batch of turtle cookies (like the chocolate), and 6 batches of S'more cookies.  I didn't have the graham crackers, so I used more butterfingers.  After all the cookies were baked, I couldn't even fit them in the box.  I didn't have enough tupperware or zip-locks.  I somehow managed to make it work. At the moment, I am SICK of cookies.  My husband's company better be thankful! 

On the up-side, tough-boxes are starting to arrive this week...

One of the hubs' signs arrived this week too!!  I made a vague attempt to blur the name on here for security reasons.

I designed my son's Welcome Home shirt this week and it has been ordered.  The back has daddy's name on it as well...

Daddy will be here before we know it!! I can't freaking wait! :D

Are we there yet?

 It's been 11 months, 5 days, 22 hours, and 52 mins since we gave "knucks" to daddy and said "see ya later" at the hanger.  But who's counting, right?  Anyhow...if you're wondering why our goodbye sounds so informal, it's because it was.  I never got out of the car, never unbuckled the boys carseat.  We didn't hug, we didn't kiss...there was no long embrace, no tears.  While some would say that sounds terrible, you should know this...We've done that before.  We did the tears, the hugs, the painful goodbye, and it was HORRIBLE!  It's like having someone you loved ripped from your arms.  We couldn't put our son through that.  He is still too young to fully grasp a deployment, though for weeks leading up to the deployment, we had many many discussions about daddy's job, where he was going and what he would be doing.  He seems to understand, but like I, has not shown much emotion regarding the deployment.  I attribute this to the fact that we don't often refer to it as a sad thing, but instead an honorable situation.  Our son tells his friends, "Daddy is my hero, he's fighting the bad guys".  He is very proud of him.  But as strong as we have all been these past 11 months, the last several weeks are certainly proving to the hardest & most trying.  While I'm doing anything and everything to keep my mind and body busy, the days are CRAWLING!  But even so, I'm seeing signs of a redeployment in our future.  Tough boxes are beginning to show up on our porch, my husband has recently moved out of his room to allow for his replacement soldiers to take over, the FRG's are having redeployment briefings, my "Welcome Home" signs are arriving in the mail this week, and I've been making "Welcome Home" daddy outfits for friends all month.  In case you were wondering why I had not added any new care packages to my posts lately, it's because we've passed the mail cutoff date.  To help my son (and certainly myself) get through these next few weeks, here's some of the things we've done to pass the time and prepare for daddy's return:

 I made my own camo purse...still don't have a name tape for it.

 Making Welcome Home signs at an FRG function. 

Made my own door wreath for daddy's welcome home decor.

I've also created a Popsicle countdown for our son.  He gets one Popsicle per day.  When they are gone, daddy will be home!!

This week, I'm breaking the rules and I am sending out one final care package...it's just a box full of cookies and nothing but cookies...7 dozen cookies to be exact!  My husband has no intentions of keeping them all for himself.  He just wants something to hand out to everyone before they head home.  Hopefully they make it, but if not, no harm...someone else will enjoy them I suppose.  I'm also beginning to nest this week.  I've redecorated my kitchen, started repainting some rooms, replaced bad light bulbs throughout house, organized closets, and there's so many more (unimportant) things to do.   Preparations are finally underway for the hubby's return and I couldn't be more excited!

First Down!

 

Football season in a box: contains football rice krispie treats, football chocolates, football oreos, football trading cards and other football goodies.  Decorated with Colts gear (what else) and of course threw in some Pork Rinds.

No Bones About It

When picking up some scrapbook paper for one of my boxes a few weeks ago, my son was adamant that we purchase daddy some dinosaur paper.  If there's one thing my son loves, it's dinos.  So I didn't argue...I figured it wouldn't be hard to make a dino box and my son could have a little fun picking out the items for the box.  Unfortunately, my son was a little selfish this go-round.  He decided he wanted to keep just about everything we bought for the box.  I compromised and let him keep his own goodie bag.  The box this week contained only goodie bags...nothing specific for the hubby, although he did get his own heart adorned goodie bag which contained a few extra snacks and brownies.  The 6 bags contained dinosaur oatmeal, poprocks, fruity pebble snack bars and a mini dino.  They also contained some non-dinosaur related snacks like fruit snacks, bottle drink mix, and mini pop-tarts.  They also contained home-made brownies...Details on those are below this set of photos of the box.

Now onto the brownies :D...

I was so excited when I found a dinosaur cookie cutter a few months ago (cookie cutters around here are like...I unno something rare, I'm out of analogies for the night).  Anyhow so I bought this dino cookie cutter, but it was large...very large, it'd be ridiculous to expect a cookie that big to make it intact to Afghanistan.  So instead, I found a small bone cookie cutter last weekend at Hobby Lobby...that's a future blog :)  Anyhow, so I used the bone cutter hoping people wouldn't confuse it for it's intended purpose of a dog bone. Think archeology not "bark"eology (sorry, that was lame, I'm tired).  Well, instead of making my same-ole sugar cookies this week, I decided to mix it up and treat the fellas to some brownies...plus I'm in no mood to decorate because we got a new puppy. Yeah, you heard that right...again, future blog!  Well, anyhow, here's the good part...

Star Wars Movie Night I Guess...

So with the cut off date for overseas mail arriving within the next few weeks, I'm pressed for time to get these last 6 boxes out.  The way it's looking, I've got 6 boxes to send in a little over 2 weeks...yeah, that's crazy.  I'm probably going to press my luck and send them past the cut off date...it's no biggie, I'm not sending anything valuable anyhow.  With that in mind I was in a panic Monday night. Basically, if I wanted to get 2 out this week, I needed to get at least the first one out by Tuesday. Unfortunately, I was a bit unprepared this week...I didn't seem to have enough items for 1 box. I had half a Movie Night box filled and half of a Star Wars box filled.  So I figured, what the hey, I'll combine them...It's a Star Wars Movie night now I guess.  It cuts out one box and saved me from running to the store at 2 AM.  I didn't make cute cookies because I was up til 4 AM working on this box as it was.  However, I did make some yummy homemade snickerdoodles.  I'm fairly certain the guys prefer taste over cuteness anyhow.

 

This box contained 6 gift bags each filled with snicker-doodle cookies, a star wars pez dispenser,  a bag of popcorn, and star wars gummies.  I also tossed in some light sticks and a few other candies.  I sealed the popcorn goodie bags with star wars stickers.  Sadly, I didn't have a star wars movie to throw in so they could have a star wars movie night, but I'm sure they'll come up with something.

Finger Foods

Tonight I made up 2 batches of cookies, one for taste, one for fun.  The first batch I'll tell you about is the batch for show. They are just your basic run of the mill sugar cookies with some food coloring and a pumpkin seed.  They are zombie fingers.  Yes, I know there's still 2 months before halloween, but I'm not sending my husband a halloween themed box, so back off!  I am sending him a zombie themed box :)  My husband oddly has a major interest in the idea of zombies taking over the earth one day...it's a joke people, don't get your panties in a bunch.  Anyhow, so in honor of my husbands love for the zombie scene, I've centered this week's box around zombies (Jeez, I know I already said it, I'm just making sure you're paying attention.)  Anyhow, when doing a google search for zombie cookies I came across the idea of green fingers (yes, I know zombies don't have green fingers, witches do...big deal, they looked cool.)  Anyhow, so I figured the idea was pretty simple and quick so I went with it.  The recipe called for pistachios but I thought pumpkin seeds looked more like finger nails (yes I'm aware they wont taste that good on sugar cookies, but who cares, they are for show anyhow...jeez you are so rude tonight).  Well, like I said the recipe was pretty cut and dry, but if you really must have a step by step (mr. pushy pants), here ya go...

Step 1: Add green coloring to your sugar cookie mix

Step 2: Roll into log shapes, add knuckles by using a toothpick, press seeds in for fingernails and bake.

Take out of oven.  Turn the tables for once and eat a zombie :) 

My son wouldn't eat one, he said it would make him a zombie too. HAHA

Now I'm going to tell you about cookie #2 for the night.  These are chocolate chip peanut butter cookies.  You can find the recipe here. They looked and smelled yummy, but because I'm on a diet again, I can't tell you for sure.  Anyhow, I made up enough to place 3 in individual baggies for disbursement in the hubs care package.  I also left out a handful to give to the man at the post office who always teases me about not saving him any cookies.  Just a hint to my fellow army wives, when sending out multiple packages a week to go overseas, it's always good to have the postal employees on your side.

The Simpson's Box

My husband and I have this funny thing we do. Instead of carelessly tossing around "I love you", we actually have to put a little thought in creativity in our words of love to one another by saying "I love you more than..." For example, he might say "I love you more than you love to win arguments" or perhaps I might reply "I love you more than Opera loves to put photos of herself on her "O" magazine".  That's just our thing.  It avoids us saying "I love you" out of habit or impulse. Every time we say it, we have to think about it, therefore we know we mean it.  One night I told my husband, "I love you more than you love telling my dad about that time you out-fished him." Believe me when I tell you, that's a LOT of love and there was no way he could top that one.  Well my husband was in humor shock which resulted in his creativity coma.  Therefore his weakened reply was, "I love you more than Homer loves Donuts".  I giggled at how lame his comeback was.  So a few days later when I saw The Simpson's gummy snacks, there was no doubt that this was to be the next theme of his box.  I'm still mad that I forgot to write "I love you more than Homer loves donuts" in the bottom of his box :(  All well, hopefully he'll get the pun on his own.  Read on to the post that follows for further details.

Summer Vacation in a Box

This week's box is pretty self-explanatory.  In our five years together, my husband and I have never taken a summer vacation, it's one of those downfalls to being a military family.  He's either deployed, PCSing, or we just don't have the time.  We never had a honeymoon for this very reason.  We always talk about that vacation we plan on taking someday but to date, it's never worked out.  So this week's care package is the best I can do, it's our dream summer vacation in a box.  It includes a palm tree, pineapple shaped cookies (and watermelon cookies because they were cute), some crab shaped crackers, milkshake poptarts (because as I discussed in a previous blog, he requested poptarts in all future care packages),  some tropical snacks, Weekend at Bernies II (my favorite movie, set in my dream location-the USVI, which I someday hope to visit with the hubs...but that's a future blog post)... and a few summer toys.  I topped it all off with a big ray of sunshine :)  Happy Summer Vacation honey!  Maybe one day we can actually enjoy a vacation together.

A camping trip in a box

Well, if the s'more & owl cookies weren't hint enough, here's the answer to the big riddle this week...my husband's 1st box for this week is a Camping Trip in a box.  I try to incorporate things my husband loves into the themes of each package, and we love to camp.  It's not something we've had the opportunity to do much because in the 5 years we've been married, my husband has been deployed 3 of them and also because we have a toddler.  However, this year we are devoted to the idea of taking camping trips more often.  Our son is old enough now and my husband SHOULD be home for a while after this deployment (fingers crossed).  The weather is perfect for camping right now, I'm super sad he can't be here to go camping right now.  So since we can't go on a camping trip, I decided to take the camping trip to him.  I sent him a mini-coleman lantern and a ton of s'more items (s'more snacks, homemade s'more cookies, s'more icing for s'more cookies, all the items to make his own s'mores...though i doubt that'll be possible, and of course s'more poptarts-because he's requested poptarts in every box now).  I also sent him some trail mix and trail mix bars.  I was going to send a scary movie too, but this box was filled to the tip top.  All well, I sure hope he enjoys this one.

The Coolest Care Package Ever

Yeah that title is a pun, but you can take it literally too...because Penguins are awesome! You would already know that if you had read my previous post.  Anyhow, as I've already noted, my husband loves penguins, so I HAD to send him a penguin themed box this month.  To date, this one is my favorite :D  Honestly, I think the boxes just get better and better.  I've got about 9 stacked up in my office, every other day I'm adding a couple items to each box until they are filled.  I have a box that is just about filled to the top, so I just need to make some cookies this weekend and I'll have it in the mail Monday.  I can't discuss the details of the box yet though, it's Top Secret.  Well, really it's because I think my husband has been checking my blog lately, spoiling his themed box surprises.  So you'll have to wait until he sees it before I can discuss it.  But to hold you over, here's this week's box.

Along Came a Spider...

As mentioned in my previous post...this week's care package theme is Spider-Man.  Obviously, this choice was made by our 3-year-old.  He loves Spider-Man, but he's not biased, he pretty much loves all superheroes equally.  But back to the point.  Spider-Man was a fairly easy choice for the box considering there's a lot of Spider-Man items out there to be found.  As noted in the previous post, I began with Spider-Man Cookies, then I added some Spider-Man candy, Spider-Man gummy snacks, a Spider-Man toy and tossed in a Spider-Man movie to finish it off.  I think the hubs will really enjoy this box.  In the future I think I'll do a Hulk box and a Wolverine box as well.

Look out! Here Comes the Spider Cookie

So this week I let my son decide on the theme of daddy's box.  After a short debate, he settled on Spiderman.  Since I've recently decided that each of my husband's themed packages must now contain a unique homemade cutout cookie,  I Googled some Spiderman cookie ideas.  I decided to attempt the ones I found on this site.  They didn't come out nearly as professional as the ones I found, but I don't bake cookies for a living.  So I'm still super proud. Here's the process.  First, I made a template for the eyes and placed parchment paper (I was out of wax paper) over the template and used black royal icing to pipe over it.  I filled in the black outline with white thin icing using the colorflow (or flooding) technique from here.  I let that dry for about 4 or 5 hours.  While waiting, I baked the cookies.  Once cooled, I outlined them in royal icing and again used the colorflow technique to fill them in with red.  Once dry, I piped a spider web.  To finish the cookies, I carefully pulled the eyes away from the parchment paper and placed them onto the webbed cookies using royal icing as a glue to hold them in place.  And there you have it! Spiderman cookies.

Operation Camo Care Package

Based upon yesterday's posting about the camo cookies, you should already know that today's box theme is all about the Army.  HOOAH! I packed this box with camo cookies, some camo cake jars (later posting), a military movie (Born on the 4th of July-also appropriate for the month), The Art of War (a common military book he's been requesting for a while now), and a couple other odds and ends. I recently found some camo paper that I had apparently bought 5 years ago this week.  I had bought it for our wedding for some reason but never used it.  Anyways, I finally put it to use.  I wrapped his jars of cookies and cakes in the paper (and also in bubble wrap for extra measures) and then covered the box in the paper. I topped the box off with the team of soldiers I hired to protect his cookies in transit.

Combat Cookies

I'm on a cookie kick this week.  Considering this week's box theme is ARMY, I decided I wanted to make camo cookies.  I figured I would bake sugar cookies and decorate them with a camouflage pattern with icing.  So I did a little google surfing for ideas and I came across a whole new idea.  Bake them camo!!! What an awesome concept!

First you make your cookie dough (packaged or homemade will work)

Next you divide the dough into 4 separate bowls and add your coloring (Brown, Green, Gray, and leave the last bowl alone for the tan.) You can use basic food coloring if you'd like. However, I prefer Wilton's coloring because it tastes better and the colors are more accurate.

Unfortunately, I wasn't paying attention and picked up a butter mixture sugar cookie pack, which resulted in a sticky dough that was too hard to work with.  If you made this same mistake, just refrigerate the dough for about an hour before continuing on to the next step.

Now you want to take a little bit from each bowl and mix it together in your hand to form a ball.  I burned my thumb on the oven and it was in killer pain, so I opted to use my cookie scoop instead.  Luckily, this was a much cleaner method anyhow.  I just scooped a little out of each bowl and dropped the balls onto the cookie sheet.

 

Bake at the time indicated on the cookie package or in your recipe...and viola!

CAMO COOKIES!

Since I intend on mailing these to my hubby...I decided to stack them in a jar and use the last of my camo material to cover the jar and make it pretty.  I also hired a team of soldiers to guard these cookies until there safe arrival in Afghanistan.

From His Perspective

I might be crazy, but I actually sent my husband my backup DSLR camera and a couple lenses a few months ago.  I wanted some really amazing photos from this deployment.  Well, my husband made me proud.  A few days ago, he emailed me one of his sunset shots.  Breathtaking.  Almost makes this place look peaceful.