December 16, 2013 by Stephanie

It’s a No Go

So EIB is over. If you didn’t read about EIB you can find more here. It is basically a week long test that soldiers go through to say they are an expert at their craft. (Honestly, it reminds me of the Triwizard Tournament in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.)

On Monday, the brigade had around 850 soldiers start EIB.

Monday consisted of a PT test, day land navigation, and night land navigation.

After PT around 450 people were left. After the navigation part, 200 people passed through to day two.

Tuesday-Thursday were lanes with specific tasks that are judged on every minute detail. If you do not get through a detail or task, you are given a No Go.

You are allowed 2 No Gos.

For the entire week.

Each day more people fell off the ranks.

Going into the 12 mile ruck march on Friday, there were less than 20 soldiers left.

Only 12 soldiers out of 850ish were pinned with their Expert Infantryman’s Badge.

Unfortunately, Tom was not one of those. Only one person from his company made it through the week. Tom made it until Wednesday, so he did not get to do the last lane or Friday’s march.

Personally, I think the entire unit was doomed from the start. They have been working up to this for awhile following all the codes and learning the rules one way. Then just a couple days before, they changed the rules so that they could only get two No Gos for the entire week, instead of the initial 2 No Gos per task. They also didn’t allow them to challenge their No Gos like the rules stated, so they weren’t able to be heard by the graders if they thought their No Go was unjustified. They got to protest, but no one listened like the rules say they are supposed to. Tom wasn’t even allowed to talk to the next highest rank about his only no go. And when his Platoon Sergent tried backing Tom up and fight for his right to challenge, both Tom and his Platoon Sergent were kicked off the lane. This was the end of the test for Tom.

I am still astonished by the fact that the passing rate for the week was less than 2% of the brigade. It just seemed pretty messed up to change the rules. I mean the graders got 6 No Gos when they passed, why would they change it all of a sudden? Not my fight, but it seems a little ridiculous to put all this time and effort to get the brigade ready for this week and make it nearly impossible for anyone to pass. Any Army class is supposed to be a 20% pass rate, and here they sit with only 12 people newly minted with the badge. A lot of time and money for just 12 people, but what do I know.

So in true infantrymen fashion, all of the men have been poking fun at the notion of “No Gos” since they aren’t “experts.” Tom has been shouting it for the past few days at anything that he finds disapproving. And this weekend at a get together with some of our Army family, of course this was a running joke for the night. No go this, no go that.

So they all seem to be taking the defeat well.

Before this all went down though, Tom was really excited about land navigation. He is really good at it. It just comes so naturally for him. However, he was still concerned about the course time limit to find the four points, and was looking for ways to shave off time and make things as easy as possible.

Tom’s brain went to work to invent a handy map holder to attach to his uniform.

He is a map checker. He is constantly re-evaluating his route, just to make sure that he is doing what is right with the land. So he will look at his map at least once every 2 minutes. His thought is that if you aren’t willing to always re-evaluate your route, you may screw yourself over without realizing it because even a minor mis-step can take you way off course.

He was keeping the map in a ziplock bag in his pocket, because inevitably when they do land nav the weather is miserable and wet. So you can see over a couple hour stretch how checking a map ever 2 minutes can be cumbersome.

So we bought:

one old army duffle bag from a surplus store in town
clear plastic vinyl
snap buttons
velcro
cotton webbing
We also had to buy a new sewing machine…

Crosby was not impressed with Dad taking over the living room for Army stuff.

Here is he making sure all the pieces fit where he wants them before sewing everything together. The green pieces are the old duffel bag cut up in squares. Then the vinyl plastic is on top to keep it water proof.

He added Velcro so it would fold up nicely and stay put.

He put the snap buttons on the straps so it can be attached to the FLC (vest).

Then it was just a matter of sewing everything into place.

He even made pen holders on the backside. So clever.

This is the FLC. He just used the snap straps to slide into the FLC molle. (those horizontal strips you see)

Modeling off his creation

It just flips out so he can read it just like that. Now he doesn’t have to fumble through his pockets and a crumpled map in a ziplock bag anymore.

So even though he didn’t get new bling for his uniform, he did get something new for his uniform. This one seems more practical if I might say so myself.

Also I might add, it was pretty hot to see Tom use the sewing machine. Just saying people, a man doing crafts deserves a one way ticket to my heart. Lucky for me, I already snagged this crafty soldier.

December 12, 2013 by Stephanie

Tis the Season

It sure doesn’t feel like Christmas around here. I believe this is for few reasons.

1. This is our first year in KY, so there is an adjustment that occurs to learning holidays in a new place.

2. It has been very rare for Tom and I to be together for the holidays. Actually there has only been one other year (out of 7) that we will be together the WHOLE time for Christmas. It just is what it is…

3. There has not been snow. Ice, yes, but “play in it and build snowman” snow, no. This was my December last year.

4. I didn’t realize how much my “inner” schedule was dictated by the residence hall schedule. I have not done a hall closing/opening since May, so it’s just been a continuous semester for me. I am used to having this huge hooplah of getting thousands of students out of my “house” and then hibernating for days. Not so much this year.

5. I haven’t bought a single Christmas present…Talk about being behind! Ugh.

6. We only have two Christmas decorations out. Growing up, my step-mom started decorating elaborate-gorgeous-magazine-like scenes once November hit, and my mom listened to Christmas music for months straight along with the Lifetime-like Christmas movies before Lifetime was a thing. So only having two things out is really sad when I start to think about it.

I talked about the wreath a few days ago, and how we didn’t want to get out all of our stuff due to traveling. I cannot wait until we are forever stationary because I am really looking forward to having roots for the holiday season.

Anyway, so we have the wreath, and one more item.

I bought these jingle bells last year when Hobby Lobby was having their Christmas blow out/whatever. I think they were like a dollar or two.

So they have been sitting in my “to make” craft box for a whole year. So I figured it was something simple to put up and provide us some holiday happiness.

Supplies Needed for Jingle Tree

jingle bells (I had 6 containers, but I only used about 4.)
cardboard tree
one big ornament
glue gun

Sorry the pictures aren’t the best quality. This was the night when we tried getting the sewing machine to work, and our first attempts at the wreath. So we were not happy craft campers. This was an attempt to save my crafting sanity with an “easy craft.”

First I sorted out the colors and figured out a “pattern” I would follow. The pattern didn’t last too long because I realized I had more green and red than the other colors. Thanks packaging guys.

I just hot glued them row by row. I put them as close together as I could.
You can see the wreath debacle over there….

You can see the cardboard still. You could add garland or tinsel in the middle, but I was too lazy/cheap to get those. And it doesn’t look bad without it. I think if I had it in a brighter room, I would think differently and would want the extra bling in the cracks.

In the wreath adventure, I had broken one of these disco balls. However, it worked out nicely that it fit perfectly on top of this tree. So I just glued it on top. Perfect topper!

So there you have it, now you have seen the two decorations in the Whitener household. Someday it will be different, but for now we are traveling holiday experiencers.

December 8, 2013 by Stephanie

Holiday Decor

We have plans to be with family for a good portion of December, and Tom and I are pretty practical home decorators. Not that we don’t love the holiday spirit, but we didn’t want to spend a whole lot of time decorating when we wouldn’t be here to enjoy it. Plus we don’t have room for a tree, so we decided to keep it pretty minimal on the Christmas decorating.

So the 2 tubs of holiday decor has stayed packed away.

However, we did want some holiday spirit, and we needed a new wreath to replace our fall one.

This was quite a craft affair. It was one of those times that you can’t get your idea to pan out as you plan.

We tried putting ornaments on an old wire hanger, but we didn’t have enough. I had already spent 10 dollars on this bunch, and I didn’t want to spend anymore on another box.

Then we tried wiring it to another wreath thing I already had. We also tried hot gluing it.

Continued failure. Ugh. This has been the story of our crafting life this week. We tried getting our sewing machine to work for almost 4 hours on Friday and another hour on Saturday. We think the thing has died or the repair is going to cost more than what it is worth, which is awesome because I have used it a total of 3 times.

So admitting my defeat to the ornament wreath, I broke down and bought a 4 dollar wreath.

Final supply list:

ornaments
string of lights
wreath
picture hanging wire

We didn’t use the peacock feather ornament. That was supposed to be part of the original plan, and it just didn’t work with this one.

First, I wrapped the wreath with the lights.

I grouped 4 sets of 3 balls with the picture hanging wire. Then I just tied them on the wreath like a twist tie. Super easy!

I did a couple single ones too.

bingo, bango, bongo

This is a really easy project once we figured it out. It looks classy and simple with the same color scheme. We have several of the balls left over so I may make garland with it in the future.

It looks so great! And it is such an up-lifter coming home to this on the door.

December 1, 2013 by Stephanie

Feeding the Army

Our first solo Thanksgiving went pretty smoothly.

We are adults! Whoop whoop!

The only hiccups were that we did not plan ahead on our grocery trip and waited until this week to get stuff. We had to make a couple trips to different stores to find what we needed. And the other, is that I over estimated how much time the noodles needed to be cooked for my Glinn noodles addition, so half of them were paste instead of noodles. Whoops.

Everything else went great.

We managed to have 8 adults, 3 small children, and 3 dogs in our small little kitchen. We literally fed the Army.

It was so great in comparison to Thanksgiving last year. My husband and the other 4 guys were deployed, so really my competition of Thanksgiving pasts was pretty low. I was most thankful to be able to share the day with my hubby and start making some of our own holiday traditions since this was the first time to celebrate any holiday under our own roof.

Of course I had to craft for the day. Since I knew that we were not all going to be sitting at the same table, and also that it was Army men I was feeding, I was not really concerned about place settings, chargers, napkin holders, and table runners. Someday I will, but not this year.

However, I still wanted it to be a little festive.

Supplies Needed:

scrapbook paper
canvas boards
paint
letter stencils
string

supplies

First, I painted the boards a nice fall brown. I only needed one coat.

Second, I picked out several sheets of scrapbook paper. I cut out flags for one board. I put the string on top and glued it down. The other is supposed to be a turkey, but it looks more like a flower.

I used a hot glue gun to put these in place. I am sure you could mod podge them, but I have never had good luck with mod podge doing what I want it to do.

Then I used the stencil to paint the saying on each one. It took awhile because I had to let each letter dry before moving on to the next one. I would have used my Cricut, but I cannot get it to cut scrapbook paper without ripping it, so if someone has advice I would love to hear it!

I have been wanting to do something with this saying for awhile!

We had a feast for the Army for sure.

The bird before.

The bird after.

I always struggle with making deviled eggs not look like I threw them back up. They always taste great, but I don’t have the knack of making food look great. So I was pretty impressed that they turned out decently this time.

Yes we bought paper plates. And I think they count as decoration. And so does the PT belt.

some of the sides

the rest of the sides

It was a great day with our Army family. So much to be thankful for!

These are all the leftovers. Tom and I will be eating Thanksgiving for awhile. Our fridge is like a puzzle every time we want something. Anyone want to come over?

We had a great time hosting, and we learned some tricks of what to do in the future. For our first time though, we did pretty awesome. High five to us!

I hope that your Thanksgivings were filled with fun and good eats. We had the best weekend in the Whitener household!

November 26, 2013 by Stephanie

A Little Bit of Thanks

I work in a profession that you cannot always do show appreciation with flashy things or a raise. Often the students that I work with do so much for very little pay or none at all.

I really try to show them that their time and effort means a lot, and there are so many ways to show this gratitude without breaking the bank.

My favorite way is baking because you can always find something to hit a sweet tooth. This is a great way to personalize a token of appreciation to what that particular student likes.

But sometimes I decide to do other things.

I coordinate our volunteer note taker program at work. This is were a student who is registered in our office cannot take notes on their own due to their disability and have requested a note taker. I then recruit within their class for someone to volunteer to turn in a copy of their notes. It sounds easy, but semester after semester we still have 40-50% of our class requests unfilled. So I have been working to decrease that all semester. And successfully, I have gotten the unfilled request to about 25%. Whoop whoop.

One way I have found effective is constant contact with the classes and the students who do volunteer their time.

I wanted to say thanks for taking the time take effective notes and let us copy them. Although it may seem easy to turn in something you should be doing already, it can be added pressure to these students. Their notes are supposed to help someone else be academically successful, and that is a big reason why most people don’t follow through with this volunteer role. So I wanted to thank the 100 students who did this semester.

I made these treat bags to hand out one Friday when they all typically come to turn in their notes.

We got the candy bags from the dollar store, and the candy was on sale from Halloween. Then I just made the tags in Publisher and whole punched them to use the twist tie to attache them to the bag.

Since I had a lot of students, I went this route. I have made more intricate things in the past for a smaller group.

I made these “dynamites” out of Rolos, construction paper, and string.

You roll the Rolos in the red construction paper and glue them in place. Then tie three “sticks” together in the middle. You will also leave a little string out on the end as the “part you light.” Then I glued the circle in the middle with my note to the student.