July 29, 2013 by Stephanie

Frolic with Grace

My goal in life is to be as good of a person my dog already thinks I am. ~Author Unknown

If you have been following me at all, there is no surprise that I love my dog. So today is all about my little lady.

My parents willed me this chair from my childhood. It is an old beat-up lazy chair, that is slightly pink. So it matches nothing that I own, but I absolutely loved this chair growing up. I spent hours reading books in this chair, so they gave it to me in the great purging of the Glinn household.

Well, it has now become Grace’s chair. She is in it all the time.

She loves staring out the window to our backyard. I originally had the chair facing in a more functional way with the room, but Grace moved it to the side like this to make it more functional for her outside watching.

Like I said, this is no longer my chair. We now refer to it as Grace’s bed.

We have always let Grace sleep in our bed with us, so this chair has left an empty spot in our bed at night. For the most part we are ok with it because she is a bed hog and will pretty much lay on you and not be willing to budge. But there are moments that it is a little sad for us as doggy parents.
And this sparked this week’s episode of “Talks with Tom.”

Tom-I like it when Grace sleeps in other parts of the house.

Me-Why’s that?

Tom-Because when she gets in her chair it is a little insulting because I am right here. She is basically saying she doesn’t want to sleep with me. When she sleeps in other rooms, it’s like she is at summer camp.

Just this morning we marveled at the fact that she slept with us most of the night. Later to find out it was probably because she wanted to melt our hearts a little bit with glee before we found her puddle of pee all over the living room. She was probably embarrassed because this is totally out of character for her.

And just when I made her a new chew toy! The nerve!

I love making Grace new toys out of household items that are worn out. I am all about sustainability and reusing things when I can.

Grace does not allow us to keep nice bedding because we–and by we, I mean Tom–plays and wrestles with her on the bed. Impossible to keep a nice bed made.

So we get holes like this in our sheets.

In my effort to be green and also save some of our green, I cut up the fabric to use for a project that we are currently working on for our bathroom, but I still had a lot of “unusable scraps.”

I cut the leftovers into long strips, knotted, and braided them together to make a new rope toy for Grace. These are her favorites because she likes ripping them.

This is super easy to do and then I don’t feel so bad about throwing away sheets. My suggestion though is to make sure you make them long enough to make lots of knots. This will make them a little more durable to doggie teeth. For this one I made 4 separate braids then knotted those braids like the friendships bracelets we all made as kids.

She perked up from her nap to play with it a little bit! Success!

I have also made new toys out of old socks that have holes in them. I know others who have done this but they commented that their dogs then would grab any sock regardless of toy status or not. I didn’t have this problem with Grace, but just be weary if you do!

We have been considering upping our little family by adding another furbaby. We have been discussing the pros and cons of getting another dog, and right now the pros outweigh the cons. I have already been scouring shelters’ websites to see who our new rescue puppy could be, but we want to make sure that this will be a good decision for both Grace and the new puppy. Ideally, we would want to get one around the same age as Grace, and more than likely the same breed if not one similar. But who knows once we actually go look at a dog and let them meet Grace to ensure compatibility. Any thoughts and comments on the subject of owning several dogs are welcome! We want to be realistic and do the dogs justice if we choose to adopt another rescue, so any helpful advice would be awesome.

For now we are enjoying our time with just our Gracie lady. Here are some fun videos from our weekend. Yep, we are totally those parents…ok honestly I am totally that parent.

That was the first time she played with a sprinkler hose. She had a blast with it!

There is no psychiatrist in the world like a puppy licking your face. ~Ben Williams

July 15, 2013 by Stephanie

The Power of the V-Neck

One of the greatest things about my husband is his wit. He says things without missing a beat. I admire this skill because half the time I think of clever things hours after they are relevant to the conversation. So I am usually left in awe in the wake of his commentary.

We recently went shopping at Old Navy to change up Tom’s normal wardrobe of t-shirts and gym shorts. I just want to make it clear this was his choice not mine. And this gem of a conversation occurred as we went through every V-neck display. (He even mistakenly went through the boys section before he realized the sizes.)

All Tom- “I love v-necks. I can wear a v-neck to church or to bed. V-necks are the gauchos for men. A step in the right direction for clothing gender equality.”

Tom proceeded to buy at least 5 different v-necks. I lost count as I carried them all.

I love his v-neck obsession!

I am always looking for new ways to store things such as Tom’s v-necks, so I had pinned these pictures ages ago hoping Tom would be able to re-create something like it.

DIY Ikea Shelves - Bed DIY bed with storage!

And sure enough, he did! Thanks to Tom’s mad carpentry skills, we are no longer sleeping on the floor. Grown ups!

He built the two box units for the sides out of plywood.

Then he built the middle part to brace the bed.

Only the outside boxes needed to be stained.

We made it so we can still slide crates underneath the bed for even more storage.

We bought these simple cloth baskets at Walmart to put in the side cubby holes.

We still need to figure out what to do to close off the hole in the front because we were going to put a bench there, but that doesn’t leave enough room for us to walk around the room. So we are still thinking about that, but it is not a huge priority right now.

It was an easy design since you just make the boxes with two long pieces for the length of the bed and 5 short pieces for the height you want and to sanction off the cubbies. You can make more cubbyholes by just putting in more short pieces. Also when you are determining the height make sure you take into account how big the baskets are and how big your box springs and mattress are. We used some nicer plywood for these. This is where most of the cost went.

Depending on the size of your bed you may need to build the middle part like we did to make sure your bed doesn’t fall in the middle. Tom just used 2X4s to build the brace as sturdy as possible. This doesn’t need to look fancy since it is never seen.

We have a nail gun which made this job much easier. I am not sure I would want to attempt this with basic nails and hammers.

Now we just need to work on the headboard to finish the room off.

I love our bed!

I hope you all had a great start to the week!

July 8, 2013 by Stephanie

Fight For It

It’s a Monday after a holiday weekend. So like most, I sit here reflecting on the amazing down time that I had and dream that it wasn’t over. My newsfeed this morning was littered with all the witty “I hate Mondays” commentary.

So to recap our 4th of July.

It was not full of BBQ, beer, red/white/blue ribbons, or personal fireworks.

It was full of rain…all weekend long.

Don’t feel sad; we managed to make the most of it. We had a great relaxing weekend being free of work and responsibilities. And seriously what is better than actually being able to sleep in and be lazy on wet and rainy days?

Fort Campbell had a 4 day long carnival event, which we did attend on the 4th in the brief parting of the clouds before they canceled the firework show. It was really cool to see all the families tredge through the mud to celebrate what our families have gone through to ensure freedom for our nation.

We did not ride any rides because after working at an amusement park for 6 years (this is where Tom and I met btw), I am pretty skeptical of any ride that can be packaged into a trailer as a traveling show. And don’t get me started on my nightmares of Ferris wheels. Plus it cost money, and we were being cheap.

I also worked games for 2 years, so I cannot wait until we have kids so we can win them useless toys. After working 8 hour shifts for 2 summers, you learn a few tricks of the trade. We just don’t have a need for the game stuff now.

We were not too cheap however for my ICEE obsession. I L.O.V.E ICEES.

We love that we are lucky to be together to celebrate our independence! I think about all those families who cannot say the same. (Special shout out to our buddy Andrew Martin and his lovely family! We can’t wait to celebrate with you when you get home! And also to the Landis family, you all are in my thoughts and prayers regularly!)

The night of the fourth we ended up watching from our backyard some of our neighbors shoot off their own fireworks.

Grace did not seem to mind her first firework display.

And yes we made an outside bed for Grace to be comfortable watching the show.

They had rescheduled the fireworks for Friday. But it rained all evening so we didn’t really want to pack up to go across the base. So we watched in the rain from a parking lot right by our house in our Jeep. Nothing more American than being barefoot in a mud covered Jeep watching fireworks I guess.

All in all it was a good holiday for us, and we cannot forget the sacrifices that are made to grant the freedoms we hold so dear.

Talking with my husband about how the fireworks sounded like war and his FB statuses for the day gave me a lot to reflect on, and I hope they do for you too.

“Today and every day, ask yourself two questions. Who sacrificed their life so that I could have mine? What am I doing to make myself worthy of that sacrifice?”

“Remember that rights aren’t something you are entitled to. Rights are something we have to fight for. Nothing in this world is free.”

Nothing like a national holiday to make you think about your priorities eh?

It’s ironic (don’t you think) that those who give up so much of their own freedoms are the ones that are making sure you and I have ours?

Now on to our home improvement project of the week.

We created these shelves so that we could have some flexibility on changing the deco in our house without the hassle of measuring and putting in new holes in the wall. Since we live in on-base housing, we are trying to leave as little damage as possible.

Shelves are pretty expensive if you want to buy more than one of these at the store, and you cannot get them in a very long size. I think the cheapest we were able to find was like $30ish bucks for one that was like a foot long. So Tom volunteered to make them for us. For 8 shelves, it was around $75 for us doing it this way. (If you are able to find ones cheaper than this, share with the world please!)

Basically you pick the size shelf you want from the wood selection. We chose a couple different sizes because of the what we had planned to put on the shelf, so we had 1X2s and 1X3s.

Then we picked out simple decorative molding to make the face of the shelf. You can make it relatively inexpensive depending on the molding you pick, or just not getting molding and just using the base wood only.

Tom did all the handiwork. It seems pretty simple from watching him. He made all 8 of them in an afternoon.

This is before he stained them all.

Then he added wall hangers/hooks on the back to make them more secure on the wall.

Then was the long process of measuring out the locations on the wall. This included a stud finder, tape measure, level, T-square, and Tom’s persistence for perfection.

Here they are empty.

And here is our new photo wall. I am working on getting some new photos, and it will be so easy to add. I can just move them around until I feel like I have the layout I like. Until the next day when I want to move them around again.

And then this is our photography wall. We are really into collecting old camera gear and wanted a way to display it!

They turned out fabulous. They really make the room complete now! Pardon my crocheting mess in the corner…

I hope you all enjoyed your Monday as much as one can after a freedom celebration weekend!

July 1, 2013 by Stephanie

“My Job is Freedom”

Another dose of Talks with Tom.

With deployment, one misses out on a lot of TV programming. Seasons come and go. And in the past you would just miss out on them forever, or until the next year when the DVD was released. Then you had to spend a nice chunk of change on that. Oh, or Hulu may or may not have your show, but you can only watch the last 5 episodes and hope they don’t go to HuluPlus.

That is until recently.

My friend Susan introduced me to a site that allows you to watch ANY episode, from ANY season, at ANY time. As a TV junkie, this is a life changer. And when I say any, I will admit that I have not looked for every show out there, but it has yet to fail me.

I introduced Tom to “Project Free TV” so he could catch up on the Walking Dead and Gold Rush.

The trouble with the site though is that it can be finicky and not load as lickity-split as Hulu or a network site, or the unrealistic expectations we may have as millennials.

Tom was near the end of the season for Walking Dead when we had this conversation.

Tom: This shouldn’t be this difficult. (talking about uploading a video)(groaning and impatient foot-tapping commenced)

Me: Well, if it is that easy, why don’t you figure out how to post episode videos online on your own?

Tom: That’s this guy’s job. This is his only job in life, and he can’t do that? How hard is it to be awesome at your job? My job is freedom, and I am pretty awesome at that. I have that down pat. I’m just saying.

Happy Independence Day everyone! I hope that we can all celebrate our freedoms this week, and that videos will upload at your command.

And what can be more than American than a weekend was full of home improvements?

We inherited a pair of dressers from my grandparent’s over Father’s Day weekend.

This weekend we did a makeover on these bad boys.

Before…

They were this old plastic wood, so I first primed them with this stuff.

Then I painted on a light orangey brown satin finish paint. I did two coats of this. Tom had to help with some parts because I am not the “smoothest” or most patient painter. You can tell the edges that I worked on–>globs of dried paint are left in my wake. But I did paint 95% of them fairly successfully! It was just a lesson in my on-going curriculum of patience.

And after…

We ended up keeping the same knobs (just taking off the fancy plate things that were on there). It would have cost too much to replace around 25 knobs, but that is an option if you are trying to redo dressers to make a different look.

I wish I had taken a before and after of our bedroom/closet to show how dramatic of a change it was going from living into laundry basket chaos to a much more organized and structured closet. We can actually see everything now in it’s place.

They aren’t perfectly brand new. You can still see nicks and wear and tear from the years they spent in my grandparents’ home. But we gave the pieces a facelift and hopefully a new life with just an afternoon of time and a little bit of paint. And as Tom says, “They are just showing some character.” (He also said that about my globs. He’s a keeper.)

I am excited this week to see what is happening on base for the 4th of July. Red, white, and blue baby!

What are you doing for the 4th?

June 24, 2013 by Stephanie

Talks With Tom Begins

My husband and I have some of the oddest conversations that often leave me either laughing or just bewildered. Thought bubble-“Did we really just talk about that?”

And my next thought bubble was that you should experience that too. You’re welcome.

I got this idea from a fellow blogger who documents her conversations with her soldier as well. So thank you Amy for the idea! You can see her convos at ArmyAmy. It’s nice to know I am not alone.

So here is the first installation of “Talks with Tom.”

This conversation may get into more than you want to know about Tom and I, and our dog Grace.

Tom has taught our dog Grace to sit on the bathmat in front of the toilet when we are using the restroom.

Yes, you read that correctly.

I am not even kidding when I say this. Grace will be in the other room when I go to use the bathroom and as soon as she hears the toilet seat, she comes bounding in after me. She then will sit like a statue on the rug and watch me go pee or number 2. In all fairness, she faces the door and just looks at you periodically. She does grant you some decency, I guess. At first though it is very odd and weird to have a dog watch you while you do your business. It’s a good thing that I don’t have performance anxiety when it comes to bodily functions.

I mentioned this odd Grace behavior to Tom and he responded, “Oh yea, I taught her that.”

Me-“Why?”

Tom-“That’s when you are most vulnerable to an attack. She is my guard dog, so she is going to protect me while I doodee.”

Me-“Who is going to attack you in our bathroom?” (I should really know better than to ask questions.)

Tom-“My point exactly.”

Then he went on about some invader story in the end of the world and how Grace is instrumental in our security…This is my life.

After awhile, it has become oddly endearing that she sits there staring at the door and back at you waiting for our attacker. At least I will be all cleaned out when the robbers get me. Thanks Grace.

He is also apparently training her to be used to living in a tent. This gem happened when Tom stayed up all night with her.

Come back for the next Military Monday to hear our wacky conversations.

The craft today is all about organization!

This has been our counter since we moved in. Piles of who knows what.

And that is on a good day. This also doesn’t show the piles of stuff on the coffee table, dining room table, etc. So needless to say we were getting stressed about the clutter.

So I went to Walmart and bought 2 standing file trays, and picked out some scrapbook paper.

I cut out the paper to fit the front of the boxes. Then I sharpied our initials into each one. That way we each have a place for our mail/papers/whatnot. We can each decide our own “system” too, which sometimes in a marriage is important to have separate areas.

Then I just hung them on the wall at a height that we could reach in there.

I added the menu board I did a couple months ago to the mix. Although, it is no longer the menu board. We decided that planning out our week’s meals didn’t work for us. So we have made a deal to do 2 different recipes each week to be able to plan for the appropriate groceries, but we don’t pick which day we will cook them. We are spur of the moment type of eaters, so it didn’t work to plan 7 days at a time when we aren’t sure if we want a taco or spaghetti in 7 hours. So I changed out the food quote to “everyday” and we made it the chore/to do board. Much better!