August 26, 2013 by Stephanie

Livin’ Easy

I have been asked a lot lately how I feel about living on base. I am not really sure what people are expecting when they want me to describe my home, but they always seem surprised that I love living on base. I am linking up with several other ladies to answer questions about how we chose our living situations thanks to our military moves.

It really was a no brainer for us to decide to find a place on base. With my housing background, I have had my housing provided with my job for awhile now. So the opportunity for Tom’s to continue that blessing was awesome.

If you are a single soldier, you do live in the barracks. I might add that they are nicer than some residence halls I have been in! Since we are married, Tom obviously qualifies for family housing. And the military has to provide housing in some capacity, whether that is the form of an actual place to live or giving you an allowance based on the surrounding area’s average living expenses. In order to live on base we did need to sign up for housing, and we were put on a waiting list for about a month before the duplex was offered to us.

Our situation allowed us to wait until this little number came up. I was still working at ISU, and we knew that a deployment was coming up soon, so we were not in any big hurry to move into some place we didn’t want. It made sense to wait until we found something while I still had a job in Iowa. The timing could not have been more perfect for it.

I put a lot of trust into Tom, because he toured several different homes with the housing folks by himself before he picked this one. He never sent me a picture or called before he signed away. I’d say he did pretty well! It is a two-story, two-bedroom, one and half bath option. We have a fairly decent backyard, but we also lucked out being in a cul-de-sac so we have a nice field on the side as well. We chose the carport, which has been really convenient with our projects since our other option was a small garage. This allows for some more flexibility in use-such as having BBQs while it is raining.

The way housing works on base (at least here at Fort Campbell) is that you are basically put into brackets depending on the Sponsor’s (army person) rank. Then you also look at number of rooms based on the amount of dependents that sponsor has. Since I am technically a dependent according to the Army, we are entitled two rooms-one for Tom and one for me. Once we have a kid though I no longer factor in as a “room” number. If we had two kids, we could have a 3 room house, and so on and so forth.

Because we were in a position to wait and be patient for more options, Tom was able to say no to some places that just would not have fit us. So we were pretty fortunate that the long distance worked in our favor there. Some people may not have that luxury when they need to move so they get what they get or that is when a lot of people tend to search off base. Most of our friends have chosen to live off base because there just wasn’t housing available at the time they signed up and needed something right then.

There were a few factors that really influenced our desire to live on base:

1. We had lived on a college campus for the last few years, so moving into an Army supplied duplex was going to be an upgrade. No offense to housing folks who have given us housing! My apartments were always lovely, but not having college students around at all hours is pretty nice. And parking/mail right outside my door-awesome.

2. We knew we could have a backyard and that Grace would be allowed to live with us. Going off base, you always risk the chance that the place you love won’t allow for pets, or it is an arm and a leg to be allowed to have them. We just have to register Grace with the vet on base, and we are good to go. Now we just need to work on her not being afraid to go off the porch without a leash…

3. I didn’t have a job lined up at the time we made this decision, so this was just the fiscally responsible thing to do. The rent is covered as a part of the Army providing housing, so a bill we don’t have to worry about. We do not have to pay for any of the routine maintenance or utilities. The only utility we pay for is cable and internet. We have even had a few months were we have gotten paid for how much electricity we did not use! You are given a base rate of electricity you can use based on the average, then if you go way over you have to pay, but they pay you if you go under! We have never had to pay, and we aren’t the best stewards of our electricity thanks to Tom. If we had lived off base, we would have received BAH (basic housing allowance), but it would not have covered everything like we see here on base. The math is just obvious when you start figuring it out. So anyway, the idea of not having as many bills (even though we are debt free) was too good to pass up when we had no idea what my income situation would be.

4. We were both new to the Army life, so we thought it would be nice to be surrounded by families who are in similar situations. I often forget though that everyone around us has an Army connection because it does not look like you are on base. They do a good job making it look like any neighborhood. But the truth of it is, there is at least one person in each home who has a job with the Army.

5. Convenience. Tom’s commute is like a 2-5 minute drive. Ft. Campbell is a huge base, so it has everything you would need right here.

6. With the Army, whether you make it a career or not, the reality is you probably will not be in the same place for a long time. With PCS schedules or just living out the current contract, we could really not see ourselves delving into the search for a house with the knowledge that we would leave it in a couple years for sure. This seemed like the easiest option without having to worry about leases because our timeline at Ft. Campbell was unknown at the time.

Those were just a few of the things that drove us to choose living on base. And we wouldn’t have it any other way. We know these aren’t the nicest house around, but for the price and convenience, we really couldn’t beat it. And I feel that we have done a really nice job making it feel like a home.

And now that we live here, I love this neighborhood. I have really enjoyed getting to know it better with my half marathon training and walking Grace. I have met a lot of other people just because of Grace. She has a lab friend that we run into practically every time we go out. And to see how the families are is really just ridiculously cute. It really restores some of my faith in humanity.

I know a lot of people who choose to live off base and love it but for us the choice was obvious! We are big proponents of base housing!

Here are some more shots of our neighborhood.

This playground is on the other side of the field that runs next to our house. There are playgrounds EVERYWHERE. And they are actual playgrounds with swings! You pretty much turn every corner and a playground is within sight.

These are other duplexes next to us that have a garage instead of a carport.

These are actual houses…not too shabby. You have to have put in some years to get these though. We think that they are at least 3 bedroom, if not 4 bedroom houses with a 2 car garage.

Living on base gets a bad rap, but as you can see it isn’t any different than a neighborhood outside of the gates.

The only difference is you have to go through the gates to show ID to get home. And you see this kind of thing on a regular basis. So security is a little higher.

If you are moving to the Ft. Campbell area there are a few things to note. Ft. Campbell sits on the state line.

The base is nestled in the cities of Hopkinsville, KY and Clarksville, TN. I like to call it a bubble fort. I have not explored much of Hopkinsville because most of the hype goes to what is going on in Clarksville. Plus Clarksville is much larger than Hopkinsville. I also work in Clarksville at Austin Peay State University so I obviously see it more. There are several community colleges and state schools in the area if you are wishing to pursue more education. Clarksville is a growing city; the fifth largest in TN actually. Nashville is also an hour away from the area if you are looking for more opportunities of a big city.

It has been an adventure getting settled here, between trying to find a place to live (while we were long distance and deployment pending) and then figuring out a job for me. Now that things seemed to be more figured out, we really do like the area and are venturing out and exploring more that the base and surrounding communities have to offer.

Feel free to ask questions if you are curious about the area or our process!

August 23, 2013 by Stephanie

Friday Filter Film: “Jobs”

We recently watched the new film Jobs.

Jobs (2013) Poster

Ashton Kutcher stars in this motion picture depicting the late Steve Jobs and how Apple began.

The company I went with have mixed reviews about this movie.

I am always fascinated to see the history of things and how timelines evolve. So in that retrospect, this was great. You were able to see how Jobs built this company from his parent’s garage.

The downside was that you got to see how he built the company.

I was not aware of Steve Jobs life apart from being a great innovator in our time.

This movie showed how big of a sleazebag he was. From bailing on his closest friends who helped him with the start up to being a dead beat dad; he was just a big jerk.

But besides not liking him as a person, this was a good movie. I felt the acting was good, (Tom disagreed with me). They did a phenomenal job casting. The staging and costume design was fun to see the progression of the decades.

They stuck to the truth even if it was awful to learn how awful he was as a person. You have to give him credit for changing our world one electronic device at a time. He did push people to invent the unknown and push their limits to create something unimaginable. I would agree with him on his theory that Apple electronics should speak to the person’s heart and be an extension of themselves. If you think about how each of us try to personalize our personal devices, he had that spot on. I may just not agree with all of his business methods, but at the same time I know I am not cut out for real business and the cut-throat tactics. I feel that highlighting the corporate shark aspect and his confidence in his product was the main focus of the film.

There did lack some connectivity in some of the transitions. Sometimes it was hard to follow the timeline and understand where we were and how we jumped to whatever scene. Tom didn’t like the fact that it didn’t show the timeline up until the present. They did just kind of stop the storyline in my opinion, but it was already a long enough movie so it had to end sometime.

Do I think that this may get some award buzz, probably. Like I said, film quality isn’t so bad. It is undoubtedly, in my humble opinion, Ashton’s best role.

Would I ever want to watch this again? Nope.

Anyone else see this movie and have opinions?

Friday Filters offer a review that are my own opinions and are not influenced by anything other than my love for entertainment and art.

August 22, 2013 by Stephanie

You can take the girl out of Residence Life

August is the time that colleges come alive in anticipation of students returning to campus.

Here was my freshmen floor community.

I think this was the first night we were all there, but certainly not the last. We had hallway parties pretty regularly, which shaped my housing reference for years to come. 3rd floor Hosey was really the best. Some of us will be reuniting soon for a wedding!

Since 2003, I have had an active role in students moving into residence halls, whether that was my own move in Fall of 2003 or being the staff since 2004 who checked people into those rooms.

It’s hard to shake that Housing identity, so this past month has been painfully difficult realizing that I was not part of this excitement anymore. So when the opportunity for our office to volunteer for APSU’s Welcome Wagon on Freshmen Move-In arose, I quickly signed up for a morning shift.

It really was a sad attempt to still have ties to my housing roots, but I digress. I had fun in my neon shirt anyway walking up and down stairs all morning. It was a great way to connect with other faculty/staff and welcome new students and their families to campus.

In my transition out of housing, here are some observations that I have made.

1. I took my flexible housing schedule for granted. I could choose my own hours and generally was more free during the day, but a lot of that had to do with being on call. I could go home any time to check on Grace because it was just a few minutes walk from my office. There is no way now to just go home to check on her, since it is a 20 minute commute. Now I have to be at the office during open hours (8-4:30 like clockwork), and if I need to have some time off during the day to run errands, I either do it on my one hour lunch break or get approved to leave early. This has been an awkward adjustment to say the least, but the upside is that I never have to deal with a duty phone or late night meetings. The latest I have been at work or done work period is 4:30. Sweet.

2. I thought I did really good job balancing things when I was in housing. haha I was a mess compared to how my schedule is now. My routines actually resemble routines and are consistent! I had no idea what I was missing with my at home balance and weekend freedoms.

3. I ACTUALLY like commuting. This was the thing I was dreading the most after living on campus for the last decade and having a walking commute no more than 5 minutes. I hate driving, but I find myself really enjoying the time I have before and after work to myself. Part of that has to be because it is really the only time I have completely by myself, so I love just being in my own element. It gives me time to get ready for work and drink my coffee as I listen to the best radio station. Sometimes I find myself leaving the house a little early so I can sit in my car before heading in to catch a couple extra minutes with Q108. Then heading home, it’s so nice to decompress the day before I come home to Tom. I can just unwind a bit. I have also used this time to make phone calls to stay in touch with friends and family. I will say though, I am much more aware of gas prices…

4. Housing people take their departmental resources for granted-ok I will just say that I did instead of making a blanket statement. I miss my big budgets for programming and incentives. I also miss the man power of staff. Being an auxiliary unit has it’s perks that I wish I had taken more advantage of while I had them. You think housing people wear a lot of hats? Try being in an office with 5 people serving all of campus. I knew so little back then, not that Iknow more now, my eyes are just being forced open a little wider.

5. On the flip side though, because I am in an office with only 5 people there are more opportunities to be plugged in many roles. In my short 3 months here, I have seen more of the university than I did in my three years at Iowa State (and I was even on a bunch of campus wide committees at ISU). Because we are a small staff, we all have to pitch in on the big stuff. And let’s be honest, I also see more of the university because I have to leave my building every day. Although, it was nice to not worry about weather while in housing, I missed out on a lot of day to day things by just walking to and from my car every day, or having lunch in the courtyard. My staff use to make fun of me because I didn’t know where most academic buildings were. I can say confidently that I can pretty much master an APSU campus map right now. So I encourage any housing professional to take some time on just normal days to walk around and see the sights of campus, and make it a routine thing to do instead of only when there is big programming. I get to see the beauty of the campus, but also see where the pulse is by actively walking through campus each day. APSU is seriously one of the most beautiful campuses I have been on; maybe another reason I love exploring it everyday. These are all spots on my way into my office.

Seriously, this campus was made for me with all of its swings. Each morning I am tempted to be late by taking a few moments to sit here.

There are a bunch of fountains and art around to look at.

Another pretty swing in a little garden!

6. Lastly, because you come from housing, people automatically think you LOVE planning events. I was voluntold to be on our party planning committee because “she[meaning me] likes doing that stuff.” (Party planning is not what it is called for real; that’s just my name for events.) Let’s get real, just because I have done a lot of event planning, doesn’t mean that I like it. But this is an assumption of every housing person ever. I mean it’s just one big pizza party right?

Even though I was voluntold for the party planning, I asked to be in charge of our office bulletin board. (Another assumption is that we are all creative, which is an assumption I am ok with.) I loved doing bulletin boards and door decs! Actually love is an understatement…So I hopped on the chance to do the one big board we have outside of our office.

It was fun to back in housing for the morning and it helped me close some doors that I had been leaving ajar for who knows why.

I cannot believe that it has been 10 years since my dad dropped me off at Hosey Hall before marching band camp started at UCM.

Here are some more Throwback Thursday pictures from my freshmen year of college!

I have never been an experimenter with my hair, but I think every woman goes through a right of passage by stripping their locks with chemicals. I chose the the perm since I never did during elementary school. We had a night of hairdos on the floor. I remember there were so many chemicals in that bathroom between my perm and everyone’s else’s dye jobs.

These were the first gals that I met at college. They lived across the hall and were in band with me so we all moved in prior to most of campus. We also joined an honors fraternity together that year. Love these ladies!

This was my freshman year roommate who was one of my closest friends through out middle and high school. And we were two of like 6 people from our high school that went to UCM that year, so it was nice to know someone. So many more memories were made that first year at Central! I spent about an hour tonight looking through my old albums and just laughing at some of the things we got ourselves into. She just had her first baby, and I couldn’t be happier for her and her expanding family!

College is a great time in a person’s life. You are able to learn so much if you take advantage of the opportunities that come your way. I am just excited that every day I still get to be a part of those opportunities for someone else. I have the best job!

August 21, 2013 by Stephanie

Kiss-a-Bull

Linked up at Focus on Family with lovingasoldier.com

Tom and I have decided that we are going to adopt another dog soon. And the crowd goes wild! Wahhhh!

Ok. In all seriousness, this process got real last week when we put in an application. We were beyond excited to set up a meet and greet with this new dog who was seriously perfect.

Then we promptly got denied as parents.

Nothing like a swift kick to the rear end…

Fortunately, it was nothing we as individuals did or our references said. It was all about a matter of a breed ban.

Grrrrr.

Because we live on base, we are restricted to owning certain approved dogs. And to be fair, this shelter was only looking out for the best interest of this dog when they denied us, and I cannot blame them. But, that doesn’t mean it hurt any less.

Also to be fair, Tom and I were not trying to cheat the system and knowingly get a dog that we can’t have. This particular dog was listed as a mixed breed initially to be later listed it as a “pit bull” mix once more information was discovered about the pup’s pasts.

So here I am standing loud and proud on my soap box.

I am vehemently against breed bans of any kind. I truly believe that any dog is a product of it’s environment. You can train a dog to be mean, and you can train a dog to be nice.

It all takes time and patience. And sometimes, more time and patience.

Many people believe that pit bulls will turn on you without provocation. This is a sorely mistaken myth. They are no different than any other dog. People forget that these are all animals and their instinct is to protect themselves. So more often than not they are put on the defensive off the bat because of how people react when they see them.

People think they are mean dogs and are popular fighting dogs. Well a lot of this has to do with the fact that this breed is very intelligent and easy to train. So they can take commands, even if they aren’t the best idea. Just because they are easy to train, doesn’t mean everyone who owns them is a good trainer or has good intentions. (It’s just like parenting human children…we don’t all end up the same.)

Grace is a boxer, but often gets mistaken as a pit bull. I don’t know how many times I have had to calm her down because some stranger started screaming in her face or tried to go after her too quickly. Seriously, people yell at my dog when she is on a leash by my side. And Grace doesn’t bark, yet these people go after her. (Don’t get me started at how drunk college students reacted to her on campus…) Dogs just rely on instinct and following cues that they have been taught. Because I have taught Grace well (at least I assume), I can get her to calm down in a matter of seconds, or she just looks at me and knows everything is ok.

It is so sad to hear that people will not give this breed [pit bulls] a chance. I hate that good people can’t take these sweet pups in because we happen to live in an area that believes in enacting these bans.

Pitties are extremely loyal dogs and generally love children. They do have a lot of energy and are playful, which can be destructive if not handled appropriately, which is the same for many high energy breeds. So you need to know your dog. Sounds like brain surgery huh?

I think people should do research about dogs before they decide to adopt. There are different temperaments that will fit different lifestyles. I know that Grace needs a lot of activity, which is why we plan to get her exercise every day whether that’s joining me on my runs or Tom taking her to the dog park. If we couldn’t do this in our life style, we shouldn’t have agreed to take on this responsibility. They need love and attention, and if done so dogs are wonderful additions to any person’s life.

I don’t know how I would have gotten through Tom’s deployment without Grace. I still cuddle with her more at night than I do with Tom…It just breaks my heart that there are so many pit bulls that remain in shelters (or worse) because of these restrictions and cannot become companions to many well-deserved families.

Here are some websites that do such a better job than I ever could making things understand-a-bull.

http://www.bulladelphia.org/default.aspx

http://www.nashvillepittie.org/

~ Rescue, Advocacy, and Adoption ~

Someday when Tom and I have our dream farm, we know that we are going to do all we reasonably can to save or sponsor pit bulls and also senior dogs (another group of dogs neglected).

But for now we are limited, so our search for Grace’s new sister/brother continues.

And I leave you with a picture of my sometimes mis-understood girl.

We have walked by this park every day on our walks/runs and only recently did we find out that they were water sprinklers! What? Now we stop by to run though them and get a little drink every chance we can!

We adopted Grace from a shelter, and I will only get future dogs from shelters. There are just so many wonderful pets waiting for their furrever home, that I could never bring myself to go to a breeder. We each have our own pet stories, so I don’t judge those who do go the breeder route as long as you love your pets! There are upsides to both scenarios, you just pick your cup of tea. I think it takes a special person to genuinely decide to have a pet and love and care for another being no matter which way they come into your lives. As long as you love your pet after making sure it is the right fit for your lifestyle and do what’s necessary to keep them healthy and happy, I support any adoption!

So you don’t get off that easy, here are some more pictures of the best decision we have made to date!

If you look closely, you can see the typical Grace spit bubble. She is a slobbery girl…

Stay tuned for our adoption adventures. We hope there is more soon to tell!

August 19, 2013 by Stephanie

Mirror, Mirror, on the Wall

I am still feeling a little woozy and under the weather, so it will be pretty simple tonight. I have some meatier things on the docket for later this week, and I have lots of upcoming crafts to share!

I have had this mirror since my freshmen year of college, so ten years ago. It has made it through over 15 moves across the years, and it had the scars to prove it. There were random paint and scratches all over it.

So needless to say, it needed some updating or we would need to part ways. I chose the former.

I got felt from Hobby Lobby and buttons that I already had. You need more felt than you realize. I ended up having to go back for more. I think I ended up with around 30 sheets total.

You need two sizes of circles. The smaller circles you do not need as many. It is a 6:1 ratio (6 large circles for every 1 small circle).

Luckily, my hubster was really helpful and cut most of the circles! He is a super good craft husband.

First thing for the “petals,” fold a large circle in half.

Then you fold it into an ‘S’ shape.

Then you glue 6 of these triangles onto a little circle. It will look like a pie chart. This is the view from the back.

Then you just fluff the petals up. You can leave it like this.

Or you can jazz it up by hot gluing a button or jewel of some kind to the middle.

This took a long time to make all of these. We spent a few nights working on this project. I also messed up a tray table with the felt and hot glue, so be careful what surface you make them on.

Once you make all the flowers, you just glue them to the mirror. You will need more than you think because they squish together. I thought I was done several times, only to find that we needed to cut more circles. Hubster to the rescue!

We may regret choosing this color, because I am not sure how the felt will hold up to dirt, dog hair, and dust. But for now it is super pretty! And hey, we are into the second decade of this bad boy, so I think we can afford another mirror.