It's come to a end….

I can't believe our time on the Trail is officially over. Thinking back two years ago I never though this day would come and I couldn't wait for it to get here. Now I'm wishing just a little that we still had some time left. I absolutely love the school were I work and I've made some great friends through some of my parents. Its funny how all of my friends in Hawaii were / are Milispouse's and here in the South 90% of my friends were / are parents of kiddos I had in my class. I'll def. be sad to say good bye to them when the time comes. Although we are looking forward to the future and what's in store I can't help but wish we had more time in the South. I know the hubbs is more than ready to be done and get back to a line unit. He's done his fair share of training and he's ready to get back to what he enjoy's doing. He's been counting down faithfully for about the last 6 months. He's beyond done. Frankly I'm over the unit we are with. Its only the 2nd unit we've been with but they've been horrible. I fill sorry for anyone that has to go through 2-60th. 

I took his Hat Press that I got him for our Anniversary year before last and had the plate finished. They actually redid the entire plate for me and it turned out great. The Brown Round has officially been retired. 

We've had good day's and bad day's through our time on the Trail. It's to be expected, they are gone all the time and when they are home they are extremely drained and tired. Hanging the Hat the hubbs will finally be able to go out and enjoy his free time and that means we get more time together. 

I absolutely hated the Brown Round when he first got it, I though it was the ugliest thing ever…….

 But it grew on me and now I absolutely love it. I have to say its quite sexy. I mean just look at it, he's rocking it for sure. I'll miss the stories he comes home and tell's about his day and smoking the PVT's. I'll miss being able to go out to the trainings and watching him train PVT's. I'll miss our CQ night dinners. I'll miss some parts of it I'm sure and so will he, even if he doesn't admit it. But I can't wait for what's ahead of us. Lots of changes and many more memories to be made. 

Two Years done!!! 

It's only a 2 year assignment with the option to extend a 3rd year, but we only did the 2 years. 

 Graduation Day March 22, 2012 & Last Day March 31, 2014 

That to This

For one reason or another the hubbs has to have a coffee table in the living room. Myself I could careless if we had one or not. I think it actually makes the room feel bigger with out one. But none the less I humor him and we have a coffee table. This one we purchased in Hawaii when he was home on R&R and it made the move with us back to the Mainland. Over the last 3 years its had it far share of wear and tear. How on earth it got so scratched up is beyond me but it did. With our up coming move I was determined that this piece was NOT coming with us. I was so tired of looking at it because it had gotten so ugly from being scratched up. A little part of me didn't want to toss it out because I knew we would just have to buy a new one when we got to our new home and that would cost more money. Something I'm trying really hard here to do is save money and work with what we have. Reminding myself that when we finally get our forever home once we get out of the army I can get all new and what ever I want because we won't be moving every couple years. 

I had a few ideas on what I could do to resurface the top of it and make it work but I just wasn't sold on a single idea yet. I was worried about trying something on it and it not turning to look good. That's when I was talking to My Spouse (Sarah) about it and she shared a "Pin" she had pinned on Pinterest a while back. It hit me, this was the perfect solution to up-cycle our coffee table. 

I'm so happy with the day it came out, we did have to make a few modifications from the original tutorial that was on line but it still came out the same and it looks great!!! The coloring we picked for the stain is pretty spot on and it looks great with the rest of our furniture. I'm so glad we decided to re-use it vs. throwing it out and getting a new one. This re-cycle DIY table cost us about $40.00 a lot less than it would have cost to buy a new coffee table. 

I've got a few other DIY project we are working on so stay tuned for those to come in the next week or so. I'm trying to get as much done before the movers come to pack up our stuff in a couple weeks. I started off with a laundry list of things I wanted to get for our new home and thanks to me being a bit more creative and refurbishing some old and current items that list is getting shorter and the cost has become a lot less that we've spent which is always a good thing. 

Finally putting some of those "pins" on pinterest to use.

Coffee Table make-over tutorial here!!!

Catching Up!!!

I can't even use the excuse that I've been overly busy here lately because truth be told I really haven't. Pictures to prove it, we haven't had much going on here the last couple weeks. I've simply been slacking in the blog world and need to get my booty in gear. Our time here in the South is quickly coming to a close and we've been slowly getting things ready for our move. HHG purging, working on some DIY projects and eating everything in the frig and freeze. Not to mention the deep cleaning. We're trying to save every penny we can with this move so I've been doing little by little each weekend. It hasn't been all house work and packing through I've managed to have a few outings with the girls. 

*Up bright and early for our last Graduation "Rights of Passage" Ceremony. This is were the SIT aka PVT's officially become Soldiers and place their Beret on for the first time. Becky, Julie and I got up around 5am and made our way out to the range for the ceremony. It was so cold!!! Thankfully each Company had fire pit they were all huddled around. 

My handsome Drill SGT and I at the "Rights of Passage" Ceremony. 

*Becky and I had a girls night out at a Victory Spouse's event. Denim and Diamonds Auction at Weston Lake. We got all dolled up, Becky even purchased some fun Diamonds for us to wear. Sadly enough though it was nothing like either of us expected. The auction items were less than impressive and dinner well it wasn't to bad. The best part about the evening was getting to hang out with this fabulous girl. 

*BCT Victory Concert, day before Family day. At the end of each Cycle the day before Family day the SIT attend a concert put on by Eric Horner and his wife Debbie. The SIT are able to order pizza, soda and candy. All of which they haven't had in the past 10 weeks. Eric puts on a concert with patriotic songs and a slide show of pictures plays from the last 10 weeks of training. Rebecca and I along with a few other FB Volunteers from our Battalion attended and took loads of pictures to put on FB for the families. It's a chance for the SIT to kinda of let loose for a bit and have some fun. A fun part about it is, most of them take their pizza boxes once they are empty and will write messages on them to their families. 

Up close and personal with some of our Delta SIT. Supporting out Drill SGT's with their PVT's. 

*Taking full advantage of the chilly weather you would have though I would have made this fabulous chili before now. NOPE, just now getting around to it on a perfectly warm Southern evening. That didn't matter though it was still fabulous. As was the corn bread to go along with it. Sidenote: I'm LOVING my new cast-iron skillet the hubbs got me for Christmas. I use it for everything. 

Since we are on the subject of food, I'll go ahead and share with you this super yummy dish. 

Potato, Corn and Ham Chowder, of course it wouldn't be complete with out some tasty Peach Tea to go along with. Using left over ham from Thanksgiving that I had frozen was the best part of this. Operation clean out the freezer is in full effect. 

 *This past Thursday night was my School's Spring Art Auction at Leaside. Every year in the past we have had it at the school and its been a family event. This year they change things up a bit and made it a adult only event. Catered in food and served alcohol. I wasn't planning on going, in the past we've been required to go because it was at the school. Since things had change we as staff were not required to go. I took a babysitting job for the night (a month in advance) with one of my favorite families here. That was until my classroom mom informed me that she had purchased my ticket to go to the event. As a "Thank You" for everything I've done this year. (tickets were $40 each, not cheap for the evening) A couple of our other parents got together and bought tickets for the hubbs and the other teachers in my class. Although only one of them came (Ms. Elaine, bottom left) I convinced Jamie (bottom right) to come along with us and gave her our extra ticket. It ended up being a great evening. The EDSPO really out did themselves on the event. I foresee many more of our Spring Art Auctions in the years to come here. I was so happy that many of my parents current and past were finally able to meet the hubbs. They hear so much about him so finally being able to put a face with a name and story was nice. 

(I'm going to miss the school so much when I leave, I absolutely love my job. More on this in a later post)

*On another note: This kid below Graduated from College this past Tuesday. I couldn't be more proud of my little bubby. He's completely turned his life around in the past year and I can't wait to see what is in store for his future. We were at each other's throats growing up, many times we hated each other but now I'd do just about anything for him. He's my best friend and I'm so glad I'm able to call him my Bubby!!! His beautiful Girlfriend Becca treated him to a Dallas Star's hockey game the night before Graduations as his gift from her. He loved loved (still does) the Dallas Stars growing up so this was right up his alley. I only wish I could have gone home for his big day but soon enough I'm hoping to make a trip home. 

That's just a bit of life lately and what's been going on with us. I feel like we have a lot more going on with the move but its just not all blog worthy exciting so I'll spare you the details on that. I do plan on posting about our DIY projects and other happenings in the coming weeks. Thanks for sticking it and out hanging in with me!!! 

Class Canvas's

 For our school Spring Art Auction each class is given canvas's for each child. These are then placed up for purchase as the School's Spring Art Auction at $15.00 each. I think they are pretty priceless it you ask me, although I might be a bit partial. The canvas's are yours to do with as you wish and must be 100% the child's art work. Well since our kiddos are a bit to small to do it all themselves we of course have to help them. And since I'm super anal when it comes to our class art project's, I make it a priority that our canvas's are perfect. This year we went around and around on what we were going to do. I like sticking with a theme were each child's is the same just personalized to them. I originally wanted to take the easy way out and just do the same design that we did last year. But one of my assistants wasn't crazy about that idea. Not that they weren't cute, they were adorable but she suggested we do something different and I'm so glad she did. On one of my late night dates when it was just me and the Macbook I came across this idea on FB. A friends mom's actually posted it and tag another teacher friend in it. I just loved it and though it was so fitting for our class. I showed my assistant teachers and they loved it as well. We got to work that next day on them and were done within less than a week. Once we settle on a theme or idea we don't waste any time getting them done. My afternoon assistant is extremely talented when it comes to her hand writing and we've deemed her the writer of the class. Her work is just beautiful, thank goodness she enjoys it. Other classes were still working on them up to the week of the Auction.  I was so excited for our parents to see them. It was so hard not to show them when they came in. The different teachers I showed just loved them.
*Spring Art Auction evening verdict, everyone LOVED them and we got endless comments on how everyone though they were so cute. Definitely one of my favorite parts about the Auction. I'm going to miss doing them next year for sure. #bittersweetmove