Weekend recap

My mom and my brother, John, came down for a visit and to give me a bit of a much-needed break over the weekend.  On the agenda was hanging out, watching movies (The Other Guys was surprisingly humorous), taking care of some child-proofing, and installing Sammy's new car seats.  I can gladly say that we managed to accomplish everything on the list and then some.   I've only undertaken the bare minimum in childproofing, such as covering the outlets, placing gates at the tops of the stairs, installing locks on all of the lower kitchen cabinets and padding the edges of the coffee table, but I now understand why some individuals are willing to pay exorbitant amounts to have other people go into their homes and take care of all of the necessary childproofing, because installing this stuff was a giant pain in the butt (of course, if I had taken the time to drill pilot holes for all of the cabinet locks things would have gone a lot more smoothly, but that's hindsight for you).  Here's Sammy playing next to the  coffee table in all of its ugly-yet-kid-friendly-padded glory:

The best thing about this set-up is that the padding is completely removable; this was a big selling point for me because I didn't want to take any chances in damaging the original finish of the coffee table (I know, I know--antiques and babies are probably not the best combination, but I'm crazy like that).  I'm curious to see how it holds up at the next play date that I host.

My mom spearheaded the installation of the two new car seats that I had ordered last week for the car and the truck; Sammy has all but outgrown his infant carrier so it was time to put him in a "big boy" car seat.  I have a feeling that Sammy is going to enjoy the extra room that his new car seats will afford the next time we go for a ride.  All in all a pretty productive weekend!

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Today is last day to vote for our entry in the Love Letters to Kitty Paw contest; Sandy Cat sure would appreciate it if you could click below and give us a vote--our entry is listed at #9.  Thanks so much!

MilSpouse Friday Fill-in #31

In an effort to learn more about fellow MilSpouse bloggers, Wifey from Wife of a Sailor started this weekly meme;  here are this week's questions.

1. Aside from no deployments, what is one thing you would want to make the MilSpouse life "perfect"? submitted by Oh How Delightful

I touched on this last week; I would love it if there were longer tours of duty at permanent duty stations.  I want Sammy to have a stable childhood and make long-lasting friendships, which is going to be difficult if we're moving every three years or so. 

2. Just how many peppers did Peter Piper pick? submitted by Married into Army

He picked a peck and since a peck is a measure of volume and not an actual count, the answer is "it depends."  Wow, this was a spectacularly boring answer.  Sorry!

3. If you could have any career in the world with nothing holding you back, what would you do? submitted by It's My Party and I'll Cry if I Want To

I'd love to be a prop manager/set designer for period films/television shows.  I would give my left arm to work on something like Boardwalk Empire and Mad Men.  (One of my favorite things to do, which is probably super annoying to everyone else, is to watch period films and point out all of the inaccuracies in the set design and costuming--I'm such a nerd.)

4. Do you have a service oriented tattoo and if so what is it. If you don't what would you get? submitted by The Squid's Accomplice

I don't currently have a service-oriented tattoo, but if I were to get one, it would probably something Sailor Jerry in style, or a Gil Elvgren-type patriotic pin-up girl.  I like to keep it old school.

5. Imagine a block of time has opened up in your busy day for you to take a class in anything you like. What subject would you choose?  submitted by To The Nth

Digital photo editing.  I pretty much taught myself the basics of Photoshop but I would love to learn how to use all of its tools to their full potential.

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Speaking of Photoshop, my entry in the Love Letters to Kitty Paw contest made the top ten!  Sandy Cat sure would appreciate it if you could click below and give us a vote--our entry is listed at #9.  Thanks and have a great weekend everyone!

Foto Friday: Shadows

This week's suggested theme over at the Household 6 Diva is "shadows."  I struggled a bit with this one, mostly because I didn't take a lot of pictures this week; the combination of not feeling all that well and the less than stellar weather kind of killed my creative mojo.   I was ready to just skip this week, but as I went upstairs to get ready for bed last night, I noticed the shadows that the stair banister cast upon the wall and grabbed my camera:

  Be sure to click below to check out the rest of this week's photos:

Chances are you're here because...

Blogger has this handy dandy little feature that tracks the search terms that have led people to your blog; in my case it appears that about a dozen or so people a day come to my blog because they're looking for information related to throwing a Very Hungry Caterpillar Baby Shower.  So in that vein, and since I've actually received an email or two requesting assistance, I'm going to do my very first tutorial: how to make your own personalized Very Hungry Caterpillar lollipop favors (these could very easily work for a child's birthday party, too).

For my friend's shower, I ordered two dozen rainbow-colored 3" Whirly Pops (they come in all sorts of different colors and sizes).  I then scanned the cover image from the book and used a combination of the free photo-editing sites of Pixlr and Picnik to come up with the final design; I figured out the spacing of the stickers through a lot of trial and error, so to save all of you the trouble of having to do so the same, here's the final sticker sheet template ready for you to just click and save and then personalize to your heart's content.

Once I had the design squared away, I then printed the stickers out onto 8" by 11" do-it-yourself sticker sheets for inkjet printers that are available at just about any office supply store.  I then used an ek circle scissors cutter to cut out 2" diameter stickers; however, before I ever set blade to my sticker sheets, I figured out where to center the cutter by using one of the black-and-white print-outs I had made while trying to get the sticker layout right.  This saved me from accidentally ruining any of the actual stickers, so I highly suggest doing the same.  Once they were all cut out, I lightly scored the back of each sticker with a pen knife, which allowed me to remove the paper backing without any difficulty.  This is how the lollipops looked with their stickers:

To display the favors, I used a lime green round metal bucket that I found at the dollar bins in Target and an 8" Styrofoam half ball that can be found at most craft supply retailers; I stuck the lollipops into the foam and then stuffed tissue paper around the edges.  Voila!  Personalized favors and a colorful centerpiece all in one.

Eight-month update

Sammy turns eight-months old today; using highly scientific methods (i.e. making him sit on the bathroom scale and then laying him on top of an extended tape measure), I determined that Sammy now weighs a little over 21 pounds and is roughly 29" in length.  This explains why his feet are practically hanging over the edge of his infant carrier these days, as the max length it can carry is 30".  It's a good thing I ordered his big-boy car seats the other day, though I can't say I'm looking forward to installing the suckers.

Sammy now has two teeth, which he uses to gnaw on anything within his grasp, such as my fingers, his fingers, the cat (that did not go over well), the legs of the coffee table, my camera strap, spoons, etc.  I decided to give his new teeth a work out and gave him some grapes yesterday:


Sammy isn't crawling yet, but I think he'll definitely be mobile within the next month.  He's trying to get onto his knees and will twist one leg behind him and rock while trying to reach for toys slightly out of his reach.  He's also become really good at rolling and managed to creep and roll across the living room floor yesterday while I watched and laughed.

More and more of his personality is emerging by the day; Sammy does get frustrated easily but the nice thing is that he's also easily distracted so he doesn't remain frustrated for long.  He's still very easy-going and happy; say a few nice things to him and you're pretty much guaranteed a grin, which makes him a big hit with cashiers and random strangers we see when we're out and about.

Will brake for old buildings

Last Thursday was unseasonably warm and sunny, even for northern Virginia, making it the perfect day for a drive through the country.  As we drove along Route 15, luxuriating in the 70-degree weather, I spotted a small red building just to the side of the road; Sammy was napping in the back seat, so I pulled the truck over, grabbed my camera, and set off to take some pictures.

Constructed in 1886, Mountain Gap School was Loudoun County’s last operational one-room school when it closed in 1953. It survives as the sole remnant of the small village of Mountain Gap.

I peered into the windows and was pleasantly surprised to see that the interior appeared to be frozen in time; there were lessons written on the chalkboards, banners and maps hung on the walls, and there was even a bell on the teacher's desk.

The school is located just minutes from the historic Oatlands Plantation (I had hoped to take advantage of the lovely weather and take a tour of the house and gardens but unfortunately it's closed for the winter and won't reopen until March); the one-half-acre tract that the school is located on was obtained from George Carter of Oatlands in 1827, although the school wasn't actually built for another sixty years.  The school is under the stewardship of the National Trust for Historic Preservation and is part of the Oatlands Historic District.

Caution: Extreme cuteness ahead

Warning: The following video contains graphic scenes of excessive cuteness and features adorable interaction between a baby and a kitty.  The owner of this blog is not responsible for any injuries caused from cuteness overload; watch at your own risk.

Milspouse Friday Fill-In #30

In an effort to learn more about fellow MilSpouse bloggers, Wifey from Wife of a Sailor started this weekly meme;  here are this week's questions.

1. What is your favorite MilSpouse blog (not including Wife of a Sailor who we all love, or your own)? submitted by Our Crazy Life (Wifey note: whaaaat? You can't say my blog? No fun! LOL, just kidding)

I've started following so many MilSpouse blogs over the past year that it's going to be hard to choose, but I'm going to have to go with Army of Two; Natalia is a fellow history dork and has recently made the decision to go from Army spouse to Army soldier.  I'm really looking forward to reading more about this new chapter of her life and living vicariously through her adventures!

2. What are your favorite perks about your s/o being deployed (we all know there are perks)? submitted by Ramblings of a Marine Wife

Having free-reign over the appearance of our home's interior; when Captain Husband is gone for extended periods of time, I amuse myself by painting, rearranging and/or refinishing furniture, installing light fixtures, ripping up carpet, etc.  He's really lucky that I'm not into wallpaper because every room would be covered in the stuff by now.  

3. How long did you date your before getting engaged? Married? submitted by Utterly Chaotic

We were engaged after dating for a little over seven months and married two months later.  Nothing like an impending deployment to speed things up a bit, right?  Ha!

4. What do you think your spouse would do if s/he wasn’t in the military? submitted by Adventures of M-Squared

Hmmm, well CH is currently working on his MBA so I'm going to guess he'd do something business/financially-related.  Though he's also supposedly on board with the idea of us starting our own antique shop after he retires, so it's really anyone's guess.

5. If you could talk to the Secretary of (fill in your appropriate branch) what is one suggestion you would like to bring to their attention in order to improve the lives of military families?  submitted by My Life as His (Air Force) Wife

I honestly haven't really thought about this so much; while CH and I have spent about six months together in the 2 1/2 years we've been married, we really haven't had it all that bad especially since I've been able to stay put in Virginia while CH did the bulk of the packing and moving during this time.  That said, I am definitely not looking forward to our first PCS, which will likely be taking place this summer (you know, during the same time that CH, Sammy and I are reintegrating after a year apart--should be super fun), so I'm going to go with longer tours of duty at permanent duty stations.  I thrive on stability and the thought of having to move every two to three years makes me feel slightly nauseous.

Have a great weekend everyone!  

Foto Friday: Love

In honor of Valentine's Day, this week's suggested theme over at the Household 6 Diva is "Love."  I snapped plenty of photos while I was in Maryland, but I think this one of Lillian getting some hugs and kisses from her mom is my favorite of the bunch. 

Click below to check out the rest of this week's photos:

The terrific twosome

Yesterday Sammy and I spent the day in Frederick, Maryland, at my friend, Julianne's, house.  Julianne works from home and was having a difficult time corralling her crawling eight-and-a-half-month-old daughter, Lillian, while at the same time attempting to eke out some work; making things slightly harder was the fact that her husband is out of town all this week.  So I offered to drive up with Sammy and watch Lillian during the day so that Julianne could get some uninterrupted time to take care of some things.  I was pretty excited to get the two kids together for some play time and hoped that maybe Lillian could teach Sammy a thing or two about crawling.

The two kids got along fabulously and played together happily on the floor; Sammy even attempted to get onto his hands and knees a few times after watching Lillian in action.  While he didn't fully get the hang of it, he did cut his second bottom tooth this morning; hopefully I'll be able to grab a photo of it soon.  After their morning naps, I unpacked my stroller and its extra seat and loaded the two kids into it to take a walk around the neighborhood so Julianne could work in peace and quiet for a little while.  I have to admit--I was pretty excited to try out the stroller with the extra seat attached to see how it handled.

In my excitement to go out on our walk, I totally forgot to bring my camera, which was a shame as we came across a whole family of ducks in the park, not too mention some lovely country scenery.  Oh well, I suppose there's always next time.

Julianne took a break from her work later that afternoon and went with us to the tot lot in her neighborhood where we set the kids a-swinging.  Sammy definitely had a lot more fun swinging this time than he did the last time that I took him, but he didn't hold a candle to Lillian's enthusiasm for the swings; she really loves the feeling of the wind in her face--it was so cute watching her laugh and giggle as she swung back and forth.  All in all, the day went very well; Julianne got some work done and both kids seemed to have a great time.  I think we'll have to make plans to do this again some time!

A brief stop in Berkeley Springs

Earlier this month Sammy and I made a pit stop in Berkeley Springs, West Virginia; we were making really good time on our journey back to Virginia, plus there were several antique malls in which to browse, so it seemed like the perfect place to stop the car and stretch our legs for a bit.  I've driven through the town a lot of times but I've never seemed able to time it for when things are actually open.  Sammy was on his best behavior so I decided to try my luck and walk him around the actual springs from which the town got its name (okay, history nerd time: technically the town's original name was Bath, but there was already a town of Bath in Virginia so they incorporated under the name of Berkeley Springs, following the tradition in which springs were named after the county in which they were located--which is now moot, because the county is now named Morgan.  Isn't history fun?).

This is the Gentleman's Spring (on the left) and the Roman Bath House (on the right); the bath house is the oldest public building in Berkeley Springs and was built around 1815 on the site of a 1784 structure that housed five bathing chambers and dressing rooms. You can still "take the waters" in the lower level of the building--something that I wouldn't mind checking out once Captain Husband is back in the States.

There are several springs, pools and spillways running through the park. Long known for their medicinal properties, the springs were a popular gathering place during the American colonial period and many eighteenth-century "celebrities" traveled there to drink and bathe in the healing waters. The springs are at about a constant 74 degrees Fahrenheit, which caused a lot of dramatic-looking steam on this cold, gray day.

Speaking of eighteenth-century celebrities, here's George Washington's bath tub.  Sammy obviously picked up on my excitement (that, or perhaps this is just his Pavlovian response to the word "bath").  There are several full-service spas in the town as well as the aforementioned antique malls; there's also a museum located on the second floor of the Roman Bath House, which closed minutes before Sammy and I got there.  If you're ever in the area, take a few minutes to walk around and soak in the history; it's definitely worth it.

A pop quiz

Yesterday evening Sammy and I met up with my friend, Lisa, and her two-year-old son, Samy, at Target to do some quick shopping; once we had purchased all of the necessary supplies for a Valentine's night in (i.e. frozen pizza and chocolate), we headed over to Lisa's place and settled in for the evening.  While Lisa was in the kitchen preparing our gourmet meal, I kept the two Sam[m]ys entertained in the living room.  One of the toys that Sammy really seemed to enjoy was a bead maze; now I know he's too young to really understand the point of this toy, but he seemed to have a good time clicking the wooden beads back and forth and occasionally stopping to gnaw on one for a few moments here and there.  Lisa came in and saw him playing contentedly on the floor with it and asked if I would like to have it, as Samy was no longer showing any interest in the toy; I gladly accepted the offer and placed the bead maze next to the door so I wouldn't forget it on my way out later that night.

After a few hours of hanging out and shooting the breeze (while Sammy slept in the spare bedroom), it was time to go home for the night.  I placed the sleeping Sammy into his carseat and then proceeded to load myself up like a pack mule with the diaper bag, my Target purchases, a bag of clothes that the big Samy had outgrown, and last but not least, the bead maze, and slowly made my way to the car.  I placed the bead maze on the top of the trunk so I would have a free hand to maneuver the carseat into position and then unloaded the rest of the stuff into the backseat.  I then hopped into the driver's seat and headed home; about 10 minutes later, I was parking in the driveway and preparing to unload the car when I realized that the bead maze was not in the back seat.  Suddenly it dawned on me: I had never put the bead maze into the car and had driven off into the night with it still sitting on the trunk.  Which meant that it was likely sitting somewhere along the side of the road between my house and Lisa's.  Crap.  Sammy was still sound asleep so I decided to take the chance that it had fallen off as I was pulling out from Lisa's and got back into the car and headed back towards her place.

Another 10 minutes later and I was back at Lisa's but there was no sign of the bead maze.  Apparently that little sucker held on longer than I had realized, so I decided to retrace my route home and hope that maybe, just maybe, I would be able to find it, but I knew that my chances were slim.  I slowly drove off and scanned the shoulder--I was ready to call off the search as I pulled up to a major intersection when I saw something on the side of the road--there, sitting on the grass as though someone had placed it there carefully, was the bead maze.  I put my hazard lights on, ran out, grabbed it, and still made the green light.

So why in the world did I go back for a toy, which, by the way, cost me absolutely nothing? 
A. I didn't want to litter. 
B. I didn't want to potentially cause an accident with a toy lying in the middle of the road.
C. I live for the thrill of the hunt.
D. I'm cheap. 
E. I had nothing better to do.
F. All of the above.

And the answer is F; if you chose correctly, give yourself a round of applause!

A love letter to Kitty Paw (and a Valentine)

In the spirit of Valentine's Day, I'm posting a valentine that Sandy Cat helped me make for her long-distance feline friend, Kitty Paw (and because Sammy's already exceeded his monthly quota for internet humiliation).  Kitty Paw, for those of you who are wondering, is the cheese to Ashley Sisk's macaroni:

*Click to enlarge*

Check out the other awesome entries by clicking below (and there really are some great ones!):

I would also like to take this time to wish all of my readers a very Happy Valentine's Day; thanks for coming back day after day and leaving all of your lovely comments--you guys are the tops in my book!

Foto Friday: Edit this

This week's suggested theme over at the Household 6 Diva is "Edit this" so that we can all flex our photoshop skills.  Confession time: I actually don't like editing my photos aside from correcting the exposure every now and then.  Whenever I do attempt to get creative with my editing, I always feel as though the results come out hackneyed and rather lackluster.  But I thought I'd go ahead and give it a try on this photo that I took two weeks ago when northern Virginia was hit with about 6" of snow in just a few hours (it was a huge mess that pretty much disabled most of the roadways but it sure was pretty to look at):

Overall, I like how the SOOC photo turned out, but I wanted to amplify the contrast and really play up the light flares that I managed to capture. Here's what I did using Picnik:

1. Under the "Edit" tab, select exposure and heighten the overall contrast.
2. Under the "Create" tab, select "Effects."
3. Apply "Boost" at a strength of 50%.
4. Apply "Black and White" and manually adjust the color filter for maximum light flare.

This is what I ended up with; what do you think?  Do you have a preference for one over the other?

Click below to check out the rest of the photos; have a great weekend everyone!

Cue the tiny violins

Photo courtesy the Life Photo Archive

Yesterday was one of those days where I just wanted to hide away from the world.  The morning did not start off well; Captain Husband and I were Skyping and we wound up having a stupid argument over the dumbest thing--his vehicle registration.  This, of course, opened up a whole other can of worms regarding our finances, especially as I am having a hard time being financially reliant on someone other than myself, and I hate feeling as though I have no control over the state of our bank account.  Control is kind of a big thing with me and one of the major reasons why I think I super suck at being a MilSpouse; I don't take kindly to being told what to do and that's pretty much all the Army does in my albeit rather limited experience.

I tried to get out of my funk by playing around with my camera and new remote a bit and took a few self-portraits.  The results honestly made me want to cry.  Those last five pounds of Sammy weight are now more like ten thanks to a week of comfort eating (and comfort drinking) and not working out while I was in Pennsylvania for my grandma's funeral.  Plus, once I get down to my pre-baby weight, I still have about another thirty-five pounds to lose to be at what I consider a healthy weight for myself.  I don't like looking or feeling this way, but there's only so much I can do while I'm taking care of Sammy.  I think it's time to suck it up and dust off the Wii Fit so I can work out after he's in bed for the night.

CH has been gone now for over six months and I'm more than slightly afraid that he'll think I've let myself go during his absence and not be attracted to me anymore when he returns for the first time this June.  My frustrations with our financial situation and my plummeting self-esteem do not add up to a happy me by any stretch of the imagination and I'm so worried that my various negative feelings will slowly leech into my little sponge of a son.  This is why I was so adamant about seeing a therapist, though I'm afraid it hasn't been doing me much good; as of this writing, I've only seen her two times since November thanks to her canceling our appointments in the interim due to snow and/or sickness.  Oh, and don't forget all of the stress from the past week or so with my grandma's death and some other family issues--that stuff is only exacerbating my oh-so-delightful mood these days.

I am so ready for CH's year in South Korea to be over and done with.  It would make a world of difference just to have someone in the house at the ready with a hug or a kind word whenever I needed it.  Does anyone have some cheese to go with my whine?

Jeepers creeper

It appears that I now have a partially mobile baby on my hands; yesterday morning I put Sammy down on the floor with some toys and went into the kitchen to wash his bottles for the day.  You can imagine how surprised I was to find him on the other side of the room when I checked on him a few minutes later.

I don't exactly know how to describe how he's moving himself; it's weird combination of raising his upper body off of the floor while attempting to get into the kneeling position, but failing, and then sliding backwards as a result. Here's a little video of him doing his thing or rather trying to at least:



I think if he keeps this up, he might be crawling sooner rather than later; I hope Sandy's ready for this!

Winner, winner, chicken dinner!

Thanks to all of you lovely readers, friends and family, Sammy and I won FIRST place in the Paper Mama's Valentines Challenge!  I am still a little shocked by it all; there were so many great entries and I was honestly just hoping to make it to the top ten.  Once again, thank you all for voting for us and totally making my day--heck, my month!

Sammy's show and tell

Sammy wants to show you something, but I'm afraid you'll have to come a bit closer...

Ta-da!  There's a tooth in there!  (It's a little hard to see, but it's really there, I promise.)

{Today is the last day that you can vote for our entry in the Paper Mama's Valentines challenge by clicking below--that is, if you haven't already done so! Thanks so much!}

A trip to Abby's Lane

A few weeks ago, my friend, Amie, invited a few other cloth-diapering moms to her home to talk shop; as you may recall, Sammy is a super soaker and I've been having some trouble keeping him dry through the night. I thought I found a solution by putting him in a disposable, but that turned out to be only temporary as Sammy soon began soaking through those, too.  Through the course of the evening, it was mentioned that the cloth-diapering website, Abby's Lane, had recently opened an actual brick-and-mortar store in nearby Manassas.  I liked the idea of actually being able to see the different diapers in person and discuss their pros and cons with someone who knew what they were talking about, so I planned a trip while my mom was down visiting the week before last.

Row after row of just about every brand of cloth diaper currently on the market as far as the eye can see greeted me as I walked through the door--I was overwhelmed by all of the different options, not too mention the cuteness. The women who worked there were very friendly and extremely knowledgeable about all of the different products; they suggested several different night-time diapering solutions that would work with my current Fuzzi Bunz as well as some other things to try; I wound up going home with two Gen-Y covers, two Boori bamboo prefolds, a SuperDo insert, and a Joey Bunz insert.  I'm really looking forward to figuring out the combination that works best for Sammy, not too mention another trip back to Abby's Lane in the future; anyone want to come along?

{And not to beat a dead horse or anything, but Sammy and I would appreciate it if you could vote for our entry in the Paper Mama's Valentines challenge by clicking below--that is, if you haven't already done so! Thanks so much!}

Just look at this face

I don't usually post over the weekend, but this is sort of a special situation.  I just found out that my entry in the Paper Mama's Valentines Challenge has made it to the top thirty and Sammy and I need your help to win!  Time is of the essence, so click here to cast your vote by midnight 1pm (EST) on Tuesday, February 8th--Sammy and I are counting on you!

Foto Friday: SOOC (straight out of the camera)

This week's suggested theme over at the Household 6 Diva is a photo you've taken that comes straight out of your camera (which means no editing has been done).  I had a couple of photos this week that actually didn't require much tweaking (yay for figuring out correct exposure!), so I decided to go with this one:

I know it may seem like an unusual choice, but I was really taken with the unique carving of this beautiful headstone. The inscription reads: "The Grave of/ELISABETH MOSS/who died on the 2nd of/December A.D. 1834/aged 70 years." There are a handful of other headstones in this cemetery carved by the same hand--I can't help but wonder what influenced his distinctive style. The headstone is located in Robinson Run Cemetery in South Fayette Township, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, which is about 10 minutes from where I grew up (it's also where my grandmother was buried this Wednesday).

Click below to check out the rest of the photos; have a great weekend everyone!
(GO STEELERS!!!!)