Pallet Table

So we have been in the civilian lifestyle for almost 2 months now. I started back at work several weeks ago. I got a promotion at Sears so I'm not a manager. It's pretty awesome.
Jon doesn't start the police academy until April 29th so we have had a lot of free time.
What did we do with that? We did a lot of shopping and built a pallet table.
Want proof? Ok.

They started like this...

 

 

and this...

 

So we turned it into this...

 

and this...

 

and then stained it to look like this...

 

 

and this...

 

and now it looks something like this...

 

 

We did purchase some lumber to border the outside and to give it sturdier legs but other than that and the price of nails and stain it didn't cost us anything. Those gigantic pallets were free. They originally had spaces between the boards which we didn't like so we ripped a couple off of one we weren't using and cut them down to fit those slots.

 

We got the design for the legs from googling pictures of pallet tables and finding one we liked. We edited it a little for our personalization but it wasn't hard to do.

 

If you have a saw, hammer, and nails (and I personally recommend wood glue as well) you can do this too. It was so easy!

 

We were inspired to make this because we could not find an affordable patio table that we liked. We both love rustic furniture so when we saw everyone building things out of pallets we said why the heck not?

 

We had planned on using normal sized pallets which I can say would have been a pain in the arse. We got extremely lucky to find such perfect sized pallets in such great shape for FREE!

 

Seriously, search craigslist for free pallets you will find a ton.

 

 

Free time has served us well. What will you be creative with today?

Eshakti love

I was recently contacted by a representative over at Eshakti to do a review on their clothes. It was perfect timing because I really needed a new dress blouse and they have a great selection. I chose the Bird on wires tie-front blouse.

I'm sorry I don't have a picture of myself in the shirt. My camera is missing with the move and I just now thought about taking a picture with my phone. I'll upload one later on.

Anyways, anything you order on this site can be made to fit your body style. You take your measurements and input them into the form and voila! You can also chose to select a generic size. I chose to go with a size small instead of doing custom measurements. Mainly because I could not find my measuring tape for the life of me. This move has made a lot of things disappear.

It doesn't matter though because the shirt is BEAUTIFUL and fits wonderfully. It goes great with a blazer or cardigan and I personally love it with dress pants. They have a ton of beautiful clothes from blouses to skirts. And who doesn't dream of having their clothes made custom to your body? They're great!!

I definitely want you all to at least look at the site. This is my second piece. I won a dress last year on Allie's blog over at My Marine and Me. She also happens to be a great friend who I just had to leave behind in Jacksonville. I miss you Allie! I saw that she had been contacted by Eshakti as well so you should go check out her post about it!

Talk to you soon <3

Adios Marine Corps...for now.

Today was my husbands last day in the Marines. He got his dd214 and we started packing up the house. We are headed out to Charlotte on Thursday.

I thought it would feel a lot different but honestly it just feels the same. Just another move. Maybe once reality hits in Charlotte I will feel a difference.

I'll try to keep up with blogging to talk about the transition but for now I have a ton of things to do!

Adios, for now!

Assault rifle ban

Wouldn't it be great if everyone could look at every situation objectively? If we could understand others point of view instead of projecting our passionate responses blindly?

My husband is one of the many people who are so passionately objecting this assault rifle ban. I understand his reasons, sort of. He thinks there is going to be another civil war and the government is trying to take away the people's weapons. I think anyways. That is the little bit he will let on. As I've mentioned before, he isn't great at expression.

I said I understand, as in I can understand what he is saying and why this would be his position on the matter. I do not think there is going to be a civil war. If there is then I hope the people who cause it realize how shameful they are. Our country is a lot better off than most.

Ok that was a bit of a rant. To get back to what I want to talk about... I'm not sure people are really capable of looking at a situation objectively once they create their opinion. With this assault rifle ban you have those for an against it. Those for it are the families who lost loved ones due to a murderer. In their eyes their loved one would still be alive if that person hadn't been able to access a gun.
Those who are against it see it as the government trying to take away their right to bear arms.

Both of these are good reasons to stand up for your choice. But neither reason gives you a right to act like a child and stomp your feet. We need to be able to think about this entire situation objectively to come up with the best possible answer.

For the record, I do not think banning assault rifles will prevent murderers from killing people. Drugs are illegal and we still have addicts.

 I think the government has an obligation to make the victims families feel at ease by doing something to allow them to feel protected as well as know their government is supportive. Banning assault rifles seems to be the obvious choice but it's not a great one.

If you put on your objectivity helmet for a second you will see that you can make both sides happy by compromising. You do not have to ban assault rifles to make the families feel like you are doing something to prevent this from happening. You can increase security at schools.

I'm also not quite sure why registering all of your firearms is such a big deal. Once again I think my husband might be a little paranoid about "the man" when it comes to something like this. It doesn't seem like there can be any harm from the government knowing what weapons you own. But on the other hand since I don't see the benefit of it either it seems unnecessary.

So I guess this was just a nice long chat about increasing security at schools instead of banning assault rifles. But the real message is to consider others and be objective. Let's all be better human beings.

My year, yea yea I'm back, sort of.

I know I said I was done writing but after realizing it is now 2013 I feel the need to write it out.

2012 went fast. That's really all I can say about this past year. My husband came home in February and now it's January 1 and yet it still feels like yesterday. Our daughter is almost 2 years old and has grown up so much this past year. Other than her milestones this year has just kind of rolled on by.

I blame it on the anticipation of our future. With my husband getting out of the military we knew that the beginning of 2013 was going to be a huge change. Now that it's January we have less than 2 months before we will be in Charlotte. I mean literally the first step in the rest of our lives is less than 2 months away.

Our 3 year anniversary is tomorrow. It feels like we missed a year and this should be our 4 year anniversary but I'm not quite sure why. Probably because the military has a way of making years seem twice as long. Although I am constantly stressed out lately due to this impending life change, I have to say that I am so happy that I have my husband and that we get to celebrate 3 years together. I know that so many women are not so lucky and would give anything to celebrate another year together. My husband is such an incredible man and I still thank God that he chose me.

I am sure that 2013 is going to fly by as well. Before I know it we will be in Charlotte, I'll have started my new career, Abigail will be 2 years old!, and life will start to calm down and steady out again.

Until my husband rejoins the military as a reservist. But that's a story for another day.

As of today I am promising myself that I will worry less and trust in God more. I spend too much time stressing over things that are happening regardless and less time just going with the flow. It's time to kiss the stress goodbye and focus on the positives.

Happy new year everyone. I hope 2013 is everything you need it to be.

237th Birthday Ball

I know that you have all probably read 100 different posts about the ball so I will leave you with a few facts and pictures.

The facts of the night were...

-Husband choosing the moment the guest speaker took a pause in his speech to pop open his can of beer. I was mortified but every marine laughed.

-I found out the big beautiful cake is mostly cardboard.

-I did not dance once which was good because my dress required me to go commando and I was anxious about a peep show all night.

-I met Urkel. Not really but this guy looked just like him once he's transformed into Stephan. He had a nickname but once I pointed the resemblance out everyone called him Urkel. (He's cool and didn't mind).

-I met a female MGYSGT. Her husband is a GYSGT and is probably the closest to a greek god I have ever seen. She was really beautiful as well and I couldn't help but be jealous of the amazing, god-like couple talking to me.

-My husband ended the night with his head in the toilet. Not exactly how I imagined the ball but I'm sure he and all of the other plastered marines had a great time and that's all that matters.

I can only order prints of our professional picture but I have a couple others to share.

Oh hey I've been gone

So as you can probably tell I am not blogging so often anymore. I hate to say it but I think this chapter in my life has come to a close. I don't get the urge to run to my computer and blog about life anymore. It's probably due to the enormous amount of responsibilities that are in my daily schedule but that's neither here nor there.

I am feeling an urge to update everyone on my recent decisions.
We are exiting the military lifestyle in March of 2013. My husband has decided to become a police officer and he has been offered conditional employment by the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department. Therefore we will be moving to Charlotte (or a nearby town) very soon.

I'm excited about the move but the transition makes me want to throw up. He won't start the academy until June it looks like so for 3 months he won't be employed. That means I don't have a lot of time to search for employment. Unfortunately this stresses me out to no end.

I am almost done with my first semester of my MBA and will soon begin my second. I take 2 twelve week classes at a time and they are back to back. Thankfully I do not ever feel overwhelmed but I do stay quite busy.

Unfortunately simply being enrolled in my MBA program does not mean I am anymore qualified for certain positions than only having my bachelors degree. It's a little disconcerting but I know eventually I will complete the MBA program and then hopefully it will advance my career, should I be lucky enough to find the right company in the near future.

As far as leaving the military goes I am on the fence. I think it's ridiculously foolish to give up a job in this economy especially one that leads to such great retirement benefits. But I know my husband is unhappy and it is easier knowing he already has a career lined up. That is if I can take the reins on my stallion of a husband and make him stick with this new career.

I find myself wondering if I could be in the military. The answer always leads to if I didn't have Abigail. I would never be able to leave her for the length of time I know would be required of me. My husband is a much stronger person than I could ever pretend to be. Although it would be delightful to feel important in a career for once in my life.

I desperately want to find my purpose in life. Professionally that is. I hate settling for work that I would be accepted for without any college education. I have earned my degrees and should be able to use them. I'm very hopeful for Charlotte and yet dreading it at the same time.

I suppose maybe I did need to vent on here a little bit.
I am on here nearly every day reading all of the blogs I follow. I just haven't written in a while. I'm not saying goodbye forever I'm just officially stating that I probably won't be keeping up with posts on a regular basis like I used to.