Wedding Album

I finished on time!  I hope this html works.  I also made a mistake that I just saw now that it's published.  Not sure how big it will be until I get the printed version of the book as the pages are 13"x11".  It may just seem like it's supposed to be there...which is how it kind of seems in the preview.  I'm not going to say where it is though.

Pinterest

So, Sarah has turned me on to Pinterest.  It's a website where you "pin" anything and everything that you like.  Like a virtual bulletin board.  Alana said it best when she exclaimed (on facebook) "it's like window shopping the world!"  Most things I have pinned have been craft related, food related, decor related or saying related.  But mostly, I have noticed that it has started to fuel my creative fire.

And here I thought it was only a great way to kill even more time that I incessantly waste during this unemployment phase in life.

So, hey, fueling fires is a perk.  My knitting desire has increased, as has my productivity on our wedding book.

I'm scrapbooking my wedding online using Heritage Makers.  I love that I can do so many things digitally.  SO much has opened up my choices using digital scrapbooking.  So much so that it get overwhelming.
Quickly.
The other bad side is the cropping.  In hands on (or "old fashioned") scrapbooking, once you crop your photo, you're done.  No recropping, unless you make it smaller, and no resizing.  While I like the resizing option, I spend SO much time resizing each picture until it is the exact same size as the pictures around it.  Or so the margins look equal.  Or I'm moving the pictures millimeters to make them line up correctly.  Perfectly.  Because it's digital and I can't go back and fix it later unless I want to reprint the entire book.
So it's really good and fun in some ways (Instant enlargements and full page photos!  Quotes at my finger tips!  ANY COLOR I want can get changed!  I make some of my pictures transparent and layer them!), and it's really exhausting in others.  I'm trying to finish before the end of February.  (They are discounting albums published in February.)

Spending all this browsing time on pinterest is helping.  Or so I tell myself.  Inspiration is a good thing.  And so is recognizing pleasing patterns.  I can then take things my brain has told me that it likes and see what I've already done on Heritage Makers, and re-do everything again.

Click click click click click.....

Moving these pictures a millimeter here and a millimeter there.  To perfection.

Another reason I'm smitten with my husband

He can have a conversation with himself.

And when I say this, I mean he represents both sides of the conversation with himself and anyone (or anything) else.  Most of the time, I believe he doesn't quite know what the other entity (in his head) is going to say or how he'll respond.  Often, hilarity ensues.
Most times, the other person is me.  (His imitation of me is not that flattering though.)  But it's amusing to me to hear how he thinks I would respond in a given situation.
Also, this usually happens when he's the most "punchy."  Which is why I'm writing about it.  I'm assuming most people who know him won't hear him do this in a normal interaction.

Anyway, the night before last, a conversation popped up where the other "party" in question was the cat.

J:   "I'm not setting my alarm until 7 am tomorrow so I can sleep in!  Except, I probably won't sleep in, because SOME cat will wake me up at 5:30 to be fed!"

J (as the cat):  "But Dad, I get soooo hungwy!"

J:  "You're such a fatty!  You don't need more food!"

J (as the cat):   "No!  I'm just an itteh bitteh kitteh!  And I'm on a committeh!"

J:   "YOU KNOW NOTHING OF PARLIAMENTARY PROCEDURE!"


And then I laugh so hard I snort.  While brushing my teeth.  So you can imagine the potential for disaster as toothpaste snorted up the back of the throat is not comfortable.

Not that I would know.

Maybe I was punchy too.  Or maybe, just maybe, I'm just that easily amused.

Good times

I've had a lot of good days lately.  The weather has been warmer (even up to 50 degrees!), I've been able to get (and want to stay) outside, and I've just been having some relaxing and fun times with the hubs.  

Valentine's Day was great.  I made individual beef wellingtons with balsamic roasted potatoes with steamed broccoli and carrots covered in hollandaise sauce.  It was really delish...except that I overcooked the wellies.  I was instructed to "let them rest" a bit after I pulled them out of the oven (and I had seared them before I wrapped them up too), but I let them rest on the warm baking sheet!  So I think they just cooked and cooked and cooked after they were done and ended a nice a juicy well done instead of med. rare.  Sigh.  Oh well.  It was still good and I learned a lot.

I also broke out the crystal candle sticks and the new table linens for a romantic dinner.  Yay!

Dessert was wedding cake.  (we get a freshly made layer for our one year anniversary from the bakery).  We also had red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting that I had made on the previous Thursday and some Sheri's Berries that Mom and Dad had sent us.  So we basically had a dessert laden weekend leading up to Valentine's.  :)

The Friday before, Tina and I went to get pedicures.  It was so relaxing and well worth it.  At the end, my pedicurist asked me if I wanted to have an eye make up consultation for free and then I would also receive a free trial sized mascara.  So sure, why the heck not?  They were promoting Bare Minerals Make Up, which I already use, so hey, no issue here.  I selected the "smokey eye" demonstration and walked out of there with so much eye make-up, I sat in my car afterward and wiped most of it off so I wouldn't feel self conscious as I shopped in Bed Bath and Beyond, which was my next stop.  I also purchased some Mineral Veil.  I usually shop the Bare Minerals store (none here) or Ulta (also none here), so I figured I best pick some up.  With the purchase I was entered into a contest for free lip set.  

Upon going to Bed Bath and Beyond, I discover that they are putting an Ulta into my favorite strip mall area!  Woot!  Then I got a phone call the next day saying I had WON the lip set!  Woot woot!  

Now, this weekend is a four day for the hubs as it's President's Day on Monday.  So far the weekend has been full of sleeping in and naps.  We did work out yesterday so we don't feel completely sloth-like.  We also went to a hockey game last night.  It was the Quad City Mallards vs. the Bloomington (I'm guessing IL) Prairiethunder.  And the Mallards won 3-2 in OT in a very exciting game!  It was a lot of fun and we had a good, but late, dinner afterwards at our fave local joint, The Riverhouse.  (They have great homemade chips that comes with a garlic cream dipping sauce.  Num num.)  AND, I caught a t-shirt that they launch in the crowd!  I never get those!  A nice little token from the QC when we move.

Speaking of moving...

I thought that having the job list would make life a bit easier.  Or at least that I would feel better.  Um, no.  We got a list of 152 jobs that we have to rank in order of preference and they are all over the world.  John has already separated out the KD (what he needs) jobs from the non KD and joint jobs, and asked me to rank locations after that.  Then he will go through and rank the preferable jobs within those locations and preferable PCS date.  

My first choices include Washington (Seattle area), Germany, Alaska and Ft. Eustis out near VA beach, I think.  My second choices include Colorado, Hawaii, Texas (Hood, not Bliss), and the Savannah, GA area.  My "do not want" choices include Kuwait (as I would not move and be here for another year), Japan, Korea, Florida, New York, and California.  Among other places.

And now we wait.  Again.  I think Branch should have these things sorted out my mid to late March.  And then we put in plans to start the PCS process.  Maybe John will deploy again after we move.  Maybe not.  If so, I'm hoping to get at least 6 months in our new place with him.  And then I can start the job thing anew.

In the meantime, I've been meaning to post eagle pictures.  If I can learn to get them off of the new big camera.  Because it didn't come with a cable!

More later.  Off to get the pot roast out of the oven.

Anti-social

I'm not sure if it's just the winter time blues.

Or the lack of sun.

(are those the same thing?)

Or the lack of structured time use throughout my day.

Or the complete lack of "plan" in my life at the moment.

I'm making more of an effort to be social because
a) I feel better when I am and when I get out to meet people
b) and well, I guess that's it.
c) oh, maybe it's because it gets me out of the house too

It's just very easy and lazy to not get outside.  I can sit at the computer and read about what people are doing on facebook and play games.  L - A - Z - Y.

And where, exactly, does my laziness come from?  I have no idea.  It comes and goes in spurts.  Holy cow, yesterday, I was so tired, I felt like I had been hit by a truck.  I am blaming it on my Total Body Conditioning class, but it may have been because my body just needed the extra rest as well.  (ie, fighting a small bug.)  I fulfilled my duties for the day (picked up dry cleaning, took Otis to the vet), but did very little else all day.

Upon thinking about it, I'm going to attribute this funk more towards my "lack of future plan" theory.  I have no job, I have one prospect for a job that I won't even hear about for another 23 days, we have no job list for future assignments so I can't plan for housing or jobs in a new location, we're not in a place to plan for a family.  I'm just... here.

Being anti-social.

Probably because I have nothing to tell anyone about my life.  There is nothing new going on.  I am plan-free.

In the short term, we did go eagle watching.  I've been meaning to get pictures up on here.  (Laziness strikes again.)  And we're talking about planning a weekend trip to Chicago.  Maybe see a baseball game (when baseball starts again), and hit the aquarium, among other things.

In the meantime, I'm going to try to be more social.  Today was a great example because I went to lunch in a nearby town I haven't been to before (LeClaire, IA) and saw people I haven't met before.  And I had 2 coffees with Bailey's.  And orange creme crepes for dessert.  It definitely helped bust me out of my funk.

Because no one likes a funky Jen.

Unless it's in a 70's outfit disco sort of way.

Project

A few weeks ago Sarah posted a link on a monthly menu board giveaway, in which I found the link on how to make your own magnetic menu board.

And while they are SUPER cute, I investigated the link on tips to make your own, and found it....well, exhausting.  And so I started thinking of things I could do to make my own.  I immediately had to have one of these.  Menu planning is a bit tough for me sometimes.  Not tough as in, "derp, I don't know how to plan ahead" but as in, "I don't set aside time to plan a meal for a week from Saturday."  It didn't seem like a good way to use my time when my time was so much better spent... uh, procrastinating.  PLUS, having a menu board promised loads of other perks, like making the shopping list easier and meal prep an absolute breeze!  I was all on board! (no pun intended.  ha!)

SO.

I looked at magnetic dry erase boards with calendars on them.  Simple enough, right?  The better ones were about $40.  More than I wanted to spend.  I found some other things though, and so far, they are working great.

These are just magnetic squares that also double as dry erase boards.  I purchased a calendar one and a blank one (available in various colors).  They are made by "the Board Dudes."  (I had never heard of this company until I found them at the office supply store.  They seemed to be relatively what I was looking for.)

 The Calendar side.  I had to measure and cut each little square to fit inside the days without overlapping or covering up the date.

 I use the blank side to hold the spares, the shopping list, and (not shown in this pic) a magnetic pen holder I have had since I was in 7th grade.  I used it in my locker.  Teehee!

 This is a sample meal square.  This is where being a scrapbooking dork comes in handy.  I had lots of card stock, and I also found this paper that was a bit stiffer than card stock.  And it was glittery!  Bonus!  I just cut some ivory card stock a bit smaller than the original, wrote the menu item down, wrapped it in packing tape (or what I like to call "ghetto lamination" since I was not going to buy a laminator or laminating paper for this project), and super glued a magnet (also purchased at the office supply store) onto the back.

 See?  There it is.  I decided to use super glue because the magnets were quite strong and I could just see myself ripping off meals in my impatience to move them around the board.  The super glue is working quite well.  And I only nearly super glued my fingers to a magnet once!

I hung the boards on the wall with these Command Damage-Free Hanging strips.  Of course, the boards came with their own way to attach them to the wall.  But the packaging clearly stated that the adhesive was permanent and would probably damage walls.

No, thank you.  I opted to make this project Army family-friendly since we have a few moves in our future.

Soooo, has it worked?  Am I magically organized and now have oodles of time?

Well, it took a week to post this post.  So, organized as I may be, I'm still a procrastinator extraordinaire.  I did find the grocery shopping list absurdly easy.  But then, even as I put meals on the board, they get changed constantly.  The chicken isn't thawed in time, or we're both tired, or someone wants to go out after work, so we insert more "eat out" nights than I had planned.  And grocery shopping.  Well.  As it turns out, I like to see what else would be interesting so I buy lots more than we need.  Like...pretzel bread.  It's good with soups!  However, I didn't plan on making any soups this week...  What can I say?  The sample lady got me in a weak moment.  I was also hungry.  Which probably helped my hefty grocery bill.

At least that's what happened this last time I went to the store.  To be fair, however, I went shopping before this huge storm hit half of the country and I was swept up into the frenzied mood at the store.  Everyone and their aunt was there in the middle of the day to make sure they didn't want for anything in the middle of the blizzard conditions stuck in the house.  I, for instance, purchased bagel thins.  I don't eat breakfast very much.

(I should amend that.  I usually have a protein/greens drink mix for breakfast.)

The bottom line:  I'm very glad I made this!  It looks cute, albeit not nearly as cute as aforementioned boards, but cute.  I had a hand in creativity, and I can always make more meals once we decide we want to add one to our repertoire.  I might have to get another blank board though as the one we have gets very full in the planning process.

I also need more magnets.