Welcome home boys

  Yesturday, sitting in the Hyundai waiting room for 2 hours while getting our oil change and tires rotated, an older gentleman was in the room with us waiting for his car to get washed. When the service sales man came into the room to show us how dirty our filter was, I heard the older man smirk to himself as Zack sat back down next to him, and continued playing on his phone. The older man looked over at Zack and proceeded to say a comment which sounded like it was going to be on eof those "You know in my day...." converstaions *insert eye roll and awkward smiles*.  The man begun to tell us about when he was younger how he had "one of them pickup trucks" and said it was so funny that one day, he took it in to get it looked at and the repair guy said his filter was so bad that he had to take a vacuum to itand behind it just remove all the dust and junk that had built up. Zack and I just nodded and said the usual "oh really? wow!" Then somehow he started talking about WWI, WWII and Vietnam, like most of them do. After a long pause he says "From one veteran to another, Thank you.... I think that's why the older veterans are so focused on giving you all such a wonderful welcome home; Ya know?...they never got one...." That right there hit me!

 

  When we were in Alaska last month, we went to a movie called Honor Flight, its about sending hundreds WWII vets to DC on one flight, to see the memorial before they pass away. When they fly back to the airport, they walk into the terminal and see a few people with signs saying welcome home we thank you; As the walk further into the airport, they see more and more people all around. All these strangers begin hugging them, smiling at them, shaking their hands, until they walk into the middle of the airport where they are bombarded with smiles, tears of happiness, a loud band playing, confetti everywhere and their families; Its a real welcome home that they deserve. If any one wants to see an amazing movie, I would hands down recommend this movie by far! There wasn't one person in the hole theater with dry eyes! This is the Website telling you all about the organization.

 

 I decided to dedicate this blog post to all the men and women who came home from over seas; You all did a job well done!

 

 I know Zack got home over 2 months ago and this post is long over due but I think we had a great welcome home and I would like to share it with you.

My friend Kate and I did these one afternoon. I'm happy

 how they came out. My friend Denise and I put them up on my

garage with Justin Bieber duct tape lol



 

With window Chalk I wrote "Welcome home Sgt. Scribner.

I recommend using the window markers rather than chalk because

the chalk washes off with even the littlest rain (and it poured)

 

Welcome home event it was beautiful

 

The band was amazing and kept us busy because Lord knows

I was anxious as all heck :)

 

He's finally home! Excuse the hair... like I said, it POURED!

 

 

 

  My friend Denise came up a few days before they got home and she got to see her (soon to be) Husband come home from the same deployment. This was her first welcome home she ever went to so I came as support and as her "photographer"

 



This was the best experience that I've seen. I was so happy that

I was invited along to take pics.

  I believe that now a day we are truly blessed when our significant others deploy. Back in the day they had to write letter, yea I still ask for Zack to write me letters once in a while because its more personable, but I usually get them in like a weeks time frame; back then it would take longer. That's all you had to know your loved one was alive, a letter; No emails, phone calls, no pictures or even Facebook. I got worried when Zack took a few hours to respond to me, let alone if I had to wait weeks. I was just talking to Zack about that the other day, being a military spouse is hard, but I give props to anyone who had to do that without the technology.

One of my best friends greeting her husband in the Army coming home to HI

  Lets continue to help out or fellow military men and women; lets give them the best welcome home we can because not everyone gets one!

WELCOME HOME BOYS!

 

 

Love you all,

Thankful Thursday

I'm going to do something a little different. Every Thursday I want to do thankful Thursdays. I want to write every week of something I'm thankful for. There are so many blessing we come across every single day, and I just want to try and highlight atleast one every week.

This week its only right to Thank my dad!

My mom and father divorced when I was really young; when I was in 3rd grade she married a man named Robert, he was the best thing that could have happened to us; he is who I call dad. He gave us the life you could only find in fairy tales. My mom was a single mom when we were growing up so we only had what we needed, but then she found her knight in shiny armor. Without him, I wouldn't know what true love was, without him I wouldn't know how a man is suppose to treat a woman, without him we wouldn't know what happiness truly was. He made us all better version of ourselves; My dad was a blessing in disguise.

My dad took on vacations every year to Disney, allowed us to have the best Christmases anyone could ask for and the best thing if all... security. When I was 10 they blessed us with a little sister, now there was 4 of us kids and I wasn't the only girl anymore. That topped it all off for us, life couldn't be better.

Without having a positive male role model in my life I don't think I would have found someone even as remotely as amazing as my husband. My dad set a high standard for me and taught me by example to not settle and to be treated with nothing less than the best.

For all that and more. I am thankful for my dad

Another thing I am thankful for is my father. This last time Zack got deployed I got to live with my father in New Jersey, I had a great time. I lived there for 6 months and really got to know him; It was awesome to finally get to know him as an adult. We had a lot of good conversations and we really got to bond. I am thankful that I got to start building a relationship with my father and to connect the way we did.

Some people don't have a male role model in their lives and I thank God that I have two that love me very, very much! I am truly blessed!

Comment below of you have something this week to be thankful for!


Love you all,

This I believe

In class last year we had to write a essay called "This I believe"; We had to think of something we are so passionate about and write the essay explaining why we believe what we do. I wrote on Love and how people give up on it so easily on it:

It was 1917 when young men were drafted for WW1. Many young men left behind their mothers, fathers, siblings and wives to fight in the war. In the small town of Canandaigua, NY a mother kisses her son goodbye and lights a candle in places it in the window. Over 95 years later a candle still is in that window keeping her vow; the vow to keep a candle lit until your loved one returns. That brought on the tradition that families still use today, to show no matter how long it takes they will wait. It used to be commonplace to go months or even years without seeing your significant other. Today it seems that people break down and leave each other over something as medial as missing dinner three times a week. I believe, that if you want something you have to work for it, that if you love someone you have to fight for that love and that true love comes to those who wait.

            I met my husband in January of 2009, three months later he deployed to Afghanistan for a year where the only communication we had was a fifteen minute phone call once a month if we were lucky.  I knew that if I honestly loved and cared for him I had to be strong. Seeing my friends with their loved ones just a text away made things even harder, but I knew he was worth the wait. I also know that when you see them get off the plane after a long months of waiting is magical, and saying goodbye after a few months of spring love is heart wrenching, but the pay-off is well worth it.  I will take a few years of waiting, for a lifetime of happiness any day. Waiting is the hard part but as an old American proverb states, “absence makes thy heart grow fonder”.

            My husband has been on three deployments since we’ve been married and it never gets any easier; every deployment is just as hard as the one prior but being apart for so long allows us to treasure the moments we have with each other and build a stronger bond between us. We are not only building a stronger relationship but we are building trust and assurance in one another, knowing that no matter where life takes us we have a love that can withstand anything. Just like the house on the corner of Foot Hill and Main Street in Canandaigua, NY the candle in my window will never go out until my love one comes home safely. No matter what, I believe in waiting on the one I love and that true love comes to those who wait.

Sadly, The essay competition wasn't going on anymore by the time our essay were due so I couldn't enter it :( but I hope you liked it.

Click here to look at some more essays on their website Or order the book off of Amazon you wont regret it.

Love you all,

25th Birthday Tea party!

A few months after I got to NJ it was Christmas. I was helping my Aunt take all the Christmas China from the cabinet; That's when I found the most beautiful tea set I've seen. That's when I decided to have a tea party for my 25th birthday. I started to look on pinterest and other tea party websites. this is what I came up with:

 This is the main food table

This is the other table in the living room

   
     My theme was rose color and a hint of Alice and Wonderland. The picture above, I bought Alice in Wonderland paper from the original book, door knob and key hole, the heart keys, and the aged cards I got off of Etsy.

The beautiful invitations I got off of zazzle 

Napkins:

Broach I got off Etsy.

Bar pins I got at Michaels

 

Hot glued the pins onto the back of the broaches

Rolled up the rose colored napkins I got off Amazon and

pinned on the broaches

 

I made about 10 of them

 

 

 

 

Table Cloth: 

 I bought Rose color solid table cloth and then put

a white lace cloth on top.

 

 

 Chairs:

I bought bows like you see at weddings; added the perfect pop to the chairs.

 

 

 

 

 

Strawberry Pizza:



Oil the bottom of the cupcake pan. Put a small ball

of sugar cookie and cook for about 5-7mins but

be sure to check frequently cause it burns fast

 

 Cut strawberries small, add sugar and put in the fridge for 24hrs

(optional)

add strawberry cream cheese, and the sugar covered

strawberries on top. Taste sooo good

 

 

 

Banana Pudding:

I found little appetizer cups and spoons at Party city.

Crumble pie crust, add a few thinly sliced bananas, then vanilla pudding,

then a few sprinkles of crust for the top. yum!

 

7 layer dip:

Bought tumblers at the store, perfect size for

individual portions of dip.

1. refried beans 2. guacamole 3. sour cream 4. salsa 5. grated cheese 6. olives 7. tomatoes 

 

Cucumber sandwiches:

In FL there is this grocery store called Publix. They make this bread

called Rainbow bread for back to school. Its just italian bread

with food die. we used cookie cutters to make flowers and butterflies.

inside is cucumber slices, mayo, cream cheese and garlic salt.

 

 

 

Other appetizers we made were croissants, strawberry butter, cupcakes, Pillsbury strawberry lemonade cookies, Pinwheels, chips, salsa, fruit, veggies, and tea

 

 

 

Strawberry butter:

   - Stick of room temp butter

   - strawberry preserve

 

mix the two together and wa-la strawberry jelly which tastes amazing on warm croissants

 

 

Here is more pictures of the layout :)

 

 

 lamp shades (David Tutera), candle holders, tooth picks, and lanterns I got off of Amazon.

Alice in wonderland Tea cup and saucer:
take a porcelain cup and saucer and draw on the dish with sharpies. put the dish in the oven and set the oven for 350* for 30mins. when the timer goes off turn off the oven and allow them to cool with the oven. now the markers are baked onto the glass. hand wash only to make the colors last :)




 Love you all,

 

The few inbetween

It's getting closer and closer till Zack comes home. Oh boy am I ready. In the beginning I felt excited because that's money to pay off our credit card (which is only for emergencies or plane tickets) our TV,  mattress and my student loan (which we did... cue the happy dance) but there is a lot of anxiety, what if's and the unknowns (HATE the unknowns) that you feel before they leave. I know for Zack and I, the past 2 deployments we would kind of distance ourselves a month before he left, and we would get into fights about silly things. This deployment I had to pack up the house pretty much by myself. He work 12 on 12 off (12 hrs of working straight, sometimes 13hrs) which meant when I got off work of my part time job I had to go straight into packing up our 2 story house, which was a fight all its own. On the weekends him and his friend would fix up his truck so he could sell it, which seemed like a month of them taking it apart, cleaning everything and rhino lining the bed of the truck. I was getting very annoyed, sometimes I even caught myself saying "will you just deploy already?", then leave to go to the gym or work. That sounds horrible but the hole situation was very stressful and this was his 3rd deployment; I was over him leaving me for 10+ months at a time... I just wanted HIM! The last week was emotional on another level... kind of felt like a break up. I was packing my stuff, he was hauling it all away, and we were hardly talking. My heart ached. After he left I was at the house cleaning up everything... again I was stressed out because not everything got done the night before and I felt like he left me with EVERYTHING, I just broke down and started crying while cleaning. It wasn't fair I felt, I had to clean the hole house, I had to make the last minute storage unit runs, I had to sign back over the house, I had to take care of the animals now by myself, and I had to move to another state that I've never been too (I was moving to NJ with my dad). I felt alone and miserable and no one in the world could ever possibly know how I was feeling.

*Let me tell you, everything you feel is perfectly normal even if you feel alone, there are thousands of spouses and significant others who are going through the same thing as you.

After I got on the road I was doing ok, I got to see my family and I was ready for this new adventure! As the months progressed I got a job, made a friend or two and hung out with all my family up here in NJ. I was having a good time, hated my job, but having a good time. I got on a new schedule day to day, visited my sister in CT a few times, and met up with a few military friends who were in NYC, so, we got to hang out all day and have dinner. I went on a train for the first time, went on the subway, took a million pictures, met a few celebrities, went to a live showing of a tv show, and saw time square... life was good

Such a beautiful city

Kelly Ripa

Michael Straham

 1st subway ride 

 Grand Central Station

 Christmas tree

 Time square

 My friends I met up with

 Fathers girlfriend and I on the FAO piano floor

Family friend works as the manager so we got to try all sorts of goodies :D

 

*Sometimes I felt guilty that I was having fun and couldn't email Zack right off the bat but that's perfectly normal too. They want you to have a life while they aren't there, they love hearing stories from you... they are living through you!

 I felt a few times I wanted to scream at the top of my lungs... I tried to pay the bills and one time I needed to talk to the company and they refuse to talk to me because I'm not on all the accounts just yet, So I couldn't get anything done that I need to because its a hassle driving 20 minutes to the library or staples to fax over my POA in a busy town. His 2nd deployment I was trying to buy a car and I faxed over the wrong POA (I faxed the housing POA first) and I got red flagged, so even when I faxed over the correct POA they wouldn't help me. When calling navy federal, your POA only last 24 hours so I had to constantly send them the POA. Finally, after yelling and screaming and calling them a thousand times I gave up and just drove with my sister in law to Miami (3 hrs away was the nearest navy fed from my house in FL) walked in, showed them my ID and POA and then got the loan right then and there.... I wish I would have done that first. That was a ruff week and my husband wasn't able to call because he was on a boat with 3,000 people and 2 working phones.

Coming up to the last couple of months of deployment is ruff again. I miss him like crazy and we only have a few months standing in our way. Today was my last day of work. My mom and sister are coming up from FL to help me move back to NC. Im so excited... the quicker we move back the quicker he comes home. I am so irritable right now; Everything makes me mad or upset. I am such a happy person so this isn't in my character to act like this. I just want to sleep all day and never get out of my bed.

Sister and I in central park

 

On the way home to NC we stopped at Washing DC for a few days. It was A LOT of fun!!

 



 

 

 Easter egg hunt at the White House

 Science museum

 Hope Diamond

 My beautiful mom

Pretty church with all the Cherry blossoms

 



*It is crucial to keep your self busy; the busier you are the less time you have to think about your situation. that's the key... ALWAYS stay busy, time will go by fast and you'll spend less time thinking about him. Its ok to not think about him every two seconds, I promise!

*Don't ever feel guilty for any of these feelings. This is all the process of deployment. When he comes back, its normal to say things like MY stuff, MY house, MY kids etc. you spend the last X amount of months fending for yourself, making a new schedule/routine, and doing things by yourself. Just remember that it will pass and you'll have a new routine INCLUDING your significant other. Remember he will be stressed and not the same when he comes back, just as you wont be the same to him either. It will take some time but everything will be ok! Keep your chin up and there are numerous way to fix that and people who are willing to help you and talk to you after deployments. Talk to your FRO (family readiness officer) and they will help you with any feeling that your feeling or any thought that you have. They've heard everything, don't be afraid to express your thoughts and feelings, they will help! Also, if possible try and surround yourself by family and friends during this time, even though they might not know what you are feeling, they will listen and that's what you need to do, talk about it, be open with yourself!


I found this online and it breaks it down for you

If you have any question, comments, or a story please let me know :)

Love you all,