I really wish Hubs liked eating baked goods as much as I like making them, because he's got lots coming! I put together my Halloween box today and filled it with all sorts of yummy treats. Pinterest was a big help putting together this box.. | Another Pinterest find: Monster Mash. I got pretzels, candy corn, M&M's, Cheese-Its, Honey Nut Cheerios and tossed them in a big bowl! Super easy tummy treat and you can basically add what you want here.
| Pumpkin Rice Krispie Treats were a Pinterest find! It's your basic Rice Krispie Treat recipe (I always add peanut butter) Add some red and yellow food coloring to the marshmallow when you take it off the heat. Then just ball them up, stick in a tootsie roll, and you've got a pumpkin:)
|  Everybody do yourself a favor and go buy a box of these this fall! Delish! Yes, I sent my Hubs store-bought cookies, but they're totally worth it. And if I'm being honest- if I tried baking those from scratch they would have turned out purple tasting like cucumbers or something. I love to bake, but I avoid the flour and baking soda when I can ;)
| |  And there you have it, friends. One Halloween goodie box. There are lots of ways you could go with these. You could get every kind of Halloween candy and stick it in a homemade trick-or-treat bucket. (Fun project for the kids of you've got 'em.) You can send it after Halloween with lots of pictures of you and your kids in costume and some trick-or-treat candy that the kids wanted to share from their night. Also- I've got some orange Gatorade in there (orange for Halloween, of course,) but mostly because Gatorade is an inside joke for us that pretty much kicked off our relationship. So that being said, I encourage you all to add as many items that remind him of good times you had together as you can. A little inside joke, a ticket stub, a story in a letter, pictures of a vacation you guys took together- anything that brings him home for a second.
Happy Halloween, everybody!
M.
Hi, guys!
Hubs hasn't been receiving mail for a little bit because of some mail-room transitioning, so I've not been able to put a box together for him for a few weeks! I was super excited this weekend to play catch up and work on some minor projects to have ready for him when the mail room opens back up.
I wanted to make the "I" "Miss" "You" signs and take some selfies with them, but then I realized I know someone WAY cuter who would pull the pictures off much better (and Andy would probably enjoy them a little more;) That would be my amazingly beautiful nephew! So we did a little photo shoot! My dad has a super fancy, amazing camera and I am addicted to Photoshop, so this has probably been my favorite deployment project so far..
| | Now I can swallow my pride and admit that there's no way I could pull this off quite like Parker. He had so much fun taking pictures to send to Uncle Andy and I know Uncle Andy will be tickled to death when he sees them. I printed lots to send his way:)
| | | Aaaaand of course, a themed care package!
It's not my finest hour- or my most "PC" box, I guess. But it's a little something easy on the lighter side to hopefully get a smile out of Hubs.
It is a little "diabetes in a box", but I think he'll enjoy it! (I may or may not have taken out all of the chocolate tootsie-pops for myself.. ;)
| That's it for now, friends! I hope everybody had a smooth and steady "BACK TO SCHOOL!!" week last week! I'm drowning in homework and studying, myself- and loving the distraction! (This is the first and only time you'll ever hear me admit to loving homework... The things deployments do to us.... ;)
M.
Hi, friends!
Well Hubs mentioned last week that because of his shift he's getting up when his base is serving dinner! (Apparently it's a little hard to stomach chicken wings and french fries as soon as he gets up..:) I would give anything to take him warm, freshly made breakfast in bed, but I can't see the army okaying that one. So I'm doing the next best thing and sending him all the over-processed, sugary, yummy breakfast foods I can get into 1 box!!
 We've got yummy coffee creamers (because he likes about 287 cups a day;), his favorite flavor pop-tarts, to go oatmeal including nuts and dried fruit (which I made him all the time at home), regular oatmeal, a breakfast nut mix, granola with yogurt bars and the Nature Valley bars are amazing crunched up in Greek Yogurt with some fresh fruit (which he has access to when he wakes up).
|  I printed a quote to add to one of the sleeves:
“When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive- to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love-then make that day count!” ― Steve Maraboli
And I burned a CD, made the song list paper the sleeve for it and attached it to another sleeve. The other two are pretty obvious:) I also put notes on each item in the box...
| The CD is a mix of songs that make me think of him and new songs that he hasn't heard and doesn't have access to. This particular mix had songs like America The Beautiful (Miranda and Blake cover: AMAZING), See You Again by Carrie Underwood- (I wish I could send him the video- a must see for military wives if you ask me) Gone Gone Gone by Phillip Phillips, Miles by Christina Perry (the lyrics to both are great deployment lyrics IMO) and a few other goodies. I love sending him songs.. old ones that remind me of a certain event or fun time we had together, and new songs that have come out during the deployment that I think he would like..
My favorite verse through deployment:
“Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer” Romans 12:12.
M.
Greetings!
I hope everybody had a wonderful 4th of July last week! I visited my in-laws in Minnesota and spent the weekend at their cabin on the river up north. We had a fantastic time blowing off fireworks, laying out on our tubes in the river and most importantly, honoring our soldier. I know a lot of my fellow Bravo wives had a tough time with this 4th- as celebrating our soldiers without our soldiers is NOT so fun! But we got through it and are looking forward to being with them for the next one. (Can I get a HOOAH!)
Well you guys know I had to do a 4th of July box! I did something a little different than I had originally planned. I intended on sending a super patriotic box filled with lots of red white and blue candies, decorations and movies. Instead I took lots of pictures of MY 4th of July with his family in hopes it will give him a sence of being a part of it.
| | A lot of you have probably seen this frame idea on Pinterest. My Mother in Law painted a few frames and these are some pics that we took- the less goofy ones;) I think this is such a cute idea and you can have so much fun with it. Like I said before- you can't go wrong sending pictures, and this is a way to shake it up and give your soldier something a little different to look at. And hopefully he'll see and feel the fun in taking them:) Below are my favorite pictures. We've got one blowing kisses, and one of me sending a hug with support from his family. | And here's our "Cabin Fun" 4th of July box! I didn't get a picture of it after I packed it- oops! It was another miscellaneous box. I threw in toiletries like toothbrush, toothpaste, deodorant, contact solution, etc. It's super dry out there so I got him some good conditioner and lotion, too. I also put lots of fitness mags and protein bars. I couldn't help but add some travel magazines as well because, well, we live to travel! And of course, cards, letters and PICTURES! Thank you for reading and thank you to all the spouses out there who make sacrifices for our country! We ARE ARMY STRONG!
M.
The hubs and I are pretty low-key. We love a date night on the couch with some popcorn and a movie. So in the spirit of one of our favorite date nights I put together a movie night care package!
 You can't see the box that well, but I kept it pretty simple. "Admit One" ticket, a bag of popcorn next to the popular popcorn bucket and the "theme title" that just says "Movie Date" (ran out of room, but I was going for "Movie Date Night" NBD).
I got a popcorn box and stacked some boxed candy in the bottom, then added popcorn, MilkDuds, his favorite popcorn flavoring and a movie inside. I got a couple of movies that I've seen lately that I thought he would enjoy- Contagion and Forever Strong. I also included SNL's Will Farrel DVD because I'm always quoting it! (Just a fun little reminder of me:) I popped some popcorn and put it in a bag and wrapped a book I bought for him.
A girlfriend of mine told me about a book that her soldier is reading while deployed. It's one of those personal growth books and it mostly pertains to growing in your marriage and family. Well, Andy and I don't have a family, but I thought, "What a good idea!" We are spending all of this time apart, which kind of puts our marriage at somewhat of a "stand-still". We're always growing, always evolving and changing, but right now we're doing this as individuals more than we are as a couple. So I thought this was a great opportunity for us to both read this kind of book. It's a great time for us to evaluate what we, as individuals, are bringing to our marriage and learn how to get more out of our strengths and attributes as a couple. Plus I think it will keep us bonded and connected while he's away. We each have a copy, so I look forward to what this will bring to us when he gets home:)
Thanks for reading!
M.
Hi, guys!
So last week was a really fun and crazy week for me. My nephew turned 3 Friday, so my sister threw an outrageous Pirate party for him! Since the hubs is wrapped around Parker's tiny little finger and missing him like crazy, I've thrown together a Pirate box, complete with pictures from the party, goodies and even some treasure! I'm really excited to send this kid-like box to Hubs.. He's hot, he's tired and he's homesick for family (mostly the nephew, I think;) so this should be exactly what he needs to lift his spirits.
 Around the edges I put a few pictures from the party and some "pirate life" sayings. So all the pirate creativity is thanks to my sister, who threw an amazing Pirate Party for Parker!
|  We've got gum balls (or "cannon balls"), trolly worms ("fish worms"), life-savor gummies ("inner tube floaties"), liquorish ("Walk the Plank!"), and a couple others. There's also a Message in a Bottle and a pirate hat!
|  Here's me and the birthday boy himself!
|  This box wasn't so much a theme- it was Andy's requests box. He needed all sorts of basics (razors, shaving gel, deodorant, q-tips, etc.) I packed them all nice and tight in his box and put lots of pictures around the edges. Like I said, he's homesick and asked for pics from home- this box had lots. I have and will be sending them in each box I ship out from now on. Can't go wrong with pictures:)
Keep calm and stay ARMY strong, ladies! HOOAH!
M.
I guess considering I started this weeks ago and am only on my second blog I'm not great at this. I'm really going to try and get this down, though.
So Ive sent the hubs a few themed boxes.. My favorite was my Vacation theme- but it wasn't too dressed up because I actually sent it from my vacation! I went to Yosemite with my parents this past week and sent him lots of goodies from the gift shop (including "bear poo")!! I threw in a tee-shirt, a picture frame with a shot of me on a hike, and some locally made snacks.
I threw together a super cute "Nuts About You" box last week, too!  I threw in some Nutter Butters, trail mix, peanut butter and his fav candy bar, Butter-finger:)
|  I wrapped the Corn nuts, Reece's Pieces and honey roasted peanuts..
|  I went to Michael's and got some
stickers and supplies for making
cards, also!!:)
Okay, guys.. I'll start some deployment issue blogs soon- I'll share struggles I've had through deployments and how I got through them and hopefully shed a new perspective on what a lot of you are dealing with as well. Meantime, Go Army!
M.
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