It's been a while....

I was just on Pinterest for a minute or two (or 60), and saw a few times where my 'What It's Like to Love a LEO' post had been shared and pinned numerous times. The descriptions were amazing. People I didn't know saying thank you to me (who they didn't know) for writing something they could 100% relate to. Ladies, I'm here to tell you that post is still completely relevant to me too. Especially with all the happenings going on lately. It has just been one struggle after another. 

Seeing my post pinned over and over also made me realize how much I missed blogging. I know it's useless, but it gives me a way to interact with people who understand whether I know them or not. I have been so busy lately I let the things that I do just for me slide. WHY??? I need that now more than ever. My personal LEO has been gone this week. It has been difficult. He is handling something with K-9 so he's hours away and I'm here, being Mom and Dad. And the maid. And the cook. And the disciplinarian. And the zookeeper. I won't keep going, even though I could. 

Anyway, my week. Let's recap: Monday Copper left. No big deal. He was here until lunch. About the time he left our 7 yr old pit bull got sick. From everywhere. It lasted all night. I'm not sure if I felt worse for him or me. Oh, me definitely because by that night I was sick too. Up until 4:30 am the. Took the littles to school.l and thankfully it was uneventful, so Tuesday was okay, just a loooong day. Had to work on some vinyl stuff, normal job, etc. But then Wednesday came and it brought an entirely different meaning of hell with it. Got the kids up and dressed. Little says she doesn't feel good and won't eat breakfast so she lays on the couch and wraps up in a comforter. I take Big to school bc it's not even 5 minutes away. Left her with the phone and locked her in. Get back and walked over to check for fever. At this moment she sits up and literally throws up onto my feet. I'm talking about in between my toes folks. This went on all day. Port thing. Oh, remember how the dog was sick Monday? It lasted through Tuesday morning but that was it. Until the minute I had the slime between my toes. What do I hear happening in the other room? I won't tell you. Let's just say it was worse - yes, WORSE - than the toe slime. This also went on all day. I was so glad for it to end. 

So, here I am on Thursday. I'm taking care of the farm plus doing the 2 jobs and I get a call from Big's teacher letting me know he painted a kid one day this week (how in the hell did that even happen and how come I'm only finding out now) and has been turning in no homework. Awesome. He is so smart but he despises homework. Makes both of our lives difficult. Deal with that, and not very well I hate to admit. I'm stressed and still not over being sick so I had a moment. Whatever. It happens. 

I would like to give a HUGE shoutout to the single parents. It is so hard. I do spend a lot of time alone but it feels different when you know that eventually they'll be home. Might be after a 20 hour shift but they will be. Knowing my backup is hours away sucks. You people that do this all the time as single parents are amazing and have my full respect. 

The kicker? He's gone next week too. Send prayers. :/

Thanks for listening to my rant. Feel free to share your horror stories with me. We can vent and rant together as only

our community can. Blue Family is the best family. 💙💙💙

My new jewelry hangers.

I have been especially stressed out lately. I'm not typically a stressed person, but there have been a million things going on that are just out of my control. I'm not a control freak, but I like to know where things are headed. I have been planning on making some jewelry hangers for a while. When I get stressed I get extra productive. It worked out well in this case, because I now have some really cool jewelry hangers. We caught all the knobs on sale at Hobby Lobby for 50% off and spent about an hour picking them out. Husband wanted his own, kids wanted to pick out some... Yeah, it was a long process. But I loved what we wound up with. These are just some pictures of how I finished them.

Had to cut the right length of board.

I found some wood left by the previous owners of our house under the porch. It was perfect. As you can see, I didn't have any big saws or anything else out. Since we moved we don't have a workshop and it was easier to just cut it than to go to my MIL's to do it. I just decided what length I needed, cut it, and took it to my kitchen sink and washed it off.  Also, please don't judge me below. I was still in pajamas. It was just one of those days. :/ My daughter decided to snap some random pictures so I thought I'd use one.

I measuerd all mine 2.5 inches apart and left that same amount hanging off each end. It balanced nicely.

Drilling some holes.

Counter sunk holes.

I did stain and polyacrylic the fronts before I added the knobs, but most people want the really distressed look now. If that was what I wanted I wouldn't have done anything to it. These are the drilled holes with the knobs and nuts already screwed in. I didn't need the washers. I used 2 drill bits for these holes. I did the smaller part first with a 1/4 inch bit (I think). Drilled those all the way through, then put on a 1/2 inch bit and drilled about halfway through the wood. I did it slowly and had no problems at all. I have never done this before so I was surprised I didn't screw it up. It was easy.




Then my DH used a sawzall with a diamond blade and shaved off the extra length from the knobs. I could have done it, but he likes using the saw. It does look like a tiger stripe on the back of it but you can't tell anywhere else. We could have gotten the grinder out and the back would have been much prettier, but seriously, who's looking at the back when it's on my wall?

He's so helpful

You can't see the saw marks even from the top.

We wound up with something that made us both very happy. We each have our own. I was so happy with the way it came out. There are teeth type picture hangers on the back. One on each end. It sits almost flush with the wall. He loved all the weird knobs, especially the dog head. Too bad they didn't have any breed specific knobs. K9 officers have one track minds sometimes.

This is mine.

This is is TJs.

And the first one I actually made was for my MIL's birthday. She has beachy stuff all over her house so we were able to find the perfect knobs for her. She loved it. Hers is going to have 2 screws attached to each corner and wire wrapped around them so that it will hang on the wall like string for a different look. Fits her house perfectly.

MIL's birthday present.

 So there you go. Fairly easy to make your own cute, custom jewelry hanger. I'm going to make an earring holder from the long cabinet and door handles at some point. Those are already bought and at home too, just haven't had time.

On a side note, if anyone see any knobs anywhere police related, please let me know! I think it would be awesome to have one to put in his office. I say jewelry holders, but it could be a coat rack during the winter as long as it's hung well.

You say goodbye and I say hello.

I was listening to The Beatles on my way to work this morning. Such a great way to start the day. The song Hello Goodbye (one of my favorites) came on. Which made me automatically think about the fact that today is the last day of 2013 even though the song isn't about that. That led to rememberance of the many Facebook statuses I've already seen on the subject. Most are a variance of "new year, new me", "2013 can kiss my ass", "2014 is going to be the BEST EVER!!!!"... yeah, the same ones all of you have seen and possibly posted. The very same ones that I saw last year. And the year before that. And the year before that. And the year before that...

This is how my 2013 felt. Bright and shiny.

It just seems like everyone is so ready to say Goodbye to 2013 and Hello to 2014. I'm afraid to post a status on Facebook about it because I see a huge backlash coming from it as in I think I'm perfect and better than everyone else. Not that a fear of backlash would stop me from posting it. If I want to I will. I just think it's sad that I have a valid reason to think a happy post would make some people cringe. Well, start cringing because this is why I'm saying Goodbye to 2013 with no hopes of things having to get better, just that they stay the way they are because I'm happy. Happy! People, did ya hear that? Some people in the world are happy! There have been times I haven't been but I am now. And I don't want to feel bad for that.

I'm not perfect. My life is not perfect. I don't want it to sound that way. My husband and I both work very hard for what we have. I'm a great friend. I'm honest. I'm there if you need me. I try to be the best mom I can. I yell. I get angry. I try to be as good of a wife to my husband as he is a husband to me. But even with all the faults I am still happy because I make the best out of it and spend as much time with my family as possible because that is what keeps me going. There are things people can't control but you can control whether or not to be happy with what you have and at the very least make a conscious decision to TRY to make the best of it. I wish you the best of luck on this from the bottom of my heart because everyone deserves to be happy.

This is how my 2013 went. A lot of it in pictures. It started off busy as always after the holidays and the kids being out of school. We started paperwork on selling our house. It took FOREVER. It was also bittersweet. I mean, we were ready for something bigger but still... it was our 1st house.

This was taken while we were buying it.
Goodbye house. :'(

We went to the circus.

I made my 1st cake for Easter.

I felt like this a lot.

Ate some sushi.

I felt like this ALL the time.

Got my hair to do something I wanted it to one time.

Took the hubs out for Father's Day.

I felt like I should since this happens.

Even though that happens I feel this way about him every day.

I made these faces WAY too much.

My baby girl turned 4.

I said things I probably shouldn't.

Got Bacon off to her 1st day of school EVER
 & B to 3rd grade.

Enjoyed our new backyard.

Went and saw some animals.

B joined Cub Scouts.

We went to a fair.

My husband made these faces. A lot.

Took both the kids on a Cub Scout
camping trip.

Dressed up for Halloween.

And had an awesome Christmas with all of our family.

I honestly cannot complain. 2013 was good to me and I hope somewhere out there it was good to some other people too. I can't imagine it being any better. I will say that I hope we find more time for things like camping and traveling. We've come to realize we all enjoy those things, and even more so when we get to do them together. So Hello 2014! I hope you treat me as well as 2013. And Goodbye 2013. You were great to me. I will truly miss you.

Happy New Year!

Baked Chicken and Rice

Last night I got home and the hubs had my new dining room table put together (WOOHOO) and most of the chairs. We took a "short" trip to IKEA Sunday (by short I mean due to issues and traffic we left at 10:20am and got home after 7pm) to pick up the couch and bed for the kids Christmas bedroom redo. We wound up getting a table that is extendable up to 10 people and 4 chairs. We're still looking for 2 end chairs because he wants a "captain's chair" as he calls it. Boys... *sigh* Anyway, he was getting the table together and then taking B to Cub Scouts. I make my menu around the Cub Scout schedule every week and had found a recipe a while back for this chicken. It said you could cook from 1 1/2 - 3 hours depending on temperature so I thought it would be perfect timing for when they got home from the meeting. And since my baby girl was asleep in her room because she wasn't feeling too great this recipe wound up being perfect. I was able to pop it in the oven and hang out with her while it cooked.

Ingredients:
4 - chicken breasts
1 - can Cream of Chicken Soup
1 - can Cream of Celery Soup
1 - can water
2 - cups uncooked MINUTE rice (I would not use regular rice. I don't think it would cook well.)
1 - pkg onion soup mix
Aluminum Foil

Prep Time: 3 minutes
Cook Time: 1.5 hours

Directions:
1. Mix both soups, water, and rice in a bowl.
2. Pour into a greased casserole dish. I used an 11X13 but a 9X13 would probably work too.
3. Lay completely thawed chicken on top of rice mixture.
4. Sprinkle onion soup mix over the top of the entire dish. (If you have picky eaters you could hide this in with the rice mix to still get the flavor.)
5. Cover with aluminum foil. (DON"T forget this step or your rice will burn.)
6. Cook on 250 for about 3 hours or 350 for 1 1/2 hours. Times vary by oven. (I actually cooked mine at 300 for 2 hours.)
7. Remove and enjoy!

This is the next day when I brought some of what was left for lunch.

*This is not the healthiest recipe with the processed soups, but there are lots of homemade recipes for these soups as well as the low-sodium versions in the grocery store if you're trying to cut back.
**Better pictures to come next time I make this. I always forget. :/

This was honestly delicious. TJ kept eating the rice right out of the dish. He even claimed it was the best rice he'd ever had. The chicken was a little more dry than I'd like, not terrible, just not juicy, so next time I will probably find a mild marinade (maybe garlic...) and let it soak overnight in the fridge. You could serve a salad and cornbread with this if you wanted more but for us just the dish was good.

I was told to definitely leave this as a good recipe in the box since when we aren't fond of something we just toss the recipe so we don't use it again. We had some Halloween candy for dessert then hung out with the kids and furbabies in front of the first fire we've made in our new house.

I am in LOVE with this fireplace. 

Roscoe just kept staring at it like it was going to get him. He's a big ol' fraidy cat.

Hope everyone enjoyed their night as much as I did and that you enjoy this recipe as much as we did if you try it.

Camping Like a Pro

It has been a couple of weeks since my last post. Things have been CRAZY at my house with traveling, festivals, moving, and everyday life. This weekend will be another busy one as well. We are going on my sons annual family Cub Scout camping trip.

My little Cub Scout trying on his uniform. He's 8 but he's so tiny. Still, isn't he adorable?

Ready for his 1st pack meeting in full gear. He really loves it.

I am really looking forward to it, just not the preparing for it. I decided to make myself a checklist for camping supplies. I'll admit I basically can't function without a list. I feel so frazzled, like I'm forgetting 110% of the things I should be taking with me. Anyway, this post is short and sweet. My checklist is here. Maybe if you need a good camping checklist split into categories it'll work for you. I already feel better about going home and getting all of it together.

Tension Rod Bakeware Storage

One day I PROMISE I will stop taking pictures with my phone and use a better camera. When I get it unpacked. 

I know I am not the only person who pulls out half of their pans to get to the one they need on the bottom. This is so frustrating. I have honestly decided not to cook certain things because the dishes were too much of a pain to get to. This is what I'm working with.

Left side of my bakeware cabinet.

Right side of my bakeware cabinet.

 I do have a few things that won't fit in here, but these are the main ones I use so I keep the others in a different cabinet. Isn't that a disgusting mess? Ugh. Since we're in the process of setting up the kitchen right now, I decided I would get this under control before we even got moved in. I just couldn't stand looking at it. I had seen an idea on Pinterest where someone (sorry I don't know who!) had used tension rods to separate their pots and pans. Since this makes it adjustable I decided it would be the best route for me to go. I found the best fit for me for the best price at Lowe's. I bought 10 to start off with. I will need more, but not for this particular cabinet and since we're unpacking I didn't want to have to store extras. We'll be making lots of trips to Lowe's soon so it's not a big deal. I set them up one at at time with specific widths for specific items. The original idea I saw used 2 rods per separation but one worked fine for me and cut my price in half. All I had to go was push them into place.


After I got my rods set up, I put my dishes back in. It looks SO much better and is much more manageable. Even my husband who is very helpful but doesn't care a thing about the kitchen was happy with it. I made sure to put my shorter things on one side so that I would have a little room in the front for a couple of extra dishes that didn't fit anywhere else.

Pulling things out without having to pull everything out is a win.

This project was a total success and will be repeated in other cabinets soon. It took me about an hour to completely finish this cabinet. It cost me less than $20 which was much cheaper than the expensive dividers I had originally been looking at.

Supplies:
8  - 18in-28in tension rods  - $2.27 each