Valentine's Day Care Package

The winter months are full of "gift giving" holidays for us. December means Christmas and my birthday; January is our anniversary. And February...

Valentine's Day! Now, I know the boys could probably care less about this so-called holiday, but let's face it. It's a really good excuse to send lots of candies, treats, and even cheesy cards to my sweetheart. He might catch a lot of flack for this very girly...and very PINK box. BUT! It's Valentine's Day. And I purposely made things to be shared, so who will really get the last laugh?

Once again, I found some great paper at none other than, Hobby Lobby. There is no mistaking what this care package says.

My favorite picture of us. From back when we first started dating.

My Valentine Care Package includes:

--Little Debbie's Be My Valentine Heart-shaped Cakes

--Vanilla Creme Peeps

--Hershey's Hugs and Kisses in a Valentine's Day tin

--10 bags of assorted candies (to share with his buddies)

         --Valentine's Day candy corn

           --Cherry Jelly Hearts

           --Conversation Hearts

           --Hershey's Hugs and Kisses

--Cheesy Man-approved Valentines

--Junior Mints with a wrapped Valentine

--Homemade Strawberry Cake Mix Cookies

--Strawberry Cheesecake Muddy Buddies (Chex Mix)

And, as always, a flash drive full of movies, music, pictures, and TV episodes.

                                 

Next month is March and I will have two occasions, both that occur on the same day, so it may call for two themed care packages. Stay tuned!

Anniversary Care Package

It has taken me longer than I had hoped, but I finally made another care package. Scott's Christmas care packages made it to him! But they were late. It took a MONTH for them to get there. No bueno.

We've made it through the biggest holidays of the year, but from Thanksgiving on, I have at least one big event or holiday of some sort to base the care package theme off of.

So what's in January, you ask? None other than our anniversary! This year we're celebrating our second wedding anniversary. Traditionally, the second anniversary gift is "cotton", but that's not much of a theme for a box, so I just went with blue. My favorite color is awesomely blue, or teal-ish, Scott's is navy. So I figured, why not?

In case you hadn't noticed, I'm kind of big on song lyrics. So this time around, I picked some pretty significant ones. 

Our favorite band is called The Spill Canvas. Our history with them goes way back to high school. Scott fell in love with me to the sounds of The Spill Canvas. So it's only fitting, that their lyrics played a huge role in me figuring out that I was going to marry Scott. 

Call it cheesy, but I had been really praying and trying to figure out if I was going to marry Scott. This wasn't too long after we had started dating, mind you, so I wasn't all that sure, but I kind of already knew. 

But one night, I woke up in the middle of the night. And all I could think of were these lyrics. They were blaring across my mind and I couldn't shake them. 

"While you were sleeping, I figured out everything...I was constructed for you, you were molded for me. Now I feel your name, coursing through my veins. You shine so bright it's insane, you put the sun to shame."

And when was that night, you ask? January 22, 2011. Exactly a year to the day before we got married. A fact that I failed to realize until about a week before we got married. How fitting that we had unknowingly planned the wedding for that day.

So without further ado, my anniversary care package:

This one isn't quite as hard to read, especially with the up close pictures, but I'll go ahead and caption them. I couldn't fit the entire part of the lyrics, but the most essential line is there.

Happy 2nd anniversary, babydoll!

I was constructed for you

You were molded for me

Mr & Mrs since Jan. 22, 2012

This care package didn't contain much of consequence. Just some random items for Scott to snack on.

The one thing that went into the box of any real significance is a series of letters I wrote for Scott. There was no real rhyme or reason to it. It just kind of became our love story, broken down into different big moments. Such as, our first date, the day he proposed, our wedding day, etc.

So a very happy anniversary to my sweetheart! Here's to 100 more!

Christmas Care Package: Part 2

Like I said in my previous post, I filled the first box but still had more to send and figured Christmas definitely warranted more than one box. 

This time, though I stuck with the standard Christmas colors and most items, but I wanted the box itself to represent the real reason we celebrate Christmas instead of just the commercialized version. 

I picked lyrics to another one of the very few Christmas songs I like. 

I Celebrate the Day by Relient K

It's not quite as difficult to read, but here are some close ups.

The first time that you opened your eyes did you realize that you would be my Savior?

The first breath that left your lips did you know that it would change this world forever?

I celebrate the day you were born to die so I could one day pray for you to save my life

This box included: 

--2 types of Christmas cookies in a Christmas pail

-- 2 spray bottles of Christmas icing (for Scott to decorate them himself, maybe more fun...also would not mail well decorated.)

-- 2 packages of cocoa mix 

-- 1 package mint flavored M&'s

-- Uno the card game 

-- Christmas socks (Scott is always wearing the girly ones)

-- 4 tubes of chapstick 

-- a 6 inch battery powered Christmas tree

-- a string of 50 Christmas lights (in case he wants to be festive and decorate his space on the ship, though I doubt he will.)
-- an Lifeproof case for iPhone
-- an iPhone 4 (to replace the one he lost)

And, per tradition, I had to include a hand drawn, goofy card. 

Here's hoping it gets to him in time and doesn't get dropped into the ocean! (yes, that has happened with an entire pallet of mail this deployment.)

Merry Christmas, y'all!

Christmas Care Package: Part 1

It should be no surprise what comes after the Thanksgiving care package. But, of course, Christmas!

Now, it was a lot simpler to find Christmas themed items than it was for fall/Thanksgiving! I ended up finding so many, in fact, that I sent TWO boxes. 

So this one is the first.

I found some great scrapbook paper at Hobby Lobby. The 12x12 paper happens to be almost the perfect size for the box flaps, if you cut them in half. The papers I picked out had a lot of writing on them, so while they were pretty, they unfortunately made the words I added to each flap hard to read.

Here is the box as a whole:

See? Hard to read from afar...but I snagged some close ups so you could get the whole idea.

The words are lyrics from one of my favorite Christmas songs...which is saying a lot, because generally, I HATE Christmas music!

Merry Christmas, Baby by Brighten.
(Give it a listen while you read on...)

Merry Christmas, baby

The only thing on my wishlist: maybe you could come back home to me 

(still hard to read in the picture, but looks better in real life, I promise)

'cause it's the season for us to be together again

I also found the stickers at Hobby Lobby in the scrapbook section. They all happened to be 50% off as well, so that was a bonus!

And after cutting out the words for the Thanksgiving care package by hand, I decided a Silhouette (think Cricut--or if you're not familiar with that, a cutting machine...they are crazy cool...but maybe I'll write more on that in another post) would be a good investment. So that made the lettering much quicker! 

Now for what I put inside. Part one of my Christmas care package includes:

-- a Hickory Farms Meat and Cheese box

-- a plastic candy cane filled with Sweet Tarts or something of the sort

-- a box of Christmas Nerds

-- a box of Christmas (candy) Dots

-- a box of Christmas Fun Dip

-- A Christmas tin (also from Hobby Lobby) filled with Swedish Fish and Sweet Tart flavored candy canes 

-- Phase 10 the card game

-- a large package of Beef Jerky

-- a large bag of gum

-- a Polo Assn watch

-- a small Stocking

-- a set of Christmas DVDs (Elf, A Christmas Story, and National Lampoon's Christmas vacation)

-- a bottle each of his shampoo, body wash, and deodorant (not pictured)

And two of my personal favorites:

I found a small stuffed animal on Amazon...which happened to be a Bernese Mountain Dog. That way he can have a mini Gatsby! 

I filled a flash drive with new movies, music, pictures of us and home. And books for Scott's Kindle, since he really doesn't have enough internet access to upload anything himself. I also put episodes of his favorite TV shows that are currently in season on there...obviously he wouldn't get to watch them otherwise.

But that's just part one. Part two is still to come! 

What's New with Us

As expected, my posts keep getting fewer and further in between. Can't say that I didn't warn you. 

This one won't be so much about crafts, so you can all breathe a sigh of relief. But here's just a little bit of what's new in our life and some other thoughts. 

Several weeks, maybe even months (I'm really bad with time frames), ago Scott re-enlisted. So that's at least another 4 years with the Marine Corps. And probably 4 more years in California. It was a really hard decision, one that I hope he hasn't already come to regret, but in the long run, I guess we decided that's what was best for us. Scott has since changed units and is now going to be gone once a month for a week or two to be out in the field for training. He is supposed to "deploy" out on a ship next summer. We talked about me going home while he is gone, but it depends on whether or not I have a job by then. Either way, I don't look forward to him being gone for 7 months, but I always knew that that would be my least favorite part of him re-enlisting.

Speaking of me getting a job though. I finally, within a few weeks of each other, got a response from a couple of jobs I had applied for. It's funny how you can go months without hearing anything from anyone and then they come in pairs. They are both jobs in Police Dispatch. I've had to take tests for both, do a 38 page pre-screening packet for one, and interviewed for both. I made it past the interview with one, and just interviewed with the other yesterday, so I should know about that one soon. I'm now working on another 30 page packet for a background investigation that SD County is doing for the job. Should I get through that...I will still have about 4 more steps to go through. So MAYBE I will finally have a job by Christmas or the New Year. Almost a year after I started looking...goodness.

Oh, and seeing as how I probably won't have a job for at least of couple of months, I've considered making and selling thing for people to give as Christmas presents. Could be anything really...something sewn, painted shoes, canvas art, decorated wooden letters...I'm up for trying something new. Just for something to keep me busy really. So if you have an interest, just let me know somehow! 

And while I'm on the subject, because I have had this problem several times already... I'm not making things for people for free. I'm not trying to hurt anyone's feelings, but I just can't keep making things for people and keep putting my money into it. Now, if I make something for someone as a gift, or just because I want to...that's my own problem. But, I don't have the money to just make things for everyone who sees something I posted on Facebook. And I mean that in the nicest way possible. 

My oldest brother welcomed his baby boy into the world a few weeks ago, so we have a nephew! Have to say he is quite the doll, but as his aunt, I'm a bit partial! Can't wait to meet the little guy! I will spare you the pictures of the things I have made for him...you can just look at my Facebook. :) haha!

Well, I think that's really all that's new in our life. Short, sweet, and to the point.