Snowed In...

It's Thursday around 9 AM and I've been up since around 4:30 this morning because of this lovely blizzard that has enveloped central Iowa. I woke up so early this morning because my power was flickering on and off and my phone and heater were going crazy with the inconsistency of the electricity! I now have power fully (hopefully it will stay that way for the rest of the day!) and no work to go to, so I am still in my jammies...and plan on staying that way all day. The only plans for the day include drinking coffee and finishing my book, maybe listening to some Christmas music too.

The view at about 5 this morning...the door was staying open by itself due to the wind!

I will have to brave going out into the foot of snow we got in order to pick up Lt Dan from the airport. Hopefully the winds will die down enough for his flight to not get delayed too much and to land safely! He chose the worst day of the year to travel! :)

...and from a few minutes ago looking out the back door.

It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas!

I love decorating for Christmas, it gets me all excited for the season and it is the one time of the year where I am actually wishing for snow. I like cranking the Christmas music and wrapping presents while wearing a chunky sweater and drinking a hot cup of coffee. Makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside :)

This year is the first year I've had a real Christmas tree (not as in a live tree, but a tree that sits on the floor) because in the past I've always had a small half-tree that hung on the wall, and I was quite attached to it. But not this year, as it was destroyed in the fire, along with the majority of of my Wizard of Oz ornaments. This was really hard for me to accept, as I have had this tree for as long as I could remember, and I would get a new ornament every year as a present (We found some of the non-main characters but Dorothy, the Cowardly Lion, Tin Man, etc... are gone, but I am on the look-out for them!).  Thankfully, my mom snagged a cute, perfect apartment-sized tree from my neighbors as they were getting ready to move. I really love the way it looks, it kind of has a Charlie Brown look to it as is not very full and you can see the fake wood trunk all the way to the top...it gives it a very country chic feel!

I stuck with a simple antique/gold theme this year, with accents of red at the top and bottom. I got the star atop the tree at Michael's for $1.29 (on sale AND a coupon!) and jimmy-rigged it to the top branch with some string as it originally is supposed to hang on the wall and not on top of a tree. So far, so good!

These are the three main ornaments that I used to decorate the tree, pretty simple. I for sure wanted to use old skeleton keys and then built around that idea. I found some at an antique store in Virginia when I visited Dan but they were expensive so Dan treated me and bought (but I only let him buy a couple!), and then I began talking to my mom and she donated a bunch to me that she collected after my great aunt passed away. I love that I have some from my family and some from a trip I took with Dan :) My mom also gave me the idea to keep the tags with the keys...it really adds to the antique feel I think! 

The bulb ornaments I made myself...and I must say I'm pretty proud of myself! I got the idea originally from Pinterest here. I cut up a bunch of newspapers in tiny strips and then used a special ink to make them looked antiqued. I then modge-podged them onto the bulb and sprinkled some iridescent glitter over the whole ornament. Let me tell you...the first few looked HORRIBLE!!!!  There were gaps everywhere that you could see through and it generally looked like I let a four year old make my ornaments. Once I figured out a good way to apply the strips evenly, things went more smoothly. I really love these ornaments and I am glad they turned out so well after a few hiccups!

Lastly, the gold covered pine cones are from Target :)

My mom was cleaning out her Christmas decorations one weekend when I was home and I scored the mother load of decorations...at least for a freshly out of college twenty something. She pretty much gave me free reign and I got to pick and choose lots of cute Christmas/winter items (as long as they weren't the ones she was using) for my new place since I no longer had anything to adorn my apartment!

Cute little snowmen and snowmen candle that will never be burned!

This is a actually a garland for the tree but I decided to not put it on so I put it in the glass apothecary jar, which adds nicely to my red accents! To the right is an ornament that I made when I was in kindergarten.

My mom also gave a few Longaberger Christmas themed baskets! This one will hopefully be filled with Christmas cards (hint,hint: send me Christmas cards). 

Another basket, but I think I am going to keep this one up all year long because it is such a nice little place to hold my mail. Also one of my all time favorite signs...so much so I bought another one after the first got destroyed in the fire!

I have a few other snowmen and Christmas items from mom, but my Instragram was being dumb and kept quitting on me as I was taking pictures...so I gave up.

I also made a wreath for my door....I'm becoming so domesticated these days! I bought a regular tangled branch wreath from Michael's (also with a coupon!) and used some leftover spray paint to give it a white winter coat. I bought some festive ribbon and had mom make me a bow (I had attempted to make one myself but it look like I let the dog use it as a toy after I had sat on it...NOT PRETTY)...it is best to leave these type of things to the professionals! 

I thought it turned out pretty well until...

...the neighbors across the hall had to show me up. Jerks.

Another project I made while at home last month was this:

It was originally inspired by this Pinterest project but I knew I wanted to use sticks. I was going to put those sticks on a canvas and hang it on the wall, until I found some bead board up in dad's shed that he said I could use. So while he cut up the board to the right size, the dog and I were walking around the timber finding the perfect mixture of sticks for the project (and playing fetch, of course). I hot-glued the sticks onto the board but it didn't look quite right just yet. Dad then found some cool mahogany colored trim that he attached to the edges and it was totally perfect! (Side note: literally none of the Pinterest projects I do could not be completed without my parents it seems... they always take my ideas and make them 10x better!) I love that all the materials came from Campfire Rd.! 

That should be all my Christmas decorations for this year! But here is one more picture for your viewing pleasure:

Ruby slippers and presents under the tree.

Today I'm Thankful For...

Yep, it's finally the day where you can stuff your face and no one can judge you for it, fall into a turkey induced coma while watching football, and scour the Black Friday ads in order to plan your attack in order to get that $89 flatscreen. But today is also the day to remember that Pilgrims and Indians had a sweet supper so many years ago (and be thankful)! So here's what I'm thankful for this year:

• That I will be able to able to spend time with my family and eat lots of yummy food. Being an adult these days, means that I don't get to go home as often as I used to, so I should probably enjoy it :)
• That this year I will be in good health. Last year, I had a few too many beverages the night before Thanksgiving and stayed out too late...needless to say, the next day I wasn't feeling too hot and couldn't eat much until late in the day.
• That I have a full time job that I enjoy (most days). I think about the job I was working at this summer and I am so glad that I am not stuck there working on Thanksgiving, while having the children there throw their mashed potatoes at me or trying to pull my hair out because they didn't get an extra piece of pumpkin pie! I am also grateful that I get every weekend off and all the holidays...working at a school rocks.
• That Lt. Dan gets to come home for a couple days and that he gets to see him family too. I know I'm spoiled in that I just saw him two weeks ago, but I am glad he gets to come back to Iowa and enjoy delicious food instead of yucky spaceman food (MRE's). 
• That I have a roof over my head. It has been just over five months since the fire and I can still remember it like it was yesterday! I look back on the pictures from that day and I wonder how no one got hurt (good job Ames PD and FD!) and that people were able to recover some of their belongings. I love my new place (my own patio, washer/dryer, and dishwasher...yes please!) and am going to be sad when I have to leave it. It has spoiled me!

I have lots of other things that I am thankful this year, but I need to get ready to pick someone up from the airport and get cooking! Then off to the motherland (Monticello) for some fine fried turkey courtesy of Papa Dave!

Does This Make Me an Adult?

Making a real meal? And drinking wine with dinner? WHO AM I?!?

This is impressive for me!

I seriously try hard to make normal meals but more often than not I end up making mac and cheese or jambalaya. But since I have done pretty much nothing all day, I figured I could put some effort into dinner for once. I decided to make some spaghetti with Italian sausage sauce and green beans and some Texas Toast (still in the oven, hence not pictured). I feel so classy drinking a glass of wine (in a real wine glass, not a plastic cup!) instead of the standard Busch Lite or water as my drink of choice. But not to worry, I bought the $4 bottle of wine from Target, so it wasn't too classy!

And since I don't know how to measure a small portion of spaghetti noodles for myself (it ended up being almost the whole box...oops), I am planning on eating the same meal for lunch and dinner until Thanksgiving! (The bottle of wine will probably be gone by then though!)

Marine Corps Ball

This past weekend I flew to Richmond, Virginia to attend the Marine Corp Birthday Ball with Lt. Dan! I left after work and got into DC around 7:30 pm and then we drove down to Richmond. Every time I come home from visiting Dan I am always so grateful for Iowa traffic because things are so chaotic on the East coast! We finally got to our hotel around 10-ish and crashed for the night!

Happy 237th birthday USMC!

The next day we went to get some breakfast (at McDonald's...it a tradition) and we got stuck behind the King's College basketball team,  and each 7 foot tall player ordered at least two pounds of food, I swear! We probably waited in line for a half an hour before we got our food...grr. Dan also needed to get a haircut so we ran a few errands as well and headed back to the hotel in order to get ready. After much primping and priming we were ready to go in the afternoon. We had to travel a ways because our hotel was about 8 miles away from the convention center where the ball was being held (Note to self: next year book a hotel within walking distance!) but thankfully Dan had friends who had rooms near the center and we had a few drinks before the ball began.

Cocktail hour began at 6 pm and people milled around and got a few drinks, took professional pictures and introduced everyone to each other. Drinks were super expensive ($5 for a beer, $7 for mixed drinks in tiny glasses) but luckily we came prepared and brought in a flask. :) There were about 3,000 people at the ball and it took up three giant rooms in order to hold everyone. According to Dan, this is the second largest Marine Corps Ball in the country!

Our "ticket'" for the Ball

Around 7 people were told to take their seats and the speeches and introductions started. For some of them were able to sit, others you had to stand...and after standing for the duration of the cocktail hour, my feet were HURTING! Most of the other girls brought small purses or clutches, but me? Oh no...I brought my giant purse! It was a good things because without it, I wouldn't have been able to bring a comfy pair of flats to change into. I also had to hold my wallet, phone, Dan's wallet, Dan's phone, Dan's camera (he isn't allowed to put items in his pocket while wearing his uniform. My question- why have pockets in the first place then?!?), and the flask, of course. 

I tried to take a panoramic picture of how many people were at the Ball, but the "mood lighting" doesn't do it justice!

Literally the only picture of us from the ball, Dan must not like to use the camera he has. Sorry family members, you'll have to wait for the professional pictures to come in for a full length picture! 

After about an hour of speeches, I was never so happy to eat a salad in my life! It had been sitting on the table the whole time during the speeches and it was just there tempting me! We then had some yummy chicken with mushroom sauce, asparagus and squash (fancy!) before eating some birthday cake! And since the speeches were over, we were free to get up and roam about and start dancing and chatting some more beverages (while the people were giving their speeches getting up to go to the bathroom is a BIG no no!). At first the music was pretty tame (think Kenny G and Michael Buble) but things escalated quickly and the true colors of our nations supreme fighting force came through. That's right folks....Marines dancing. Some were good dancers...others not so much! See the picture below:

I attempted to get a picture of Dan dancing, but he was moving so fast that his face disappeared! :) 

Same dress!

Slight wardrobe malfunction...good thing that's what friends are for! 

Dan really likes to dance after a few beverages...and boy is it entertaining! He is the first to admit that he is the typical "white person dancer"....haha. I couldn't stop laughing! I have a better picture that shows exactly how much Lt. Dan was having, but I am forbidden to show anyone! It was so much fun, although I was a little disappointed we didn't hear any country music! 

Things started to wind down around midnight and we headed back to one of the nearby hotels to change into more casual clothes because we thought we might head out to get a bite to eat or grab a nightcap. There was one small problem though...I was literally stuck in my dress! The zipper was all messed up and three separate people tried to get it undone, but no luck. Finally, they just ripped it and I was free! Hopefully it can be fixed, because it is a nice dress! We changed, but after sitting down after a night of dancing, we were pooped and decided to cab it home. Our cab ride was quite the adventure, learning all about our cab driver's brother/nephew/cousin's (I can't remember) military history, his felony record, and then finally having him sing us his own dirty rap song. Needless to say it was the longest cab ride of our life!

The next day we checked out of the hotel, got some food at Applebee's (Dan got a free lunch because it was Veteran's Day!) and then did some sightseeing around Richmond. We went to Monument Avenue, which is famous for what else...monuments! Mainly they are of Civil War historical figures, but there is also Richmond native Arthur Ashe there as well. 

Stonewall Jackson

Lt. Dan, Stonewall and me. 

Jefferson Davis

Jeff Davis and Lt. Dan

Cannon

The Big Man himself, Robert E. Lee

J. E.B Stuart

The house where Stonewall Jackson died. 

We then left Richmond, and started our journey back to DC. My flight didn't leave until 8 that night so we had some free time. We went to some antique stores (where I got some cool old skeleton keys for my Christmas tree) and also went to the Stonewall Jackson "Shrine" and to the Fredericksburg battle field site. Being a history buff, these places were pretty cool to see!

I had a great weekend and had so much fun meeting Dan's friends and commiserating with other girlfriends/fiances/ wives about how much fun it is to date a Marine! 

One final piece of excitement from my trip was when an older gentleman tried to pass a fifth of scotch through security, which meant that I stood in line for about 45 minutes without shoes on because TSA wouldn't tell anyone what was going on! Thankfully, my flight got delayed by about a half an hour so it was all good! 

Oofta...this was a long post- sorry!

Swoon

This song is so perfect...and will be played at my wedding. For sure.

I seriously don't know how I haven't heard this song before...

Things That Make Me Happy

Today was a looooong day at school. Some days are just filled with kids that don't want to learn and others that don't make it to the bathroom in time when they have diarrhea. But there are a few certain things that can make my day turn around even when its been cruddy:

• My kindergarten boyfriend asking me how my day is going when he walks through the door
• A caramel macchiato from Starbucks, and being able to pay for it with my phone! 
• Reading an actual book...for fun.
• Fall scented candles
• This song:
   
                                  
                           


And a few things I'm not so fond of lately:


• All of these stupid political ads! Only three more weeks until my tv is no longer a war zone for politicians spewing nasty words and stupid debates (it's a bunch of malarky!)
• Lt. Dan is out in the field this week, which means no communication what-so-ever...which is a downer when I want to ask him if he knows the phone number of somebody that texted me...

Only three more days until the weekend!

Weekend in Chi-town

This past weekend I joined the Streit clan for a trip to the Windy City! We left after school on Friday and after a small traffic jam due to an exploded semi (literally) we made it to Jess's aunt's house in the 'burbs around 8:30 and then headed out for Mexican food.

Squeezing three people to one side of a booth clearly meant for two people...

The next morning, we all headed into Chicago via the train and walked to Millennium Park to do some sight seeing (essentially the Bean)

Besties

The Bean

Messing around

Trippy

Buildings

After walking a bit, we went out to a sports bar (a super fancy one at that) just in time to watch Iowa lose to Central Michigan!!! Ha! Then we headed back home and watched some more football and drink some wine. :)

The next day, we headed back into the city early to watch the Cubbies! The Cubs suck this year (kinda like every year for the past hundred...) but you really can't beat the atmosphere at Wrigley. We got some food and beverages in Wrigleyville, hitting up some Iowa and Michigan bars (sadly no Iowa State bars were in sight) before heading to the stadium. The seats we had were pretty awesome, and even though it was freezing and the Cubs lost, it was still a lot of fun! 

The famous sign

Take me out to the ballgame...

With the enemy, the Cardinal fans!

This is the not the first time this picture has happened, neither will it be the last...I am not photogenic!

We left at the top of the 9th because the Cubs were sucking it up and we thought we could beat the after game rush for the L...how WRONG we were! Apparently there was some mechanical issue down the line with the track and we got delayed for a while. Long enough that Jess's sister and her boyfriend stayed until the end of the game and battled the crowd and still made it on the same train as us! 

All in all, it was a fun weekend...even though waking up on Monday was a wee bit rough! 

Ah...School Pictures

The day when everyone gets all dressed up and puts on their best faces and tries not to spill anything on their good clothes! This is the first year in about half a decade that I've had to get school pictures done..and I was not a fan. The lady who was taking the pictures was RUDE, (as in; asking kids if they really wanted their hair looking like that?, asking kids with speech impediments to continually say smile-even though the teacher had said he couldn't yet pronounce his s's... yeah she was a bitch!) But anyway...here is my school picture for 2012-2013!

Woohoo...wallets!

I feel like I have a lazy eye, because the mean lady made me put my head in a weird position and hold it for what felt like 5 minutes and I could feel my eye twitching...

Now...who wants a wallet? I would feel a bit narcissistic having the same picture of myself hung up all over my apartment! 

I'm Way Too Excited...

...to have a brand spankin' new library card for the Ankeny Public Library!

I mainly got it because it allows me to rent e-books for my Kindle that I would otherwise have to buy from Amazon. Now to look for some new books to download! 

New Artwork

Moving into a new place means new artwork and decorations for the walls, right? I had been seeing pieces like this on Pinterest:

...and thought it would really look cool in my new apartment. My mom had the idea right after the fire to make a shadowbox with the article about the fire and include the keys from the old place (you don't really have to return your keys when you no longer have a door!). I combined the two into one project, using the map and adding the keys into a cheap IKEA shadowbox frame and came up with this:

For now, I simply dropped the keys in the shadowbox, but as soon as I make a trip to Target I'll pick up some pushpins and put a yellow or red (Cyclone colors of course!) one into the box to hang the keys on. If the picture isn't very clear, its a section of map containing Ames. I traced over it with permanent marker and then colored in a little heart next to it. 

I think I want to continue this project with other places I've lived and the keys to those place, like good ol' M-town and wherever I choose to live after Ankeny. But that requires more frames from IKEA and the nearest one is about 400 miles away, so this will have to do for now!

DC!

Well, yet again it's been a long time since I have blogged, but crazy things have happened in the past couple of months (like, oh say, a fire? haha) but now it's time to get caught up on my DC trip to see Lt. Dan that was a loooooooooooooong three months in making.

Dan left for The Basic School back in June and we did not get to see each other for close to 100 days (we liked to joke that we didn't get to see each other for a quarter of a year)! So needless to say I was very excited to finally get on a plane and see him. I was also pretty pumped to do the tourist thing while we were there because I'm a history nerd and seeing all the monuments and the Smithsonian museums was quite a draw for me too.

But first I had to get there. My flight was originally supposed to leave out of Des Moines at 11 am Friday, but I got an email from Delta saying that I got bumped up to the 6 am flight instead! Now, I'm a morning person but having to wake up at 3:30 in the morning to make a flight that takes off before the sun is a wee bit ridiculous! So I showed up in my pajamas and without makeup and made it through security (but not without getting a pat-down first for forgetting to take something liquid filled out of my purse...gotta loved getting felt up at 4:30 in the morning!). I landed in Memphis around 7:45 am and thus began my hate/hate relationship with the Memphis International Airport. I had a seven hour layover (they bumped up my first flight, but not the second) so I hunkered down in the gate waiting area and started watching movies on Netflix...thank god I chose to bring my computer with me! (Side note: if you want some really good BBQ and Elvis souvenirs, go to the Memphis airport, otherwise...don't go there).

What felt like ages later, I was finally on a plane bound for DC! It was really cool flying into DC and seeing all the monuments from the air and I was really starting to get excited to get off the plane. Not before we had a super rough landing, however. The girl next to me ended up practically in my lap as we landed and then a second later, I was in hers....awkward. Good thing she had taken a Valium before taking off, otherwise she would have been an unhappy camper :). I finally was off the plane, claimed my checked bag and waited ever so patiently to be picked up. Dan's truck was not running, so thankfully his friend let him borrow his car for the weekend as he was flying out to go home over Labor Day too.

We finally made it to the hotel and we were both pretty exhausted (Dan had been in the field the four days leading up to the weekend, and traveling for over twelve hours apparently takes it out of a girl), so we ordered room service and pretty much passed out.

The next day, I made Dan take me to IKEA (can't pass it up when in the vicinity) and lets just say, he is not an IKEA kind of guy :). I only bought a few small things just because I had to pack them in my suitcase to take back to Iowa, otherwise I would've gone hog wild and bought the whole damn store. We hung out the rest of the afternoon, and tried to come up with a game plan for sightseeing the next day. That night, we met up with one of Dan's buddies whose girlfriend was also in town for the weekend and we had some bar food and got to experience the price difference in drinks between the East coast and the Midwest. It was nice to hang out with another girl who knew what "fun" it is to date a Marine ;) We came back to the hotel and Dan ate the rest of my chicken wrap (jerk!) and then decided he needed to chew some gum for minty fresh breath and then promptly passed out...with the gum still in his mouth! I woke up the next morning to find a chunk of gum securely stuck in my hair! There was no way it was coming out and Dan had to cut it out with his pocket knife :(

I was SO mad

After an unexpected haircut, Sunday was dedicated to seeing the sights and being tourists. Lots of pictures on the way!

The capital building

Washington monument from far away...I took lots of pictures of the Washington monument for some reason. 

Attempt #1 at a picture together, I think it's impossible for us to get a really good picture together...we can't stay serious long enough!

Geekin' out

Civil War Relics at the Smithsonian: A real horse, cavalry jacket, some spear things Dan made me take a picture of...

 

Abe Lincoln's hat he wore the night he was shot, death mask made after he died

Kermit!

Near and dear to my heart: Dorothy's ruby slippers

 

Washington monument: as seen from the Lincoln Memorial, from WWII memorial, and up close (I told you I took a lot of pictures of it!)

  

White House, Korean War Memorial, Jefferson Monument

Vietnam Memorial

WWII Memorial

 

Being tourists at the WWII memorial and attempt #2 at a picture together..fail

Honest Abe

Looking across the National Mall towards the Lincoln Memorial

Oofta, that was a lot of pictures and me looking like a complete tourist. I really wanted to run in the Reflection Pool a la Forrest and Jenny, but it was seriously disgusting. Like the ducks were pooping in it and the water was green and nasty. So we decided to skip that haha. By then end of seeing all the monuments and going through only ONE of the ten Smithsonian museums, we were pooped! It was time to relax back at the hotel and enjoy our last night together...it was crazy how fast the time flew by!

Monday (Labor Day) was my last day in DC but my flight didn't leave until around five so we slept in and got McDonald's for breakfast, (Another side note: people on the East coast are RUDE...like dude, it was FIVE CENTS, get over it!) and pretty much hung out. Around one, we checked out of the hotel and went to the airport to pick up Dan's friend who lent us his car for the weekend, got some lunch and hung out in a "trendy" (Dan's words) neighborhood of DC until it was time to head back to the airport.

Our goodbye was short and sweet, as we were in a drop-off zone and I'm sure Dan didn't want to seem too sappy in front of his friends ;) I checked in and went through security without a pat-down and waited until it was time to board. (Yet another side note: Why is it $25 to check a bag when flying within the US but its free to check a bag when flying out of the country?!? Shouldn't it be the other way around???) This time there was no seven hour layover in Memphis, the exact opposite actually...only 30 minutes. I was kind of worried that I wouldn't make it in time, but my gates were literally 100 feet from each other (I found this out during my layover while waiting the first time). We landed in Memphis and I got to the gate just as they were announcing that there was going to be a two hour delay due to faulty AC on our plane...BOO. It ended up not being able to be fixed and my flight got delayed another hour, and we didn't take off until around ten (an hour after I was supposed to already be home!) I ended getting back to Ankeny a little before midnight...needless to say I was not looking forward to being at work at 7:30 the next morning! 

So there is my trip to DC in a (long) nutshell. Here's one last picture from the trip:

Dan gave me this picture frame full of pictures because he knew all my pictures and frames were destroyed in the fire and that my new apartment would need some pictures for the walls. I guess this makes up for the gum in the hair...maybe :)