Trip to Fort Rucker, Alabama August 17, 2013

Heather called about 5 pm on Saturday and said...
 "Mom how do you feel about leaving tonight instead of tomorrow and head out to Alabama?"
 I said...
"sure I can be ready in about 2-3 hours...come get me"
And so the great adventure to Ft. Rucker and Chad's graduation from Warrant Officer school begins.
In the two hours I managed to color my hair, shave my legs, shower, pack and get my special food stuffs together for the trip.  I had thought she meant we would drive all the way through to Alabama but she surprised me and we stopped over in Russellville, Arkansas for the night!

The next morning we got up early and continued on to Ft. Rucker.  The going was mainly on 4 lane roads and the trip was fairly uneventful until we arrived at Ft. Rucker after dark!  OMG!  I can't remember in recent history being anywhere that was so dark and we had to find our way around the guest cabins and lake with very little out side lighting and around narrow roads at a mere crawl.  We rented a cabin on post that is on Lake Tholocco that the Army rents to transient and holidaying personnel and families and those that come down to a graduations.   The cabin is essentially a 2 bedroom house fully stocked with everything you would need...coffee pot, dishes, cooking utensils, linens etc.

Ft. Rucker is an aviation training facility for helicopter pilots and there is always a drone of helicopters going over.  It is also one of the training facilities the Army has for training non-commissioned and warrant officers other then just the helicopter pilots.   I always knew that there was a difference in commissioned, non-commissioned, and warrant officers (WO) but didn't realize how little I knew and when Chad told us about his being chosen to become a WO I started to Google so I could become more knowledgeable!  If you ever get a chance to go by Ft. Rucker stop in and visit their air museum...it is worth the stop!

Here are a few pictures from the trip I thought I would share...I had a really great time visiting with Chad, Candice, and of course the grand daughters Teresa (4) and Hannah (2).

View from the screened in porch at our cabin

Heather standing in front of our cabin!

 This was the classic scene we saw once DaDa got to come home from the meetings and camp.  Where one family member was they all were....geesh!  You would think they missed him or something!

 Chad and Candice returning to the cabins after a reception honoring all the WO candidates. 

 While Mom and Dad were doing classes and attending to various business Aunt Heather and I got to have the girlie's all to ourselves and had a great time at the parks around us.   The weather in Alabama didn't cooperate very well though being humid and rainy most of the time but thanks to the occasional breaks we were able to go outside occasionally.  Thank heavens for the screened in porches and DVD players available in each cabin to keep folks entertained!

 Teresa never went down slides instead choosing to climb up them instead!

 Hannah and her "jamma's" that went everywhere with her!  Jamma's were a call to action when Hannah managed to lose one of two pairs of pj bottoms she carried around! 

 Aunt Heather managed to get into the playground and kept up with where the girls were going and coming from.  WOW! they didn't have huge playground and playsets like this when I was a kid!  There were all sorts of fun things to do and interact with on this thing!

Graduation was Wednesday morning at the air museum at Ft. Rucker.  Here are a few pictures! ;-)  Just a few!!!

The girls got a little restless but we came prepared.  The girls loved playing with our phones cause they had some interesting games and fun things to look at on them!  iPhones are an awesome invention if only for this reason!

 Hannah playing with a fish app that you can feed the fish and the more you feed the more fish come to eat.

 Teresa found out about PacMac and loves the game now!  Don't know how Mom and Dad feels about it but kept her quiet at the event!

Graduation:

 Chad was one of 6 new WO chosen for the Commanders List!  He scored in the top 20% of his class of WOC! 

Chad is the second in from the right of the men standing at the front!

Rolling his eyes as usual at our Kodak moments.  Chad had decided he wanted Candice to place one of the bar epaulets and I would do the other cause both little girls wanted to go to the front too!

 Newly minted WO1 and his family!

 Chad and 5 other new officers.  All are eventually going to be band commanders!

 Me, Chad, and Teresa!

 Me, Chad, Heather and Teresa still playing PacMan!

 Chad, Candice, Heather, and Hannah....minus the shoes....I swear that girl is an Okie!

We had an awesome time!  It was over way to soon and after lunch at Applebee's they headed out to catch their planes home...Chad from Florida and Candice from Dothan, AL with the girls.  Heather and I started the drive back talking about all the fun things we had seen and how much fun the girls had been.  It had been 2 years since I had seen them and I am hoping it won't be two more before I see them again! 

WOYWW #219

Happy WOYWW!  This week flew past even faster then they usually do and I am wondering if it is my age or lack of attention...I tend to get sidetracked and it takes a bit to bring me back around.
If you would like to see what other desks are looking like to do head on over to Stamping Ground and Julia has it all laid out for you on the left side bar at the top!

Here is my desk this week...Yes it is definitely a mess and I haven't made much progress towards moving to the other room but I am saying it is because I am really thinking it through this time...

 Nothing really remarkable but I haven't cleaned it up from last night and ended up depositing some things on it till I could get them sorted out!
Here is a picture...or two of a project I am working on at the moment.  It is a re purposed paint bucket about 1 gallon sized that I am trying to make a gift tote or a decorative table piece out of.  I am kind of stuck as to where to go right now.  Looks flat and blah to me so will leave it sitting for a day or two and see if it grows on me or if some idea pops up to make it look better.  

Front of pail.   I really like the warm fall colors and the prints.  The paper is from Farm House and is all about fall.  I put solid flowers on it to begin with and did not like them at all.  I am not for sure about these!

Back of pail.  I only added one flower back here and I decided to try some Stickles glitter glue on it to perk it up but it doesn't so up too well in the photograph.  

I get really frustrated when I have an idea in my head and I can't get it to gel when I start making it...I am open to suggestions if anyone has any ideas!

Need to let you know I might not be around next Wednesday because I am traveling to Alabama to attend my son's graduation from Warrant Officer training at Ft. Rucker.  Hopefully we will have Internet connect but it being base housing I am not counting on it.  I didn't think I was going to be able to go but my DD surprised me with the news of two trips she has orchestrated for us to take this year...the first is the graduation next week and the second is a transatlantic cruise she booked on the Carnival Sunshine that departs from Barcelona on November 1st and arrives in New Orleans, Louisiana on November 16.  There are several ports of call but there are also about 10 days at sea!!! Yay!  time to rest!

Well that's it for me.  I am off to bed now.  Couldn't sleep during the night so will try and sleep today...what a mess my body is!  Be back later to hop around the globe looking at every ones desks. 

WOYWW

WOW how fast can a week fly by?  Seems like it was just yesterday I wrote the post for last weeks WOYWW and here it is Wednesday again.  What is WOYWW?  Go check out on it over at Julias blog Stamping Ground...the directions on how to join is up in the upper left side. 

Been busy this week sorting out the craft room for a move to the bigger room.  Hopefully I can get that accomplished in the next couple of weeks so I can find all the stuff I need for fall crafting projects.  I have so much stuff that are duplicates that I refusing to buy anymore till I get it organized better because I know I have what I need just not accessible.  Example...I bought some paper mache boxes last year that are pumpkin shaped on the clearance bin to make something with this year...I don't have the foggiest where they are at!!  I am pulling stuff out of cabinets and closets and trying to find this or that.   I am an organized person...more or less.  I have all sorts of boxes, baskets, drawers, and cabinets to store stuff in but I have piled it in front of or around other pieces of storage and I have to move stuff to get at it.  SO I am moving.  Want to have nightmares tonight?  Here is an example of what I am talking about...

my color coordinated cardstock in plastic boxes in a rack in front of the cabinet that holds a lot of scrapbooks and tools I rarely use but when I need them I have to move all this crap.

This is a nightmare!  The cutting cart holds dies, folders, and my Vagabond.  It sits in front of a table that I have covered with stuff from the closet I have been trying to find things in.  The cube cabinet behind it is about 3 feet from the cutting cart but has two carts in front of it that hold various and sundry cardstock and 6x6 and 8x8 paper pads that have become a horizontal depository for closet debri!   

Yes, I have a ton of stuff but I have less then a lot of people I know but I can't find what I need due to space issues.   SO the move is on for this upcoming couple of weeks.  Thought about it for a year and it is time to act!

Room is approximately 11.5'x14.6'

This is a diagram of the room I am moving into and an idea I have for placement of things. The carts above with the papers will be housed in the closet and pulled out as I need them.  There are a lot of what ifs with the room but I think I will be able to get everything out where I can get to it.  I have a couple of fold-up tables that I can use when friends come over to play that I can put up in the center of the room because I will have space to spare there!  The expedit will be come my cutting area for my BigShot Pro and the Vagabond will move too and from the desk as needed.  Currently there is nothing in the Expedit or the File Cabinet which is a lateral 3 drawer that I plan to house all my 8 1/2" x 11" papers in plus some of the scrapbooking stuff.   Any ideas you would care to share would be greatly appreciated!  Of course I will take before and after pictures to share.

Want to see what I made this week....Tags of course.

These are the tags I will be teaching in my class later this month!

 I got into the back to school mode thinking about what it had meant to me when my children were small.  I was always up early (or late) drinking coffee and sewing,  making dresses and shirts for them to wear to school.  My son was about 10 years old when he told me he didn't mind me making him pajamas etc but he preferred we buy his clothes for school!!  Okay!  Mom days were on their way out!

That's it!  Thanks for staying with me through the rambling cause it has really helped me get some ideas righted around in my head.  Like I said suggestions are welcome!!!  Have a great week. 

T-Tuesday and Tea!

 Stormy Kitty and I had just sat down with the first cup of the day and I decided I needed to check up on what old friends were doing today.  I went to Altered Book Lover blog to see what Elizabeth and Bluebeard were up to and ran across the T-Today post!  WOW I don't think I realized that T-Tuesday was happening but now that I have found out I think I will post.  Elizabeth lives about 200 miles north of me in Kansas and reading her post it made me think about all the rain we have had here in Oklahoma.   I can't remember the last time it was this green on the 6 August!

My new raised beds are doing awesome and so green this summer.  I think part is the new raised beds and part has to do with the rain we are getting.  I took this picture in the rain this past week. 

The new raised beds are awesome!  I love the way everything is contained.  Poor tomato in the back was a yellow pear vintage breed that didn't have the VFN protection and the wilt got to it.  I have since replanted that box with potato sets that I found growing in my garage...yes I forgot and left the potatoes in the garage and hopefully I can salvage something from my mistake.  Potatoes are now $3.58 a 5# bag here and that is too much to waste. In the closest bed I have planted cucumbers, yellow and green squash this week.   Growing season here in Oklahoma lasts till November most years.  Don't know what it will do this year though since like I said I have never seen this much rain or green in August!

A view from the patio.

The plants in the far left box are a second crop of corn.  The rain has caused some rapid growth and it is now twice the height and starting to tassel.  The big leaved plants in the boxes are Sunflowers...Mammoth variety.  I bought a package at WalMart in the spring and planted the whole package and had to thin them down a lot.  The plants are about 10 feet here and with the rain grew a couple more feet and started to bloom prolifically.  Here are some pictures of those Mammoth flowers. 

The plants are about 12+ feet tall now.  The flower heads seem to turn and follow the sun each morning. 

Beautiful!

I didn't realize that sunflowers are like Poinsettias and that the yellow petals are actually leaves not the flower!  if you enlarge this picture you can see the little flowers and stamens.  Learned a lot by planting these flowers this year!  They attract beetles called assassin beetles that love squash bugs.  Horrible looking bugs but if they keep the squash free of creepy critters I am all for them.  

Well lots of things left to do today and I haven't even started to get them done.  Hope everyone has had a more productive day that I have...I laid a bed way too long today but good reason...I was crafting all night!!  Come check it out on WOYWW tomorrow!

WOYWW

My desk is not much different from last week except it has been cleaned up, dirtied up, and is now in the throes of getting messed up again.  Check out Stamping Ground and Julia will give you the deets about the WOYWW!  

This time I am making a monochromatic journal page for a group I belong to and I seem to be stuck as to where I go next!!!

It is hard to see the stars on the top half of the page but I used Dylusions in and then coarse modeling paste with a stencil.  I love the way the paste picks up the color of the Dylusions inks when used over the top of the ink.  Now I need to figure out what to do with the rest of the page and stay monochromatic.... any ideas?

Last week was my birthday and DH took me out to supper and to see a movie...RED2...loved it.  I really liked Red with Bruce Willis, Helen Mirren, John Malkovich, Mary-Louise Parker, and this time they added in Catherine Zeta Jones and Antony Hopkins.  DS is in boot camp...sort of for officers training to become a Warrant Officer so I didn't hear from him but DDIL called and wished me a happy day. DD is out of town in Pennsylvania at a medieval reenactment encampment so it was a quiet day but fun day.  DD did send these flowers...so pretty and she knows I love purple!  I taught a class at the scrapbook store and had a good time. 

For those of you interested in what the baby book looked like finished here are some pictures of the book. Graphic 45 Little Darlings papers, 6x6 BoBunny chipboard book. 

The babes name is Daniel Thomas Dawson III or v 3.0

I needed some place to put the birth information and when I typed it up and it came out looking like an angel I just added and played with it!  Pages with spots to enter 'firsts' etc in the pocket

This page has a place for a large photo

several mats to hold 3.5 x5 " pictures.  All the mats in this book are approx that size or smaller

More photos

I loved this color and print hope Mom and Dad don't mind the organgy pink in a boys baby book.

Last pages have a cabinet card style photo mat.  I really like the way it turned out!

The doors open!

Okay that is it for me I am off to skip around the blogs.  Have a great week! 

art journal

Just finished another art journal page tonight with the class using Farm House Papers.   They are from their new line 302 and I thought that I would share.  I can't remember the name of the papers individually but it was fun cutting, tearing and pasting them on a black gesso page...I know!  Another black gesso page.  Well, I think I am getting over the fear of using black gesso!

 I need to figure out how to gesso between the binder rings without getting it oozed down on the pages before and after.   After priming the page with the black gesso I used a punch and punched out the circles so I could use them as a stencil on this layout.  I then used coarse grit modeling paste and made the polka dots on the page.  Love the different cards, bookmarks, bits and pieces of memorabilia this line has!   Chipboard bits finished it up and I think I like it.  Farm House is an Oklahoma owned company out of Tahlequah, Oklahoma and they create awesome vintage papers.  Don't you just love the blue telephone...princess phone I believe they were called.  In my first apartment I had a phone just like that! 

WOYWW

Happy Wednesday!  I remembered this week and hopefully won't be last in line again. Go visit Julia at Stamping Ground and come play with us hoping from blog to blog around the world sharing our desks and projects we are working on!

My desk this week is a mess but I am in the middle of making something for a young friend who just had her first baby last week. I had a left over 8"x8" pad of Graphic 45 Little Darlings paper and some chipboard bits so I thought that I would make her a baby book she could take to work to show her new baby off when she goes back.

I don't have a lot done...pages covered with paper, front of book laid out and partially glued down and a start on the first page or two.  I think I will make some pockets so she can mat up more then one picture on a page. 

I was rather surprised to find that most of this paper pad was blue and orangey pink so I think I will be forgiven for using those colors together.  Here is a picture of the new guy take by my husband...I am holding him but he doesn't look at all happy with it does he?  Robyn found out she was pregnant with little Danny at the same time Will and Kate found out they were expecting so we have all been following the royal pregnancy and waiting to find out what they had...boys must be in the stars this week cause last week 2 friends became Grandma's to little girls!

Here is the proud Mom and Dad...btw baby boy is III in the Daniel line and when parents wanted to put version 3.0 on the birth certificate rather then III they were told  it wasn't funny and couldn't be done...

So sweet!  T-shirt says Storm Chaser in training!  Dan and Robyn are both PhD meteorologists at the University of Oklahoma!

Well that is it for me so I will sign off and head back to the craftroom.  I am busy finishing up a few more of the ATC to mail out and hopefully all will be done this time next week.  I apologize but this summer has been amazing as far as getting things done in a timely manner!