Thursday, June 28, 2012

A Super Simple, Super Yummy Summer Salad

Wow! Try saying that title three times fast! I was browsing pinterest the other night and came upon this delicious looking salad from Paula Deen. I immediately pinned it and decided to give it a try tonight for dinner. I'm all for a simple, quick to fix salad and this one did not disappoint! The verdict: definitely a keeper!
Cucumber, Tomato, & Onion Salad
2 cucumbers, peeled and thinly sliced
1 pint cherry tomatoes, halved
1/2 Vadalia onion, very thinly sliced
2 tablespoons chopped parsley leaves
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
1 tablespoon olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
In a medium sized mixing bowl, combine all ingredients and mix well. Chill for at least 10 minutes, preferably longer.
I'm sharing this over at Kristen's Share Your Creations party.
Until next time. . .

Thursday, June 21, 2012

A Visit to San Antonio - Part Two

Day two of our visit to San Antonio was a very exciting day - GRADUATION DAY!!!! We boarded a bus near where they guys and gals did their Airman's run on Thursday and were transported to the parade grounds. We got an early start so that we could get good seats and we were rewarded by this beautiful sunrise on our way to the base. Once there, I got my Mom settled and then took a little self guided tour of the parade grounds. There were a lot of these big, old planes around. I guess that makes sense, this being an Air Force base, huh? :) On the back of the building sheltering all the dignitaries and special guests, this was what I found. "I am an American Airman, I am a Warrior, I have answered my Nation's call" "Integrity First, Service before Self, Excellence in all we do" The back of the grandstands were lined with all these colorful flags and plaques. Soon it was time for the graduation ceremony to begin. The Airmen marched out onto the parade grounds and lined up in formation. Each flight group was recognized and all the MTIs (Military Training Instructors) were introduced. Brandon's flight, along with his brother flight, Flight 350, were chosen to carry the American flags and all the US state flags. What an honor! Brandon carried Hawaii's flag. After hearing from a few keynote speakers, including one of the highest ranking Generals in the Air Force, the graduates were pronounced Airman Basic! No more trainees! Woohoo! They then marched around the entire parade grounds in front of all the proud family members. After reciting the Airman's creed and taking the Air Force oath, the graduation ceremony concluded with a fly over from a fighter jet. I didn't get a picture of that due to the fact that my camera is not a very high tech one and that plane flew by pretty fast! My newly graduated Airman Basic, Brandon Scott Rash!!! I love this child with all my heart and I am so very, very proud of him and all that he has accomplished these past few months! In a future post, I will share some of the fun stuff we got to do during our visit to San Antonio, so stay tuned!!
Until next time. . .

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

A Visit to San Antonio - Part One

Last month, my son, Brandon, graduated from Air Force basic training in San Antonio, TX. I was fortunate enough to get to fly out for graduation weekend. I flew out on Wednesday and flew back home on Sunday. The graduation festivities began early Thursday morning with the mile and a half "Airman's Run". This is a run in which all the flight squadrons run in formation for a mile and a half. The families are invited to line the road side and cheer them on. A lot of us made signs to show our support for our Airmen. This picture is Brandon's flight, Flight 349. They were the "Bulldogs". Don't ask me which one he is. They ran by at a pretty good pace and I had no idea where he was in this picture. The only way I knew it was his flight is because each flight had a "bear", which is the person who carries a flag in front of the group. The flag has their flight number on it. The run was an awesome thing to watch. All the guys and girls running were singing "jodies" as they ran. A jodie is a chant or song. They did the run at 7 a.m. due to the hot temperatures in San Antonio. A bit later in the day, we attended the coin ceremony. This is where each Airman is presented with a symbolic coin, signifying their transition from a trainee to an Airman Basic. My son is the Airman in the center of this picture. After all the Airmen were presented with their coin, they were dismissed by their trainers to spend the rest of the day on the base with their families. But before they could be allowed to break formation, they had to be "tapped out" by a family member. This means that they had to be tapped on the shoulder by someone before they could break formation. Here's me tapping out Brandon. By far,the BEST moment of the entire weekend!!! There were lots of tears from me and from him since we hadn't seen each other in over two months. The rest of Thursday was spent on base doing fun things. We went bowling, caught a movie, shopped at the BMX and mini mall on base, and ate a LOT of junk food! This was the first junk food they had been allowed to have since they arrived for the beginning of basic training. I think Brandon ate just about everything you could imagine. It seemed like he never got full!! It was hard to leave him on base on Thursday evening. But I took solace in knowing that I would get to see him on Friday morning, all dressed up in his dress blues for the actual graduation ceremonies. Check back tomorrow for a post on that! I'll leave you with this picture of my Airman with his very proud Momma! Until next time. . .

Tuesday, June 19, 2012

My Pool Noodle Wreath!

Hi everyone! Debbie over at Debbiedo's is hosting a Pool Noodle party and since we all know how much fun Debbie's parties are, I decided to join in by making a pool noodle wreath. I wanted to challenge myself by seeing how inexpensively I could create this wreath. I purchased my noodle at the Dollar Tree then shopped my craft room to see what other goodies I could find. I found some gingham fabric along with some scraps of coordinating solid fabrics, some buttons and some yarn. I felt like my wreath was lacking in something so I decided to try to create a banner that would hang across my wreath. I looked and looked for something to use as my banner pennants but could come up with nothing that would work. Then the hubs and I were walking through Wal Mart the other evening past the paint section and the proverbial light bulb went on over my head. Paint chip samples!! YES!!! So I grabbed a few of a couple of colors and raced home to put my wreath together. Here's my supplies I used: I started off by taping my noodle together with some packaging tape I had. I didn't cut any of my noodle before doing this step. Then I tore strips of my gingham fabric and wrapped it around my noodle, hot gluing here and there as I went to secure it. I then created some simple flowers by taking a cookie cutter and tracing around it onto my solid fabrics. I then made some rosettes out of the opposite colored fabric and hot glued them together. I embellished each one a little bit different using buttons and scraps of yarn. I created my banner by cutting triangle shapes out of my paint chips. Using a hole punch, I punched a hole in the top corners of each triangle. I used a black sharpie pen to write a letter on each triangle, spelling out the word "welcome". I then took some yarn and used it as my twine for the banner. I threaded it through my triangles and simply tied it onto my wreath. I then tied two little bows out of yarn and hot glued them on each end of my banner. Here's my finished wreath: So cute!! And I only spent $1 and about an hour of my time making it! How cool is that?? I've already bought another pool noodle and can't wait to make another wreath. I took my wreath to work with me yesterday to show my friends, and one of my co-workers fell in love with it. Since her birthday is at the end of this week, I gave it to her as an early birthday present. No one at work was able to guess what I made my wreath out of and when I told them, they couldn't believe it!! I love projects like that, don't you? I am linking up to Debbie's Noodle Party. Just click here to visit Debbie and check out all the other creative projects people have come up with using pool noodles. Until next time. . .

Monday, June 11, 2012

A Laundry Room Makeover!

Yes, it's been quite a while since my last post. I was feeling a little burnt out and not the least bit creative so I decided to take a "blog break" for a while. There's been a lot happening in my life these past few months, and I'll share some of that in future posts, but first, I'd like to share a makeover my sweetie and I completed this past weekend on our laundry room. I'm gonna take the plunge and bravely (or stupidly) share with you the "before" photos. Just please promise you won't call in the producers of "Hoarders" when you see these pics. My laundry room is small, only roughly 5 feet by 8 feet so my working space is very limited in there. Keep that in mind while viewing these photos. So much clutter on this shelf! Mercy! Shoes, coats, and more clutter on this side. Can you say ugly??? We started by taking everything out of this tiny room and stripped off the wallpaper border. Then we began painting. I used a color by Valspar called Evening Eclipse. It's a blue/gray color and I love it! Paint going up! Next, we laid down some new flooring. I love the black and white tile look and found a piece of vinyl flooring at Home Depot that fit the bill. I also wanted to keep the room from being too dark since we have no natural light in this small space, so I decided some beadboard and trim would work well for that. A closer look at the trim we chose: To pull the black from the floor up into the room, I went with some black wicker baskets, which also help keep laundry tools and supplies organized. These baskets were purchased from Lowe's. I shopped my home for most of the other accessories I used in this room. And I rehung our coat rack to use for our seasonal jackets and to hang my ironing board. I did purchase this plain little jar at Wal Mart for my laundry detergent and spiffed it right up with some scrapbook stickers and a pretty little bow. I am thrilled with how this tiny room turned out! And it only cost $186 to make this room over!! Can you believe that?? Eventually we will be adding some crown moulding and my sweetie is going to build me a "clothes folding" table which be installed under the coat rack to help make that job a little bit easier. Here's the finished (for now) room: Not too shabby for less than $200! Now all I need is a new front load washer and dryer. Oh well, a girl can always dream, can't she? I'd love to know what you think of my laundry room makeover! I'm joining up with these parties this week:
Pin the Tail on the Blog party over at Debbiedo's; Your Cozy Home Party at Cozy Home Scenes; Tabletop Tuesday at A Stroll Thru Life; Flaunt It Friday at Chic on a Shoestring Decorating.
Until next time. . .