DIY Framed License Plate

I don't even know if that's a good title for this, but the picture speaks for itself.

Many military families keep their home state residency and keep their vehicles registered in that home state. Scott went all in with Alaska and I did too, I suppose. It wasn't permanent but it was our life. We've pretty much adopted the lifestyle and community of wherever we've lived. We've never actually lived on an army base. We just rent or buy off-post and kind of dig in to wherever we happen to be. I found this was especially true for me when it came to working and being a part of the local school district.

So when we moved to Alaska, we became Alaska residents and registered our vehicles with the state of Alaska. When we moved to Missouri and bought a new car and truck, we registered them with Missouri. When we moved to Colorado, we re-registered them with Colorado. When we sold the truck and bought a bigger truck in Wyoming, it was a Wyoming truck.

This means, basically, that we have a collection of license plates in a box and I'm going to do something crafty with them one day. Especially because Alaska has a multitude of different plates/designs/colors, so I have like three different ones from just there.

We bought our truck in Laramie in March 2018 and, did you know, that they register every single truck in that county with a number and our number was 867. Meaning, it was truck number #867 in Albany County.

In fact, when we tried to renew it, they wouldn't let us because we don't have active duty military orders to Wyoming any longer. They also asked if we could send the plates back. I'm pretty sure Scott told them where to go. Of course, Colorado wouldn't let us renew our trailers there either so it's probably not just a Wyoming policy.

So, we registered our truck with Alaska since we are residents there, and plan on also registering our SUV there when the time comes next year.

When Wells was born (at the only hospital) in Laramie, I asked how many babies they deliver each year (because I was pretty sure Ft. Carson was like 12 a day). They told me 250-300. Which means, there's probably less than a 1,000 babies born in Wyoming a year, I would guess. They are the state with the lowest population, after all.

I figured him having this Wyoming license plate was pretty unique, and it's a pretty unique-looking plate to begin with. I decided to craft it into something for his room.

(We actually have another plate too, because most states have a front and back plate, so we have doubles for our collection when I actually get around to displaying it.)

I googled "how to frame a license plate".

I bought a shadowbox frame and they were buy-one-get-one-free so now I need to make something else. 11x14 is the best bet for this dimension. I had to google "dimensions of license plate" when I was in Michael's and they're 6 x 12 inches, FYI.

I hot-glued the license plate to the back. This Wyoming plate was super light compared to other states' plates, so a basic craft hot glue gun might not work on every license plate.

Let it dry, maybe putting something heavy on top to seal it down for a few minutes.

The little circular mark is from the push pin it had in it originally. I'm hoping it just goes away. I was able to cover the other one with the plate.  

Put it back together.

For some reason, I thought this would be a lot more difficult than it was!

While this won't work for every military kid (you know, if you don't have a license plate), it's kind of a fun idea to pay a homage in some way to the state where they happened to be born.

 I feel like I'm going to be spending a lot of time collecting Wyoming-ish things for Wells!

What I will miss (and do miss) about Laramie

I really thought I'd feel more of a tug of my heartstrings toward our Laramie house when it came to leaving there in December. That's where Wells was born. It was his first home and his first bedroom and his first everything.

But I think I will miss Laramie in general, not just the house. The house is fine, but we still own it so I mean, we could always go back, technically.

*ETA* I actually have really good memories of Laramie so I'm glad that that's where we have a house, just in case. I even jokingly told Scott that we could always live in that house and build on property outside of town. Wyoming wouldn't be the worst place to retire from the Army. But because of water issues and the constant fires, we likely wouldn't settle there.

I was frustrated with ColoradoWyomingColoradoWyoming for a few reasons but the good of Laramie in general actually outweighs the good in Colorado to me. Laramie is small-town living and, I hear, has a fantastic school district. I'm a little disappointed I never got a chance to experience the schools and I'm almost bitter that I spent four teaching years in Colorado instead. Every time I would push Wells in his stroller past the local elementary schools, I would wonder what it was like to work there. If we'd been there longer for a 3 or 4 year duty station, I likely would've sought out good childcare and tried to get into the school system.

But, moving on...

1. It was a very convenient place to live.
Everything was right there, not too far away. The downside was that there wasn't much included in that "everything". But I put verrrrry few miles on my car while living there. Cheyenne was 45 minutes and had shopping and things to do and Ft. Collins was less than an hour and had the same.

2. The trails.
The walking was what kept me sane. In the summer, it wasn't unbearably hot, though I always went early because I was either very pregnant or had a newborn and the sun is pretty intense at 7,000 feet elevation. It was just so easy to exercise there.

4. The doctors/hospital.
Honestly, the only hiccup was that the lactation consultants were overbearing, but that was probably my own fault: if I was fine with doing formula, I should've told them that. But since I had no idea what to expect, I tried it their way first.

I saw someone post on Facebook about how impressed they were that their doctor (here in Pennsylvania) called them with test results about something. In Laramie, my doctor called me regularly herself to give me test results and follow-up after appointments. It was the standard of care that I, sadly, became used to and now it's not like that and I'm just feeling meh about it.

I loved my doctor. I loved Wells' doctor. I didn't even mind the dogs' doctor/vet. I loved the nurses. I loved that, when we took a newborn class in June, it was just us and one other couple. Basically, I would live in Laramie for the medical care alone.

5. The weather was pretty pleasant.
I mean, windy and cold in the winter and there was the occasional severe storm in the summer. But no humidity and the hottest it ever got in the summer was maybe 85 degrees and those were outlier days. It was normally in the 70s. In Colorado Springs, it was easily over 100 degrees most of last summer (I wasn't there, but Scott was, working on the house.)

July on the UW campus

 

 September 2018 with a 2 month old vs. September 2017, when we bought the house. Same mirror. We obviously had no idea we'd be having a baby in Wyoming. 

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As we've found, there's good and bad to every place.
Alaska was cold in the winter and felt far away from everything but the people were amazing.
Missouri was actually really good to us and we liked the state/area itself.
Laramie had more good than bad, as you can see above.
To me, Colorado had more trials and troubles than I thought it would. I would give almost anything to give the dogs acreage to run on right now though. They had gotten too, too, too used to that luxury.
Pittsburgh is fine and good, but it's definitely not for us long term.

Next, we'll be going to another army base for only a year or so, so it'll be like trying on another state only to see how it fits.

Weekending 8/7

Hey, it's Tuesday already.

I don't want to say all of the days run together in a big blur, but every day is the same with feeding, changing, burping, laundry, laundry, laundry, dishes, laundry...so they do run together in a way, but they're not blurry.

I'm on my own again with a baby right now so the blurriness may start soon.

Jett saw a puppy on our walk the other day and would not just let it go. He hates puppies.

No pictures of Scout here because he's mad at me. 

He rolled in a dead skunk last week and I've given him 4 baths since. Hopefully he runs off the scent completely as he chases rabbits in Colorado this week. 

My brother and sister-in-law sent us these from Baked by Melissa. Along with MUCH-appreciated diapers and wipes. 

Wells went on his second historical tour on Saturday. We went to the Ivinson Mansion. His first was to the Wyoming Territorial Prison.

He'll appreciate this someday.

Including a one-room schoolhouse that they found out on the plains and brought to Laramie to restore.

His cheeks are getting bigger.

A trip to the UW campus.

Side note: They sell lots of Erin Condren there, which I didn't expect at a campus bookstore.

 We ended the weekend with a hailstorm, but nothing like what Colorado Springs got hit with yesterday. It makes me sick just thinking about it. But remember, it's, like, the best city ever.

My parents were visiting last week and it was really nice to have two extra sets of hands around to feed, burp, and hold Wells. They also did tons of tummy time, so I have to keep that going. 

However, now I'm back to attempting "routine" and that will likely include heading down to Colorado, which will just bust up whatever routine I currently have going (which isn't much of a routine at all, honestly). Scott is off of school for 3 weeks and unless I want to do this by myself for 3 weeks and not see Scott or the dogs, I'll be packing up the whole house (because babies have a shocking amount of needs) and heading to the prairie for a few days.

5 Things Friday.

+This news story about how amazing Colorado Springs is. I think the headline says it all if we're talking about how Coloradans perceive themselves.

I could go on (and on and on) about this, but my point is this: the median salary is $49k and the median house price is $255k. You can't afford the median house on the median salary. The math doesn't check out. The only thoughts we really have are What did we miss? We don't love the place. We lived there for 3-4 years (me for four solid years, him intermittently with deployments and this Wyoming stint). We didn't like it any better than any other place we've been. I worked with mostly civilians and the general public anyway so I think I got a really good feel for the place. (That being said, please buy our house there.)

+Wells had his first visit to a museum/historic site. Exciting! We went to the Wyoming Territorial Prison museum on Tuesday. I recommend it if you're ever in Laramie.

Right before he peed all over everything during a diaper change. 

Bench, diaper bag, his own head, etc.

+Things Tidy People Don't Do. I fit this perfectly. It's why moving and change and no structure is so hard for me. I'm struggling right now.

+I'm thinking about trying out some different lipsticks. Do you have any recommendations?
I got pulled into the BeautyCounter website and started browsing. I tend to buy a new cheap-ish lipstick every fall and wear it for all of three days. Since I'm making an effort to brush my hair and put on makeup most days now, even if I don't get dressed really, I thought this would be a nice addition.

+Well, that turned into 4 Things Friday. I don't know what we have planned for this weekend yet since we did the one and only tourist attraction in Laramie (see above). Is anyone else just reallllllly excited for fall? I can't wait to get the 80+ degree days over with.

Solo Parenting Weekend

We can file this under the most self-less thing I've ever done.

I knew Scott would have to go back to Colorado eventually to take care of the house situation there.  Putting off that house is not a productive means of procrastination. He'd been in Wyoming for two weekends in a row and he offered to stay another and I more or less made him go. He wanted to take the dogs. That was fine, I supposed. It's not like I couldn't get them out (Wells and I have been for a walk each day anyway, and I even managed to take the dogs and the baby by myself last week), but the tremendous guilt I feel when they're unnecessarily away from Scott is too much for me to handle. They needed the trip back to chase bunnies and spend time with Scott.

He offered for me to come too, or he said he'd come right back if I couldn't handle it. I said I'd pack up and head to Colorado if I really needed to. But, truthfully, there's still nothing for me to do there and I wouldn't even know where to start when it came to packing up everything we'd need for the baby. So I might as well do nothing here and keep the baby on his schedule (ha ha ha). I plan on going back to Colorado with Wells soon-ish because there's many people I want him to meet, but I'm hoping to put that off for a month or so, and maybe wait til it's not 100 degrees every day.

So Scott left Thursday evening and I spent five days (and five nights) solo with a newborn.

I'm not a night owl. In fact, being in bed by 9pm on any night (weekday, summer, weekend, vacation, etc) is preferable to me. Scott had been doing the night feedings, usually around 11:00pm, 2:00am, 5:00am, etc. My "job" has been to get up around 7:00 or 8:00am, feed the baby, feed the dogs, make breakfast, etc, and then Scott had been sleeping in until 9:00am or so since he can set his own schedule this summer with his research project.

So this was a shift for me.

Anyway, here's some pictures.

His nails grow like crazy so until Scott is around to cut them again, it's mittens. He was born with talons.

I stopped to take off my jacket on the trail the other day. He slept right through that. 

My takeaway was really just that it was lonely. I was held to a feeding and pumping schedule of every 2-3 hours. With broken sleep, I didn't have the energy to tackle projects during the day...seriously, I worked at a very simple to-do list for 5 days ("dust", "cut up cardboard", "take out trash", "thank you cards", etc.). I will say that a newborn is almost easier to take care of than a dog, but I know a dog will just go to sleep at night and not bother me until daylight, so I suppose it all evens out.

Along with the schedule that we're trying to implement with Wells, I realized verrrry quickly that I literally know no one here. The only people I know in Laramie are the occasional pleasantries I've exchanged with random people Scott knows. I don't think I even remember anyone's name. (Because we're awful people) We don't even really talk to the neighbors. So, in many ways, I can't wait to get him to Colorado to meet my friends.

I could go to Target or wherever but it seems like I'd just end up spending money unnecessarily in that case. And if I'm not willing to drive back to Colorado Springs to our own house with the baby right now, I might as well just stay home for the weekend.

So mainly I just browsed non-maternity clothes online and tried to research when I can start Pilates/yoga again (I miss it and it's only been two weeks).

Other than that, I finished UnReal and I will say that season 4 was just as good as season 1 (seasons 2 and 3 didn't impress me) and Rachel is the worst. Anyone have any thoughts on it?

I also was able to really watch The Bachelorette for the first time in weeks (uh, at 5am yesterday), so I have some thoughts on that for Friday.

Today we have a doctor's appointment for a 2-week check-up and, now that Scott is back, I think I'll actually cook something for dinner.

Wells' Nursery

Since I don't do affiliate links, I haven't linked most items. If you want a link, let me know!

To preface, we'll be in this house for about 6-8 months more, so we weren't looking to design a forever-space for this little guy. All I did was paint the walls. They were a light brown/tan (which was perfectly livable), but I re-did them in Valspar's Rocky Bluffs, which is the color I use for everything. Also, there are no pictures of the closet (don't nurseries always showcase a closet or am I imagining this?) because the closet is indeed being used for storing baby items. It's organized but I've already started rotating things out and putting unused items away for now.

My plan for baby was gray walls, navy blue, and woodland creatures whether the baby was a boy or a girl. For a girl, I would've added in some pink here or there. For Wells, navy blue is taking over and that's okay #becausePennState and navy is my favorite color.

We are VERY lucky in the sense that almost everything in Wells' nursery was either bought for us through our registry, gifted to us, or it was something we've repurposed from other rooms in our house. The only things we really sought out were the 3 main pieces of furniture: the crib, changing table/dresser, and glider. Along with the carseat and stroller.

I bought this shelf for like $10 in Alaska years ago and painted it. It was always in our guest room.

The arrow sign was like $5 at Hobby Lobby a few years ago and was also in our room in Colorado. 

The books were either gifted or I snagged them out of the book order this past spring.

Algonquin is a super old book and Scott found it in a CON-EX after his last Afghanistan deployment. It was just randomly laying there and he had no idea where it came from, so he brought it home and, I kid you not, read it to the dogs. Because the dog on the front looks like Scout. 

I need to get some hooks to put on the wall to hold the curtains back. The curtain rods were already in the room and I wasn't about to replace them for no reason, but the curtains don't slide super well. Which is probably because of the blackout material. 

The swing is Fisher-Price.

The chair is from WayFair. It was a close-out last month. $600+ down to $229. I don't have an ottoman yet, but I'm thinking I'll get a non-matching one from Amazon this fall. It hasn't been completely necessary yet. The throw was thoughtfully made by a blog friend.

The rug was bought in Afghanistan back in 2012. I like the colors. I think it's goat hair? We had it in the guest room in Colorado but we've not gotten much use out of it otherwise. Scott had brought back a few rugs during that deployment and he originally said he didn't want that "Taliban rug" in the baby's room...but seriously: We either throw away a very valuable rug and buy a new one, or we just put the rug down. (And he didn't actually buy it from the Taliban.)

Crib is from Target. I wanted not gray and not white and the floors are a light wood so, even though this will only be his room for several months, I liked the dark wood crib a lot. 

Changing table/dresser is from Wayfair. We bought it in April-ish and it's not on the site anymore. The top is removable so it'll serve as a regular dresser.

I initially thought it'd be great to have a longer dresser for the space during changes or for storage. However, they were all a little expensive for what I wanted to spend for a changing table and the room isn't huge, so this one serves us well. We've discovered we don't actually need the extra table space, anyway.

I ordered the watercolors of the dogs for Scott for his birthday a few years ago. 

My cousin gave us this Brittany pillow cover for Christmas. I think it was from Pottery Barn? No better place to put it. 

These baskets/crates are from Amazon. My mom got them all for us because she liked them and I really do too. 

The prints are from Etsy. I have two more, but am still trying to decide where to put them. Maybe on the shelves that are still hanging out in Colorado once we get all the furniture moved here. 

Curtains were $10 a panel at Target. I got 4 panels so hopefully they'll fit wherever we move next as well. 

Lampstand was bought at Salvation Army in Alaska for $9 and I painted it years ago. 

I took these pictures before Wells was born so some of the arrangement has changed but the basics are still there. The swing is by our bed now and the monitor sits by the swing. I put the Hatch light/sound machine away for now because the swing does sounds and I'll use the Hatch when he starts sleeping in his crib/room.

We also put this mat down for tummy time (my mom sent it) and Wells hates it but, hey, Jett loves it. 

5 Friday Things.

1. Week 36 is just about over now.

(Insert fine dog gif)

Kind of getting there. I did get a pedicure the other day.

2. I went to the doctor and I'll spare you the exact numbers, but she told me I could go into labor any day or I could sit like this until the end of July. There's some uncertainty for you. I told Scott he could go back and forth to Colorado until my due date and then he has to stay here. I'll just throw it out there that I, as a baby, was over two weeks late, so I FULLY EXPECT to go to 40 weeks at least, but never say never, right?

3. I've noticed that some people are using God's name as a way to sell Beautycounter these days. Really? Claiming God wouldn't want you to put toxins in/on your body through beauty products does not mean He prefers Beautycounter (at least, I'm pretty sure).

For the record: I do use a few of their products, but God has nothing to do with it. I just happen to like them. 

I just think that's a reallllly shady way to toss your lifestyle out as advertising means.

4. We watched the movie Baywatch the other night. I thought it was funny and worth a try if you have Hulu. Also, Dirty Grandpa. Hilarious.  We've also been watching The Curse of Oak Island on Hulu and it's fine enough, just super repetitive in an almost comical way. Other than that, it's just been reruns of Gossip Girl for me. I'm terribly bored with The Bachelorette.  Although, the labor & delivery nurse who works with my doctor is Becca's doppelganger, so that keeps it interesting. 

5. We took the dogs to their new vet in Laramie for their annual shots on Tuesday. I never would've been able to wrangle them in there on my own. I complained a lot about our vet in Colorado (and I still would because they were unnecessarily expensive and incompetent and GO SOMEWHERE ELSE if you live in Colorado Springs). This vet seems fine so far. The tech was the first person to ever get Jett's temperature. In all his ER vet trips and regular check-ups, no one has ever managed to get his temperature. Sure, Scott had to pin him down on the table (I could NOT have managed this trip by myself), but she got a temperature. 

Also, while getting his rabies shot, Jett jumped and yelped so high and loud that the syringe flew up into the air and almost stabbed us all. 

Bonus #6: Scott took the dogs swimming the other day. Since he's doing reservoir research, he can take them and they swim while he digs and takes measurements and samples and etc. It is the happiest place for Scout. He was in so much bliss that he had fallen asleep standing up in these pictures. 

Linking up with Carolina Charm

(Moving) Stuff and Things

I feel like I've done so many posts like this before...I mean, just search "moving" on this blog and there you'll have the information on the 5 moves we've done (all but one was a DIY move) in the last 9 years. (And by this time next year, it'll have been 6 moves.)

The logistics of this particular move have been difficult because a big part of it is condensing and sorting kitchen and bathroom things and furniture that Scott has been using in Wyoming versus what we've had in Colorado. I found this egg poacher in a drawer (we have some limited kitchen storage in Wyoming) and I asked if he used it:

He said yes. I said okay. He said The dogs drink milk out of it sometimes.

That doesn't count (right?). 

+Scott initially took our older Keurig with him to Wyoming. It'd been in his office on base, and I'd had a traumatic experience ("traumatic" used loosely) back when we got a new one. The more time I spent in Wyoming, the more I realized how much better I liked the old Keurig (from 2011). It works so much BETTER. It holds more water. It heats up more quickly. It brews more efficiently. Therefore, we will keep the old Keurig out for use and put the new one away for now. Sure, it's not as pretty, but form and function go a long way in this case. 

+An acquaintance of Scott's gave us a pillow as a housewarming gift. It's red, white, blue and has a buffalo on it so it's very Wyoming-ish. Thoughtful? Sure. 

Jett is terrified of it. He barks at it and runs away from it. He's kind of a baby (Scott called him an 'idiot and a baby' once, and it's the perfect description, really, but I think he's just too smart for us when it really comes down to it.) 

Scout doesn't even notice the pillow. 

Even after I put it in a giant storage tub, Jett would bark at the box and sniff around it suspiciously. 

Into the storage unit it goes. Hope this coworker never comes over for dinner.

+Centurylink has been a nightmare to deal with lately. I called a few weeks ago to have the internet service shut-off at our Colorado house scheduled for this week. Over the weekend, I started thinking that I didn't know how I would get the return label for our modem (it wasn't emailed to me) so I decided I would ask how I was getting it. The chat specialist tried to tell me that service had never existed at my house and then she just closed out the chat before I could even respond.

I called on Monday morning and spoke with a very competent individual named Roberto who actually answered my question, so I appreciate that. 

+Most days, I've noticed that daily life revolves around dog walks for me. So not much has changed over the last few summers. The biggest change is that I drive them 2-5 minutes (depending) to the nearest trail or park, instead of just heading out to the field. I could surely walk them to a few of these trails but putting them on a leash and crossing roads is stressful when I can't really run to keep up with them. And/or, it's just a lot of extra work. It's easier to throw them in the back of the RAV4. 

Now, this set-up will change when we put in the carseat (and then we'll just use the truck to transport the dogs, mostly, because I doubt I'll be taking dogs + baby anywhere by myself), but if you have a small SUV, put the seats down in the back, put up one of these fancy barriers (similar to what I have and your dog will hate you forever, promise), and put a fitted sheet over the flat seat backs. This does wonders for cleanliness. 

And after 5 moves in 9ish years, we have no shortage of extra bedding and fitted sheets.