Life at Fort Bragg

So we are quickly approaching our one year anniversary since we said "I Do"! So crazy how fast time goes. Grant graduated from Flight School at Rucker in June and then we FINALLY set off for our honeymoon to Punta Cana for a week. It was such an amazing and beautiful place to vacation and we were treated like royalty! Highly recommend the Majestic Colonial Resort in Punta Cana. Here are some pictures from our honeymoon.

Now we are settling into a "normal" life here at Ft. Bragg. As normal as life as an army wife can be that is.
We decided one night in March that we were going to buy a house. That same night we were pre-approved for our loan and two days later, my mother-in-law and I (hubbs was training and couldn't leave) were off to NC looking at houses. We saw 18 houses in 2 days and on the second day we put in an offer. That's right, I put an offer on our first home without my husband ever stepping a foot inside. Actually he didnt even see a picture of the house I chose until after the offer was put in because he was in the field. After a stressful few days, we came to an agreement on a price and we bought our first home! Grant didn't even see the house until we were pulling into the driveway 2 months later at 3am towing my car behind a 24 ft U-Haul...talk about confidence in your wife!

It has been almost 5 months since my husband carried me over the threshold of our first ever home and we are loving being homeowners. Besides the septic system failing one month in, things have been pretty smooth (knock on wood)! I have gotten most of the house painted, set up the way I want it and many hours of sanding and staining furniture under my belt. 

We are both missing living in NH and our families and friends very much but for our time in the Army, we are doing alright for ourselves and meeting some amazing people along the way!

Married Life

Well we did it! We went and got married :)

Awwwwwww

The wedding was more than I could have ever expected and went off without a hitch. I am so happy and proud to have an amazing family support system and group of friends. I have also gained quite an amazing and large family that have accepted me with open and loving arms. 

We had an absolutely amazing photographer who took the best shots of us!

This is his blog post if anyone is interested in reading how our day went from start to finish:

A Pressing Engagement

Thank you again Ron Kolias Studios  for an amazing experience! You are the best Ron!

We also found out that we will be moving to North Carolina in June. Grant will be flying Apache helicopters at Ft. Bragg and will be joining his unit there. Plus I get to be with one of my best friends there so I am so excited! The countdown is on for the move. So many exciting things happening in the next few months! Grant will be graduating flight school, we will hopefully be taking a honeymoon at the end of May/early June, we will be moving in to a bigger and hopefully better house (anything is better than what we have now)!!

Cant wait for these next few months to fly by!

Prepping for Thanksgiving

So this year is our first thanksgiving together. 

Not as boyfriend as girlfriend, we have had 4 of those. 

Not as a married couple, that will be next year. 

But as just the two four (including the dogs) on our own in Alabama. 

No family around, no drama, no traveling between families

BUT that means no sitting back relaxing and eating what everyone else has made. 

I have to cook

Here is whats on the menu that I just created.

Mashed potatoes, Sausage stuffing, Broccoli casserole, 

cranberry sauce, gravy, home made bread with rosemary parm dipping oil...

and of course

....

Chicken

Yea I know, you thought I was going to say Turkey. Lucky for all of us Grant hates Turkey and is obsessed with chicken so that is what we will be having. 

I am also planning on whipping up a little chicken sweet potato meal for the pooches. :)

For dessert we will be joining friends for football and dessert. I am bringing banana pudding pie.

Happy almost Thanksgiving

Happy Cooking

DIY Wedding Shoes

Okay so I wanted the prettiest silver (to match my theme) glitter shoes I could find 1. because glitter shoes are so princess like and 2. because I wanted to show my personality with something a bit different through my shoes. I ran into a few problems along the way. I first discovered that all the really adorable glitter shoes that I LOVED only came at a minimum heel height of about 4inches. 

No bueno. 

Grant is only about an inch (two inches if you ask him) taller than I am. With his fancy dress shoes on they add about an inch to his height so the absolute maximum heel height I wanted was 3 inches. The next problem I ran into was the price of some of these glitter shoes. $150+?! 

 No thank you!

I know you are supposed to splurge on your wedding shoes but I do not have the money right now to get a haircut every six months never mind spending a ton of money on shoes..so I decided to go the DIY route. Also my very first experience with mod podge, the nectar of the crafting gods.

I picked up these bad boys on sale! $25!

 I then globbed a large amount of mog podge into a red solo cup and added enough glitter that it started to get thicker and I could see glitter everywhere in the mog podge. At this point I was beyond terrified that I was going to ruin the shoes that I loved so much but don't worry...you wont! I used a thicker silver glitter for the main shoe and a black glitter for the heel.

 I started to evenly but quickly apply the silver glitter mog podge mixture all over the shoe. I left the black satin on the front alone as you will see in the finished picture. Once I applied the mixture to the first shoe, I poured the same loose glitter all over the shoe and gently pressed it on just to be sure it sticks. I also bought mog podge spray paint..I know I just went crazy at the craft store. I used the spray adhesive for the finishing coat to make sure all the glitter stays put. The last thing I need is to walk down the isle with a trail of glitter following me.

 This is the shoe right after I pressed the glitter on, before spraying it with spray adhesive. 
Note the absolute glitter explosion in the background.

At this point I was jumping for joy because I liked LOVED how they were coming out

Next I moved on to the black glitter on the heel. I did the same thing with the mog podge glitter combo in the solo cup, painted it on, and poured loose glitter over the heel.

I spray painted another coat of the spray paint mog podge and then I let everything dry completely overnight. In the morning I added one more layer of spray and stood back in awe of my gorgeous DIY wedding shoes.

I cant wait to show everyone on my big day and proudly tell them all that I made them!

Personalized Wedding Dress Hangers

These past few weeks I have found myself on a crafting binge...I cant get enough. Problem is I usually start crafting and then after a few hours in ADD kicks in and I start asking myself why I do this. The feeling I get when I finish a craft is joyous...and I usually end up loving whatever I make its just getting to that end point I have a hard time with. Honestly I have about 6 projects going on right now and I have finally finished my first one of those 6.  

I have 7 bridesmaids 2 MOH's and 2 Flower girls *GASP* ...I know its a lot. Having all these people in the wedding is very expensive and I wish that someone told me that beforehand. That being said...I love all of my bridesmaids, MOH's, and flower girls and I don't think I could have narrowed it down if asked to. I have decided to hopefully lessen the burden on my wallet and make a lot of the wedding favors and decorations...without sacrificing the quality.

The first project I am going to post was surprisingly easy. They are my personalized dress hangers to take photos of the dresses on the day of and keep everyone's dresses straight. 

First I got myself some thin wire from Lowes. I believe it was 22 gauge wire and it was silver. I have used this wire for a lot of crafts including my brooch bouquets which I will post about in the future because I only have 5 of them done. I bought a lot of wire just because I knew I would be using it for many things. 

look for something like this but with more than 100ft

Next I went over to Wally World Walmart and bought myself some cheap but nice hangers

As you will see the ones I bought were darker..but I forgot to take a picture of the hangers before

Next I took my needle nose pliers and started bending away leaving about 8 inches before my first letter and after my last letter to be sure I could center the names before attaching them. The letters are fairly easy to make...although they do take some practice. I scrapped about 3 or 4 before I ended up liking it enough to attach it. If I was doing it again I would probably try to form the letters smaller but I still love the way mine turned out.

(I apologize for not having more pictures of the process...I got overexcited and forgot to keep taking pictures)

I then took my hangers and drilled a tiny hole on each end with Grants drill. I love being able to use the power tools. Be very careful with this part...you don't want to drill too far and snap the wood or drill right through. I didn't have any extras so I needed to be super cautious of this. 

Out came the glue gun and I attached the personalized wire into the predrilled holes with a tiny glob of hot glue. To do this I first made sure the ends of the wire were the right size and perfectly centered...I cut off any excess. Then I put the glue on the end of the wire and stuck it into the hole I had drilled. The key here is to put enough glue that the wire will stick to the drilled hole, but not too much glue that it will make a huge hot glue mess all over your hands, counter, and the hanger. 

I had to repeat this process 9 more times including one for myself. I ended up wanting to dress the look up a little more and I had some extra beads laying around from a previous craft project (crafting overload) so I added those onto the wire along with a pretty bow to tie in the whole look. 

Here are my end results.

One of my bridesmaids

and mine :)

Like I said, I probably would have made the letters smaller, but overall I am happy with how they turned out and I think they will take the pictures to the next level.

Life update...hold onto your seats

Okay so I haven't written an update in about 5 months! Wow...I cant believe it has been that long. I have been so busy with wedding planning and crafting that I just found myself having no motivation to update the blog. 

First, I'll quickly fill you in on the big happenings in my life over the past 5 months. 

In July,  I begged and begged until I got my own way (like usual) and we adopted a second dog. Her name is Kota (after the Lakota helicopter) so fitting, I know. She is about 10 months old now and is a Golden Pyrenees. She is an absolute sweetheart and although having the two dogs in our small townhouse at times makes me want to tear all my hair out, I wouldn't trade them for the world.

Kota on the left, Dunkin on the right

yes...she has a mustache. We call her Mrs. Mustacheo...well I call her that sometimes

  

Also in July, I turned 23, which is scary in itself...never mind the fact that I cant ever remember  that I am now 23 years old. I still say I am 21..not even on purpose. I have started to not get ID'd at restaurants and even on one occasion, getting wine in the grocery store! Hello old age...next stop wrinkle cream.

Birthday Shot!

hmm what else? We are currently in the BWS phase of flight school for Grant and have about 3 weeks left until we find out what helicopter he will be flying for the Army. About 3ish weeks after that we will finally find out what post we will be living at next. Rooting for Ft Bragg so I can be living next door to my favorite Army wife and we can finally be reunited. Praying that we will be out of Alabama and back to civilization in about 6 months. 

Wedding planning is absolutely insane and even more crazy trying to do it from across the country! Thank god I have my family and friends helping me back home. Honestly...I am so done with wedding planning and crafting and just thinking about the wedding. I can totally see why people just elope or go to the courthouse. If you are against people eloping or courthouse weddings... just wait until you have to plan a wedding. It can change your mind...trust me. We are 88 days away from the wedding and it cant come fast enough. Don't get me wrong...it will be an AMAZING wedding and I cannot wait to be married, its just the planning that's killing me. 

What I really can't wait for is my bachelorette party in Atlantic City with my girls. Umm hello blackouts, strippers, and bad decisions...I mean tea parties, movies, and dinner dates. 

I think that's about it with my life update so far. Hopefully I can start being better about my posts. I know I want to start posting my wedding crafts and even sharing how I made them soon so keep checking back.

Until then!

We're getting married!

I can no longer call myself an army girlfriend! I know I haven't blogged in a while but that's because I have been so busy prepping for the wedding! We have decided to get married this December so that's not a lot of time! Busy busy busy!

Here is the story of the proposal because I know everyone always wants to hear that story.

 We left for the airport Friday May 13th (Yes I know Friday the 13th, but that's now my Lucky day!)at 2am for a long two hour drive to the airport and two layovers ahead of us...a long day worth of travel. I was wearing yoga pants and  a tshirt and grant was wearing basketball shorts and a tshirt so naturally after a long travel day, engagement was the last thing on my mind. Little did I know Grant had a very large surprise in store for me!

We had some bad luck with the flights and I'm sure grant was panicking. First, we almost missed the last plane. So after running through the airport and stressing out, we made it to the terminal. Then, right before boarding, Grant made me change my clothes because we were meeting his mother for lunch and we couldn't be dressed like slobs.I annoyingly went and changed my clothes not understanding why I couldn't just change my clothes in Boston before  we  went to see his mother. Then,  we  found out that  we  were not sitting together. Not only were  we  not sitting together but we were both in the center seats on opposite ends of the plane. So while I was distracted, Grant got up to tell the stuartist his plan and see if they could move our seats. He then went into the cockpit to talk to the captains of the plane! So the stuartist came to find me and tell me that Grant had asked and they had found an open seat where we could be seated together. Not only that, but it was in an exit row! (extra leg room)! I, being the naive person that I am, only thought nice things about the airline and how accommodating they were and didn't suspect a thing! 

After a two hour flight, the captain came over the loudspeaker to announce that we were beginning our initial decent into Boston and letting us know the weather forecast for the area. He then went on to say "Can we have our US Airways Passenger Alie Peterson please stand up." I almost died. I thought to myself what could I have possibly done wrong!? The captain then went on with "your boyfriend has something to ask you". The plane ohhed and ahhed and Grant got down on one knee in the center isle, had a beautiful speech prepared, and asked me for my hand in marriage. The plane burst into applause and through teary eyes I said yes. The stuartist brought us wine from first class and passengers offered to take photos of us and offer their congratulations. 

Grant wasn't done yet!

After we got off the plane we were greeted by mine and Grants whole family who he secretly planned for them to be there the whole time. We all went out for a beautiful lunch in Boston and it was the perfect end to a perfect day. 

Right after he proposed on the plane!

My mom and I

My brother and I

The Broom Family

That relaxing weekend in NH that I was talking about a few posts ago...NEVER HAPPENED!

The whole weekend was spent wedding planning, family lunches/dinners, drinking heavily to congratulate us, a BBQ, Wedding dress shopping (and buying my dress!), looking at churches, and looking at reception halls. Not that I would have had it any other way!

My beautiful ring! He did such a great job!

We got home and the extreme planning kicked in. We have done so much in such a short amount of time, including taking and getting back our engagement pictures, ordering our save the date cards, and registering at 3 different stores. In May, on top of walking in my graduation from college, we will be having an engagement party! I ordered my white beautiful dress today for it! I am so excited! So many great things happening. Oh and also planning a bachelorette party to Atlantic City in November! 

On a sadder note. I am praying for my dear friends Jonny and Laura who are both amazing friends and actually are part of the wedding party.  He found out last night that instead of deploying to Afghany land in May, he will be deploying this Friday because they have to "fill a spot" on the plane. Very upsetting that they are allowed to just do that without really any notice and just take him away. Its bad enough that he has to go in the first place, now he gets 2 days notice and has to bypass all the training they do beforehand. A very sad situation and my heart goes out to both of you. Love you Xox

Well sorry to end it on a sad note but I am very excited to keep planning the wedding and all the wedding festivities that come beforehand! Have to get back to "working" aka, planning the wedding at work.

:)

I'm ready for a break!

So here I am bored at work again. I am exhausted! Yesterday was Easter and Grants 24th birthday. We celebrated by going for a walk in the park and relaxing all day. We then had a delicious grilled chicken dinner and made birthday icecream sandwiches. yummm...I can feel my pants getting tighter by the minute! 

Well the park turned out to be a bad idea and frustrating because 

1. Dunkin is horrible on the leash in the first place, like legit...he chokes himself he pulls so hard and its not pleasant for us walking him or the stares we get from other people who think we are torturing him and 

2. The leash broke so we couldnt even let him run around. Like I said...frustrating. 

THEN Dunkin decided last night that he wasnt causing enough of a ruckus in our lives so he got ahold of the FULL trash can and spread trash throughout the entire downstairs...at 2AM! Let me tell you how wonderful it is to clean up the entire house at 2 in the morning when I have to be up for work at 6...not fun!

I am ready for a break! Luckily Grant was feeling so spontaneous after he got home from training that we are taking a trip home to NH this weekend to see our families! We are leaving Friday morning at around 3AM and are coming back on Monday afternoon. I am sooooo excited! :) My friend Kristine and her husband are willing to take Dunkin for the weekend and we are so grateful! I just hope he doesn't make their lives miserable while we are gone! Its going to be so nice to get away for a weekend! 

Okay well only an hour and a half left at work! Time needs to go faster so I can go home and take a nap! :)

Happy birthday old man! :)

Home sweet home!

Well after pacing back and forth driving myself crazy sitting in front of the clock...Sunday at 11:30 finally came and it was time to go pick Grant up! I surprised him by going on post to meet him instead of waiting at home for him and missed an opportunity to get flowers but that's okay with me if I got to see him 25 minutes earlier! I am seriously the happiest girl in the world and I can only describe the moment as an out of body experience, finally getting to give him a hug and a kiss!  I wish I wasn't sitting at work right now and could be home spending time with him. Other than the hideous mustache he came home with... he is doing so much better than I could have ever imagined. I realize now that I let my imagination get the best of me in what to expect when he got home..which is definitely a good thing because I was having some crazy thoughts. He lost about 12lbs which is NOT okay because he is now almost in the same weight range as me...give or take 15lbs, but still! I need to fatten this boy up!

Dunkin was so excited to see him, which I was nervous if he would remember him or not since we only had him for about 2 weeks before Grant left. He was wiggling his whole butt his tail was wagging so much! We are both very happy to have him back and we used the new grill for the first time last night to make grilled pizza and had the icecream cake I made for him as well! We were both so full and let me tell you that:

ice cream+greasy pizza+lactose intolerance+no gall bladder=unhappy tummy! :(

So worth it though! :)

Cant wait to be done with this full day of work and go home to spend more time together!

Here is the video of Dunkin and Grant getting to see each other for the first time. Please excuse my high pitched voice...I was very excited!

Standing by my decisions

Just got back from my trip to Florida! It was great to get to spend some time with my grandparents and my mom and brother. The villages is an absolutely beautiful place! I just want to skip my whole career path and go straight to retirement. Everyone has pristine gardens and there is not one piece of trash on the ground anywhere! They dance every night and with the exception of the one mean old lady who yelled at me from the passenger side of her car to cross the street faster, everyone seems very friendly!

With the exception of a nail in my tire that I had to get fixed before I left the trip went smooth! I ended up driving down a day early because my boss let me take it off, so I texted my mom this picture when I was a few hours away to surprise them and let them know I was on my way!

This is a picture from the back of the golf cart that I quickly snapped. It is just so beautiful!

When in Florida I had an interesting conversation with my grandmother (Mimi) about being in Alabama and living with my boyfriend before we are married. I completely get the fact that some people disagree with the fact that Grant and I are living together before we are married and I can respect their feelings. I was upset when I found out that his father felt so strongly about it and even more upset to recently find out that my Grandfather (Bumpa) wasn't too happy about it either, although he did a very good job and keeping it to himself. I can respect that  for religious reasons it is frowned upon or in the "older times" people just didn't live that way, but I am also a strong believer that I can make my own decisions and stand by those decisions. With the divorce rate as high as it is, especially higher in the Army, I am going to make sure that I am actually able to tolerate living with that person before I make the decision to marry them and then find out that I cant stand being with them. Which is not the case for Grant and I, I think that aside from his few things that drive me crazy (clothes go inside the hamper... not next to them, never closing the drawers in the dresser, and getting toothpaste all over the toothpaste container) things have been going smoothly. 

(If your ever reading this Grant, you know you do it! :p and I know I do things that drive you crazy too...although you never really say.)

Another question that she had for me was, "You made the decision to move out to Alabama right out of college and adapt to his life in the Army, do you think he would do the same if the situation was reversed?" The answer to this question was hard. Of course I would like to think if the situation was reversed he would follow me to a different state for a great career or just because but the truth is, I don't really know. Grant never forced me to move to Alabama. Truth is, in a perfect world he would have rather waited until he graduated from flight school to move in together but with flight school being over a year long, I honestly couldn't see myself waiting that long to start my "real life". I started looking for a career job, I don't know if I would have the option to move a year or so down the road. My mother always tells me not to lose myself to a man and says my grandmother is only concerned because I seem to have chosen a hard life in the military on top of how hard life is just by itself. I get why they are scared for me and honestly I think they feel that way because in some way my Mimi feels that she had to change for my Bumpa, and I know that my mother feels like she gave up herself to change for my father. 

I cant change who I fell in love with. I don't feel like I am changing myself. Maybe I am being naive about the whole situation but I don't think about it as changing, I think about it as adapting to a new situation to be with the person I love more than anything in this world. If people cant accept that, then they never will. Grant and I started our relationship with a lot of growing to do and I am happy that we have both gotten the chance to grow together. We are both not perfect and if I am making a mistake...I will learn from it eventually. All I know is that right now I am completely content with the decisions I have made and I know that good things will be coming my way in the future. 

Here are a few more shots from the drive with Dunkin. He is such a spoiled dog!

Here is a shot of my Mimi and her pup Ralphie. He is her baby

Well as for this week I have something planned for every day until Grant comes home! That includes getting a hair cut, going to see The Hunger Games and going out to dinner with the wives, making an ice cream cake, doing some cleaning, and Laundry. On top of that the hours at work are picking up which is what I need because my bank account is looking quite low after the cost of gas for the trip to FL. 

Only 5 more full days until he comes home!! :)