Combo theme: Someone in _________ loves you & Of all the fish in the sea, I choose you

This will be care package #7...
If you just want to see simple pictures, here are the links to the pins of these packages: pin: fish in the sea care package and pin: someone in ____________ loves you

The theme for this is borrowed from the following pins: beach theme care package from milso pin_beach and milso theme care package pin_fish and Someone in ________ loves you.

THE OUTSIDE:
So, in my pin-research (yes, when I want to research anything DIY, I take straight to pinterest) I came across a ton of ideas for care packages! Lots of the ideas were themes which sound super fun! So far, the last 5 haven't been themes (unless you count the b-day package I sent) so I am going to give the theme idea a try!

It will be my first themed care package! I was a bit stumped on the theme. I am hoping to send it out this week and that it will arrive there at the beginning of September. I thought about doing a fall theme but I want to save that for a bit later...Not that it really "feels like fall" here in HI but then again, I'm from California and we don't exactly get the "fall colors" so much. OK, enough about that...

                                         This is the bottom of the box. I didn't know what to put on the bottom and then I saw this beautiful paper. I think the theme of it is fitting. :)

This took careful planning. I wanted it to look beautiful and I don't have perfect penmanship so I printed off the words I wanted. I then traced over them in pen (think the regular cheap pens that you can press hard on the paper to make an indentation) So, cover the box with the paper you're writing on, then print out the word you want to write. Trace over the word in pen, then remove the printer paper, trace over the indents you've made on the box with sharpie, and voila! You have beautiful handwriting that looks like a font!

 THE INSIDE:



The best method of decorating the inside of a care package is hands down to cut open the box! I really like using scrapbook paper. I of course stole this idea from a pinner on pinterest as well....It's close to half of a page for each flap section. Note that when the box is laid out flat, each of the 4 panels are basically divided horizontally in thirds. I would highly suggest that you get an extra piece for each part that you're doing because it doesn't always end up the right proportion of a page left or if you're like me, you might make a mistake cutting. It just saves yet another trip to the craft store.

Also, stock up on stickers! They really come in handy (I cannot draw at all!) Plus, they help you personalize and can fill up any extra space. I tend to use 1-2 packages of stickers (they're usually meant for scrap booking) but I'm still looking for more economical ways to get stickers.

 I did the "sand" first and then used blue paper to make the ocean. I got cute ocean critter stickers to put in the ocean and some border type stickers to put on the "sand."

Just in case of getting sick...You can also take off the lid so you can leave a secret note inside (I did.)

I just did this lettering free-hand. It's not perfect but I think he'll like it.

 This is a set of accordion style envelopes. They are taped together. I didn't want the envelope part to show so I taped blank cards (essentially flat pieces of paper) over the top of the envelopes. They just have little notes in them.



This is a card I made. The one that I modeled it after used a tiny clothespin but I couldn't find the tiny clothespin I know I have laying around here...

I got mail!

It arrived today! The package for Christine and I from Lisa and Tony!

Inside I found a little package for me! It included shorts from Guam and letters he had written to me. Since he liked the open whens I gave him/have been sending him, he decided to write some for me! That is so unbelievably sweet and thoughtful! He also included a post card. It was of a brown tree snake (they are super invasive in Guam).

I also got letters in the mail, too! :) Everyone loves mail and mail from your hubbalicious overseas is that much more exciting!








So, if you're the one away, make sure you send mail home! It's really important! We love it! So, get out your pen and paper! (Maybe even get some cute stationary/note cards when you're in port) and write to us! They told him it was free but apparently it's not so fork over the dough to send a letter home once in awhile. Also, if yours sends you a care package, send a thank you to him or her! I'm talking a real, handwritten thank you that you mail separately. Emailing him or her to tell them thank you for caring is not enough! Remember your manners. This is one thing I am pretty old-fashioned about. I don't care if you hate your handwriting! Your milso will not care! He or she will be so excited to see your writing. It's just another way to "be there" when you can't "be" there!

Sometimes Care Packages Don't Make it to the Port in Time and totems

So, go figure, they changed the schedule again...So I scrambled and rushed to get a package in the mail...Not soon enough. I sent it on August 8 and the last tracking update says it arrived at USPS facility FPO, AP on August 12 but the ship has already left port and he never got this box. It's okay. There wasn't anything homemade in it so it's not like it will spoil.

 OK, so I didn't realize I was supposed to send him with a stuffy he could take around with him and sometimes take pictures of it in places to send to me. Haha! Some of his friends who have kids were sent with stuffies to do this with. I've also seen info on others' blogs calling these totems. He was telling me about it and then I got him one (this cute little baby malasada (click here to find out the amazingness behind malasadas)). I took her around a few places on the island and snapped some pictures.

Maybe I should have written, "Aloha"                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       I also invested in stamps. (I got them at walmart). Anything that looks like a really great drawing in black...is probably a stamp.

 This is a box we used to use to send each other packages last year. I started the plane when I found it as a die cut in some of my scrapbooking supplies. Under the question mark is the outline of California with a heart near Chico (where i lived last year). I was going to draw in his ship on a card placed over the CA but then, I had to send this box faster than expected so I just drew a question mark which is true because it's not like I know where the package is going.



There are secret messages under where the stars are. I wrote him a note on the outside (I put it in an envelope that tells him there are secret messages on the outside of the package. I didn't tell him that the stars make the locations of secret messages. I just put a star sticker near the note I made about there being secret messages on the outside of the package. Also, here's my trademark whale. I didn't have time to come up with a punny statement including the word whale, so I just drew one real quick.

Hey guys! Write us letters too

So, Tony is great. He will message me/email me every time that he can. Sometimes the internet goes down or gets turned off for secrecy so obviously that's beyond his control. Often, he will write me an email from his account when the internet is out because it will get sent when they connect back to the network.

That is amazing and I'm grateful he does that all on his own and I don't have to ask or bug him about communicating with me. It wouldn't be as special if it was forced.

But...call me old-fashioned...I like to receive actual mail (as in snail mail...)

So, we had kind of a big convo about how I am writing him letters and he wasn't writing me any. To be fair, he hadn't gotten a single letter I sent yet. To be fair, I sent him a letter the day he left. Yeah (he literally got those a month later...) Except one of the ones I sent got stamped backwards (I wrote my return address on the back) and came back home to me instead of going to him. Ever seen that?

But because he and I value communication and can talk about anything and everything, it was only a conversation. One thing I've learned in relationships (significant others or anyone else) and life is that if you want something from someone, let them know. It's not fair to assume the other person knows what you're thinking just because you think it's about something obvious.

His reason for not sending me/writing letters was simple and completely logical: He talked to me more often (every day) via email and he was even getting a package of souvenirs from the ports he'd been to together to send. I just told him that I would really love it if he'd hand write me a letter. That was all it took. Now...he's been writing a lot of letters and I think he just had the chance to send me a few...so I'll be like the above meme...waiting.

Deployment Journal

Now, those of you who know me, know that I'm a pretty strong-willed, independent chick. AKA general badass (JUST KIDDING!!!) Hahaha. Anyways, even the toughest of us can't always keep our hair perfectly in place.

So, this whole thing of being married to someone who is not only in the military but also currently deployed is a situation that is completely foreign to me! I'm usually the one who is away. I've previously (quite a long time ago) maintained a long distance relationship twice and I was always the one who was/went away to a different state. This time, yes I moved but my honey is the one who went away.

Also, if you know me, you probably never would have expected me to be with a military dude. Yeah, life is funny like that in an ironic way.

OK, so back to the point of this post. I got the idea to start a journal while Tony's away on deployment. I'm so sorry but I have absolutely no idea where I got the idea from. I know I didn't make it up. I did what I do with all my best ideas, I stole it and made it my own! ;)

So, the idea of the deployment journal for me, is a way to document what I've been doing. Yes, I did live here for a bit 7 years ago but I was going to UH Manoa and living in the dorms. It's much different this time. I'm getting out to more places and trying tons of new things! I want to remember all the awesome hole in the walls I eat out, the cool beaches I go to, etc! This is a good place for me to write those things down and be able to look them up to reference them.

I thought that this journal was fitting...

1. It's big enough to comfortably write in. I mean, those little journals are super cute but honey, I've got big handwriting.

2. It's Mickey

3. He's driving a boat

4. How adorably cute is the back cover?

Guess what else is hard about having someone deployed? Ever see friends on facebook who are military spouses/girlfriends/friends/(insert important person in a soldier/sailor's life here) post the occassional screenshot of them video chatting with theirs? Yeah, we don't get to do that. But, what we do get, when we're lucky is the ability to skype when they are in port.

Now...does it always work?
Hardly ever.

 Is it blurry?
Almost always.

Is the audio delayed and/or warbled?
 More often than not.

Do you get disconnected often?
You bet.

Are there like a million other sailors trying to use the same internet connection at the local bar/wifi location on base at the same exact time you are?
Guaranteed

Will you have to be up at some un-godly hour just to try to talk for 3-5 min without getting cut off? Absolutely

The best way to get to talk to them is if they can get overnight liberty and have a hotel room. Then, usually, I've experienced, the connection is good.

Luckily, having spent the last year in a long distance relationship, I am well-equipped to not freak out or even experience an increase in heart rate when the skype call gets disconnected. It doesn't always work in the reverse. It took hubbs a bit longer to remember to remain calm when we inevitably got disconnected for like the 5th time in the last 4 minutes.

So, if you get annoyed by lack of communication, write about it!

Write about whatever you like! No one has to read! I write when I'm sad and as I start to write, I realize it's not that bad and find something positive to focus on. This is just one of my strategies. Sometimes it works.

Sometimes you don't want to bother them about every little thing. The journal can be your place to write about it and then come back to it later to develop your solution. It's helpful if you don't have many friends close by to talk to.

How to write wedding thank yous from both of you while one person is away

Just a little package...I sent him our wedding thank yous. Since we did a destination wedding, I decided to use shutterfly to create a filmstrip of pictures on the front of the activities we did as a group. I wrote little thank you notes to everyone and addressed all the envelopes. Then I put them in a quart size ziploc and mailed them to Tony so he could include his own notes. I believe these have been mailed while I'm writing this...but they did run out of stamps after they started requiring them to pay for and use stamps on the stuff they send home. I hope that people will appreciate it and see it as our own personal touch. This took some coordination and effort to get together. 

At first, he was all, how am I going to write all these notes? I sent him a list of a few phrases he could use plus instructions for mailing. :) Hahaha. Can't help it, I am a teacher after all...gotta include instructions!

I sent these on July 25 and they arrived to him on July 30. That was pretty quick...It definitely isn't always that quick...

Birthday Care Package!

 So, this is my second year in a row of having to celebrate Tony's birthday via care package. I actually used the same box I used last year. I just put a piece of scrapbook paper over where I had written #25 so that this one could be for one year later...I don't have pictures of the sides...I'll look around for them...The sides say, "Happy Birthday Tony" in block letters that are colored in various designs.



The whale thing you will see show up on all the packages I send...it's an inside joke regarding that happened on the ship once...Just go with it.

 You can also cut ziploc bags to put pictures on the flaps so they can be removed by the recipient. I also included scrapbook stickers (just be sure to cover them with packing tape so they survive shipping). Also, notice, I put envelopes on the inside panels of the package. These contain little notes to him.

I also invested in a food saver vacuum sealer. I just got the more basic one they sell at the Nex. I made some brownies (I used a brownie mold that is designed to make brownie pops). I put them in a small plastic container that some sea asparagus I got from the farmer's market came in. I then put the whole thing in a vacuum sealer bag and sealed it. It seemed to work well. I think this also prevents complete crushing. He said they were a tad squashed but that they tasted amazing (they better, Ghirardeli double chocolate mix)

This is an Annie's microwave mac & cheese

He loves the Ninja Turtles. These are bubbles.

These are Barnum's animal crackers

I decided to write the kind of popcorn on it because I assumed he wouldn't read the kind on the back.

Gotta be punny!

li-hing sour gummy worms

un-birthday package for my friend! I forgot to include the card before I sealed the package and I didn't want to ruin my duct tape master piece so I just put the card in the envelope and taped it to the outside of the package. It looks like a decoration and it's a cute way to include a card in a package.

Got this idea from pinterest. Add a banner to a package! So easy! Just write each letter of your message on it's own little flag. I decided to individually tape each flag just in case. Then, I hole punched the mini flags and used some ribbon we already had to string up the letters. Be sure to make sure you put them all in the right order! Then, simply tape it to each corner. I decided I wanted it to show when the package was all the way open but you could also tape it to the flaps that go on the outside.

By the way, I totally accidentally sealed up this package before I included the banner and had to open it back up (I tend to put a lot of tape...like really a lot...on my packages) so that was a bit of a challenge.