The Traveling Man's Wife: Survival Guide

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As many of you know, I'm the wife of a husband who flies out every week for work. When he first started I was always looking for mother's in similar situations for any advice and just someone who knew the life to relate to. Come to find out there are so many families out there in the same situation. That's just how a lot of businesses work these days. So after over a year at this job here's my two cents on how to survive with no husband for the week and 2 kids at home.

1. Just learn to expect looks of pity when people find out your husband travels each week or make. It is tough having your husband gone a lot, but there are ways of making it work and still be a close and happy family regardless of what some people may think.

2. Friends keep you sane! I don't know what I would do without friends to talk to, do things with and rely on when Eric's away. Especially since we don't have the good fortune of living super close to family.

3. The kids ALWAYS get sick when dads gone. This has rung true just about every time one of my girls have been sick. Luckily Eric is home by the time I catch it.

4. The meaning of bedtime will take on a whole new meaning! Some days its all I can do to put the girls to bed with a final push of patience and then go sit on the couch with a bowl of cereal and a guilty pleasure show and not move for a couple hours and convince myself I can make it through another day. Don't we all have those days as mother's regardless of it our husbands travel or not?!

5. Take some "ME" time! Going week after week taking care of someone else's needs 24/7 it's important to take some time and do something the rejuvenates you. The other night when Eric was home for the weekend I grabbed my stuff and headed to Barns and Noble to do some studying for some classes I'm taking. Normally studying isn't something I jump for joy in terms of doing, but being able to have some time to do something for me without Mia whining for a drink of water while Livy is crying because she is hungry was so rejuvenating!

6. It's ok to ask for help. This is something I've really had to work on as I like to be Miss Independent and would only ask for help in extreme circumstances. Like when I was 7 months pregnent with Livy and had been throwing up for 6 hours with Mia on her 3rd movie until I finally called my sister for help. She was a pure saint and drove a hour with her own baby to come take care of mine.

7. When it come to having younger kids, forget having a schedule and just go day to day. Some days I get a lot done and some days, depending on how things are going, we just chill around the house in our pj's.

8. Find different ways to keep in touch with your traveling spouse. Eric and I try really hard to keep each other involved in each other's day regardless of how far away he is. For example, we made a goal to send each other at least a picture daily, we send texts throughout the day and then video chat in the evening with the girls.

9. It gets easier and becomes a normal lifestyle over time. Confession...the first week or two are probably the roughest and is a tiring adjustment, but I learned that after getting into a routine and getting use to it, it gets a lot easier and becomes the norm.

10. Find joy in the situation. Eric loves his job and I even love some aspects about it too however as with any job there are always downside and being away from your husband is one of them. I've found that it's made Eric being gone so much better when I go about it with a good and supportive attitude. Of course, he feels bad that he has to leave a lot and it makes him feel even worse when I sit and complain about how hard it is sometimes. So for both our sakes I try to have a positive and happy attitude about it and Eric comes home ready to take care of the kids and help me when he gets that chance.

Linked To:
http://www.create-with-joy.com/2013/08/inspire-me-monday-week-85.html
http://www.keepingitsimplecrafts.com/2013/08/motivate-me-monday-187.html
http://www.sumossweetstuff.com/2013/08/market-yourself-monday_18.html
http://www.amamasstory.com/2013/08/mama-moments-mondays-link-up_19.html
http://www.thebettermom.com/
http://saynotsweetanne.com/2013/sweet-sharing-monday-66/
http://joleneengle.com/8-things-you-must-know-about-ministry/

DIY Baby Girl Onesies

It's been awhile since I've posted a project I've done besides the fair... let me rephrase...it's actually been awhile since I've even done a project that wasn't for the fair! So this was a fun and easy project that wasn't home decor.

Some good friend of ours were getting ready to have a baby girl. I just love all the cute ideas and things there are out there for baby girls and with me having 2 girls of my own I decided to gift two of my favorite things I liked having for my girls.

1. Some headbands and accessories from Ambrey's Accessories. As I mentioned before I love these headbands with interchangeable snap accessories. Mia wore one just about everyday of first year of her life and they held up perfectly to use now for Livy.

2. Cute onesies. Onesies are my absolute favorite and go to for babies. I even use them for under baby dresses or shirts because I hate constantly having their dress/shirt up to their armpits and their tummies being bare. It's a little weird and OCD I know. Anyway I thought I'd get a little creative and "embellish" some onesies on my own.

I just used scrap fabric, lace and trim I already had to put these together along with some iron-on applique paper and the final result was just so adorable! I want to remake all of these for Livy now!

I'm in love with Peter-pan collared shirts right now so of course I had to try my hand and making one in "baby form". 

Linked To:

http://thelifeofjenniferdawn.blogspot.com/2013/08/a-little-bird-told-me-link-party-55.html

http://thediydreamer.com/from-dream-to-reality/80-share-your-creativeness/

http://thenymelrosefamily.com/2013/08/whimsy-wednesdays-76.html

http://www.sew-much-ado.com/2013/08/we-did-it-wednesday_14.html
http://sparklesandastove.com/all-things-pretty-linky-party-21-features/
http://www.reasonstoskipthehousework.com/the-weekly-creative-thursday-link-party-2/

Instilling Creativity in Children

A couple weeks ago Mia went to her little friend's birthday party who had just gotten a cute Little People Disney Princess Castle. Mia's eyes grew about 2 times bigger after setting eyes on it and just loved it! It made me want to buy one for her on the spot. I'll admit I even went as far as actually looking on Amazon to see what it cost. After coming to my senses and reminding myself that buying Mia a huge toy for that price for no reason was crazy so I decided to think of some other options.

I started thinking about all the hours my sister and I spent building just about anything we could imagine out of things we found around the house when we were young. This made me realize how little I let Mia express her very creative side, especially since I am always crafting around her and how little I spend my time crafting on something she can benefit from as well.

So the next day I grabbed a cardboard box and we went to work creating a fun, little "princess" castle for Mia. As I was cutting out the castle I let Mia play with all my scrap papers and some scissors (yes, I'm a little too trusting of a mother, but luckily she did great!). It was so fun watching all the things she was imagining up. She started making houses out of some papers, a slide and even thought one looked like a car. Once the actual castle was done she had fun coloring the sides and then making a bed and a blanket for her little Cinderella to sleep with.

This experience has just helped me remember how important it is to let our children be creative and to give our time helping them to develop their creative side no matter the age. To also let them get a little messy doing it and to make a mess! Creative play is so very important to help children learn how to solve problems and come up with solutions. Not to mention it's just so stinkin' cute watching them!

Linked To:
http://www.muchadoaboutsomethin.blogspot.com/search/label/tell%20us%20tuesday
http://www.create-with-joy.com/2013/08/inspire-me-monday-week-84.html
http://www.keepingitsimplecrafts.com/2013/08/motivate-me-monday-186.html
http://carolynshomework.blogspot.com/2013/08/the-inspiration-board-creative-party-115.html

The Things I've Learn From Being Married

Today marks our four year anniversary. Four years is hardly that long at all, but I feel like in just these few years we have been through a lot and I have learned so much. Here are some of those things...

1. To get married and then "live happily ever after" takes hard work and effort! The first year Eric and I were married was the hardest year of our marriage. We were still learning a lot about each other and how to make our marriage work. Over time we were able to get in a groove and pull together our strengthens and weaknesses to work together. However, even now our marriage is still something we are always working on to strengthen and keep strong so we can continue to live happily ever after.

2. I married my best friend and didn't even know it. When I married Eric I was totally in love with him like a silly school girl, but I don't know if at the time I considered him my best friend. After all we had only known each other for about a year and only actually dated for about 6 months of that year. Since then Eric has been there to help me through every challenge and heart ache I've had to face, helped and supported me through every accomplishment, knows what terrifies me (even if some of those things he can't help but laugh at) and what makes me happy. Basically he's the only one who knows me inside and out and will always be there for me.

3. The love just continues to grow with time and the experiences shared. As I mentioned before I thought I really loved Eric the day we got married, but it's nothing compared to the love I have for him now. I remember how much my love for Eric grew while seeing each of our girls for the first time in Eric's arms and thinking how they looked just like him. My love and appreciation grew even more after working hard and supporting each other through school and watching Eric graduate from BYU from the stands in the Marriot Center. And so on through all our moves and achievements and even after loosing our twins. It's crazy to think it will just continue to grow as our lives unfold.

Although we've had our fair share of arguments, I have never regretted my decision to marry this amazing husband of mine! It has been a wonderful and life changing 4 years and I hope it continues that way for years to come!

"We're Going To A Fair"

We just arrived home for a week packed with all things crazy and fun in Ely after doing Arts in the Park. Now I am on the recovery, sitting in my messy house, still in my pajama's and have plans to do hardly much else for the rest of the week as I watch the girls.

Here's the run down...

Last Tuesday me and the girls headed to my parent's house in Ely to finished getting ready for a fair I have been preparing for with my sister and sister-in-law. We did a booth at Arts in the Park 2 years ago and worked up the nerve to do it again this year. Both times I've really enjoyed seeing everything come together and creating a really fun booth but let me tell you...it is a WHOLE LOT of work!

Anyway, we all came out with our kids equaling 5 children at my mother's house all under the ages of 3 (talk about craziness right there) and each day we were working around the clock trying to get everything finishing in time for Saturday when the fair started.

A huge shout out goes out to everyone in my family especially my little brother, mom and super supportive husband. Both my mom and little brother basically watched our kids for the good part of the week and helped out and my husband got off a plane from a business trip Friday night and jumped in the car right after to travel out to Ely to watch the kids while I did the fair. Then we traveled home last night so he could catch a red-eye flight back to work. The rest of my family helped with set up and take down as well as with all the kids! We would have never pulled it all off without everyone! Also thanks to everyone in Ely who dropped by our booth and even bought stuff!

The fair was a HUGE success! All money aside I say success because we were able to put together an awesome booth that we had been scheming about for the past 6+ months and had a lot of people come by in admiration. It's nice after all the work we put into it to get compliments on what we did. We had a lot of people ask if we had an etsy shop and even say our booth looked like it came right out of Pinterest lol.

So for those of you who weren't able to attend here are some pictures for your view pleasure!

We scored these large shutters in a dumpster and turned it into a display wall for our booth. It was a perfect backdrop to stage some of our pieces! 

We built a pallet wall on the other side of the booth for more display room. It was quite a project trying to get these display walls up and to make them stable, but it turned out great!

I am really going to miss these two girls! Not only are they my family, but they're my crafting partners, great mother's who I look up to but friends as well! It was so fun to get to do this with them before they move away in the next couple of weeks.

Linked To:

http://www.create-with-joy.com/2013/08/inspire-me-monday-week-83.html

http://itssoverycheri.com/2013/08/04/its-party-time-8-4-2013/

http://diyshowoff.com/2013/08/04/that-diy-party-28/

http://www.madincrafts.com/2013/08/mad-skills-party-167.html

http://carolynshomework.blogspot.com/2013/08/the-inspiration-board-creative-party-114.html

http://www.cozylittlehouse.com/2013/08/tweak-it-tuesday-50.html

http://www.sugarbeecrafts.com/2013/08/take-look-tuesday.html

http://thediydreamer.com/from-dream-to-reality/79-share-your-awesomeness/

http://thewinthropchronicles.blogspot.com/2013/08/share-it-link-party-75.html

Family Reunion Photo Booth

What would summer be without an family reunion to attend? Last weekend we had a family reunion on my mother's side that was a three day event full of catching up with extended family, playing a competitive game of "Minute to Win it", a photo booth and lots of kids running around.

Eric won us a gift card for winning the Minute to Win It challenges (he's very competitive). Way to go honey!

I was in charge of the putting together the photo booth. I really wasn't sure what to do for a family reunion type crowd. In the end I went with making some fun props I downloaded from a website called Oh Happy Day. She has lots of cute printables! Then I did a free standing back drop using PVC pipes.

*A little note on this...I never knew PVC pipes were so cheap! You can buy one that is 10 feet long for under $2! I will definitely be experimenting more with this stuff in some other future projects.*

Anyway, then I just pinned a plain white sheet over it and hung a banner that I already had. It turned out super cute and everyone were great sports about it.

Beside when we all go out to Ely for Arts in the Park, this is one of the last times in awhile my whole family will be together before my sister and her family move to Oregon and my brother and his family move to California.

It's always fun to be with family!

Summer Fun = Blog Neglect

So my crazy summer and overwhelming "to-do" list is in full swing which has led to a little bit of neglect to the blog. I have been crafting, cleaning and studying like a maniac while at the same time having fun with family.

The latest family fun was over the 4th of July. My parents and little brother came in and stayed with us for the holiday weekend. Since we had already broke the tradition of going out to Ely for the 4th of July we decided to stick with that theme and some other new things to celebrate the holiday as well.

Instead of the traditional BBQ with all the trimmings we decided to try a southern dish we got from one of Eric's aunts who served a mission in New Orleans. I like to think of it as a Shrimp and Sausage Boil but it's official name is Frogmore Stew. Try to overlook the fact that the name sounds kind of unappetizing and give it a try! This dish is as casual as it gets, but super tasty at the same time and it's fun to do with a group of people.

Frogmore Stew

red potatoes - cut in half

polska kielbasa sausage - cut in about 2 inch lengths

corn on the cob- broken in half

uncooked shrimp- with shells on and de-veined

Tony Chachere's Famous Creole Seasoning

Styrofoam cooler

*The amount of each thing just depends on how many people you are feeding and how much of each thing would want.

First get the biggest pot you can find and boil the potatoes until they are almost soft. Then add your corn and boil for a couple of minutes and then add your sausage and shrimp. Continue to boil just until the scrimp turns pink (this is really fast...it takes less then 3 minutes). Once the shrimp is cooked, drain that water and then start layering the stew in the styrofoam cooler. Over each layer sprinkle the creole seasoning. The more you add the spicier the dish is. Then let it set in the cooler with the lid on for no more than 15 minutes. Dump everything out on some newspaper and dig in with your fingers with a roll of paper towels near by and enjoy!

After this yummy dinner we dropped Livy off with some friends and headed down to Provo for the Stadium of Fire! In summary, it was such a fun way to celebrate the free country that we live in and honor those who have fought and continue to fight for our freedom.

Mia loved watching the sky divers they had, the dancers and after taking a couple rounds to warm up to them she in the end loved the fireworks too! And I of course loved Kelly Clarkson :)



Awhile back we were talking with someone about how we use to go to all the BYU football games and it came out that I never had a "Cougar Tail" aka a 2 ft long maple doughnut so obviously it was necessary to have one this time around. Can I just say...DELICIOUS!

It was a great 4th of July weekend for the Caldwell's!