In August, I came across this craft on Etsy. It's a book called "How to Pray for Your Sailor." Essentially, each prayer or verse is on a 4x6 card and is laminated and spiral bound. It's made to be durable and portable. ...And it's $18.
Yes. Eighteen. Dollars.
My first thought when I saw the book? "Wow, that's super cool!" And when I saw the price? "Yeesh. I can do that myself."
And I did! And so can you!
Cost: $2ish without shipping , $4ish with First Class shipping
(Even if you have no materials at home, it won't cost you more than $5!)
Materials:
a 4x6 photo book
colored cardstock
photos
markers
The photo books I found at Wal-Mart were $1 and came with removable cards for the front and back covers. I decorated both. The front you see here, and the back is in the below photo collage.
I cut each card to 4x6 and then added either a favorite Bible verse, a happy thought, something super mushy and romantic, a promise for when he comes home, or a photo that I know John doesn't have a hard copy of in Afghanistan. I slid two cards into each photo sleeve (one facing forward, one facing backward) so each page was double-sided.
If you throw it in a 5x7 envelope, it should ship First Class at no more than $2. I put this in the 100 Days Box, but I have another photo book that I'm going to gussy up and send John's way... sometime in the future.
Et voila! You have a really personal, cute book and you just saved $16. That's $16 for a manicure... or 4 boxes of Oreos... or shipping for a large Priority Mail box... or... !
When I first decided to wear John's dogtags, I never thought it would be such a conversation piece. In June, when I started wearing it, I tried to keep it hidden under my shirt because I didn't want to draw attention to it. Now, 113 days in, I forget I'm wearing it for long stretches of time.
From what I gathered (via the internet, of course) after deciding to wear one of John's tags, wearing it is actually pretty controversial in the military community. This is why I've decided to keep John's on: it's not to make other people comment or to make them pity or commiserate with me. I don't think I'm serving next to John (after all, he's in Afghanistan for a year, with all of the crud that comes with deployment. I'm just dodging bullets and crazies in Baltimore, but I can get a sub at Quiznos and enjoy plunking my butt onto my couch after a crazy day at work.). I don't think I deserve recognition for just waiting for and worrying about John; he's doing all of the hard stuff, after all.
Here's why I wear it: it's a tiny reminder of the guy I love to pieces and who I'm going to marry in less than a year. I wear it because I miss him. I wear it because, even though it sounds really, really idiotic, it's nice to wear something that he's also wearing 7,000 miles away. It feels like he's a little closer. True, maybe it only makes him feel 6,999 miles closer... but closer is closer. I'm not splitting hairs.
Even though I don't notice it anymore, doesn't mean that no one else does. It's quite the conversation starter and comments magnet! So, I've compiled (or really, just tried to remember as best as I can) the comments that I've gotten regarding John's tag.
Most common question:
Is it real?
(Answer: Yeppers. Totes real.)
Second most common question:
Doesn't he need that?
(Answer: John has two others that he wears.)
Third most common question:
Can I touch it?
(Answer: Really, honestly, it's just a piece of metal. It is not imbued with magical properties. I promise. Otherwise, I'd be alohomora and wingardium leviosa-ing stuff all over the place.)
Fourth most common question:
Are you in the military/Army?
(Answer: HECK NO. Does it look like I could possibly, possibly, possibly be in the military? I'm a complete wimp.)
Cutest comment:
(During the summer I was a vacation Bible school teacher, and John's dogtag was a source of endless entertainment. I'm assuming this is because it is shiny and big.) The following is the cutest exchange about the dogtag I've had thus far:
Tiny, little girl (pointing to my necklace ) : What's that? Me: It's a necklace. Tiny, little girl (grabs it and examines it): It's not a necklace; it's ugly!
(Answer: How can you argue with that? Yeah, it is pretty ugly. It definitely does not go with many outfits. Mostly just the ones with camo.)
Most obnoxious comment:
(Paraphrased because I was so taken aback.) You know dogtags don't work when the IEDs explode. Soldiers are in so many parts, it doesn't work for identification.
(Answer: Here's a fun fact--this isn't funny. In fact, it ruined the night. I truly think the person who said this thought it would make me laugh. It didn't and I don't think I have to explain why. I'm going to chalk this up to the person's misplaced sense of humor, feeling awkward about John's deployment, and consumption of a lot of booze.)
Weirdest comment:
In all fairness, this was asked by one of my students who is goofy and continually just a little bit "off."
Are you gonna cheat on him?
(Answer I Said in My Head: Are you stupid?)
Comment that made me cry my eyes out like the wuss I am:
A few weeks ago, two Marines were recruiting at my school. I just happened to be in the hallway when theywere hopelessly lost and looking for a room number. At the end of giving them directions, one of the Marines asked me if I had someone in my family serving the military.
Me: My fiance's in Afghanistan right now.
Marine: Well, thank you for his service. And thank you for yours.
(Answer: Say something dumb and stunned like, "Um, okay. Sure. No problem." And then walk away as quickly as possible and try to keep it together.)
Funny how a small piece of metal can be a hub of conversation! There's still so much of the deployment to go, so I'm sure there will be (at the very least) a Dogtags: Part 2 post.
One of the hands-down worst things about Afghanistan (you know, after the weather, the IEDs, the decade-long quagmire of weapons and man power, et cetera, et cetera) is that there is simply no sushi to be found. I know, right? Who woulda thunk?
John loves sushi. One of the last meals we ate on the day John deployed was some amazing sushi at the mall (you have got to love a place that reels you in with free spicy crab roll samples). We regularly talk about getting sushi when John comes home, too. (Yes, a lot of our communication revolves around food. Our mutual love of delicious comestibles is one of the strongest pillars of our relationship. Especially salt on pizza. Yum!)
But I digress. Anyway, John hasn't had sushi in over three months. Torturous. And, while I can't send the poor guy real sushi in the mail, I founda sweet (literally) recipe for candy sushi. I fell in love with it immediately. If you follow the link, the directions are spot-on and worked perfectly.
I used Swedish Fish and Mike 'n' Ikes for the sushi fillers. The Mike 'n' Ikes were a little tough to cut, but I was also using a kinda-sorta dull bread knife since everything else was in the dishwasher. Next time, I think I'm going to use longer candies (Sour Punch Ropes, Twizzlers, etc.) to make it look just a little more like real sushi.
As much as I fell in love with how absolutely adorable the sushi looked, I loved the packaging even more. My sister gave me the awesome pun (visit her hilarious Tumblr here!) and I decorated the inside of the box with it. Best thing ever? I figured out that if I packaged the sushi in a 9x7 fudge pan, with just a tiny little bit of bending, it fits perfectly in the small Priority Mail box. That means it cost just a little over $5 to send John a little bit of delicious happiness! Win, all the way around!
