I'm so excited!

Ok, so there are several things I have lined up to blog about, but this takes precedence...

I heard that when you are dealing with a long time separation, you should measure how far you've come, not how long you have left. So I wanted to come up with something that the girls would enjoy to keep track of how long Justin has been gone.

My first idea was to find something (had no idea what really) and put numbered vinyl stickers on it everyday. Then when we got to 365 Justin would be home. One of my friends (Abbey) owns a home decor store that specializes in all things Vinyl (at least that's my interpretation. I would put a link to a web page here, but I'm not sure she has one since her store opened. Abbey if you do, let me know the address. :) Anyway...I approached Abbey with my idea and then told her I thought I would like to frame a flag and put the stickers on the glass. She did me one better and said that she could make the stickers in the shape of stars with the numbers in the middle of the stars. Then she said what if the stickers made the flag? That sounded great to me; she emailed me a pic of what the stars would look like and I went out and found the perfect piece of wood. I found wood paneling that had little lines in it already, so I thought it would make it easier for the girls to keep the stickers in the right place. Abbey's husband Larry cut the paneling to the right size, and I picked everything up from Abbey's store today.

I'll stop talking about it now and just show you the pics.

The wood:

This gives you the idea of what it will look like, only the stripes will only be one row of stars.

Here are the cute stars.

Abbey had to figure out the right dimensions to get 365 stars to fit perfectly on the flag and then she had to weed all the numbers out of every star. I'm sure it was time consuming and a pain in the butt, but she did this and didn't charge me. She wasn't at the store when I picked it up, but I was informed that she just wanted to do this for me. She didn't have to do that, but I want to tell her thank you, so much. I'm so grateful for her input and great ideas; plus the time and energy that she put into it. I really appreciate it Abbey!

I'm so excited to get this started, but even more excited to get it finished. I wanted the last 50 numbered stars to be the blue ones, so it will be so fun to finish off that last part of the flag! I get to start it off with 28 stars already. Once I get them on I will post another picture.