Guest Post from "Smile As It Happens": " What to know: From Military to Civilian Life"

I hope everything had a fabulous Fourth and is ready to enjoy the weekend!

Today I am collaborating with Emma Banks, from Smile As It Happens.

Emma is a military spouse who contacted me and offered to write a post with some of her military insight on some of the difficulties of, as well as myths concerning, making the transition from military life to civilian life, particularly in regard to finding and keeping employment. In Emma's words: "The article discusses the importance of helping our country’s service members find employment either during station changes, or once they have either finished their active service, or become disabled while serving and thus been forced to end active duty."

Emma currently seeking a career in life and career coaching and she has some really helpful tips on the matter of going from military back to civilian:

What to Know: From Military to Civilian Life

Here are four myths that, if you buy into them, may kill your confidence in finding a post-military career. I’m here to counter these myths with truths that will make sure that you are as prepared as possible to be successful in your post military transition.

Myth #1: It is difficult to find non-military jobs after spending so many years in the service.

Truth: As a veteran, there are many jobs that you are more than qualified for. There are programs available that are designed to help you in your job hunt. A group called 100,000 Jobs Mission works specifically to provide information on open positions that former military will be well qualified for. This resource also provides job outlook, qualifications needed and salary expectations.

 

Myth #2: Most companies do not care about applicants.

Truth: While employers are definitely looking out for their own interests, they do care about potential employees. Just as you are attempting to make a good impression on your potential employer, the company similarly desires to impress you and make applying for a job as easy as possible. In order to streamline the application process many companies have started to partner with services like JIBE, a mobile recruiting company. These services allow you to upload your resume and various job-related documents instantly from your smartphone or tablet.

 

Myth #3: There are not any companies that are specifically looking to hire veterans.

Truth: Many companies are looking to hire former military members. Companies that are run on-base such as military credit unions or insurances are a great place to start looking. Additionally, several websites annually list companies that specifically look to hire veterans. Among those are GI Jobs and Military Friendly. Visiting these sites regularly will keep you up-to-date with the latest job availability and will help you in your quest for future employment.

Myth #4: Job seekers do not need to promote themselves to prospective employers.

Truth: Even though veterans are highly sought after in the civilian world, it is still very important that you, as the interviewee, sell yourself. Mention any awards and promotions you have received and what you have accomplished during your time in service. Remember, you are most likely one of several people who want the same job, and making sure the potential employer hears about all you accomplished is necessary to give yourself the best chance at employment.

Emma is a mid 20-something year old with a passion for life, love, fitness, and helping others. She loves to be active and get involved in as many sport and community activities as possible. Emma is currently studying to become a Career & Life Coach, and loves to network with people from around the world! Check out Emma’s blog at http://smileasithappens.blogspot.com/! 

Thanks, Emma! Check out her blog for more tips and show her some love! I hope those that info is helpful to some of you! My husband is still active duty air force, but in the not-so-far future he will be making that ever-so-important transition and I bet some of these tips and truths will be helpful to us as well!

Stay tuned for my future guest post on Emma's blog! I'm working on a great summer-time recipe post for her and her readers! Coming soon!


*All article content: Emma. All photo content: my own.

DIY: How to Make a Backyard Firepit Out of a Salvaged Dryer Drum

My husband and I are fire fans. Fans of fire. Bonfires in particular.

We live on a military base and have a very small fenced in back yard, but we didn't want to have to experience summer here without being able to enjoy evenings outside by a blazing fire. We had been looking for months hoping to find a nice looking, good quality and reasonably priced fire pit, but it seems that all the remotely nice ones were $80 at least, some even up to $200. That just seemed outrageous for me. I had been weekly checking craigslist hoping on would pop up, but while I was waiting I was seeking out alternatives. At first we thought we might cut down a large metal barrel and just use that, but then I stumbled upon a most genius idea (thank you, pinterest): FIRE PITS MADE OUT OF WASHER/DRYER DRUMS!

 

The moment I saw that people were converting the insides of washing machines into bonfire receptacles I knew we had to make one. I was very surprised when I was able to find a drum on Craigslists just a few days later. The man selling it had it listed as a Washer drum, but upon further inspection we have decided it in an industrial/laundry mat sized drum from a dryer. I am not sure how he came upon it, but that is no matter. It had already been removed from the actual dryer and for $25 it was ours! (If you wanted to create something similar I recommend looking for old washers/dryers out to the side of the road, or finding a cheap salvage place. I've heard that the drums are easy enough to remove, but hopefully you get lucky like us and someone does that step for you.).

drum, upside down, before we did anything to it

 

It was a bit of a process start to finish, but we love the way it came out. The way we went about creating it might not be possible to everyone, as we have access to a lot of equipment and tools, due to my husbands job maintaining structures for the Air Force. However, with a little craftiness and know-how, you could easily create something similar on your own. 

 

In summary we-actually he, while I took pictures- took off the...spike...on the back (some part which connected it to the dryer; it was just screwed in) and removed all plastic parts from the inside.

Next, he drilled some extra holes in the bottom and top, just to allow water to drain (all the holes in the sides are part of the drum design and they make for really great air flow!). Then it got trickier: my husband welded three legs with feet on the bottom, punched holes in them, sand blasted them and screwed them onto existing holes in the drum.

You could definitely do without the legs, but we thought it gave it more of a finished look. Another option would have been to leave the spike on the bottom part on and drive it into the ground for stability. But, if you have welding skills, put them to use!

After he had done all the tricky bits at his shop, we brought it home and I painted it with 3 coats of black Rust-Oleum high heat spray paint. That was about $7 at Lowes; it is made for grills and can withstand heat up to 1,200 degrees F. NOTE: ONLY PAINT THE OUTSIDE PARTS ON IN CONTACT WITH THE FIRE! Paint really made it look finished and it so far holds up very well to the high temperatures.

We love how it turned out! We've had several fires and are looking forward to many more with this lil' beauty. We had a lot of fun working on it. Start to finished it took us between 3 and 4 hours, and cost us $32! Function and frugal, not to mention a pretty good conversation starter. We couldn't be happier!

Yet another wedding flashback...

We'll be home from Hawaii in a couple days, but until I can update you with those pictures, here are some more lovely wedding photos from our wedding on May 26th of last year. Again, all photo credit to Jeff Crandall Photography.

 Only one more post coming, I swear. These pictures just make me so happy!

And that's all my phone has to say about that...

 

planted some grass seed in our back yard. it is amazing for the amount it rains out here how dry stuff can get. and how moss can choke out the existence of all things. also, how bird would rather peck at my grass seeds than eat from their feeder.

 

flash back to JoJo circa 2009. I think this was his favorite shirt.

the back says "chain saw brutality, tornado strength"

 Back in the day of hardcore bands, size small, skin tight shirts, long hair and skinny pants.

(good lord...) (and no, those weren't not his sunglasses, thank you Jesus.)

now its my shirt. strangely, it seems to fit pretty well.

 this both fascinates and disturbs me. so I wear it because it is laughable.

 

there isn't much that the kitty boy loves more than popcorn. it is second only to milk.

every night we munch some while we watch TV and Trink begs until we throw him some little kernelless pieces.if we aren't quick enough he tries to steal from us.

We throw it, and he catches them between his front paws.

 It is adorable. So we keep allowing it.

(we don't feed him people food...save for milk, popcorn and pretzels...)

 

what is this weird thing, you ask?

 a washing machine drum. purchased on craigslist for $25. Why? Because my cool welding husband is going to transform it into a super backyard fire pit. quite excited about that project! (note: its upside down in the picture)

 

there are few things more curious and suspicious than feet under the covers. cats are so silly.

 

you know those people on facebook who seem to constantly be getting free samples in the mail? I'm one of them now.

 

my mother in law just had kittens!!! 4 little itty bitty black ones! 

 well, her cat did...obviously. next time we are home visiting we are taking one (or two or all of them, according to JoJo) back home with us. Trink needs a baby sister. Just think, then you can all endure constant pictures of ALL our cats! Yup. We're crazy cat people. Deal with it.

 

Giant garlic clove. Next to an average sized mushroom. This intrigued me for unknown reasons.

 

this weekend we are attending a birthday party for our friend's fabulous baby girl. she is turning one. and i wanted to buy here every outfit in the store, but settled on this one as she like to play in dirt and garden.

 

my cat has an eyebrow nibbling fetish. it is weird. as you can tell, we own Mr. Kitty Personality, over here.

 

Pearls! Real ones!

 Anniversary gift from my love for me to be fancy and fabulous in Hawaii.

According to the anniversary chart thing, your 1st anniversary is paper and your 30th is pearls. I don't understand any of that stuff one bit, but lets just pretend JoJo is prophesying into our marriage with these. Besides...who wants paper?

Unless its plane tickets to Hawaii. Those were good too :P

 

most importantly, this week I finished school and began packing (and forming detailed lists of attractions, activities, stores and restaurants) for OAHU!!! We leave Tuesday. We never had an actual honeymoon, as he deployed shortly after our wedding, so this is our honeymoon and one year anniversary and first vacation all rolled into one. We are excited out of our minds over here. Don't worry, thousands of (quality, not phone) pictures to come!

Hiking Point Defiance

My husband had the day off on Friday so we took a nice long hike/walk in the beautiful Washingtonian woods. We had visited Point Defiance Zoon and Aquarium Park in the past, but on Friday we got to finally explore the gorgeous Point Defiance Park. 700 acres of water, wildlife and old growth forests (including huge sequoias!). They also have several beautiful gardens, as well as recreational fields and boat rentals in the marina (excited to go back and try those!). It was absolutely lovely. And I hauled my camera the entire way.

We started with a nice picnic lunch and then headed onto a trek through the woods...

 Apparently if you follow a specific trail you can hike the park in about 5 miles/2 hours. However, we only sort of followed the trail and made lots of our own, so overall we had something like a 7 mile hike which took us 4 hours. And it was glorious! I'm so very glad to have someone to explore miles of woods with me!