Preparing To Surface

Potty training and Princess Dresses

2011-06-13T11:30:00.003-04:00

This what potty-training has turned Pollyanna into:

What's the occasion you ask? Well it's a Monday morning of course! We always wear our super frilly "princess" dresses on Monday mornings! Gosh, where have you been? :)

I actually really dislike this dress. It was given to us by....umm...I think my father-in-law's ex-girlfriend ( My husband's familial connections are mind-boggling at best. Try getting leave for your father's best friend's mother's funeral, because she was " essentially my grandmother" growing up. I promise you will never hear your husband's Chief laugh as hard again! But back to the dress...) and it was one of those pieces of clothing that I was like...it needs work but has some potential. Yah...I never got around to it and it is now one of Pollyanna's favorite pieces of clothing....all because of potty-training!

We've been working with teaching Pollyanna to go on the potty for going on a month now. It all started with this book:

I have the Kindle Version :)

Honestly... I'm not one of those people who would swear by this book. It was more of a jumping off point for us...we took some of the ideas and most of our own common sense and that has lead us to where we are today...Pollyanna now can pee and poo on the potty with no accidents during the day ( except perhaps at nap-time but that is a whole different ball game) but....ONLY if she is wearing a skirt or a dress! Pants just confound the girl!

I don't have a problem with her wearing dresses all the time....except for the fact that we have a limited number of 'casual' every day dresses. I know....I need to take a trip down to my local fabric store and pick some fabric up so that I can make her a few summer dresses...really, I'm gonna do it. Sometime. :)

In any case...I'd say potty-training is a success at this point. Even if the girl does wear dresses all the time. I have no idea what I'm going to do when it comes to potty-training Piglet in a year or so....

I guess kilts are always an option...

New Design!

2011-06-12T21:45:00.000-04:00

I did it....I decided to get my blog re-designed! Honestly... I've been flip-flopping lately as to whether I should even keep blogging. But...once you start it's hard to stop ( it stings! ...hehehe :) )

Brea at Utterly Chaotic did great, and I love it! I feel very at home now. I was originally going to go with a more military like theme but....lol since the Navy and I aren't exactly on speaking terms right now ( call me unpatriotic, but the sight of blue digi-cam makes me throw up in my mouth a bit at this point) I wanted something that reflected me personally a little more...and so I could continue to make this my 'zen' place.

I love it!

Thanks Brea!!

PS- There is still a little bit of construction going on so...forgive me if all my pages aren't up and working quite yet! They will be soon, I promise!

Progress

2011-06-06T13:47:00.004-04:00

So I finally found the motivation to blog again today....lol, it's been seriously lacking as of late. There just isn't enough time in the day to accomplish everything I'd like to accomplish so...guess we can see what has been not making the cut lately!

On the up side I have been keeping busy. Kids, as always, are enough to completely fill my day ( particularly Piglet, who FINALLY busted out a tooth and has two more showing, btw) and I've been working on those new skills I talked about in my last post. Wanna see a couple teaser pics?

Yep...that's the stove. :) It's turned out a bit differently then I expected. In the plan the whole piece is a stove but...of course I can't do anything by a plan or pattern ( it's a curse really) and I messed up the inside shelf by putting it up too high, and then I had problems with the door. And the more I was having trouble, the more I looked at the thing and was thinking ' man it really is just too wide to be a stove." So what did I do? Decided to separate it into a stove and a little counter space with a cabinet under neither. Yes my cuts are imperfect, and there will be a TON of sanding ~~and filing and possibly even chiseling~~ to make it perfect, BUT at least I allotted myself 3 months for this project and I have PLENTY of time left!

Of course because of the alterations to this piece I have to alter the sink now was well. The sink is the same basic pattern except...well, with a sink! I was altering that plan anyway because I want to put in an apron sink. But now I think I'm also going to move it to the side and make a cabinet next to it with counter space so that there is a large stretch of counter space between the sink and stove. And plenty of storage....because even in play kitchens, you can never have too many cabinets!

What else have I been doing?? Well there has been knitting and sewing, and walking and sprinkler parks. I started a couch to 5k program that I am IN LOVE with and I am just generally trying to keep myself occupied so that I don't turn into an angry bitter person...because that would be VERY easy to do with how badly Skunky's job is sucking the big one as of late.

I know what you're thinking...' He just got back from deployment didn't he?'

Yeah. He did.

I'm actually praying for a safety stand down now. At least then he might get to see the kids for more then 30 minutes every 7 days ( if we're lucky).

I think Skunky and my experiences in the military have been very different then most....and perhaps that is another reason why I have avoided this blog like the plague lately. I have nothing good to say about the Navy right now, and I have found that in this tight knit community of blogging military wives/so's a negative opinion of the military is not wanted or appreciated. I'm sorry girls, but I can't keep it up any longer. I love my husband with a passion I don't think will ever fade. And I am behind him 100%. But we...and I stress the term we... hate the Navy. And we are literally counting the days ( 556) until this hell is over.

LOL...on that positive note... :).....I'm out for now!

until next time!

PRO- ductive!

2011-05-18T12:03:00.003-04:00

I'll admit it....lately I've gotten a little bit of my crafting bug back! Of course, I wouldn't choose to go back to my old stand by of sewing ( even though I have ~~a quiet book~~ ::cough:: projects I need to finish!) No no...now is the time that I decide to pick up a couple of new hobbies.....as if my plate wasn't already full enough!

I've decided I'm going to teach myself how to write HTML/XHTML/CSS. I know...I'm nuts! I signed myself up for a free online course and bought a "how too" book that I am trying to decipher. It's totally one of those "... For Dummies" books. I know....cliche but, I've had luck with those books in the past, so I figured, eh, why not? ( BTW.....you should totally check out 7-Day Menu Planning for Dummies!! That book has saved dinner time around here, literally!)

Why the sudden interest in this topic you ask? Well, I know how to 'fiddle' with code that is already established. But you can only do so much when you 'fiddle'. And I want to create a unique site, and I want to do it well. So....you start with the basics! PLUS....I figure this will give me an excellent excuse to nudge Skunky into buying me that ~~new~~ more powerful computer I've been lusting after! And to get those design programs I've wanted but haven't really had an actual reason to get them!

My other new hobby....wood working! I decided in February, before Skunky got home, that I wanted to build a play kitchen for Pollyanna's next birthday. ( Many of you may remember this post.) Well...I started it and I'm really excited about it!! So far Skunky and I have completed this:

It's a toy Pie Hutch!! I am SOOOOO incredibly happy with how it came out, because this is my first time working with wood and power tools ever! I did all of the cutting and most of the gluing and nailing myself. Skunky did have to come help me save it a little after I mistakenly put some of the pieces together in the wrong way ( ummmm...the plans I have TOTALLY did not specify that there was an actual technique to putting joints together! Obviously the plans I have were written for people who are familiar with woodworking!)

Best part of this project? Skunky's comment upon finishing: " Gee, Jen....we're gonna have to put you together a big girl Pie Hutch now." I just about squealed in delight, lol! I freaking love that man!

We still have a stove, sink, and fridge to make so the set is complete! I'm hoping to go to Lowes tonight to pick up the wood for the next part! We're planning to finish and paint all four of the pieces together once we have them all built because I really don't know what colors we're going to paint them yet! Once they're done though I'll post the finished product!

We also refinished our dining room table and the new chairs we bought. Here is before:

And here is after:


The whole table is white...it just looks yellow on top because of the light on.

Sure wish I had my SIL around to use her fabulous photography skills and take some cool looking finished pictures! I plan on making some seat cushions to go along with them but have decided to put that project on hold...seeing the way that Pollyanna climbs up into, and then wiggles around on the chair makes me realize that they probably wouldn't last long with children of the age I have in my house! However...though the chairs look stiff and hard, they really are pretty comfortable for a dining chair...I'm not even sure they need cushions, except for the aesthetic of it.

Anywhoodle....until next time!

Picture Heavy

2011-05-11T15:23:00.002-04:00

Oooooooooooooohhhhhhhh how my motivation to blog has been horrendous lately, huh?? LOL I think my major problem is that I have pretty much NOTHING military to blog about! I think that's a good thing, right?? Now it's just the balancing act of writing about those non-military things as well!!

I have loads of pictures today. Piglet turned a year old just a few weeks ago! We didn't have a huge party or go to Disney World or anything like that! We did go to the local Children's Museum though, and then we had cake and ice cream and presents right before bed, it was a lot of fun! Here are some pictures from the day:

In the car at the children's musem

Playin' with the cool toys we don't have at home...

Super excited!!

Daddy's so helpful!

Sister playin' too

King of the Mountain!!

Mommy' sad excuse for a birthday cake ( Hey, at least I made it!)

Caaaaaaaaaaaake!

This ice cream is soooooo good but it hurts soooooooo much!

There are some of the random pictures of the gift unwrapping. Piglet was WAY more into it then Pollyanna was at that age...she just wanted to play with they toys she already had out and was familiar with, but Piglet was into the paper and seeing the new toys!

Alright here are a last few pictures for your viewing pleasure! These are from Skunky's and mine trip to Boston:

These are the kind of pictures u get when you try to take them yourself! Holy my upper lip is missing!!!

That last picture was taken in a famous park in Boston. That statue is in honor of a book called " Make Way For Ducklings" and it's a book that Skunky grew up reading so we had to go get a picture with the statue! This picture really makes me smile...we look like a couple of goofy kids in that traditional "best friends" pose you always see in pictures....I love it! I think it's going down as one of my favorite pictures of us!

until next time!

Highlights

2011-05-03T19:24:00.002-04:00

Well it may have seemed that life stopped when Skunky got home. Certainly my blog ( except for those wonderful girls who filled in for me!) took a little vacation the minute Skunky stepped off that boat. I'm finding it hard to get the motivation to blog at a (quasi) regular pace again! I have this odd tendency that when my routine gets thrown off I have a HUGE hard time finding a way to get back to it!

Not that I haven't had plenty to say that is blog worthy. And I enjoy blogging...really I do. I...however...am a bad life juggler, obviously ( hence my getting my routine back being a near insurmountable task!)!

So lets see if I can touch on the highlights....( in no particular order)

I had the weird opportunity to teach Skunky how to roller skate last weekend! I didn't know you could be a child born in the 80's and not know how to roller skate! Our next door neighbor had a skating party for their daughter and invited us ( even though Pollyanna is only 2 1/2!) and we thought....eh, why the heck not? So we went....and I spent my time holding hands with my two-year-old and my grown husband simultaneously dragging them around the rink while they jerked and shuffled and attempted to make the rounds without falling. It was possibly the most hilarious....and the most fun thing, I have EVER done.

Both of Skunky's parents came for a visit. They're divorced, so they came at separate times during the same week. It was interesting. I'm not super close to either of my in-laws, but I enjoy them when they are able to visit with us. I was kind of a nazi about no family visiting the day of homecoming, but I understood that they would wanted to see their son ASAP, so I figured it was no big after the first couple of days. Hind sight is 20/20 though...and while it wasn't a bad visit, it was stressful, at least for me. It really took Skunky and I the full 2 weeks before communication started to seem normal again ( even now we still have a few miss-fires but I'm sure that's normal) so when you add trying to entertain in-laws and maintain some sense of normalcy for two kids who haven't seen their Dad in 1/2 a year....yeah, it was a lot. I'll probably attempt to postpone any family visits until after the first two weeks back next deployment...

We took an 'adult' weekend in Boston and that was great! ( except that I was cranky and moody because I was expecting miracles he wasn't performing! sheesh, can't the man read a woman's mind?) I reserved us a fancy hotel, and we spent our time going to museums and great restaurants we haven't been to since our honeymoon! The one thing I wanted to accomplish during the weekend didn't really happen though...I wanted to have a morning to sleep in with Skunky without the 6:30am wake up from the kids. Which I did get...we slept in until 10:30! But that really doesn't count when you consider the fact that we didn't go to bed until 3am! Epic fail there.

We finally bought dining room chairs that match, and are in the process of painting/refinishing the chairs and the table so they look like a complete set!! We'd been talking about getting new chairs since before deployment, since none of our existing ones matched or were very safe ( they always had screws falling out and were pretty much gery-rigged together!) So when two days after Skunky being home he says to me " We really need to get new chairs." I LEAPED at the chance! So we packed everyone in the car and drove the 45 minutes it takes to get to my "home re-modelers heaven" (also known as IKEA!) and picked up four of their cheaper, very sturdy chairs! Best part is that we're doing the project together! I have hope for our DIY future yet!

What else? The rest of our time really has just been spent getting used to life as a complete family again. Skunky is stellar....possibly the most patient, understanding man I know. I feel crazy and out of wack at moments and he just looks at me and says " Hey, we're fine. Everything is gonna be alright." They are, and I know this. And I feel so super blessed to be married to a man who takes adjustments well, and can deal with me during the moments that I'm not doing as well as he is.

Anyway....I had more to talk about but...this post has pooped me out, and Skunky is requesting my presence for a little SG1 watching ( OMG lamest show EVER!! We're watching through the first season because we told a good friend that we would but...it's a bit torturous to tell you the truth...) So I'll check you all later!

Homecoming for real

2011-04-25T16:19:00.001-04:00

Well...I guess it's back to real life again! I didn't find it as hard to stay away from blog-land as I thought it was going to be! Thanks to all of the lovely girls who filled in for me!! You really are great!!

Technically Skunky is still on leave ( He goes back on Friday) We had a little bit of a hiccup in our Homecoming routine. His boat 'officially' returned home on Friday, April 8th. We did the whole 'Homecoming' on the pier and all of that jazz ( I'll get to that in a minute) and had a wonderful weekend, and then he had to report to the boat again the following Monday to head out to sea again for 4 days. I know...it could have been SO much worse, but it was wicked hard to have to send him off again, even for just a few days, after just getting him back. Miraculously, the kids and I made it through those 4 days, and we've had him back in our presence 24/7 for the last 10 days!

Man this whole thing has been such a wild experience. Sitting here right now blogging while simultaneously listening to Skunky enjoy a TV show in the living room still seems a little surreal. LOL....it's definitely an adjustment. But I think that I will save those stories for another post!

Homecoming was vastly different then what I had planned in my head. I had dreamed over the past 6 months of me and the kids waiting on the pier, all the hustle and bustle of the rest of the excited families around us. I had invited a friend to come with us so that I could get that picture. ( You know the one...the first 'first kiss in over 6 months' picture!) I imagined that he would walk off the boat, sea bag slung over his shoulder, single red rose in one hand, scoping me up in a big hug, a passionate kiss, letting go of me only briefly enough to hug Pollyanna and Piglet, and then we would escape off the pier, rainbows and sunshine on us, not to look back at the boat for a solid 2 weeks!

Yeah, none of that happened. :)

What did happen was this:

The week before Homecoming, Squadron called a meeting to tell the families of the change in boat schedule. It was very disappointing news. And it also made me decided that I was going to nix taking the kids to Homecoming. That was the BEST decision I made. I decided not to take them, because I had no way of knowing whether or not Skunky was actually going to be able to come home that weekend. ( The reason they had to go back out to sea was because they had to do ORSE, which is an 'examination' of sorts for the engineering department of any give Sub. So, obviously, this affects Nukes in particular, and their schedules get CRAZY before and during ORSE.) I knew how hard it was going to be for me to see Skunky on the pier and then have to let him go back, and I didn't have the heart to make Pollyanna do the same thing.

As it turned out though, he was able to come home Friday night, and we had Friday night, all day Saturday, and most of Sunday before he had duty Sunday night.

So I went to Homecoming by myself, and I'm glad that I did. Basically the families just waited around, ate a little food and socialized for like 3 hours, and then the boat pulled in. It was cold, and the kids would have been insanely bored, not to mention the fact that neither of my kids do well in large crowds of strangers. I mean....you saw the pictures of their reunion with Daddy here. And that was with them being in comfortable surroundings with only the people they love and know well around them. ' Nough said.

I'd never actually seen the boat pull in before. I'd watched it coming into the river from the sound, but had never bothered to go to Base and watch it get moored because Skunky can never just come off the boat when they pull in, he usually still has a few hours of working to do before he can go home. So that was interesting....but I'll be honest, it took forever! Finally they let the Sailors start coming off the boat, and it was pretty much a free-for-all from there! I was with the few actual Navy wife friends I have on the boat, and one of their husbands was like the first guy off the boat, so not wanting to intrude too much on their reunion, and also desperate to find my own husband, I split from my little group of friends and made it 1/2 way up the pier and waited.

I watched every head come up out of the porthole for 20 minutes thinking ' Is that him?? Darn, it's not! Holy Crap, what if I don't recognize him? What if he's wandering around the pier right now trying to find me, and he can't because we forgot what each other looks like??!!' I kid you not. :) Finally, I see him. That handsome face I have been seeing in my dreams for 6 months pops up out of the porthole and...I notice he looks stressed. But that was the only thing I noticed before I started pushing my way through the crowd of already reunited families to make my way to the brow just as he has stepped off the last step. He's in the middle of being greeted by another Sailor, polite smile on his face, and I stop dead in my tracks and watch him. It's only a moment more before he turns and sees me. He's got a small black backpack, filled to almost overflowing, on his back, but I can see his shoulders relax when he sees me. He didn't smile, we just came towards each other, he kissed me, and then wrapped me in a big bear hug. He then whispered into my ear " I have so much to tell you." And then I cried. Not like sobbing...just a few tears. But hearing his voice and feeling him around me...it was a lot to take in. And then the moment was over.

He steps back from me and tells me he has several loads of stuff to take off the boat. I can already see that his mind is going 30 miles a minute as he tries to decided which is the best way to maximize time with me while getting all of his crap off the boat. We decide that I'll take the black backpack he brought up with him and wait on the pier while he goes and packs his sea bag to bring up. He goes down, I wait and watch everyone else, and then comes back up this time with his sea bag and a bouquet of a dozen roses. And they were beautiful. We rush off the pier and get to the car, unload his sea-bag and then he says " I have one more load, do you want to wait here in the car or come back with me?" And I'm like, HECK NO I'm not waiting in the car! I'm not letting you out of my sight any longer then I absolutely have to! So we head back to the boat, he goes down, and a little while later comes up...with no bag. Ummm...

He walks over to me and tells me that he didn't realize it, but he has to stay through part of the shut-down for some sort of casualty watch. So he brings me down to the galley and we sit there for an hour going through some of the artifacts he brought home from various port calls, when finally, they tell us he can go home.

And that was that. Homecoming for real. :)

I'll update again soon! Like I said, because of our slight change in schedule, Skunky's leave isn't over until Friday, so it might not be until then!

until next time!

Make a camera strap with Stacie!

2011-04-23T07:00:00.004-04:00

Stacie is my other great sister-in law, and she keeps her insanity writing at Undaunted: My Life One Day at a Time! She's a super crafty chick, and just recently delved into the realm of small farming!! Can you say JEALOUS? Ahhh...one day :) Today she's gonna share a little of her craftiness with you and sew up a camera strap! Enjoy!

It is amazing what I can get done when I have some actual quiet moments to myself. Since most of my married life I have spent time as a harried mom, quiet moments have been far and few between. But with the kids in school full time, I get more quiet times than I used to. Today's quiet was more productive than it has been lately.

Like most camera straps, mine is not the most comfortable thing to hang around my neck, besides the great big red letters declaring the brand name, which I just don't like. I have done nothing about this because I am just to clumsy to walk around strapless and haven't had the time to figure anything out. This morning on one of the blogs that I like to look it, The Cottage Home, I saw the cutest camera strap cover.

As I looked at the tutorial, I thought to myself, Self you can do this! Get up right now and go make a cover. And that is just what I did. :D It took just about an hour and was very easy.

I started out with some scrap strips and ribbon. I really like the bright colors and the paisley.

Here are the two sides. The side without the ruffle and ribbon is backed in some thin Pellon to give it some cushion. (No more scratchy neck.)

Here is the up close of the ruffle/ribbon side. Aaaahhh, so pretty.

Wa-LA!! Here is the completed cover all turned, pressed and ready to be put on. I think it come out great.

Here it is on my actual strap. Once I am fit for being in front of the camera, i.e. my shower taken, I will try to take a picture with it on my neck. It is just perfect for what I wanted. You can make your own too. Just click the tutorial word up above and it will take right to that link.

It really is amazing what I can get accomplished with a few quiet moments.

Getting back to Normal

2011-04-21T07:00:00.002-04:00

I fell in love with Michelle's blog The Annoyed Army Wife the minute I stumbled into her little piece of blogland not so long ago! A lot of the blogs I had read so far painted a perfect picture of life as a military spouse, and it wasn't that way for me. The first time I read her blog and she said " I always read bulletin board posts signed by a woman who has "Proud Army/Navy/Marine/Air Force Wife" as a tag line in her signature (I have never seen a Proud Coast Guard Wife, however, I must not be looking very hard). Every single time I think 'Ugh! That is just not me.' I hope I don't offend, as that is not my intention, and I am very supportive of other troops - just not the one I'm married to." I was like....AMEN SISTER! Skunky works hard, and I support HIM in EVERYTHING he does...particularly his job because it's a struggle for both of us. But, am I a 'Proud' Navy wife? I'm proud of my husband...not the Navy. I can't wait to be rid of the Navy!

I asked Michelle to blog about reintegration. She's going through her first reintegration herself, so we're both kind of in the 'same boat' but it was important for me to hear what she had learned so far. So thanks, Michelle, for being willing to share!

When Jenn asked me to guest post for her I was all for it. You see I owe her a favor/dinner. As MilSpouses (Military Spouses) we know better than to make plans and write things in pen as those plans will change. A little over a month ago Jenn and I had planned to meet out for dinner; we had lunch a few days prior so I was really looking forward to our second ‘date’. My husband, OccDoc, was due back from his 7 month deployment to Afghanistan in a week or so, but since I made plans OccDoc was ahead of schedule. I had to cancel dinner with Jenn and go pick up OccDoc instead. Naturally, when Jenn asked me to put something together about reintegration I was a bit nervous considering OccDoc’s only been home for a month and I haven’t made all my mistakes just yet.

For further reading on reintegration I suggest you check out Sarah and Jessica’s guest posts. I’m just going to list some things that I think I’ve done right (and wrong) to help you along. And that being said we don’t have kids, so I don’t have any advice on that subject. When I asked OccDoc about his suggestions for reintegration he gave me two tips: 1. Don’t kill your spouse and 2. Let him do whatever he wants. Um, OccDoc is obviously suffering from some undiagnosed brain trauma. Let him do whatever he wants? I think not. That’s bad advice, don’t follow that.

Here are some things I recommend to you:

I assumed an alien was coming home for the first few days. My mom travels to China twice a year for her job and when she comes home she is completely jet lagged. She can’t think and is in this haze for a day or so. OccDoc was no different. Of course if he stayed on schedule and took a week or two to get home instead of rushing home in 3 days he probably won’t have had this problem, but I digress. I’m not sure if Skunky will be affected quite so much, but to be on the safe side for the first couple of days be prepared to talk slowly and repeat yourself a lot. Have patience, the fog will lift and your husband’s brain will be back in a few days.

I tried really hard to have no expectations. The actual homecoming for me was pretty anti-climatic. I think it was due to the fact that OccDoc was the only soldier on his plane, so it was just like picking him up from the airport after any other TDY (‘business’ trip). Well, kind of, I guess a really long trip, but there was no running or screaming or really even crying. We just unceremoniously closed that chapter of our lives and opened a new one.

For the first week I did let OccDoc do whatever he wanted. If he wanted to sleep in, I was quiet in the morning. If he wanted to eat out, I asked where. If he wanted to drive, I said ‘No way, Jose, wait until you’re home to drive your own car.’ Yeah, I didn’t let him drive for a few days. After a couple of days of me observing him in the car I determined he was okay to drive, but he was out of practice so I let him drive around a parking lot and a neighborhood to ‘practice’ before we ventured onto big roads. Even then I kept him off the highway for a few days. I also asked him how he wanted our first few days together to be like. Did he want my family to welcome him home? Did he want a party? I’m so happy he said no to both of those, since I’m selfish and wanted him all to myself. Again, don’t do a ton of planning, just let your schedule erupt organically and be flexible. I started questioning OccDoc about 2 weeks before he arrived home, so we both laid out our hopes and desires for the first few days and tried to accommodate each other. So, I guess my advice is hand over the reins to Skunky for a week or so before wrenching them back and getting back in control.

I tried to keep the house pretty much the same; I know this might be tough with little ones, but it really helped OccDoc. We spent just over a week at a hotel near the Army post about 600 miles from our house so OccDoc could in-process; he didn’t actually see the house for over a week after he returned. When he got home, OccDoc said the house felt familiar, but it still took him awhile to readjust and find his way around. The first thing I did was take him on a ‘Home Tour’ to show him what had changed. I showed him the new pillows on the bed, how I arranged my dresser drawers, where I moved the dog food, how I rearranged the family room furniture, etc. I was pretty much like a 3 year old running around and showing him everything. We’ve lived in this house for about 2 years, but OccDoc did forget a few things while he was gone. He asked to be reminded where some weird light switches were and where we kept the mugs. Again, have patience with Skunky, if he asks a question that catches you off guard just take a breath and give him the answer. This reorienting will only take a few days, unless you moved the house all around or moved entirely.

I would be remissed if I didn’t mention anything about bedroom activities. Since it was just me and OccDoc, this was pretty simple, I’m sure with kids thrown into the mix it could complicate matters. The first thing I did once we got back to the hotel room was force OccDoc into the shower so he could enjoy some privacy, hot water, and cleanliness. While he was in there I did my best to be romantic (I have never been accused of being romantic) I put on music, lit candles, and changing into something decidedly more uncomfortable. When OccDoc got out of the shower and saw me in this getup, well, how do we put this so it’s acceptable for a family blog, um, yeah, let’s just say I got a full salute but it was over in a flash. I’m not saying OccDoc’s an old guy – he’s just in his upper 30’s, but that night we both remembered what it was like as teenagers. Just be prepared for anything that first night and don’t blink because it might be over as quickly as it came on. And don’t worry, sex is like riding a bike, maybe a bit wobbly at first, but you figure it out pretty quickly.

I think I’ve only messed up this reintegration thing a few times. I made the mistake of calling our dishes my dishes. I didn’t mean anything by it, but OccDoc was pouty after I did that nonetheless. And I like interject my insight to his war stories because I’ve heard them a couple dozen times by now. People ask the same questions over and over again. Pretty soon you’ll be able to tell the story better than your husband, but try not to.

Lastly, I’ll tell you what I told OccDoc the day he came back. “OccDoc, I want to hear all about your deployment, but I want you to tell me when you’re ready. I’m not going to ask questions or pry, but that doesn’t mean I don’t want to know. If and when you’re ready to talk I’m all ears.” OccDoc appreciated the fact that I was interested, but that he didn’t have to tell me everything right then and there in the first few days we were together. It’s been a slow trickle of information over the past few weeks.

I know Jenn and Skunky will be just fine if they practice patience, remain flexible, and try not to have any expectations of pretty much anything. I also highly recommend a weekend away or vacation if you can swing it. Take your time, get to know each other all over again, and fall in love with those little quirks you forgot about. Good luck you two!!!

Mommy and the military

2011-04-19T07:00:00.003-04:00

McDancer formally resides at McDancing Through Life and I have really enjoyed getting to know her through her blog! I have found her to be really optimistic, and has an affinity for all things Irish, much like me! ( I wish I was Irish!!) She and her husband have a young son, and I was curious to know what her take on being a mom married to the military was. Here are her pearls of wisdom, enjoy!

First of all, I am so humbled to have been asked to write for Jenn while she is enjoying some homecoming bliss! She posed an interesting question to me, what is the most important thing I have learned about myself as a mom with a military husband? Immediately I thought of this quote:

Promise me you'll always remember: You're braver than you believe, and stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.
A.A. Milne
I think that it is an excellent representation of what I have learned about myself. Sometimes it can feel like I’ve given up one life and its goals in order to be a part of this world, but truly I’ve found that I have just evolved and quite frankly, I am proud of the person I’ve become. In the time I have been a military spouse and mom I have learned some lessons. I really think these apply to all MilSpouses, not just the parental variety, but they are particularly relevant to all you moms {or dads} out there.

*Don’t be afraid to ask for help.
This does not make you weak; it only makes you human. When my husband and I found out we we’re expecting it was quite the surprise. Moving home during the deployment seemed like the most logical option. This is not always the best for everyone, but it’s important to acknowledge that everyone is different. Moving home enabled me the security and comfort I needed to get through the time my husband was away. I was able to reconnect with friends and allow my son extra loving from his grandparents. While grandparents don’t replace a spouse, they help shower your child with extra love needed. For some, asking for help is as simple as finding someone who will watch their kids for an appointment. The biggest thing to remember is that you don't have to be supermom; it's ok to ask for help.

*Don’t wish away the days.
It can be so hard not to focus on that date in the future when your spouse comes home, but it is so important not to wish away the time. It’s true you miss that time with your spouse, but you don’t need to miss it with your child. Be present. Appreciate the special bond you can create while your spouse is away. Just because you are enjoying your time with your child does not mean that you don’t miss your spouse; you’re just making the best of a tough situation.

*No news can often mean good news.
It can be hard to wait for letters, e-mails, or magnificent phone calls. The times of silence can be nerve wracking and lonely, but if something is truly wrong, if your worst fears are realized, you will know right away. In those horrible stretches of silence, no news is in fact good news.

*Change is a way of life.
I don’t always deal well with change, but being a mother to a toddler and adding the uncertainty of MilSpousedom to that, it can be stressful. My mantra has become, “Let Go, Let God” or for the less religious one, “It will all work out in the end” {notice how much I love quotes ;) } I’ve learned there is no point trying to force things to stay the same. Change can be good as long as you don’t fight it and you learn from it.

The greatest thing I have learned is that I am a wife and mother. Yes, the military lifestyle is different and at times difficult, but every path in life has it’s obstacles. You can either rise above them or let them consume you. I learned through moving, giving birth, and raising our son for 7 months that I am strong, proud and never, ever alone.

A mother's wisdom...

2011-04-15T07:00:00.001-04:00

I LOVE My sister-in-laws! They are both such great people, and write such interesting blogs of their own, that I knew they'd be willing to help me out when it came time for Skunky to be home! This is Meg, my younger brother's wife, and she resides at Roughin' it in Alaska where she blogs about her kids, the local wildlife in Alaska, her photography, and just her general insanity! Here she is to give us a few tips on what it's like to life with three crazy kids under the age of 5. Enjoy!!

Lucky for all of you who read Jen's blog....you get to read my super-fantastic-awesomeness! Yah...that just happened. OK. To the point. Jen asked me to write a little do-dad for her while she is melting into a puddle with her hubs. She gave me a choice on two things to write about and I chose...the easier one?

Kids. Please...it's ok, you can come out from hiding...they can't get you here! I've got three of them. The first two are a few years apart and then baby number three came as a big surprise 15 months after. I haven't quite figured out how I feel about this, as I am too busy keeping our 19 month old from driving us all to grampa's cough syrup!

Yes, I am well aware that all children go through stages. I am here to give you some safety measures to survive the three different stages I am in now.

For the 5 year old boy: patience! I have none so please don't ask me how to get it. I spend the majority of my day avoiding the daggers he's throwing at me with his eyes. A sense of humor is a must also. But be careful when you feel the need to bust a gut at his dance moves( because you know he got them from you) it will crush his little heart to know he will not be Rico Suave on the dance floor. Pick your fights! Yes, while I know he looks like a complete dork with his pants rolled up above his ankles, or tucks in his shirt and then tucks his pants into his cowboy boots, he likes it. There will be bigger fish to fry so his choice of silly wardrobe malfunctions should not be a concern!

Little Miss ray of 19 month old sunshine: a padded room. She has only just gotten her legs and will fall, trip, or smash into anything that you may or may not be able to see. Yes, even that piece of fuzz from the carpet will send her flying. Also, practice whispering. I know...this is really hard since you will think she can't hear you when you tell her not to climb on top of the back of the couch eight...hundred... times...but, trust me, she can! (you will know by the sly look she gives you with her eyes)The whispering comes in handy when you are trying to teach her that screaming at the top of her lungs will not get desired results if you CAN NOT understand what she is saying. At least that's the hope. We're still working on this one.

Mr oh-so-cute 4 month old: Really....the only advice I have here is to take this baby into another room, close the door, and stare at each other. Bask in his radiant smile and his happy go lucky nature...because before you know it, he'll be the 19 months old, then the 5 year old. And all those nights that he woke you up at 3:30 in the morning because (if he could talk would tell you he's starving) he needs to eat, you will miss those moments.

And when it comes down to it, enjoy the insanity. So, while I'm wishing away this summer so I can send my boy off to kindergarten, and wanting our daughter to talk so I can understand her, and my baby to roll over because I'm worried his largeness is holding him back, I need to remember all of it. Because it's quickly passing me by.

A little Inspiration...

2011-04-13T07:00:00.002-04:00

I have really enjoyed getting to know Meg at The Impatient Military Wife . Her sense of humor has always really resonated with me, and she has this uncanny ability of taking a crappy day and making light of it! Now she's gonna divulge her little secret to this, so I hope you take some notes...I know I did!

When Jenn asked me to guest post for her, I was simply blown away. I’m such a huge fan of her blog and I get so excited when one of her posts pops up in my reader. I’m also so incredibly happy that her husband is HOME!! Congrats, lovely lady! (And thanks for letting me take over your blog for a day.)

So anyway… Hey guys!! My name is Meg. I live in paradise, no really. I’ve been married to TC for almost two years now. (Wow, two? Really? Time flies when you’re having fun I guess!) No kids… neither one of us are ready for that adventure just yet. We do have two dogs, both black lab mixes (read: mutts we adopted from the Humane Society) and they are the greatest dogs in the world! Ok, so I might be a little biased. But they really are awesome.

Jenn asked me about my favorite quote and how it changed my life. I’m a “quote person.” I love them. I have sticky notes in my office, on the mirror in my bathroom, in my kitchen and even a virtual sticky note with a quote on my computer desktop. To say I have an addiction and a small OCD about them is putting it mildly. While I have a ton of quotes hanging out, there’s always been one specific quote that stuck out for me. I keep repeating it to myself when things aren’t going the way I want them to:

“Things turn out best for people who make the best of the way things turn out.” – John Wooden

I learned a while ago that things will not go the way you want them to go 90% of the time. Sometimes they will go horribly, terribly wrong. The “oh my gosh, how will get out of this one alive or without maiming someone” type of wrong. It’s a given during deployments. Call it bad luck. Call it Murphy’s Law. Call it life.

Let’s face it. Sometimes? Life just sucks. Hard. Core. The washer breaks merely HOURS after the husband leaves. Dogs (and kids… but I don’t know anything about that) get sick. Work makes you want to cry and throw things. The deployment that you thought would only last a few months keeps getting extended. Homecomings, vacations and coffee breaks seem like they’re eons away. Sleepless nights, loss of appetite, and illness magically appear. These things can pile up and take you to your breaking point. (Unless you’ve figured out how to avoid any and all of these things… then we need to chat. Pronto.)

But honestly, things will be fine… if you keep telling yourself they will be fine. You can sit and wallow in your own self-pity about how much things suck and how “NO ONE ELSE, EVER, HAS HAD TO DEAL WITH THIS MUCH CRAP AT ONE TIME.” But that’s a lie. Hundreds of people have done it before and will continue to prosper through life’s tough times in the future. The key is to simply change your attitude about what’s going on and where things are headed. Things will turn out all right. So the washer broke; this gives you the excuse to wear yoga pants for the next few days… right? The dog is sick; but at least he’s alive and probably super cuddly. Work sucks; at least you have a job. That deployment extension? Be proud that your husband/significant other is providing for your family and is protecting your country. (And, in my case, it’s another week/month of having the bed to myself.)

I used to be the Debbie Downer who thought life was just out to get me. It took a while (and a lot of wine) but I finally changed my thinking and realized that, honestly, life wasn’t as bad as I was making it out to be. When things start to suck… I can make it through; I just need to have a positive outlook. Things will be as bad (or as good) as I let them be. I still have bad days, everyone does, but they are fewer and farther between. When things get to be too much? I rant about it (sometimes just to the dogs), do something productive, (maybe throw back a glass of wine,) and move on. Life’s too short to be angry and upset all the time!

Since I am such a “quote person,” I have a few others that have been pretty big influences on my life. I hope they reach out to you if you need them and that you find some words of wisdom in them as I have. J

‎”Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned.” – Buddha

“To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived, this is to have succeeded.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson

‎”Never regret. If it’s good, it’s wonderful. If it’s bad, it’s experience.” - Victoria Holt

Sew a Tabby Baby Blanket with Poekitten!

2011-04-11T07:00:00.023-04:00

I'm excited to have Poekitten from Many Waters here today! She's a crafty girl ( like me!) and I really enjoy when she features projects or recipes on her blog! She's gonna share a great project today, hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

When Jenn contacted me about writing a guest post I was excited and said of course! I love being able to help out bloggy friends in this way. She asked if I would be willing to do a tutorial since I'm crafty (or pretend to be anyway). I had to think for a bit before I figured out what I wanted to make. I decided on a tabby baby blanket. I had seen some for sale in a consignment shop for $20. I KNEW I could make it for less. I looked around online very briefly and saw them selling for around $32. That's crazy for an easy to make blanket! They make great shower gifts and I have several pregnant friends.They need tabby baby blankets!

Materials:
1/2 Back material (I used minky fabric)
1/2 Front material (I used flannel)
Assorted Ribbon
Sewing Machine
Thread
Silk pins
Rotary cutter, mat & rulers

Super Simple Steps for a Tabby Baby Blanket

Step 1. Cut material to desired size. I cut them into 18 inch squares using my rotary cutter, mat & rulers.

Step 2. Cut ribbon into 6 inch strips. This will make them about 2 inches sticking out. you can make them longer/shorter if you'd like.

Step 3. Fold the ribbon in half and pin to the right side of the material for the front. I am not a perfectionist so to help myself out I placed my square on the edge of my cutting mat. I then pinned ribbons on at the 3", 7", 11" & 15" marks.

Lined up against the cutting mat ruler.

When I had one side done I would turn it and line up the edge again. This way the ribbon was evenly spaced around the whole square. I use silk pins because they are thin and you are able to keep them in while you're sewing. As you come up on one, slow down just a little but if you sew the pin it's ok. The pin will bend but your needle should not break. This is how I line up my seams and they are usually perfect!

All the ribbons pinned on

Step 4. Place the material for the back on top with the right side facing down. Pin together. I pinned in between the pieces of ribbon. Because I use the silk pins, I don't have to take them out while sewing.

Step 5. Sew the pieces of fabric together. I start at one end and go all the way to the other edge. I used a 1/2 inch seam allowance.

Step 5 1/2. Don't forget to leave an space so you can turn the blanket. I put mine on the bottom in between the two middle ribbons. It's not a huge space but it's enough to turn it.

Step 6. Take out the pins and turn the blanket, making sure to push out the corners. Snipping the corners makes it easier to get crisp corners.

Step 7. Iron the blanket. I like to iron it here so that it's easier to sew it in the next step. I also make sure to iron the opening to match the rest of the blanket.

Step 8. Using a 1/4 inch seam allowance, sew all the way around. This gives it a finished look as well and helps the ribbons stay in place. Also, because I used a 1/2 inch allowance when sewing it together, I can now use the 1/4 inch and it will close the opening left to turn it. I hate hand sewing it closed and this eliminates that step.

I use a 1/4" foot to get a perfect allowance every time.

Step 9. Step back and enjoy the finished project.

Finished Tabby Blanket

I hope you find this helpful! If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask me! You can find me at Many Waters!

What's This...?

2011-04-09T07:48:00.000-04:00

Alright y'all...I know I was kind of MIA this week.... it was stressful, and nothing like I had planned ( of course!) but that is a whole other story for later! As of right now this is what I am enjoying:

The kids look a little shell shocked, I know... :) ANYWAY...I'm out for a couple of weeks, but so that my blog isn't an entire waste of web space, I've got some really great guest bloggers who were willing to help a girl out! LOVE THEM! I hope that you enjoy what they wrote as much as I did! They'll start on Monday!

Alright, until next time!!

Our Banner...and a giveaway!

2011-04-04T16:30:00.005-04:00

Alright...I was totally going to wait to do this post until I could actually get some shots of the banner hung up but....I find that I am WAY to excited to wait any longer!

I was just going to make my own homemade banner ( with paint and kid's messy hand prints all inclusive) but then Meghan from Build A Sign contacted me just before I came back to the east coast and asked me to do a product review, and my answer was...heck yes! ( If you have read Goodnight Moon or Deployment Again then you have heard of Build A Sign before!)

So I made this:

Isn't it great? I'm super please with it! I know some of you may be wondering...."uh...it's not very military , Jenn" which...I know. Build A Sign has A LOT of patriotic options to choose from ( as well as being able to completely design your own from scratch!) but I'm kind of minimalist when it comes to design in the first place...add to that, we're not really that much of a "HOOYAH" type family. But I did want to make a sign. I mean...You can't have a 'Homecoming' without some sort of a sign! I think I'm gonna hang it up with some red, white, and blue ribbon and bows. It's gonna look cute, I'll be sure to take more pictures when it's actually hung!

I also got the opportunity to play with some of their other products, and I decided to make some of these:

Aren't they cute? They're clings, so you can put them anywhere: your car window, your house windows, a mirror....anything that has a glassy type surface! And, they're movable, so when you get tired you can take them off one surface and put them on another!! And of course...I get to give them away! I have 3 of each of the branches except for the Sailor one ( hehehe two local Navy wives grabbed them, so there is only one of those left to give!)

( LOL It was pointed out to me the that one I have for Soldier was spelled wrong!!! Wow, way to catch that Jenn! That's possibly the ONLY bummer about Build A Sign....no spell check!!)

If you're interested...or if your know of a friend (or even a friend of a friend!) who would be interested, leave a comment! I'm thinking it'll probably be first come first serve, but if there is a large enough interest I may do a drawing...I'll keep you posted on that! I do ask that if your e-mail addy isn't connected to your profile and you're uncomfortable leaving that in a comment please e-mail me ( my address is linked to my profile!)

One more thought....Build A Sign has an awesome program for our Troops where you can make a sign for free! ( you have to pay for shipping and that's it!) It's a great program, and if you have a homecoming looming in the near future, I highly recommend checking them out! For even easier access, there is a small link located on my side bar, you'll see it!

Anyway...the count down to homecoming is fast coming to an end....and I CANNOT WAIT!! Ughhh...that man...thinking of being in the same room as him again ( let alone being able to look into his beautiful eyes, or touch him, or hear his sweet voice!) literally gives me goosebumps!! I think I might just melt into a puddle right there on the pier...

( as a side note...if you're family and reading this, and have privileged information, please don't say specifics in your comments! just a reminder! :) )

Sunday Story Time: The Big Fight

2011-04-03T14:28:00.004-04:00

Months went by with pretty limited communication between Skunky and I. He got busy with school, friends, and work...and so did I. He would call me every once in a while to check up on how I was doing, and we'd have good conversations. But I stopped initiating contact for a while, and things started to feel a little bit more normal in my life again.

Now...I have to explain something different about the school that I went to. They worked on a "trimester" system instead of a quarter semester. So I went to school for two of the three semesters, from January to August. My 'summer break' was the months September through December. Not everyone did this, some kids went to school September through May, and still others went from April to December. They did this to allow more students to come to this particular school.

My track, the "Winter Track" allowed me to be home through the entire holiday season. That is...if I could afford to make the 3000+ mile trip across country. This particular year...it turned out, I could not. So I would spend the holidays in Idaho, by myself, just working.

I really don't remember how the topic came up. I know that Skunky looked forward to me coming home during my time off, and I'm sure that during some conversation he expressed his excitement to me, and I had to tell him that I wasn't coming home, that I couldn't afford it. Of course you all know what Skunky did when he learned of that. That's right...he offered to pay my way home.

I know that I didn't give him an answer that conversation. I wanted to go home very badly...all of my friends were leaving for the holidays, so it really would just be me, myself, and I together in Idaho over Christmas. But I was uncomfortable with the thought I taking money from Skunky. I mean...I wouldn't even let him pay for dinner or any of our activities when he had come out to visit me! I knew how money changed things...and that if I accepted the money not only would Skunky have an emotional investment in me...he would have a financial one as well. I didn't want to ruin this poor man any more then I already had.

I think it was a couple of weeks before I got back to him. A couple of weeks of crunching my finances and coming up with the same conclusion every time ( nope, no money to go home!). A couple of weeks of listening to everyone around me make plans for the holidays. A couple of weeks for work to give me loads of projects that were to be completed through the holidays, so I would be kept busy.

I finally called him back and told him....yes. I would be very grateful if he would loan me the money to come home for Christmas. I think it was around October-ish that the tickets were actually bought. And then things got busy for both of us. It was a couple of weeks (well over a month) before we would actually talk again after he bought the tickets.

I came home from work and had a message on my phone from Skunky. He wanted me to call him. I fixed myself some dinner, and settled down on the couch in the living room of my apartment and then called him back.

" Hello?"
" Hey!"
" Hi." Uh oh....I could hear the hurt in his voice already. Little warning bells started ringing in my head.
" Hey, what's up? I got your message, I was at work when you called."
" Yeah. You're hard to get a hold of lately."

I paused. He had called and left messages a few times lately that I didn't get back to. I was really busy with work, you know retail during the holiday season! It wasn't on purpose...I just always ended up putting off calling him for later...

" I know...I'm sorry for that. Things have just been really busy at work lately and-"
" Yeah...I see how it is with you, Jen. I thought you were different, but I see now that you're just another one of those girls who bleeds a guy dry, and then leaves him hanging in the dust."

I was shocked. And very hurt. I could feel my breath leave my body and a roaring pain replace it. As tears sprung into my eyes, that roaring pain turned into a burning anger. This kid doesn't know me! How dare he presume to be my friend, and yet say something so cruel.

And without even another word to him, I hung up.

I stormed into my bedroom and closed the door, pacing the small space to release some of my anger. He called back almost immediately and I didn't answer. He called back after that, and again I didn't answer. On the third call back I decided I had something to say to him.

" How dare you..."
" Jen, I'm so sorry, I didn't mean it-"
" How dare you say something so mean to me! I can't believe you would even think that, Skunky! That shows to me just what kind of a person you are on the inside. You are selfish and judgmental! This is the VERY REASON I didn't want to take the money from YOU! I KNEW that you would feel I owed it to you, that this would suddenly in some twisted fashion mean I would HAVE to be your girlfriend. Well let me tell you something, it doesn't. The only thing that I owe you right now is the money, and you will get that back as soon as possible! And then I NEVER want to talk to you again!"

I hung up on him again and he didn't call back. Believe it or not, within a few days I called him back. I was so mad at him, it took me a while to cool down enough to hear that little nagging voice in the back of my head that said " Jen....he loves you. He spoke out of hurt, he thought you really were avoiding him."

I called him back, and it was an awkward conversation. He couldn't apologize enough, and talked about how he had been in hell the last few days over what he had said. I accepted his apologies, but things felt different between us now. Different because there was a little piece of me that wondered if he was right, if what he said was true about me. I made some rules for myself that day...mostly to protect him more. I didn't want to be that for him...and that meant that I couldn't let him get any closer to me then he already was.

That would turn out not to be the end of this incident, however . He asked me to call him when I got to New Hampshire, and I told him that I would, and maybe we could get together.

The weeks passed and the next thing I knew, my Dad was picking me up from the airport. We had a leisurely ride home. I came into the house, said hi to my Mom, talked for a few minutes and then headed upstairs to take a shower and wash off the feeling of travel. During my shower I got a phone call and they left a message. When I got out, I check the message. It was from Skunky...a nasty one calling me dishonest for not calling him when I got into town like I said I would. At this point I had been in New Hampshire for maybe and hour and a half. But I had forgotten that he had bought my tickets, and had my itinerary. He knew the exact minute that my plane landed.

I called him back that minute, and gave him a royal chewing out. I told him that just because he bought my tickets did not mean that he now owned me. I told him exactly what I had done in a little over an hour in New Hampshire, and that it wasn't dishonest of me to putting off calling him until after I had showered and unpacked, that I hadn't even seen all of my family yet, and they were infinitely more important then he was! I told him that I would not talk to him again until after Christmas ( which was about a week away) and even then he would be LUCKY if he got to see me before I went back to Idaho.

And that was that. I did agree to see him. Two days before I left to go back to Idaho he met me at a sandwich shop near my house, and we had lunch. He apologized for the message again, and that he understood what I was saying about him not "owning" me just because he had helped a friend out. He said that he had never felt like this before, that he had loaned money to friends in the past but had never reacted harshly before. I shrugged it off, I didn't really know what to say. And neither did he. We parted with a hand shake, and it would be a very long time before things started to feel normal between us again.

He never asked me about the money again... and I never did pay him back.:) The day that we got married I asked him about it as we were driving up to Myrtle Beach, where we would spend our honey moon. He laughed, looked down at the rings on my finger, and said " Jen, I think your debt has been repaid."

Next up: Skunky joins the Navy!

What's your song this week?

2011-03-31T09:30:00.002-04:00

Pollyanna is a bit of a movie buff...so we get A LOT of our favorite songs from soundtracks! This one is from Tangled...and boy do we LOVE this movie!!

As always, head on over to Goodnight Moon to link up!!

Tehehehehehe... :)

2011-03-30T14:34:00.001-04:00

Ha! Hooked myself up with a new camera for my birthday! The two (dinosaurs!) that we have mysteriously disappeared. ( actually, I CANNOT for the life of me remember where I put them before we spent the winter in UT! EEEK!)

So I figured now was as good a time as any to upgrade, especially with Homecoming just around the corner!

So there are my two beauties.:) I know, I almost never put pictures of them up on here ( to my family's disappointment). This blog...it's my me place. I don't have to put on a brave face for them here.

But...I'm turning over a new leaf, right? Perhaps that will lend to more pictures of the kiddos in the future...though I am not making any promises! :)

It's official...

2011-03-30T07:00:00.007-04:00

Well it's official. I am 29. I have entered my last year in my twenties. Weird. I don't feel 29. Honestly...sometimes at moments I feel like I'm a little girl "playing" house....although never in my wildest imaginations did I "play" that I was a military wife, with two children under the age of 3, and a husband who deployed for 1/2 the year.

Life just evolves...and the next thing you know, those are your challenges, and you are doing something in a millions year you never thought you could do. Things you still don't feel capable of doing...but you do them anyway...

I am strangely anxious ( and by anxious I mean riddled with anxiety) about homecoming. Almost as bad as it was during the load-out period before deployment. Wow, I've spent almost every day of the last 6 months wishing I could be with him, and now it's almost here and I'm...lol...scared.

My more experienced Navy-wife friends tell me that it's normal. I told Skunky in an email recently, how I was nervous and scared for homecoming and his response was so simple...and so heartwarming it took my breath away;

"You are everything to me! I cannot let that go or even fade just because of some small worry that might eat me up inside if I focus too hard on it!"

The man is a genius. I don't know how many times various members of my family have told me to "not worry over things you can't control" and yet Skunky is the only one who could say it in a way that made it click.

So...29 is going to be a new year for me. I'm turning over a new leaf, and I'm going to release my worries of what I can't control, and try my darnedest to live IN the moment! Every moment that I have with Skunky, Pollyanna, and Piglet is a blessing that should be treasured! Heavenly Father intended for me to be happy, and not live my life 'focused on worries that might eat me up inside'.

Happy birthday to Me. Happy birthday to me. Happy biiiiiirthday to meeeeee. Happy birthday to ME!

Sunday Story Time: Skunky visits Idaho...

2011-03-27T11:29:00.005-04:00

Well...it's about time that I got back to telling the story of Skunky and I, huh? Way to keep you waiting for like three years! ( Bad blogger, I know!!) You know how it is...life gets nuts, and then you lose your rhythm! Lame excuse I know...but it's all I got! :)

I honestly wish I had Skunky around right now to help me with this part, because this is where my memory gets really fuzzy! Between this trip, and when he went into the Navy ( which was about a two year span) there is only one other memory that I have a vivid recollection of. After this trip I had really made up my mind that Skunky was not the one for me, and so I focused my mind elsewhere. He had lots of stuff go on in his life, and he talks about a lot of stuff that happened to him while I was off pretending he didn't exist, and I find that I get jealous of those memories, and sad that I had chosen to not be a part of them. Irrational I know...but I'm a girl, and that's what we do best!

I don't remember exactly how it happened. I really didn't think that he would come out and visit me. But in the midst of all of that frequent talking, and my increasing realization that I was going to need to make a tough decision, and possibly break his heart, the tickets were bought and he was flying out to see me on the week between our birthdays. ( I am 356 days older then Skunky! He turned 28 this last Monday! Can anyone guess when I will be turning 29?)

The sick and twisted part of this story, was that at the time I was...kind of involved with this guy I had met through one of my roommates. That relationship was....twisted...on even the best of days! To complicate things though, the school I went to did not have co-ed dorms. We were separated by gender, and I couldn't have a male friend live in my apartment for a week. So guess where he stayed....yes, on my quasi-boyfriend's couch!! You want to know just how "damned to hell" I really am? I would hang out with Skunky during the day, and after he would be safely tucked into my friends apartment, my boyfriend would sneak up to his bedroom and call me and we would talk about my day with Skunky. And of course I would complain about what a pickle I was in with him. Oh my gosh...even sitting here writing this, I can feel myself blushing with shame....

I remember that I picked Skunky up from the airport, and we went to go see " The Phantom Of The Opera" in the theaters. That's my favorite musical, and of course Skunky knew this, so he waited to go to see it with me! We had a little bit of time before the movie started so....true to Skunky's character of not putting things off too long, he busted out this note to me in the parking lot of the theater. It explained everything that he felt about me...that he loved me really, even though he knew I didn't feel the same way. I read it right there, with him sitting in the car with me, and I remember that the note made me angry. I was mad at him for admitting his feelings so bluntly, and on the very first day of his trip!! Now I couldn't just pretend I wasn't aware of his feelings and the whole vacation was going to be ruined! I told him as much too. Looking back on it now, it's interesting to me that even back then, I've always been brutally honest ( aka: dramatic!) with him in an argument. I've wondered since we've been married, where he has learned to be so patient with me when I am upset....and it occurs to me now that he's been sparing with me our entire relationship!! After almost 7 years of putting up with my angry rants...yeah, I bet he's learned how to deal with me when I'm angry. That man...he really should be sainted!!

My anger usual does fade quickly, and I know he calmed me down enough that we could go watch the movie and have a good time. The rest of the week he followed me around to my classes, met my roommates and school friends. I had work as well, and there was one day that I was going in for a shift, and I felt bad about leaving him for the evening, but he said that he was just gonna hang out at the apartment. Well...I believed him, until he showed up at my work!!! He had walked from the apartment to Wal-Mart....about 4 miles!...to come see me. I was upset at him again....I mean first of all, March in Idaho is still cold and snowy! And then to be just randomly walking around town and show up at my work, with no one knowing who he is, I even doubt the amount of people in New Hampshire that knew he had taken a trip out to see me...just, scared me. And made me mad...no shocker there!

The last vivid memory I have is of going to a school dance with him. They had, every Wednesday night, a country-western themed dance ( it is Idaho, people!) and me and one of my roommates, a friend from work, and Skunky all decided to go together. Poor Skunky is not the best dancer in the world, but he sure does try, and he was really enthusiastic about going to this one! I admit...I tried to pawn him off onto my roommate more then once! And when I couldn't do that, I stood with him on the outskirts of the room, watching everyone else dance, praying that he wouldn't make me dance and...Lord forbid...make me actually have to have physical contact with him!

Man, does this not sound like a page straight out of the "12-year-old Girl's Handbook For Dealing with Guys"? It's almost embarrassing telling you all this!

I do have one memento of that trip...a picture that was taken at that dance:

I wish I could find the larger version of this picture...I have it framed in a box somewhere. This is the one I keep in my wallet...lol... to remind me how far Skunky and I have come. Half of the picture is cut off obviously...it's my two friends from school. They're all cozy, messing around with the props they gave us in the picture. But....I don't know if you notice it, because I was surprisingly able to put on a sincere smile when the photo was shot, but the only thoughts going through my head were " How much distance can I put between me and Skunky without it looking really obvious in the picture?" I swear....at the time it felt like the Gulf of Mexico was between me and Skunky, but looking at the picture now, it looks like I was just placed on the other side of that post so you could see me better. Ironic, huh? :)

Well...that was really the last event of that trip. I think Skunky tried to broach the " I love you" conversation on the way to taking him to the airport, but I wouldn't let him, and we parted on what I think were amiable terms. Our contact was much less after that trip....

Until that is, the holiday season rolled around, and I was homesick...broke... and wanted to see my family. Enter Skunky to the rescue. Who knew we were about to have our first ( and only until after we got married) phone slamming, screaming at each other, fight??

Until next Sunday!

OPSEC and so much more...

2011-03-22T08:34:00.001-04:00

Okay so....this weekend was slightly terrifying for me. I still feel a little crazy about it, so I question the wisdom of blogging. I have a tendency to overshare about my emotions on here when I'm not keeping myself in check!

I'm sure that most of you will have heard about this over the weekend:

Source

And yes...my husband was on one of the submarines involved in the cruise missile strikes on Libya. ( For official releases go here, here and here.)

I've had one heck of a week actually. Since last Tuesday there has been a pretty much constant stream of information about my husbands boat that has been at times...really confusing and inconsistent ( I may have mentioned that in my previous post).

I'm still a pretty green navy wife, obviously. :) This is our first deployment, and is a HUGE learning experience. My husband's boat is slowly meandering their way back home. We've endured months of a very lonely separation, and could not be more excited for it to just be over! So when news reports started popping up about my husbands boat being "diverted" to Libya, naturally little warning bells started ringing in my head. I knew Libya was in turmoil...heck, I've been watching that whole region since the riots in Egypt broke out! It seemed however that things were going to stay just quiet enough for my husbands boat to make it home on time...until this week!

I heard the initial report, and called the Ombudsman. Nothing had changed, just a hyped up media. Okay, that's cool. Settled. Two days later, they call an " EMERGENCY MEETING". Uh hmm. I attempt to not spend the rest of the day running the worst case scenarios in my head only to get to the meeting and be told "Nothing has changed, just a hyped up media." Me thinks thou dost protest too much. However, even feeling like the meeting was a little odd and uncalled for, I took what was said seriously and tried very hard to put the whole thing out of my mind. I mean...I have a homecoming to plan for! And I haven't even decided what I'm going to wear yet!

Two days after that ....we're freaking bombing Libya. And once again, my husbands boat is plastered all over the news.

Miraculously, in the time since then they have transmitted emails twice. Bless this Command for that! And those emails included one from the COB stating that they were still running on schedule. I think, however, the coming weeks are going to see a lot of tense Navy wives in my area praying, and watching the news religiously, for any hint of change.

This whole experience has taught me a bit more about OPSEC. I mean, on here I am as vague as I can possibly be. Most of you still don't even know which of those submarines my husband is actually on. I know not to post on Facebook ( I actually RARELY use Facebook so that's a non issue) and all of that jazz. That's what OPSEC has meant to me until this week.

But now I understand the lengths to which the military must go to protect OPSEC. Obviously they knew. Operations like the one this weekend don't just happen over night. And obviously something, somewhere, got leaked ( hence the reporting almost a week in advance) And that fact alone SCARES THE CRAP out of me. Not to mention the fact that my husband was involved in a highly publicized military operation...that's a whole new level of anxiety.

So I'm in this weird...1/2 grateful, 1/2 upset limbo of how I feel this situation was handled with the families. I TOTALLY get why they couldn't say anything to us. I really really do. They couldn't just come out and say " Well...yeah, actually, we're gonna bomb Libya in 2 days." But on the other hand, all of that " We care about you families, and that's why we give you all of this privileged information" is ringing a little hollow to me right now. That really is just something they tell you so you don't fly off the deep end and they have to send one of their valuable assets home to pick up the pieces.

I'm really going to miss my rose colored glasses....

"The Twighlight Zone"

2011-03-18T20:25:00.004-04:00

I can't tell you how many blogs I have read that have some version of " I hate drama..." in there somewhere. Do you think it is just a natural propensity of bloggers? You have to dislike drama, because otherwise you'd make a bad blogger? Perhaps that's true...I think blogging takes a fair amount of introspection, and a knowing of oneself. People who start drama, I feel, typically are too involved in the creation of all that to really delve into themselves that much.

This is one of those " I hate drama" posts. And it's true, I do. I try not to start drama, I try even harder not to be involved in other people's drama. Both Skunky and I feel this way. Except for an occasional rant ( I have been known to have moments of TMI on here ;P) We keep to ourselves. Our business is our own...and we don't really care to know all of yours either.

This week has felt like an episode straight out of the Twighlight Zone. My kids have been nuts....Piglet is teething like crazy, and all sorts of cranky about it ( Poor guy. I feel for you I do but...really? With the incessant high pitched screaming? ALL DAY? Mommy's brain is seriously about to leak out of her burst eardrums...) And darling Pollyanna...I miss the sweet natured little girl that took your place last week. Can we have her back? Please? Pretty Please?

Add to that some disturbing...but completely incorrect...press about my husbands boat ( both in the paper and on TV) that was enough to give me a near heart attack ( I had no idea that the media could report something so wrong as the honest-to-God's truth! Seriously people, do not believe everything you read/hear!) And then an 'emergency' boat meeting about said media. Of course they didn't tell you that when you got the call about the meeting, so I spent all day wondering what in the crap had gone wrong! Only to get there and be told "don't believe everything you hear/read" ( Duh! Figured that out earlier in the week!)

And to top it all off, tonight...a committee meeting. Now, I signed up to be on this committee when the boys left, knowing I was going to be away for most of the deployment. I figured they wouldn't really need me until the end anyway. The committee chair kept me updated while I was out there, and I have been able to do a few things, but this was my first official meeting. The girls seemed really nice, and very excited about the tasks the committee was assigned. And this is where the drama comes in...apparently there is some bad blood between the committee chair and some former committee members, and I was about to be versed in all of that bad blood, if it wasn't for some other very sweet committee member who change the subject ASAP. ( thank you, you sweet sweet girl!)

The reason this pertains to me was, I had sat with the former committee member at the emergency meeting. I'm gonna give the benefit of the doubt to the committee chair, that perhaps she's trying to 'save' me from all of the trouble she has gone through. What she doesn't know is, this person who she dislikes so much, was one of only two women who befriended me when we first got to the boat over two years ago. She and her husband have been in the Navy a lot longer then Skunky and I, and she has been there to guide me through all of the chaos that comes with being married to a deployed submariner. She has only barely alluded to some difficulties she has had with the committee chair, but has really taken the position of " Jenn, you're a big girl and you can make your own judgments about people." I wish that I could trust the committee chair would do the same, and leave their problems between them.

I'm nervous now, to be involved with the committee, because you know the more I go the harder its going to be to dodge the conversation she so obviously wants to share with me. I would have to stand up and say " Hey, that's my friend , and I don't want to be involved in this" which wouldn't be hard but...lol I'd probably earn myself an enemy. We're SO close to the end it's insane...and I've made it almost the entire deployment without being involved in all of the navy wife drama...can I make it just this last little bit??

Honestly....I don't know. Lets pray that I can. :)

What's your song: Week 4

2011-03-17T09:32:00.003-04:00

This is one of Pollyanna's and my favorites to dance to!! Remember to hit play to listen and enjoy!

( haha! forgot to tell you where to go to join in!! head on over to Goodnight Moon!)

Book Review: Semper Cool

2011-03-16T12:46:00.004-04:00

Yay! Another book review!!! I've read 3 books with this book club, and I have really enjoyed having an excuse to put a concentrated effort into reading! I used to read a lot before I had children, and some how after...reading was one of the things that got pushed to the wayside as I figured out how to be a Mom. You'll be getting two reviews this week ( exciting huh?)! This one will be for this fantastic book:

Source

Here is the teaser:

Semper Cool is the wrenching, sometimes hilarious and always thought-provoking true story of a mischievous teenager who enlists in the U.S. Marine Corps seeking adventure and his father's approval and finds both, plus more danger than he ever could have imagined. With its vivid imagery, Semper Cool thrusts readers into a grunt's-eye view of the blood, guts, tears and laughter of war, as told by a Marine who returned home a man and a patriot. Be prepared to laugh and cry and ultimately thank God for the men and women willing to risk their lives for the freedoms that so many Americans enjoy.

I have to say, I was VERY surprised by this book. Really...the more that I read it, the more that I realized my exposure to the Vietnam War was pretty much limited to the movie "Forest Gump'! Pitiful huh?? I don't even really remember learning about it in school. I mean...I must have, right?? Perhaps I was zoning out during the day they taught it! This book definitely helped put the Vietnam War into a little bit of perspective for me, and has increased my interest to learn more about it.

I say that, because this book is not a history. Obviously, the author lived through it, so he does mention the historical events he was personally involved in. But it's really just a collection of his memories, and his thoughts on them as he looks back at them. And I was honestly enthralled with his tale. He is a very entertaining writer, and was very young in these memories and you can feel the youthfulness in the way that he writes. I really in particular enjoyed his ongoing theme of "coolness". From the very title, he sets the tone of his experiences in the war being positive, even when he is surrounded by death and carnage. Honestly, Barry Fixler, the author, comes across to me as a very well adjusted person. His book held back very little in the way of explaining events as he saw them, including the gore, but you come away from the book with a feeling that....yeah, war sucks. And it's bloody and brutal, but you can come away from it a whole person, and maintain a normal life after wards. And I think that is a really important message to get out there, particularly at this frame in time where some of the views of the Afghanistan and Iraqi wars are similar in many ways to Vietnam.

A small word of caution for those who are interesting in reading this book.... it is pretty gory at moments. He doesn't hold back on describing some of the scenes from the war around him. Also...he has very foul language through out the entire book. I have never had to mentally edit the f-bomb out of a book so many times in my life! I think he wrote it in the language that they actually used during his stint with the Marines, but still....at moments it felt a little excessive. That would probably be my only complaint with the book.

MOST IMPORTANTLY however is, that 100% of the royalties from this book go to wounded combat veterans from Afghanistan and Iraq!! Barry's goal is to reach 1 Million dollars!! You can find out more by visiting the Barry Fixler Foundation at http://www.sempercool.com/

In my humble opinion, this book deserves:

A little bit of randomness....

2011-03-14T07:00:00.008-04:00

I am absolutely fascinated by all of the things Blogger/Google has come up with to make blogging and reading blogs more easier!!

It wasn't until after the Annoyed Army Wife asked me to guest post that I even knew you could schedule a post for later! At the time, I was actually still using the old post editor for Blogger, I didn't realize that they had updated it! I'm still getting used to the new one, while basically the same, my computer is slow so it doesn't connect to the tools as easily as it should ( I feel) and for some reason has a problem making the double space in between my paragraphs. Go figure :)

You know another dilemma I've been having?? Too many blogs to read!! When I re-started blogging again, I thought I was going to have to cut down on my reading list. I honestly don't have the time to sit on the computer blogging all day. I mean...you all know, I have two very small children who are pretty time consuming, not to mention the fact that I have a pretty busy real-life out side of the three of us...there are playdates, and lunches with friends, shopping and taking care of the house, boat activities and church activities. And then, when I get a little free time to myself there is book club and my sanity in life...sewing/crafting.

I try to reserve my computer time for nap time, and then at night after bedtime. And then that whole "scaling down" my blog reading list flew out the window because...well there really are just too many good bloggers out there that I enjoy reading! I was accessing all of my must reads through my own blog...but that was getting confusing and time consuming. So what did I find last night??

Google Reader!!! HOLY A BLOG READER THAT ACTS LIKE AN EMAIL SYSTEM! Seriously....you'd think it was the best thing since sliced bread! ( I know...I've obviously been living in a cave!) All of the blog updates you follow get sent to the reader and once your read their new entry it takes it off the list! HELLO! Thank you for making my life much easier!! Now if only there was an automatic commenting program... :)

Another, more serious topic, that has been on my mind a lot this weekend, is the devastation in Japan. I'll be honest and say when I first heard about it, I didn't pay it much heed. The kids were running around like crazy, and I had a schedule to keep, yo! When I finally got a chance to sit down and actually take in what had happened over there...I don't know....I was completely shocked. I know of a family stationed there ( they are safe, thank the Lord) not super well, but it put a more personal spin on it. But aside from that....I'm not entirely sure why, but this disaster has been something that has really stirred me...I have a desire to help in some way that I haven't in any of the recent tragic events around the world, including Haiti. Does that make me horrible, or what?

I've said many a prayer for those people over there, and donated to my church from a list of things they said they needed for humanitarian boxes....but I feel compelled to do more, and I'm really note sure what yet...

Anyway...lots of randomness today! Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Slackerrrrrrrrrr!

2011-03-12T21:38:00.001-05:00

Oh my gosh...how much am I a slacker huh?? One week of traveling and I'm all out of wack!! Things have been pretty busy this week trying to settle in and get the kids back on a routine. I've had some boat meetings this week that required my attention, not to mention catching up with all of my friends that I have left for the last 5 months! And then I felt bad because I had ambitions to get the next installment for Sunday Story Time done, and I seriously have just not had the brain capacity I need to write it!! I know...way to strand you in the middle of a story right???

So we're fairly settled in I think....mostly unpacked, my house now in the familiar state of chaos that it usually resides in. :) The kids were HEAVEN for seriously like the first 5 days we were here...I honestly thought I was going skip through the two week transition period with Pollyanna...but I obviously thought too soon, because Thursday the ever so pleasant ( re: mouthy and rebellious) two year old that I know and love decided to come back into the house, and now all really does seem normal around here...

AND....I found out that my ear infection is....not actually an ear infection! It's a disorder called TMJ....and is basically an inflammation of the tendon that connects my jaw to my skull. I have this weird tendency to clench my teeth when I'm stressed...deployment has brought that out like none other, I get regular tension headaches and jaw aches because of it. Obviously I try to stop myself when I am aware of it, but I can't very well stop myself from clenching in my sleep!! So, I have to make an appointment with my dentist to see what can be done to hopefully correct the situation and get rid of this horrible ear ache!! Fun, huh?

If only Skunky would come home soon. :)

Soooooo...no story time this week as well! Sorry to leave you hanging....I gotta get my mojo back on!! I have a bad enough memory as it is, and I just haven't had the brain capacity to sit down this week and write the next chapter in our story with any accuracy! I really hope you guys remain patient with me....I promise I'm going to get back on track!!

So I leave you with promise to return onto a regular schedule this week!!

until next time!

5 things I learned on the road...

2011-03-08T13:55:00.002-05:00

So my trip across country actually went fairly smoothly. We made it right on schedule, the kids were really pretty reasonable given the circumstances, I only had minor car trouble ( on the first and last day) unfortunately that is going to result in me replacing my windshield. BUT at least it wasn't a full on accident like we had driving out there last October!

As in every experience, you learn a few things along the a way. This trip spanning a large chunk of the US taught me:

1) Piglet is a crappy teether. I thought that Pollyanna was bad....but I think the piercing nature of his screams adds a whole new level of pain to a pretty painful experience. I'm still working on recovering from my ear infection ( gonna go check it out at the Dr. again this week) and I am still hearing ringing in my ears. Poor guy :/ I certainly am glad that we don't remember the pain of teething!!

2) You will gain at least 5 lbs on a road trip like that... purely because of the water retention! Which is a pain in the rear end when you've painstakingly lost only like 15lbs over the course of 5 months, and would like to keep it off before your husband returns! Not to mention your family running a " Biggest Loser" competition and you are already at the end of the pack in the first place! BLAH!

3) Holiday Inn Express is, as my SIL would call it, a' false sense of happiness'.:) Meaning... the rooms are like a ray of sunshine after a long day in the cramped car! The beds are comfy, the breakfast food is delish...and then you have to pack yourself up and hit the road again... not really knowing if you are going to see another feather pillow that night, or cinnamon bun the next morning. False. Sense. Of Happiness.

4) Cara-vanning is mildly unpleasant and will give you dead leg. It is fairly impossible for two cars to be able to maintain the same speed on cruise control. During the long, lonely states of the west, like Wyoming and Nebraska, I was able to keep up with my parents car through manipulation of the computer system in my own car. However once we passed Kansas City, there was too much traffic on the highways for me to rely on the slow application of the breaks through my cars computer system. I made a mental note to bring a second driver in your car if you are cara-vanning across country. :)

5) Farm houses in Ohio look a heck of a lot different then their counterparts in Pennsylvania. My internet is receiving a crappy signal right now ( seriously, I'll be lucky if it'll publish this!) or I would show you some pictures. But we've all seen the old farms, right? They're usually white, and older looking, large houses with a big barn and maybe a silo, a dirt driveway, with acres of land surrounding them. That's what you saw in Pennsylvania. In Ohio however...the farm houses were like...contemporary, and NEW! They were huge, modern houses, with stucco and rock "siding" on the outside, huge attached 4 or 6 car garages, big windows and newly paved driveways, and usually a new "shed" type building in the back of their huge driveways that I assume held all the farm equipment...though you couldn't tell everything was so immaculate. The ONLY thing that clued you in the the fact that they were farms was the acres of plowed land surrounding each one of them. Really, they made me kind of wonder about farming subsidies ( a topic on a news show I watched recently) the government gives. I planned to do a little research before I posted this so I could state the facts about how much Ohio farmers vs. Pennsylvania farmers get from the government...I didn't though because my kids are crazy now that we're home. ( Go figure :) ) I have a fishy feeling that Ohio probably excepts more of those subsidies then Pennsylvania does...but I could be wrong :)

Anyway...ha! those were just a few of my many and varied thoughts as I crosses the US in my effort to get home!

Until next time!

Welcome back!

2011-03-06T12:59:00.000-05:00

Hi Everyone!! We made it back to the East Coast!!! Crazy as the drive was, I am SO glad to be home! My parents helped me drive out ( I had too much stuff after 5 months accumulation, including all the major holidays, to just take one car back!!) and they left this morning to finish their trip visiting family in Maine. I was sad to see them go, and already Pollyanna has asked where Grammy is several times.....BUT on the plus side, being here feels completely normal, and I am SO happy for that! And I'm even more excited to start getting everything ready for Skunky to come home and we can really have our life back!

So a few orders of business...sorry, but Sunday Story Time has been postponed to Wednesday this week...strictly due to the fact that I thought I'd have enough time to write it when I got in, but I obviously didn't! (bad preparation strategy! I told you, I am the queen of procrastination!!)

Also....look forward to a recounting of our trip this week as well! Thanks for all the well wishes about making it safely!!

Until later!

You can find me at....

2011-03-03T08:28:00.000-05:00

Not too long ago, Michelle at Annoyed Army Wife ask me ( if you can believe this!) to be a guest blogger for her while she is spending her days filled with bliss at OccDoc's return!!

I was INSANELY happy for her, because of OccDoc's homecoming, and flattered that she wanted me as a guest! I LOVED Michelle's blog the minute I stumbled onto it!! She is a girl after my own heart, and stepping into her little piece of land at Annoyed Army Wife I felt like " now HERE is a girl that I can relate to!"

I've also had an opportunity to meet her in person, and she is just ( if not more!) as charming in real life as she is in blog land. So it really is awesome that I get to help her out a little by guesting on her site.

So head on over to the Annoyed Army Wife, where you can find me today, and her for always...I promise you will not want to leave once you get there!

What's Your song?

2011-03-03T08:06:00.019-05:00

Oh my gosh...last week, Amber at Goodnight Moon had the BRILLIANT idea of having a music blog-link up! I had so much fun listening to everyone's pick, and I found quiet a few songs that I hadn't heard before ( I've been slightly stale with my music for a little while I guess!) and it helped me remember some great songs I used to love but forgot about! So thank you Amber, for revitalizing my play list!!

I'll admit it, I'm nearing the end of my husbands deployment and so I am pretty darn sentimental these days. The song I picked this week is a song I used to listen to ALL the time right before we got married. I actually suggested using this as our wedding song, but Skunky is a bit more traditional then this song really allowed! My husband and I have an...'interesting' back story ( if you're curious, I happen to be in the middle of telling our story and you can start here) and it was a very long road to becoming what we are today. The lyrics that always really spoke to me in this song are these:

Now that we're here,

It's so far away

All the struggle we thought was in vain

All the mistakes,

One life contained

They all finally start to go away

Now that we're here its so far away

And I feel like I can face the day

I can forgive and I’m not ashamed to be the person that I am today

They stood out to me because I did feel ashamed of part of my past, especially when it came to Skunky. I didn't ( don't) deserve him. But he loved me anyway. And all the mistakes that I made....they went away in him. Blah! Probably a little bit deeper then Amber first intended this to go but...

I can't help it! It's the music!

They really should make a manual for this...

2011-03-01T07:00:00.010-05:00

I think blogging should come with a manual! At least this type of blogging...I used to just blog to my family and close friends and that was different. Those people actually KNEW me. I could say what I wanted without fear. But blogging the way I blog now ( both writing, and reading) in such a public forum requires...well a bit of finesse that I at moments have realized that I lack!

Source

I've had an experience recently where I feel like I performed a blogging sin. I didn't mean to, really. I think I operated ( mistakenly, I realize now) under the assumption that if you blog and you put yourself out there to the public, you are free to comment which ever way you like. Even if you happen to disagree with the blog author.

I had been reading a blog for a while that I actually really appreciated...I like the way that the author wrote and appreciated most of what they had to say...except for one particular attitude that seemed to be a reoccurring theme in their posts. So finally after several weeks of reading, I decided to say something. I tried to keep my comment as pleasant and respectful as possible, while still wanting to assert my opinion.

In the aftermath of that...I have realized that I was in the wrong. They mentioned in their comeback comment that it was their personal blog, and reflected how they personally felt. Any criticism given can be worded sweet as cherry pie...but it's still criticism. My comment was the equivalent of a perfect stranger coming into my house and critiquing how I, say,....do the dishes. I wouldn't have liked it any more then they did, and probably would have responded similarly " Who in the world do you think YOU are?"

What I should have done was apply what I had learned as a child ( "If you can't say anything nice, then don't say anything at all") and walk away from a view that I didn't share. I had chosen to read them, I could also choose to stop. I think my comment honestly stemmed from the fact that...really, I didn't want to stop reading them. I liked reading them! Except for that one particular attitude that I thought was hurtful.

So lesson learned...and I do feel bad about the incident now, because it was uncalled for, and I represented myself as a type of person that I really am not. A lot of these blogs are like journals, and people are being gracious enough to let you get a glimpse inside of them, but that doesn't mean you have the right critique them or make them feel judged. If you don't like what they are saying, please, just walk away.

I try to blog, and comment, in a way that doesn't make anyone feel judged. I want this to be a place where I can go and speak, and hopefully people can find what I started out looking for...someone who understands and has been there.

Are there lessons that you have learned while you have been blogging?? PLEASE share! I'd really like to not have to commit too many more of these painful mistakes!

Goodbye UT!!

2011-02-28T18:23:00.002-05:00

We're leaving the West bright and early tomorrow morning to start our 5 day trek across country to get us back home and get ready for...... you guessed it!

SKUNKY'S HOMECOMING!!!

I could not be more excited! We've still got a little while, but this is basically the last milestone before he gets home, and I'm thrilled!!

So wish me luck driving with a 2 year old and a 10 month old! (EEEK!) I've scheduled a couple of posts this week so it won't be completely silent around these parts, so don't forget to stop by again and weigh in!!

Sunday Story Time: Fast forward

2011-02-27T07:00:00.017-05:00

I bounded off to college without much more thought put towards Skunky...at least until I actually got to Idaho. I'm not entirely sure who called who first. Knowing myself though...and my oddly conflicting feelings about Skunky at the time, I'm fairly sure I'm safe in saying I called him.

I know that I missed my family and my ties to New Hampshire....and Skunky made me feel better about EVERYTHING. Always. I was working full time at the Wal-Mart in town, and going to school full time. I was exhausted and frustrated with friends, and a boy I thought I was dating at school...Skunky was my solace. The only person in the world who always made me feel better about myself. It was addicting to me, honestly, and it wasn't long before we were talking on the phone every day. He would call me "store to store" when we were working the same shifts and we would talk at work. He would leave messages on my cell phone, serenading me silly songs like " Would You Like to Swing On A Star". He even sent me flowers to the service desk one time, because I think I had had a bad week and he wanted to cheer me up!

And I was a very conflicted girl. Skunky is a bit of a pack rat when it comes to notes and emails ( even text messages and voice mails!) and doesn't get rid of them ever! So we can thank him for having these little gems from my past! I started school in Janurary, and on February 10th, I wrote him this note: ( I edited it a little :))

E----

I feel a little cheap writing this all down in an e-mail. But for two reasons I think this is the best way to at least start this conversation. 1) It gives me the time I need to actually articulate my thoughts in a clear way, something that I'm not always able to do on the phone. And 2) I think this will actually give you the space and time you need to think about what I'm going to say, and you won't feel put on the spot or cornered in any way.

Honestly. I'm confused about us. This is exactly what I feel about you:

I think you're amazing. You're funny, and your nice, and you're always happy. You always manage to find a bright spot in any situation. Your sarcasm is hilarious, but you're also able to take things seriously when you're supposed to. I love how you are just you, and you don't apologize for that fact. Anyone could take you or leave you, and it would be their loss. I love how you make me feel about myself. You make me feel appreciated and loved. And special .

There are some days when I'm totally pre-occupied with you. All I can do is think about you, and obviously those days are the days that I miss you the most.

I don't know if you understand fully how a girls minds work, but we're always thinking about the future, particularly when it comes to boys. And I've missed you more than I thought I was going to. So those unexpected feelings got me thinking... "Hmmm...maybe I really do like E---- more than I think I do."

And that thought, of course, leads me to imagine situations in which we acted like a couple. This is the part that makes it confusing for me. Imagining myself as your "girlfriend" should make me blissfully happy. Unfortunately, going down that path in my mind, feels so wrong in my heart, that it makes me sick.

And that, in turn, makes me sad and depressed, because I would be so lucky to end up with someone like you. Someone I know who would take care of me and love me the way that I should be loved.

Can you see my dilemma now? When I have you clearly set up in my head as one of my dearest friends, I miss you so much...it feels abnormal to miss just a "friend" this much. But when I think of you as anything else, my heart and soul rejects it. And that makes this situation really hard.

I know you all are probably groaning right now. Really, Jenn?? How did you not see it?? And WHAT IN THE CRAP was your hang up?? Well...obviously....I didn't know at the time. It would take me another 2 years before I would figure it out! ( Don't worry though...I promise it won't take me two years to tell this story!)

He responded by calling me, and basically told me that if friendship was all I had to offer, then he would take it gladly! So the madness continued. A week or two later, I was freaking out about us again, and in an attempt to calm things down a little, I challenged him by seeing who could last longer without calling each other. Here is our email exchange from that occasion: ( Thank you, honey!)

Jenn,

I hope that you are enjoying yourself, because I am not!
(Exaggerating!) Right now I am using all of my conscience effort not
to knaw off my own head! What was I thinking as I got off the phone
with you on Friday night? I wanted to call you right back and cancel
this whole bet! I would suffer drastically! Knowing you
cannot/shouldn't do something makes the temptation even more great!
AAAAARRRRGGGGHHHH!!!! I shall suffer though this! My will is strong!
In this letter I shall be sending you soon, I wanted to put "call me
when you get this" as a little joke, but I felt if you did call, I
would have won by your misinterpretation, thus I cheated. I cannot
win that way! I am trying to convince myself that I do not want to
talk on the phone. (That is easy and true.) The hard part is
convincing myself that I don't want to talk to you! (Not at all easy
nor true!)

So I shall say that this will be a very Holy week for me and you will
have to wait for the 14th of March to hear about it (unless you give
in, because I surely will not!)! First, church yesterday, tonight, a
talk with Megan, tomorrow, talk with Steven (the guy who gave me "his
favorite book"), Wednesday, cooking dinner for the Elders, then a
meeting with them, and then finally on Thursday, bible study with the
Hamels! I can feel your temptation is getting stronger!
BWAAAHHHAHAHAHA! I dispise talking on the phone, but talking to you
makes me feel happy! I need to find a nice medium! I have never
talked to anyone on the phone as long as when I talked to you! (Here
is where feel special if you don't already!)

Anywho, I shall talk to you in less than a month! Until then, swing
on a star for me!

- E

My response:

E----,

I totally caved. You'll find that out tomrrow when you turn on your phone. LOL And I hadn't even read your e-mail, which most certianly probably would have been the topping on the cake!!!!

The sad thing I think is, I didn't even try to fight it. I was just thinking how much I missed you, and how much I needed to talk to you about all of the important decisions I'm making in my life right now and it was like....just call him.

And then your phone was off and I wanted to cry.

And then I talked for a 1/2 an hour with one of my cashiers about how amazing you are (probably boring her to tears) while our cars warmed up.

And now I'm home writing you an e-mail when I need to be writing an english paper.

Something is wrong with me.

E----...can I tell you that the dependency I have for you, which seems to be growing daily, is starting to scare me.

I'll talk to you tomorrow,
Jenn

Honestly...looking back on these emails now, I seriously cannot BELIEVE I didn't see it then. Well...I mean, obviously I did see it, I admit on several occasions to being scared about it! But I was a girl in some serious denial.

This was a fast forward through a couple of months of communications between Skunky and I. A LOT of our relationship was long distance....haha I'll try to make the fast forwards as few and far between as possible!

Next week? Skunky's trip out to Idaho...!

until next Sunday!

Today's Song

2011-02-24T11:24:00.004-05:00

Goodnight Moon is hosting 'song link-up' and I really wanted to participate! Right before Skunky deployed, there seemed to be a lot of posting about deployment playlists, and I didn't participate because...well I didn't think I had one!! I listen to music for sure...usually at the end of the day when my kids have gone to bed, or if I'm driving in the car. But since Skunky has been gone, music has become VERY important to me ( he made me a few deployment mixes before he left and I listen to them pretty much religiously!!)

The song I chose is a song we played on our honeymoon, and I have played it A LOT this deployment, because it's so fitting to how I feel :) I hope that you enjoy it!

Say it's true, there's nothing like me and you

Not alone, tell me you feel it too

And I would runaway

I would runaway, yeah

I would runaway

I would runaway with you

(Chorus)

Cause I have fallen in love

With you, no never have

I'm never gonna stop falling in love, with you

Close the door, lay down upon the floor

And by candlelight, make love to me through the night

Cause I have runaway

I have runaway, yeah

I have runaway, runaway

I have runaway with you

(Chorus)

And I would runaway

I would runaway, yeah

I would runaway

I would runaway with you

Book Review: I Am Number 4

2011-02-21T07:00:00.009-05:00

So this week I get an opportunity to review my first official book club read with the BBC ( Blog Book Club)! If any of you are interested in joining, see my widget on the side bar of my page, anyone and everyone is welcome!

We recently read this book:

Source

Here is the teaser for the book:

In the beginning they were a group of nine. Nine aliens who left their home planet of Lorien when it fell under attack by the evil Mogadorian. Nine aliens who scattered on Earth. Nine aliens who look like ordinary teenagers living ordinary lives, but who have extraordinary, paranormal skills. Nine aliens who might be sitting next to you now.

The Nine had to separate and go into hiding. The Mogadorian caught Number One in Malaysia, Number Two in England, and Number Three in Kenya. All of them were killed. John Smith, of Paradise, Ohio, is Number Four. He knows that he is next.

I AM NUMBER FOUR is the thrilling launch of a series about an exceptional group of teens as they struggle to outrun their past, discover their future—and live a normal life on Earth.

I AM NUMBER FOUR.
I AM NEXT

Overall, I enjoyed the book. It's a typical teen scifi/romance along the lines of Twighlight. I thought that the main characters were strong and well developed. The story was compelling, and it was an easy and enjoyable read. If you like quick paced, the book really only took about three days for me to read ( and that's WITH chasing around a 2 year old and an almost 10 month old!)

Really, I only have two complaints with the book.
            1) The ending was not satisfying. It was long and drawn out, with what I felt was too much emphasis on the "bad guys" when very little of the rest of the book was centered around them. I really wanted to know what was happening to the main characters, not long descriptions of the Mogadorians and their entourage.
            2) I felt there was a slightly 'green' or 'save the planet' undertone to the whole book, which was a little surprising to me. Now don't get me wrong....I would say I'm a moderate when it comes to belief in all of the 'save the plant' propaganda that is being fed to us right now. I'm not sure I believe in 'global warming', however, I don't think it's a bad thing if people want to recycle, or use electric cars, or whatever it is your conscious feels necessary. I don't like feeling like I'm being 'fed' a hidden agenda however, and it makes me even more nervous when you realize that this is a book geared towards teens, who we all know have impressionable minds. I kind of feel it's up to the parents to teach their children how to treat things, from how to treat your neighbors right down to how to treat our planet. But who knows....perhaps this is a book that can open up the discussion between a teen and their parents.

I also had the opportunity to take my Dad to go see the movie on Saturday, so I'll give a brief review of that here as well!

I actually kind of wish I had seen the movie first! I'm a little bit of a purist when it comes to books being converted to movies, and while I understand it's impossible for some books to be completely translated correctly to screen just because of their sheer length, this book I don't feel is one that needed to be overly edited. The movie changed dynamics between characters, left out whole huge important sections, and really altered the story line from the book, I think, to make it appeal to a larger audience. My Dad loved the movie, and I probably would have if I hadn't read the book first ( that's typically how it goes with me). The ONE thing I did like about the movie over the book however, was the ending. They were able to capture in the movie what they should have done in the book. So bravo for that.

Overall, I give the book:

Until later!

Sunday Story Time: " I'm leaving on a Jet Plane..."

2011-02-20T13:26:00.007-05:00

The day before I left for college was kind of no big deal, at least I thought so. Skunky had pretty much been avoiding me for like 3 weeks, and because I was getting increasingly nervous of how I thought he felt about me, I really didn't mind the lack in attention. I noticed it, for sure, but almost felt it as a relief. I would be able to go to school without feeling like I had and loose ends that needed to be tied up.

We were at work of course, and my co-workers had put together a small going away party ( with cake and cans of silly string involved!) to let me know how much they were going to miss me. We celebrated briefly at the end of my shift and, after all the hugs and wishes of good luck, I headed down the main isle to go clock out and get myself home so I could finish packing. Skunky stepped out of the isle in front of me with a sheepish smile.

" Hey."
" Hey! Long time no see!" I nudged him slightly in the arm...and then kicked myself for it. Why couldn't I ever be cool and reserved with this kid, like I should be??
" Yeah...you noticed that huh?"
I smiled in return and shrugged.
" I just...I knew you were leaving and I have a hard time saying goodbyes."
I smiled understandingly. " Yeah, I understand. But I'll be back next year! We can hang out then!" Really Jenn?? Can you not control yourself?

His face brightened at the small ray of hope I had accidentally shed on him, and my heart sunk into the pit of my stomach. " Yeah I'd really like that." He paused a moment, and shuffled nervously. " Hey, I have something for you. It's small really...no big, I just wanted to give you something."

He dug in is pocket for a second, and then brought out a small folded up piece of paper, and this:

It was very small, and obviously painstakingly handmade. A skunk offering me a flower. I was oddly...touched.
" Did you make this?"
" Yeah."
" Skunky...it's really cute. Thank you." I leaned over and gave him an awkward hug.
He hugged me back...a little tighter then I was comfortable with...and then let me go and stepped back.
" Yeah...do me a favor, and don't read the note until later."
" Uh huh. Sure. No problem."
He shuffled his feet again, and I knew he was looking for a way to keep me talking longer. I glanced at my watch...I really did need to go clock out.
" Hey I have a friend who is traveling out to Washington for Spring Break. Maybe I could stop by and see you in Idaho. I've never been there before."

Never in a million years did I think this kid was going to scrounge up the money to take a trip to come see me in some po-dunk college town in Idaho. And the surety of that is what prompted me to reply:

" Yeah!! You should absolutely come see me! We'd have a great time!"

He smiled very broadly at me, and nodded. " Alright then, cool. I'll email you and we'll figure it out." He stepped aside, signaling to me that he was ready to let me go.

I smiled at him again, clutching the small skunk and note in my hand, touched him on the arm again, and headed down the isle to the back of the store.

I read the note when I got into my car. It was the first love letter that he would write me. He explained that he liked me a lot, and that it hurt to be around me knowing that I was going to leave, so he had instead decided to stay away. But staying away felt wrong too, and he felt selfish for putting his own feelings first, and he hoped that we could still remain friends when I went off to school.

I let my hands fall into my lap, and laid my head on my steering wheel. I was really in a bind. I wasn't really shocked at the letter...it confirmed what I had been suspicious of for a while. But I felt bad for him...I knew that I didn't feel the same way that he did. But he was a good friend...possibly had even become my best friend. So I didn't want to break his heart....and I didn't know how I could keep my friend and let him know there was no possibility for us to go anywhere other then just good friends.

I tossed the letter into my passenger seat, and started my car. I wouldn't see him again for another 8 months...surely his feelings would cool in that amount of time.

What I didn't realize that I was going to see Skunky again, a lot sooner then I was expecting to...

until next Sunday!

Just find a quiet place...

2011-02-18T21:58:00.002-05:00

Blah...I have not felt well today. And what has that led to?? WAY too much time on the internet, and two blog posts in one day!! CRAZY!

Did I mention that my kids have each had two rounds of ear infections since we've been in UT? I told my mom I thought it was something in the water, and I'm even more convinced now because...I have come down with an ear infection too! I didn't even know adults could get ear infections! Of course it's not just one...I have an inner ear, and an ear canal infection in the same ear ( probably from ignoring the pain for a couple of weeks!) so I'm on 3 different medications, one oral and 2 different ear drops.

The annoying this is that, now having been on the meds for a few days, I actually feel worse then I did before I went to the Dr.! There is something backwards about that!

I've heard from Skunky twice this week, but they were responses to pretty old emails...man this email system drives me nuts sometimes. Can't I just talk to my husband when I really want/need to?

The entire Middle East is practically up in flames and it's making me VERY nervous about what is going to happen with Skunky's boat in the next couple of weeks...

Honestly, today was the kind of day where I just wanted to find some place quiet and cry my eyes out! You ever have days like those?

If I could be anywhere in the world...

2011-02-18T12:30:00.002-05:00

My SIL took a mini "vacation" yesterday...to Australia! ( you can read about it here! Sounded like tons of fun!) and it got me to thinking....if I could go anywhere right now, where would I go? And I could only think of two places I wanted be...

Here:


Skunky's boat as they are deploying

Or here:

Home back East

Preferably I'd like all four of us at home, but I'm just gonna have to wait several more weeks for that! Interesting though...that if given the opportunity to daydream about any place in the world I'd want to be...it would be with him...lol, at home. I am so predictable. :)

As a side note...yes, I've done it again! Link up here if you haven't, it's a great way to meet other mil-spouses!

A new design?

2011-02-17T22:30:00.000-05:00

Hey y'all! Sooo....I tinker in blog design. Aside from my header ( see this post) I've played with everything on here...background, my signature, blog columns, widgets, all that jazz. And I'm content with it for now...for an amateur it could be worse is all I'm saying. :)

But...I'd like something that looks a little....well less amateur! :) I know there are some super creative blog designers out there in the mil-spouse community...anyone looking to take on a challenge?? ( for compensation of course!) OR..how about the person who did your design? Are they looking for a new client??

Any suggestions would be appreciated!

Take a deep breath...how would you want to be treated?

2011-02-15T19:29:00.000-05:00

So I definitely avoided the blog universe yesterday. I KNEW there was going to be post upon post of all the wonderful things husbands have done for their wives on Valentines Day. And there was going to be post upon post about how every woman out there is married to the best man in the universe. Don't get me wrong...I know we all really feel that way, and it's true. We are all married to the perfect man for us.

But I know my husband. He IS a very romantic man. And he likes to make big romantic gestures. You would think that deployment would be the perfect environment to foster creative romantic gestures. Unfortunately, as many of you know, the work up period before deployment is very demanding, leaving little to no free time. And then...to complicate things further for the poor man, I control the budget. He can't spend any money without me knowing about it. ( Don't judge, it works for us :))

So...I wasn't expecting anything like a bouquet of flowers or chocolates. I've only gotten one bouquet the whole deployment, just before Christmas. They were beautiful, and my favorite flower...but even that small gift was only because my SIL had the forethought to call and ask Skunky if there was anything she could help him with to give me while he was gone. ::sigh::

What I was expecting was an e-mail. And I was right on time to get one....the man has emailed me faithfully every other day for the past 4 weeks. There has only been one time when it's gone longer then two days in between emails, and he wrote and told me that was because they had training and on the day he would have emailed me and he was so tired he just passed out.

Silence. That's what I got for Valentine's Day.

Here is where I find I am at war with myself. Because 1/2 of me is really pretty annoyed that he literally did not pay enough attention...probably slept through even...the time frame that would have given me even a short note that said " I love you. And I'm thinking about you on Valentines Day."

And the other 1/2 of me says....Jenn, the poor guy is doing nothing but working 24/7. He can barely date his emails when he sends them. You really expect him to pay attention to a day like Valentines Day?

The more I've examined it....no, I'm not upset that he was too busy to write me this weekend. I do understand how hard he is working, and how mentally (and emotionally) drained he is, after nearly 5 months at sea. What I am actually upset with is that he failed to plan ahead. I guess that is something I'll have to bring up with him when he gets back!

Of course...I get a message today that there is going to be a mail drop. There are ALWAYS mail drops when I'm annoyed with him. And I have to sit there and struggle through my annoyance to write him a nice letter! Does anyone know how hard that is?!? And today I was finding it particularly hard. So I scrapped the progressively angry letter I was writing, took a deep breath, and said to myself " Jen...if you were on the boat, what would you want to receive?"

Both of our birthday's are at the end of March. And I wasn't planning on sending any more care packages because we're close to the end and I don't know that he'll get it. But...I decided to do it. KK at Navy Wife, Navy Life had a really good idea to make a "birthday in a box" and I decided to make my own rendition. I didn't take a picture...lame I know. But the contents were very similar to hers. Cupcakes, and sparkly candles. Peanut butter M&M's. Happy B-day banner, napkins, little blow horns, small bouncy balls, Phineas and Ferb b-day cup. His favorite kind of pen ( seriously...he's nuts over them!) and Batman fruit snacks. Stuff I wouldn't exactly be too bummed if he didn't end up getting the box, but stuff I knew he'd be thrilled about if he did get it. I found a hilarious card, decorated the inside of the box like a party, then sealed it up and sent it. I also sent another, more sentimental b-day card to the mail drop as a fall back in case he doesn't get the box.

Soooooo...I had a lesson in overcoming my own, slightly selfish, impulse of " why doesn't he ever think of me??" in favor of trying to make the end of this deployment a little more bearable for him....

Have any of you ever wanted to scream at the top of your lungs " why don't you ever think of me?!?!?" but didn't? How did you deal?

until next time

Sunday Story Time: The Interim

2011-02-13T11:23:00.002-05:00

The 4 months following that first date, Skunky and I spent pretty much EVERY waking minute together. Of course...we worked together, so we saw each other every day at Wal-mart. And it was handy having a guy around at work who would do anything I asked him to! There was one time in particular I remember, where it was like an hour before closing, a COMPLETE BLIZZARD outside, and all of my cart pushers except one had called in. Down the isle bounds Skunky, heavy ( too big!) parka on but no hat or gloves! I couldn't send him out like that! So I loaned him my hand-knit hat, scarf, and mittens. They were various shades of blue, so the total effect wasn't that bad, but to see the guy walking in after finishing, covered in snow and ice, my scarf up over his mouth and nose, and the only thing I could see were his bright, dancing blue eyes, knowing he was smiling ear to ear after having completed the chore for me... that memory will never leave me!

Now I'd like to pause a minute for a disclaimer. From here on until about 3 years pass, I am the villain in this story. Not on purpose mind you. I think a lot of us have been there...we've all had that really good friend who thinks they are totally head of heels for us. And you know you should cut them lose, but to have someone who is so forgiving of you and understands you despite your faults...it's hard to let go of. You will see... I'm not as nice to Skunky, at moments, as I should have been, as he really deserved. And there are parts of our pre-marriage history I will always regret. So...if there are bits of this story that color your opinion of me...well they should. :) I just hope you stick around, despite...lol well, me!

There were several highlights from that fall that made Skunky such a " thorn in my side" for the next several years. I'm not joking when I tell you he is the kind of man that you immediately like, and never forget. I can't tell you how many friends he has, ALL OVER the world.

I spent a lot of time walking around campus with him. I learned about Homestar Runner from him, and there was many an afternoon spent in some random campus computer lab laughing at one cartoon short or another.

We often hung out after work. He would come over to my parents house and we'd zone out watching movies like 'Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights'. ( Yes, he always let me pick the movie!) And, more often then not, I would fall asleep and wake up to him gently shaking me, and with a quiet smile, telling me he'd see me at work tomorrow.

For Halloween, he showed me his " Dare Devil" costume. You know you've met a secure man when he can dress up in front of a girl he likes wearing skin tight RED sweat pants, a long sleeved red t-shirt with his highschool logo on the front, and a red ski mask with little felt horns glued onto it!

He came to church as often as he could, always sitting with me and my family. He came to my ward's Thanksgiving Dinner, and at this point I had begun to figure out that his feelings were a bit stronger then mine, so I busied myself playing with my nieces and nephews so that I wouldn't have sit with him any longer then necessary. I guess this technique backfired on me though, because later he would tell me that watching me play with my older brother's kids clued him into what a great mom I was going to be. The man is too freaking observant. :)

The four months flew by though, and before I knew it, it was January and time for me to head off to Idaho to start my own college adventure. Our last day together he gave me a gift, that meant more to me than I realized, and I made a promise that I had no idea he would force me to keep...

Until next Sunday!

You add children into the equation and...

2011-02-10T22:21:00.000-05:00

So...two year olds are interesting creatures. They can bring you to tears laughing...Pollyanna insists on clinking 'glasses' ( or sippy cups!) every time we sit down at the table, and with everyone there. Seeing my 37 year old brother 'clinking' his soda can with her sippy at dinner tonight was pretty awesome! They can also make you want to pull out your hair with how naughty and stubborn they are! ( 1-2-3 Magic is a MIRACLE book!!! Anyone dealing with a two year old needs to read it!!)

And then they freak you out with how observant they are. My SIL blogged today about her 5 year old here, and an awkward moment she had with him over breastfeeding his little brother. And it got me to thinking...Pollyanna's Grandfather comes home from work at 5 to 6pm every day, and always gives Grammy a kiss and a hug when he comes home. Lately, Pollyanna has decided that she needs to get in on that, and any time that my parents show affection to one another, she's right in there, holding Papa's hand, trying to squeeze in between their hugs, staring up at them wide-eyed as they kiss. My mom says that she thinks it's cute. Really...and I'm probably a horrible parent for feeling this way...but it kind of embarrasses me! Not because of her actions, I'm mean she's only 2!! But it makes me wonder...holy, what is she gonna be like when Skunky comes home??

I mean...my kids have not seen me be THAT kind of affectionate with anyone since their dad left. And Skunky and I...I don't think it's exactly occurred to us that she would ever get to the point where she would notice that. So...Skunky isn't exactly...inhibited, we'll say :)...around her. But now she's catching on! and I'm wondering....how weird is this gonna be?

Obviously...just when you're getting comfortable parenting...the child up and grows on you! It's just wrong. :)

Has anyone out there dealt with a similar situation? How did you deal?

Perhaps I'm crazy... :)

2011-02-09T23:18:00.000-05:00

I'm really looking forward to getting home. For those of you who don't know...I've been visiting my family in UT for the bulk of my husbands deployment. But the time to go home is now here. I've got just under 3 weeks and we'll be back on the East Coast. I'm excited because there is a lot I'd like to do get ready for Skunky to come home. But once we get passed all of that, I'm also excited because I'm determined to make this for Pollyanna's 3rd birthday:

(Go here to see ALL of the pictures, this girl did an AMAZING job)

And I'm also going to make lot of this stuff to go with it:

( Visit this girl's Etsy shop here . She's pretty amazing...if I don't end up being cool enough to make it you can bet I'll be buying hers!!)

I'm a little ambitions ( possibly crazy!) huh? I've been thinking about doing this for probably the last year...and I really think I'm going to do it this year. I'll keep you posted! Wish me luck!

Knitting. Is. Hard!

2011-02-08T11:55:00.000-05:00

I find crochet MUCH easier! I decided that I wanted to tackle trying to make these:

Instead after at least 3 tries, (along with Pollyanna pulling out my work another 4 times because I was silly enough to leave it where she could reach it) this is what I have so far:

Thrilling huh? :) So I've decided I could probably use some practice before I attempt to make something actually useful. And I've started this:

It's going to be an afghan for Pollyanna's dolls ( she's obsessed with carrying around her bed quilt and covering her dolls up for "naps". Which would be fine, except she gets so frustrated when the quilt doesn't lay right, and it's so BIG that it never lays right!) Do you see that ribbed pattern? It's super simple....and also the ONLY knitting pattern I've been able to master with any proficiency. Sad.

Now... why, you ask ( as did my SIL), are you knitting Jen, if you find it hard and frustrating?

And there are two reasons for this. 1) I refuse to believe there is a craft/trade out there I can't master. Heavenly Father has blessed me with both a creative mind, and the ability to pick things up very quickly ( when I set my mind to it!). So...perhaps it's a pride thing. But I really think it's a skill I'd use more often...if I could just learn it. Reason #2) I want to get one of these:

Isn't she a beauty?? I'm DIEING to learn how to spin!!!! However...Skunky, being the frugal man that he is, is probably going to be a hard sell on a 400+ $ piece of equipment ( not to mention what it will cost to buy the wool...or our own sheep {hehe!} in the near future!!) if the only thing I can do with the yarn is make a few crochet hats and a blanket!

So the knitting continues. And I will master you, you blasted knitting needles!!

Here's some joyful pics of Pollyanna from last week:

Her new thing is to rip off her Pj's and run around in nothing but her diaper and a dishcloth! She looks like a little indian!

She loves the Mrs. Potato Head we got her for Christmas! Here she is modeling the glasses. :)

And here is a video of Piglet pulling to a standing position for the first ( well 2nd really cause I didn't have the camera out for try # 1) time!!

Blog Hops are Fun!

2011-02-07T09:19:00.000-05:00

Blog hops are fun, and it's been awhile since I've been in one! Go here to check out some cool ladies!

One of my favorite reads is spotlighted, and remember to leave a little comment love!

Sunday Story Time: The first date

2011-02-06T13:25:00.001-05:00

My first date with Skunky we met in no other place then....you guessed it, the Wal-mart parking lot! I don't remember why we agreed to meet there. It was possible I forced the issue because I thought it was going to be a one time thing and I didn't feel he needed to know where I lived! It might have even been because we decided to go out right after his shift and so it was just easier to go straight from work.

In any case, we decided to take his car. And this is what he was driving at the time:

Imagine less pretty, and a girly teal color. And imagine the ENTIRE back seat filled with every possession he owned.

" Jenn, I'm sorry about the back seat. I'm kind of in between places right now."

Is he serious? He's living out of his car? " Skunky, I thought you were living with some friends in an off campus apartment?"

"Yeah yeah..well that changed so, I'm just looking for another place to live right now."
" Where are you staying?"
" Well I go see my parents on the weekend."
Oh...okay so he's not completely homeless. " And during the week?"
" Well I'm crashing at friends places until I can find something more permanent."

I shake my head and go to open the door.

" Hey wait a sec...I've had some problems with her lately, she'll only open from the inside." He rushes around to the drivers side, gets in and reaches across the seat to open the door for me. " Okay, come on in!"

I stand there for a moment, trying hard to stifle a hysterical burst of laughter, and then climb into the car.

" Yeah the radio doesn't work either." I openly stare at him, having completely lost all of my sense of politeness. He has the sense to at least blush at this.

I mentally kick myself just in time for this to not get any worse. " Hey no big, that's what talking is for right??"

He smiles with intense relief and we head out of the parking lot. We were living in New Hampshire at the time, and anyone who lives there knows it takes at least 30 minutes to get anywhere. That's a long car ride with a guy you're just going on a pitty date with! With no radio as a distraction to boot!

It doesn't take us long to lapse into silence. I end up staring out the car window, listening to the miles pass underneath us, when all of the sudden...

" Hehehehe!"

I glance over at Skunky. He looks pretty normal...except for his slightly hunched forward posture, a slight hopping up and down in his seat, and what can only be expressed as a slightly crazy smile plastered on his face. I face forward now, a little on edge.

" Hehehehehehe."

This time I can't help but say something. " Umm...what are you doing?" Perhaps he's laughing at a joke in his head, and maybe he'll share this time...

" Oh!" He glances over at me, blushes a little more again, and the smiles one of the most genuine, radiant smiles I've ever seen in my life. " Sometimes, I get so happy that I can't contain it. So I laugh." To emphasize his words, he claps his hands together and then rubs them back and forth, like he's trying to warm them with the friction, then grabs quickly a hold of the steering wheel again.

I stare at him again. And can't help but smile. I know Skunky from work to be a bit hyper, and a little ...weird. But this was a whole new level of odd! " That's a little weird, Skunky."

He shrugs. " Yeah I know." He goes back to smiling out the windshield.

Surprisingly, this whole episode puts me at ease. I suddenly see Skunky in my mind as this weird little kid who needs to be protected. Later this thought process would cause a whole lot of pain for both of us....but right now it serves to make me relax.

We get to dinner, at a Chili's restaurant near the theater we're going to. Skunky flirts, quite expertly to my surprise, with our waitress, and it's mildly annoying. Watching him though, I convince myself he doesn't realize how charming he can actually be. We chat and laugh about Lord knows what, and then comes the moment I am convinced now, after several years, I actually fell in love with him.

I'm sipping my Sprite through my straw and he says to me " I never drink out of straws."

I look at him a little perplexed, wondering where he is going to take this. " No?"

" Yep."

Apparently he wants me to indulge him. And I'm a little curious. " Why not?"

" Because...can you imagine a manly man doing this?" He then proceeds to unwrap his straw and place it into his drink. He bends it meticulously at the bendy part, and then puckers his lips in the most exaggerated pucker I have ever seen, brings the straw up to his mouth, bats his eyelashes and takes a swig through the straw. He then puts his drink down and slumps down into a relaxed position in his chair, one arm slung over the back of the chair, and states simply. " Real men don't drink from straws."

I finally break out into the hysterical laughter that has just been boiling under the surface all night...so much so that people around us glance to see what was so funny. Skunky sits up straight, a look of supreme accomplishment on his face.

The rest of dinner went wonderful and the movie and drive home were great. He actually does end up driving me home afterward ( I don't remember why, but I'm fairly sure it has something to do with my brother taking my car!)

We end up talking about the church in my driveway. He knew I was Mormon, and was curious about the church, he's only met one other Mormon in his life. Of course being the "molly mormon" that I am I invited him to come on Sunday. He says sure, he'd be really interested to go. I'm fairly sure, though, that it's only because he wants to see me again. But hey...whatever gets him there!

until next time!

Something I did NOT expect...

2011-02-04T14:25:00.001-05:00

So I have a weird question.

I'm sure this happens more then I would even want to know...I mean obviously, I don't think you can be a military spouse without hearing all of the horror stories. But this actually hit me today in a way that it never has before. And I had like a mini panic attack this morning about it...

Do couples really split up after deployment??

I started thinking about this because one of the blogs I read somewhat infrequently announced that her and her newly returned from deployment husband ( it's been like 5 weeks) are splitting up. Basically the reasoning is...they've both changed too much during the deployment.

And that's the kicker that hit me into a tailspin for a few moments. OF COURSE you change during deployment! You're both experiencing different things and growing from them. But can you really change so much that the bond you had before deployment is severed?

I had to take a moment and re-evaluate Skunky's and my relationship for a minute. I feel like we prepared for "reintegration". We had conversations where we talked about what each of us is expecting might happen when he gets home. And that was just before deployment. Each time I have heard his sweet voice, each time we've been able to Skype, each sweet email since he has been gone has just been a reconfirmation of how much we really do love each other.

I am so thankful for my sister-in-law...we fight like cats and dogs sometimes, but she is the my go to girl when I need a sounding board. I told her I was freaking out about this, and she basically just said to me " Jen...are you kidding? You and Skunky are INSANE for each other ( I think we actully make her puke in her mouth sometimes ;)) Sure things are going to be different. You've been apart from each other for MONTHS! And yeah it'll be a little awkward at first, but then you will settle and life will be what you remember. STOP FREAKING OUT!"

I guess I just wasn't expecting this...nervousness. I've still got a decent amount of time before Skunky returns. But we're over the half-way point ( hopefully...Still got my eyes on Egypt) and on the downward slope. And what used to be extreme longing is turning into crazy " Holy crap, he's almost back!" nervousness!! Is this normal, people? :)

Anyway...so I've had another freak out moment. How do you deal when the crazy sharks start stirring in your head?

And PS- in case you were wondering, that awesome SIL is blogging about her new adventures in crazy Alaska!! She's a very entertaining read, check her out: Roughing it in Alaska

Craftin' around...

2011-02-03T10:48:00.000-05:00

Recently, Christina over at Married to a Sailor had this really interesting post titled " The best thing about my Husband being deployed." I was fascinated by her openness actually! And I really appreciated her positive attitude, her ability to find the bright side of a crappy situation. I thought to myself..." gee, I wish that I could remain that positive during deployment!" because honestly, I've had a pretty hard time ( at moments!) being able to see deployment as a good thing. Perhaps I can give myself a little bit of slack because this is my first one, and it's a learning curve. And I really do appreciate how hard Skunky is working to keep our family afloat. ( hehehe..cause we're Navy :) okay I'm done! ) And I know that he loves us and misses us terribly. Sometimes though...the separation really does just suck. And no amount of positive thinking can change that.

I have found something that helps A LOT though, to pass the time, to make myself feel good. And that is...crafting. Here are a few things I have made/finished this week:

A garment bag for my Temple dress. It folds up into a shoulder bag for easy transport. I'm super proud of this one because I didn't use a pattern AT ALL! I still have a few cute finishing touches ( like buttons) to add.

My brother's Christmas gift finished!

A "roll" holder for my knitting needles.

Around Christmas time I was a crazy, craftin' momma! My sister-in-law and I made this list:

9 crochet winter hats
1 crochet blanket ( same as my brother's above)
1 set of 3 pencil bags
1 large craft bag
1 large diaper bag
6 therapeutic rice packs
2 wallets
2 travel wallets
1 crochet Barbie dress

There is possibly more that I am not remembering right now. And granted...I have been at my parent's house, so all I've had to worry about are my kids and my crafts. ( no house work!! But don't get me wrong...they're A LOT of work! We're on our 2nd round of ear infections in 4 months! There must be something in the water here!)

I guess the point of all this is...yeah, I know my attitude is pretty crappy sometimes when it comes to deployment. I would hope that people would understand that it's really just coming from my desperate loneliness without Skunky. He is my whole world, and it's so much dimmer here without him. BUT...there are ways to get through it. Mine happens to be working my fingers to the bone. :) But I've acquired some new skills, and expanded talents I had previous to deployment. So, there is something positive to come out of all this. Once I open my eyes to find it!

Sunday Story Time- In the Beginning...:)

2011-01-30T11:26:00.002-05:00

Right before I stopped blogging The Annoyed Army Wife was starting a segment called " Sunday Story Time" and I thought it was a great idea! I have been "writing" since as long I as I can remember...journals, short stories, poems...blogging :)...I take a lot of personal enjoyment in putting my thoughts and dreams into printed words. I briefly looked over her site to see if she had continued this segment, and it seems that at least the last few Sundays she has not.I hope she doesn't mind me picking it up anyway!

I'm going to be somewhat predictable and start with a story about me and the Hubs. (And I'm unsatisfied with his alias so I think I'm gonna start calling him... Skunky. LOL and THAT has got a good story that I will save for another day!) I figure that starting with something basic, and a subject that most spouses find interesting, is safe. PLUS, most of you know only what I have posted on here in recent history...I'm the wife of a Submarine Sailor, we have two young children, and I am living through our first deployment. Ahhhhh...but where did it all begin? :)

I like to fancy myself with the idea that Skunky and I have one of those "epic" love stories. Which..it's epic to me and that's really all that matters. :) But it did take him almost 4 years to convince me I wanted to marry him! So just the time period is bound to add a little 'spice' into our love story!

The first time ever met Skunky, was at work. He was in his first year at the local college, and I was in the workings of going off to my school of choice on the other side of the country. We were both working at Wal-mart, me as CSM ( customer service manager) and he in Electronics. If you know anything about Skunky in real life, you'd know that this job was PERFECTLY suited to him. He's a pop culture junkie, and loves anything to do with music and movies. He's a slight nerd ( to any of you familiar with submarine life in the Navy, my husband is Nuc. Yes they are a special breed :)) though to look at him your first impression would to be that he is much more of a nerd then he is in reality. He's short ( 5'6") and skinny ( 130lbs....he was SO proud when he hit 150 after we got married. BUT...underways and deployment have taken their toll and he's back in the 130's again) and wears a pretty thick pair of glasses ( we have the exact same prescription!) Are you getting a good mental picture here? Add to all of that the fact that I'm positive he has ADHD ( though his mother never had the money to take him to a Dr. and get him diagnosed) and my first impressions of him were this small...really can't be described as anything but "squirrely" little...well boy at the time, and he really wasn't even a blip on my radar to say the least.

Technically I was his supervisor (but only because I handled any problems he had with his casher-register.) Strike one. And I knew he wasn't Mormon, because we had a small branch and my dad was Branch president. Strike two. Really...the poor guy had a lot to overcome in my mind before he was even aware that he might like me. Except for one thing...

The guy's personality is INFECTIOUS! You cannot help but like this man! He is giddy, and positive, and funny....your first impression of him is " man, this kid is a little weird" but after 10 minutes you are literally best friends! After a few months on the boat, I had a chief come up to me after an FRG meeting and ask " You're Skunky's wife?" "Yessss...?" " I have to tell you, your husband is literally the most well like guy on the boat. There isn't anyone I know of that dislikes him." Leave it to my husband to befriend 150 sailors in just the span of a few months. :)

Months went by before he actually got around to asking me out. I wouldn't find out until later that he had actually talked with one of his buddies ( who also happened to work at Wal-Mart) about me and this guy had in not so many words told him that I was out of his league! Boy have we had a good laugh about that now. :)

When he did finally get around to it though...is a memory I will always cherish.

It was morning before the store opened. I was at the podium organizing my cash for the day, getting my registers ready, and setting out the cashier schedule for the day. Every department that had a register and keys to any locked cases were required to come to me and get them before the start of their shift. I was used to seeing Skunky, and enjoyed his little chit-chat in the mornings when he would come to get his stuff.

I saw him zoom around the corner as usual ( he's a VERY fast walker) and pulled out his bag and keys and the clipboard for him to sign them out, and then went back to the task I was working on.

" Morning, Jenn."
" Hey, Skunky!"
" How ya doin'?
" Alright...hey it looks like we're gonna be a little short handed on cashiers today. You wouldn't mind coming up if I need you would you?"
" Yeah, sure, no problem. Hey uh,...I was wondering, do you want to go out sometime?"

Silence. I stopped writing and peered over the podium at him. He was, quite literally, only about 5 inches away from me. And he had stopped his normal fidgeting. He was standing stock still...he wasn't even blinking!

I felt the lump start in the pit of my stomach. Uuugh....I'm gonna have to break this kid's heart. I thought frantically for ways I could let him down softly, all the while he stood there, still, unblinking, the look of a man awaiting a death sentence. And I thought to myself...Jen, one date is not gonna hurt.

I stepped back...personal space was obviously and issue he had when he was nervous. " Um...sure, Skunky...that sounds like fun." I could hear the pitty in my own voice. I hoped that he couldn't...

Instant transformation. Big smile, exuding all of the pent up energy he had just boiling under the surface, bouncing from foot to foot again. " Great! Alright, I'll make a plan and get back to you!" he turned and zoomed back around the corner to his department, and I was left at the podium, wondering what I had just gotten myself into.

He got back to me at the end of the day, and we made a plan for our first date the following week. But that is a story for another Sunday. :) Anyone up for seeing some a video of, years later, what would be the product of this awkward asking out?

Stressed...

2011-01-29T01:15:00.001-05:00

You know what's stressful? This:

and knowing that I have a husband deployed in that region. Now granted....he is in the Navy. And on a Sub. It's not exactly his job to be on the front lines of something like this. But I would be a fool to think that the outcome of this turmoil in Egypt does not have a direct effect on my husband, and my life.

I think the waiting is the worst part. Watching the news to see how things pan out...waiting for any possible word from his boat if there is going to be one. Many of you may think it's pointless to even worry about it now...I'll know what and when I need to know. But this man is my life line...I can't live without him.

Please God...help those people in Egypt. Help those in power make the correct decisions to end the madness, to restore peace. And please...Please God...bring my husband home to me.

Fill-in Friday!

2011-01-28T10:38:00.000-05:00

I really enjoyed " Fill-in Friday" that Wife of a Sailor sponsors the last time I was blogging, so I thought I would pick it up again! Here are my answers to this week's questions

1.If you were a famous movie star, what types of movies would you star in?
Obviously…Romance. Not the super sexy ones….the softly painful ones like “ Pride and Prejudice”. I’m a sucker for romance ( what girl isn’t?!) and I think I could play that just as well as Kiera Knightly!

2.What is a vacation you would like to take if money were no object?
I’ve had a lot of time to think about this lately, because I’ve been wanting to take a vacation with the Hubs when he gets back from deployment. So I’ve been doing what any good little wife would do ( with a husband who is only slightly OCD)…research! Unfortunately, money is an object, so we’ve decided on a much smaller route. But if I could choose ANYWHERE…it would be the coast of Ireland. Because it so…lol romantic :)

3.Did you have pets growing up?
Yes. We had a dog, a little cocker spaniel named Buffy, and we loved him! He died when I was a junior in high school after being with us for 13 years. My husband and I look forward to having a house full of pets for our kids…someday :)

4.What do you do for exercise?
I really enjoy running. I used to do it a lot in college. It’s been a very long time though, since I’ve been married really…so I’m a little bit rusty. My family is doing a “Biggest Loser” this year though, and the game is on! My husband is a runner too…I daydream about us being able to run together…lol when we don’t have young children that need to be watched while the other one of us gets a little exercise :)

5.What is the best piece of advice you’ve ever received as a MilSpouse?
Hmmm…I’ve been given ( and frankly, have asked for!) a good amount of advice, particularly since the Hubs has been deployed. I really do think the best thing for a military spouse or S/O to do, at least who is dealing with deployment, it would be to find something worthwhile to occupy your time and your mind. Pick up a hobby, find a new job, volunteer for a cause, do something to keep you occupied, because when you are occupied the time goes faster, and it keeps your mind off yourself and how much you're missing you spouse. Not that you won’t ever feel sad or lonely. But at least those moments will be fewer, and easier to deal with when they come because you will feel like your life has continued, instead of being on pause waiting for him to come home.

until next time,

Thank you

2011-01-26T10:39:00.000-05:00

Well...hahaha....I got unexpected response to my "comeback" post. I really do appreciate any of those who chose to read my blog....both those who comment and those who don't. I hope I didn't sound as if I was ungrateful for my readers. I think anyone who chooses to write a blog appreciates ANY person ( be it close family, friend, or virtual stranger) who takes the time to read their thoughts in the world. I was just putting down in words the nervousness I feel when I go to publish a post, particularly on this blog. I'm not sure that nervousness will ever go away...but at least you know it's not enough to stop me from writing. Because...well if it was, I wouldn't be here. :)

Along with that though...I've put some thought into how I want to move forward with this. LOL...I'm not sure about any one else, but for me...blogging has been a part of my life off and on since I got married 3 1/2 years ago. My first blog was started strictly as a log for my family on my goings on, because of course, the military had taken me very far away from them. I was sporadic at best with that blog, but as the years went by I found other interests ( like crafting and fitness) that I wanted to put out there in world and pretty soon I had 4 different blogs on my dashboard, none which I kept up with as diligently as they deserved.

I think one of my sister-in-laws put it best. When she saw that I had updated my military blog, she showed some of the same reservations she had before. When I asked her to clarify, she said to me " Jen, it's not that I mind that you've updated your military blog. It's just that I wish you would update you family one too." And I think that really is the crux of the matter for me. I think I was trying to compartmentalize all of the different aspects of my life. But if there is anything I have learned during this deployment so far...it's that, it's alright to have limitations. AND I can be a mom and a crafter, a military wife and an author all at the same time.

I'm probably getting a little too introspective. :) In any case, I've decided to have one blog that can incorporate ALL the various aspects of my life. I think it'll be MUCH more enjoyable to write, and to read for that matter.

Any way, I really did want to thank you all for the show of support on my last post. I hope you all will continue reading, and enjoy what I know will be a crazy glimpse into my life as I grow and learn and hopefully become a better person. :)

until next time,

Hmmm...I wonder...

2011-01-25T01:25:00.000-05:00

Yes...it's been several months since I even looked at this blog. Actually....deployment in general has pretty much forced me off the internet except to get those emails from him, and occasionally Skype.

I decided to stop blogging because it was creating a family strife I didn't feel was worth it, especially considering my up coming circumstances. It was more important to me that I had my family support system in tact during this deployment, then it was for me to blog.

I decided to stop going on Facebook because I found that I was more mentally stressed attempting to "keep up" with everyone on there then I was if I just stayed away. So to save what was left of my personal sanity, that's what I did...stayed away.

I now find myself smack dab in the middle of deployment, and all the circumstances and reasons for my exile from the "social" parts of the internet are no longer valid. And I find my self wondering if I am actually ready to try this again.

Even as I write this, I feel that familiar dread that comes over me before I publish a post...particularly on this blog, which I started to connect with other military wives. What do I have to contribute to this already established close-knit group of women, who have "been there and done that" with any topic of military life I might choose to write about on here?

More over... that same family that caused me to abandon this adventure in blog-land before is still present and will most likely be reading these posts again. What am I risking by attempting to pick up where I left off?

Honestly...I can't answer any of these questions. And I know...neither can you :) So I guess that this is my first tentative step back into a social internet universe. And we'll see how it goes from here!

Wish me luck!

We're baaaaack!

2010-07-20T15:37:00.000-04:00

Well...we made it back! And I'm exhausted! Honestly, I sit here typing in my un-made bed, while the children are taking longer naps then usual, still in my pj's for goodness sake, thinking about the last six days and wondering how I'm going to put it all into a blog post! I figure since it's Tuesday, and I don't have a top ten for this week ( lack of preparation) then I'll review lasts weeks and see what I ACTUALLY DID accomplish during our leave...

1) Hours in the car- check! Actually we spent WAY more time in the car then I anticipated. I THOUGHT we were going to drive up to the Hubs mom's and spend the weekend at the clam festival. INSTEAD we hopped from friends house to estranged family members house the whole week, not spending a single night in the same place, often stopping by places for only long enough to get a glass of water, a diaper change, and a quick " good to see you before I deploy!" moment. Should have figured that was what this leave was about!
2) Pop-culture quizzes- check! On account of the BAZILLION hours we spent in the car!
3) Proud Daddy moments- check! Only three or four a day!
4) Lime Ricky- check! ( It's a carbonated lime-ade. Pretty good actually!)
5) Ferris Wheel- check! We actually were able to use the tickets we had kept from last year...how much does that rock! And it wasn't as nerve-racking for me this year...lol I guess I'm getting tougher. OR I was just to exhausted from wrangling kids to notice the heights!
6)Waking up next to the Hubs for 6 days- check! Actually I woke up before him with Piglet everyday and he slept in with Polyanna...but he was there, in the bed, actually next to me!
7)No house work- check!
8) Feeling like a civilian- 1/2 check....couldn't get away from deployment as a topic of conversation...made it hard to leave the reality of what our life is going to be like in not too much more time....
9) Being away from our military town- check!
10) Having extra hands to help with the kids- check!!! And the Hubs was GREAT at it. He's a good dad, and very attentive to the kids needs, for the most part. There was only one moment where he was having choosing-to-ignore-my-child's-obvious-need moment but then he snapped back into daddy-mode and all was well. :)

Alright....so 9 1/2 checks....not bad if I say so myself!! So now it's back to real life...un-packing from the trip, grocery shopping, getting the kids back into a normal routine. It's H.O.T. hot here, so we're hopefully gonna go get another small ac unit tonight to supplement our poor little unit upstairs that's working it's little engine off to cool down our house! And then begins the packing...

So I'm SUPER excited about a segment I'm planning on starting on Sunday's, courtesy of Annoyed Army Wife . She has this GREAT idea for Sunday Stories, and I can't wait to get in on it! It'll give me a chance to get some feed back on my more creative writing side, and I'm WAY looking forward to it. So you should join too!! She's starting it this coming Sunday ( July 25) so make your way over there an add your story to the mix!!!

until next time

Tuesday and then some...

2010-07-13T14:45:00.000-04:00

Alright! This week's top 10 is: Ten things I'm excited to do on leave this weekend!!

1) Spend HOURS in the car driving to our destination. No really...I AM excited about this. :) My mom always said that she loved long drives with my dad because it was the most concentrated time they got together...to talk, enjoy music together, just be in each others presence... and I couldn't agree more!
2) Be endlessly quizzed by the Hubs about songs and bands on the radio. My husband is a POP CULTURE JUNKIE!! Movies, music, books, it doesn't matter what it is, he is the best source of useless knowledge on the planet. And since we've been married, it's been his habit to quiz me on what I know about music when we're in the car. And honestly, there is nothing more satisfying then answering a question correctly that he didn't expect me to!
3) Seeing the Hubs proudly showing off our beautiful children to all his friends and family. Most of the people we will be seeing are my husbands friends and extended family. He's such a proud Daddy, it really is a pleasure for me to see how proud he is of the children we created together.
4) A Lime Ricky. Never had one, but the Hubs used to get one every year at the Clam festival when he was a kid. It'll be something fun to share. :)
5) Riding the Ferris wheel. Actually, I'm terrified of heights. But I enjoy being stranded high in the air with the Hubs holding me tight, snickering at how foolish I am. Pshhh, I know he enjoys it just as much as I do!
6) Waking up next to the Hubs for 6 consecutive days. It's the little things in life. :) Even in port he's got duty every 3 to 4 days, so I go to bed/wake up alone 2 or 3 times a week anyway.
7) Not having to worry about house work.
8) Actually feeling like a civilian for a couple of days. Even though technically I AM a civilian, as it's my husband who is in the Navy, there is very little of my life that isn't touched in some way by the military...
9) Being away from our military town for a couple of days. This goes hand in hand with # 8.
10) Having another set of hands to help with the kids for a couple of days. I LOVE my children, but...they're a lot of work. I'm SUPER looking forward to having someone there to fix Pollyanna's lunch while I feed Piglet, instead of having to let one or the other cry for a few minutes while I get their sibling set!

I know I know...mostly things about the Hubs. Really I'm just feeling the need to enjoy every minute I have with him this week, because it's not too much longer and we'll be thousands of miles away from each other, relying on spotty e-mails and infrequent internet access to stay connected to each other. So needless to say, I think it's gonna be silent around these parts for a few days, but I'll be back next week to give you the high lights....and maybe even have a few pictures if I'm on the ball!

Also...I really just wanted to thank everyone who commented on my last post, I appreciate you reading, and for those of you who don't comment...I appreciate you reading as well! Don't be shy forever though, I love hearing from all y'all!

And on another side note...I hit 20 followers yesterday and I'm stoked :) ( thank you Mis-Adventures!) Small I know...but even a little accomplishment needs to be celebrated! I'm thinking of perhaps holding a give-away to show my appreciation to all my readers when I hit 25 followers. Or perhaps 50....think I should hold out until I hit 50?? What would you do?

until next time,

I obviously needed to blog today...

2010-07-12T13:29:00.000-04:00

I started blogging about my crazy military life with the Hubs, because...well I needed an outlet! I needed a place where I could talk about all of my feelings ( most of them not so great) about being a basically single parent married to the military. But I also started blogging because I needed to feel a connection with other people who are going through what I'm going through...

Like with everything else ( I REALLY started to get this when I became a mom...) you never really understand a someone's situation unless you've experienced it yourself. And I needed to know that I wasn't crazy...that other women out there are going through the same thing and how in the world do they deal with it?!?

Mil-blogging has really afforded me a great opportunity to read about a lot of really great people from all walks of life. I feel really blessed that so many of you share your life and your stories, because it helps me keep mine in focus.

Anyway...this special moment has been brought to you because of this :

The Annoyed Army Wife has given me this award ( my first one!) and it really came on the most perfect day! I was just complaining to the Hubs last night how I kind of wish more people commented on my blog, and what kind of things does he think I should be writing about for people to be interested and read what I have to say? ( insert blank stare from my better half...I LOVE the man the death, but blogging isn't quite on his radar right now :)) So during my daily nap-time blog reading, I went to catch up with her blog to find this post, and I was touched. Nothing like blog awards to make you feel like snapping yourself out of the pitty party your having and be grateful that at least ONE person who isn't related to you is actually reading your thoughts and caring! ( Which isn't completely true, A Marine's Wife @ FlipFlops and Combat Boots commented on my last entry, and I totally appreciated it! I didn't enter the giveaway though...I'm kind of weird and feel like if I enter too many of those babies then I'm just in this for the prizes ( totally not why I do this), and since I recently just won a new header...you get where I'm going with that:))

ANYWAY ( woooo, this is turning out to be a longer post then I planned!) Thank you, Annoyed Army Wife, bet you didn't realize you were gonna make some poor Navy wife's day, did ya? :)

Here are the rest of the award rules: The rules for this award are simple. I have to thank the awesome person who gave it to you (check!), list 3 things I love about myself ( one moment please), and pass it along to 5 other people. ( that's going to be tough...)

3 things I love about myself...mmmmmm....

1) I've always been able to kind of look at something I want to do and then just...do it. Be it a craft project, or a certain skill I want to learn. I've never really been afraid of failure. I guess I can thank my parent's for that :)
2) I'm a good listener. ( HAHA....kind of hard to know that when on here all I write about it ME. But seriously....I am :))
3) I'm loyal. I think loyalty is something hard to come by these days, when it's easy to change your mind about pretty much anything, and people just kind of accept it. If you're a friend or love one, I've got your back. And you can always count on that.

Alright....five to pass this along to. This is tough for me because I have A LOT of blogs I try to read...and it's rare I can get to them all in one sitting. But here they are...

1) K @ Our Navy Nest
2) Wifey @ Wife of A Sailor
3) Sespi @ And You Never Did Think
4) Bonnie @ The "Sometimes Single" Mom
5) Just Anchored @ The Life Of An ET's Wife

Thanks so much for reading, y'all!! And don't forget to leave some love!

until next time,

On a need to know basis...

2010-07-10T10:37:00.000-04:00

So the Hubs FINALLY made it home Wednesday night...YAAAAAAAAAY! Wednesday was a bit of a stressfull day for me actually... most of my own making, but still. :)

So far this command has been pretty good at getting us information about when the boat comes in so I've been able to go down and watch the boat come down the river and make myself feel better, as well it allows me time to get myself in order mentally and physically for our reunion. But, also...it's not uncommon for this command to not notify us a change was made during and underway that would keep them from coming in on schedule...really it's been just like anything in this military life of mine, and I need to constantly remind myself that NOTHING is predictable, and to expect things to be changed from what I was told.

So when I heard nothing on Tuesday about the boat coming in, I assumed that for whatever reason it wasn't coming in on time and to not expect them until probably Thursday. Of course that put me in a funk all day Wednesday....lol who am I kidding, I was P.O.ed!! And I got more and more mad as the day progressed and I still hadn't heard anything about the boat coming in.

Well bedtime for the munchkins rolled around, I got Pollyanna all settled, and went to get Piglet out of his crib ( he plays there with his mobile while I get his sister in bed) and his crib is right by a window that has a view up the street to a house where another family from our boat lives. And I happened to glance out the window just as that family was all getting into their car to go out somewhere...including their Sailor.

I stopped dead in my tracks as my heart skipped a beat. I thought back over the last 30 days...did he just not go with with boat and I missed it?? I was pretty sure I hadn't seen him the whole time, and his truck had been parked in the same place it's usually parked when they go on underways....so why was he home and I hadn't heard anything from the Hubs yet?!?!

I took a moment to compose myself, and then made a decision to call one of the only other wives I know on the boat. I would have called the FRG or ombudsman, but unfortunately, both are somewhat unreliable, so I try to use those as a last resort. Their son answered the phone and told me that she was unavilable at the moment, so he took a message for me and we hung up. 'Of course she's unavailable!' I thought to myself.' The freaking boat is home, and everyone has heard from their husbands except me!'

As I was standing their debating my next move, honestly... trying to fight back tears, my phone rings. It's the Hubs, and he wants me to come pick him up.

Well I did, and after a frustrated rant about how SOME ONE should have informed me that the boat was in, and why the heck didn't he take 5 minutes (like he usually does) to call and let me know the boat was in, why the HECK did I have to figure it out by SPYING on my neighbors for goodness sake!...we got home, settled down, and were able to enjoy an evening and the full next day of blissful reunion.

So now we have several weeks together ( including some leave next week which I am STOKED for!!) before the crazy pre-deployment work-up starts. Awesome.

until next time,

My most embarrassing moment?!

2010-07-09T10:17:00.000-04:00

I TOTALLY had this post all written yesterday, so in my limited time today all I would have to do was publish it and that way free up time to work on another blog I contribute to, but when I went to find the draft this morning...gone, extinct...not even there! ( guess now I've learned to back-up my posts!) Mildly frustrating since I tend to write a book every time I blog! I'll do my best though, to recreate my fabulous post in the limited time I have this morning!

What is your favorite household chore? I really enjoy general household straightening. It used to be laundry, but with my growing family there is too much of it now for me to enjoy it anymore. But vacuuming, picking up toys, making beds, sweeping...I really enjoy all of that now.
What is your favorite childhood memory? I have a lot, but one of my favorites is a valentines day when me and my younger came home from school to find special cookies made for us out of cookie-molds that my mom NEVER used, really only kept them for decoration. ( They were these complicated Raggedy Anne and Andy molds that were so cute!) She had decorated them and everything, and I felt really special for my Mom to have made them for us. :)
What is your most embarrassing moment? Ha...one of my more embarrassing moments happened shortly after I had gotten married. The Hubs and I were just hanging out at our new place with one of his friends from A-School, laughing a joking, having a good time. My husband had gone to the back of the house to get something and our friend said something that made me laugh so hard I farted! At this point I hadn't even been brave enough to fart in front of the Hubs yet, and when our friend laughed out loud and called down the hall to tattle on me, my husband rushed down the hall, face all disappointed, " Are you serious?!" Farts are funny, the Hubs always says ( we can't help but laughed at Pollyanna when she does it...lol hopefully one of these days I'll get around to teaching her some manners!) and he was sad he missed my very first one married to him. Talk about embarrassing! :)
What uniform of your spouse’s is your favorite? Alright...he says that it depends on whether you're talking comfort or looks. For comfort it's a toss up between the dress whites and the poopy suit. The poopy suit is really very comfortable (understandably) but you only wear it underway, so that's one strike against it. As far as for looks, hands down the dress blues. And I completely agree...there is nothing more handsome then my Sailor dressed in his dress blues!
What canceled TV show do you miss the most? I really wish that My So Called Life had gone a few more seasons. I really identified with that show as a teen, and was sorry that it didn't last long.

Until next time,

Top 10 Tuesday

2010-07-06T04:39:00.000-04:00

Ha...I want to post more but I find myself at a slight lack of things to post sometimes! Not that my life isn't totally crazy and hectic....cause it is :)

No need to bring that to the bloggy world just yet, I mean we are just getting to know each other! :)

So I guess I'm planning on following a structure on certain days ( like Tuesdays and Fridays)so that I can at least get two posts in a week...and probably 3 because there is always at least one subject I want to rant about on any given week!

Today is "Top Ten Tuesday" and my top ten for the week is this: ten things I PRAY I can get accomplished before the Hubs is deployed!

1. His care package. I'm not really certain how care packages work for a deployment on a sub, but from what I've heard and can understand, sending one out each month is pretty fruitless because you never know when or where a Sub is going to be in port to get their mail. It may be months before they're able to track it down...so, I've decided I want to put a package together he can take with him that's got something special he can open each month to let him know we miss him and are always thinking of him. I've got some great idea's...it's now all about finding the time...
2. Getting our stuff packed and moved into storage. We're moving in with my parents for deployment, cause I have no desire to be with 2 children 2 and under halfway across the country with no support system. NO THANK YOU!! So we'll be moving out of military housing and into storage...
3.Fix our piece of crap POA. I've had slight drama with my POA this underway, you can read about it here. Hopefully my husband can get the time off so we can go correct this issue before he leaves...
4. Get a different cell phone. I actually just 'upgraded' to the Env Touch like 3 months ago, which I thought was going to be an awesome phone...and it's not. It constantly has problems like shutting off for no reason, the touch screen often goes blank or doesn't work, it drops call all the time, particularly if I'm holding it between my ear and shoulder while I chase after my toddler (even after having the software updated!)...seriously I'd go back to my dinosaur of a cell phone any day then deal with the stress of this one. I'd LOVE Verizon if they could at least refund the money we paid for this piece of junk...
5. Potty train Pollyanna. This I'm not sure is a realistic goal, we've only got a few months before we move out with my parents and even though I think she is showing signs of being ready, there is going to be a lot going on and I'm not sure that I will be able to give it the attention I know it's going to need. What do you think? Should I go for it??
6. Have Piglet on a nap schedule...finally! I guess I can't complain much, the boy does sleep from 830 at night to anywhere between 430 and 630 am...better a baby who sleeps at night then during the day right??
7. Have at least ONE date night with the Hubs before he leaves. This so SO much harder to accomplish with young children then one might think...
8. Trade in our dinky Matrix for an Oddessy. Hopefully this will happen this month, not that the Matrix doesn't hold me and the kids just fine for now, we know that we want more kids, so it only makes sense to trade in now while the Matrix still is worth something. Plus...driving across country with 2 kids in that car??? That's crazy talk!
9. Finish Pollyanna's quiet book. I'm making a quiet book for the girl, so we can hopefully make it through church without a major temper tantrum. I'm uber ambitious with it though...I've only got 2 1/2 pages out of 24 completed. They don't take long to make, but I want it to be really cute and durable so it can last through several children. I really would like to have it done before we move in with my parents and I have to worry about my child terrorizing a whole new Ward...
10. Actually make it to the rest of the book club meetings before I move. I was kind of absent from my book club for a couple of months at the end of Piglets pregnancy, but there are several other wives from our boat that go, and I really like them a lot and would like to have a connection with them before I move. PLUS, they usually choose great books, and to actually read again on a regular basis would be heaven!

Well there you have it...weird to put it all down in a list like that. I had no idea I wanted to accomplish so much...I think I must be crazy! :)

until next time,

4th Fun!

2010-07-04T12:33:00.000-04:00

Happy 4th of July Everyone!!

I think that we all, as military spouses and S/O's, can take a certain pride on this particular day as we celebrate the Independence of our wonderful country. My husband is out to sea right now, and while I have a fervent wish in a deep corner of my heart that he could be here with us, that we could do normal things that other families are doing today....cook-outs, sand and sun, and fireworks, I don't regret the sacrifices that we are making to help 'Freedom Ring' in this wonderful country of ours. I pray that we as a country can continue to be grateful, and not take for granted, the wonderful freedoms we are allowed every day.

I wanted to find a fun thing to post to celebrate the day, and I stumbled across this poem, and thought it was great:

The American Boy

By Author Unknown

SON:
Father, look up, and see that flag!
How gracefully it flies!
Those pretty stripes, they seem to be
A rainbow in the skies.

FATHER:
It is your country's flag, my boy,
And proudly drinks the light,
O'er ocean's wave, in foreign climes,
A symbol of our might.

SON:
Father, what fearful noise is that,
Now thundering in the clouds?
Why do they, cheering, wave their hat,
And rush along in crowds?

FATHER:
It is the voice of cannonry,
The glad shouts of the free;
This is a day of memory,
'Tis FREEDOM'S JUBILEE!

SON:
I wish that I was now a man,
I'd free my country too,
And cheer as loudly as the rest;
But, father, why don't you?

FATHER:
I'm getting old and weak; but still
My heart is big with joy;
I've witnessed many a day like this,
Shout you aloud, my boy!

SON:
HURRAH, FOR FREEDOM'S JUBILEE,
God bless our native land!
And may I live to hold the boon
Of freedom in my hand.

FATHER:
Well done, my boy, grow up, and love
The land that gave you birth,—
A land where Freedom loves to dwell,—

A paradise on earth.

I love the last stanza, and really just wanted to share with you all my love for the USA.

(Incidentally, even though the Hubs is gone, we are doing fun things today like going to the beach with my Aunt and cousin's who are in town. And I couldn't help but dress my kids in red, white, and blue!! Now if only I had something patriotic to wear...!)

Until next time!

Awesome new header!!

2010-07-04T10:00:00.000-04:00

Mrs. Gambizzle @ Life As A Sailor's Girl finished my new header and doesn't it look GREAT??
Can you believe she actually HAND DREW the whole thing?!?! (except for the pictures, of course :))
AMAZING!!!

Thanks so much, Mrs. Gambizzle, I LOVE it!!

until next time,

Participation is Great!

2010-07-01T22:29:00.000-04:00

I thought I would try to start being a little bit more pro-active in the Mil-Spouse blogging community, and do a little bit more to have some posts on here where I'm not complaining. :) Anyway, Wife of a Sailor is holding a "fill-in Friday" and I thought I'd join in. Here are the questions and my answers:

Tell us about your dream job… one that you could do regardless of pay. I think I'm already doing my dream job...despite the fact that my kids drive me crazy at moments, I've always wanted to be a wife and mother....since I was little. It wasn't until I got into high school and felt that it was expected of me to have ambitions other than that that I started to look into other "careers" that I would be interested in. I also do have a slight desire to write a novel someday. Writing a book is WAY different then blogging, but at least blogging allows me to get my writer's itch scratched!
What is your most prized material possession (kids and pets don’t count!)? This is kind of sad...I'm a very active Latter Day Saint ( or Mormon) so I should say " my scriptures". But in reality I have several sets, and I know I could get more if they were lost. So really, the possession that I have that means the most to me is my engagement ring. It's BEAUTIFUL first of all, and is something I want to save to pass down to my children or grandchildren. Also...it's a little piece of my husband I wear on me every day. It's my connection to him, and I wear it proudly. I think I'd die if I ever lost it...
What has been your favorite duty station and why? I miss South Carolina a lot...for several reason. I miss being in school versus sea duty :) I miss the great beaches, I miss historical downtown Charleston. Plus...I got married there, got pregnant and had my first child there...I'm pretty emotionally attached to South Carolina. But we're only on our second duty station so...I don't really have much to compare it to!
What is your least favorite household chore? I HATE the dishes. My husband and I actually promised each other when we got married that he would always do the dishes and I would always do the laundry, the chore he hates. :) It hasn't worked out that way yet...I do dishes and he does laundry because we're often apart from each other (duh!) Maybe someday we'll be able to keep that promise to each other!
If you could give one piece of advice to a teenager today (not specifically a MilTeen), what would it be? I think I would tell them to be brave and go outside of their comfort zone more. I was surprised after I graduated how much of LIFE went on around me that I never really paid attention to in high school! You're so self-centered at a teen...I think if I could have broken out of that frame of mind I probably would have enjoyed life a little bit more as a teenager. :)

until next time,

HOLY SMOKES!

2010-07-01T21:55:00.000-04:00

I'm SUPER excited!!!!!

For the first time EVER I've actually won something in a give away!

Mrs. Gambizzle @ Life as a Sailor's Girl is going to make me a custom header, and I'm stoked cause she's very talented!!

SO....YAY! Stop by her blog and give her some love cause she's great! And I can't wait to see what she has in store for me!

until next time!

Blog Makeover!!

2010-06-29T10:11:00.001-04:00

Mrs. Gambizzle over at Life As A Sailor's Girl is hosting a give away of a free blog makeover, and BOY have I felt like I've needed one! I dabble in blog design ( I work with Paint.net and get free [and sometimes pay for!] scrapbooking elements from off the internet) but I seriously have had a MAJOR design block since...well since Piglet was born at the least! And you know how it is to blog on a page you're unhappy with? I mean...you go there and write, and I don't know about the rest of you, but if my space is off I get really freaking spacey in my writing! So then I'm unhappy with my posts and the blog itself....really it's a vicious cycle!

Anyway....here's to hoping I win!! Maybe I can work out some arrangement with her if I don't...::wink wink:: :) You all should go visit her blog if you haven't! Not only is she a SUPER cute blog designer, but she's a great read!

Also...if you head over there from my blog, leave a comment on her giveaway post and score me another entry!!

until next time!

Switching things up...

2010-06-29T06:50:00.000-04:00

I hated my last template....so I'm cheating and using a free one until my creative juices start flowing again...

until next time

Port Calls are hard....

2010-06-28T12:14:00.000-04:00

Man I'm a baby...even as I write this I feel a sense of being ashamed of myself. The Hubs had a port call this weekend, and it was so WONDERFUL to be in semi-constant contact with him for a solid three days. The only thing that could have made it better would have been if he was here, at home with me.

I always have a weird reaction to port calls. I LOVE talking to him, and I love the fact that it usually means the bulk of an underway is behind us. But I always get the same depressed feeling after he leave the port and goes back under the sea again, limiting our contact to infrequent e-mails once more. It's almost as bad as when he leaves after being home for a while. It scares me actually for deployment....the emotional up and downs of going from frequent contact to none, they are really....really hard.

The worst part is that....I KNOW that I'm being a whiner and should be grateful that I even get contact with him. I watched 20/20 last night and one of their stories was about a platoon in Afghanistan that took heavy casualties about a year ago. 9 soldiers didn't come home from that deployment. And I read a blog of a poor woman who has lost her husband just this last year. It breaks my heart to read about her personal suffering. They have a 7 month old daughter that her husband never got to meet. I hear about these stories, and seriously...I can't help but think ' that could be you, Jen.'

But it isn't. My husband is alive and well. And yes we spend a TON of time apart, but that's what you expect in the military. So even KNOWING that my life isn't that bad, and I have a TON to be grateful for...I still can't fight the loneliness sometimes.

I'm getting more and more nervous for deployment by the day. We have so little time left...what am I going to do with myself while he is gone?? I mean....I have plans. I'm going to go live with my parents....my children are young, and there is nothing that ties me here. Why stay half a continent away from people who love me and want to support me and my children while my husband is away? But I mean....the day to day struggling is what I worry about. Even being around my Mommy and Daddy isn't going to take away the pain that comes when half of my self is gone with him. I have really good days. But...most days are just okay. And some days are awful.

Today is an awful day.

until next time

You know you're a submarine wife if...

2010-06-26T17:22:00.000-04:00

Well, we've made it past the halfway point of this underway, and the boat pulled into a port this weekend so I've had the opportunity to talk to the Hubs several times on the phone, and I have to say, it's been a relief just to hear his voice!!

I'll admit I was a little frustrated with him the first time that he called...he was distracted because of trying to get a room at the Navy Lodge and having gotten some time off the boat for the first time in two weeks. And my husband has the attention span of a two-year old and can only focus on one thing at a time. On top of that he really prefers talking about certain things in private when we talk on the phone, which I TOTALLY understand...I was just having one of those moments where I wanted to say to him " Honey, I've had one hell of a two week period here, and if you can't talk then you shouldn't have called!!" Which is totally bullcrap, I would have been really disappointed if he hadn't called until hours after he'd been in port. :) I just missed him and really wanted his attention...I'm needy, it's true.

And seriously....it had been crazy for me since he's been gone. I mean...obviously, two kids are more work then one but...it's like with anything else about being a parent, you really DON'T know, until you've experiences it yourself! My sister jokes around about Piglet being a "walking pharmacy" and seriously, with all the issues he's had in the last two weeks, it really feels like it! On top of that, we're trying to work out some major issues that need to be taken care of before deployment, and there is only so much time before he's gone and it doesn't feel like we're going to be able to fit everything in!

I've been following this group on facebook called "Submarine Wives" and they've had this running joke they keep posting of " you know you're a submarine wife if..." and a couple have really struck a cord with me;

YOU KNOW YOU'RE A SUBMARINERS WIFE IF:

* You've stayed awake during the mid watch to talk to your husband on
the phone. ( I'm doing this one tonight as a matter of fact! :) )

* You have told a creditor "No, really, I don't have power of attorney because he had to work every day until O dark thirty for 6 weeks prior to this deployment but if you want your money you better tell me what the problem is".

I dealt with the second one this underway actually. Well not that scenario in particular, but the horrible realization that the POA we have is pretty much worthless...I can't even change internet carriers with it. So number one priority when he gets back?? Get a better fricking POA!!

Anyway...so that's my military life in a nutshell lately. Don't worry...there'll be plenty more drama where that came from!

Until next time,

Side effects

2010-06-19T23:45:00.001-04:00

So my blog design for this page is still really bothering me. I don't know if its perhaps the two column thing I have going, or the super scrap-bookie header...I'm not sure, but I don't feel settled here yet. It's driving me crazy actually....

Another thing...not having time to write until mid-night, but knowing I can't spend a lot of time writing because I'll be completely exhausted when I get up in the morning and have to plug along all day taking care of my darling, but exhausting, kiddos.

Worse yet....staying up knowing that when I finally do decided to try and go to sleep, I'll at most be able to get 3 hours in a row before I wake up for some unknown reason, and then it takes me a solid hour to work myself back into a sleepy state. Insomnia is not a side affect I expected to have being married to the Navy.

Amazingly enough though...life continues to go on. :) Did I mention that we watched the Hub's boat leave this time? I've watched the boat come in several times...there is such a relief for me to see it and know that we are in the same town again, even if it's hours before I can actually talk to or see him. Watching the boat leave...well obviously a completely different effect. I decided to do it because my Mom was in town, and she hadn't seen the boat yet and I thought she would enjoy it. And she did...but I must say it's not something that I will want to do again. It was heartbreaking watching it leave. Oh, me and Pollyanna waved and blew kisses at the boat, and I tried to make it as pleasant and upbeat as possible but....the further towards the horizon the boat traveled, the lower my heart sank.

I think I can now be satisfied with a quick kiss through the car window in the wee hours of the morning, and allowing myself to cry on the ride home, so that I can buck myself up once I step through the door and assume my role of temporary single parent.

Here's a pic of me and Pollyanna saying goodbye to Daddy...

until next time,

Tough Week

2010-06-18T20:59:00.000-04:00

Oh goodness...

I wanted to update over a week ago, but every time that I sat down to write it didn't sound right to me, or my toddler was having some crisis that needed my attention, or the baby needed to be fed...the list went on , and then my mom left to go back to her home with the only working internet in my house at the time ( our personal internet had been out for almost 2 weeks, but she brought her nifty Verizon Mobile internet device so I didn't worry about it.) so then I had a week of waiting around for the ATT people to get out here and fix the phone line...anyway, we got it fixed two days ago, and of course its only now that I have found time to sit down and update...go figure :)

This week has felt like the longest week of my life. The Hubs left for an underway a week ago yesterday, and it was pretty darn hard to let him go. I'm getting so nervous for deployment...it's funny, I finally got around to reading the FRG newsletter last week and there was a letter from our Captain and he made a comment about how it may seem a bit early to be talking about it, but we're getting ready for deployment so he'll be at the next FRG meeting to talk some stuff over. And I thought to my self....early to talk about deployment? It's only about four months away! And a little less than 3 of those months are going to be spent underway anyway!

On top of the Hubs leaving, my family who had been visiting took off last Sunday. So this week has been me and the two yahoos by myself. And it's been trying...we've all been sick with some nasty cold, as well as Polyanna having a persistent ear infection, and Piglet dealing with reflux...not pleasant at all. I had a moment this week at the Naval Health Clinic, after dealing with a fussy baby the last two days I called the Dr. to get him in, and I was there with my active toddler and a screaming baby, I hadn't showered for 3 days, had gotten about 10 hours sleep in a 48 hour period, and by the way that people were looking at me, and the fact that two VERY kind people offered to help me in some way, I knew I was THAT woman.

You know...the woman you see somewhere in public, hands full of contrary children, so obviously worn down to the end of her rope, you're pretty sure she might just break down into tears if some one doesn't step in fast? Yes...I was that woman.

And of course, even after all of that, I was still insane enough to go with a friend to this man-made lake on base and attempt to keep my almost two-year-old from drowning herself while holding my 8 week old in my arms, cursing myself for not putting sunscreen on him and praying that his fair skin doesn't crisp in a matter of minutes like his fathers does.

And the SILLIEST thing is, that's the whole reason I went to the lake today! Because I knew how much the Hubs LOVES to go there, and I wanted to be able to write to him and tell him about our fun day at the lake, and how we can't wait until he gets home so we can all go together!

I will never do that alone again.

At least I've learned my limits. :)

In any case...lol you've probably figured by now that I've had a tough week. Sorry to vent about it. :) I promise my next post will be about something WAY more chipper!

until next time,

A few orders of business...( family and real-life friends, please read to the end!)

2010-06-07T10:28:00.000-04:00

I know....it's been almost two weeks since my last entry! Things have been hectic here, my husband came home and then my family came in, and oh with the craziness of having four children 4 and under in the same house!! ( If you'd like to hear about some of our adventures, check out my sister's blog here, as she's much better at remembering and writing down silly things that happen with kids than I am at this point! She's also going to post any pictures that have been taken of our kids while she was here, with her amazing photography skills, so if any of you are interested check her out!!)

It's been a really good visit and I'm going to be sad when everyone leaves....and I mean everyone, including the Hubs. :/ He's going for a longish underway this time and I am NOT looking forward to it. I'm already feeling the clump in my stomach about being left alone. And you know that feeling you get sometime when you've broken out of your routine and you just feel....off? :: Sigh:: I know I'll be fine...it just always an adjustment. :)

Is there anything else new to report? I have to admit that at this point I'm still kind of reeling from the visit...a lot happened. Oh! My sister helped me come up with new internet safe nicknames for my kids! So Crazy Girl is going to be know as Pollyanna from here on out, and Duder is going to be known as Piglet from here on out. Pollyanna came from the movie, because my sister says she looks just like her, although I'm taking her word for it because I've never seen it! And Piglet, because my son is such a little piggy!! I can't believe he's been taking 6 oz of breastmilk since we checked (via breastpump, and boy has that been a blog worthy experience that will have to wait for a later date!) at 4 weeks old! AND he can already roll himself over from stomach to back, the first time we saw that was 5 weeks! WAY sooner than my daughter did!

Oh, and one last item of business; I'm starting a private family blog so that I can post more pictures of my kids for family and friends. It has been brought to my attention that with the new direction of my blog I don't give them enough face time to satisfy my family, and thinking it over, I've decided to keep this blog about my feelings on military life and start a whole new one where I can feel comfortable posting more pictures of my kids. Anyway...so if you're reading this and are a friend or family member who has known me past my mil-blogging days, please leave your e-mail address as a comment on this post so I add you to my family blog!

until next time,

He's Home Again!

2010-05-21T08:13:00.001-04:00

Well I made it! I made it through my first underway with two kids!! It was only a little one-weeker, and I actually think it went pretty smoothly. I wasn't NEARLY as emotional as I had been all of Duder's pregnancy. It did drag a little bit more then I was expecting it to with the added chores a newborn brings, and I definitely was feeling it the last couple of days...mostly just tired and lonely. Not "kill myself" lonely....more like "angry that you're gone" lonely. At least I can function decently through the anger :)

It's funny though... I'm reminded of a post I read here not too long ago about looking forward to a homecoming. I think, especially for Navy wifes, this applies for all of the underways, whether it be an actual deployment or not. I totally spent the last two days of the underway dreaming about how our meeting would be. We were actually hoping he would have duty the day that they got in, so that would allow him to have the weekend off, as my parents and sister and her kids are coming in this weekend ( As it is he has duty today so... he still gets saturday and sunday so...yay! even though he only got to come home for a few hours and then return to the boat for another 24 hours ::sigh::) . So I saw myself dropping the kids off at a babysitter while I went down to the pier and hugged and kissed my beloved one, and then we spent and hour to and hour and 1/2 catching up and making out on the pier somewhere dark and secluded behind some random large piece of machinery that I have no idea what it's used for. :)

Want to know how it actually happened? I spent the day helping a friend who had an emergency and needed a little support. We didn't get home until and hour before Crazy Girl's bedtime, and I still hadn't heard a word from the Hubs as to whether or not they had actually made it into port. And I DESPERATELY needed to hear something from him at this point because of the emotionally draining day that I had had. So we got home, my oldest decided to spill an entire bottle of water over herself and my couch, while the baby screamed in his car seat to bed fed. So I did a quick clean up of the couch and stripped Crazy Girl down to her diaper, put on a movie to keep her occupied, and then settled down to feed Duder. We made it through the feeding just in time to get a knock at the door from a magazine salesman AWESOME! :/I have a hard time saying no to those guys without atleast hearing their story, so there I was, standing at my door trying to burb a baby with my naked toddler running around crazy in the background or tryin to escape out the semi-open front door when the Hubs drives up! He clamors out of his car, seabag on his back, COVERED in dirt and grime and Crazy Girl goes BALLISTIC to see him! She escapes out the front door in nothing but her diaper and runs across the yard and practically into the street to see her dad. Of course, the Hubs has this weird aversion to picking her up while he's all dirty from work, so she hugs his legs and asked to be picked up, which he refuses, and she then proceeds to have a full blow tantrum right there on the grass. At this point, Duder is crying cause he can't bring up the burp we've been working on this whole time and he's uncomfortable, and the poor magazine guy is STILL trying to get his plug in. I pass the magazine guy over to the Hubs, while I attempt to get Crazy girl back in the house to finish her tantrum. The Hubs makes quick work of dismissing magazine guy ( THANK THE LORD) and steps into the door to do damage control with the kids. He STILL wont pick Crazy Girl up until he's atleast attempted to clean up a little, so he scoots into the small downstairs bathroom to atleast wash his hands and face. Crazy Girl follows, and gets quickly distracted by the toilet water, which insites a stern yell out of the Hubs to not play with that, which in turn starts ANOTHER tantrum, because the first thing Daddy does after coming home in over a week is yell at her. ::SIGH::

Needless to say, it took and ENTIRE HOUR to get the kids calmed down and in bed before a sense of semi-peace settled over the house and the Hubs and I could actually look at eachother and say " Hi! I'm gad to see you!"

I wonder if this will be one of those times that we look back on years from now, and say " Remember the time when you came home from an underway and all hell broke lose?" I certianly hope so. :)

Until next time,

Peel and Stick...lame? Or not?

2010-05-19T19:23:00.000-04:00

Alright...so I've decided that one of the coolest things I've found for home decorating come from this company:

Now I know what you're thinking...peel and stick? REALLY? Could you be more....cheesy? But really, these little babies have allowed me to have cute nurseries for my kids, WITHOUT all the pain and anguish that comes from painting walls in a RENTED apartment.

We live in military housing, and sure...I could paint if I wanted. And that is...IF I wanted to paint the walls back to the original color when we move out in 3 or 4 years. And that's just not me....I don't change things KNOWING it's gonna have to be changed back to the state I found it in. That just seems kind of...pointless to me.

So when my daughter was born I bought these at Walmart:

And her nursery looked like this:

Cheery, happy, and cute!( As a side note, I made her crib bedding, so if you know anyone looking for cute homemade crib bedding, send them my way!!)

For my son, I recently ordered these off line:

And this is a little taste of his nursery:

(Sorry the picture is dark...I'll get a few better ones up once all of his wall decorations are done, but hopefully you get the idea :))

So all I'm saying is, if you feel in a bind about decorating walls in your rented apartment, don't hesitate to get some stickers and decorate away!! Best 14 dollars I EVER spent!

until next time,

Random Ramblings Blog Hop

2010-05-19T08:32:00.001-04:00

Hi Y'all! I'm super excited to join Random Ramblings Blog Hop! I actually missed Riding the Roller Coasters, so to get another chance to participate in one is great! If you are interested in joining go here: ( But it's only open until tomorrow night so you'd better act fast!)

So...a short bio:

I'm a Navy Wife in my late twenties and my husband and I have been married for just under 3 years, and we've been in the Navy for the entire time. I'm a SAHM and we have two BEAUTIFUL children, a 20 month old daughter who keeps me on my toes, and a one-month old son we just love having around! I've been keeping a blog since I got married to keep my long distance family updated on my life, but have recently dived into the world of mil-spouse blogging, and it has been a real treat for me to read about so many of these womens experiences with being a military spouse. I LOVE to craft and DIY, and actually have a crafting blog that isn't public yet, because my mom and my sister and I are planning on opening a small business within the next year so the blog is still under construction. I promise to update on this blog when I do a cool craft and I can't help but share with all my mil-spouse friends! We're Latter Day Saint, or Mormon if you are more familiar with that term, and my faith is the ONE thing that gets me through the long lonely nights without my husband! I love to read, though finding time for that is a challenege, and I LOVE to blog, though finding time for that is also something I have to work to find! I hope you will stop by often, and I look forward to getting to know you as well!

until next time,

The Navy Wife

2010-05-17T14:15:00.000-04:00

Holy two blog re-vamps in one week! Granted...I know they look similar, I really liked the first one I had going, but with the change of my blog title I needed a new header and from there a new color scheme. I'm still not COMPLETELY satisfied with this header sooooo...I'll probably change it again in the very near future, but at least this one gets the new title out there so I feel like I can start posting again. :)

I wanted to thank KK, Amber, and Stacie for the new title ideas!! You guys really helped me get my creative juices flowing, and I REALLY appreciate it!! Coming up with a blog title that is interesting and you hope somehow draws people in is some hard business! But now I know who to go to when I need a little help! Thanks again girls!

So...I was searching through military blogs again ( no shocker there! :)) and I can't remember the name of the blog, so please forgive me for this, but I came across one that had two poems/ stories about what being a military wife means. I'd already seen one of them; " Recipe for a Military Wife" as I'm sure most of you others have also. And that reminded of something I was given just before the Hubs and I got married.

I was living in Utah at the time, and going to my parents Ward, and a new family moved onto our street and started going to our ward also. Well, they happened to be newly retired from the the Navy, and when the wife heard that I was marrying a Sailor she made a point to give me these two poems, one entitled " Recipe of Military Wife" and the other entitled " The Navy Wife". She also almost kind of...gave her 'condolences" about me marrying a Sailor which...at the time I found kind of interesting, but now I completely understand!! I find myself discouraging my single friends from dating Sailors here ( not that there are ANY other eligible males to date in this military town!) just because...it really is such a challenge, and unless your a child from a military family, I think you really don't understand what life married so someone in the military is like.

ANYWAY...I ramble :) I wanted to put the poem on here to share, because now having been in the Navy for a couple of years, the poem means more to me then when she first gave it. So, here it is, hope you enjoy!!

The Navy Wife

A Navy Wife is no ordinary women. Operating for months at a tim without the compainionship or assistance of her husband, she routinely overcomes challenges that would give the average person a nervous breakdown.

Part Doctor, part Teacher and part Handyman,she can lavish loving care on a sick toddler, help a teenager with his algrebra homework, and trackdown a faulty circuit breaker-- all while holding down a full time job.

With thirty minutes notice, she can serve breakfast, lunch , or dinner to fourteen hungry Sailors, and still somehow balance her family's meager grocery budget.

She can press a set of dress whites to inspection standards, tie a perfect square knot in a military neckerchief, and pack a seabag in the cold hours before dawn.

For months at a time, she must settle for letters instead of kisses, emails in place of hugs, and long-distance phone calls in lieu of her husbands touch. She manages a smile when her Sailor is at sea for the second anniversary in a row, and accepts the fact that there's a one-in-three chance that he will have to stand duty on her birthday. She has learned to stand on a pier and say goodbye without tears, even when her heart is breaking.

To her children sher is chauffuer, umpire, psychologist, spiritual advisor, finacial consultant, part-time father, Tooth Fairy, Santa Clause, and the Easter Bunny. To her husband she is friend, lover, partner, confidant, and soul-mate.

She is a patriot. She is the sort of citizen that all of us should be, but so few of us are. She lives with sacrifice, because she believe in the rights and ideals that her husband defends. Although she wears no uniform. she is a part of that defense-- a vital link in the chain of Freedom. Although she wears no medals and will reap no glory on the field of battle, she is a hero in the truest sense of the word.

She is a Navy Wife.

until next time,

HELP! I need a new blog title...

2010-05-15T13:49:00.000-04:00

Alright...I purposefully picked " Diary of a Navy Wife" because I thought it was so obvious (and because coming up with names for my blog has ALWAYS been a struggle for me) that I thought no one in the world would have the same name. But unfortunately during my recent dive into the world of mil-spouse blogging, I have stumbled across a blog with the same name. So...not to be confused with that wonderful blogger, I think I should change my name...( and I'll have to do yet another header...::sigh::)

I could do something like just change the word 'diary' to 'journal'. But I thought I'd put the question out there....any idea for a Navy themed blog title? If yes...send them my way! I could use a little inspiration :)

Until next time

I know..another contest really? :)

2010-05-14T08:34:00.000-04:00

I'm an addict, officially. :) Yes...another contest. This one is super relevant to me lately though, because I was actually going through my wedding/ honeymoon pictures just a few days ago, looking for cute pictures to re-do my blog header with! Now I have an actual reason to post a bunch of pictures my family has already seen ( since they're the prominent readers of this blog...for now :))

As far as my wedding story goes...the whole thing is a little long and involved, so let me try to condense it to the most important parts!

I'd know my husband for about 4 years when he told me he was going into the Navy. We'd always had a weird relationship, him claiming to be in love with me and me continually blowing him off...at least romantically. He was my best friend and was there for me in every other way I would let him be, he just....wasn't who I saw myself with for eternity. :)

Anyway...I eventually came around ( with a lot of guidance from Heavenly Father) and we officially started "dating" ( as much as you can date over the phone) right after he graduated from boot camp. He was in SC going to Nuclear Power School, and I was in Utah just working and living with my parents. Well, "dating" didn't need to last that long since we'd known each other for a fairly long time, and after about a month of that I suggested we get married. He was a bit shocked needless to say, he'd been joking about me marrying him for over the last year, but it had always been a joke and nothing more. Now the game was on and he knew I was serious. :)

I had already scheduled a trip out to SC to visit him in about a month, so we decided that then was as good as ever! So I had a month to plan some sort of wedding! I made my dress, he checked out places. We wanted to do a beach wedding, but it rained on the day we got married so we actually got married in the gazebo in the middle of The Battery in down town Charleston. My parents, younger brother and his wife and child, and grandmother all made it out. The Hubs had some friends from school, his twin brother, his mom, step dad and half sister, as well as his step sister and her husband who actually lived in SC. Overall there was only about 20 people there, and we ended up having a "reception" meal at the local Olive Garden before we headed up to Myrtle Beach for a super quick weekend honeymoon, because he had to report to school on Monday morning. And thus began this crazy life in the Navy for me.

It's been a whirlwind of almost 3 years for us...since then we've added two children to our little family, have made it through 2 years of Nuc School and have completed our first year at a sea command, looking ahead to our first deployment in the not too distant future.

So that's my wedding story in a nutshell. :) Here are some pics for your veiwing pleasure:

until next time,

6am might just be too early for my marriage :)

2010-05-13T06:59:00.000-04:00

So I have a dilemma about how to use my time in the morning. Duder gets up between 6 and 630 to nurse, which is all fine and dandy, but Crazy Girl doesn't typically want to start her day until about 8am. Previous to Duder joining our ranks, this worked PERFECT for me! I, myself, am not a morning person, so being able to sleep until 8 am was a huge blessing. I'm pretty sure that once Duder is a little older he'll fall into the same pattern as his sister, and then we can all go back to being sleepheads in the morning. :) But for now I struggle between getting up and starting my day after he nurses, OR crawl back in bed for another hour and 1/2! Yesterday the bed was too enticing, so crawl back in I did, and we all ended up going back to sleep until 830! Of course that threw Crazy Girl's schedule all off because she's used to haveing a little bit of mommy and me time before I get Duder out of his crib to nurse again at 9. Today I have decided to use the time for myself, and I have read my scriptures and am now hopefully going to finish a blog update before my morning with two children under the age of two starts!

The real problem in this situation is... the hubs, when he's actually home. :) The poor guy has taken notice that I conk out at about 9pm lately, and that seriously cuts into our couple time when I do that! I've tried everything short of propping my eyelids up with toothpicks to stay awake, to no avail. Granted, I'm only three weeks postpartem here, I really shouldn't be expecting miracles, (no matter that Duder is already a great night sleeper, only getting up once a night to eat!) But that darn elephant in the room keeps stomping around, trumpeting the days until deployment, and I think we're both feeling the pressure to make every moment count, even the little ones in the dark of the night when we're doing nothing more then cuddling on the couch and watching TV. But it really kind of cheapens it for the other when one of us is passed out, snoring softly and drooling a puddle onto his chest. :)

On another note... I've added about a MILLION new military blogs to my list that I follow! I have to say, entering Christina's contest was a great idea! I'm pretty sure I have no chance of winning, ( if you feel like voting for me though, go here!) there are several really beautiful entries that answer the question A LOT better than I did. But my main purpose in joining in was to find more military spouses and hopefully have them find me, which it worked! I actually have a few followers now...crazy huh? :) And I've had a chance to read some thoughts from some really amazing women about military life. All in all, this little cyber-adventure of mine, I would call a success. :)

Now the trick is reading all these new blogs in moderation...instead of spending Crazy Girl's entire nap time on the comp, and wanting to kill myself because I didn't get any of the chores done I was supposed to while she slept! One day at a time, Jen. One day at a time :)

Until next time,

Blog Hopping

2010-05-10T13:18:00.000-04:00

Alright, I've already posted about being addicted to blog hopping mil-spouse blogs lately ( see post here) and I stumbled across a few more new ones today ( One in particular that made me BAWL! Check out this, BUT only if you can handle reading about a perfect strangers pain and how she is getting through it. Really made me feel pretty petty about complaining about deployment in my last entry :/)

Well another mil-spouse blog I have stumbled across is holding a small contest, and really I can't help but join. The purpose of me opening up more about everything that's going on in this military life of ours is to meet more spouse and learn from them how they deal! And hopefully this'll help me accomplish that!

In any case, you can check out the contest here, and what she asked us to do was write an entry about what being a military spouse means to me. So here it goes:

Being "in the military" with my husband is the hardest most challenging thing I have ever done. I really didn't know or fully understand what it would mean to be a military wife when we decided to get married. I remember talking with my mom a lot about what it would be like, because my dad joined the Navy and went to boot camp just after they were married and then ensued several years of craziness for her. At that time we both came to the conclusion that I was strong enough to handle it. But I have days....frequently, when I seriously doubt it.

I miss my husband A LOT. He works a ton, even when they're in port, and when they're not...I'm lonely, and feel totally inadequate to being a single parent. I miss my family, I really dislike being stranded across the country from the only other people I really depend on to help me when I need it.

But there are always positives right? It's just about finding them in any given situation. I feel blessed that I can be a stay at home mom for my kids when they are so young. And right now, the military is the only way that we would be able to do that, because in the civilian world one of us would be going to school to finish some kind of a degree and working part time, while the other works full time just to make ends meet. The military makes me and my husband closer. Granted we've only been married under 3 years, but not seeing each other for extended periods really does help keep the spark alive. ( Though, I have to say, at this point I would prefer to be putting effort into keeping the spark alive, versus it just naturally staying lit because of lack of time together!!) I'm proud to be giving silent service to our country, no matter how much I complain on here about it. And I'm grateful that I've had this opportunity, and look forward to the day that we can talk about our experiences in the Navy and be stronger because we had them.

Anyway...in a nutshell, what being a mil-spouse means to me is....well, it tests your limits and you will do things you never in a million years thought you could do. You will cry, and laugh, and be proud, and will dream about running away to Canada on a long weekend when no-one will notice you've deserted until you're already over the boarder! :) But you will be stronger for it, and I think I will always treasure my time with my husband in the Navy.

until next time,
Jen

Lemonade, Anyone?

2010-04-18T21:14:00.000-04:00

That's correct...we're still waiting for baby number two to show his wonderful face to the world! In reality I've still got 10 days before my due date, and I don't actually feel like I'm gonna go into labor anytime soon. I only went two days before little L's due date. I guess on the one hand a preggo woman probably always hopes that she'll go a little early...I mean you're just so uncomfortable at the end! And chasing after a one and 1/2 year old, I do have moments when I'm like...alright u can come anytime now! But for the most part, I don't feel nearly as stressed as I did at the end with L. I really do feel like it'll happen when it happens. Actually...(and because I'm putting this into print it won't happen of course!) part of me actually wants to go late and be induced. Just because...with the hubby's schedule being the way that it is, it would really make his life easier if this labor could be a little more...predicatable. If there is such a thing as predictable labor :) I guess we'll see! It's really in Heavenly Father's hands.

This in-port period I have to say, has felt blissful to me, if you want to know the truth. I think part of it is because of my hormonally charged body. And I worried about the hubby a little the first couple of days back...it took him a while to shake off the depression he felt on the last underway, and that made me worried. For anyone who doesn't know him, my hubby is the kind of guy who when given lemons, makes lemonade. I think this time though, on a three week 'diet' of lemons, he shut down his lemonade stand for a few days and decided to just sit in the dark for a while. It was odd for me...he's always the strong one, but that's what marriage is about right? Holding the other up during their time of need...and I guess I did alright cause he's back to normal. :) I think it's actually helped that his boat's galley has been closed for renovation for the last week and 1/2. So we've had the opportunity to go and have lunch with him, and dinner on duty days, pretty much every day. It's been nice to have a daily break with eachother. I'm gonna miss it when the galley is back in working order this week! But then...hopefully we'll get a new baby and get to have even more quality time together. And my good mood can continue for a few more weeks. :)

Until next time,
Jen

I think I'm Bi-polar... :)

2010-04-13T19:25:00.000-04:00

It occurred to me today that the new direction that I have decided to take this blog is going to make me look very...bi-polar. :) You'll always be able to tell the duration of my hubby's in-port and underway periods...most likely the in-port posts will be shorter, fewer in frequency, and much more upbeat. Sad that I can already see the trend in myself...

My husband told me he was pretty sure most of the boat probably thought he was bi-polar now, also. :) He said it took nothing to set him off on his last underway, that one minute he would be his usual upbeat self and two seconds later he's be screaming at you about something. I have to say it did bring a little smile to my face for him to tell me this. It really is nice to know that he has as much of a problem being away as I have. Men are so much better at managing ( or hiding perhaps) their true feelings.

Anyway...this last weekend was Sub Ball and we had a great time. It was nice to get dressed up and go to a fancy dinner. Met a lot of people Erick works with, its nice to put faces with names now! We didn't do much dancing...just two slow dances...one, because they didn't start the dancing until like 10 pm, and two, 2 dances was all my hips could take!

Anyway...we didn't take that many pictures...just a few before we went. I brought the camera with me, but I felt a little silly taking pictures during it and looking like a flipping tourist so :) Here's the best of what was taken:

This bottom picture is of us and the Kaze's. We go to church with them and they are our closest friends here. We really feel blessed to have them out here sharing this Navy experience with us!

until next time,
Jen

Kind of busy weekend...

2010-04-06T19:13:00.000-04:00

Oh my goodness...I meant to try and get on here and write something Saturday, we had a really good day and I had a lot of pictures I wanted to share! But the weekend was really kind of a whirlwind for me, and I didn't end up having time to get on until now! But here is the re-cap of all the excitement;

The biggest news for Saturday was that my husbands boat returned from an underway, and we couldn't have been more excited to see him! We actually got up and were out the door by 830 am ( you're talking to a mommy who rarely gets dressed before 10 or even 11am if I can help it!) so that we could go down to where the River meets the Sound and watch daddy's boat come in! Of course the boat was delayed an hour because of the heavy fog, but it cleared and we got some great pictures! Here's a teaser:

You can see the rest of our chase of the boat here. We actually ended up meeting a group of several wives I've met from the boat, and it was nice to see them all again! It was fun sitting around waiting to watch the boat with them, because there was really just a general air of excitement around having our husbands home again. It really was fun! :)

Well after that we had a brief break, and then I had my baby shower that afternoon which was also a TON of fun! I love getting together and eating good food, and it was so nice of the women from my church to throw me one! I got a huge amount of stuff, most of it from my family who like to spoil me, and here is a teaser for that:

And you can see the rest of the fun photos of the shower here! :)

So after the shower we came home and relaxed until bedtime for L, and then I had a friend come over and sit in the house while I went down to the boat and had a little quality time with my hubby, because he had duty and so couldn't come home that night.

Easter Sunday dawned, and as soon as my husband got off duty ( and took a quick shower!) we packed the car and headed up to ME to spend the holiday with his mom, and then that night spent it at his dads house in NH so that we could attend Erick's grandfather's memorial service Monday morning. It was a really nice service, his ashes are 'buried' at a Veterans Cemetery in NH, and I was really impressed by how organized and nice the cemetery was. It's a very pleasant place to go and visit, and the overall feeling of the service really wasn't too drab or depressing. It was nice. After wards, we went out to lunch with my husbands extended family and then we headed back to CT to spend the evening on the couch watching a movie before we passed out. :)

It really was a great weekend. I LOVE having my husband home obviously, and to have to concentrated days with him was really great. L was a little bit crazy, having daddy home and all the travel threw her off her schedule, and we all know what kind of havoc that creates in a young child's life. :) I'm still dealing with the repercussions of that. :) I wonder how she is going to do when the new baby comes? Luckily, her dad will have a bit of time off so I won't be dealing with that all on my lonesome!

Until next time,
Jen

Happy Birthday To Me :)

2010-03-30T19:15:00.000-04:00

That's right....today.... is my birthday! :) It's actually been a pretty great day. I think I've decided that little to no celebration is really the way to go once you pass the age of...oh I don't know...25 :) I mean I had my family call me, my husband called me which really was the best of all gifts, plenty of good birthday wishes from friends on facebook. But as far as actually literally celebrating...not so much. I stayed in my pj's all day. Did a few chores, but pretty much just rested. Darling L was a little crazy first thing in the morning, but mellowed out after nap time. It was a really chill relaxing day, and pretty much exactly just what I needed!

Tomorrow is a bit of a different story. I've got a Dr. apt first thing that will include my GBS test. Nothing like getting violated by a large q-tip first thing in the morning. :) And then I'm helping out a good friend by watching her girls in the afternoon for a couple of hours.

Anyway...I'm not nearly so long winded today, I bet that's a bit of a relief for some! :) Just wanted to let everyone know...that after my some what depressing entry a few days ago, all is well in the world of Jen. :)

until next time,
Jen

Slightly obsessed...

2010-03-28T19:43:00.000-04:00

Alright...I've become slightly obsessed with searching, finding, and reading other Navy wives opinions about life in the Navy. Seriously...I can't stop myself. I look for new blogs to read, I join walls on facebook, I talk to almost complete strangers all in an effort to...I don't know... I guess fill an emotional void I have in my life right now. Or at least find out how other women fill the void. I mean....I can't be the ONLY Navy wife in the whole world that is struggling right now...can I?

I came across this post on one of the blogs I have recently started reading. It's funny...because it actually mirrors something I have been feeling lately, AND something my Home Teachers brought up today during their visit. As most of you know, my husband is underway right now, and of course my HT's wanted to know where he was. When I told them he was at sea, they were both really surprised that he had not been allowed to stay home because I am so close to my due date. I told them I was actually grateful that they were out now, because it would allow him to be home for the birth... ( provided I don't go into labor before he gets back!) which of course is MAJOR. But, since neither of my HT's are in the military, that lead the conversation in the direction of other things I find difficult about "being in" the military, and then one of them said " But really, you have to realize all the benefits you get from being in the military and how good this experience is for your husband."

The thing about it is...I DO realize how much being in the Navy really has blessed my life. I mean...for one thing, and really the most major thing, is that I'm not sure Erick and I would be married if he hadn't made the decision to join the Navy. I remember being really impressed when he told me he was joining, by the type of commitment it took to join the military. It showed a level of maturity I had not seen in him in the four years I had known him, and it allowed my eyes to be opened a little to the potential of him as a husband.

And marrying Erick was the best, most inspired decision of my life. I think that's where it gets so difficult for me as a Navy wife. I can deal with long work hours, and bosses who are dishonest and only there to take care of themselves. We'd get the same thing in the civilian world. But I LITERALLY feel like 1/2 of myself has been torn away when he leaves, and I am forced to function as a mother, and a father, a sister, a friend, all while walking around as an incomplete person. So the Navy has both given me, and frequently takes away, the biggest, most important blessing of my life. And that's a contradiction I find hard to swallow sometimes. :)

But...I don't want to be one of those whiny military wives that other people really can't stand to be around! And almost everyone I've read about and talked to are so...just... positive about their life in the Navy. So what can I do? How can I show my gratitude for the lifestyle that my husband and I live right now, when I'm hurting in my heart and it's hard to see past that?

I don't know...that's something I'm going to work on I think. :) I'm hoping it will help to not be pregnant and hormonal. :) Also...I know it's gonna take a little strength from above, and I have faith that Heavenly Fathers knows me, and knows what I need to make it through, and if I rely on him anything is possible.

Until next time,
Jen

FRG, Sub Ball, oh...and life goes on as normal!

2010-03-26T22:41:00.000-04:00

Once again...its about a week since my last post! Better track record then my former posting I agree, but not quite up to where I'd like to be. My goal is to post at least twice a week, with hopefully something REALLY interesting and delightful to read! Of course my family and friends are interested in what I write, but they're biased. What about being interesting to other military wives out there who are looking for someone who understands their situation to connect to? That's the audience I'm finding it hard to write to. So then I stall....and get mad at myself for stalling. :) And the circle goes round and round until I finally get my butt on here and post something. It's my process I guess. So maybe I shouldn't complain about it. :)

I miss my husband tonight. Who am I kidding, I miss him desperately every night. But what I mean is...eh...I guess I always have this point mid-way of whatever underway is going at the time that I really just get tired of being alone. (And I assure you, length does not matter! It could be five days, it could be five weeks! I haven't had to deal with five months yet...but, like clockwork, at mid point I get depressed!) It really makes me curious and a little bit nervous about what our looming deployment is going to be like. BUT I guess we'll cross that bridge when we come to it!

I've been getting a lot of emails from our boat FRG lately. (For those of you unfamiliar with the term, FRG stands for Family Readiness Group, and is basically what the Navy Wives Club turned into when it started having to accommodate male spouses of deployed sailors.) I haven't been to an FRG meeting since November. I wanted to go to the last one earlier this month, but unfortunately my husband, who SWORE he'd be home on time, of course was assigned some task that kept him on the boat until 930pm and I missed it yet again. The reason I mention this is because...when I started going to the FRG, my goodness was it disorganized! But, then again we had just gotten and new Ombudsman and things were all in a jumble. But now it looks like they're getting their act together, and I feel slightly compelled to get involved! For instance, recently my husbands boat won an award for their cook staff, so the whole galley staff is going down to Virginia for a week next month and they won't be serving food on the boat. So the FRG is doing a fundraiser where they'll be selling baked goods and pizza to the sailors, on the pier mind you, for lunch one day during the week. And I'm like....huh, spend a few hours on the pier, feet away from my rarely seen husband who will hopefully surface long enough to atleast have lunch with me? Sign me up!!! LOL I'm insane I know. If I could only find a baby sitter for little L... :)

In other news, I'm also getting ready for the Submarine Birthday Ball, and I'm actually really excited. It's a big year this year...the 100th birthday I think, so of course, in the Submarine Capitol of the World, they're getting ready for a big time bash! AND...I have thus decided to MAKE my dress. (You try to find a modest, formal dress fit for a 9 months pregnant woman!) So I have taken on the task of making this...

Into this...

Of course, I can't do anything without totally changing everything until it no longer looks like what it was originally. :) The dress is only 1/2 done at this point. It's going to have sleeves, out of that same zebra print with a black cuff, and the belt that is on there right now is coming off, due to having tried on the dress and I am extremely dissatisfied with it's placement above my chest ( as the pattern calls for) making the whole dress take on a very "mu mu"-ish feel to it. INSTEAD it's going to have a WIDER black belt that goes all the way around my body and sits comfortably under my chest, but above my baby bump. :) I'll post more pictures when it's complete. :)

Other than all of that...life goes on as normal. L drove me a bit crazy today. She's always a force to be reckoned with, but today...today was a " mommy is putting you to bed a 1/2 hour early because she can't deal with it any longer" type day. :) Hopefully tomorrow she'll be a bit more chill, so I can actually get some house cleaning done, and not feel like nearly so much as a slob as I feel tonight!

Alright, I've been putting in a few too many late nights recently, ( underway induced insomnia with a pinch of 3rd trimester uncomfortableness thrown in just for kicks ) so I think I'm gonna sign off for now. Hope y'all have a great night!

Until next time,
Jen

Why do women do this too each other?

2010-03-20T13:46:00.000-04:00

Oh my goodness....I don't know how a week got away from me without posting! Oh wait...actually I do. :) Probably has to do something with chasing after my rambunctious 18-month-old, the GORGEOUS 70 degree weather we've been having all week, and my need to get projects done so as to feel fully "nested" before our bouncing baby boy gets here at the end of next month!

Seriously though...I've had things I've wanted to talk about so I've been thinking about posting since like Wednesday. However I'm so wiped at the end of the night that I usually just pass out on the couch after I get darling L into bed! But not today! Today I will finally get my butt on here and write something interesting! REALLY! I swear :)

So my amazing husband didn't end up leaving until Tuesday if you can believe it. That's right...after saying goodbye to him for the second time in 2 days on Sunday, he came home Monday also. And we had to say "goodbye" again Tuesday morning!! In reality it didn't actually go like that. I dropped him off at the boat and told him that he'd better get a free moment and call me if they were actually leaving that day and THEN we could say goodbye, cause otherwise I'd just expect to get a call asking me to come pick him up again.

Well, he did call, and they did leave, and we did say "goodbye" three times in one weekend. I am grateful we got the extra time together. I think our daughter, in particular, really enjoyed having Daddy around ( because per my previous post, I was actually sick the whole weekend!) But holy emotional roller coaster! By Tuesday I was actually looking forward to him leaving! Well that is until the after the last phone call, when I hung up and the melancholy started to settle in again. :)

On another note, we've had new neighbors move into the house on our left. They have two young girls, a 4 year old and a 2 year old, and it's been nice having another family with young kids on the street, because since we've moved here our daughter has been the youngest. And it's just in time for summer!

Has anyone taken notice, though, how really odd women are? I remember just after my husband and I got married we were living in Charleston, SC while he was finishing up his Nuclear training at the Navy Nuc School down there. After the honeymoon my husband started school immediately, and thus began 12 to 16 hour days of me being by myself. I'd never lived in SC before, we had NO furniture besides my childhood bed I brought with me, some blankets, and a laptop computer that we watched movies on. We didn't even have a car for the first little while, so I couldn't even look for a job! After the first three weeks of sitting around in our little duplex, staring at white walls and getting tired of our VERY limited dvd collection, I finally decided to march myself across the street and make friends with the neighbors I'd been watching through our front windows. :)

I invited the wife over to my house that afternoon, and we played a card game on my bare living room floor, while I proceeded to tell her my entire life story, AND everything I had experienced in the short 3 weeks that my husband and I had been married. And I mean...everything. :) Things I would later, and more importantly my husband would, regret telling her. Fortunately for us, that couple ended up being some of our closest friends in SC, and we were very sad to see them leave. But the wife was the kind of person who would bring up things I had told her on that day just to see my husband squirm! For me...lesson learned; don't ever let yourself be stuck in a place with no furniture, no entertainment, no friends, and no escape! No matter how much you love the man. :)

I mention this because I find myself in a similar predicament with this new neighbor. Only I'm the one getting all the dirty laundry from my poor neighbor who obviously really just needs a friend. And honestly...and I know I'm going to hell for feeling this way...but I don't want to know, I don't actually care, AND I feel smothered now. :) I've learned that easing into friendships is REALLY, TRULY, the best way for both people to grow one. Because if one or the other just drops all the bombs in the first week...lets be honest, you scare people. WHY?? Why do women do this to each other???

What's even funnier is this week I've been paying attention to a wall on facebook that is discussing the issue of whether women belong on Submarines. My husband is stationed on a Fast Attack, and obviously most of the other Navy Wives that I socialize with are women whose husbands are, or have been, on submarines also. And none of us feel that it's a place where a woman should be. It's too demanding and dangerous and stressful! And women...lets face it...we can't help ourselves! We are made the way we're made, and we're NOT men and thank goodness for that! But take a situation similar to me and my new neighbor, (or worse!) put that into the confines of a tube that is underwater and doesn't surface for days, weeks, or even months on end and what do you people think is going to happen???

At least I can lock the door, close the blinds, and pretend no one is home. :)

until next time,
Jen

What A Weekend

2010-03-14T20:16:00.000-04:00

I've been thinking about this post since Friday...but the post I would have written on Friday would have been all self- pitying ( not that there won't be a little of that in this post also!) and sad, cause that was the mood I was in. But after the weekend that I have had, things are a little different in my mind now. :)

"Underway Days", or the first day or two after my husband heads underway, are always difficult for me. I know that those of you who have dealt with frequent separations from you spouse understand what I am speaking of. You have that empty feeling that just follows you around for a couple of days...maybe not every minute of the day, you have tasks that take your mind off of it, or screaming children, or friends that come calling. But then during that quiet minute when the kids are asleep, or playing quietly while you fix dinner for one less mouth, the emptiness catches you again and you can't help but feel completely alone in the world.

That was my mindset on Friday evening. So what did I do? I took me and my daughter to the grocery store, bought every comfort food I could think of...cardboard pizza, chips and dip, reese's mini pb cups, snickerdoodle cookies, and icecream...and gorged myself for the night. Well...I actually only ate the pizza, one cookie, 2 handfuls of chips and dip, and maybe 6 or 7 mini pb cups. ( That's still alot for my increasingly small preggo stomach). I felt full going to bed, but not sick. Until I woke up at 1am when my stomach decided to eject all of that hard emotional eating I had done. Then ensued a not very pleasant night of stomach cramping and no sleep, and at 7am when my 18 month old started to stir, I knew I was in trouble. The saddest part was that I had told a friend of mine I would baby sit their 3 girls while they went on a date to celebrate her husbands birthday. But I knew I was BARELY going to be able to keep track of my own kid that day, let alone 3 other children. So, I called my friend, told her the situation, called around to find someone to replace me, and by 8:15 was sitting downstairs in my rocking chair while my daughter sipped on her sippy cup full of milk watching cartoons and thought to myself ' You're not gonna make it today girl. You need to see if someone can come watch her this afternoon so you can get some sleep'.

Well, in the process of texting another friend to see if she'd be willing to come over for the afternoon, I get a phone call...from my husband! Aparently they had indeed left, but had to turn around and come back because of some important equipment malfunctioning, and he had about 36 more hours of freedom before he had to report back to the boat and they could try to head underway again. I was so grateful for this news I cried.

I can say one thing this life in the Navy has taught me so far is that, Heavenly Father really is on my side. There have been numerous time that things have been delayed, or something has gone 'wrong' that has been a direct benefit to me personally. I know that my Heavenly Father loves me, and I KNOW that we will not give you more then you can handle, and if it seems like he does, he makes a way.

So my husband took care of our little girl while I slept off this horrible stomach bug yesterday, and today we got a few hours to play together as a family before sending him off once again to the boat this evening. It was bitter sweet as always, more so I think because my husband seemed to have a harder time leaving today then he did on Friday. I however am doing better. Possibly because it's evening and it means bed and a new start tomorrow. And also..tomorrow is Monday! Routine begins again and a week will fly by and bam! We're one week closer to being together again!

It certainly was one heck of a weekend, but I made it...with both my husband AND my Heavenly Father on my side. :)

Until next time,
Jen

A new day...and a new blog, has come

2010-03-10T12:52:00.000-05:00

Alright, I know I have been SUPER slackerish with this blog lately. I've has some other projects running, and sickness running rampant in my house hold, as well as dealing with a very active toddler, a new baby about to be born, and a husband who is only here less than 25% of the time. These are all the reasons why I've let this blog go by the wayside for a while.

And yet, last night, I was thinking about starting yet another blog. ( I already contribute to 3, one of those hasn't been posted on since last April, and the other isn't public yet!) I've been really feeling the need to blog about my experiences as a military wife. I've stumbled across several that have proved to be interesting reads to me, but have all lacked the connection I've been looking for, for one simple reason. These women, while smart and funny and dealing with life in the military are not the average military spouse. They all have something that makes them unique in their own right, ( be it their passion for photography or the fact that they blog for a newspaper column, etc) as well as being a military spouse. But what about us average Janes, down in the trenches with our husbands with nothing more to reccomend us then the fact that our husbands commit and serve our nation diligently, while we struggle at home in a silent battle for the same cause?

So...it occured to me that all of the reasons that I haven't been blogging, are the perfect reasons to blog! And that I have so much more to say, and I don't need a whole nother blog to say it. So I'm re-vamping. I'm determined to be more diligent in my posting, more personal, and perhaps be able to help myself through what has turned out to be this oh so difficult time in my life.

So, until next time :)

Preparing To Surface

Potty training and Princess Dresses

New Design!

Progress

PRO- ductive!

Picture Heavy

Highlights

Homecoming for real

Make a camera strap with Stacie!

Getting back to Normal

Mommy and the military

A mother's wisdom...

A little Inspiration...

Sew a Tabby Baby Blanket with Poekitten!

What's This...?

Our Banner...and a giveaway!

Sunday Story Time: The Big Fight

What's your song this week?

Tehehehehehe... :)

It's official...

Sunday Story Time: Skunky visits Idaho...

OPSEC and so much more...

"The Twighlight Zone"

What's your song: Week 4

Book Review: Semper Cool

A little bit of randomness....

Slackerrrrrrrrrr!

5 things I learned on the road...

Welcome back!

You can find me at....

What's Your song?

They really should make a manual for this...

Goodbye UT!!

Sunday Story Time: Fast forward

Today's Song

Book Review: I Am Number 4

Sunday Story Time: " I'm leaving on a Jet Plane..."

Just find a quiet place...

If I could be anywhere in the world...

A new design?

Take a deep breath...how would you want to be treated?

Sunday Story Time: The Interim

You add children into the equation and...

Perhaps I'm crazy... :)

Knitting. Is. Hard!

Blog Hops are Fun!

Sunday Story Time: The first date

Something I did NOT expect...

Craftin' around...

Sunday Story Time- In the Beginning...:)

Stressed...

Fill-in Friday!

Thank you

Hmmm...I wonder...

We're baaaaack!

Tuesday and then some...

I obviously needed to blog today...

On a need to know basis...

My most embarrassing moment?!

Top 10 Tuesday

4th Fun!

Happy 4th of July Everyone!!

The American Boy

Awesome new header!!

Participation is Great!

HOLY SMOKES!

Blog Makeover!!

Switching things up...

Port Calls are hard....

You know you're a submarine wife if...

Well, we've made it past the halfway point of this underway, and the boat pulled into a port this weekend so I've had the opportunity to talk to the Hubs several times on the phone, and I have to say, it's been a relief just to hear his voice!!

* You've stayed awake during the mid watch to talk to your husband on the phone. ( I'm doing this one tonight as a matter of fact! :) )

Side effects

Tough Week

A few orders of business...( family and real-life friends, please read to the end!)

He's Home Again!

Peel and Stick...lame? Or not?

Random Ramblings Blog Hop

The Navy Wife

HELP! I need a new blog title...

* You've stayed awake during the mid watch to talk to your husband on
the phone. ( I'm doing this one tonight as a matter of fact! :) )