New Design!

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!

 

A new design?

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!

HOLY SMOKES!

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!!

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...

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

until next time

Side effects

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,

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

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,

The Navy Wife

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...

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

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

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 :)