I found the link to these 2 blogs a while back, but I keep forgetting to post them. I think they are great sites that provide some great information/advice for married couples (or even non-married couples). Let's face it, no one's relationship is perfect. And by that I mean, if you say that as a couple you never fight or disagree...ever...you're probably lying (or you haven't been around each longer long enough to find any faults in the other person yet.) Anyway, I think these 2 blogs are great for any relationship, whether its "perfect" or about to end in divorce...so I decided to pass them along :-).
The Generous Husband
The Generous Wife
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Grrrrrrrr
I. Hate. Drama.
Its as simple as that - I hate drama. Some people thrive on drama. I hide from it. I'd vent about it here, but I'm sure that would only cause more drama, so I'll make this short and sweet. I hate drama. To those of you who like to cause drama, I highly suggest that you come to the realization that there are more important things to focus on in life, and come to that realization soon.
That's all I have to say :-).
Its as simple as that - I hate drama. Some people thrive on drama. I hide from it. I'd vent about it here, but I'm sure that would only cause more drama, so I'll make this short and sweet. I hate drama. To those of you who like to cause drama, I highly suggest that you come to the realization that there are more important things to focus on in life, and come to that realization soon.
That's all I have to say :-).
Monday, May 25, 2009
Note to Self - Deployment Survival
I've been told that they key to surviving a deployment is to keep yourself busy. My lesson learned is that this is accurate information, and important information/advice. However, the part that people leave out is to not make yourself TOO busy! I think I have officially crashed and burned and I want nothing more than to just sit on my couch, watch a movie and veg out for a while.
The weeks leading up to Mr. V's deployment were insanely busy. Between Dining Out, Change of Command, various parties celebrating the change of command, and random other mandatory fun events, I thought I was going to lose my mind before he left (the only thing that saved me was a random day trip to the Olympic Peninsula to see Forks and La Push - I'll have to write a very outdated blog about that when I get time.)
Anyway, once he left, I decided to take the advice that I was given and stay busy. Between more mandatory fun (spouse club related), planning an FRG picnic, making the squadron deployment calendar (other wives created their own squares, but my friend and I created the actual calendar. We were determined to make it the best looking calendar there is, so needless to say, I can't believe how much time this calendar took up. Its still not done and we have to mail it out tomorrow.), babysitting for a few different families, cleaning my house, learning how to mow the lawn (my neighbor eventually took pity on me and finished my front yard while a friend's husband did the backyard for me) and spending time with a friend of mine while she was housesitting, I am offically, completely worn out. That may not seem like a lot to do, but certain things have doubled for me since Mr. V left - like house cleaning. I was looking forward to having less laundry and dishes to wash, but I didn't account for the fact that he takes care of all the cat related stuff. Scooping litter boxes, cleaning litter boxes, sweeping excess litter, cleaning up random hairballs, and figuring out why my one cat is insisting on peeing everywhere in the house (no he's not sick), is not my cup of tea. I think the work that lessened for me was just taken over by the work I gained, which was not a happy realization to come to.
The FRG picnic went off without a hitch today and that was a very good thing. 3 of us planned this picnic, so we weren't quite sure how it was going to turn out. Thankfully, it went as planned, and we had a fairly large turnout. I'm sitting here now realizing that I managed to get a pretty bad sunburn today, even though I was freezing all afternoon. I think the sunburn is what did me in. When the picnic was over, I said I was done being busy for while. Then I realized I had a sunburn. I'm exhausted, tired, and my arms hurt from the burn.
I wish I could say that I have nothing to do this week, but that's just not true. On Wednesday we have a spouse club meeting/party to welcome the new XO's wife. Then on Friday I have to go to a party to celebrate the old XO's wife becomming the new CO's wife. I think it would be pretty rude if I skipped these 2 parties, so maybe next week I can finally just sit around doing absolutely nothing for a few days. Somewhere in the week I also have to find time to finish this stupid (thank you to Liz for calling and constantly reminding us that its a morale booster - otherwise it would probably be in the trash by now) deployment calendar too.
So my note to self is this: Stay busy during a deployment, but find some time to relax in there too! Sounds obvious right? I wish I knew how obvious it was BEFORE I managed to wear myself out.
The weeks leading up to Mr. V's deployment were insanely busy. Between Dining Out, Change of Command, various parties celebrating the change of command, and random other mandatory fun events, I thought I was going to lose my mind before he left (the only thing that saved me was a random day trip to the Olympic Peninsula to see Forks and La Push - I'll have to write a very outdated blog about that when I get time.)
Anyway, once he left, I decided to take the advice that I was given and stay busy. Between more mandatory fun (spouse club related), planning an FRG picnic, making the squadron deployment calendar (other wives created their own squares, but my friend and I created the actual calendar. We were determined to make it the best looking calendar there is, so needless to say, I can't believe how much time this calendar took up. Its still not done and we have to mail it out tomorrow.), babysitting for a few different families, cleaning my house, learning how to mow the lawn (my neighbor eventually took pity on me and finished my front yard while a friend's husband did the backyard for me) and spending time with a friend of mine while she was housesitting, I am offically, completely worn out. That may not seem like a lot to do, but certain things have doubled for me since Mr. V left - like house cleaning. I was looking forward to having less laundry and dishes to wash, but I didn't account for the fact that he takes care of all the cat related stuff. Scooping litter boxes, cleaning litter boxes, sweeping excess litter, cleaning up random hairballs, and figuring out why my one cat is insisting on peeing everywhere in the house (no he's not sick), is not my cup of tea. I think the work that lessened for me was just taken over by the work I gained, which was not a happy realization to come to.
The FRG picnic went off without a hitch today and that was a very good thing. 3 of us planned this picnic, so we weren't quite sure how it was going to turn out. Thankfully, it went as planned, and we had a fairly large turnout. I'm sitting here now realizing that I managed to get a pretty bad sunburn today, even though I was freezing all afternoon. I think the sunburn is what did me in. When the picnic was over, I said I was done being busy for while. Then I realized I had a sunburn. I'm exhausted, tired, and my arms hurt from the burn.
I wish I could say that I have nothing to do this week, but that's just not true. On Wednesday we have a spouse club meeting/party to welcome the new XO's wife. Then on Friday I have to go to a party to celebrate the old XO's wife becomming the new CO's wife. I think it would be pretty rude if I skipped these 2 parties, so maybe next week I can finally just sit around doing absolutely nothing for a few days. Somewhere in the week I also have to find time to finish this stupid (thank you to Liz for calling and constantly reminding us that its a morale booster - otherwise it would probably be in the trash by now) deployment calendar too.
So my note to self is this: Stay busy during a deployment, but find some time to relax in there too! Sounds obvious right? I wish I knew how obvious it was BEFORE I managed to wear myself out.
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Larry
I have a new addition to my cat farm. Meet Larry, my new temporary resident.
Before you think that I am crazy for taking in a 10th cat, let me start by explaining that Larry is not my cat, nor will he ever be my cat. Larry is a 6 month old (yes he's huge for his age) kitten that belongs to a friend of mine, Mrs. C. Mrs. C is pregnant. Her husband is currently deployed with my husband, and she has gone back to her home state of Indiana for the duration of the deployment. Since she will be having her baby in Indiana, that means that when she comes back to Washington she will be traveling with a brand new baby, alone. Vet bills are somewhat costly to even have a pet approved to fly on an airplane, so rather than pay a large sum of money, and then travel back here with a new baby AND a kitten (who I guess will be a cat by that point), she asked me to hang on to Larry for the next 6+ months. Me being the crazy cat lady that I am, said yes, of course. I figured I have 9 of them already, what's one more?
Let me start by applauding Mrs. C for asking me to care for Larry while she's gone. I am so sick and tired of people posting ads around this town that say things like "My husband is deploying so I have to get rid of my kitten." I'm not even going to start ranting about how that statement is just plain stupid - I already posted a blog on my opinion of people who have stupid excuses for "getting rid of" animals. Mrs. C originally had another friend who was going to take care of Larry for her, but when those plans fell through, she got a little worried, which is when I got her frantic email asking if I would take on one more cat. It makes me so happy that she isn't a person who would just dump her cat somewhere while she goes back home for a few months. She even told me that if she couldn't find a place for him to stay, she would find a way to pay to bring him home with her. Mrs. C is only 19 years old. Don't get me wrong. She's very mature and I am in no way saying that 19 year olds are not mature, BUT there are 40 year olds out there who think its ok to just dispose of pets, and TONS and TONS of young people who constantly "get rid of" their pets in this town, whenever they feel like it. So it makes me happy to know that a young person loves her pet enough to find a way to do what's best for him...and for her.
So while Mr. V is deployed, Larry is keeping me company. He has been here for less than a week but he has already made a point of terrorizing my house. I have 3 young cats. All of them just turned a year old. So I thought I knew what it was like to have kittens in my house, because they are kittens. I honestly didn't realize that I had already forgotten what it was like to have a 6 month old kitten running around the house. Look up the word "hyper" in the dictionary and you will find a picture of Larry. Some of my cats are happy that they have a new friend to play with. A few others, like my constantly disgruntled Wendy, are quite irritated with me right now.
Larry has made a point of trying to play with Wendy the most, and if any of you have ever met Wendy, I'm sure you can only imagine how she sounds as she howls and yells and hisses and growls at him every single time he comes near her. The funniest part, is that he simply doesn't care. He just keeps going back for more.
I have found out that Larry is an excellent "helper". My friend and I are in charge of making a deployment calendar for the guys in Iraq. Needless to say, Larry thought that it was very important that he help us make the calendar...which of course, made the entire process even longer.
And...that's Larry. In between chasing him after he runs out the front door, cursing him as he runs laps around my bed at 5:00 in the morning, and laughing at him as he bothers the other cats, I've realized that he will be my ultimate test. I have always wanted to own my own rescue one day but I have a hard time finding homes for the cats that I rescue. The last 3 cats that I brought into my house I swore up and down that once they were healthy I would find them homes. Now almost 6 months later, they are still here and I have no plans to find them another home. I figure that if I can give Larry back at the end of this deployment without crying, then maybe I will be able to own a place where I would have to adopt cats out to people one day. Wish me luck on accepting the fact that Larry is only temporary :-).
As a side note, as I was writing this, I realized that Larry will be here for Halloween! That means that I get to dress him up along with the rest of my zoo. I am sure Mrs. C will be thrilled!
Before you think that I am crazy for taking in a 10th cat, let me start by explaining that Larry is not my cat, nor will he ever be my cat. Larry is a 6 month old (yes he's huge for his age) kitten that belongs to a friend of mine, Mrs. C. Mrs. C is pregnant. Her husband is currently deployed with my husband, and she has gone back to her home state of Indiana for the duration of the deployment. Since she will be having her baby in Indiana, that means that when she comes back to Washington she will be traveling with a brand new baby, alone. Vet bills are somewhat costly to even have a pet approved to fly on an airplane, so rather than pay a large sum of money, and then travel back here with a new baby AND a kitten (who I guess will be a cat by that point), she asked me to hang on to Larry for the next 6+ months. Me being the crazy cat lady that I am, said yes, of course. I figured I have 9 of them already, what's one more?
Let me start by applauding Mrs. C for asking me to care for Larry while she's gone. I am so sick and tired of people posting ads around this town that say things like "My husband is deploying so I have to get rid of my kitten." I'm not even going to start ranting about how that statement is just plain stupid - I already posted a blog on my opinion of people who have stupid excuses for "getting rid of" animals. Mrs. C originally had another friend who was going to take care of Larry for her, but when those plans fell through, she got a little worried, which is when I got her frantic email asking if I would take on one more cat. It makes me so happy that she isn't a person who would just dump her cat somewhere while she goes back home for a few months. She even told me that if she couldn't find a place for him to stay, she would find a way to pay to bring him home with her. Mrs. C is only 19 years old. Don't get me wrong. She's very mature and I am in no way saying that 19 year olds are not mature, BUT there are 40 year olds out there who think its ok to just dispose of pets, and TONS and TONS of young people who constantly "get rid of" their pets in this town, whenever they feel like it. So it makes me happy to know that a young person loves her pet enough to find a way to do what's best for him...and for her.
So while Mr. V is deployed, Larry is keeping me company. He has been here for less than a week but he has already made a point of terrorizing my house. I have 3 young cats. All of them just turned a year old. So I thought I knew what it was like to have kittens in my house, because they are kittens. I honestly didn't realize that I had already forgotten what it was like to have a 6 month old kitten running around the house. Look up the word "hyper" in the dictionary and you will find a picture of Larry. Some of my cats are happy that they have a new friend to play with. A few others, like my constantly disgruntled Wendy, are quite irritated with me right now.
Larry has made a point of trying to play with Wendy the most, and if any of you have ever met Wendy, I'm sure you can only imagine how she sounds as she howls and yells and hisses and growls at him every single time he comes near her. The funniest part, is that he simply doesn't care. He just keeps going back for more.
I have found out that Larry is an excellent "helper". My friend and I are in charge of making a deployment calendar for the guys in Iraq. Needless to say, Larry thought that it was very important that he help us make the calendar...which of course, made the entire process even longer.
And...that's Larry. In between chasing him after he runs out the front door, cursing him as he runs laps around my bed at 5:00 in the morning, and laughing at him as he bothers the other cats, I've realized that he will be my ultimate test. I have always wanted to own my own rescue one day but I have a hard time finding homes for the cats that I rescue. The last 3 cats that I brought into my house I swore up and down that once they were healthy I would find them homes. Now almost 6 months later, they are still here and I have no plans to find them another home. I figure that if I can give Larry back at the end of this deployment without crying, then maybe I will be able to own a place where I would have to adopt cats out to people one day. Wish me luck on accepting the fact that Larry is only temporary :-).
As a side note, as I was writing this, I realized that Larry will be here for Halloween! That means that I get to dress him up along with the rest of my zoo. I am sure Mrs. C will be thrilled!
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Long Road Ahead
Well...Mr. V is gone. Deployment has started and now I have started the countdown to when he returns. I have to admit that I didn't react at all like I thought I would. I expected to be sad when he left. I expected to be upset. I didn't expect to break down into uncontrollable tears the way I did. I also didn't expect to be going through these crazy emotional mood swings that I am going through right now. I knew that all this stuff was possible, but I guess I just thought that it wouldn't happen to me. I'm a person who enjoys being alone at times. I realized though, that while I enjoy my alone time, I also enjoy choosing when I get to take that alone time. I think the fact that I had no control over him leaving is what is making my emotions all screwed up right now.
The day he left was hard. I started crying several hours before he left and continued crying for several hours after he left. I am very happy that I was able to see him off though. I know that some wives prefer to not drop their husbands off or to just drop them off and leave immediately. I needed the closure of saying goodbye to him and I am happy that I had that. Besides, we arrived at the air terminal on time, and then it took another 2 hours before he left, so I'm thankful for those extra 2 hours. Granted, they were spent in a large room with tons of other people, but I think I would have regretted it if I hadn't been there during that time. Here are 3 pictures of us the day he left. The first two were taken during a lull in my tears. I'm surprised that I actually look focused and somewhat happy. The second one was taken right before he walked into a line waiting for the bus to take him to his plane. By the time the second one was taken, I had broken down into tears again.
On the day he left, I never thought I'd manage to gain control of my tears, but thankfully, I have friends and I have things to do to keep me busy, so I have been able to feel slightly normal again. The night that he left was hard. The wife of the squadron's CO invited everyone over to her house for food and comfort but I wasn't in the mood to be around a large group of people. I just needed to cry and get it all out. At the same time though, I didn't want to be completely alone, so I spent most of the night at my friend's house. We cooked dinner, cried a little and watched Twilight in an attempt to cheer ourselves up.
The next day I woke up feeling pretty cheerful. I don't know if I was in denial or if it simply means that I'm going to be ok. I babysat that day, and then that evening my friend came over and we had dinner at my house, while we watched Bride Wars (food and chick flicks are clearly the answer to cheering ourselves up!).
The next day was a little harder. I woke up upset again. I guess that was the start of my emotional mood swings. Once I dragged myself out of bed, I tried to motivate myself to get some errands taken care of. I didn't actually make it out of the house until 3:00 that day. And if you know me, I may be slow moving in the morning, but 3:00 is a VERY late start, even for me. Then that night was dinner at my friend's house again. This time around another guy in the squadron who hasn't left yet cooked us dinner. He is a good friend of our husbands and he wanted to get rid of some steaks that he had before he heads off on deployment too, so he cooked us some really yummy steaks. Then we watched American Idol, Biggest Loser and The Real Housewives of New Jersey. Like I said before, TV and food is clearly the answer to cheering me up. Or maybe its just an escape from reality.
On a completely random side note, I can't believe that there is now a Real Housewives of New Jersey on. I think the show in general is ridiculous and I have to admit that I was a little scared to see this new one. New Jersey has such a bad reputation to begin with, and after years and years of defending my home state to anyone who makes fun of it, I was pretty embarrassed that they chose New Jersey for the next season of the Housewives show! Prior seasons have featured housewives from individual cities or counties, so why on earth are they focusing on the whole state in this show? From what I saw last night, the women all live in the same town, or at least the same area. I have to admit though, that even through the ridiculousness of this show, it wasn't quite as embarrassing as I had anticipated. If anything, it shows people that the state is not full of cities that look like Newark. That part actually made me happy. These women are the typical rich, snobby housewives, who live in large beautiful homes and shop and eat at the best places around. So for anyone out there who thinks New Jersey is made up of dirty, crime filled cities, guess again :-). An airport that you fly into is not an indication of the entire state. On that note though, please don't assume that every woman in the state acts like these women!
Back to my deployment adjustments...
Today I woke up happy again, and I even got to talk to Mr. V for a short time online this morning. I had already received a few emails from him, so I have to admit that the ability to communicate with him makes things much easier. I know a lot of women don't like the communication that the military has today. They don't think its enough. I personally am VERY happy that this is not the time period that my grandparents lived in. When my grandfather deployed on an aircraft carrier during the Korean War, my grandma only heard from him through letters that arrived VERY slowly...if they even arrived at all. I think its a little selfish to complain about bad communication now because from what I can tell, its pretty good. Granted, we only got to talk for a short time before his time was up on the computer, but the fact that we got to talk at all made me very happy and put me in a strange mood for the rest of the day. I say strange because I was so happy that I got to talk to him, but it also saddened me because I miss having him here to talk to whenever I want to. Just add that to the list of things causing my emotional mood swings!
Today I also realized that I WILL be ok throughout all of this if I can keep myself busy the way I have been. That thought was a very cheerful thought, especially considering the fact that I never thought I would stop crying a few days ago. However, once again, it also brought me some saddness because mixed in with the realization that keeping myself busy is the way to go, I realized that not even a week has passed since he left. I feel like time is flying by, but when I stop to look at the date, it really hasn't. I need time to fly by and not just feel like its flying by!
So wish me luck in getting through this! I always knew that a deployment was coming, but that reality still doesn't make it any easier to say goodbye. I miss my husband, and will be eagerly anticipating his return home at the end of the year!
The day he left was hard. I started crying several hours before he left and continued crying for several hours after he left. I am very happy that I was able to see him off though. I know that some wives prefer to not drop their husbands off or to just drop them off and leave immediately. I needed the closure of saying goodbye to him and I am happy that I had that. Besides, we arrived at the air terminal on time, and then it took another 2 hours before he left, so I'm thankful for those extra 2 hours. Granted, they were spent in a large room with tons of other people, but I think I would have regretted it if I hadn't been there during that time. Here are 3 pictures of us the day he left. The first two were taken during a lull in my tears. I'm surprised that I actually look focused and somewhat happy. The second one was taken right before he walked into a line waiting for the bus to take him to his plane. By the time the second one was taken, I had broken down into tears again.
On the day he left, I never thought I'd manage to gain control of my tears, but thankfully, I have friends and I have things to do to keep me busy, so I have been able to feel slightly normal again. The night that he left was hard. The wife of the squadron's CO invited everyone over to her house for food and comfort but I wasn't in the mood to be around a large group of people. I just needed to cry and get it all out. At the same time though, I didn't want to be completely alone, so I spent most of the night at my friend's house. We cooked dinner, cried a little and watched Twilight in an attempt to cheer ourselves up.The next day I woke up feeling pretty cheerful. I don't know if I was in denial or if it simply means that I'm going to be ok. I babysat that day, and then that evening my friend came over and we had dinner at my house, while we watched Bride Wars (food and chick flicks are clearly the answer to cheering ourselves up!).
The next day was a little harder. I woke up upset again. I guess that was the start of my emotional mood swings. Once I dragged myself out of bed, I tried to motivate myself to get some errands taken care of. I didn't actually make it out of the house until 3:00 that day. And if you know me, I may be slow moving in the morning, but 3:00 is a VERY late start, even for me. Then that night was dinner at my friend's house again. This time around another guy in the squadron who hasn't left yet cooked us dinner. He is a good friend of our husbands and he wanted to get rid of some steaks that he had before he heads off on deployment too, so he cooked us some really yummy steaks. Then we watched American Idol, Biggest Loser and The Real Housewives of New Jersey. Like I said before, TV and food is clearly the answer to cheering me up. Or maybe its just an escape from reality.
On a completely random side note, I can't believe that there is now a Real Housewives of New Jersey on. I think the show in general is ridiculous and I have to admit that I was a little scared to see this new one. New Jersey has such a bad reputation to begin with, and after years and years of defending my home state to anyone who makes fun of it, I was pretty embarrassed that they chose New Jersey for the next season of the Housewives show! Prior seasons have featured housewives from individual cities or counties, so why on earth are they focusing on the whole state in this show? From what I saw last night, the women all live in the same town, or at least the same area. I have to admit though, that even through the ridiculousness of this show, it wasn't quite as embarrassing as I had anticipated. If anything, it shows people that the state is not full of cities that look like Newark. That part actually made me happy. These women are the typical rich, snobby housewives, who live in large beautiful homes and shop and eat at the best places around. So for anyone out there who thinks New Jersey is made up of dirty, crime filled cities, guess again :-). An airport that you fly into is not an indication of the entire state. On that note though, please don't assume that every woman in the state acts like these women!
Back to my deployment adjustments...
Today I woke up happy again, and I even got to talk to Mr. V for a short time online this morning. I had already received a few emails from him, so I have to admit that the ability to communicate with him makes things much easier. I know a lot of women don't like the communication that the military has today. They don't think its enough. I personally am VERY happy that this is not the time period that my grandparents lived in. When my grandfather deployed on an aircraft carrier during the Korean War, my grandma only heard from him through letters that arrived VERY slowly...if they even arrived at all. I think its a little selfish to complain about bad communication now because from what I can tell, its pretty good. Granted, we only got to talk for a short time before his time was up on the computer, but the fact that we got to talk at all made me very happy and put me in a strange mood for the rest of the day. I say strange because I was so happy that I got to talk to him, but it also saddened me because I miss having him here to talk to whenever I want to. Just add that to the list of things causing my emotional mood swings!
Today I also realized that I WILL be ok throughout all of this if I can keep myself busy the way I have been. That thought was a very cheerful thought, especially considering the fact that I never thought I would stop crying a few days ago. However, once again, it also brought me some saddness because mixed in with the realization that keeping myself busy is the way to go, I realized that not even a week has passed since he left. I feel like time is flying by, but when I stop to look at the date, it really hasn't. I need time to fly by and not just feel like its flying by!
So wish me luck in getting through this! I always knew that a deployment was coming, but that reality still doesn't make it any easier to say goodbye. I miss my husband, and will be eagerly anticipating his return home at the end of the year!
Thursday, May 7, 2009
New Reading Material
My dear friend Alice has finally decided to join the world of blogging so I thought I would post her blog here to possibly give her some more readers. Alice was my college suitemate and one of my closest friends in the world. She has put up with a lot of my crap. In the time that I've known her I have been through a lot. Things have happened in my life that were the direct result of my own stupidity and bad judgments, while other things were just the result of bad luck - and she's stuck by me though it all. A lot of crap has happened in my life that has caused me to wake up and really see who my true friends are, and Alice has proven to be one of those people. I miss her like crazy but I am happy to say that she will be visiting me here in Washington in about 2 months! After college, I moved back to New Jersey and she moved back to her home state of Virginia. About a year or so afterwards, we both ended up moving back to North Carolina - me to Salisbury (China Grove to be exact) and her to Durham. We were about 2 1/2 hours away from each other at that point. Then about a year after I moved back to North Carolina, I moved to Corpus Christi, Texas. Alice got a job with Americorps in Austin, Texas, about 3 hours away from Corpus. I used to joke about how I stalked her back to North Carolina and then to Texas. Sadly (sadly for me at least), she is still in Austin where she now works as a kindergarten teacher. Personally, I find it very wrong that she did not continue the tradition of moving to the same state as me, a few hours away, but I suppose I can forgive her for that :-).
Mr. V is about to leave me for a little over 6 months and some of the biggest "tragedies" that I will experience while he's gone are things that I'm sure are not tragic to him. The new Harry Potter movie comes out on July 17th, and I was quite upset when I realized that he won't be around to see it with me. Well...guess what day Alice plans to come out to Washington? Yep...July 17th. Its like she can read my mind :-).
Anyway, on that note, here is her blog. Alice was an English major and she is a great writer so I am sure that her blog will have lots of interesting stories to read!
Alice's Adventures in Austin
Mr. V is about to leave me for a little over 6 months and some of the biggest "tragedies" that I will experience while he's gone are things that I'm sure are not tragic to him. The new Harry Potter movie comes out on July 17th, and I was quite upset when I realized that he won't be around to see it with me. Well...guess what day Alice plans to come out to Washington? Yep...July 17th. Its like she can read my mind :-).
Anyway, on that note, here is her blog. Alice was an English major and she is a great writer so I am sure that her blog will have lots of interesting stories to read!
Alice's Adventures in Austin
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
More Catching Up
As usual, my last post said that I would update in a day or 2, and its now well over 2 weeks later. Lots of stuff is starting to happen so I'll make this update quick and just include some pictures instead of long stories...
I left off with Easter last. Since then I've managed to have a lot of fun here in Washington. A few days after Easter I went to Seattle with my friends Mrs. M and Miss S (who was soon to be Mrs. S). I shopped at the Pike Place Market for the first time and realized that even though we have been here since August of last year, I've never actually been to Seattle, except to drive through it or fly out of it. We went looking for jewelry for Miss S' bridesmaids and I managed to find some jewelry for myself along with some random funny cat art (and we also did manage to find jewelry for her bridesmaids). We also made a visit to the very first Starbucks which is right across the street from the market. Here's a picture of us there. Its hard to see but we are in front of a sign that says this is the very first Starbucks.
The market was interesting. I'm a big fan of flea markets, farmer's markets, garage sales, etc...so this was fun for me. I especially liked some of the random weirdness that we ran into...like this guy...
The market was followed by a trip to the mall in Bellevue. Miss S had to get ready for her wedding that upcoming weekend so we headed off to the Clinique counter to have a trial run done of her makeup...doesn't she look pretty? :-) (please ignore my ugly face behind her.)
The end of that week ended kind of bittersweet. My birthday was on Saturday, April 25th. Mr. V's squadron's Dining Out was also that day - not really my idea of a fun birthday, especially with a deployment coming up soon. I would have loved to spend the day just with my husband, but alas, the Dining Out it was! I can honestly say that I really didn't have a good time. This was probably attributed to my lousy attitude that night though. If it hadn't been my birthday, and if it hadn't been right before a deployment, I may have been able to convince myself to have some fun.
Earlier that day, Mr. V and I decided to check out some small town fun. Oak Harbor was having its annual Holland Happenings festival so we headed downtown to watch the parade and check out the booths. The parade was interesting. I have to admit that I was VERY surprised that it lasted more than 2 hours. I expected a parade in a town this small to last 45 minutes at most. We actually started walking towards the booths before it was even over because it was starting to get a little boring (overall it was interesting though).
During our rounds at the craft booths, we ran into the $3 an hour babysitting lady!! I am happy to say that I am convinced that she hates me now. She looked right at me, then looked away without saying a single word to me. I suppose I could have said hi, but I really didn't feel like it, and honestly, I'm a little happy that she seems to hate me now because that means that she will never ask me to babysit for her again!
In between Holland Happenings and Dining Out we made a stop at Dairy Queen for my birthday cake. I am not very particular about anything on my birthday except for one thing. I MUST have an ice cream cake. Preferably a Carvel ice cream cake, but since that can't always happen, Dairy Queen is the next best thing. When we stopped to get a cake, I asked Mr. V to go in without me and pick one out on his own. He asked me if I wanted anything specific on it and I said I didn't care - as long as it was an ice cream cake. So just to be funny, he went inside and came back outside with a cheesy, little girl, princess cake. When I laughed and asked why he picked out this particular cake he said "you just said you wanted an ice cream cake." So here is a picture of me (after Dining Out) with my birthday cake. Some 5 year old somewhere is probably very upset that she wasn't able to get her princess birthday cake.
The weekend before Dining Out (I know I am updating things out of order) we went to see the annual Skagit Valley Tulip Festival! I have to admit that out of everything I have seen and done in Washington so far, this was by far the most beautiful thing ever. The tulips are beautiful and I was very surprised to see just how many people come out to this event. In my mind, its not really a festival. Its more of a driving tour of the local tulip and daffodil farms. There are some random art shows going on and there are a few places that you can stop and park and walk around, but overall, its not really a "festival". It was fun though and I highly recommend it to anyone who is ever in this area during tulip season. We stopped at a local nursery called Roosengarde (I may be spelling that wrong) so here are some pictures from there and also some of the local fields in the area. These pictures don't really do it justice though. We took tons of pictures so when I get around to it, I will upload them all into one large online photo album.
This past week has been interesting, but that will be for another time and another blog :-).
I left off with Easter last. Since then I've managed to have a lot of fun here in Washington. A few days after Easter I went to Seattle with my friends Mrs. M and Miss S (who was soon to be Mrs. S). I shopped at the Pike Place Market for the first time and realized that even though we have been here since August of last year, I've never actually been to Seattle, except to drive through it or fly out of it. We went looking for jewelry for Miss S' bridesmaids and I managed to find some jewelry for myself along with some random funny cat art (and we also did manage to find jewelry for her bridesmaids). We also made a visit to the very first Starbucks which is right across the street from the market. Here's a picture of us there. Its hard to see but we are in front of a sign that says this is the very first Starbucks.
The market was interesting. I'm a big fan of flea markets, farmer's markets, garage sales, etc...so this was fun for me. I especially liked some of the random weirdness that we ran into...like this guy...
The market was followed by a trip to the mall in Bellevue. Miss S had to get ready for her wedding that upcoming weekend so we headed off to the Clinique counter to have a trial run done of her makeup...doesn't she look pretty? :-) (please ignore my ugly face behind her.)
The end of that week ended kind of bittersweet. My birthday was on Saturday, April 25th. Mr. V's squadron's Dining Out was also that day - not really my idea of a fun birthday, especially with a deployment coming up soon. I would have loved to spend the day just with my husband, but alas, the Dining Out it was! I can honestly say that I really didn't have a good time. This was probably attributed to my lousy attitude that night though. If it hadn't been my birthday, and if it hadn't been right before a deployment, I may have been able to convince myself to have some fun.
Earlier that day, Mr. V and I decided to check out some small town fun. Oak Harbor was having its annual Holland Happenings festival so we headed downtown to watch the parade and check out the booths. The parade was interesting. I have to admit that I was VERY surprised that it lasted more than 2 hours. I expected a parade in a town this small to last 45 minutes at most. We actually started walking towards the booths before it was even over because it was starting to get a little boring (overall it was interesting though).
During our rounds at the craft booths, we ran into the $3 an hour babysitting lady!! I am happy to say that I am convinced that she hates me now. She looked right at me, then looked away without saying a single word to me. I suppose I could have said hi, but I really didn't feel like it, and honestly, I'm a little happy that she seems to hate me now because that means that she will never ask me to babysit for her again!
In between Holland Happenings and Dining Out we made a stop at Dairy Queen for my birthday cake. I am not very particular about anything on my birthday except for one thing. I MUST have an ice cream cake. Preferably a Carvel ice cream cake, but since that can't always happen, Dairy Queen is the next best thing. When we stopped to get a cake, I asked Mr. V to go in without me and pick one out on his own. He asked me if I wanted anything specific on it and I said I didn't care - as long as it was an ice cream cake. So just to be funny, he went inside and came back outside with a cheesy, little girl, princess cake. When I laughed and asked why he picked out this particular cake he said "you just said you wanted an ice cream cake." So here is a picture of me (after Dining Out) with my birthday cake. Some 5 year old somewhere is probably very upset that she wasn't able to get her princess birthday cake.
The weekend before Dining Out (I know I am updating things out of order) we went to see the annual Skagit Valley Tulip Festival! I have to admit that out of everything I have seen and done in Washington so far, this was by far the most beautiful thing ever. The tulips are beautiful and I was very surprised to see just how many people come out to this event. In my mind, its not really a festival. Its more of a driving tour of the local tulip and daffodil farms. There are some random art shows going on and there are a few places that you can stop and park and walk around, but overall, its not really a "festival". It was fun though and I highly recommend it to anyone who is ever in this area during tulip season. We stopped at a local nursery called Roosengarde (I may be spelling that wrong) so here are some pictures from there and also some of the local fields in the area. These pictures don't really do it justice though. We took tons of pictures so when I get around to it, I will upload them all into one large online photo album.
This past week has been interesting, but that will be for another time and another blog :-).
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