MilSpouse Friday Fill-In #25

1. What is the best gift you have ever received or given? from Jessica Lynn Writes

This is a hard one because I've received a lot of great gifts over the years. I can't think of the "best" gift offhand, but one of my most memorable gifts was a suitcase set from my parents for Christmas 2000. 2 days after Christmas I left for a 10 day trip to England to visit some friends/co-workers of mine who lived there. It was my first trip overseas, and I was beyond excited, so the new suitcases that I got for the trip really stick out in my mind as memorable (and of course that day was the last day that the suitcases looked new - thanks airport baggage handlers!)

2. Do you celebrate holidays differently when your loved one is deployed/gone or do you keep tradition?

So far he's only been gone for one holiday - Thanksgiving last year. I don't know if I can say that I celebrated it differently or not. I wasn't with any of my family, but I did go to a friend's house for a big Thanksgiving feast, which is how I typically celebrate Thanksgiving. So even though Mr. V wasn't here, there weren't really any drastic changes to the WAY I celebrated the holiday. Just the people differed.

3. If you celebrate Christmas, do you put an angel, star or something else on the top of your tree?

Its always been a star in my family.

4. What are your three favorite websites?

Facebook - (its been a great way to stay in touch with friends and family as I move around), Amazon and Google....I guess that's kind of boring isn't it?

5. On your man do you prefer… boxers, briefs or boxer briefs? Or commando? (yeah, I’m starting to get desperate for questions!)?

boxers or boxer briefs

MilSpouse Friday Fill-Ins #23 & #24

Once again, I'm combining 2 weeks of the Friday Fill-In into one post.



Friday Fill-In #23:

1. If you were given $1,000 right now, how would you spend it?

I'd buy a new camera. I'm tired of my point and click camera so I've been looking at more expensive, nicer cameras. I need something that can take pictures that look somewhat professional, but is easy to use. When we went to the Olympics back in February, my friend took some AMAZING pictures of the ice dance competition. I couldn't take any. Not only were we far away, but ice dancers move pretty fast - all my camera would produce is a huge blurry image. While her pictures aren't perfect, they are five thousand times better than anything my camera could have produced. I've wanted a camera like her's ever since I saw how her pictures turned out, but unfortunately, they aren't exactly cheap. We're going to the Canadian National Figure Skating Championships in January and I want the ability to take pictures like these when we are there.

(Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir - Gold Medalists in Ice Dance...this picture was taken from our nosebleed seats)

(Same goes for this picture - it was taken from pretty far away)

(Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir in Sears Stars on Ice in Vancouver - this was also taken with my friend's camera)

2. If you had to choose a movie title (a real one that already exists) for your life story, what would it be?

Serendipity - based on one of my favorite quotes from the movie: "Life is not merely a series of meaningless accidents or coincidences, but rather, it's a tapestry of events that culminate in an exquisite sublime plan."

3. If you were a teacher, what subject would you like to teach?

History..its what I have a degree in so it would make sense to teach it if I ever decided to become a teacher.

4. Has being a MilSpouse changed how you view holidays or how your holidays are celebrated? If so, how? If not, what hasn’t changed?

It hasn't changed my views on holidays, but its definitely changed the way they are celebrated. Its not as easy to go home to my family for Christmas anymore, and last year Thanksgiving was spent here in Washington with some girl friends because our husbands were deployed at the time. So I guess the biggest thing that's changed is the inability to spend the holidays with my family (family meaning sometimes my husband but most of the time my parents and grandparents). This will be the 2nd Christmas in a row that I won't be in New Jersey for and that's upsetting to me.

5. What is your favorite Christmas (or whatever holiday you celebrate) memory?

I don't have any specific memory, but my parents had one tradition that they did every year. When we went to bed on Christmas Eve we would turn the lights off on the tree. But when I woke up in the morning the lights would already be on, even though my parents were still in bed. My parents used to tell me that Santa turned the lights on so he could see what he was doing while he was leaving presents for me. Then he left them on so I would wake up to a lit Christmas tree and presents on Christmas morning. They continued to do this every single year that I was home for Christmas. Even once I was old enough to realize that Santa wasn't real, they still turned the lights off at night, and had them turned on again before I woke up the next morning.

Friday Fill-In #24

1. What do you see your life like in 10 years?

I can't even figure out what my life is going to be like in 5 years, so 10 years? I have no idea! I suppose I'll probably be living in some state that I don't particularly like, while Mr. V finishes up his 20 years of being in the Navy. Almost exactly 10 years from now he should begin his final sea or shore tour, leaving him with only 3 years until retirement.

2. What do you like most about your job?

I like that I have nothing to do. Seriously. I don't work. The fact that I don't have a job bothered me for a pretty long time until I realized that a lot of people would give anything to have their days completely free to do whatever they wanted to do. So now I enjoy my freedom and the time I have to get things accomplished that I didn't really have when I was working full time.

3. What are three things you do every day, no matter what day it is?

brush my teeth, take a shower, feed the cats

4. What would you do with an extra five hours in the day today?

I'd make Christmas cards. I have everything I need to make homemade Christmas cards but I always seem to run out of time to make them.

5. What is your favorite Christmas (or whichever holiday you celebrate) cookie recipe (please share!)?

Italian Knot Cookies and Spritz cookies - both recipes that I can't find right now. Its about time to make them, so when I'm able to figure out where I put the recipes I'll post them in another post.

Happy Fall!!

Well it looks like winter has arrived on Whidbey Island...and with winter comes the panic of people who arent used to the snow.

Something that really surprised me when I moved out here is that even though we're pretty far north, it really doesnt snow much in the Puget Sound area. Rain? Yes. But snow? Not so much. I had the joy of watching people freak out 2 winters ago when we had several feet of snow dumped on us, and it looks like it may be the same thing this winter.

It should be noted that this area lacks the ability to remove snow from the roads. There are no snow plows on the island and using salt is illegal in the state (something about affecting the salmon in the water, though I heard yesterday that they were using salt in Seattle so maybe this is something that has changed.)

Yesterday it snowed about 2 inches and you would have thought that the world came to an end. There were accidents everywhere. Everything starting shutting down. People who were on base were stranded there for a while because it was taking over an hour for everyone to leave through the only open gate. I can understand some of the panic. Without removing snow from the roads, the snow quickly becomes packed ice, so it makes sense that people would panic while driving.I think the best part about all of this is that in the middle of the snow panic, there was also an earthquake! Mr.V and I didnt feel it and I have to admit that Im a little disappointed. Earthquakes terrify me, but this was a small one, so I think I would have been ok feeling it. We were outside taking pictures when it happened, which is why I think we didnt feel it. Once we came back inside, Mr.V immediately got a text from his friend asking if we felt the earthquake, followed by several Facebook status updates about it. Meanwhile Mr. V and I were saying "what earthquake?" It seems that the general consensus is that it felt like a quick jolt. One guy said "It made my head sort of snap forward" while others described it as "It felt like something huge slammed into my house" Based on the fact that most people seemed to notice movement from inside their house, Mr. V and I assume we would have felt it had we been inside our house at the time. It figures that during the 5 minutes we spent outside we'd miss the 2nd exciting thing of the day. We actually doubted that the earthquake even happened but here's the map from the USGS earthquake site. I circled the quake in red. As you can see, the epicenter was right off the coast of the island, right in line with Oak Harbor. So apparently it really did happen and we just managed to miss it.And this is what the rest of fall is apparently going to look like. We've been experiencing below freezing temperatures for the past 2 days and it looks like that will continue for the rest of the week, so I doubt the snow is going anywhere any time soon. (And before anyone asks - my cats are indoor only cats that we occasionally let outside supervised. We weren't torturing them by putting them in the snow. We left the door open and the ones that wandered outside on their own seemed to really enjoy being in the snow.)

MilSpouse Friday Fill-In #22

1. If you had to be shipwrecked on a deserted island, but all your human needs – such as food and water – were taken care of, what two items would you want to have with you?

I'd want a computer with internet access. As sad as it is, I think I'd lose my mind if I couldn't be connected to the outside world. I'd also want a TV for the same reason.

2. If you were a salad, what kind of dressing would you have?

Raspberry Vingerette. It has the whole sweet and sour thing going on (more sweetness than sour though), which I think could accurately describe my own personality.

3. If you had to live on a ranch, what kind of animals would you raise/own?

I love animals so I'd probably have a little bit of everything. Horses, cows, sheep, pigs, alpacas, rabbits, a few dogs and of course some barn cats. I couldn't live on a ranch that had animals that were used for food though. I'm not a vegetarian by any means, but I couldn't handle the thought of killing my own animals for food. So a ranch for me would pretty much be like my own petting zoo.

4. If your life was was portrayed as a movie, who would you choose to play you and your significant other?

Hmm this is a hard one. I honestly have no idea who I'd want to play me. But since I get to choose who Mr. V would be, I'd say Matthew Fox from Lost. I'd choose him for purely shallow reasons - he's hot. This is actually a pretty tough question!

5. What was the last thing you put a stamp on (envelope, duh, but what was in the envelope)?

My gas bill. And I was annoyed because I can't pay the gas bill online without being charged an additional fee. I haven't figured out the logic behind that yet. Boy I'm just full of exciting answers today aren't I?

MilSpouse Friday Fill-In #21

I'm actually filling this out on a Thursday night so that I can actually post it on a Friday morning, instead of Friday afternoon or another day other than Friday.

So go to Wife of a Sailor for this week's Friday Fill-In:

1. Were you named after anyone?

No one that's real. My mom is actually very opposed to naming people after someone else. She thinks everyone should have their own name because everyone is their own person. So I'm not named after anyone in my family (although I do have a cousin who is named after me - her first name is my middle name - my mom was furious about that). I am, however, named after a soap opera character. Seriously. My mom isn't a TV person, and she's really not a soap opera person, but she started watching All My Children in college and she watched it for years and years afterward. Her dorm only had one TV and it was in a common room so that's what was always on the TV. She really liked the character named Brooke (the character and the name), so when she had me, she named me Brooke.

2. What color, if any, are your toenails usually painted?

Usually some shade of pink if I actually take the time to paint them.

3. How do you flush a public toilet? Hands? Feet? Something else?

Always with my foot. Public restrooms really creep me out, so if I don't have to touch something, I won't.

4. When you were a little kid, which TV character did you have a crush on?

My first TV crush was Michael J. Fox on Family Ties (though I can't remember the name of his character right now - Alex I think?). I can't even remember how old I was when the show was on, but I loved the show and I loved him. I was also pretty obsessed with the Back to the Future movies (I still have them completely memorized), so Michael J. Fox was the one for me!

5. Let’s say you had to lose one of your five senses (sight, hearing, touch, taste, and smell). Which one would you choose? Why?

Without a doubt I'd chose to lose my hearing. I can't even imagine not being able to see anything. I can't even begin to imagine how I would get around and function.

It would just be weird to not be able to feel anything that I touched.

I've lost my sense of taste and smell several times already (3 sinus surgeries and the recovery process will do that to you) and it freaked me out each time. I can't even explain why, but eating something without being able to taste it at all, was just creepy to me. My sense of smell was also gone during the recovery process because my nose was packed to the point of not letting any air at all into it so I don't know if its the fact that I can't smell anything or the fact that I panic when I can't breath that makes me cringe at the idea of losing my sense of smell.

My mom is a sign language interpreter and while I don't know sign language really well, I've always been able to pick it up quickly when I needed to. My sister-in-law is also deaf, and while I don't see her that often, its really the best way to communicate with her. So as much as I wouldn't want to lose my hearing, I think I'd be able to adapt to hearing loss much better than losing any other sense.

MilSpouse Friday Fill-In #20

Check out Wife of a Sailor for the 20th week of the Friday Fill-In:

1. A different twist on last week’s question. This week, the first question is: what’s the nicest thing a MILSPOUSE has ever done for you?

During Mr. V's deployment last year EVERYTHING went wrong. And I mean everything. Search back through my blog posts and you'll find endless lists of everything that broke or went wrong while he was gone. About 2 weeks before he came back, one of my cats got sick....REALLY sick. Moses was the cat that replaced my 8 month old kitten that I lost to leukemia a few years ago, so he's pretty special to me. He had crystals and a blockage which is bad, but most cats can be unblocked pretty easily. Not Moses though. He went from having basic crystals and a blockage to needing emergency surgery for bladder stones, only to find out when they opened him up that he had a torn urethra, which would ultimately lead to death if it didn't heal. The vet had him in surgery when she called me to ask if I just wanted him euthanized right then and there, while he was already under anesthesia. Because Moses is so special to me, and because so much other stuff had gone wrong, I completely lost it and broke down. The vet had given him a less than 1% chance of survival. I said no to euthanizing because while I didn't want him to suffer, I needed a few moments to even process what was going on. I tried to track down Mr. V in Iraq - unsuccessfully. I didn't want to agree to anything until I talked to him, and while we had managed to talk almost every day, of course this was the one day I couldn't get in touch with him. I also wanted a chance to see Moses and say goodbye to him before they put him to sleep. So I called one of my friends crying, and without even hesitating, she packed up her 8 month old and met me at the vet to be with me while Moses was put down. That may seem like such a minor thing to some people, but I didn't want to be alone at that moment, and she didn't even hesitate or think about what she was doing. She just came out to be with me. I honestly don't know if a non-military friend would have done that for me. I like to think that they would have, but at the same time I don't think they would have understood how hard it would be to go through something like that while your husband was deployed. I'm very attached to my animals and since this news came on so sudden and quick, it was just horrible to deal with alone. I'll be grateful forever to her for dropping everything she was doing to come to the vet to be with me.

And on a happy note, by the time we got to the vet, I realized I made the right decision in saying "no" to immediate euthanasia. By the time we got there the vet had done some research and called a specialist for advice and Moses' chances of survival had been increased to 20%. Now almost exactly a year later (and after several weeks hospitalized and several months of medicine) he's still here with me alive and well :-).

2. How often do you drive faster than the speed limit?

Umm every single day. And I have a nice track record of speeding tickets to prove it. I try to never go more than about 8 miles over the limit, but my pile of tickets prove that I don't always manage to do that. I should really make a point of slowing down.

3. Did you have a nickname in school? If so, what was it?

I never had a nickname in school, but I did work at a camp where we were required to have nicknames (based on a tradition of it being too formal to call your counselors "Mrs. or Miss" but too informal to call them by their first names) and my nickname was Vega. In college my roommate started calling me Brooklet and thats the nickname that has really stuck around. Several people still call me Brooklet.

4. If your life was a book, what would the title be and how would it end?

I'll have to steal my blog title for this and call it "Life and Times of a Displaced Jersey Girl" because that really is my life. As for an ending, since I'm still hopefully very far away from the end of my life I'm going to leave that one unanswered for now.

5. Look back (in your planner if you have one) to September 14th… what did you do that day?

Absolutely nothing. But I took a cat to a feline cardiologist on the 13th and took a soap making class on the 15th. However, the 14th appears to have been a pretty relaxing, "do nothing" day.

MilSpouse Friday Fill-In #19

Head over to Wife of a Sailor for the 19th week of the Friday Fill-In...

1. What’s the nicest thing a stranger has ever done for you?

A week ago, I don't know if I would have had an answer for this, but a few days ago a guy hit my car in a parking lot. The nice thing was that he stuck around, waiting for me to come out of the store to give me his insurance info and apologize. You would think that having your car hit would annoy you, but I was honestly so shocked and grateful that this guy stuck around, that I didn't even care. Back in Jacksonville I got into a pretty bad car accident. A guy side swiped me, causing me to spin out across 3 lanes of traffic on the interstate and eventually end up in the trees on the side of the road, about 2 feet away from a huge concrete pole. The guy attempted a hit a run, but he blew his tire out and ended up stopping almost a 1/2 mile down the road. My car was pretty messed up and to make matters even worse, this guy was driving on a suspended license with no insurance. Needless to say, I wasn't at all happy that the guy tried to drive away like nothing happened, and I was furious that I had to pay the deductible to have my car fixed. I have uninsured driver insurance, but it really infuriated me that I had to still put out a few hundred dollars of my own money to fix my car because this asshole was driving without insurance. So needless to say, after that experience, the fact that someone waited for me in the parking lot to give me his insurance info so I could fix the damage on my car has renewed my faith in people. And thankfully, the damage looked worse than it was. The front grill of the car has been pushed in, but Mr. V was able to pop it back into place. All thats left now is a teeny tiny little dent in the hood, and since the car is 6 years old and has a few other tiny dents we aren't even going to make these people pay for it. Its not even worth fixing.

And that was a long story to say that these people waiting for me, might have actually been the nicest thing a stranger has done for me. Ive had other dents and bumps in my car that I didn't put there, yet no one ever stuck around to take the blame for.

2. If you are having a hard time going to sleep, what do you do to help yourself?

Thats a good question. I'll be reading other people's answers to get some ideas here. I've had some pretty serious insomnia over the past few years and when I can't fall asleep, nothing helps. Maybe someone else will have a good answer to this question.

3. Name something that makes you wish you were a kid again.

Seeing as Halloween is only 2 days away...I want to go trick or treating again!

4. What is something you never believed until you experienced it?

I never believed in ghosts, but a few of my own experiences (stories for another time) have made me seriously reconsider my opinion about them.

5. What can’t you say “no” to?

Traveling. I'm always up for going somewhere new - whether its just down the street or halfway around the world. I love seeing new places, and I rarely even stop to think about the cost when we're in the process of planning our next adventure.

MilSpouse Friday Fill-In #17 and #18

Since its the day before the 19th installment of the Friday Fill-In, I thought I'd finally get around to responding to the 17th and 18th installments. I enjoy doing these fill-ins but I always seem to be too busy to do them on the actual day that they are supposed to be posted. So here are the last 2 from Wife of a Sailor and hopefully tomorrow I'll actually post one on time!

Friday Fill-In #17

1. What are some things on your bucket list? (from New Girl on Post)

I have a whole long list of things I want to do before I die, but unfortunately that list is in my head, and not written down, so I'm forgetting some of the things right now (I probably should write the whole list down). But off the top of my head this is what I can think of:

~own my own business
~visit all 50 states
~visit all 10 provinces and 3 territories of Canada (we're actually going to be hitting up the Yukon Territory in April - more to come on that later!)
~visit all 7 continents (yes including Antarctica - my aunt took a trip there years ago and her pictures are absolutely amazing)
~open my own animal rescue
~buy an old farmhouse (preferably pre-Civil War era) and renovate it to its original condition
~get my masters degree
~see the pyramids in Egypt
~go to Prague at Christmas
~celebrate New Year's in Times Square (after living so close to NYC and spending so much time there throughout my whole life, I've still never gone there for New Year's)

2. How long have you been a MilSpouse and where have you been stationed so far? (from Raising Roscoe)

I've been a military spouse for 2 1/2 years now and while being married we've been stationed in Jacksonville, Florida and Whidbey Island, Washington. We met in Corpus Christi, Texas though, where I had moved with my ex-fiance. So we count Corpus as a place we've lived, but since we didn't move there together, didn't meet until the end of our time there, and weren't married at the time, I don't know if that counts.

3. What is a list of songs that sums up your life so far? (from Confessions of a Sailor’s Wife)

This one is kind of hard. I hear songs all the time and think "This song is about me!" but off the top of my head I can't think of a whole list of them. The only one thats coming to mind is "Bless the Broken Road" by Rascal Flatts that was my wedding song. It definitely describes my life in the romantic sense.

4. What is your favorite kind of pizza?

I'm not actually a huge fan of pizza, mainly because I don't like certain kinds of cheese (and my Italian family hates this about me). However, I hate cheese-less pizza because the cheese leaves behind a greasy taste that I like and without cheese that flavor doesn't exist. So my favorite kind of pizza would be plain cheese pizza, but with the cheese pulled off of it. So it basically just becomes bread with tomato sauce and a greasy residue, but that makes my taste buds happy. (and for the record, since moving away from New Jersey I haven't been able to find any pizza that even remotely compares to the pizza you can get there. My favorite being Maruca's or 3 Brothers pizza from the Seaside Heights boardwalk.)

5. What are three good things in your life right now?

1. Mr. V is home and will be home for at least a few more months.
2. Our finances are very stable which allows us to live a pretty good life and splurge a little here and there.
3. I have some amazing friends that I've met in this town, which has made life so much easier up here and has helped me learn how to actually love this place!

Friday Fill-In #18

1. Are you a night owl or an early bird?

Neither actually. I love my sleep and while I'm usually awake between 8:30 and 9 each morning, anything earlier than that makes me miserable. I also tend to go to sleep around 10 or 11 every night. My days of staying up until all hours of the night are long gone. I function the best and feel the best in mid-afternoon. So can I call myself an "afternoon person"?

2. What makes you jealous?

I realize this is probably pretty pathetic, but I can't stand when other women flirt with my husband. I know it means nothing to him and I know I have nothing to worry about, but it still makes my anger flare like you wouldn't believe. So I don't know if thats actual jealousy or just anger.

On another note, people who have an easy time in new social situations and who are outgoing also make me jealous, because I wish I could be more like that. I wish I was able to move to a new place and just get out there by myself, but it takes me a while to warm up to new places and social situations, which makes things hard at first.

3. Have you started Christmas/holiday shopping yet? When will you finish?

Sort of. I never actually "start" Christmas shopping, but instead if I find something while I'm out and about that I know someone would like, I'll buy it and hang onto it until Christmas. So I have a few random things bought for people already, but I probably won't finish my official Christmas shopping until Christmas Eve (yes I'm a procrastinator).

4. What would you have a personal chef make you tonight?

Thai peanut sauce. This is my new addiction at the moment. There's a Thai restaurant in town that has the best peanut sauce I've ever tasted and I need to figure out how to duplicate it before we move. So far I haven't figured out how to do that because there are hundreds of different peanut sauce recipes online. Maybe if I had a personal chef, he could taste test the one I like and be a good enough chef to figure out how to re-create it for me. (so if anyone has a good Thai peanut sauce recipe please pass it along to me!)

5. Where was your first kiss?

I feel like I'm really dating myself when I realized that I had to actually think about this. I remember the moment, but I really had to think about what age I was because it feels like it was so long ago. I was 14 or 15, at my friend's house and we were playing truth or dare. My friend knew I liked this one guy who was with us, so she dared him to kiss me and he did. We actually did date for a while after that but there was really nothing spectacular or memorable about him other than the fact that I was furious with my friend when she dared him to kiss him!

Petsmart Halloween

This has become an annual tradition for us, and if you think we're crazy - too bad :-).

A few years ago a local pet store in Corpus Christi asked us to enter their annual pet costume contest. We shopped there all the time and it sounded cute and fun, so we entered, and won 2nd place. We took home a bag of rabbit supplies (I had dressed our 4 rabbits up as the characters from the Wizard of Oz) worth at least $100. Once we realized we could win money we set out for 2 more contests in town - winning 1st place and a $50 gift certificate at one of them, and 3rd place a box of pet supplies worth about $50 from another one. In total we won about $200 worth of animal supplies and in a large animal household, any money or free stuff is always welcome and appreciated!

So for the past few years we have been taking the cats (and rabbits, though 3 of them have died, leaving me with only one character from the Wizard of Oz left). Each year we've won something. We've never won as much as that first year, but I've found that most people dress up their dogs and are shocked to see cats and rabbits in costumes. I think thats what helps us win - we're different from the rest.

This past weekend we took the cats to the Petsmart Halloween contest and walked out of there with 3 cute pictures, and 3rd place with a huge bag of Greenies treats. Greenies are pretty expensive and this bag is huge, so once again, we were happy with our prize :-).

We couldn't take all of the cats because some of them won't tolerate a costume for even 2 seconds, but we packed up the ones who were semi-well behaved and this is what we got. They all look so thrilled....

Fall in Washington

Its been a really long time since I've posted anything other than the Friday Fill-Ins so I guess its time for a little catching up.

The past few months have been pretty hectic. Lots going on - both good and bad.

A few of the highlights (not all necessarily good highlights):

~I've come to appreciate and enjoy Washington a lot more over the past few months (I can't believe I'm saying this). I think its because of several things, but the biggest thing being that our OSC has a fantastic woman in charge of planning activities. I've been here going on 3 years now and while I've found stuff to do on my own, our spouse club was severely lacking in fun activities. That never bothered me, because I was perfectly content to have nothing to do with the OSC, but just in the past few months we've had a lot of fun. Some of the drama filled wives have moved away and have been replaced with much nicer wives. And our social chair is always up for new exciting things so our club social calendar has been pretty full. I've been spending my time learning how to make soap, canning apples and making homemade applesauce (there are fruit trees all over this island including a peach tree in my own backyard which we baked several pies with and made peach butter), hiking the different trails on the island, crafting, and other random things like that. Its been keeping me pretty busy and pretty happy.

~On a sad note, we had a recent death in the family. My 20 year old cousin died very suddenly and very unexpectedly. We're still waiting on autopsy results, but the doctor's suspect that he had an undiagnosed heart problem which might have caused an aneurysm. He came home from work one night, said he didn't feel very good, went to sleep, and never woke up. It was definitely a huge shock to our family. The worst part is that this is my second cousin to die so young and so suddenly. Several years ago my 27 year old cousin (from the other side of the family) died from having a brain aneurysm. You would think this kind of stuff wasn't that common, but its happened to two very young people in my family now.

~On the topic of heart problems, one of my cats may have heart disease. I still have to make an appointment with a cardiologist for her, which I've been putting off because I'm scared to hear bad news. She has a pretty significant heart murmur, which doesn't necessarily mean heart disease, but it IS an indicator of it, so I'm hoping and praying that she'll be one of the lucky ones who just has a heart murmur, but no other problems. I just went through this with another cat, but thankfully, he ended up having asthma, and not a heart condition. (As a side note, I've become a pro at giving a cat 2 daily doses of an inhaler - something I never thought would be possible.)

~The very first person I met here is moving soon :-(. I was living in a pretty sketchy hotel (it was the only one in town that didn't care how many pets you had), while Mr. V was off on a Hawaii det, when we first moved here. We were waiting to close on our house so we spent 3 weeks at the hotel, and when Mr. V left I was pretty miserable. Thanks to a military wives online forum, I met Allison, who invited me over for lunch one day while Mr. V was gone. After traveling across the country for 3 weeks and then spending weeks in a hotel, I was just plain sick of restaurant food. Allison made egg salad sandwiches that day and I swear it was the best sandwich I've ever eaten. I still tell her that too. But her husband is getting out of the Navy in just a few weeks and then they are moving back to their hometown on Buffalo, New York. I'm really truly devastated that my first friend here is leaving already. But I guess thats the life I signed up for.

~On a happy note Mr. V dragged me along on another adventure this past weekend, which I thought was going to be horribly boring, but was actually a lot of fun. He's been obsessed with the big, snowy mountains that surround us since we've moved here and I have to admit that it IS pretty, but I am so sick of hearing "Look at the big, snowy mountains Brooklet!" every time the sun is out. He knows I'm sick of hearing it, but it doesn't stop him from saying it over and over! He's been wanting to drive the Cascade Loop (see info on it here , here and here) since we moved here. We took a trip to the North Cascade National Park when we first moved here and out of everything I've seen here in Washington, it just didn't impress me much. It still doesn't impress me and I don't know why. I think the Olympic mountains (to the west of us) are gorgeous , but the North Cascades (to the east) do absolutely nothing for me. The Cascade Loop is about a 10 hour drive total. He was going to do the drive with or without me, but he whined and begged for me to come along, and since our time together is limited to begin with, I caved in and agreed to go. I have to admit that I had a great time. We stopped in Leavenworth, which is where we went for a weekend when he returned from deployment. Its a cute, VERY tiny, Bavarian town that holds an annual Christmas lighting festival every December, which is what we went to last year. This year they were just finishing up their annual Oktoberfest when we got there. The leaves were changing. The sun was out for the entire trip. So I have to say that most of the drive was beautiful (though I'm still not impressed by the Cascades. Yes they're pretty, but I just can't get as excited as Mr. V does about them.) So here are some pictures:

(Near Marblemount, WA where we stopped for a picnic lunch)

(North Cascades National Park)

(North Cascades National Park - overlooking Hwy 20)

(Winthrop, WA - these pictures don't do the town justice. This town is what you hit as soon as you drive over the Cascades. We felt like we walked onto the set of a Wild West movie as soon as we got into this town.)

(Winthrop, WA - A real "Wild West" town)

(one of several funny old advertisements in Winthrop, WA)

(You have to love the schoolhouse turned brewery - Winthrop, WA)

(Winthrop, WA town hall)

(Winthrop, WA)

(me and my ice cream eating wild west buddy - Winthrop, WA)

(sunset over the Cascades)

(ever wonder where the famous Washington apples come from? Apparantly Wenatchee, WA which is where we spent the night. The place is full of endless rows of fruit trees - mostly apples obviously.)

(Leavenworth, WA)

(fall in Leavenworth, WA)

(Leavenworth, WA)

(fall in Leavenworth)

MilSpouse Friday Fill-In #15 and #16

Due to my constant lack of free time over the past 2 weeks I'm responding to two Friday Fill-Ins again. So click here for last week's Friday Fill-In from Wife of a Sailor and click here for this week's.

Friday Fill-#15

1. What is the silliest get-up you have ever worn outside of a Halloween party? (from To The Nth)

I was looking through photo albums this morning trying to find this picture but so far it seems to have disappeared. When I was in college I double majored in Communication Arts and History. I had to take a variety of public speaking classes for the communications major and one of them was called Reader's Theatre. Each semester the class voted on a theme and then we read stories out loud, based on that theme. Then at the end of the semester, our final exam consisted of us going around to local elementary schools and reading to them. My class voted on Dr. Seuss and we spent the entire semester reading Dr. Seuss stories out loud. When we went to the elementary schools we had to dress up to look like we could fit into a Dr. Seuss book. My outfit consisted of a blue flowered dress over an orange striped shirt, rainbow toe socks and flip flops with huge flowers on them, and my hair was in pig tails. I looked absolutely ridiculous, but I have to admit I had fun reading to the local kids. If I can find the picture, I'll post it in another blog for people to laugh at me :-).

2. What is something that you gave up in order to live the military lifestyle? (from Pennies from Heaven)

A career. See my answer above about going to college and graduating with 2 majors? Yeah...I have no use for that degree at the moment. It took me a LONG time to accept the fact that right now, staying home and being a housewife is OK. Ideally I want to work as a Civil War historian on a battlefield, but that can't exactly happen out on the West Coast. I had a temp job at the Whataburger Corporate Office when we lived in Corpus Christi which wasn't too bad, but it was still just a job, not a career. In Jacksonville I babysat a lot which is also what I do here. There are very few jobs on this island, never mind a career job. I was raised to think and believe that I will always have to have a way to provide for myself but this lifestyle has made that somewhat impossible. I know there are military spouses who do have careers, but what I want for a career isn't something portable and that was really depressing to me at first. The only thing that has made it better for me is that I have come to realize that almost all of the wives in Mr. V's squadron are also unemployed so its not just me. I never thought I'd have to rely on a man to support me, but at the moment, thats what I am doing. Maybe someday I'll get to have my dream career.

3. If money wasn’t a factor and you could go anywhere in the world, where would it be? And why? (from Life and Times of a Displaced Jersey Girl)

This was my question but I don't have a straight answer for it. I want to go everywhere! I want to see every single country on this planet, even though I know thats absolutely impossible to do. So since I can't see everything then I want to travel as much as I can. A friend of mine just finished a "Round the World" trip. She started in London, worked her way through Europe, then Asia, then Australia, then North America. She ended in New York City. The entire trip took several months but she had the greatest time! I'd love to have the time and money to do something like that!

4. If you were going to join the military, what branch would you join? Or which MOS/rating would you choose? (from And You Never Did Think)

Well...I have absolutely no interest whatsoever in joining the military, but if I was forced to choose, then I'd join the Navy as a Public Affairs Officer. Then I could put my communications degree to use :-).

5. What is your favorite thing to make for dinner? (from Armendinger Party of 4)

My favorite thing to make? Or my favorite thing to eat? My favorite thing to make is anything that I can pop in the microwave for 5 minutes, and then eat. I hate cooking. I'm not exactly the world's best chef. If I had to actually make something, then it would be deli sliced roast beef and mashed potatoes. My dad came up with this when I was in middle school and its so easy to make and very tasty! I buy cajun spiced roast beef from the deli (or regular roast beef and then spice it myself), boil a pot of brown gravy, toss the roast beef in for a few minutes, make some instant mashed potatoes (I prefer real ones but I'm going for simplicity here), and eat. I've been told that it sounds weird to use deli sliced roast beef, but I've made it for several people and everyone has liked it so far!

Friday Fill-In #16

1. What is the longest road trip you’ve ever taken?

Our move out here. We went from Jacksonville, Florida to Whidbey Island, Washington. We took 3 weeks (I think it would have taken about 4-5 days if we had just driven straight through without stopping to be tourists along the way) and drove through Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky, Missouri, Illinois, Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, South Dakota, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho and finally Washington. Out of all those states, the only ones I had ever seen before this trip were Florida (obviously since we were living there) Georgia and Tennessee. The rest was all new to me. It was definitely a trip of a lifetime! (or at least until we drive back to the East Coast, then we'll have another trip of a lifetime).

2. Do you collect anything? Tell us a bit about it.

I'm sort of a pack rat so I have a lot of collections, but my largest one is my rabbit collection. I got my first live rabbit when I was 4, but I got my first stuffed bunny when I was born. I love rabbits and collect anything that has a rabbit on it. I have literally hundreds and hundreds of rabbit items in my house and there's no way I'll ever have room to display them all. To put it in perspective, when I was 8 years old, I displayed a small part of my rabbit collection in the local library and had a newspaper article written about it because it was so unique and diverse. 22 years have gone by since then and I've continued to collect rabbits. Its pretty safe to say its a pretty large collection.

3. What is your favorite part about being an adult?

Living on my own. I guess that sounds simple but my mother and I butted heads a lot when I was growing up and we still do to this day. I love my mom but we are 2 very different people in the way we do things, but very much alike in our stubbornness. The greatest thing I ever did was move out of my house because now I can live on my own without my mom's constant nagging all the time. I like being able to be my own person. I can decorate my house the way I want to. I can do what I want, when I want to. I like that I'll never have to answer to someone ever again. (I do value Mr. V's opinions about things though, but he also loves being away from his parents)

4. What song brings a tear to your eye?

I could write a whole list of songs that make me cry for a variety of reasons. I'm very emotional when it comes to music. I guess the most recent one is "Just a Dream" by Carrie Underwood. I heard it for the first time when I was going through Mr. V's first deployment. If you know the lyrics then you know its not a great song to hear the first time your husband is deployed.

5. Describe your first plane ride (how old you were, where you were heading, etc).

I was 8 flying from New Jersey to Florida to go to Disney World. The only thing I really remember about the flight was that some guy on the plane completely freaked out as the plane was pulling away from the gate. He was yelling about how he had to get off the plane. They did bring the plane back and let him off, but that was slightly frightening for an 8 year old on her first plane trip. I didn't like flying then, and I still don't like it now.

MilSpouse Friday Fill-In #14

Head over to Wife of a Sailor for the 14th installment of the MilSpouse Friday Fill-In!

1. What characteristic about yourself has either been strengthened or weakened due to your experience as a Military Spouse? (from The Albrecht Squad)

I've definitely learned how to deal with change better. I hate change. I always have. I like things to be familiar and safe, and this life definitely doesn't really allow for that to happen. So while I still hate change, I've definitely gotten more used to it and I've learned to embrace it. I've become more outgoing because when friends move away, I have to find new ones. I've always loved to travel so now I force myself to look at the times we move as a travel adventure instead of drastic life altering moves. I can't say that I always have a good attitude about change now. I still don't handle it well. I don't like moving every few years. I don't like making friends only to have them move away in a few months. But I've gotten better. I've learned to be flexible and adapt to change. So I guess my flexibility is the characteristic that's been strengthened. I never used to be flexible at all. Now I have to be.

2. What is your favorite vacation spot and why? (from ‘Tis the Life of the Army Wife)

This question is impossible for me to answer. I've loved almost every single place I've vacationed too. So instead of picking an overall favorite, I'll pick a recent vacation. Before Mr. V deployed last year, we went to the Canadian Rockies, and I LOVED it up there! Granted, he did have me in tears after dragging me on a hike up a really steep mountain, in an avalanche zone, in below freezing temperatures (in April), but its absolutely beautiful up there and its unlike anything I have ever seen before! Excluding the insane hike that I was dragged on, the trip was amazing and I can't wait to go back there again one day!

I blogged about this trip while we were on it, so here are the links to those posts:
Canada Adventure Part 1
Canada Adventure Part 2
Canada Adventure Part 3
Canada Adventure Part 4
Canada Adventure Part 5
Canada Adventure Part 6
Random Tidbits About Canada

3. If you could have any fast-food restaurant in the food court on base/post what would you pick? (from The Only Pink in a House of Blue)

I'm going to be boring and say "I don't care". The one thing Oak Harbor does have is almost every fast food restaurant you can think of. My house is closer to all of them then it is to the NEX on base, so I would really have no reason to even get fast food on base. Plus, the town is so small that if I happened to be shopping there in the first place and got hungry, it would take me all of 5 minutes to get to the fast food restaurant of choice out in town.

4. Where did you go on your honeymoon? (from Pennies from Heaven)

People in the military go on honeymoons?!?!? We didn't have a real honeymoon, which was actually fine with me. A month before we got married Mr. V had to go to Hawaii for a week, so I flew out there to see him and spent a week at a 5 star hotel on Waikiki Beach, paid for by the Navy. I guess that was our "pre-honeymoon". Once we got married we had about 3 weeks to pack up the whole apartment (we did a full DITY move), and then 3 weeks to move across the entire country. So we used the 3 weeks of travel as our honeymoon. It obviously wasn't a "real" honeymoon since we had to drive that way anyway, but we went places that I never would have ever thought I would see prior to marrying someone in the Navy. Out of all the states we saw, the Black Hills in South Dakota was my favorite part, and we spent several days there just because there was so much to see and do. I used to make fun of South Dakota, just jokingly, because it always seemed like such a boring state to me. But after spending several days out there (we spent more time than we originally planned) I love it! So now I tell people that we took our honeymoon to South Dakota :-).

5. If you could have any job in the world regardless of money, degree or experience, which job would you have and why? (from Proud to Be a Navy Family and The Calm Before The Storm)

I want to be a Civil War Historian and work on a Civil War battlefield. Why? Because I'm a huge history nerd. I have a BA in History, with a concentration in the American South, and the Civil War is the most fascinating part of that history to me. Its actually a little depressing to me that Civil War history doesn't extend out to the Pacific. There's other history out here, but its just not the same. So ideally, I'd move back East and find myself a job on a battlefield somewhere!

MilSpouse Friday Fill-In 12 & 13

I missed last week's Friday Fill-In, so this week I'm doing 2 of them at once.

So head over to Wife of a Sailor for last Friday's questions:

1. Do you set goals for yourself during deployment? What are some of them? (from Military Mommy)

Well, I did set some goals for myself while Mr. V was deployed, but to be honest, I don't think I actually achieved any of them. I wanted to get our house completely unpacked (we've lived here for over 2 years but we still have piles of unpacked boxes in our garage), but needless to say he's about 6 months away from his next deployment and we still haven't unpacked completely and we probably never will. I guess thats ok though because obviously we've lived here completely fine for 2 years so we clearly don't need anything in those boxes, plus we'll be moving again in about a year anyway. I also wanted to go the gym daily to get myself back in shape. I think I went maybe 10 times during the entire 7 month deployment. So the answer is, yes I set goals. Do I actually accomplish those goals? Nope!

2. What would you say to someone dating a military guy or gal? (from Mothering Off the Cuff)

I'd tell them to make sure they know what they're getting into. I realize that you can't help who you fall in love with, but this life is harder than I ever imagined it to be and I've met people who just can't handle it and end up divorcing - not because they don't love their husband, but because the life was too hard for them. You need to be prepared for long periods of separation - in many cases, this doesn't just include full deployments. In Mr. V's case he's only been on one full deployment, but right now he's not here because he's doing an exercise in Guam for a month. He's spent weeks in San Diego, Hawaii, Maryland, and Japan - all for short periods of time, but that time adds up. We've been married for just over 2 years, but we've probably only spent a year total of that time together. When he is home, his hours are long and unpredictable. Sometimes he works days, sometimes nights. So even when he's home, he's not always "home". Its not a bad life, but its definitely something that you need to be prepared to deal with, otherwise you just won't cut it as a military wife. Even now I still hate how often he's gone, but I've learned to just deal with it and accept it.

3. If you have children, how do you prepare them to move to a new place? (from The Random Ramblings of A Household 6)

We have no kids, and thats probably a good thing. I cried when I found out we were moving to Washington, and I'm already on the verge of tears thinking about our next move, because I really, really, really don't want to go back to Corpus Christi and that's a definite possibility. So if we had kids, I don't imagine that I would be able to give anyone advice on this. I can't even figure out how to prepare myself for a move to a new place!

4. Name one hobby that gets you through alone time. (from My Sailor’s Mistress)

Reading. I love reading and don't have the time to read as much as I'd like to. Mr. V also has a hard time understanding why I like to be left alone while I read. He calls it my "only child syndrome". I call it needing space to myself. And because he doesn't understand why I like to shut myself in a room away from him and the cats for a bit, its nice when he's not here so I don't have to explain to him again that I just want some peace and quiet and a chance to be alone to absorb myself into my book.

5. What’s the one food you don’t ever get tired of? (from That Army Wife Life)

Spaghetti. I could eat spaghetti every single night of every single week. My family used to eat it at least twice a week when I was growing up. I don't think its even possible for me to get sick of eating it so often.

Now head over to Wife of a Sailor for this week's questions:

1. How do you spend your deployment money, do you save, pay off bills or enjoy the extra money while it is there to buy the things you do not normally have? (from Troop Petrie)

We didn't do anything specific with the extra money. Some of it automatically went into savings, since part of our income will always go straight into savings, but as for the rest of it, we didn't have any definite plans for it. We like to travel a lot though - both day trips and overnight adventures and that can start to add up, so I guess thats where the extra money goes. If we didn't have the money, we couldn't go on our fun adventures, so in reality I guess any extra money we come into - deployment related or not - goes into our adventure fund :-).

As a side note, Mr. V did buy himself an old truck - seen here - when he got back from Iraq, but I don't know if that counts as a post deployment purchase or not since it was only $600 (not including the restoration work that needs to be done on it, but I won't add that all up until he actually has time to start restoring it.)

2. If you could relive one occasion or moment, what would it be? (from Currently On Land)

I want to go back to the Olympics! Being able to go to Vancouver during the Olympics this year was quite possibly the coolest thing I've ever done. Walking around the city and going to one of the events, was just amazing. If you've never been to the Olympics, its hard to explain what it was like. The atmosphere and the excitement around the city was almost surreal. Plus the fact that the Olympics only happen every 4 years (or 2 if you alternate between summer and winter Olympics)...and they only happen in one city...and almost the entire world is in the city at the same time, its just such a great experience. I'm already trying to figure out if its possible to go to London in 2012 for the summer Olympics, but after going to the winter Olympics I would LOVE to go to Sochi in 2014 for the winter experience again. It was just such an incredible experience that isn't something that one could easily relive.

3. What’s the worst job you ever had and if it was so bad why did you take it? (from Faith and Deploying)

I've never had a truly horrible full time job, even though I also haven't had one that I really love either. But I guess the worst "job" I ever had was a babysitting job. When I was in college, my school had a babysitting list that you could add your name and contact into to. Then parents could come by the college and pick up a list and then find a babysitter. One mother contacted me and when she found out that my roommate was also on the babysitting list, she said she was interested in hiring both of us. She made it sound wonderful - we could work with a good friend, AND she would pay us $10 an hour EACH for about 30 hours a week. AND she would be home the entire time we were there. Well lesson learned - if it sounds too good to be true, its too good to be true. She had 5 kids, which was her reasoning behind hiring 2 babysitters. I didn't find this weird at first, but I should have. I had babysat for another family with 5 kids, and while things were a little hectic, they weren't bad. That job just required a lot of energy. Well this lady failed to tell us that she had a 7 year old boy, who had sever anger problems, and he hated his baby brother. He was mean. He was violent. And he went out of his way to try to hurt his baby brother. We couldn't turn our backs on him for a second, because he was determined to seriously injure the poor baby. We ended up quitting for several reasons, but the biggest one for me was that if this kid managed to hurt, or even worse, kill his baby brother, I would be the one who would be held responsible for that and I didn't want that on my shoulders. I think we only worked for her for 2 or 3 days total, and she wasn't at all happy with us when we quit, but seriously? I'm not going to take a job where the risk of a child getting seriously injured is on my shoulders. We did what we could to keep this kid apart from the baby, but its impossible to watch a kid 24/7 when there are other kids in the picture too. It was just a horrible situation and one that I never want to repeat!

4. If you could play any character on TV, who would you be? (from Many Waters)

Kate from Lost. It should be noted that I don't watch a whole lot of TV. I usually have the TV on, but as for shows I follow and really pay attention to, there aren't many. I only became a Lost fan 3 weeks before the show ended for good, but now I've watched the entire series, and bought the box set so I'm in the process of re-watching it now. Its actually a show that I had refused to watch because I knew I'd probably get hooked on it, and I just wasn't interested in getting hooked on a new show. Then I babysat for a friend with no cable. She had 3 channels. The 3rd to last episode of Lost was on. It was the only thing worth watching on TV and even though the episode made absolutely no sense to me, it was enough to make me go home determined to watch the entire series, just so I could figure out what the heck was going on. So this seems like an easy answer to me. Tropical Island + 2 hot guys that you could have your choice of (Sawyer and Jack) seems like a good choice to me. (of course I'll ignore the fact that she's also a fugtive - everyone gets a new life on the island ;-)).

5. If you could become the world’s expert in something, what would it be? (from Army of Two)

Cats. I don't want to be a vet. I just want to be an expert on the animals in my house so I don't have to continuously spend endless amounts of money on my cats. If I could diagnose and treat them right here at home, it would just make life so much easier for me!