Random Rant and Rave for the week

Rant: Mr. V is gone for a few weeks. Maybe 3. Maybe 6. Maybe 2 months. Nothing drives me crazier than not knowing what's going on. He's in San Diego right now, and then he may or may not be heading to some place in the South Pacific, or maybe Japan (Is Japan considered the South Pacific?). I honestly don't know how he handles his job. It drives me crazy and I'm not the one doing the job. I can handle him being gone, even though I miss him. I just would really like to know when he's coming back, give or take a day or 2.

Rave: I love Roots. And not the 1977 movie. Roots is a Canadian clothing company, that I discovered while reading stuff about Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir (ice dance Gold Medalists that I've mentioned before). Roots has a sponsorship deal with them, so I went and checked out their stuff, and ended up buying a Canada sweatshirt. Mr. V has always rambled on and on about how much he loves Canada, but I never gave it much thought. I had been to the Canadian side of Niagra Falls when I was little, but that was all I knew. Since living close to Vancouver though, and spending a good deal of time up there, and visiting the Canadian Rockies, I've come to love it there too. So I wanted a Canada sweatshirt. It arrived in the mail yesterday and it is by far the most comfortable sweatshirt I've ever worn. It seems that Canadians LOVE Roots, and I can see why. One piece of clothing has made me a fan.

MilSpouse Friday Fill-In #6

Apparently, its been a week since I last blogged about anything. This has been an incredibly busy week and to be honest, I didn't even realize that today was Friday until I started reading the blogs that I follow. When I realized everyone was doing the Friday Fill-In, I was snapped into reality, and cheerfully so, because I thought today was Thursday.

So with that being said, if you live anywhere east of the Pacific Time Zone, then its already Saturday for you. But here in good old Washington, its still about 30 minutes away from tomorrow. Last week I filled this out on a Saturday, so this week I will have it done on Friday, even if its only a few minutes away from Saturday!

So head on over to Wife of a Sailor's blog for this week's questions!

1. What is your spouse’s best feature?

His eyes (assuming we're talking physical feature here). They change color and that fascinates me. They can be green, gray or blue. There's no rhyme or reason as to why or when they change, but they do change, and I love it!

2. Mild, Medium or Hot sauce?

Hot. I'm a picky eater in general, so most people are usually surprised when I say I like hot sauce, but I can't stand sauces that are meant to stand out, when they don't really stand out. Mild salsa, or taco sauce, or anything like that just tastes too bland to me. I prefer the stuff that makes my eyes water and my nose run. At least I can taste it then, plus it clears out my sinuses, and as someone with chronic sinus problems, that's an added bonus :-).

3. What is the worst uniform you had to wear for a job?

I've never had a job that required an actual uniform. I worked at a candy store on the boardwalk in Seaside Heights, NJ (yes the same town that MTV's Jersey Shore was filmed in), and we had to wear T-shirts with the store name on it during summer months, but thats just a T-shirt. I'm a jeans and T-shirt kind of girl anyway, so as long as I was comfortable, I didn't care what the shirt said.

I also worked at a camp for 4 summers, where again, we had staff shirts that we had to wear on Saturdays and Sundays to check campers in and out, but again it was just a T-shirt with the camp name and "staff" written on it. I suppose if you want to get really technical though, camp rules required that all counselors and kids wore socks and sturdy sneakers for a variety of safety and health reasons (all ridiculous in my mind, but the American Camping Association required certain things to remain accredited), and in the summer months, while living in the woods with no A/C, not being able to wear flip flops was horribly uncomfortable and very annoying.

4. You have invisible powers… where is the first place you would go?

hmmm...this is an interesting question. I'd say that I would join Mr. V on his dets. Right now he's in San Diego and I can't be there with him. But if I was invisible, no one would know I was there. Then I wouldn't have to get annoyed and frustrated that he leaves all the time. I could just go with him, and his CO and XO would never see me :-).

5. What’s left on your “to do” list for this summer?

1. Go to Mt. Rainer with Mr. V. I had the chance to go last summer without him, and its the one place in Washington that he really wants to see, and hasn't had a chance to yet.

2. Go to the San Juan Islands, which I can technically do any time, but once the weather starts to get crappy again, its not going to be a fun trip. I've been to Friday Harbor on San Juan Island already, but I want to see Orcas Island and Lopez Island at some point too.

3. Go to Victoria, BC.

4. Get the house completely in order, since we still have boxes that haven't been unpacked since we moved here...just in time for us to start packing it up again in about a year.

And a few other random things but I'd say those are the biggest things that I want to do before September rolls around.

And...its 11:40pm...still 20 minutes away from Saturday!

MilSpouse Friday Fill-In #5

Yes, I know its Saturday, not Friday, but yesterday was way too busy for me, so I didn't have time to sit down and fill this out. So here is the 5th installment of the MilSpouse Friday Fill-In from Wife of a Sailor.

1. Besides the horizontal mambo, what do you miss most when your spouse is deployed?

I miss hanging out. I know that sounds kind of simple, but Mr. V loves exploring things and going to new places. Whenever we have free time we try to do something new. Whether its going to Mt. St. Helens for the weekend, or just hiking a new trail on the island, we always like new adventures. Sure, I can do these kinds of things without him, but its just something that we both get excited about and its something that I love sharing with him.

On a purely selfish note, I also miss the fact that he cleans the litter boxes. For the 2nd Friday Fill-In that I did (find it here), I said that my least favorite household chore was making the bed. Well I said that because I forgot how much I absolutely despise scooping litter boxes. I guess I didn't think about it, because most of the time I don't do it. That's his job. But when he's gone (like right now), reality hits, and I realize that the gross job is mine until he comes back home.

2. What do you miss least?

I never miss the way he comes home from work. And by that I mean, his "walking in the door" routine, which typically consists of emptying every single pocket of his flight suit as he walks around the house. If you've seen a flight suit, you know how many pockets there are! So I'll find receipts on the table by the door, a pile of change on the kitchen counter, some scribbled notes on the night stand, a few pencils on the coffee table, and then there's always the pocket of randomness (stones, broken pieces of things, etc.). And of course, I'm the one who walks around picking all of this up. We argue about it constantly, because I truly don't understand why he can't just empty his pockets all in one place. Or better yet, if he feels the need to walk around while doing it, then walk to where everything belongs, and empty it there. It drives me batty.

3. You only get three crayons to finish your picture… which three do you choose and why?

Ok now the questions are getting more complicated, and I really have to think about them. So let's see...I'd say blue, because its my favorite color, yellow because its bright and I'm not a fan of darkness, and green...because I think it would match the other 2 :-).

4. If you could have your own fragrance, what would it be called?

East Coast Summer - why? Because right now, I wish I was on the East Coast. That's not very creative I know, but it sounds good to me. It would have to be some mixture of vanilla and amber scents, mixed with some type of summery flower.

5. If the shoes make the man (or woman), what do your shoes say about you right now?

They scream that I'm rebelling against Washington. I'm wearing flip-flops, and while today was actually a fairly hot day, very worthy of flip-flops, it hasn't been that way all summer. However, I spend the entire fall and winter here (which seem endless to me) bundled up in warm clothes and closed toe shoes. So I don't care how cold it gets for the rest of the summer. I refuse to wear close toed shoes until summer is officially over, even if my toes have to freeze.

How to Find a Lost Dog

My friend and I had quite the adventure this weekend, and because of the way it ended, I felt the need to share it. Basically, Facebook found my friend's lost dog, and for some reason, the randomness of that fact is really amusing to me.

So...On Saturday, my friend Mrs. B over at Musings of a Mama, and I joined forces to have a garage sale. We started the sale on Friday, and ended it on Saturday. She had to leave to be somewhere at 11:30 on Saturday, so I stayed behind at her house to get in a few more garage sale hours. She had left her dog outside in their backyard, and I wasn't sure if she wanted the dog in or out when I left. I don't have a dog, and I know that a lot of my friends leave their dogs outside or crated when they aren't home, so I sent her a text message to ask her what she wanted me to do with Roxy (the dog) when I left. Unfortunately, she got the text message too late, because I had already left and opted to leave Roxy outside.

Once she finally got back to me, she told me that Roxy can jump her fence, and they do usually leave her inside. OK, no problem. I offered to go back, make sure Roxy was still in her yard, and put her in the house if their back door was unlocked. I went back, Roxy was still there, but of course, her back door was locked and Mrs. B wasn't going to be home for 6 more hours or so.

So I took Roxy back to my house, thinking that this would be the ideal solution. She can't come in our house because of the cats (the cats WILL attack her as proven by the one other dog that I ever let into my house), but my fence is about 6 feet high, almost twice as high as Mrs. B's fence, so both of us figured that the likelihood of Roxy jumping over my fence was pretty unlikely.

Mr. V and I went to a movie that night. I had told Mrs. B that we would probably go out for a couple hours, and we both thought that Roxy would be ok. Of course, bad luck seems to follow me around.

Mr. V and I went to see Inception, and when we came back, we checked on Roxy, only to find her missing. Gone. She wasn't in our backyard anymore. Regardless of the fact that she wasn't there, we still spent a few minutes looking around the fence line wondering "Did she dig out? There's no possible way that she jumped this fence!" (Roxy is a boxer, and several people that I talked to yesterday insisted that there was no possible way for a boxer to jump a 6 foot fence - clearly they were wrong.) There were no holes dug underneath the fence, and the gate was closed and locked, so even if she had managed to unlock the gate, it wouldn't have relocked behind her after she went out of it. So jumping was the only logical answer as to what happened.

At the exact same time that we were racing to get into the car to search the neighborhood for her, Mrs. B texted us telling us that they were on their way home and were coming to pick up Roxy. So now Mr. V and I were slightly panicked and we had to call Mrs. B to tell her the bad news that her dog wasn't in our yard anymore and we had no idea where she was. We had already talked to the neighbors that share a fence line with us, and none of them had seen her. So we started searching. I don't even know how long we drove around for, but at some point, Mr. and Mrs. B arrived back in town and also went out searching. Once it got too dark (and this is Washington, so that didn't really happen until after 10:00), my eyes were pretty much useless so Mr. V dropped me back off at home, so I could print up some "Missing Dog" fliers, and he continued driving around. When we all realized that driving around looking for her, was getting us nowhere, and it was way to late to start knocking on people's doors to ask about her, we went around taping the fliers to the neighborhood mailboxes (Our neighborhood has large mailboxes that have 10 or so mailboxes in them so they are all centrally located amongst the houses), and shoving one under the door of the closed animal shelter, in case someone brought her in the next day.

Then we went to sleep. I felt horrible. I had taken Roxy to my house thinking that she would be safer in my backyard than in Mrs. B's backyard, and she still managed to get out. Not only did I feel awful because I lost my friend's dog, but I have also been through the process of losing an animal, when my cat Moses ran out the door and into the swamps of Jacksonville 2 years ago. He was missing for 3 months, and I had given up all hope of finding him, when a man called me to tell me that he had found him! So I know how upset someone feels when the lose their beloved pet like that. Losing Moses devastated me, but it also taught me to never give up looking!

The next morning I woke up still full of guilt, but motivated and driven to find this dog! I printed up smaller fliers and started going door to door asking people if they had seen her. I worked my way in a circle around my house to cover every direction, and ended up getting fliers out to 100 houses, talking to about 50 people in the process. No one had seen her.

My friend was home, and upset. She hadn't slept well the night before, so I told her to sleep, and that I'd keep searching the neighborhood. At some point in the afternoon she got a phone call from a guy who had read one of the mailbox fliers. He thought he had seen Roxy near his house. I had also run into a kid, about 6 years old, that morning who swore that he saw a boxer in the same area that this man said he saw her. I have to admit that I didn't really believe the kid because he parents even told me that he had no idea what a boxer looked like. I figured that he had just seen a dog, and since there are a lot of dogs in this neighborhood, I didn't think much of it.

So at some point in the afternoon, my friend and her husband joined me in going door to door. I had stopped after 100 houses because I thought that I had made a pretty large circle, and at that point, Roxy could have been anywhere, so other than calling shelters and posting fliers in central locations, I didn't know what else to do. However, the man that had called Mrs. B lived on the street directly behind where I stopped my circle of 100 houses. We had fliers on the mailboxes in that area, but not on every house. So we started canvassing that area with door to door fliers, talking to everyone we could.

By this point, I don't even know how many hours had gone by, but I did know that I was getting a pretty good workout! I had walked all over my neighborhood for hours, and had talked to anyone that I could. I have to admit that I was still confident that Roxy would be found, but I wasn't confident that we were going to find her in my neighborhood. After talking to so many people, I was thinking that if none of them had seen her, then she might be long gone at this point.

Then enter the lady in the green house on the street that intersects with mine. Again, I had stopped my circle at the very end of my street, and hadn't worked my way onto the next street (the streets in this neighborhood wind and twist all kinds of ways) because I was trying to make my circle pretty even in all directions.

Mr. and Mrs. B were going door to door on the opposite side of the street from me, when I knocked on the door to the green house. A friendly lady answered the door. I asked her if she had happened to have seen a dog roaming around the neighborhood. I was so used to people saying "no" at this point, so I was about to hand her a flier and ask her to keep an eye out, when she got all excited and said "A boxer? Are you looking for a boxer?" Since I hadn't told her what type of dog I was looking for yet, I got excited! I thought for sure she had Roxy in her backyard or that she had at least seen her!

Here's the odd/amusing/amazing part. She proceeded to tell me that her son's friend had found a boxer the night before. And how did she know this? She was playing Farmville on Facebook. She needed some kind of gift from someone, but none of her friends were online for her to ask for it. So she logged into her son's Facebook account so that he could send her what she needed. When she logged in, one of the status updates that popped up in her son's news feed was a guy who had posted "Has anyone lost a boxer?" followed by a whole conversation about this boxer he had found and that they had her at his house, were wondering if she belonged to someone, and if she didn't, they'd hold onto her. I was excited, but still doubtful. So this woman got incredibly excited, started looking up this guy's phone number (which she couldn't find), and then her son came home. He called the guy, described what Roxy looked like, and it appeared that the dog this guy had was a match! At this point I literally ran down the street to find Mrs. B, and we all ended up back at this woman's house. She armed them with a phone number, address, and map and sent them off to get their dog! It looked like this guy had found Roxy in our neighborhood the night before, didn't know where she came from, so he took her home with him to a neighborhood a few miles down the road. The next day he posted his "Anyone lose a boxer?" Facebook status.

The good news is that the dog he had was definitely Roxy and she is now home safe and sound with her family!

The day was crazy in itself because I was so determined to find this dog, and was so upset about losing her in the first place (and so thankful that my friend didn't hate me for this)! I guess I just never expected Facebook to be what found her dog. When you really stop to think about it, the whole story is so random. This woman said that she hardly ever logs into her son's account, but she did, and the first thing she read was that this guy had a lost boxer at his house! About an hour after she read the status, I knocked on her door asking if she had seen a missing dog.

I almost didn't go to this woman's house! She was outside of the original circle, so I guess first, our mailbox fliers helped, and then Facebook and Farmville saved the day in the end. The flier led to some guy reading it, calling Mrs. B, and directing her to his area of the neighborhood. From there going door to door led us to this woman's house, and amazingly she had just read a random Facebook status from her son's friend, and that's how Roxy was found! I honestly think the whole story was just incredible, and I don't know if we would have found her so easily if it hadn't been for Facebook in the end. I'm hopeful that eventually this guy would have called the animal shelter or put out fliers of his own, but we'll never know.

So Roxy is fine! She spent the night at a barbeque and slept in this guy's garage! I don't know if this story even sounds exciting to anyone else, but if you've ever lost a pet, then you know what that feels like. Anf if you've ever found a lost pet, you know how amazing that feels too! The way everything worked out in the end was just so random, yet perfect! Mrs. B's husband apparently mocks Facebook and doesn't really like it. She told him that he can't talk down about social networking sites anymore now!

I'm happy to say that the B family and Roxy got a very happy ending! :-)

MilSpouse Friday Fill-In #4

The 4th installment of the MilSpouse Friday Fill-in from Wife of a Sailor:

1. What food reminds you of your spouse?

Crawfish. But where I come from we call them Crayfish. They are gross little creatures who live in the mud/muck, but they are apparently pretty tasty to some people. According to Mr. V, its basically a sin if you are from Louisiana and you don't eat crawfish. Thankfully, I am not from Louisiana, and therefore have no reason to ever include these beady eyed creatures as part of my diet. I do however, occasionally have to watch Mr.V devour a plate of them.

2. Who would you rather sit next to in a cross-country plane ride: an irritating non-stop talker, or a quiet stare-er?

This one's easy, even though I know from several personal experiences that neither one is the ideal seat-mate. I'd rather have the quiet stare-er. Without a doubt, it drives me insane to have someone stare at me for 5 hours straight (I once sat next to a woman who didn't speak English, and she stared at me for an entire 5 hour flight, and whenever I made eye contact she'd give me a huge smile - creepy), but I can easily zone out on a plane, and like to use it as a good time to catch up on my reading, or napping. I can ignore a person staring at me while I read my book, and if someone wants to stare at me while my eyes are closed, then I don't really know that they are staring at me right? However, I can't read a book while someone is talking to me, and I certainly can't sleep while someone is rambling in my ear, so nothing drives me crazier on a plane than the person who can clearly see that I have a book open, or that my eyes are closed, but yet he STILL insists on talking to me! I really wonder why there are sooo many people out there who do that. Do they consciously decide that they will do whatever it takes to annoy the person sitting next to them on a plane?

3. What are your best tips on how to save money?

I grew up with a very frugal mother, and Mr. V grew up with a cheap, cheap father, so thankfully we see eye to eye on this question. We save money in several ways. First, coupons, coupons, coupons! I have met so many people who hate to use coupons and I have no idea why. It may only be a few cents that you save at one time, but when you start to add that up over a year, you can save quite a bit of money. We also buy generic instead of name brand (on most things, but not all - some name brands just can't be substituted in my opinion). We also check out free sample sites online and sign up for whatever we can. You'd be surprised at how much money you can save when you have constant samples of shampoo, toothpaste and body wash arriving in the mail daily. And finally - thrift stores, garage sales, and Freecycle. I'm always amazed at the things I can find at any of these places. People tend to throw away a lot of stuff that is still in perfect condition, so if I can get something that looks brand new, for 1/4 of the price it originally was, then I am happy :-).

4.What is your favorite summer memory?

Without a doubt its working at my old Girl Scout Camp, Camp Lou Henry Hoover. I camped as a Girl Scout back in the day, and then worked at the camp as a counselor for 4 summers (my last summer there was 2000 and I still miss it!). I made some of my best friends there, who I am still great friends with today. It kind of sounds cheesy, but it really was a fun place full of friends and adventure, and I honestly don't know how to describe how wonderful it was, if you've never experienced it.

5. Do you believe in ghosts?

Now this is a tricky question. The logical part of me says "no". I need to see things to believe them. But the other side of me says "yes". I've had a few weird, unexplained experiences that I don't like to think about, because I don't have an explanation for them. Also, I have to admit that I love watching Ghosthunters and there are some things they find that make it hard to NOT believe in ghosts. So I guess I stand somewhere in the middle. Can I say that I sort of believe? And I'm fine with keeping it that way. As much as I need to see to believe, I would be happy never having to actually see a ghost. As it stands, I would be perfectly happy if I never have to experience some weird, unexplained experience again too.

Blog Award

A special thanks to my friend Navy Girl over at Marrying the Navy, who picked me as one of her 5 recipients for this blog award.


If you haven't checked out her blog, you should, because:
1. its entertaining and interesting
2. she's amazing at paper crafting and other random crafting, and makes me jealous because any time I think that something I have crafted looks good, I look at her stuff and realize that mine kind of sucks (but I still love the stuff she makes, regardless of the jealousy!) and
3. She's a fellow Whidbey Island navy wife (her husband flies the EA-6B Prowler, the other plane that is flown here at NAS Whidbey [Mr. V flies the P-3 Orion]), who tends to be a lot like me when it comes to being disgruntled about all things Washington - and that personality trait alone makes her a very cool person in my eyes :-).

So the rules of this award are: Thank the awesome person who gave it to you (check), list 3 things I love about myself, and pass it on to 5 other people.

This is a hard one because I never like to brag about myself in any way, so I feel kind of weird writing an "I love me" blog. I'm better at answering standard survey questions, but here goes!

1. I love that I love animals. Call me a crazy animal lover - I don't care. I've always loved animals, and with a house full of cats, I know there are people who think I'm a crazy cat lady. However, after finding out that one of our neighbors intentionally poisoned the feral cats that were living in our backyard (and apparently the yards of our neighbors), it made me stop caring about what anyone thought about my cats. If anything, seeing how cruel someone can be to some innocent animals, made me appreciate my own love of animals even more. So I don't care if people think I'm insane for having as many cats as I do. I love that I've rescued them all and I love that I have a lot more compassion in me than some other people.

2. I love that I've learned to adapt and accept new things. If you knew me a few years ago and hadn't talked to me until now, you'd probably be shocked to learn that I moved all the way across the entire country (not that I had much of a choice though - if I wanted to live with my husband). I have never dealt well with change, and I still hate it, and I'll avoid it in any way possible. But I've learned how to make the best out of every situation, and find the fun in everything. I don't like living in Washington and there's no way in hell I'll live here forever (which will be interesting because Mr. V has already declared that he would love to live here forever), but I have to say that I have really enjoyed my time here. I've found things to do and have had a blast on every new adventure out here. 4 years ago when I was living in Corpus Christi, I was miserable, because I couldn't find anything to enjoy or be happy about while I was there. Now one of my friends from here just PCS'd to Corpus and I found myself telling her about all the fun things she can do down there. That shocked even me. I don't know why I wasn't capable of finding the fun while I lived there, even though I clearly knew it was there - as demonstrated in my "fun things to do in Corpus" speech the other day. (However, that last statement should not be taken to mean that I ever want to live in Corpus Christi again!)

3. I love that I love to learn. I'm a huge nerd and I fully admit that and embrace that. I'd rather go to a historical park, over an amusement park any day. I'm full of random facts and knowledge, and I'm proud of that :-).

Now to pass this on to 5 people:
1. My dear friend and college suitemate Alice, over at Alice's Adventure's in Austin
2. Another Whidbey Island navy wife and the very first person I met here Musings of a Mama
3.ACU's, Stiletto Shoes and Pretty Pink Tutus because she's my newest follower
4.To The Nth because I don't know her in real life, but her blog is fun to read, we seem to have a lot in common, and I especially like that she likes cats :-)
5. Dani at Hard Corps Love a new blog that I have been following as of late

I know this award has been traveling around the blog world recently so if I gave it to anyone who already has it, sorry - no need to do it twice!

Oregon

The first part of our 4th of July weekend trip was to Mt. St. Helens. For the second part we went to Oregon for the day. After Mr. V came wandering back into our hotel room after his completely insane 14 mile hike in the rain (if you go back to my Mt. St. Helens post you'll remember that I decided to not go on a crazy hike with him, and instead work on some random projects that I brought along to entertain myself because I knew he'd want to do something crazy), soaking wet and looking like death (and no I'm not exaggerating - it took one look at him to make me feel completely confident that I made the right choice to not go on the hike - I wish I had taken a picture of him so you could see how rough he looked), we headed out to see the fireworks in the small town of Kelso.

New Orleans may be known for constant partying and hurricanes (the drink and the storm), but they apparently don't have normal fireworks displays that the whole town comes out to see. We set up camp on the side of a lake in town, and while I had never been to Kelso before, it looked just like any other fireworks set up I've ever seen - lots of people out to see a 20 minute show. Simple right? Well, Mr. V was in awe because he had never been to something like this. He couldn't believe how many people had showed up and that people actually came out in large groups like this to watch fireworks. I was pretty amused by that because it never occurred to me that he had never done something that seemed so normal to me. The differences between the way the 2 of us grew up never cease to amaze me.

The next day we went about an hour south to the Washington/Oregon border. I had never been to Oregon before and I still have my goal of wanting to see all 50 states before I turn 30 (though with 14 states left, and a little over 9 months until I turn 30, I am sad to say that I don't see myself accomplishing that goal.) There's stuff to do in Oregon but we were already 5 hours away from Whidbey Island, and we had to get back that night, so we were limited to doing stuff along the border, just so we could get back before 3am. I didn't care though. There are a few things that I'd like to see in Oregon one day, but for this trip I was perfectly content to just cross the border, see something, regardless of what it was, come home, and color in Oregon on my map of states that I have visited.

What I didn't know, is that the border of Washington and Oregon is quite possibly one of the most beautiful places in this country (I should just admit by now that even after 2 years of living here, I still know next to nothing about the Pacific Northwest). The Columbia River runs along the border of the 2 states and the Columbia River Gorge is absolutely beautiful. I had heard people talk about the gorge before, but I never gave it much thought. It just sounded like a river and mountains to me, and while thats pretty, it didn't seem like anything remarkable.

First, the history nerd in me was fascinated by the fact that this is the river that Lewis and Clark traveled on to reach the Pacific Ocean (the place where they finished their adventure is one of the places that I still want to see in Oregon). Second, its absolutely beautiful!! The area outside of Portland is the area we explored, and neither one of us wanted to leave.

(As a side note, I also had no idea that Portland sat literally right on the border of Washington and Oregon, and I'm usually pretty good at geography so I have no idea how I missed that small fact.)

We initially decided to visit this area because 1 - it was in Oregon and I wanted to see Oregon, and 2 - there is a waterfall there that was used for a second or 2 in the movie Twilight, and yes I'm a huge nerd, but I love the Twilight movies and I love seeing places where movies were filmed.

I've seen a lot of waterfalls so I wasn't expecting much, but Multnomah Falls can now be added to the list of "prettiest waterfalls I've ever seen". Its also a huge tourist area which I was kind of surprised about. The entire Columbia River Gorge is a tourist area, but there are lots of places all along the river, so I was slightly surprised to see that the majority of the people visiting the area seemed to be congregating at Multnomah Falls. I felt like the only person around who had never even heard of this waterfall before. So we spent some time there, ate dinner in the restaurant at the base of the falls, then watched the sunset over the gorge and headed back home.

We finally made it home around 2:00 in the morning, and while Mr. V was exhausted when he had to get up for work the next morning, all in all, we both agree that it was a fun vacation. I know that I personally got more out of it than I expected because I saw a new place that I never knew of before and it was much more beautiful than I ever imagined. Now I want to head back to the same area to explore more of the gorge when we aren't rushing around to make it back home that same day. There are waterfalls all along the river, plus overlook points and other things that look interesting to see. So hopefully we'll make it back there sometime soon!

(I always take a picture of the welcome sign when I visit new states but that's hard to do when there isn't a place to pull over and stop)

(another attempt at a "Welcome to Oregon" sign)

(The Columbia River - traveled by Lewis and Clark to the Pacific Ocean)

(Latourell Falls - just one of the many waterfalls along the Columbia River Gorge)

(These are the falls that appear for a brief second in Twilight, and also one of the most beautiful waterfalls I've ever seen)

(Multnomah Falls)

(at the bottom of the falls)

(on the bridge by the upper falls)

(just me :-))

(so beautiful!)

(view from the falls - looking towards the Columbia River Gorge)

(rainbow!)

(this is my favorite picture of the waterfall)

(restaurant and visitor's center with the waterfall behind it)

(sunset over the Columbia River Gorge)

(Columbia River Gorge)

(The View Point Inn - used to film the prom scene in Twilight)

(The View Point Inn - used to film the prom scene in Twilight, and it also has a beautiful view of the Columbia River Gorge...the sunset was beautiful from here)

MilSpouse Friday Fill-In #3

The 3rd installment of the MilSpouse Friday Fill-In from Wife of a Sailor:

1. What is your favorite household chore?

Laundry. I can't say that I LOVE doing the laundry, but I suppose its my favorite because I won't allow anyone else to do it for me. I've had too many things shrink, get bleached, turn colors, etc. on me for me to be ok with anyone else touching my clothes.

2. What is your favorite childhood memory?

Can I have favorite memories instead of just one? Recently I've been thinking a lot about my grandparents and how much I miss them. They are getting older and its only recently sunk in to me that they won't be around forever. My grandfather has been pretty depressed ever since I moved away from New Jersey, so I try my hardest to keep in touch with him as often as possible. In thinking about them though, I've thought a lot about my childhood. I am their only grandchild and they spoiled me rotten! They took me on so many trips and did so many fun things with me that it would be hard to choose just one. So trips to the aquarium, nature parks, historic parks, lighthouses, zoo, etc...all rank up there in my favorite childhood memories. My grandfather was also a wood worker. He made all kinds of things (decorations, furniture, etc), and he used to help me make things too. I have a whole arsenal of random pieces of wood that I glued together, painted or nailed together when I was with him. Grandma and Grandpa would ALWAYS find something fun to do when they were babysitting me (which was fairly often), so its impossible to pick just one thing. I'd have to say simply that any time spent with my grandparents (my mother's parents) would rank up there in my favorite childhood memories.

3. What is your most embarrassing moment?

I'm not sure if I can actually answer this one. I know I've done plenty of things that have been embarrassing for me, but I honestly can't remember the most embarrassing. I'm not a person who likes to be in the spotlight though, so I get embarrassed pretty easily. Anything that puts me front and center in a situation has the ability to turn my face red and make me want to hide.

4. What uniform of your spouse’s is your favorite?

His choker whites. They are so traditional, and when I hear "Naval Officer" its what instantly comes to mind. Plus its the uniform he wore for our wedding :-).

5. What canceled TV show do you miss the most?

Can I miss one that has technically ended, even though it hasn't ended for me yet? I'm about 6 years behind the rest of the world when it comes to watching Lost. I didn't start watching it until it only had 3 episodes left (Thank you to my friend with no cable ;-)!) While babysitting her son one night I was "forced" to watch Lost because there was nothing else on. The episode made absolutely no sense to me, but it still caught my attention enough that I had to go home and start watching it from the beginning. I had purposefully avoided watching Lost for years because I knew I would get hooked on it, and then get annoyed if I missed an episode here and there. Now I'm hooked, but I can watch episodes one right after the other, without having to wait a week in between. I have about 8 more episodes before the series is done for me. I'm looking forward to re-watching the episode that I saw at my friend's house, with the hope that it will make more sense this time around (though I'm not counting on it), but I already don't want the series to end! So the short answer here is - Lost - even though, I haven't finished watching every episode yet.

Mt. St. Helens

I'm writing this blog from our laptop in a hotel room in the teeny tiny town of Kelso, Washington (which ironically has much more to offer than Oak Harbor). We came down here for 4th of July weekend to visit Mt. St. Helens.

I have always been fascinated by Mt. St. Helens, mainly because I had a pen-pal in elementary school who lived on the Oregon/Washington border and she used to tell me stories about visiting the mountain. I also always thought that it was the only active volcano in the continental United States, which I was promptly proved wrong about the moment we moved to Washington.

So for anyone who's been living under a rock for the past 30 years, Mt. St. Helens, in southern Washington state, erupted on May 18, 1980 in a massive explosion that literally blew off the entire top and side portion of the mountain, caused severe damage to the area and towns around it, and killed 57 people.

(On a side note, I had a horrifying moment when I realized how old I was a few days ago. We were planning the trip and Mr. V told me that the National Forest Service has been celebrating the 30th anniversary of the eruption. I knew that it erupted a little less than a year before I was born in 1981, but I guess I just wasn't thinking because I said "30th anniversary? There's no possible way that it has already been 30 years. It erupted less than a year before I was born.....ohhh...." That would be the moment when I think it really hit me that I am almost 30 years old. But anyway, back to the trip...)

This is what the mountain looked like before the 1980 eruption:
A few weeks before the eruption, a bulge began to form on the north side of the mountain (following several weeks of earthquakes and some very minor eruptions). I honestly can't even imagine seeing this, knowing full well that there would inevitably be a massive explosion when this bulge broke through the surface.
And on May 18th, around 8:30 in the morning, this happened:


All that was left, when the eruption was over, was this:
I think its safe to say that Mt. St. Helens is no longer a beautiful, majestic mountain (although there is a lava dome in the center of it, formed by the mountain slowly starting to rebuild itself, so maybe it will be big and beautiful again in the future).

So yesterday, Mr. V and I set off to visit Mt. St. Helens. It was definitely a very cool thing to see. Unfortunately, it was cloudy, which is nothing new to Washington, so we actually couldn't see the whole mountain, but we were able to see the crater, and since the mountain has lost thousands of feet off the top of it, we were told that the clouds really weren't covering too much of it. If they had just lifted a tiny bit, we would have been able to see the top.

I'm just happy that we got to see anything, because based on normal weather around here, and the live webcam set up at the mountain's viewing site this morning, many people come out here and see absolutely nothing because of the fog and clouds. I wanted to see the part of the mountain that had been blown off, and I did, so I was happy :-).

(park ranger at the visitor's center - if you look at the picture he's holding you can see the lava dome that has been growing in the crater for the past few years

(me at the visitor's center - before I gave in to the cold weather and changed into warmer clothes)

(driving to Mt. St. Helens)

(This place is a small visitor's center and an A-frame house that was destroyed during the eruption. The house is half buried in the ash from the explosion.)

(This is at the A-frame house...because you can't go anywhere in the mountains of Washington without finding a giant bigfoot statue somewhere.)

(front of the A-frame house buried in the ash)

(side of the A-frame house - it was really weird/cool to me to think that I'm standing on 6 feet of ash that has now just become the normal ground.)

(back of the A-frame house - I'm looking into the second floor because you can see into the bedroom and you can see just how quickly these people's lives were destroyed. The bedroom is still set up like people are living there...only now its covered in ash and rotting away.)

(Bigfoot drinking coffee because Bigfoot and coffee go hand in hand in Washington!)

(the edge of the blast zone...This is a new bridge built in place of the old bridge that was washed away from the mudslides caused by the eruption.)

(everything within the blast zone area was destroyed or drastically affected by the eruption)

(Me with Mt. St. Helens behind me to the right!)

(Mt. St. Helens -look closely and you'll see that everything around it is nothing but fields and fields of piles of ash)

(piles and piles of ash at the bottom of the mountain)

(looking into the crater of Mt. St. Helens...apparently the top of the mountain is right where the clouds are. It was amazing to me that almost the entire mountain was just literally blown away.)

(me and Mt. St. Helens)

(another one of Mt. St. Helens and the ash)

(this is a little hard to see but this is directly across from Mt. St. Helens...there is nothing but trees that were knocked down from the blast and ash. It looked like a nuclear wasteland.)

(It was hard to get a picture but this is a memorial to everyone who died during the eruption, with the mountain behind it.)

(another one of me and Mt. St. Helens)

(This is the reason why I am here spending one of our vacation days writing a blog post. This is Mr. V at the start of a really hard trail that goes up to the lowest point of the crater. He is hiking this as I type. I knew he'd want to do some crazy hike so I brought along stuff to entertain me for the day while he's off hiking. The park ranger told us that people who are afraid of heights and who don't have good balance aren't recommended to take this trail because it apparently gets pretty narrow and steep. Not exactly my cup of tea.)

(the reason why I am not hiking with Mr. V right now)

(total destruction)

(more fallen trees and ash)

(me sitting on a volcanic rock at Crystal Lake. The lake was formed during the eruption and all around it are piles of rock and ash. It was amazing to me to see the rocks because I can't even fathom the idea of the earth literally spitting out rocks this big - and this was one of the smaller ones.)

(a pile of ash and rocks at Crystal Lake)

So happy 4th of July everyone! Assuming that Mr. V makes it back from his hike in one piece then we'll be checking out the fireworks in this tiny town tonight!