Still Alive....

Two family members recently asked me if I was still alive. They follow this blog to stay updated on my life and apparently the fact that I haven't updated this in a month leads to concern in the family about my well being. So this is just a quick update to say that yes, I'm still alive. Yes, everything is fine. No, I haven't died or fallen off the face of the earth. I've just been really busy.

We're heading up to Victoria, British Columbia for a few days, so chances are that I won't update this until we get back at the beginning of next week. In the meantime, I'm off to enjoy another trip to Canada!!

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.