MilSpouse Friday Fill-In #29

Check out Wife of a Sailor for this week's Friday Fill-In:

1. Since most of the country has had nasty weather, what has your weather been like this week?

Nasty in its own way. We definitely haven't had the snow and freezing temperatures like the majority of the country has had, but we still had rain (the annoying kind where its just sort of drizzles constantly) and gray skies, with temperatures in the 40s-50s. I suppose thats nothing new for Western Washington though. The sun did come out for a day though which was nice. I have to admit that the weather has been a little disappointing. Before winter started, it was being predicted that we were going to have the worst winter in 50 years. That certainly hasn't happened here by any means, though it seems to have happened to the rest of the country. We got snow back in November, and now I'd like a little more snow before winter is completely over.

2. What is/are your best money saving tip(s)?

Coupons - I love coupons. And meal planning to avoid eating out so often. Whenever we crack down and limit our eating out to once a week I'm always amazed at how much extra money we have left over at the end of the month. Also, I'm a big fan of generic products. There are a few things I won't go generic on (Pop-Tarts are a big "no generic" thing for me), but a lot of food really doesn't taste any different whether you buy name brand or generic. Household supplies are the same in many cases. A lot of my cleaning supplies come from the dollar store and work just as well as the $5 bottles of cleaner you can buy somewhere else.

3. What was your favorite vehicle you’ve ever owned??

The one I own now - my Honda Accord. I love it and will most likely get another Accord when this one kicks the bucket.

4. What is a question you’d like to see asked in a future fill-in? (Your question & blog just may appear one week!)

There was a recent question about pets you had while growing up, but I don't think I've seen a question about the pets you have now. So I guess the question would be how many pets do you have? And what type?

5. Fill in the blank: You might be a MilSpouse if….

you've spent more than 50% of your marriage away from your spouse.

MilSpouse Friday Fill-In #26, #27 & #28

Catching up on 3 weeks of Friday Fill-Ins:

Friday Fill-In #26:

1. What are you looking forward to most in 2011? from Jessica Lynn Writes

This is a hard question because if anything, there's a lot that I'm NOT looking forward to in 2011. We'll be leaving Whidbey in July, and heading back to Corpus Christi (a place I despise - more on that later), so I have been finding myself hoping that the rest of our time here goes very, very slowly. Also, Mr. V will be going on another deployment right before we move, which means that finding a house to live in, and packing this house up, falls onto my shoulders. We always do DITY moves so I am NOT looking forward to packing up an entire house by myself. The good news is that he won't complete the deployment. He'll be sent back about halfway through to detatch from the squadron here and then move. The bad news is that that won't be enough time to help me pack. So since the answer to this question is supposed to be something positive, I suppose that I'm looking forward to enjoying our last few months out here. Also, because Mr. V will be deploying, that means he'll get some pre-deployment leave, and we plan to drive to Alaska during that time. Its potentially a pretty crazy trip, but I'm looking forward to it!

2. What is something random you do on a boring night when your significant other is away? from Lovin Ma Soldier

I don't know that its random, but I read. Mr. V always has the TV on, which makes it hard for me to concentrate on a book, and I don't like locking myself in another room and ignoring him when he's home. So when he's gone, I love curling up on the couch with a good book.

3. What has been your greatest adventure as a MilSpouse?

Moving across the country. I had always wanted to go on a cross country road trip, but I never had the time or the money for it. So a three week forced "vacation" was one of the greatest adventures I've ever had. As much as I'm not looking forward to moving back to Texas, I'm looking forward to the drive there. We'll be taking a southern route to get there, to see states that we didn't see on our way out here to Washington. Moving might suck, but the places I get to see along the way make it more worthwhile.

4. What is the ugliest fashion trend you ever bought into (I’d like to make fun of you, so can you please provide a picture as well)? from More Than An Army Wife

I was an 80's child so I sported the over sized shirts tied in a knot on the side, neon colored spandex with a skirt on top, crimped hair, side pony tails, and huge thick socks pushed down with brightly colored keds sneakers. I have a lot of pictures from when I was a kid, but I wouldn't even know where to start as far as choosing one to display here. Thankfully, I wasn't a teenager in the 80's. I was just right on the cusp of the ridiculous fashion statements, so I like to think that they way I dressed was forgivable since I was really too young to know any better :-).

5. What was the high point of last month?

A relaxing Christmas. That may not sound super exciting for everyone else, but Mr. V has been so overworked and so stressed for months now (I'd say he's over reacting but when other wives from the other squadrons here ask what squadron my husband is in, they always say "Oh I'm so sorry" when I answer them. Apparently, it really is the most ridiculously overworked P3 squadron here.) So for Christmas he had 4 whole days off! He didn't get official Christmas leave, because he was forced to give it up so we could go on our Victoria trip in January (which is a whole different vent), so those 4 days were the most relaxing days ever. It had been almost a year since he even had 2 days off in a row, so when 4 free days came up, we did absolutely nothing. And it was wonderful. We spent Christmas together - just the two of us, and for the first time ever I can say that doing absolutely nothing was the best part of my month. It was just so nice to see him finally relaxed, which made ME relax. We did some other random stuff in December, but 4 days of nothing was definitely the best part!

Friday Fill-In #27:

1. What do you usually want to know about someone when meeting them for the first time?

I want to know where they are from. This lifestyle leads to meeting lots of new people from lots of different places, and that fascinates me. I love meeting people from different places and learning about those places.

2. Would you rather know everything about your spouse, or be regularly surprised?

Well I hate surprises so I'd have to say everything. I suppose its nice to occasionally learn about small little things, but for most things I'd rather know everything. I don't like being clueless, and even if its something completely un-harmful, it still annoys me when I learn something about Mr. V that I didn't know before. I think its my personality though. I hate not being in the know about everything.

3. If you could live in one city for the rest of your life, where would you live?

Victoria, British Columbia. We just got back from our trip there and I absolutely loved it there. If I couldn't live in Victoria, then Vancouver. I love Canada. I love the people that I meet there. I love the atmosphere of both Victoria and Vancouver and I could see myself being happy in either place.

4. When you go out of town, what one material thing do you ALWAYS take?

A computer. Mr. V and I would probably die (or at least feel like we were dying) if we couldn't be connected to the world via internet.

5. Using no more than 10 nouns, and ONLY nouns, describe yourself.

Pack-rat
Friend
Wife
New Jersey
Traveler
Nerd
Cat Lady
Procrastinator
Daughter
Quilter


Friday Fill-In #28:

1. If you were a famous movie star, what types of movies would you star in?

Historical Fiction

2. What is a vacation you would like to take if money were no object?

I'd take a trip around the world, seeing as many countries as I possibly can.

3. Did you have pets growing up?

I've had at least one rabbit ever since I was 4 years old. I think at the most we had 7 rabbits at once. I also had fish, an occasional hermit crab and I had 2 frogs at one point.

4. What do you do for exercise?

ummm...nothing. And I need to do something. I have a gym membership that is basically going to waste at the moment. The good news is that after spending a week in Victoria, I feel like I'm getting back into shape. I had gained about 5 pounds, which isn't a lot I know, but I'm a tiny girl to begin with so I noticed the 5 pounds. It took walking everywhere for 6 straight days to unintentionally lose the extra 5 pounds so now I'm trying to convince myself that its fun to stay in shape. I'm not doing so well on the convincing, but I'm trying!

5. What is the best piece of advice you’ve ever received as a MilSpouse?

Go with the flow. Something that I find VERY hard to do, but something that is definitely necessary for me to learn (since I haven't learned how to do this yet). Going with the flow means never being able to make definite plans and never knowing what life is going to throw at me next. Maybe one day I'll be able to take that advice and not want to cry every time something changes or goes wrong or differently than I had planned.

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?