Happy Thoughts:

4/29/11

From the hubby

I haven't done one of these in a while, but the other day I got the most amazing letter in the mail so I had to share his words with you all <3

Hello my love,

I hope that where ever it is that you are reading this that you have plenty of sunshine and a cool breeze. I like to envision you wrapped up in a warm glow of love with golden sunlight washing over you, it's rays splayed between your pretty hair, your eyes beaming down upon my letter reading every word, every syllable so very intently; as if to will a kiss from your lover's lips by doing so. The corners of your mouth upturned in a little smile, that you cannot help but bear, and your cheeks so forced by your smile, hugging your gorgeous hazel eyes. I love you my butter bean and I hope that through all of the unfortunate happenstance this deployment has brought you that you are still very assured of this fact, if not then I beg you, let me know.

Life here on the boat is not as sweet as home life, but it has its rewards, like my new found appreciation for so many things I have left at home like all of my loved ones and the sweet joy of embracing them and talking to them. Sunday morning breakfasts and long lazy weekends filled with lovemaking and laughter. Feeling the press of my wife's warm skin against my own, and the warm unmistakable ache of being inside her, and of simply just having her in the same room as me. Being able to run aimlessly getting lost in thought, and the simple joy of feeling ground below my feet, the salty ocean breeze and bright warm sun bathing every inch of my naked skin. Puppy kisses and the selfless affection given by our little sweet hearts, and OJ! A cold glistening glass of orange juice with just the right amount of pulp. 

There is structure and discipline of being faced with work and assignments every minute of every day (A predicament I have brought upon myself, I know). The chance to be better at those little things that get to be so mundane and mind numbing; a chance to master my weaknesses and to better see and develop the traits I admire and beliefs I hold. Those things that often get lost int the pleasure of convenience. 

Complaining is only natural but I try not to get lost in remembering how sweet my life is, with a gorgeous and loving wife and all! I won't bother you with the every day comings and goings because frankly it would be to long and boring and probably make me depressed. Only three more months, and even less by the time you receive this. I can't wait for that sweet moment when I get to wrap my arms around you and whisper I love you in those cute little ears of yours and inevitably to whisk you away to our bedroom and make sweet love for days! I don't think you'll be able to keep your hands off hubby once I come home not only because I'm good at what I do, but because I'm going to come home looking like a Greek god sculpted from marble. I love you my sweet darling wife, and I can't wait to return to the look in those gorgeous eyes of yours I so desperately miss.

Very deeply in love, 

Daddycakes

He's amazing... *sigh*

4/25/11

Mili Mondays: Getting Out

Today we have a great post about what happens AFTER military life, so leave some love for Ashley over at Adventures in Motherhood!!



Military is in my blood and military wifedom seems to be a tradition. I am a third generation military wife (at the very least, there may be more!). My mother and my grandmother were both military wives before me. My dad retired from the Air Force when I was in the fourth grade and I still remember his retirement ceremony. When I was a senior in high school I joined the Air Force Junior ROTC and then in college I did a semester of Army ROTC. I knew I wanted to join the military, and in fact I was on the path to do just that when I reunited and fell in love with a very tall and charming US Navy sailor - my now husband.





I loved being a Navy wife. Despite the hardships of being 3,000 miles away from family and friends and essentially starting over in a new town, I felt like I was a member of an exclusive club. Or better yet, a family – the Navy family. There’s a kinship among the spouses and family members, they “get it” when your civilian friends don’t. It was comforting to know I had that safety net when I needed it. My husband had already been in for 3 years when we got together; he had just gotten off a deployment and was transferred to shore duty after we got married. I’m sure some wives are jealous because I never had to endure a deployment or a workup but shore duty has its own challenges. By the time the Navy made the decision (I say that because it was not his choice) to honorably discharge my husband he had served 7 years of active duty.





Going from Navy wife to Navy Veteran wife was slightly difficult for me. I suddenly felt like I was booted out of the club, like my family abandoned me. I was afraid and angry at the Navy. I just kept thinking ‘How could the Navy do this to him?’ over and over and over again. Even though my fellow Navy wife friends didn’t treat me any differently, I still couldn’t help but feel this way. To top it off, my husband could not find a job and we had a 9 month old baby and bills to pay. Talk about stress! My husband and I handle stress differently and because of that it causes more stress. So for five months our house was nothing but a giant ball of stress with a sprinkle of abandonment issues on top. Not fun. I don’t know how we got through it but we did. The funny thing is that people have asked us how we did it, how we survived and our answer every time is “We just did it.” 





And then it dawned on me, the civilian world isn’t so different from the military. When your husband is deployed and you’re suddenly a single mom what do you do? You suck it up, take it day by day and just do it because no one else will do it for you. Sitting and crying about it doesn’t help the situation. Being a Navy wife and navigating the ups and downs of the military world has prepared me for anything that life has to throw at me. Suddenly I wasn’t so angry or afraid anymore, I felt stronger and a little braver for taking on all that stress and beating it. I could take on the world if I wanted! So now I happily take on anything that is thrown my way because the Navy has taught me how to deal with it. My husband has earned his title of Navy Veteran and now I finally feel like I’ve earned my title of Navy Veteran wife.


4/18/11

Be Patient...

  "Be patient and be strong; someday this pain will be useful to you."
 
After reading through this post I realized it's really random so bare with me...
Someone posted this quote earlier, and I thought it fit how I was feeling perfectly. No matter what, you gotta just keep pushing through, and everything will be okay in the end. If you haven't already guessed, I had kind of a rough day. Days like these I just wanna hide under the covers and not come out. Now the day is over, and thankfully it's time for bed. Tomorrow is a new day, and will be a much better one! I'm expecting a package from him any day now & I can't wait to get it! It's full of goodies he has bought me so far on Deployment, and I have no clue what any of it is because he won't tell me! So I'll definitely post about it when it finally comes. 
On a better note, some of you may remember when I posted about holding an auction for my friend Kevin who needs a kidney transplant. The auction is over now and I am happy to say we completely exceeded my goals and raised nearly $2,300 to go toward his medical expenses!  and on another good note, we have passed our halfway point of deployment and my donut of misery is now looking a little less miserable! I am so excited to start planning for that day, it's going to be one of the happiest days of my life! I already have a dress picked out, I'm convinced it's way to early for that, but I couldn't help it.  I have a photographer set up already too! It's going to be such a fun day [: I just keep dreaming of running into his arms. 
 
 

4/11/11

It's a lonely night

It's been a few days since I last blogged. I got home safe from Boston, but terribly sick. I've been in bed for three days now doped up on cough syrup, antibiotics, and some other sinus medication... it's not been fun. I have some sort of respiratory infection. 

I haven't heard from my husband since I left Boston,  it's not Navy related, I know he's  just really busy with college and all, but most of you know, that doesn't make it easier. There's a thunderstorm going on outside, and I absolutely HATE sleeping alone when it's thundering. It's very scary, I would say at least I have Dug to sleep with now, but he's just as scared as me. 

To top off the night, I just read the most heart breaking post I've ever read in my life.  Before you ask, yes the authorities have been notified and they are doing what they can to find out what's going on. There is no way I am getting any sleep tonight after reading it, all I can do is pray, and hope from the bottom of my heart that she is okay. When I started reading I couldn't believe it, but as I got further into it my heart shattered for this poor girl. She poured out her entire life, I only pray someone was there to help her when she needed it most, that she just wasn't able to get to the post before it went out. I hope that maybe it was just a cry for help, whatever the case may be, I just pray she's alive and getting the help she needs.

I've always been taught a very important lesson in life, that NO MATTER WHAT God throws at you, you never give up. You keep pushing through it, and as long as it takes, life will turn around. I can't imagine what she must be feeling, the kind of abandonment it takes to make a person feel that "A Final Goodbye" is their only option to achieve happiness. I just hope that every single one of you know that no matter what's going on, how far away you are, whether we've met or not, I will be there for you when you need ANYTHING.  I am on facebook, where you can find my email, phone number, whatever you need. I consider every one of you a friend and you've been there to support me when I needed it. Please keep Jessica in your prayers tonight, and hope that she is okay, wherever she may be.

4/6/11

Cheers!

Today is my last full day in Boston, I fly out tomorrow afternoon. It amazes me how fast it went by. I love that time is flying, and this deployment will be over before I know it. I have a few things to start planning, but that's a whole nother post. I have no idea what we are doing today, but I do know we had an AWESOME day yesterday. We started with a tour of the Sam Adams Brewery, and throughout the day we drank lots of beer.


The tour was free which was pretty awesome considering they gave us these cute little beer glasses and even filled them three times with different Sam Adams beers for free as well!


After we finished drinking our beer and got some souvenirs, we headed to a little bar they told us to check out which was the first bar in the world to sell Sam Adams. The bar actually is 125 years old, and several movies have scenes that have been filmed inside including 21 & Mystic River. 


After all the beer drinking we decided to head to Fenway park, by the time we got to the area we had to pee sooooooo bad but no one would let us use their rest room, so we stopped at another bar, called Game On, and we had another beer just so they would let us use the restroom.  Once we finished we headed over to Fenway park, and then realized we had missed the tour since we made so many detours. It was still amazing to be there and see everything though.









After all that beer drinking and touristy stuff, we were pretty hungry so we headed over to Cheers! for dinner. We decided to have clam chowder for dinner, and I didn't realize it would make me sick since I'm allergic to Shrimp, but it did. It wasn't that bad, just really, really nauseous. It was totally worth it though, it was delicious. All in all I've had an awesome time here in Boston and I'm sad that it is over, however I am excited to get home to my new puppy, and my baby flower. I miss them a lot. 





4/4/11

Mili Mondays: Wifey Drama

It's been a while since I've had a Mili Mondays post, you all know I was going through getting settled after deployment and all... and some other issues, but now I'm back! I'm so happy to be blogging again, I've really missed it. So even though it's a short post, I'd like you all to show Kate some love, and make her feel welcome! If you have any advice for her, you're welcome to comment and I will forward them to her!




First off, I want to thank Mrs. Gambizzle for having me write for her blog today. I am so happy to be a part of this!  Second, I am going to introduce myself. My name is Kate and I am engaged to a United States Sailor. I am in college and work part-time so my hands are pretty full! 



The one thing I wish that Military SO’s would learn to do is to keep the drama to a minimum. I have encountered a one of kind of drama, military wife drama. The Military SO drama is pretty much just the women talking bad about one another and creating unnecessary divides between themselves. Sure, not all of us will get along, but there is no need for the drama! I have met many women who create rumors about each other and try to create alliances. Is this needed?! We are all in similar situations and should just be there for one another instead of acting like petty 13 year olds. I hear about women creating lists to pass out to the new wives talking smack about the women they don’t like.  Other SO’s being left out of the “cool group”. Etc. So all of you out in bloggy land can ya do me a favor? If you see or hear about this happening, confront it in a calm way. I want to help stop this nonsense! 

Ya know, all of us Mili SO’s are in this together. Besides each other, we don’t have anyone else who gets what we are going through. So why alienate ourselves from the only people we can associate with? That is just silly. 

On less of a “lecturing” note, how great is it to have a sisterhood of women who can fully understand what you are going through? I can’t tell you the amount of nights that I have spent beyond frustrated and upset and one of my mili friends knew exactly what to say to make me laugh and get over the hump. I love my non-military friends dearly, but sometimes they just don’t understand what my life consists of now. I don’t know when I will see him again. I don’t know where I’ll be in a year. Not many others can say that.  

We’re all in this together. No matter where we are on this journey, we can all offer some comfort and love towards each other.  We need all the love we can get <3



www.sailorskate.blogspot.com

Turd Floaters & Toad Chokers

Today it's raining all day, which in Texas would be called a turd floater, or a toad choker apparently... so Nicole and I are sitting on the couch again doing absolutely nothing, except trying to figure out what we wanna eat. We've also been googling slang & idioms used in our areas. I found some pretty funny ones from Texas so I thought I'd share them. I'm interested to hear ones from your area too, so if you have some strange words or sayings you use in your area, feel free to post them!


Now I haven't heard of all these, and I don't use some of them, as I'm sure some are from different parts of Texas, which is like half the united states since it's so huge, however I am guilty of the occasional "y'all", "chunk", and "uh huh". 



Do wut? this is the standard response if you weren't paying attention or didn't hear what the the person said. In other places you'd probably hear "excuse me" or "pardon me" or even "could you please repeat that?" Sometimes when we're confused it's, "Do wut now?"

Y'all: y'all, which is often heyyy yaaaaaallllllllll, it's our way of referring to at least one other person. In general if you are talking to more than a handful of people the correct southern and Texas address would be "all y'all". This is sometimes a bit confusing to people not from Texas, but just go with it...

Uh huh when you say "thank you" to someone in Texas, often you will hear the response "uh huh". This should be interpreted as "your welcome". It can also be a sign of agreement with the last statement made. 
Texas Girl

Jaw Jackin just talking to hear yourself or talking smack to someone. Jaw jacking is often combined with getting bowed up. 

Bowed up when someone is really angry and is taking on an aggressive body stance, they are said to be all bowed up.

"They're proud of that" being proud of something means that you place an unusually or unreasonably high value on some item that is really not worth near that amount.

Chunk If you are throwing something a short distance we say we are "chunking" it. Don't know why Texans don't say chucking it like the rest of the world.

Texas


Coke anything that is called soda or pop anywhere else is called Coke in Texas. For example, Coke can be Pepsi, Sprite, Dr. Pepper or almost anything else that fizzes and comes in a can or bottle. 

Fix'in this is the ultimate Texan slang. "Fix'in", which is NOT pronounced "fixing" is a way to indicate that at some yet to be determined time some action is going to be taken. An example of this would be "I'm fix'in to go to the store". It never indicates when, or if you will for certain do something.

tump to spill or knock something over, as in "I jes' tumped over mah beer"

Ma'am/Sir Many cannot understand WHY we add the "Sir" and "Ma'am". Simply put, in Texas, we take pride in being polite and showing respect, particularly towards our parents, those in authority, & the elderly. Country boys, who are gentlemen like to say "yes ma'am" to the ladies as well, its something we take pride in.



4/3/11

ABC's

I've seen this on so many other blogs and liked reading other responses, so I decided to play along too! I think I sound pretty boring... I answered 'none' to too many questions. 







A. Age: 23

B. Bed size: Queen

C. Chore you dislike: Laundry. Thank God, hubby loves it!

D. Dogs: Flower & Dug

E. Essential start to your day: Emails from my love. <3

F. Favorite color: Anything bright, especially pink, purple, turquoise, and lime green.

G. Gold or silver: silver

H. Height: 5′ 2"

I. Instruments you play(ed): none, I've never played any.


J. Job title(s): Stay at home wife & jewelry designer.

K. Kids: Flower and Dug, our furbabies.

L. Live: Virginia & Texas

M. Most embarrassing moment: I'm so clumsy, I have a milli0n.

N. Nicknames: Mrs. G, Betty Boop, Butter Buns (from my love lol)

O. Overnight hospital stays: Never. (knock on wood)

P. Pet peeves:
hmmm... open shower curtains, when things are uneven, and misspelled words (we have spell check people!) (:

Q. Quote from a movie: I don't really watch movies, so I don't have one.

S. Siblings: 4 sisters & six brothers

T. Time you wake up: When my love is home 4am, when he's not, just whenever.

U. University attended: none.

V. Vegetables: I love veggies, just not onions.

W. What makes you run late: my hubby usually...

X. X-rays you’ve had: none.

Y. Yummy food you make: Enchiladas!

Z. Zoo animal favorites: Panda Bears.

Wicked Girl's Day

I have learned all kinds of new words since I've been here like "wicked" & "Hey Kid" & all week I have been looking forward to going to Maine! We woke up a little early after drinking a little too much last night. We spent the day in Kennebunkport, ME with Nicole's mom. we had such a great time. On the drive, we too some pictures of the absolutely gorgeous view. It turned out to be such a pretty day. 



We had a delicious lunch at a place called Allison's. We had Clam Chowder (my first time ever trying it) and Lobster Rolls.I absolutely LOVED the clam chowder.We saw this adorable little boy wearing pink sunglasses with Disney princess on them.


Afterward we did a little shopping, I got a super cute bracelet with anchors on it, a wine stopper with an anchor, and two more shot glasses to add to my collection. After we finished shopping, we drove down to New Hampshire and took a tour of the USS Albacore. We were being so silly since there wasn't anyone else on the tour.


We played captain for a while and pressed all the buttons we could.


We got comfy and tried out the beds, it gives me a new appreciation for what my husband does. I can't imagine sleeping in those bunk beds every night, they're so uncomfortable.


Nicole kept pretending she was talking on all the sub phones, and we played around with the scope thingy. We could see all the cars outside on the bridge it was pretty awesome. Before we left she snapped this picture of me on the tiny sub toilet. 


After we were done being silly, we drove to a liquor store on the side of the highway. I was on a quest to find shot glasses for New Hampshire. It was the third time we've gone and I hadn't managed to find one before. I am amazed, one, that the liquor stores are open on Sundays, and two, that they have them on the highway. It's so strange since in Texas they don't sell liquor on Sundays, and it seems to me like they're sorta condoning drinking and driving by having them on the highway. Since I've been here I've managed to add 7 shot glasses to my collection. I was really tired so I took a nap on the way home for like an hour, and then Nicole's mom made yummy stuffed shells for dinner. Now we're relaxing, and I am excited for Army wives tonight!

4/1/11

Snow Day

When I woke up this morning there was snow everywhere!
So Nicole and I have had an ABSOLUTE lazy day.


We have done nothing but sit on the couch all day and watch TV while playing around with out blogs. I gave hers a new layout, which you can see here...



...and then I made some logos for a few cute businesses on face book that I love.



We literally haven't moved in hours... hopefully the weather is better tomorrow! We're going to make pizza for dinner and then continue being lazy for the rest of the night. Tomorrow we're taking poor Miley to the vet for vaccines, and Sunday we've planned to drive to Maine! What are your plans for the weekend?