Monday, November 29, 2010

Elfing around.

I think i only posted once last week. Perhaps I will do better this week. Perhaps not. I already know it may potentially be a disappointing week. He kind of ended up on the worst possible duty rotation. It just happens that he had duty on Thanksgiving. So he was stuck up in WA on the boat all day. Then had to work the following day. Which meant of our potential 4 days together, we got two - and some change. Bummer. But then, come to find out he'll also have duty this Friday. This Friday is his command holiday party. I was really looking forward to it. I got the day off work and everything. The biggest reason this makes me so mad is because they don't even own the boat right now. They are in refit assist. Come on, just one night? Please guys? 
Also, it's getting down to the wire and he still hasn't been able to put in his request for leave. Which would start the day AFTER my family Christmas get together. URG! He has duty that weekend too so if he makes it, he'll have to drive down, go to the gathering, then drive all the way back up in one day. Not very fun. None of my extended family have met him yet. I especially want him to meet my uncle. I knew he was in the navy, but I didn't know he was also on subs. And even taught at the base Monkey is on. Cool, right?
Somewhere in all this we have to find a day that both of us can get into the apartment on the same day to sign the lease and start moving stuff so we can get moved before Christmas. 

Ok, well... besides all that, here is something much more FUN!!!
This weekend we helped out selling Jelly at "America's largest Christmas bazzaar". My ballet teacher also has another business selling super nummy home-made jams and jellies. I volunteered to help and got Monkey to help out too. He happily obliged, even though he would have to dress like an elf. :D For several hours, in public. hehe. I'm all for dressing up in silly costumes, but Monkey was such as trooper, doing this for me. Love him! 

Mrs. Claus was there too, but she was taking the picture!
Caught mid snacking!

That's better!

Too cool for elf school!

Why do i keep hearing jingling every where i go?



Elfy love!

Goofy elves!



Monday, November 22, 2010

Fancy Monkey

This weekend ended up being a little more expensive that we anticipated. But, it was for a good cause.
Lately, Monkey has decided that he wants to start dressing with a little more style. I think this is something that guys do at this age. And I am all for it! I've wanted to dress him up for so long! We went to the mall to get him a pair of "stylish shoes" he's had his eyes on for a few days, and came back with the shoes, correctly fitting jean, a new button up shirt, nice belt, and a suit! A suit ladies and gents! He looks SO handsome in it. I just melted when he put the jacket on in the store. He was going to just get the jacket but the pants were on sale and I figured he might as well have the set just in case he actually needs full on suit one day. So I bought the pants for him. We even had them hemmed so they were the right length.

It was all on sale, plus coupons so we got everything for less than half price.

New jacket, shirt he already owned, new jeans (that fit really well), new shoes (actually a half boot!). There's a new belt in there too but you can't see it under his shirt. I took a normal picture too, but he's just so cute when he's being goofy so I posted this one instead. :)

I also got the shopping bug and picked up a new pair of boots (half price) and a sweater dress for work (also on sale). I stopped there. I had to put it all in a bag or I wouldn't stop. :) And on a side note, Monkey is also an excellent shopping buddy. To start, if I tell him I have a budget or I don't want to spend too much, he reminds me of that when I get a little too excited. I do appreciate that. But also, he actually helps! He doesn't follow me around like a lost puppy whining one minute only to disappear in the tool department the next. No, he actually helps. I ask him what he thinks and he has an opinion. If he see's something he thinks would look cute on me, he points it out. I love it! And he'll even offer... OFFER... to hold my purse so I can try stuff on. LOVE HIM!

We were feeling fancy when we got home so I sweet talked my mom into taking us out to dinner so we could go out and dress up with out having to spend any more money. Thank you Mom and Dad. :D

No luck at Goodwill for furniture but we found a bunch of other stuff that we will go back for once we are in the apartment and know exactly what spaces we have to fill.

Friday, November 19, 2010

Tid-bits

I haven't had enough for a full post in few days, so here's just some tid-bits of what's been going on.

- We got the apartment! Yea! I'm so excited to have a place that is just ours. I'm also excited to decorate it! However, we have no furniture, or dishes, or well... anything. Except, a bed and a TV and entertainment center. (Thank you Pop!) I think tonight, our budget date night will be treasure hunting at goodwill for paintable furniture and possibly funky dishes. Maybe we'll find some decor things too, like mirrors or art. Curtains? Lamps? Who knows - adventure I say!

- A little bad news, Monkey has duty on Thanksgiving and wont be able to come home. He will be home the next day though so at least I get a few extra hours with him that weekend. I really wanted to take him down to meet the rest of my family that he hasn't met yet, though. I guess we'll try again for Christmas.

- His car has decided that it wants to be difficult. The check engine light as been coming off and on, and it's been having problems starting up. We had to push-start it last weekend, and yesterday he couldn't get it started at all. It sounds like he got it working today so he can make it home tonight. *fingers crossed* Ever since he picked it up from deployed parking it's been acting up and seems to be getting progressively worse. He has some leads as to what it might be. We're hoping that it ends up being the not expensive one. :/

Things are back to "normal" right now. He's coming down for the weekend. I'll see him tonight! Yay! Can not wait to squeeze him and kiss him!

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

A day I thought I'd never see.

The sky is falling! Hell hath frozen over! A pig just flew by! Ladies and gentlemen hold on to your hats you are not going to believe what just happened!!! My husband, the die-hard defender of the game, has just QUIT WORLD OF WARCRAFT!!! Quit playing, canceled his account, all done!

From the day I met him, I never ever thought this would happen. EVER! I mean, I'm not going to complain too much. From day one, I have been competing for attention with this game. But I will miss so diligently trying to distract him while he's in the middle of some big raid or boss or whatever. ;)

Anyway, i won't go into detail as to the reasons, he can share if he feels so inclined. But i just wanted to share the monumentous turn of events!!!

Look, there goes another flying pig!

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Exciting Things

Just a quick little post. Couple things that make me happy. 

1. In the last few weeks I have gone from 12 to 50 followers! Wow! That's awesome! Thank you all for reading and commenting. You are all terrific! :D

2. Apartment Update: We have picked an apartment and have started the application process. We're just having a hard time finding time for Monkey to get his paperwork back. It's harder because we only have two days to get all the paperwork in but he's up in WA for the rest of the week. But the apartment is super cute! Two bedroom, two bath, walk-in closets in both rooms plus an extra little closet in the master which works out perfectly for Monkey's stuff since he only needs clothes her for the weekends. Beautiful kitchen, with stainless appliances and nice cabinets. And a window in the kitchen! For some reason i just really love a window in the kitchen and that is so hard to find in an apartment. 

Anyway, I have to get back to work, but I just wanted to share those things. Also, while I'm sad that Monkey has gone back up to WA, I'm sooooo happy that i got most of a week with him and that we have our evening web cam sessions back.

Monday, November 15, 2010

Good to be back!

***This is a post from Monkey! He has been underway so many of you have not seen him post before. He actually posts here frequently so you can look forward to more from him in the next few months while he's still on dry land. Enjoy. (p.s. I am "Ducky" below) ***

The blog has gained a lot of followers since I was adventuring. Good job Ducky! I don't really know where to begin, or what to say. Blogging is best when events are fresh in your head. There aren't really too many, i have vented almost everything.


I like all the random submarine questions I get. Some of them are silly to me know though, i think that a couple years ago I would have asked the same ones. Maybe not all of them...

Most exciting thing now -and it's very exciting- is our apartment. We finally get our own place, wish i would be there more often. The thought of it drove me crazy underway. Kept thinking about how nice it would be.

Got to spend most of the last week with Ducky. It was excellent. She had to work though. I spent much of my time catching up on sleep and scouring everything west of PDX for the perfect desk. Which by the way doesn't exist.

Apparently my geeky needs are a little too extreme for modern furniture. I mean... is a place to put six computer screens too much to ask? Am I reaching for the stars here? Eventually i found one that will work for now. I am sitting in my "throne" presently. Right not its just 4 screens - But it does feel rather like I could control an Imperial Star Destroyer from here. It is a nice feeling!

Anyhoozle... Ducky did a very nice job of covering important high-lights during the patrol. I haz the feesh [Fish].... they feel good. Thanks to Ducky for keeping up on emails while i was away, they brightened my day, just imagining her speaking the words.

I also feel a sudden urge to buy a digeridoo.

Thursday, November 11, 2010

I feel special

I am a day late in posting this because Monkey's home and I've been, of course, spending all my free time with him!

Yesterday, the awesome Kate over at Livin' Our Love Song posted a feature about me/our blog for her "WonderWoman Wednesday" series! Thank you Kate! It makes me feel special that someone else thinks my blog is cool enough to share with all of her bloggie friends. I also follow her blog and it's one of my favorites. So, go ahead, go check out her WonderWoman Wednesday post and the rest of her blog.

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

(Semi) Wordless Wednesday

(click on the image to see the whole thing. Don't forget to use the back button to get back to the post.)

Best blog hit from Google to date! That's a hit from Chile, from a Google search for "love being in my underwear at home". Interesting and amusing. :D

In case you're curious, the post they hit on was this one. A funny little story from Monkey about locking himself out of his barracks room.

Monday, November 8, 2010

Homecoming adventures.

In case you missed my last post. Monkey's home!
On my way to retrieving my husband I had a few adventures of my own.

Adventure one: Getting on base
Usually when i get on base I just drive up, show my ID, have the same conversation about why I don't have stickers yet and get a temporary pass. I've never had a problem. Turns out this is because I've always been there on a weekend. Since I was there when pass and ID was open i had to go in and get a full pass even. Wondering how all the people who don't have a military ID who were going on the dependent's cruise were going to get on base, i grab my number sit down and wait. When i got to the counter I was very prepared. I had all my documents that were noted on the bulletin board all ready to go for the lady at the counter. I "knew" from experience that she was going to have an issue with the fact that my car registration is still in my old last name. I can't change it easily because the bank still owns the title. Last time monkey went to get me stickers we had the same situation and they gave me a month pass no problem so i figured a few days would be no biggie. I was wrong. We went in circles about it for about 10 minutes. Her telling me that if i had my marriage license she could get me stickers. Me telling her that we tired that before and were told that we still couldn't. Apparently they changed the rules. I didn't know this so i didn't think to bring it. But, hubs has it. But i can't get to it because he's on the boat, that I am here to go on a cruise on and it's still in the ocean. Circles circles circles, finally after 20 or so minutes she gave me a pass on the premise that I come back the next day with the marriage certificate. Which I did. In the end it worked out because now i have stickers, but, geesh. Hadn't bargained for that run around.

Adventure two: Help?
Mmm, yeah... I am now officially "that girl" that did that. We had one last chance to hit the bathroom before the hour and half bus ride to the 'undisclosed location'. Went into the stall, did my business and unlocked the door to exit the stall. Pushed the door... it didn't open. Pulled the door... it didn't open. Jiggled the door... it didn't open. Tried the lock... it didn't open. In my head I thought to myself, "I can't believe I'm about to do this". As I yell, "Help, I'm STUCK!!" I hear the other ladies giggling as the door finally pops open. Luckily i knew one of the other girls so I made a point to laugh it off. But yeah, I'm that girl, that got stuck in the bathroom. haha

Adventure three: temporary homelessness. 
Since they changed the date at the last minute I wasn't able to get a room on base for all 4 nights I was going to be there. Well, first off, i counted wrong so I might have had two at one place but by the time I realized my error there were no more rooms available. I wanted to stay on base because it's much much cheaper than staying off base and because I wanted to be close so I could have as much time as possible with Monkey in the mornings after he got back knowing he would still have to go into work. It eventually worked out. One of the other boat wives was super great and offered to let me stay at their place the night before the cruise, and the third night i ended up staying off base but managed to snag what seemed like the last hotel room in the city under $100. And kind of by accident, and I didn't get it until a few hours before i checked in. Since my checkout was early friday morning and i had no place to go, i got up with Monkey early and was planning on just crashing in his barracks till he got back and we could figure something out. Well a few hours later i got a phone call from him informing me that if they did a random room inspection i would be escorted out by security. ( I think that would have been funny actually) He had no internet so i called a number i had happened to write down the week before. Turns out it was the main number for a whole chain of hotels and they were able to get me into the last room in a nearby hotel for $80 instead of the regular $120. I still had to wait till 3 so i drove to the mall and window shopped. I was very very good. i didn't buy anything. Which was hard because all the cute winter clothes are out! I knew i would be in trouble if I did. Last time he left me unattended at that mall i came back with more bags than I could carry. :) So, i walked around, had lunch at Red Robin by myself and finally checked in and waited for monkey to get off work.

Adventure four: Flashlight camping in a hotel
Saturday night we stayed at the Navy Lodge on base. There was a scheduled power outage on that block of the base so when i checked in there were no lights. I was escorted down the dark hallway to my room and given a flashlight "just in case". The room was bright enough from the window and the power was supposed to be back on any time. Then it wasn't. I was getting cold, and bored. I really wanted to shower but there was not light in the shower. I couldn't get on the internet or watch TV. Eventually it started to get dark. Flashlight required. Monkey had come to the hotel eventually and I had to lead him to the room with the light from my cell phone. We got tired of sitting in the dark so we went out to eat hoping the power would come back on. It hadn't so we went to see a movie but the one we wanted to see didn't start for another hour and a half. So, we went to Bestbuy and fell in love with some Bose speakers. We called again and the power had finally come back on so we stopped by the mini next and got a DVD from the Red Box and had a cuddle movie. That was nice.


So that was my weekend. Now he's home (in portland) for a few days. :) Time for him to catch up with family and friends. Unfortunately I can't really miss any more dance classes so I don't get to see him until late tonight, but it's still awesome to come home to him in our bed. *happy sigh*

Friday, November 5, 2010

The post we've all been waitijg for!

Monkey's home!!!!!!!!!!

Well, he's back on dry land and back on base which is where i am too. I'm sitting in his barracks on my ipod. I wanted to take a picture of us last night and just post that but they wouldn't let me have a camera on the dependents cruise. (which is foder for another post) and by the time we got back to the hotel we weren't really thinking about taking pictures.

I dont have a hotel for tonight which is why i'm hanging out in his barracks all day. I'll try the lodge for the fourth time again a little later. Either way i have nowhere to be until 3 when i could check in anywhere anyway.

Gonna try and get back to sleep. It's only about 6:30. Then i'll find something to occupy my day. Perhaps a much needed pedicure.

I will write more about the ruleunion and dependents cruise later when i have a full sized keyboard. Until then, yay! Monkey's back!!!

Monday, November 1, 2010

Button Fix

My button is apparently on the fritz. I promise it was working at one point. If you've tried and it didn't work, here you go. Hopefully I did it right.

A Monkey in the Navy

<div align="center"><a href="http://monkeysnavy.blogspot.com/" title="A Monkey in the Navy"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHY6J_RWWLcDK664iu7PbV-dmfaTzvj6ZMKEKHWonxgG07G63G7UFMrJ8ade_PuUlgMU75aGeb1TOH3RvWOaahp2HycWmIlkLWmkE5e76VMQLNZE72SDwme6Fm-8Hq18qboYyNgL2Vorgk/s144/Button_MonkeyBlog.png" alt="A Monkey in the Navy" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

Blog Award

Last week I was given two blog awards! I've been so busy i haven't had time to post about them. Here's the first one.


To accept the Versatile Blogger Award the rules are:



{1}: Thank and link back to who gave you the award.
Thank you Liv Kit @ Simply Sunshine and Daisys



{2}: Share 7 things about yourself.
(In no particular order or preference)

  1. I live three lives - Full time sailors wife,  graphic designer during the day, and dancer at night (Which dance depends on which night of the week it is). 
  2. Mac-n-cheese it probably my favorite food.
  3. I suck at spelling
  4. I love my husband more than anything I can imagine.
  5. I have fat kitty with a curly half tail.
  6. I have one older sister who makes adorable children.
  7. I love my in-laws. :) All of them.


{3}: Pass it along to 7 blogs you've recently discovered and enjoy!
Home is Where the Heart is
Livin' our love song
Life as a sailors girl
Two Southerners
Pink Champaign, Combat Boots and MRE's
Army Dogs
Hooyah from the Homefront


{4}: Leave the recipients a note, telling them about the award.
Doin' that as we speak. Err.. read/write.