(Mostly) Good to be home.

So, I spent the last few days up on base squeezing in a little Monkey time. Now, the hotel that I stayed at had these AWESOME feather beds. And, it's nice to always have clean towels, and unlimited hot water. There are however....

A Few Things That Are Great About Being Home: (in no particular order)

1. Two ply toilet paper
2. Full size bath products
3. Not having to worry about the maid walking in on me in the morning/not hearing "House Keepeeing" up and down the halls from 10 until noon every morning
4. Internet that doesn't suck
5. Knowing exactly where I parked my car

What would make it perfect, would be if Monkey was here with me. But, I've got a little while longer on that one. So, until then I'll take what I can get.

P.S. Go check out and join in on my link up, please. :) I will love you forever.

A Boohoo and a Hooyah

Good morning bloggers! It is Tuesday, and that means it's time for "A Boohoo and Hooyah"!

A short format way to talk about something that's not going well this week and then follow it up with something positive. Super easy, right? Just fill in your appropriate battle cry depending on your branch and lets get linkin'!

Boohoo: Last night was my last night with Monkey up here. Back to the apartment all alone for me for a while.

Hooyah: At least we (should) have webcam now. He'll have leave soon and he'll get to come home, then he'll have weekends off again. Things will be back to "normal".

Okey dokey, your turn!

Meeting strangers from the internet.

Is fun! Well, at least when it is one of your fellow Mil-spouse blog friends. 

I knew that I would have a lot of time on my hands while up here visiting hubs. So, I made a point to meet up with Poekitten from Many Waters. This was the second attempt. Last time our schedules just didn't work out. We met at a coffee shop and chatted for a while about this and that. It was really cool to meet someone from the blogosphere face to face. I had a good time.

At one point I asked what I thought was a very legitimate, public knowledge question. Then, from over in the corner a man mumbles without looking up from his newspaper. "Probably not something you should be discussing in public." Now, I know I'm not the OPSEC expert. But, I do know specific and general things I can and cannot talk about. I'm not a dummy. So, put-off by this guys intrusion into our conversation we decided to leave the coffee shop and have her show me her base. She also showed me around town a little bit and helped me get my baring on things.

Oh, I also learned the difference between a "boat" and a "ship". :)

Now, the whole time I felt really bad that I did accidentally try to have a conversation about something I really shouldn't have, so as soon as I got back to the hotel I googled my question. Just as I thought. I found a ton of sites giving a very specific, unclassified, answer to my question. So, coffee shop dude... shut it! I knew there was no way that it was a secret. (I'm not going to say what the question was, simply because I don't want a whole bunch of google search hits about it.)

Anyway, we parted ways after an hour or so. She was off to a BBQ, and I was off to wait for hubs to get back from work. I will probably try and meet up again next I'm up here. Hopefully both of our guys will be in and they'll be able to meet too. That would be pretty cool.

Super-wife saves the day.

I know I still owe you details from my crazy crazy day. I'm still working up the energy to do that. But, let me tell you about my day today. Because it's just as awesome (well kinda) and much shorter.

Today, I am super wife. As you may have heard, Monkey made second class. So, he needs all his new devices sewn on his uniforms. They have been giving him a hard time about being out of uniform. But come on, he just got off the boat YESTERDAY! They got back Thursday but he was stuck with first night duty. I told him I would sew them on by hand, but then after looking at it decided that it was just not going to happen. If I had a sewing machine I would be all over it. But I would kill myself trying to do that by hand.

So, I went to the uniform shop today and got him a new set of NWU's and even managed to get him a pair of in-between sized pants that weren't on the regular shelf. (Thank you counter lady) I told the lady at the counter that they were giving him a hard time about his uniform and she arranged to have his name tapes made and everything sewn on Today! I'm still waiting for the uniform shop to call and say it's done, but assuming it all works out, I am totally super wife today! Now, if I could only figure out how to get him a hair cut tonight. (Which he badly needs) I even noticed that it's way too long. He was let out early yesterday to take care of his hair and uniform, but was too excited to see me and didn't make it before the shop and barber closed.

Oh, and I did all this and had time to go to the salon for a little hair refresh.

Took off about 3 inches of damaged junk on the ends. You can't see it well, but I got some long bangs. And, I went a bit darker. I love it. Next time I think I'll make the bangs shorter. I was scared. I guess I'm easing into them.

Today requires a blog post.

But, I am much too tired to write it. So, I will give you bullet points and expand on them tomorrow.

Lets start from what just transpired and work our way back.

• First off, in 4.5 hours, I will have been up for 24 hours straight.
• I just got back from watching The Hangover II with two girls that I met in line at subway 5 minutes before.
• I got to watch a sunset on the pier with my husband... because I was the last one to leave the boat and missed the shuttle.
• What I thought was going to be a two minute hug and kiss turned out to be a couple hours down in the sub.
• I inadvertently almost smuggled not one, but two cameras on to lower base.
• I was a total smart ass two a couple of guys from the blue crew. One of whom may have been the captain. The petty officer is totally my bud now. Well, he might not think so, but I deem him so.
• I found out that my car not only needed an oil change, new headlights, and a turn signal; but that i've also been driving around without break lights for an unknown amount of time. Don't worry, all fixed now.
• I am sadly getting very good at packing. This means I have to pack much too often.

Ok, so there you have it. My name is totally Trouble with a capitol T! Monkey was so proud of me! haha

Details tomorrow. It should be a lengthy post.

oh, PS, in case you didn't catch that part.... MONKEY'S BACK!!!



While you're waiting, won't you pretty please go check out my link-up!

Wordless Wednesday

The foggiest day at the beach ever. But it was totally worth it.

Also, don't forget to check out my link-up! Open all week.
Check it, yo! (Please)

A Boohoo and a Hooyah - Week 3

Oh my! With all the excitement today I almost forgot to make this post!!! 

So without further delay, this weeks "A Boohoo and a Hooyah... or Oorah, or Hooah" Or if you please, Booyah! Just pick the most applicable battle cry!

First time? No worries, here's the low-down. This is just short format way to vent about something that kinds sucks this week and then follow it up with something positive! Link up, spread the word, it's super duper fun! 

The link stays open all week so you join up no matter when you come across this post!!! I make a point to check back and comment.

Here's mine!

Boohoo: Umm, not much to boohoo about this week. Maybe that I put off cleaning the apartment again, and now I have to spend my day off cleaning it. Oh, and my car is starting to make funny noises so i have to take care of that on my day off too. 

Hooyah!: I have two - First, (I'm pretty sure) Monkey made 2nd class! I didn't find it at first under what I thought his rate was so i did a word search on the page for his name and found it under ETV. I've only ever seen him write ET. But I googled it and it said that was Electronics Technician, which is what he is. So, pretty sure.
Second, I'm planning a big camping trip with a bunch of really cool people from my martial arts gym. It's going to be a ton of fun. Now, I just hope Monkey can come too! You know the Navy. Plan spoilers!

Ok, your turn! Go!!

Advancements!

Hey! I think he did make it! I looked and looked on three different lists and couldn't find his name! It just didn't make sense. He had a must promote so he would have had to have totally bombed in order to not make it. I FINALLY found his name under ETV! I've never seen his rate that way. It's always ET (Usually), or I've heard him say ET NAV or NAV ET... I finally just did a word search of his name on the page for the rank he should have been moving in to and there it was!!! Yea! Go Monkey!

Advancement Lists

The navy advancement lists come out today for the March cycle. But there are too many people trying to access the documents at once and it won't load! Aahhhh.... I want to know!

I think i will take a shower to distract myself. I'll hopefully find out later this morning!
 ______

Finally got it to load. I didn't see his name. :( 
Or, I was looking in the wrong place. I guess I'll have to wait until he gets back to know for sure.

My suprise Ba Gua class.

Today, after my typical LJK, Lameco, and Capoeira classes, I attended a special Ba Gua class taught by Tony Costa. I completely forgot that this class was today. There was another one yesterday that I couldn't go to so I guess I just put it out of my mind.

Anyway, it was very cool. It centers around being balanced and using the energy to evade that than just trying to out-muscle someone. We started by just walking around in a circle concentrating on placing all our weight on one foot at a time. Then we moved in to evading a punch and just using the other persons momentum to simply move them out of the way. After that we learned how to get out of a wrist grab. It was amazing. Using almost no force and moving very slowly with a certain motion worked every single time. Us little girls even had big guys holding as hard as they could and it took very little effort to escape. He calls the technique "butter". 

While we were walking around in our circle in this particular style, which is more difficult that you would think. He stops by me and says "You're a dancer, aren't you." Now, I'm not sure if he said that because I was doing it particularly well? Or, if he could tell I was fighting walking with turnout, of which we were trying to do the opposite.  Either way, I'll take it as a compliment that he could see in my body movement that I am a dancer. :)

We were learning more simple and evasive techniques, but this is what it looks like more advanced . Notice how little energy they are expending to knock the other guy over. And also note that they are not simply complying, they are actually being sent to the ground. 

(Not the best video but I couldn't really find a good one)

It's Friday, here is a kitten!

Well, last night I got to go see our future kitten! (At this point I'm presuming Monkey will say yes.)
Here are more adorable photos of our little Tango!

CUTE!

CUTER!!

BAWWWW!!!! ADORBZ!!!!

And for good measure a video. Kittens mewing adorably and people talking about the kittens. I believe there were 5 of them roaming around at this time. Ours is the only grey one.

My very short and slightly odd encounter with a homeless man just now.

Wow, so let me tell you what just happened to me:

I was sitting in the park on my lunch break, because it's awesome and sunny outside, and this very dirty very toothless homeless man comes up and asks if he can sit by me. I said ok. He starts talking to me and tells me that he was just trying to help these two other homeless people. He went into some building to try and get them food stamps, and when he came out, half the stuff in his backpack was gone. So now he needed to "settle down so he doesn't end up back in jail." At this point I notice that he's smoking what's left of a joint. He then shakes my hand and tells me his name which didn't register. He was really frazzled. A minute later he says "Well, i need to go drink a beer and settle down." As he walks away he turns around and says "Oh by the way. In case anyone asks, woo woo.. um I can't whistle."  

Gotta love Vantucky! And now I smell a little bit like refer.

Thursday 5

Thursday, yeah yeah yeah... it's thursday yeah yeah yeah!
Ok, well the sun is shining anyway which makes it good day. So then here we go wid da Tursday fife.

Irresistible

Positive

Successful

Vibrant

Glorious

 

Lately, every sugary tasty yummy thing has seemed irresistible! And is shows... right on my mid-section! But, I am positive that I will be able to successfully burn it [mostly] back off before the Monkey gets home.

My porch is looking more vibrant lately with the addition of a larger potted plant. (Though, sadly it replaced the one that died unexpectedly of a fungus.)

 

The sun is out and it's glorious!!!!!! Now that I'm over the whole wishing Monkey was here to do stuff with me in the sunny weather thing, nothing makes me happier right now than beautiful awesome sunshine!!!

P.S. - If you haven't already, pretty pretty please go check out my new meme on my previous post here. It's really easy, join in, wont you?

The [possibly] newest member of our family!

Hey guys, meet Tango! The [possibly] newest member of our family!

If you remember back to "The Great Kitty Debacle" , we've been contemplating getting a friend for our poor lonely kitty since we got our own place and she's been stuck at home alone all day. Monkey isn't 100% sold on the idea. He is very particular about the temperament of his kitties. Basically he wants a fluffy minion to follow him around and cuddle with him always and just be adorable. Therefore, he hates my cat. She is quite particular about when and where you can cuddle her. And when she's done, she's done. His eye ball found that out the hard way a while back.

Anyway, we've been looking long and hard for a younger male kitty for her since we think this will suit the maternal instincts of her breed very well. We searched all the shelters but there were no boys, or they were too old, or they were supposed to go to single pet households. But, a few weeks ago my Ballet teacher's daughter's cat had a second litter of kittens for the season and they were mostly boys!!! So, I laid tentative claims on the single grey one. He's so adorable!

Now, Monkey is still on the fence about the whole situation, but come on girls... we all know that if our man is teetering on the fence it only takes some eye batting and sweet talking to push him over the edge. :) Plus, Monkey LOVES kitties, so I'm pretty much certain this is in the bag. I just have to wait for him to get back to make a final decision. (Which will be "yes" the second he holds this little guy.)

So, about the name, in case you were wondering. While we were looking at shelter kitties, we came across this beautiful girl who's name was Waltz. As soon as we saw that we knew this was the cat for us, being that we are both ballroom dancers. But alas, regardless of the fact that we really wanted a male, she was supposed to go to a single pet home. So, we resolved that when we get our boy kitty, we would give him another dance name, but a more boy-like dance name. Thus, Tango. Plus, it's doubly appropriate being that he's coming into a military family. :)

Also, please check out my link up for this week here.

Wordless Wednesday - and a shameless plug

Ah it's Wednesday... let the wordlessishness ensue.

I miss this scruffy face!!!

P.S. - If you haven't already, pretty please go check out my new meme on my previous post here. It's really easy, join in, wont you?

A Boohoo and a Hooyah - Week 2

Alrighty, well I'm pretty pleased with last weeks turnout considering it was the very first one. Thank you all for linking up and giving some awesome shout outs!

So let's proceed with week two, shall we?

Here's the drill:
It's called, "A Boohoo and a Hooyah - or Hooah, or Oorah". Basically, a short format way to vent about something that's not quite going right (or just plain going horribly for that matter), and follow it up with something positive or something that is going right at the moment. Fill in your appropriate battle cry depending on your branch. If you're civilian, pick whichever you like or you can go with the always popular "Booyah!"

I'm leaving it open all week so if you're joining us mid week, please jump in! I make a point to check and read and comment. :)

 

Boohoo: The couple of short emails that I have received lately have all been pretty much bad news.

Hooyah: Had a great time at an MMA workshop over the weekend and am sporting a couple new bruises to show for it. Don't worry, I'm not all hardcore or anything. It was mostly technique and drills, all hand to hand. Don't wanna mess up my face just before Monkey gets home anyway. :)

Okey dokey, your turn! 

A delicious failure.

So, while it still seems like forever away, it is getting down to crunch time. Monkey will be home soon...ish... But, it's close enough that I'm trying to be good and workout extra hard and try to get in a little better shape work off the pity-party weight I gained, before he gets back. 

I was doing so well, getting back into a healthy food routine, kicking up the workouts a little bit. And then Sunday happened. :) After most of a day of sitting on the couch watching netflix (though in my defense I did do most of a back and ab workout video), I had a hankering for some chicken and mushroom pizza. Not too bad of a "treat". So I got online to order from our favorite tasty pizza place. Turns out they have a $15 minimum food order. I should have just gone with a larger pizza. Instead I went with a small pizza, an order of garlic bread, and an order of cinnamon rolls. And I mean, since I ordered it, I had to eat it! 

So, there I sat, alone on the couch watching a crappy movie, feeling like a lazy glutton, enjoying every last bite of it. Whatever. It's was delicious. And NOW, I start getting back into shape. At least I have Muay Thai today. I'll be working my sodium and sugar laden rear-end a little extra hard today.

Monkey Mail

After what has felt like freakin' forever, I finally received some Monkey Mail. I have to say, I was a little disappointed, they were very short and contained absolutely no good news. In fact were particularly bad new. ug.... 

Well, anyway...

Hey you,

I don't have much time, people are in line to use this computer. The past few days have been really busy due to our inspection. [...]When we dropped them off we picked up 7 midshipmen, girls. So we have to try and maintain political correctness for the rest of the patrol because they are riding back into port with us. Which also means we have to shave.

Anyways, we are ALMOST DONE! Im so excited to get home and see you again. I have bad news though. I think that i have first day duty. Which means that i will pull the boat in and have to stay on the boat that night. So, hang on with the hotel thing until i know for sure. Turn-over is likely to be a hell unto itself just due to the fact that its so short. I think we get one day off after turn-over is complete then its back to work until they take the boat back to sea.

Love you beautiful.

I got a mail drop but havent had a chance to open it yet.
*kisses*

 The second email was just that is phone is completely broken which will of course make it difficult to know when he finally gets off the boat since I won't see him because of duty when they get back. 

Now I am very cranky. 

Woohoo!

I just paid off my car! I now have $250 more bucks a month!!! That's like getting a raise.
Now, before I get ahead of myself, it's not really going into my pocket. What would have been next months payment is going towards a celebratory salon visit, but after that it's all going towards knocking out my last credit card. Except for my student loans, I should be debt free by the end of the year. That is really exciting.

Thursday 5

Welp, it's thursday! We're almost there...  

It's been a while since I've done a Thursday 5, so here we go. Linkin' up over at Flip Flops and Combat Boots.

Excellent

Simple

Joyful

Glamorous

Refreshing

 

Though I'm sure it won't last the rest of the deployment, at the moment my mood is Excellent. I'm getting pretty impatient but I'm holding strong.

 

I miss the Simple things, like just hanging out on the couch and laughing over marshmallow fights. Those are the things that make me Joyful.

 

My arms are not looking too Glamorous right now. My elbow is covered in bruises. But I am proud of all them; I earned every single one at Muay Thai!

 

I just took a two minute blogging break and saw that there is sunshine this morning! Very refreshing after days of icky NW rain!

 

 

 

A Boohoo and a Hooyah - New Meme Official Kickoff!!!

Well, I think i got enough interest last week to warrant giving this a shot. I am starting a meme called "A Boohoo and a Hooyah - or Hooah, or Oorah". Basically, a short format way to vent about something that's not quite going right (or just plain going horribly for that matter), and follow it up with something positive or something that is going right at the moment. Fill in your appropriate battle cry depending on your branch. If you're civilian, pick whichever you like or you can go with the always popular "Booyah!"

I know it is Wednesday today but in the coming weeks I will try to do this on Tuesdays. So, go ahead, steal the button, link up and share the news, lets make this a party. Hooyah!

I'm also open to feedback and suggestions. Also, I've never used a linky tool so bare with me as I learn. Thanks and have fun!

 

Boohoo: Another whole week without hearing from my Monkey Love. :(

Hooyah: I finally had time to start this meme!

Monkey Mail - and a meme?

If you haven't already, go check out my previous post (after reading this one, of course). I am thinking about starting a meme so I'm gauging interest. Thanks!

Now, on with the fun stuff! No sooner did I write my Boohoo about not hearing from Monkey for over a week, than two sailor mails trickled into my inbox!!!  I guess somebody knew that a certain Sailor's Wife could really use some news right about now. :) 

So, here you go. Excerpts from Monkey Mail:

25 April

I have been up for 44 hours... on one hour of sleep. booo. Not quite the easter i was wanting... I did get your card though! thank you, love you and miss you.

[Sailor R] goofed up a phone that he repaired so while he was sleeping i was called in to fix that phone and the two others that were subsequently impaired. then i showered and went to bed. Then my chief had me racked out to do this maintenance procedure that i had intended on doing tonight. This particular procedure takes about 6 hours so having been racked out at 6, getting some help from a buddy and skipping that buddy and another's dolphin ceremony, i barley finished with enough time to eat lunch before i had to relieve the watch. I was not pleased. 

[...]

Anyways... once i had the caffeine and it kicked in the day turned a little better. I argued with the OOD about atmosphere control because i feel like i know more about it seeing as how its kind of MY JOB.

{There was a very amusing story about a wayward icyhot patch. But, I'm not sure he would want me to share it with everyone so it has been omitted.} :)

Anyways... I feel like something else mildly entertaining happened today but i cant remember what it was.

I just wanted to send you an email[...]. I love you so much. i miss you. I think about you every day, the pictures of you i have on my phone just make me crazy.

Love you so much!
Keep writing!

  -------

Hey beautiful one!

Thank you for the box. The jerky was awesome and the little eggs made me smile.{Amongst other goodies, I had filled little plastic eggs each with a reason I loved him}

[...]was pretty fun. It ended up being two days. We made... what are they called. little cars that go down the track.. I can't remember what that is called for some reason... Well anyways. Some of us made little derby cars to race on [...]. My division (mostly consisting of myself and ET1) made one for our division and we called it "[Monkey's] Revenge" ET1's idea. Because "It too will slide down the missile compartment".{In reference to exploits from last underway that were never posted because(though quite funny)he kinda got in some trouble over them} We used the rings that hold elements into our sound-powered telephones as our tires, stuffed the ends of chart tube inside of that to make the wheel. Then we pop-riveted the center and used pen shafts to make an axle. Our axle wells we gauge cal. T junctions that we stuffed graphite (from a couple pencils) into to make it really slick. The the part that connected the two T junctions was able to twist so we kinda had suspension. It was pretty much awesome. Unfortunately [Sailor R] decided to hammer one of the chart tube ends into the tire and bent it all up so our front tires were a little wobbly. The wobble turned into a slight dodge to the right. So I attached a sail to it to compensate which ended up making it dodge to the left. I added lock-wire bumpers to the front and back to protect it from impact on the stopping block at the end of the track or from missile tubes it might hit on the way down.

{I'm also omitting this humorous, though possibly incriminating(of a non-serious nature), conquest.} [...]Its good to be the king.

I miss you so bad!Have some good news and some bad news. The bad [...]. The good news is that through a game during half-way night; I earned my division a day off during the off-crew. So that's an extra day with you which i am very much looking forward to. I can't wait to see you.

OOOHHH! Im no longer Dinq! BOOYAH! Finished my interview with the Eng. Now I am one of very few in my division not on the dinq list. I'm working on Radar right now which is a slightly intimidating qualification for some reason - mostly because it seems so foreign to me.. I haven't had a lot of face time with the radar so even though i think i could operate it effectively for the most part, i feel like i don't know anything about it.

Anyways, I think we are about to do some training so i will end this novel here. I miss you Ducky. Love you so much!

A Boohoo and a Hooya.

I think I'm going to turn this in a meme. What do you think? I'm going to call it "A Boohoo and a Hooyah (or Hooah, or Hoorah, or Oorah...)". Basically, a short answer meme to share something that's going wrong, and follow it up with something that's going right. There will of course be a cute button and all to go with it. 

Would you participate?

Well, here goes the test run. Leave yours in the comment if you like. If it goes well I'll add a linky tool next time.

Boohoo: I've only gotten a few emails the whole time he's been gone, and haven't heard from him in over a week. 

Hooyah: Speaking of weeks...the countdown is getting down to weeks! Time to kick it up at the gym and start spit shining the apartment!!!

The little things.

Uuuugggggg!!!! I just want to kiss him!

Pity party, table for one. That is all.