Thankful Thursday

Today I am thankful for the gorgeous weather that God provided for us on Saturday for Blunoz's Wetting Down and all of our wonderful friends and family.

I was having heart palpitations all week over the thought of 75+ people in my house but the Lord provided a beautiful day. At the end of the night I was sure that someone who had RSVPed had not actually shown up. So we went through the list and, yes indeed, everyone who said they were coming came! I swear there was only about 40 people here. :-)

As scary as the thought of 75 people in my house was, we were truly honored that everyone wanted to come share in this accomplishment with us. When throwing a party, the rule of thumb is that about 1/4th of the people you invite are not going to be able to make it. In the case of this party, I think maybe only 1/16th or 1/20th of the people we invited were unable to come.

It is hard to believe that Blunoz has reached the rank of Commander. When we met, he was a Liuetenant, junior grade (an O-2) and now he is a Commander (an O-5). I wonder where the years have gone and I wonder what the years ahead of us will hold. But I know that no matter what the Lord has in store for us, we will be surrounded by people that love and support us. Thank you our friends and family (even to those who were only merely here in spirit)!

So I guess, in a nutshell, I am thankful for where we have been and where we will go!

Thankful Thursday

I have noticed a trend with some of the blogs I read..."Thankful Thursday". This is something I should get into, taking a moment to think about the wonderful things of life.

So today, even though the North Koreans did some cyber sabotage and damaged Verizon FIOS and my internet has been sporadic at best. I am still thankful for the internet and the phone. More specifically, Webkinz.

I have been sitting here for quite awhile (I don't want to think about how long) watching and listening to my boys play with one of their best friends (also seen here, and here and many other places). The thing is, he is now in San Diego and we are in Northern Virginia. There has been lots of giggling, laughing, singing (and yes some whining) as they have been playing games such as Dogbeard Battles (Battleship), Bowling and Webkinz Supermodels while on the phone.

Thank you to unlimited long distance, Webkinz and the Internet for allowing my boys to stay connected with their friends, even when we live thousands of miles from each other!

Thank You!

Thank you to my dear friend Caffienated Cowgirl... though she is on blog hiatus, she did take the time to surprise me.

I just went to the mailbox and found a package with her return address on it... what did I find inside this package? A little early birthday treat...
Yogurette!

I have been trying to get CC on Facebook for sometime and jokingly told her that if she were on Facebook I could post how lucky I am to have her as a friend, but I can do that here too! :-)

Thank you for thinking of me my dear friend and it is going to take some great restraint not to eat them all at once! But now I must go hide them from Blunoz. :-)

Amazing - Honoring Veterans

My MIL just sent me this today...
A retired submarine veteran honors all veterans nightly with the lowering of the American Flag in his front yard.

Take a few minutes and see what one man is doing to bring Americans together!

Wild Olive

So, is anyone looking for a birthday present idea for me? I read about this military wife over at Pioneer Woman. PW said that Stefanie was a military wife who had her own t-shirt business... I was intrigued! I am always curious about what other military wives do since it is so hard to move jobs as frequently as we move. This has been particularly on my mind as I anticipate YB heading off to elementary school in the near future!

Anyway... I followed the link to Wild Olive and was happily surprised to find they are CHRISTIAN t-shirts! So cool!!!

I think my favorites are Consider it Joy and Transform Your Mind, but I do like them all!

I need to get back on WW so I can look great in one of these awesome t-shirts! :-)

Oh where...

Have I ever mentioned how much I hate moving? Yea, I probably have.

One of the things I hate the most is the loneliness. I think on this move it has manifested itself even more. I know the first six months are always hard on me, so I have a month to go. Though you would think that the loneliness would be less this trip since we came back an area we had just moved from, but it is still there, but it is more of a logistical/seasonal problem.

When we were in Hawaii the friends for the boys and me were just across the street. No need to set up play dates, just run across the street. We lived in Navy Housing and our boys are not wanderers by nature so they pretty much had free reign to run back and forth. Rules were they had to tell me if they were going somewhere besides across the street. I think once they walked their friend's dog. :-)

So here it is winter. The boys have a crazy school schedule... it is hard to arrange play dates for them and for myself. Playing outside to meet the neighbors is really not an option and I already told you all about SP, across the street.

I always end up feeling jealous of Blunoz and how he gets to go to work and meet people and have adult conversations during the day. This week I got "out of the house" once to take YB to gymnastics and met Divrchk there. She is my one adult conversation this week. Even Blunoz hasn't been home very much or very talkative.

Oh where or where is spring?! I am so looking forward to its arrival. Maybe all of this is really just Seasonal Disorder...

Spring come soon!
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 ...WINTER STORM WATCH IN EFFECT FROM SUNDAY AFTERNOON THROUGH MONDAY MORNING... THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN XXXXXXXXX HAS ISSUED A WINTER STORM WATCH FOR SNOW...WHICH IS IN EFFECT FROM SUNDAY AFTERNOON THROUGH MONDAY MORNING. LOW PRESSURE ALONG THE GULF COAST WILL MOVE EAST TONIGHT...EMERGING IN THE WESTERN ATLANTIC NEAR GEORGIA AND SOUTH CAROLINA BY SUNDAY MORNING. THE LOW WILL THEN STRENGTHEN AS IT MOVES NORTH ALONG THE COAST SUNDAY AFTERNOON AND NIGHT. SOME COLD AIR WILL BE IN PLACE DUE TO PRECIPITATION TONIGHT. THE STORM WILL REINFORCE THAT COLD AIR. PLENTY OF MOISTURE WILL BE IN PLACE TOO. THEREFORE...THERE WILL BE THE POSSIBILITY OF 5 OR MORE INCHES OF SNOW. A WINTER STORM WATCH MEANS THERE IS A POTENTIAL FOR SIGNIFICANT SNOW...SLEET...OR ICE ACCUMULATIONS THAT MAY IMPACT TRAVEL. CONTINUE TO MONITOR THE LATEST FORECASTS.

Prepping for the Move

We have been busy prepping for our move. The house looks like a bomb went off (though when doesn't it) but I am moving things here or there trying to set aside what we need to keep with us for the month we will be here without our stuff. I came up with the bright idea of putting what we didn't want packed into the master bedroom closet (and overflow into the bathroom if need be). But this means I need to move the stuff out that we want packed. So where do you put that stuff. Well, I decided on the guestroom closet so that means I need to clean out the guestroom closet. The guest room closet is mostly storage of misc. things so all that stuff has bee going into the storage room or down to the front room. The space I created in the storage room was by taking out our suitcases and moving those into the master bedroom closet. Ahh what a circle of things moving here and there! :-)

Blunoz has been busying with the paperwork side of things. Scheduling the move, giving Forest City (housing management company) our notice, signing up for Aloha furniture, getting information on shipping the cars and dealing with the mortgage stuff for the new house. Hopefully I can get him to help with the closet rotation and the garage this weekend so we aren't all stressed the weekend before the movers come (they come on August 6).

Major things left to do:

• Sort out what we are keeping
• Make at least one more trip to Goodwill
• Empty out the garage fridge
• Clean the garage
• Clean the grill
• Empty out the potted plants

I think I would rather go to the pool!

Our Last Hawaii Visitors

For the past two weeks, my bestest dearest friend P and her family came to visit! It had been over a year since I had last seen them and probably 2+ since Blunoz had seen them. P and are truly blessed since our husbands, whom we met later in life, are also good friends. We had a very good visit. Blunoz was able take a couple of days off to do some touristy stuff and they planned their vacation over a long weekend, so he had more time off. Even though we are far from home, we are blessed that though this is Sea Duty for Blunoz, he is stuck in the shipyard doing a decom (great for the family, though I know he would rather be out serving his country more aggressively).

Here are some shots of our visit with them.

The Mac Nut Farm

P&E with the Chief and E, N and A get some fresh coconut!

The Pali Highway Overlook

YB, N and ES and YB with Windy Hair.


Paradise Cove Luau

YB shows off his Flower Bracelet

E Tries some Poi and then has something to wash it down!

Sea Life Park - It isn't Sea World, but they do a good job.

The Top of Diamond Head

Little A ... Little A, N and YB

P&E

They were so patient with us. As many of you know we are in the midst of the waiting game for the next assignment. Usually being two months out from transferring and not knowing where you are going would not be a big deal; annoying of course, but not crucial. But living in Hawaii and having the prospect of moving back CONUS (Continental United States) things take longer. On this side, you need to pack out your stuff at least a month in advance and get what is called ALOHA furniture from housing. They supply beds for everyone, a couch and a dining room table. At least we wouldn't be sitting/sleeping on the floor. If we don't pack out early enough we could be sitting/sleeping on the floor on the other end while we wait for our furniture. So I personally am STRESSED. It would be on thing if it were just Blunoz and I, but we have two small children to take into consideration as well. I am sure my stress is not helping Blunoz either. I ask him multiple times a day if he has orders... I really need to stop that! So LCDR Detailer, I apologize if Blunoz is annoying you. He is doing it for me. :-) But I digress, I was talking about P&E. They sat here through all our discussions and looked at houses on line with us. We appreciate their support so much! We are really looking forward to moving back to the East Coast. As great as Hawaii would appear to be, it isn't home. I am an east coast girl at heart. Though I am Bostonian at heart, Virginia is a nice compromise. We will no longer be a half day plane trip away from my friends and family.

We have enjoyed Hawaii, and we have sure packed in a lot. We knew we would probably only be here a year so we wanted to be sure to see as much as we could. We were blessed with a great CO and a non-sea going vessel so we were able to pull a lot off. We know it is not the norm for the Navy Life so we enjoyed it while we could! Going off to the DC, it will be back to the long work hours for Blunoz.

Protocol

So I learned something new yesterday. Well, actually I learned lots of new things yesterday but one thing that I thought I should share was a couple of etiquette issues.

1. If your DH is in his Mess Dress uniform (you know, that tuxedo one) you should be in a floor length gown! Yes, this was a shocker to me. I just went and bought a dress for the ball on the 19th and it is NOT floor length. Panic attack! Well, not really but I was in a bit of a tizzy over it. At this point in DH's career I am supposed to be stepping up into a leadership role with the other spouses and setting a good example to the younger folk. Yes, I see you all Rolling on the Floor laughing at this thought. :-) It scares me too. ;-) So I talked to a more senior submarine wife and she assured me that she is NOT wearing a floor length gown and not to worry too much. This is after all, Hawaii. But for those of you not in Hawaii... well you decide. Contemplating this new information, it actually made sense to me.

In Summary: Mess Dress = Floor length gown
SDBs or Chokers = cocktail dress. Complement what your significant other is wearing.

I have a crazy week ahead of me before the ball. But another wife did tell me about a great store at the outlets that has beautiful gowns super cheap. So if I can, I will head up there and see what they have and hopefully be able to return my more expensive cocktail dress. :-) But if I don't make it up there, oh well!

2. BMW... Did you ever sit down to a formal meal and wonder which bread plate is yours? Just remember BMW... from left to right looking at your place setting you will find your BREAD plate, your MEAL, and your WATER.

I hope everyone has a wonderful time at their respective Sub Balls!

I had the strangest feeling yesterday morning...

I woke up and my DH is was sleeping next to me! Shift work is over!!! Yippee... now can I go get a pedicure? :-)

Boredom

I am bored! It is 9pm on Sunday night and DH is standing the mid-watch. He leaves the house around 8:30 at night for the 1+ hour of turn over time. He works all night and comes home around 8am and grunts at us before he goes to bed for the day. He wakes up around 4 in a bleary eyed state, eats dinner with us, helps put the boys to bed and off he goes.

So now there is no adult to talk to at night or all day.

To top things off I am sick and now the Little One (YB) is sick. Ahh the fun!