There are days that I don't even have words

for the strange things my husband and my dog do.

For example, I came out of the bathroom this morning to find my dog in his crate like this:

Just hanging out. Not chewing on a toy, not looking for something, just...laying there like that.


And then my husband, bless his attempts at interior decorating, had the slipcover for our couch on backwards. How you can do that when there is QUITE CLEARLY a front side (and a tag that says "CENTER OF BACK") I have yet to understand. He's deployed and somehow still manages to leave me weird surprises.

On an entirely unrelated note, Magpul will have our business for a lifetime. In case you haven't been following the story, Magpul manufactures accessories for firearms. They are based in CO, which is currently in the midst of a battle about assault weapons and "high-capacity" magazines. Not only has Magpul threatened to pull out of CO and relocate if the bill passes, they have now pledged that all residents of CO are able to buy up to 10 "high capacity" magazines before Magpul leaves. The CO people that put in their orders will get theirs ahead of other people who have been waiting for their parts and pieces since the CT shooting. And interestingly, there aren't a lot of disgruntled non-CO residents. I think they respect Magpul and the firearms community enough to not raise a stink, though it sucks that they will now have to wait longer for their supplies. Ax is the firearms nut in the house--I enjoy them but not to the extent he does--and I know this solidifies his decision to continue purchasing from them.


I started a deployment journal; made from a Smash Book. Walmart has all sorts of stickers and shit designed for the books, so I'll probably pick some up when I'm out. I haven't decided if I'm going to let Matt read it or if it's just going to be for me. Either way, I've been catching up in it--I had a small journal started on my phone, but there's only so much space and I've started having more to say.

Hand-quilting his anchor blanket is slow progress as well, because SOMEONE with four paws seems to think it's his personal sleeping bag. Sigh. But Mr. Four-Paws is now zonked out on the couch after a walk and playing outside for a solid 45 minutes. At night he "talks" in his sleep and it's pretty damned funny to listen to. He often wakes himself up with his woofing.

And now I'm off to find something to do. I have a FRG meeting tomorrow that I don't really want to go to, but am going anyway for the human interaction. I hope most of the women decide to drop their kids off for the babysitting. I don't like kids (minus a RARE few). I especially don't like kids who constantly interrupt a conversation.

rain, rain, go away...

Please, before my dog drowns me in puddle splashing. Oy vey. I have one very curious dog! We went to get the mail in the rain today, and not only was he splashing around, he was drinking from the puddles. Gross, dude.

My parentals got on my case because I didn't pay one of my student loans. Which I quickly and politely refuted by quoting an email exchange between my dad and I earlier this month. The bill in question was not my responsibility. I DID have a problem with the one I'm responsible for, but that is being straightened out as quickly as I can. Long story short, Sallie Mae didn't think Navy Fed was a legit financial institution and refused to process my payment...but didn't tell me until I was late on the payment. I swear, Sallie Mae is nothing but trouble. How is NAVY FEDERAL not a legit institution?? Crazy. That said, I wish Ax made enough (read: I wish he got paid enough) that we could afford our own car insurance and to pay for my loans...but alas. It often comes down to if we had one or the other, we couldn't eat. Hopefully he passes his exam while he's deployed so we see a small pay increase...whenever the Navy feels like giving it out. I know, backpay, but still. Sometimes they're so slow when it comes to funds.

Today I went exploring a bit; picked up a job application for a part-time library clerk at the local library...I'd REALLY love to have this job. I'm gonna have to make this application look AMAZING. Being a librarian was one of my childhood dreams and this is probably as close as I'm gonna get. :P

I also visited a local bookstore. I was expecting a used bookstore, but this was a one-woman shop full of brand new books! I purchased "A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich", which has been on my to-read list for a while. I'm trying to save money and not spend it, so I only allowed myself the one book. haha. There's probably a dozen or more I could have brought home with me...and even when I do buy "in bulk", I try to get used books. There is something to be said for the used-book smell and already rumpled pages. I beat my books to shit, often reading them until I have to scotch-tape the pages back into the books. I respect them, but I make sure they are well-loved! ;)

And now I must go tend to the dog who thinks that his leash and harness that are out drying are new toys. How can deployment be boring when I have such a terror to keep up with?!

The days are better, the nights are still so lonely

Deployment is officially underway, as far as I'm concerned. I've heard from Ax sporadically, which helps. I may not be able to see his face or hold him but hearing from him reassures me he's safe. Well, I was told he got sunburned already somehow...so...safe enough, at least? LOL.


Simon and I have been doing okay so far. We keep ourselves occupied enough I think. I try to play with him more now that I have less household stuff to do (the bills pretty much take care of themselves, there's only one person's laundry to do, etc.). It's been nice enough after dinner but before dark that we play outside. And by play, I mean: Simon grabs his toy and runs around the yard at a full sprint. I clap at him or fake-chase him once in a while when he wants to play chase.

It's hard to sleep. For me anyway. Simon doesn't seem to have a problem zonking out wherever he's laying. ha. I usually write down what I've done during the day--which is a challenge in itself, as the notepad only has so much space per page! definitely encourages me to use my vocabulary-- then play games or browse reddit until I fall asleep holding my phone.

The anchor quilt needs to be spray-basted...as much as I dislike it (it irritates my lungs hardcore), this quilt is just too big to baste with thread. And I want to be able to start hand-quilting it on the double! I'm hoping to have the quilting done by the time Ax returns. Ambitious, as it's a queen size...

I've learned that Simon is afraid of ice cubes. I tried to be a nice mommy and put a few in his water bowl, only to have him refuse to drink from it until they melted. He is also afraid of tall grass (like prairie grass) swaying in the breeze. Thunder is the enemy and must be barked at in the most vicious manner! He hated having his nails clipped at first, though we've made quite a bit of progress with it. I trim the back paws and then it's belly-rub time! Then the front two, a quick ear rub, the dew claws, and we're done.

(As I'm writing this, Simon is on the other end of the couch grumbling and grrrrr-ing in his sleep. It's so damned adorable. He often wakes himself up by "talking" in his sleep. Cracks me up every time! He also runs in his sleep and manages to hit himself in the face with his paws, due to the way he lays....)


So I figure I'll take this first deployment a day or week at a time. The weekends seem to be the worst so far, although I've read that feeling that way is common since that's when you spend the most time together as a couple. I'll just have to come up with other things to do instead! It doesn't help that almost NOTHING is open here on Sundays. Being an atheist in the south is a challenge...oy.

I have a freakin' laundry list of stuff to do while Ax is away:

• hand quilt the anchor blanket
• puzzles!
• find a breeder; we would like another dog and Ax wants a purebred Golden Retriever. 
• I signed up for some Coursera courses in writing/composition. I figure if I'm not working I gotta keep my brain fresh somehow!
• Get paperwork from shelter to be a foster doggie mommy. 
• File state taxes. We're filing in WI, but for whatever inane reason they won't accept the damn thing online. Why can't it "just work"??
• Find Simon an obedience class. Not only to work on his commands but to help him have some "dog time" too. Sometimes I feel bad that he's stuck with me for X amount of months and has no other dogs to play with regularly.
• Make a small curtain for the window in the garage (yeah, we have a window in the garage. Sometimes I don't even.)
• READ BOOKS! I haven't had the time in so long. ;_;
• Keep trying to find a job. TRYING.
• Bake lots of yummies and send them up to WI! :)
• Take Simon to the beach a few times

And probably other stuff I'm not even aware of right now. Ha. But there you have it...I guess? I miss Ax terribly. I know he misses me as well, although I'd bet he's excited to finally be deploying after a year of schooling. He's a pretty pasty boy by nature, I can only imagine how see-through he'll be after months on a boat! ;)

Sprechen Sie English??

Ax asked me for a quick tutoring session in German, since one of his shipmates is fluent and he just wants to dick around with the guy once in a while. But the kicker is I had to write it down phonetically. VERY very difficult! I gave him the super basics like counting to 10 (and how to say 11, 12, 13, 14, etc.), yes/no, how to ask where the toilet is, how to ask someone's name (and say his name), how to introduce someone, and of course, how to order a beer. LOL.

He'll butcher the hell out of the language even with my phonetic spellings, but hopefully this guy has a sense of humor and can understand at least a little bit of what Ax says.


With that said, I wanted to show the rest of the boat blanket I was making for him. It's done! He loves it! I think it's utter shit but it's also my first completed quilt and full of flaws. I will say it is SUPER freakin' comfy though. If we still lived in WI, that could probably be an emergency blanket for the car and you'd never freeze under it. Wool, cotton, fleece, and flannel.

My husband agonized over the layout for hours. I'm not even joking. Here is the top that he picked out. If you'll notice, there is a row that is backwards...I ripped the seams and fixed it. Someone was quite agitated about it--BUT he helped me piece the rows together so he can't complain!

Because Ax is so damned tall, I added another row. The very top row in this picture are extra blocks he didn't use, flipped around to the "wrong" side with some embroidery-ish stitching on them in the square pattern. There was some concern on his end because now the cornerstones don't line up but I told him to shush or I'd cut his legs off. HA.

Here it is laid out on top of the fleece "batting" (two throw blankets sewn together for length--5$ total at walmart). The excess length is folded under to help keep his feets warm. Ax has shitty circulation in his feet (despite being entirely healthy otherwise), so hopefully this helps!

I hand quilted the blanket; the couch became the workstation so I could watch netflix and have a comfy seat...our dog, Simon, thought the part I wasn't sewing on at the time was a great pillow.

All quilted, now it's laid out on the living room floor to be trimmed and bound!

In addition to being a pillow, it also makes an excellent doggie playmat?? (sigh.)

The first two edges bound; Ax picked out the flannel backing. It's a baby blue/brown/gold zigzag. It bunched up on me a little bit as I was quilting, poo.

Binding the rest on the machine!

Having the feeling that submarine laundry facilities are rough on fabric, each edge of binding has three separate stitch lines. Also in this photo is the kind of "U" shape I quilted.

After two washings and dryings, here's the finished boat blanket! It's somewhere between a lap size and a twin size. We have a twin size bed in the guest room and it doesn't quite cover the entire mattress.


And there you have it. My first completed project as a quilter, and the reason I haven't updated since the beginning of the month--every spare moment was spent working on this! I have Ax's OTHER quilt (a queen size, roughly) spread out on the living room floor right now, trying to baste it together. Simon thinks this is also his personal bed and chewing space...oy. and it's not like he's on the other side from where I'm working. No, no. RIGHT next to where I'm stitching. Or he steps on the thread. Or he tackles me trying to get me to play.

DOG. Please stop. go chew your bone quietly ON THE COUCH OR SOMETHING PLEASE KTHX. lol. He's a goofball and just loves his mommy, so I don't really get too mad.


Before deployment started Ax and I went to the beach. We walked probably a good two miles, collecting sea shells and people watching. There was an adorable setter running around digging holes and playing in the surf. I'll find a nice day and take Simon just to see what he does when presented with moving water (instead of bath water or rain water) and sand. We didn't take him with originally since we weren't sure if the beach was a dog-friendly one or not. Anyway, it was a great time with him. We made sure to do something special before he left.

So here Simon and I sit (well, he's laying but whatever). I gave up on this queen quilt for now--the minute I go sit back on the floor and work on basting he'll find a way to be exactly where I need to be. LOL. Tomorrow if it's not raining we'll go for a walk and maybe to the pet store to get a special treat for him. For now, more South Park and maybe I'll work on my Super Mario Galaxy puzzle my brother bought me for xmas.

Fast quilts, halfway boxes, and Friday fill-ins, oh my!

That title was more clever the first time I read it. Less so the more I stare at it. Oh well. Screw it.

Where to start...

Well, Ax wanted a blanket to take onboard with him since subs are apparently awfully cold. Especially in berthing. I don't understand why exactly, but he knows best. So I started whipping up a quick quilt for him. He has to leave soon so this has to be FAST. 

I had some wool that my grandma gave me..it's imported. I have no idea from where, but regardless,  it looks nice and warm! Then I have these colors to go with, since the wool is a dark blue color. To make it piece together fast, the wool is cut into 10" squares; then I have some 5" squares of the above, and finally the 2.5" ones in the picture. Sew (more like applique, but who cares?) the 5 onto the 10, then the 2.5 onto the 5....ta-da! A block done. I don't think I have enough of the wool, so I'm just gonna go as far as I can with what I have cut and then figure it out. I bought spray-baste to help move it along!

Since subs are tiny spaces, and Ax only has a small rack to store his belongings, the batting for this is going to be two fleece throws that I picked up at walmart. I'll have to sew them end-to-end to get the length, I think. I may pick up two more for the backing; I haven't decided yet. I have to get the front done first!!

Ax also gets to take a halfway-box with him on the boat. Each guy can have one shoebox of halfway goodies that they bust out halfway through the deployment. Right now I only have a shoebox that a pair of flats came in, so adding stuff from Ax's family may prove challenging. That said, here's a quick tour of his goodies:

A card to open that night, and some tins of Skoal. While we both think it's gross, lots of the guys use it and Ax can use the tins as a bartering tool or something. I dunno. I don't know a damned thing about tobacco so I have no idea if any of the guys will actually use the type I picked out. I figure if they're desperate enough to have their fix, they won't complain. ;)

Another card to open later on. A box of crayons, one of those itty-bitty Lego sets with the directions, a coloring set consisting of a few tiny markers (hence the extra crayons..) and coloring pages from Cars. Chapstick, as I have the feeling it's gonna be awfully dry on the sub.

Some gum for those who don't use tobacco but still need an oral fix. Ha. Swedish Fish, cherry Twizzlers, AAA batteries (for his alarm clock!), a bag of almonds, and a bag of peanuts.

Ax is a sucker for Oreos. I'm sneaking the rest of the mini-packages into his backpack. Hahaha.

A pile of Wint-o-green Lifesavers. I've found that they're awesome for dry throats, stuffy noses, and slight nausea (which mint is supposed to help relieve anyway). If nothing else, they could be makeshift poker chips. LOL.

And somehow, I have fit it all into this box which used to hold scrap fabric. I'm hoping I can find a regular-sized shoebox; then I know the Oreos won't get as squished.

I still haven't decided how I want to decorate it though. Hum.

On a different note ENTIRELY, here's a Friday Fill-In, courtesy of Wife of a Sailor!

1. What’s one thing in the past month you would have changed?

Being locked out of the house and the lacking money thing. That was just ridiculous. Ugh.

2. What was your favorite thing that happened in January? 

Hm. I don't know. Just spending time with Ax, really.

3. What are you looking forward to in February?

Our one-year anniversary is in a few days; after that just looking forward to getting this damned deployment started already! The waiting seems to be worse than actually having him gone!

4. What are your plans for Valentine’s Day?

I think we might combine it with our anniversary (they're like two days apart), so in that case just a fancy dinner out someplace. Probably some cake. Spending time together before deployment!

5. What is your best advice for a MilSpouse whose spouse is deployed for Valentine’s Day?

Can't offer much here because this is my first deployment; I will say that sitting around moping won't help you any. If you guys actually celebrate Valentine's Day, go out and do something silly for yourself! Buy yourself a bunch of fake (or real!) roses. Eat an obscene amount of chocolate. Get a manicure, or whatever your treat to yourself is. Lounge around in sweats all day if you want! Don't forget about your spouse...if it's possible to call or email them, do so! I'm sure they're busy but I'm sure they're thinking of you!

And with that, now Simon and I must go for a walk before I lose my feet from him chewing on them. ahahah.