you do not air your dirty laundry in public.

I felt like watching some trashy TV on netflix, so I started watching Army Wives.

It's surprisingly hard to watch, actually. A lot of it is way overdone and ridiculous but there are some awfully realistic scenes. Basically anything doing with deployment really hits home right now. I know for Ax and I it's different, and it's different because we're Navy and not Army.

But I'll be damned if I haven't had some tear-filled moments.  And not many things make me cry.

I really miss Ax. It's only a few more months. I can do this. I will not quit or let it get the best of me.


Simon is currently sleeping with his nose smooshed into my thigh and keeps giving me a dirty look because he can't breathe. aaaannnddd he just farted. gross. ughhh.

I am trying to repair my mom's raggedy ann doll that her foster dog...ah...mugged. Poor Ms. Ann was decapitated and then lost half her face. Her dress was also torn, but it's so shredded I can't fix it. New fabric is on the way to make her a new dress. I'm kind of excited--I've never made any kind of clothing before! I'm still a bit apprehensive about giving Ms. Ann a new face. The original face was embroidered, and I've never done that either. Good thing I have a ton of muslin to work with. haa.

Other than that, not too much is happening around here. It rained for a solid 36 hours, which is...interesting. I have never seen it rain that hard for that long.

Time for some tea and then more puppy cuddles. as long as Simon doesn't fart more. p.u.!

I'm just too far, from where you are...

Hmm...where to begin today.

Well, Ax called again this morning and wanted to know if we could have a "wedding" when we go back to WI for the holidays. It's starting to creep me out how much we're thinking alike while he's gone. First similar dreams, now this? What on earth is deployment doing to us? haha. :)

So I spent a lot of today on theknot.com looking at stuff. My problem right now is I have TOO MANY ideas! I have settled on colors: navy blue (ish, I don't want true Navy blue!) and champagne. I wanted to stay away from the "traditional" reds and greens that come with winter weddings. I also didn't want to go too loud with the colors, hence the navy blue -- it's still "appropriate" for the season without being too christmasy. 

Ax's sister is helping me compile a guest list for their mom's side of the family. With Italians, there's going to be A LOT--there's several I haven't met and I don't want them to feel left out. Even if they can't make it, at least they were invited. My mom is helping with my family, and I know most of Ax's dad's side already so that's pretty easy. When Ax calls next we need to hash out the date. Right now I picked 12/28 but to be honest I have no idea what day of the week that is. ha. 

Outside of that, I'm still working on Ax's anchor quilt. Simon and I do a few blocks each night while we watch Netflix (currently going through American Dad, already did all of South Park and Family Guy). Simon and I went for a four-mile walk just a little bit ago, he's finally, FINALLY pooped out and laying down in his crate. 

I have a job interview tomorrow! I am excited at the possibility of getting back into the workforce. Right now I'm doing my nails so they look nice for tomorrow--green, of course, for st. paddy's day! 

I'm also incredibly disappointed that they're getting rid of Google Reader. Whyyyyyyyyy? I love my Reader! It's how I visit everyone's blog at once! hnnn. Guess I'll start looking at alternatives...sigh.

And with that, off to finish my nails. Then perhaps relax with a small drankkk for the holiday. :)

A quiet Sunday...

This diet thing is proving much harder than I anticipated. The first week I focused on meeting my caloric intake goals. That in and of itself wasn't too hard. The LoseIt! app has a barcode scanner so adding to my food diary is super easy. It had an update the other day and part of it included a little pie graph of proteins/carbs/fats for each day. I eat WAY, WAY too many carbs and not nearly enough protein.

The next step in this journey is to bump up the protein intake while lowering the carbs. The fats are kind of steady and aren't overwhelming the protein intake in the pie graphs. I think I'm doing okay there, so for now I'm not going to worry about them. Protein, though...yeesh. Definitely need to work on eating more protein!!

On top of the diet, I'm upping my workouts as well. I TRIED to use a couple videos I found on youtube, but of course they have to buffer for what seems like hours before I can play them on the PS3/tv. Almost isn't even worth it. So instead I'll keep doing the 30 day shred program and then add in more outside exercise--I've considered doing Couch 2 5K, but I think I need to find a better pair of running shoes. My current pair are pretty old and ratty--I can barely even do the 30 day shred workouts in them because the treads are nearly gone and there's not much support for my feets left. In fact, the only muscles that are painfully sore the day after are the muscles in my feet/ankle areas.

For now Simon and I will take either longer walks or go for more walks each day. I'm going to drink more water (with lemon, om nom), find a way to eat more protein and veggies (cheap calories but super filling), and start doing my shredding every day instead of every other day. I eased myself into the program, now it's time to actually put all of my effort into each workout.

I still need to find a scale. The walmart here didn't have a single one. I searched the ENTIRE store! wtf. So either Kmart or Amazon is the next place to look.

I did have a cheat day yesterday as some of the FRG girls and I went to dinner at a local joint called Sharkbite. I allowed it because 1) I needed some social interaction and 2) I hardly ever go out to eat, period--even before the diet! I tried to make some halfway decent choices but I'm sure it failed miserably. Sharkbite isn't the healthiest place on earth. :P

Still waiting to hear back about some jobs I applied for....I think that will help me control my eating habits when I get a job. Sometimes I eat when I'm bored or sad--I've been trying to drink water (or a capri sun, they're only 35 calories per pouch) instead of eating but I'm sure you can relate to how well that's been working...lol

So now I'm going to get some water and some lemon juice to squeeze in, and maybe read a book. I'm not really sure. I don't want to squander the beautiful day but Simon and I already had an hour-long walk today. He's pretty pooped out! So maybe some "sunbathing" in the yard is just what we need.

Taxes, doggie snores, and diets

I try not to be judgmental. I really do! I used to judge every single little thing back in high school and early college. As I grew and made new kinds of friends I learned not to judge nearly as often as I once did.

That said, I am just at a loss for words in regards to one of Ax's family members. His cousin got pregnant with a boyfriend she's had for just under four months. She does not practice safe sex in the least, so quite frankly I'm surprised it took this long. Ax was...ah, less than pleased, shall we say? This cousin is pretty close in age to us, so while it's not insane for her to be pregnant, she is not quite in a mental or emotional state to be having a baby. As far as I'm concerned anyway.

As if that wasn't enough, now she's marrying the baby daddy. How can you know after four months that your boyfriend is the one you want for life? I can't talk about that much--I mean, I did know Ax was "the one" after about 6 months, but I knew him for a while beforehand--but still.

I just worry for the welfare of this baby. Flying Spaghetti Monster help it, whichever gender it may end up being. I am also glad we're not going to the wedding, since it's during this deployment. Christmas is gonna be interesting though...

Unrelated, I've been busting my (metaphorical) balls trying to find a job. While I love spending time with my dog, reading, quilting, and whatnots....I wish I had more of a "purpose". I've put in a couple applications so now I just get to wait I guess. Sigh.

I've gotten a couple calls from Ax so far which is nice. He's sunburnt as all get-out...so I have the odd feeling that when he comes back in a few months instead of being pale as a ghost he'll be back to his normal color. LOL. He'd probably be the only one, too. Other guys have probably listened to their wives about using sunscreen....just sayin'. ;)

I'm going to get back to the 30 day shred tomorrow. Shark week kicked in today and I just felt so shitty, like I do every first day of shark week. Simon and I had a nice stroll, we took a nap, played in the yard...just kinda took it easy. I am sticking to the diet part pretty well though. I'm really only cutting out junk food and soda, and giving myself a calorie limit via the Lose It app on android. Next paycheck I'm getting a food scale and a body scale. I haven't officially weighed myself, and I think the food scale will help get the portions more accurate. For stuff that's measured in grams I just kinda eyeball it and I'm probably still overeating in the calorie department.

Today I got our state taxes done at the NEX, and the lady was nice enough to check our federal stuff too. We're getting more money back! It may be...what's a good word...deceiving, but I'm going to stash some of it away without telling Ax. Quite frankly, we have crap for savings and putting a chunk into a savings account will give us a good start. Ax tends to spend impulsively and then we end up broke between paychecks. Our state refund will get us some new end tables after Simon's frat-boy antics a couple weeks ago.

And with that, I'm gonna go make some tea, watch the dog woof in his sleep, and maybe read some of my book.

Day 1 of new me

So I still ate a shitty breakfast...gave it a few hours and then attempted the first day of Jillian Michael's 30 day shred.

Holy crap. I did not realize how out of shape I truly was until I tried 20 solid minutes of exercise. I am in awful, awful shape. I managed to do about 15 minutes, I think. And the 5 minutes that I was just dying, I managed to do some part of the exercise--so if it was jump roping, I'd just do the arm movements, for example. It didn't help that Simon thought me derping around meant playtime and I almost crushed his paws

I don't know what I was expecting, but it certainly wasn't that. I felt pretty crappy yesterday, so there may be some residual "ick" feeling impacting me as well.

That said, I will try again Monday. My knees are pretty awful (genetically speaking) and a day of rest will help me accomplish more on Monday.

I sound like I'm making excuses. I probably am. I'll just continue to stick a cold water bottle between my tater tots (ha) to cool down and write.


Unrelated, my mom is trying to "help" me find a job. Too bad she's named everything I've applied to and never heard back from. They're struggling too, but they're still making more money than Ax and I am. I'm very grateful they're paying my loans, don't get me wrong. My mom just manages to say things in the worst possible way to make me feel like utter crap. I'm busting my ass trying to find a job, even a part-time one, and have come up with zero. I did apply for a library clerk position but who knows how long it'll be until I hear back. I also applied for some other stuff through the GA department of labor...so I guess now I sit and wait.

Today I get to do chores, whoopie. It's pretty chilly out for us today, with a wind advisory and whatnot. Simon will be disappointed that he doesn't get to sniff out the open window. haha.

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.

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.

A fresh start

For both this blog and my sewing room. I revamped the way this blog looks so it's not so...dreary. And you should be able to use RSS feeds to follow me now. If it doesn't work, let me know!

At my parents' house I was stuck sewing wherever there was space...so either my bedroom, the living room, or the sunroom. Here in GA, I have an entire room for sewing, thanks to my hubby! :)

Since the rotary cutter accident a little while ago, I've taken a break from cutting and piecing new projects to focus on some other stuff. Namely, rearranging the room so that I can navigate it easier, and cleaning up my fabric stash so it's not so wrinkly (amazing how stuff gets smooshed when you move!) and is easier to peruse. I think my next project will be making a cushion for my chair, it's hurting my butt! haha.

I took some pictures with my phone along the way. May as well upload them! We rent our house currently, so there's not much I can do with the boring walls or gross carpeting (I HATE carpeting). I still have some pictures I want to hang...I just need to find cheapish frames to fit them. :p

This is a shot of my finger now that the cut has mostly healed. I have to wear a bandaid when we go out, or else it looks silly that I have every nail except that one painted. Plus it snags on stuff sometimes. Owies. :( ROTARY CUTTERS ARE SHARP YOU GUYS. No joke.

When I'm in here during the day, Simon enjoys sitting at the window and watching the world go by. He cries when the kids next door are out playing basketball. Today he's enjoying the nice breeze by sticking his nose against the screen and sniffing away. :)

Here's my very first sewing machine, thanks to Ax! It was a christmas present, along with the table it sits on. I had to make a point of mentioning that I would need a table to put the sewing machine on, or sewing on it would be very difficult. Anyway, it's a Brother CS-6000i. So far so good! It's a happy little machine. I should name it. Hmm.

This is a different angle of the table--if you came into the room this is how you'd see it. That's a giant pile of scrap fabric I ironed last night. Now it's in a shoebox! Anyway, that's the chair that is hurting my toosh. And next to it is a 3-drawer cart. The top drawer is "in progress" stuff--I actually have some squares cut from when I was in college that I think I'm going to do something with...sometime. Yeah. Sometime. Second drawer is the "fat quarter" drawer. Some of the medium scraps are also folded and put in there. The bottom drawer has my scrap shoebox, paper for doodles or notes, and a roll of tape. Strangely, I've used scotch tape before during quilting. ha!

My meager fabric stash...although it's much neater now than it was! The mess in that corner is gone; I shoved our file cabinet over there and another 3-drawer cart filled with other craft supplies. There's two more shelves to the wooden structure as well, but they're mostly knickknacks and the like. 

This was Simon last night during my ironing, chewing on his bone. He does that once in a while...he'll go from hanging on the couch with Ax to coming in here and chewing on one of his toys. Then he'll wander back to Ax, and back to me, etc. It's kinda cute, like he's trying to split his time with us. haha.

Some of the "not quite fat quarter" pieces I was talking about. And three real-rabbit-fur pelts that Matt had, which I have NO idea what to do with. The small box on the table holds all my Christmas fabric. Which is a surprising amount, since I don't even like the holiday that much. 

And the scrap pile after ironing. Ah. So much nice pressed fabric. The bottom-most layers were still warm this morning when I went to put them away. Probably because they were sitting on the rabbit fur. Mmm, warm fabric. :D

Well, I think that's it for now. I have some trash to take out, a dishwasher to unload, a bed to strip of its sheets to be washed, and a dog to take for a walk. 

Of duty stations, pets, and life.

I told you I was bad at this blogging thing....So much for that.

I guess I may as well catch up on what's happened since the last post. Ax got assigned Kings Bay! We moved after he was done with A school, and it took us three days to drive down here. Aside from the EPIC AMOUNT OF RAIN, it wasn't a bad drive. Oh, and the parking ticket in Nashville because SOMEONE didn't listen to me when I said he parked in the wrong space. /facepalm

It took us a week to find a house and move in, but the hotel we stayed at for that week was super nice. We have a 3-bed, 2-bath ranch-style house. Neither of us like the ranch design, but it's surprisingly cozy and functional for us right now. Gorgeous hardwood floors...which quite frankly was why I wanted this house in the first place. Ha. Shortly after arriving here, we adopted a dog from the local shelter. His name is Simon, and he's a boxer/pit mix. Or at least, I think he's part pit. No one really knows. His birthday is coming up in March, and he'll be a year old. How crazy of a life he must have led for that first year--being born and abandoned, wandering around as a stray, staying in a shelter, and now hogging up my couch and farting like an old man. (Seriously, I have never heard a dog audibly fart until we got him. WTF?) Simon is an absolute joy, though. He's so loving and goofy--part of the boxer in him. He LOVES car rides and meeting new people and dogs. Tennis balls are like the greatest thing in the world to him--after his kibbles. haha.

I haven't found a job unfortunately, so money is tight. But we're managing for now. So far so good, I guess. It helps that stuff is much cheaper in GA than in WI. Gas is about the same, though, which I find a bit odd. Meh. I don't drive as often as I used to--maybe two or three times a week instead of 5 days a week. That isn't to say I haven't been looking for a job--I've signed up with every damned temp and personnel agency I can find, there really just isn't much for me here right now. It can change, though.

So instead I've spent my time reading, playing with Simon, taking care of the house, and tinkering with the sewing machine Ax bought me for christmas. I'm also taking free classes on coursera! A cryptology class, a world history class, and a personal finance class. Speaking of, I have three more sections of cryptology to get through today after I do dishes and walk the dog. Next post I'll put up a picture of Simon. He's my sweet boy. <3