Dogs on Deployment (DoD)

What are military members supposed to do with their pets when they deploy or have to travel for training?  Has this question ever occurred to you?  When my husband and I were both in the Navy stationed on ships we were fortunate enough to have good friends and family within a few hours that could help us out when needed.  Not everyone is so lucky.  That's why Alisa Johnson and her husband created Dogs on Deployment.

They are a dual military family that were in the predicament mentioned above and recognized the need for a program which would help others who found themselves in a similar situation. Thus, Dogs on Deployment was born.  I found out about DoD via Facebook a while ago.  They have recently revamped their website.  Be sure to check out the cause, and if you're an animal lover, sign up to help out a military member by being a DoD boarder.  Also, help by spreading the word to your military friends so that they know such a service is available to them.

You can be fairly specific about what sort of animals you would like to board, what your requirements are and how long you're willing to board.  Living in a Navy community and being a Navy family, I am only signed up to board for short periods, which will cover those pesky little underway periods or schools.  Since my husband is active duty it's hard to plan too far ahead, so long term boarding isn't something I can commit to right now, but I stated in my profile that if we got to know a dog pretty well while boarding during short term periods, long term would be an option if it fits into our schedule.  So, even if you can't commit to long term, there is a short term boarding option.

You can also support the cause by purchasing the Dogs on Deployment auto decal (the orange one) or a t-shirt.

So Frustrated with Portsmouth Naval Hospital

I am SO upset right now.  I've had braces for two years and am finally at the end of my treatment.  My orthodontist wants me to have oral surgery.  They sent the referral in to the oral surgery department at Portsmouth Naval Hospital after my last appointment and I called to schedule my consultation.  The man on the phone first asked if I was active duty.  I told him no and he began talking to me with an irritated tone.  He told me that he can only see 15 new patients per month and that the schedule was full.  He wouldn't get his April schedule until February 21st.  He told me that the phone lines open at 6:15 a.m. and that the schedule is typically filled by 6:30.  So, this morning I call right at 6:15 to schedule my appointment.  I was queued at 8.  Good news, right?  If he takes 15 and I'm 8th in line right when the phone lines open then I should be good to go!  Well, I sat on hold for an hour and half only to be told that the schedule had already been filled.  Are you kidding me?  So now I am supposed to wait another month and hope for better luck next time?  I don't think so.  This is completely unacceptable.  There has got to be a better way.

What I Do, Navy Surface Sailor

The "What I Do" meme is ever so popular right now, and I haven't seen a Navy one yet, so I decided to make one based on my experience as a surface sailor.  Enjoy!  :)

Deployment Update

A couple weeks ago I told you that we were beginning Deployment #7.  Well, so far so good!  The kids have been so amazing since their Daddy left, which I am so thankful for.  Lulu stays in her bed at night, whereas she used to fight bedtime every single night.  She is also completely potty trained during the day.  She even uses the big potty all by herself.  It really shouldn't be a surprise.  She was two months old the last time my husband deployed and she was the easiest infant to take care of ever.  She rarely cried and she slept through the night.  She continues to amaze me on a daily basis.  She's not even 2 1/2 and she's potty trained, knows her colors and shapes and is already starting to count and identify letters.  She is just so independent and curious.  I love it!  She's also begun singing songs.  Her favorites are "Row Row Row Your Boat" and "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star."  It is just too stinking cute!  Now if only I could get her to keep her clothes on....

E-Ray has been pretty good, too.  He is having so much fun with basketball and I truly love watching him play.  He's only 5, so one of the youngest on the team, but he does great for his age.  He had a takeaway in his game this past Saturday and was so proud of himself.  It just melted my heart to see how excited he was about it.  He's been doing well in school, too.  His reading has really taken off.  He tries to read all of the signs he sees when we're out and about.  Most of all, he's just so sweet.  The other morning I woke him up for school and he said, "Do you want to cuddle for a few?"  Um, duh!  I would love to!  Then, while we were laying there I asked him if he was ready to eat breakfast.  He said, "If you're ready.  I just want to do what makes you happy, Mom."  Deployment really is a breeze when I have these two around to make me feel so loved and happy.  Sure, we have our occasional struggles, but the good far outweighs the bad.  I wish deployment could be as easy on my husband.  I know he misses these two like crazy.

As for me, I've been working on my goals.  Lately I've been focusing on genealogy and organizing my life and home.  I updated my genealogy blog, which took up an entire weekend of work and research.  I also came up with a meal and nutritional plan for the kids and I and a cleaning schedule for the house.  I still need to come up with a good home maintenance schedule.  I haven't been involved in the FRG this deployment.  I stepped down from President because my husband is transferring off the ship soon.  The meetings are in the middle of the week later in the evening all the way over in housing next to the base, so it's just not convenient for me to go to the meetings when I have to deal with traffic and it's a school night.  I'm busy enough, anyways.  It's isn't all work and no play, though.  This past weekend one of my besties came up for a visit so I got my girls together for a night out.  I didn't tell them what we were going to do.  It was a surprise.  We went roller skating at a skating rink!  We all had such a great time.  It was seriously so much fun, and none of us fell down, which was a miracle.

My Girls

Sk8rs

Goals Update 1/23/2012

Every Monday I want to try to get on here quickly to post an update on my goals progress.  If you're keeping track of your goals, I encourage you to do the same, whether it be in your blog, on Facebook as a note, or on regular old pen and paper. 

You can view my original goals blog post here:  http://usnchic.blogspot.com/2011/10/goals.html

Daily
-One hour of reading and/or learning activities with Lulu. Thanks to educational apps on the Kindle Fire and her MobiGo, we've been doing OK with this one.  I need to do more one on one with her though.

-Fill out E-Ray's task chart so he can earn his allowance.  Yep.

-Limit kids' electronics time to 2 hours per day.  This includes TV, video games and computers. I need to work on this again.  Kindle Fire, Computer, TV.....at least most of it is educational.

-No more than one "sugary" snack per day.  (candy, fruit snacks, cookies, etc.)  We're actually doing really well with this.  

-Eat fruit AND veggies every day.  Doing OK with this one.  Kids need more veggies, I need more of both.


-Kids in bed by 8:00 (8:30 on basketball nights), myself to bed by 10:00 and up at 6:00 to work out.  No more sitting on my arse wasting the day away on the computer all morning waiting for my motivation to kick in!!!  
Got up and worked out at 6:00 this morning.  Up past 10:00 tonight.  Getting there!!!


Weekly
-Stick to weekly cleaning and maintenance schedule.  I have the cleaning schedule written out, I haven't started following it yet.

-Work out at least three times per week. Worked out today and once last week.  Not enough...

-Eat out no more than once per week.  Easy peasy now that the hubs is gone.



Monthly
- Check out local nature trails with the family when the hubs is home, or with friends when he isn't, at least once a month depending on the weather.  We have not done this yet this month.  Probably won't.

- Go to church at least once per month.  Did this last month.  Have not been yet this month.

- Go to one new place per month.  Done for January (Great Wolf Lodge)

- Buy birthday cards for the month and first week of the next month at the beginning of each month and address and stamp them immediately.  Done for January.

-At the beginning of each month, upload photos from previous month to Snapfish. Done for January.


Short Term
- Have E-Ray send out the post cards that have been sitting in our house for months to his friends.

- Get Lulu potty trained.  She has been doing really well.  A few accidents here and there, but for the most part, she does it all on her own, and on the big potty at that.  I am very happy with her progress.

- Update meal plan. I need to come up with a meal plan for just the kids and I since Hubs will be gone most of the year.  This is a work in progress.  I printed out a bunch of new kid friendly recipes to try.

- Create a daily/monthly activity schedule  Done!  Now I just need to follow it.


- Dry clean wedding dress.   
     Yes, our wedding was 6 years ago and I still have not gotten my wedding gown dry cleaned.  This is why I must set goals for myself.  I am the ultimate procrastinator!  I am trying to wait to for a Groupon or something for this.

- Get Spring consignment sale items sorted and counted.

- Make a plan for genealogy research and organization.  Focus on one surname at a time and don't get sidetracked.  I haven't come up with a precise plan, but I did a lot of genealogy work this weekend and made some updates to my genealogy blog that I've been wanting to do for a long time.

Long Term
- Get out of debt.
- Continue working on mine and my husband's genealogy. This is a lifetime of work. It is so fascinating and worth every second spent on it. I hope that my children and their children will someday take an interest in where they came from.
- Learn to speak German and Italian with my husband and visit the places where our ancestors came from (Germany, Switzerland, Italy).
- Go back to school next year and earn my bachelor's degree with at least a 3.5 GPA.
- Learn how to use my sewing machine and actually make something with it.
- Run in a charity race.

Short/Long Term Goals Completed Since October 25, 2011: 10

Deployment #7

Today the Hubs left for deployment.  You'd think after 6 deployments we'd be used to this by now, but it's never easy to say good-bye. Thankfully, this is the short one. He transfers off the ship in April, then he's off to Northern VA for some training and then it's time for deployment #8, which is the long one.  I think today is so hard because it's just the beginning of what is going to be a very long year for us.  It's a good year though because he is finally leaving what has been the worst command of his entire career thus far.  We are both quite ready for him to start the next chapter in his career, back on an AEGIS ship where he belongs!   Then, once he's finished with that ship, it's off to shore duty.  I can not wait!

Goals Update 1/16/2012

Every Monday I want to try to get on here quickly to post an update on my goals progress.  If you're keeping track of your goals, I encourage you to do the same, whether it be in your blog, on Facebook as a note, or on regular old pen and paper. 

You can view my original goals blog post here:  http://usnchic.blogspot.com/2011/10/goals.html

Daily
-One hour of reading and/or learning activities with Lulu. Thanks to educational apps on the Kindle Fire, we've been doing OK with this one.

-Fill out E-Ray's task chart so he can earn his allowance.  We were doing great with this for about a week and then forgot about it.  Will start back up today.....really.

-Limit kids' electronics time to 2 hours per day.  This includes TV, video games and computers. I need to work on this again.  Kindle Fire, Computer, TV.....at least most of it is educational.

-No more than one "sugary" snack per day.  (candy, fruit snacks, cookies, etc.)  We're actually doing really well with this.  

-Eat fruit AND veggies every day.  Doing good with this one, too!


-Kids in bed by 8:00 (8:30 on basketball nights), myself to bed by 10:00 and up at 6:00 to work out.  No more sitting on my arse wasting the day away on the computer all morning waiting for my motivation to kick in!!!


Weekly
-Stick to weekly cleaning and maintenance schedule.  I have the cleaning schedule written out, I haven't started following it yet.

-Work out at least three times per week.  I haven't worked out in weeks!  FAIL!

-Eat out no more than once per week.  Hubs is leaving, so this should be easy from here on out.

Monthly
- Check out local nature trails with the family when the hubs is home, or with friends when he isn't, at least once a month depending on the weather.  We have not done this yet this month, but we did go launch a model rocket in a big field yesterday and we lost it and walked all over the place trying to find it, with no luck.

- Go to church at least once per month.  Did this last month.  Have not been yet this month.

- Go to one new place per month.  Done for January (Great Wolf Lodge)

- Buy birthday cards for the month and first week of the next month at the beginning of each month and address and stamp them immediately.  Done for January.

-At the beginning of each month, upload photos from previous month to Snapfish. Done for January.


Short Term
- Have E-Ray send out the post cards that have been sitting in our house for months to his friends.

- Get Lulu potty trained.  She has been doing really well.  A few accidents here and there, but for the most part, she does it all on her own, and on the big potty at that.  I am very happy with her progress.

- Update meal plan. I need to come up with a meal plan for just the kids and I since Hubs will be gone most of the year.  This is a work in progress.  I printed out a bunch of new kid friendly recipes to try.

- Create a daily/monthly activity schedule


- Dry clean wedding dress.   
     Yes, our wedding was 6 years ago and I still have not gotten my wedding gown dry cleaned.  This is why I must set goals for myself.  I am the ultimate procrastinator!  I am trying to wait to for a Groupon or something for this.

- Get Spring consignment sale items sorted and counted.

- Make a plan for genealogy research and organization.  Focus on one surname at a time and don't get sidetracked.

Long Term
- Get out of debt.
- Continue working on mine and my husband's genealogy. This is a lifetime of work. It is so fascinating and worth every second spent on it. I hope that my children and their children will someday take an interest in where they came from.
- Learn to speak German and Italian with my husband and visit the places where our ancestors came from (Germany, Switzerland, Italy).
- Go back to school next year and earn my bachelor's degree with at least a 3.5 GPA.
- Learn how to use my sewing machine and actually make something with it.
- Run in a charity race.

Short/Long Term Goals Completed Since October 25, 2011: 10

Goals Update 1/9/2012

Wow!  I didn't do a goal update the entire month of December!!!  It was a super busy month with the holidays and all.  Now, it's time to get back down to business!

Every Monday I want to try to get on here quickly to post an update on my goals progress.  If you're keeping track of your goals, I encourage you to do the same, whether it be in your blog, on Facebook as a note, or on regular old pen and paper. 

You can view my original goals blog post here:  http://usnchic.blogspot.com/2011/10/goals.html

Daily
-One hour of reading and/or learning activities with Lulu. We've only been doing bed time stories lately, but we do talk about shapes, colors, numbers and letters randomly throughout the day.
-Fill out E-Ray's task chart so he can earn his allowance.  We were doing great with this for about a week and then forgot about it.  Will start back up today.
-Limit kids' electronics time to 2 hours per day.  This includes TV, video games and computers. With all the new things they got for Christmas, this shouldn't be too difficult.  I think the Lego table and air hockey table will be a big help..
-No more than one "sugary" snack per day.  (candy, fruit snacks, cookies, etc.)  This was not an easy task over the holidays.  Getting back on this one today.  
-Eat fruit AND veggies every day.  Getting there....


Weekly
-Stick to weekly cleaning and maintenance schedule.  I have the cleaning schedule written out, I haven't started following it yet.
-Work out at least three times per week.  I haven't worked out in weeks!  FAIL!
-Eat out no more than once per week.  We don't do good with this when the Hubs is home, especially when he's about to deploy!


Monthly
- Check out local nature trails with the family when the hubs is home, or with friends when he isn't, at least once a month depending on the weather.  We have not done this yet this month.
- Go to church at least once per month.  Did this last month.  Have not been yet this month.
- Go to one new place per month.  We stayed the night at Great Wolf Lodge last week, which was a first for us.  It was fun!
- Buy birthday cards for the month and first week of the next month at the beginning of each month and address and stamp them immediately.  I need to do this this week.
-At the beginning of each month, upload photos from previous month to Snapfish.


Short Term
- Organize E-Ray's rock and coin collections.  They are as organized as they are going to get at this point.
- Have E-Ray send out the post cards that have been sitting in our house for months to his friends.
- Get Lulu potty trained.  She has been doing really well.  A few accidents here and there, but for the most part, she does it all on her own, and on the big potty at that.  I am very happy with her progress.
- Update meal plan. I need to come up with a meal plan for just the kids and I since Hubs will be gone most of the year.
- Create a daily/monthly activity schedule
- Clean out closets, cabinets, and toy boxes.  Sell and donate unwanted items before the holidays.  I did this in December.  I am going to keep it on here though because it is something that needs to be done at least twice a year.
- Frame the USS Nicholas Pirates front page newspaper and hang it.  Done!
- Frame or scrapbook E-Ray's sports photos.  Done!

- Get Lulu's portraits done.  Done!

- Dry clean wedding dress.   
     Yes, our wedding was 6 years ago and I still have not gotten my wedding gown dry cleaned.  This is why I must set goals for myself.  I am the ultimate procrastinator!  I am trying to wait to for a Groupon or something for this.


- Get Spring consignment sale items sorted and counted.


- Make a plan for genealogy research and organization.  Focus on one surname at a time and don't get sidetracked.

Long Term
- Get out of debt.
- Continue working on mine and my husband's genealogy. This is a lifetime of work. It is so fascinating and worth every second spent on it. I hope that my children and their children will someday take an interest in where they came from.
- Learn to speak German and Italian with my husband and visit the places where our ancestors came from (Germany, Switzerland, Italy).
- Go back to school next year and earn my bachelor's degree with at least a 3.5 GPA.
- Learn how to use my sewing machine and actually make something with it.
- Run in a charity race.

Short/Long Term Goals Completed Since October 25, 2011: 10



My friends Rose and Jaime are participating in this goals "challenge" as well.  Check out their progress and encourage them to complete their goals.

Jaime: http://seeyouaboutthedecks.blogspot.com/
Rose: http://clanbrunn.blogspot.com/

Goals Update 11/21/2011

Every Monday I want to try to get on here quickly to post an update on my goals progress.  If you're keeping track of your goals, I encourage you to do the same, whether it be in your blog, on Facebook as a note, or on regular old pen and paper. 

You can view my original goals blog post here:  http://usnchic.blogspot.com/2011/10/goals.html

Daily
-One hour of reading and/or learning activities with Lulu. We've only been doing bed time stories lately.  We've been pretty busy.
-Fill out E-Ray's task chart so he can earn his allowance.  Started this today.
-Limit kids' electronics time to 2 hours per day.  This includes TV, video games and computers. Still need to cut back.
-No more than one "sugary" snack per day.  (candy, fruit snacks, cookies, etc.)  Doing ok with this.
-Eat fruit AND veggies every day.  Meh...


Weekly
-Stick to weekly cleaning and maintenance schedule.  I have the cleaning schedule written out, I haven't started following it yet.
-Work out at least three times per week.  Fail.
-Eat out no more than once per week.  We don't do good with this when the Hubs is home.


Monthly
- Check out local nature trails with the family when the hubs is home, or with friends when he isn't, at least once a month depending on the weather.  Done for November
- Go to church at least once per month.  Done for November
- Go to one new place per month.  Done for November
- Buy birthday cards for the month and first week of the next month at the beginning of each month and address and stamp them immediately.  Done for November


Short Term
- Run in a charity race.
- Organize E-Ray's rock and coin collections.
- Start collecting the state quarters with E-Ray.  Done!  Bought a little folder thing at the craft store to organize them.
- Have E-Ray send out the post cards that have been sitting in our house for months to his friends.
- Get Lulu potty trained.  Work in progress
- Update meal plan. Well, I did the first week and Hubs didn't like 2 of the recipes, so I need to re-work it.
- Create a daily/monthly activity schedule
- Clean out closets, cabinets, and toy boxes.  Sell and donate unwanted items before the holidays.  I cleaned them out, now i just need to donate them.
- Frame the USS Nicholas Pirates front page newspaper and hang it.  Framed, just need to hang.
- Finish Christmas shopping by Dec. 10
- Send out Christmas cards by Dec. 10
- Frame or scrapbook E-Ray's sports photos.  I bought the scrapbooking materials and frames, now I just need to create the scrapbook pages and hang them.  With every new season, I will create a new one and put the old one into his sports scrapbook.
- Get Lulu's portraits done.  
     I bought a Picture People Groupon, so this should be done soon.
- Dry clean wedding dress.   
     Yes, our wedding was 6 years ago and I still have not gotten my wedding gown dry cleaned.  This is why I must set goals for myself.  I am the ultimate procrastinator!

Long Term
- Get out of debt.
- Continue working on mine and my husband's genealogy. This is a lifetime of work. It is so fascinating and worth every second spent on it. I hope that my children and their children will someday take an interest in where they came from.
- Learn to speak German and Italian with my husband and visit the places where our ancestors came from (Germany, Switzerland, Italy).
- Scrapbook E-Ray's sports photos.
- Go back to school next year and earn my bachelor's degree with at least a 3.5 GPA.
- Learn how to use my sewing machine and actually make something with it.


Short/Long Term Goals Completed Since October 25, 2011: 3

Well, it looks like I really need to start working on my daily tasks.  I'm not doing so hot on those.  I am, however, making quite a bit of progress on my short term goals.  Monthly goals are complete!  YAY!

My friends Rose and Jaime are participating in this goals "challenge" as well.  Check out their progress and encourage them to complete their goals.

Jaime: http://seeyouaboutthedecks.blogspot.com/
Rose: http://clanbrunn.blogspot.com/

Celebrate Something

What is it about religion and politics that brings out the ignorance in people, especially around the holidays?  An acquaintance of mine posted a rant on Facebook regarding some of her friends posting that President Obama put up Holiday trees in the White House.  She is offended that they are being referred to as holiday trees rather than Christmas trees and is placing the blame on the President.  I haven't seen any of the posts she is referring to; however, I think it is unfair to blame the President for what other people describe the trees in his house as.  Regardless, we live in a "politically correct" age, and holiday tree would be the PC term.  I'm not a history buff, but I'm pretty sure part of the reason our country was founded was so that our people could practice freedom of religion.  America is a melting pot; not everyone shares the same beliefs.  Why do people have such a difficult time accepting the fact that not everyone is going to share their beliefs?  I don't care what you believe so long as you don't use your "beliefs" as an excuse to be ignorant of others. 

So, my response to her post was, “The wonderful thing about our country is that we have freedom of religion.  Not everyone is forced to believe the same thing.”  To which she responded, "Then why celebrate it?  It is CHRIST birthday.  It wouldn't even be a holiday if it wasn't for him!!!"  I'm not quite sure how to answer that.  To many people, yes, Christmas is a celebration of the birth of Christ, but the holiday has evolved into so much more than that.  It's a time to send cards to friends and family that you may not always be in touch with.  It's a time to make your child's dreams come true.  It's a time to reflect on the past year and all that was accomplished.  It's a time to eat cookies and enjoy a break from our every day lives.  And, apparently, it's also a time for people to judge others based on what they may or may not believe, which is unfortunate.  

I truly hope that everyone reading this has a wonderful holiday season, regardless of what you may be celebrating.  We all deserve a break from the norm to celebrate what is important to us.  ♥