Shhhhhhhh...be verwy, verwy quiet...

Although I wasn't hunting "wabbits"...I was "hunting" my lovable knucklehead Jax aka The Big Puppy.  Sean had duty last night and I was prepping the kiddies for bed.  When I was leaving the kids' bathroom I hear Jax scratching wildly at something on the ceramic floor downstairs.

I peek downstairs and he just looks at me in mid-scratch with his goofy look.  I go back up and hear him scratching again.  So...being the being the brainiac I am and wanting to outsmart my German Shepherd...I sneak downstairs.

Except...

It's kinda hard to "sneak" downstairs when your ensocked (yes, I did just make that word up) feet SLIP on the stairs...making your "sneaking" turn rapidly into barreling down the stairs and landing solidly on a newly formed gluteal area.  I am truly thankful that I decided to try to do something about these atrophied muscles and began working out a couple of weeks ago...and thanks to the hundreds of squats & lunges...my booty was ample cushion for the fall.  Pre-workout booty would've surely resulted in a broken coccyx or spinal injury...but I felt my bad boy absorb most of the shock.  Hahahaha.

Yes...I was solidly living up to the single married military spouse curse...all things go wrong when your spouse is gone (for instances that have occurred since I started blogging and independent of all the other instances that occurred before I started blogging see: here, here, here, here, here, this happened a few months before we got married, here, & here).  Still, besides the attempted abduction & almost missing the birth of my niece...it's paltry compared to what a lot of other spouses go through...alone.  

So...no complaints here.  Just something to laugh about.

Have a fab weekend and to those in DC...have a safe & WARM weekend!

Figure it Out Friday...

It's the second week of Figure It Out Friday.  

So here is this week's photo:

What is it?

Could it be expensive designer pleated shades?  Oh no no no.  It is not.  They are the temporary blinds that are covering our windows that recently got replaced...

and by recently...I mean SEPTEMBER.  

So, I guess that the definition of "temporary" is relative to the person utilizing the word...whether "temporary" means "a couple of weeks" or "FIVE months"...it's all relative, right? (To our defense, our new windows have less than 1/2 inch to work with...that doesn't give us much leeway or options.  But...since we bought plantation shutters for our FL home...we're definitely going uber-cheap this time...apparently you can't get any cheaper than temp blinds.  Hahaha.)

Poor Melis...she was witness to our high-class "temporary" window treatments.  At least she had a good laugh. ;o)  She'll have a good surprise when she comes back over and sees we are in the process of trying to replace some of them...but procrastination is winning and we've taken a 2-week going on 3-week break.

Oy vey.

Reflection...

Today is arguably one of the hardest days of the year for me and my sister.  It's a day where I vacillate between trying to dull the hurt while not lessening the memories.  Always, the memories win and now I look at it as it being a way to remember.

Time does heal all wounds...but filling the void in a life without a certain loved one still hurts...especially when I have realized that my dad has missed out on 1/3 of my life...never seeing me graduate from college, getting a job on the nat'l level of a civil rights organization, and most importantly...the largest part of my life...meeting my husband and kids.

Even though my hurt is for myself, my sister, and my family...the biggest hurt is for him and that he has missed out on so much and that he hurt so much before he died.

Today...I remember and reflect.

Figure it Out Friday...

Bloggers have Wordless Wednesdays and other such days to showcase poignant photos. Me...I'm makin' my own...Figure it Out Fridays. When I start taking better photos and/or get my DSLR (eh, hmmm...HI HUBBY)...I'd love to participate in those days. For now...it's time for photos that share a different special place in my heart...

This is the doorknob on my back door...weathered from the wonderful salty-air climate of Hampton Roads, VA. It's also weathered because it's on the OUTSIDE of my door. Someone needs to tell my big puppy Jax that THAT'S the side of the door he should see AFTER he poops OUTSIDE my house in the backyard...again, the operative word being OUTSIDE. Ideally.

Except...

One of us is not onboard with doing his bidness outside since apparently the warmth and comfort of carpet in a warm house is way more appealing than the soggy, frigid, muddy wetness of the backyard. One of us is also becoming more impatient with cleaning up messes that don't belong inside the house and is tired of keeping said living creature living since one of us has a partner who gets a little ticked when I...oops, one of us, tells him that said living creature had another accident.

Thank you, Jax.

I love you.

Well looky here...

My alma mater turned up in the Top 10 on the list of public colleges ranked bast value for 2009-2010...still...I shudder at the cost of in-state tuition and wonder what tuition will be like for my munchkins when they reach that point. Kaia's only in 1st grade and Jaron starts kindergarten next year...still, the countdown starts...*shudder* What doesn't help was that there was a statistic when I was in grad school that a 4-year public school education would cost roughly $200K by the time the kids are ready for school...

*yikes*

You can find the list of public colleges ranked best value here and here for the private colleges.

8. University of Maryland, College Park

Undergraduate Enrollment: 26,431
SAT: 66 percent; ACT: 76 percent
Student/Faculty Ratio: 18
Graduation Rate 4-yr./6-yr.: 63 percent/82 percent
Total In-State Cost: $18,455
Total Out-of-State Cost: $34,392
Average Debt at Graduation: $20,091

University of Maryland, known for its engineering, journalism and computer-science programs, has risen to our top ten by keeping in-state costs virtually unchanged while improving on quality, especially in its graduation rates. Maryland also provides need-based financial aid to 50 percent of its students.

What's that tingling sensation?

Oh yeah...that's the residual feelings from holding a hairdryer that shorted on me and caught on fire. Time to get a new one...except I don't really use one...except for last night.

You see, my son somehow peed in his sleep...in my bed...facing down. So, after discovering this upon waking him up...and in between finding the Nature's Miracle that we keep on hand for our pups...my other son...the canine one...decided to drop a huge deuce in our family room. This was discovered after I dump a 1/4 gallon on the pee spot on my mattress and set a Vornado up on high and jacked up the heat on the second floor to dry the mattress to dry the mattress, hopefully, in time for bed that evening.

But...around 7:30pm (or 1930 for you military peeps)...the bed was still damp. Mr. Muscles needs to get up just a few hours past midnight for work so there is no way that this bed'll be dry in time. So, Braniac here gets the quasi-brilliant idea of aiming a hair dryer at the miserable spot. I. Am. Nothing. Short. Of. A. Genius. Actually, it was a good idea...had the dryer not shorted right when I turned it on and started sparking and smoking AND not turn off when I switch it to off leaving me trying to figure out quickly if I risk electrocution by trying to unplug it AND knowing that it obviously needs to be unplugged to leave this house before it burns it down. I unplug it and hand it to Mr. Muscles who is taking out the trash.

8pm...my hand is tingling as is my scalp. Why? Oh yeah...I guess I did electrocute myself...mildly...capping an end to my day that I could do nothing else but laugh at.

Happy 8th Anniversary!!

Happy Anniversary...to me...oh, and my extremely amazing hubby who has put up with me for all these years! ;o) I can't believe it was 8 years ago that we were freezing our tookuses off at the USNA chapel...waiting for the show to go on because our wedding time was double-booked (two couples who scheduled the chapel prior to us had the same last name...one couple canceled and another couple was scheduled in the same time slot as the couple that DID NOT cancel). Still, everything came off without a hitch and the day I had been planning for and that had almost not happened (there was a possibility of Sean going on his 6-month deployment earlier because of 9/11)...happened.

I still can't believe that I'm here...8 years later...2 kids, 2 dogs, 2 houses, and 2 cars later....a stay-at-home mom/military wife. I remember before graduating college, my advisor told me that she didn't think I'd fit in. She was right...and wrong. I don't completely fit in. I'm not a gung-ho military wife. I'm a woman of color...married to a submarine officer...which in a community that is really lacking in diversity. I'm a social justice advocate. I am not a homemaker. I'm liberal. The real thing...I've always been fiercely INDEPENDENT and never imagined that I would be "dependent" on someone else. Like her, I had this preconceived notion that these military wives were completely dependent on their spouses, may not have attended college, and a whole other slew of stereotypes.

But...we were also wrong. In my 8 years...I've met women of all different walks of life. All of whom, are amazing women. I never realized the type of strength and INDEPENDENCE that it takes to be a military spouse...often a single married military spouse. That strength is physical, mental, and emotional. With subs, you can expect to not hear your partner's voice for extended periods of time...if at all if he is on a boomer. Email is sporadic...if it works. Length of time varies...although I'd take the boomer life any day over the hellish fast-attack life. Still, it was both types of life (boomer & fast-attack) that prepared me to be the military wife I am now. The women I've known range from the seasoned and optimistic ('cause a a military spouse life is NOT the life that you can afford to be a pessimist) to the virgin and plaintive (shoot, it can be a pretty difficult life to adjust to)...still...all these women become the type of women able to handle what life throws at her when he husband is gone, to be the mother and father to her children, and to be overall...amazing.

I never knew that in that spring of 1987 and walking the grounds of the USNA on our 4th grade field trip and fantasizing one day that I would marry a midshipmen in that beautiful chapel that 14.5 years later that would become a reality. I never knew that I would be a stay-at-home anything. I never knew that the life I live now as a military spouse and stay-at-home parent would be this rewarding. I never even imagined living this kind of life.

I wouldn't have it any other way...

From I'm not sure what I want to be when I grow up...

From I'm not sure what I want to be when I grow up...

From I'm not sure what I want to be when I grow up...

From I'm not sure what I want to be when I grow up...