This is us. This is who we are right now.

I just thought this was a very sorry insight into our lives today...and isn't that what blogging is all about? :)

Friendship is a beautiful thing.

*Disclaimer: I am not a photographer. Please ignore the low quality of these pictures and focus on the message of this post. It's about the message, people. The message.*

When you're down for the count and nothing seems to be going your way...
When sadness seems to be all around and you feel all alone...
Your best friends bring you yellow daffodils.
And they make you chicken soup. From scratch.
They bring you chili-noodles, cupcakes and chicken casserole.
Your best friends come bearing Happy Meals, Sprite and Tylenol.
They offer goat (yes, goat) stew and Twinkies to help you keep up your strength.
They haul their 3 kids out into the dark, icy morning so that you don't have to.
And they even drop what they're doing to drive you to the doctor.
That's what best friends do...

I tried to depict the fact that little yellow flowers DO make the sun shine! It works!

This is Christie's pretty handwriting. It says: "Because some days you need little yellow flowers to remember the sun still shines.". So true.

I put them in another pot. I hope it will continue to bloom!

I am so fortunate and blessed to have so many wonderful friends in my life. These are the times I am so very aware of why we must live in Kodiak. :)

Here I go again on my own...

Cue the cheesy 80's rock ballad music...

Yes, folks, another patrol is upon us. I can only look at it like another check-mark on the list of patrols that we DON'T have looming in front of us. This is a good thing.

So, I know I haven't posted in a while, and the simple reason is that I've had a serious bad attitude the past few weeks. I like to chalk that up to what I call "Pre-Deployment Syndrome". Jake thinks this is a made-up condition so that people can get away with having a bad attitude about being deployed. Well, it's not made up, thank you very much, and it happens to be the leading cause of attitude problems in spouses during the weeks leading up to "D"-ployment day. Here are some symptoms I experienced:

Emotional flat-lining or "checking out early": Don't ask me what's for dinner a week before you leave for 3 months. I don't know. Did the kids eat? Not sure. What did you say? I'm really enjoying this game of online Scrabble I'm playing with Sarah right now. We'll figure out dinner later. Oh, it's 7:45? Oh, okay...

Lame squabbles about nothing: Why did you just carry those paper plates from the dining room table all the way into the kitchen and set them on the counter?? You just walked right by the garbage can. Are you going to deal with those now or are you just going to leave them sitting there? You know, you could have just thrown them out. What? You are going to scrape the leftover food into the sink? Why didn't you just throw the entire thing into the garbage can when YOU JUST WALKED BY IT?? Throwing food into the garbage can is NOT gross. Making the extra effort to carry it to the sink to scrape it into the garbage disposal is lame. Plus, I think I might remember being told by some people that these disposals are cheap and not capable of doing too much extra work. Putting that food down it will break it. No, food in the garbage can will not start stinking before you have a chance to take it out to the dumpster! AAAHHHH!!

Not doing things that need to be done: This will not postpone the deployment or get Spousy-poo out of the whole thing altogther. He will need clean socks and underpants while he's gone, and just because you don't do it doesn't mean he won't go.

Little emotional mini-outbursts in closets: This works great when you don't want him to know you're having issues about him leaving for 3 months. Oh, yeah, I'm strong. I can take it. You married Super Woman, don't you remember? I can do anything. Now, I'll be right back...I just need to go get something out of this closet over here...WAAAAHHHHH! Whoo...a splash of cold water and a little pressed powder and you're ready to get back into the thick of things again.

So, let this be a little insight into what people go through when they are suffering from "Pre-deployment syndrome", and just remember: it's real. It exists. It sucks.

Question of the day...

Here is a question for you to ponder today:

Why does it always snow on days that Jake has duty?

When you figure it out, let me know. Thank you.

An education in isolation

Inside the aircraft. A Coast Guard C130

Me and Audry on the C130
Wow, so this week I've really had two huge wake-up calls with regard to just how isolated we really are here in good 'ol Kodiak. The first one came this past Tuesday when I had to fly in a C130 airplane over to Anchorage to get my hearing tested. See, normal people DRIVE to such things, but not here. Normal people would say, "Gee...my hearing test is at 1:45. I guess I'll leave the house around 1:30. Husband (or whoever), I'll be back around 3:00...is there anything you want me to get at Costco while I'm out?". Yes, that's what normal people would say. Not here.

Here, you get up at 0500 and meet in the hanger at 0600. You wait around for an hour and then board the plane. You freak out because you realize a military aircraft is taking you to a hearing test. Then you get off the military aircraft because there's a mechanical problem. You wait around for two hours and get (really) annoyed because you realize the two hours of waiting around has seriously jeopardized your chances of going to Costco, Target and Red Robin before your hearing test. You finally reboard the military aircraft and insert the complimentary ear plugs so that the noise of the military aircraft does not compromise the integrity of the hearing test that you're going to Anchorage for.

*sigh*

By the way, if you do ever have to go on a C130 to a doctor's appointment (or for any other reason) there are two things you should know. C130's are loud. C130's are cold. Just FYI.

I was so fortunate to have my friend Audrey with me. She is such a good friend and said she'd fly Space A with me for moral support (i.e. the opportunity to go to Costco, Target and Red Robin for lunch). Because of the delay, however, we were only able to afford the time to go to Fred Meyer and Burger King for Whoppers with cheese. It was still a success, though, because we both got new jeans and Whoppers with cheese. :) It can also be considered a successful mission because I was told that I need a hearing aid. 5 years ago I would be crying at that thought, but now, at the ripe old age of almost 33, I have let go of the vanity and am fine with it. I think I've finally said "Huh?" and "What?" a few too many times.

So, after a long day, we finally returned to Kodiak at 1900 (7:00 p.m. for you civillians) and I was happily at home, trying not to think about the fact that my 30 minute hearing test had just taken me 13 hours to accomplish.

Education in Isolation: Take 2

Yesterday morning, I get an email from Jake at work. It's title is: "FW: ASH ALERT", and the message from Jake was, "I don't know what this means, but here you go.". I scroll down and read that Mt. Redoubt is getting ready to blow her top, and we should be preparing for some ash fallout. WHAT??? Have you ever heard of Mt. Redoubt? I never had until yesterday. Apparently it's a volcano that is about 350 miles to our north east and an eruption is imminent. You read correctly. A VOLCANIC ERUPTION IS IMMINENT. Are you kidding me? I guess this thing blew in 1989 and spewed a layer of volcanic ash over darn near the entire state, and it mucked things up pretty good for several months. Air travel was limited. ARE YOU KIDDING ME??? They're handing out fliers at the entrance gate about what to do when the ash starts falling here in Kodiak. ARE YOU KIDDING ME???

My husband is getting ready to go underway again in the near future. I want out. NOW. We don't get paid enough for me to put up with this crap. I've put up with a lot over the past 10 years. I draw the line at immminent volcanic eruptions. DO YOU HEAR ME, COAST GUARD??? I DRAW THE LINE AT VOLCANIC ERUPTIONS!!! Good Lord, help me.

So, to draw this post to a conclusion, I'd like to just say,

I'm DONE, AK. I am done. Thank you. Now I'm going to go to Walmart and get some emergency supplies.

Faith Olive's quilt!

Faith Olive's quilt is finally getting to the point where it looks like an actual quilt! Audrey came over last night and helped me layer and baste it with TONS of safety pins. In a day or so I'm going to start quilting it with my sewing machine. I'm nervous about that, but I'm sure it will be fine. As Jake so eloquently pointed out to me, "She's 9 months old. She's probably going to barf on it.". HA HA!! So true. But that's okay. She can do that, as long as Margaret promises to wash it on the gentle cycle. :)

Here are some close-ups of my favorite fabrics.

Joanna and Nate like this "Hawaii" one.

The olives! :)

My personal favorite.

I love you, Faith Olive! :)

A Tale of Two Birthdays

So, to begin this post, I would like to first remind you of this post from one year ago. Remember Joanna's 5th birthday party? I remember that blizzard like it was yesterday. It threatened to ruin the party, but we prevailed! It was a birthday party blizzard for the ages. Well, fast forward to yesterday and I am pleased to report that not only was there no blizzard...we had the exact opposite! There was sunshine! There was swimming! There were croc-clad feet! I even actually wore CUTE shoes that were not boots - rain or snow!! In January, people. Let's pause and let that absorb into our souls for a moment.

... ... ...

It's been an amazing January in terms of weather, and I could not be happier about it. I am hoping that February and March continue with this trend. I am such an Alaska party pooper, but I'm fine with that. :)

Anyway, back to the birthday. Our weekend started out on Saturday with dinner out with 3 of Joanna's little friends from school. We got gussied up in our finest and made the journey into town to a restaurant called Henry's. We had tons of fun, and the girls (and Nate!) dined on corn dogs, french fries, ice cream and root beer. I had to laugh when the waitress brought out the 5 bottles of Henry's (naturally) root beer and all 5 pairs of eyes lit up as she set one in front of each of them. One of Joanna's friends said "Oh, WOW! I don't think my parents will let me drink THAT!" I assured her that it was parent approved. :)

Unfortunately, when Jake went to take a picture of the fun, the camera battery went dead, so I got NO PICTURES of dinner! I was (am) bummed.

So, on Sunday morning we got up and opened presents. Then I frosted the cupcakes. Around 2:00 we headed over to the pool and had a GREAT time swimming with her classmates for an hour! It was a very fun, simple party! We came home and Audrey came over to help me pin and baste Faith Olive's quilt, but I'll make a seperate post about that.

All in all, it was a very fun weekend and I told Joanna yesterday morning that she makes my world a better place. :) Happy birthday, sweet girl!!