Seriously Sometimes its just FTN!

thousands of budget cut firings and and now they toss this info around like we should all be so super happy! Spent months dealing with this PTS bullshit. Yes cause we really need another freakin JFK. 


Spending sailors paychecks

Diz's new job!

short video of PHIB CB2


So we finally where able to find some info about PHIB CB2, the new command we will be joining this summer.  I'm very excited for Diz.  He will be back on small boats doing what he does best! and he will be gaining tons of quals for the civi world for whenever he decides to step outside of the Navy!  With this new command he will be gaining sea pay while only gone for just a fraction of the time we were preparing for.  I'm so proud of him for making this decision and can only hope this command will renew his faith in the Navy.  The last few years have just been heartache after heartache and lots of kicks while he was down.  Now he is finally getting back on top!  BOATSWAINMATE!

A new Chapter.......

Yesterday life just started to look a little brighter, Diz received his orders to Virginia Beach!  Finally we will be back to the lower 48!!  Besides the awesomeness of being able to see family more often, there will be stuff for Rems to finally do!  The two of us won't be trapped in the house watching the rain fall day after day!  We can take walks in the sunshine, go to parks, play centers, all kinds of fun things.  They have different classes and groups for kids his age.  Also another highlight is our family will finally be back around the Navy.  We will have access to all that offers.  We will be back into a very close knit group full of support.  Diz will be back to barking orders and hauling ass on the water.  I will be surround around others who understand exactly what a pain in the ass it is to be a military family.  Rems will be around families and children that I can trust.  I'm sure not everything is going to smell like roses, but for a family like ours the Navy is were we need to be. 

And Thats how Alaska women roll!!!!

The other day an elderly couple took their sled dogs out for a walk.  While the husband walked the dogs the wife stayed warm inside the truck.  Well she looked up and saw a moose charging at the dogs and her husband so she grabbed the shovel out of the back of their truck and beat the hell out of the moose until it backed off.  Sound only slightly cool, read this article for the kicker!!


The Kicker!!!!!

Play Group with the Crew

Us (Rems 8months)

FINALLY!

Last week it finally happened!  Jordan was finally approved for PTS!  Talk about a huge weight off our chests.  For the last few months we have been hearing of great sailors all over getting tossed out. And here we are stuck in this hole being denied month after month.  Got to the point we assumed he was going to get the axe and we where discussing what our next step would be.  But the Navy gods smiled on him once more and he was finally approved on his last chance (thanks for that photo finish!).  So now he works on his paper work to reenlist for 6 more years.  That will put him on contract for over 14yrs meaning he will be grandfathered in when it comes to PTS.  But of course its the Navy so not everything is so neat and handed to you with a bow.  Because they waited until the last friggin minute to approve him, hes outside his window for orders.  They gave him one glance, he said anything but overseas.  If he doesn't get any he picked, next month the Navy will assign him to Needs of the Navy.  That means we won't have any say where we go next.  But realistically as long as it's in the 48 we don't care! We've basically been over seas for almost 6yrs, and we are sick of paying out the nose for everything from plane tickets to a gallon of milk! 

A daily dose of beauty......

My sister is an AMAZING photographer and this year she has started a project to take a pic every single day.  I look foward to checking these out everyday, so beautiful!  So heres the site so you can get a little dose too....

Daily dose of beauty!!

School Blues

Well its that time again........School.  For the past 13yrs I've been going to school off and on slowly making my way towards nothing more than an associates (yes, I realize its taken me 11yrs longer than the average student).  What it comes down to is, I HATE SCHOOL.  Actually thats not correct.  Its more like I hate schoolS.  You see I enjoy learning.  What I hate is being told what to learn.  Now I'm stuck because I am using the G.I Bill which states that I have to take classes only related to a degree program.  I'm in the Business program, why?  Well it's not because thats what I want to do, more like when they entered my SMART transcripts I was 60% done with the degree, and really who wants to start over.  Why continue using the GI Bill you ask.  Ummm because they pay me to.  Thats it.  Thats the only reason why I even attempt accounting, or business law.  If it was up to me I would be in art history, digital photograpy, and underwater basket weaving.  Economics.....no thank you, I'll take Renaissance Masters please.  Heck I'll take a History or Lit class (not English, I HATE English as much as I hate math!).  So this semester I'm only getting 50% of my "housing allowance" from the GI Bill, because I'm taking Intro to Digital Photography.  Why? Because as a stay at home mom I need a little "me time" away from the house, otherwise cabin fever will hit hard.  And I don't want to waste my "me time" doing something that will make me cry inside (like math).  So cross your fingers, wish me luck and send me smart vibes because my other two classes are Accounting 2 and Business Law.....Boo. 

Zentangle

This year for Christmas, my Ma, Sis, Diz and I made eachothers gifts.  My Ma drew a BEAUTIFUL piece of art using this method called Zentangle.  I immeditatly became obsessed with it.  Its so simple and beautiful and even your mistakes can become masterpieces.  The drawing my Ma did is enroute via mail, so I will post a pic of it as soon as it gets off the slow boat to China.  But meanwhile heres a website to spark your interest and get you started on your own masterpieces.

Zentangle your way to Awesomeness!!

McKeels Christmas Tour 2011

I've been away for the last 3 weeks due to our whirlwind Christmas Tour.  Started in Idaho for the Navy Conference.  In between the dull days of being trapped in the hotel room due to a closed pool, Diz was capped to First Class!!  Also marked the first time that Rems stayed in a daycare type situation.  He did pretty well considering he was in a private battle with his very first tooth.  Next stop was Illinois with the Censotti Clan.  Here we not only got babied and spoiled by my family, we also celebrated Rems baptism.  He was amazing.  Shed not one tear and kept his white suit looking very posh.  Two hour drive later sees us in Wisconsin with the Beans.  Grandma Les taught Rems all the wonders of big people food! From steak and potatoes to mixed berry breakfast smoothies.  Rems also got to spend time with his new best friend, the very large, very loud, and very happy Grandpa Bean.  During this little visit Rems got his second tooth.  And the only thing that really did the trick of calming him was the deep rumbling voice of his grandpa.  On this visit we were able to go have a few drinks with an old friend of mine Lisa.  It was nice to get out and not have to worry, Rems was finally with family!  Back to the Censotti Clan.  And things started to blur into fast forward.  First Rems got to spend the whole night with his GG while we went out to celebrate my sister, J, birthday.  Dinner at Crossroads quickly turned into drinks at the drag show!  I swear Petey, J is the one that told them you where a gay navy firefighter!!  And then it was Christmas!!!  Rems got to meet the rest of the Beans at a wonderful dinner at my Aunt Janets.  I also got a fantastic hair cut by my cousin Erin.  After dinner we drove to the lions den....Brians house.  Christmas eve there is hard to explain.  Take a large Irish/Italian family, put them all into a small space and let it fly.  Pretty much its just a whole lot of talk, laugh, food, love and wrapping paper!!!  Afterwards we went back to GG's, Rems hit the hay and the adults couldn't wait and we ripped open all our gifts!  But that was nice, because the next morning we were able to focus 100% on Rems and his presents.  Next up......Texas!!  Oh how I missed you sunshine.  Rems loved Texas!  Not only was he able to go outside and touch grass for the first time, the McKeels have 3 cats and 2 dogs.....lots to watch!!  Gram was super happy to see her little prince, Grandpop got to show him off at work, Aunt Chopstick smothered him with love and he got to meet Uncle Joel for the first time.  Plus we were able to spend the day with two of our buddies from Guam, Pigg and Esme!!!  Esme spent the day whispering to Rems in Spanish, which made him LAUGH!!  And then it was the 5th and it was time to say goodbye to the sunshine and meet up with our old friend, Rain.  And so we are back!  Things are gonna take a bit to get back on track.  Rems has been going to sleep around 5pm and waking at 3am.  And we have a new member of the family, Bastet, a kitten.  Scouts not too sure about her yet, but I think it'll be okay.  So Hello! Hope you all had wonderful Holidays full of fun, family and love.

Thank You!!!

White House honoring the Military for Christmas
What a beautiful idea! Its nice to see this administration honoring our Heros this beautiful Christmas season.

1st Christmas!

Green crayons melt slower than others....

Saw this idea on pinterest.com, and fell in love with it. So I gathered my supplies, total was about 20bucks and 10 was in crayons, 10!! I hope you're pleased with yourself crayola! But the finished product was worth it. A brand new fun art piece for The Rems room!

Just ran across this Blog and thought it was full of amazing ideas for the crafty mom.

Www.iammommahearmeroar.blogspot.com

Credit Card Hippie Fest

This semester at school I took Small Group Communications. The first day in the class we talked about how the whole class is going to revolve around putting together some type of event. I was so excited! That's what I want to do! That's what I'm good at! Planning and organizing (just not my own house, but that's a whole blog onto itself). So we broke up into groups and started brainstorming. As I listened to some of my classmates idea, a cold chill started to creep up my spine. I was hearing lots of words like compost, greenhouse, vegan meals.....at this time I started to take in the appearance of those same people (I know, I know never judge a book by it's cover) they where in expensive hiking boots skinny jeans stuffed in the tops, wind breakers that cost more then my credit card payments, "handmade" scarves from stores in the mall, carelessly tossed hair complemented by their subtal make-up......the worst kind of people, Credit Card Hippies!!! People raised in homes with "great rooms" who go to school as art majors because they are "free spirits". My hopes of having any fun with this project where dashed with one glance at my teacher, fuzzy crazy hair pushed back with a headband, mix match shirt and skirt, and of course.... Colorful clogs to complete the outfit of a new age "thinker". I sat there in my Navy sweatshirt with dread, knowing that this project was about to become a cluster F, full of good intentions and no work. I was 100% correct. The only saving grace of this entire semester was my team. When breaking up into groups to work on our project, Sustainability Day, I chose the permissions group. While I was interested in the advertising group I had a sneaking suspition that I would have to fight the many art majors for a spot. So I went with paperwork. And boy did I choose correctly. While the 5 of us seemed to be all on board with not really being on board with this idea, we worked. And boy did we work. Our group went from having one goal, get permission to have the event, to doing pretty much the whole event! Even started a sustainability club on campus. While the other groups had a hard time scheduling times to meet or picking out a color for their poster, permissions secured 9 outside vendors to set up tables, built a hydroponic farming unit that could be used in a small home/dorm, recycled old Tshirts into shopping bags (to help with the banish the bag program in town), tried our hands at using plarn (yarn made out of plastic bags) to upcycle old bags, and brought in over 15 items from business around town to auction off. In between all that we managed to write 3 papers as a group. Today was the event. Our group manned 4 tables, all with work we did. The others in class where nice enough to at least color up some posters to sit in front of. Sustainability Day was an actual success thanks to the hard work of the permissions group, the only group whose all 5 members voted no to the idea in the first place. So in fact, I believe that sometimes you truly can judge a book by it's cover.

Play blanket

The Rems is really into touching and the color red as of late. So I decided to make him a little play blanket to bring back and forth from play dates and what not. But I am really still bad news bears with sewing so I decided a tie blanket was more my speed. As I got to thinking about it I decided a regular old tie blanket is kinda lame. So I made a tie blanket quilt! I cut out 5 squares of a bright bold pattern and 4 of a solid color. I cut the edges of each square as if they where their own little tie blankets. Tied 3 together and then the 3 rows together. I took the remaining of the solid and used it as the backing, attaching it as you would a normal tie blanket! Took about an episode of Glee and Chopped minus all commercials. I think it came out awesome (not to toot my own horn or anything!) oh and make sure after finishing each row of knots you pull the fabric so it doesn't bunch up in the middle of your squares. Easy, fun and totally custom to your little guy!

Scrap Fabric

I have tons and tons of fabric taking up the craft room (aka dining room) in our house. And....I'm not a very good seamstress at all, but I really want to be! I found this little DIY project for crinkly baby toys using either old baby clothes (as the instructions state) or in my case some scrap fabric left over from many other failed projects. These little samples took about 10 mins to make. And while they aren't pretty, I'm pretty sure The Rems won't mind! But I'm going to keep on practicing until I have the cutest custom baby toy on the block!

Materials

• 2 old pieces of baby clothing in complementary colors
• 1 baby wipes envelope or piece of cellophane
• satin or grosgrain ribbon

• sewing machine or needle
• thread
• straight pins

Instructions

1. Look through your baby clothes to choose two pieces with fabrics that look good together.
2. Cut open the wipes envelope and flatten into one flat piece.
3. Cut a 7-inch x 7-inch square out of the wipes envelope, and a 7-inch x 7-inch square from each piece of clothing—avoiding stains if possible—so that you have 3 squares.
4. If there are stains on any of your squares, cover them by sewing pieces of ribbon over the stains. Pin the ribbon over the stains, then top stitch to fabric.
5. Once stains are covered, it's time to assemble your toy. Sandwich the fabric together placing the squares down in this order: plastic layer on the bottom, 1st layer of fabric (good side up) in the middle, 2nd layer of fabric (good side down) on top.
6. Make your ribbon loops: I used 3" pieces of ribbon folded in half to make my loops. Slip folded ribbon between two layers of fabric. You want the loop part to be facing inside the fabric, with the raw edges sticking out of the edges of the fabric. Pin the loops in place.
7. Make as many ribbon loops as you like .
8. Pin around the outside border of the sandwich.
9. Beginning in the middle of one side of the square, stitch around the outside border of your sandwich (where you had pinned) leaving a 1/2-inch seam allowance. Stop sewing about 2-inches from where you began sewing, leaving a gap for turning your craft right-side out.
10. Turn toy right-side out. Make sure crinkly plastic layer is inside the toy, between the two fabric layers.
11. Tuck the raw edges at the opening inside the toy and pin closed.
12. Top stitch around the outside of the toy where you had pinned.

I want to be an astronaut when I grow up......

The Planetarium in Chicago was one of my all time fav places to go when I was little (after the Sci and Industry museum of course).  In fact when I moved back to chicago for awhile I even started working there (and I am still upset that Volunteers are forced to park on the damn street opening themselves up to parking ticket after parking ticket).  Space has always held a special place in my heart, and no dad, not just because of aliens.( Tho I have many theroies on that subject). So when I heard about the closing of our Space Programs, I was shocked!  and a little upset.  While I didn't ever want to be an astronaut when I was little (I wanted to be Indiana Jones) I knew plenty of kids who did.  I watch a lot of tv ( A LOT) and I ran across this show on Nat Geo (national Geographic for those not in the know).  When you first watch it you are like "oh great, 5 rednecks blowing *S* up" but keep watching, because trust me it's going to blow your mind.  First of all 2 of the 5 are actual "rocket scientists", a third is a retired NASA mechanic that worked on the Apollo program, and the other 2 are pretty sharp themselves.  I watched an episode yesterday where they made a radio telescope in the yard using regular tv satillites from neighboring homes.  And yep, they started getting a signal every 36seconds.  Basically this show was put together by Travis Taylor in hopes of spurring some interest in science and space in the younger generations.  Remember just cause they talk slow don't mean they are slow.

http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/channel/rocket-city-rednecks/

The Holidays are HERE!

"I want things that crinkle and clean off easily"

The turkey is being made into sandwhiches, the Christmas lights are being strung up, lists of gifts are being crossed off, it's that time of year!  I love Christmas! I love everything about it.  I even love the music!  Every year I start trolling youtube for awesome Christmas light videos, I watch every gingerbread contest on tv, I force Boats to drive up and down streets to look at every house with lights. I LOVE IT!  And this year is even more special, The Rems' first Christmas.  We will be flying all over this year, so unfortunatly Santa won't be making a stop at our place, and the big toys will have to wait until next year, but it doesn't matter much.  We are going to be surrounded by family and love and food.  We get to teach him about stockings, and how to guess the gift by the slightest of shakes.  I get to teach him the PROPER way to string up Christmas lights on the tree, and Boats can show him how to make beautiful gift bows (another one of his many talents).  This year is the year we get to start to teach him what Christmas is to us and how we do things. So to start this year off right, we paid our 7 bucks to St. Judes and took his first ever pic with Santa.  Immediately the little guy tried to eat Santa's beard, but it went well.  Next year I will be writing a personal invite to Santa, and I can't wait!

A reminder that humans are just animals with weapon technology

It's very sad to hear of these stories. How can people be this greedy. These are the stories that make parents place their children in little bubbles of over protectiveness.

Violence during black friday sales