Another Giveaway

My blogging friend Rae is hosting a giveaway over at her blog. Up for grabs (among other things) is the cutest little ceramic measuring spoon holder. Go check it out here.

My Sailor Girl - Part II

Amy's division at boot camp graduation. She is right in front, behind the A flag.

Posed pictures to show life in the barracks.

The two in front were the jerks of Amy's division and the cause of much of her issues. They really didn't like to be upstaged, and especially by a recent high school graduate, who just happened to be a girl.

She did get her E-3 out of everything... her comrade in arms -
Donna. Her mother was not very happy with Amy when she found out what she'd talked Donna into doing. I think that once they left boot camp that Amy never talked to her again. Wonder if she just did her time or if she stayed in longer?


Fast forward to the early summer 2000... I get a phone call from a local newspaper reporter who proceeds to let me know they have received a press release from the Navy regarding an "exercise" that Amy took part in on her ship. She said they wanted to include it on the front page of the newspaper and did I mind... Did I mind??? Heck, NO - that was AWESOME! The press release didn't include a picture so they asked if I could bring one down. I was happy to oblige. By this time, Amy had "shown" enough in her duties that she had progressed to Petty Officer 3rd Class - and she was just 19 years old.

Later, I also received a copy of the press release and a letter from the Public Affairs Center. We were very proud parents.

Amy ended up staying in the Navy for nearly 7 years and was a Petty Officer 1st Class when she got out. She achieved 2nd class in 2001 and 1st class three years later - at the age of 23.

At one point, she outranked her brother - for nearly a year. That was fun.

My Sailor Boy story to follow soon...

My Sailor Girl - Part I

After reading about my friend Skippy's post about her girl getting ready to go off to college (you can read it here), I knew that I just had to post about Amy going off to boot camp. This girl was never on time for anything, no matter what time of day it started. The high school had a recording that parents of tardy students got to hear each day that their student was late for class. We were privileged enough to hear it every day of the week. That was fun. I got to where I just would answer it, wait for the recording to start, and then hang up. I never excused her. It didn't matter. She didn't care. She was still going to be late. Funny thing is, she got excellent grades and her teachers loved her. Go figure...

Imagine my surprise when she said she was joining the Navy. Yeah, right... Taking orders from others was never one of her strong suits. And, obviously, she had a problem with being punctual. I didn't see those things as being something that would work in her favor for boot camp.
(But, she was a really cute kid, wasn't she???)

She had originally said she wanted to join the Air Force. We have a base right in Wichita so that was nice - not sure that she would ever get stationed there, but who knows. They wouldn't talk to her because she was only 17 at the time. They told her to wait until she was 18 to talk to them about the delayed entry program. Then, her older brother decided to join the Navy and he left for boot camp in August 1998. When we went to his graduation ceremony in October, she turned to me and said (basically), "That's it. I'm joining the Navy. They have better uniforms." Yes, you got it - she was concerned with fashion and she didn't like the Air Force uniforms.

We got back home and she contacted the Navy recruiters and they would talk to her. Got her entered into the delayed entry program (DEP) and told her if she did all of the criteria AND got a friend to sign up, too she'd enter as an E-3 instead of an E-1. This seemed like a good idea so she talked one of her acquaintances at school into joining (this girl wasn't even a good friend - and she was a Pentecostal "never had a haircut or wore jeans" girl).

August 1999 rolled around way too fast for me. I was sending my baby girl off to God-only-knew-what and where. I remembered the stories that Shaun had told from basic training and, honestly, they were awful. I wasn't sure that Amy could (or would) take it. We did get a few hairy letters (she was homesick and it was harder than she thought) and a frantic call one weekend that had me calling the recruiter and complaining. She was sick - and I mean really sick - and her Recruit Chief Petty Officer and Division Yeoman had been screaming obscenities at her because she was coughing and could not stop. They were very much out of line and saying things that sounded very much like they intended to physically harm her. I saw fire and I called the recruiter (I was KCMO at my sister's and my other sister had tracked me down there because when Amy couldn't get me on the phone, she called Kris - in hysterics) in Wichita. He called the Naval Training Center at Great Lakes, IL and lodged a complaint and before those two could spin, they were being called on the carpet and threatened with being sent home if they didn't can their crap.

Come to find out, they were pretty jealous of Amy. My girl is smart. Very smart. We got to the basic training graduation ceremonies to find out that she had been the TOP recruit out of over 800 and was being recognized in the graduation and was receiving an award.


Sons of the American Revolution Academic Excellence Award


She received the Sons of the American Revolution Academic Excellence Award for scoring the highest overall of any of the recruits. That was quite an accomplishment since some of the tests that she took she hadn't studied for because of her other duties.

She was also her division's Master at Arms and did find that she was good at something else...

Giving orders....

Jumble Mash Giveaway

My blogger friend over at Jumble Mash is having a reader appreciation give-away. Go check it out and enter!

Valentine's Day Cards - and "Just a Note" card

I'm taking orders for these cards (if interested). The cost will be $4 each and they are blank inside for you to add your personal sentiment. The paper is shimmery so it may be hard to read the sentiment but it says “Sending You Loads of Love." The hearts are all hand-cut.

In addition, I have this charming "Just a note" card. This card is a one-of-a-kind item but I can come close to duplicating it for $3.50 each. This is also blank on the inside.

Please let me know if you'd like to order any cards. I would be happy to get these created for you!

This is BIG

This is so big that I can't even begin to put it right here.



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{It's worth it - I promise}










I mean this is HUGE...









Wait for it.......







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Just a little bit farther.







Ignore the housework. My counter is the "catch all" as I'm cleaning. Then the counter gets cleaned off. You may wonder why I bring up a cluttered counter.


You'll see...




Intrigued? OK - I give. Here it is....




The old fart isn't dead yet.

Sketch Challenge and Stationery Box

I am entering another challenge this week over at Riley and Co. This is my finished card using Coffee Riley.

This is the sketch to work from:

I think it turned out very well and is going to a friend as part of a card order. I made the flower, too.

I was also looking for a box to hold finished cards. I found several for A4 size but haven't found what I'm looking for to hold the bigger cards yet. I found this video on YouTube (it's a 2 part) that shows how to make a really cute box so I tried it out this morning.

Here is my version of it. I'm not sure what I'll do with it yet - maybe make some smaller cards to fill it! LOL!

I also ended up finding the whole PDF of instructions so that will be helpful if I decide to do this box again. Now that I've done it once, the repeats should go pretty fast. Plus, the printed instructions include some other items for the box that would really make it a nice gift. You can't see it, but the inside of the box is stamped with little flowers.

Flowers...

See what my friend, Skippy, shared with me today...

Flowers that her hubby brought her. They're so beautiful that I had to post them here, too.

She's such a sweetie...

Cold weather

Ignore the red skin. Ignore the fact that this looks like the hand of an old woman. Ignore the fact that it looks short and fat. It's really just the camera angle. I'm not too great at taking pictures of myself. My arms just aren't long enough to get far enough away from the camera.

Look instead at how many flippin bandages I have on my fingers. It is an annual occurrence and one I do NOT look forward to each year. Same fingers. Usually both hands (for some reason, my left hand is being kind). I wash my hands frequently but I always put lotion on afterwards. I hate the cold weather for this reason more than anything. My job is TYPING. Bandages severely inhibit accuracy. Without bandages it's too painful to strike the keys. Heck, it's too painful to do anything.

What do you all my cold-weather blogging friends (or even the warm-weather ones) use to keep your fingers from splitting??? (The knuckle bandages is a fluke - hit my hand on the wall because I have bad spatial reference and I'm a klutz.)

What do you get...

when you cross one tired, 50+ person who has stayed up too late watching YouTube videos on papercrafting (isn't that an exciting way to spend a Friday night?) with one 40-something person who feels bad and is up past her bedtime because she feels too crappy to sleep?

Two women who think they can have a long-distance conversation via email.

Silly girls...

I certainly hope the 40-something gal feels better today and that she was able to get some sleep. This 50+  gal finally went to bed and slept most of the night.