A Moving Celebration Contest!
24 Feb 2010 10 Comments
in Navy, PCS, PCSing Tags: $25 gift card, contest, gift card contest, giveaway
If winning isn’t everything, why do they keep score?
~Vince Lombardi
Yeah, I know, I haven’t posted since I came back from DCO school this past weekend. A whole post is going to come on that. But that’s not what’s exciting right now…
*insert song and dance here* I’m going to see Huzzy in two days and a wakeup! I’m going to be living in Washington in just about 10 days!
And that, folks, deserves a treat. And since I feel guilty treating myself, I’m going to treat you. We’re gonna have a little contest.
Contest: Guess how many Wal-Mart trucks we are going to see on our trip. (Why? Because I swear you see them everywhere!)
Contest Rules: Come on down… you’re the next contestant on your guess is right! The winner will be the person who comes closest to the correct answer without going over. In the event of a tie, I will use random.org to name the winner. Sorry folks, but only one guess per entry. The contest will end at 2359PST (or 11:59pm PST for you non-Mil-Spouses) on Sunday, March 7. I will announce the winner as soon as I can… I might not Internet access for a while so be patient!
Contest Tips: We will be traveling from Southwest Michigan to the Seattle area. However, due to northern mountain pass closures, we are planning to travel there via St. Louis, Albuquerque, NM and Las Vegas (no, we are not stopping at the slots!). That comes to around 3,200 miles for our trip. So, plan for 3,200 miles of Wal-Mart truck sightings. We are also going to be driving straight through for the majority of it (stopping only once or twice to sleep in a hotel) so that may play a factor in how many we see. Makes me wonder if we’ll see more during the day when it’s easier to stay awake and during “normal” business hours or more at night when the semis have the road to themselves. Hmmm….
How to Enter: First and foremost, you MUST leave a comment on this post with your 1st guess. However, there are many other ways to increase your chances of winning:
- One (1) additional entry if you: Follow my blog and leave a comment (with another guess as to how many you think we’ll see) on this post letting me know that you are following. And if you are already a follower, let me know via a comment (with another guess as to how many you think we’ll see) you will automatically get an entry… uh, as long as you remind me that you are a follower.
- One (1) additional entry if you: Put me on your blog’s blogroll and leave a comment (with another guess as to how many you think we’ll see) with the link to it. And if you already have me on your blog roll, leave that link in a comment (with another guess as to how many you think we’ll see) on this post for your entry.
- One (1) additional entry if you: Blog about the contest on your blog and leave a comment (with another guess as to how many you think we’ll see) on this post.
- One (1) additional entry per day for each day you: Tweet about this contest. While you can Tweet as many times as you want a day, only one per day will count! Don’t forget to @wifeyofasailor so I know you did it. Leave a comment (with another guess as to how many you think we’ll see) with your Twitter name, the time you Tweeted and what you said.
That’s a total of 16 chances to win if you start today!
Now, I’m sure you want to know what the prize is. And honestly, that’ll depend on the winner. See, there are just some contests that I don’t enter because I’m not the biggest fan of what is being given away.
So, for my contest the winner will get a $25 gift certificate to his/her choice of whatever I can purchase or buy online (without huge shipping charges). Meaning, I know that the area I’m moving to has gift cards I can purchase for Target, Wal-Mart, Bed Bath & Beyond, malls, Qdoba, iTunes, etc. Now, if you have a local store/food place that is just in your area, chances are I can’t get a gift card to there. But, I’ll try. So, as long as I can get one, you’ll win a $25 gift card of your choice to what you want!
Good luck!
Going away for a while
05 Feb 2010 11 Comments
in Navy Tags: DCO school, Navy, Navy Reserves
Stress is the trash of modern life – we all generate it but if you don’t dispose of it properly, it will pile up and overtake your life.
~Danzae Pace
I’m going to DCO school folks. I’m going to try to suck it up and deal with still being sick. It’s best for the family because if I don’t, we’ll lose about $1200 (my work pays my regular salary while I’m on military leave and if I go in April, I won’t be working, so I’ll lose that… plus we’ll have to pay for someone to watch the dogs whereas I have someone here who will watch them for free).
So it really is in my best interest to try and do it now. Please pray for me because I’m not sure I have the strength. I still feel ill and weak, but I’m going to give it my all.
So, while I’m at DCO school, you will not be seeing any posts (we have no access to Internet… unless we get liberty next weekend and I can get off base). You will not see any Tweets (again, the liberty thing).
However, to keep us all looking forward to something good (okay, ME looking forward to something good), here’s some tickers:
Blizzard Bloghop 2010: Wife of a Sailor
04 Feb 2010 22 Comments
in Navy Tags: blogging, milspouse, Navy, Navy Reserves
A friend is the one who comes in when the whole world has gone out.
~Grace Pulpit
I can’t believe I didn’t see this earlier. The Household Diva over at HouseholdDiva6 has a really neat idea going. See, many of us bloggers can’t get to any blogging conferences for one reason or another so she’s devised a way for us to virtually meet. You can read about the details here.
So welcome Blizzard Bloghoppers. Here’s a little bit about me:
I’m in my mid-20s (okay, a bit closer to 30 than 25, but whatever!) and I
Our Wedding
married my active duty Sailor last March. Since then, we’ve lived together for only 7 1/2 weeks.
He PCSed to Washington state back in May leaving me here in Michigan to sell our house. During this time, we went through our first deployment. I currently haven’t seen him for five months. But that will all change in just 23 days (well, as long as the Navy cooperates) when he comes to Michigan to help me drive our three dogs to Washington state to live (which will be another adventure since I’ve never lived anywhere but Michigan).
Skah, the 125lb Great Pyrenees
Yup, we have three dogs. Two Greyhounds–Chase and Lulu–and a two year old Great Pyrenees named Skah. That’s 285lbs of dog right there between all three!
But I have another connection to the Navy. Last June, I raised my hand and become a Navy Reserve Officer.
So this blog is all about my journey as a newlywed, a new MilSpouse (that’s Military Spouse) and a new Navy officer. Things are fun and frustrating, but I love my life!
Leave a comment and I’ll be sure to visit your blog!
Sick of Being Sick
03 Feb 2010 4 Comments
in Ewww Tags: H1N1, illness. flu, influenza
If I had my way I’d make health catching instead of disease.
~Robert Ingersoll
If you follow me on Twitter, you know that not only do I have my two weeks of officer training school coming up, but you also know that I’ve been ill off and on for a while.
A week and a half ago (on Sunday), I thought I had come down with the ‘flu, even though I had both the seasonal and H1N1 ‘flu shots. I had severe headaches, muscle/joint pain and a low-grade fever. I was really fatigued and could barely stand.
By Tuesday, I had decided I was okay enough to go to work. I was feeling much better and figured that since I’d had the shots, I had avoided the worst of it. I took the morning off to make sure I was strong enough. I was feeling much better. I got ready for work and was blow-drying my hair when I almost passed out. So I decided not to go into work that day.
I made it into work on Wednesday and have been feeling okay on and off. I’ve been exhausted and extremely fatigued the entire time, but wasn’t feeling “sick.” I even got up, went to the gym and did a 10 minute run on yesterday (Tuesday). Today, I started really feeling unbelievably exhausted.
Of course, the Navy hasn’t been making things easy with getting to my DCO school. My orders just came in this week and I can’t get DTS to work (the Defense Travel System… I have orders, but can’t get travel itinerary so far). I needed my CAC reader to continue to work on it, so I decided to take afternoon off work.
However, I went to the mall to pick up the 1st anniversary present that I picked out for Huzzy (totally cool… have to take pictures and show you later!). While driving in, I decided that I really needed to go to the doctor to see if there was anything that could be done. Surprisingly, my doctor had a 2:30 cancellation and they could get me in.
Anyway, to make a long story a bit shorter, the doctor listened to my symptoms (and they checked and I have a 99.2 degree fever and since my body temp runs a full degree lower than most, that’s like a 100.2) and voiced concerns that I might have one of a couple of viruses that are going around. Ones that mimic the ‘flu but instead can make your body stop producing blood and therefore make you anemic. And beyond that, they can also start causing liver and kidney failure.
So, yeah, he sent me on for blood tests and they should be back tomorrow morning. The whole “liver and kidney failure” thing scared the crap out of me. Now I’m questioning everything. Wait, is my pee a orange/brown color? Does that mean kidney problems? I really had more joint pain than muscle pain last week… does that mean it was this virus instead of the flu that generally produces muscle pain?
Oh, and to top it all off, I’m pretty sure a sinus infection is starting. So I’m on an antibiotic for that.
Ugh. So yeah. I’ve taken off work tomorrow. If the blood tests come back clear tomorrow, the doctor said I should start feeling better within 48 hours. He said if I feel better I can still go to DCO school on Sunday but if I wasn’t feeling better I needed to postpone it.
Problem is, my place of work pays my salary and allows me to get my Navy pay on top of it when I do Navy work. If I postpone the school until April (the next available) when I’m on unemployment, I will lose that salary that my employer pays. That’s upwards of $1000 that we’d lose. Not to mention the fact that since Huzzy will be deployed at the time, we’d have to pay for someone to watch three dogs. That would cost $300-$500. Yeah, so we’d be losing out on a lot of money if I don’t go now.
So yeah, please think good thoughts that these blood tests come back negative for kidney and liver failure. Anemia isn’t that big of a deal but the other two… scare me.
Wordless Wednesday #12: Recently Found Puppy Photos
03 Feb 2010 10 Comments
in Skah, Wordless Wednesday, dogs Tags: dog photos Great Pyrenees photo, Great Pyrenees, puppy, puppy photos, Wordless Wednesday
The average dog is a nicer person than the average person.
~Andy Rooney
It’s Wordless Wednesday again! Leave a message and I’ll try to return the favor.
I just found these of Skah while looking through my thumbdrive. I can’t believe it was only two years ago (he was born 21JAN08) that he was this small!
8 1/2 weeks old:
3 months old:
5 months old:
11 months old:
21 months old (and he still looks like this now):
