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:

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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!

~Emily Dickinson

–updated with yard and kitchen photos!–

Well, we found a house to rent. It’s a bit farther away from everything than we’d like (I’d have at least an 75 minute

Back of the house

commute to Seattle) but we think the house is worth it.

We put a listing on Craigslist advertising ourselves. With three large dogs, it’s hard to find someone who will rent to us. I find that mildly amusing and highly annoying since a family with three kids (or even one or two!) have the potential to make as much or more mess than the dogs. Our dogs won’t be spilling grape juice on the carpet or writing on the wall with a magic marker

Anyway, we were contacted by a couple that have a 2,300 sq ft 3-4 bedroom, 2 1/2 bath home that sits on nearly two acres, half of which is fenced with a brand new 6ft privacy fence. It has a two car garage, a storage shed in the fenced in area, central heat and air (yeah, air conditioning in Washington, ya’ll… the fuzzy dog will appreciate it), a monitored alarm system, a 5-piece master bath with jetted tub, a 6′x6′ master bedroom walk-in closet and what my husband calls a “gorgeous” kitchen.

This is all for $150-$200 less than our BAH per month. So sweet. They had been asking $650 more a month for it and didn’t get any takers, so they dropped it to way less than they should for us. Why? Because we are a military family and they were BOTH previously in the military. How awesome is that? Plus, they are only asking for a $500 damage deposit and a $300 pet deposit. Seriously. No last month’s rent or deposit equal to a month’s rent. And even the pet deposit is refundable if we don’t kill the house (which we won’t, of course).

Deck being built

The family has told me that they will pay for garbage and for the alarm system. WOOT!  Also, they will let us paint the walls as long as we paint them white before we leave. No problem!

So here are some photos. There aren’t any of the kitchen because I was never given them. Boo! And none of the “yard” shot, just things in the yard (like the brand new deck and the new storage shed). And while I do have one of the front of the house, for PERSEC reasons (Personal Security), I won’t ever show the front of any house we live in. Just in case any of you want to try to stalk me

(Actually, this is a good idea, especially for those with kids… you don’t want someone to drive by and recognize your house and have your kid(s) be called by their name or be told that it’s okay to come with a stranger since s/he knows x, y & z about him/her– thanks to the information from your blog).

New Shed

Guest bedroom

Master Bedroom... but only part of it... it's huge

Part of the master bathroom

Other side of the master bathroom

I *think* this is the guest/ 2nd bathroom

Hallway. That much I can figure out. HA!

The backyard. They plan to put grass in this spring after the winter rain stops

More backyard. Looks like there's a screen door for the summer. Yay!

Uh, it's gonna be muddy until the grass is put in!

The kitchen. It even has the same stove I have in my current house! Yay, I love that stove and now won't have to miss it!

For those of you who follow me on Twitter (wifeyofasailor… but if you aren’t a MilSpouse or somehow connected to the military, I’ll probably block you if you don’t message me to let me know who you are!), you know I’ve been hinting at a secret that I was about to reveal. Well, it’s time to do that. Since I let my boss know at work yesterday.

I purchased Huzzy a ticket to come here to Michigan to visit me at the end of February. A one-way ticket.

No, he’s not going AWOL and running away from the Navy. He’s coming here and driving me back to Washington, ya’ll. That’s right. I’m moving. At that point, we’ll have been married just a few weeks shy of one year and spent only 7 1/2 weeks of that.  Many of you who have gone through deployment will be like, “Yeah, my deployment was 14 months, what of it?”  And those who aren’t MilSpouses may say, “That’s what you signed up for when you married him.”  (HINT: NEVER tell a MilSpouse that’s what he/she signed up for. That’s a 0-60 bad reaction waiting to happen).

Well, yeah, I signed up for deployments and dealing with them. But I DIDN’T sign up for being away from my husband because the economy sucks and I can’t sell my house. Only a few months of that time we’ve been apart has been due to deployment.

Of course, he’ll deploy a few short weeks from the time I arrive in Washington, but that’s another topic later. But at least I’ll get to spend a few weeks with him before I won’t see him until mid-to-late-summer.  A few weeks is better than nothing, eh?

And for those who are excited that I’ve finally sold my house or got a job… uh, no. We just can’t do this anymore. So I’m going to go on unemployment (Michigan allows MilSpouses to do this if their spouse is PCSed to another region) and try to find one in Washington. I know it’ll be sooo much easier to find one when I’m actually living in the area.

As for the house… well, that’s a very sore subject that I don’t want to write about in this VERY happy post. I’ll do it another time.

So in just seven weeks (funny, the amount of time we’ve lived together during our marriage), I’ll be living with my husband again.

*do a little dance… sing a little song*

Can you tell how freakin’ happy I am? OMG, I can’t even stand it.

Well, we now know why we are being docked the money.  Or at least have a base understanding.  Are you ready to hear what might be the biggest cluster @*#$ of the year?

Looks like my husband isn’t married.  Or at least, not in the Navy’s eye.  Or rather, he isn’t in the pay side, but he is on the DEERS side.

Apparently, when Huzzy checked into his command, someone forgot to pass on the copy of our marriage license that Huzzy gave them.  And since, in truth, he had been married for two months at the time, he claimed married on the PCS move.   So when they decided he “wasn’t married” because there was no proof of it, they decided to take that money back.

But that’s not all.

Since he just started the other month actually getting married BAH, they decided they needed to take that back too. Since he wasn’t married, you see.

Oh, but wait.

It seems as though the farther the Yeoman looked into why his pay was screwed up, the more he found out how much MORE screwed up it was.

Apparently, besides being “single,” he apparently is living in the barracks (in reality, he’s not!) so they have been taking nearly $300 out of his paycheck for galley food expenses. Also, they still haven’t paid us back the $300-$500 of travel claims that he submitted in June.  And there may be more that is screwed up, but the YN couldn’t figure it all out in one sitting.

So when Huzzy asked for a breakdown of everything that was wrong with his paycheck and what the Navy was going to owe us, the YN said that it was so screwed up that he couldn’t even give him an answer at the time.

Suffice to say, nothing is our fault.  This is a total cluster you-know-what on the Navy’s part. The YN also told Huzzy that if we could get a copy of our marriage license by Monday that we might be able to get a “hardship” check of the back BAH (and what they took back on the last paycheck of BAH that they shouldn’t have) by next Friday. He said the rest would be given to us on the 1st.  Now, the back BAH still won’t be what Huzzy’s normal check is, but it will at least help.

And it helps to know that we will see the money eventually even though it will totally make us miss bills this month. And not only that, but we will be getting MORE THAN our normal paychecks due to all the back BAH, the money they’ve been taking out for his “living in the barracks expenses” and travel claims. Money that we never expected or knew was coming.

Do I dare hope… could this be… is our luck starting to change?

Woo-hoo… that bad luck streak I talked about in my last post?   Well…

…it just got worse.

Huzzy called me last night after finally being able to access MyPay. Apparently it’s not $800-$1,000 that is coming out… it’s $1,100.  Pretty much his entire base pay for the paycheck.

<Announcer> And that’s not all, folks.  Tell them what else they’ve won!

<Show Host> Well, for being such good patriotic citizens who both serve their country, who work four jobs between them and who are newlyweds that have seen each other for less than half their marriage and are about to go through their first deployment, we have an extra special treat for them.  They get… to have the same amount taken out of their NEXT paycheck.

<Crowd> *Intense clapping and cheering*

<Announcer> Congratulations to the newlywed couple. We hope you’ll enjoy this treat for years to come.

Aren’t we just so special?  I feel so… so… honored.  Yes, that’s the word.  Apparently The Powers That Be (whether that’s God or the Navy) have decided that we are so incredibly strong and so ready to take on anything, that we can be given just this one more thing to handle.  Yeah, honored.

I’m waiting to hear from Huzzy tonight. He’s going to talk to the Yeoman today and see what’s up since it’s the middle of the month and he can’t see his LES to see what’s going on. However, we figured out that this is exactly half of what they gave us for our final payment for the PCS (okay, not really, supposedly they still owe us $300-$500 for travel claims according to Huzzy) in June. You know, a week before they told us “oops, we overpaid you $800 and we need that back by the end of the month or we’ll garnish your wages.” That stuff we paid by the end of the month.

So there are two options:

1. They shouldn’t have paid us anything in June and even though we asked them about it and they said we hadn’t been paid everything, they were wrong and are now yanking it (which begs the question… what about that $800 we already paid… do we get that back or is that on top of the $2,200?).
2. They erred and we should get it all back since we were entitled to that. Which means we might be lucky to receive it by Christmas… the one I might be spending alone for the first time in my life with no family near me. Hopefully I’ll make friends by then and they’ll take pity on me and invite me over at least the day before or the day after Christmas.

Of course, there’s always the Navy’s option of Option #3… none of the above and nothing we can understand.

Dear God and Mr. Navy Wo/Man in the Sky… I’ve had enough, thank you. I’m strong and can do things on my own. I’ve proven it. Can I please have a break?  Pretty please?  Just a little one?

We just can’t catch a break. When we had some extra money after our wedding, Skah cost us $500 in emergency vet and regular vet bills.

When we saved money from the PCS, the Navy demanded something like $1,000 back since I didn’t move with Huzzy at the time.

When I got a second (and third if you count the Navy Reserves!) job to help make ends meet, we had to hire a contractor to tile the kitchen floor just so it could get done since I didn’t have time to do it because of working three jobs. Another $1,100 down the drain.

And when we save some money so that we can do some tent camping and go out to a movie or two during the two weeks I’m spending in Washington before and after my drill weekend because Huzzy is deploying this fall (ya know, since we were married 22 weeks ago and have only spent 11 1/2 weeks together and only seen each other for three days in the last four months), the Navy erroneously garnished Huzzy’s wages from the said PCS move… that we paid back by the 30JUN deadline.

So now, not only will we not get to do anything but sit in Huzzy’s tiny rented room in a rented house for two weeks, but we won’t be able to pay all the bills on time this month. I mean, we’re barely making ends meet as it is with me working two jobs (and of course, my third job of the Reserves… there’s paperwork problems and I probably won’t get paid for my drills for several months even though I’m shelling out $300+ a month for plane tickets).  Losing something like $1,000 in one paycheck just isn’t going to cut it.

Oh, and that toe that I cut 5 weeks ago?  Still not healed. My doctor appointment was set for Monday for a re-check and to decide what to do. It was changed to Friday since the doctor has the stomach flu.  It now needs to be changed again because he’s not getting better. I sure as heck hope I can get an appointment Monday or Tuesday because I leave Tuesday night to go to the other side of the state to drop off the dogs at my mom’s house and to fly out of Detroit on Wednesday.

*sigh* I just feel like throwing my hands up and giving up lately.

It’s time for the Thursday Thirteen again. If you have a Thursday Thirteen of your own, leave your website in the comments section and I’ll try my darndest to visit it

13 Random Thoughts

1. I suddenly looked down the other day and noticed that our 17 month old Great Pyrenees puppy is no longer a puppy.  He’s filled out and is totally boxy now instead of lean and lanky. It happened pretty much overnight
   

   Skah at only 11 months... he had lots more growing to do!

   (which is probably why he’s limping… they do that when they have huge growth spurts).  My puppy is gone!  But at least he’s replaced by a majestic, regal dog.

2. Why do people insist on being stupid? Ignorant I can deal with but stupid is a whole ‘nother ball game.
3. I hope I get gained by my Navy Reserve command in the next few weeks. I’d love to start drilling soon.
4. My commissioning ceremony is Saturday. Holy Moley, it’s turned into something huge! Apparently the CO of the recruiting district has made it mandatory for all recruiters in this zone. Probably has something to do with the good connections both my place of work and myself have with him.
5. I’m terrified that I’m going to show how new I am that day. I had to ask the local Chief with help on how my combo cover is supposed to fit.  And I just finally figured out today a good way to do my hair the way I’m supposed to.
6. I was about to cut off said hair to my chin just so I didn’t have to deal with putting it up the “proper” way, which I couldn’t figure out until today.
7. This past weekend marked 3 months that Huzzy and I have been married.
8. By the time I see him, we’ll have been apart 11 out of 18 weeks of our marriage. Most will say that it’s the Navy life, but he’s not on deployment.  That will happen sometime this fall.
9. I need to make a page on OPSEC (Operational Security) so people know why I can’t be more specific than “this fall.”  I got the idea of doing a page like this from To the Nth. I hope she doesn’t mind me copying her idea.
10. I am really craving some Olive Garden Soup, Salad and Breadsticks lunch. Huzzy and I need to save as much as we can since we are supporting two households (and I am working two jobs to do that). But he went out with friends to see Transformers last night and I think I should get something, too. Besides, that lunch won’t cost as much as the movie did.
11. I really need to get my house finished and on the market. I’m glad my mom and brother are coming over this weekend to help. Too bad I have to work on Sunday, too.
12. My mom is bringing over a twin mattress. WOO-HOO!!!! No more sleeping on couch cushions on the floor (though they are infinintely better than sleeping on an air mattress that can’t hold its air)!
13. I need to start doing these things days in advance so they are already up and I don’t have to scramble around every Thursday morning to get my morning stuff done AND my TT.

I can’t believe I’m 27 today. I know that’s still young, but dang! I sure am getting close to 30. I still see myself as 23-24 years old.

Twenty-seven is just one of those years that is making me feel old. Changing from 25 to 26 felt like no big deal. This year feels like huge jump.  A few months ago I noticed some very faint crow’s feet starting to appear, which really took me aback. But at least they are smile lines and not frown lines. I’d hate to have frown lines.

Let’s see… the past year included:

June

• Taking my first vacation in two years… and my first two-week vacation ever! Yes, with the then 60-pound 5 month old puppy.
  
• Going down to the St. Louis area to Huzzy’s hometown and seeing where he grew up
• Riding my first motorcycle ever
• Nearly being bounced off said motorcycle on the highway

July

• Huzzy completely moved in to my house.
• We learned that our orders were going to be to Washington state (versus southern Georgia). Yay!

August

• Had a yard sale.

September

• Decided I wanted to look into becoming a Navy Reserve Public Affairs Officer.
• Decided I wanted to pursue a Navy Reserve Public Affairs Officer commission.

October

• I dunno what happened… I was busy!

November

• Went to my second awards dinner/dance for the Navy recruiting district. Minus the dancing since they didn’t have that
• Thanksgiving with my family… probably the last one for quite a while.
• Found out that our then 10-month-old puppy was 100% deaf. He was 85 pounds.
• Taught said puppy 6 signs in ASL in four days. Impressive!

December

• Had three interviews with Navy Public Affairs Officers– and Captains at that!
• One of those interviews I was very proud of. I called the Navy News Desk in Washington and asked the Lieutenant who answered the phone for help.
• From that phone call, I was set up with a Captain at the Pentagon. The PENTAGON. I flew to D.C. to do the interview. I had an interview IN THE PENTAGON!
• Sent my package into the board for review.
• Christmas with Huzzy’s family… probably the last for quite a while.

January

• I learned that I was selected in the January board as a Navy Reserve Public Affairs Officer.
• The fuzzy pup turned one and was 99 pounds.

February

• Did my physical for the Navy at MEPS.
• On February 13, Huzzy asked me to marry him. Yes, it was Friday the 13th.  I hope that doesn’t mean anything bad!
• We set the date for our wedding… we only had 5 weeks to plan.
• Did a lot of planning!

March

• Lots more planning for the wedding.
• We were married on March 21, 2009.
• We went on a “honeymoon” which really wasn’t one since we were actually on house hunting leave.

April

• Huzzy checked out of his recruiting command.
• Celebrated Huzzy’s 29th birthday.
• Learned very quickly the bane of military wives everywhere: PCSing.
• Started sleeping on an air mattress & living with one broken couch, a TV, two pots and one baking dish. Talk about Spartan living!

May

• Said goodbye to my husband as he PCSed across the country without me.
• Dealt with some annoyances with WalMart and my mortgage company, U.S. Bank Home Mortgage.
• My commissioning documents arrived.
• Still sleeping on an air mattress.
• Started fixing up the house on my own.

June

• Started working a second job… actually, it’s where I currently work, just I work the ticket counter on the weekend.
• The fuzzy pup is nearly 1 1/2 years old and somewhere in the range of 110-115 pounds. I used to weigh that much… 9 years ago!
• Commissioned as a United States Navy Reserve Public Affairs Officer.
• Continued sleeping on an air mattress… that loses a lot of air each night.  My back is saying “ouch!”
• Continued fixing up the house on my own in hopes to put it on the market this month.

Wow… lots has happened in just 12 months. This next year is going to see even more changes and fun and I’m really looking forward to it.

~Wifey

All you Navy wives out there know about improvising.  When everything is topsy-turvey and we are in the middle of a PCS, we have to find ways to get things done.  That’s what I did this morning.

Ladies, I have learned that if your tweezers were accidentally packed by the movers and your husband takes the only other one with him when he moves cross country, you have an alternative.  If you have a set of nail clippers around, you can use those to “cut” your stray eyebrow hairs.  It didn’t even pinch my face (okay, if you have deep wrinkles, it might)

Weird, yes.  But it will work until I can get to the store and buy another set of tweezers.  It’s a Navy Wife Life!

So as a Navy Wife/Husband, what is the strangest thing you have done to improvise?

~Wifey

I’m sorry but Shakespeare is full of bullroarky.   Parting with your husband while he goes off on a deployment–or in our case, moving to a new duty station alone before deploying–is never “sweet.”  And if it is sweet, I’d have to say that you need to re-evaluate your marriage.

I’m not going to sugar-coat it.  Saying goodbye was tough.  Really tough. And when Huzzy started tearing up himself, it just made it that much worse.  Not only were my tears for my sadness, but seeing that he was hurting too made me hurt that much more. He also said that having to get in his truck and leave me was much worse than leaving on deployment… because when he’ll deploy, someone else will be driving away–he’ll just be on the vessel that is going. Last night, he was the one who had to put one foot in front of the other and leave.

But we’ll be okay. I know this because our love is strong. And it’s what we have to do. As my mom has always told me when things got tough, “Other people can do it, so you can do it too.”  I have used this as my motto from the time I was young.  Thanks, Mom, for that phrase.

And to help get through the first few weeks of our first separation–what I’ve been told are the worst of the worst–I have a lot of projects left to do.  I still have to nail the back of our kitchen counter on, take all the doors off the cabinets, sand them down, add moulding and stain, paint the outside of my house and paint most of the walls inside the house.  That’ll keep me busy for a while!

What does make it hard is that other than a few people, no one at work knows he’s gone. They can’t know because I want to keep my job. I don’t think they’d fire me, but who knows… my immediate boss does know and she’s pretty close to the top of the food chain. So when people asked, “Did you have a good weekend?” I have to smile, and lie.  What I really want to say is, “No, I didn’t.  My husband of less than two months left me to drive by himself 2,300 miles to a new duty station and I’m stuck here.  I should be making that long drive with him.  Now I’ll have to do it by myself with three dogs and two cats.  No, I’m not fine and my weekend was not good.”

But I won’t. Because I’m a Navy wife and it’s what we do. We don’t let people know when our husbands leave for reasons of OPSEC (mine isn’t deploying just yet so it’s no secret he’s gone–no secret unless you work with me, that is!).

It’s the life of a Navy wife.

~Wifey