My ma always said...

...if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all!  That kind of sums up my approach the past few weeks.  I had yet more mini-deployment disasters occur, and then the news of Sandy Hook - well, I just couldn't find words that would suffice and not seem overly angry, frustrated or even that wouldn't be seen as offensive to some maybe, so I just. shut. up.  Take note mom, I DID learn that even if I never quite learned it in time for you to reap the benefits!

Now that I am on the back side of things I think I can tell you all about the never ending list of disasters and have a bit of gratitude as well that things DID get handled, we ARE all safe, and I am sure this will be funny someday.  Well, maybe not that last one.

Back up to a couple of days before Christmas, the boys and I are out (hubby still gone) delivering bags of goodies to some friends and we decide to stop at a shopping center to grab a bite to eat.  Traffic in the parking lot is hellish, I'm in and out of first gear (I have a stick) as I wait patiently to find a spot.  All of a sudden the car dies, smoke is POURING into the cabin through the vents, thick white stuff that smelled like burning plastic, yuck!  I get the car to start again and beeline it (it's now making screeching noises) to the far side of the lot where I'm not blocking traffic.  I yell at the kids to get away because smoke is all over the parking lot now and people are running away...  I go to raise the hood and when I prop the hood up, the stick literally buckles into a U shape, it's that hot!  It's cold, dark outside, creepy part of the parking lot, and now I have to wait with 2 kids for an hour for the tow truck to show up.  Don't get me started on the tow guy, he was a total moron - told him I had a manual and he proceeds to start winching my car up with it in 1st gear and the e-brake on, grrrrr!  Of course there was no "bite to eat" that night and the kids had a dinner of cereal at 9 pm, another great moment in parenting.

It gets better... I was without a car until after Christmas so there was then absolutely no chance of holiday travel... and it cost $1300 to fix, yikes!  My clutch was shot, I also ended up with a new axle as well.  I am floored by this one, I've had Subarus for years and never had issues like this.  I don't ride the clutch, heck my little Subaru Justy had almost 200K on it and was on the same clutch!  I hate to say this but this is the first one I've had that was assembled here in the good ol' USA, not a good feeling.  

Anyway, that's all done and the car is back.  

Now it's the day before Christmas Eve and we are looking forward to picking up the hubs as he returns from the past 2 months of being absent, my text msg lights up.... of course, he's not coming.  On to explaining that to the boys, that was loads of fun.

Then finally, the next morning I hear they are coming back that night, just in time for Christmas - I'll believe it when I see it!

I actually called the tower and asked if they had any flights coming in since I wasn't given a flight number and the guy says "I don't see any but if you want you can come on down and wait and see...", seriously.  Well, that's what we did...just waited in the parking lot in the car!

wonder of wonders, there is a jet, but is he on it?!  

Right about this time is when the other spouses started showing up to hope for a Christmas Miracle... imagine about a dozen women ready to spit nails with over-excited kids - sound fun?!

Finally!  He's here...

(I didn't know when he'd walk through, so you get to see other random homecomings too)

We really had to improvise this Christmas since all our plans for him being home in time to travel fell through and then the vehicle issues but we managed to get through it all anyway.  When friends called Christmas Eve and invited us to go skating, my initial reaction was to decline since I was going to make a small turkey breast and have some semblance of a normal holiday dinner - after thinking it through we decided to just forget tradition this year.  I actually threw that turkey breast in the Crock Pot and we went skating!  I'm so glad we did or I never would have discovered how good it is in the slow cooker, and so easy!  

I didn't even put veggies in with it, just some dried soup mix and broth, it was amazingly moist.  I did put it in the oven for about 15 minutes before serving just to brown it a bit.  Easy Peasy.

Best part?  We got to have FUN, and spend time with friends!

but wait...there's MORE!

Oh yes, there's more... add to the Deployment Disaster list:  new axle for the other Subaru and the heat went out yesterday in my tenant's house!  Yes, this would be the $5K brand new heat pump we had installed 3 months ago, frozen!  At least they are of course covering this, but seriously?  The repair guy acted like it was completely reasonable for this to happen, this is America now, low expectations.

Anyone wanna trade lives just for about the next 6-9 months?  No takers?

Alright then.  Today's topic will be Thing Two:

This kid has been busy.

He is in the Lego Robotics League this year at school.  Really great program for the little mini-nerds engineers.  He stays after school 2 days a week and has volunteer engineering type adults from the community to help along with his Math & Science Academy teacher and a few high school students that are also in the program and come to help the younger elementary students.

Loch and BFF Kenny, who clearly is awesome.

Every year there is a "challenge" that they have to design a project for.  This year's challenge is to build something that will help senior citizens.  Below is Loch working on the project.

These Legos are no joke, below is one of the robots, there are Lego bricks he uses that are $240 apiece!  Needless to say, I am completely freaked out when he brings something home to work on or tweak a bit.

Here is Loch at a district competition.

Inside the competition.  There are teams from all over the state and the Washington D.C. area set up.  The competition goes all day with different events for presentation and judging.  This Lego League is active all over the U.S. right up through college/university level.  Geeks unite!

The school garden is looking good for winter this year:

Why can't my garden be this orderly looking?!

Last month Loch was selected as one of 30 students to compete in the National Geography Bee, and yesterday was the first competition.  After surviving about 10 questions of increasing difficulty, he was out in Round Two.  He did great and unfortunately the video I got of him was the one where he got the question wrong LOL!  Ooops.

The Setup...

...and he's out.  But to be fair, so was most of the 1st and 2nd row! 

 These are 4th and 5th grade students.  They did great, Loch at least made the first 2 cuts.  The winner was a 4th grade student from Loch's class, which isn't surprising because his teachers have been consistently amazing in his Math & Science program.  The winner goes on to state level next.

***

Add to this both kids are still in music lessons, Cub Scouts and now swim team which has practice twice a week and Saturday meets and you have one very tired mama!

***

Finn wants grandma to know that he's been busy, too!

Finn showing his improved time ribbon in the Freestyle, and Loch finished 1st place in the 50m Backstroke.  They are on the same team so there is a bit of brotherly competition!

Yes, I have completely lost my mind:

I am a stroke and turn judge at the meets.  Go ahead and laugh... just don't swim in my lane or I'll get revenge in the form of two letters:  D. Q.   !  (insert evil laughter here)

I do get to be up on deck the whole time, but consequently can't really watch what my own kids are doing, and one day I am going to have one of my own kids in my lanes and face the possibility of DQ'ing my own kids :)

I did manage to get one video at last Saturday's meet.  Loch is in Lane 2 (lane 1 is unoccupied so he's the swimmer on the left).  When you watch just imagine how much faster he'd be if he didn't stop at the turn to do his hair and makeup...  but I can't get on him too much, he was 1st place!

Sorry this post reads like a big brag book, but it's months worth of activity and I got to get rid of all the guilt I have been feeling for not posting the boys' stuff for the grandparents!  I think we may be up to date now on their shenanigans.

I gotta start somewhere...

Have I been too busy to blog?  Or is it that I am becoming a poor manager of my time in my old age?  Even though I am busier than usual and have had some situations thrown at me over the past few months, I think it is actually just a time management issue.  The "old me" used to blog in the morning early, like most of you do, I was good about it then.  The "new me" decided that I needed to get chores done in the morning and that I would blog in the evening, you know - after the kids were in bed and I could relax and blog in peace.  In reality I've found, I'm done by the time I finally herd the kids off - to do nothing more productive than check Facebook and flip channels on the tv looking for anything decent to watch (ha!).  Useless is what I am that time of day, useless.  I also find that these days I am more scatterbrained than usual, and my usual is OCD freak out Type A, so any amount of ADD I am not dealing with very well.  I think it's hormonal, but whatever, it's completely unacceptable in my book.

Hey I got some new boots!  (see? ADD)

So today I dump all my phone pictures onto the computer and I have 394.  394???  This is normally not a problem when I post 2 or 3 with a daily blog post, but now where do I start?  I spent 2 good hours deleting junk photos and still was left with a bunch.  Another thing I noticed, I have a penchant for having my camera handy when humorous things cross my path...

like this... I liked it

or maybe I just have a weird and sarcastic sense of humor.  I think that's it.  In any case I have enough strange photos now that I can ensure a regular WTH? weekly post for at least 2 months!

So I am left with a whole bunch of unrelated stuff that I will present in ADD fashion over the next few posts.  My mom probably wants to smack me for not posting photos of what the boys are up to so we will all have to endure lots of stuff of which has nothing to do with my suburban homesteading efforts, but I'll get back to that eventually.

Some of you may know that the hubs has left the building... he's out west in an undisclosed location that I like to refer to as Area 51 dropping bombs and doing Navy "stuff" in preparation for deployment.  It's a long one, he left right after Halloween and has missed Thanksgiving too.

He was here to vote and left the next day, wow it really has been awhile since I've posted!

It was cold that day!

Does your state let you use a Concealed Carry Permit as a voting ID?

awesome - totally using that next time :)

We had an "early" Black Friday before he left... bet you can guess where we are :)

Time for him to put on his lovely can't-break-em Navy issue glasses and say good bye!

A rare photo with me in it -

We spent a great Thanksgiving Day at a friend's house, which called for Mama Pea's Almond Cranberry Cake - it's becoming quite a tradition, I've made it for 3 years in a row now.

It's even better than it looks :)

Now that the sugary sweet stuff is out of the way, I'll give you a brief overview of the beginning of "Deployment Season".  We have our own reality show, and it's real.

*Starter went out in one of the Subarus.

*I got really sick, like ew.

*Then Finn got Strep.

*Then Loch got Strep

at the doctor we learned how much sugar is in a Mtn. Dew, good thing we don't drink them!

*Then I had a pipe break inside the wall behind the toilet. (this was exceptionally fantastic)

 Oh joy, on a Friday night too.  Text hubs and complain and scream and threaten to throw seabags on the lawn when he returns.  (Don't be alarmed, this is perfectly normal and acceptable behavior for a Navy spouse).  

Crawl under house, (ew) and shut off well pump. Cry some more.  

Then this appears...yes I believe this Honey Boo Boo good ol' boy truck is larger than my house!

2 Navy guys set up shop in my bathroom, jab a big hole in my wall (who cares about that?!) and proceed to put a patch job on there that is still holding today.  On a Friday night.  And wouldn't accept my money.  I did force cookies on them however and will make sure the hubs buys them lunch when he gets back.  Apparently these are a few of the guys that were left behind on this trip to keep an eye on the squadron and the hubs called them from Area 51 and dispatched them.  Don't know what they patched it with, don't care - they are awesome!  Immediately regret thoughts of throwing seabags on the lawn and now cry because I'm so grateful I have such a great husband.  Manic Depressive, anyone?

This is all normal that everything explodes, implodes, etc during deployment but the annoying thing this time is that deployment hasn't technically started yet!

The icing on the cake:  find out that hubs will get 5 days of leave for Christmas when he returns. Um, going to Minnesota is a 2 day drive, each way.  It's the Navy's job to make sure the hell will rain down on grandma, too.  Good thing she was a Navy wife herself, so she gets it, even if she doesn't like it :(

Many more things have been making me crazy lately, Loch had Lego Robotics League, both kids are on swim team, I'm a Cub Scout leader and they have music lessons to get to, I feel like I should have paid more attention to people when they warned me about how crazy it gets as they get older!

Up tomorrow, Loch was selected to compete in the Geography Bee, so hopefully I can get some video of that for grandma, but here's the letter, mom -

So hey, that's that - I did it, I'm back in the game!  Makes no sense I know, but eventually I'm going to find my way back to canning, seed catalog discussions and the like, at least I hope that's where I'm headed!  Speaking of, headed to a meeting to start the process of legalizing hens in our city, will be a long process I'm sure, but hopefully we will have a good turnout and lots of people that will fill the aisles at city council meetings.

Today's Goal...

I WILL BLOG LATER TODAY!  I have no excuses, and this is me officially stating that I refuse to be a lazy blogger any. more.   But you got to give me a few more hours :)

All is well!

Just a quick post to let you all know that Sandy was very anti-climactic here.  We did just fine - we didn't even lose power, that's a first!  We were very fortunate, we never saw winds above 55 mph, the only things to deal with were 12 inches of rain and the full moon tide cycle.  Flooding, but only streets and not the house.  The fence is down everywhere, but then again that happens all the time and isn't really considered a problem since it's easily fixed with a little work.  I did wake up one morning to the roof leaking, which upset me since the roof isn't very old, but hubs inspected and found that the wind was driving the rain up under the shingles and a nearby roof vent, it was easily controlled with a towel and bucket and ceased to be a problem as soon as the wind slacked up.  He'll inspect more once things have dried out.

My thoughts really go out to those up in Jersey, DE, MD and NY.  Uffda, they are going to have a long road ahead.  You bloggers affected please check in when you are able and know that our family is praying for you.

Musings...
-Anyone watching Gov. Chris Christie?  The guy is tops in my book!  Straight shooter, likable, unapologetic and says things like "We'll pay for it somehow - even if I have to cut programs we'll take care of this." Ha - who is going to argue when it's put that way?  I'm not sure if I'm impressed by him sometimes or just the fact that a government official can use so few words and be effective without any B.S.  Love the guy...

-Looks like  will be another "no lesson learned" storm for our local non-preppers, so I can expect to see the same madness the next time around... 

-Wish the news would release more about the HMS Bounty Tall Ship sinking off the coast here, I'd love to know what they were doing off the coast in the middle of a hurricane.  Sad to hear about the loss of life, but it is interesting that the ship sunk right in the middle of the "Graveyard of the Atlantic", isn't it?  I toured the ship during the OpSail 2012 event here, you may remember my post about all the tall ships this summer, it is an incredible vessel.

Coast Guard photo:

You can read more here

a photo of her with sails up - some of us have seen the ship in 'Mutiny on the Bounty', but even kids would know this ship as the one in "Pirates of the Caribbean"

- I keep thinking about the people going through this further up the coast, just devastating.  Experience is the best preparedness tool and nothing can substitute for it, sadly many of these areas just don't have that tool.  Next time they will but I sure am praying for them now.

Anyway... my damage is minimal but I still need to get to it - leaves stuck all over the floor in here, that always happens!  Put away some supplies I had standing by and then to deal with the yard.  It will be awhile before I can get out there and work much since the water table is saturated so it's a big puddle, but the fence needs to get back up because I don't care for walking dogs on a leash!  Still getting 35-40 mph gusts and light drizzle, but I'll take it over the rain of the last 3 days.

Take care everyone in the northeast, post pics and status updates when you can and let us know you are okay!

Stuff It, Sandy!

We're Ready... 

This marks the first year that I haven't needed to go to the store for anything before a storm!  I've always been pretty prepared, but have always felt the need for last minute stuff but no longer, this is a big accomplishment.  That didn't stop me however, from heading out to People Watch... I'm continually amazed at the mentality of some people, as well as the complete inability to "think outside the box".

Random observations:

Lines and parking lots that rivaled Black Friday at WalMart - I didn't even need to go in, the news showed me the photos of empty shelves and people that are desperate for water and "necessities".

On a whim (as I drove past a WalMart) I went into the Office Max across the street from WalMart.  Empty store and whaddaya know?  Shelves FULL of batteries and flats of water LOL

I went into a Kmart today, just to check it out... the camping aisles were completely empty, even sleeping bags LOL, where are people going, the KOA?  Shelves with tags that read Lanterns $49.99, 29.99 etc - empty.  Yeah, the kind that take canisters of fuel that people won't be able to find anywhere.  I headed into housewares where they still were full of hurricane lamps and "oh, look at that, 32 oz bottles of paraffin oil on sale for $1.99"!  LOL so even though I didn't need any more you better believe I bought them all, bahahahaha!  We won't talk about people freaking out because there is no bread anywhere yet we still probably have 24 hours left with power and the shelves were chock full of flour and yeast :)

I figured we could always use another grill lighter yet there were none at Kmart, so now I'm having fun with my challenge and stopped by a shady convenience store and there were about 6 people in there freaking out over the fact that there was no more cigarettes and malt liquor LOL but behind them glowing were grill lighters and loaves of BREAD!

Outside the box, people... stay the heck away from Walm@art!  

So, we are as ready as we'll ever be, generator to run the well pump for showers, lamps and oil, Kindle charged, knitting at the ready, lots of food storage, means to cook it outside, 6 gal containers of water that stay filled with drinking water, and plenty of containers to collect rainwater for flushing if we need it.  The most amazing thing that has definitely not gone unnoticed is that this late hurricane is happening when the temps outside are a fantastic 55-65 degrees - normal years the a/c goes off and we can look forward to 95 degrees, humidity and mosquitoes, so that's the bright side.  Between watching my parents deal with winter storms and pumps freezing over in Minnesota winters and all I've learned from my homesteader/prepper blogger friends I'd say we are more prepared than most, so thank you mom & dad and all of you!

With mommy getting over an illness and daddy dealing with broken ribs, (story for another day)  the boys have really learned how to pull their own weight a little more in moving and securing items and just helping in general... it's high time!

To Mom, I have had NO voice for 2 days (the family is enjoying that) so you will just have to believe me, we're safe!  I hope all my friends up in the northeast are having their preparations come together well and that you come through with little damage.  I look forward to hearing all your reports, see you on the other side!  Looks to be pretty crazy from the hurricanes we are used to, this thing is still 500 miles or more away from us and our surf is intense already and having high wind gusts, it just feels different - so get ready!

Summer camp all year long

I have been waiting for this day...

See that playset?  The one that the kids don't ever play on anymore?...

It's coming down!

I have often entertained the idea of turning it into a coop, or a potting shed - but what I really wanted was a... camp style canoe rack!

I don't think I had to lift a finger.  Hubs is fantastic with this stuff, as long as I can get him to "see what I'm seeing".  This was a tad difficult since he didn't grow up where canoe racks and summer camps were a common sight.  I think I might have jogged his memory with a showing of Friday the 13th.   

 After the kids helped daddy dismantle the old playset and salvage any lumber that wasn't split or rotted, they were off to get their supplies.  

Finn said he could help.  Uh-huh.

Hubs clearly thought I was describing a skyscraper canoe rack, but I can work with this.

Ta da!  Ok, I admit it stayed like this for several weeks.

It is huge, but incredibly useful.  We still have a big tandem kayak that was last seen floating around Minnesota/Wisconsin in my parent's garage... or someone's garage we know up there (we hope), so we have plenty of room for that as well.  It even holds our rooftop cargo box and will eventually have an attic shelf we can store some gear in.  Of course we can't afford a real roof LOL, so bamboo will do for now!  The kids have named it the 'Yak Shack.

That poor old yellow canoe is in desperate need of some TLC, that's what years of hot southern sun will do to your stuff here.

Another view, this thing is huge.  Bonus is that I can fit a couple of chairs under there so I will have some shade to read a book, knit, or any of those other things that I will honestly never get to do!  I'm sure we will do a little decorating with old life vests and cracked paddles to give it a little character :)

Hubs celebrated by smoking some pork in the rain.

For the uninitiated, that's not raw meat.  The pink is from the "smoke ring".  It turned out beautifully and now I have a ton of pulled pork in the freezer ready for quick meals.  I took a jar of my canned hot pepper sauce, added some extra vinegar and other random things and it made for a great NC style mop to go with it.  We will be enjoying this long after the hubs is on the other side of the Suez Canal :)

I've been doing some cooking of my own lately in celebration of cooler fall temps...

Chili 'n Jalapeno Cornbread

Rain expected this afternoon, but I'm hoping to at least get some pumpkins in the front yard and the porch cleared off of all our fishing gear and bait buckets - seriously, our porch looks pretty redneck right now since we have been busy with activities and Cub Scout stuff and not putting things away properly.  There's bait buckets, tackle boxes, even a bunch of camo painted boxes for a Cub Scout Nerf War, totally "Honey Boo Boo" out there.  Hubs' relatives are coming this weekend so I think I better clear a path!