Ensign Spud

The Colonel and I are extremely proud of Spud! He is now an officer in the United States Navy!

 He graduated from Officer Candidate School (OCS) on January 24, 2020.

It was a long road, but Spud finally reached his destination.

Spud has always been interested in joining the military as an officer. When he was little, we thought it would be an army life for him. He loved dressing up in camouflage and playing Army.

When Spud was in high school, he joined the NJROTC (Naval Jr. ROTC) group. He became the group's commanding officer during his senior year.

In college, Spud joined the Naval ROTC program. 

Unfortunately, he did not complete the program and did not become a naval officer upon college graduation. 

Spud still had the dream of becoming an officer in the Navy. He investigated all it would take to become an officer through OCS and proceeded to make it a reality. He talked to recruiters, he filled out all kinds of paperwork, took tests and had several Letters of Recommendation (LOR) written on his behalf by those who know him and his character. He had LORs from a retired Air Force Colonel as well as a Ph.D., just to mention a couple. He had done all he could from his side. Now it was a waiting game to see if he could be accepted into OCS.

He was accepted (as you already know). On October 6th, he arrived at our house from Jacksonville, in a U-Haul truck that was "packed to the gills" with his household goods. He would be here for only six days before he had to pack a bag and get on an airplane headed for OCS in Newport, Rhode Island.

Early in the morning of October 12th, The Colonel, Yam and I took Spud to the airport in Ft. Myers. We said our farewells and told him we would see him in January for his graduation from OCS.

We kept tabs on Spud and his OCS class (05-20) via its Facebook page. It was always great to see Spud in the photos.

Spud is second in line.

Spud is left of frame, in black glasses.

Spud was in OCS for 13 weeks. He was in Rhode Island in the winter time. This is a kid that has lived most of his life in SW Florida. He said it was bitter cold at times. He said he enjoyed OCS but was glad it was over.

The Colonel and I had plans to go to Rhode Island to see Spud graduate but his mother was not doing well. She had a broken arm and was in and out of rehab centers and hospitals. I too was in the hospital with what ended up being pneumonitis. So, I could not fly even after The Colonel's mother had passed away and we no longer had to care for her. Spud understood our absence. Yam flew to Rhode Island and represented the family and Spud's girlfriend was there too. The Colonel and I were able to watch the graduation as it was being streamed live.

Spud's first salute as a naval officer

Yam and Spud

Spud and Kalilah

Spud had a long row to hoe but his persistence and dedication paid off. He never gave up on his dream!

Congratulations Ensign!

Spud is now at his first duty station. He is back in Florida...in the Panhandle. He has rented a little house near base. We had to gather and co-locate all of his household goods so that we would have them ready for the movers to pickup and deliver to Spud's new digs.

The Colonel and I moved everything into our garage. Spud's things took up less than half of our garage. I could have sworn the U-Haul truck had lots more in it when we helped Spud unpack it.

There were two guys working the move. The Colonel and I are old hands when it comes to military moves, but it had been thirteen years since our last one. The packing and loading of Spud's things went well. It took just under two hours to complete. The weather was perfect too.

 

The last item in the truck was Spud's couch.

It was good to have our garage space back again....

...but it is even better having Spud realize his dream and be settled in his new place.

MErmaid

By now, you all should know about my "Mermaid Mania".

Pre-COVID-19, The Colonel and I were scheduled to go down to Key West for the 2020 Key West Mermaid Festival held on July 1st through the 5th. We had a cute little cottage rental lined up as well as the Key West Express boat trip tickets purchased for the rides down and back. I was going to pack and only wear my mermaid themed t-shirts. We had to cancel all aspects of our Key West trip because of the COVID-19 crisis. Key West is closed and who know for how long?

Also Pre-COVID-19, I had started to look into the Sirens of the Deep Mermaid Camp at Weeki Wachee Springs State Park. It is a two day camp for adults ages 30 and up and it costs $450. At the camp, you experience what it is like to be an underwater performer at Weeki Wachee Springs. Each day you'd participate in underwater ballet training sessions and learn the basic moves of the Weeki Wachee Mermaids. You would have a behind the scenes look at what it takes to put on an underwater show and what the daily responsibilities are of being a mermaid. All camp trainers are previous Weeki Wachee Mermaids, who volunteer their time for the camp.

https://friendsofweekiwachee.com/sirens-of-the-deep-camp/

A visit to the website informed me that all camps are full for 2020...I took too long to "look into" participating in this camp. With the COVID-19 issues, who knows if the camps will even take place this year? I will have to wait until January 2021 to check on the new camp dates.

But I digress...the main theme for this blog post is about one of my Christmas presents from last year. It was given to me by my dear friend in Indiana. We've been friends since the 9th grade. She always gives me the best gifts. She is very talented. She can sew, knit, weave, draw, paint, garden...I could go on...

This is what I received from my friend for Christmas...

...ME as a MERMAID!

My very talented friend did not draw this picture, her very talented daughter drew it (we know where she gets her talent). My friend commissioned her daughter to draw this caricature of me as a mermaid for my Christmas present. Her daughter is in college studying art and she recently held a summer job where she drew caricatures of visitors to the park.

My Christmas present arrived in the mail, in a tube. I wondered what could be inside that festively-wrapped tube? I thought maybe it was a pretty, watercolor picture, painted by my friend (she is very good at it). When I finally opened up the tube on Christmas morning, I was surprised and thrilled beyond measure! ME AS A MERMAID! Like I said earlier, my friend always gives me the best gifts!!

I have the caricature drawing framed and hanging in my "art studio" (aka Spud's old room). I love it and I love my friend's thoughtfulness behind it! It is the perfect addition to my mermaid addiction!

Jane's Dash

March 15, 1936 - January 19,2020

Above you see a dash between My-Favorite-Mother-In-Law's birth and death dates. We see dashes like this one by the dozens in cemeteries. When I see them, I always wonder who that person was and what they did during their time upon this earth. These dashes are small but represent the who and what of the person associated with them. 

In this post, I hope to help shed some light upon My-Favorite-Mother-In-Law's dash. You know when Jane was born but not where. Jane was born at the Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis, Indiana. Her mother worked at the hospital as a nurse.

Jane grew up in Greenfield, Indiana. She was "the only child, of an only child, of an only child"...she had always wanted siblings and when it came time for her to become a mother, she was not going to have an only child (her father told her she was done having children when her daughter was born...Jane told him it was not his business how many she had. I am grateful she also had The Colonel. When Jane's father met The Colonel for the first time, he was over-the-moon about having another grandchild).

Jane graduated from Greenfield High School in 1954. After graduation, she worked as an IBM operator at Eli Lilly Pharmaceutical Company. In 1958, she married My-Favorite-Father-In-Law, Ted of Indianapolis, Indiana. She had met Ted on a blind date. Jane and Ted were shy of nearly two months of celebrating their 61st wedding anniversary when Ted passed away on January 18, 2019 (yes, your math skills are correct...Jane passed away one year and one day after her beloved Ted).

Jane was not only an excellent role-model for wife, mother and mother-in-law, she was also one for grandmother. She was so excited when Yam was born. The Colonel's sister and her husband did not have any children and The Colonel and I were married for five years before Yam came along. She was beginning to wonder if she would only have furry grand-babies (cats). 

   

When Spud was due to arrive a couple of years after Yam, Grandma Jane was there and took care of Yam while The Colonel and I went to the hospital. After Spud arrived, she got 2-year-old Yam ready to meet her new brother at the hospital.

Both Jane and Ted were always ready and willing to help us out with the kids whenever we needed them even though we did not live near them. Yam and Spud loved to visit Gma and Gpa. We would always go to the beach for breakfast and shell gathering. The picture below happened to be a windy day at the beach. Gma, Yam and Spud were "clinging" to rail and acting silly.

When Jane and Ted started their family, Jane was a stay-at-home mother. When The Colonel and his sister were school-aged, Jane became a volunteer at Hancock Memorial Hospital in Greenfield. She was a volunteer there for 19 years. When Ted retired in 1989, he and Jane moved to Florida. They helped to build houses for Habitat For Humanity for several years. Jane helped to build 45 homes.

During Jane's lifetime (dash), she liked to paint, draw, knit, collect fossils and seeds, travel, play and watch tennis. She also loved to play games, especially word games like Scrabble and Upwords. Later, she enjoyed Sudoku and Word Searches.

Jane loved animals. During her lifetime she had over 40 cats. She enjoyed feeding the birds and squirrels in her backyard and watch them through the window.

Jane passed away peacefully, in her home, at the age of 83. The Colonel and I were at her bedside when she passed. Yam and my sister, Jennifer helped us watch over Jane before her passing. Jane had been diagnosed with lung cancer in 2016 and chose not to undergo any treatment like she did when she was diagnosed with lymphoma in 1995. She was told she had only six months to live upon diagnosis and we all were surprised and pleased that she lived as long as she did post-diagnosis without complications and pain.

The year and one day between Ted and Jane's passing were difficult for us all. Jane was very depressed and The Colonel and I were running her household as well as ours. We tried to keep Jane's familiar schedule...Walmart shopping, Dollar Store visits and lunch at The Golden Corral.

Jane was ready to go. As always, it is sad when a loved one leaves you but when you know they are ready and have lived a full and fruitful life, your grief is made easier to bear.

I was very blessed to have Jane as my mother-in-law and as my friend.  

The Birdie Marks the Spot

I am always reading a book and usually it is an historical fiction book. I like to learn something as I am entertained.

I have bookshelves full of books I have been wanting to read and now with the COVID-19 pandemic upon us, I have more time to devote to this endeavor (I just have to chose which book I want to read next).

Because I like reading books (real hold-in-your-hand, turn-the-paper-pages books), I like book marks too. Not just the paper kind you can get for free at your local bookstore, but hand-made or unique ones.

I love the origami ones that Yam made me.

This one is an actual, tiny, painting. Reminds me of my favorite French Impressionists. I forget where I bought it.

This one is made of wood. I bought it at an arts & crafts festival.

I even made a "Ross Poldark" one myself for when I read the Poldark series.

I like my bookmarks to be made of sturdy, lasting materials. When I have an old wire-bound notebook that has a plastic front and/or back and all the pages are used up, I make some bookmarks out of the plastic.

I had a little, plastic, wire-bound note card book that was empty of cards on hand. I just couldn't throw away that plastic. I didn't want to cut the plastic into plain, traditional bookmark shapes, so I began to look around the house to see if something could inspire me.

This is what inspired me...

A few years ago, while I was back in Indiana for a visit, I went to lunch and did some shopping with a dear friend of mine. We saw these birds in a store window. I took a picture of them and told my friend that when I returned to Florida, I would recreate the birds. I did. I made them out of the plastic covers of an old notebook and hung them in my kitchen window.

I thought what a perfect pattern for a book mark. I had to reduce the size of the bird for the bookmark though (and because my plastic piece was smaller).

My bird bookmark works perfectly and I love how his little wing helps him grip the page to keep my place in the book.

Wordless Wednesday

Like Old Times

This COVID-19 crisis is cramping my style...my hair style.

Now that only "essential" outings from your home are, well, essential...I had to cancel the appointment with my trusted hairdresser. I have been going to her for about six years. She colors, cuts and styles my hair every five weeks.

My gray roots were very visible and they needed to be covered and soon. Yam said that I should embrace my "COVID-19 Look" and just go with the gray until life got back to normal.

Last week, The Colonel and I made a trip to Walmart (aka "Running the Gauntlet") and I placed four boxes of hair color into my shopping cart. I decided to grab that many boxes because I do not know how long I will be unable to go to my hairdresser.

The Colonel and I were looking at the different colors to choose from. I tried to get four of the same color, but that was not going to happen...looks like other ladies had the same idea I did. I was able to get two boxes of the same color and two other different ones. The colors were all in the medium red-golden brown family at least.

For years, The Colonel helped me color my hair at home (I started going gray early...thanks Mom!).

The other evening after dinner, I asked The Colonel if he had the time (and desire) to color my hair. He said he did. It seemed odd to have him color my hair again. As always, he did an excellent job covering my gray roots.

I am blessed to have a husband who can and will help me keep my gray hairs at bay...but I look forward to the day when I can go see my hairdresser again for a nice cut with the color (I draw the line at scissors and The Colonel when it comes to my hair) and going back to my hairdresser will hopefully mean that life as we used to know it will have returned.

Throwback Thursday

I have no excuse now for not posting more on my blog. The current COVID-19 virus crisis has caused the Florida Governor to enact a STAY-AT-HOME order effective tonight at midnight. I will try to blog more often (even if I have little that may be terribly exciting/interesting to write about because of being house-bound).

One thing The Colonel and I now have the time for, is the scanning of all of our family photos. I have been removing them from albums and boxes so that The Colonel can scan them with his new, high-speed, desktop scanner. We have completed over 4500 photo scans thus far. Still many more to go. We wanted to scan all of our photos to preserve them and put them on drives for our daughter and son to have. We've scanned all of The Colonel's mother's photos. We will start on ours next as well as those left behind by The Colonel's sister upon her death.

As I was going through the photos, I  came across this one below.

Yes, that is me. That was me when I still had a waist (before two babies but I cannot blame it all on the babies) and still wore glasses (before LASIK eye surgery).

This photograph was taken when The Colonel and I were stationed at McChord Air Force Base in Washington State (1987-1992). It was taken in the early years of that tour, roughly around 1988 or 1989.

Now, I did not normally dress like I was a WWII war bride (my costume cost me about $10. I bought the dress and jewelry form Goodwill). I was dressed like this because I was in a women's singing group called The Pinetones. We were a group of about a dozen women who were wives of those stationed at McChord Air Force Base. My friend Claudette, whose husband was in the Canadian forces, asked me if I would like to join the group with her.

We ladies would meet a couple times a week to practice our songs. Our director had chosen the musical program. The program consisted of songs from different eras and each one of us ladies were dressed from those eras. As you can see, I was chosen to represent the WWII era.

We sang the songs in chronological order. Songs like, Bei Mir Bist Du Schon, Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend, Goin' to the Chapel and Somewhere Out There. Our program ran about 30 minutes.

Once our director felt we were ready, we gave performances at local venues. We sang for the elderly at nursing homes and assisted living facilities (they were not called that then of course, but 'old folks' homes). We sang at veterans' homes. We also sang one time at a mental hospital...now that was an experience...and kind of scary too...let me regale you...

We arrived at the mental hospital and were welcomed inside the lobby by the hospital's program director. We followed her through the locked doors in the dim hallways (the doors were locked behind us) to the large community room. There, sitting in chairs and  waiting for us, were about twenty patients. Most of the patients were quiet and seemed to enjoy our musical program. One male patient in particular was fascinated by our pianist's sparkly blouse. He would jump out of his chair and run over to the piano and begin caressing the blouse. It was a little unnerving to be locked behind doors in the mental hospital but not as disturbing as I thought it might be...guess I was basing things on "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest". Still, it was good to be out of the hospital once our program was finished.

I was with The Pinetones singing group for one "season". I had other interests and organizations starting to take up my time. I was involved with the Officers' Wives' Club as the publicist and also involved with the Squadron's Wives' Group. I lost contact with most of the other ladies, all except my friend Claudette, we still stay in touch.

So many memories rushed through my mind when I found this photograph again. All those years and experiences behind me. It made me smile.

I look again at the photograph below and am reminded of what my brother who looks into our family's genealogy once said. He said that we may be related to Lucille Ball...Hmmm...

Image from Internet