Aloha Friday: Blog templates

Welcome to this week’s edition of Aloha Friday. Kailani of An Island Life writes...

In Hawaii, Aloha Friday is the day that we take it easy and look forward to the weekend. So I thought that on Fridays I would take it easy on posting, too. Therefore, I’ll ask a simple question for you to answer. Nothing that requires a lengthy response.

If you’d like to participate, just post your own question on your blog and leave your link below. Don’t forget to visit the other participants! It’s a great way to make new bloggy friends!

Today’s question is:

How did you decide which blog template to use on your blog?

WW & SEW: Tooth #2!

One week ago today, Timothy lost his first tooth. When I picked him up from school today, the gap seemed especially big to me. I looked inside and asked if he lost another tooth. "I don't know". And then he pulled a tooth out of his pants pocket! He had told his teacher it came out at home, but we think he was getting confused with the 1st tooth a week ago. Funny. I don't think we have any others loose right now. If this gets to be a weekly occurrence, I'll have to put it in my budget!

You can see more pictures at Wordless Wednesday and Special Exposure Wednesday.

Military Communication Part 2: Military Care Kits

Since our service members receive mail in spurts, every letter or package means the world to them. I want to let you know about "Military Care Kits". You receive FREE supplies from the United States Postal Service. It includes everything you need to mail something to a service member: 6 flat rate boxes, labels, customs forms, and packing tape! All you have to do is call this phone number:

1-800-610-8734

Ask for a Care Kit. They will take your name and address, and you'll receive the supplies in about a week. The nice thing about the flat rate is that weight doesn't matter! You can pack that thing full. Plus, military addresses get a $2 discount, so it's only $10.95 to mail the flat rate box to your service member! You will be amazed at how much stuff you can cram into one of those boxes! You can use these supplies for anyone who has an APO or FPO address, and if you want to send one to Dan, here's his address:

FC1 S. Daniel Smith
CF Division
USS Antietam (CG-54)
FPO AP 96660-1174

He would love it, as would any service member you know!

Military Communication Part 1: How Often Do I get to talk to Dan?

I get this question a lot. If everything is going well, he and I can shoot some emails back and forth to one another, and one of the big reasons my blog is filled with so many details that most of you wouldn't care about is that Dan is able to check my blog. He can see more pictures than through email, and it's the only way I can show him video.

Each branch of the military has its different pros and cons. These days the Army and Marines (and Reservists) are really getting the short end of the stick, but in peace time the Navy's schedule is pretty nasty. Hopefully, Obama will bring our soldiers home, but our sailors will be gone just as much.

One negative for Navy now is that we don't get to speak to our service members often. I know people who talk to their loved ones in Iraq almost daily. And since I DO NOT want Dan in Iraq, I'm happy to opt for no verbal communication. However, it is tough to go a month or longer without hearing his voice.

But imagine life without email? How did those military wives do it years ago when they had to actually depend on snail mail for communication? Yikes! Dan and I rely heavily on email, and the system does go down which makes us wait a day or so. So I laughed when I received this from the command of Dan's ship this morning!

Throughout this deployment there may - probably will - be times when connectivity is lost between the ship and our loved ones back home. This can occur for a number of reasons - operational necessity and equipment casualties to name just two - and it may last from a few hours to a number of days. You'll know this sort of thing has happened when our usually reliable e-mails stop arriving. If/when this happens, please don't fret: we will reestablish communications as soon as possible. In the mean time, please don't overwhelm the system with countless emails asking why we don't respond. If you don't get a response after an email or two please stop sending them. Too many emails may overwhelm the buffer that is holding our incoming email and that may cause it to crash and permanently lose all those messages you sent. You may not like it - and trust me we don't either - and it may be hard, but just wait a bit and as soon as possible we will be back in touch.

We've gotten so spoiled! I sent a package the first mailing day after Dan left and 9 days later he doesn't have it yet. It goes through the normal mail service to the aircraft carrier. Then once it's sorted there, it gets flown over to Dan's ship. Of course it's going to take a while! Two days is nothing compared to that! I really try to remember that it could be so much worse.

What's on your Nightstand?

Books I've read:

For the Tough Times, by Max Lucado. You can read that review here.

Your Money or Your Life, by Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin. The few chapters I made it through seemed good, but I have decided to opt out for right now. Just too much on my plate.

Olivia, by Ian Falconer. That was part of January's Children's Classics, and I'll be doing a Book To Screen review in February!

Currently reading:

The Story Girl, by L.M. Montgomery. Technically, this book is not on my nightstand because I left it at my PT appt yesterday. Ugh. It's a library book! I have to call this morning to track it down. And the worst part is I didn't have it to read before going to sleep last night!

Golden Road, by L.M. Montgomery is the sequel, and I plan on reading it as well even if I don't finish by the carnival deadline this Friday.

For February:

The Gift of Psalms is the next book for me to review for Thomas Nelson Publishing. It' s a devotional book of 50 Psalms, plus 30 of them are on cd, read by famous actors.

Same Kind of Different As Me is another Thomas Nelson book. I am not required to review it, but this video grabbed my attention, so I decided to accept an online copy. Since February is Black History Month I am very interested in reading a book that portrays the story of two men from separate worlds coming together.

On a lighter note, I will be reading an A.A. Milne book for Children's Classics.

I think this month's "Nightstand" is more about what's NOT on it than what is on it. I had huge book reading hopes this year, but already 10 days into this deployment I can tell I've got to alter my expectations.

L.M. Montgomery books - I'll have to spread these out throughout the year!

Sound Mind, Sound Mom book club - I guess I'm going to have to opt for a Surviving Mind, Surviving Mom because I'm just not going to be able to do this. Maybe next year! But the books sound great, so if you are interested (just 1 book every 2 months), head over there and check it out.

Want to know if your Nightstand looks like someone else's? Click here.

The Facebook Phenomenon

I'm sure my Facebook experience has been similar to most. I first joined and didn't do anything with it for months, but every once in a while I would get a "friend request". The whole thing just seemed foreign to me, and then one day I decided to log in to my much neglected account. There was an entire network of communication between "friends". So I commented here and there and finally got brave enough to give a "status update".

Well, you know how you go through those friend request spurts in Facebook? About 3 or 4 months ago I stumbled upon a pocket of my best buds from youth group (yes 20 years ago!), and it has been so fun! Some embarrassing photos have been posted and we've shared our favorite memories from choir tour!! Good times.

But what I wasn't ready for was the reality of life. A few weeks ago I read on someone's wall, of all places, some tragic news. The mother of my best friend in 9th grade had been cancer free for 5 years, but it had returned and she had weeks to live. Suddenly I was back in 9th grade, and even though I haven't spoken to Michael in years (except for a Facebook friend request), it's all felt very close. Last Thursday Michael's mother went to be with the Lord.

I don't know if death hits me harder because of Samantha's CF...or maybe because my sister-in-law died at the young age of 15...or perhaps because I've watched a very dear friend deal with the loss of her husband? I guess none of these scenarios have to exist for me to know that death sucks.

So this Facebook thing has changed relationships. Childhood friends that I wouldn't have even been talking to several months ago, I'm now grieving with. In the last week there have been steady emails back and forth as we each try to show love and concern in our own way. We were young kids who depended on our parents to drive us places, so we all knew Linda well. She was a warm, welcoming "youth group" mom, who always had a beautiful smile on her face. She will be treasured.

Today my friends from years ago are celebrating her life in the church we grew up in. Oh, I wish I were there right now. Even though I know words can't fix things, I still want them to. And if I were there I wouldn't have to say anything...I could just show support by my presence. Unfortunately, life doesn't seem to always give us want we want.

And neither does Facebook.

Technical Difficulties

So I'm having some blogging problems. A friend of mine has gotten multiple "Upgrade to Pro" "Bandwidth Exceeded" messages from Photobucket on my blog! I was so confused because I don't even have an account with them. Well, I've discovered it's my new template. Those images are connected to an account that is full, and it's evidently going to show up on my blog. I guess my only recourse is to find a new template, so bare with me while I do that. It took me hours and hours to decide upon this one, so I don't know how long my blog will look "wonky" (to quote Stephanie). Any advice is appreciated!

Magic Marker Monday: Wrapping Paper

For the birthday party we attended on Saturday, we did something a little different. I wrapped the present in brown package paper, and then I let Timothy draw on it however he wanted. He really struggles with drawing (due to poor fine motor skills and some strange mental block), so I'm trying to find various ways to make it enjoyable. Plus, this personalizes the present a little and makes him think about the person he's giving the gift to. The blank space is where we had a stuffed animal attached.

And he wrote the To and From on the back!

For more Magic Marker Monday, click on over to 5 Minutes for Special Needs.

Weekend Wrapup #1: Keeping Busy

I just made it through my first week with a deployed spouse and most importantly I made it through my first Saturday! I find that day the hardest because it's the only day of the week that I don't have a regularly scheduled event. So I'm going to start highlighting our Saturday activities, and it may also include Sunday here and there.

Yesterday was busy...

We started the festivities with a birthday party. We are quite blessed to live in very nice military housing that has playgrounds every few blocks. There is such a nice community atmosphere here, and lots of people host b-day parties at these play areas. It's always fun to walk to a birthday party!

We left from there and went to AWANA Games practice. Yes, our AWANA Sparks and T&T kids will compete against other AWANA groups in Feb, but we have to practice before then! The first hour they walked all over campus (very hilly) balancing bean bags on their heads, and then the 2nd hour they practiced the games. Timothy was intense. Samantha played with all the excess toys, and then she took a snack break. She is meticulous about her orange peeling!

And if that wasn't enough to wear them out, I took them to the YMCA last night! Samantha fell asleep on the way there and Timothy was asleep when I picked them up. He never falls asleep like that-he was exhausted.

I signed them up at the Y because I was invited to a White Elephant party. I got one of the more normal gifts...a snow globe. Someone received 90210 Season 3. That's funny. The party was a lot of fun.

I also put my foot down about an ongoing issue of music in our car. The kids always ask to skip this song or that song (usually because it's slow), and I finally made a "no skipping" rule. Timothy caught it the first time, but Samantha is still learning.

We have a new "favorite" Veggie Tales cd called The Incredible Singing Christmas Tree. You can click on the link to hear excerpts. Make sure you listen to #7! Timothy has now decided to assign us all parts. He says that when Daddy comes home he can be Mr. Lunt!

Mario Kart Wii Champion

I haven't had any time for blogging because I've been doing something really important...honing my Mario Kart Wii skills. At least it's paying off!!!

This morning was a milestone for me...I got 1st place in ALL 4 races of The Shell Cup!! Yes, that's 60 points-the most you can get!!!

My son is proud to call me his momma!

Blog Awards

I have some awards that I need to accept! And since I'm stil playing catch up in my blogging, I'm going to nominate 1 person for each award.

On Dec 8, Jessie at Breezy's Bravery, a Fight Against CF gave me this award! I think who should get this award is pretty self-explanatory (a Superior Scribbler), but here's an interesting history of how this award came to be.

I'm giving this award to my husband, Dan at Making Strides to Cure Found. Yes, I recognize the nepotism. I may not agree with every word he writes, but he has a beautiful way with words. I love reading what he has to say, and I'm glad he now has a venue to scribble.

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On December 20th, Carrie at Housekeeping and Mommy Moments gave me this award. This is to be awarded to someone who exhibits the mentality "If life hands you lemons, make lemonade!!!"

EVERY time I see this award her name is THE name that comes to my mind. I have to give this award to my precious friend, Christi at New Mercies Every Morning. In 2 short years, Christi's entire family structure changed and there is lemonade for everyone!

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And on January 17th, Cindy at Cure CF for Reilly gave me this award. (Oh, and I just saw that Jessie has passed this on to me as well!) This award is supposed to be for "new bloggy friends. It should go to those who step outside their comfort zone and make new bloggy friends".

So I'm going to really step out of my comfort zone here and nominate someone who I don't really "know" yet, but who's blog is a continual enjoyment: Christy at After a Cup of Coffee or Two. Christy is a Christian military wife who really articulates our life humorously and eloquently, but she has great "civilian" posts as well like 7 Tiny Things that Really Hurt to Step On.

Tooth Fairy Cometh

Well, it happened! The boy lost his first tooth! It's been wiggly for many weeks now, and I was hoping it would come out before Dan left. This has been a fun night, nonetheless!

Timothy was fiddling around with it, an easy habit he's picked up. He and I were talking and out it popped. I told him it would bleed a little, but he wasn't worried one bit. He dabbed at the vacancy a few times and within a few minutes the bleeding had stopped.

He was so excited. We read The Tooth Book by Dr. Seuss tonight. Actually, he read it to us (his 3 stuffed friends, Samantha, and me). He was so wired about losing his tooth he couldn't get to sleep! It was hysterical.

Samantha wanted to make sure I knew she lost her tooth as well.

WW & SEW: Navy Life

I had set this picture aside to put in today's Wordless Wednesday...

But my mother pointed out to me that this picture actually shows Dan and Timothy expressing their love wordlessly. For those of you haven't seen it yet, you may have to click on it to really see what's going on.

You can read about Dan's ship deploying here.

And you can see more Wordless Wednesday & Special Exposure Wednesday here and here.