Friday, December 31, 2010

Happy New Year!

We are going into 2011 with new kitties!  We are so excited.  I even scrapped it!

To anyone who happens by here, may 2011 bring you all the desires of your heart.  May you draw closer to God (as I hope to).  Be safe this evening!

I'll be delivering luggage and Chaz and Breezy will be at a friend's home with her 2 girls and a couple more people to celebrate together.


Thanks to the generosity of a man and his wife from Tennessee, we have TWO fur babies instead of one.  We are so grateful for that generosity.  Because of it, we got Merlot.


Journaling reads: “About two months ago, our kitty, Sammy, was killed while he was outside in the yard. Sammy had always been an indoor/outdoor cat because he had been a stray. He was a sweet cat. And a wonderful mouser considering he had been declawed before we got him. 
About a month ago, Brianne, Chase and I decided it was time to get a new cat. So Bri and I made a visit to the local Humane Society. We checked out all the cats but our favorite was Pickles. Pickles, as you can see in the photo, is a long haired gray kitty. She currently has a lion cut. However, we could not get her at the time because we just didn’t have the funds. Liz, the director, told us if we were to have her, she’d be here when we came back. We left with the intent of coming back to get her.
Two weeks later, Chase and I went back to see if Pickles was still there. She was but there was someone interested in her and they planned to take her home that day. Instead, Chase and I checked out the older kitten room. There we discovered Merlot. Merlot followed me all over the room. He was so sweet. And, black cats are difficult to adopt so Chase and I decided he’d be a great addition to our family but again, the funds were not available. 
Today, the funds were finally available! Brianne and I went to the HSOP to pick up Merlot if he was still there. When we got there, Pickles was there! Yahoo! We immediately decided to get her. I took Bri back to show her Merlot and felt so bad that we would be leaving him behind. 
While we were out front filling out paperwork for Pickles, I joked with the man filling out the papers about a “Buy One Get One Free Offer.” Oops, no BOGO offers. I told him we’d be back for Merlot.
A few minutes later, a man who was there with his wife, son, and daughter-in-law, tapped me on the shoulder and said he’d like to pay for our other kitty! I was stunned. And in tears! He handed me the meney and we started the paperwork for Merlot. 
Isn’t God so cool? We have desperately wanted a kitty since Sammy disappeared. We wanted to give a home to an older cat which both Pickles and Merlot are. And we wanted a black kitty since they are so hard to adopt. 
We start 2011 with two beautiful new members of our family.”
Digiscrap kit by Trixie Scraps (Defining Me) and word art by Word Art World (Moments).  Both are available at Gotta Pixel.

Saturday, December 25, 2010

Merry Christmas!

So grateful for the sweet baby Christ given to us for our salvation!  Praise God!

Merry Christmas from our home to yours!  And God bless all of our military men and women serving around the world tonight.

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

still creating....

So, I'm still creating although I took about a two week break and didn't do anything.  These first 4 pages were done before the break.  The ones afterwards were done in the last two days.

I went out yesterday and took pictures of some young adults/youth from our church.  They were going to print pictures and give to their parents for Christmas.  I think they turned out rather well.

Our Christmas tree is up.  Lights on it but not decorated.  It's one of the skinny ones this year.  It's got over 200 bulbs on it!  Christmas for the kids will be different this year.  Mostly cash and it won't even be available until January.  Their father is also giving them cash.  They'll get a couple small things under the tree but otherwise, everything else will come after the new year.  

Chaz got his driver's license.  That hurt.  I took him in to get his permit and we left with a license.  Ouch.  The insurance flat out hurt.  It more than doubled when I added him to it.  And I've not even added the truck yet.  Well, gotta fix that first.

Was teaching a friend about digiscrapping and did this page as a sample. No journaling at all but fun just the same. I may redo later but in the meantime....

Digiscrap kit by by SKrapper Digitals (Sherah Kraan) and TrishF.



Journaling reads "Chase and Brianne visited with Santa during the USS Frank Cable's Children's Christmas Party. This was the last time they sat on Santa's lap."


DigisScrap kit is from Christmas Love Blog Train (December 2010). Individual pieces as follows: santa moon (Scrapping Serenity); blue swirl, green star, blue star (Designs by Snow Lady); white "snow" (paper), 3 ornaments, blue button, red star, red/green tree (Giggly Polka Dots); bird, frame by Luna Rosa; skinny tree with star (Scraps By Andrea); green tree w/star (Lady Saphira); Blue background paper (Dewdrop Scraps). Word art from Word Art World.

Digiscrap kit from Dewdrop Scraps (My America). Font is Bohemian Typewriter.


Journaling reads: “I enlisted in the Navy’s Delayed Entry Program in Janurary 1981. I signed up to be a Cryptologic Technician (Maintenance) (CTM). My recruiter was Chief Petty Officer Sanford Flach. I began my active duty time on September 24, 1981 when I entered bootcamp at Naval Technicial Training Center, Orlando, Florida. I was part of Company 128, the last female company for fiscal year 1981. Our Company Commander was AZ1 Adair.


I graduated from bootcamp in November of the same year. Mom and Dad both came to Orlando for the graduation ceremony. One of my favorite memories of graduation was Mom and Dad eatting in the chowhall. The dressing was green because it had so much sage in it! Daddy used to always joke about the Havy food after that.


I spent December 1981 through March 1982 in Basic Electricity and Electronics School. It was self paced. After finally finishing the course, I transferred to Pensacola, FL for my Cryptologic Technician (Maintenance) “A” school. 


I classed up in March or April of 1982. I was in “Bravo” Company during school. We marched in formation to and from school each morning. The first 10 weeks of school I was on a day schedule. The next 2 or 3 weeks of school was on eves. During these weeks, the CTMs and Electronic Warfare (EW) technicians went to class together. The final months of school were the actual CTM portion of the school. I graduated in November 1982 as a CTM3 and spent December working “On the Job” training in the maintenance shop in Building 514.


I transferred to Fort Devens, Massachuesetts the end of 1982 to attend AN/GSQ-76 (Tebo) “C” School. Our school days were only 6 hours long. The rest of the time we spent exploring the area around Ayer and Boston. Boston is still one of my favorite places in the United States. After graduation, I was moved back to Pensacola for my first CTM tour. 


I was assigned to the maintenance shop in Building 514. While doing preventive maintenance on an AN/FRA-86, I took a 750 volt shock! Oops! It gave me a huge fear of electricity. After 13 months working in the mat shop, I moved to Building 511 to work Supply. I learned to type while working supply. I typed 1000’s of supply requestions. I signed for incoming materials and helped distribute them to where they needed to be. And soon, my time in Pensacola came to a close. I received orders to NCTAMS WESTPAC Guam. One of my chiefs in the supply office used to ask me every day what the temperature was in Guam. And every day, he told me it was 86 degrees. Little did I know at the time, 86 degrees is the average temperature for Guam always. 


Enroute to Guam, I spent a month assigned to Naval Technicial Training Command Detachment, San Angelo, Texas for Statuette “C” school. Again, days were short and extra time was spent hanging out with friends and exploring the area.


In June 1985, I transferred to Guam. I was assigned to the maintenance department in Building 200, the “Elephant Cage.” I only spent about 4 months working in the mat shop. I spent several months working in Facilities Maintenance and eventually, I was assigned to work in the Administrative Office for the Maintenance Department. Here I learned the Navy filing system, message preparation, preparation of evaluations and military correspondence. I finally had found my “niche.” It was here that I decided to apply for the SCORE program to convert from CTM to Cryptologic Technician (Administration). I was approved for conversion and in December 1985, I was transferred back to NTTC Pensacola for “A” school. I was still a CTM3 when I left.”


(Note) I plan on continuing to do pages for my military career.  What this page doesn't note is that I married and divorced twice in my first 6 years of military service.  Not generally something you get into with your children.  *grimace*

Santa and his elves made an early stop at our home at 33 Betel Palm, Dededo, Guam on Christmas Eve 1997. Chase and Brianne both got movies from Santa.


Word art by Word Art World. Digiscrap kit by Kim B's Design (WinterSong).

I redid this page as I was not happy with the last one.  Because of it, the red page above about the first 6 years of my Navy career came about.




Chaz.  Just playing around.  Word art by Word Art World.