Things calmed down a bit for awhile but lately they have been ramping up again. Recently, there have been rumors floating around that I can’t get into but just make me nuts. I feel like we spouses just give and give and give and the Navy takes and takes and takes. How much more can we be expected to give when we feel like we give everything. We sacrifice time with family, friends, each other and then the Navy says “no, you’re not finished yet. We need more from you.” Seriously, when is enough enough? And it completely pisses me off when some higher up says “oh, the families are so important to us and we want to make every effort to improve the quality of life for our sailors and their families. But then there is some evil puppet master even higher up that pulls the string and comes up with b.s. reasons to make life even harder. Most of us spouses understand that things won’t be easy, sacrifices will have to be made, but where does that line get drawn? Oh, it doesn’t. We are the property of the U.S. Government until our spouses get out.

I’d like to think that in almost 12 years of marriage I’ve toughened up, become as flexible as one can be without being made of rubber, and still, I’m surprised by the sacrifices that we are asked to make.

I think back to when we first got her and I wasn’t even sure that I liked her.  I had no idea what one does with a dog.  I didn’t have dogs growing up and it was a huge adjustment to her crazy puppy self and her chewing on everything imaginable and unimaginable.  That dog made me yell more colorful metaphors during her first year of life than I thought possible.  It took me awhile to appreciate her the way she is – very independent, slightly cantankerous, but very affectionate when she wants to be.  I never knew I could love an animal this much and now I can’t imagine her not here.  She’s tested my patience more times than I can count but she’s also been a great companion.

The last few days though have been hard because she hasn’t been her normal self.  She’s had some bad tummy troubles and hasn’t really gotten her appetite back and I’m starting to wonder if she will.  The vet gave her some IV injections to help calm her stomach so we’ll see tomorrow how she feels.  We’ve tried a few rounds of chemo but I don’t think they are helping her and probably making her stomach upset.  I walk into a room and her head doesn’t even lift and there is definitely no tail wagging.  Obi-Wan cooked some stuff on the grill tonight and instead of hovering by it hoping for something to get magically dropped, she remained on the grass instead.  Even after leaving the house and coming back an hour later, she didn’t get up.  Before, I could have walked into the garage and come back 10 seconds later and she would throw a huge tail wagging party.

I think this weekend will be pretty telling as to what we should do for her.

And to top it off, as if that moment of forgetfulness wasn’t enough, I then pulled into a gas station to get gas before the lightbulb went back on once again to remind me that “doofus, you don’t have your wallet so you can’t possibly get gas.”  Slapping myself now.

Really hope the rest of the day goes better or I will be curled into a ball in the corner.

But the main point is I’ve got a freaky amount of stuff to do to get ready for this event including making sure the house is on a whole new level of cleanness.  And I need to channel my inner social butterfly so I can be completely lovely to all who come.  Here’s to hoping I behave myself. 

So, the title of this post has a double-meaning.  My personality seems to be a bit saltier again because of life in the Navy these past several months and I’m earning more salty points each month every time Obi-Wan is back out whooping it up on the high seas.

Life in 2010 was just nuts.  My job had me traveling a lot more than anticipated so lots of juggling the paws in kennels and such and Obi-Wan was underway practically two weeks out of every month on average.

Ship life is not for the weary I must say.  His ship schedule changed so much that I told him not to tell me dates for anything unless the ship was actually pulling away from the pier.   Many plans were attempted for various things from mini-vacays to just dinner with friends and got canceled last minute.  I wanted to have a serious come to Jesus talk with the puppet master of ship schedules to tone down some of the frequent changes.

So this last year has made me pretty damn salty and it’s not getting any less salty.  2011 promises to keep Obi-Wan away even more so I may get downright cantankerous from time to time.  As it is, he was supposed to be able to come on our family vacation with us this summer and now he can’t because the ship underway schedule changed.  Damn it all to hell.

Enough whining.  Here’s to many salty posts in the coming year! 

Now, I must interject and say that we had planned on doing something with that room because the carpet is all kinds of funky from the Paws and the furniture, likewise.  The Chocolate Dog over the last few years decided he liked nesting in the furniture and proceeded to tear holes in it.  Fortunately, we don’t really use that room and we were going to replace furniture and flooring and just quarantine them to the kitchen when we aren’t home.  But when we started talking about the renovation, we decided to convert it to a game room.  We never used the space as a living room b/c we have another “family room” in the back of the house where we spend all of our time.  That room was just wasted space so what better way to use it than as a game room.  Obi-Wan likes to host poker games with friends and play darts and then we have a Wii so it makes sense.  The Paws will be sorely disappointed to not have their favorite lounging furniture anymore but sacrifices must be made!

We are both excited about another home project and we rode that excitement to Home Depot and purchased paint, supplies and some miscellaneous items.  I believe he already has a first coat on some of the walls and it’s 10:30 here.  Better grab my painting cap and rollers b/c tomorrow looks to be pretty busy around this household.

Incidently, we did make it to get some Pho Vietnamese noodle soup after the Home Depot trip.

Obi-Wan and I had a great day stuffing ourselves and spending time with family.  I never take that for granted as a milspouse.  You never know how much time you have with people so you make the most of that time.  I spent the last two days trying to soak up every bit of preciousness that my nieces possess.  Since I don’t get to visit as often as I would like, I immerse myself in niece everything b/c I want them to know who I am as they grow to be young women some day.  I want them to see and remember me as the Cool Aunt.  Of course, one is only 8 months old now so she is just content to smile at me when the mood strikes and that is okay with me.  The 3 year old knows my name and that just rocks.

I have a lot to be thankful for this holiday.  My family was together, my family is in good health, and I am employed once again.  Considering earlier this year, Obi-Wan left to go spend the next 8 months away in school, my father had triple bypass heart surgery, I lost my job and other family health problems came up, many things have turned around for the better.  Things could be much worse and I try to say to myself each day that I have air in my lungs and my arms and legs work and that’s good enough for me.  Each day is a gift and I have to remember to make the most of it.  Not saying I do that every day b/c some days I wake up just plain cranky and don’t feel like being all positive and blah blah blah.  But I’m trying to adopt a better attitude.

Well I must go sleep off this food that I’ve consumed now.