A Girl Walks into a Blog

I’m baaaaaack.

This is the second time in the same month.  This has to make for some sort of record in the blog books…well, MY blog book that is.  I told myself that I would do a better job documenting everything (somethings?) that are going on in my life.  Unfortunately, that’s not a whole lot.

I am having some short term memory loss and I forget what I said in the previous post.  Maybe I didn’t mention what I am about to bring up so it will actually be the first time I am saying this..so yea! I know I mentioned that we are here in Meridian, Mississippi. L took an assignment here to be an IP – instructor pilot.  Here, he will be teaching baby pilots how to fly the T-45 Goshawk. Please fast forward if I have already mentioned this.  Anyways, we are here. Things at training commands are always a bit different than they are in fleet squadrons. The number one thing being the turn over.  People are constantly coming and going…so the OSC (officer spouse club) is a hit & miss.  I know here in Meridian, it is an official OSC versus in San Diego, where it was totally laid back and unofficial. At VRC-30, we didn’t take minutes, have meetings, or take attendance or any of that official jazz.  We literally got together whenever we felt like it and did whatever the hell we wanted to do.  And do you know what? It worked.  It worked amazingly well.  I can honestly say that in VRC-30, when we got together, it’s because we genuinely wanted to and we were genuinely friends. I am feeling all nostalgic just thinking about it.  From Skipper’s wife to us lowly JO-spouses, we were all friends-turned family.  Sigh, I miss my friends. So okay, I have really strayed off topic.  Here, it’s not the same.  I don’t want to say it’s worse because I don’t know. I haven’t met anyone…(uh thanks welcome committee). Literally, haven’t met anyone. I’ve received one email from the welcome people and they have completely dropped the ball on getting me added to the Facebook group. So this has left me with meeting NO ONE.

I think the whole point of me typing that last part was just to say that I haven’t met anyone therefore I don’t have a lot to write about.  Wow, sad.

What I can write about are all the freaking projects we have managed to take care in the first few months of living here.  I suppose this is a good place to keep track.  We got our dog fence put up and the fence on the patio. The last part of that is to finish up the painting portion–just a little bit left, and do the gate.  Should be easy.  My mom was in town the first week of June and she planted hydrangeas and some other flowers in my flower beds on the patio, so that’s looking nice.  We got the workshop cleaned up and organized. We uncrated the CNC Router machine and are in the process of getting it up and running.  L is currently designing a piece of wood to go on top so that future pieces can be mounted to it and he’ll be able to do “through – cuts” (?) I guess that’s what you call them.  We are extremely anxious to get that up and running and start cranking out some pieces.  I have been treating our driveway for weeds and grass growing in it.  Our driveway is about 2-3 blocks in distance and in some of the cracks, weeds and grass have been growing.  We are trying to put off leveling it for as long as possible, so I am trying to keep the growth at bay.  We have cut down a couple of trees…2-3 big ones and a couple of small ones.  All completely dead. We also completely ripped out all of the vines and overgrowth that was covering the back of the workshop.  Originally we did this to keep critters away, but after looking at it, we decided we are going to expand the shop when we insulate it, so I’m glad we got the BIG mess taken care of now.

Sure, there are a ton of projects left but I am hoping that we will spend the majority of our time down in the shop working with our machine!

Y’all.

I am AWFUL at blogging.  Once upon a time, I was a kickass blogger.  The type that blogged multiple times a week and responded to comments.  Nowadays, I am blogging once a year…IF that.  But in all seriousness. It has been over a year since I wrote anything and boy is there a lot to catch up on.

For the sake of my sanity and probably yours….I will not be detailing the previous year. I will say, that in the last year, so much has happened.  Like, uh WE MOVED. That’s right.  Our three years in sunny San Diego, California were up and we headed back down to the dirty south aka Meridian, Mississippi.  With moving, came buying our first house!! Which, I am elated about!! Finally, no more pleading with landlords and property managers that Georgia is a good dog and a sweet dog (watch out for that Zooey though, she’s shady as fuck). And no more pet deposits, most importantly!! But, with homeownership comes….projects.  Projects! Projects! Projects! (To be read in Jan Brady’s whiny ass voice).  If it were up to me- spoiler alert: it isn’t, my projects would be demolishing the interior of the house instead of doing outdoor projects in this sweltering heat.  Unfortunately, L has brought up many good points…and this is why we have been killing ourselves to do the outdoor projects.

Back to us buying our first house…can you say EASY?  It kind of all fell in my lap in February of this year.  I was browsing my ever so favorite, realtor.com and it said use mortgage calculator and when I did that and put in 0 downpayment (Thank you, VA Loans), it triggered some pop-up advertisement–which I loathe. I digress, the pop-up had guessed that we were military/veterans/or the like and suggested we use the VA Loan calculator and check out how much we could qualify for.  So, there I went, clicking away online.  Before I knew it, I was typing in income statements, tax returns, etc and there I am on the phone with a loan officer from Veterans United.  (Who are great!!! But I’ll get back to that again, later….) She had me send in some credit forms and did a quick query, came back and said everything looked fabulous and she would e-mail me our pre approval when it comes in.  I was all like WHAT?!?! Our pre approval?! I thought I was just checking to see how much we could qualify for?? After some back and forth–mainly her trying to calm me down through email and phone calls, I was ready!  I could barely sleep that night. Any time my phone chimed I was sure it was our denial—saying SORRY but you have some miscellaneous credit report problem and you are doomed to never buy a home.  THANKFULLY, I was wrong.  UNTHANKFULLY, I am neurotic about things like this. February 10, 2017 we received our pre approval.  With that, we hit the ground running. I already knew the house that I wanted and I was ready to buy it. L did a lot of talking and I did a whole lot of sleeping with my eyes open. I think…I THINK he he said that I needed to book a ticket to Meridian and fly down there to see the house.  Instead of flying to Meridian, I flew to Tulsa, picked up my parents, and we drove (my dad drove…) to Meridian.

For those of you that have not met my dad…I’m sorry-you’re loss.  However, he is the best negotiator ever.  Like ever ever. So I thought it would be a good idea to have that on my side.  Note: he didn’t help me negotiate @ all. Turns out, home buying is NOT like car buying…people selling their homes are not just trying to move product NOR are they slimy and wear ill-fitting business suits.  In fact, our seller wore a flight suit, just like L!

We arrived in Meridian, went to sleep, and woke up the next morning and began viewing houses with our realtor…Bobbie Rea of Pigford and Corey! (AMAZING group, y’all). She took us to about 7-10 houses that Saturday and by Saturday evening dinner, we had made a deal! I was so thankful that my ridiculously expensive trip to Meridian, wasn’t pointless!!! After signing contracts and getting paperwork together, all we had to do was get inspections, appraisals, and make sure all of our loan paperwork went through.  FORTY-FIVE DAYS, to the day, we got funding for our loan, and before we knew it…we were in the conference room at Witherspoon & Compton (FANTASTIC closing attorney!) signing away our lives! It’s kinda funny.  Everyone (mostly?) is so excited the day they can buy their first home or even fifth. But on closing day, you are basically signing your life away for 10-15-30 years! Just a crazy thought.  When we made our first mortgage payment, all I could think of was…welp, only 29 years 11 months more payments to go!

COW Parties!

Love em’ or hate em’ they are apart of tradition.  In my short, 6 year tenure in the Navy, I have had the privilege of attending three.  The word COW stands for CO Wife.  For lack of better words, we throw the new COW a party to pre-thank them for their “service” as the main source of info and advisor of our spouse group.   In the different squadrons that I have been a part of, we have themed our parties accordingly. The first COW party that I have ever been to was in VT-7 for CDR Delanty’s wife, Michelle.  That theme was chocolate or wine. Get it? Chocolate O Wine. The second one I attended, was for my beloved friend/mentor/”sister” Rebecca– that party’s theme was simply cow. As in MOO.  The third, COW party I attended was just yesterday for our new COW. Yesterdays party theme was cowboy/rustic chic. Everyone did such a wonderful job pulling it together on such short notice as well as with such little resources.

Now, I will leave you with some pictures of yesterdays event!