On the Road Again

Well, we're on the road again; heading back home to California. I intentionally flew into Virginia on the 15th to attend the pinning ceremony on the 16th of a nursing student I was so privileged to precept and an LPN, Kevin, who bridged to RN. Crystal was an absolute pleasure to teach, she was a sponge who wanted to soak up everything and I am so incredibly proud of her. She was hired in the ER and I have no doubt she will be an awesome nurse. Kevin, whom I call my son, spent many hours in the ER with us, learning, helping, visiting, and eating! We laughed about my being his Jewish mama who always wanted to feed him.

Me, Crystal, and my best friend and work partner, Jenna

Me and Kevin

After an emotionally exhausting week of good byes, we enjoyed Mark's Change of Command Ceremony yesterday and hit the road later that evening. Mark worked all week, I spent most of the day each day in my jammies and piddled around the empty house, playing on my iPod or on the computer, reading, doing some hand sewing and just relaxing. We spent the evenings visiting with friends, out to dinner with some, just spending time with others. The fire dept had a dinner for us on Thursday night and we were so glad to have the time with the people we spent so much time with over the past four years.

Sista Brains
Saying goodbye to my best friend, Jenna, was the hardest thing to do. She and I are truly connected, sharing a brain cell, and we flowed as one at work. I am so looking forward to her and her son Ty coming to visit in August!!

The Change of Command was wonderful! After a week of cold temperatures, the sun came out and we had a beautiful sunny day for the ceremony. Mark was so handsome and it was great watching him with "his kids". The interaction was so indicative of how he leads and it was so obvious that he means a great deal to his crew. He choked up a few times during his speech but recovered well and continued on. He received a Coast Guard Commendation medal from his sector commander and I have to tell you, I know my husband well, and even I was impressed. Maybe it is because I am so used to him wonderful things, that we take it as just part of normal life! I teased him about being "homeless" until he assumes command in Vallejo and he quickly reminded me that I am homeless too until I find a job! Smart alack!




We are in Kentucky tonight, a short travel day to due to the time we put in last night. No pets on this trip, but we are in a UHaul and towing a car so mountains are slow and gas is expensive! We are taking the more northern route this trip and will travel through 12 states, including Colorado where we will spend the night with Tabetha, Jeremy, and the grand babies!


Goodbye Parksley, Virginia! It's been a great 4 years!

Spring Time Sewing

I have only a few days before I fly to Virginia to meet up with Mark, will spend a week and then we'll rent a UHaul to tote the rest of our belongings to our new home in California. I can't wait to see my honey, for sure. I have had the sewing machine humming this week, trying to get some things done because I know once I come home, it will be job hunting and then working. I made sundresses for the girls, same pattern, coordinating fabric and I think they will look adorable in them! I have some more fabric to make Ayla another outfit since Nana wants her to have some new outfits to start preschool in August.

I finally made a practive block to try my hand at free motion machine quilting and after a half dozen broken needles, I finally got my hand speed to coordinate with the speed of the machine and I don't think this first try is too shabby.

I'm not one to waste time practicing, I like to walk the edge and jump headlong into things. Sometimes I fall flat on my face, but not always! I decided to make myself a new bag before I leave Friday morning and had these beautiful spring like charm packs. Okay, so I jumped head first into quilting it, pondering the fact that I may make a total mess of it and waste this beautiful fabric. I am certainly not a quilter by any stretch of the imagination but I have to tell you, I have discovered the love of "drawing on fabric with a needle" and I know once I get some more practice in, it will add an awesome addition to my creations! This panel is just the front of the bag and admittedly, I impressed myself with the quilting! I hope to finish the back tomorrow and get it assembled.

A Long Week

OK, as much as I love California, our new hometown, the convenience of everything, I have to admit, I'm lonely without Mark and my friends. While the Internet and phones allow me to touch base with everyone, it would be nice to turn around and share a moment with my honey. But, I fly back to Virginia in 9 days and then we'll make the long haul back home again, this time we will both stay here. I am incredibly proud of the way I have learned the area; I no longer have to depend on map quest or Bertha, our GPS. I've even found shortcuts to some of the places I travel. The dead battery issue in the truck finally forced me to buy a new one. Of course, I couldn't even lift the old one out, never mind put a new one in so I talked some toothless old man in the auto parts store into doing it for me. I tried to pay him but he just laughed and said welcome to California. Yes, I do believe in paying it forward.
I have finished our bedroom and the room is larger now that it's not stacked with boxes. The living room/dining room is pretty finished, although I still have some things to do in there. I've been feeling down in the dumps the last day or two, feeling sorry for myself really, and decided to fore go working on the house and doing something for myself so I have spent the last two days sewing. I have completed a baby doll sling and a carrier, did the parts for some stuffies (still waiting to be assembled, and am working on some wool felt peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, although I think they need a carton of milk and maybe some carrot sticks to make a complete and balanced lunch!
We've had rain for several days but today the sun poked it's marvelous head out and the weather was beautiful. A wonderful breeze prompted me to open windows and it was GREAT! A pet sitter came by yesterday and she will tend to the animals while I'm in VA. I found myself babbling and had to apologize to her and explain the only real conversation I've had in the past two weeks was "do you want paper or plastic" at the grocery store! She is a very nice lady and I'm comfortable with her caring for the critters. We laughed about the illegal ferret that we own and I told her we had to plead ignorance. We would never have thought that they were illegal in CA. Mark discovered this bit of trivia on his flight to VA and since then, I've done some research. Apparently, they ARE illegal to own here and there are a large number of underground groups that provide rescue, resources, ferret friendly vets, and info. I guess we were lucky to not him confiscated at the border agriculture stop and had the inspector asked the right questions, we would have told him we had a ferret, ignorant as we were. There is a major push to have the law changed, lobbyists, fundraisers, motorcycle runs to Legalize Ferrets. Unbelievable to me, and actually I find it quite comical. Bandit is no longer a ferret, he is mutant rabbit. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.


A Baby sling holding a baby naked sans a cloth diaper!


I really need a new model for baby doll accessories because Mr Snowman, while quite willing to model things, just isn't cutting it! My goodness, I should have brushed the little one's hair!

Nana's Toy Box is Back in Business

Mark flew out to Virginia last Wednesday to finish up his time there and I have been busy putting our home together. OK, so tell me my priorities are skewed but I was determined to unpack and organize my craft and sewing rooms first. The dining room and master bedroom remain piled high with boxes and unpacked things waiting to be put away but I am happy to say the craft room and the sewing room are both done. Two rooms you ask? Well, it's like this. One room held both but sewing supplies spilled over into other rooms. We also had a separate shipping center that needed to be melded into my new space. The extra bedrooms in our new house are small, so it only made sense to use two of them for crafts and sewing. The spare room was stacked to the ceiling with boxes so as I unpacked them, it was easy to place them in the correct rooms. It was so wonderful hearing my sewing machine hum today and I was able to make some cloth doll diapers I had an order for. I also have a lady wanting to collaborate with me in her Hyena Store. She will use my Chinese dinner to help market her Chinese print smocks and I am happy to say, my inventory is all unpacked and organized so I can send her the dinner on time.

My craft room. Everything has a place!



My sewing room. Holds the computer I use for my embroidery machine and also holds my stock of fabric and inventory. I will put my cutting table in when its cleared off of things waiting to be put away!



I have a huge void in my life while apart from Mark but I'm trying to use my time productively. I've not ventured out much except to run to Joanns Fabric, the library, and the grocery store. I did have a dead battery issue with Marks truck, but after struggling to open the hood (note to self, do not park the front of the truck so close to the wall) and hooking it up to his battery charger, I was able to start the darn thing and run my errands. Rewarded myself with a Caramel Macchiato from Starbucks after the greasy ordeal, lol. Any excuse, right?
I am so in love with the area and have enjoyed the trips to the grocery store and examining and trying the large variety of food available here. I want to try everything! I found the most delicious bread and think it's a keeper. It's french bread but shaped and sliced like a regular loaf of bread and I eat it constantly. I know, I know, this is nothing new to those of you who live in cities, but I have lived in the rural south for 20+ years and I am so thrilled to have the many conveniences you all probably take for granted. Tomorrow I will start our bedroom and hopefully clean out a lot of the stuff we no longer want, need, or use.

Spring at our New Home

We are anxiously awaiting the movers arrival tomorrow; the delivery of our belongings! It will be like Christmas, I'm sure. The weather this weekend is HOT HOT HOT, in the 90's today. We spent yesterday driving to Petaluma to judge how long it will take to take Mark to the airport shuttle on Wednesday and it was about an hour ride...through Napa, beautiful wine country. It's a shame we're not wine drinkers because every winery has tour and tasting. We did agree that we will go to one during our tour here though. Mark's family drinks wine, so we hope they come and take advantage of the area. From Petaluma, we drove to the airport in San Fransisco to see if it was a trip I wanted to take by myself. We drove through the city and the temp was a good 20 degrees cooler on the coast. We came home via the Oakland bridge and even on Saturday the traffic bottlenecks on it. I said I would take him to either and he decided Petaluma would be easier, if not a longer day for him.
We went to the movies last night, something we seldom did before due to the distance. Here, the theater is only 10 minutes away! A wonderful date with the love of my life! We saw State of Play and both of us enjoyed the conspiracy movie.
The owner of our house apparently likes roses because there are at least a half dozen rose bushes in the yard. The flowers are huge and gorgeous! We're confused as to growing seasons here, the grass is brown in the summer and the nut trees in the yard (please, please, be pistachio trees!) are full of fruit that look like they are ending their cycle. I guess the agriculture will take some getting used to and I'm anxious to learn when things are planted and then harvested. The grapevines we saw yesterday looked like they were just sprouting, so who knows!

Home Sweet Home

We are in our new home; no household goods since the movers are...let me put on my surprised face...delayed until Monday. We got in Tuesday night to discover our surprise house was pretty decent and we'll do well here for the next two years. The houses are right on top of each other and our backyard is the size of a postage stamp but it's enough for the dogs and they are quite content. Peanut, the cat, also uses the new doggie door and lays around in the sun as well. We have spent the last few days exploring the area, marking my map for all the things I need, and I have to say, I have become pretty good at finding our way around. We are so not used to having anything close by, the once a month trip "into town" (Salisbury, MD) was an hour and a half trip and then our choices were still limited. Everything is within 15-20 minutes away and I love the fact that there is a Joann's Fabrics, Michael's Craft store, a fairly large mall, Staples, etc close by. We have a Joann's Superstore about 45 minutes away and it won't be bad to make that trip once in awhile. I got a CA drivers license my first day and they issue a temporary paper one and mail the real deal, eventually, I guess! I also got a library card and am thrilled it's a nice library and only a few blocks away. A nice change for sure! We bought a new couch so we're no longer sitting on the floor, and our new frig arrived today so we shopped for sandwich fixin's and frozen dinners we can cook in the microwave until our pots and pans arrive! Will be nice to eat in tonight. We've picked up some basics at Walmart, a 5 minute ride down the highway. We explored a wonderful quilt shop today and I enjoyed talking to the ladies. They immediately asked me to join a quilt guild and I insisted I was not a quilter, just a sewer who likes to piece fabric together, they laughed and said...uh huh. Seems to be a common theme amongst quilters! We got a tour of Mark's new station and it's certainly bigger than his old. I think he will be quite happy there! He borrowed a TV from one of the crew and he is less stir crazy now. I'm fine with a book or playing on the laptop but he sure does miss his TV and X Box! HA! The cable guy came today so we have more than 4 channels and real computer connections! I haven't started looking for a job yet, but Mark leaves on Wednesday to go back to VA for a month and I will explore the job opportunities after he leaves. I will be heading back to VA for his change of command and we're driving back across the country a 2nd time so starting a job and requesting 2 weeks off doesn't make a whole lot of sense. I'll use the time to set up house, explore the area some more, and prepare for my husband to join me permanently in a month. I am certain we will enjoy the next two years! Life is good...

We Are Home!

Well, we made it. 5 days, 3000+ miles, tired and sore, but we are home. We finished up AZ in the morning, entered Southern California and spent the day traveling north. The views were spectacular, as they have been on most of our trip.
Since we found our house online, we really had no idea of what or where we were moving but the town looks good so far and our house will be doable for the next year or two! The yard needs some work but it is small and the pups loved exploring every inch of it. There is some kind of nut tree in the back yard and considering the massive orchards of pistachio and almond trees we passed(not to mention the many roadside farm stands selling the same!), I'm hoping it is one of the two! We found our that our household goods have been delayed (let me put on my surprised face) and might not be here until Monday. Won't give Mark a lot of time to assemble things but we'll make do. We always do! We found Walmart last night and got a coffee pot and a few odds and ends to tie us over, loved having it only 3 miles up the highway. I might add, the Jelly Belly Factory is right next to the Walmart which is hidden away, out of sight, and by itself! The library is right down the road and looked fairly decent. It will be nice to have a good library near me again! We plan on checking out Mark's new station today, exploring the area, and maybe finding a new couch! Mark bought us each a map of the area and I have already scribbled on mine. I am afraid I will get lost getting out of the neighborhood! LOL.