Joan Elliott is my absolute favorite designer.. so it didn’t really require much begging/demanding from the 5 year old.
I already had the pattern and the fabric.. most of the threads..What got me is the metallic threads. There’s three separate colors of metallic threads that really make the colors pop out in this design.. I bought two spool of each color just in case.. I already lost one of the spools so my “just in case” was pretty handy!
With so much snow and more importantly being snowed in, it’s been a sanity line stitching something that is bright and vibrant. It gave me hope that spring does indeed exist and will return!!! And that hope was challenged by some pretty fierce winter forecasts. I got a lot of my stitching done while we were practically snowed in for 6 straight days.. The weather in our area has been insane! I live by the coast for a reason!!
In March I’ll discuss how all my money was sunk into purchasing beads for this gorgeous design!
*for those unaware of what I’m talking about.. THIS POST explains the challenge I’m a part of
I tried my hand at creating a logo for my blog.. Kind of cute right? If you put aside that my son, who is the oldest, somehow ended up being a lot smaller than my daughter, whose dress is super wide.. Minor fixes that can be modified later..Stitched up Faith looks pretty awesome I think ;).
This has great timing because I am excited to report that I have over 500 followers!!
From the day I heard women were being integrated onto US submarines three years ago, I’ve been happy. I celebrated at work when I heard the first set of officers graduated.
Unfortunately, I’ve been in a very small minority within the sub community. This has been a hot debate for the past few years. 43 women have been serving on submarines and they’ve been pretty successful from what I’ve heard.. and yet.. despite this there are people that are firm in their beliefs that this is not ok..
I listen to people’s “reasons” and I always just smile and start to drift off.. because the feelings that they are expressing.. are the exact excuses people make whenever there is a civil rights shift…
As much as I’d like to address to every single person on how asinine their excuses sound.. I’ll make you all listen too so I don’t have to repeat myself.
The most common comment I’ve seen from wives regarding this shift in the submarine force is this:
“I don’t trust a woman being alone with my husband for a deployment”
What this boils down to is a severe insecurity that a lot of wives have when it comes to the fidelity of their marriage.. <~ that’s at it’s simplest point.
And that’s ok..
It requires a huge amount of trust to be able to leave your husband with another woman for the span of a deployment and not have that insecurity..
I think it’s more important to note that NO WOMAN wants to be left alone with your husband for a deployment.. Maybe I think mostly in terms of my husband, but I’m pretty sure they are all the same.. They are not the same men that kiss you before they leave. They turn into… hairy freaks. Ok The stories I’ve heard from my husband and shipmates makes them all non attractive. Body odor that permeates all of the galley because one or more men don’t use deodorant. The greasy food and the gas that ensues. The practical jokes and conversation that usually requires some kind drug to be thought up… You’ve been around your husbands 24/7. Try 24/7 for six to seven months. The cuteness than men can exude wears off trust me..
They are not ALONE stuck in that vessel. There are 148+ other schmucks stuck in there too. And most of them are young and single. I love my husband, look at my previous posts to see he’s a pretty good looking man, but let’s be realistic.. the single guys have a much better chance of getting some action than him..
I’m making an assumption that there’s even going to be some action going on.. Have you been on a submarine? I don’t have an all access pass to the gig but from what I’ve seen there’s no room for a private romantic encounter.. I’m sure it could happen. I’ve heard cases of men loving some men and whatnot.. but it would be more uncomfortable than anything I think..
Oh plus her career would be ruined if they were caught.. I’m willing to bet these women were carefully screened. They are the brightest and some serious alpha chicks to be getting into this career. They know that people are watching, hoping they fail so that it can be rubbed in their and their supporters faces. It’s not to say that they won’t make mistakes, but they are fully aware of what they represent and the cost of this is. The man that steers a strong able bodied woman like this awry has got to have near godlike ability.. and most likely not your husband..
It’s also not like this situation suddenly makes infidelity a possibility. Port calls have been around since vessels needed to feed their crew. It is much easier to not get caught with some wild fling who has no way of contacting you than someone you work with..
So for all the wives that don’t support.. it’s ok to be insecure.. But have more faith in your husband and the ability for a woman to not be attracted to him.
For those newly appointed submariner ladies who have got to be really kick ass women.. if you’re ever in the submarine capital of the world look me up! I’ve got your back 😉
One of the blogs I follow, Flux and Flow, had a post a few days ago where she showed her day hour and by hour in picture format. I thought it was such a fun way to really give you a look into my world…
I attempted to do it hour by hour.. but my day refused to accommodate such restrictions..
Here how’s it went:
More snow meant another snow day! I did my band exercises (tendinitis sucks folks) and then I had my cup of coffee while browsing the net.
Then I played princesses with my daughter:
So King Triton married Maleficent and Ariel wasn’t too thrilled…
Then Maleficent’s minions invaded The Avenger’s compound in my son’s room. Who knew she was a mad scientist?!
Followed by some unpicture worthy chores…
Time to dance! We blasted the music as loud as the speakers would allow and got out some of that pent up energy!
I was tired and needed a break:
Then was challenged to some serious Go Fish action:
We decided to make some homemade V-Day cards:
Then our dog started freaking out followed by a knock at our back door.. This is what we found:
My husband found a dead hawk and decided to play with it..I worry about him sometimes
Schoolwork…ugh.. I’m not digging Literature and Composition…. It’s not as fun at my last course
Hubby took me out for Valentine’s Day. We went to Dave and Buster’s in Providence.. Fun was had.. I dominated in Connect Four and Deal or No Deal.. Hubby slaughtered me in anything that involved a gun..
Thus concludes the peek into the day in the life of Faithie 😉
I have to admit that I dreamed often of doing this to my friend who was in need of some extra cash and worked at our hotel doing housekeeping for a bit.. I even planned on having one of our friends lay in the bed to make it look realistic. Then I realized it would require me to get to work way earlier than usual and that was enough to never follow through with the plan….
A few days ago my mom posted on facebook about how one of our housekeepers ran into the lobby SCREAMING that there was a dead body in one of the rooms.. She was shaking in tears and could barely be consoled….
What made it worse was the fact that the room had been rolled over. When you roll over a room it means that either your work load is so swamped you can’t do EVERY single room on your list that day, the sheet guy shorted us yet again and we don’t have the linens to restock that room, or it’s freezing and dead and who the hell needs that crap in their day.
When you decide to roll over a room you’re supposed to strip the room.. Get the old linens out. Take the trash out at least so it doesn’t stink up the room…
Did the housekeeper do that? NOPE!
So now she’s in seriously dead doodoo because she didn’t even go into the room to do the bare minimum the day before.. Now there’s a DEAD BODY in the room and it’s been sitting there at least 24 hours longer than it should have been..
Pretty sure the labor board would agree that’s sufficient enough of a screw up to lose your job for..
So whether she was upset about the fact she saw a dead body.. or possibly gunna lose her job.. or hell both even.. who knows..
My mom was the only one there. She can’t leave the desk area in case of an emergency. So she called up one of our clerks to come check it out as the housekeeper would not go back on her own..
This is what my friend found:
Suffice to say the housekeeper got pranked by the former guest.. and they didn’t even do a really good job..
Further proof that the houskeepers are not the brightest crayons in the box…..
There’s some excitement in the air around here folks!
My English Professor also teaches Women’s Studies, a course my friend really wanted to take but it ended up being cancelled due to lack of interest…. When my friend mentioned it during English class there was a whirlwind…We’re talking about Women’s Studies one minute.. the next we’re agreeing to revamp the school’s Students Advocating For Gender Equality. Or more she is and I’m getting dragged along..
At first I found it a bit questionable..
From the talk that was thrown around, women’s rights and activism.. the dreaded F word.. you know what I’m talking about..
FEMINISM
See folks, I am not a feminist.. I am proud of my gender and feel I should have the same rights as men.. but I don’t think men have it that easy either. Men are just as burdened with their gender roles as we women and if we want our roles to change for the better we have to do the same for men..
Don’t get me wrong here. There was a time when women had to be fierce and all beast mode and really shake things up for people to even THINK about change.. That’s how most civil rights situations begin.. But at some point feminism got labeled with bitter angry man hating women.. I’m guilty of instantly generalizing the group as well.. I have seen and met women who are proud to call themselves feminists and don’t embody the man hate…
But still.. the term doesn’t sit well with ME. First of all I hate having any labels… I just feel like you’re set in stone to embody everything that label represents.. or at the very least people don’t give you a chance to show that you DON’T exactly embody everything the label represents..
If I have to label myself.. it’s an Equalist..
I’m really glad that my friend, and new president, is on board with my philosophy. It’s actually been great. I am an ideas machine and she is the follow through. We seriously couldn’t make a better pair. And since our vision is pretty the same we really have the chance to make things happen! It’s exciting!
We are starting this from the ground up which has required a bit of effort.. we’ve smoozed with the student council.. Kind of even bribed them with food.. They all seem to like the vision we’re promoting with our organization. Apparently the last group running were the hard core stereotypical angry feminists and so our club has a bit of dirty air that we have to clear out. We’ve been promoting it a little bit (but will do so more tomorrow when the all the clubs promote themselves at common hour) I designed the logo above. New emails. Found a really awesome board. New bylaws..
This will be a bit of my legacy that I leave with this college when I eventually move on… I find that exciting!
Friday morning, I was mindlessly jotting information that my Public Speaking professor was giving us..
He was speaking about anxiety. Specifically performance anxiety. What would make people rather die than give a speech?
My professor noted that right before your speech is when your heart rate starts to accelerate. This causes your body to pump more oxygen through your system. It really amps you up, and not always in a good way. It blows whatever nervousness you have about the situation completely out of proportion.
This accelerated heart rate doesn’t start to mellow out until usually two minutes from the moment you start heading up in front of the audience. At that point either your body is conditioned to have your heart rate gradually descend back to normal.. or most likely your heart rate plummets and you crash along with your ability to get your point across.. That’s the moment when even though you did your speech 100 times at home suddenly you can’t remember your own name let alone what you were going to say.
So really.. it’s biology’s fault if you freak out at the idea of public speaking..
I was listening to this half heartedly, mostly because there was only 10 minutes left of class..but it dawned on me..
I have been awesome in public speaking so far because of my Krav Maga training..
The same conditions of speech anxiety are the initial responses your body would simulate if you were attacked. Your heart rate would accelerate and your adrenaline would kick in.. and just as quickly as it started your body could crash leaving you drained and unable to further defend yourself.
When I take Krav, one of the things they do is work on conditioning until you want to PUKE. You feel exhausted and that your arms are made of jelly or some extraordinarily heavy material like adamantium.. and it’s THEN that you have to go through simulated attacks.. It’s almost never an ATTACK! Breathe for 10 seconds.. ATTACK breathe for 10 seconds.. it’s usually a set of people continually coming at you non stop for however long the instructor wants to make you suffer.
These exercises are brutal. They suck and you feel like you can’t breathe sometimes but you have to KEEP GOING. Pushing you out of your limits and to continue to get more conditioned after the initial adrenaline spike.
It really forces you to be able to be aware of how your how body reacts.. how to control your breathing so you are not forcing too much oxygen into your system. How to keep the pounding from your heart in check long enough to do what you need to do.
By having my body go through these motions a few times a week I’ve been able to control it..So when I get nervous going up in front of people I am aware of that accelerated heart rate. I own that initial spike of anxiety, it doesn’t own me! .
Self Defense is only one of many aspects that the martial arts can enrich your life. It has it’s way of changing you to the core. You’d be surprised where it’s teaching can bear fruit.
My son has become a huge Calvin and Hobbes fan. I can’t say I blame him… Calvin and Hobbes is a classic that can transcend generations. Especially now that he has learned that his school has volume upon volume of these binded into sets. He also has shown a love for the graphic novels called Bones
The issue that we’re finding is that my son is enjoying these books TOO much. The system at school now is that the books you get from the school library stay at school to be read during your down time or during their reading times. Not a bad idea. In fact.. it helps me not to have to find the library book at home when it gets finished and then forgotten about.
Except….
My son is continually coming home with notes stating that he is reading when he should be either paying attention or focusing on schoolwork. My friend said her son had come home a few times as well with said note.. Well hers was mostly “refuses to put the book down after reading time is up”…mostly because he gets upset if he can’t finish at a chapter’s end.
And my son is getting upset, and honestly the geek within me as well, because when she writes her notes it’s “Z was caught reading a COMIC BOOK again in class” I am fully aware the context that “comic book” in her phrase is trying to imply. My son gets upset, because being raised in this geeky household there is a big difference between a comic book and a graphic novel.
Bones is hands down a graphic novel..Now the Calvin and Hobbes.. it’s a book of comic strips.. IE could be simplified to be noted as a comic book.. but it still wouldn’t fall into the negative connotation that the teacher is implying. So instead he’s arguing about that distinction and she’s not having it and the point she’s trying to get across is getting lost because his point isn’t getting across..
I dunno if I want to laugh or cry at the utter inability they have to communicate their situation with each other…
After a moment of reflection I decided to just shake my head in disappointment..
So now I am getting dragged into this..
I want to be like “If this is solely an acknowledgement of the situation, then here’s my signature for that purpose….but this on your turf and I expect you to be able to handle it not me.” I want to be kept in the loop. I want to know if she’s having an issue with my son. And if she wants help with the situation I’m more than willing and able.. but mostly.. this is something his teacher should be able to handle on her own. My son is very bright and respectful. If she was like “I’ve done this and this and and it’s not working.. I think further measures at home in conjunction with the consequences I’ve provided at school would be beneficial to correcting this situation” I’d be like you got it! Then doing what I can to support her because let’s face it ~> being a teacher is tough and if we want our kids to succeed we have to be willing to do what we can from home to ensure they do well..
I feel this situation merits an immediate response that I can’t do from home.. IE.. if my son is having issues with the book being RIGHT THERE IN HIS FACE ALL THE TIME.. then maybe he needs to have it put somewhere else like on the teachers desk until reading time. Or even have a communal library book shelf that is away from his table.
First rule in learning is keeping things that are going to distract you.. ie cell phones/internet browsers/tv away from your learning space. It’s not a matter of having self control, it’s a matter of setting yourself up for success. I am a grown woman and I have moments where I am easily distracted. My professor even mentioned having her phone at her side is a disturbance.. It’s just the life of being constantly connected…So in order to do well.. you NEED to disconnect even for short periods..and keep what will distract you away.
Kids especially are prone to distraction and that doesn’t mean there’s an issue with them or their attention span. It means that they are not being taught the tools for success. If it’s a distraction it should not be readily available. That simple..
Ninjas In Stitches 
