Thanksgiving

This year Rob and I decided to celebrate Thanksgiving with just the two of us.  Okay, three if you count Annabelle.  It was a very nice and relaxing day!  We had a small chicken (instead of turkey), mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, corn pie and an apple pie for dessert.  Yes, I know, there was nothing green on the menu, but that was fine by us!  I meant to take more pictures of our actual meal, but I forgot.  Here are a few of the pictures I did take:

The chicken BEFORE it went in the oven

The chicken AFTER it came out of the oven

Apple Pie

We also put up our Christmas Tree on Thanksgiving Day.  I was so excited!  We bought everything the day after Christmas last year, and everything was half off!

Allergies

Annabelle has allergies.  We first figured it out because she was always licking her paws.  The Vet in Florida had us try benadryl, but that didn't work.  We were told if the licking got worse, we might have to have her tested to see specifically what her allergies were.  Once we moved here, we started working with the Vet to figure out what she was allergic to.  I suggested the allergy tests, but I was told it was "very expensive".  The Vet wanted to try switching her food to a special blend for allergies.  The bag was only 12 pounds and we were going through it in two weeks, and it was $50 a bag!  We were also supposed to not feed her ANY treats, only the dog food.  After 3 months, the licking didn't stop.  We put her back on her old food.  Next we tried allergy pills (not benadryl) at $60 a refill.  That didn't work either.  Then a couple of weeks ago, I came home to this:

I don't know if you can tell, but Annabelle had licked her feet so much, that the fur was missing.  We had it!  I didn't care how much the allergy test cost, I just wanted to find out what was wrong with her!  I knew that she was uncomfortable and I wanted her to have some relief.  We made the appointment.  And it wasn't as expensive as we were led to believe.  We've spent more on food and allergy pills than we did on the test.

We got the results back a few weeks ago.   Annabelle is allergic to dust mites!  They suggested allergy shots for our baby.  And we have to give them to her!  Ahhh!!!  Right now, she's going to have to have the shots every 4 days.  Eventually, we can give her a shot once a month.

We are trying to eliminate the dust mites (yeah, good luck to us) as best we can.  We are in the process of replacing all her toys and we have ordered a new micro-fiber bed for her.  I'm just so happy that we finally know what is wrong with her.  And hopefully she will start having some sort of relief within the next few months.

If I had to do it all over again, I would've just gotten her tested for allergies.  I'm not sure if the Vet was really trying to save us money, or get as much money as she could from us.  We definitely ended up spending more, trying to go at this blindly.  

Christmas Party

Last night we attended Rob's ship's Christmas Party.  I know what you are thinking.  "Christmas Party BEFORE Thanksgiving??"  It felt a little odd to be having a Christmas Party so early, but we had a lot of fun!  We even won a few prizes.

Kevin and Brittany

Tom Petty and Kevin

November Nor'easter

This week has been so crazy!  First, Rob came home from an underway a whole week early!  Annabelle and I were so very happy to see him.  Then, I didn't have to go into work on Thursday or Friday.  Normally, that would be a good thing, but this particular time it wasn't.  It started raining on Wednesday morning and did not stop until Saturday!  The downtown area where I work was completely flooded.  We were told not to even try to come in on Thursday.  Winds were 50 mph.  I thought we left weather like that behind in Florida!  Friday wasn't much better.  The downtown area was still flooded, cars were underwater, the building where I worked did not have power.  We lost power a few times here on Thursday, but it didn't stay out for long, thank goodness!  We did loose internet on Friday.  You really don't realize how much you use something until you don't have it.  I was lost without the internet!  Luckily, it came back on Saturday.  Here is a picture of what the downtown area looked like (I did not take this picture):

Lucky for us, our neighborhood did not flood.  And we didn't have much storm damage.  Just a lot of leaves and branches down.  We did have one tree limb on our roof.  We thought it was a small limb and we thought we could just pull it right off.  We were wrong!  It was a much larger branch than we originally thought.  A chainsaw was needed to get it down.   Here are a few pictures of the debris at our house:

Today was a much better day than the last 4.  It was absolutely beautiful out!  We were able to clean up the yard and get Annabelle out for some much needed exercise.  I'm done with the rain!  It wouldn't hurt my feelings if it didn't rain for the rest of the year!

Stink Eye

A couple of weeks ago, Annabelle fell asleep in a really cute position.  I tried to snap a picture of her, but I ended up waking her up.  I think this picture is funny because it looks like she's giving me the stink eye!  Don't mess with Annabelle and her naps!

Family Day Cruise

A couple of weeks ago, Rob's ship had a family day cruise.  Friends and family members over the age of 9 were allowed to ride the ship from Yorktown, VA back to Norfolk, VA.  It was about a 4 hour ride.  It was really neat for me to see what goes on during their underways.  Unfortunately, it was a rainy, windy day, so we didn't spend a whole of time outside.  I spent most of the time on the bridge.  Here are a few pictures from that day:

LTJG Clarkson

This coming Friday (technically it was supposed to be Monday, but who's counting???), Rob was supposed to be promoted to LTJG.  Well, they surprised him tonight and promoted him at an event for the wardroom.  

Notice everyone is in civilian clothes?  Normally, at a promotion ceremony everyone would be in uniform.  The event was after hours, and not on the ship.  And, like I said, a surprise to Rob, so no uniform!

I can't believe it's been two years since Rob was commissioned.  Time sure does fly!  Congratulations, Rob!