I met today's featurette through the bloggy world. Readers, give a warm welcome to Mrs. Monkey from A Monkey in the Navy! I think her life is crazy interesting (you will too!), and she's even more so. Mrs. Monkey is a Navy wife and she and her hubby (known as Monkey.. what else?!) are the cutest thing! See?
She's also got a super sense of humor, and mad graphic design/drawing skills. Here's a illustration of "where Monkey goes" when he's underway. (She got sick of people not being satisfied with her OPSEC safe answer "the ocean")
One of the coolest things about this girl, in my opinion... is that she's a dancer! Like, part of a dance company, dancer. (I don't really know the correct terminology). She posts often about the dance outings of herself and (when he's not passing by Adventure Island, Monkey). And I have great news! She has most recently been spending her days doing this..
But no need to daydream anymore!
Because her Monkey is HOME as of last week! Yaaaaay!
Congratulations Mrs. Monkey!
I think it's time we hear from her, don't you?
1. What is the name of your blog and how did you come up with it? The name of my blog is "A Monkey in the Navy". For most of our relationship I've called hubs "Monkey". Even when I was talking about him, not just to him. After a while it kind of caught on and people would call him Monkey when they were talking to me about him. Like "How's your Monkey?" "When do you get to see your Monkey again?" I tried to insist that only I get to call him Monkey, but it didn't work. haha. Which ties into the second question.
2. Mrs. Monkey, what made you want to start a blog? Originally I started this blog for his family right after we got married, to keep them updated on all the new Navy stuff. He didn't really keep in touch with his family as much as he should. :) But in his defense, whenever he wasn't busy he was trying to get time with his new wife. ;) I became the conduit to keep his mom and the rest of his and my family updated. I decided that it would just be much easier if I could put it all in one place so all our family and his friends could go and check in to find out what's going on with Monkey and the Navy.
3. What is your blog about? Originally, it was just about him and the Navy and updates like when he would be back on the West Coast. How his school was going. His accomplishments. Things like that. We both post, actually. I would get a text from him with some news and I would post about it right away, then later that night he would follow up with more details. Then when he was gone more it became a place to post my feelings and frustrations and celebrations relating to Navy life. When he gets back from being underway he'll post some sea stories. I purposely leave out some stories in his "Monkey Mail" so he can talk about them.
After I had been blogging for a few months my google reader started suggesting these other blogs to me. This is how I found out that there was the whole network of MilSpouse bloggers! It was really great, every one was so supportive and reading there stories really helped me keep it together and gain perspective and learn from their experiences. I wanted to be a part of that so I updated my blog.a little bit and started to post more about my feelings, and myself so other milspouses could get to know me. I still post all about Monkey and everything Monkey related, but now I also put in more about myself and my life as well. The funny thing is that most of this has happened recently while he's been underway so he hasn't even seen all the changes. :) He'll have a lot of catching up to do when he gets back!
4. How often do you post? I post a few times a week. When he's on shore he'll post a few times a month too. He's typically super busy and it's hard for him to do it very regularly, but whenever something really cool or funny happens, I have him write about it because I love how his personality comes out in his posts and I know our friends and family like to read his stories. When he's actually home...meaning, down here in Oregon - lucky just inside his liberty radius, it slows down a little, obviously. :)
5. Share a favorite post of yours. Why is it your favorite? Well, it's actually two posts. They were kind of born at the same time. I had this week right before he left this last time where I was really getting mopey. The pre-deployment anxiety. I was trying to make myself feel better so I wrote this blog entry,"So lets break this down", where I broke down how much time he has left in the Navy (assuming he doesn't re-enlist) into smaller pieces so it was easier to manage. This was as much for me as it was for his family. Especially his mom. I know she really misses him. After I wrote it, being the graphic designer that I am, I decided it would be funny to go one step further and make an infographic to illustrate this breakdown of time. Again, in order to make myself feel better I purposely made it disproportional to try and make the time left look smaller that it really is. I'm not sure if I accomplished that, but, it was a pretty cute graphic.
The second is the post right before that.I had this idea in my head for a long time. "Where do they go?" I constantly get people who ask me "Where does he go". Of course, even if I did know, I couldn't tell them. All I can say is "The ocean", to which people usually reply "No really... where in the ocean?" or "Which ocean?" Which is countered with "The big one." Most people get frustrated with me at this point. So, I decided to illustrate a very detailed map of exactly where they go when they are underway. Or, at least, where I pretend they go.
6. What blog do you visit the most (besides your own)? I don't think I have one that I read more than others. I have all my blogs, Milspouse and otherwise, all in my google reader so i just read them as they come in. I subscribe to all kinds of blogs so i couldn't even give you an example. I will always jump to Post Secret and Photoshop disasters first though. :) The Milspouse blogs that I enjoy the most though, are the ones that I can relate to the most. The posts about dealing with deployment and the milspouses that have similar sitiations to me. Such as being in the Navy, newly married, no kids or not getting to live with hubs. I read all kinds though. Everybody's story is unique, I enjoy following everyone's personal journeys, and I learn a lot from the more 'seasoned' wives, while I feel comforted that I'm not the only one going crazy after he's been gone for only a couple of weeks. I have few of my favorites on my blogs page, but honestly I've been really bad about keeping that updated. But, to every one out there, if you grab my button and let me know, I will most definitely return the favor!
7. Describe your blog in one word? Wow, that's hard. It's so many things. But I guess it's all about the... Adventure. :)
8. Anything else you want to share? Just a little tip to help keep things straight. :) Usually, my posts are in green and his are in blue. Sometimes either of us will forget to color the post. Special post I'll leave grey because I think it's prettier. I'm working on getting the auto signature at the bottom of the posts too, bit I think it helps to get in the right voice in your head if you know who wrote the post before you start reading.
I TOLD you she was interesting! If you haven't already head on over to Mrs. Monkey's blog A Monkey in the Navy and check her out. Say hi and make sure to tell her you found her because she was featured as a WonderWoman on Livin' Our Love Song!
If you want Your blog to be featured on WonderWoman Wednesday, or would like to reccommend a blog to be featured, email katelynedavis@yahoo.com. I would love to hear from you and about you!
