About Me

This blog only will display a tip of the iceberg that is me, so let me introduce myself in depth. 

I've married my husband twice; once in 2010 in Illinois by the Justice of the Peace (just him, the Judge, and me) and once in 2013 in New York with all our family and friends as a vow renewal ceremony. 

 I would marry him over and over <3

Photo by Amy Larisa Photography

I also believe family is the most important thing in this world.  My parents are 2 of my best friends, and I have an amazingly talented and cool older brother.  I have also gained so many new family members through marriage that I am incredibly grateful for.  My brother has married a wonderful woman and they are doing an exceptional job raising a soon to be teenage boy, my husband has a sister and a brother, both with spouses, and 2 small nephews, and during holidays it seems to be ever increasing with new members with my cousins and their loved ones.  I love being part of a big family and I can't wait to live near them again.

I believe a large root of who I am comes from growing up in the country.  I long to own farm animals again, I love fresh air, and I will never get used to hearing traffic from my home.  I grew up on 12 acres next to a state park on a dead end road with only 2 other houses past ours.  Traffic was never an issue, unless it was the tractors heading to the fields.

I owned horses (miniature horses and quarter horse paints), goats, ducks, dogs, cats, and along with our pond came oh so many frogs and minnows to play with as a child.  My first jobs were all in farm stores (one of which was where I met my husband) or on farms, and before the paying jobs, I saw my "job" or my duty to work for hours a day in training horses. 

  Beyond the farm life, I grew up hiking and camping.  Letchworth State Park was my backyard... my zen.  Whether it was in 2 feet of snow in the winter, or swatting mosquitoes in the middle of summer, there is no place so peaceful as the "Grand Canyon of the East".

As I've moved into the life of a Navy wife (back in 2010) I had to leave my farm and country life behind temporarily.  This meant I had time to hone some of my domestic skills.  I've grown to love cooking and baking, which then comes hand in hand with exercise.  I've become very educated on health (or reeducated by remember all the things I learned in health classes in college) and exercise.  I study/practice yoga 3 times a week and on the other days work on strength training, mixing in cardio on any days that I can.  Occasionally I will go hashing (drinking group with a running problem), which also helps me pick up new friends as I move from town to town, state to state, or country to country.

  In the hopes of finding a new hobby for my new found apartment bound lifestyle, I taught myself crochet and expanded my knitting knowledge that my mother had tried to teach me as a child.  As that knowledge and skill quickly advanced, I started my own business, Caito Crafts to sell some of my products.  It doesn't make much profit, but enough to pay for my hobby and sometimes gifts for birthdays or Christmas.  In my opinion, there is no better gift than one that has been handmade.  

Christmas 2012 was when I received a wonderful new DSLR camera from my husband, and added one more hobby to my life.  Photography has been something that I can use for my business to display my products, as well as documenting our adventures and friends we make along our path in life.  Occasionally I get a really nice photo and add it to my photography page on Facebook.

Our goal for post Navy life (hopefully in 2016) is to move back to Western New York, where I'm from, and buy a home with a little land.  My current goal for that time is to raise fiber animals for wool (alpaca, sheep, goat).  I'd like to have a separate building on the property where I can spin my wool, have a little shop to sell my yarn, my products, and maybe some baked goods (some of my specialties are homemade bread, cheesecakes, and apple pies).  I'd like to also have a back room to that building where I can start a yoga studio after I receive my teaching certification.  I think yoga can help heal anything and I believe it is beneficial for everyone.

So this is me, or at least this is my perception of me.  Facts, dreams, skills... Of course I can't add everything into one page, but if you read through my posts with the mindset of an anthropologist, maybe you can pick up clues to the intricacies that lie within.