Catch Up

OK so here are the last 4 months cliff-notes style. After almost 8 months of separation I met up with my hubby in Rome, Italy. It was a fantastic trip! The best part was being together (cheesy!) Skype and phone calls are alright but seeing him was soooo good. There is so much to see and do in Rome. Scott and I really enjoyed it. We visited the Pantheon, the Vatican, the Sistine Chapel, the Colosseum, the Trevi Fountain, the Spanish Steps, and so much more. Scott only had 4 days to spend with me so being the amazing husband that he is he flew my mom out the day he left so she and I could hop on a bus tour and see more of the country. It was a great tour with some interesting characters. Mom and I visited Pisa, Siena, Assisi, Florence, and Venice. We had a great time and some great food. We loved Italy!

A week after returning from Italy I was on a plane once again to head to Seattle for my Little Trucker friend Hayley's wedding. It was a special day and a lot of fun. I just love my little Trucker girls!

A couple of weeks after the wedding Scott came home from his deployment, YEA! It is so good to have him home. It's nice to have the one you love near you. But Scott's coming home was also a bit sad because it meant I had to leave DC. It wasn't easy and many tears were shed. I really miss my family and friends in DC. But I am a Navy wife so I better get used to moving! So we packed up the car and headed across the country to San Diego. We stopped at a few places along the way and enjoyed some of the "wild frontier." Check out the eyes on this horse in Oklahoma. One is brown and one is blue...

We also stopped in Utah for a visit with my family. Scott had never been to Salt Lake so it was fun to show him around Temple Square.

After our many stops and taking our time we finally made it to California. Our stuff was delivered right away and I've spent a lot of time unpacking and organizing in between visiting Scott's family in Orange county and spending a week in Hawaii! Yep as one last romantic getaway before we get settled in the routine of this new place Scott took me to Hawaii. We loved it! It was warm. It was beautiful. The food was fantastic. It was everything to love about a place. We really hope we'll be stationed there one day. Now that is a move I could handle!

The Land Down Under!

I absolutely loved Australia! I could've stayed another month. I saw so many things I'd heard about my whole life. I met so many rellies (that's how they refer to relatives) and just fell in love with them all. The land was beautiful and the people were amazing. I did have a camera mishap and lost a bunch of photos of Uluru (Ayer's Rock) and of Cairns. The 2 places I went by myself. They were really amazing so you'll just have to take my word for it. The above picture is me and Ky the koala. He was quite cuddly. Scott had visited this same zoo years ago when the Navy brought him to Australia so it was fun to get the same kinda of picture in the same place...just a few years apart.
Yeah what they say about those baby kangaroos hanging out in momma's pouch is totally true!
The rocks to the right of the 3 sisters all formerly known as Westerlund are also called "The Three Sisters."
The whole gang outside the Sydney Opera House. We took a really interesting tour of the building and watched one night as they projected images on the sails (that's how they refer to the domes). It was a beautiful place! I really enjoyed the city of Sydney. I think we all fell in love with the country. We imitated and perfected the accent the entire trip (except in public). We had tea at the Queen Victoria Building in Sydney. We pet kangaroos. We tried every "Aussie" food we could. We had a great time and can't wait to go back!

Quick Update from Down Under

After a very long flight my mom, 2 sisters, my brother and his wife all arrived in Sydney Friday morning. Noah and I had rented cars to get to our aunt's house from the airport. The Sydney airport isn't like any of those nice American airports that just spit you out onto a nice freeway. No the Sydney airport is several kilometers from a "motorway" and the signage is poor so the directions we had printed out were less than helpful. The book of maps from the rental car place were helpful but the 2 riding in my car are the type that get sick reading in a car. So after losing Noah who was following us and having no way to contact him we hoped we'd all meet up at our aunts. We drove all over Sydney getting more and more lost but for the most part I think I adjusted well to driving on the wrong side of the road and the car. Although I kept hitting the windshield wipers instead of the blinker...could be why I lost Noah. After making no progress and being totally lost we spotted a K-Mart and I decided to buy a GPS. Only after I bought it it started pouring and I had to run through it. I was soaked by the time I got back to the car. With the help of my new Navman we made it to my aunt's just 3o minutes after my brother.

My aunt and uncle have been great. They are a cute old couple with a whole herd of grand kids and we've had fun meeting so much family. It's especially fun to hear them talk and imitate it. Some of our favorite miscommunications have been a "wipper snipper" a weed eater, "sook" one who cries a lot (me), "rat bag" an idiot, "thick as 2 bricks" some one who doesn't quite get it, "chook" a chicken, etc. And there's more to come.

We've had the chance to tour a bit and have seen all kinds of animals. We fed kangaroos, pet koalas, ran from emus, stared wide-eyed at a HUGE crocodile, saw a dingo and claimed it ate our babies, and watched the most colourful birds eat from my aunt's bird feeder. It's been great! We walked past the opera house yesterday while touring the beautiful botanical gardens and today we'll take a tour of it. There's a lot to see and do and we're gonna do as much as we can...

Big Sky Country

My friends, the Little Truckers, and I met up last week in Seattle (Hayley's neck of the woods) to enjoy a mountain retreat in Montana for our annual trip this year. We'd read A River Runs Thought It and were excited to enjoy the beautiful scenery Montana has to offer. While it did rain for much of the weekend we were not disappointed. Carren found us a great room at a fabulous spa/lodge/lake resort on Whitefish Lake. It had a super heated outdoor pool and hot tub right on the lake which we took full advantage of. We also took advantage of the spa and got massages and pedicures.
Glacier National Park was just down the road so we enjoyed driving through to see the beauty of God's creations. As it was pretty wet out we opted for the short hike to Avalanche Gorge. It was beautiful!
Cruising through the park we really hoped to see some wild life and we were not disappointed. Although we did create a slight "bear jam" just as we'd been warned not to. Oops! But it was a bear. Actually 3 bears. It appeared to be a momma and 2 older cubs. It was so fun to watch them. Carren may have freaked out a bit and Tristan swore the bear was looking at her. I just tried to get as much of it on video as I could.
After the bears we continued to enjoy the rest of the beauty of the park and hoped it would stop raining. Carren was MIA for this picture but there was still plenty of Little Trucker togetherness. I'm so glad I have these great friends and we do this every year.
Now I have to repack my suitcase 'cause I'm flying to Australia tomorrow!

The Ending of an Era

I've worked as a genealogist at the Daughters of the American Revolution for almost 5 years now. Thursday was my last day of work before I begin a series of trips for the next 2 months. It's hard to sum up my life at the DAR in a blog post. My co-workers organized a really fun send-off pot-luck lunch. I got emotional when I had to stand up and thank them and say good-bye (I seem to do that a lot these days with the hubby gone - get emotional that is). Working a few blocks from the White House in downtown DC had been an experience in itself. I love Washington DC and I will really miss it when I have to leave. I'm weening myself off it one step at a time. Starting first with working in DC. There are so many things I'll miss about working at the DAR. Sure I'll miss working in a beautiful historic building/library/museum and front row concert seats but the more I thought about it the more I realized how much I would miss the people. The people I have come to know and love. The sweet little Salvadorean girl the I try to habla espanol with when she changes my trash. The big tough security guards who no matter what tell me it's always a pleasure to see me. The flag-waving, pin-collecting, God-fearing, white-cloved members of the society. The grandfatherly federal judge out on his morning walks who I was able to help with his genealogy. The lunch time yoga instructor. The dear old Peruvian librarian who sent me flowers for my birthday one year. Mary Jane who will be 87 this month yet keeps coming to work everyday to do genealogy. The sunshine crew who always bring a laugh to the office. The friends. I could say so much about so many people there. I can think of each of my co-workers and tell you what I'll miss about them. They are all great people and have taught me so much. It just doesn't feel like it's over and if I think about it too much I just might get emotional again...

My Stripling Warrior

I was recently going through the 1000+ pictures Scott and I took on our honeymoon in December and came across a few that made me really laugh. As I see it it's my husband in his natural habitat. Shirtless and playing with fire. After going on the night safari at the Singapore zoo one evening we decided to stay and watch the fire breather's show. It turned out to be even more entertaining then we estimated. The fire-breathers wore native costumes IE loin-cloths and played traditional songs on the drums, danced, sang and of course breathed fire. It was all fun and games until they pulled Scott on stage. Then it was just funny! With little prompting from the main fire-dude Scott immediately threw his shirt off (I was surprised he didn't ask for a loin cloth to wear), then he blew out fire (well on the 2nd try any way), fed the other guys fire and as seen in this pictures was convinced to eat the fire himself. He was on his knees, mouth open, fire above his head when all the guys jumped off stage and left him. Ha ha! Then they came back did some dancing and fire tricks and challenged Scott to a flex-off. If anyone knows my husband you know that he works out A LOT and would never miss the chance to flex his muscles in front of a crowd. I think he was the perfect candidate to be pulled on the stage at a fire show... I also think that I'm so glad I found my very own Stripling Warrior. I remember seeing the picture of the 2000 Stripling Warriors growing up and as maturity/puberty hit thinking, "Mmm would I like to get me some of that." I think Scott is pretty close to one of those guys. He's brown, he's buff, he loves his momma, and he's looking for a fight!

One Year

One year ago on Saturday Scott and I were sealed in the Washington DC Temple. I can and can't believe it's been a year. We've both learned a lot about each other and about ourselves. Scott is such a great husband and I love him so much. That's probably why it was a very hard weekend. I was SO emotional. I couldn't say his name or that it was our anniversary without tearing up and/0r bawling. It was by far the hardest day of this deployment thus far. I've been given all sorts of advise from other military wives and there is one thing they all say that is consistent "it's not easy." I really missed Scott this weekend but I had great friends and family who spent time with me and sent me well wishes. I'm blessed to have so many great people who care about me. It's Spring outside and I live in a beautiful place. I have much to be grateful for...especially a wonderful husband!

The Kids

Scott and I said goodbye for the second time on St. Patrick's Day. He arrived in Djibouti on Friday and has had several adventures already. Including but not limited to eating camel and having a cheetah drink water from his cupped hands. I should get pictures and more details soon. In the mean time I thought I'd talk a bit about those back home who miss their daddy.

Mac & Peanut Mac-zimus is our red-eared slider turtle we got from a man on the street in the Baltimore Inner Harbor. Scott saw him and instantly fell in love. He told me he'd always wanted a turtle. My family found and tried to keep turtle all the time growing up. Mom confessed later that while we kids were convinced these turtles were super amazing escape artists, she was actually letting them loose! Mac was the size of a quarter when we got him. He's grown quite a bit but is still no more than 3 inches across. Peanut was ordered online. Yes you can get a turtle shipped to you in a box. He arrived in a small plastic contained filled with packing peanuts. He is a southern painted turtle and was less than the size a quarter when we got him. He's now just bigger than a quarter. He's the friendlier of the two.

Trudie
Trudie was purchased in Norfolk the day before Scott and I said goodbye for the first time. She is a Toy Yorkshire Terrier and about 4 months old. She's a fun little pup who makes friends everywhere she goes. She's a tiny dog who fits perfectly in a purse, although I've not put her in one because she's not an accessory. She is a lot of fun and loves to play and nap and be cute. Scott and her got to know each other over the last week and became fast friends. We all miss him now and can't wait for him to come home.

Thank you government inefficiencies!

Due to a scheduling mishap my sweet husband gets to spend 10 days with me before he heads to Africa! His training ended a week ago and his flight isn't until next week. We've spent the last few days enjoying the sights of DC that he was just too busy to see when he actually lived here. The weather here has been beautiful and the snow is finally melted. Life is good!

Military Wife

My boss once said that being in the military means you'll always be saying goodbye to someone. I said good bye 3 weeks ago to my sweet husband. He is being deployed to Djibouti, Africa and will be there for 7 months. Currently he is in overseas/boot campish training at an army base in South Carolina. He's cold. He's tired. He's exhausted. He's hungry. But Scott always has the best attitude and has managed to find good friends and together they made the most of these weeks of training. The good news is that while he is still heading to a war zone, it is a very safe one and he'll be at a desk not on the ground. While he is gone I have vowed to blog more and detail my life as military wife.