Pretty Roses...

John sent me roses for Mother's Day.  Between my mothers bracelet and the flowers I'm feeling spoiled.  That's a nice feeling.

The roses were a beautiful peach color.  I looked up the meaning.  (although I have no idea if John meant anything by picking the color he picked...)

Anywho...the peach rose means appreciation, closing the deal, let's get together, sincerity and gratitude.  Those are all very nice sentiments for a mother's day flower arrangement.  I just love them!

Life in Bagram...

A second installment of bits and pieces of John's life in Afghanistan...

The First Few Days...

So, the part of Afghanistan I am in appears to be quite beautiful (as much as I can see over the 20 foot walls topped with a triple strand of concertina wire). The problem is that I was unable to discern this due to the constant rain for the first three days on the ground. The first day in the transient barracks was ok. The hundred or so of us had this giant two story warehouse style building to ourselves.  But on the second day, we started our training – the day started with a formation and a little march to the training site. The thing is that the guy marching us got lost and we walked for 20 minutes. The training site was literally right across the street from our barracks building...

...Anyways, there was a tiny break in the weather and I was able to see the mountains for the first time. It reminded me of the Blue Mountains in eastern Oregon; less trees of course, but otherwise very homey. The area I am in is ringed by mountains on three sides, so almost everywhere I look there are snow capped mountains. The glimpse didn’t last long though and the rain started falling again.

I , of course immediately looked up photos of Bagram on the internet and found this beauty.  It does look quite majestic. and beautiful.  Its hard to marry the idea that this is a war zone with the beautiful surroundings...

This is the airfield as seen from the air traffic controller catwalk.

On Saluting...(posted on his facebook page too!)

There is a main strip called Disney Drive and it is really the only North/South traverse of the base. The traffic (foot and vehicular) is terrible. What's worse is the lack of any traffic regulation to help pedestrians get across the street or for vehicles to enter the flow of traffic. The worst is the fact that this is a SALUTING post, so matter where I go, I am saluting. I am saluting my subordinates and my superiors. I have been working on some funny salutes in order to break up the monotony. It would be easier to just show photos, but I can try to illustrate the best I can.\

Pirate - where I cover my right eye as if I had an eye patch

Diving Board - my arm swings out and down to my brim and then quivers for a few seconds (helps to say boioiiiing)

Shark - my hand is vertical

Benny Hill - an exagerated British salute (mouth open and tongue out like a simpleton really makes this one work)

Cub Scout - salute with two fingers

Karate Chop - really fast up, really fast down

Arlington - opposite of the karate chop, really slow up, really slow down

Just a little love from Afghanistan...

Its weird when you have a spouse that leaves for as long as John will be gone to Afghanistan.  What I mean is I think you miss them differently than one might if you just knew they were going to be gone for a week or two.  There isn't an acute feeling of angst...its more like a chronic feeling of loneliness that just kind of sits in your gut all the time.

Our family has been through so much separation.

Deployment from 2010 to 2011
Three months of school in 2011
Seven months apart/school in 2012
Deployment 2013 to 2014

So...since 2010 we've had a total of 11.5 months of dad living in our house with us.  Give or take a week here or there...either way...That sucks.   

So...when he is away we crave communication from him.  And he has not disappointed these past couple of weeks.  Its nice to hear about his life away from us....what he observes...what makes him laugh...what he thinks is interesting...even what his room/bathroom look like... 

I've included some tidbits of emails that he's sent describing his time in Afghanistan...

The Night he Left...

At 0130, We boarded a commercial flight with stewardesses and everything. I was very suprised to learn that it was a direct flight to Germany and a follow on to Romania. So by some freak luck of the draw, I ended up in an exit row. On this plane, it meant LEG ROOM - I mean I couldn't even touch the seats in front of me. The side of the plane also fit my head just right so I was really excited to sleep. I put my headphones in and started to doze off when they turned on the lights and started serving breakfast. WTH? So, I ate - again and then was able to doze for a while. I can't remember the movie, but it was one I had already seen, so I stared at it for a while in between cat naps. About two hours out of Franfurt, we ate again - dinner this time. They had a little slice of Tillamook cheese in the meal and I exclaimed to my neighbor how awesome the cheese was. He gave me his and I ate it without protest lol. We landed in Frankfurt at about 1800 local time. We had a 2 hour layover in a small concourse that had a gift shop, two little kiosks and a newspaper stand. I tried to hook up to the WiFi in order to let you know what was going on, but other people ahead of me captured all of the band width. Anyway, we reboarded the plane and flew the 4 hours to Romania.

In Romania...

When I got back to my room - 0230 - I decided to try to shower so that I didn't have to compete with the rest of the dudes. They hadn't turned on the hot water in enough time for night time showers though. Hmmm. I just remembered Wallowa Lake and the polar bear plunge (and swim practices in the Hillsboro pool in January) and toughed it out. It was colder than those other bodies of water. I ended up skipping some areas and shaved in the sink, but a couple people walking by laughed out loud at my plight. 

Arrival in Baghram...

They opened the back hatch of the plane to take out the pallets with the bags and it was raining - argh. None of my clothes were protected from incliment weather (except for my wet weather gear, which was in a water proof bag). The bags went one way and we went another. We turned in our ID cards and went through a couple briefings in the PAX terminal. We were released to get on the bussess, but first we had to load all of the bags onto a little transport truck. WTF? How come a baggage detail didn't have that done already? So - in the rain with our weapons slung on our backs and our carry on luggage at our feet, we created an assembly line chain to carry the bags from the pallets they were staged on into the back of the truck. We got on busses and went to the temporary/transient base. Again I got lucky and had a bottom bunk in a dark area of the building with an outlet right by the bunk. After unloading the bags from the truck - again in the rain - I got my bags settled, took out my tablet (thank you) and my credit card and ordered up internet service...

DD - 0 - I married James Bond.

February 19, 2012

My James Bond is currently somewhere in the middle east...either on a plane or on a military base somewhere...we aren't really sure yet because we haven't heard from him.  Its possible he is in Germany awaiting a flight to the Middle East...and wouldn't that suck for him because he left nearly 24 hours ago.

The day he was supposed to leave they delayed the flights...so after sitting around with a hundred other soldiers for a couple of hours they sent everyone home and told them to come back that night.  I took him back at around 9pm and cried buckets of tears...

*********************************

And now back to regular programming since the above is now obsolete.  As I was writing it I got a notice that Mr. Chucklehead was safe and sound in Romania.  He's since made it all the way to Afghanistan and is currently living a barracks room with 150 other soldiers.  I hear that he gets his very own plyboard room in a large tent starting today.  Wahoo for him!

Father's Day...

What's that saying?  Oh yeah...Better late than never? 

Thats the motto of this Father's Day post.  We're only about 2 weeks late on it...but with a new baby I think I have a pretty good excuse for not posting right away.  (Yes...I'll continue to milk the new baby excuse for as long as possible.)

The man of the hour....notice he has become the bearded one...thats what 10 days of paternity leave will do to a man.  :)

Anywho...Father's Day was fun.  John wanted Greek food and bowling.  Easy to please, he is.

First...Greek...

Delicious it was.  I'm a huge fan of the lamb...and the tzaziki sauce.  Sooooo good.

After dinner we went bowling...It was Jax's first time bowling...he was a real champ.

Oh wait...a close up of his excitement...

John was the only one that bowled.  I was too recently post partum...Bella just didn't feel like it.  So Big Papa J bowled by his lonesome and bowled a pretty mean game...

Bella and I took cameo shots of each other...its amazing how much more beautiful she gets every. single. day.

And the mama...

So, happy Father's Day to a man that I've always considered a great dad.  I don't know two little kids who adore their daddy any more than my little ones adore him.

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!

Happy 4th of July!

A 4th of July in the middle of the week.  Its a little weird, I must say.  I'm sure in the history of my 38 years on this earth this has happened before, but for whatever reason I seem to only remember 4th of July holidays that coincide with a weekend...or extended weekend. 

Regardless...It was a GLORIOUS 4th of July Wednesday.  The sun was out...it was hot and humid. (Thats not part of the glorious bit.)  We spent the 4th lounging around...like any good holiday should be spent.

I did find time to finally put together the 4th of July outfits for the kids...I'd been planning it for awhile, but never got around to actually making them.  So...we ended up with these makeshift outfits, but they looked pretty darn adorable in them!

I crockpotted a turkey breast roast...John mixed up a cold potato salad and we dined on a delicious dinner before heading out to Grafenwoehr for the fireworks.  We met up with some friends there and spend just a couple of hours chatting and socializing...

And then it started to get dark and the show started!

God Bless America...Land that I love...

Aqua Palace for the 44 Year Old...

For John's birthday he wanted to go to a water park.  Originally we had planned to go to Berlin and stay in an indoor beach (in cool little "tents" that are actually ON the beach) called Tropical Island...but wouldn't you know it that they were SOLD OUT for the month of April. 

So, I went searching and found Aqua Palace in Prague...rated one of the top 10 water parks in Europe...and booked us a little trip with our friends to go play in the Czech Republic for another weekend.

Aqua Palace was super cool...Giant waterpark with about 10 different slides...large wave pool, lazy river, kids play area, outdoor area (too cold to use!) and a few restaurants located inside.

We got there shortly after it opened and on a Friday so were able to take advantage of short lines and fewer people since kids were in school and it was a holiday weekend for us.  It was so much fun.  It was so much fun I didn't even bother trying to take my camera in with me, but I do wish now that I'd taken the time to snap a few photos for visual memories of the great time we had.

John went down a slide called the Kamikaze...bumped his elbow and had a giant goose egg on his elbow for the rest of the time at the park.  It was like a mandarin orange hanging off his elbow.  By the time we got home it had settled out into a bad bruise...

There was one slide that had a tube that shot you out into a funnel that you slid in circles around and around (kind of like being flushed down a toilet bowl) until you fell through the middle into a pool of water.  OMGosh that was scary.  I was totally unprepared for the speed that you shot out of that tube.  Exhilarating, but I only did it one time...there is something about being 6 months pregnant that makes the slides only appealing for one try.

Bella was so exhausted when we finished that she couldn't even keep her eyes open while John brushed and dried her hair.  It was very funny watching her nod off...poor kid nearly toppled out of the chair a few times.

John's actual birthday was on Easter Sunday.  The Easter bunny brought him a bowling bag full of goodies and presents...lucky guy...

He opened his gifts that morning and then Sunday evening when we got home I whipped up the fastest cake ever and we celebrated with cake and icecream...

Happy 44th Birthday John!

Be Mine, Valentine?

Valentine's Day this year was kind of strange...we weren't sure how much celebrating we were going to do...we planned a night out...changed it to a night in...changed it to nothing...then back to a night in...

Either way...we wanted to celebrate with Bella and then I got the great idea to google great Valentine Day ideas and found an awesome one on the Dating Diva site...

So...first, before we get to all the mushy stuff....

Bella created a "heart attack" for her daddy's office.  She designed all these hearts with crayons, glue and stickers...aren't they cute?!

 and wrote him a sign that says, "Daddy, Be my Valentine <3 Bella"

and left him some hot tamales...

I got someone from John's office to meet me there the evening before to put it all up so he would be surprised in the morning...he was really surprised. 

For storytime I had the kids make "kissing bandit" signs with little black bandit masks.  Bella took one of her kissing bandit "kisses" to Miss Christina for Valentine's day...it was super cute.

For Bella, Daddy gave her a sweet little card with Ballerina's on it and peeps.  She was totally strung out on sugar that day! 

And yes, she has no shirt on.  Why have clothes on when you don't have to?  Thats kind of the motto in our house. 

I made her a big card with hearts and give her a new set of markers.  She is such an arsty little girl...I knew she would love them and I was right!

I also got sweet cards from both Bella and John...then it was my turn for John...

The Dating Divas site gave me the great idea to do a "day long" Valentine's day project.  So, during the day John got one of his "5 senses" gifts that I planned out...

First thing after his PT in the morning he found this in the bathroom...Its for "shower time love notes" that we can leave back and forth to each other.  We quickly discovered that the writing on the mirror melts and runs when the steam from the shower hits it...but it was a sweet idea while it lasted.  ha ha ha.

Then, when he was done getting ready and headed out the door to work he found this in the car.  I had queued the CD player to start the song we consider "our song"...its "Better Together" by Jack Johnson.

When he got home these were on his nightstand...he loves the taste of orange dreamsicles...I thought he might like the smell of it too. 

After dinner I had these yummy chocolate covered strawberries ready and waiting...the things in the middle are my "nailed it" project...you know...the ones where you look in the photo and its an awesome looking dessert...in this case, Marshmallows dipped in chocolate and then in red hots...but in reality they come out looking like blobs with another blob on top?  Yeah...I totally nailed these!  ha ha ha...it didn't change how yummy they were.  :)

And last, but not least...an after dinner - pre-bed foot rub to relax.

Overall, I think it went off well...not too mushy and sentimental.  No high romance pressure for either of us...low budget and fun for me to create and make happen. 

Perfect Valentine's Day.