Times Have Changed...

So, as I sit here typing, still dripping with sweat from the gym, C lies next to me on the couch, snoozing. Apparently late nights are no longer his forte'. Now I think all of you know that while plodding through both his undergrad and law school (GO CARDS!!), C played guitar in various bar bands for a living. This meant many, many, MANY late nights for both of us. How we lived and managed to function on the ever present lack of sleep I am not quite sure. Suffice to say, we didn't find the newborn and infancy stages of both of our daughters to be all that intolerable. That time was like a sleep study compared to the music days.... Now we wouldn't trade those old days for the world. Even my beloved Dad came out at 1AM for a showcase once. I am pretty sure he had not been up that late since he waited for me to meet curfew... Besides how many other military kids have pics of their Dad in leather pants and eyeliner, and no jack-o-lanterns in sight?

So skip to last night when C got to go up the coast to meet Mark for the Toby Keith show. A big shout out to Mark who is the only one of our oldest friends who is still working, successfully I might add, in the music business. He is the only one who actually made it to life on a real tour bus. For those in the know, Jay W's ice cream truck doesn't count as a tour bus. So Mark is on the road with Toby Keith and a nice "little" guy named PorkChop. I had to laugh when C came home and described the show... You all know country is not his most favored genre, kind of like me with opera, nails on a chalkboard, you get the picture.

Anyway, here was the summary...

Tour buses really are cool. Everyone should have a plasma TV in their bunk.

Miranda Lambert is not too hard on the eyes.

Toby Keith is huge. "His arms look bigger than my legs."

Pyrotechnics are still cool! Except now your buddy warns you when to cover your ears, because you know those things are REALLY loud.

That's right my husband, who never met an amp he didn't love, was describing to me how Mark told him when to cover his ears.. I had to laugh, out loud, and long. Here I am virtually deaf from all of my years in front of the mains (those are the big speakers for you non-bar band lovers) Did you really think I talk so loudly just for the attention?

So now we are back to the present, still snoozing. When I came in the door and saw him on the couch, and L streaking sans diaper through the room, I asked him what was wrong. He could barely muster up the strength to tell me how tired he was. I asked him why? His answer, "what time did I go to bed?". My answer, "the same time I did.." Of course I have now fed, dressed and taken a child to school, spent 45 minutes and 500 calories on an elliptical machine, and now held an audience of perhaps 3 enthralled with my latest musings. In all seriousness, though, times have certainly changed. I know firsthand how hard he worked in those days. I have to tell you though, the effort he puts into what he does now really does make those times look easy.

I guess since it's my blog I can brag when I want to... If every student here is as hellbent on saving the world as C is, then we really are in very good company. When he came back last night, I kept thinking how close we came to music being his livelihood. I know he would have made it a great life for us. I do believe though, that although music is his first love and ongoing passion, we are ALL lucky that he ended up here.

As we head into the Labor Day weekend, and draw near 9/11, I hope you all fly your flags with pride. I am proud to be married to one who serves.

Of course any pics of him actually doing his job would not pass our censors... So we will check out a CARDINAL fan in the wilds of OK.

Home Sweet Home...kinda

Ok, so today's meanderings are about home... C and I have gone to great lengths to stress to M and now L that home will always be wherever we are together. This life we chose when "WE" joined the USAF has blessed us in so many ways. One of these blessings will never however, be a long term address. You have to keep in mind that C and I had no great compelling reason to leave KY. We were living in the same wonderful city as both of our parents with most of our extended families nearby. We had lifelong friends who were starting their families there. We were both gainfully employed and one of us (Me...) loved our job. The only downside was C's growing uncertainty whether he wanted to admit to being a lawyer, much less practice. SO, of course, we decided to leave everything we knew and everyone else we loved and see the world. Now don't think for one minute that I am complaining. I would not trade our life for anyone's... really. When we do see our families, we are all actually thrilled to be together. That in itself is a big deal. We haven't quite seen the world yet, but we have just about covered the southeast and of course Texas, (they refuse to be considered part of any larger geographic region...) Anyway, I have a pretty good indication that C's course of study here (the Middle East) is likely to assure us some more exotic assignments on the horizon. I wonder how many folks are anxiously looking forward to a desert getaway... Ok, back to my point, the longer we are away, the more I consider KY home. It is definitely the point of reference for all things good. As I walked down the street in BEAUTIFUL Carmel-By-The-Sea yesterday while Princess M was in her ballet class I was struck again by the comparison. This place is beautiful and very intoxicating, yet not really....warm. I know that I am a tad bit more talkative than even your most seasoned Louisvillian (sp?) but really, is it that hard to smile, nod, or at least not frown at the woman with the stroller you just ran off the sidewalk? I may be exaggerating a tiny bit, but people on the west coast just don't seem to have much time for niceties like "please", "thank you", "excuse me",or "I am sorry that I just trampled your foot". Now it could have something to do with my Target shorts in a Prada town, but really I do pay taxes and all... So, I guess where I am really going with all of this ranting is that no matter where we go and how much we love our explorations there really is no place like home. I like to think we bring KY with us to all of these different short term homes. Everywhere we have lived we have tried to entertain the same way we have learned from our folks, with an open home and southern hospitality. I don't think we'll ever grace the pages of Southern Living, but we darn sure won't send you home hungry. I have made it my mission to warm up my little part of the world here. I have a feeling I will be getting a lot of "she's crazy" looks but really, what else is new? So, I am going to continue to wear my Kohl's attire and my Reef flip flops. I am also going to keep saying hello to everyone I pass on the sidewalk. Who knows? Maybe I'll start a trend...

My pics today are unrelated to the text, but when you have a family this good lookin' you have to show them off.

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If you drive 26 hours round trip in less than 3 days just to see us, you get immortalized on the blog... Thanks J and K. We loved every second of your visit. I just can't believe you guys aren't still 15 and scamming 20 year old chicks for pizza and cab fare..

Her first experience with the beater was a success...

This pic has a couple of disclaimers....

1. None of the kids pictured were in anyway involved with the refreshments in the background of the picture.

2. Now that we live in Monterey, we will no longer be allowed to serve boxed wine at our soirees... You can take the girl out of Kentucky....

Birds, Bees and all things crawly...

So you know a day can't go by without something newsworthy at the A house...

To preface this story, a little history on Princess M. She does NOT like bugs. That's it. What more can I say? If it crawls, flies, slides or slithers, she doesn't like it, period. When I say that M "doesn't like", you should read "abhors, loathes, is absolutely phobic of". Now this is not completely unfounded as we just left the buggiest (is that a word?) place I have ever lived and M had an altercation of some sort with almost the entire population of bugs there. Fire ants, biting flies, spiders, and the world's most aggressive mosquitoes. Don't even get me started on the Mississippi Kites, (I know they are birds not bugs but I did say flies...) that's a whole additional blog entry in itself. SO, shortly before we left Altus, M got a mosquito bite on her forehead. I know it was a mosquito bite because I smashed said bug on her forehead myself in my dear friend Dana's backyard. I have witnesses. A day and a half later the child was unrecognizable. She looked like she had lost a round with a heavyweight. Her eyes were swollen nearly shut, and the bridge of her nose was nowhere to be found. The pediatrician's response...."yep, that's some reaction to a mosquito bite..." Now not thinking clearly about the little ears in the room, I proceeded to ask him about any correlation between this and bee sting allergies. Since my mom is allergic, I thought it better to be prepared. He assured me that the two are not related, but prescribed an epipen just in case. This is where it goes south. He described how to use this wonderful device, and presto, M's fear of bee stings escalated to epic proportions. At that very moment, I knew my innocent inquiry was coming back to haunt me, eventually. Jump to our arrival here in CA, where immediately M is in love with all of the beautiful flowers blooming everywhere. Then she notices the accompanying winged creatures who are also in quite an abundance. Uh oh! Suddenly, every trip outside is an adventure in ducking, dodging, swatting and whining. After 3 weeks of reassuring M that the bees have more than enough lovely nectar to keep their attention, you guessed it. She gets stung in the Little Tikes Playhouse on the playground at school. I knew as soon as I heard C answer the phone that their was drama and with M, that usually plays out like a tragedy. So off he went to assess the situation. Obviously he found a quite distraught little girl, however with presents from the office staff for being the first official "sting survivor" of the year and kisses from Dad off she went back to class.

When we arrived to pick her up two hours later, she was feeling quite the hero. She also couldn't show me her battle scar as she wasn't quite sure which arm had been stung...LOL. Sadly, the story is not completely over as at 3AM this morning I got the call, "Mommy, I had a bad dream..." What did she dream of you ask? Mountain lions... I guess we have moved on from all things winged to all things furry. I am hoping my reassurances about mountain lions will not trigger the dreaded, "but you also said the bees didn't want me..."

As a side note to this little story, L does not share the same ideas about insects. She loves them... ALL. When a fly zooms past, she tries to catch it. She will pick up anything she can get her hands on. She has a particular favorite right now though, that may send Grandma into apoplexy. Monterey is currently having trouble with the Brown Apple Moth. This bothersome moth starts out, obviously, as a tiny caterpillar. For those of you who know my phobia of all snakes, it is matched only by Grandma's phobia of caterpillars... So, this apple definitely fell far from her genetic tree on this one.

Today's pics are totally unrelated, just cute.

Double Trouble...

Partners...

Saving the world, one sand dollar at a time...

So after church and nap time on Sunday, we decided to head to the beach. After gathering our pails and shovels, and flip flops and towels, and chairs and jackets... we proceeded to spend a half hour putting on sunscreen. Finally, we were bound for the beach. I am still getting used to the difference in morning and afternoon weather temps here. We arrived in shorts and windbreakers but pretty quickly shed our outerwear to play in the frigid surf. The locals here mostly wear wetsuits... I was watching the girls build sand castles when some of the local kids body surfing caught my eye. It took me a few minutes to realize that one particular wetsuit had more authentic looking flippers than most. Right there 20 yards from the beach was a solo sea lion surfing with the kids. They also looked rather amazed when they realized he was close enough to join them on their boards. I kept remembering all of those Discovery Channel shows during Shark Week where they explain that most people attacked by sharks are mistaken for seals and sea lions, the sharks favorite prey. At this point I was grateful for the 60 degree water temps and the lack of a need to remind the girls to not go out over their ankles. Our little princesses do not care to be cold. Two years in Altus OK made them think any temp below 80 is frigid.

As I was standing at the water's edge I looked down and saw a freshly washed in sand dollar. Immediately I showed it to M, who after much reassurance that it could not in fact eat her, took it to show her Dad and L and got her pic made with the creature in hand. For M this is quite an accomplishment as she is quite squeamish, about most EVERYTHING. So we were off on a trek to find others... We did immediately find that they are quite abundant on the beach here so we were off to save those washed in above the tide line. M and I must have covered a quarter mile, (a long walk at M's speed) and threw many live sand dollars back out to sea. A very nice local lady stopped to congratulate M on her efforts to liberate the sand dollars as opposed to taking them home in a bucket and "killing" them. Obviously this has just become an important mission, so we headed back the other way to tell Dad of our "expedition" and continue on. Now little do I know what is coming but a stretch of beach where there are literally hundreds of live sand dollars washed in that appear to be stranded. It took all of my best negotiating and diplomacy skills to convince M that we could not possibly save them all. I finally convinced her that another large wave was surely on its way to wash them back to sea and we conceded the battle.

In the course of our stroll, I pointed out the remains of a jellyfish to M and warned her to avoid stepping on said jelly. BIG mistake. Now everything that shimmers or shakes on the beach is a cause of great concern... One day I will learn..

By the time we made it back to Dad, L informed me she was "too tired" and "too messy" and ready to be out of the sand. So wraps the end of another beautiful California day.

Everyday's a vacation...

So, we were sitting at the table having some lunch when the phone rang and our new friend Scott said "how quick can you meet us in Santa Cruz for a train ride?" Never tempt us with an outing... Forty-five minutes and one grumpy, no longer napping 2 yr old later, we were on our way 40 miles up highway 1 to see some gorgeous California Redwoods. The drive in itself is worth it (if you can tune out the ongoing grumpiness in the back seat). Apparently artichokes grow very well in oceanfront property as well as, strawberries, romaine, and celery..who knew?

We arrived at the train camp literally minutes before departure and RAN to the train. You can imagine that by this time, L has moved on to downright angry. Needless to say, the other passengers are thrilled to scoot in and make room for us and the screamer... Suddenly, I find myself hoping that train rides do not have the same effect on L as whale watching boat tours.... You might recall that was not a total success. Luckily this kind of motion has a soothing effect and we are off on a fun adventure under some amazing trees. Immediately M picks up on the mention of possible wildlife and wants to know if the train can outrun bears and mountain lions. I assure her that we seem to be quite safe. We won't even go into her reaction when the guide mentioned the upcoming halloween trips at night, in the dark, with a "real headless horseman" in pursuit of the train. It doesn't look like there are any ghost trips in our foreseeable future!

Happily for the girls we did find some real wildlife after the trip. It's amazing how ducks and turtles will go after stale cheese nips, goldfish, and blueberry muffins. It's even more amazing how many old snacks I can find in the bottom of my purse when needing to feed said ducks. We did get to observe the misfortune of one family whose oldest child strayed too near the embankment of the pond. Dad quickly fished her out but had to go back for one shoe... All was well, wet but not injured. Thankfully, our girls do not care for mud and threw their treats from a safe distance.

I am including a couple of pics from the trip.

On a great note, we now have firm dates for visits from both sets of Grandparents. C will be joining our friend Mark up the coast this week to catch up at a Toby Keith show. Lastly, my BFF Jen and her mom, Wanda are coming out right before halloween, for a whole week! Everyone else needs to jump on the bandwagon and come see us. I promise your visit will be immortalized here with bad grammar (sorry Mom and Dad) and in pics!

Happy Sunday!

A Wii bit of Fun...

So, if you know C and I, you know that we like to play. You might even call us competitive... Each move we try to reward ourselves for all of the hassle with a new family toy. This time I (yes, S not C) bought a Wii. Now of course C does have every game system he has ever owned still fully intact, but this is different. I LOVE this thing. If you have a family and you like to move around, ALOT, this is an addictive toy. We bowled and boxed until late last night. Most of you know I go to the gym faithfully 5 days a week, (down 26 pounds by the way) I am sore! My first friend here, a proud Navy spouse, inspired me to enthrall you all with these ramblings and recommended the Wii. She also warned me about the soreness after their first weekend of "friendly" competition. I will move on from my Nintendo commercial for now, but be forewarned, if you come to Monterey we will be playing.

I thought I would include a couple of pics today of our new "hometown" and immediately found one from an old "hometown" that I have to include. The girls and I went back to San Antonio with our beloved Sides friends for a last bash at Sea World before we had to part ways. We are still in mourning having to leave the Sides behind (boy, could we have had some Wii tournaments with them...) but we have wonderful memories and one officially waterlogged cell phone to show for the trip. Note to all you camera phone owners, if you carry your phone in your backpack during San Antonio's most torrential downpour ever and you do not carry the "insurance" you will be purchasing at full price a new phone. Anyway, the pic is of M and her best buddies in the world at the waterpark before the real deluge began.

The next pic is of M and some new friends we met at the housing office here. If you have never tried to get into military housing, you might not understand how someone could spend enough time together in a lobby to arrange a playdate... The accomodations are great, the process to get them, not so much.

We also recently took the girls to their first "Rock" concert. You know we had to start them early. The Monterey County fair, slightly more upscale than our beloved KY State Fair, was just up the road from our house. They had a free concert on Friday night with.... Night Ranger. Just so you know the last time I saw these guys in concert I was 14, that's right 23 years ago I saw them at Six Flags in St. Louis on my way back from a softball tourney in Tulsa OK. I have to say for those others of you out there who still acknowledge our 80's hair band roots, they still rocked... The girls had a blast. I am afraid though, L may have a future dancing on tables if we are not careful. She nearly stole the show for our section of the lawn. I think my Ozfest days are definitely over but this was a fun show for us all. M even got her face painted for the event and I am including a pic.

The last pics are of some of our local residents here. I am still not great with which are seals versus sea lions. They are all cute, loud, and considerably more pleasant smelling from a distance...

Why the blog you ask?

Wow, this is a strange feeling... I guess the whole premise of a blog is that someone else is interested in my random thoughts and activities. That in itself seems a little presumptuous. But, a new friend here in Monterey showed me her blog yesterday and I immediately thought what a great way for all our dear friends and family all over the globe to periodically check in on our latest adventures. So, assuming I haven't lost you already, I am going to embark on this journey to share a bit of our day to day with you. In the interest of national security, or really just to appease our security advisor, (you know who, if you know us...LOL) I will be using our initials in all anecdotes. If someone is in the doghouse, I may use other abbreviations but will attempt to keep this a family friendly forum.

We have now been in Monterey for 3 weeks and I think we are more settled in than we have ever been. It's amazing how much you can get done in a new place when a certain unnamed overachiever has 45 days leave and nothing but time on his hands. So thanks to the USAF we are now on the absolutely beautiful West Coast. The tradeoff for having a view of the water from our upstairs bedrooms is living in half the square footage we had in San Antonio... Thank goodness the stop in Altus in between taught us to downsize pretty effectively. We are very grateful for LARGE closets and government long term storage.

Arriving here after 2 fast years in Altus, we were more than ready to partake in all of the wonderful restaurant choices. We have yet to have a less than stellar meal, and have watched dozens of seals and sea lions during dinners at fisherman's wharf. We did a wonderful whale watching tour with an hour spent watching a mother humpback and her calf. NOTE to future guests, we will no longer be taking a certain 2 yr old or her father whale watching except under the calmest possible conditions. I believe their whale watching will be limited to the Discovery Channel until further notice. Disclaimer, Dad did not get ill, just said it took much of his will not to. For the record, water baby that I am, never seen a dinghy, canoe or cruise ship I didn't love, I was grateful also for sweet still land by the end of the trip. Even the naturalist guide stressed on our return to the harbor that the seas were uncharacteristically rough that day.

We have also had some exciting wildlife sightings in our very own neighborhood... I awoke a few nights ago to the sounds of my garbage can lids slamming. Upon inspection from my bedroom window I discovered not 1 but 7 raccoons foraging in our recycling. The ringleader of this crew was huge! I am guessing he was well over 30 pounds as he made Frankie the pug look anorexic.
We have also been advised that a mountain lion has been spotted in our neighborhood this week. We have been given multiple reminders to not walk, run, or bike alone at dusk or dawn. I think we will heed these warnings closely.


So, M is due off to school shortly and I must go for now but I will do my best to add daily updates including pics of all of our adventures. I figure at this point, I will still have at least Grandma and Granny's attention.