Merry Christmas!

While I don't have the funds to send all my friends Christmas cards, please accept this e-card.

Painted Barn

Someone asked me where the photos of the completed painted barn are. Well here's what I have...

Red and white are Christmassy, right? And I cannot get enough of that blue sky.

Strike Fighter Ball

Lauren F., Laura, Lauren S., and I. The Lauren's squadron's husbands are

 deployed so they had a pirates theme... Pretty fun!

Katie and I

Our squadron had flames for our role-call: pump-hairspray bottles filled with lighter fluid... I didn't know it was lighter fluid until I sprayed it on my hair and the guys flipped out... I stayed away from flames all night. 

Boo and I. 

Dragon sing-along. 

Full-length shot. 

Laura, Kristen and I. All that's missing is Liz and we could have recreated our photo from Bad Man Ball last year! Boo...

P. Skipper and Amy. 

The night got a bit crazy... Here Dan and Cooter are Wrastlin'. 

November

November was a super busy month. I didn't get home from Idaho until November 5. Dave got home from Fallon on November 12. I attended Noriko's farewell tea in the 13th; I spent the 15th and 16th on base (all day) to paint the anchor in front of the O'Club for the upcoming change of command. On the 17th, we had the Change of Command ceremony, followed by reception and then hail-and-bail party that same night. November 19th was Hornet Ball in Visalia, 20th was recovery and Harry Potter 7. On the 22nd, Emily arrived and we got in the Thanksgiving mode. We had dinner at Katie's house on the 25th. 

Phew. Long month. 

Amy, Noriko, and Linda at Noriko's farewell tea 

held at Victoria Rose Tea House in Clovis, CA. 

                                      

Sandy, Linda and I painting the anchor. Doesn't it look classy? Until we were cleaning up and realized the Corosion Dept had left of the "G" in SSHWFGD (Super "Smokin'" Hot World Famous Golden Dragons). The G being very important... we had to redo that section. Huge headache. But it look nice (but not as nice, in my opinion). 

The actual moment that the change of command takes place: Commanders Henry (center) and Miller (right) salute each other as CDR Miller relieves CDR Henry of duty. Rear Admiral Aucoin looks on from left. 

Amy, thrilled and proud.  :)

Sailors (and officers, though not pictured here) stood at attention during the entire 90 minute ceremony. 

Rear Admiral Aucoin and CDR Henry, sporting their Golden Dragon socks. 

CMD Miller's dad taking photos of the logo. 

More Idaho

I realized I never posted more pictures from Idaho. And I also realized, looking through my pictures, that my camera only documented half of the time there. Katie's more pictures... like of me in my dirndl!

Make pomegranate jelly!

Maya atop Babe. 

Katie's older sister, Marci, with Tom and Maya, trying to figure out 

what went wrong with her caramel apples. The caramel just wouldn't harden onto the apples. 

A quick sojourn to Joseph, Oregon, to meet up with Aunt Julie and her husband, Mark, in front of Wallowa (Wa-Lah-wa) Lake Lodge, built in 1928. 

a heard of 10 deer and a buck on our way out of the Lodge area. 

Maya in Marci's wedding boots. 

Katie's dad, Dick, with Caleb, soon after he learned to say my name. 

My new vow...

...to only shop at thrift stores.

I went thrifting today with two friends who are locals so they know the good places to go. We drove to Visalia (which as the 2nd worst air quality in the nation), about 20 miles away, and hit up three stores.

The surprise hit in all of the stores was their book selection! Some total gems. One entitled "A Modern Explanation of the Catholic Church" which included a handwritten 3x5 note card responding to a parishioner's request for information; some ancient (40s and 50w) romance novels; a book from 1973 about your role as a wife in a marriage. Wow - for only 25-50cents each I had to restrain myself on some of them.

Here's what I acquired today.

A beautiful, though unfortunately very modern (2004) Emma, by her majesty Jane Austen, with Sparknotes in final 80 pages.... rather lame, but beautiful to look at on a shelf, yes?

 
A complete collection of Grimms's fairytales, complete with jacket, which  I removed because it's so pretty without one. Did you know the Grimm brothers wrote 211 moral teaching short stories? Originally published in Germany in 1812 and 1815, the originals of Cinderella, Rumplestiltskin, Rapunzel, Hansel and Gretel, and the Frog Prince are more drastic and violent. I'm looking forward to reading them all. Exciting. (Came complete with original yellow bookmark.)

For twenty-five cents, who can say no to a comprehensive guide to successful gardening!?

Well these are just great. Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, and The Man in the Iron Mask as cartoons. Hmm. Regardless, they should be interesting to look at.

The last two are glorious finds.

Here we have a new, with tags still in the pockets, size small Columbia jacket. For $5.50. So I obviously purchased it. Plus green is a good color for me. Score!

 Running off the "green is a good color for me" I found this green duponi silk dress, with original tags on it, for $25. Oh, but it's Monday, so it was 75% off anything that's been there for more than 10 days. So this dress was $6. Yes. So now I'm torn as to which dress to wear to Hornet Ball... both dresses shown here, the green one paired with faux (?) fur wrap. Classiness just oozes from both.

Road trip to Idaho

On Wednesday, Katie and I embarked on our Grand Fall Adventure: 19 hours in the car with kids. We broke up our travel in to two days: 13 hours to Boise on day one and 6 hours to Lewiston on day two. Katie was very worried that this prolonged exposure to her and her kids would cause "a falling out." Dave was also worried about this - in a joking manner - but gave the sound advise, "If you have a falling out on the way there, you will be there long enough to patch it up in time for the return trip." Well, sorry to disappoint, but there has been no falling out. The kids were great. And I mean GREAT. No crying, screaming, hissy fits, nothing. They were hella tired by the time we got to "the Ridge" - Katie's parent's house - but were such troopers in the car. In the following photos, play the game "Find the Lollipop" - some are more challenging than others.

Maya's lolly.



Caleb's lolly.



Katie, taking a break from looking at the road, with lolly.

Atop the Cascade Mountains, I think... Eitherway, a great look out.

We arrived at the Wittman Ranch in time for dinner on Thursday. A great meal - wholely organic and home grown, including the beef!!! Dawn had the most amazing garden. I have never slept so hard as I did Friday night - traveling is so tiring, which is so counter-intuitive - one would think that sitting all day is easy, but I was exhausted, so were the kids.

Friday was a great planning day, but no time was wasted: there's always something to be done on the farm, I've learned, so Katie and I were put to work. I am rather proud to say I have helped to paint a 100-year-old barn, all original (except the paint). Painting the barn was rather time sensative as it was scheduled to start raining on Sunday. With most of the barn done, but lots of trim to finish, it got rainy and misty here today, so no further painting has happened. Maybe sometime in the next two weeks Katie and I will get to finish the windows on the other side of the barn....

RtoL: Dick (Katie's dad), Jamie (farm hand), and C

Which side is newly painted? Hard to tell.

Today Katie, Dick and I went to the University of Idaho's homecoming football game. It was a great time. We attended Erin - a sorority sister of Katie's - tailgate and got to meet this year's homecoming queen, who just happens to be a Gamma Phi Beta like Katie! Fun. We stayed for the fist half of the game, leaving when the Vandals were winning 31 to 7. Katie took me on a short tour of campus, which reminded me a lot of JMU. We got to see Tom's fraternity house, which was disgusting, ew, men are pigs, and Katie's soroity house which was much much cleaner.

Tomorrow brings church and maybe horse backriding if the weather holds...

Halloween

While it's not Halloween yet, it's sure been feeling like it's getting close. Dave has carved two pumpkins in three days. The first one is already starting to prune and wrinkle because it was in the 90's over the weekend. The second one may last longer since the temperature seems to finally have made the plunge. It was a crisp 70 and overcast this morning and only a high of 75 today, with a downpour! Rain! Such excitement. I've been keeping umbrella's in my car for months and months and now it might finally be worth it. Anyway, here's what we've been up to.

On Friday night we had a block party. But not our block - no no, not our foreclosed block where our one neighbors that we know are moving to Japan on Saturday - no no Katie's block. I made the fliers though. And I spend almost enough time over there that most people do think I reside at Katie's house.  Katie, Joanna and I arranged the block party, making fliers, coming up with ideas, and trying to figure out logistics. It was a big hit - all the neighbors thought it was the greatest thing since sliced bread - especially since the military people had organized it. The "regular" residence are jaded to certain houses having different military occupants every 18 months or so. So we carved pumpkins, pulled the grills to the front of the house, had a wing-off, and some games for the kids.  Katie and I each made different types buffalo wings- Dave said mine were better, but Tom said Katie's were better; What smart husbands we have.

On Sunday, after a day of chuch, home improvement and rest, we went over to Tom and Katie's for dinner and more pumpkin carving. 

Caleb

Katie and I being dorks and taking pictures of each other taking pictures.

Dave working on our masterful pumpkin

Kate and Maya - not related though they have the same color hair.

Dave and I and our dragon pumpkin. It's actualy Maleficent from Sleeping Beauty.  No, really, it is. 

All of our pumpkins throughout the weekend (minus our wrinkling Javelina one). The one Dave made is the DRAGON (duh) on the far right. (Click to enlarge)

On Wednesday, Katie and I are off with Caleb and Maya to roadtrip to Idaho. We'll be spending about two weeks in the Potato State. We'll be going to a reclusive Catholic Priest's cabin in the woods (abandoned), riding horses, feeding cows, herding cats, shooting pistols, making yummy meals, attending Idaho's Homecoming football game (Go Vandals?) and getting some well earned time away from the Central Valley. 

I'm feeling rather guilty. Not that I'll be leaving Dave, no he'll be away in Fallon, NV for several weeks, but rather that I'm abandoning Slider for two whole weeks at the kennel. I know he'll be fine, but he's very much become my little security blanket. There were weeks on end over the summer that I really would take him everywhere, or spend the day with him at Katie's. And he already has abandonment issues since we really did leave him for nine months... And when he gives you that puppy face... :(

New Blog & Going Private

So I've decided, as Dave's getting closer to deployment, that it's time to have the blog go private. So please email me or leave a comment with your email address so I can add you to the list.

I had a hard time deciding this. I've found several blogs that have really helped me feel no alone through everything with Noah. And I'd like to think that some people have stumbled across my blog and found strength or hope or encouragement. So here's what I decided to do: I've created a new blog that will remain public. It will be more streamlined - thoughts feelings about Noah and grief and Trisomy 18 and whatever else I feel compelled the share there. The new blog is Lost but Loved . Feel free to follow there as well.

Peedie

I'd heard on Thursday that Friday, October 15 would be Pregnancy and Infancy Loss Day... I was shopping for Christmas (yes, that's me planning ahead) presents for my nieces and came across a book by Olivier Dunrea's Peedie These are my all-time favorite books. I bought it for Noah, and when I came home and put his sticker in it, I just lost it. It's just hard. We're getting better, but it's still hard. 


Today is 3 months since his birthday. It seems like such a short time and yet like it was ages ago,  too.

Fall

It's as if God told Mother Nature that it must be Autumn starting October 1 (which also coincides with the new fiscal year). After literally 6 months of nothing but "hot and sunny" in the forecast, we finally have some variations! On cue, October 1, there were clouds in the sky. I couldn't figure out what felt different about the day until I realized there were these weird fluffy white things in the sky: CLOUDS. Oh clouds! I haven't seen you for so long!! There were so many days over the spring and summer that I just wanted to sit and mope and demanded that the weather reflect my moods. It's a lot harder to be depressed when it's bright and sunny out.

So every day - ok say it's been 4 days - since Oct 1 there has been real weather: A chance of showers, a chance of thunderstorms, the unexpected shower, clouds. It's great. You don't realize how much you miss the variations until you no longer have them.

Our leaves haven't changed color. I doubt they will. Our green-leafed trees just don't seem too healthy; the leaves have been brown around the edges since July. I credit the extreme heat for that.

Whenever I go to someone's house who's been married longer than I have, I am always envious of their seasonal decorations. It takes so long to build up that stock-pile. Well, I've added to mine. Last week my friend, Rachel, and I went to Color Me Mine, a paint-it-yourself ceramic shop.

BEFORE

AFTER

Rachel and I with our pumpkins.

So there you have it. Some homemade decor. It's about the only halloween decor I have. But I'm sure time and children will grow my collection.