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. 

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... :(

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.

So, it's been a while!

So It's been a long while since my last post. Lots has happened.

I flew to Hong Kong to meet Dave. We had 5 days together in a nice hotel and near lots of restuarants. Laura and Tyler's friend lives in Hong Kong, so Barry became tour guide and restaurant connoisseur. In truth, I didn't particularly like Hong Kong; it smelled bad and I always felt like i was about to get cheated (either by a cabbie or a vendor). I didn't buy any novelty items because I knew they would just break. The restaurants were great and about everyone spoke English. It was more like being in a Chinatown of some large city than in a large city of China. Also, I think Chinese sounds funny. My Japanese students were very excited when I told them I prefer Japan to Hong Kong, China. We had a little role reversal as Dave dropped me off at the airport to say goodbye. I'll admit, it was very nice to be the one leaving instead of being the one left!

I made it to Germany (from Hong Kong) without any trouble - I took a Tylenol PM and slept 9 out of 11 hours of my flight. It was an over night flight (departing at 1150pm and arriving at 0530am) so when I arrived I did feel rather refreshed. After being interigated by immigration (I made the mistake of saying I'd been to germany several times, while my new passport only shows one visit ... "Quick, investigate!") , I hopped on the train and made it to Ansbach at 11am. Scott met me at the train station, dropped me off at a quiet house, and went back to work. All the kids were at school and Diane had a meeting in Nurenberg. That evening, Scott, the kids, and I met Diane at Illeshime where she was photographing families in front of an Apache Helicopter. That's one intimidating aircraft! It also made me appreciate the fact that my husband's aircraft has an ejection seat.

The next day, little time was wasted, and Diane and I jumped into a 3 day photo shoot. We got set up in the Brigade Headquarters building to shoot family photos for Christmas cards. The event was a fundraiser for the FRG and 10% went back to them. Some of the wives even recognized me from my help at last year's Brigade Ball, fun times! It was a long few days, photos, edition, talking to families, me entertaining the children while Diane photographed Mom and Dad, planning for Paris, and planning Connor's sleep-over birthday.

Connor turned TEN on Nov. 2, and his birthday party was on Nov. 5 - a slumber party. I hand-stamped invitations for him to take to school and give to all his friends. We didn't get many RSVP's, but come 5pm on Friday, 7 or 8 of his friends showed up, sleeping bags in hand. Scott was able to greet everyone, and Tristan had instructions to make queso dip. Diane and I got home around 630, just in time for pizza! We made the Wrigley recipe, and Connor helped me make the sauce. He really enjoyed creating the sauce... some more of this, some more of that... Scott managed to get the dough rolled out, sauced, cheesed, and served by the time Diane and I got home, Kudos, Scott! This kids ran around crazy all night, with Nathan and John never far behind. I managed to throw together a scavenger hunt as an evening activity, which went over really well.

Saturday consisted of one last photo shoot - a family came dressed up in full Bavarian costume, leiderhosen, dirndl, two blonde-blue-eyed kids, and a dog. Saturday evening was spent preparing everyone for Paris. After the kid's bags were packed, and said children were in bed, Diane and I had a fashion-show to decide what to bring to Paris. We can't just wear anything to Paris, they might tell us to go home the minute we step out of the car! (And with my dealings with the hotel owner over the phone, this was not an entirely crazy thought.) So we had to find just the right shoes and just the right accessories, and ignore the fact it was going to be very very cold.

An Update

1. On Sunday Dave left for Fall cruise, aka Part 2 of the 2009 deployment schedule. It's not as long this time, but is never fun.

2. We are in TCORR 2 - extreme wind is expected within the next 12 hours due to Typhoon Melor. Although it will probably end up being another blustery Winnie-the-Pooh type day, all base activities will be closed tomorrow, school is cancelled, and it will be rainy and windy.

3. I now have a pretty full teaching schedule and will have to give it up in 3 weeks. Awesome. I've got at least one class every day - except Friday. Unfortunately, we're scheduled to be leaving soon, so I'm already looking for someone to take over the classes. Lame.

4. Still no letter telling us we can move. Quadruple Lame.

5. On Sunday I ordered eight Jane-Austen films. I could really use them tonight and tomorrow since I can't do anything tomorrow!

6. I've bought a plane ticket to visit my sister in Germany! Exciting! I'll be there November 3-18. While it will be fun sharing Scott's birthday, it will be sad that I'm missing Dave's birthday and our wedding anniversary. I'm beginning to think it was quite amazing that Dave made it to our wedding in the first place.... Dave and Scott share the same birthday, though different years.

7. It's officially fall. I wore my first fall sweater today.

8. Today I received "gomensai" money. Last week I went to meet my conversation student, as scheduled. Except he didn't show. I called him at 12:15 - 15 minutes after our scheduled meeting time - and he was sleeping and very confused. So this week he kept apologizing and saying how ashamed he was. At the end of our lesson he insisted on paying me for last week. I let him pay me for last week in the hopes that I won't have to keep hearing about how sorry he is! (Gomenasai means Sorry.)

9. I disliked the movie "Ghosts of Girlfriends Past."

10. I accidently saw Glen Beck's "interview" with Michael Moore today and it made my brain hurt.