Boozer and his posse...

So Kenny and I have been working with a fourth grade student at our church because he has had some issues with some of the other kids. Our goal this first part of the year was to get him to make the props/background for the Christmas play that the kids put on. The kid is a great artist, so it was awesome to watch him whip out three large animals in no time. Kenny said that he would cut out the animals and give them "legs," so that the animals could properly stand at the birth of Christ. Now after Kenny finished these animals, they hung out in our living room for a while since there was no room at the inn... just kidding! We wanted to make sure we didn't forget that we had them and needed to get them to church. Well since the snow has made it rather difficult to get to church lately (forgive us God), our animal friends have been "chillin" in our living room for a while. They have been here so long that Kenny gave them names. Boozer (the donkey) is the head of the pack, and his posse consist of a lamb and a llama. I like to think of the llama as Boozer's protector. You know, that best friend that is the brawns but not the brains? That is the llama. Then we have the sheep that is a follower, so typical of a sheep... So Boozer and his posse have been hanging out for over a week.

BoozerWell with the impending arrival of Christmas, and lots of snow, my friend Sara and I made the trek up to Anacortes today to drop off Boozer and his posse at the pastor's house. Here they are in Sara's car. Of course Boozer gets to ride in the seats and his posse has to ride in the trunk. That is just how Boozer and his posse roll.Sadly, my crew got out at Anacortes, but Sara and I treated ourselves to Gere-A-Deli in Anacortes. YUM! That made the break from friends a little less painful. Please notice the enormous brownie that we shared.... Chocolate makes EVERYTHING better! And I am not in the picture one, because I am taking it and two, I think I devoured my sandwich in 30 seconds.Since they have moved the Christmas play to the 28th due to the impending snow storm that is happening right now, Kenny and I won't get to see Boozer and his posse in all their glory and their acting debut. However, we will be missing them and rooting for them from the east coast.

ps. i am thinking seriously of asking for them back when Kenny deploys in January, so I always have a crew to "chill" with. is that strange?

SNOW DAY!

We had a sprinkling of snow this past weekend, but Tuesday night the sky opened up, and it really SNOWED! The Navy base closed, the schools closed, and we had a snow day!

After a morning of phone calls telling Kenny that he would not be going to work, we figured out how we would go sledding on the hills across the street. Kenny quickly blew up his little sleeping bag mattress, and we were off to play in the snow! We made snow angels, threw some snowballs, and then got to sledding. Now sadly, while attempting to throw some snowballs at my husband, I pulled my rotator cuff (woops!), but being in the snow certainly numbed me up for a while.

Here are some pictures of our fun in the snow!
Me sledding:Kenny sledding:

We even made a little snowman!

Today we have even more snow and have another day of no school and no work for Kenny. We have watched a couple of cars slide down the hill next to our house. One slid right into the phone pole in front of our house. And the best part was watching this girl walk down the hill in knee high platform high heeled stripper boots. I wish I had a picture of her boots, but sadly, I dont. Just imagine... WAIT! she came back up the hill and so I got a couple of shots of this lady and her special boots which are completely NOT practical in the snow. She almost fell at least twice. So here this mystery woman is:Happy Snow Day!

The Nutcracker, etc.

We headed to Seattle on Friday to see the Nutcracker with a couple of good friends of ours. Having not seen the Nutcracker since music class in elementary school, I was a little fuzzy on the story line. Well the scenery was AWESOME. The ballet was interesting. Thankfully, during intermission, not only did we get to have a glass of wine, but we also met one of our friends who could give us a little summary of what was to come. This friend had seen it each year, so she obviously knew the story well. HOWEVER, she did not know that we would not be seeing sugar plum fairies. We would be seeing Arabian mice and a peacock and Arabian dancers. Not exactly what we were expecting, but the dancing was great. It just deviated a bit from the story we all knew.Here are some pictures during intermission.Here are some pictures afterwards with the large figurines!
We also had TWO Squadron Christmas parties this week. Talk about a jammed packed week! The first was on Wednesday which was for all-hands (meaning enlisted and officers). With the world's worst DJ who threatened us with Michael Bolton and who also had the world's largest mustache, we made the night fun despite him! It was nice to get to dress up a bit and enjoy an evening with friends. AND I won a gift card to a restaurant!

Here is our beautiful table...
Then we had the all-officers squadron party last night at the Skipper's house. The best part of the whole evening was the fact that it started snowing and continued all night! We woke up with snow on the ground (and ice on the roads), and boy, was it a beautiful sight! Here are some pictures of the lovely morning!

Merry Christmas!

I have not had a real, live Christmas tree since I think I was five. My daddy used to say too many curse words when he put up the tree, so no real tree for us. Last year, Kenny was gone for the holidays, so we did not really decorate or even get a tree. This year I was pretty much as excited as all of the kids at the Christmas tree farm about getting my very own LIVE Christmas tree! We went to the local Christmas tree farm that even had goats you could pet and a Santa! We walked around looking for the perfect tree. Having never picked out a tree before, I wasn't sure what type was the "best" tree. However, I quickly figured out what type of tree I wanted. Of course it was the most expensive type. I have impeccable taste :)

So here we are looking around (notice my new hat that Kenny says I wear too much).
Here is OUR tree! The beautiful noble fir tree.
We quickly got to decorating, and it was a real treat to have someone to decorate with since normally I am the one who decorates at my parents' house.
Here is our finished tree.
And a little treat for the Chi Omegas. Momma B found the cutest little owl ornaments and they are perfect on our tree and remind me of all my sistas :)
Then we were off to the tacky Christmas sweater party hosted by our friends, the Smiths. We had a great time in our ugly sweaters and especially with Kenny's rocking 101 dalmatian vest.
Early Merry Christmas to all! Hope you all have a lovely holiday season!

The half-marathon!

Kenny and I ran the Seattle half-marathon on Sunday. We had been training for the October one down in Portland, but alas, Kenny didn't get home in time. So after our lovely turkey day at our friend's, the Mumbach's, we geared up for our LONG run.

We stayed in downtown Seattle right near the Space Needle since that is where the race started. We didn't sleep so well since we could hear the man next door snoring. Not cool, but I am not sure that I would have slept that well anyway since I was a wee bit anxious!

So Sunday morning we woke up, ate our breakfast, stretched our legs, and put on our timing anklets that looked like those anklets that kids under house arrest used to wear.

Here we are getting ready to leave for the race. Kenny sported his super, cool Nike sweatband, and I represented good ol' UVA and Cox High School (attempting to look like a runner!).

There were over 12000 people that ran this race! It was pretty much packed running for the whole time. There was never a time where it really "thinned" out that much. We did see two people who were hooked up to IV's and with oxygen which was pretty scary. But otherwise, we made it. You might be wondering if I thought it was fun... that would be a no. I felt accomplished afterwards and like I never needed to do that again! Kenny was my biggest cheerleader as at one point I thought my hiny was so clinched that I wouldn't be able to move and especially when the last quarter of a mile was a really mean, steep hill! I would also like to thank God since I said the Lord's Prayer a couple dozen times getting me through those last two miles! We can now say we did it!

Here are the after pictures with our finisher medals. Mine is fuzzy which is kind of how I felt, so very appropriate!


Thanks for all the encouragement and support from friends and family!

Seahawks vs. REDSKINS!

One of Kenny's dreams has always been to see his beloved Redskins play, so low and behold, the Redskins came into town (well, Seattle) to play the Seahawks. We got some tickets and skipped church (sorry God and mom) and headed to Seattle on Sunday morning. Luckily, the sun was shining and the clouds were gone. We had nosebleed seats, but they were awesome. First of all, the BEST quad workout I have ever had. Second of all, we could SEE Mt. Ranier! Thirdly, we could see the game pretty well.
Here are some pictures to show you our fun!this is the behind view from our seats - downtown Seattle!

The Redskins won!

the job...

so the first week was great fun with a little lecture, a little learning how to take notes, a little critical reading, and a little puppet show. I had a blast getting into the classroom and getting to even grade papers! I give my first test this Wednesday. I am hoping that they do okay on it since I don't know how fast they can move. I was talking to my co-worker/friend, and we have discovered that these students don't have very high expectations for themselves. Well they are lucky they get to have me as a teacher because I have high expectations and expect them to meet them! We shall see how it goes!

Hope everyone is gearing up for Thanksgiving! Thanks for all the support and well wishes on the teaching job!

Someone is employed...

Back to the grind. My vacation is officially over - THANK GOODNESS! I have been itching to teach and itching to get into a classroom. Itching to the point where my arm almost went raw. Just kidding :) Then a friend of mine who works at a Christian High School here learned of an opening at their school for a history position. It has been over a month since I had heard about the position and spoken to the director of the school. They wanted to make an end of the quarter switcheroo, so I had to wait. So to make a long story short, because who really needs the sordid details, I was offered the job today and to help with the Algebra and Algebra 2 classes. So I will be teaching World History three days a week and Algebra and Algebra 2 on Fridays. Yeah for getting to teach! (Even if I only have 6 students in my world history class!)

a traditional night in the Pacific Northwest...

(This photo is courtesy of Momma B and her trip to the Cascade Mts.)

So when Kenny announced that we would start our married lives in a small town of Washington state, I was less than pleased. Aren't those Washingtonians just a bunch of crunchy, granola people who wear sandal like shoes all the time (like my dad) and love on their trees a great deal? Well the truth is many are very crunchy, granola - but in a good way! There are lots of co-ops here that people join and get fresh, organic produce when it is in season. There are many organically filled cows and just down the road here, I could buy my own organic cow and have the freshest beef alive...

Now I had to start with that so you understand where we live. It is quaint; there are many farms; there are many people who dress casual at all times.

So last night we met up with some friends for a lovely dinner at one of our favorite restaurants in a town 45 minutes away called La Connor. This is also where the annual tulip festival resides. The restaurant is called Seeds and everything on the menu is organic and delicious. It even says in the menu that the cows you are about to eat are grass-fed cows. Now granted I ate a veggie burger, but everything there is delicious and nutritious (sort of) but at least organic - which is so pacific northwest.THEN Kenny and I raced back to the town Anacortes which is on the island north of our island to see a youth group kid of ours play at a local venue. THIS is where the night gets interesting...

We showed up to what is called the DOS or Department of Safety in Anacortes. See this special spot at www.departmentofsafety.com. It used to be a fire station, but now is the kind of place where Phoebe from Friends would gladly reside/play Smelly Cat every night. So we arrive, see our student, go sit in the "venue" which is filled with old couches which have lots of cuddly teenagers on them. We are obviously over-dressed in our leather jackets, dock marten's and lack of facial hair. Plus, we are not wearing sandals with socks or a beat up old beanie. Nonetheless, we are there to see our friend, so we stay. After the second act, I look at Kenny and say, "I don't know how much more of this I can take." These are the crunchy, granola to the tenth degree, and I am WAY out of my comfort zone. Then, this man in front of us who has had on his little backpack the whole time stands up...this is special so wait for it....

He is wearing a knitted sweater with BELUGA WHALES ON IT! this was the most special part of the evening next to the guy who got up and rapped about tea and that it comes from leaves, and then proceeded to tell us not to be bored because that would make him sad. It was special. VERY special. And only because of Kenny did I stay to see our student. She was awesome. She has a gorgeous voice and is 16 and had the guts to play solo in front of about 40 people - songs she had written! Listen to her here.

(This is not the whale sweater as it was too dark to take pictures, but imagine EVEN MORE whales on this sweater and there you have it!)

So to sum it up, it was an interesting and special experience, but eye-opening and great to hear the talents of such a wonderfully talented and kind young person. Phoebe Buffay would have loved it...