Epic Fail

That pretty much sums up my blogging over the last few months.  I've been waiting until I had cool pictures of our new apartment all set up to share, but who really knows when that's going to be at this rate.  I've gotta say that this hasn't been the easiest of moves.  We moved into our new apartment on December 3, and I've got to say that it is pretty cute.

But for the first week we had no gas, which meant no heat, no gas stove & no hot water.  It was not entirely pleasant.  We did get a space heater so our bedroom (if you can call it that - it just happened to be where we had our air mattress set up) was warm at least, but we really had to bundle up to go into the rest of the rooms.  The good news is was that it was in the 50s that week, so it wasn't near as bad as it could have been.  And to be honest, it was probably a lot worse for Drew because I only showered once that week...if you can call it a shower.  I made a great plan in my mind to go on a run, get real hot & sweaty, and then take a cold shower, which at that point I figured would be refreshing.  Wrong!  About two seconds in there and I realized it was a terrible idea.  I was so tense and frozen, and I could barely breathe, so I tried to wash my hair & body as best as I could, but it really wasn't much of a success.  Needless to say, we were both very happy when the gas was turned on!

Our furniture, which has been in storage since we left Guam, was scheduled to arrive last Friday.  But when we called Friday morning to inquire about the time of the delivery, they said that it was supposed to arrive in RI that day but wouldn't be delivered until some later date.  Why you ask?  Well, we're not really sure.  On Monday morning, Drew called to see if our stuff had arrived in RI and schedule the delivery to us.  He was told that our stuff had not arrived and they actually weren't sure where it was...uh, really?  We decided not to panic and weren't really that shocked, but that just seems to be par for the course for this move.  But thank goodness, yesterday we got a call that our stuff has indeed arrived and will be delivered to us on Friday!  Or so they say...stay tuned to see if it's really true.

Also, if I don't get another post up before Christmas, I wish you all a happy, peace-filled Christmas.  Despite the difficulties of the move, we have both felt an amazing sense of calm and thankfulness.  We are together at last and these little things really don't matter in the grand scheme of life.  We are just so happy to have each other, and to have you in our lives!

From One Big State to the Tiniest State

We finally made it to Rhode Island!  We arrived here a little bit later than we had anticipated and just in time for winter.  I don't think I'll be seeing the temperature above 50 degrees for a very long time.

With all of our packing, goodbyes, and cross-country trekking I have been a bit behind on the blogosphere.  But I intend to catch up and get back on the blogging bandwagon.  Drew and I, thankfully, had a very unadventurous trip across these United States - no tickets, no car trouble.  We went the southern route from California to North Carolina along 40 east - it's pretty easy not to get lost when you just stay on the same freeway for the entire time.  We didn't really do any sightseeing but just drove as much as possible so that we could spend as much time with my brother and sister-in-law in North Carolina.  We went through Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Tennessee and finally arrived in NC!  We did take a slight detour in Oklahoma one day to Some Bar in Small Town, America to watch the depressing USC v. UCLA game.  It was quite a detour and fun to get some of the flavor of America.  I mean, Drew even made a great Navy veteran friend.

Here are some of our favorite pictures from the road trip:

Beautiful desert sunset

 

We must be married or something because we each took a picture of the other one sleeping without even knowing it.  I gotta hand it to him, Drew definitely got a better shot of me.  But I did have a good one lined up of Drew with his mouth open with the beautiful scenery behind him, but he closed his mouth just as I was about to take it.  Fail.  I promise, driving & photographing is completely safe and legal.

Jack-O-Lanterns

Drew and I have been up visiting his family in the Bay Area for the last few days.  They were all so happy to see him and have him home.  It's rainy up here, which is pretty much par for the course when I visit.  But it is fun to start getting all cozy for winter.  We were lucky enough to be up here for Halloween so that we could go the pumpkin patch together, carve our pumpkins & hand out Halloween candy to all of the kiddos.  I love seeing all of the cute kids & creative costumes.  I think a few of my favorites where the Christmas present, blacksmith, girl from The Capitol & the dog squirrel (don't ask me what that is, I'm still not exactly sure).

I think Drew won for best jack-o-lantern this year - he went with the puking pumpkin, which is actually quite fitting considering how much candy we all consumed tonight.  I hope everyone had a happy & safe Halloween!  

The Eagle Has Landed!

As one of my best friends texted me yesterday, we're reunited and it feels so good!!!  Drew made it home safely on Monday night.  I was able to get a military gate pass and met him right at his gate as he got off the plane.  And he was even wearing his sexy uniform!  He was able to make the long journey back to San Diego with a friend he went to training with and was deployed with so I think that made it a little more bearable.  But, after three layovers and an over 24-hour journey, he was understandably exhausted.  Since he got in so late, Drew had the next day off and we planned to just sleep in so he could get over his jet-lag, but the Navy had other ideas...they decided to test the alarm system in our "hotel" rooms at 7:45 a.m.  Really?!  So we didn't have much choice but to get up and get going.  It was just a day filled with errands & relaxing, but it was so good to do it all together.      

I am so excited to have Drew home and finally be together again.  It was definitely a long eight months.  Thank you all so much for the prayers & support for both of us.  God was surely watching out for Drew because as he told me this morning, he never once felt scared for his safety.  That's pretty amazing considering he was stationed in a war zone! God was holding Drew safely in the palm of His hand.

A slightly sleepy Drew with a lot less poundage & a lot more stuff!
He's just too cute, if you ask me.

He's Almost Home!

Drew is officially out of Afghanistan now & on his way home to me!  He has quite a lot of traveling ahead of him, but he'll be back before we both know it.  I honestly can't really believe it.  I'm so excited to see him!

Since he's getting here so soon, I've been busy organizing our stuff (that's not in storage) for the move.  It is really unbelievable how much stuff we amass.  I think each time we move I donate at least 4 garbage bags full of things.  And that is true of the move this time & the move we did just eight short months ago!  Each time I do this I promise myself that I'm going to stop buying & accumulating things since we'll be moving so often, but for some reason that pep talk never works.  I really wish that I did live with less stuff.  It would make moving life so much easier & it would be easier to focus on the things that are really important in life, which certainly aren't my things.  It's a constant battle & pray, but hopefully (even if slowly) I am getting better at it.  I'll keep you posted about how the move from Rhode Island goes!     

Seriously, 106 Degrees?

My calendar says that October starts tomorrow, but the weather forecast says that it's supposed to be 106 degrees here in Pasadena tomorrow.  Seriously, 106?!  That sure doesn't seem like Fall to me.  But I better enjoy the heat while I can because once I get to Rhode Island, I will definitely have seasons and I'll definitely have cold.  I thought that because Newport is on the coast that it wouldn't get as cold, but everyone I've talked to who actually has knowledge of these things (unlike me) has said that it is a lot colder.  They've said that the wind off of the ocean is so cold that you have to walk with your head down for like 3 months or it will freeze off.  Oh great!  I'm really in for it.

Also, this is a very belated 30th birthday wish to my dear friend, Lindsay!  Last weekend I had the pleasure of heading up to Northern California to celebrate with Lindsay and her friends in San Fran.  It was a wonderful weekend with my friend.  Miss her already.

And, in other exciting news, t-minus 30 days until Drew gets back!  I can't wait.  I'm just so excited to be together again.  I know that Drew is more than ready to come home, too.  I went to a beautiful wedding last night for my friend, Erin, and her new husband, Charlie.  It was just perfect!  Congrats you two!  But I do miss having my date at weddings and, well, really all of the time.  Come home soon and safely, love.      

Book Review: Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

I have been thinking for a long time that I should start doing some book reviews on here.  I can't say that I really have in talent in this area since I've never done it before, but I do read quite a bit and I know that people are always looking for some good book recommendations.  Or at least honest book recommendations.  So, here goes my first shot.

Gone Girl is a pretty hot book around many book club circles right now.  I actually know three different friends who just read it as part of their book club.  I'm not a book clubber (but secretly, or not so secretly now, wish I was...maybe I should add that to the RI checklist) but my friend Kristen had the book already rented out from the library so I took it with me on my trip to the bay area this past weekend.  It was a quick read because it is an entertaining, page-turner that really makes you want to know what the heck is actually going on.  But, I have to admit that when I got to the end, I still wasn't sure exactly what the heck was going on.  I don't want to totally spoil the book, but it involves the pretty rocky and very psychotic marriage of Amy & Nick.  Amy disappears at the beginning of the story on their five-year anniversary and we wonder throughout most of the book - did Nick do it?

To be honest, I don't like either one of the main characters.  And I don't really think that I am supposed to like them, but even more than that I just don't understand either one of them.  One of them, Amy, I am clearly never going to understand.  She has psychosis that it actually took a genius author to create.  It is definitely a smart book.  I wasn't left wondering about any plot elements - all the ends were tied up rather nicely.  That is saying something too, since some of the parts you think are true turn out not to be true and some of the parts you thought were false turn out to be true.  It gets a little complicated, but in a good twists & turns way.

The part that I just couldn't get over, though, is the characters.  They are all just a little too witty for me, especially Diary Amy, but I can see now that was intentional (but I definitely couldn't see it in the thick of things).  Nick in particular irked me.  I honestly cannot describe his character besides to say that he is a people-pleaser with serious daddy issues.  Even though he is seemingly "deep" he is totally unknown.  He usually did not do or say what I would have expected of him (see, more of the twists & turns), but maybe this is more of the genius of Gillian Flynn that just goes totally over my head.  In the end, I am just left completely baffled by his final decision.  It makes absolutely zero sense to me or to what I expected of Nick.  I mean, maybe if I try real hard to think very Nick-ish for a bit I could kind of understand what makes him do it.  But, it's just not the ending I wanted.  For being such a crazy book it turned out just a little too normal, and I use that word in its most abnormal sense.

My favorite character was either Nick's sister, Go (short for Margot?), or Detective Boney.  I think I liked them because they were the most relatable.  They were both strong, independent women that were equally frustrated and perplexed by Nick's final decision.  I liked that.  I guess since I'm a lawyer I also have to say that I kind of liked Tanner.  I think maybe I should get his job in my next lawyer life - Clamato anyone?  

Overall, I think I really did enjoy reading this book.  It is undeniably clever and the storyline is just irresistible.  You can't really put it down until you finish.  But, you have to be okay with the fact that you're probably just not going to understand a lot of it, especially the ending.  Again, maybe that is the whole Gillian is a genius and Jessica just doesn't get it thing.  I guess the best recommendation I can give it is to say that I now want to read some of Gillian Flynn's other books.  She has a mastery of complex plots, a page-turning writing style, and an obviously brilliant mind.  

Pismo Beach

Every summer the Charles Family gets together for a weekend up in Pismo Beach.  It is such a fun time for us all to be together.  We laugh, eat, play games, go on walks & just enjoy being together so much.  Even though we all live in California, we don't get to see each other as often as we would like.  I am so blessed to have such an amazing family that I just can't get enough of.  I am always so sad to leave my family and Pismo.  Wish we could turn it into a week long family trip!  This year was especially fun because we now have four little ones (all girls!) in our family, including the youngest addition who just turned five months.  I couldn't get enough of the little ones.  Everyone joked that I was hogging baby Naomi, but she is just so cute and snuggly.  I didn't want to let that love nugget go!

See, I wasn't the only one holding little Naomi...

there was plenty of her love to go around...

the whole family.

But, I did get to wear the baby bjorn so I think that
makes me a little more official.

We all loved taking walks on the beach and pier.  In Pismo, there are so many pelicans on the pier.  They just love hanging out there and are so chill.  If you ask me, I think they are a little lazy because they just sit around waiting for a handout from the fishermen.  Those pelicans are pretty funny looking creatures, but also pretty neat little guys.

Missing my Drew

Cousins!

Me and my Pops

Beautiful Little Miss Abigail, aka Goose

This Day & Age

I've been really bad at blogging lately.  I've definitely been thinking a lot about blogging, but that isn't exactly the same as actually blogging.  I had a goal to do at least a blog a week, but I've drastically failed at that goal.  Oh well, there's always time to start over again.

I haven't written much on here about the challenges of Drew's deployment.  I didn't really want to get myself down or anyone else, but I think it's important to remember just how much all of the military spouses and families sacrifice too.  Living in this day & age, people say we've had it a lot easier than soldiers and families in prior wars.  I get to Skype with Drew almost every day, the mail works pretty regularly, even though I have yet to see if any letters can arrive from Afghanistan but I think that has more to do with Drew's lack of writing than the mail system, and we are bombarded with news about the war.  I am very lucky that Drew is not directly involved in combat situations because I don't actively worry about him everyday.  I trust that he is in God's hands.  But, there have been a few times when I didn't hear from Drew for a few days and I began to get worried.  So I scoured the Afghanistan news websites to see if there was any bad news from Drew's district.  Thankfully, there wasn't.

But I got to thinking...if I lived in a time when there was not accessible internet or Skype, and I only heard from Drew every few weeks by letter, I wouldn't really know when to be worried.  Maybe I'd be worried all of the time or maybe I would just live my life the best I can over here because I wouldn't have the luxury of rushing to the Internet to look for the latest news.  It would just be normal if I didn't hear from him for a few weeks at a time.  Maybe my arms wouldn't ache so much from wanting to reach out and touch him as I look at him on my computer screen.  Maybe I wouldn't feel quite as lonely after I say goodnight to him but roll over to an empty bed because I would have gotten used to being on my own.  I'm not saying it would be easier to go back to the old days because I don't know if it would.  And I wouldn't trade being able to Skype with Drew for anything.  But, it's hard.  It's hard trying to live your life everyday with half of your heart on the other side of the world.  I just think it's hard no matter what, though.  

Unbelizeable

It has been really hard these past few months with Drew gone, but I have definitely been spoiled with all of the traveling and fun things I've been doing.  Now I have one more fantastic experience to add to the list.  Drew's sister, Maggie, and I went down to Belize and Guatemala last week.  We had such a fabulous time!  It was the first visit for both of us to Belize and we absolutely loved it.  It is such an easy country to travel in - the people are so nice, everyone speaks English (it used to be a British colony), they accept U.S. dollars everywhere, there is so much delicious fresh fruit, and there is tons of excursioning to be done!

We spent three nights in the jungle near San Ignacio, which is right on the Guatemala border.  We stayed in an eco-lodge with cute little cabins, hammocks everywhere, a view overlooking the river and tons of wildlife.  From there we went on a hike (and saw a tarantula!), took a side trip to Guatemala to see the breathtaking Maya ruin, Tikal, and did quite a bit of relaxing.

Our jungle cabin - it was so dark at night!  I woke up in the middle of the night and
thought I was blind because I couldn't even see my own hand.

A little cribbage with river views and some Belikins (the national beer of Belize)

Amazing Tikal ruins rising up out of the jungle

The second half of our trip was a bit derailed by Tropical Storm/Hurricane Ernesto.  We had planned to go out to the islands off the northern coast of Belize, but they were evacuated due to the storm so instead we headed down to the beaches in the south - a little place called Placencia.  I think our last-minute trip ended up even more wonderfully than we could have planned.  We stayed two nights at a lovely little guesthouse (where the owner baked us fresh chocolate chip cookies!) that was right in the town.  We rode our bikes into town, tried out all of the local restaurants and enjoyed watching the Olympics.  For our last two nights we moved to a hotel right on the beach with a swimming pool, its own dock and the best restaurant in Belize.  It was truly perfect.  We wished we could have stayed about three more months there.  It was a wonderful trip!  I had so much fun traveling with you, Maggie.  Can't wait until next August!  

Placencia Village

View from our room - couldn't get much better!

Rhode Island Bound

Wow!  I've been a huge blogger slacker lately.  I guess I've just been so busy vacationing and having fun that I didn't budget in any time to blog - yikes!

Well, it's official.  We will be heading to Newport, Rhode Island in October!  We are very excited with this new post.  Drew will be teaching at the Naval Justice School there.  I think it will be a really good fit for him, and he's very excited about it.  Hopefully I'll be able to find a job quickly.  I'm not exactly looking forward to taking another bar, but not much I can do about that.  We will be there for three years, so we are excited to settle down and make our home there together.  We've already been looking up rentals and are looking for a place with three bedrooms so that we will have plenty of room for visitors.  So start planning to come visit us!!

Did Somebody Say Fiesta?!

Since Friday (the 13th) marked my last birthday as a twenty-something, I decided to celebrate in style.  Mexican style, that is.  Me and two of my dearest friends, Lindsay and Sarah, went down to Cabo for the week.  The three of us took a trip to Cabo after we graduated college, which was 7 years ago!!  I know, we're so old.  It was definitely a different trip this time - a lot less glitter tank tops, dancing and looking for trouble.  A lot more spa treatments, card games, reading and relaxing poolside.  But the same amount of laughs, chats and just enjoying being together.  It was a wonderful week!  Wish I could have stayed down there longer!!

The gorgeous view from our balcony

Getting golf-carted around our resort - flying first class

Lindsay and I decided to take a Cabo Adventure and ride some camels.  Yes, you read that right, I said that we rode camels in Mexico!  Camels are definitely not indigenous to Mexico.  In fact, the camels that we rode came from Texas.  Our adventure package included a nature walk, a camel ride, tortilla making, a delicious Mexican lunch and tequila tasting.  It was definitely an adventure!  I have to say that it was pretty awesome to ride a camel while looking out at the Pacific Ocean.  Not many people can say they've done that...

Pre-camels

Our luxury ride

Salud!!

Our camel was named Slim - pretty cute, huh?  Him, not us.

Other than the camel ride, we only ventured out of our hotel one evening.  We really are old ladies!  We went to one of the resorts associated with our hotel for a Mexican Fiesta.  There was a delicious buffet with especially amazing desserts (somebody who will remain nameless ate 6 desserts single-handedly!), dancing and a gorgeous view for our dining pleasure.

My girls

Here's to our Cabo trip in another 7 years, girls.  Love you! 

Happy First of July!

I love the month of July!  First and foremost, it's my birthday month.  Second, I really like the Fourth of July holiday for some reason.  It always makes me so proud to be an American (slightly cheesy, I know, and I hope some of you were singing the rest of the song in your head with me) and so proud of my hubby and all the others like him that are serving our country.  Also, let's be honest, I really like the food associated with holidays and there's nothing like some tasty barbecued hamburgers and hot dogs, potato salad and watermelon.  Can't wait!  Also, July always makes me really feel like it's summer.  So, summer is here!  Yay!

This past weekend my wonderful sister-in-law, Angela, came to California for a whirlwind trip.  We managed to get so much done in such a short period of time.  We worked on cleaning out the hutch in my parent's dining room that was full of a lot of stuff.  For those of you that don't know, my mom collected salt and pepper shakers.  She had SO many - 76 sets in total!  We each kept a few of them, but also gave quite a few away.  She had so many cute and fun ones.  I kept a Christmas/Coke one that has Santa and a little dog standing by a fireplace, an set of elephants standing under a tree and a pair of London guards that Drew had brought back for my mom.  I'm really happy about the ones that I kept.  It was sad to go through all of her stuff and donate a lot of it; in fact, we actually dropped off some dishes at Goodwill and then I started crying on the way back home so we turned around and took some back.  At least they didn't make me buy them back!  I was so thankful that Angela was here to help me with this task.  I couldn't have done it without her.  Love you, sissy!

June Bugs!

Drew asked me the other day if I was trying to tell him something because I've been sending him so many kid pictures.   But the truth really is that I've just been hanging out with so many cute little munchkins that I can't help sharing the cuteness.  I'm at the stage in life when a lot of my friends and cousins are having kids of their own now and I'm just so glad that I get to spend so much time with them all.  It's going to be sad when we move away again and I have to miss seeing them grow up.  I'm just trying to soak it all up while I can.

In mid-June, my beautiful cousin Marianne and her husband, Josh, graduated from veterinary school from UC Davis.  I couldn't be more proud of them and I felt so honored to be able to make it up there for the graduation.  It was such a nice weekend hanging out with my family.  And I got to meet the newest member of the Charles family, little Naomi Marie Charles.  Take a look at all of these cute pictures, and just tell me if you wouldn't be sharing them too?!

Abby & her daddy 

Naomi Marie

Abby & her Auntie M

Naomi & her proud grandpa

And since I can't post only kid pictures, here are some pictures from the graduation.  I had never been to Davis before, but Marianne gave us a wonderful tour of the vet school - it is spectacular.  We even got to see the horses, cows & llamas.  So cool!  Now we have two doctors of veterinary medicine in our family.  Congrats!

Dr. Marianne Krumheuer! 

Family train ride through Old Town Sacramento!