Summer lovin', had me a blast!

With my last day at work being in June and Blake having liberty from training until August, we enjoyed seven amazing weeks off together this summer. We spent a lot of time at home relaxing, sorting through our stuff, and just hanging out, but we also worked on our DC bucket list - everything we wanted to do before we left, possibly for good. Even though I'd been in DC for ten years and Blake for five, there was still a pretty good list of things remaining, or that we wanted to do again.

At the National Bureau of Printing & Engraving, how tall are you in dollars?

National Bureau of Printing & Engraving. We also went to the National Postal Museum that day apparently did not take any pictures.

Uncle Slam! I didn't know he was doing a #1 sign.  Oops!

For the third year running, I sang the National Anthem for a Potomac Nationals game, the local minor league team. This year, without even auditioning, they offered me Memorial Day, my birthday, or two other dates of less consequence. I chose Memorial Day. That afternoon, they also emailed me and asked if I'd sing "God Bless America" during the 7th inning stretch. Of course! And then as I was on deck for that, they asked if I was going to sing "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" too. Sure! The links are to my videos from that night.

We only had time for one camping trip this year, to Lake Anna State Park, but we made it worth it, including foil dinner pizzas (Blake's idea).

This is a peppermint Joe-Joe s'more. 

We also tried this with Peeps. It was a lot of sugar.

Malcolm warmed up our bed.

And once the bugs started bugging us, we took our games inside.

The Twilight Tattoo at Fort Myer-Henderson was not what we expected, but in a good way!

I directed the ward roadshow, and Blake happily played our villain.

We ran our sixth mud run, our second Ice Cream Race!

Friends visiting from Pennsylvania were a good excuse to work on our dining bucket list. This time was Good Stuff Eatery. 

We looked at the Sun in the middle of the day.

Found a new dog park for Malcolm

Watched our last DC 4th of July fireworks - The ducks that were swimming by when they started were none too pleased and it was highly amusing to watch them sharply turn, as a big group, and swim toward our shore. "Nope, nope, nope, nope, nope."

Refinished a hutch we bought while we were engaged.

Flower Library! We took a morning walk around the monuments to facilitate picking up tickets for going to the top of the Washington Monument at sunset later that night. The evening was beautiful too, but we're not sure where our photos went, so I'll just have to keep those in my heart.

Vintage Game Night at Woodrow Wilson's house! A friend from college, in the floral on the left, and I got to see each other a few times again this summer, and this is one of those times. 

NRA Firearms Museum

I dyed my hair blue! I'd wanted to for a long time, and being semi-retired was the perfect time!

And blue hair is a great excuse for dressing up as Tonks at a Harry Potter and the Cursed Child release party, where I won third place in the costume contest.

And of course we visited the newest panda baby, Bei-Bei, who was enjoying snuggles with his mom.

We managed to hit a lot of new and old favorites. I miss DC a lot, but we did a great job of bidding it farewell.

Shipping up to Boston!

After Blake graduated from Officer Development School, we got to explore Newport, Rhode Island - a charming city steeped in old money. Families like the Kennedys and Rockefellers all had homes there. We did the Cliff Walk and checked out several of the houses from the outside.

The Breakers

We also took advantage of the base's proximity to Boston and spent a couple days exploring the city. I had only been to Boston for a few hours in 2006 for a BYU football game (I flew there and back on the same day), Blake had visited once during ODS, and none of our parents had really spent significant time there. We enjoyed dragging my parents and his dad around and walking the Freedom Trail. 

Faneuil Hall - Rallies for the Revolution were held here

Old North Church

USS Constitution - Oldest actively commissioned ship in the US Navy and the only currently serving ship to have destroyed an enemy ship in direct combat.

Make Way For Ducklings! I loved this book as a kid, so I was delighted to hunt for the statue.

Boston LDS Temple!

My mom loves lilacs and I love my mom, so it was fitting that I could take her to the Lilac Festival at the Harvard Arboretum on Mother's Day. It was also nice not to have share her with any other siblings.

Yay parents!

Of course, we noshed on delicious food including pastries, Italian, and some sort of Korean noodle dish. It was a quick weekend, and a bit of an adventure taking a car to a train to an Uber to a plane to another Uber just to get home, but we made it. As Blake says, Disney movies have been made about less.

Thanks Blake for graduating in such a cool part of the country!

Take a break, run away with us for the summer

 For the past three school years (2013-2016), I was the head librarian for private Islamic school run by the Saudi Arabian government. Okay, so I was also the only librarian, but they gave me that job title, so I ran with it.

A most perfect t-shirt from my mother-in-law

Overall, it was an amazing three years. I learned a LOT (being a solo librarian who trains herself on a lot of things is becoming my jam) and had fun doing it. I went on interesting field trips, read many great books (I already enjoy reading middle grade and YA fiction, so to have a large collection at my fingertips that I could then discuss with my students was fantastic), and made some good friends - students and colleagues alike.

I was never planning to be a school librarian, but  this position sort of fell into my lap at just the right time and it turned out to be just what I needed.

For a little while.

When I took the job, I felt pretty quickly like I wouldn't be there forever. I wanted to give it everything I could, but only as long as I needed to. Being a school job, it was going to be natural to leave in between school years, and it turned out that's what I needed to do this year.

Even more conveniently, the school was actually closing and another was opening in its place in a different part of the county. It was the perfect time for me to close the doors and let someone else open the new ones. Several of my colleagues and students were going to the new school, but a lot of us didn't for a lot of reasons, and it was really refreshing to leave on good terms and on my own terms. I had put a lot of work into the last three years and I felt really good about how I had curated the collection (it went to the new school) and what I had been able to teach my students.

So, in June of this year, I became what I am calling a semi-retired librarian. I don't need to work - we've lived on one income our entire marriage and now it's Blake's turn. In fact, my contract ran out in August, just as his started up, so it was a rather seamless financial transition.

I would like to work again at some point, but I've enjoyed the last few months of not having to. I've had other things to work on, least of all preparing to move to Japan and now settling in here. Sometime, probably soon, I'll look for positions locally or online that are either directly, or indirectly, a match for my skills and interests! It will keep me busy and help fund our adventures and paying down of student debt. If you have any ideas or opportunities, I'm all ears.

In the meantime, I'm going on a walking tour of our new city tomorrow while Blake works, because I can!

We made book blizzard - the kids cut snowflakes out of coffee filters and then wrote their favorite book on them

Book Character Day and we both ended up as Professor Trelawney

This book from the 1970s did not make it to the new school

Neither did these books and a whole lot of others; I weeded like crazy.

A DC-local artist made journals out of some of the books I weeded, and I got this one as a gift.

I have a love/hate relationship with book fairs myself, but the kids absolutely loved them.

It's always fun when grandpa comes

I'm a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, also known as the Mormons. When possible on Sundays, I discuss some things related to my faith and what I believe. With respect to your own beliefs, I hope this gives you a chance to get to know me and my religion a little better. For previous installments, click here.

When my grandparents sold the house they had lived in for more than 40 years in Washington state and moved to Utah, it was because they wanted to be closer to more of their family. Three of their four children (and their spouses), 14 of their 16 grandchildren (and any of their spouses), and most of their great-grandchildren lived there. Any of their surviving siblings also live in Utah or Nevada. So, it made sense to finally make it back down to Utah.

First, in the summer of 2013, they requested that as many of their progeny as possible could make the trip to visit their home in Washington one more time. All their kids and most of the next two generations were able to go, including us. I really enjoyed showing Blake around their little town and the places I'd loved on the occasions I had been able to visit.

While it was sad for them to say goodbye to Washington themselves, the move to Utah was a good one. Grandpa especially seemed to find a little more energy when he was around his great-grandchildren. My parents finally finished turning my sister's room into the guest room especially so that when my grandparents made the two hour trek south to visit, they could stay overnight and not drive back in the dark.

My parents also started arranging monthly double dates with my grandparents, often seasonal things, so they could spend more quality time together, aside from all the other visits and frequent family gatherings.

Everyone loved having my grandparents so close - even me. We got to see them when we were in Utah ourselves, and it's a nice treat to have a surprise grandparent around when I FaceTime or call my family.

Sadly, in February of this year, after 81 years on this earthly home, Heavenly Father needed my Grandpa in his heavenly home even more. From the time we realized it was time for him to go to his actually passing was mercifully short, but we had enough time to say goodbye. When I FaceTimed with him the last time, he couldn't vocally respond, but it was evident he knew it was me and that I loved him. He passed quietly at home, with my grandmother in the room, and my sister and her family and my parents down the hall.

Gratefully, I was able to take bereavement leave and be in Utah for the funeral. As these things usually are, it was a happy/sad occasion, and incredibly beautiful.  It was fun to share stories of Grandpa's life and touching to share in some the mercies and experiences surrounding his passing. I so enjoyed singing, crying, and laughing with my family.

I was also able to be present for the final steps in dressing his body, which I didn't expect to be part of. As with many faiths, LDS people have a very specific way of preparing the body for burial and it was an honor to be there for it.

Grandpa served two years in the Army, and received a military burial. His grandsons and grandsons-in-law served as the pall bearers and the three that were unable to attend were all for military reasons (two were actively serving and Blake was in final preparations to report). I rode next to my grandmother in the car to and from the burial site, another honor for me.

As much as I miss Grandpa, even more than my paternal grandparents I wasn't as close with, I truly believe in life after this one and that I will see him again. A couple of days ago, I was walking from the train station to main base and had the thought "Grandpa didn't live long enough to know we were moving to Japan." It was immediately followed by a second thought, "He knows." Whether it was me or the Spirit who thought that, it doesn't matter. Grandpa knows and loves me and is proud of both Blake and me.

I was his #1 grandkid. He told me so frequently, because I'm the oldest, and I could pretend meant that I was also his favorite. He loved my grandma very much, and served as a positive father figure to my own father. He is still a wonderful man and I look forward to seeing him again someday.

Lend me your comb it's time to go home

Blake looks really good with a beard.

Of course, he looks really good without a beard. And he looks really good with the scruff in between. In short, I think my husband is really handsome no matter what.

But I really like his beard.

When we were first dating, I could actually tell what day it was by how much scruff Blake had. He'd shave only on Sundays, so his growth pattern was pretty regular. I could even look at a photo and say "Ah, yes, that must have been a Thursday."

Then in his second year of law school, Blake discovered wet shaving with a double-edge razor and fell in love. He wanted a new, inexpensive hobby and he felt the need to shave more regularly to look professional, so shaving became his thing. He even wrote a blog about the different blades and soaps and things he would use.

He ultimately loved shaving so much that he literally wrote the book on the subject.

Okay, maybe not THE book, but A book, and it's one of two (that I know of) dedicated (in whole or part) to me, so that's pretty cool.

Still, I missed his beard. At least once or twice he'd take a break from shaving for a few weeks, and I'd get to see it, but it wasn't a regular thing.

So we made a deal. If he got accepted by JAG and really had to start shaving everyday for the next several years, he'd grow me a JAG beard.

So, once he'd commissioned and we finished our Christmas road trip, he stopped shaving for a few months.

The last day of the beard

Sadly, as many things do, it had to come to an end and a few days before he reported for ODS, he shaved it all off. Of course, I miss it sometimes, but he has a pretty cool job and we live in a pretty cool place, so the trade off was worth it.

It's easy when you're big in Japan

One of the reasons we were drawn to military service was the potential for living in a variety of places. International would be particularly interesting, but since we'd already both left our home states years earlier, we were game for living anywhere.

First Tour JAGs in the Navy are generally assigned to one of twelve duty stations around the world, with offices large enough to support six month rotations in the four main offices of Navy law for a total of two years. We were asked to put together a dream sheet, a list of those twelve stations in prioritized order of where we would like to live.

Some people research their options and take a lot of time considering it all. We did things a lot more quickly. Two of the locations were international, so those were immediately at the top of our list. If not now, when? I'd already lived and traveled abroad, and Blake had been to Mexico for 45 minutes once, so of course we wanted to see what the wide world held for us. Number one for us was Naples, Italy, at Blake's request. Number two was Japan.

The remaining ten were in the United States. We put locations in Washington and California closer to the top, since they'd be close to family. The four options in Florida and some other places I've since forgotten went in no particular order in the middle, and staying in DC became number eleven, above living north of Chicago because that just sounded way too cold.

This was around January 2016. We knew we wouldn't hear until summer, and we figured that no matter where we ended up, we would make it work. If we hated it, we would only be there for two years.

On the afternoon of May 10th, we were sitting on the couch watching Once I Was a Beehive (delightful, by the way). I had taken a couple days off work to enjoy having Blake home after five weeks away. Blake got a phone call, so we paused the film. It sounded like his detailer was asking questions about how ODS went, so I hopped online to kill time.

Soon, Blake started saying "okay" several times and then grabbed my phone and typed "japan" in the middle of whatever URL was on the page. I silently freaked out until he was off the phone. I had taken Japanese in high school and fallen a little bit in love with the language and culture, so it was technically the top of my list.

Apparently, his detailer, after asking about ODS, had started telling him, apologetically, why we would not be going to Italy this time. There were no billets available, etcetera and so forth, and Blake realized that they wouldn't have gone on so much about our second choice if we weren't going to our second! As soon as his suspicions were confirmed, he told me!

After happy dancing around our apartment for a few minutes, we called our families and shared the news - Yokosuka, Japan! It would be a few more days before we realized it's pronounced Yo-ko-ska, long O, short A, skip the U. I may have taken Japanese, but it's been a long time, and I'm rusty. Now I have excuses to brush up again!

We celebrated that night by attending the Navy Appreciation game of the Washington Nationals. We were already planning to go and it seemed extra fitting after that phone call.

The move ultimately wouldn't be for five more months, but the wait has been worth it so far!

Just grab a friend and take a ride upon the open road!

Since I moved to DC, I have yet to spend a Christmas in my own home. I always felt it was worth it to travel to family, whether it be in Utah or London/Paris. When I married Blake, I added Arizona to the rotation and we spent Christmas there in 2012 and 2014 and in Utah in 2013. In the autumn of 2015, we were still in a holding pattern whilst we waited on the Navy. We didn't know how soon they'd call or how quickly he'd need to get somewhere when they did. So, we decided to hold off on buying plane tickets for Christmas, just in case we'd have to cancel our trip at the last minute.

Instead, because we ultimately had two weeks off together between semesters for him and work for me and we finally knew he didn't have to be anywhere for the Navy just yet, we decided to make a road trip of it. By this point, we'd already put more than 2,000 miles on the car in the first half of the month, why not add another 6,000?

On the 19th of December, we loaded Malcolm up in back seat and set off on our way. Our goal on the way out was just get there as fast as we could. We'd stop for pit stops and sleep, but otherwise we powered through. We spent our first night in Nashville with my uncle and his wife. They'd had dogs before, so Malcolm was welcome too. It was a quick visit, but we're grateful for their hospitality. Our second night we spent somewhere in Colorado at a hotel we picked once we got tired.

This was the moment I got my first "Mom, are we there yet?" Sorry dude, it was only day one.

Our third and final road day got us to my parents' house in Orem, Utah, about 30 minutes before the traditional Christmas Family Home Evening my mom has worked out with her Utah-dwelling siblings and my cousins. I'd suggested this night so that we could see as much of our family as possible in one go, and I didn't make it to this event regularly anyway. Since we came from the farthest away, anyone who was late didn't have any excuses we were willing to listen to. ;)

The highlight for Malcolm on the first leg of the trip was a fantastic, huge, well-equipped dog park we found in Kansas City, Missouri. He had so much fun running and playing in the middle of a long day and we're glad he stayed out of the muddy spots.

The highlight upon reaching Orem was the fresh foot of snow in my parents' backyard. Malcolm LOVED running around in it, even more so when my brother's dog came over and they ran around together.

The lowlight was toward the end of the FHE, when the last stragglers were leaving and Malcolm (who is usually very well behaved at doors) decided to leave too. Blake bolted after him with naught but socks on his feet, and I bolted after the both of them with Blake's shoes on my feet. Losing my black dog in the dark was not high on my agenda for this trip, and it was made worse when I reached the top of the hill my parents live on and saw the expanse of the valley below. Fortunately, someone in my parents' neighborhood has backyard chickens and I managed to corner him behind their pen. We knew Malcolm wasn't running away from us, just exploring and being the dog he is, and even though we were mad, we were mostly relieved to have him back.

Christmas in Orem was wonderful. It was lovely to be there for my nephew's first Christmas and enjoy some good family time. We also enjoyed our first trip together to Temple Square in Salt Lake City to see all the lights.

Snuggle time at my parents'

I'm glad I took the time to go visit them and got this photo, because my grandpa passed away in February.

We made a game of Temple Square Bingo, pointing out super obvious stereotypical happenings.

We could have all just given him tissue paper for Christmas, and he would have been happy.

Nephew or Dinosaur?

On the 26th, we made our way to Arizona. It was my father-in-law's 60th birthday that week, so we were able to attend the party in his honor and spend some good time with Blake's family, both nuclear and extended, as well. Blake's three siblings, two of the siblings-in-law, and two nieces were also in Arizon for the occasion and staying with his parents, which made things cozy, but we worked it out.

To say my FIL LOVES Pepsi is probably an understatement

We also did a DIY Color Run. They sent us the kits, so a bunch of us went down to the middle school track and either walked or ran the entire 5K (or played around in the field, because they were 2, 4, or their parents) and then threw colored chalk at each other. Even Malcolm got a little on him. It was a blast.

After a few days in the warm Arizona winter, we decided to take a more southern route home, mostly following the I-10. On our way, we met up with friends in Austin, Texas, for lunch and stopped for New Year's Eve in my old hometown of Beaumont, Texas, where I lived for eight years. I navigated Blake around a tour of my old neighborhoods, ate Church's chicken for dinner, and we called it a night on DC time to watch the ball drop and get a little extra sleep.

Lunched here in New Mexico. Yummy onion rings!

The original border of the US and Mexico

Texas State Capitol

McFaddin-Ward House in Beaumont, built in 1906 - I was a Junior Interpreter here for 2 years

Jefferson Theater in Beaumont - where I made my theatrical debut!

The next day, after showing Blake a couple more Beaumont sites, we met up with another uncle of mine and his partner and a friend of theirs for lunch in Mississippi. Even though they said it wasn't the most authentic, the Cajun food we had was good enough for us.

Also on our way home, we visited some sites from Blake's mission, the Florida Tallahassee mission. He'd actually spent most of it in Alabama, but we got to see some places he loved, including an apartment that missionaries still use and a chapel where we ran into the missionaries that use that apartment still (and they caught Blake up with mission news while I availed myself of the facilities). Once we hit Jacksonville, we took a sharp turn north on I-95 and headed home.

Malcolm can't read

It was an incredible two weeks. Malcolm was a rock star about being in the car that much. Whether it was the disruption of his routine, all the extra food our families kept sneaking him, or both, we don't know, but he did get a little sick on the way back. Once we were home and things got back to normal though, so did he.

Blake drove the entire way.

I may have driven a little in Utah for something, but that would have been it. Overall, we drove though 23 states! The cost was probably comparable to two plane tickets home, but way more of an adventure. I was once told that road trips will make or break a relationship, and I think Blake and I are going to be happy together for a very long time.

Anchors aweigh, my boys!

Sometime while we were dating in the summer of 2012, before he started law school, Blake and I were walking around the National Harbor and heard a military band playing in a gazebo near the water. I couldn't tell you which group it was specifically, I think Marines, but it was lovely. While we stopped and listened, Blake told me he was thinking of becoming a JAG, or member of the Judge Advocate General Corps. In other words, a military lawyer.

Immediately, this sounded like an interesting idea to me. I didn't know much about what it would entail, but I liked the idea of potentially moving all over the world. It wouldn't be the crazy, competitive hours of Big Law or working for table scraps as an ambulance chaser, or some other less appealing (to us) lawyer path. I encouraged him to continue thinking about it and pursue it if that's what he wanted. I was at a career crossroads anyway (*cough* unemployed *cough*), so why not?

A year later, with two semesters of law school and a summer internship on Capitol Hill under his belt, Blake started an internship with Coast Guard JAG headquarters. They liked him so much that he stayed on for a second semester (in a slightly different office down the hall) and ended up working there his entire second year of law school. And he loved it.

By this time, some JAG programs will accept student applications from lawyers in their second year of school, so thus began the official application process. He started a different internship with the TSA, so we also considered a variety of federal lawyer jobs during this time.

Seven applications to four branches of the military (everyone except Marines) and almost another year later, we got word that Navy wanted Blake, but he'd have to be on wait list. We found out just before he graduated, so it was nice to have something to tell our parents while they were visiting. We knew it almost definitely meant he would get off the wait list and get an official commission, we just didn't know when. We were willing to go with whichever branch of service picked us up first, because they all had pros and cons, but as a granddaughter of a Navy fighter pilot, I was always rooting a little harder for Navy.

So Blake took the summer to study for the Bar exam and then continued work on his Masters degree. He was in a joint Juris Doctorate/Masters of Public Policy program and while many classes during law school had counted for both, he still had two semesters left. So, while I kept working, he went back to school, applied to various jobs as interesting ones popped up, and we waited for the wait list.

In November 2015, we finally got the call! Once again, we didn't know exactly when it would happen, but the Navy officially wanted him. And soon.

During our whirlwind Baltimore>NYC>Richmond week in December, the call we got about Virginia Beach the next Monday was an invitation to officially receive his commission into the Navy and swear in as an Ensign.

And then we waited some more. Blake finished his last semester of his MPP a few weeks early (thanks American University for working with him!) and reported to Naval Station Newport in Rhode Island for five weeks for Officer Development School. It's kind of basic training light, but still a challenging and interesting month. I held down the fort in DC, and we missed each other a lot, but we talked as often as we could (usually at least a text a day, call every few days, and Skype once a week) and the time went by quickly.

They had flood training, because if the ship is going down, even the lawyers (and other officers) should be able to do more than push paperwork.

They stood in line a lot.

Like really a lot

The first weekend in May, my parents and his dad (sadly, his mom had to work), met me in Boston, and we all got to go to his graduation. I'm not complaining about the first time seeing my husband in uniform in person was in his dress whites.

Blake come home with me, I wrapped up my job (more on that later this month), and we enjoyed seven weeks off together - visiting family, working on our DC bucket list, and just relaxing. It was amazing.

Then at the beginning of August, Blake reported back to NAVSTA Newport for ten weeks of Naval Justice School, or military law school, and promote to Lieutenant Junior Grade. Once again, I stayed in DC, but this time he lived in a hotel instead of barracks and we got to video chat at least once a day. We also visited each other once each.

He graduated on October 14 in Rhode Island, flew back to DC that night, and we left for Japan on October 15.

Ultimately, it's been a combination of lots of waiting plus sudden bouts of craziness and do this now!, but it's worked out so far! I'm so proud of Blake and his hard work in making this dream come true! 

Guess who's back? Back again!

Hello friends. It's November - National Blog Posting Month (NaBloPoMo). The glorious time of year when no matter how much or how little I've kept up this blog during the rest of the year, I will attempt to blog every day for a month.

I miss blogging. I miss writing. So this is a really good reason for me to get back into it.

I know I haven't written much for awhile - only one post in June and one in January. But this year was what Blake and I call a snow globe year. It's the type of year where everything gets shaken up and stirred around and then you have to figure it all out again as the pieces settle down around you.

2012 was a snow globe year. I lost the job I moved to D.C. for; Blake started law school; we met and ultimately got married. So much changed, but all of it was for the better, one way or another.

2016 is definitely another snow globe year for our little family. Once again, just about everything has changed and we are once again trying to figure it all out as the pieces settle around us.

Because Japan.

In case you only follow my life by reading my blog and didn't already know, the short version of 2016 is that Blake joined the United States Navy and we moved to Japan.

The long version is what I will spend the rest of month filling you in on. It's a story I look forward to telling! So, buckle your seatbelts, kids. We're in for a ride!