Saturday!

So our Easter Egg hunt was rained out so we decided to go run around town…

 

First stop: Lunch. We grabbed kebabs in El Puerto.

Clown!

 

M was journaling our day...

 

Yum. Shawarma Kebab!

 

Fries with kebab meat and sauce. I did share these with the whole family. They weren't just for me!

Then off to do some shopping at Decathlon. We actually came home empty handed because we were looking to buy a ripstick. We are all a bit obsessed with riding M’s right now. The ones they had were super pricey so we’ll probably just order from Amazon.

Decathlon!

But if there is ANYTHING you could ever need, it would be here. They have EVERY sport imaginable.

 

Horse tack, just in case.

 

I don't even know what Padel is... It's not raquetball and it's not tennis.

 

 

 

So we came away empty handed today but I think I want to go back because they had some super cute swimsuits out. Hope you had a wonderful Saturday!

 

Really? NOW it’s going to rain!

Well we are finally getting some rain after a pretty dry winter. It’s a nice change from the crazy winds we’ve been getting (levantes). We really, really, really do need the rain because it doesn’t rain from about May to September and the reservoirs need to get filled up.

But it couldn’t have come at a worse time!

Today is our big base wide Easter Egg Extravaganza and it was cancelled due to a thunderstorm warning.

The kids are disappointed but with a thunderstorm warning in effect there really isn’t anything anyone can do about it. We are hoping to reschedule it for next weekend. It’s only a pain for me because I was going to be working it so I got up early on a Saturday!

And of course everyone is just mad because it was cancelled, no matter that it was for safety reasons. Oh well you just can’t make some people happy! Meanwhile after cleaning everything up and packing it all away I got to come home earlier than I thought which was nice. Now I am going to have to try to motivate myself to get some stuff done today instead of enjoying the rain from my couch with a cup of coffee!

A not so sucky Monday

Well it started out pretty sucky.  Monday mornings are the worst because M is on the student council at school that meets an hour before school starts. An hour early. On a Monday. Worst idea ever. But because my lovely daughter must participate in Every. Activity. EVER! I indulge her and drag my butt out of bed a little early on Mondays.

But.

This Monday was also our first Daylight Savings/Spring Ahead Monday. (Spain sprung ahead two weeks after the states).

This morning didn’t go too well. Shocker I was running behind (story of my life). But I finally got my daughter ready (with the best lunch EVER! Homemade pizza lunchables) and at the door waiting for daddy to come home from PT to take her to school. (I reeeeeaaaallly don’t feel like having to get O up and ready early to drive M to school. Don’t judge me.) Well daddy is running late but finally gets there, I manage to get out of the house and to work on time.

Work=super chaos. Training a new front desk clerk and there are just too many people in my space.

Busy Monday at work and I ended up leaving for lunch 40 minutes late.

Finally get home and pull into the driveway and see my hubby and O playing frisbee in the front yard. M and I join them. M’s first throw? Frisbee on the roof. I couldn’t stop laughing. Of course. I don’t feel like starting dinner right away so I take the kids and the dog on a walk to the fruit man (Manolo who sells fruit from his van- seriously it’s not as shady as it seems. He also sells booze. I love him.) Come back, play a little more frisbee and this time I manage to throw it into a palm tree. (In my defense it has been SUPER windy and the wind just took that bad boy away.) With some ingenuity in the form of two broom handles zip-tied together manned by M on her daddy’s shoulders, we managed to get it free.

STILL didn’t feel like making dinner when we came inside so I decided to get the kids to do a quicky craft project, pinecone bird feeders. Pine cones, peanut butter and birdseed. It took five minutes, they had a great time and the bird feeders are hanging waiting for birds. I am not even sure that they will last the night with the way the wind is still blowing out there.

I REALLY wanted to go out for dinner tonight but hubby was wiped out from the time change/early PT so I made the easiest dinner ever, kielbasa, sauteed cabbage and rice pilaf. Done.

After dinner the kids flipped through old scrapbooks which reminds me of how happy I am that I make the damn things and then off to bed for them. I made a new batch of granola bites for M’s lunch this week – chocolate chip, marshmallow, walnut. We finally got those little mini marshmallow’s in a shaker. So excited for this batch!

So the not so fabulous Monday morning ended up turning into a pretty great evening. Plus I have a day date planned out for Sunday, going to go see The Hunger Games. Can’t wait!

Pre-nostalgia…

Is this even a thing?

I was at the commissary yesterday right after work to pick up a few things and it seemed like every aisle I went down had someone I knew.  I’ve never lived in a small town before and moved a LOT as a kid so I’ve never had this opportunity to really know a large part of our community.  I know it’s never going to be like this again. We are never going to live on such a small base, we are headed back to big cities with tens of thousands of people.

It is going to be so weird to have traffic again. To have to drive more than 10 minutes to get to everything relevant. To have to start over from scratch not knowing a single soul in the whole entire state of Hawaii.  I’m just so comfortable here.

I was driving around the other day and I’m already missing being here and I hate it! There is so much pressure (coming from myself) to enjoy every last second of our time here. Don’t waste any of it. We may never be back in Europe so we need to get all those ‘must-do’ trips out of the way.

I’m trying to not stress out about it and just live. Just enjoy these last few months. I’ve been trying to say ‘yes’ more when it comes to making plans.  I know that when we leave there is still going to be a HUGE list of things that I wanted to do or see or experience but that is going to be okay. I’ve loved all of the amazing things we’ve been able to do so far and moving to Hawaii is going to open up a whole new experience for us.

But damn. I really do miss it already.

Meal Plans for the Week

Trying to be better about planning meals, I’ve gotten out of the habit and now walk in the door from work at 5:45 and have no clue what I’m making for dinner (and no meat defrosted!)

So here is what is up for this week:

Sunday: BBQ ribs, mac and cheese, corn pudding, sauteed green beans

Monday: Ranch Style Chicken, mashed potatoes, brussel sprouts

Tuesday: Chicken Paprika, rice, peas

Wednesday: Out to dinner @ 100 Montaditos

Thursday: White chicken enchiladas, spanish rice, corn

Friday: Something easy, I have Bunco.

Saturday: Chicken stir fry, rice, egg rolls.

And I don’t think I can wait until this weekend to grocery shop, my fridge is looking pretty empty!  

Weekend recap…

So I ended up having a great time this weekend with some fun ladies.  I don’t know why I have to have anxiety when I am going to a function without a close friend going with me.  Everyone had a good time, there was a ton of food and the hotel was REALLY pretty. (Hotel Playa de la Luz in Rota, Spain)

I got lots of scrapbooking done, most of 2011, and would have gotten more done but I didn’t have any more pictures printed out! Waiting for my snapfish order to get here so I can finish up last year!  I did also make a couple of photo books on snapfish (I just love that site!) from our Disney cruises the past two years. I took about 500 pictures and felt like taking the lazy way out. I’ve done this before with vacations, it’s just easier!

Other than that we enjoyed some really nice weather this weekend as well. I am SO ready for it to warm up for good. As of right now we are all dressing in layers because it’s cold in the morning and then nice and warm in the afternoon.

 

I was talking with my husband this afternoon telling him about some things I want to do around the house – mainly just rearranging some furniture, maybe turning the playroom into an office.  He interrupted me and  said “You know we are going to be packing out in about three months right?” Yikes! I am SO not ready for that! I can’t wait to move to Hawaii but I didn’t realize it was coming up so soon!  I love Spain and I am really in no hurry to leave. I feel like we have so much more travelling we need to do. And I am really not ready for the whole pack-out issue. And I’m stressing over housing/moving the dog/school stuff in Hawaii. This base is so small there aren’t that many decisions to be made when you get here. There is one school and only two options for on base housing. I don’t know for some reason in my head I still felt like we had six months left. 

So time to start getting my butt into gear and planning some day trips and I think one more big trip before we leave. Maybe two. I know I really want to get to Majorca and Portugal before we leave. And I want to take a day trip to Morocco but that will have to be a girls trip because my husband has no desire to go.Â