Category Archives: Moi

Lazy days of summer…

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On Friday after graduation my love took me to my favorite place for a graduation lunch. Puerto Sherry, Blanca Paloma, my happy place. I’ve mentioned it a time or two.

This is the place my heart will always think of when I think back to my time here. I just love it.

 

Oh and my favorite yummy, delicious salad. Ensalada Spagnola. Fresh mozzarella and pesto. Yes please.

And little Omar and I have been splitting this as well, the provolone and feta bruschetta.

And Omar gets some version of the pizza… ham and mushroom this time…

The rest of the day was spent hanging out at home. Got Omar’s sea bag packed so that is ready to go for the plane. I was giving him a hard time wondering if he even remember how to pack a sea bag because it’s been so long since he’s had to do it!  He does need some new uniforms as he can get by with less than what is required here but we can buy those in Hawaii.

Also made of list of EVERYTHING else I need to try and get done in the next few days, lots of checking out things.  Still stressing out about the dog situation. Just hoping everything goes okay with getting him on all three airplanes, picking him up, and dropping him off at the pet sitter.

Rented “Wanderlust” off of iTunes… Paul Rudd and Jennifer Aniston, I really expected more of you. It was one of those movies where most of the funny parts were shown in the preview. Omar did make a comment that I was a likely candidate for a commune after I made a remark about how they were living sustainably. Whatever.

Saturday we ALL slept in and it was wonderful, in fact I almost overslept for my hair appointment. I woke up at 9:40 for a 10am appt! Out the door in 5 minutes and still had time to grab a caramel macchiatto from the coffee shop next to the salon! Was just getting highlights and a trim, the girl left the color on for a bit longer than I would have liked so it’s pretty blonde when I really just wanted caramel.  Omar says it looks good and he’s not one to sugarcoat my hair choices! It’ll work for summer, especially since I am moving to the land of endless summer…

I had to stop and do some shopping for a baby shower I was going to this afternoon (what, I almost ALWAYS shop the day of a party, it’s terrible I know!) I swear, nothing makes me want to have another baby like shopping in the infant girls section.  (And no, no more babies for us, we are done!)

I was shopping for a gift for this lovely lady Amber. She is having her second baby, her first girl! She is such a great person, always smiling and happy!  We used to work together, she quit before I did so she could relax for the rest of her pregnancy. We had lots of fun friends there, and TONS of food. Oh my, the hostess outdid herself. I must have had three helpings of berry trifle!

(I want that dress in my size! Seriously, how adorable is that!) Congrats Amber! Wish I was going to be here to meet your baby girl!

Better late than never: I’m a Graduate!

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Hooray! So glad to say I am a college graduate. Seriously, to all those people who think it’s too late, it’s not! Get your butt (back) into college! And all those people who were getting their graduate degrees? I was so jealous! It really did make me want to get into school as soon as we are settled in Hawaii… Master’s Degree here I come!

 

(notice the serious look? I was SO hot! Between my spanx and the polyester gown I was dying!)

Thank you for my piece of paper Hospital CO!

Didn’t even stop to cheese! Honestly I was just thinking to myself – “don’t trip, don’t trip!”

 

Me and the family! They are so supportive and Mckenna knows to get your degree done ASAP! Don’t be like mom!

Also here is a little side by side comparison from last year:

Our super snazzy cake that I couldn’t wait around to eat… I was ready to go out to lunch and didn’t want to wait 20 minutes for the food to get opened. Commissary cake I’ll have to make due without you!

Me and some of my fellow graduates…

 

Six More Years…

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This is both something to celebrate and kinda sign over at the same time. My husband reenlisted for six more years in the Navy. Which – yay!- means he has a job for six more years! But also means the Navy owns him for six more years. Or actually, more realistically 10 more because he’ll probably stay in and retire.  The Navy has been good to us over the past 10 years, yeah it was a little tough when we first got in, but now we are comfortable, moving, deployments, all that stuff is just something we got used to as part of his job. It’s part of our life now. I could never have imagined where this decade has led us in the Navy, we kinda figured we would ride out 4 or 6 or 8 years in Norfolk. Staying in for 20 was never really in the cards, neither was living overseas. Now I just have to sit back and see what surprises the next 10 years brings. I am so very, very proud of my sailor and the sacrifices he has made.

Now, onto the reenlistment ceremony!

As cheesy as it is, I really wanted to be at at least ONE ceremony of his! I have never been at a reenlistment or frocking (promotion) ceremony before so I skipped out on a few hours of work to come hang out.

Thankfully I was able to do a quick and easy catering job courtesy of the local commissary!

 

And before you get to reenlist you actually have to get kicked out… Here he is getting an honorable discharge.

For those few seconds between getting kicked out and reenlisting, he was a free man! Pretty much all the jokes have been made, trying to run, jokingly cussing out a superior, etc…

Swearing back in… Why hello PAO, that is a nice ring you have there!

 

Making it official and signing his life away for six. more. years!

So thankful that one of the MC’s got this picture. We have SO few pictures of just the two of us!

Photo sesh!

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Okay, so these are some photos one of my friends took of me in my fancy feria outfit! Carolyn is an insanely talented photographer and I had SO much fun with her!

If you are in Rota, look her up! Andros Photography.

 

 

And then pulled my family in for a quick shot!

Ending the day on a low note…

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This morning I started out positively sad about our pending move. I am ready to dig my heels in and just stay here a little while longer. It didn’t help that it got up to a gorgeous 85 degrees today, nice and sunny with summer right around the corner.

Then…

I have to listen to yet ANOTHER person complaining about how much they hate this base. I am so over it. While we chose to move here there are those people who didn’t have a choice. Or maybe this base just wasn’t what they had in mind. But to LOUDLY complain about practically every aspect of the base, not a good enough selection at the commissary/exchange, not enough for kids to do, not enough child care options, it just annoyed the crap out of me!

We don’t live in America, we live in Spain. There might possibly come a point where you have to pull up your big girl panties and step off base! Amazingly there are stores in Spain that sell food and clothing! Cute clothing in fact! And the complaints you have about having to pay for it in euro? What the hell do you think that COLA is for??? It was just super annoying and I took it personally as I feel like I am a representative of the child care on base and that she was picking on me personally.  Even though she wasn’t, and at this point in time I really don’t care. I think it sad that instead of spending your time enjoying a place that some people save up and vacation to, all you can complain about is how horrible everything is.

And the other day someone told me they hated it here because there was no WalMart. I. Just. Don’t. Get. It. You would rather shop at a trashy big box store (that has a twin here in Spain called Carrefour!!!!) than live here? Is buying stuff, random stuff that you don’t need and are only buying because you are bored, really THAT important to you?

Ending rant now, just had to get that out there. If you are moving to Spain, please be aware that it is a totally different country because apparently there are some people who think it should be ‘little America’. I swear if I hear the phrase “…at our LAST base…” one more time…

And here come all of the feria posts…

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Feria is the Spanish equivalent of a county fair. They originated from trading posts and have evolved into a big celebration with horse show, fair rides and tons of food. Different organizations set up casetas or tents and sell food and drinks as well.

At work we have our own feria for the kids. Each class has been working on some dance steps to the traditional Sevillana dance.  Everyone dresses up in feria attire, similar to what most people would consider flamenco dresses.

The day started out rainy and of course we were panicking over where we were going to hold it if it was raining, but the rain cleared and the sun came out and it ended up being a beautiful afternoon.

 

Some of the decorations we hung up, most of them made by the kids in the center. We put window boxes on every window and make about a million tissue paper flowers. Also draw some gypsy bars on the windows. Makes for a very cheerful center!

 

Setting up… Thankfully this is after the rain stopped. Each classroom also decorated one of those hanging triangles for their ‘caseta’.

Hanging out in O’s class with Miss Ana before feria starts. I had so much fun getting all dressed up!

Me and M. She loved getting all dressed up in her feria dress.  I ended up taking in the sides the night before as the dress was a size too large for her. Also pinned the front of the skirt up a bit so she wouldn’t trip because it was really long.

The babies. So stinkin’ cute! They pretty much just sat there and looked adorable in their tiny dresses!

Here is one of our one year old classes. They had maracas and were dancing all over the place with them.

A TON of parents showed up, it was so much fun!

Hello blue sky and sunshine!

O was a very serious dancer.

 

Once he was all done he was smiling!

M did great, lots of skirt swirling!

Me and my two kiddos, looking all Spanish!

Me and our assistant director, Patricia. I loved her dress, it was all embroidered, beautiful!

Me with my Spanish amigas! Cristina, Cristina, Maria del Mar, Maria Jose, Luisa, Aurora and Inma.

The start of Rota and El Puerto de Santa Maria’s feria’s is this week and I can’t wait to go and take a million pictures of our last feria. This is the first year I’ve had my own dress so I am very excited over that. Plus every year we feel more and more comfortable hanging out at feria.