London Calling

I'm in the final stages of planning for our trip to London. We're officially on the count-down now... T minus 12 days! I'm still in some state of denial about the trip. The whole thing is sort of surreal. It may not seem like a big deal to others, but I've always wanted to travel. I love it. Through various circumstances, I didn't get to do the traveling when I expected, but I have been blessed with some serendipitous trips. I was able to take a wonderful to Paris with my mom, sister and 6 month old Braden. This winter Everett told me that he might have to go to London for work, and did I want to go along? Did I? I tried not to get my hopes up, positive that it would pop like a bubble. Could the Marine Corps actually send my husband someplace fun? Not possible. Yet here we are!



See all my sticky tabs? I don't know if we'll make it to all those places or not, but we're going to try. I know some of you out there are world travelers, yourselves. Have you been to London? What do you recommend? Do you know of something that was a big waste of time? What should we absolutely NOT miss?

In the midst of all this, I've decided to start another new project. I can't help myself. I bought this gorgeous yarn when we first started talking about the trip. It was intended for a scarf to wear in London. (It's still pretty chilly there- only in the 60's probably.) Unfortunately, it turned out to be too challenging, so I ripped it out and set the yarn aside. I found a new pattern, and hope to have this ready by the time we touch down at Heathrow. Possible? I hope so!

Four Plus One

Last night Ev and I headed out for our last night alone...for a while. Not that we were really alone. We were celebrating the Marine Corps' 235th birthday with a few hundred other people. Always a good time, last night's ball was also. And it was interesting to watch people actually stare at me with open mouths. Apparently, they thought it was strange to see a 9-month pregnant woman in a cocktail dress. What?

Today is another birthday! This is our last family picture with only four people in it. By this afternoon it will be five. Wow! FIVE! We're so excited and can't wait to share the news with you all as soon as we have some. We appreciate all your thoughts and prayers for us today!

Work, Work, Work

Woohoo! WTI is finally over! You might wonder what we've been up to over the past several weeks of slow blogging. While the boys and I have had our heads down, waiting for it to end, Ev has been doing his WTI thing. Mostly, he's been doing a lot of flying and instructing, but he also spent several days out in the field as a FAC. (In a nutshell, FACs are the guys who tell all the aircraft where to go, and where the targets are.) No, it's not as cool as flying, but I think you can tell that he likes it just fine. For all of us it has been a super busy seven weeks, and we're glad this class is at an end. Meanwhile, we're waiting anxiously patiently for him to come home again, and we're very excited to be planning for his birthday. We get to celebrate together for the first time in a long time!

Happy Birthday, Marines!

I can't begin to explain why they do some of the things they do on deployments.

Just like I can't explain how they can stay friends through so many moves and so many miles.

Unles you've experienced it, you can't know the life-long cameraderie of the Marine Corps.


But if you know anything about them, you know that there's no such thing as a former Marine. So to all Marines, Happy Birthday!