It's Good to be home.

It has been awesome to be back in the Bay Area.  Back Home.  I never would have realized how close I feel to this area, had we not taken the jump to move home to Ohio for two years.  I'm very involved in my community,  my friends here, and I really have a tight nit group of "family" that I adore.  People who truly know me and love me exactly as I am.  People who have walked through many stages of life with the kids, Tom and I.  Tom has so many friends and a great group of people he plays hockey with.  He spared no time getting back on the ice.  Its been a week and he's already played two games.  We had our first Sunday tradition of the ice rink, Gabe's first time ice skating.  He seemed to enjoy it mostly. I did a lot of bribbing with candy (I know, bad mom).  I've gotten a lot of the house unpacked, thanks to my amazing friend LG.  I worked on the outside this morning, trimming back our boisenberry bush and cleaning up boxes.  I fear one day I might have an aversion to cardboard and bubble wrap.  :-D  The kids and I went on a wonderful Bike ride around the neighborhood.  We rode over to our friend LG's and kidnapped them for Ice Cream at Baskin Robbins. It was our first ride of the summer.  Next thing on my list of  To Do's is to find a bike shop that will adjust my gears.  I messed them up on this ride.  Gabe is currently zonked out and the kids have their friends over playing nerf guns and playstation.  Its been a good day.

Heading out on a ride

A beautiful bike trail through the neighborhood. 

C and Z playing PS3. Friends for life. 

Gabby. She loved looking cute on the bike, but whined about the ride. We need to toughen her up. 

Gabes first time Ice Skating.

Gabe Happily putting on his skates

Trying out those skates.

Monterey Bay and the Aquarium

Christian building a dam to keep the water away from these ladies feet.  What a gentleman

Gabe playing in a little cave by the beach.  He loved this place.

Playing Chicken with the waves.

Trying out the cold water.  Our water here is only about 56 degrees.  Its pretty cold, but feels amazing on a hot day.

Silly kid enjoying his day!

Gabe and Gabby playing on the rocks.

Outside the Monterey Bay Aquarium

This is the wave machine. It shows you what its like underneath an ocean wave.

They Jelly's.  My favorite part of the aquarium.  I could stand and stare at them all day.

One VERY large Lobster.  Not the eating kind tho... 

Beautiful sea Turtle.  This Tank has so many amazing sea creatures in it, but by far the my favorites are the Sea Turtles and the Hammer Head Sharks 

This was a new Jelly I've never seen before. It was brown.  There were also some that would glow blue. You can see a few in the background.

Sea Anemone 

A baby sea turtle.  My all time favorite !!!  He was so cute and had a wonderful personality!!

The Nemo Tank. 

Gabby is pretending to be a sea turtle. 

More Sea Anemones.  

Auntie Anna, Mr. Andrew, Caitlin and Christian in front of Bubba Gumps.  A yummy lunch was had by all !

Gabby's first time at Bubba Gumps

My Sweet Baby's first time at the beach.  He loved it so much.  He would run away from the waves squealing.  Such a blast to watch.  

Beginning Days in Cali

The picture Tom sent me from Ohio.  The car of was loaded down.  How they made it to Cali wihtout blowing a tire I will never know.  

The Sign coming out of the airport point us in the right direction.   <3

Gabby picking her first orange from a tree.  Yup we got lots of those around here!!

Caitlin enjoying an orange and hiding from the camera

Gabby entertaining the kids at the park 

We are down to the wire....

11 More days and we are headed back to the Sunny side of the US.  Today I realized that we only have one more Sunday here.  My sweet friend came over today to pick up a few things we were giving her and she realized it to.  She left pretty quick, I know it was because she didn't want me to see her cry.  She and her husband have been like parents to me since moving here.  I love them dearly and I am going to miss them so much.   Facetime is going to be a godsend when we leave.  I will be calling her every single day!  She will be sick of me!  Getting away from here will be very good for our family.  Its been rough the last year and nine months.  I've had to try to keep my trap shut through a lot of negative gossip and mean spirited talk.  Like my Adopted mother says, "anyone who truly knows you, will know the truth".  I like that.  I repeat it to myself a lot.  Tom found this song the other day, he had heard it for the first time.  He downloaded it and wanted me to listen to it.

I was talking to someone the other day about the culture here.  I grew up here and I still don't understand it.  They said the same thing.  The culture here is a lot of backstabbing, gossiping, jealousy, trying to afford what you can't afford,  mean to those that they are intimidated by,  Wants before needs.  Family values are sinking incredible.  I don't remember it being like this when I was young.  Men that were born and raised here are having babies wanting to get married and still have the life they had before.  They come and go when they want, leave their wives or SO's home with the kids and expect the moms to pick up all the slack while they are out having a good time.  The amount of people that I know or know through someone else on drugs is insane.  The amount of Detroit gang bangers is on the rise.  Its crazy how I can pick them out  without much thought.  I'm hyper aware having lived in Cali for so long, not to hard to spot a gangster.  I'm not talking about the Cool, rapping, with the awesome clothes gangster, I'm talking one who will shoot you first ask questions later kind of gangster.   However here, you never know who's packing a conceal carry, so that doesn't happen much.   I'm excited to see my friends, but sad to leave the ones I have here.  Especially the ones that really mean a lot to me.  

I've learned so much from this experience.  Something that will continue to build me as a person.   Here is one of the songs I listen to often when I'm feeling pretty well beat down.  Great reminder.

     

Brave

As we were driving to Marietta for one of last walks around downtown, Tom put on a song that he had recently downloaded.  He said that when he first heard it he thought of me.  I've been reading over the lyrics again and again, pretty good lyrics, but I think the song that  hits me the hardest is the song he previously  sent to me by Pink.  Definitely hits the heart a bit more.


Brave Sara Barellies 
You can be amazing

You can turn a phrase into a weapon or a drug

You can be the outcast

Or be the backlash of somebody’s lack of love

Or you can start speaking up

Nothing’s gonna hurt you the way that words do

And they settle ‘neath your skin

Kept on the inside and no sunlight

Sometimes a shadow wins

But I wonder what would happen if you

Everybody’s been there, everybody’s been stared down

By the enemy

Fallen for the fear and done some disappearing

Bow down to the mighty

Don’t run, stop holding your tongue

Maybe there’s a way out of the cage where you live

Maybe one of these days you can let the light in

Show me how big your brave is

Say what you wanna say

And let the words fall out

Honestly I wanna see you be brave

With what you want to say

And let the words fall out

Honestly I wanna see you be brave

Innocence, your history of silence

Won’t do you any good

Did you think it would?

Let your words be anything but empty

Why don’t you tell them the truth?

Say what you wanna say

And let the words fall out

Honestly I wanna see you be brave

With what you want to say

And let the words fall out

Honestly I wanna see you be brave




Perfect Pink
Made a wrong turn, once or twice
Dug my way out, blood and fireBad decisions, that's alrightWelcome to my silly life
Mistreated, misplaced, misunderstoodMiss, no way it's all good, it didn't slow me downMistaken, always second guessingUnderestimated, look, I'm still around
Pretty, pretty please, don't you ever, ever feelLike you're less than, less than perfectPretty, pretty please, if you ever, ever feelLike you're nothing you are perfect to me
You're so mean when you talkAbout yourself, you are wrongChange the voices in your headMake them like you instead
So complicated, look how big you'll make itFilled with so much hatred, such a tired gameIt's enough, I've done all I can think ofChased down all my demons, see you do the same
Pretty, pretty please, don't you ever, ever feelLike you're less than, less than perfectPretty, pretty please, if you ever, ever feelLike you're nothing, you are perfect to me
The whole world stares while I swallow the fearThe only thing I should be drinking is an ice cold beerSo cool in lying and we tried, tried, triedBut we try too hard, it's a waste of my time
Done looking for the critics 'cause they're everywhereThey don't like my genes, they don't get my hairStrange ourselves and we do it all the timeWhy do we do that? Why do I do that? Why do I do that?
Ooh, pretty, pretty, prettyPretty, pretty please, don't you ever, ever feelLike you're less than, less than perfectPretty, pretty please, if you ever, ever feelLike you're nothing, you are perfect to meYou are perfect to me
You're perfect, you're perfect to mePretty, pretty please if you ever, ever feelLike you're less than, less than perfectPretty, pretty please if you ever, ever feelLike you're nothing, you are perfect to me

Gabes favorite Grannies.

Playing piano with Nonna

Snuggles with Grandma Rene

College Grad...delayed 15 years

How true this is!

Prince Harry lays wreath at Tomb of the Unknowns

We were here. It was awesome.  So much energy from all the school groups.

Washington D.C. 2013

We had an amazing time in Washington D.C. with Caitlins 6th Grade class.  The time felt very rushed, but there is so much to see there.  You could spend two weeks there and still not see everything that D.C. has to offer.  We spent a full day and two half days in D.C.  Loads of walking, a few blisters, and almost heat stroke! Thank God it wasn't July!

This is the Entrance to Mt. Vernon.  If you aren't aware, Mt. Vernon is where George Washington (if you caught my mistype, I actually said Abraham Lincoln, how embarrassing would that have been to be corrected for that!!)  Lived. 

Girls at Mt. Vernon, the home of George Washington.  Here they are in front of the Potomac River. 

In Front of one of the old buildings that now houses the Gift shop.

At the entrance to the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial.

This was a spectacular Memorial to Martin Luther King Jr.   

This was the Jefferson Memorial from across the Tidal Basin.

This was a statue in the Franklin D. Rossevelt Rooms.  

This is at Arlington Cemetery.  Prince Harry was there laying a wreath at the Tomb of the unknown solider.  I have some iphone pics of the tomb, but there were so many people there I couldn't get pics with a decent camera.  We had a spot where we could get a pic of Prince Harry walking by, but our tour guide made us move. I was not to happy.  How many times in your life do you get to see Prince Harry.  I thought C was going to lose it.  I think her picture might have turned out better than mine.  You can see him there with fatigues on and a light blue hat. 

http://youtu.be/0pUpKxSnJhE  

Here you can see the video that was shown on the News.

At the top of Arlington Cemetery. 

At the World War II Memorial.  Caitlin stood in front of her Home State and Ohio. 

Abraham Lincoln Memorial.  It was amazing.  

This was the Iwo Jima memorial.  For some reason I could not get a picture without those white dots in it. I could point the camera away from the monument and take pictures just fine, but at the monument every picture turned out like this.   Some of the kids said they were ghosts.  I'm starting to wonder....It was a pretty bloody battle..... 

More pictures to follow but this is a good start.

The 5th and 6th grade classes  in front of Capitol Hill 

Being held up in the hallway before we were evacuated due to "suspicious packages"

The National Archives 

Pentagon 9-11 Memorial

The changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknowns

News Vans hanging out to catch a glimpse of Prince Harry