A short list of the things I will miss about Spain:
Jamón
Chorizo
Gazpacho
Gambas al ajillo
The levante
Brocheta
and…
…shorts and tanks and warm sun and muddy footprints in fields of rows and rows of sunflowers.
School is done, B is done working, I have reenlisted, we have packed out, shipped our car, gotten medically screened, and are ready to go.
Very sadly for us, we made a very difficult decision for our family and adopted out Ala Spit, our wonderful and sweet kitty that was our first family pet. She never adapted to having other cats around and was rather “mopey.” She’s a one-cat-family kind of cat, which we did not know when we brought Yota into our house. Spitty hated Yota and started acting out very badly, and while eventually she grew to tolerate him she was never quite the same sweet kitty we had.
Last weekend when I went photographing sunflowers with a new friend (new friends? Who makes new friends when you’re leaving in a month?!) and on our drive back we were talking about all the stuff associated with moving. I mentioned our pets and how we were getting stuff together to move them, and how I was concerned about Spitty and had considered adopting her out but we didn’t want to have her end up in the shelther. She told me that last year they had to put their kitty down, and how it was agonizing for them and how much they wanted a kitty but were afraid to get one because of the problems with the last one.
2 hours later, Spitty had found the perfect home for her.
They wanted a cat that wouldn’t need feline companionship, and man did they get that. They wanted a kitty that would be affectionate, and wouldn’t pee on their furniture - they couldn’t have gotten a better kitty than what they were looking for.
In the meantime, we have been missing her as she was such a wonderful cat. But we feel that this was really the best thing both for us and for her - and I’ve visited her since and she really seems so much happier than she did at our house. Her skin problems have all but disappeared, she is always snuggling contentedly, she has stopped howling in the middle of the night and no longer sleeps with her nose against the wall.
Yesterday was my 2nd reenlistment. I asked my Master Chief, who has been an incredible mentor to me for the past 2½ years or so, if he would be able to come out here from Naples to reenlist me. He agreed, and I was honored to have him be the one to do it. He was happy to be able to give me a few stern finger wags and some advice about monkeys…
My officer in charge presented B with a letter of appreciation thanking him for his support of me, his husband…er…that one slipped through the edits and revisions…
The Navy recently ceased giving selective reenlistment bonuses (SRBs), but my chief, in his infinite generosity, managed to sneak one over on the Navy. Along with a picture with the caption, “There’s a sucker born every minute.” Snort.
Getting my reenlistment certificate…I was out of the Navy for that in between time! Didn’t last long enough to go do something memorable.
Bringing the Spanish hosts some yummy food that I made…healthy curry chicken salad, chorizo tortilla (the Spanish version which is more of an omelet than what Americans think of when they think of a tortilla), jamon-wrapped asparagus, brownies, and pavlova (or Eton’s mess, I’m now thinking…I never knew about either and they’re pretty similar, just that one’s more blob-like than the other).
Our beautiful babes!
Afterwards we went to a barbeque at my Chief’s house…at the end of the night Anja took a 2 minute recharge and I got this picture. Look at those shoulders! She’s a powerhouse.
My typical kids…one kooky one way, one kooky another.
With that…I’m off to enjoy a birthday/father’s day dinner with some friends! Adios!
I didn’t realize it’s been only one month since I wrote last. Not much has happened in the last month…except…
I went to San Antonio, TX for a Legalman conference where I got to meet up with a lot of old friends as well as meeting a lot of new people.
We shipped our car and our household goods. Sniff sniff. I miss my stuff.
It’s a little bit unsettling knowing that all your stuff is in one place, away from you, with a bunch of other people’s stuff, sailing across the oceans.
We celebrated our anniversary. 10 years - unbelievable. We went out for a lovely dinner at our favorite Spanish restaurant, Las Tinajas. I got a beautiful ring that I am just in love with…
Also this past month, I have had a bunch of doctor’s appointments in preparation for my reenlistment. I got good news: my eyes are fine and I brought my cholesterol down 50 points. (!) I reenlist next Saturday. This means, if I continue reenlisting on that date, and I get out of the Navy at 20 years, I will retire the day before my 40th birthday. That would be pretty awesome. Well, except for the whole turning 40 part.
We move back to Everett in 34 days. 34 days!! Hard to believe. The Chief’s board meets next Monday so I’m anxious to find out how that will turn out this year.
The kids are out of school for the summer. Anja had respectable “grades” the past semester (they don’t get A/B/C grades) and Isak made us so proud with his last semester reporting straight As. 2 A+s, 2 As, and 1 A-. He is very motivated by the financial reward he gets for straight As - $2 per A (25¢ per B, nothing for Cs and below). If he brings home straight As, it doubles so he could get $40 per semester. If he brings home all 4 semesters of straight As, I’ll round that $160 up to $200 at the end of the school year.
To close with a funny story, Anja just came up to me as I was typing and said, “Mamma! We still need to get backtized!” Isak said, “Nooo, Anja, we need to get vackinated.“ Anja clarified, “No! We need to get backtized where they dump you in the water that they know your spirit of God.”
They’ll be so disappointed by the Unitarian church.
We took a quick field trip yesterday to the USCG Eagle, one of only two sailing ships in the military (the other is the more well-known USS Constitution). It used to be a German ship but we liked it so we took it and renamed it from the Horst Wessel to the Eagle.
This is the enlisted side of my office - though the personnel in my office have changed over the last couple of years, I’ve always loved coming to work because I’ve always had great people to work with.
Isak has been super excited about turning 10 years old - he gets an ID card and is able to go to the older kids after-school club. A new feature of the after-school place is a skate park, and Isak has been talking about wanting to go there. B had the idea to get him a skateboard - I was not so sure as Isak has inherited my two left feet, but B was sure it was going to be a hit and besides, it would be a good way for him to be active.
I still wasn’t sure, but when we gave him the first (and as he thought, the only) part of his present - a new helmet and knee/elbow/wrist pads - the first words out of his mouth were “I wish I had a skateboard!” His face lit up when he got the second half of the present and knew as soon as he saw the wrapped box what it was.
There were some bumps and slips and Isak learned he could almost do the splits, but he had a great time nad is very excited about his new skateboard.
Check out our neighbor’s car - I finally got around to taking a picture of it. The best part? I saw the guy driving his car one day and he was wearing a bat mask. I don’t know if you can make it out but under the bat wings it says “Batmobile” where the make of the car would be, and up in the front over the tire is a batman insignia.
Isak had a few friends over for a sleepover party which was a lot of fun and did not include much sleep. We made homemade pizzas, had homemade (aka “box mix”) strawberry cake by Isak’s request, watched a movie and played video games until 2am. Breakfast was biscuits and gravy, eggs and bacon - yum!
It’s spring in Spain - our last. It’s hard to believe we’re leaving in just 2½ months. Spring brings with it the most memorable of all things I’ve experienced in Spain: Feria. This is our 4th time getting to experience Feria, can you believe it?
I noticed a lot more of the shorter dresses this year…don’t you dig the pom pons?:
But my favorite are still the long ones with all the different styles of patterns:
Lots of mothers and daughters dress alike:
Driving in style:
An admirer:
All the accessories, check:
And oh, the little boys are so cute!!
