Because most of my readers (if I even have any left) are my close friends and family, pretty much everyone already knows without my having posted about it that we’re moving back to Washington where I am going to be stationed on the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln.  It’s going to be a great career opportunity and I’m looking forward to getting started, but it’s a bit overwhelming to think about the pace my life is about to hit.  Going from Spain, land of mañana, to an aircraft carrier, land of…well…not land at all but rather nuclear-powered floating highly armed sovereign U.S. territory warship…need I say more?

As many people know, our stay here in Spain has not been quite what we expected it to be.  I’ve always said, and still maintain, that I would have loved Spain if we actually got to live in Spain.  Instead we lived on base, where all of our neighbors - fantastic as most of them have been - are American.  The base is all things American - American TV, American radio, American grocery stores, cars, coffee, language, culture.  And while I love my culture and am prouder than ever to be an American (living in another country can do that to a person), we came here with the hopes and expectations of being immersed in a new culture and we hoped to make friends and learn to speak Spanish well and appreciate everything the culture had to offer.

But I digress.  We’re leaving in 3 days, 13 hours and 11 minutes. 

The time snuck up on us a few weeks ago and I decided, rather firmly, that I was not leaving Spain without traveling more.  So 2 weekends ago a friend of mine and I left the kids at home (with B) and flew up to Barcelona where I soaked up the abundant sun, walked La Rambla and the Gothic Quarter, visited Gaudi’s architectural masterpieces, and, naturally, got my Visa check card number stolen.  Fortunately I put a stop to the payments to Renfe (the train), RyanAir and Vueling, lastminute.com travel agency, and various restaurants and hotels.

The crappy part about having your Visa check card number stolen when you’re moving is that you have nowhere reliable to send a replacement card to. And when you’ve shipped out your entire wallet with your debit card and remaining credit card (who does that?!), that puts you in a bit of a pickle financially.  Good thing I have a responsible spouse who does not do such silly things as ship a wallet out in his household goods.

Upon my return from Barcelona, I worked for 2 days and then B & I had our (10 years late) honeymoon - I took 4 days of leave and we drove our questionably reliable “Rota beater” to Sevilla and hopped a flight to Paris where we spent 3 magical days hitting all the major sights - Notre Dame, the Eiffel Tower, Arc du Triomphe, the Champs Elysses, the Musee Orsay, the Louvre, Versaille, Moulin Rouge, and even coffee at Amelie’s employer, Les Deux Moulins.  All finished with 300 steps up to the top of the Sacre Couer basilica to take in the spectacular view of Paris.  In between was stuffed with pain au chocolat, meringues, nutella-and-almond-filled crepes, cafe au lait, comte cheese, fabulous sandwiches, rich dinners, and copious amounts of red wine.

We got off the plane, drove back to the base where we picked up our kids, cleaned the house, slept for a few hours and then had a whirlwind of activity - we packed out our remaining household goods and put a “for sale” sign on our car.  On our way back from the office where I made the sign, the car battery died (naturally) and we had to buy a new battery, and while B was in the store buying the battery someone saw the sign and wanted the car.  In a half an hour we went from stressing about what to do with a car when we were leaving in 3 days to having sold the car and being ready to go.

All that’s left now is to pack and do some last-minute cleaning ’round the house.  And then it’s off to Everett, back to the cool and rainy weather that we actually really love.  I think I’ve had enough of this sun now.  I’m ready to be back in America.

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.

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…

Taking the oath…

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!!