Sweet San Diego

For my impending 35th birthday, Jay thought of this lovely idea of flying me down to San Diego to meet him for the weekend since he's there with the ship for training. I have a soft spot in my heart for San Diego, having lived there 20+ years ago when my dad was stationed in the Navy. I was 12 when we moved away and I was heartbroken. The city left such an incredible impression on me and it will always be one of my most favorite places. I was fortunate enough to go back for a week in 2002 for training (in my former life when I had a J-O-B), but this time I was able to share it with Jay. He's been there many times for work, but I was able to actually lead him outside of downtown, show him my old stomping grounds and share details of the many memories I have in this beautiful city. It was so great to re-visit them. It was, however, bittersweet not having the boys with us. I missed them terribly, but was also able to enjoy every moment of "single Jay and Shon"....(I had NINE hours of uninterrupted sleep for the first time in over 3.5 years. It was blissful!!!). We avoided the San Diego Zoo and Sea World because I couldn't imagine going to those places without Scotty and Zac, but there are many other fun things to do in San Diego, especially when you're driving around a sporty convertible in the SoCal sunshine!! Granted, there was a January chill in the air, but not enough for us to put the top up! Jay even got sunburned! We had a fabulous time and it was a great halfway-through-my-thirties birthday present. Thanks babe. I (heart) SAN DIEGO!!!!

Flying into San Diego, had no idea I was taking a picture of Jay's ship!

The sporty convertible; who the heck do I think I am?!?!

Jay made reservations at an awesome restaurant that had an amazing view of SD from across the bay....the pic doesn't do it justice

Just the two of us

Cold Day in PA

Yesterday the boys and I had nothing planned for a change so I decided to pack up and go for an hour and a half drive up to Port Angeles. We were stationed there 4.5 years ago, in our pre-kids days, and I have been wanting to see how things have changed. Unfortunately, it was freezing outside, but the boys had fun playing on the beach anyway. Jay's old ship, ACTIVE, was out in the bay so it was fun to watch her pull in. Other than that, I don't have any pics to share of the scenery because it was so gloomy out, but usually PA has a beautiful backdrop of the Olympic mountains and when you look the other way across the water you can see Victoria BC. We visited my favorite burger joint, Frugals; dropped by the popular ol' general store, Swains; did a drive by of our old house (sadly, it is not as it was); and made a stop at the Coast Guard station to show the boys around, hoping we'd be lucky enough to see one of the Helos taking off or landing, but had no luck with that. PA holds a special place in both our hearts; we have a lot of great memories and made some really great friends in this town, so it was fun to share a little bit of it with my boys. (By the way, for all of you Twilight fans, Forks is just about an hour from this point....)

A New Year, A New Preschool....

Well, for those of you who don't know, I took Scotty out of preschool last September four days after it started because he was having such a hard time adjusting. I know, four days isn't a long time, but I just knew that it was not a right fit. Whether it was the classmates, the location, the teacher or a combination of all of it, I will never know. Maybe it was because he had just gone through a major relocation with his family and was feeling out of sorts...who knows what goes through a three year old's mind. But honestly, I felt relief once I made the decision to pull him. However, the teacher was not in agreement with me and voiced her understanding disapproval. Her mindset was that we had to iron out the wrinkles now and prepare him for the four year old class. But frankly, I wasn't thinking about the four year old class! My concern was my THREE year old and how he wasn't handling the three year old class. Thus, I gladly pulled him out, but spent the last three months feeling a tinge of guilt that my preschooler was not in preschool. As much as I intended to "homeschool" him, it just wasn't happening on a consistent basis and I knew he was mainly missing out on the socialization. So one day in December I had a crazy idea to check out my old church. The one I went to with my family when I was young. The one I was confirmed and baptized in. And the one my niece attended preschool at. Everytime I came home to visit, I always tried to make a point to attend church there at least once and everytime I walked through the doors, it felt like home. That's why it is no wonder when I called, there just happened to be ONE opening left in the preschool class starting in January. And though it is a pleasant surprise, it is also no wonder that my son has taken to this class like he'd been attending it all year long; like he's known these classmates and the teacher forever. So far we've had three classes and he's not put up a fight once. He goes willingly into the classroom and sits right down with a book, kisses me goodbye and says "see you at 11:15". I am truly amazed, but it all makes total sense.

Jay picking up Scotty from his first day at the new preschool




Zac waiting for Scotty to get out of school

Jay and Scotty on the night before Jay departed