What we did this week...

I really hope I can keep this weekly post up, I won't make any promises because we all know that I 'sometimes' forget to update the blog....Hopefully 52 WWDTW will help pass the time? Probably not. You can't blame a girl for trying! We've been able to Skype with Dave once, their internet is spotty and not reliable, but way better than nothing at all! The kids are doing well, I was worried about Emma since she is old enough to understand that Daddy will be gone for a very long time, but she has become my rock. She's a nurturer by heart, and is always checking on me and asking what she can do to be my big helper this year. Not to say we don't bump heads, she's a spitting image of myself! Mason has yet to fully grasp that Dave will not be coming home anytime soon. Every time the doorbell rings, he runs thinking Daddy is home! Breaks my heart. He asked last night if we could drive my car to Afghanistan to pick up Daddy from work. So, now that we are all sad and sobbing, here are some recaps of what we did this week.

My landlord came over yesterday and asked if I had 5 minutes to pull some weeds out of the stone walkway...sure, 5 minutes..no problem!
5 minutes turned into 3 hours of pulling weeds, mowing, edging, raking dead grass and basically getting lectured on how to take better care of my yard. Let's just say, I'm a little sore today.
Emma's flower garden. Oh, I weeded that thing too!
She was so happy that her flowers were finally blooming!
Mason with a Tiki Mask, or a Tiki Mask with Mason's body?
Hula hoop competition! We had a Luau right before the guys left and it was a great time! Good food, friends and lots of laughs.
Riding with Daddy. Emma loves to ride her bike with Dave, she's a bit mad at Mason right now because he doesn't ride so this limits her area of bike riding for the moment...
He just likes to pose on the bike, there is no riding involved. :)

goodbyes suck

They do. Even short goodbyes suck. I would like to say that we say, "see you later," but we aren't cool like that. Our goodbye was short and not sweet. I lost control of all the emotions that had been building inside of me since we were given the short notice of this deployment. I'm sure Dave knew that was coming, I'm a crier. I cry over really sad tv dramas. It's true. But today my tears were replaced with uncontrollable laughter. Our monthly battalion coffee for spouses was this morning, and a good handful of our girls showed up. We giggled over our stories of saying goodbye to the loves our lives and the funny things that have happened to us over the hours that they have been gone. Believe me, strange things happen when you're on your own. We've made plans to keep us busy and I'm really looking forward to them. I also hope to start a post on Sundays showing what the kids and I did all week, more so to keep us busy and to let Dave see what we have been up to as well.

so I lied...

about the next post being sad pictures, hahaha. We went to Rothenburg, possibly my favorite town in Germany, to try taking some family pics on our own. We have a super nice Canon Rebel and a tripod, so we knew the potential existed...lol! What we got was amazingness. I can't believe that we got so many great shots with all of us actually looking at the camera and smiling! This was my one request before Dave left and he happily set it all up for me, I just coordinated outfits! I've been printing them off this morning, and they print well, but I think I will still upload them to a professional printing site. For the family members, play ignorant if you happen to see one of these photos on our Christmas card. :)

Preparing for goodbye...

These pictures are not the best quality because I didn't take our nice camera to the hangar. Just imagine trying to take pictures inside a dimly lit large warehouse...and that is what I got from these. Dave's company had their deployment ceremony the other day where they 'case' the colors/guide on until the unit can stand back up in theater. It was a very short ceremony, thank goodness, but it ended up being drug out because we were waiting on a VIP to show up. He was very apologetic to the families for making them wait but expressed how much he wanted to be a part of this day, he has two sons that fly apaches so I'm guessing it is near and dear to his heart, lol. Dave has been working a bit still, but will head out very soon. I'm not a fan of prolonged goodbyes so I'm hoping to just rip the bandaid off and get this countdown rolling. Dave is probably the most torn over this whole situation, on the one hand he loves his job and on the other he hates being away from the kids, and me I guess, hahaha. We have some fun small outings planned in the next few days to keep us busy so I'm sure the next pictures you see will be the sad goodbye for real. I'm choosing to stay positive over the whole ordeal and so far it's working, we'll see how well I'm keeping that up next week!

the end...

Trevi at night, finally. We kept getting there too early and not wanting to fight the crowds before the lights came on.
we had to stand on the metal railing to just get a picture above the crowd, it is crazy at night!
view from our table at dinner one night. Most of the places we ate had views like this, lovely! You also ate very close to other diners and other restaurants too!
BEST gelato ever! Check out that line! No Roma Pass accepted here though, boo.
like animals, hovering over their food...
If you look very far in the back, there is a screen with the Pope on it...he was speaking in Italian, so I'm not sure what was sad, but I'm sure it was good!



fountain in St. Peter's square

Spanish Steps with my babes

Roman ruins...

Circus Maximus. They have a huge excavation project on the other end of this open area to help preserve the ruins that have been found so far.


Mouth of Truth. They were charging for pictures with your hand in the mouth, Audrey Hepburn would be sad. Am I seriously the only person who has seen this movie? Dave had no idea why we trekked all over Rome looking for this guy. Oh and you had to enter the church after your paid photo, and let's just say we weren't respectfully dressed to enter the Lord's house that day, it was HOT!
Ruins over looking Circus Maximus racing grounds.

ongoing excavations...
tiles from a bathhouse, or THE bathhouse. It was HUGE!
Baths of Carcalla

Colosseum

view from the top level of the Colosseum
see that line? we skipped it!!
diva, love her



sitting on Roman ruins isn't right unless you make a funny face!