I'M BACK!!!!!!!!

Joy of joys, I'm home!  We got back from deployment on March 24th--it was perfect!  My sisters rode the ship as "Tigers" from San Diego to Everett so I had a few days of sharing my work-afloat life with them.  When the ship arrived in Everett I was near the front of the line to get off and found Frank and the kids on the pier.  It was just a great experience.  Everyone looked great and the kids were talking a mile a minute.  In fact, they've been talking pretty much non-stop since then! 

Now the real excitement begins as we get set to move at the end of April.  We're working on tidying up the boat and selling off some stuff.  The boat looks naked right now as we have sold both of our beloved kayaks (we'll have ones we can borrow from the new marina) and have taken down all the sails and canvas for a good cleaning. 

I am pretty sad to be leaving the Pacific Northwest as I love the land, the water, and the people up here, but I guess it's time to move on.




Happy 5th, Munchkin!

Today as I am somewhere around where east meets west I feel a world away from where I should be.  It's Katreina's 5th birthday today and to say I'm miserable would be an understatement.  Frank is playing Super Dad yet again, making her birthday great.  He started it off by bringing treats and toys to her daycare for a little celebration yesterday.  Today the family flew kites before going to another friend's birthday party at the Children's Museum and when I spoke to them on the phone everyone was getting ready to head to the Mexican restaurant for K's special dinner (2nd year in a row she's picked the same place!).  Tonight they will have cake and open presents, and I won't be there.  Frank will send me a bunch of pictures (he is AMAZING) and they will have a good time.  I have cried (from tearing up to full-on bawling) about 10 times in the past 24 hours, but I'm hanging in there.  The worst was when I was talking to Katreina yesterday and she started singing "Almost There" from Disney's "The Princess and the Frog."  Her voice was so sweet!  Today she got me again by sounding very sad on the phone as we were saying good bye. 

This is almost over, and for that I am extremely grateful.

Singapore

Ok, maybe I should have titled this entry "my happy place."  After more than 50 days at sea I had no problem kicking back alongside this pool at the Sentosa Resort & Spa in Singapore.  The pool was divine and the bar served delicious caparinhas.  It was a port visit full of great food and drinks, a visit to the historic Raffles Hotel for high tea, an experience of the 24-hr Indian Market, a relaxing evening out on Arab Street, and my first-ever hot-pot dinner.  It's a nice, clean, accessible city.  If it weren't so expensive and far away, I might even consider it for a vacation!  Anyway it was a great break and I'm getting closer to home by the day!!!

Heading in the right direction

We've just moored in Singapore!  For some reason I'm not nearly as excited about being in Singapore as I am about being east of where I was before, which means I'm closer to my family.  That trend needs to continue!  Plans while here include a good deal of pool lounging, consumption of several fruity cocktails and/or beers, High Tea at the Tiffin Room in Raffles (Raffles is home to a bar where the Singapore Sling originated), a trip to the botanical garden, then more pool lounging..  Have to get off the ship first, though!  It takes hours to get the brows rigged and get the thousands of folks that want off the ship off, then into line to get on a handful of busses to leave the base, then onto some other conveyance to get into the city.  In short, it's a pain, but a pain that most are willing to put up with to get a break and check out someplace new. 

My greatest joy today was calling home and having Katreina answer the phone all by herself!  Frank was giving Trent a shower so Katreina masterfully slid the little bar on the face of the iphone to answer a call from Mommy!  We exchanged greetings before she got excited and pushed the big red button to end the call.  It was brief, yet perfect!

Good tunes, great memories

I share a "cozy" office with 13 other people, so sometimes it's nice to slip the headphones on and escape.  Tonight while working I was in the mood for Rusted Root and hit "shuffle" to enjoy the 3 albums of theirs that I have loaded on my phone.  What luck...just a few songs into it was "Blue Diamonds" (the song Frank and I danced to at our wedding reception) followed immediately by "Send Me on My Way" (the song that was playing as we left the reception that night).  Those songs, in that order, brought back a wave of great memories from that day over 6 years ago that I got to marry my wonderful friend. 

Still too far away from home, but filled with very happy thoughts right now!  :)