Helping Malian Orphans

Earlier this year I had the privilege of joining the Board of Directors of A Child for All (ACFA), a Washington DC-based nonprofit whose mission is to ensure a brighter future for Mali's vulnerable children by providing a loving family environment, safe shelter, nutritious meals, health care, and education.

ACFA is the realization of a lifelong dream of the founder, Kadiatou Sidibe. Raised by a single father in Mali, she faced a difficult life and was often left in the care of family or friends. Despite the hardships, she excelled in school and eventually graduated high school with the highest GPA in the country.

Unfortunately, many children in Mali are not so lucky. Mali is one of the poorest countries in the world, and is greatly affected by poverty, malnutrition, and inadequate hygiene and sanitation. Every 20 minutes, a woman dies during childbirth in the country, leaving an orphaned infant behind. Often these children and their siblings have nowhere to go, and are left to fend for themselves on the streets. They face a daily struggle to survive, and face a grim future without education or skills needed to pull themselves out of a cycle of poverty.

ACFA was created in 2009 to give these children a chance at a brighter future. The organization incorporates four major programs to help vulnerable and orphaned children:

1. Safe shelter. The children reside in a home in Bamako, the national capital. They have a mother and a father figure in the home allowing them to grow in a family-oriented environment.
   
2. Nutritious meals. A healthy balanced diet is essential to the children's physical and mental development.  Home-cooked meals and vitamin supplements are provided to the children on a daily basis.
   
3. Healthcare. In coordination with the Primary Healthcare Center of Badalabougou, ACFA-Mali provides the highest healthcare service to our children.
   
4. Education. Education is a key component of ACFA's strategy and programs. It is the way to break the chains of poverty.  In coordination with the public education systems in Mali, we provide enhanced curriculum for our children.
   The standard educational curriculum is supplemented with additional classes focusing on arts and crafts, critical thinking skills, English language instruction and life skills.
   

Today, I am writing to announce that we have a great opportunity with the Segal Family Foundation, which has challenged ACFA to increase its donor base and will match any donation of $100 or more given to the organization by September 1, 2011. I hope that you will consider making a gift that will help us provide these vital, life-saving services to even more children in Mali.

You can learn more about the organization at www.acfacorp.org. Even if you can't give at the $100 level today, please know that any gift is greatly appreciated. You can give online at on our website or via mail to ACFA, 21 Arbor Lane, Stafford VA 22554.

Thank you for your consideration!

House for Sale

Wow - major excitement - we are officially listing the house FOR SALE as of today! So far it's only listed on one site, but that makes it more real in my mind...and forces to me to barge ahead with getting it ready to show!

We truly do love the house. It's beautiful, historic, full of charming antique detail, and it has the best backyard for entertaining. But with Rob living and working in DC for at least the next two years, it's way too much work for me to take care of by myself - especially considering that I'm spending about 75% of my weekends in DC also.

So, alas, it's time to see if we can sell it. It's a daunting prospect given the current market, but I'm hoping that the unique historic character of the house will make it appealing to someone looking for an alternative to a standard new construction.

I'm still updating the listing and adding more photos, but here is a link: http://bit.ly/9CMh9I And if you know of anyone in the market for a gorgeous Victorian home, send them our way!

He's Blind...and Amazing

It's been a little over a month now of living with our newly-blind Kitty. The first week or so was incredibly rough. In addition to being blind, he was also dealing with the crippling effects of suffering a stroke. His balance was off, his front legs would get crossed and he couldn't figure out how to uncross them, he seemed to have forgotten the finer points of using the litterbox. Even his previous inquisitive mews were replaced by a new mournful howl. And I can't even count the number of times he walked into walls or got stuck in a corner.

If one more person told me that "he can still live a happy life" or "it's amazing how quickly they can adapt," I was literally going to punch them straight in the mouth.

And now? He's adapted quite well and seems to be pretty darn happy. And I'm completely shocked.

Physically, he's back to the same cat that we knew before the stroke. He's strong, walks with a purpose, and has tons of energy. The most amazing thing, though, is how well he is dealing with his blindness. He has totally "mapped" the apartment and knows where everything is. He's not even suprised anymore when we leave things laying around; he just trips over them and keeps on moving. Jumping up on the couch is as easy and natural for him as for our other cats. He'll climb onto our laps and sit there purring with the most ridiculous contented look on his face. He knows the sounds of the cat food cabinet being opened and makes a beeline for the kitchen (although, in fairness, this is no different from his food-obsessed behavior as a sighted cat).

I often wonder if he remembers his days as a "normal" cat, or if the stroke completely wiped out all those memories. Does he even realize that he has a handicap? Sometimes, when he stares right into our faces with an adoring look of love, we have to actually wave our hands in front of his face to make sure that his sight hasn't miraculously returned. He certainly doesn't have an ounce of self-pity. Instead, he actually seems happier than ever. And I'm one shocked, proud, and relieved cat parent.




Kitty enjoys his new scratching pad that has been embellished with some "medicinal herbs" (a.k.a. catnip!)

Despite being 12 years old and newly blind, Kitty still has tons of energy and a playful spirit!

Our Unique Livng Situation

So I’ve come to realize that not everyone quite understands why we suddenly have an apartment in DC and why Rob and I are not exactly living together anymore. Don’t worry – we’re not separated! Well, not in the legal sense. But the military has an unavoidable way of separating families, and it’s finally our turn. Rob received orders this spring for his next shore duty…at the Pentagon in Washington, DC. A fabulous tour, to be sure. Washington is a fascinating, vibrant city, and what could be more exciting and challenging for a military member than a tour at the Pentagon. Under normal circumstances we would have been ecstatic.

A couple situations made it less than ideal, though. The first, and most important, being that we are so upside down on our house that we would probably go bankrupt if we tried to sell it right now. We bought it in the summer of 2006, right at the height of the real estate market. At the time we felt that it was probably a bit overpriced, but with the optimism that was running rampant at the time we jumped in headfirst. Almost four years later it has lost almost $100,000 in value. We wouldn’t even be able to rent it without a huge loss each month. It’s a beautiful home, but I don’t think we could give it away at this point.

The second sticking point is that I actually like my job. I don’t want to leave it. Working in the non-profit sector, there are probably dozens of jobs I could apply for in DC, but I am perfectly happy in my current job. (Most of the time. Nobody loves their job 100% of the time!)

So that has led us to our unenviable position of living apart. We rented a pretty fab apartment in Arlington, right across the street from the Pentagon with great views of the Washington Monument and Jefferson Memorial. It’s very small…just one bedroom and about 700 square feet. It’s all we need, though. It’s within walking distance of lots of shops and restaurants. Take the metro just two or three stops and we’re in the heart of DC. You can’t beat it.

The plan was that hopefully I could spend some time working remotely from DC and spend most weekends up there. It hasn’t really turned out that way yet. Traveling, work, vacations, meetings have all gotten in the way so far. We’re hoping that life will slow down some this summer and we’ll be able to get into a routine. This tour will most likely last for two years, so we’ll see how long this living situation can endure! Anyone want to place bets on when I’ll give up and move up there permanently??

The view from our balcony in Arlington.

Update on Kitty

Kitty has now moved up to DC for the week to stay with Rob in the smaller DC apartment. It is amazing how much progress he has made in just a couple days. At one point on Sunday night we swore he had some sight back. He would walk purposefully toward us and rub against our legs as if he could see exactly where we were. Then he would walk head first into the wall and we realized that it was just wishful thinking. Overall, though, he really does seem better. He’s more confident, more relaxed, more ambitious in his exploring. He’s getting better at finding his way out of corners, and he seems to actually hear us when we call his name. Although I’m still dumbfounded and upset over the whole ordeal, I am starting to see the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel. I’m hoping that within a couple weeks he might be the cat we’ve always known (minus the eyesight, of course).

A Traumatic Week Brings Me Back to the Blog

By definition, a blog is a "regularly" updated online journal. Clearly, doing anything on a regular basis is not my strong suit. My life is full of short-lived obsessions that disappear from my routine just as quickly and randomly as they appeared. Commitment has never ranked as one of my redeeming qualities.

However, after an exceedingly traumatic week, I find myself back, wishing to unleash a torrent of emotions. Anger, frustration, sadness, confusion, remorse...all have been tormenting me in the last week. And it all started with a cat's bad breath.

I'll confess that we have not always been the best at following up on our cats' medical needs. Shots are not always received on time, ailments are sometimes left to see if they'll clear up on their own over time. But when Kitty's breath started smelling worse than the year-old milk at the back of the fridge, it was time to make the rare pilgrimage to the vet.

Prognosis? Three rotting teeth. Plan of action? An $1,100 dental surgery on May 11 to remove the offending teeth. Degree of risk? Not so much. Drop him off in the morning, pick him up before 6:00 that evening, feed him soft food for about a week, and he should be back to normal in no time. Sounded easy enough.

When I picked him on Tuesday evening, he was completely limp and unresponsive. The vet tech who brought him out didn't seem concerned, though, and just said that "some cats take longer than others to come out of the anesthesia." I was shocked but trusted that the professionals would know best. When I asked how long it would take for him to come out of it, they weren't sure...they simply said to call them if he wasn't better in 24 hours.

I brought him home, left him in the carrier with the door open, and put a towel over him. He moaned a couple times but never really tried to move. When I went to bed, I took him with and laid him next to me on the bed. In the morning he was in the same spot in the same position. It hadn't been 24 hours yet, but I called the vet anyway and insisted that something wasn't right. They seemed to think I was overreacting, but said to bring him in.

That afternoon I got a call saying they were going to keep him overnight so they could keep him on an IV in an attempt to make sure all the drugs were washed out of his system. I felt somewhat vindicated in that clearly I had not been overreacting to his lack of improvement. But I was worried sick that they wanted to keep him overnight.

The next morning I called for an update and got the shock of my life. He was finally standing up and moving around a little bit, but there was something else...he was blind.

What?? Blind?? My healthy, happy cat of a week earlier is now BLIND? How on earth does this happen?

The hypothesis that the vet offered was that he had a stroke while under anesthesia. How they didn't know this for sure is beyond me. They tried to caution me that it might not be permanent; there's a chance the sight might come back. But I could read through their "cautious optimism"...they really weren't feeling optimistic at all.

They of course wanted to keep him another night, so I stopped by after work to visit him. I thought I was prepared, but what I saw was absolutely heartbreaking. As soon as I reached out to touch him and speak to him, he started howling in a way that I have never heard before. This wasn't his normal polite mew, but instead a howl laced with fear, confusion, and apprehension. How do you explain to a cat that it's going to be OK? Not only could he not see me, but he also could barely stand up. It destroyed me to see him that way. I'm glad they brought me a box of tissues because I used them all.

On Friday we brought him home. We weren't sure if we were bringing him permanently or just for the night...but we needed to see how he would do outside the cage. We shut him in the office so that he had a smaller space to explore. I'll give him credit - it didn't take long at all for him to start wandering about, "mapping" the room through his various run-ins and mishaps. We've even started calling him Magellan because of his aggressive exploring. (Probably a much more appropriate name than Kitty!)

All is not rosy, however. He'll get caught up on the rungs of a chair, run head first into the wall, step in his water dish again and again, get stuck in a corner without an idea of how to turn around. He's also having a hard time figuring out the litter box. If his front paws are in the box, he seems to think his whole body is. Not a good thing, for sure.

Overall, though, he's adjusting much more quickly to his blindness than I could have ever hoped for. He's still having some cognitive issues that I hope get worked out soon, but right now I'm a hundred times more optimistic than I was just two days ago. At first people kept telling me, "a cat can have a very happy, normal life without its eyesight." I completely blew that advice off, thinking, "what the hell do they know?" But now I have hope. It's been amazing to watch him barge forward, without the "why me?" feelings that a human would be experiencing right now. Perhaps there is something to be learned from his ordeal. Sitting around feeling sorry for yourself won't accomplish anything. Instead, reckless abandon will set you free.














A sightless Kitty sits contentedly on the sofa.

Rude Sunday Morning Awakening

Early Sunday morning we were peacefully sleeping when suddenly the house shook violently, a sound similar to a jet engine surrounded us, and every car alarm in the neighborhood went off. Many thoughts went through our minds - tornado? Plane crash? Sonic boom? It didn't take long for us to decide that sleep was more important than our curiosity and we went back to bed. I finally saw an article late Sunday night explaining what it was - the attempted demolition of an old BASF plant just right across the river from us. I say "attempted" because (in typical Portsmouth style), the demolition didn't exactly happen. Click here for the story and video.

And I really want to know...who the hell schedules a demolition for 7:00 on a Sunday morning??

Home Improvement Frenzy

I'm not sure what exactly got into us, but we have been on a home improvement frenzy this weekend! Actually, I can attribute some of my fervor to my fear that we will never be able to sell the house should we actually get transferred next next spring. There are so many things that I want to do that will make the house show better. A lot of it is pretty much on the surface, but at this point I'm all about appearances.

The whole exterior of the house desperately needs to be painted, but the porches are something that we can tackle by ourselves pretty easily. This weekend we started with the side porch - the smallest and easiest of all the porches. On Saturday we cleaned, sanded, and primed it, then on Sunday we painted. We switched from the previous blue-gray color to a light greeen. I think I'm going to like it, but I'm not entirely convinced.

We also did some painting inside - just a couple doors and some touch-up in the kitchen and laundry room, but it's all progress! I actually really enjoy the painting. Probably because it's not that hard to do, but it makes such a difference. I wish we had been better about doing some of these weekend projects throughout the last year rather than waiting until my transfer panic set in!

BEFORE: The side porch, in a bluish gray color

AFTER: Rob working on painting the porch a light green color

One of the other projects was clearing out all the dead vines from the latticework that stretches from the ground to the second floor porch. It had gotten a little out of control!

Kitty was completely worn out from working in the yard all day!

How I Spent a Lazy Sunday (by the cats)

Kitty: Sleeping on mom's computer bag (it would be so much easier if she'd just lay it down flat!)

Black Cat: Sleeping on the clean clothes that just came out of the dryer (don't mind the bald spot on my belly...)

Grayson: Sleeping on the printer (talk about a printer jam!)

Oliver: Gracing the house with my beautiful presence (did you expect anything else?)

Reasons Why I Wish Rob Were Home

1. Needed to move the heavy coffee table to put down the new rug
2. Had to go solo to the Operation Smile fundraiser in Va Beach on Thursday night (although hanging out with the girls was fun)
3. Big scary spider in the bathroom sink
4. The lawn needs to be mowed
5. Wanted breakfast in bed this morning
6. No one to snuggle with at night (snuggling with Black Cat doesn't count)
7. The wireless internet went out and was a pain to fix
8. Need someone to prod me to go to the gym
9. Foot massages
10. But mostly...I just miss him. I miss having him by my side, holding my hand, listening to me talk, telling me I'm beautiful, laughing at my jokes. Just eight more days...

A busy week...

Luckily, though, keeping busy makes the week go by much quicker! I can't believe it's already Friday. First a confession: I didn't go to the gym at all this week. That was one of my goals while Rob was gone - to hit the gym hard. Hasn't happened.

Instead, I went over to a friend's house on Tuesday. She just moved to Ocean View, so we snuck some wine to the beach and enjoyed a great evening. Too hot to stay too long, though, as it was in the 90s, so we finally left for a restaurant (and air conditioning) to continue the night!

Last night was another night of hanging out with coworkers and enjoying wine - but this time for a good cause! It was a fundraiser for Operation Smile held at Casby's in Virginia Beach. The highlight of my evening? Drinking a shiraz called Razor's Edge (the irony being that the Donor Database system I manage for OpSmile is called Raiser's Edge!). We had a fab time, and hopefully also raised a lot of money for a good cause.

As I've mentioned earlier, Rob is out to sea until June 15 doing sea trials on the mighty USS Bush. He mentioned that there were quite a few media people scheduled to be aboard, and sure enough I saw an article tonight about the ship and what they're doing. http://tinyurl.com/lezsqh That was just in the local Newport News paper; apparently there are national media on board as well. I'll keep an eye out for those articles and post them when I find them!


No big plans for the weekend. Hopefully it doesn't continue to rain all weekend! Today I could barely see on the way home because it was downpouring so hard.


Hope you all have a good weekend!

Is Nothing Ever Easy?

Call it Murphy's Law. Or maybe just Rebecca's luck. Rob left this morning for another two weeks at sea. When I got home this evening, eager to send him an email, the wireless internet wasn't working. Couldn't happen yesterday, when he'd be here to fix it! No, it had to happen today so that it could waste a huge portion of my evening. First I called Cox, thinking it might actuallly be the cable connection itself. After spending a half hour on the phone with them, it was clear that the problem was the router, not the modem. At least, that's what the incredibly polite automated trouble-shooting voice told me. So then I called Belkin, the maker of the router. I got a real person this time...someone who was obviously in India. Definitely NOT as polite as my automated customer service agent from Cox. It was a long painful process, but another half hour later I was finally back online.

I guess it's a sign of our tech-obsessed world that I actually experienced severe anxiety and depression at the thought of not having internet tonight. Life without Facebook? No Twitter? I might as well just go to bed at 7:00 and try to move on with my life in the morning. But now all is right in the world and I have a lot of surfing to make up for. I bid you adieu for now!

The Cats Under the Porch

First off, let me say we do NOT need more cats. Four is more than enough. Some would say four more than needed.

That said, we seem to have a single mom and her kitten living under the porch. The kitten is downright adorable, and the mom is pretty cute, too. We first saw the kitten about a month ago. It literally was hanging on the side door one day. It had been trying to climb the door to play with our cats on the inside! Since then, he has been a regular fixture on every porch of the house. Like all kittens, he is so playful and fun. However, he's very skittish - he won't let us anywhere near.

His mama has started surfacing as well. She is often found laying on the porch in the evening, just watching the kitten play and run. She's getting more accustomed to seeing us and doesn't run right away. Tonight I finally got a picture of the two of them on the porch. The kitten has grown quite a bit since we first saw him.

Now, like I said, we most definitely do NOT need more cats. I can barely keep up with the four we do have. But this little family is so cute...and they seem to really want to come into the house...

Stay tuned...

Day Trip to the Outer Banks

I finally got to see Rob this weekend...but unfortunately, JUST for the weekend. He came home yesterday morning, and leaves again tomorrow morning. A quick 48 hours together! This is getting a little old.

We did make the most of the weekend, however. Yesterday we did a lot of errands and also bought a new outdoor dining set (in preparation for a planned wine party in July!) Today we took a day trip down to the Outer Banks in North Carolina. Despite having lived in this area for 3 years (on this tour...not to mention the 2 previous times we lived here), I had never been to the Outer Banks. For some reason, I had this idea in my mind that it was difficult to get there, lots of traffic, not much to do...so I never made the effort. Boy, that was dumb! We got there very quickly today (hour and a half?) and had a fabulous day. The Outer Banks are beautiful, and a tad more classy than most beach areas. We enjoyed a leisurely lunch at a restaurant right on the water in the city of Duck, and then did a little shopping and just driving around to admire the fantastic beach houses. We both got a bit sunburned from leaving the top down on the car all day, but overall it was just a great day. We will definitely be going back when Rob returns in a few weeks!

Happy Memorial Day

Just wanted to take a minute to say thank you to all the service members out there - both those who are still with us and those who are not. Being in the military is heroic, selfless, patriotic, brave...and I hope that everyone pauses today to thank the service members in their lives. They fight so that we may know peace and security. Appropriately enough, Rob is out to sea right now, so I've spent the day alone. Not necessarily a bad thing, mind you. I'm looking forward to his return on Saturday...so that he can go back out to sea again on Monday! Ah, the life of a military family. :)

Have you thanked a service member today?

Peru Gets Canceled

While I was in London, I got some very disappointing news - the mission to Peru with which I was supposed to particpate got canceled due to the outbreak of swine flu. Ironically, there have been no instances of the flu in Peru...and the government wants to keep it that way! So the mission was postponed indefinitely.

It was a major disappointment, but not unexpected. And truthfully, it probably works out better. I would have left a couple days after returning from London, which I think would have killed me! Also, Rob was originally planning on coming with me. He was going to spend a couple days on the mission, then when the mission was over we were going to go on to Machu Picchu for an experience of a lifetime. However, as happens so often, the Navy got in our way. The ship's schedule changed and he had to go out to sea to do flight deck certifications and other tests on the mighty Bush. Since his trip was already canceled, it didn't hurt as bad when mine got nixed!

On the bright side, I am tentatively scheduled to go on a mission to Fortaleza, Brazil in September. If things work out right (big "if"), Rob will probably try to meet me in Brazil for a few days and then we might try to take a week's vacation somewhere in South America. Maybe Buenos Aires or the wine country of Chile. Stay tuned!

Back to the US...and to blogging

Yeah, I fell off the bandwagon again. But this time I have an excuse - I spent almost a month in London working with the UK office of Operation Smile! I left for London on April 22 with the intention of only be there for 10 days, but I got extended twice and ended up staying for almost 4 weeks. It was an absolutely amazing experience to have - to feel almost like I was living and working there rather than just visiting.


The reason I went over was due to the launch of a Direct Response campaign that incorporated both 60-second TV spots and newspaper ads. Being a very small office (2 full-time employees and a few part-timers), they really didn't have a database specialist or a plan for how to track the (hopeful) influx of donations that the campaign would bring in. In the past they've relied mainly on special events to raise money, so this was a brand new endeavour. Enter me. I went over to analyze their current database solution (a nightmare), help get the call centre set up to sent us data, and try to come up with some procedures for entering and acknowledging the gifts in a timely manner.


The tiny little London office!

It certainly wasn't easy, but I really enjoyed the challenge. It was refreshing to do something different for once; it's not always easy to sit at a desk and do the same thing day in and day out. It was something that I really needed. It brought a new perspective to my job, and actually helped my self-confidence quite a bit because I was able to go in and really make a difference in a pretty short period of time. And I can't say enough about the folks who work in the office. They're incredibly dedicated, but also tons of fun. I feel like I made some very good new friends.

Luckily for me, Rob was able to come visit me while I was there...not just once, but twice! He came for two long weekends. He's absolutely nuts, but I love him for it! The first time he came we stayed in London for the weekend and did the typical touristy stuff...and shopped...a lot. The second time he came, we took a train to Cardiff and spent the weekend there. By then it was actually nice to get out of London and see another part of the UK. Neither of us had ever been to Wales before, so it was a great time.

All in all, it was one of the best experiences that has ever happened to me. I feel silly admitting this, but I actually started to cry on the plane home because I wasn't ready to leave London yet! It just confirms what I already knew - I definitely have to live overseas at some point! And soon...I'm not getting any younger!

If you want to see more pictures, I have two albums on my Facebook page (you don't have to be a member to see the pics):

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=108778&id=678719464&l=2f689c4ba3

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=111179&id=678719464&l=a8ec75dc48

If you're curious about the UK Foundation of Operation Smile, here is a link to their website:

http://www.operationsmile.org/countries/uk/

Help me change a child's life in Peru

Take a moment to imagine your life in a totally different light. Imagine being shunned, or laughed at, or hidden away by your family because they think you are cursed. Imagine not being able to attend school because of the ridicule you’d have to endure. Imagine not being able to speak or eat properly. For thousands of children in developing countries who are born with a cleft lip or cleft palate, this is a grim reality.

But these children needn’t suffer for the rest of their lives. This is something that can be fixed! A surgery to repair a cleft lip can take as little as 45 minutes and $240. Something so simple that can change a child’s life forever.

As many of you know, I have worked for Operation Smile for the last two-and-a-half years. In May I will travel to Lima, Peru to participate in my second OpSmile mission, having had the experience of my life during my first mission to Morocco in 2007. I hope you will join me in changing children’s lives by helping to fund two surgeries. Any amount is appreciated - nothing is too small! When combined with other generous souls, a life can be changed!

Even if you don't wish to donate at this time, I hope you'll check out our website to see how we're helping children around the world. I'm passionate about the work we do at Operation Smile, and I hope that you will be, too!

Click here to be taken to my personal fundraising page, where you can donate online or find the address if you'd prefer to send a check.

Thank you for your time and consideration!

Resurfacing

So once again I have disappeared from the blog world. And once again I am determined to get back into the swing of things. I think my lack of dedication over the last 9 months or so can be attributed to a new addiction - Facebook. Apparently I can only handle one social networking compulsion at a time. After fighting the Facebook craze as long as I could, I succumbed. I devoted far too many hours to forming my profile, loading pictures, trying to think of clever status updates, and reconnecting with people whom I hadn't thought of in years (in some cases, almost 20 years). And once I was finally fully immersed, I came to the crushing realization that Facebook isn't actually cool anymore. Apparently Facebook is being overrun by us geezer over-30 types. Now all the kids are on Twitter or other technologically-challenging sites that I really don't understand. (I do ride the Twitter short bus, though. You can find me there as wanderlust5 if you want to help me get over 20 followers. I know - I dream big.)

So I find myself crawling back to the blog world and remembering what the original purpose of this whole thing was - trying to stay in touch with our family and friends who are spread all over the world. Many of you are on Facebook, which is great. You've been kept up to date on momentous occasions like "Rebecca is cleaning out her sock drawer" and "Rob has duty tomorrow. Yuck." Unfortunately, though, Facebook doesn't really allow for a deeper exploration of some of the truly life-altering events we've experienced in recent months. Like the commissioning of the US Navy's newest aircraft carrier (the George HW Bush, upon which Rob is currently stationed), or the inauguration of President Obama. In that 10-day period, we saw every living president of the United States (some of them twice!). Maybe I'll try to retro-blog some thoughts about those events. And I shall try to be better in the future about keeping up with this, and realizing that I don't have to write a novel every time - just a few sentences will suffice!

4th of July in Washington DC

Yeah, I know - I've fallen off the blog bandwagon again. I feel like we've even been doing interesting things lately, but I've been too tired/busy/distracted to actually post anything! But I will try...again.

We decided at the last minute to spend the 4th of July weekend in DC. Sounded like a great idea, but I woke up that Friday morning with a horribly sore throat (not to mention a vicious hangover from the wine party we hosted the night before!). We decided to still make the trip, however. It was raining in DC, but we still enjoyed the fireworks that evening.

The next day we walked down to the Smithsonian's "Folk Festival" at the Mall. One of the focuses of the festival was the country of Bhutan, which was ironic because Rob and I have just recently developed an interest in traveling there sometime. We watched all the cultural demonstrations with great interest!

We then wandered over to some of the memorials on the mall. I had not seen the World War II memorial yet, so we spent quite a bit of time there. It was a very hot and humid day, so we were pretty much spent by mid-afternoon! We went back to the hotel and rested until it was time for a delicious Italian dinner. :-)

The World War II memorial.

One of the other things we wanted to do on this trip was explore the various neighborhoods and get a feel for the good places to live. We figure that's probably where we will be transferred next, albeit a couple years from now. We're both very excited about the possibility of living there and want to make sure we pick the 'perfect' place to live! I know DC gets kind of a bad rap, but there are several exciting, vibrant neighborhoods. I'm already making plans!

If the cardboard cutouts were a barometer of public opinion, I'd say Barack has the November election tied down! People were lined up to have their picture taken with his likeness, whereas the John McCain cutout stood off all alone with no takers!