So much to do

Monterey Bay

I thought I'd share some fun information about Monterey; The Fisher's place of residence for the next year.

Most famous in Monterey would be the Fishermans Wharf.  This is walking distance from downtown Monterey and our favorite place to hang out when we want to kill time.  Here you go if you want to try out Whale Watching, seeing the beached seals, and our favorite thing about the Wharf is the candy store and the Italian and Seafood Restaurant called Isabella's.

A mile down the coast from the Wharf is Cannery Row.  The bulk of it's shops are housed inside historic fomer sardine packing factories. so this serves as a reminder of the hard life depicted in John Steinbecks novel about the neighborhood.  Cannery Row's biggest attraction is the world famous Acquarium. 

Here they have giant displays of Jellyfish, Seahorses, underwater life, sharks, sting rays--

 (which I steered clear of)

West of Monterey lies the cozy city of Pacific Grove.  In November it becomes the city of the Butterflies as hundreds of thousands of Monarch butterflies migrate to.  If you want to stay in a quaint bed and breakfast, Pacific Grove is the place to go.   Pacific Grove is home of the cartoonist who created Dennis the Menace.  Monterey has a huge park Called Dennis the Menace Park in honor of him.  It's great for any kids.  My kids love it!

Carmel is just south of Pacific Grove.  Here is where Clint Eastwood was Mayor in 1986-1988.  I believe he still resides there but I'm not 100% sure.  Go to Carmel to visit the famous 17-mile drive that ends up in Pebble Beach; where incidently the US Open took place this year. (And Richard got to attend!)  Pebble beach is famous for the Lone Cypress Tree seen here... 

Carmel is also the home of one of the twins and her father in the original movie The Parent Trap, with Hailey Mills.  :)

About 20 miles north of Monterey is where a ton of farming is done.  Here is the garlic capitol of the world, Strawberry Capitol, and Artichoke Capitol of the world.  You can actually smell garlic when driving through Castroville. 

Salinas is the place in MOnterey County that you want to stay out of.  Gangs are really bad there.  Here is also the birthplace of John Steinbeck.  As I mentioned the author of Cannery Row.  Which I am trying to read right now, but just can't get into it. 

The weather here stays around 60-65 degrees with August-October being it's warmest months dipping up into the high 70's.  We live in Ford Ord, an army post, a short 15 minute drive from the DLI (defense language institute)  where Richard goes to work every day.   Savannah attends Marshall Elementary and Valerie goes to preschool with Seasides Recreation center.  I stay busy with my lovely change of pace from being a fulltime wife, mom, and working outside our home.  Now I get to just enjoy being a fulltime wife and mom... with another on the way!  :)

ch..ch..chh...ch...changes

Yes, we are alive and well! We have been in Monterey since the end of May. Our family lives in fort ord about 15 minutes from where Richard goes to school. I was shocked when I got here to see that Montereys weather is not your typical california warm weather. It stayed between 60 and 65 all summer long. You never leave the house without a jacket. But at the same time this place is a small slice of heaven on earth. Don't get me wrong I miss my family and friends back home but this has bee such a nice change of pace. I told Richard I feel like I lived two lifetimes while he was away at basic working fulltime.

I don't have internet at our house yet we are waiting to *sigh* sell our house in grantsville. But I thought I'd try blogging from my phone. We'll see if this works!!! Hopefully I will be able to post pictures soon.

Love ya-- Jill

Sweet Tea, Ya'll, and Fort Jackson.......

are just to name a few of the reasons we visited South Carolina last month.  But the main reason was so see my main squeeze after 3 months of basic training.  Here are some of the pictures we took..

The soldiers hiding out in the trees before coming out onto the field.

Here they are walking through the smoke so we could see them.

In Formation.  Richard is in F Company at the right side.

Graduation Day.  I am checking him out so he can join us off base.  Poor Richard was sick with pnemonia while we were there.  He didn't feel worth a darn.  :(

In Formation.  Getting ready to watch him do pushups. 

Yumm-o!

I made cupcakes for my nephews baptism in January and they were divine. I really enjoy making and creating cupcakes. These were red velvet with cream cheese frosting. Did I say yumm-o already. Not to mention how dang cute they are.

(Making this batch also gave me an excuse to buy a cupcake caddy! 

They are the best... If your into that sort of thing.)

Letter from Fort Jackson

So much to say, so little time. I didn’t write last night; I spent all my time reading mail. I got 7 letters, 4 from you! It was so great. They brought our mail out to the field. Then I got 3 more letters today; our youth group wrote me and Marlene Long. Tell them Thank You.

Some tidbits about basic here: It’s funny but you can sleep anywhere and in any conceivable position. You can just be going along getting a lesson and instruction and just slump over zonk out cold. You’re just that tired. I try to stay awake but sometimes I catch myself slipping too. You better not get caught though! Your butt will get smoked for sure. I’ve actually never gotten in trouble here and I hope to keep it that way. The dirt here is all sand, everywhere.

When you eat, you eat anything. You just need the calories. You’re ravishing and sometimes there’s not enough food so you have to eat butter, peanut butter, jelly, white bread, salad dressing just to get the calories. I’ll throw gobs of butter on white bread just to get the calories. You have to have them to keep training. I eat everything put in front of me except broccoli, peas and green beans. I just can’t bring myself to eat them. I guess I’d die if that’s all I had! Today another Platoon’s Drill Sergeant was watching me eat and said, “Who is that, is that Fisher?” “Yes Drill Sergeant,” I said. “did you eat like that before you got here?” “No Drill Sergeant.” Then he said, “Home boy knows how to get down. He eats like a marine.” it would disgust you to know just how much food I can consume in 6 minutes!

There are a lot of married guys with kids here in the same boat as me. They had jobs, the economy collapsed and they needed a way to take care of their families. A lot of us just needed work. 2 guys in my platoon have had babies while they have been here.

The last 2 days we’ve been doing war games with blanks. The training has been awesome, intense, and good. I’ve been running my machine gun with a full ammo box attached, awesome! I don’t know what it is about me, but when the goin gets tough that’s when I get goin. When things are easy I have a tough time being motivated, but the tougher they are is when I get intense. It’s just the way I’m wired. Today we hadn’t bathed for 3 days, sand in our butts and we were huffing, sweating, and breathing hard. Everyone was complaining they wanted to go back to the barracks. Not me. That’s when I got real motivated; Training got GOOD. Goodson and I were assaulting this building when an Artillery round came in. We had to get out of there and I took off like a bat out of hell. The guys in my platoon said I looked like Forrest Gump out there running!........

Creation Part 1

She never ceases to amaze me. The other day Savannah brought home from school a report she did on the Grand Canyon. Her teacher read them a bunch of facts and they had to write some down afterward. Please read for your enjoyment… and awe.

I’m sure Mrs. Chamberlain didn’t teach that in their public school class. I can guarantee her teacher told her the Grand Canyon was created by the Colorado River. Way to go Savannah. I’m so darn proud of you.  It's times like these that make me say... Thank You God that they are listening when we try to teach them and correct them at home the opposite of what the world teaches.

Car Rides & Cute Kids

On our way home the other day I had some chocolate covered nuts in the car and gave Valerie one.  She sucked all the chocolate off of it first and starting chewing up the nut. Then she decided she didn’t like it and wanted to spit it out. I had no napkins or tissues in the car and told her to just swallow it and we’d get her a drink when we got home. But she refused. She said she really didn’t like it so she was just going to hold it in her mouth and spit it out when we got home. Ummm, okay.


“Just eat it so you don’t have to taste it anymore.”

“No, I don’t like it I'm going to spit it out.”

So there we sat driving in the car while she held a chewed up nut in her mouth because she thought it was yucky and didn’t want to swallow it. I tried talking to her a lot in the car so maybe she would forget about it and in mid conversation she would hopefully swallow it. She finally did as we pulled onto our street and could see our house.

=========================================

Here’s a small conversation Savannah and I had in the car this weekend.

Savannah: “Mom, doesn’t it make you feel so cool that you have been alive 30 years?”

Me: "Thanks for the reminder-- and no I don’t feel cool I wish I’ve only been alive 20 years.”

She doesn’t understand, but maybe one day she will…

And one day Valerie will understand that if you just swallow the yucky food you won’t have to hold it in your mouth for 30 minutes until you get home.

Precious, isn't it? 

Family Pictures - 11/2009

Christmas 2010

It was a Merry one indeed.

Christmas 2010

This Christmas I had a different perspective on a few things.... For instance lights on only half of your tree won't ruin Christmas or the Holidays Season. We loved are tree!

It gave it character dont ya think?!?

I guess it could have used a few more ornaments too.  :)