have you given up on us?

January 24th was the last post. I can hardly believe it. Ashley, you should be getting on me for slacking. Since January 24th we've had two birthdays, an anniversary, visitors, flights, etc.

Let's go case-by-case

As a family, first. The Vandament parents came to visit in March and we had a BLAST. They were here on my (Tenisha's) Spring Break. We went to the beach, ate lots of great food, went to base, visited the museum, ate more, played with Belleau, played lots of Monopoly Deal, cooked, had a Pampered Chef party and played with Belleau more. Tori is the next visitor lined up, then we must have our Lynch family out for a visit.

Belleau turned ONE! And although she occasionally pretends to be mature, she is still a gosh darn puppy. We took her to the dog beach just yesterday and she played for 90 minutes with no break. She was a beast, and impressed all of the humans there. We had to literally drag her away from the water when we were ready to head home. Some owners of a retriever were very upset with their dog that would not fetch a tennis ball, but you better believe Belleau was after it in a heart beat each and every time. She is still a riot and keeps us ever so busy.

John is finally back to flying after his wisdom teeth surgery. He was out for several days. You would be amazed with all he has to memorize. He is currently in the office going over his brief for tomorrow's flight.

He flies.

Can you believe it?

I still can't.

I've been asking him to give us a paragraph, in his words, of what he thinks of being up in a plane with the controls at his hands ... and once he has a break from studying ... I'll get him typing.

I am still teaching and loving it. I am only seven weeks away from summer and the completion of my first year of teaching. I received a raise for completing my masters, which is always exciting. Can't decide on my next degree, but be assured there will be another. I have wonderful friends at school that I have absolutely loved getting to know. And my students are the reason I love the job. We are in the middle of Shakespeare, and I am thankful to Dr. Darcy at UNO for making me love and appreciate good ol' William.

I know this does not give you a play by play of what we have been up to in the last THREE months, but our lives are seeming somewhat normal at the moment, and for a life in the Marine Corps normal feels so odd. We have lived in Florida for almost a year and that also seems odd after eight months in Omaha and seven months in Virginia. But normal is nice, and we are enjoying it while we can.

Food. Now, of course that topic deserves its own paragraph. We have been cooking as usual. I am experimenting with pot stickers. I have the dough down, and the Asian filling. Thinking a buffalo chicken and blue cheese filling is in my near future.  Pizza is still a love of ours. In fact, I just made the most "boring" one we've had in awhile: pepperoni, mozz, goat cheese, and sage. Last week we had turkey bacon, apples, maple syrup, and chicken ... mmMm. Oh and for Valentines day we had chicken lasagna. A personal favorite.

On one last note ... I have started picking blackberries in our neighborhood! One of our fantastic neighbors showed me the way to yummy berries, and I have started going out there daily to grab a few more. They are delicious.

For my own sanity, I will not wait three+ months between posts. *I will TRY not to ...