Author: Jen

Recently I started a facebook group for the women of the Fort Meade ward. Because it’s a military ward it is tough to get to know everyone because it’s constantly changing. I wanted everyone to have a place to tell each other about “non-church” stuff. Like good sales going on or an awesome recipe they discovered or parties they were throwing…anything. I’ve gotten some pretty good response to it. We currently have 37 members. I think we just need a few more and we will have everyone in the ward!

Also, for the last few months I have been trying to start a Bunco group. It’s never really worked. But this month I said to myself “to heck with the numbers” and decided to do it even if only one person said they’d come. We had it last night…on Monday I had four people coming. But by yesterday afternoon I had suddenly locked in 12 people! The perfect number! Of course one of them decided to go into labor a month early so we ended up with only 11. But these ladies were super creative and made a table of 3 perfectly functional. Awesome. Hopefully the group will continue, everyone seemed to love it as much as I always did with the group in Moscow.

One of the women in the Bunco group asked me “why are you doing this? Aren’t you moving soon?” I suppose I just wanted to make some difference…I just wish I would have done it sooner so I could enjoy it a little longer 🙂

This photo is to show you not only how wonderful my husband is (for bringing me beautiful roses on a random day…he totally surprised me and had amazing timing all at once.) But also to show you how silly my child is. See the bottom rose…look at the bottom right part of it…that my friends is a bite mark. He just had to see how it tasted. The picture doesn’t show it very clearly, but there is a definite bite out of my rose. Luckily he decided that did not taste so good and he spit it all out.

This is the first time that we have really PCSed (moved) with the military. So we are learning A LOT. Typically by the time we get information it’s too late. Everything is getting pushed back and back again. Italy is one of only three countries that requires not only an official government passport (for all of us) but also a visa. The amount of time that it takes to process those two things alone could put us into April by the time they are ready…and we’re supposed to be there March 10th. And then there is the paperwork. So much paperwork. The military is famous for it. Nick had to fill out a leave form the other day and it was six pages long…to get a day or two off!

So long story short, I’m ready to just be there. All this “getting there” stuff is not fun. Everyone always asks if I’m excited…I think I am, but it’s so hard to tell when I’m buried in papers and appointments that I don’t even understand….

What to do with a three day weekend? Go see the lovely miss Rachel in New York of course! Rachel hadn’t met Jonah yet and Nick and Spencer (Rach’s finace!) hadn’t met…so we had to get the crew together! Rachel and Spencer were wonderful hosts and tour guides. (They were sooo good with Jonah, I can’t wait until they have kids!) We walked through central park, went in the FAO schwartz toys, walked down wall street. We took the ferry to Ellis island and learned all about the great immigration and all the words that we use in the English that are actually from other languages because of what a melting pot we are…such as Slurp (dutch), Kerplunk (german?), bum (German), Schmuck (yiddish) and lot’s more. We enjoyed New York pizza for dinner (I didn’t really like it) and New York bagels for breakfast. It was a fun weekend!



$24,999 Barbie Foosball table…INSANE. FAO Schwartz is a bit expensive!

We hit up Mount Vernon during the last few days of our Christmas “break”. They were having Christmas at Mount Vernon until January 6th, it was supposed to be decorated and christmasy. Pretty much all we saw was a live camel, the national turkey and one or two Christmas tress (there were supposedly about 10 of them). But it was fun to see Old George’s home on the river. And we had the privilege of seeing the third floor which is only open for six weeks out of the year.


George and Martha’s tomb.


The mansion on the potomac.

Another project of Nick’s…a little longer and a little more boring. 🙂

Many of you may be wondering or have already asked us what exactly Nick will be doing in Italy. He will be worked for the AFN- Armed forces network recording videos. So far Nick has mostly done photography but he is trained in videography as well. Here is a recent clip he put together for a company competition. It’s based on the arm wrestle scene from the old man and the sea.

We had a very quiet Christmas with just the three of us. Jonah loves everything he got. We put away all his old toys and he has been playing away with his new toys. It was a lot more fun with Jonah this year…he understood how to open his presents and got excited about them. We were lucky enough to have two Christmas dinners! A ham with some friends from Nick’s work on Christmas eve and a turkey with some friends from the ward on Christmas day. The first night I made rolls and mashed potatoes. The Second night I made rolls, yams and an apple pie. All the food both evenings was delicious…too bad all three of us have been sick all week and eating very much makes us all nauseous!