Reenlistment, the Fourth of July, and a Time-Warp

Back at the beginning of July, Brandon signed on for another 6 years with the US Navy, which is a pretty big deal.  Since they're drawing down the military, they're being really choosy about the people that they allow to reenlist.  The fact that they not only re-upped his contract, but that they signed him for another 6 years (the maximum, by the way), really speaks to how awesome he is.  I, for one, really just could not be any more proud of him for doing what he does, and for doing it so incredibly well.

The girls and I drove out to the command for the little reenlistment ceremony.  It was very quick--the drive down there took longer than the ceremony did.  But not only was it a major thing for his career, but it's a big deal for our family.  On the one hand, the Navy kind of owns us for another 6 years.  We'll be moving soon, because he's up for new orders, and he'll be going back to a boat for the first time in 6 years, for the first time since we had children.  It's inevitable that he's going to have to go out to sea, and I'd be lying if I tried to tell you that I'm not terrified of being left alone.  But, to balance that, the Navy has been very, very good to us and it's reassuring to know that we are going to have a steady income and health care for the next 6 years.  So yes, it was good to be there, to witness this commitment being made, and to show our support.

They also gave me an award, which I was definitely not expecting.  It 's an achievement award,  recognizing and thanking me for my support as the one standing behind Brandon and his work in the Navy.  I was pleasantly surprised, though I also felt a little put on the spot...there were actually a lot of people there, and I'd met only a handful of them a handful of times.  Still, I thought it was pretty cool.  :)

So, that was July third.  I thought it was an appropriate way to celebrate the Fourth, especially since we didn't actually do any celebrating on the Fourth.  Saturday we went out to Virginia Beach for some Fourth of July family fun.  We tried out one of the local seafood places for dinner, then headed on over to the strip to have some old time photos done.  This was not done on a whim.  I've actually been planning that very photo session, at that very location, for a year or two.  You see, Brandon was stationed here back in 2003 for his C-school training, and he flew me up to see him a couple of times.  One of those times was over the July 4th holiday weekend, and while wandering around in Virginia Beach, we had some old time photos done then.  So how could we not go back and do it again, exactly 10 years later?  I couldn't resist, and even Brandon said that it pretty much had to be done.
 I didn't want to take the original photos with us, since we have only the one copy, so we snapped a picture of it with Brandon's phone, to show it to the people at the studio.  Of course they were all over it, and perfectly happy to help us try to recreate the original:

How awesome is that?  10 years, 3 duty stations, and 2 kids later, and neither of has changed much at all.  How's that for a time warp?  Here's the rest of the shoot (because of course I had to have the CD with all the digital images on it...) :

The girls LOVED getting all dressed up, and playing with the props.  Heck, so did I, for that matter.

Elora looks unhappy in the first one, because the photographer had handed her a gun, and told her to hold it up for the picture.  "But, guns are dangerous!"  And she continued to look worried until he took away the gun, and handed her the fan.  She was much more comfortable with the fan.  Kaylie, on the other hand, was in 100% dress-up-loving-toddler heaven.

We got done with the photos just before 10, when the fireworks were supposed to start, so we just headed across the street to the beach walk. We waited patiently there by the beach, but I couldn't help noticing that there wasn't anyone else standing around, looking expectantly at the sky out over the water.  Sure enough, there were no fireworks that night.  As it turns out, I'd misread the schedule.  They weren't Saturday night at 10, but Sunday night at 10.  Oops.  Thank goodness for smartphones!  Since Brandon was able to double check the schedule, we didn't wait around too long, but got the girls loaded up and headed home.  Poor Elora was heartbroken.  She'd been so excited to see the fire works!  We kept telling her that we'd go back the next night, that she would still get to see them, but she was so tired and so disappointed that she whimpered the whole way home.

We did go back, and she did get to see them.  Elora loved them.  This is the only picture I was able to get of her once they started, because she was so excited that she kept jumping up and down.  Apparently, holding still also meant that she had to stop grinning, but at least I got a picture!

Kaylie was not so impressed.  She didn't like the noise, but kept peeking through her fingers to watch them anyway.  She spent part of the show in the stroller, and part of it with Brandon.

I hope everyone had a happy Fourth of July!

Sweet Home Alabama

I know I've been pretty quiet on the blog front, but let me tell you, I have been a busy bee, and one with only limited access to a decent wireless internet connection. But I haven't hardly noticed, because we've been having such an amazing time.

By the way, you can really see how my new hair cut looks in this picture, what do you think of it straight?

So, on to the meat of the post.

At one point, I thought I was from the South.  I thought I'd experienced a Southern summer.  I have just discovered that I was wrong.

The town where I grew up is right on the eastern coast of Florida, so we were spoiled by the ocean breeze.  And even when we ventured "inland", Florida is a peninsula, and one that is riddled with rivers, lakes and ponds.  You can't escape the water.  For the most part, Florida is not part of the South; it's part of the Caribbean.  

I have visited almost all of the Southern states, but we always vacationed in the fall when I was a kid, and in the past, we've only visited Brandon's family in Alabama in the fall.  In short, this is the first time that I have ever truly experienced a Southern summer.  It is blazing hot, with only a few wispy clouds, and no afternoon showers or ocean breezes to cool things off a bit.  The ground here is so dry that the dust swirls around our feet with every step.  My only other experience with this kind of dry was the summer that we had a drought in Central Florida; fires swept through the desiccated brush and burned acres of land in my area.  Perhaps it's just that time has dimmed my memories of that summer, and nearly 3 years in Germany has reduced my tolerance, but this seems worlds hotter and drier.

We have had an absolute blast catching up with Brandon's family, many of whom have not had an opportunity to meet Elora before.  The first morning we were here, Elora and I went out with Staria (Bran's mom) and Mommom (his grandmother) to pick blueberries from the bushes out front.

  

Elora soon learned that she could eat the berries right off of the bush.  The child loves blueberries, and we let her eat way too many.  (I won't be doing that again.)

The focus has been the Fourth of July family reunion organized by Brandon's grandmother, Mommom.  The days leading up to it were spent in getting ready, and we spent a lot of today cleaning up afterward.  My contribution, in addition to documenting the whole affair with my camera, was a pair of cakes for the fete.  These were the finished products.

The one with the chocolate frosting was easy enough to do.

But the carrot cake?  Oh man.  Both layers fell apart when I took them out of their pans, and the second (top) was worse that the first (bottom).  This is what I was looking at when I started icing it.

I had to get creative in decorating it, and I had to let go of my perfectionism for a while.  There were a lot of deep breaths taken in the course of frosting that cake. Staria wanted it to have rows of vegetables, in honor of Mommom's farm; I think I did a pretty good job, all things considered. 

I topped it with crushed walnuts for the "soil", and I made the little rows of growing vegetables (don't ask what kind, I was just making it up as I went).

I put a fence around the whole thing, to try to mask the places where I couldn't get the frosting spread.   That was Carrie's idea --she's my sister-in-law-- and it was a good one.

 And here, where the cake was just falling to pieces and even my homemade cream cheese frosting couldn't hold it together, I tried to make it look like the fence had broken, where the farm was just bursting its seams.  I know I've devoted a lot of post to this cake, but darn it, I'm proud!  The girls were telling me to just toss it, but I made it work.  (Anyone want to rub my shoulder?  I'm sore from patting myself on the back.)

The party itself was a complete success.  Mommom bought this piece of property last spring, and has been working tirelessly ever since to clear the land, renovate the house, clean out the barn and get some crops planted.  She's named her place the Lucky "B" Farm, and to me, this whole shindig was the grand opening.  She went all out.  In addition to my cakes, there was brisket, pulled pork, roasted chicken, fresh corn on the cob (locally grown), homemade coleslaw, potato salad, and pickles, baked beans, and I can't even remember what what else.  We made enough food to feed the 80+ people who showed up, and had enough left over for us to have dinner tonight. Did I mention that "us" includes about 20 people??  We even had our own, professional fireworks display.

It was awesome.  The best thing, though, was that we surprised Mommom by dedicating the whole thing to her, and turning it into a much-belated celebration of her birthday.  (Hence the birthday cake.)  We'd surprised her first just by showing up--the whole family was in on the secret--and then by making it a party for her.

She was floored.  It was wonderful, and I'm proud to have been a part of it. 

I have so much more to share --I haven't even touched on our visit to Florida-- but I'm sure I'm pushing my luck with this post as it is.  I will post it later,  I promise.