I have a new friend. Her name is Amanda. She is WON-DER-FUL. You can read her blog here. Amanda's husband Carl is out on the ship with Mark right now, so we have been trying to keep busy without the boys. So far, this has involved going to a "wives" event on the base, hanging out with her ferocious but still adorable puppy (hehe), going to dinner, doing a little shopping, and of course spending way too much money but justifying it because it's going towards fun gifts to send to the guys on the ship.

Our last gift I can tell you about because as far as I know Mark never reads this thing anyway. :-) We wanted to send the guys something for Cinco de Mayo--gifts take about 3 weeks to arrive. So we had this GRAND (or maybe I should say "grande"!) idea to find a pinata, fill it with candy, and then add a few more fun Cinco de Mayo-ish items.

After hours (literally) of shopping at Target and WMart, we finally were able to track down the following items, package them, and I shipped them off yesterday. :-)

two obnoxious sombreros that we look absolutely beautiful in (picture to follow soon)
chips (the scooping kind)
salsa (for the scooping chips)
jar of jalapenos (trust me the guys will love them)
the cutest bowls to put the salsa in
plastic cereal containers (so the chips don't break shipping!)
pinata (uh huh...you read that right...Cars theme--so cute!)
NINE POUNDS OF CANDY filling the pinata

This gift is meant to be shared with everyone in Mark and Carl's shop--hopefully it will give them a little "taste" of home and they will enjoy it!

Tomorrow will be a month since I said goodbye to Mark.

I'd like to think of it as "one month down, six to go"...but six months is a long time, so I'd rather just not think of it at all. :-) It's hard not to though. There have been countless times that I've wanted to pick up my phone and call him, just to talk. Or send him a text message to say hi and a few minutes later read his reply. Then I remember he's on a ship in the middle of the ocean. Before he was deployed he worked nights during the week, so I filled my weeknights with school activities and hanging out with friends, and I kept my weekends free for Mark-time. :-) Now that he is gone, I keep myself busy during the week as usual, and wonder what I will do with all my free time on the weekends.

This is where my family and friends come in...I thank God for them!

This past Friday I called in sick. Sometimes you just need to take a day off to slow yourself down. Or at least I do! I had been running on full speed since I came home from Italy--papers to grade, Matt's wedding, teaching adult school, open house, teaching my regular classes, etc, etc. It was nice to just rest. Though I didn't do much of that! Friday morning I ran into Fresno to sign the contract at our reception site. All set there! Then my cousin Whitney and I met for a Starbucks, and we spent some time catching up on the last month's events. After we left I drove to the Cancer center where my dad has his treatment, and sat with my mom and dad while he was "connected". Mom and I talked about wedding things and dad was on the phone with a friend. I had dinner plans Friday night that cancelled last minute...so Friday night I spent alone. I hate to admit it, but it was really nice to finally have a night for myself. :-) I fixed a new pasta dish (a recipe that I brought home from Italy), baked some cookies to send to Mark, watched a little tv, and then went to bed early.

Saturday morning I did a bit of last-minute shopping for a package that I was sending to Mark, packed the items in the box, and then ran to the post office before noon to send it. Saturday afternoon I cleaned a bit before heading to Hanford to have dinner and do some shopping with Amanda. Amanda is a wonderful new friend of mine...she is married to Carl, one of the guys that Mark works with and is on the ship with right now. They just got married a little over a year ago, so this is her first cruise too. We are going through this together and I'm so glad that we are friends! She's very encouraging and fun to be with. We have made it our goal these next six months to earn ourselves the "best wife ever" and "best fiance ever" awards. :-) So we're putting together fun boxes to send to the guys--like a Cinco de Mayo box filled with chips, salsa, sombreros, and a few other little items. So fun!

Sunday morning was breakfast and church with Ashley...though, it turned out to be just breakfast with Ashley. :-) We had every intention of going to church, but the restaurant where we ate our breakfast (MMmmmm Swedish pancakes!) was understaffed that morning, so things were running a little slow. It was nice to sit while we were waiting and after we ate, and just catch up. :-) After breakfast I ran home to finish cleaning--mom and dad were coming for dinner so I wanted the place to be nice and neat. Dinner together was nice. They hadn't been out for dinner in over a year--so it was fun to hang out, talk about wedding plans, watch a movie, and have some yummy pasta.

Speaking of wedding plans...I'll write more again soon and update you. In the meantime, watch your mail. You should be receiving a little something very soon! :-)

a few pictures...

...from my trip to Italy. The first is at a dogi villa; the second at ponte diavola in Cividale; and the third...Venice! :-)






I will try to post more soon! This is all I have at work... :-)