Charlie Brown tree...

Life has been crazy busy lately, but somewhere in the long hours, I managed to set up my little tree.  I love real trees, but lugging one up four flights of stairs to my apartment alone didn't seem so fun, so last year while Phil was gone I bought my cute little "deployment tree".  It went up again this year, since Phil was deployed, and then gone house hunting.  Next year we'll get a real one, but for now, my shaky little tree balanced on a stool will work just fine!

I've got plenty to be thankful for...

Thanksgiving is such a wonderful time to reflect on all our many blessings; family, friends, homes, jobs, health and so many other things.  This Thanksgiving weekend was particularly special, since we got to welcome little William Augustine into the Robblee clan!  My brother-and-sister-in-law are the first in the family to have a baby, and we were so excited to spend time this weekend celebrating the safe (and early!) delivery of their baby boy!   

The little guy that made me an aunt! 

Looking around at the world... 

The Robblee men, unfortunately missing Phil.  

We'll have to get one with all the boys when he returns from his deployment!

Oh the weather outside...

Sometimes, on cold, gray, windy days when the Christmas lights are up and everyone is wearing hats and scarves, I see little bits of white swirling around, and for one brief moment I think "Oh! It's going to snow!"  Then, with a thud of disappointment I remember... I live in Southern California.

I think I need the Navy to send us somewhere cold and snowy!  At least for the holidays.

Dickens...

So I recently stumbled upon a Dickens adaption that I had never seen before, "Little Dorrit".  Netflix recommended it based on my viewing history  (hmm... maybe all those period pieces??) so I ordered it.  Winner of 7 Emmys, this was a great mini-series!  Filled with the usual cast of eccentric Dickens characters, if followed the life of young Amy Dorrit and her trials and fortunes.   While I'm of the "Colin Firth is the only Mr. Darcy"  persuasion, and did't pay any attention to Matthew Macfadyn in the recent "Pride and Prejudice", I certainly noticed him as Mr. Clennam in this show. :)  Also, Claire Foy is a newer actress who does a wonderful job as sweet Amy.  And can I say, without spoiling anything- cutest ending EVER?!?  Highly recommended!

My happily ever after...

Three years ago today we were married!  A cold, rainy November day, but a beautiful day nonetheless. It's been a crazy three years, but I wouldn't trade it for anything!

The thing about shoes (part 2)

Sometimes I have "lonely Navy wife days".  When that happens I go shopping.  More importantly, shoe shopping.  This time I bought a pair of TOMS:

I love these shoes.  They make me so happy!  They are a) adorable, b) super comfy, c) allow some poor child to have shoes as well.   Since they are so many wonderful things, I think I should add to my collection.  Maybe some sparkly ones for work, and a cute pair of lace ones for dressy, and some red  corduroy ones for Christmas....

Fall comes to San Diego

Cool weather has finally come to Southern California.  This weekend has been cold and rainy, a change from our usual warm and mild weather.  I could actually see my breath this evening!  To ward of the chill I lit my lit fire (and by I lit I mean I turned on the switch), made some cocoa, and spent the day curled up reading!!  It really feels like it might be Fall.

Sight-seeing San Diego

Since we've signed our life away to the Navy, we go where the Navy sends us.  For the last few years we've been in San Diego, but we'll soon be packing up and heading to Monterey.  I'm excited to see a new place, but am realizing that there are still parts of San Diego I haven't seen yet.  One of the sights is the Mission that so many parts of San Diego are named after : Mission Valley, Missions Hills, Mission Gorge, Mission Beach. etc.  While Phil was on POM (no idea what it stands for, but it means vacation!), we took an afternoon and visited the San Diego Mission.  It was small, pretty, and very peaceful and relaxing.  

 The main sanctuary

 In the gardens...

Relaxing by the fountain.

(You can tell Phil's on leave because he gets scruffy!)

Autumn in Connecticut...

So, while it may seem like I fell off the planet all together, I actually just went on vacation.  The handsome man I'm married to has never been able to go back to CT with me to visit my family, so in the (nearly) three years we've been married I've always gone alone.  We finally had a chance to visit, and to my great delight, we got to go in October!!  I love San Diego, but I'm an East Coast girl at heart, and I miss the seasons, the cool weather, trees changing colors, apple picking, cider donuts, boots, scarves, and all the other things that go along with fall.  I got to enjoy it all again for a week, and it was wonderful!  Here is just a snippet of the wonderful autumness of our trip:

 Lovely trees!

The fam visiting Sturbridge Village

<3

Had to get a crazy jumping picture!  Not sure if I should be sad I'm not in the picture, or impressed with my own amazing photography skills!

  Apple picking cutie

Apple picking smooching!

Stitches East!  A knitter's heaven 

Beautiful foliage!

The thing about shoes....

We're going on a trip to see my family.  I've just started packing and already have seven pairs of shoes that absolutely must come with me.  And that's without planning out every outfit I'm going to wear.  Let's just hope my bag isn't overweight.  I think it would be a little embarrassing to have to open up my suitcase and show the world that I packed fifteen pairs of shoes for an eight day trip.

October skies...

October has come, and with it cold weather and rain!  I'm pretty excited, although I heard it's suppose to be sunny again by the weekend.  At least for a few days though I can wear my boots without needing to turn the AC to make it cool enough!

In which I actually finish a project....

I have a bad habit of starting lots of projects (sewing, knitting, scrapbooking, cleaning, laundry, etc) and never getting around to finishing them.  This week though I did finish one of my knitting projects!  My cute little blue scarf is done... just in time for an 80° week!  It turned out super cute and even if San Diego is too warm, I'm definitely going to rock it in CT in a few weeks!

Root, root, root for the home team!

Last night a friend had Padres' tickets and invited us along for the game.  It was awesome!  We had parking just across the street, great seats, and the Padres' won!  It was fun, action-packed game with a great double-play ending.  Since it will probably be our last game here in San Diego, it was the perfect game to go out on!

Making friends and seeing sights

I recently made a new friend (another Navy wife!) and we've hung gotten together a few times recently. Since we know neither of us will be in San Diego for very long, we decided we might as well take advantage of living in a beautiful city while we're still here, so we've visited cute little coffee shops, meandered around Coronado, and this week spent an afternoon at Balboa Park!  It was a beautiful day and we enjoyed the free Tuesday museum entrance.  We're hoping to get to see a little more this pretty city, before the military sends us somewhere new!

 Sunshine and palm trees.. ah San Diego!

 A Fra Angelico!

Since we were so close, we had to pay a visit to "Extraordinary Desserts"- the most amazing little dessert place in town!

Romance...

I love my husband!  After a crazy week at work where he was never home before 7pm and a Saturday spent cleaning the house, he spent the evening making a lovely, romantic dinner, complete with candles! As an unplanned but still wonderful way to finish the evening we went out for a moonlit stroll with the dog and arrived just in time for a spectacular fireworks show going on just a few blocks away!

Go Bolts!

Showing off our team spirit!!

Highlights....

Somehow, despite having several days off, this week was super busy and flew by before I had time to post.  So here are a few highlights from our incredibly exciting week....

 Spent the holiday shopping at the outlets... happy day!

Temperatures hit 100°.  Usually right about the time Starbucks brings out the Pumpkin Spice Latte, San Diego heats up!

Survived a blackout.  Candles and wine seemed a pretty good solution.

Started a new knitting project.  Because I didn't buy enough accessories while shopping, and I might need a scarf in 100° weather! 

 Cut my bangs.  Sometimes I get bored and need to do something exciting.  Bangs seemed a better idea than a tattoo.

In which we go bowling...

After a crazy busy week, we finally had some time to relax this weekend!  Slept in (a rare occurrence!) had lunch and a movie date, and finished the day off with a few games of bowling with a friend. 

Bowling.... let's just say we're not the greatest bowlers.  In our final game, Steve beat us by so much that not even our combined scores came close to his!  We thought about joining a league, "The league of couples who bowl very badly".   Hey, we had fun though!  

 Phil's grace and style at the bowling alley

 Steve's awesome bowling skills

 Yes, he got 3 strikes in a row.  Several times

Trying to roll my ball very slowly, in the hope that it would hit something!

Girl Friday

n: A female employee who has a wide range of duties, usually including secretarial and clerical work; an efficient and faithful woman aide or employee

Today I made 5,000 photo-copies and stapled together 1,500 pages.  On the flip side, I did get to wear jeans and flip-flops to work.

Sweet summertime....

So, summer has finally come to San Diego!  Our summer has been pretty cool and somewhat cloudy until this weekend.  Then we got high 80's, lots of sunshine, and warm breezes.  Got my tan on this weekend, friends! 

	Partly Cloudy	Partly Cloudy	Sunny	Sunny	Sunny	Sunny	Sunny	Sunny	Sunny
	83°	81°	77°	76°	78°	77°	77°	78°	79°
	65°	63°	61°	61°	61°	61°	62°	63°	63°

A man is nothing without regimentals!

This weekend we went to the Surface Warrior Ball. One of the perks of being in the military is the chance to go to lots of formal events.... beautiful dresses, new shoes, handsome men in uniform.  We had a really great time- sipping wine and looking out over the water, a delicious dinner with friends, and a little dancing to finish the night out!