Welcome home!

Right now, as I type this, my husband is sleeping the bedroom. Normally not something to write about, but when your husband has just returned from a 14 month deployment to Iraq, it is not only something to write about, but something to celebrate! I wish I had the words to describe how happy I feel! After being separated for such a long time, it seems a bit surreal that he is actually home. I keep thinking that he is going to leave in a couple of days to go back. But he's not! He's here to stay!

I am so proud of my husband and what he has done. He is truly my hero. He has served his country well. He has done what thousands have done before him and are still doing. I have always had a great respect for the men and women of the military and since my marriage to a soldier, that respect has grown. I admire the men and women who willing put themselves in harm's way, day after day. (Look for a blog about this in a week or so)

Husband and I have always talked about how extremely blessed we were during this tour of duty. Husband was able to phone my on a daily basis, and email me regularly. I was able to send packages to him and he would get them in a relatively short amount of time. I feel so lucky that Husband was on a Base that enable him to have access to communication.

I am especially grateful to God for keeping Husband safe from harm. Everyday I would pray for his safety, but realized that he was in a war and I was acutely aware of the dangers that were around him. Thankfully, he was very safe, and he was able to come home to me.

Below is a picture of one of the best sights in the world to an army wife: her husband's boots in the middle of the floor after a deployment!

The final tally

10 inches (25.4cm) of snow! That's a lot of snow!

First snowfall!

Yesterday afternoon it started to snow. The first snow of the season always seems so magical. I love it! As I am writing this, it is 25 hours after it started to snow, and it is still snowing! I am not sure exactly how much snow we have gotten, but I have heard reports of 8 inches (20 cm). I had to get out and take some pictures. I hope to get more once it stops snowing (if it ever stops!).

Snow hanging off the back of our car

Look at all that snow!

Snow piles on top of our trash can

Dude! Where's my car?

Snow-covered vines on a fence (this is also the view out of our kitchen window)

Snow clinging to a chain-link fence

In a pickle

Last weekend, I was at a friend's house and she had really cute halloween decorations. I absolutely loved one she had made out of a jar of pickles and I decided to steal the idea. (I don't feel too bad stealing it. She saw it in a magazine). I bought the largest jar of pickles I could find and figured I could all the pickles in a few days because I love pickles. Well, 5 days later, I was so sick of pickles! I put the rest of the pickles in a tupperware, washed out the jar and made the decoration:

More River pictures

Today was a beautiful fall day here, so I walked down to the River, hoping to get some great foilage pictures. Unfortunately, the leaves that had already turned were past peaked and the other leaves are still green. But I took some pictures anyway. I've been trying new settings on my camera. I think I am doing pretty well, but don't ask me what settings I used to take each picture. I just turn the dial, press buttons and take a picture!

The answers Americans need to know

I have made an effort to keep politics out of my blog, but tonight I have to write something. As I was watching the CBS Evening News, with Katie Couric, (which, by the way, seems so pro-Obama that I almost forgot who the other candidate was! Which leads me to question why it is so hard for news shows to be completely unbiased. But that is another blog for another day), they had a segment called "Presidential questions". Finally, I thought, a place where the candidates will be asked the questions that we want answered. You know the questions I am talking about: "What tax reforms will you implement as president?"; or "What is your plan to end terrorism?" and questions such as those. Well, my dear friends, the questions they were asked were "What do you see as your opponents strengths and weaknesses?" and "When was the last time you cried?" Are you serious?? We are less than 2 weeks away from an election and Katie is wasting our time with these questions! What about "Do you prefer smooth or chunky peanut butter?" or even "If you could have any superpower, what would it be and why?" Come on people. We need to know where the candidates stand on the issues that will impact our lives. Do I care about the last time John McCain cried? NO! But I do care about whether or not he will raise my taxes. Do I care about what Obama thinks is McCain's biggest weakness? HECK NO! But I do care about whether or not he is going to keep this country safe.

Maybe it's the Canadian in me coming out again. As Canadians, we have very little interest in the personal lives of our leaders. I remember a political culture class I took in University (in Canada). Our professor started the first class by asking us who the president of the United States was. We answered. Then he asked what the president's wife's name was; if he had any children and their names; where he was from; what he named his dog; and where he went to University. We, as a class, were able to answer all of these questions correctly. Then the Professor asked us who the Prime Minister of Canada was. We answered. Then he proceeded to ask us the same questions about our Prime Minister as he asked about the US president. After the question about the his wife's name, we were stumped. We had no idea where he was from, if he had children or even if he had a dog. I think it is because Canadians are fairly private people and we respect the privacy of others. It is rare that a politician's personal life makes it on the evening news. But here in the United States, the personal life seems to be just as important as the candidate's stand on the issues.

So, my fellow, American, you can sleep well tonight, because, thanks to Katie and the CBS news, we now know when McCain and Obama last cried. Good night and happy voting.

The big, comfy couch

When I quit my job in Massachusetts last year, I had a month before I started my new job in New York. This presented a slight problem since my job as a live-in nanny meant that I lived where I worked. No work equals no place to live. My good friends Alicia and Jon opened their apartment to me and all of my stuff (and I mean ALL of my stuff! I had A LOT!). During that month, they affectionately called me "the squatter". (At least I think it was "affectionately"!) After I started my job in New York, I still travelled to Massachusetts quite a bit, and they always let me stay on their couch. Both my brother and my mother have slept at their house on trips to Boston. They even let me stay there a couple times without them being there!

Well, this weekend, my squatter days officially came to an end. I made my last trip to Massachusetts without Ryan and that means that I will no longer need to sleep on the couch. I am so grateful to Alicia and Jon for allowing me to stay at their apartment, thus saving me hundreds of dollars that I would have had to spend on a hotel! I couldn't ask for better friends. Alicia and Jon are the type of people who would give you the shirt off their backs if you needed it. Every time I needed a couch, it was there for me. Thankfully, I never needed the shirts they were wearing! That would have made things awkward!



Me in what was my bed at least once a month for 15 months