When Olivia met George

Over the weekend, we stopped by a friend's house to check in on her two cats while she was away. The cats names are George and Pablo. Below is George.

I was busy filling up their food and water bowls and when I turned around, this is what I found. George was watching her with a lot of curiosity. I started thinking of those two siamese cats in the movie Lady and the Tramp. I wondered if they would be nice to her or if they would be horrible like the cats from the movie. Pablo ran away at the first sign of her squeaking. George on the other hand just kept watching. For the record, they are really sweet cats. It will be fun to see how they are with our friend when she has her little boy in August.

George and Olivia

I know.... what an outfit right?!

Last night we headed out to dinner with some of the other 3rd Platoon wives. Rachael, who is Steven's Captain's wife, invited us over to answer any questions about the impending moves most everyone is about to make. Their previous duty station was in Japan, so she knew a lot of the in and outs of those who were going there. We may not be going to Japan, but the company and food was great. We had bison soft tacos. I would recommend them if you have a chance to try! Olivia pretty much slept the whole time and offered a few squeaks to the conversation. 

On our way out to dinner. 

Because she is so stinking cute!

And for a walk down memory lane....

March 2012 we went to Tenerife with the Moriarty's and loved it! We went to the farm one day where they will take you out to the countryside on horses. Well, while we waited for the horses to get ready for the ride, we made friends with some of the "free range" animals they had there.

This goat thought we made great play mates. I tried to get away from him at one point so he couldn't head butt me anymore. I just forgot to take into consideration that he can climb too.

Trying to get away from the goat

Steven was great and pulled the goat away from me. However, that clearly meant that Steven wanted to play with the goat. He would head butt Steven, and then Steven would push him back. This continued until the owner finally came and put him away in the pen. 

Steven playing with the goat

Finally riding the horses.

I don't know if you can see the saddles on the horses. They are not your typical American saddles you see in the Western movies. They are English saddles. What's the difference you ask? The difference is the American saddle, you can't really fall out of. Not true for the English saddles. You fall to the side when you trot. Our awesome tour guide had to redo my stirrups several times to help me be more steady. In the end, we went slow because I kept falling :)

Riding the camels

More of Olivia and our life

My sister has assured me that people are less interested in the journal part and really just want to see the photos. So here's my attempt at documenting the almost month (already!!) that she has been with us. We get pretty mixed reviews of who she looks like. I think she looks a lot like me. Others say she is the spitting image of Steven. Although I've come to realize that it generally depends on which of us you know more.

The day she was born

Snuggled up in her bed. I love this photo

On her way to finding out Daddy's MOS assignment

At the Amish Market. This guy is seriously an awesome dad!
He makes front packs look cool.

Bath time. Rare shot where she isn't crying!

Hanging out with Mom

at 2 1/2 weeks old

Overall, she is doing really well. She does all of her baby things with flying colors. She's not a huge fan of baths just yet and she loves to be cuddled... all of the time. As in never put down if she can help it. Although she has been sleeping for up to 4 straight hours at a time. That is usually followed up with another 2.5 or 3 hour stretch of sleep. So nights haven't been so bad without Steven here.

Our friend Sam is coming over later to play with her. That way I can tackle that mountain of clean laundry taking over my couch! Is it weird that I'm very excited about my impending opportunity to tackle laundry? 

One of the things that I didn't expect to run into- a lot of "not really for kids" events. I'm not ready to leave her with a babysitter and because of nursing I can't leave for really more than an hour and a half anyway. We still have a few weeks before we try to introduce bottles. So while I love spending every moment with her, it's a strange feeling to feel limited in engagements. After saying that, I may or may not have used her as a reason as to why I can't attend something. 

Steven is away for the week. He left for the "war" on Friday and will come back sometime between next Thursday and Saturday morning. The original plan was Thursday sometime, then Friday. Usually, it's more of a midnight the evening of a day, always add a couple of hours and that's where Saturday morning comes in. "The War" is basically the culminating event of his training here at TBS. They split the company in half (270+ people) and they are given free play to defeat the other team. I don't know too much about it other than there are several engagements and then one team gets chosen to defend the urban operations assignment (which I don't know much about either). My fingers are crossed and I'm saying a prayer that they do well. From what I understand, unless you royally mess up, this exercise can't really negatively affect your standings. But it can help your leadership grade (not that his is suffering- but who can't use a little extra credit right?!). So fingers are very crossed they do well.

 I can't remember if I posted it in the last one, but Steven is going to be a communications officer. Which means living wise, we are here in Quantico until the end of the year most likely. We don't know where after that, but we are still crossing our fingers to be West Coast bound.

Hope all is well with everyone!

Olivia Marie

I'd like to say that I plan to catch up on the last year, but I'm not really sure how that will work out. So we will just start with now.

Steven is currently in The Basic School here in Quantico, VA. He is almost finished, only 5 more (long) weeks to go. After this, he will go to another 6 month school here in Quantico to be a Communications Officer (think friendly communications, not sneaky squirrel stuff where they listen to your phone calls).  After that, we still don't know. But our fingers are crossed to be west coast bound somewhere in California. Hello beach and sunshine!

We are so excited to welcome the newest member of our family, Olivia Marie. She was born here in Stafford, VA on April 11th at 5:58pm. We're in love all over again. She was 7lbs 10oz.

She loves taking pictures like her dad likes taking pictures

I love it when they are so tiny!

When going abroad means coming back home

So we are skipping a few events, but they will have to wait because I'm back in the good Ol' USA. I arrived the middle of this last week into Seattle and then quickly turned around and left to Utah with my parents and two youngest brothers. My older brother, Lamar, and his wife, Sarah, recently had a new baby boy, Alexander Wolf Harding Breshears. A mouthful but so cute. We were able to make it for both the primary program which their oldest son, Miles, was singing in as well as Alex's baby blessing (aka Christening). 

You might find in this post that I have recently discovered how to shoot my photos in black and white. It's basically my favorite way to shoot photos. 

My Dad with Alex

Nico, Lamar and Sarah's 2nd son

Lucy, Brooklynn and Parker's 3rd child

Brooklynn with Alex

Christian and I at the Planetarium, walking on the moon

Sarah and Alex

Brooklynn with Katie, her 2nd child

Lamar, my Dad with Alex

Sharon with Alex

Alex

Alex, Sharon and Katie

Alex and I. I know he's crying in this one, but I swear he loves me

As for Steven, he is still back at school and working hard. He's been enjoying his friends and recently went to the Lord Mayor's Show. It was a parade along the Thames River (the major river that runs through London and pronounced more like Tims than Tames) followed by fireworks.

A little bit from me

One of the greatest opportunities that we have this year in London is to be active participants in the Rotary Club of Edmonton. I don't know how much there is to know about the Ambassadorial Scholarships, but the basic just of it is that we are sponsored by the Kirkland Rotary Club. Heather and I have absolutely loved getting to know many of the members of the club over the last two years. The person I have been in contact the most with his Bob Webb, who was instrumental in helping me through the scholarship process! We were delighted that Bob and his lovely wife, Marion, attended our wedding last year.

L-R: Marion, Bobb, Joe, Leslie at our wedding in 2010

Visiting the Stafford Castle In Stafford, England over the Rotary Link Weekend

Rotary Link Weekend: Scholar Maica from Germany,
 Hosts Barbara and Joe, Steven

Picture of Stafford downtown

Scholar coordinators: Lois and John Thorpe 

Scenery from Rotary's Weekend Away in Eastbourne, England

2011-2012 Rotary Ambassadorial Scholars

Eastbourne, England

Sunrise at Eastbourne, England

Keeping on topic about the scholarship, with the Kirkland Rotary Club generously sponsoring my education at King's College London (KCL), Heather and I will be spending a year here in London. Really the best part about this scholarship is that it certainly places a lot of emphasis on academics, but it places an equal emphasis on the "Rotary experience." While in London, as Heather has talked about already, I am hosted by the Rotary Club of Edmonton. They really are a fantastic club and they have been incredible about making both Heather and feel at home and a part of their club. Just in the short few months that we have been here, we have done so much with the club and that includes Heather! She already mentioned going to a local park in Enfield where the Edmonton Club manned the gates selling tickets for a carnival/festival that was taking place; baking brownies for a fish-and-chips dinner party put on by the club for local folks which included, what sounded like an intense game of Bingo. Heather has had so much fun and she has been incredibly supportive. For awhile there, she was attending more Rotary events and get togethers than I was, but luckily I was able to lock in a routine schedule with school and have been active ever since and it really has been a blast!

The first opportunity that I had to meet most of the members of the Edmonton Club was at a garden party which was incredibly nice given that it was so informal and laid back. John Thorpe, who is my host Rotarian and has been wonderful in helping Heather and I adjust, provided the food and catering for the event. Over a delicious spread of salads, meats, desert, and cheese and biscuits (this was my first experience having cheese and biscuits as a part of desert), I got to meet most of the club members. Luckily it was only going to be a few days until I got to see them during one of their weekly meetings.

One of the major characteristics of my Rotary experience is the chance I have to speak to a number of clubs in the London area about myself, why I applied for the scholarship, and what my goals/what do I hope to learn from my experiences. All this is achieved by giving about a 10-15 minutes presentation. For me, the easiest way to show someone who you are is by showing them pictures....they are worth a thousand words right? Only a few days after the Garden party, I had the opportunity to speak to the Edmonton Club. Heather came along and right away, like the garden party, we felt immediately at home. They brought us in, talked to us about the club, about themselves, and just made us feel relaxed about being there. Rotary meetings have a certain ceremonial characteristic about them, but I truly enjoyed, like the Kirkland Rotary Club back home, how the Edmonton Club blended ceremony with light heartedness. We laughed as we heard about the notes from the previous meeting, upcoming events and various other announcements. You truly get how important the sense of family is to the club as they take the time to announce those members who are currently ill or absent for that week. Then it came to be my turn...

I have to admit I was a bit nervous about my first time speaking with a club in England. From the time that I put in my application for the scholarship, it has been asked where I see the connection between Rotary's emphasis on peace studies and conflict resolution, amongst a number of other important priorities, and my profession as an officer in the Marine Corps. Coming to England, I worried that people would be even more critical of this relationship, but this was not to be the case. Going back to the meeting with the Edmonton Club, I felt perfectly at ease describing what I thought was an important link between Rotary and the Marines. There is absolutely an element of "Service above Self" and I know, from my experiences, the reality of war and would want to see the end of any war or conflict. Through my first presentation, I really hope I was able to convey this desire as well as many other connections. From the feedback I received, I think I was able to convey what I wanted to.

Outside of the garden party and my first presentation, the months of September and October have been quite busy with regards to Rotary. As I am not the only Ambassadorial Scholar in London, or in Ireland and the UK for that matter, we have been given a number of chances to meet with the other scholars.

The first chance was during a "Link Weekend" where I traveled to Stafford and got to spend two days with all the other scholars. Two of us were put up for the weekend by local Rotarian and her husband and I had a wonderful time getting to know both of them and their families. I even went for a run with Joe on Saturday morning. For activities, we spent some time in a Victorian era coal mining town, which was pretty interesting. That night we learned a bit about traditional English dancing though much to Heather's dismay, I am still a terrible dancer. I did have a lot of fun as we were able to spend more time getting to know each other.

The last thing I want to talk about is a trip Heather and I went on this last weekend. We had the chance to attend our first Rotary Conference. The London district put on a conference in Eastbourne, a wonderful Victorian era town just right along the southeastern coast of England. It was an incredible weekend as we were able to spend more time with the Rotary Club of Edmonton. We also heard from the many speakers Rotary brought to present with the members of the district. Two speakers in particular
really stuck out to me. Rosalie Swale Pope was this incredible woman that experienced the loss of both her parents at a young age and then lost her husband early to prostate cancer. Her response to this loss was to run literally around the world which she did in five years in order to raise awareness for prostate cancer. The other was Gary Skyner who overcame so many challenges in order to do incredible things that many told him he would not ever be able to do. Born with disabilities due to thalidomide, a drug given to expectant mothers to overcome morning sickness, Gary proved everyone wrong by learning to drive, to fly, and took on the British government in order to get compensation for those affected. Overall it was an incredible weekend!

Pumpkin Night

It's almost Halloween! Which means that it was time for us to jump on the pumpkin carving. Our friend Mike came over to join in on the fun. We couldn't find any pumpkin tools at the stores around us, so we went old school with the tools: knives and spoons.

Being in the basement floor of an apartment building, we don't exactly have anywhere to put them outside to show them off. So for now, they just sit on the window seal of our kitchen. 

Family Picts!

Steven and I did our first family pictures taken since we've been married. It was so much fun! One of the deals that came through LivingSocial.com was a photo session in the area. I loved it because 1. Snagging it on a deal means you can fit it into the budget 2. They do your hair and makeup (Yep, including Steven's hair) and 3. The photographer was really good and fun to work with. Here are the results: