Summer Review

Grant's Headquarters during the Petersburg siege

Hanging out with Ben

Museum of the Confederacy - Lee's tent

Bullet Rosette formed from a Northern bullet and a Southern bullet colliding - these are amazing!!  We actually saw several of them at various museums.

Richmond courthouse

Violet Bank - General Lee's headquarters for a short time outside of Petersburg

Museum of the Civil War Soldier historic buildings

Museum of the Civil War Soldier historic buildings

Museum of the Civil War Soldier - building exhibiting the line between the North and South

Virginia Battlefield

Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, Arlington Cemetery

Okay, so let's catch up on the summer.  Mike was in Petersburg, Va all summer taking a class at Ft. Lee.  I stayed in Texas and then Sandra (his mom) and I drove to meet him in Virginia on July 4 weekend.  After that, we spent the rest of the time hanging out with Ben and seriously catching up on Civil War history.  Virginia is heaven for Civil War buffs.  We saw Grant's headquarters and we saw Lee's headquarters.  We toured the Petersburg battlefield.  Mike took field trips with his class to battlefields in the area.  We went to the Museum of the Confederacy in Richmond and then we went to the Museum of the Civil War Soldier outside of Petersburg.  All of the museums were extremely well-done and I learned so much about the war that I hadn't known.  Now that we are in Maryland, there is even more to see including Gettysburg which is not that far from Havre de Grace.  And, we are in Revolutionary War territory now so that will be interesting as well.  So much history on the East Coast.  We also went to Arlington Cemetery on the way to the airport to fly out to Istanbul.  We were there in time to see the changing of the guard at the tomb and we visited the graves of several of Mike's classmates.  It was a very moving experience.

Back to Blogging in Havre de Grace

Havre de Grace lighthouse found here

Where did the last four months go?! After an extended hiatus (apparently), I am back and in full blogger mode. This summer has been a whirlwind of trips through Texas, Virginia, Istanbul, Bulgaria, Romania and Ukraine. And now, finally we have arrived in Havre de Grace, Maryland where we will make our home for the next few years. After being here for a week, I am getting excited about living in this small Chesapeake Bay town. Everyone has been super friendly and we have found a place to live right near downtown within walking distance of everything...except Mike's work, but that drive is only 15 minutes or so.

I will post some pictures of our trip soon, as in later today or tomorrow, I promise!  And, I have no idea why the formatting has gone crazy, but I will work on that too.

Moving Day!

Today is the second day of packing our house. They started yesterday and still have a long way to go. The driver is coming tomorrow and everything will be loaded on the truck and moved out! The house is a maze of boxes right now and I can't really watch the packing too closely because it makes me nervous. I hope that everything we've left out will fit in the cars! Our friends Faith and Bruce are moving into the house on Friday! I've told Faith that she has to send pictures after she unpacks so that I can see what the house looks like with their things and her decorating. It will be weird to see it without our stuff, but I am so glad that they are moving in and not strangers.

Tomorrow is our last day in Arizona. So sad, but we are on to other adventures!

Maps.

Found here at Froufrou Gal.

Look at this sofa!! I love this so much and am thinking that I have to incorporate maps into something around our house. This is a bit ambitious as it is hand painted, but I love it!



On another note, I have lots to share if I can remember to get the camera with all the pictures on it from Mike!

Last Day.

Julie brought a Tammie Coe cake to celebrate my last day. Yum!

new kitchen drawer pulls

new cabinet knobs

My official last day of work was Friday! This morning was wonderful, not having to get up early and rush to get ready. Mike's parents will be here this afternoon and we will definitely celebrate. Every day is one day closer to leaving AZ. We are trying to do all of things that we have talked about since we moved here. This weekend was working on the house and the kitchen is finally finished!

Gems and Minerals.

Geodes.

Crazy!

Pay no attention to the pic of me, but look at that fish!

Ugly!

This panel is awesome!

We made our annual trip to Tucson this weekend (for the last time). We always go on Valentine weekend and Saturday is always the last day of the Tucson Gem and Mineral show. We stumbled across it a few years ago and have been going ever since. It is perfect to go on the last day because everyone is making deals. We always see new things and as you can imagine, there are some very interesting people.

Maryland.

found here

This one is tiny, found here

found here

We are moving to the east coast! Although Mike has not received his official orders, we have gotten word that he will be going to Aberdeen Proving Grounds. Pretty exciting! We will be very close to DC, Baltimore, Philadelphia and New York...oh, and Delaware. I've never lived on the east coast before (Florida doesn't count) so it will be an experience. I am also a hot weather girl, so it is going to be brutal in the winter but there are some great cold weather clothes and shoes/boots out there. I will keep you posted about the adventures of moving and house searching. We won't be leaving here until spring and then we will settle in Maryland some time in September. I am busy doing all kinds of research on the area and the Chesapeake Bay. Here are some images to inspire.