New Orleans

First assignment as a road-family is New Orleans. As many of you know this is my favorite city in the USA so IF we HAD to have a USA job I'm not horribly upset about it being here. Many of you are probably wondering if we drove or flew since we now have a newborn traveling with us. Well at 14 days old London had his first plane ride and he did wonderful. He nursed during take off and landing to prevent ear issues and he slept most the flight. I have to admit I was nervous I was going to be "that" lady on the plane with a baby, but no one even knew he was on the plane really. I got many nice comments. I have to admit the BEST traveling thing with a small child has to be my wrap---I don't know how moms do it trying to drag a stroller around with them. We only added about 5 min on to our normal process and thats wasn't london's fault it was ours.

A New Journey

Well my blogging skills have dropped in the last few months. But for a good reason. Troy and I just had our first child! London Jacob was born 8/2/09 at "home" (the residence inn) in a tub. He was 6 lbs 10oz and 19.5 inches long with bright red hair!!! It was a wonderful day and now a new journey in our lives starts. But don't worry we will still be traveling and I should pick up on my blogging now. One of his first pictures-- (about 30 min old here)

Back "home"

I am trying to catch up now, but since I know if I don't do it right away I will get even farther behind I'm going to start up again then just go back and fix the last 6 months. So keep your eyes out for the rest of Cambodia, some Singapore, Thailand, Philippines, Hawaii, Philadelphia, Tulsa and here. :)

We got back to Des Plaines June 26th (at which time I was no longer allowed on the plane). We are staying here until me and future baby are ok'd to travel (about 2 weeks post birth we are told, assuming all goes well). So now we are just waiting on this little bug to make their appearance.

We also need to get the little bug's passport while here. And I need a new passport also--I haven't ever changed my last name to my married name, and we think its best to have me and baby have the same last name so not to cause issues with customs.

In the mean time we will enjoy our summer in Chicago-land.

Back to homebase

Done with Tulsa and now heading back to Des Plaines.

Roadies are everywhere!

There are fellow roadies everywhere around the world. Gary, another roadie, was near us in Coffeeville, KS. He drove down and spent an evening with us. We went to my favorite Mexican restaurant in the south-El Chico's. If you ever have the chance to eat here-do it. Order the top-self guacamole and a garter margarita! Its a must! After we put ourselves in a food coma, we decided to go bowling. I haven't been bowling in awhile. I like to come up with funny names on our screen when we bowl. Troy was the fat kid, I was trixie and Gary was UPS. "what can brown do for you?"-he is Indian so its funny. I got my butt kicked but did manage to get in the triple digits each game!!!! On the way home we got lost, yes we can do that even in America. We came upon this random man statue with a Tulsa belt on. No clue what it was but we did manage to pull over and get some pictures with it! Just one of those nights.

Tulsa, OK for 2 short weeks.

Headed out to Tulsa, OK for a quick two week assignment.

Rocky Mountain High

Went home for a long Memorial day weekend. Friday night troy and I went to dinner with an old friend (Kevin) at Outback Steakhouse in Denver after landing. Then we drove up to Johnstown where our friends Kendra and Derek live. They were nice enough to let us stay with them during this trip.
Saturday we got to pick up our dogs from Cheyenne, WY. They are living with some friends while we do our travels. Sandy is the oldest and he is a Jack Russel Terrier. And Belle is our youngest, she is a golden retriever. We picked up some UOP roadies while we were in Cheyenne also (Brent and Mark). And headed to the Poudre Valley. We went on a nice an easy hike through Young's gulch. Didn't want to do anything to strenuous since we haven't lived in the mountains for a few months, and the dogs haven't been up in a while either. After a long hike we drove to Fort Collins and went to the New Belgium Brewery. That night after the dogs went to bed. We headed to old town fort Collins. Started at the Drunken Monkey and the head to the Trailhead for the best cheesy fries in the world! After that we thought we would go get our dance on so we headed to the Zydeco's club. Ran into some old nursing friends and danced.
Sunday Troy/Derek/Mark/Brent took the dogs up to Horsetooth hills and went for another nice hike. Sunday night we did some grillin and chillin.
Monday was Memorial day so we went down to Denver to watch a Rockies and Cardinals baseball game. Rockies Won---Go Home Team!!! We met up with Mandy/Ashley and some other folks.
Tuesday we fly back home. Said goodbye to all. Can't wait for next visit!

Easter

Well its that time of year again. Easter is here and i get to go on a weekend sugar high!!!!!!!! This year we have been lovely adopted as family at Jason/Sabrina's house down in Killeen, TX (Fort Hood). So thats where we will be starting tonight. Don't worry i don't have my new camera yet so i can't ruin another one while i am there! This weekend is also little Angela's birthday (yep that makes me the big one!). And its Jason's birthday weekend, plus matt is getting shipped somewhere new. And last and most importantly its Hugh Hefner's birthday on April 9th. Happy birthday Hef!!!!!!!! (you never know he could read this some day!).

So as i do for all holidays i want to know what traditions you have or what you do on Easter. Good/bad/fun/boring/liked or disliked let me know.

Next Assignment (actual notice!)

Ok so we officially made the Road Map! This is good; it means they have an idea where we will go after OK. And the great news is…that it's the location we were hoping for! Are you ready? We are going to Ras Laffan, Qatar. Tentative date is May 20^th. Ok now I will give you a chance to look it up since I doubt many of you know where its at………………………………………………………….........................…………………………………….……..ok you got it now?

Now before you freak out saying it's located in the middle east and the only country it borders is Saudi Arabia, remember we have people who check things out at all times to make sure we are safe. And this area is safe. Notice however it also has mainly ocean borders! Which means kick-ass scuba diving. I am going to have to start practicing some Arabic language. English is well spoken there (it's the official second language).

I WISH it was an April Fool's day joke.

So remember that brand new camera that i bought while we were in Singapore. I said how much i loved it and how cool it is! Well after having a heaving party night with Sabrina/nikki/jason/matt (which i somehow thing its ther fault also!). I found out something important that i need to share.

So I started the night off with drinking an entire bottle of Malibu Rum. Then we were all to drunk to drive so we got a Taxi TO The bar. I can't remember a time i actually need the taxi to the bar. That should have been my first clue this was going to be an expensive night. We once we got the the club we were doing shots and drinks and playing pool and kind of dancing. It starts to get a little fuzzy here. But i was only fuzzy! Others were passed out by 11pm (i will not say who but it was someones birthday that night!). Any who....somehow in the night i spilled (or at least we think it was me) a beer on the brand new camera. Nice right. Well good news is that my picture memory card was fine. However the camera....well it now sleeps with the fishes. Now i am on the hunt for a new digital point and click camera. I had the Panasonic DMC-FX01 it had the awesome feature of Optical Image Stabilizer....fancy name for...as drunk as i get and as much as i wiggle the picture will come out perfect! So anyone have any wonderful digital camera ideas they want to share with me. Otherwise i might just buy another one of these (and let Troy carry it at the bar!) PICS

OK

Just got to Ardmore, OK on Tuesday at 2am. We are switching hotels today to the Marriott. http://marriott.com/hotels/travel/admsh-springhill-suites-ardmore/ Is their website. I don't have a room number yet because i don't check in until 3pm. So the phone number is on the site and if you call you will just have to ask what room we are in.
I am thinking of heading to Killeen, TX for the St. Patrick's day weekend--we will see if my Killeen friends read this and call me! (hint, hint!) I can't think of anyone else in this area I would like to go out with and get drunk. It has been years since I have seen Tracy or Sabrina. Let alone their families. It is nice to know that people can remain good friends even with time and distance between them.

Minnesota Trip

Troy got some Holiday time so we decided to head to MN to stay with his brother in his new place! Jeremy is "holding" our furniture for us-so it kind of feels like home here.
We had a wonderful time and even caught a Vikings game. My first one.

From Random 2007 Photos

Livin' in America (for now)

Well we are back in the states. Wow is it nice here for this time of year. I heard my house in CO is getting another few feet of snow this week. To bad i am missing that!