Apology

Ok, just a quick note. You'll have to excuse me for how my posts look. For some reason, the previews and the actual posts don't want to seem to look the same. So my formatting hasn't been working too well. I'll try better to make them a bit more readable. Again, sorry!

Vaca from the Vaca!

Ah.....as much fun as vacations are, sometimes its nice to be done with them so you can catch up on sleep!! The only down side is that now that the vacation is over, I am back up in Alaska, missing my two lovely ladies. (Yes, they are still down in Washington for the time being). But I am heading to Mobile, AL for 3 weeks for training, and good news, when I get back, they will be visiting me for about 5 weeks!! WOOHOO :)

Now, for the details of our trip. Some people would yell at us and call us bad parents for dragging our child across the country and subjecting her to all those nasty germs and people out there. Well, thats one way to look at it, the other way is to say that we are helping her to build up her immunities at an early age :) In case any of you are worried about our dear little one, I will tell you that she is in good health and has survived our trip without so much as a cold!

Ah, but enough on that. More on the trip! The reason we actually took this trip, is because next summer I will be transferring away from Kodiak, AK (sad, I know). Before that can happen though, I need to put in my choices for where I want to go, and that needs to be done by 1 September. Needless to say, I want to be the good husband and allow my wife to have some input into where our family ends up, and we planned this trip to do two things; check out the two places I want to put at the top of my list (San Diego and Cape Cod), and to introduce baby Ayla to her extended family down in Arizona and Illinois.

So let the travels begin:

Our trip started out in the great city

of San Diego. SD is one of the places I would enjoy being stationed at next tour because who can beat the weather there!? Although it may be crowded and be located in the state of California, it would still be a fun few years I believe. While we were there we did a little house hunting to see what the neighborhoods looked like. On top of that, we HAD to do a little shopping (Thea loved that part). And then I surprised her with a quick little trip to the San Diego Zoo. With our time completed in SD, we then hopped a plane for Phoenix, AZ.

So you are aware, most of Thea's family lives down in Arizona...a small town called Cottonwood. Actually, they are all around that area, but I will use that as the focus. We headed out there and spend a couple of days visiting grandparents and cousins and whatnot. They all loved baby Ayla and couldn't get enough of her. (not my fault that we made such an adorable little girl...blame her mother). While we were in the area, we decided to take a little detour on our last day and go north to see the grand canyon. Although Thea had seen it before, this was a first for me, and it was Amazing. Words and pictures don't even begin to describe how awesome the sights are. I am really glad we were able to see the canyon as a family.

On top of that, while we were up at the canyon, we took Ayla for her first little swim! How much fun is that?? Surprisingly enough, she didn't even start screaming (which is kind of ironic because she hasn't made it through a bath yet without screaming). Now all we have to do...scratch that, all I have to do is to teach her how to swim! (her mom has a little issue with the swimming thing, but I'll teach her too) ;)

After leaving Arizona, we flew into Milwaukee, WI so we could hang with my family up in Northern IL. Ever since they new the date that

we were coming into town, my family went above and beyond by throwing somewhat of a reception for us. Any of you that know our story, know that we had somewhat of a "small" ceremony in Idaho last year (yes, pretty much an elopement). So, my family wanted to throw a little party to say Congrats, and so they did. All I have to say is, Thank you, it was an amazing time!! On top of that, I decided to FINALLY get my wife a wedding band, since I had been mr cheapo for the last year by having her wear her engagement ring as a wedding band....And funny enough, earlier in the day before the reception, some lady referred to me as her fiance. (since I was trying to decide on when to give her the ring, either the reception or our 1 year anniversary, that comment decided it for me).

As much fun as it was to spend time with family and friends, we had to say goodbye to the mid west, and travel out to New England to check out Cape Cod. We arrived in Boston and Thea fell in love. Granted, I can't blame her, because I really like the city too. So, we spent a day and a half checking out the city, and driving down to the cape and looking at towns where we could live if I got stationed there. And then, that night, we took Ayla to her first baseball game. The Sox vx. Sox at Fenway. What a great night it was. I was happy that a Chicago team won, and Thea because an instant Red Sox fan. (hey, at least the Sox and Cubs are in different leagues!). Then, on our final day in town, we decided to take a quick trip down to New London, CT, in order to show Thea the Academy. No, not because it was where I went to school, but because I have a feeling I'll be teaching there in the future and so the family will end up living in that area. So I wanted to make sure that the wife would be ok with that...and luckily, she was :) After that, we raced back to the airport and flew all the way back home to Washington.

So, 8 states and 7 flights in 11 days....yeah, that was a hell of a trip. But we survived, and we had a fun time doing it. We didn't kill each other (phew!!) and Ayla stayed healthy. I couldn't ask for anything more wonderful than that. Now I am just looking forward to a month from today when my two ladies will once again come up to Alaska to visit. I miss them like crazy already and its only been 3 days since I left....I don't know if I'll survive. Wish me luck!

(and I'll try and post more often about my goings on...but you have to give me credit, two posts in a year is a lot better than what I had done in the past few years!!!)

I'm back....sort of

Hello all! Well, it's been almost two years since I put up a blog. Yeah, I know, crazy. Not sure why I've gotten back to the site again.

1) Maybe I just wanted to see if it was still active (or if it had been deleted for non-use).

2) Maybe it was that little red reminder in my outlook pane that had been there for well over a year now telling me to "update blog".

3) Maybe its the fact that my life has changed so much in the past two years that I feel its time to update my peeps on how things are.

(the last one is probably the most accurate).

Because of so many changes in my life, I am currently at a position where I am married to an amazing woman who has given me the most beautiful daughter in the world. I know some of you would argue with me on that one, but hey, it's my girl, I can brag about her as much as I want! But, having said that, I know that I have a lot of friends and family scattered across this country and globe that would love to hear about all the new things that Ayla (our adorable little girl) is up to.

So, that being said, I have decided to try (hopefully this time successfully), to keep everyone informed by updating my blog on a more, shall we say, "regular" basis.

To all of you out there that I haven't seen in forever, much love and happiness to you and yours!

PS. I've added a few ads onto the blog. Another possible "revenue source" (yeah, maybe 10 cents probably). But, if they become over bearing or distracting, please let me know, and I'll just get rid of them. Thanks!

Birthday!!

Hey all! I hope you got a good laugh out of my truck story...I know I still think about it and laugh too :) But, I wanted to share a little something with you all about something that is coming up (and rather too quickly I might add) MY BIRTHDAY!! :) Yeah, I know, it isn't that big of deal. I'm turning 27 this year, slowly marching towards 30. But my AGE is not the point of this blog...no-sir-ee...I'm not going to complain about getting older, I'm just going to enjoy the chance that I have to live another year and learn a little more and give a little more to the world. But what I am going to do is say "Come Celebrate With Me!!" Especially if I haven't seen you in forever! My friend Amy and I are throwing somewhat of a joint Birthday Party shin-dig on July 12th. (I know, one day after my birthday, but thats because we are going to a Cubs game ON my birthday). So anywho, the get together will be at my friends condo at 1645 W Ogden Ave #316, Chicago at 1900 (thats 7 pm for all you non-military types) You are not required to bring anything but yourself, not even gifts (because seeing you is enough of a gift...) but if you really really feel like you must bring something, you can bring food or drink and an extra large smile on your face :) All I ask is that you send me an email at mheussner@Hotmail.com to let me know if you plan on coming. (please let me know by the 8th of July at the latest!!). Thank you again being a part of my life (for those of you who are!) and I can't wait to see all you family and friends when I come home to Chicago next month!

New Ride

So I went test driving, and I'm not sure if that was a good idea, or a bad idea, but it was fun! :-) Before leaving, I mapped out all the locations of the dealerships that I was interested in. Then, it was off to Portland in my cool little KIA Rondo (note the massive amounts of sarcasm in that last statement!) Now, I'm just going to skip the story of stopping at all the different places, but I will list all the cars that I did drive that day: Dodge Charger, Mini Cooper S, BMW 135i, Chevy Malibu, Jeep Wrangler Unlimited, Acura STX, and the Jeep Cherokee SRT8. I also walked trough the VW and Honda dealerships, but didn't really see anything that caught my eye.

After that long day of driving, I went back home with all my info and started trying to decide what vehicle to get. Now here's the funny story... About a year and a half ago I was down in San Diego and I got to ride in the back of a Jeep Wrangler Unlimited, and I remember saying to myself "I should get one of these!" And then, just a few months ago I go the chance to drive around a normal Jeep Wrangler when I was in Hawaii (I say normal cause the Unlimited has 4 doors). And that was quite enjoyable. Then, the week after Hawaii, I was down in Florida and driving around a Mini Cooper, which I have to tell you, is like driving around a go-kart everytime you get in it! And that, again, was another car I told myself I needed to get. So, is it any wonder that the two cars that I came down to as finalists for my new ride were the Mini Cooper S and the Jeep Wrangler Unlimited?

So, although I really wanted the Mini Cooper S, I decided that the Jeep would be a bit more practicle for me...seeing as how I could get stationed anywhere between Kodiak Alaska and Tampa Florida. So that was my final decision, and to be honest, I love it! It is a ton of fun to drive and with the two 90 degree days that we had this past weekend, it was great to roll around with the doors and top off and just enjoy the sun and breeze!

Well, now that I've passed that on, I'm off to get ready for work, but if ay of you are around in Oregon and ever want to go for a cruise, just let me know! (not only would I enjoy riding around with you, but it would nice to see you again! [or meet you for the first time!])