Within the last 15+ years, we moved from O.C., CA to Albany, NY to Camp Pendleton, CA to Iwakuni, Japan to Lemoore, CA to Sicily, Italy to OC, CA to Pensacola, FL to ??
Name:(Ben and) Vicki Country:United States State:Florida Metro:Pensacola Gender:Female
Interests:For security purposes, we recently started replacing our children's names on this blog with more non-descript initials. J.13.ds = "Icy13" our oldest son, age 13. He likes computer/video games, Basketball, Football, Lego, and is learning the guitar. J.10.dd = "Poptart10" our only daughter, age 10. She likes drawing, crafts, stuffed animals, and reading. J.8.ds = "Hotdog8" our middle son, age 8. He likes photography, animals, bugs, and nature. J.5.ds = "Yoda5" or formerly "Fish5" our baby son, age 5. He likes fire trucks, Bob the Builder, enjoys saying hi to people in uniform.
We'll be in Pensacola, Florida for about 2 years while Ben works on his second residency in Aerospace Medicine (He is also a Family Medicine Physician). Most of our extended family live in Southern CA. After Pensacola, Ben will probably have to be deployed on a ship for 6 months...Hopefully we can be stationed on the West Coast near family while he's away. Expertise:We hope to use this blog to write brief and occasional notes to our 4 children so they can read about themselves and our family life 20 years from now. It will probably be a very eclectic mix of anecdotes, thoughts, ideas, observations, cultural impressions, advice, etc. Be sure to e-mail us and keep in touch! Our current homeschool methods include a somewhat relaxed, literature-based Charlotte Mason/Classical style using a mix of resources: Latin Centered Curriculum/Memoria Press, Trisms, Thomas Jefferson Education, Notebooking/Lapbooking/Index Cards, Story of The World, Institute for Excellence in Writing IEW, BraveWriter.com, Math-U-See and Teaching Textbooks, Apologia Science, Handwriting Without Tears, Audio books/cds, swim team, basketball, football, Keepers of the Faith, Zoo Blended School, FLVS online classes, and of course, everyday life learning.
This morning we met David and Debby E., friends from church who homeschooled their (now grown) kids back when we knew them during our Albany days. Then Ben stopped by to say hi to our friend who works as a psychiatrist in Dr. Bob’s office, Dr. Susan A. On the way to the Niagara Falls Air Reserve Station, where we are staying overnight, we stopped by Amsterdam, NY to a maple syrup farm, Nightingale’s, as recommended by our friend Patty P. The man at the farm showed the kids how they collect the sap from the maple trees through the tubes.
It was deja vu all over again to visit Albany after 15 years.
We have a friend from Ben's med school and our Albany church (LCC) Karen K, who currently lives and works in Pakistan. We visited her parents this morning.
We stopped by the house where Ben/Dad rented a room during med school.
We lived there for a few months after our wedding until we found an
apartment.
This was our first apartment after getting married.
Alma Mater:
Our friends from med school days, Dr. Bob and Leane gave us a tour of
their clinic and then out to dinner at The Orchard with 2 of their grown kids and family. Click on the links on the left of Dr. Bob Cares.org to see him on Good Morning America and CBS News about their unique ministry to the inner city under served.
This morning Ben attended his conference in Boston to present his poster and then we drove to Albany, NY.
Then we met with our friends P. and E. from Albany days. Here is Ben showing our friends his poster:
They took us to their favorite local Japanese hibachi restaurant:
The chef had a funny oil dispenser man, where it came out like #1:
I was having some trouble putting the videos on the blog post for whatever reason (bad internet connection at the hotel?), so try clicking here. There's one of an sliced onion volcano and of both Ben/Dad and Icy13 catching grilled shrimp in their mouths.
Lexington/Concord, Plymouth Rock, and Hopkinton, MA
Today we checked out Lexington and Concord, MA at the Minute Man National Historical Park, the Louisa May Alcott Orchard House (outside part and the gift shop...didn’t have time for the tour), and Plymouth Rock. We also visited a friend and had lunch at Ms. L’s house. Her husband was out-of-town, but it was a special visit because normally they work and live in Afghanistan and they are in the States temporarily. I’m glad the kids got to hear her stories about living through the war and living among the Taliban. The kids enjoyed her ritual of “mystery tea”, which is collecting everybody’s (used) just steeped variety of tea bags into a cup, adding hot water and enjoying the result! Tomorrow we head to Albany, NY where Ben and I lived many years ago, after college as Med and PA students, respectively.
Yoda5 was playing around, putting on his siblings sweaters and Ms. L commented that he looked like an Afghan boy!
I saw this journal in the book store...I thought they would be good journal prompts for the kids:
On our way to Boston, we stopped by Newport, RI to visit our friends from Lemoore, CA days, Chaplain Y. and family. Now we're staying at Hanscom Air Force Base which is outside of Boston. We are attempting this with dial up internet, so hopefully it works ok...
Lifetime
