Pictures by Trey

Breakfast in the San Diego airport

Trey told me to "pose".

Trey and Bella being silly!

Trey being Trey!

Trey said the pilot said this was the Mississippi River!

We made it!

After a whole day of traveling (always exhausting) we have made it! The weather here is surprisingly mild, about 45-50, so we are pleased! Trey got sick on the way over and is still not 100%! His fever has gone away, but his throat is sore and he is having "dips". The only saving grace is doctors will come to you over here is Brussels and the standard of care is classified as high! So if he is not better tomorrow, I might have to make that call! So please keep him in your prayers so he can get out and enjoy Brussels!

As many of you know, Hamartrya is pretty good with his French, he is also good with his social skills! So as you can imagine, he was super excited to start his first french conversation in Brussels. Well, he picked the wrong person (our cab driver!!:) Don't get me wrong, the man was extremely nice, but he had to make eye contact with Hamartrya during any and all dialog. Yes, even while he was driving. Of course Hamartrya is oblivious to the fact that we almost ended up in two ditches, side swiped 3 cars and took out a guard rail, but we made it to the apartment safely and my heart rate has just returned to normal! Once we arrived at the apartment, we cleaned up and took a brief nap before attempting to venture out in Brussels. Trey thought he was better, but we (Trey, Bella and I) ended up coming right back. Hamartrya saved the day by finding a grocery store and getting us much needed food and drink. We have spent the rest of the night playing games and watching French t.v. - very interesting. Tomorrow we are going to try to go to the Christmas market and ice skate and visit the huge "atom" in the center of town. That is all for now, until tomorrow.....

Off to Brussels and Merry Christmas!

On Monday we are off to Brussels for the holidays! As you can imagine we are all very excited and can't wait to explore the city! We are also going to take the high speed train to Paris so Trey can see that tower made out of Lego's (Eiffel Tower)!!:) But anyway, I plan to blog everyday and post pictures as sort of an attempt to keep a journal of our trip, so stay tuned... Hamartrya also plans to write our annual Christmes letter while we are there as well, so it will probably arrive sometime in late January!!:)

Merry Christmas to all of our family and wonderful friends, may the true meaning of Christmas make its way into everyones heart!

Three Tharpe's

This is what happens when you combine good food and long distances traveled!

Trey had to get in on the action! Bella in silver!
Bella in red fur with rhinestones!

Rainbow Bella!

Bella in blue felt!

Thanksgiving

I would have extended my stay in Vegas, but I had to get back to prepare for family coming in from Atlanta! I suggested to Hamartrya that we bring his mother out here to spend the holiday with us as she has never been to the west coast nor does she get to spend a lot of time with her grands. So she arrived on Monday evening in good spirits and not too jet lagged.

The kids have really enjoy her being here, especially since she told them she was a snake charmer!!! Trey really believes her and I think she believes it as well! But anyway, we had a wonderful dinner today, with way too much food. But we have a lot to be thankful for. Hamartrya is home this year, we are all healthy and we were surrounded by family – it can’t get any better than that! We have spent most of this holiday sitting around talking and laughing and of course playing Mancala. Bella tried to teach her grandma how to play, but it was a little too complex for her to grasp!

There are many great things about grandmas, but when they wear lots of hats and jewelry, that is a little girls dream! Enjoy the pics of Bella when she got into her grandma’s suitcase!

Viva Las Vegas

Let me start off by saying the time spent in Las Vegas was too short! We got off to a rocky start, as my friend was delayed a whole day due to snow in her area. So, I started off on my own! I was so flustered about the delay, that I ended up in the airport with my house shoes on! Once I arrived at the Venetian Hotel, I felt a little better about my “fashion mishap” when the first person I saw was an intoxicated man in a bathrobe, cowboy boots and cowboy hat. I knew I had arrived in Vegas!

As I spent the first night alone at the slot machines, I realized that management in Vegas assumes that everyone knows how to play the slots. I really wish the machines came with instructions. I did not know what I was playing for, much less how to play, all I know is I lost the $50.00 in slot credits given to me by the hotel in about 11.8 minutes! Nevertheless, it was fun, lonely but fun. I also enjoyed people watching, a sport usually more enjoyable with a partner, but again this was Vegas and people do some crazy things there!

I spent Friday morning walking around Vegas and shopping while waiting for my friend to arrive; it was actually nice being alone. Vegas has a lot going on, and you can easily get lost in all of the madness, which I did! My friend finally arrived in the early afternoon and we were off! Talking, laughing and just being together was worth all the money and snafu’s! We went to a comedy show, Cirque de Soleil (sp), gambled (the hotel credits), shopped, got spa treatments, ate and did all that in less than 48 hours!

My only regret was not having more time to just be! The other sad thing was realizing how much I missed her in all of her craziness and mine. Good friends are hard to find, and in my case hard to spend time with, but when you find a good one, spending ridiculous amounts of money in order to spend 48 hours with them just seems like the natural thing to do!!!

I’ll post pictures later.

Off to Vegas!

I am off to Las Vegas tomorrow to meet up with one of my favorite girlfriends for a relaxing weekend (met her courtesy of the USMC)! No kids, no cleaning, no cartoons, no where to be, I could go on and on! I am trying to follow in the footsteps of one of my oldest and best friends mother, who like me is the wife of a military man (ooh-rah). After probably more than twenty years (sorry if I'm dating you wrong Mrs. H.) of being retired from the military life, she stills stays in contact with some of the good friends she has met along the way. You see, one of the hardest parts of being married to a Marine (besides the obvious) is that I have to continuously say goodbye to some pretty amazing people who actually serve as surrogate family, temporary mom to my kids and most of all, best friend! Although distance separates me from from just about everyone I call a true friend, I know in time I will meet more amazing people here in California, but I will never be able to forget the imprint left in my heart from those dear friends I have met along the way! Moral of the story is.....off the Vegas baby to meet up with one of those "imprints in my heart"!!!!!

Halloween

Introducing Wonder Woman and the Phantom Ninja! We had a great time on Halloween. We live in a small neighborhood and just about everyone trick-or-treated, which I thought was rare in the U.S., but the kids hit the jackpot and met some new kids along the way. They are already thinking to next year - Bella wants to be Smurfette and Trey wants to reprise his role as Mr. T.

Soccer and Football

On Saturday's, the kids participate in the YMCA soccer and football league. Today just happened to be picture day! By the way, Hamartrya and I are the coaches for Bella's team! I am proud to say, we have absolutely no experience in that sport. However, we enjoy the kids we coach and the kids enjoy us so much that they don't notice we "suck" (I'm sure the parents do). Just goes to prove that taking the time to volunteer in a child's life, no matter what you are doing or how good or bad you are at it, really makes a difference to the child. On another note, this is Trey's 1st year at football, and while he feels completely lost on how the game is played, he enjoys the social aspect of the game and of course the real reason for signing up - the snack at the end!! He caught his first pass today and then just stood there, so the coach yelled "RUN BIG TREY" and Trey did, scored a touchdown and was so proud of himself. So after a long day on the field, they are now both sick (stomach flu going around) so hopefully this will pass quickly.

Mancala

One of our favorite games in the house is a marble game called Mancala. While Trey and I play for pure enjoyment, Bella and her father take it to another level. Hamartrya can't even change his clothes when he gets home because he can't wait to battle Bella in a game. We knew that Bella is super competitive and often wondered where she got it from, well now we know. The audio to their games is priceless. I have to often remind Hamartrya that she is 6 and he is 35, but she talks "junk" right back to him. They are now in their 2nd hour of play and she is up 6 games to 4. I have to admit, she has a really good strategy in this game. Their tournament will have to end tonight, as Bella joined the choir at church and has to be there in 20minutes!

Bella's New Hair

This is the "new" Bella! Still crazy, but with shorter hair. Two years ago, I thinned her hair at the scalp with dollar store thinning shears! Well it was perfect for about 6 months, then the hair grew back (who would have known that would happen)! Well since that time she has had an invisible helmet under all of her other hair. So, after fighting this helmet for almost 2 years, I asked her if she minded if we cut her long hair to the point where the new growth was at. Well, to my surprise she wanted to get it cut and go short. I took her to a nice salon and we decided on a bob. She absolutely loves it (because she can wear it down everyday) and I must say it is so easy to take care of. I would like her to grow it back out, but she says she is a short hair girl now! I will post our Halloween pictures (the day before the cut) so you can see just how long it had gotten. Well, more later!

Finding Time to Get Started

Well, it seems as if everyone I know has a blog, so why not have one too? Since I am so bad at keeping in touch with people, maybe this will be a good way to stay connected, I will only have to write things once:) Hopefully I will find time to actually post on this blog! So hold on and enjoy the ridiculous stories of life with the Tharpe's!