"We're having a heat wave, a tropical heat wave.  The temperature's rising, it ain't surprising... la la laaala lalala."

There's my ode to Marilyn Monroe in "There's No Business Like Show Business" and I'm pretty sure it was in Holiday Inn- or maybe Blue Skies.  Mom, you can help me out here....

So, it's HOTTT!  I'm sure many of you have heard the non-stop news about the heat waves going through the Northeast.  It's craziness!  There isn't as much humidity as there is in Florida and it isn't quite as dry as Arizona but it's freakin' hot!  So, I'm trying to stay inside and keep myself busy and cool.

How was everyone's fourth??  Ours was pretty good.  Last Thursday, Christian got back from his trip to Bahrain and about two hours after he got home, we packed up and headed out to Western Maryland to see his family (can you see a trend here?  hint: we go ALLLLL the time now).  Then Sunday, we drove up to State College, PA - where Penn State is- to watch the fireworks up there.  The State College fireworks show is supposed to be one of the top three fireworks shows in the nation.  It was good but maybe my expectations were a little high because it really didn't seem worthy of that type of hype.  However, it was rather neat that the fireworks were set to music and would blow up along with the beat of a song.  So, that was pretty intriguing.  But, it doesn't beat the Pensacola Bay fireworks....

We stayed with one of Christian's friends in State College who is getting his Ph.D in Statistics at Penn State and then headed BACK to Maryland Monday for one more night at Christian's dad's place.  We drove home yesterday morning and yesterday afternoon, I took Christian to the airport for his trip to Denver.  He'll get back late this Friday night.  So, needless to say, our bed has had one occupant for the last 14 days.  It gets a little lonely but I'm making do.

I "worked" today at the Junior League Thrift Shop in Ardmore, PA (neat little town with a nice shopping area).  Basically, I re-dressed the mannequins (their outfits before I came were hideous haha), organized the shoes, bags, and consignment area.  Three hours went by pretty fast.  Each year, with Junior League, members are required to work a certain number of shifts at the thrift shop as volunteer time.  So, I'm getting some of my requirements out of the way pretty early.  It was pretty neat though.  And, I must say, they had some cute stuff!  I didn't buy anything but it wasn't all bad!

I don't really have anything else exciting planned for the week.  Like I said, Christian gets back late Friday night and then we're leaving for Virginia Beach on Sunday.  He has a class down there all next week so I'm tagging along so I can see my friend, Christina!  I'm pretty excited!  Her hubby's out of town (he's also a pilot) so we'll get to have some good girl time during the days!  I think we're going to go the Williamsburg Winery one day for a wine tasting and lunch!  That will be fun.  :)  Then, we get back next Friday (July 16th) and we have the Change of Command dinner for Christian's squadron.  I get to get all dressed up and Christian has to wear his uniform so I'm pretty excited about that too!  I just have to find a dress now.  Funny story... I went to DSW (aka the best shoe store ever) last week to get a pair of black shoes to wear with a dress that I already have for the dinner.  Well, they didn't really have any black shoes that I liked on clearance but boy, did that have some nude color shoes that I LOVED.  So, I got the nude color heals and now I have to find a dress to match the shoes.  haha  The trouble us girls go through to looks presentable... I tell ya.  :) So anyway, the dinner is next Friday, then the actual Change of Command ceremony is next Saturday morning and immediately after that, we're driving to New Hampshire (7 hours- blah) for a going-away party weekend for Christian's friend, Scott, who is going on a deployment to Africa.  So, we'll spend Saturday through Monday up there.  This is the same place we go every October for the party on the lake.  It's BEAUTIFUL there and the little B&B we stay at every year is great and her french toast is to-die-for!

Once we come back from NH, I think we can actually lay low for a while.  Then, all the travel kick backs into high gear in August.  I'm going to come to Pensacola around the 10th of August for a few days and then end my southern trip with a weekend in New Orleans and fly out of N.O. back to Philly.  Christian leaves for his month-long trip to Italy on August 20.  I'll then fly to Catania, Sicily on September 14 to meet him.  Then, after he's finished working that det on September 20, we both fly to Austria to see his grandparents and then drive to Frankfurt, Germany to spend time with the rest of the family.  We'll get back to the states at the beginning of October.  Phew... just writing all of that makes me tired!  I'm extremely excited though! I'm so thankful & blessed that we get to take advantage of all of this traveling!  I'm just glad we get to do all of this before we create any little ones- which is in the works, by the way.  We were planning on waiting until the end of the year but, hey, why not now, right?  So, keep us in your prayers for that.  And, don't ask me every five seconds if I'm pregnant!  haha  It'll happen when it's meant to happen.

Anyway, let me know how you all are doing!!!  I don't hear from some of you enough!  Love you all!

Chrissi