So for February, the embassy world in Italy was all about the Olympics. I'm really glad they're over! This was not a big month for us at home - we had to stay around town "just in case," which never materialized, thank God.
I did get to see the First Lady though, which was very cool, but I did not get to shake her hand or have my picture taken with her, so that is really a bummer. Not for lack of trying though! I got in a few "side" pictures, which I guess will have to be good enough for now. (That's me in the center with the blue shirt.) Oh, well, one day. Oh, and Carrie Shrug and Dorothy Hamill were there too, and I didn't get my picture taken with them either. Stinks.So what else happened in February? Oh we did have the Chili night which was a lot of fun. I had some of the best cornbread EVER, next to Granny Andrews' cornbread, of course. Junior seemed to like the chili, amazingly enough. And my partner and I have been working on this "Departure Guide" for our Departure Seminar coming up in two weeks. Amazing how such a simple project can turn into a huge monstrosity. It's now about 63 pages long, and we are just praying at this point that it's done. (Being reviewed at the moment.) Oh and they finally did the interviews for our replacements this summer, but it hasn't been announced yet.
Baby News: No, we don't know what it is yet. Do you think we could have kept that quiet a whole month if we did? What we do know is that Junior is a Boxer. At our last appointment, he/she was just punching away and dancing a jig a the same time! As soon as the doctor brought the camera-thing around, Junior seemed to know what we were doing, and turned around and refused to move and show us the goods for the rest of the visit. Completely annoying. Of course, Joel would say it gets its stubbornness from his/her mother. I say someone's father has got a bit of a hidden stubborn streak himself.Want to join in the Baby Pool? (yeah it's amazing what's online now-a days.) Go to: http://www.ExpectNet.com, Game name: WhatsJuniorMendez. Enter in your choices.
Joel and I have been working quite a bit on the baby stuff this month, trying to figure out all the fun paperwork details it takes to bring a rugrat into this world and get it on a plane and into another country at the age of 6-8 weeks. Plus, we're starting to work on all the fun other details of our move. We think that we've got our house assignment for Croatia, but we haven't got any pictures or anything official yet - just stuff through the grapevine.
Oh, and here is a different picture of Junior at 18 weeks! Yeah, mom had to get into the picture, too! And yeah, I am pooching way out there now. The Italians at work come up and talk to me about "il bambino" in Italian. (Il bambino, come va? - The baby, how is he? I respond, Lei e bene. She is well. Qui e? What is it? Non lo so. I don't know.)So here's the deal: our next appointment is next Tuesday, the 7th. Will you all please join me in negotiating with Junior to face front and show us the goods? I keep telling him/her that there will be no cool things in the nursery if I don't find out which gender to buy for (Bribery is starting early!). I'm also trying guilt. I'm a mom now, so I can, right? hahaha
March for us is packed full of work, work, and more work. Joel just seems to run around like a chicken with his head cut off, he stays so busy. (He stops in every once in a while to lecture me on eating lunch.) And unfortunately, it looks like I'll be running around like that this month, too. We have the a trip to the Naples military base, the Departure Seminar, the Regional Education Director's visit, a small Orientation session, the Community Auction, and zillion "important" meetings that everyone has all decided we just have to be at. I'd like to say that April is going to slow down, but that would probably jinx us.
We're counting down the days til we're back in the States and hopefully we'll get to see many of you again! You might have to come to me though, I think I'll be stuck in one spot for a while this summer!
Love,
Julie and Joel
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