It seems I have neglected this blog for long enough.
What's happened since last time I wrote?
Violett passed her 365 day mark ... aka first birthday:
Her favorite things to do include reading, playing in the sprinkler, and being cheeky in general.
If you ask her where her belly button is, she will gladly show you, as well as lift your shirt up to gain access to your belly button region, which is one of her favorite spots to tickle. She does this accompanied by saying "tickticktickticktick". She can also show you the location of her ears, nose, mouth, hair, eyes, fingers, and toes upon request.
Little Goopy's favorite words are shoes, fish, up, NO!, oh no, gentle, vroom-vroom (car), mao (cat), and dirty. Violett absolutely hates to be dirty. She manages to get dirty quite easily, but when she realizes she has a crumb or tiny speck of dirt on her hands, she may throw a fit until you wipe it off. She may or may not have adopted a complex from me in which everything needs to be clean. She regularly takes the towels from the kitchen and attempts to scrub the floor, or place miscellaneous items (actual trash or otherwise) in the rubbish bin.
Other happenings include Violett, Hope, and I all getting stung by scorpions this summer. We had an ... infestation ... and they tend to camouflage well with our carpet. Luckily no one had an allergic reaction to the sting. Violett may have handled it the best out of all of us ....
In June, Violett and I accompanied KP and David to Sierra Leone to work aboard the Africa Mercy, and JP joined us after about two weeks. It was great to be back, but so so different from any other time I've been. Violett loved the social atmosphere and a more structured schedule than she's used to at home. I struggled a bit, but did enjoy my time on the whole, and was happy to reconnect with some old friends, especially Hannah Lewis!
After five weeks in Sierra Leone, V and I said "au revoir" to Africa, and travelled to Paris, then London. The traveling segments of this summer trip left something to be desired ... like a noose ... but once we arrived at our destinations, we were fine. We spent 16 hours in the Paris airport on layover, and due to the lack of sleep I achieved due to the refusal of a certain Violett Ingrid Peterson to sleep on our night flight from Freetown, combined with the confined space of the airplane, and general lack of comfort sitting in the airport, we were two semi-grumpy, and incredibly tired migrants. Hannah picked us up from the airport in London, then we journeyed to the West Midlands, and finally arrived at her home. All in all, from the time we disembarked from the Africa Mercy to the time we arrived in Bromsgrove with Hannah, we had been traveling for a grueling 30 hours.
This is how we spent some of our time whilst in the UK:
Girls night out
Visit to Wales
We attended the wedding of my beautiful friend and former roommate, Emily
Reunion with my soulmate, Carolina Zoia
Visit to Hyland Park
London sightseeing with Carolina, D, Helena, Kyle, and Lala
After all this, unfortunately it was time to return. There was another horrible journey home which included 12 hours in the Heathrow airport, a 10 hour plane trip - 4 hours of which Violett screamed on my lap, and 9 hours of which I was crying like a baby, and a 5 hour car ride home from Houston in a car with no air conditioning in 110 degree heat. It was great to see my crack-sibling again. Isn't she adorable?
About two weeks after we returned to Texas, JP made her way home, and about a month after that, KP arrived. David decided to stay on board until the end of field service in December. Being that David is the most social person I know, I wasn't surprised that he found ship life to be greater than or equal to social paradise. Alas, I really miss my broski. And V needs her uncle back.
I've bided my time since then with work and college (taking Financial Accounting and Mathematics for Business aka calculus) which have proved challenging, but interesting. Steve is here also so we've been spending a fair amount of time together as well.
Blink-182 concert with Steve
Basshunter gig with the girls
AAV (Annual AJay visit)
Things I'm not looking forward to ... Steve going back to England.
That's it.
Peace out.
