I think one of the biggest things for me was moving to DC. I liked Kansas, I made some lasting friendships, but I never felt like it was my home. A one year move is hard, and my attitude did not make my situation any easier. Leaving at the end of the year really was good for me. The kids and I spent the summer at the beach and as much as we missed Wes during the week, it was what I needed. I felt more connected to my babies, and in a lot of ways to myself. I worked really hard all year and was able to enjoy the benefits of my hard work with some down time. I read books for the first time in years, I spent long days on the beach, I spent time with my mom and got to know her again. I felt recharged when fall rolled around.

A little over a week before school started, we moved to DC. Immediately, I felt like we belonged there. I love where we live, the neighborhood is quiet, and the house we live in is small, but for right now, it is just what we need. There is an energy in DC that I really seem to respond to. The kids are happy there, I am happy there, Wes is happy there. We have friends from different eras in our lives, family, and for once we had community before we even moved in. We did not have the struggle of begging a stranger to be our emergency contact. And for nomads like us, that it is a really big deal.

I never dreamed that when I decided on a whim to start a food blog that so many amazing people and opportunities would come to me because of it. Don’t get me wrong, it is a lot of work. But work that I enjoy and that I get a great sense of accomplishment from. I have watched my photography grow and my writing as well. I have turned my blog into a business. I have traveled for my blog, made connections, and been able to cross things off of my bucket list because of it.

My marriage has always been good. Of course there have been ups and downs, no marriage is perfect. But it feels like it is stronger and happier than before. I know that Wes loves me, and that I love him, but this year he has really stepped up to let me live some of my dreams. He has taken on a lot of the responsibility of running our home so that I could do things for my career and for myself. He truly is my biggest cheerleader and I am grateful to have him by my side. We have a beautiful family together and I love the home that we have created for ourselves and our children.

My life is good. I am in a good place right now. 2013 is looking promising. This year, instead of the same resolution (I don’t think that I will ever lose that 20 pounds), I am going to set some goals instead. Some lofty, and some not. But things to work towards to make myself a better person.

1. I am going to say no to more things than I say yes to. This is hard for me to do. When I first started blogging, I was so flattered by the offers and opportunities that came my way. I really felt that if I said no to anything that no one would ask me again. I have since learned that this is not the case. I feel like I stretched myself too thin and began to lose some of myself. This year, I am cutting way back. If it is not something that I truly want to do, or something that will benefit me in the long run, I am going to say no. This is not just in my blog life, but also in my personal life.

2. Read more books. There was a time when I would read 3 books a week. Now I am happy if I read 3 books a year. I miss reading, and the connection that I feel towards books. I love getting lost in a book and being sad when it is over.

3. Run a half marathon. If you know me, then you know that I really hate working out. I signed up for the Nike Womens Half Marathon and am promising myself that I will finish it. This is a goal that I have always had (I have no idea why, I really do not love running) and need to cross of my list of things-that-I-have-done-in-this-life. I know that it will be good for my body and my mind and having a goal will help me stay motivated and on task. I will be happy if I do not come in last.

4. Eat out twice a month. As a family, we made this goal. Ironically, as much I cook, we do eat out quite a bit. It is not good for our bodies or our wallet. Instead of running out for dinner on a busy night, we will make something easy at home. A sandwich or a bowl of cereal will be fine, but we will eat our meals in our home. This I think will be hard to do, as we love eating out and restaurants, but that should make going to one even more of a treat.

5. Take more pictures of my kids. Every year I make my grandmother a calendar for Christmas. She looks forward to it every year, and I end up giving a few other family members one as well. Usually I have a hard time narrowing down which pictures to use I have so many. This year, I barely had enough to make one. Yes, I take a lot of iPhone pictures, but I really need to take my big camera out with me wherever we go. It is worth it, and something that I really miss. Photography does feel like work sometimes, and taking pictures of my family was the whole reason why I got into it in the first place. I need to take more pictures of our every day life again. At the end of this year, I want to struggle to have narrow down my options for the calendar.

Here is to a happy and productive new year. Have a Happy New Year.

© Bree for Bree Hester, 2013. | Permalink | 4 comments | Add to del.icio.us
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We are going to be living in Alexandria, VA and we could not be more excited. Our house will be ready in the middle of August. I see a lot of adventures in our future.

When we were driving from Kansas to New Jersey, we made a stop in St. Louis. We had big plans of doing the tourist thing and doing a lot of sightseeing and exploring. We created a Summer Bucket List and had big plans of checking lots of them off. Our dog was not down with that plan. Instead, we had an hour in St. Louis and ended up driving straight to NJ. But we thoroughly enjoyed the hour that we had there and I would love to go back.

© Bree for Bree Hester, 2012. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
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She loved her first day.  Yesterday, we got to meet her teacher and see her classroom.  We went on a little classroom scavenger hunt, putting her supplies away as we went around the stations.  Her little chair with her notebooks tucked into the back, and her “Brain Break Mat”, her cubby.  Her classroom is super fancy, it has a smartboard, and she needed to move her name to the correct spot on the graph.  It about did me in.  Her teacher appears to be wonderful, and Ava likes her a lot.  For the first two weeks, she goes in the afternoons to transition them to a full day.  They have a long school day, 7:55 – 3:20, so they ease them into it.  We ate lunch, got ready, and walked to school.  She got in line, and the teacher told the kids to blow us a kiss and wave goodbye.  Rip off the band-aid.  Ava literally skipped to the classroom, I stood there with the other mommas who had tears streaming down their faces.  Clay and I walked home, and his teacher came over for a visit.  She left, and Clay and I read some books, watched some Food Network, and picked up where Ava and I left off.  I wonder if he likes to watch Glee too?

This series kills me for two reasons.  One, my child now looks like he belongs in Econ 101, not 2nd grade.  Two, my photography skills are always questionable for first day pictures.  I think that it is because, as prepared as we are, there is always some amount of rushing on the first day.  Always hectic.  And, on days like these, I am not wearing my photographer hat, but my mom hat.  Who cares if there are hot spots and some are slightly out of focus?  All I want is to document this big day.

William had a fabulous first day of school, and absolutely nothing could have made me happier than when he came rushing into the house this afternoon (did I mention that they walk home.  BY THEMSELVES??) and said that school was great and that he loved it.  William is very bright, and a great student, but he is not exactly an enthusiastic student. I am not sure if that is exactly the right term for what his attitude towards school is, but it is the best that I can give you right now.  His teacher last year was perfect for him, it was really hard to leave the amazing school that we were at, and he was in his element.  There was a certain amount of apprehension for all of us about him going to a new school.  He was concerned about having a hard time making new friends, getting lost, the usual first day stuff.  The good thing this year, is about 80% of the kids are in the same exact boat as him.  All new, all staying for one year, and they are all military kids.  Military kids are truly amazing.  They are flexible in ways that I wish that I could be.  They can just walk up to  a kid, tell them that they have a nice bike, and then they ride off together, new friends.  If only adults could be that friendly.

Doesn’t he just look positively old?   The walk to school.  Same as in California, we can see our school from our backyard.  We are super lucky.  Clay was a little confused about who exactly was going to school this morning. Waiting to line up.  Clay is the only one that seems to not be annoyed with my picture taking at this point.My girl is ready.  Wearing her pin that her teacher gave her.  My kids are big enough that they go to school where you can ride your bike.  Oh my.This is Ava’s buddy.  He thought that he was getting his cast off this morning, only to get a new, camo one.  Only on an Army base, that is for sure.  And she is off.  She didn’t even turn around to wave.  I have more to share with you, but I promised that I would not stay up too late.  These early mornings are not for the weak.  I should have done drills for a few days beforehand.  I was exhausted by 2 this afternoon. Out of practice.

© Bree for Bree Hester, 2011. | Permalink | 5 comments | Add to del.icio.us
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Picture Color – Day 21

I am way behind on Picture Color, but I will finish it.  I am just not feeling very creative right now.  I get like this sometimes, when the camera just doesn’t feel right in my hands, and the inspiration does not come easily.  I am not myself, and I know this.  I know that this too shall pass, but for now, I just need to push through.  This move has been hard for me.  I feel like a fish out of water.  I miss my old life, my friends, and my California family.  The kids are loving it here, and so is Wes, and that makes me feel bad too.  I don’t want to ruin this experience for them because I am not there yet.  I am sure that I will come around, but for now, I think that it needs to be one day at a time.

We are attempting to potty train Clay.  He needs to be potty trained before he can start preschool.  It is not going very well.  He will sit on the potty, but he just doesn’t get it.  I am not pushing him, I know that he will not go to college in a diaper, he might just not start preschool with the rest of his class.  At least the school is willing to hold his spot for awhile.  I was cooking dinner the other night, and I looked up from the sink and saw this scene.  I had to capture it, yellow, crappy lighting and all.

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Well, we are here.  Our house is 95% unpacked.  Something that you are desperately looking for seems to always be in the last box that you unpack.  In this case, we are looking for our silverware.  Tonight, I cooked our first dinner in our new home.  Thank goodness for plastic forks.  I was so glad to eat real food.  And to be back in my kitchen.  The kids are spending their days riding bikes with the 15 kids that make up a 6 house stretch.  There are always kids riding their bikes in front of my kitchen window.  I love it.  Tomorrow, I am going to make some popsicles.  I want to be the house that the kids come to for popsicles.  I went to the farmers market this morning.  It is a cute little market, so unlike the craziness of the California farmers markets.  By the time I left, I knew the name of the woman who grew and picked the flowers pictured above.  Her name is Joy.  I bought a few things at her booth, and she was so sweet, she held them so that I would not have to carry them while I did the rest of my shopping.  People in Kansas are so nice.  Everyone I have met has been friendly and warm.

Last night, as we tucked the kids into bed, we went downstairs to collapse on the couch.  A bit later, Wes heard the sound of crying from upstairs.  It was Will.  He was crying because he wanted to go home.  Even though he was sleeping in his own bed, he said it did not feel right.  It breaks my heart.  Change is hard.  For all of us.  I know that he will adapt, and during the daylight hours, he loves it here.  They miss their old lives.  Their friends.  I do too.  But we said goodbye to it.  We will have new lives.  New friends.  For now, I am happy that the 5 of us are together, somewhat settled, and still looking for the forks.

© Bree for Bree Hester, 2011. | Permalink | 8 comments | Add to del.icio.us
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We are leaving California in a little over two weeks.  I forgot just how much planning, organizing, and work goes into a move.  We have been in California for 4 years, 3 of which in this house.  We try not to accumulate stuff, but with 3 kids it is much harder to live the minimalist life that I would like.  We have purged, purged, and purged some more.  It is freeing to let go of “things”.  On Friday, the movers came to do a pre-assessment and when it was done he told me that our house was not a big deal and that we had very little stuff.  I wanted to make out with him.  It was like getting an A+ in moving and organization.

The next two weeks are full of organizing, packing, saying goodbye, and moving on.  I am ready to go, but terribly sad to leave.

taken in NC last weekend at my sister-in-law’s wedding.

© Bree for Bree Hester, 2011. | Permalink | 8 comments | Add to del.icio.us
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Selling my house is turning into a full-blown nightmare.  For someone as responsible as I have always been (and still am) it amazes me that when you do everything right, and they way that you are supposed to, you cannot get any help.  Who ever thought that the home that you brought your baby home to from the hospital to, and the dining room that you had family dinners in, and the backyard that you have a tree swing in would ever be a bad investment?  I never knew that buying a home that I love and truly made a home would be the source of such negative energy for me.  Sometimes being a grown up is the worst thing in the world.

I was looking at the calendar for the next few months are there a very few blanks spots on it.  Many of those dates are taken up by obligation and not truly how I feel like spending my last few months here.  I am excited to go someplace where no one knows me, and has yet to figure out that I am a sucker.  I was saying the other day, that it will be nice to take the year off.  No one there will be asking me to pretty please take Johnny’s 1 year pictures.  Or we know that you are always dependable, so can you come help out at xyz?  And the person laughed and said that they will know.  That I have that kind of face.  Not sure exactly what that means, but hoping that they don’t notice right away.  I want to spend my last days in California playing in fields of mustard and playing with trucks at the Presidio.  I need to make that happen.  I will make that happen.

Tonight, I will not do any work, I will make my family a nice dinner, and sit on the couch with my husband and catch up on Glee.  And eat this gorgeous bowl of raspberries.  Maybe in a tall glass of champagne with some Chambord.  And tomorrow will be a brighter and much happier day.

© Bree for Bree Hester, 2011. | Permalink | 27 comments | Add to del.icio.us
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We love California and we have made roots.  We love our house, we love the kid’s school.  We have friends here that have become family.   Our children have lives.  This time moving is different.  Before, we moved babies.  Now, we are moving little people with little lives.  And while I know that they will make new friends and be fine, I am still a little sad for them.

I have always felt that we are really lucky.  We have had very rich lives thanks to the Coast Guard.  Our Christmas card list is huge and I love having friends all over the world.  We have been all over the place and we treat every place that we live like we are tourists.  We go to San Francisco on a whim.  Lake Tahoe is gorgeous and always fun.  Apple Hill, Napa, LA.  I love being here.

But I also look forward to what the future holds.  I look forward to making new friends and new adventures.  As long as we are together, nothing else really matters.  I have been asked a few times if we would stay in California while Wes is in school.  I cannot imagine not being together.  We are all in it for the long haul, so off we go to Kansas.

I have heard great things about Fort Leavenworth.  Wes will be a student and from what we have heard, the schedule is great.  No duty, no deployments, after 8 years, I cannot even imagine what this will be like.  So, we will spend the rest of our time here enjoying everything that California has to offer.  And look forward to what is next for us.

© Bree for Bree Hester, 2010. | Permalink | 9 comments | Add to del.icio.us
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We talk about our day.  We play with cars.  We hide around corners when we have to admit the mischief that we have done.

We say goodnight and that we love you and there are less sleeps every day until we see each other again.  Technology is a beautiful thing.

© Bree for Bree Hester, 2010. | Permalink | 3 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: military life, sacramento food blogger

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