Life in Morocco.

It's been 15 days, 1 hour, and 11 minutes since I last heard from Conor before he got on the plane for his annual training in Morocco with the Marines. This is the longest I've gone without any form of communication with Conor since we've been married.

I thought it would be easy, since we've done that whole "tour in Iraq" thing. It started out that way but this last weekend it really hit me that I was alone. At least when he was in Iraq I was able to talk to him via email and phone calls when allowed. You should have seen how excited I got yesterday when I was checking my bank account on-line and I saw a charge from Agadirblahblah...something crazy. It's really weird and kinda silly but just knowing that he was on the other end of that charge made me feel better about the whole thing. Stupid I know.

The good news is that the dry spell is over, I got my first email today. It wasn't anything fancy, it was only 2 lines, and it didn't really say much but I still loved getting it. It's always nice to know that there is life in Morocco after all. I was beginning to worry.

Aunt Lindsay and Uncle Conor

It's another girl. This time it's a cute little baby. I'm officially an aunt. Meet Emmilia Karin Muehlmann

Born 4/4/09 at 12:38pm
Chubby little 8lb 8oz, 20 inch beautiful baby.

It's a girl!

Puppy, that is.

We finally broke down and got Keira a little sister friend. She's the cutest little black lab in the world. She is almost 8 weeks old now. Her name is Halpert.

We love Halpert very much. She is such a little snuggler! I wonder if I should be worried that she is still going to want a lap seat during the movies. She's going to be a big dog soon.

She spent the day at work with me this week and just slept like a baby under my desk while I worked. How cute is that?

It's another vacation!!

This time we took a cruise to celebrate our anniversary, the first one together, and Christmas. It was so much fun. We went to Cozumel and Costa Maya Mexico, as well as Belize and Honduras.

Mexico was just okay. A hurricane had just come through and it showed. Most of the shops had closed down and the landscape was destroyed. The food was good and the people were nice though. We went on a Segway tour and did some snorkeling. I especially love the goofy helmets they made us wear while we were riding. Cause you could fall and die you know. We did look stupid. Oh well, it was a blast.

In Belize, we did a cave tubing tour, which was awesome. We were in a small group and it was a guided tour through these beautiful natural caves in the Mountains. At one point, our guide had us all turn off our headlamps and it was one of the coolest things I’ve even done. It was completely black. All you could hear the water and the people around you breathing and you could see absolutely nothing. That's something I’d do again in a heartbeat!!

The cruise ship was great. We went to the pool, played mini golf, went hot tubbing, ate ice cream, went to comedy shows, slept in, and pretty much did whatever we wanted. It was the first time Conor had ever been on a cruise and if you ask him, I think he'll say he'd do it again. He really enjoyed the cute little towel animals they made for him every day.

Driving the California Coast!

We took a few weeks off when he got home and drove the coast of California. It was tons of fun. It felt like it took forever but it was nice to just drive, listen to our music and books on CD, and just be together.

We stayed in St. George the first night before we headed to LA. We hung out with Conor cousin, his uncle, and a bunch of his friends that all live there, before heading North and doing our thing.

We visited the Hearst castle. That place is ridiculous! First, it's in the middle of nowhere. Second, it's just huge!! Everything is over the top. The pool is covered in gold leaf, and it has got a movie theater in it. They finished building the thing in 1948 for crying out loud. I just couldn't believe how much had gone in to making this place.

In San Francisco we had so much fun. Neither of us had ever been there before and it was really cool. We took one of those bus top tours all around the city and across the Golden Gate Bridge. We took a boat tour out to Alcatraz as well. How cool is that?

.

We stopped in Lake Tahoe, which was freezing by the way! Good thing we were only there one night because I couldn't take it. Then the long and dreary trip back through Wendover. It was a great trip.

Iraq Call

Just one month of marriage and Conor got a call to serve a tour of Operation Enduring Freedom with the Marine Corps in Iraq. We both new it was possible, but never expected it to come so soon. He spent months training and get ready for deployment before they left in June 2007. While he did not return home again until May of 2008, I did get to see him a couple times during that year.




They were training in North Carolina from June until September before they actually left for Iraq. I went out there for a 4th of July visit. We drove to Washington DC, and went to the beach and had a really great time together. Leaving him that time was significantly harder for me than when he had left a month earlier. It was so great to have a four hour plane ride home to be miserable to myself and just miss him before returning to real life. He was also allowed to come home the end of September for just enough time to tell me that he loved me and give me a hug before they boarded a plane and I wouldn’t see him again for just over seven months.

I spent my time working, snowboarding, playing soccer, and basically just living an awkward "married but single" life. Some days were harder than others were but I made it though just fine. That's mainly because Conor was lucky to be in a position to call me often and email when he could not call. I had the wonderful support of my friends, and my family during this time. I'm pretty sure the main reason I didn't go insane was my beautiful puppy Keira. I knew I loved that stupid dog but during that time, sadly, she was my life.

Conor doesn't talk a lot about what happened in Iraq. If you get the lucky chance to talk to him about it and he does open up, take advantage of it because it doesn't happen often. I do know that in general he felt pretty safe while there. With the exception of a few convoy runs to Baghdad, they were pretty much on base going to the gym and watching movies. No one in his Company was seriously injured and there were no casualties, thank goodness.

I've very lucky to have him home with me today and proud of his tour in Iraq. He's a great man and a better person than I’ll ever be. It was hard for us both but I really believe that I’m a better person for it. Hey, I’m not afraid of the dark anymore. You just can't be when you are living alone.

Hawaii

April 13th, 2007 my big brother Nathan got married on a beach in Hawaii. What a great reason for a vacation. Excellent times, great beach, good company, good tan. We took Jeremy and Krista with us for an added adventure. Gotta love Maui.

We stayed in a little condo in Kihei and hit the beach everyday. I'm pretty sure I got knocked out by a wave once. Krista and I went under after a huge wave and didn't come back until three others had hit us pretty hard. I just remember going under, being there for a good long while, then Conor running in to get me. Couldn't even stand on my own feet.

The wedding was beautiful. Nathan was so cute and Kristine looked gorgeous.