The wedding party by Ben Franklin. They both went to Franklin College, so it’s not as random as it may seem.

This has got to be one of my favorite photos ever! My cousin, the flower girl, checking out the cake. Can’t you just see her trying to decide whether or not she should grab some frosting?

Yesterday evening I took a break from stressing out and Shawn and I went to watch the Capitol Pride Fest Parade. It was a good time and definitely had a different feel from our last parade experience.

(Warning: The following photos may not be appropriate for small children, the faint of heart, or some Midwesterners.)

Valerie Harper was the grand marshal.

This was our favorite float - they had great costumes!

This week is proving to be a mentally and emotionally challenging one as we get ourselves settled. As much as we move, I always manage to forget how difficult the first few days can be. The car is one of our biggest problems at this point. On Monday, I managed to find a parking spot to rent for the month so that we didn’t get ticketed/towed from the spot we had parked at on Sunday. The next challenge is getting it registered. I attempted to go to the DMV yesterday to try and find out exactly what we need to do. Since the car is new and has never been titled anywhere, the info on the DMV website isn’t very helpful. Unfortunately, in typical DMV fashion, the person I talked to yesterday wasn’t very helpful either. So I think we’re just going to try and get the emissions inspection taken care of tomorrow, and Shawn’s planning on spending his entire Saturday at the DMV.

Laika has added another challenge to things. After a month on the farm, living in the big city has been quite a change. Every time we leave the house she gets so overstimulated that she can barely function. I guess I hadn’t realized how different Washington would be from Kyiv. Going out with Laika is forcing me to see it in a new way. First of all, it’s loud. And constantly moving. The biggest challenges are bicycles (Laika’s not a huge fan and there’s a LOT of them in our neighborhood.), other dogs (This has become a 50/50 sort of thing with her – we just never know when she’s going to decide that she really doesn’t like another dog.), and squirrels (She’d never seen one before Sunday, and they’re everywhere here, just taunting her.). So we’ve been keeping the walks short and making good use of the “heel” command she learned at camp last month. Hopefully if we pace ourselves, she’ll be able to adjust in another week or two.

Well, so that this post isn’t a complete downer, I’ll finish up by sharing how our home leave ended. My brother got married last Saturday! It was a pretty stressful time (with moving and all), but I’m really happy that I got to share in his and his new wife’s big day. And since I hardly ever (or never, really) get to see his friends, I forget how much fun they are. In fact, it’s a good thing that I was standing on my brother’s side during the ceremony because his best man kept me from totally losing it. At least my new sister-in-law cried a little too, so I wasn’t the only one crying in front of everyone. I’ll share photos when I get some so that you can see how beautiful the day was.

To prove that it was indeed the Marine Ball, here I am with two of my favorite Marines, Garett and Tyler:

And now it’s time to pack for vacation. We’ll be in Spain for the next week!

One of the Marines also dressed up like Elvis, stealing Shawn’s thunder. However, we quickly learned that it is every Ukrainian girl’s dream to have her photo taken with two Elvises, so Shawn spent a good portion of the evening posing with scantily-clad maids/angels/devils/etc. Score one for The King!

Shawn was in charge of planning this year’s Independence Day celebration at the Embassy, so the past few weeks have been a little stressful for him. In fact, last night I could tell he’d reached his limit when I found him staring off into space with this look that just said he was done. And I practically had to push him out the door to take Laika on her post-dinner walk. So I know he’ll just be glad when this evening is over. And he can sit back and pass the planning for next year off to some other junior officer. Ah, the circle of the Foreign Service life.

If you’re in America, enjoy the festivities. I’m sure I’ll stand out on our balcony to watch the fireworks when they inevitably go off around 11pm tonight. Why, you ask? Because it’s a summer night in Kyiv, silly. And fireworks and drunkenness (particularly in combination) are plentiful here.

That’s right. Eight years ago today we were busy gettin’ hitched. What can happen in 8 years? Here’s a rundown:

We’ve lived at 5 different addresses — and were homeless for about 5 months (by our own choice).

We’ve owned 3 cars.

We’ve had a total of 7 pets. (I have to admit, we had a little trouble even remembering the names of our hermit crabs. Either we did something wrong, or hermit crabs don’t live very long.)

Together, we’ve been employed at 13 different jobs. 6 for Jennifer and 7 for Shawn.

We’ve visited and/or lived in 12 foreign countries together.

And still counting…

But how? One theory is that there is a day in every devushka’s life when she wakes up and is suddenly, tragically, a babushka. Her stiletto thigh-high boots have been replaced with ankle-high nylons and plastic house slippers; her breasts have shifted much too close to her waist; her Louis Vuitton handbag is now a plastic shopping bag filled with miscellaneous garbage; and, of course, her overly-dyed bleach-blonde hair is now back to its natural brown, streaked with grey, and tucked in a trademark babushka scarf.

I bring this up because I was a little worried that today would be that day for me — I am now (*gulp*) 30-years-old. Granted, I would not call myself a devushka — in Ukrainian terms, I tend to dress more like a middle-aged mother of three (that is to say, sensibly) — so I didn’t expect my downfall to be quite as extreme, but I have been feeling as of late that this birthday is more than just a number. I know, I know, I’ve always said that I wouldn’t be one of those people who gets all freaked out about turning 30, but now it’s here and it’s a little worrisome. Not that I feel any older, really, it’s just that I thought I would have things a little more figured out by now. That I would “have my shit together” as they say. And let me tell you, mine is all over the place.

This last year has been a pretty rough one for me. It goes well beyond culture shock and into the realm of having to do some serious work re-defining myself. Not an easy thing. But I’m getting there — I’m feeling better about who I am, the decisions I make, and where (literally and figuratively) that takes me. I feel like I still have a long way to go, but since I didn’t get things together for this milestone, now I have nothing but time until the next one. I’m sure I’ll have it all figured out by then…right?

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Shawn and I spent the morning with these people (Ambassador Taylor, Mrs. Bush, President Bush, Doctor Taylor, and Secretary of State Rice if you’re having trouble with my darkish photo). Well, not exactly “spent the morning” – more like spent two and a half hours waiting and then spent 20 minutes of the morning. But it was pretty cool.

When it was my turn to meet the President, Shawn wanted me to ask if he was supporting Obama or Clinton, but I thought back to my etiquitte class and determined that it might not be…um, diplomatic. Instead, I was a little taken aback as he said, “Hey, how’re you doing?” Um. Good. Thanks. He seemed pretty laid back, which I guess isn’t too shocking. Shawn did note that he does the little shoulder shake when he laughs just like Jon Stewart’s impression of him.

So the visit is only a day and then they’re all off to the NATO Summit. I’ll be glad when it’s all over because Shawn has been working a crazy amount of overtime for the last few weeks. I cannot even begin to describe all the work that goes into an event like this. And all the details – it’s hard to even imagine. Shawn was pretty lucky, though, in that he got to do a fairly important job for the visit and work closely with Secretary Rice’s staff. So even though it’s been a lot of work, it seems like it’s been a good experience for him.

And a couple more photos from this morning: