Tradition, Tradition! (And An Addition!)

    Our first holidays as a family are rapidly approaching upon us, I cannot tell you how excited we are! ...Well mostly me, I think Andrew is just looking forward to a break from work for a few days. He's been working pretty hard lately, more so than usual. Anyway, as I was making a Thanksgiving Day menu yesterday, I couldn't help but reminisce on holiday traditions from my family.

    I remember waking up, watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, and making homemade Chex mix. I can almost hear my dad saying "Now, Little Miss Ana... I think that's enough.." and my mother chiming in with "Yeah! You don't want to fill up on Chex mix..." Being raised in an Italian family, we had an extra dish that was traditional for us. Linguine with my dad's famous homemade pasta sauce, we even made our own linguine some years! I don't think that will be happening this year though, but, I'm okay with it! Why? Because Andrew and I are making our own traditions and it is more exciting than I thought! 

Being stationed overseas, a lot of the single guys stationed here have no one to celebrate Thanksgiving with. I couldn't stand the thought that some of them might be alone and hungry on Thanksgiving so I invited a bunch of them over to share Thanksgiving dinner with us. :) What's on the menu? I'll tell you!  

  Turkey, mashed potatoes (a recipe called "Mater's taters", to be exact) candied yams, fruit salad, which is a yummy family recipe, honey glazed ham, green bean casserole (Andrew's favorite part), cranberry orange relish, homemade Chex mix, stuffing/dressing, mac & cheese bake, and of course... Pies! I am so excited for this wonderful feast, and for the great company of friends. 

Mama Kitty and her adorable little bundles of furry joy

 Once Thanksgiving is over, and after I've slept off all of that tryptophan, I will be cheerfully decorating my house for the best holiday EVER, Christmas!!  I would also like to take this time to tell you that we will have a new addition to our little family come December 4th! We are adopting a kitten and it will be ready to leave it's mother by then :) We have 6 babies to choose from. We are pretty darn excited!

We hope you all have a wonderful and blessed Thanksgiving full of delicious food, family fun, and God's blessings!


Until next time...
Blessings and holiday cheer, 
The Pearsons

My Birthday.

      Well, another year has come and gone and I am another year older. I must say, this is one of the best birthdays I've had in a while as it was filled with many surprises, not to mention, it was a GORGEOUS day! 

   A few months ago, I had started looking for my biological mother. We have had no luck so far, and are not sure if we will have any luck at all. Since I was about 9 or 10, I have always wondered if she (my biological mother) thought of me on my birthday. I know she's out there and I want to thank her for going through with the pregnancy and not terminating it. I can only imagine how much courage that took, especially in this day and age, where life is not as respected as it should be. I would also like to thank my parents for being such wonderful role models through out my life. I love you Mom & Dad and miss you terribly. 

Showing off my traditional Birthday tiara.

  My first birthday surprise was that Andrew actually came home the same day he left for work (11:30pm!). For those of you who don't know, Andrew works "swing shift," which means he goes into work anytime between 2-4pm and gets home anywhere from 2-4am, depending on the day/work load. It was so very nice. My wonderful husband made me breakfast before we headed out to base to check the mail. Once we got to the post office, I rushed in to check our box and see if my boxes of belongings from the states had arrived and lo and behold, there were six slips in our box telling us to pick up a package! I would like to thank God and the USPS for this splendid birthday present! I must say, it is nice to have more than one month's worth of clothes here. It's also nice to have my favorite things again, like my jewelery box and the blanket my mother knit for me. Such a wonderful comfort (not to mention, quite warm). Once we got home, I quickly rifled through my boxes to find said favorites, and, my tiaras.  It is a tradition of mine to wear a tiara every year for my birthday.  I now have a small collection.

The unfortunate mess in our living room!

   For my birthday dinner, Andrew and I, and a handful of friends had a lovely meal at a steak house on base called "Pinkerton's" and had a few drinks at the "Liberty Club."  Let me tell you, I had some of the most delicious salmon for dinner! Fit for a princess. :) I had such a blast with all my amazing friends here. My best friend here even sang a song dedicated to me at karaoke-- Stairway to Heaven!  

My Birthday cake!

  I should probably mention the cake! We did not do cake until the day after my birthday, as we were soo busy through out the day, and it was much too late when we got home that night. I made my own vanilla cake with strawberry icing. Now, before you go getting upset with Andrew for letting me make my own cake, I should probably explain... He had a friend over that night and I didn't want him to have to stop entertaining his friend.  Not to mention, I had made a nice dinner (Chicken Parmesan and Angel Hair pasta) and was already in cooking/baking mode. He did, however, decorate it... Not bad, 'eh?

I would like to apologize to everyone for not updating these past few days, Andrew had a 3 day weekend-- ANOTHER Birthday surprise-- and when there's a chance to spend time with him, I grab it. With his work schedule, I never know when I'll see him next!  Hope to hear from you all soon! Take care and God Bless!

Hugs and kisses from across the pond, 

Andrew and Ana.

All Gave Some, Some Gave All.

"A veteran is someone, who at one point in their life, wrote a blank check
payable to the United States of America for an amount up to, and
including, their life. That is beyond honor, and there are way too many
people in this country who no longer remember that fact."  

HAPPY VETERAN'S DAY! :) Though, technically, you all in the states have 5 hours left until it's officially Veteran's Day.

Andrew and I the day he returned from Afghanistan.

To be honest, since I was little, Veteran's Day has only meant one thing to me... My birthday and a long weekend. That is not the case this year. Having been through a deployment and worrying day in and day out if or not I will see my husband (fiance at the time) again, and seeing the struggle and harsh conditions they live in, seeing just how hard Andrew and his squadron work day in and day out, my view of this day has changed. 

I feel so honored to be married to a military man. His, and the million of other veterans' willingness to lay down their life for this country astounds me. When Andrew was deployed, I asked him if he was scared, he replied with, "No, the only thing I'm scared about is the possibility of you being alone." His bravery, loyalty, and sense of selflessness is one of the many, many things that make me so proud.

Not only am I proud wife, I am also a proud granddaughter, niece, and cousin of amazing military men. Thank you for fighting for me to have a future in this great country. I love you beyond words.

 Our troops all over the world are not only saving lives, but they are also sacrificing their own lives for our freedom. I wish I could personally thank all the men and women who have fought for this country. 

It's great to be an American. Take the time today to pray for the troops over seas, the troops that have been over seas, and the troops that WILL be over seas. 

 

God Bless, 

The Pearsons.

An Exciting Day in the Pearson (Now Almost Furnished) Household!

Hello Loved Ones!

Not yet put together spare bed!

    Today was quite an exciting day! We got all kinds of furnishing goodies for our humble British abode today! Even though we were only planning on getting one! We woke up thinking we would only get a new mattress today, but we ended up getting a couch, chair and new bed set! I cannot tell you what a relief this is! The extra bed is not yet put together, so, it's a good thing Andrew likes putting things together. Though, I guess that is his job, being a crew chief and all. 

New Chair!

Sofa!

Today was also a learning experience. We learned how difficult it is to get around England and their poorly marked streets! We were on our way to get our new mattress and we could not for the life of us, find this one street! As it turns out, the road we were driving on changed to another street name without any sign, warning, or anything. Lesson learned, bring your GPS with you... everywhere. 

     In other exciting news, today I had my review board meeting for Command Sponsorship, and they said the outlook was very good! Looks like I'll be getting Command Sponsored! For those of you that don't know, Command Sponsorship is basically the commander of the base saying that they can support me. With Command Sponsorship, I can work on base, as jobs on base are only offered to spouses and family of troops stationed over seas.  Command Sponsorship guarantees me SOFA status for immigrant residency. Without Command Sponsorship I would have use a tourist visa and get permission from the host nation for residency.... not to mention pay a whole truck load more for a visa. 

So many new and exciting things in our life! 

We love and miss you all! 

Hugs and kisses, 

The Pearsons.

Our First Post :)

Hello family and friends! 

    It was so good seeing everyone when we were in the states. We had a blast! Since our wedding and heading back across the pond, we have somewhat moved into our house. We are picking up a new mattress (thank goodness!) tomorrow, and we have purchased a couch. We are loving the married life and we're having so much fun together... Even when Andrew has to work 12 hour shifts. Haha.

As the weather is getting colder and colder, We (more so Ana than Andrew) are getting more and more excited about the holidays!  This year, we are hosting Thanksgiving at our house and couldn't be more excited! (Don't worry, we'll have a dining room table by then.) Also, Andrew's squadron is having a Christmas party at a really cool location, Lynford Hall. Lynford Hall is a neo-Jacobean country house at Mundford, near our town (Thetford) in the countryside. We'll be sure to add pictures to share from our holidays!

Lynford Hall.

We hope all of our loved ones stateside are doing fantastic! We love you and miss you all much and hope to see you soon!

Love, 

The Pearsons.